How to combat sprint to loot meta?

Currently this is one of the few things that really frustrates me when playing interchange. Hatchlings run to tech and grab GPUs to put in their container and there is nothing I can do if they get the closer spawn.

I think Kiba was the best change to combat this, with the electricity and alarms, but I think a nerf to hatchlings would also be appropriate to at least decrease the number we're seeing.

Nothing will ever stop players from doing it, and that's a good thing, people should be allowed to play how they want, but I don't believe it should be as easy as it currently is.

Tagged and cursed is a good start, but I've done enough pistol runs on factory to know that you can one tap the scav and get a free loadout. Instead I think there's a few good solutions that I'd like to hear other's thoughts on.

Idea #1: Hit squad / scav

  • Players that come in under-geared cause an assassin scav (or squad) to spawn either near them or in specific locations on the map.
  • This AI would not automatically target other players (could change based on karma) but instead stalk the hatchling OR wait near high value locations to try and prevent them from easily accessing the loot.
  • Once their 'target' is dead or extracted, they would proceed to a specific checkpoint on the map and exfil.
  • Additional Idea: Only occur for players that have an inventory worth a certain amount. This worth could decrease as their level gets higher. (To prevent discouraging early game players from running low gear) Such that, a level 5 with a pistol will not be targeted, but a level 20 with a pistol and 2mil in the bank certainly would.
  • Additional Idea: Make them black division / cultist and cause additional debuffs if the player is killed by them. (Poisoned, therapist wont heal, cash stolen etc.)

This would increase the difficulty while also not making it impossible to do. Some drawbacks are the fact that players would certainly kill the assassins but with the Karma system you could make them easily identifiable and it might solve that.

Idea #2: Scav patrols

  • Basically have scav squads that move around much more than the current scavs do.
  • This could be as simple as having 2 squads walking around interchange, to as complex as the black division showing up, walking to a high value target, then exfiling.
  • Later in the raid they would be mostly killed off, but early on they could catch hatchlings off guard and maybe prevent easy passage through certain areas.

Idea #3: Restrict may items from secure containers

  • The idea behind secure containers to me, is that you allow players to progress even when dying, however this can be easily abused with EoD and Kappa for a super safe storage.
  • A majority of quests require FIR status on items, so if you die then they aren't worth any progression other than cash.
  • If you limit the types of items that can be placed in a container, you won't eliminate hatchling runs, but you will make them more interesting as they now have to navigate out of the raid with the items they've acquired.
  • I'm not saying restrict a lot of things, but primarily 1mil+ items should require an extraction in my opinion.
  • Additional Idea: Might be terrible but what if you could only place certain items in your secure container out of raid. Things such as red keycards you would have to extract with, then you could use it from then on out.

Just a few ideas that I have been thinking about this wipe, would love to hear your opinions on them, good or bad.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/maxe5q/how_to_combat_sprint_to_loot_meta/

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