We paid off Lightkeeper and got the traders back, but the traders are also one of the most imbalancing things within Escape from Tarkov.
They are an infinite source of money and equipment.
Now, I understand that the playerbase has a wildly differing skill level, as well as a signfiicant difference in time availability. So most nerfs are seen has punishing the casual more than the no-lifer. But hear me out.
I hear on a near universal agreement that everyone loves the beginning of wipes. With the exception of redoing the same quests, most are excited about the "feel" of play when a fresh wipe is upon us.
People are scraping together what gear/ammo they can. You find people with random builds, unusual armors they found, and so on.
But as people load up their bank accounts, and unlock higher teir traders. That starts to quickly go away.
People start to buy "standard loadouts" from the traders and everything starts to get homogenized quickly.
This recent event forced people to use either what they had, or to use what they could find. Sure, some people were STOCKED and didn't change at all. Others though were playing the game like it was the beginning of the wipe.
This is where I think the trouble that traders cause is most evident. Because the traders really heavily remove the scavenging element of the game.
Now, some things just should be available, always. Like Meds. Not being able to buy meds makes playing the game annoying/difficult for many.
But everything else. There is just too much of it available and too regularly.
Traders need to offer less.
I don't know in what form specifically. Because I don't believe less stock is the answer (since that just benefits people who can camp resets)
Maybe a more limited inventory. Or a rotating inventory. Sometimes Prapor will only have AK-74s for sale, and other times he has ASh-12s. Sometimes PK has M1As in stock, and other times he got a shipment of M4s. etc. (This would probably still benefit reset campers. But I am just throwing out ideas)
This event wasn't perfect, I don't think any of them have been even close to perfect. But it did show me at least that the traders are more damaging to the general experience than I realized before.
Thanks for reading.
