**Prior to update 0.15, the game featured more dynamic weather changes and a dynamic sky. Are there plans to bring back dynamic weather conditions?**
This is an old issue. During the process of optimising the weather system, certain weather types stopped appearing in the game - for example, storms with lightning and thunder. We’ll be bringing all of that back.
**The mobile companion app, Guncyclopedia and a full-fledged single-player game set in the Tarkov universe - what are the current priorities for these three projects?**
The mobile companion app isn’t a high priority. Guncyclopedia is currently in development. The single-player game is in the pre-production phase. We also have other side projects that take even higher priority.
I**s there anything about the ‘End of the Line’ location that you can tell us or show us right now?**
We’ll definitely be showing something as development progresses. It’ll be a large, fully-fledged raid location. That said, players will be first introduced to it in a similar way to ‘Icebreaker’: through a single-player experience. The location will feature a new boss and plenty more interesting content.
**Over the course of all the TarkovTV episodes, a lot of content has accumulated that hasn’t appeared in the game yet. Is it still in the plans, or have you had to scrap anything?**
We don’t scrap anything, ever. Sometimes you might notice that something shown a year ago has unexpectedly appeared in a patch. Everything is in the works in one way or another.
**Currently you are focusing on making EFT more accessible to new players. How do you define the optimal state of the game in this context?**
There are elements in the game that are complicated for the sake of it. They don’t add complexity or depth to the gameplay - they’re simply difficult to understand or get the hang of. These are the elements we’re tackling.
We’re seeing a large number of new players - on Steam, for example - who aren’t used to playing games like this. We’re lowering the entry barrier slightly, at least at the start of the game, so that these players can settle in, find their feet and gradually join the rest of the community in hardcore environment.
**Which mechanics in EFT are now completely different from how they were originally intended?**
Everything to do with weapon durability and malfunctions. The original plan was for players to constantly face problems: broken weapons, only shooting successfully on occasion, ammo shortage, etc. As a result, the game was supposed to place greater emphasis on survival, particularly at the start. Handling weapons was also supposed to be more difficult, with stronger recoil, until the player had leveled up.
In the end, everything changed significantly because at some point I realised that the game had to be playable. We started simplifying everything, and now there isn’t such a focus on weapon repairs and related elements.
Generally speaking, many mechanics were initially tweaked heavily towards a hardcore experience, but were later scaled back. Take, for example, the task item pixel-hunting that players “love”. It was originally introduced deliberately - I’ve always enjoyed the element of searching for small items in games, like hidden secrets.
Now, however, with veteran players having completed all these tasks inside out, and new players finding plenty of challenges in other aspects of the game, we’re simplifying the system - for example, we’ve introduced a proximity marker for task items.
To sum up: there aren’t many mechanics that have changed completely, but there are some.
