[2023] Stop giving BSG praise for half-assed PR attempts

Originally posted by WelderTerrible484

well u should understand that most of cheaters are not rmt and stop hurting trading for reall players ,u taking away big part of fun

Originally posted by PlayerTwoHasEntered

Please Nikita, no more extra features or guns or maps for now, we want operation health. We love the game and we want it to succeed or we wouldn’t be on this subreddit.

Focus on making life as difficult and painful as it can be for the cheating scum. Then at the same time, let’s fix the bugs we all know e.g. invisibility/audio and everything else there is.

Even if it’s 1 year with no major updates but we get a real year of health updates to bring the game to a high standard, it would be appreciated by all.

Don’t give up on the game and what has been built so far, it’s f**king awesome.

Originally posted by Amackers94

Is there a good way to determine between RMT and boosting, as opposed to "I'm dropping my friend a good kit for fun, for them to try" sort of deal? I don't personally know anyone flagged for a soft ban for that, so there must be some sort of determination?

Originally posted by Jack_ten

Nikita,

I'm someone who tries to be as balanced and non-feral as possible - the angry mob mentality that this sub exudes disturbs me and I'm not someone foaming at the mouth with a pitchfork. Some issues *are* overblown but at the same time, objectively BSG aren't being seen as doing enough.

Case in point, when there are people on the flea market selling 30 ledx's after a few days of wipe, how can they not be banned? That is only one tiny example. I play this game ALOT, daily, for hours and my flea market rep is about 30 already. I see people with 100+, weeks ago, and I do not believe for a second these people are not cheating. I know there isn't one perfect system, but I cannot for the life of me understand why a robust statistical based system cannot be used to mitigate the cheating issue. If it is analysed enough, it will be apparent what unnatural player behaviour (outliers) is compared to natural (within a range). I'm not just talking k/d and survival rate - there are numerous parameters that can be cross referenced, the more used the more apparent outlier behaviour will be.

Surely BSG can do more with people that are so obviously cheating and not playing naturally. That is a big reason as to why people are acting and speaking as they are, because they have lost faith in your motivation to solve these problems when we see such super obvious people getting away with it *year after year*

Originally posted by Dadgame

Hey nikita, We get that fixing it isnt easy.

We understand that you and yours ban loads of cheaters.

We understand all of that. Saying "we are already trying" when the problem is where its at just isnt good enough.

You can't say we will continue doing what we are doing. You need to tell us what new solutions you have in the works. Something tangible, something concrete.

That's the only way to earn the good faith of the community back. We love the game, thats why we are this mad.

Originally posted by MarjoeCrawley

We're not trying to hurt your feelings you billionaire Russian baby we're trying to figure out why one of the most successful and innovative games in the last decade is stating that they are in too deep to make any meaningful and impactful changes to the game

Originally posted by Significant-Oven-301

Why are you implementing more and more grindy, chore like mechanics, nerfing loot and buffing AI that is already broken in terms of balance?

Originally posted by Irishnghtmare

Okay then, here's one while you're here. Stop gate keeping in game progression with items that cheaters easily obtain. Make them craftable like they used to be. No one wants to play your cheater infested labs map to get items. Stop rewarding cheaters.

Originally posted by Deadlesszombie

Why not lock posting and buying of certain items (gear/guns non-FIR) behind a flea reputation? Allow end-game player to sell end-game gear and make PvP valuable for them. Once you complete Kappa there is not much left in the game besides PvP, and it's not really worthwhile.

Originally posted by mekzo103

How come you still allow streamers to have people banned based on flawed evidence, especially after the Rengawr fiasco?

The Trey "community anti-cheat" should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.

Originally posted by Dadgame

Saying you will continue doing what your doing, as any overhaul would be too destructive is not tangible and concrete. It sucks that your in this situation where the cure looks worse than the cancer but there's a point where you have to bite that bullet.

When is that point for your team?

Originally posted by Jack_ten

thank you for the reply Nikita. It is appreciated - better comms between the community and BSG would do wonders in rebuilding good will.

Specifically, I wanted to talk about the merits of a statistics based anticheat, in conjunction with battleeye. There was a helpful post recently that explains this, which I found compelling - it was something that I have thought before (as have many others).

Please give the post a read and consider how BSG might use such a system. In my view, it could only undoubtedly help. Cheater behaviour will surely always be obvious if enough data points are analysed.

Originally posted by applo1

GPS Far-forward device is Labs only is it not?

Originally posted by WiggleRespecter

nikita, can you guys please fix the dollar/euros being organized on the flea incorrectly vs roubles?

thx plz

Originally posted by KS-23

Is there any way to implement flagging for suspicious flea market listings? Or really high flea rep early wipe? Seeing a guy with 20 ledx listed and 100+ rep like 5 days into the wipe is always sketch as hell and while you can’t definitively say they’re cheating, it more than likely isn’t a legit player, and I feel tackling this would deter cheaters a little as they would have to stagger their wealth and not be as obvious of a nuisance, should they get to greedy their account could be banned from flagging and manual review.

Originally posted by mekzo103

So streamers no longer have direct access to admins ready to ban people based on bullshit evidence, or even zero evidence? I find that hard to believe.

Originally posted by AchilleTristram

we all love this game more than any other, just try to keep going in the right direction and continue to be more upfront about the cheating issue. If you make the right choices, we will back you.

Originally posted by Rajelx

I know it's probably a major thing to try and add, but are there any plans for a post-raid replay system for players?

