Making the Fans Happy with Escape from Tarkov Patch Notes

Escape from Tarkov Patch Notes 0.8.0. Notes show that this is one of larger updates the game has received in a while now and the fans of this survival shooter are quite thrilled with the changes that have been introduced. The latest of the large patches adds the new Interchange map and new game mechanics mostly aimed to improve the quality of gameplay. Developers were happy to announce this major update and are looking forward to seeing how the fan base will react to these changes.

Changes

New Interchange Map

The Interchange map is somewhat different than the other, already existing maps. It is modern, features highways and a huge shopping mall with several levels and numerous shops and restaurants. The developers believed that this area will provide excellent combat conditions for the players to test their skills in the new confined spaces engagements. Initially, these maps will have no NPC presence as the Scavs will be added in later patches and updates. There is also a new trader called Ragman who will – befiotting is his name – sell everything related to garments and equipment.

Optimization

But perhaps the most important part is the change of game physics both on the client-side as well as on the server side, designed and implemented with the goal to improve performance and reduce latency. A new object rendering optimization technology was applied, initially specifically limited to the new Interchange map, but which should be after due testing expanded over all existing locations in the game. The developers are perfectly aware of the fact that it is possible that the new additions are going to create problems for some players, making their games unstable and reducing performance, so they opted for a system of bug reporting that should enable them to fix the problems almost as soon as they appear. Also, the new Escape from Tarkov update introduces the basic training for the new players, enabling them to understand the principles and basics of the game as soon as possible, so they can participate in this survival shooter to the best of their abilities, right off the bat.

Weapons

There is a number of changes that are coming to the weapon systems and ballistic mechanics. One of the changes is the fact that players will have to spend more time on loading and unloading the magazines, as well as more time to check the number of cartridges in the magazine and chamber of the weapon. In accordance with the different types of effects that magazines have on loading and unloading rate the efficiency of players will vary. Finally, there is also a new specialized character skill in the game called Mag Drills, which raises the player’s abilities and speed of handling magazines when loading and unloading.

Future Intentions

The intention for the near future is to improve project performance, network quality, fix the persistent bugs in the game and add new combat mechanics. The EFT will be also featuring an advanced arms system, flea market, hideout and some other features that were mentioned in the plans for 2018 such as a transition to the new version of Unity 2018. The goal of the developers is to keep this game hard-core, raising the realism of gameplay.

One of the things that the player base enjoys the most is the fact that there will be no more skill rollback. This was essentially a mechanism that would punish players for not playing this game sufficiently and as often as the developers would like! Skills will still decay, just as they did before, but will no longer fall below a specific level the player has reached. For example, if a player has reached the level of 31 and has progressed halfway to the level of 32, only to stop playing for a while, his skills will decay and rollback, but only to the level of 31 and not below that. So, every time you have to fear the dreaded skill decay, you can rest assured that it will never progress lower than the maximum level you have acquired in the game.

Extra points to the developers of the Escape from Tarkov go for the fact that they have invested a lot of time to improve sound effects in the game. Running over certain types of surface, such as metal, would produce horrible sounding effects as if somebody was running over tin cans. Now the sounds are much more realistic, and the fan base seems equally satisfied by the quality.

Highlights

Breaking down the latest big update to the bullet points we get the following highlights:

• Addition of basic tutorial for beginners
• Loading and unloading rounds to and from the magazine now requires time
• Character doesn’t initially know the number of bullets in the magazine, so he needs to check it first. Check precision depends on the newly introduced Mag Drills skill
• Mag Drills skill increases the speed of ammo loading and unloading, but also speeds up the magazine checks in inventory
• Reaching elite levels allow for automatic check of the mag once it’s moved to the inventory, makes loading and unloading faster
• There will be a black version of Ops Core Fast helmet introduced
• Addition of visor toggle mechanics with accompanying audio and visual effects
• There will be a new type of reward for quest completion
• There will be a new type of trade barter for dogtags
• They will be a new type of tactical vest, imbued with armor plates
• Graphic settings will get antialiasing options (2x and 4x)
• New Interchange map has been added to the game
• The game has received a large number of new mods, gear and armor
• Specific AI bugs have been fixed such as when bots try to attack the player who exited location
• Optimizations of Shoreline location have been introduced
• Client and server-side optimizations for handling physics have been added
• The network latency has been overall reduced
• A huge number of bugs related to inventory, sprinting and stamina, skill fixes, sound anomalies and others have been introduced, making the game much more stable and improving the performance significantly

Bug Fixes

Next to these bug fixes a huge number of changes have been introduced to the game, such as:

• All mod slots in weapon inspector and now being displayed on a single screen without scrolling
• Additional exceptions to installation of modern weapons and equipment have been added
• Trader unlock conditions have been rebalanced
• Rebalance of items value, characteristics, prices and specifications
• The skill rollback has been removed
• Spawn chance of specific items has been adjusted
• Weapon renderings have been improved in modification mode
• Helmet damage mechanics have been added, introducing modular heat zones (including face area, which seems to be specifically an interesting and welcome change for the player base)

It’s a Wrap

Escape from Tarkov has a very devoted fan base, and they easily qualify as hard-core gamers. This survival shooter has proved itself to be one of the most interesting games of the genre in 2018 and continues to be focus of further positive expectations from fans throughout the world. Admittedly, at times big update such as this one can also cause controversy and some problems regarding lag, latency and game performance for existing players, but Escape from Tarkov developers should be praised for their reaction speed and wish to provide best possible experience to their fan base by constantly upgrading, fixing and improving their game. Looking forward to seeing how far will advance in this and the next year, hoping it will come out from the closed beta as soon as possible.

For more, check this out: Hand on the Pump: Escape from Tarkov Weapons