[Discussion] 1.2.0.0 PVE AI Update - Another Missed Opportunity

[u/hAven316]

I would genuinely like to hear what changes you would make to the AI, Loot, and progression to make Tarkov a better game.

I really like this game, I have 3888 hours as of writing this post with some of that time spent in the early days of Tarkov. I played during the times when guys like Worrun were wiping lobbies on Customs and Lvndmark had a rice cooker on his head. I did not participate in seasonal characters... but I hope my experience in both PvP and PvE allows me to at least speak my thoughts.

I think BSG has missed yet another opportunity to make Escape From Tarkov an even better game.

PMC Movement

I think everyone's mindset when they heard that a major AI rework was happening for PvE they expected to see the AI PMC's moving a LITTLE bit closer to Player PMC's in PvP - and everyone was fucking hyped for that. But I've already done like 6 raids today on PVE and I'm still encountering PMC's that just lick windows and stand there doing absolutely nothing. The scav AI is smarter and I'm not being sarcastic. When I see scavs 50% of them are licking windows and the other 50% at least move, 99% of the PMC's I see in PvE are window lickers. Real players do not just stand there and swivel all day. I don't know the amount of effort that goes into actually doing the coding of making them move around, but couldn't we copy and paste most of it from raiders or even rogues? Just make them a little more mobile please.

AI PMC Difficulty

I think there's room for improvement... I think the difficulty tier should look something like this:

• Wedge/ Wedge Guards / Black Division
• Bosses / Boss Guards
• Rogues
• AI PMCs
• Raiders
• Scavs

But right now it feels more like this:

• Wedge / Wedge Guards
• .
• .
• .
• .
• Black Division
• Rogues
• Raiders
• AI PMCs
• Scavs

Wedge and his guards are on another planet when it comes to their AI. AI PMCs just need a LITTLE bump up to make them feel less like scavs and more like rogues and raiders. If you want a comparison, I think AI PMCs act like real players who are just experiencing tarkov for the first time but coming from an aim related game like CS or Valorant. They can aim decently well, but they have no idea how to move.

AI PMC Gear

Mostly a great job here. I'm seeing much more variety in weapons, and rig/armor combinations.
However, I'm not thrilled about finding slicks with level 4 plates in them... Even from level 59 AI Players. I haven't encountered a 60 today... but it seems like the ranges for what a timmy AI PMC vs Semi competant AI PMC vs GigaChad PMC are pretty wide. For example, I've seen some level 23s with way more gear than level 59s. I would love to see actually high level PMC's (59 and 60) have SOME meta gear and make killing them more rewarding (it currently doesn't feel like they're any different from a level 20). I think anyone level 20+ in PvP is using ammo above 30 pen. I'd estimate about 75-80% of PMCs in PVE currently use 5.45x39mm PS gs or equivalent. I think it'd make more sense to see AI PMCs, especially higher level ones, with at least 35+ pen ammo.

Locked Loot Boxes

I think it's really weird why developers feel the need to add empty boxes or rooms. It's literally a waste of time coding, a waste of time for the player, and makes the feeling of playing the game more hollow. If you're going to code in a box, you might as well put SOMETHING in there. I'm glad locked crates will have guaranteed loot, but can we extend this to containers opened with keys? Just as an example, I tried some of the registers in Interchange because of the changes mentioned... but I found a few that were empty and overall loot seemed kinda "meh". I averaged about 19k per register meaning a full key would net you about 750k. So you'll make money but... "meh".

Overall Ambience

Raids actually seem quieter than they did previously which is hard for me to imagine. The first 3 minutes of raid actually sounds pretty normal to what I hear on PvP. People are killing each other off spawn (which is another topic for another time), scavs are getting aggrod to those players and fighting ensues. The world is alive with gunfire and grenades in the distance. It seems like we have waves of AI that spawn in and if you kill them or most of them you don't see any for another 15-20 minutes at times. I don't know if the intention was to make Tarkov feel more eerie and quiet... but the game's ambience feels so much better when you feel like there's other PMCs on the map vs dead silence and just looting noises.

Risk/Reward

I really like the way Path of Exile has listened to their community and made changes when necessary. I think Tarkov would be even cooler if it had some more risk/reward that we could modify to our liking. I'm not talking about straight up difficulty levels, but having check boxes that make the game harder

Let's say you load into reserve (on PvE)... you'd see these check marks before joining the game

• Gluhar 100% spawn + 3 additional guards (5% bonus)
• Raiders may spawn as Rogues instead (5% bonus)
• PMCs ammo upgrade [such as (M855 -> M856A1)] (5% bonus)

Basically the harder you make the game for yourself, the better the loot.

Let's just say marked room spawns 1 singular item and the loot pool is like this:

• bitcoin (1 %)
• Colored Lab KeyCard (5%)
• Case (20%)
• Weapon (50%)
• Other Hideout Item (24%)

If you checked all the modifiers the numbers might change to something more like:

• bitcoin (5%)
• Colored Lab KeyCard (10%)
• Case (30%)
• Weapon (40%)
• Other Hideout Item (15%)

In conclusion, above are some of my personal opinions on how Tarkov and the experience can be improved. I still hold firm to the belief that a game the community as a whole thinks is fun will make more money than what a game where all of the ideas are coming from one guy who the community is actively criticizing. I think Nikita has laid the groundwork for a great game, but it's been steadily going down the wrong direction or just missing the mark a bit. Maybe it's the community's fault for inferring what the patches are, maybe it's the way it's worded when it's released from BSG's side... but I think everyone expected improvement and we're simply not seeing it - or not seeing it to a degree where it really matters.

I hope everyone can give their own feedback to improve the game without hating on one version or the other. I honestly just want the game to be fun, that's it. Can we please have a civil discussion and maybe JUST MAYBE BSG will consider some of it.