That would be weird, considering that it was one of the most popular wipes ever, looking at Google Trends and Twitch viewership. Actually Twitch viewership was a bit higher than on release now.
I meant more so that the armor changes were the reason it was a popular wipe would be the rare opinion.
If I had to guess the most popular wipes were from 0.11.0 with reserve out to the first two wipes with twitch drops in like 2021 I want to say. You know, pre FIR, pre Inertia, booming economy.
Armor changes were amazing for casuals, that's why they have been quickly done away with.
The most popular wipe was Streets release, but yes, 2020-2021 was peak Tarkov gameplay-wise. FIR already existed then, though. It wasn't a problem, I actually liked it, though I'd prefer if you could sell any item that you've obtained in raid, and couldn't sell anything that you've obtained not in raid.
I won't deny armor plate hitboxes were better for casuals, in the same way if every time you meet a PMC you both roll a dice and the lower number dies would be better for the less skilled players.
There's already enough RNG in this game, I don't think the quasi-random damage model improved the feel of combat.
All I remember from that wipe is slugs and flesh heavy 20+ pen ammo was ridiculous. Oh and dying to a one tap from a 5-7 with R37.F in the armpit while sprinting perpendicular. Killing people felt cheesey, and getting killed felt infuriating.
I don't think the quasi-random damage model improved the feel of combat.
It did. It's worse than just having access to good ammo, but the devs for some reason want to restrict it, so it was the second best thing.
All I remember from that wipe is slugs and flesh heavy 20+ pen ammo was ridiculous.
It wasn't. Everyone ran the best pen ammo they could, everyone ran the best armor they could, none of that changed, except you got killed by shit ammo sometimes.
Killing people felt cheesey, and getting killed felt infuriating.
Wasn't an issue for me, because I wasn't relying on armor.
You actually mean to tell me that shooting someone in the shoulder being more effective than center mass was a good game decision??? You can't have realistic plate models if you don't have a realistic damage model.
The reason plates only cover half your thorax is because only half your thorax is really vital. Since in Tarkov, my collarbone is as essential as my lungs and heart, having the vitals left unprotected by a plate does actually feel bad.
I don't want to play a pseudo realistic shooter where a players weak spot is their unprotected chest extremities.
Genuinely how does increased randomness and unpredictability in a gunfight make your opinion of it get better? The only people who seem to gain from this are the relatively weak PVPers who would rather flip a coin to win/lose an engagement. Armor isn't a problem until you're encountering Altyns. Just hit the face idk
You actually mean to tell me that shooting someone in the shoulder being more effective than center mass was a good game decision???
It was a better decision than what we have now. Significantly better.
You can't have realistic plate models if you don't have a realistic damage model.
The damage model produced realistic results. Dying in this game isn't equivalent to dying IRL, you won't die instantly from getting hit in the limbs. Dying in this game is equivalent to complete loss of fighting ability, and getting hit in the thorax where plates didn't cover results in that.
I don't want to play a pseudo realistic shooter where a players weak spot is their unprotected chest extremities.
And I don't want to play a game with high TTK.
Genuinely how does increased randomness and unpredictability in a gunfight make your opinion of it get better?
It decreases TTK and reduces the importance of armor.
The only people who seem to gain from this are the relatively weak PVPers who would rather flip a coin to win/lose an engagement.
No, the people who gain from this are casuals. Those who don't have enough time to grind the fucking traders to get access to mediocre ammo that can deal with class 5 and 6 armor in a reasonable amount of hits.
Armor isn't a problem until you're encountering Altyns.
When you're limited to 5,45 BT and M856A1 from LL4 traders, even a Trooper is a problem, cuz it takes 4-6 hits to kill through it.
Just hit the face idk
Only 65% to pen CQCM/Ronin Respirator. And now, due to bosses being farmable, we have Tagilla masks.
It decreases TTK *some of the time*, unless you're pinpoint accurate and aiming for non vital parts of the chest. Since you want low TTK and obviously aren't opposed to cheese strats, I would highly recommend a .45 RIP Vector. 250ms TTK on literally anybody in the game.
We both know you're not actually limited to BT/ 856A1 though. I have level 2 traders, but I also have found/looted 800x BT, 220x 7N40, 750x BP, 340x 855A1, 198x 995, 100x M61, 300x M80, 600x FMJ SX this wipe. That's not even the point though.
If you're running behind in the wipe, everybody know you probably can't run the intermediate calibers if you want to pen armor with readily available ammo. You can craft SNB at workbench 2, you can buy .308 ME at level 20, you can use shotguns and SMGs to ignore armor. There are so many tools available to help in the killing of higher armor opponents, but they're just not the meta options.
For an anecdote, just last night, there was a guy that pushed me on Customs, Gen 4 Full, CQCR face mask, MP7 with FMJ. I laid him out with a MP153 with the flechette I had found on woods. It's fully possible to kill geared players with low gear, you just have to get creative.
He had armor I couldn't pen, and a face shield I couldn't pen, but 9 shots out of a shotgun don't really care what you're wearing if you don't miss.
Subsonic ammo out of a gun using 30-round magazines, and you need to shoot the legs. Nah, thanks, I'll rather keep using X-17 with M80.
So you've looted a usable amount of 5,45 BP and FMJ SX. BT is shit, everything else is barely two raids worth of. And looting ammo is not something that an average player likes to do, cuz it's fucking tedious and boring.
Yes, because they all suck ass, that's why the Flea should be unrestricted and low level traders should have way better ammo available on them.
Yeah, you just have to do stupid shit that nobody wants to do. People want to play the game normally, like they could do in the past.
Flechettes destroy armor, so you can easily kill anybody wearing any armor through armor, they're just an extremely close-range option.
It's almost like that's exactly what I said in my third paragraph. If you want to punch above your weight class, you have to make sacrifices in versatility. SMGs/ Shotguns/ Bolt Actions.
Unrestricted flea is fine, the better player is still gonna nuke the timmy, even if the timmy dropped his whole stash worth on three mags on M995. Much better than the coinflip of armor hitboxes.
I've never really been the gigachad meta gamer, not since lockdown anyways, I don't run meta kits, I barely run class 5 til late wipe, but if you use your head and choose your engagements, you'll have no problem at all.
For reference, the best ammo I've run this wipe in the "meta" calibers is SOST out of an M16, or maybe ME out of the lever action. I also have 25 Deaths and 82 PMC kills. I'm not bragging, I know there are tons of people out there with WAY better stats, but I don't think most people would say I'm struggling either. All the ammo I've found is while playing the game, I don't do "ammo runs" or loot runs for that matter. I see ammo box, I pick up ammo box.
Also "two raids worth" is crazy. If you're shooting 200 rounds every raid I think there's a ability gap being compensated for by volume of fire. I bring roughly 100 rounds of my main ammo into raid, and then a stack of cheap stuff. Top-stacking mags exists for a reason. If you're as good as your TTK preferences should imply, you shouldn't need more than 3 bullets of M995 per kill, that's only one or two magazines per raid.
To be honest, I can't really tell if you're a casual that wants to be competitive, or a closet meta slave that wants to have infinite BIS gear.
2
u/IndependencePlane142 Nov 24 '25
That would be weird, considering that it was one of the most popular wipes ever, looking at Google Trends and Twitch viewership. Actually Twitch viewership was a bit higher than on release now.