Well, at the moment this is my must have game for 2016...
I also like the proposed system they will use that should shut out the run and gun crowd... all the things you collect, add to, garner to yourself to survive in this dangerous environment, will be lost when you die! All you will retain is some gear that you can keep in a 'secret stash'... this hopefully will make users careful about their virtual lives. So for online it won't simply be 'run, gun, die, re-spawn, rinse and repeat'...
Feels like an overpriced and overhyped version of the excellent STALKER series. There are so many good games probably better than this one Dying Light + the Following, Fallout 4 etc...
''So many good games probably better than this one''... The game isn't even out yet and it already being slagged. Must be fantastic having some magical foresight into the future
So not small... but not big by any means either. But it is in a city so it should be densely compacted maps with multi floor buildings. Not many open fields etc.
Also keep in mind the 4km x 4km is for the open world roaming map. Most of the game is designed around coop linear progression with multiple teams fighting to get through the map faster than the other teams.
SO probably most of the maps will be 2km x 4km since the main focus of the game uses 8kmsq maps.
Overpriced? The game is $45, that makes it cheap actually. STALKER games were all $50 on release.
The Jedi Master
Except the Season Pass (surprise)costs at least $40; and the only way to get it right now is to buy the "Edge of Darkness" edition which costs $140!!
Makes me wonder how much content we're actually getting for $45, and how much got stripped to get more pre-orders\DLC purchases.
What makes you think anything is getting "stripped out"? The different tiers give you access to the game at different stages of development.
You pay through the nose for the "Limited Edition - Edge of Darkness" edition to get access to the Alpha phase, you pay less for the beta and the $45 for the release version. Its a fairly common model now for games ( though the top tier is still eye watering ).
I don't honestly know about the DLC part, have you any links to what they are proposing?
I'm pretty sure I will get into this game... I don't normally do any kind of survivalist game as it usually revolves around zombies or some sort of mutant species from a nuclear war, I just can't be bothered with those genres. However, as it has been stated that EFT will not be going down that road I am impressed by what I have seen so far...
Overpriced? The game is $45, that makes it cheap actually. STALKER games were all $50 on release.
The Jedi Master
Except the Season Pass (surprise)costs at least $40; and the only way to get it right now is to buy the "Edge of Darkness" edition which costs $140!!
Makes me wonder how much content we're actually getting for $45, and how much got stripped to get more pre-orders\DLC purchases.
What makes you think anything is getting "stripped out"? The different tiers give you access to the game at different stages of development.
You pay through the nose for the "Limited Edition - Edge of Darkness" edition to get access to the Alpha phase, you pay less for the beta and the $45 for the release version. Its a fairly common model now for games ( though the top tier is still eye watering ).
I don't honestly know about the DLC part, have you any links to what they are proposing?
There's more to the different tiers than just access to different stages of development. I get wary of DLC being announced\sold before we even know what the full game is going to include! I don't know for sure if anything is getting stripped, but it seems kind of fishy to me.
But the game looks amazing and I will still be watching it
Thanks for the link, the guy does bring up some interesting points but it really doesn't mention anything about stripping of content.
I would agree that there are more questions than answers at the moment as to how things are going to be handled. However I do think some things are going to be different in EFT as opposed to say Dayz. When you start in Dayz you don't have anything weapon wise. Here it looks like ( as we are playing PMC's ) you start with some weaponary.
So will this give those that buy the top tier an advantage? Frankly, yes, but thats a qualified advantage, by that I mean, a bullet to the head is still a bullet to the head, whether that bullet is fired from a tricked out AK74 with holo site or a bolt action rifle from WW2 with iron sites. There are other variables such as tactical ability, shooting skill and lets not forget best of all... luck! If I come across someone facing the other way, he's at an immediate disadvantage no matter what he may have in his extra large stash or is carrying weapons wise.
It is very early days and I hope that they give this some serious thought so it isn't going to create a sub class of "Elites" that can't be touched. I also hope the DLC aspect is handled equally as well. So far there hasn't been anything I have seen to suggest otherwise. Fingers crossed!
I agree with the guy in the vid that JoJo posted when he said "don't get TOO excited about EFT" and blow $140 on all the so far non existent bells and whistles.
On the other hand, I'm a BIG shooting sim fan so after seeing the vid that RSharpe posted in the other "Excape from Tarkov" thread, I'm already TOO excited.
The weapon modding alone already looks INCREDIBLE!
to get into the Alpha you have to have a specific package purchased.