Originally posted by Marquis_Laplace

Can you guys work out a way for the server to show less information to the client? It's gonna be hard and there's gonna be sacrifices to gameplay, but that's the only way this game will go from a critical mass of cheaters down to what players are used to in other fps.

Originally posted by ATrueHunter

Hey just wanted to say that I love your music!! Just a little positivity in a sea of negativity :)

Originally posted by ReflexSheep

When is ''the end"? You have been saying this kind of stuff for years.

Also you say the situation is already improving, how are you gathering that info? From an average players perspective nothing has changed.

Originally posted by ReflexSheep

Poor excuse! Level designers and modelers work hand-in-hand with programmers. When a new gun is modeled and animated, who then puts it in the game? The modeler? No. The programmer, who codes all the rest of it's attributes.

Originally posted by fireballmx

The issue there is it locks you from upgrading hideout Intel to Level 3 - is that intended?

Originally posted by Significant-Oven-301

Imo. Grinding can be fun if done right, it should reward player for time he puts in. I enjoyed hunting bosses, it was nice thing to do between pvp and questing, sometimes it got me killed, sometimes i got some cool stuff. Now bosses are like dying out species. Same with quests and changing key charges to 1/1, very bad idea, especially for first quests. I really hope that one day i can enjoy this game like couple wipes ago, thing is that you need some serious balance changes and stop making the game slow and encourage players to engage in pvp, not to fear it.

Originally posted by condorviii

Hey Nikita,

How would you feel about a standing system for accounts to help with matching legit players vs other legit players?

UI example: https://reddit.com/link/11din2u/video/33ihgtklorka1/player

A standing system has no skill/MMR relations at all, it's just a reflection of how your in-game behaviour is in relation to abusing VoIP or cheating etc. Ideally, someone who is genuinely cheating will quickly see this score effected through being reported and will only be matched with other cheaters or people who have negatively effected raids to the point that they have bad standing. Fair play over time will naturally increase the standing so long as you don't receive a large amount of reports and added SMS verification should give a slight boost too.

Accounts in poor standing can't queue with accounts in good standing, hopefully cutting down on "carry" RMT methods and in-raid trading. If this works correctly, some of the RMT restrictions can be dialed back (drop limits etc.). It also encourages legit play for people who play with friends and want to continue doing so.

You could balance it with a credibility system: https://reddit.com/link/11din2u/video/gc648ltfrrka1/player

If big anti-cheat overhauls aren’t possible maybe looking at ways to isolate cheaters and better balance lobbies could help.

Originally posted by Dazzi

Maybe begin to put ledX and such in containers. And then randomize the loot until that container is looted.

Start banning people on flea who is obv. Not legit.

What to do with the wallhack and such, is really up to you as you know what your team is capable off, be it after match replay, better anti cheat, making invisible players that only people with cheats can see. I think there are many possibilities. But you know best.

Originally posted by ReflexSheep

I said nothing has changed from AVERAGE PLAYER perspective. Maybe it has for you with all the behind-the-scenes info you have, but not for normal players. You have said yourself you don't play the game, so how can you comment on peoples experiences?

Originally posted by ReflexSheep

am I wrong?

Originally posted by WiggleRespecter

what hellfish said below yeah

exchange rate when listing items on the flea for euros/dollars isn't the same as exchanging at traders. allows scammers to try and rip off newer/inexperienced players on the flea because their items get sorted as "cheaper" when they're not really

Originally posted by Elendil_EA

Please Nikita, either buff the loot by a large margin or make these items craftable because we are having massive problems finding these items(ledX, GPS Far-Forward). Especially when cheaters are getting the ledx's before we reach it. I miss the old tarkov where there was a lot of loot everywhere, Customs (marked room) shoreline (ledx rooms), interchange(tech stores), reserve(again tech rooms). Todays tarkov feels like a shadow of that past version of it. Also back in the days we could just make money killing people but now because of the FIR flea we can't do that either. We know that RMT measures didnt work against cheater issues, i think its time to revert those changes. Make the game great again, let us get alot of loot just by killing each other and selling it on the flea. Trust me people wont be buying as many roubles if you give them plenty, like in the past. I hope you realize this :)

Originally posted by KJelloggs

But what about when the raid is over as a way to review a raid? So that the information can’t be used as an advantage, just purely from an entertainment perspective.

Originally posted by _Bike_seat_sniffer

How about implementing a requirement for those basic windows features which could potentially shut down a lot of cheats? Goat mentioned them his latest video:

-Secureboot

-TPM 2.0

-HVCI

-Preboot iommu

Originally posted by flaschemate

@trainfender since you seem to be active in this thread:

Can you let us know what you think about basically removing the traders and maybe the flea as well? I mean the biggest thing we have to tackle is RMT... and RMT exists, because people want to buy the good stuff. I think no traders and flea would also result in a way better experience playing the game. Because I think what Tarkov makes so unique is the way early wipe plays. You actually play with scrap and are hyped as f**k if you find a suitable weapon attachment... People might ask how to get guns early on. Well... How about you take what you get from the Scavs you killed? No need to spend 40 min in a raid. If you are short of something like meds, weapons etc. go farm some Scavs and leave early on. You said Tarkov is hardcore... But it doesn't feel as much anymore. Especially once the wipe is older than 8 weeks. You will just repeat the same pattern. 1. Build "meta" kit 2. Spawn in raid 3. Either be hunted down by a hacker or lose your kit to an unlucky engage 3.1. you might be lucky and survive/escape with a bunch of stuff on you 4. If you died, repeat step 1. since flea and traders make you not regret any decisions

Originally posted by naturallyselected007

So I’m 100% a nobody that has been around playing for 3 years now and even with everything going on still love this game for what it is. But - being silent and still playing the game doesn’t mean that I’m happy with where things are at or a happy customer. I feel like there’s tons of others very similar and will continue to be silent. And aside from the specific issue that had currently flooded the tarkov community - I’d like to take my chance to ask directly / give feedback in hopes you may read this.

