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Welcome to the Evolution Collection Event. Unlock event-limited cosmetics for Wraith, Octane, Pathfinder, Fuse, Bangalore, Rampart, and Lifeline that give a glimpse into what our Legends could become with time and technology on their side. Meanwhile, our resident modder is showing those plonkers who’s in charge with the Rampart Town Takeover, Big Maude. Check out her mobile shop, parked between Lava City and the Geyser. It’s sure to be a popular POI for the rest of Emergence.  

While the brick-and-mortar location might be in Battle Royale, Rampart’s bringing her entrepreneurship into the Arenas too in “Rampart’s Arenas Extravaganza,” with special discounts meant to inspire players to change up their usual loadouts. For all of her hard work, Rampart’s getting a “Problem Solver:” a brand-new Heirloom pipe wrench, complete with a gumball dispenser. Who could ask for anything more? Oh, well - how about an upgrade to Sheila? Check out the full blog below for all the details in the update.

RAMPART TOWN TAKEOVER - BIG MAUDE

https://preview.redd.it/9dwdvsc7zhm71.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=cbedb8753662f17e14254fd7eb1dfaf6cab4f7a5

After a few rough starts to her previous shops, Rampart is pulling out the big guns with the mod shop of her dreams. Finally, she'll be able to show the Outlands—and Big Sister—what she's always been capable of creating.

Enter Big Maude, Rampart’s custom shop (also a giant tank, what else would you expect?) located near Lava City in World’s Edge. This POI is big enough to accommodate a few teams fighting over the shop itself, and she’s also built a wonderful paintball course out front that acts as a spill off location if the drop just looks too spicy.

Inside the shop, you can use collected materials to purchase Rampart’s Custom Modded Paintball Weapons from the new Vend-it Machines. These guns cost a bit, but they come fully kitted at different tiers. This should give players a reason to rotate here mid-game if their weapons just aren’t as upgraded as they’d like.

As usual, be on the lookout for extra lore sprinkled around. Rampart’s shop is back open for business!

RAMPART ARENAS TAKEOVER

https://preview.redd.it/h9ypv9i9zhm71.png?width=1456&format=png&auto=webp&s=5aebf33b3f87f142e2f75e9322ba8150b9b9b06b

Rampart has slipped into the Arenas and is offering modded weapons at special discounts! These marked-down modded weapons replace their base version for the match, making lower tiers of that weapon unavailable. Her special deals update frequently, so be sure to check what’s available in your match and plan accordingly.

RAMPART’S HEIRLOOM: PROBLEM SOLVER

https://reddit.com/link/pl0bgu/video/s9ha0rmvzhm71/player

https://preview.redd.it/9ox9kcaczhm71.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=453de86e8434f314ee31d676ce194d0e8246bf78

While the brick-and-mortar location might be in Battle Royale, Rampart’s bringing her entrepreneurship into the Arenas too in “Rampart’s Arenas Extravaganza,” with special discounts meant to inspire players to change up their usual loadouts. For all of her hard work, Rampart’s getting a “Problem Solver:” a brand-new Heirloom pipe wrench, complete with a gumball dispenser. Who could ask for anything more? Oh, well - how about an upgrade to Sheila?

https://preview.redd.it/hp51ie7dzhm71.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=c297cbf1c6590e0dd5c34e8eeaf2ed6bb4e5eea7

Finally, unlock event-limited cosmetics for Wraith, Octane, Pathfinder, Fuse, Bangalore, Rampart, and Lifeline that give a glimpse into what our Legends could become with time and technology on their side.

https://reddit.com/link/pl0bgu/video/izxzl1txzhm71/player

BALANCE CHANGES

Rampart

  • Sheila has gone mobile!
    • Rampart will now be able to run around with Sheila out, and shoot while walking. The spin up is longer, and she only gets 1 magazine in this mode.
    • Once Sheila is out, you can put it away and pull it back out until you run out of ammo (or hit the cooldown time). 
    • At any point, you can still place Sheila down for your teammates to use. Once placed, it has infinite reloads and acts just like the previous version. You cannot pick it back up.