They are going to have a limited number of keys to give out. They are going to randomly give them out based on what package you buy.
news letter signups will receive 25% of the keys Left Behind Package will receive 25% of the keys Prepare for Escape Package will receive 50% of the keys
Edge of Darkness package guarantees you get access to alpha.
Keep in mind that it is currently in alpha and the only guarantee access to alpha is the Edge of Darkness version. Every other version you have a random chance to gain access but not a guarantee until beta.
Though 30% off the EOD edition seems like a good deal.
Not just Russia but eastern Europe. That whole region is is a hard recession with really low wages and there are tons of programmers without work. It is easy for a studio to snap up a few hundred coders for cheap and crank out a game. These people are working horrible hours for #%&*$# pay but they do make some good games.
As for this, I'm not buying into anything ahead of time for money like that. I preorder under 2 circumstances: 1) it's a sequel to a game I've already enjoyed and I'm pretty certain that it will equal or surpass the previous title, and preordering generally gets you a discount over release-day pricing and I'm going to get it on release, or worse case scenario it's full price BUT I'll get all the DLC which will otherwise cost more later 2) it's an early-access title of some type with a significant discount over regular release pricing, more like what it would cost on sale a year after release, and I'm willing to try it for less
To pay more for a game via preordering, just to get a bunch of extras that I'm not sure I will care about (or know I will not care about), is not something I will ever do.
Yeah, maybe a dozen years ago I started preordering games because I was worried they wouldn't have a copy in the store when I went to buy it. Digital DL has eliminated that problem, so preordering is no longer needed.
The fact that they have it in beta but had NDA for anyone who plays it makes me skeptical. I almost preordered a few times but there just doesnt seem to be a reason to other than to play it "right now" and that is only useful if the NDAs go away and people can tell you if it is any good or not.
Not sure if there'll be enough content in this game outside of PVP deathmatch.
I mean the gameworld appears to be rather empty and lacking in the way of non combat interaction.
As the combat itself, you can count on a brutal level of camping once it goes live, that and maybe players who'll go in minimally equipped and either hope to get lucky with loot or sprint for the exits for easy EXP.
This game seems like it'd brilliant as a SP or COOP shooter, not just PvP.
The amount of detail they've got into the environment itself, breaching doors, opening drawers, car trunks, scavenging, etc. is pretty incredible.
If it just turns into people running around shooting each other, it'd be a big waste of all these assets and all the hard work that went into creating animations, weapons, etc. There needs to be a more immersive narrative going on besides just a PvP match.
And to that extent, I'm still not clear whether we'll get that or not.
Then they need to concentrate on AI that is good enough not to cheat. Considering we had good SP AI in games as far back as FEAR and even the first Half Life, it's really ridiculous that a game made post 2010 could have poor AI.
I don't about the SP or Co-op, as it seems the AI is mediocre that far and appears to compensate by cheating.
The environmental interaction and looting aspects seem to be at par with a number of recent open games, so not really much new there.
I haven't played a lot of other open world games lately so I'm not the best source, but the fluid animations and complexity for the weapons, combat, and being able to interact within objects was impressive to me (opening drawers, car trunks, etc.). I've seen things like Ubisoft's latest open world offerings and Fallout and hadn't seen that kind of detail.
If that's normal fair now, I just hadn't experienced it.
Its a lot harder to build a good AI in a open worldish game with large maps and realistic weapon ranges, than it is for a corridor shooter.
It shouldn't be. It should be the same thing with the addition of added range, that's all.
If they just can't do it, they should stop making open world games because it defeats the purpose. I'd rather have a convincing representation of being in a constricted environment than a large world populated by brain-damaged morons.
It shouldn't be. It should be the same thing with the addition of added range, that's all.
If they just can't do it, they should stop making open world games because it defeats the purpose. I'd rather have a convincing representation of being in a constricted environment than a large world populated by brain-damaged morons.
The increase in overall complexity and not being able to rely on scripting so readily, makes open world AI a lot harder to do well according to a video game developer relative of mine.
However it could be augued that a large world populated by morons is more realistic...
Perhaps they'll improve the AI, the game is only in alpha afterall, but I wouldn't expect the cheating to go away entirely.
The problem is morons would be realistic, but they don't know how to program those at all.
They can either make brain-damaged types that run while facing a wall, ignore you when you're 5 ft away but shoot when you're in another room from them, and bump into each other with pathfinding straight out of a Keystone Cops routine, or they're uber terminators shooting you in the head with the first bullet from an SMG at a range of 300 yds after doing a 180 spin and crouch.
I can always tell a human player because of the mistakes they make, the ability to see but not hit, the tendency to try to do the fun thing over the smart thing. AI never do.