My biggest question going forward is - has this whole topic and recent events sparked any talks towards creating a more constant form of regular communication with the community? For a specific example - it took this much backlash & talk through streamers and the community to finally spark conversation from an issue that has been held pretty silent for a while now from BSG as a whole to the main community. Will there be more regular conversation on hot topics, maybe an actual PR department that regularly gives transparent updates on what’s happening, what’s upcoming?

Also do you have any plans to give a public response to the people that showing that the initial post from you was a near copy of a post from a couple years back - I would like to think your intentions were genuine and we’re not supposed to come across as just writing a post to appease the community - but the post and post history/regular gaps in communication show otherwise at face value…

And lastly - aside from the current issues and everything else I’d like to at least say thanks to BSG as a whole for at the minimum putting a bad-ass game idea into practice - this game has been something I’ve been looking for in games ever since I was little… and while I think there are major issues right now and I’m not very happy with the current situation, I have hope that it can be fixed and I fully believe if BSG as a whole pulls some crazy shit off and makes some massive changes this game and next games could easily become more popular than it already has been… but changes aren’t made I at least think it paved a pathway for other games to be developed around and take its place - I hope y’all pull this off, I want to keep bringing people into this game and keep supporting it.

Edit: also I see how active you’re being replying to so many people - I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of stress and anger right now fuelling the drive to sit here and respond to so many - it does show that you take this stuff personally. Definitely appreciated and again I really hope this all works out in the end for you and your team - y’all have put together something amazing

Originally posted by HubicPair1

I feel like this glosses over the fact that Rengawr had enough influence to get a (legit) player banned very quickly. While he did not have direct access to the ban button, he DID have the ability to get a player banned, whether he pressed the button or not.

I'm not too clued-up on the whole situation, but clarification that there will be a better process to determine cheating internally other rather than just taking a streamers word for it would be nice to hear.

Originally posted by Significant-Oven-301

Being able to feel the progression and enjoy all of its content with my limited time. Game does not need try to be competitive to be fun and chellenging. Hindering players does not make this game balanced but more unaccesible. You can make Tarkov enjoyable for every kind of player, be it hardcore or casual, pvp or pve, not taking from either of them, just give them choice to play their way. Make the aspects of game more challenging but reward it, make others more chill but less rewarding and let new/casual players feel the progression and eventually those people will feel comfortable with more chellenging activities and pvp.

Originally posted by Origin240sx

I see how active you’ve been today and how shitty it must be to handle with a bunch of (rightfully) angered players. Just wanted to say I myself appreciate thee feedback and answers you’ve given a lot of people today.

Originally posted by ceplmvreti

you were developing the game better when it was not as successfull. all your arguments don't make sense considering how well this game sells(still) and the trend in displayed in the past years led many to believe 1.0 os just a fever dream of yours. enjoy spending that cash tho, i will never purchase anything made by you again.

Originally posted by condorviii

Of course the end goal is banning them, but I was under the impression that cheaters are accumulated and banned in waves, meaning they could be known to AC but still able to play until banned? There have been many instances of known cheaters running unbanned on the same account for weeks or months. If the players themselves are able to have influence on their standing we can get them out of clean lobbies and have them only playing against each other.

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Originally posted by KnightsWhoNi

Well it seems like a lot of players are cheaters so is that really such a bad thing?

Originally posted by Haarwichs

Re-consider implementing phone verification. Players are used to it by now (Call of Duty and other games have it) and it would show the people that you are serious about the cheating problem and willing to sacrifice a part of your revenue for it.

Also there are ways now to filter out throw away sim cards and pre-paids.

Originally posted by xNymia

That is unfortunately the cost of providing a secure environment, and maintaining competitive integrity.

If you take the integrity of the game seriously, then enabling the features to allow that would take higher priority, enable the security features of the operating systems, accept the *temporary* player count drop, provide them with guidance on how to enable features needed to be able to play, is the clear option to maintain the integrity of your game.

It was done with Valorant and Vanguard because we value the integrity of the game over all else. There was nothing more important to the development team than making sure the game was fair, because we were all gamers and know the pain of this issue.

I encourage you to think about this choice.

Originally posted by lampshadebb

I want to ask please do not grow cynical of the streamers. listening to them is a good thing, I've played and loved your game for 3 years now, a lot of suggestions they bring up are things I think most veteran player would agree on. you have an awesome community of creators that want to support you guys, but the lack of communication over the years really makes that hard.

really appreciate the time you're taking today to respond to the reddit, lately this has become the bottom of the barrel, takes a lot of courage in my opinion lol. thank you

Originally posted by pick_a_sammich

I want to come back, but we HAVE to do something about the cheaters and the ridiculous grind requirements. The sheer number of people using the dumb ESP hack is so disheartening to even attempt to play the game. Not only that, but there are waaaaaay too many grindy tasks in the game, think lightkeeper or the awful new quests implemented (Capturing outposts where you load in and wait 30 minutes not doing andything and reset). Stop making people not want to do your content. I’ve played this game since 2017. Please give me a reason to come back.

