These aren’t quite the Escape From Tarkov patch notes for which we might have been hoping – some of the optimizations and general fixes that the extraction FPS sorely needs are not in here – but BSG nevertheless bundles some seriously compelling additions in EFT 0.15. After the debacle with the Unheard Edition, the next Escape From Tarkov wipe is finally upon us, and with it come a total overhaul to the original Factory map, a new boss, significant changes to AI behaviour, and a mysterious new karma system that punishes certain actions and rewards others – though Battlestate is being coy with precisely how that works.
Escape From Tarkov patch 0.15 has been in the works for about nine months, and while it doesn’t herald the big Unity update players have been waiting for, or introduce quite the litany of performance improvements that we may have expected, there’s still a lot of new material here. First up, Factory, EFT’s first true map, has been totally reworked. All the textures in the plant building have been refined, there are new crosswalks, the cellar has been expanded, and the basement and workshops have been visually tweaked, also. Veterans of the extraction FPS game will notice the changes immediately – seven years since the first closed beta, it’s nice that Factory is still getting some love.
More significant is the new Escape From Tarkov boss, the Partisan. The Partisan is more likely to spawn in forested areas and, according to EFT lore, goes “after people he believes to be honorless.” He acts alone and makes liberal use of tripwires. Exactly who he targets is likely connected to Tarkov’s new karma system, an invisible parameter which will move up or down depending on your actions.
It’s unclear right now precisely how karma is influenced – BSG says that an “open” style will improve your karma, and that it will be negatively impacted by “dishonest” play. I think the karma system is supposed to be explored by trial and error, and Battlestate is leaving it deliberately vague so we can discover for ourselves exactly how it works and how the Partisan responds.
If you’ve been curious about the next Escape From Tarkov wipe, it’s happening now with 0.15. BSG also adds the ability to mount weapons and use tripods, and complicates tripwires a little via a new item – if you want to deploy a tripwire, you now need a tripwire installation kit, which is only available after completing Jaeger’s task chain.
AI behavior has also been retooled for PvE mode, and non-player enemies will now react differently depending on the factions of their targets and their individual ‘moods.’ BSG offers the following example: “if an AI BEAR encounters an AI USEC, they are more likely to engage them – but not necessarily 100% – than they would be if they encountered another AI BEAR.”
AI enemies are also more or less likely to be instantly aggressive depending on their location – on Ground Zero, if you’re under level 20, for example, they are more likely to be friendly, while in The Lab, they will be highly confrontational.
Escape From Tarkov patch 0.15 also introduces some fine tuning and weapon rebalancing, increasing the damage from 7.62×39, 5.45×39, 9×21 rounds while reducing the power of the 5.56×45. All told, it’s a sizable update that introduces some potentially game-changing new ideas, if not the full performance improvements that players would like to see.
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