The Key System -- A Missed Opportunity

The Key System -- A Missed Opportunity

How the key system in Escape from Tarkov is a missed opportunity,

why I think it should be back-burnered, and what system I think should

 take it's place as the primary way players access "locked" rooms

Table of Contents:

1) Three underlying principles in EFT -- "risk/reward", "decision making" and "interactivity"

2) Keys in EFT -- no risk, little decision making, and no interactivity
3) The "Breach" system

4) The "Breach" system has risk, decision making, and interactivity

5) The key system in EFT should be replaced by a "bash" system

Section 1

Three underlying principles in EFT

Before we look at the key system directly we need to spend a little time to "get to know" Escape from Tarkov -- to examine three principles of design that BSG has established for the game. We will then compare the key system to these principles and see how the key system in EFT is actually not a very appropriate mechanic for the game because it is not in line with any of the three design principles.

The three principles of design we are going to look at are:

1) Risk

2) Decision making

3) Interactivity

My claim is that those three elements are fundamental to EFT -- that BSG holds those elements in high regard and has developed the game around those principles. Of course, there are other design principles that BSG has but we are looking at these three because of how relevant they are to the current way players accessed high-value rooms.

I will use some excerpts from the official BSG "About" page -- a page dedicated to presenting key concepts related to EFT to the public as my source. https://www.escapefromtarkov.com/#about

There are foundational "layers" (design principles) that EFT is built upon

Risk

From the official EFT website:

"If you die, you’ll lose everything you took and found in a raid. Organize your backup inventory kits, use secured containers and insurance."

BSG makes it clear that risk is big part of the game. I'm not going to spend much time here because I can't imagine that anyone is going to argue against this. It isn't an accident in the code that results in players losing all their gear when they die -- BSG built risk into the game in the form of permanent gear loss and in giving players so many meaningful choices.

Something is always at risk -- players will "lose everything" if they die

Decision Making

From the official EFT website:

"The players will have to experience living in the skin of one of the mercenaries who survived the initial stage of the Tarkov conflict. After choosing one of the sides – USEC or BEAR – the player’s character starts to make his way out of the city. Tarkov is sealed off by UN and Russian military, supply chains are cut, communication with operational command is lost, and in these conditions everyone has to make his own choices of what to do and how to get out of the chaos-ridden metropolis."

Decision making is a core design philosophy of BSG. "Choice" is everywhere in EFT. BSG gives players incredible room to make decisions

• Faction choice
• How much gear to take into a raid
• What kind of gear to take into a raid - dozens of weapons with hundreds of mods
• What map to play
• What time of day to play that map
• Map navigation choices - maps are non-linear
• Choices related to quests and progression
• Market choices - Flea Market
• Group or solo play

BSG has given players the freedom to make multitudes of meaningful choices.  Of course, I'm not saying BSG is giving unlimited freedom; there are all sorts of limitations placed on players in EFT the Trader progression system is essentially a series of limitations that prevents players from access all the gear all at once. But even in this system players have some choice as to the timing and sequence of Traders progress.

Want to take a huge chest rig into a raid? If you own it, you can do it. Want to fill it to the brim with flashbangs? If you have the flashbangs, you can do it. Want to fill it with red dot sights for shits and giggles? Go for it. Want to take the vest but not put anything in it and used it as extra space to store small loot? That is your choice too.

"Try hard" or "meme-it-up" -- one of many choices BSG is happy to give you

BSG is also actively attempting to give players freedom to make more meaningful choices than those. The freedom to play solo or group up is one example and makes an extreme impact on gameplay experience.

"Choice" and decision making is a core aspect of almost every system in EFT -- you can even choose your PMC's voice.



Interactivity


From the official EFT website:
"Behold the system module HECS - Hazardous Environment Combat Simulator.
Feel your character via health and physical characteristics, including hydration, energy, blood pressure, bloodloss, fractures, contusion, intoxication, exhaustion, tremors and so on.
Control your character freely - smooth speed and stance changes and transitions, leaning and proning.
Be aware of real-life ballistics and projectile hit physics.
Get ready to feel the weapon as it is in real life. Get used to physical concepts of weapon operating - jamming, overheating, wearout, reloading, aiming, charging and, of course, shooting.
Discover the most advanced weapon modding system ever. Change everything you want to expand your weapon’s tactical abilities.

Interact with the environment to gain situational domination - switch lights, commence tactical entry with door interaction system."