Originally posted by W4rlon

I for one would like to ask if there are any further plans to optimize streets ? you created the best map by far but its so hard to enjoy with how bad it runs.

Originally posted by alcoholicprogrammer

Nikita, you've made a true gem of a game, and I think a lot of us here, myself included, really want to see Tarkov succeed. There is no other game like it that can capture the same adrenaline rush this game provides. It is being tainted by a cheater infestation though, and even long-time players like myself, with thousands of hours, are feeling hopeless about the situation. Please prioritize this problem at BSG, whether that means upgrading or even out right replacing the current anti cheat measures, and even if that comes at the cost of delaying new features to the game. It honestly pains me that I can't enjoy my favorite game anymore because I know more often than not I'll just run into a hacker and lose regardless of how well I play.

Originally posted by irishlegend97

Has it ever been considered to remove certain quests for the Kappa quest line? Quests such as "capturing outposts" force you to camp somewhat low traffic areas for hours on end. When the only people you kill are low level players doing early game quests (this is the worst on shoreline). So it is just frustrating for both the high level player trying to get Kappa. (Multiple hours afk waiting for someone to show up). And new players doing early quests. They will get killed by someone high level who has no choice but to just camp and wait.

Either a rework of that quest (eg move the kill area) or removing from the kappa quest line

Originally posted by gudzgudz

trainfender

Hi Nikita! Respect for facing this angry mob here, few questions:

- Why such a high ping limit.. desync is inevitable when it is 200. Maybe have low and highping limit servers to satisfy everyone?

- Why are there no basic analysis/search of cheaters based on unrealistic market rep or K/D for example? Many obvious cheaters are active for weeks/months.

Please continue the comms/listening to the community, recoil/weight changes were great. Please continue balancing the game, eg there are many issues with loot balance.

Thanks!

Originally posted by alcoholicprogrammer

Just wanted to jump on board what this guy said and tell you your music is great too

P.S: any plans on adding your song "Wings" (the hideout music) to spotify like the other Tarkov tracks?

Originally posted by naturallyselected007

Apologies if that came across as me saying it was a copy - I’m sure you’re tired of hearing that and wasn’t my intentions nor do I personally think it was a copy - I probably worded my question poorly. Keep up what you’re doing - it’s awesome to see the passion you’re pushing out in coming into this thread and others to talk to people directly. Appreciate it!

Originally posted by Irishnghtmare

If 60% is not the number, what is it? What does your data suggest?

Originally posted by Haarwichs

Interesting. Maybe it could expand to the other regions in the future?

Originally posted by jadenthesatanist

To echo what u/PlayerTwoHasEntered said, I feel like the game really doesn’t need anything new for a while and that there needs to solely be focus on getting things working properly and working out a solution to the cheating issue. Between the invisible player bug, audio issues, map optimization, etc., I think many of us would be happy to not see new content for a bit for the sake of ironing these things out.

Personally, while I’m at it, I’ve also felt for a while that changes keep being made to things that don’t need them, while development to make progress towards the final state of the game hasn’t really been prioritized. Changes to the economy and loot, changes to boss spawns/spawn rates, changes to the hideout, etc. have all been made wipe-to-wipe, but unfinished features such as officially implementing radiation (which has been in the health tab for my two years of playing without any word on it ever being implemented, despite there being stims in the game that are supposed to heal it), the scav stat tab that has remained untouched, little bits and pieces throughout the game haven’t changed at all.

I’d personally like to see more focus on actually bringing the game towards a final release state, rather than changing things that don’t need to be changed wipe-to-wipe. Decide on a final state for the economy and leave it be, decide on a final state for hideout progression and leave it be, decide on recoil/weight/stamina/etc. and leave them alone, and instead focus on actually finishing the features that are as of yet unfinished, focus on bringing the game closer to the final state that we’ve been waiting for with connected maps and the like, so on and so forth.

I thoroughly enjoy playing this game and want to continue doing so, but seeing constant unneeded changes to existing systems while any new meaningful development and much-needed fixes are consistently sidelined since I started playing is disappointing, and makes me wonder whether or not the final state of the game will ever actually be reached.

Edit: TL;DR - Instead of adding more and more stuff on top of everything already in the game, decide on a final state and leave it alone, and start prioritizing fixes and development towards the final state of the game.

Originally posted by Diche_Bach

Fix your game's ecosystem or your project will fail, because many of us will be gone (or are already "gone"). That will be a tragedy, because your vision is brilliant and the game has come so far.

ADDIT: reading a lot of these posts I have a reaction:

ngl, I think that getting "down into the weeds" is not likely to be as helpful as staying high level. None of us are Nikita. None of us are as (presumably) knowledgeable about his product and service as he is. None of us know what his real motives and constraints are. It is up to HIM to figure out a solution.

What we as the community should focus on is point out to him the consequences if he does not find a solution: he makes less bank in the end.

I believe that there is not much point in getting down into the weeds and trying to suggest specific technical solutions to him. He needs to figure out what will work and do it. Getting into detailed back and forth technical solutions merely gives him plausible deniability if in fact his real agenda is to simply drag out the revenue stream for as long as possible and then eventually when the player count drops too low just abandon the project.

Originally posted by FEIKMAN

Nikita, this PR stunt you are doing is just damage control and we get it.

