This game just isn’t for me anymore

I would like to start out by saying that I have always identified as a looter, so admittedly I'm probably an average FPS player at best. PvP is fun, but I'd much rather loot instead. I don't know why, but I've always found building wealth fun (even if I never actually spend/use that wealth), especially through randomized looting. Every new instance of EFT is exciting because you never know what you're going to find. That being said, when I found EFT, I thought I had found my literal dream game. A survival FPS with a player-centric economy? Count me in!

At my core, I have always been a hatchling. For me, going in with nothing has always yielded me the highest ROI. On top of that, I never really had the patience for EFT's slow-paced play. I absolutely hate sitting in a spot, waiting for something to happen (even if that is the 'correct' way to play). It is just not fun to me.

In the earlier stages of the game, I was having an absolute blast. I ingrained rare loot spawns into my memory and drilled my routes until I didn't need to look at a map. Back then, you had to do all your trading on a subreddit. It was a band-aid solution, but still a player-run construct. Then they added the flea market, and I found the game even more enjoyable.

At this point, BSG has taken great strides to discourage hatchling looters. They've implemented features such as:

• Found in raid (I'm still shoving things in my container, so what did this accomplish?)
• Pre-raid healing
• Tagged and cursed

The point being is that BSG has started dictating the way they want players to play the game. They want players to bring gear into raids, stay in them for a period of time, and ultimately survive. These mechanics essentially force you to face-off against other players if you want to compete for the high-value loot spawns. I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with BSG enforcing this mentality of gameplay. So, I changed up my usual playstyle and gave it a try, which lead me to the core reasons that I have decided stop playing for the time being.

To be honest, I am not fond at all of the other RPG elements of EFT. I started this wipe only about 2 weeks ago, and have been exposed to the massive power divide that separates those that have been playing for a while and/or a lot and those that are just starting. These features are:

• Locking equipment behind trader quests
• Soft skills

You have to invest a serious amount of time into EFT just to be competitive. In the beginning, you are stuck aiming for limbs until you unlock level 3/4 traders (or pay a shit ton of money on the flea market). Of course you can get the same gear as everyone else after level 10, but you'll be paying a premium until you unlock the trader deals.

Soft skills are just silly. For example, take the skills that contribute to recoil control. It would be one thing if they made controlling your recoil easier, but as of now recoil is completely random. There is no skill involved in controlling the recoil of your gun; the only way to do so is to grind out those skills and mod your weapons. It boggles my mind that BSG has taken an opportunity to showcase your skills and practice, present in almost every other FPS game, and converted it to a thoughtless grind. Then of course there are the other soft skills, like hearing further, jumping higher, running faster/long, etc.

What really cemented this gap is the games I've played so far. I'm forced to play conservatively to even have a chance. Meanwhile, the chads just run around like it's CoD and take fights. What is 'tactical' about magdumping? How is that even remotely realistic?

With the current mechanics present in the game, I am simply not willing to invest the huge amount of time it takes just to be competitive. EFT would be the perfect game for me at least if everyone was always on equal footing from the start. That is not to say that there is something wrong about EFT, but I just wanted to share my perspective. Maybe RPG-based FPS is just a genre not for me.

Here are a few other random tidbits:

• Why can't we trade our secure containers anymore? If someone wants to sell me their Gamma, and I'm willing to pay a lot for it, what's the issue?

• Jaeger quests are dumb

• Complete lack of native tutorials. There is nothing hardcore about not telling your players how to play the game/what their objective is.

• Not 'pay to win', but certainly pay to save you a massive amount of time and also give you big advantages at the start of a wipe

Yes, I am aware that it is not impossible to kill a highly-geared player with level 1 trader gear. It's also not impossible to get struck by lightning.