Obviously, BSG has yet to introduce a number of the features listed above but the point remains -- BSG is big on interactivity. A great example of BSG's emphasis on interactivity that isn't listed avove but exists in the game currently is the voice line and gesture system. During a raid players can choose from dozens of pre-recorded voice lines in order to interact with other players. Players can give combat related commands or just let other PMCs know that life sucks in Tarkov. Players can also greet other players with a hand wave or point at objects or even make particularly rude gestures which can even send otherwise friendly A.I. into a violent rage (one of my favorite Tarkov interactions).

And of course, an extremely relevant thing to point out is that there is already a basic system in place to interact with doors and a more advances system is in the works.

BSG is big on interactivity

Please forgive me for not spending more time to strengthen my claims related to risk, decision making, and interactivity. I could go on and on but I am choosing to limit myself in order to get to the "meat" of this article. While the points above are far from exhaustive I feel that, at the very least, they demonstrate that I am not just making stuff up -- that there actually is some evidence to support my claims. Lets move on.

Section 2

Comparing the Key System

in EFT to the Standard of

The "Three Principles"

Firstly, I am assuming you have a working knowledge of the key system in EFT -- what keys are, how they are obtained, how they are stored, etc. I am not going to spend time explaining the basics in the article although some things will be explained as I do the comparisons.

My key claim (kek) in this section is that the key system and the keys themselves do a  poor job applying the three design philosophies described in the previous section. Based on that I am further claiming that the key system is "weak" or "out of place" in EFT and that it should be either reworked to include more risk, decision making, and interactivity or should be replaced altogether. Lets get to the analysis.

Risk

Where can we find elements of risk in the key system?

• Obtaining keys
• Being in areas where keys are used
• Using keys

When you are in a raid looking for a specific key there is the risk you could run into another player doing the same thing and get injured or killed. The chances of this happening increase with the value of the key spawn. Also, if you choose to kill Scavs in hopes of finding a key you obviously take a risk.

When you are in an area where keys are used you risk the chance that you will bump into someone intending to use a key. Again, the more valuable the items behind the keyed areas, the more likely the chance is.

The same thing goes for when you are using a key. A person nearby could hear you use a key and begin to hunt you or simply be in the area to do the same thing.

What about during at other points during a raid? Nope. No risk as long as the key is in your Secure Container. Only a freak accident like moving your key out of your Secure Container or some glitch can cause you to lose your key.

Okay, well, now that we've looked at where risk exists related to keys we should look at how risky each of those situations are.

Is there any special or unique risk to looking for keys? Not really. It is essential the same risk as looking for any other valuable loot at a static spawn. And once you find the key you want you don't ever have to risk going back to the key spawn. Also, the risk of killing Scavs is hardly an uncommon or key-specific risk.

Same for being in areas where keys are used. There is the same chance you will run into a player at keyed areas as there is any other high-value areas although Kiba guns tore location is an example of an extremely high risk keyed area. For the most part though players go to keyed area for reasons other than using keys.

Is there any special or unique risk  in carrying keys in a raid? None at all -- Secure Containers all the way, baby.

What about while you are actually unlocking a door? There is a risk associated with being locked into (kek) the animation for using a key to unlock a door however the risk only exists for a few seconds and then passes and you are in the room.

All in all there isn't much risk associated with the key system.



Decision Making

So what about decision making? What kind of choices are associated with the key system?

• Choosing what key to farm or buy
• Choosing which key to bring into a raid
• Choosing whether or not to attempt to use the key
• Choosing when to attempt to use a key

As you can see the decisions available to players related to key is fairly straightforward and binary.

Which key do you want? All of them beginning from highest value to lowest.

The key system lacks meaningful choices

Which key do you want to bring to the raid? The most valuable one. If I have a key holding item I can just bring them all.

It is almost never the case that you would enter a raid with the intent to use a specific key and then not do it. Yes sometimes you might get injured or killed before you get there and you have to skip going to the room but most of the time you just go for it. No real decision.

Also, because there is only one key to each door your decisions on which doors to go to is limited. You can only go to a door you have a key for.

And there really isn't much to consider when the time comes to actually use the key. Check around a bit then quickly and quietly use the key and move on.

Overall there aren't many significant decisions related to keys. You want them all until you get them then you forget about them for the rest of the wipe. You do some basic scouting (if that) then you just go for it.