Be a real man, like Russians like to say, grab this shit by the balls and figure it out...

You have created a game that no one else still had the ability to recreate, you have created something really unique.

You have the potential of becoming one of the best game devs with one of the best games in the recent history of gaming. Don't waste this shit, man. We love this game. Community just wants things to get better, everybody is hoping for it.

Соберись, тряпка.

Originally posted by BIgBounceVEVO

Idk if you will see this, but I want to thank you for finally breaking this shell and starting to communicate.

Despite my recent past saying otherwise, we all want this game to succeed, it is one of the best games I have ever played and letting it go to waste is just soul crushing.

We understand the lack of details, most players won't understand the technical engineer garble and just gives cheaters potential ideas, but going from one extreme (oversharing) to shutting yourself off from the community just creates tension, hatred and vitriol, people screaming blood for the blood god, especially since the entry fee costs 40$, with a lot paying a lot more for EOD.

We are here because we believe in your vision, we believe in this project and watching it crumble because of an inability for one side to communicate is again, soul crushing.

We love this game and want it to succeed beyond our wildest imaginations, that is why we are so passionate when talking about it.

Please don't stop communicating more when this calms down, we have had BSG's back for years because this project is something truly special.

I know not everyone is an engineer and assigning artists to programming challenges is counterproductive but I and many others would not mind having no new content for a year or two even if it meant being able to fix many problems plaguing this game.

That being said, we want to know what is going on, what problems the devs are facing and having a healthy communication regarding the state of the game, but the way your side is handling this is harrowing.

We don't want to be toxic entitled brats, but years of lack of communication wears out even a saint, and outrage has continuously proven to work with recent examples being the recoil/movement changes and what is happening right now.

This is a step in the right direction, please don't make it the only step.

Originally posted by Ok_Association_9682

We understand you have ingoing trouble with old engine version in graphics area, but would you consider jumping into "newer" technology in other areas?

• like allowing IPv6 so EU players get lower latency and higher stability?
• or requiring working IOMMU in AntiCheat to complicate some gaming chairs?
• or allowing inventory/traders/stash to be opened from launcher in regular browser, so interface issues can be resolved the way regular websites are solved, eventually incorporating the best of the community features/fixes/QoL into the official version?

Originally posted by fireballmx

With respect to other long-standing issues - is there anything being done with the raider/boss/rogue AI bug that kills you instantly? The post raid screen will show any number of bullets/hits (usually thorax 3-8 rounds depending on ammo type and your armor) when in reality you get shot once in raid and die. I feel this bug has been in the game for so many wipes, is this not still being looked at or fix in progress? It makes boss fights or raider/rogues feel terrible to fight without "cheesing" them

Originally posted by FEIKMAN

Thanks, I was actually trying to praise you, but Ok. Weird response.

Originally posted by gudzgudz

Sorry, this is going to be a hard question/statement .. but what kind of merging strategy are you guys using that so many previously fixed bugs come back each wipe? It feels new bugs appear + old ones reappear at a faster rate than they are being fixed ;/

Originally posted by SirKillsalot

Not to make this a free for all, but I remeber all the way back to pre alpha days when you would post here regularly. Could you try to do maybe a weekly QnA thread?

radio silence over the last year or so has been discouraging.

(Also, the SA-58 has been forgotten and needs buffs)

Originally posted by luizsilveira

Being more open in communication is a huge step for my trust in the game and its development (that trust is currently at the lowest).

Solving the cheating problem goes through being more open about it tbh. If a report was acted upon, it'd do good to know who was the player banned, when was the report made (map, day etc). Also consider a small kit gift (from Prapor?).

Also: No one, and I mean no one, enjoys absurdly grindy quests like capturing outposts. No one enjoys looking for a ledx for hundreds of raids. No one enjoys not finding the GPS bullshit thing (especially not in the most cheater-infested map). Why are those quests and impossible items in the game? Their rarity does not bring excitement when you get them; you see people are frustrated even when and while they complete capturing outposts. It's disgusting.

You said you play the game, I wonder: have you found those items this wipe?

Originally posted by milkmeink

Not relevant to ETF. What DAW do you use for music creation and do you have any favorite plugins? Your music is bad ass!

Originally posted by Wolfo_Nix

Hello Nikita, I have a question not related to EFT if you don't mind.

I remember 2-3 years ago at the end of a long podcast on twitch. You said that you and the team are getting a bit tired from EFT, that you didn't except it to take that much time before release.
Then you mentioned what you would like to do after EFT. A singleplayer fps, with a well written story. I am pretty sure based on what I saw on EFT that last 6 years, that your futur game will be very cool to play (Your maps are one of the best, very detailed and alive. The gun play is the best, etc.) And the majority of EFT problems are related to the multiplayer side of the game.

When will you start working the the next game ? (Or did you already start ?) How many years do you think it will take you to feel confortable enough to talk about it ? How do you get inspiration and references that help you create a videogame? Thanks.

Originally posted by SirKillsalot

I don't blame you. That's why I stopped coming here too. So much negativity.

Maybe if there was a curated thread run by the mods which could gather a list of the most upvoted comments and questions you could repsond to? (If mods are willing at least)

Originally posted by LowerPick7038

I'm moving Jobs today. I was there for 6 months and it was hard as f**k. It was beyond stressful and I hated it. It really took a toll on me mentally.

