EFT's tactical systems being thwarted by movement

January 31, 2021

The future of tarkov and the WIP that has been happening has set it up to be the most impressive tactical shooter ever, but this eventual vision is distorted by movement mechanics in need of rework. This is a cross post as suggested by onepeg because indeed the main subreddit is a cest pool.

Tarkov has a complex armor, med, and weapons system that gives incentive to increase armor class and decrease recoil, so that you can have a faster time to kill. These systems will only get more complicated over time with more weapons ammo changes etc. Tarkovs weapons in theory will incentivize different guns for different purposes, the higher pen and damage guns (ie. dmrs battle-rifles) will perform better at range, and at medium to close distances assault rifles and smgs will be the meta. This is a standard gameplay dynamic for most FPS games, and tarkov just adds more nuance to this basic formula. The issue is that in the current movement meta makes some guns useless while others become far too overpowered past what was intended.

Hypothetically tarkovs weapons, ammo, and armor create a well rounded system like other games, or even better because of the in depth modification system. The thing that sets these combat systems apart from other tactical shooters is the games current movement mechanics. Tarkov has a movement system so unlike the rest of its realistic features, that it actually negates its otherwise effective meta balance. Games that succeed at correcting this balance should be looked at to fix these issues in tarkov such as Squad, Ground branch, or any other number of tactical shooters that have succeeded in achieving the desirable pacing.

My theory is that a few key mechanics hold tarkov back from being the realistic shooter that the BSG team want it to be, and what in my opinion the game deserves to be. In this next part i will break down all these busted mechanics and potential fixes that i suggest one by one. Lets go.

1) B-Hopping: The most game breaking of all the movement bugs, bhopping can be used effectively to destroy gameplay mechanics that in other games, such as Ground Branch or Squad, are represented very well. When someone can bhop like in tarkov it opens up a Pandora's box of game breaking problems, so ill go through each one by one. Bhoping firstly makes it harder to engage targets at range, as now you have to lead your shots and account for faster, more erratic, and vertically moving target area. Obviously, this means that it allows you (the hopper) to avoid a huge amount of risk when being engaged at distance if you hear a first shot and bhop away. Secondly, b hopping allows you to move past doorways so fast that you can effectively gather information instantly, at no cost, as your target area is not visible within the average-human reaction times of your enemy. Why take things carefully when if you just bhop across a doorway and see if there are enemies, what is their exact location, and then easily set up a headshot with a strafe peak. This also plays into peakers advantage because your mid air travel gives you more time to look side to side than the enemy that sees you cross. This problem is made worse by the next issue that im going to address, which is strafing.

2) Adad strafing: Bhopping already does quite a lot to destroy immersion, but what about ADAD strafing? Well in my opinion its a compounded problem that is also helped by the bhopping exploit, and ill run through it pretty quickly here. The simple explanation of this dilemma, is that much like bhopping bug tarkov's lack of inertia allows for incredibly fast and precise side to side movement. The problems here seem to be simpler but have huge implications that come with it, such as fast peaks (that im sure you've seen) that have huge impacts on gameplay. First and foremost adad strafing allows you to gather intelligence at decreased risk , as no person can really react on the first quick peak normally. Added onto this low risk peaking is the fact that moving side to side in game provides no accuracy penalty at all. This means i can not only peak faster than you can react, but now on my second incredibly fast peak with a low recoil gun i can prefire perfectly and hit your head because of the free information i was just given. This drastically increases the skill bar required for cqc pvp, but the horror show does not end here. At longer ranges peoples adad strafing make it literally impossible to hit head shots, making it infinitely harder to use dmrs and bolt actions (especially because bolt actions cannot one tap). As someone who personally snipes a lot in tarkov with the best sniper rifles, in most cases you are defeated by a persons own coded-in muscle memory of strafing left and right. Even if you could have the "perfect shot". if a player has learned that inherent movement in most cases you are out of luck. Most of the time this will also exacerbates the communities gripes about low recoil guns because they are the weapons that benefit from no inertia and easy line-ups.

The direction tarkov is moving is incompatible with these two mechanics. Some of the planned content for example are lmgs, cameras, mines, smoke grenades, and other tactical utility. The problem with implementing these items is that each of them is defeated by one or both of the mechanics listed. Lmgs such as the pkm and rpd will not be useful as suppression tools when the enemy can bhop out of your LOS, seeing your position via turning their head, then employing a strafe peak faster than your fire rate to kill you. Cameras are pointless because why scout out an area with a drone when you can simply accomplish the same with a well placed bhop or strafe. Mines are exempt. Similarly to lmgs, the smoke grenades are made irrelevant because why not just bhop across a road? I can pull more examples i just wanted to illustrate the point that the content bsg wants to add is incompatible with the current movement. The direction of the game supposed to be more tactical and methodical, with more choice and decisions, but before that we must remove bhopping and the lack of inertia (or at the very least slow down strafe speeds).

So now that i have identified the two most egregious problems that face tarkov today, we can go over some suggestions of how to fix them. For bhopping i believe that the team should be working on patching it out, even if the first early roll out failed a couple months back. Dont be discouraged, you more than any of us know the vision of the game does not include this mechanic. For the ADAD problem we need an inertia system pronto like in most tactical shooters. This problem already annoys most people even if they only know the symptoms, and wont get better with any amount of map progress or gear additions.

These 2 larger changes should have so much more impact in what other small tweaks have tried to implement, but in one fell swoop. It will slowdown gameplay to emphasize tactical movement, it will decrease the amount of people who play the experience like an arcade shooter, and make the game overall more enjoyable for its intended market and new players. Subverting the games idea is not good for the product overall. This tactical shooter must first be tactical more than shooter, and that is a hill i and many others can and will die on. Tarkov isnt quite there yet, but i know that the product we want will shine through in the end.

tldr: tarkovs bhopping and lack of inertia will hold the game back from being the realistic shooter its intended to be, and should be on the BSG dev teams high priority list to keep true to the games vision.

February 1, 2021

You’re definitely not wrong on any of these points. Don’t quote me, but I believe I’ve heard Nikkia say they plan on adding inertia soon in one of the coming patches.

As to the bhopping, I personally always wanted BSG to essentially replace the jump mechanic with a vault feature.

February 1, 2021

I believe inertia will be tested soon and then implemented in the future according to Nikita, this would help work on strafing issues and possibly bhop.

I like the idea someone else had to turn jumping into vaulting, although with some of the maps and locations might not work with some current parkour stuff.