It largely comes down to limited CPU resources and the fact that playtesting to the point of a polished and seamless product is not even close to being commercially viable.
That's not to say it's impossible, I've played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods with superb AI, but it's a tough demand from a vanilla product.
I can live with some of the usual open world enemy AI behaviors, like where you have your humanoid opponents become all 28 Days Later fast and herky-jerky once fully alerted, but I don't like seeing them being able to see in complete darkness or through heavy brush, or teleport-spawn into combat, as appears to be the case from some of the EFT alpha videos I've seen.
The later Metal Gear games had decent open world AI. They may of been localized in some ways to specific points on the map, but nothing says Tarkov can't do the same kinds of tricks.
If the map were substancially bigger, I think they'd have more of an excuse (i.e. like an Arma3 map). But Tarkov is pretty small by open world standards and it has a lot of cooridorish features.
EFT's total map size is reportedly 16 sq km, while not huge (that's more neighborhood than city sized in real life terms), its still a bit bigger than Fallout 4's Commonwealth.
What's more is that EFT has a lot in the way of complex interior spaces and even has some built up areas with huge height variations and interior volumes, if some of the trailer footage is accurate.
That is true, few open world games have both detailed exteriors and interiors. Arma is particularly egregious in having spartan and unrealistic interiors, but infantry get hung up so easily on things you can't even try and spruce it up. Most have you load a new map when you go indoors and then again outdoors.
I recall the first Far Cry was novel because you could go from outside to indoors without loading a new map. Granted the islands were hardly open world, but they were large compared to the ones Unreal- and Q3A-engined FPS games had at the time.
I remember someone actually timed how long it takes to walk from one end of Skyrim to the other side and it was something ridiculously short like less than one hour.
If Tarkov is going to be a closed game (i.e. no user made maps), and I assume it will be, then there's nothing to stop them from doing more heavy scripting with the AI to customize them for specific environments. Specific indoor paths laid out to follow, cover points defined, scripted patrols (that appear randomly), etc.
Tarkov isn't the first game to ever have detailed interior/exterior components to deal with in regards to AI.
It's a bit different with Arma3 because there are so many maps and they are so large that it's not practical to customize each building to optimize the AI. Especially since so many maps are user made.
The game is still alpha, so I'm willing to cut it some slack as far as AI development.
Of possibly more concern is that it appears to be heavily oriented towards CQB, with the vast majority of firefights appearing to be at 50 yards or less, making the longer ranged weapons and optics seem pretty much useless.
Movement noise seems to be somewhat exaggerated (to the point that even turning too quickly will cause your clothing to rustle), but it seems hard to actually see other players at any kind of a distance.
I'm guessing that IFF will be a real problem in the finished game if there are no changes.
Soo... it's in beta now. What's it like? I'm interested but a bit hesitant over the RPG elements. I don't have a lot of time to play and if you're expected to spend two hours every day just levelling your character I simply can't. Even Argo has shown to be way to much of a grind for me.
I was hesitant during the Alpha, but I bought the game over the Christmas sale, and have been playing off and on for the last couple of weeks. (prob ~10hrs total so far).
The premise of the game is a squad based, tactical FPS sim. They are going for extreme realism and detail, but also balance to keep it fun. There is NEVER a dull moment; you have to constantly be looking and listening. It's also a gun lovers wet dream, with *every* single part being able to be customized (barrels, rails, attachments, optics, stocks, etc.).
There is no grind because leveling only affects passive traits (stamina, satiety, weapon control, carry cap, etc.). You can use the same weapons\equipment at lvl 1, that you can use at lvl 40. There are trader levels that you'll need to improve so you can get access to better gear; but again, it's not much of a grind since loot is plentiful (right now anyways); and you can still find that gear if you kill a player using it. The main benefit of being high level is easier (but not exclusive) access to high-tier equipment. There's no level restrictions for servers as well; so it's not impossible for low lvl players to kill high ones; it's all about skill (and maybe a little luck lol)
Starting out the game is a little daunting, as there is absolutely no hand-holding and you have to memorize levels and know where loot spawns and extraction points are. The controls are similar to Arma's, but much more refined and intuitive. There is an offline mode that you can use to learn the levels, test weapons, etc. and it won't affect your progress or loot; although it will be removed on full release.
There are definitely performance and server issues with a few fps drops and dsync issues, but overall the game feels very playable.
This is just a quick first impression; but from what I've seen\heard, they are going to take this game far beyond it's current state. I'd highly suggest checking out a streamer called Klean who works for BattleStateGames. He's super chill and as a lot of inside information about the game.
