Escape From Tarkov Podcast Takeaways/Update News

On the 13th we saw the EFT podcast with Nikita and Pestily along with a host of other streamers whereby some very important community questions were answered, including but not limited to, about the potential for a wipe and new content being added to the game very soon. Let’s take a look at some of the big points of the podcast and some of the smaller takes.

Patch 12.11

Planned for June! But subject to change

The Factory Expansion

As seen on the leaks on Twitter, The Factory is to be expanded on adding in certain assets similar to what players might be familiar with from the Labs map. It is known that Factory is intended to be a road into and out of Labs in the future, so it makes sense that we might see some things like the tents and hazmat suits somewhere in there!

It’s expected to be about twice the size of the current factory map and for the time being, will only add one additional spawn point! I didn’t personally catch any mention of extracts within the new portion of the map but I'm guessing there might be one or two potentially given the size of the expansion itself, it wouldn’t make sense to have everyone need to go back to the old end of the map to extract!

The Factory Boss

There was some mention of the sledgehammer wielding tank known as Kuvalda that will roam the factory come 12.11! First of all, The Sledgehammer will not be his only weapon! He will be also armed with a Saiga 12 shotgun with a drum mag! Nikita did tell us that they were thinking of adding the full auto function of the Saiga with this boss but said that it was “just too much” which is a respectful choice given how OP shotguns are already within the game. There were a few comments that might lead us to think that the sledgehammer itself might not be lootable! But we will see if that is the case or not come 12.11

Scav Karma System

The end product will see a host of different factions for the player to interact with and along with that, the players' actions will have a direct impact on how factions interact with the player. Meaning, if you target a certain faction, they will sure as hell target you if they see you bopping along the road to customs.

So, with that in mind, Nikita and the team will be introducing the first iteration of a karma system for our friendly (or perhaps unfriendly) neighborhood, one-tap head-shooters, The Scavs. This means that if a player is likely to attack scavs with or without reason, eventually the AI will give them the same treatment! Which with any luck could see an end to scav on scav violence in future (here's hoping anyway)

Fence will be the ultimate guiding force for this metric and it will also introduce a merchant level system for him which will unlock Fence LL2 which will give you the option to buy player dropped items that were not insured!

Mechanics and tidy up

Scopes and sights

Scopes and sights will see an overhaul. The extremity of this wasn’t really touched on but apparently will give a slightly more comfortable experience to looking down sight and improve the visibility of scopes overall!

Weapon malfunctions

This is a feature that is already in the game however 99% of players might not have seen it due to all weapons spawning in at 100% durability. Nikita says that scavs will spawn with potential weapons in poor condition which could prove for interesting interactions if players are robbing scavs for their guns! Nothing will be more terrifying than ending up in front of a player and then having your gun click and get stuck leading for you to drop all your loot and get sent back to the menu with nothing to show for it!

The BIG question

Anyone who watches any of the big Tarkov streamers will be familiar with the ever-present, and oh so repetitive question of “WHEN IS THE WIPE” and Nikita provided us with an answer! Although potentially didn’t remove the question from the table just yet. Nikita told us that there are no plans for a wipe in the next weeks or months. Given that the last wipe was so recent, this makes a lot of sense much to the dissatisfaction of players that might be feeling the burn of the game's economy. But the main point here is that 12.11 will not be a wipe!

But that seems to be all for 12.11 aside from the addition of the SCAR to the game which could be a heavy hitter for PVP hungry monsters that live in the Lab.

What is NOT coming in this patch

The much-awaited inertia mechanic will not be in this patch! So, we’ll have to wait for that one! For now, you are free to bunny hop and sprint around undeterred!

VOIP will not be coming in for a while! No set date on that one but we know that feelings are mixed on the subject.

The upgrade to the latest edition of the Unity engine will not be in this patch.

Interesting extras

DLSS for RTX in Tarkov is almost finished! But not quite ready which is a feature I am very excited about!

Streamer items for Aqua FPS, General Sam and Willerz will be added to the game! Potentially in the patch may be a little bit later.

Lighting overhauls are planned for interchange given the complaints about how dark it is during the day!

The Raid series will be consolidated into a movie combining all 5 episodes and some extra bits!

The roadmap for 12.12 adding the Lighthouse map and another later patch (12.13?) to add the Streets of Tarkov map is still aimed to be completed by the end of 2021. But we know that this could take a little longer given that Streets is supposed to be a 40-player map and there’s a lot of different factors into what allows something like that to run smoothly!

My opinion of it all

12.11 is going to be a great thing for the game. A lot of players are hungry for new content already even though the last wipe was only in the past few months. I fall into the camp that would like to see a wipe come to the game soon, however hearing that they haven't got one planned in makes me want to pull my finger out and see if there is a chance of getting a Kappa container before the next one!

The factory needed some love given it’s the oldest map but also the most claustrophobic. I think doubling the size of the map is perfect! It makes it a fresh experience without getting rid of the frantic W Key action that we saw in the Punisher Tournament recently, as well as adding a threat level of a boss in there as well.

Not much mention of weapons this time around but Tarkov players all know that in some cases, BSG has added in stuff on the fly without even patching the game and if Nikitas Instagram is anything to go by, the team are getting some much-needed hands-on with some weapons purely for research purposes, we are sure.

Dooms

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