You've been at this game adventure for a long while it's probably 10X the amount of stress I'm escaping but there's alot out there that still believe in you and the game. There will always be people who complain and moan. Try and stay positive and work towards a better future.

Originally posted by oppenheim2

source: moonshine scavs told me

Originally posted by QuintarTheUseless

Thank you for one of the most interesting games I played. But you let things get this bad without talking to communtiy, people end up making conspiracy theories if you stay silent. Does not feel like you have any community managers.

Originally posted by Shensmobile

I posted this idea in another thread, but thought it might be worth bringing it up to you directly! Have you thought about the idea of dynamic trader pricing? That is, instead of having global limits or personal limits, make it so that the more you buy the same item, the more expensive it gets. This simulates the real world where a trader would see that a certain item is "in demand" and raises prices (like GPUs in the real world during pandemic). After not buying that specific item for a while, the prices would begin to fall back to their normal price again.

For streamers and rich players, it would let them keep buying the gear they want, but they have to invest a LOT of their rubles. For the average player, it lets them just buy what they want for the few raids they play. This will act like a big money sink for the hardcore players that dump a lot of time in.

If the streamers/hardcore players don't want to waste their rubles, they can purchase alternatives instead. This would force players to use more of the inventory of guns/ammo/armours and make the meta more diverse. When I was grinding Tarkov in my most hardcore season, I was logging in every few hours to buy gear or craft ammo on reset. The limits essentially didn't matter to me because I would log in every few hours, and have enough ammo and gear to run that night.

This simultaneously could help to fight the stale meta issue, the frustrations for new/casual players, as well as act as a ruble sink for late-game players.

Originally posted by milkmeink

Thanks for the response. Please never stop making music even if you eventually get out of game development.

Originally posted by oppenheim2

when will you admit found in raid and all those anti rmt changes no one asked for were a big mistake and failed to stop the problem? and don't tell me it's to combat hatchlings please, that could have easily been avoided by blocking specific items from going to the pouch like you already do with some scopes, all what found in raid did was make the game more tideous, tideous and hardcore are too different things

Originally posted by oldsch0olsurvivor

You said you ban thousands of cheaters A DAY. This is a BLATANT lie. So how do we trust what you say?

Originally posted by lampshadebb

while we're here, one massive point I'd love to talk about is the immersion of the AI. I think the single greatest thing this game could receive is difficult, but rewarding and immersive AI, not legbot sound alarms (sorry I really despise every scav). a glustick or reshala that was really tough to fight alone, but easier in groups could encourage something wild like PMC-PMC cooperation, at least between some newer players. also the ability to deal with AI through bugs like slow leans and door abuse really hurts as well.something like idle animations on the scavs would add so much in immersion, seeing a scav smoking a wilston to scramble for his gun when he sees a player would add so much substance to the world. voice lines are somewhat immersive, they are very interesting and sometimes really accurate to the situation, but the behavior of the AI themselves ruins any benefit gained from those voice lines.

I also understand this should not be an extremely high priority right now, but please consider this heavily for the final release. it could really add to an already amazing experience.

Originally posted by 420OnMy69th

Are changes for the quest "Capturing Outposts" planned? It's the most anti-fun quest in the game and is impossible for anyone who isn't a large streamer and didn't rush the task in the first week of the wipe. The pier has no activity and encourages task boosting and streamers are very open about abusing that. If no changes are planned then do you plan on punishing streamers who are openly boosting tasks like that and lightkeeper?

Originally posted by Opposite-Shoulder260

Starting from a basis of "accepting" what you have commented on in recent posts as true:

Why is it that for 4 years now you have been making apology posts that are all the same and the main situation, hacking, is worse than ever? Isn't it time to rethink priorities and even the skills of the team behind the changes? And I'm talking from developers to project managers/owners.

Assuming that the ban caused by the community discord was a mistake. How do you justify making the same mistake many more times? Rengawr is the first one that comes to mind, but clearly it has happened before. This only confirms that you make or make (as a team) rash decisions without calculating the consequences. What will you do to change it?

What happened to the 2-step authentication to create an account (phone/sms)? Why did it just disappear from this year's apology post? Please give us a concrete answer, people need transparency.

Considering how quick you are to ban people reported by streamers, why are you so slow to ban users selling 50 LedX in the first week of the wipe ? Absolutely everyone knows they are hackers, and the longer they are there, the more weight it gives to those who theorize that you as a company monetize hacking by wholesaling accounts, especially after banwaves in the past.

Have you not considered that increasing the spawn of rare items might help decrease hacking AND increase the game's gameplay? I don't know how many of your developers play the game day in and day out, wipe by wipe, but believe me I speak for many when I say that having to go to a map 100 times to get an item, and it still not spawning, is horribly boring.

Worse yet, many quests are horribly designed forcing you to kill X PMCs in places where no PMC wants to go.... what's the point of that?

My theory on the latter, and for example the removal of some trades and hideout recipes, is that you tried to cover up that Lighkeeper is not complete as a trader by making it stupidly boring, difficult and time consuming to achieve... back to the previous point, making hasty decisions without really considering the consequences.

I think today it is more than ever clear that the game needs real work on balancing, bug fixing and anti-hack measures... but REAL measures, not promises. Nobody will get mad if you don't release a map for a year, and if there are no new accessories for 6 months, those who enjoy the game do it for the gameplay loop that's already there. It's time to make it sane and entertaining again, or you will end up losing the game and any future profits from other titles that are created by BSG that no one will want to buy.