IMHO I'd say it's probably worth the base price ($45) just for the amount of content and entertainment value; but it's not for the faint of heart.
Thanks, that's some great insight! You have spent about as much time with it as I could have so I'm guessing we're a similar player type. I enjoy realism and simulation but I don't have five hours a day to spend with a game.
I'm still annoyed I missed the Xmas sale. Somehow their newsletter got stuck in my spam filter mid '17 and when I checked back this week on a whim I had missed all the action by just days. I just feel the full price is just a little high for the amount of time I would have to spend with it. Alas, I may get it anyway.
Right I agree it's a little steep, but like I said if you love tactical fps's then I think it will be well worth it even in it's current state.
The main advantages to pre-ordering now is the Offline mode, learning the maps, and how the loot\trading system works (although all of that will probably change).
I only pre-ordered because the NDA was lifted for streamers so I got to see how the game actually plays "live"; and I wanted to support an original IP and a dev team that seems like they give a #%&*$# about their product (which seems rare these days).
Well, I went out and got it. It's very nice, a bit like Squad meets ArmA meets... DayZ or something. I've only played offline to get the hang of the maps but it's very nerve wracking. I love and hate the idea of loosing your gear when you die or disconnect. It's a nice mechanic to raise the stakes, but at the same time it's daunting when you don't have much gear and need to go out and learn things. It's the only reason after five days I'm still not online yet, if that's saying anything. I guess the way to go about it might be to start as a scav until you start bringing home some loot. I'll be trying online next weekend I hope.
Anyway, well worth it IMO if you're into realistic shooters.
Bought this game last year as invited, only to find obtaining assault rifle is like a reward after 10000000 times of looting with only knife equipped and its all gone once you get killed.
its shame gun modeling in this game is topnotch but then the access to the gun is so privileged that you have little chance to see it.
Bought this game last year as invited, only to find obtaining assault rifle is like a reward after 10000000 times of looting with only knife equipped and its all gone once you get killed.
its shame gun modeling in this game is topnotch but then the access to the gun is so privileged that you have little chance to see it.
There's some truth to that. Because even if from a purely gameplay perspective a gun is a gun and bullet is a bullet (there's no 'power' advantage with modded guns), there's no doubt the enjoyment factor is much higher when you can play with your painstakingly modded AKM.
But again, you can play as Scav with random gear and if you survive you get to keep your gear. If you hit zero you get some money to get you started again. And it probably keeps even the best players on their toes, plus it makes sure there's a point in going back out on raids. It's an interesting mechanic really, when you think about it. The point of the game is to scavenge for loot, but we're sort of conditioned to think that it's about leveling up your character. Here, losing stuff is the game.
I still want to pick this game up but I just dont feel it's worth 45 bucks...
Well, that's impossible to figure. I've passed on several titles but bought this one. It's something fresh and I'm willing to just tinker until it's fully fleshed out. If it doesn't live up to my expectations in the end it will still have been worth it.
My only nagging disappointment so far are the maps. They're rather small, often not too interesting both visually and in features and overall just can't compete with anything recent IMO, especially with the heavy distance haze after just a few hundred meters (but that does give a false impression of map size). But we'll see how things develop. It is just beta and there's a lot on the roadmap.
It's like they are an afterthought next all the effort put into depicting the gear and to some extented the movement dynamics.
Of course if you ask me, all that detail is wasted on a multiplayer oriented game anyway.
Yeah, maps are the weak point. I'm being unfair to a point because I still don't have the balls to go multiplayer (only PvE), so I have had the relative peace of mind to look around, but they're really nothing special. Plus they use a lot of retro arena-FPS map staples like 'ramped' obstacles and such. For a game that models the actual compatibility of weapon accessories with specific dust covers or receivers, that's just way below par in a far more obvious area. But I guess I'm spoiled by ArmA. Plus it's still beta.
Weapon and inventory management is really amazing though. For a looter/shooter, it's really a huge step up to be able to remove just parts of looted weapons or break them down to save space. Also replentishing mags from others etc. Sure, ArmA is just a smal step away from that but it's a world of a difference.
The maps are going to be expanded, and spawns will be expanded as well, as they wanted to keep the maps somewhat small and confined for playtesting. They already opened up a new area in Customs with the latest update, and there's locked doors and containers all around each level where special loot is stored (keys are either bought or found)
The goal is to connect all of the individual maps and make it one giant area, and in turn it should spread out the spawn areas and chokepoints.
No "Kangaroo & Rabbit" and look's .... S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 
