I fell in love with this game right off the bat, but in the last few weeks i’ve been falling out of love with it. I bought Arc Raiders week one, played literally every night. I only play duos/trios so my experiences are not the same as those of solos, i literally don’t think i played a single solo match. I love this game from top to bottom, the combat, the community, the world design, the Arc design, all incredible. Until stella montis was released you would not have caught me talking ♥♥♥♥ on this game. However, Stella funneled the majority of pvp into one map imo. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the spawns are god awful. Why am i spawning at 18 minutes with a full kit valued over 50k? What is the point of taking any loot onto a map that borderline guarantees fresh spawns third partying you? There are multiple videos of people walking barely 50 meters away from their spawn, and then running back and watching someone new spawn in. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the pvp i’m upset with, it’s the fact that my duo and i can wipe two teams in med, heal, and by the time we go to pick the bodies apart for meds, we have one if not two more teams in close vicinity. If you want to say that i’m just being a ♥♥♥♥♥, that’s fine, we can agree to disagree on the stella spawns. My next issue is loot fear. There just isn’t any. The items I find myself putting into my safe pocket consistently are the basic crafting materials of the game. I’m not afraid of losing the Bobcat i picked up, or even the Tempest, i’m worried about losing my ability to craft good heals for my next match. I’m shoving arc cells and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cloth into my ass, not even the keys or wolfpacks. Items you can find and grind in any match, any map are the most valuable items in the game imo. The most basic and cheapest gun to fully upgrade is often a better choice than the more expensive ones in regards to pvp. There is like no reason to bring any gun in aside from a stitcher, kettle, or a toro unless you are specifically targeting arc, or you have a hard on for a specific gun. Not to mention, the shields are just stupid like yeah sure blue if you’re feeling fancy, but the heavy shield slows you down so bad i have swapped to blue and dropped that ♥♥♥♥ more times than i’ve picked it up. This might be wrong, but i’ve seen multiple people say that blue shields block one more shot than the greens, and purples block two more. Maybe it’s the play for Arc, but you CANNOT go into a queen or matriarch raid expecting to be left alone by other raiders, and the heavier shields slow you down significantly, giving you a distinct disadvantage. Tarkov is a game in the same category, and it does a great job at putting loot in front of you that you do not want to lose. Things you can’t craft, things you can’t even buy, crazy looking guns you start foam at the mouth over. You are afraid of losing EVERYTHING. Imo, arc isn’t like that. You’re only afraid of being forced to go free kit again. Free kit is fine, but you have one shield recharger and two bandages, often you will use your heals before even encountering a pvp situation, esp on a map like Stella. One match is never enough to set you up for your next unless you loot a team, farm heal materials, or hit a locked room. Imo, Free kit can be really fun if you get lucky, but ultimately you’re either going to choose Stella, and throw yourself at a wall over and over again until it sticks, or you’re going to pick one of the other maps, which is either empty, or pvp is concentrated around locked rooms, so you can actively choose to not fight with a fairly good success rate. Basically, to sum my rant up: There is no longer a fear factor in regards to loot in this game, half the maps you never really see people on or you easily avoid seeing people on, and the Stella Montis spawns are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up it has me wondering if Embark was contractually obligated to send the rest of their budget to Israel once the game took off. Also, why in the ♥♥♥♥ would you buff the Shredder when people are complaining about other things? I just don’t understand the priorities.