Originally posted by Kicaj

Any plans on adding CZ guns to the game? 🥺

Originally posted by tobz102

Ever consider making the contents of a players secure container visible on a dead body when looted? Would love to see what people managed to stash away after you've killed them

Originally posted by ximwaski

Hey Nikita,

Thanks for reaching out and having a talk with the community, I hope it becomes more frequent and not the last knowing the toxicity of the community.

Have you considered lowering or removing some features of FIR and RMT changes? Tigz made some great suggestions and highlighted what caused the game to be great back then before all the restrictions. Although I don't agree with all his points maybe it's a good idea to look at some of them. In short summary:

• Keep FIR for things related to questing and dailies, as I believe this is great for quests as it makes you go look for items and value even weird items because you need to for quests.
• Remove FIR requirements from the flea for armor, guns, and ammo as right now together with the trader changes some gear is close to being unobtainable. There is so much variety of items in the game but most of them you will never be able to use.
  • To combat people buying items from traders and reselling on the flea, make a new status called "bought from traders", this makes it so that these items cannot be resold on the flea market.
  • This revives PvP, as in its current state it is almost never worth pvping as there are no risk/reward benefits of killing/being killed. Before the Flea changes killing geared players was such a rush as you try to make it out with their gear to sell it. Now it's like meh not worth fighting that guy to potential vendor his diaper rig.
• A lot of the FIR and RMT restrictions went too far on the side of preventing RMT/Cheaters without thinking about how negatively it affects the players' enjoyment of the game. As mentioned in Tigz video, it felt like these changes were made designing the game around cheaters and not the players.

As others have mentioned you communicating with the community is a step in the right direction, I Hope the people being toxic do not discourage you from talking with the community and the ones actually having constructive criticism and potential fixes!

Originally posted by Brentmacrae

Can we be banned for bringing a friend's kit back in next raid after they died? A kit they purchased with their own money?

Originally posted by IamBrazilian_AMA

For starters this type of engagement is what we've been deprived of and have been in need for I'd say years. Communication between devs and players are always appreciated and it makes it feels like the game is walking towards something that most would enjoy.

I'm giving you props here for doing this but also criticizing the fact that it took so long. Please keep engaging with the community.

Main points that would make me feel better talking about are cheating and (dynamic)loot.

At this point I hope we're all aware of the cheating issue - it has reached a ridiculous level and I'm glad to hear BSG is working harder on it. Again, keep us informed on progress.

Now about dynamic loot. While it seemed like a perfect idea at the time when ppl would not roam to certain parts of the map I feel like what was done killed the most fun aspect of the game. The exciting dorms fights, the KIBA/ultramed slaughterhouse, reserve marked room shenanigans. Those barely happen nowadays since the loot is so lackluster. (I'm sure ppl can think of more examples on the other maps but those are the ones I can think of rn)

My suggestion is not to completely eliminate dynamic loot but to buff the loot around those areas, ultramed should have ledxs a lot more often, marked rooms should spawn crazy shit, KIBA should have more good prebuilds.

Also pretty please can we talk about interchange's lighting? It's my favorite map but can't really see much with the fog inside. Pls fix.

Again - thank you for engaging with the community but make sure to keep doing it. We don't need to be in the loop for everything all the time but a little talk here and there goes a long way.

Lastly just wanted to say that Tarkov's concept as a whole is amazing, certainly one of my favorite games - the sky is the limit to how far this game can go. I'll gladly rally behind BSG and I believe a lot of community members would too but a more transparent route has to be taken going forward.

Originally posted by A1RELL

Do you plan on hiring communication management team or even 1 person? That way it can take some weight off, and the community can have communication with it's makers, plenty of games already does it, and I am not talking just about 1 tweet a day, I am talking about reading forums, reddit etc. and replying to the community actively, along side with keeping the communication between the players and developers healthy and streamlined

Originally posted by flaschemate

"Chad for the Weekend" already is a bad intention of you anyways. That's not what tarkov should be or feel like at all.

Originally posted by AH_Ahri

Just a little suggestion...I personally want to see some more QOL things after the cheating stuff(hopefully...) gets fixed or worked on. Mostly related to how many clicks it takes to sell multiple things on the flea market and to multiple traders. It just eats up a lot of time.

Streamlining that would help improve the game a lot. More people in raid and playing the game and less being stuck in the process of selling items.

Originally posted by SuccessfulPiccolo

1. Community manager should be fired for how poorly this situation is being handled. Or hired if there isn't any. People were trying to bring the cheating problem to light for a long time, the fact it took so long for a team to start rapidly fixing it tells that community management is nonexistent. It costed project reputation, a few streamers and certainly affected sales in negative way
2. Anti-cheat system should have it's own development stream with dedicated devs, otherwise you will fail in arms-race once again when whole team moves to developing new features
3. Community-based anti-cheat stuff should never be done again, if they f**k up you will be blamed anyway
4. Please do hire someone to audit the system, internal analysis is good, but you need someone from the outside who can give you solutions without throwing up hands saying "it's too hard to do" like dev-team likes to do

Originally posted by ruidodelaser

thank you for being back around here my dude and all of your hard work

1. Any updates on sound fixing?
2. Do you think bosses spawn rate are fine right now?
3. What's your take on Interchange illumination/fog situation?
4. Since Reserve D2 extract expansion there's not much action on the surface, are there any changes planned?
5. Please try to make quests and progression less grindy / a chore, it's my 5th wipe and me and my friends get so discouraged when we get to the whole Shoreline Punisher questline, too big of a map with few points of interest
6. Any update on Arenas soon?