Interactivity


This section is gonna' be short. There is virtually no interactivity related to keys. You interact with them for one second when you first pick them up, another half-second when you move them around in your inventory and then another second whenever you unlock a door (which always has the same animation). 99% of the time they might as well not exist.

This as interactive as it gets with keys -- picking one up and placing it in a Container

And here is the other piece of "interacting" with keys -- a two second animation.

Unlocking a door really isn't very interactive. It hardly makes a sound or takes more than a second or two. I guess if you count the "door dance" -- when you rapidly tap the crouch button to make your PMC bob up and down in place to reduce the chance of getting one-tapped while you are unlocking the door -- as being interactive than you could say there is a little bit more interactivity than "basically none at all."


Summary

In the end the key system is low risk, offers little meaningful decisions, and almost not interactivity. Your main "big decisions" are whether to either grind for keys by running to key spawns over and over or grind for keys by saving up millions of Rubles to buy them off of the Flea Market. In niether case are you doing it because it offers interesting gameplay.

Even worse is the fact that keys really only offer you a single "fun" moment -- you get hyped when you find one you've been mindlessly grinding for but the hype evaporates moments after you put them in your Secure Containers. After that keys offer practically nothing to users in terms of interactivity or "fun". They just take up space in your Container for the rest of the wipe. Yay...

The key system is lifeless, soulless, low risk, mindless, based on extreme grind, and boring. It is everything Escape from Tarkov shouldn't be.

Finding a key in raid is basically the only time during an entire patch cycle that offers

players anything resembling "fun" or "interactivity". The key system is boring

Fortunately for us, there are other sytems available that can replace the key system and bring inject EFT with a fresh layer of scaling risk, meaningful decisions, more immersion and interactivity and new reasons to want to survive.

Section 3

The "Breach" System

My suggestion for a replacement system for keys is a system that has meaningful risk, choice, and interactivity -- something that allows players to demonstrate skill and creativity. It isn't anything new or mind-blowing but I think it is a system that actually adds to what "EFT is about" as far as the three principles I mentioned above go instead of adding essentially nothing to the player experience like the key system. Let's just dive in.

The breach system has two main components:
1) A range of breaching tools
2) A range of reinforced doors

The basic concept is similar to the "ammo vs armor" dynamic that already exists in EFT -- you have to have the right tool for the job. Low tier ammo is effective against low tier armor and high tier ammo is effective against high tier armor. The value and price of ammo scales with its "power". For the breaching system, low tier tools are only effective against lightly reinforced doors and high tier tools are effective against highly reinforced doors.

The Tools

Yes, I misspelled "mallet".

List of tools:

• Basic Claw Hammer
• Small Mallet
• Breaching Mallet
• Sledge Hammer
• Breaching Ram
• Breaching ammo for shotguns
• Breaching Charge
• Lock picks

Key characteristics of tools:

• Tools cost money
• Tools can be looted from dead players
• Tools can be found in raid (Oli, the construction area on Shoreline, toolboxes, etc)
• Tools have different amounts of "breaching power" and "rates of fire"
• Tools make unique sounds when being used
• Tools make different levels of noise when being used
• Tools take up different amounts of inventory space
• Tools can be carried and used as melee weapons or in the "Secondary Weapon" slot depending on size
• Tools are "progression system independent" -- all players can access them beginning at level 1. The only limitations is cost and whether the player is willing to risk taking the tool into raid.
• Tools cannot be stored in any Secure Container (this is critical for game balance and the system will not work at all otherwise).

The Doors

Different doors in EFT that already indicate different levels of reinforcement

Doors, particularly reinforced doors, are why breaching tools exist in the first place. It makes more sense that a PMC would simply breach a door to gain access to a room than to scrounge around the city looking for a specific key. And why are there apparently thousands of copies of a key to the same gun store or spa room? Anyways, the different levels of reinforcement render different tools ineffective and require better and better tools in order to be breached. Pretty simple.

Some doors already have locks modeled onto them

which could be breached by tools

Some doors already have "breached" modeling that features noticeable damage to the door.
This sort of modeling would be extended to all door types.

Summary

So yeah, as far as presenting the basic elements of the breaching system, we are pretty much done. Doors resist entry to different degrees and tools inflict different level of damage to doors. Lets move on to how this impacts the game and why it is a better system than the key system.

Section 4

The "Breach" system: risk, decision making, and interactivity

~~~~~~~~IN PROGRESS~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~check back later~~~~~~~~~