Escape from Tarkov – Inertia changes cause heated discussions

In the last few days, there have been some significant changes in Escape from Tarkov – some of them even literally.
These are currently causing some discussions and divide the players of the hardcore survival shooter.

Movement speed & inertia

The change that has been causing a lot of talk in recent days is the effect of the Strength value on the player’s movement speed and inertia in the game.

When asked about the rather cryptic original statements, the developers stated that the following things have changed:

Players who have not yet reached an elite level of Strength should feel the following changes:

• Players with low strength levels will run a bit faster
• Players with low strength levels will be less affected by inertia

To explain, inertia only really affects you in Escape from Tarkov when you are heavier. The heavier you are, the slower you will start moving and the longer it will take you to stand again.

However, the data found by the dataminers in the game itself indicated the complete opposite.

The following days and hours sparked a heated discussion among players, who were divided into two large and one small camp.
Some felt a very positive effect of the change, having the feeling of being able to run further without being exhausted and not being so limited anymore. The others stated that the game felt like everyone was skating and the game had never been in a worse state in terms of inertia.
A small minority said that everything felt the same and the changes were not noticeable.

It should be noted, however, that the play style is probably also a big factor here. Those who play fast and aggressively will probably notice the changes more negatively than someone who moves more tactically and slowly anyway.

Adjustments after feedback

Recently, Battlestate Games spoke up again and announced the next adjustments.

For example, inertia now has less of an effect on more heavily loaded players:

• Inertia effect for heavily overloaded players reduced by 15%.
• Inertia effect for moderately overloaded players reduced by 7.5%.
• No changes for players without overload or with light overload.

So the developers reacted quite quickly to the recent discussions.

Access cards back on the flea market

A few months ago, the developers removed all access cards (e.g. the TerraGroup Labs access card) from the flea market, apparently to avoid real money trading.
Now Labs access cards appeared on the flea market again.

Why exactly now and if the cards will be available again for a longer time is not known.