While playing some Tarkov today I started talking about the insurance system with my buddy. At the moment it’s unfortunately a very braindead system. There is practically no reason to NOT insure your gear with anything but the default Prapor insurance and lack of decisions is always a problem in game design. You should have to make choices and since Tarkov is all about exactly that we came up with a concept for a reworked insurance system in an effort to make it more interesting and diverse.
There are five different insurances for different purposes. We deliberately did not include any prices since this is probably the hardest part to balance. We just want to talk about these ideas in general.
Prapor (Classic Insurance)
- Just like current insurance system (no ammo back, no consumables back, everything found during raid is lost).
- Insurance price rises the more valuable your equipped gear is that is covered under this insurance. It does not scale linearly like it does now but exponentially based on specific values that vary between Prapor, Peacekeeper and Therapist. This means that insuring very expensive gear makes the insurance significantly more expensive as well, thus limiting / nerfing high end gear usage.
Skier (Low Level Insurance)
- Very cheap.
- Insurance price is 5% of your equipped gear.
- The higher the value of the insured item, the lower the chance that you get it back (because Skier is an asshole and his Scavs are even bigger shitstains).
- You do not get any ammo or consumables back.
Peacekeeper (Ammo Insurance)
- Just like current insurance system (no consumables back, everything found during raid is lost) but you get ~50% of your ammo back!
- The higher the value of the insured item, the lower the chance that you get it back, but the chance is significantly higher than with Skier.
- Insurance price rises the more valuable your equipped gear is that is covered under this insurance. It does not scale linearly like it does now but exponentially based on specific values that vary between Prapor, Peacekeeper and Therapist. This means that insuring very expensive gear makes the insurance significantly more expensive as well, thus limiting / nerfing high end gear usage.
Therapist (Barter and Consumable Insurance)
- Any barter item or consumable that is in your backback at the moment of death has a chance of being recovered by Therapist.
- Any or some items that had found in raid status keep that status when you get them back from insurance. This is very debatable.
- You do not get any weapons back.
- You do get your Armor, Helmet, Backpack, etc. back, just like with Prapor. No random chances.
- Insurance price rises the more valuable your equipped gear is that is covered under this insurance. It does not scale linearly like it does now but exponentially based on specific values that vary between Prapor, Peacekeeper and Therapist. This means that insuring very expensive gear makes the insurance significantly more expensive as well, thus limiting / nerfing high end gear usage.
Jaeger (Bushwookie Insurance)
- You do not get anything back, ever.
- Every time you die while insured by Jaeger you lose reputation (-0.05) because you’re a disappointment.
- Everytime you insure with someone else you lose reputation (-0.01) because you’re a pussy and a traitor.
- Everytime you successfully extract out of a raid between 2AM and 6AM with two or more blacked limbs while being dehydrated and wearing a Ushanka you gain reputation +(0.01) because you're not that much of a pussy.
Tweaks and Notes
- Maybe you could mix and match at least some insurances, for example you could combine Peacekeeper and Therapist.
- This system (or any variation of it) would introduce more of a thought process on how to insure and why. Loot run for consumables or barter items? Take the therapist insurance. PVP run? Take the Peacekeeper insurance.
- All the prices, formulas and percentages are of course up for debate. This would need a lot of thought and experimentation to not make the players default back to a certain combination of insurances or just one insurance. This is supposed to be a rough sketch for a new system, nothing more, nothing less.
- All of these “getting it back” systems assume that it has not been taken out of raid by another player, of course.
All of these systems and rules are debatable and far from fully though through but I think this topic is very interesting. Let me hear your thoughts!