Originally posted by I_paintball

What are your thoughts on streamers having their community stream snipe to join the same raid to get through PMC kill quests? IE capturing outposts, lightkeeper questline PMC tasks... Is this considered boosting?

Originally posted by projeto56

I'm not sure if it's a language barrier problem, as I'm aware you're not a native English speaker, but this response really comes through as you don't give a f**k to the wellbeing of the paying player base, who are your customers.
It looks like you're pushing players that want change away, when all we want, is to see / know better what are the plans to improving your product.
We'd be really glad if we could see a roadmap for the new features (specially security ones) planned for the game.
Players are giving really good suggestions for security fixes lately, and it'd be amazing to see you guys getting ready to put them on a timeline.

Originally posted by IamBrazilian_AMA

Thank you for the response.

One last thing; any plans on events any time soon? Those are always a good time.

Originally posted by Hendeith

Since Nikita is responding to pointless comments in this post all of the sudden, let my make the intention of my post clear.

Ohhh so now suddenly he is responding to put out fire, but when lots of people (including myself) asked in his thread what exactly they are planning to do to improve situation he was all quiet.

Ok, u/trainfender so maybe you willing to give us some details? Present some roadmap? Sorry but in your thread you didn't tell us anything new.

I believe most of general criticism is centered around:

• poor game optimization

• netcode and lots of desync

• audio still being bugged

• unfair terminator AI that HAVE TO be cheesed

• artificially slowing down progression by severely decreasing spawn rates of items, bosses thus making it that unless you plan this game as a job progression is extremely slow

• lack of communication from BSG unless shit hits the fan

• cheaters

• • Is market not monitored as a part of larger anti-cheat effort? If people are able to gain unbelievable amount of rep so quickly and put 50 LEDXs on market in days then something surely is not right.
• • what's your plan on anti-RMT measures? So far it seems RMT is fine as always, but aggressive anti-RMT measures mostly affect legit players. Like come on, not being able to throw a quest key to my buddy because I might die during raid is one example of how anti-RMT is affecting legit players while RMT is still doing great.

Do you have any actual plan to address these issues? What steps are you going to take? When we can expect to see change and meaningful improvement? I don't even expect answer here, but some official communication and roadmap on your website would be more than warranted.

EDIT: or at least Q&A with community (people will post questions and upvote questions of others, then you can collect them and prepare solid answers to topics that are most important for community).

Originally posted by Hendeith

I did and that's why I posted this comment. I don't think you provided any details on any of big issues that are plaguing this game for years now. You surely need to understand that hearing again trough few years "we are working on improving X, but no details" stops working at some point when improvement is not visible. If you are so insistent on referencing what you already said, here are some questions that would use detailed answer:

Q: How come you still allow streamers to have people banned based on flawed evidence, especially after the Rengawr fiasco?

A: that was a mistake done in a rush, it wont happen again

So what steps are you going to take to make sure it's not going to happen again... again? Why did it happen again in the first place, because just recently we had Rengawr controversy and now situation with Trey. Mistakes do happen, but it doesn't look like since then you implemented any changes to process and streamers still have enough influence to cause unjust manual bans - we are getting to a situation that playing game without recording it is a risk on it's own, because any more popular streamer can get you banned.

Q: Saying you will continue doing what your doing, as any overhaul would be too destructive is not tangible and concrete. It sucks that your in this situation where the cure looks worse than the cancer but there's a point where you have to bite that bullet. When is that point for your team?

A: dont be so concrete. It's not that we will not do anything. In the end I am 100% situation will improve. It's already improving by all of the measures taken.

After few years of constant issues and hearing "we are improving things" it's time to be concrete. Can you tell us any steps (quick wins and long term) you have planned to improve situation? When can we start seeing improvement? 6 months? 12 months? [keep in mind that whenever I'm asking about time I don't mean exact date or deadline but time frame]

Q: Is there any way to implement flagging for suspicious flea market listings? Or really high flea rep early wipe?

A: yes, its planned

What's the priority of it? When can we expect to see it?

Q: I know it's probably a major thing to try and add, but are there any plans for a post-raid replay system for players?

A: believe it or not - its planned

Great to hear, again time frame? Will we see it this year? Will it be part of 1.13.x?

Q: Worse yet, many quests are horribly designed forcing you to kill X PMCs in places where no PMC wants to go.... what's the point of that?

A: will be fixed

What's your quest design process? Preventing issues is better than fixing them, how these quests make it to release in the first place? I believe (based on some much older info from BSG, but please do correct me if I misremember) that you do have information on player hotspots, movement trough map etc. based on analytics. Is it not used when team designing quests?

Q: Just a little suggestion...I personally want to see some more QOL things after the cheating stuff(hopefully...) gets fixed or worked on.

A: a lot of QoL features planned

Mind telling us what QoL features are planned?

Q: Do you plan on hiring communication management team or even 1 person?

A: he thing is that there is not much questions here. only rants. im totally ok with QnA. it need to be organised

Yet when I ask questions you didn't answer them claiming they are already answered. Even though only one that is (and I made mistake here, didn't notice you already answered it) was one about monitoring market in game.

Lots of above questions as you can see are related to time frames. That's why I mentioned roadmap in previous comment, we don't know what BSG is focusing on now and what's next in line so we have no idea if fix lots of people are waiting for will happen in a month or in two years.