Survey Day! Scav Survey Report and Changes to Scav Timer and Loadout + New Survey

Today, Battlestate Games (BSG) has released a report detailing the results of the latest survey on Scav gameplay, how this mode is used, and how players would like it to work. Additionally, a new in-game survey has been launched, focusing on Seasons, Weather Effects, and Visibility and Sound related to them.

If Thursday is widely known in the Escape from Tarkov community as wipe day, patch day, or release day, Friday might just become Survey Day!

Indeed, today BSG has both published a report on the official EFT website summarizing the findings of the last survey about Scav gameplay and launched a new survey regarding how Seasons, Weather Effects, Visibility, and Sound should function in the game.

The Report

It’s safe to say that most players were impressed with the quality of BSG’s work on this report, with many commenting positively on the improved communication from the developers. In reality, this improvement has been happening for a while now, with more timely updates and greater detail about patch changes, fixes, and modifications.

Regardless, this report is undeniably well done and shows that BSG has put in the effort to value the opinions of the community. Not only by studying the results, but also taking immediate action based on them. This, in turn, makes in-game surveys much more meaningful and encourages more players to participate and share their feedback.

Key findings from the report:

• Selecting the raid time and location: 64.28% of players prefer to pick time and location, while 30.23% prefer random selection.

• Main objective as a Scav: 82.64% of players are looking for valuable loot or items for tasks and Hideout.

• PMC to Scav raid ratio: 40.86% of players play equally between a Scav and PMC, 43.02% play mostly as a PMC.

• Scav spawn timing: Most players prefer Scavs to spawn 15-20 minutes after the raid starts or near the end of the raid.

• Popular locations: Players prefer large locations with a variety of loot, such as Streets of Tarkov (15.33%), Reserve (14.62%), and Customs (13.04%).

• Playstyle: 69.02% of players prefer peaceful interaction with other Scavs and maintaining a positive standing with Fence.

• Penalty system: 37.33% of players think the penalty system is fair, 28.66% think it's too weak, and 19.47% think it's too severe for accidental kills.

• Scav starter equipment: 36.30% of players would like the Fence standing to have a stronger influence on the quality of equipment, 31.81% are fully satisfied with the current system.

• Wipe stage: 52.88% of players play as a Scav throughout the whole wipe, while 36.38% play mostly at the beginning of the wipe.

The Surprises Keep Coming!

The biggest surprise that excited the community the most was BSG’s announcement in the conclusions section of the report:

Based on the results of the survey, we have adjusted Player Scav spawn times, who will now spawn no earlier than 17 minutes after the start of the raid on most of the locations, excluding Factory, Reserve, and low-level Ground Zero.

But that’s not all.

The starter equipment system has also been improved: from now on, higher Fence standing has a larger impact on the quality of gear. The information gathered will be used to further improve the Scav gameplay.

This is big news, and the community is thrilled. Of course, given BSG’s history, some players still remain skeptical, but it’s undeniable that these improvements—combined with numerous bug fixes , quality-of-life updates, and optimizations (sometimes with mixed results)—are encouraging signs of progress.

Here is the link to the original report posted by BSG on EFT official website.

New Survey: Seasons, Weather, Sound, and Visibility

Alongside the release of the report on the previous survey, BSG has also published a new in-game survey. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to save all the questions (!), so I can’t quote them one by one. However, the survey includes questions asking for player opinions on:

• The speed at which seasons change

• How quickly weather conditions change during a raid

• Preferences regarding visibility changes

• The volume of rain sounds

It will be interesting to see the results, especially if they are presented in a report as well-structured as the one about Scavs.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

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