It’s a bittersweet farewell for many players.
There’s no definite date yet, but these two features will disappear in EFT soon. While the director doesn’t specify why they’re removing these two, we can speculate a few reasons. We’ll also examine how it will affect the flow of Tarkov items in the Flea Market and what their disappearance means for players.
But first, what are these two features?
Barter and Examine Mechanics
The first is relatively straightforward. In the flea market, instead of putting a price on a Tarkov item you want to sell, you can trade it for something you need that (should have) a similar value. Some people have been abusing it by offering needed items while asking for rarer, more expensive ones. Everybody needing those items must pay for the convenience or fight against RNG to get one themselves.
On the other hand, examining lets players identify items they don’t know on the market. This gives them experience and knowledge of the objects, which is essential in the wipe’s early portions. Losing this ability would remove one of the ways players get easy experience. However, that’s just a tiny blip in player experience.
Reasons from Speculation
Between the two of them, barter is the more exciting feature. That predatory method of getting rare items is primarily used by real money traders or Tarkov account sellers. On the one hand, this prevents the practice from continuing. On the other hand, it makes getting currency a critical task in the early portions of the wipe.
Removing it will necessitate the continued use of currency in trading. Therefore, players need those resources to supply themselves from the Flea Market. Still, veteran players should have backup methods to obtain the cash they need, but beginners would need help.
Also, as the abusers have shown, the system is easy to manipulate. Objects
Of course, this will cause some trouble for players using the former method, but it will be small. Some adjustments would be needed, and it will become routine in weeks.
As far as examine is concerned, its function is relegated to the early game as it is. After that initial burst of identifying stuff on the market, players forget about it until the next wipe. It’s barely being used, so why keep it at all?
Improvement Through the Advancement of Time
Something that people forget most of the time is that Escape from Tarkov is, had it been released on Steam, in ‘Early Access.’ Yes, they are playing the game, but the developers admit it is still far from their vision of the complete game. They’re testing systems and mechanics in a (hyper-)extended beta test.
That also means the developers will remove or add features as they see fit. These two are just recent casualties, though the blow to RMT is a nice side effect. It won’t stop the traders from continuing, but they’ll be troubled for some time afterward.
It has been years since EFT got soft-released, and it’s been improving. It’s slowly creeping toward the vision of the complete game the developers have. Judging by their pace, it can take many more years to finally be called ‘complete.’
While this is a benign change, other controversial ones could hold the game back. That’s normal. Sometimes, you need to take a few steps back to go forward. There will be no if or doubts about it. It’s an inevitable part of the refinement process.
In the Meantime, Enjoy Escape from Tarkov!
Even in its incomplete state, EFT is a challenging and engaging game. The thousands of online players every day prove it. Well, it only shows that the core gameplay works. However, the tiny details and small mechanics are proving troublesome to develop.
Still, there’s enough content to play. With several raid maps, hundreds of quests, and other personal goals to achieve, EFT can provide hours of entertainment in its unfinished state. More than that, upgrading the hideout is a task that can also take a long time.