PvE Tarkov fans are not happy with the new patch.
Yesterday a big new patch arrived for Escape From Tarkov that promised major improvements to the recently released PvE game mode, but just hours later, the community has discovered multiple issues with the changes that some claim make the mode unplayable.
After months of long matchmaking times to get into a single-player PvE raid, Battlestate Games added the ability to play the new PvE mode in Tarkov locally on your PC. In theory this removes the need to join one of their servers, and should create a much better experience for solo players.
However, as soon as players started to try to run Tarkov locally on their PC they stated to run into technical issues. Multiple players across social media and community hubs have reported that performance when running Tarkov locally is abysmal, with frame rates even running at half of what they would on a server.
These technical issues would likely explain why you can’t play the Streets of Tarkov map offline, given how large the map is and the power it requires to run. Even running the map normally in the PvP mode requires a decently beefy PC, so running everything locally would likely be impossible for all but the most modern and expensive computers.
These technical issues are not the only complaints that some people have, as one other change has had a major impact on how the PvE game mode plays. In the patch notes it was revealed that all AI on the map will now react to you if they become aware. This means if you shoot a bot, and their friend sees it and makes a commotion, all AI within hearing distance will start to swarm your location looking to take you out.
While this kind of idea somewhat works with scavs, with the much stronger AI PMCs that roam the map this can create situations where you have to take out an entire lobby before being free to move around. Players have found that they have even run out of ammo because of the numbers coming their way.
Compared to the PvP mode, which the PvE mode is trying to mimic with the AI PMCs, it is a big difference as a lot of real players will avoid other players if they have good loot or are trying to complete a quest. It is very rare that every player in a lobby is looking for a fight, and getting the whole server fighting at the same location is even rarer.
While further AI improvements to the PvE mode have been promised, there likely needs to be some kind of fix or roll back of this change to make sure that the PvE mode doesn’t just become an all out gun fight as soon as you load into the map.