Dev Note: A legend based solely on a defensive position is hard to get right in Apex Legends. We think Rampart has a place as the ultimate defensive Legend, but we wanted to give her a little more ability to be reactive and push with her team. As usual, we’ll be watching to see how this plays out and will adjust accordingly!

Revenant

  • VFX (similar to the pulse on Loba ult placement) added to increase visibility for when a totem is placed nearby.

Octane

  • Reduced jump pad horizontal distance by 10% - 15%.
  • Reduced the rate of Octane’s Stim regen from 1.5 to 1.0 hp/sec.

Bloodhound

  • When Bloodhound pings a clue from their passive, it will now show their teammates in quickchat how long ago the event took place

Bocek Compound Bow

  • Draw speed slightly reduced from 0.56 to 0.54
  • Arrows per brick increased from 14 to 16
  • Arrows per inventory stack increased from 28 to 32

Hemlok

  • Reduced hipfire spread
  • Hipfire resets slightly faster

Dev Notes: The Hemlok’s hipfire effectiveness was reduced a few seasons ago and since then the weapon has seen a steady decline in use. Bringing back some of that hipfire strength (but not all) should help the weapon feel more consistent in close quarters without being dominant or affecting its medium-range excellence.

Shatter Caps - Bocek Compound Bow

  • Damage per pellet increased across all draw strengths
    • Short draw damage: 4 to 6
    • Medium draw: 7 to 9
    • Full draw: 11 to 12

Shatter Caps - 30-30 Repeater

  • ADS Strafe speed increased to shotgun strafe speed while Shatter Caps are enabled
  • Charged pellet damage multiplier increased from 35% to 50%

Dev Notes: When Shatter Caps work they feel amazing, but currently it can still feel a little punishing to swap into the mode. Increasing the damage potential and improving the CQC flow of the 30-30 should help Shatters feel a little more accessible and rewarding.

L-STAR

  • Cool-off time slightly increased
  • Overheat lens replacement time slightly increased
  • Rounds before overheat reduced at base and all Energy Magazine tiers
    • Base: 22 to 20
    • White: 24 to 22
    • Blue: 26 to 24
    • Purple/Gold: 28 to 26
  • Arenas price adjustments:
    • Base: 500 to 600
    • Blue: 300 to 250
    • Purple: 400 to 350

Dev Notes: We’re nudging down the L-STAR’s core stats a bit to smooth out the power progression in what we think is a slightly more healthy top-end. We’ll keep a close eye on the L-STAR and it’s recoil as we enter the second half of Emergence. In Arenas, we’re well aware of it’s prevalence in high-level lobbies and are pricing it out of the first round. These changes essentially increase the blue cost by 50 and keep the purple price the same. If its pick rate remains unchanged, we will hotfix further adjustments.

Shotguns

  • EVA-8 and Mozambique headshot damage multiplier reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 bringing it in line with the Peacekeeper and Mastiff.

Dev Notes: The EVA-8 holds a lot of power in its speed and leniency compared to its counterparts, the PK and Mastiff. It’s got the edge with fire rate and consistency so we’re shaving off some of its spike damage to even the playing field. We’re normalizing the Mozambique as well for consistency within the shotgun class and to give the P2020 some space as the more precise early game weapon.

Triple Take

  • ADS charge time decreased from 1.0 to 0.8

QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES

  • Shortened the out-of-bounds timer from 30 seconds to 15.
    • Your timer should be reset after being respawned.
  • Swapping from Red to a Gold Shield with more health no longer requires a long press.
  • Evo Shields in deathboxes now show their health.

https://preview.redd.it/swi8h1pizhm71.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=dee30b9ba332f8192771876b07103fb0ac91a64b

  • Early Leaver Warning has been improved to help people from accidentally leaving before their party is dead.
    • You now need to hold the confirm button down for a small amount of time
    • The highlighting is different colored than other prompts to catch your attention
    • Red text warning showing your leaving penalty added

https://preview.redd.it/h1qo7s9kzhm71.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e09f73fa369fda36750e3c1f17ac331667d1999

  • Added character portraits to "detected" widget for recon characters.

https://preview.redd.it/5n9r1v8mzhm71.png?width=408&format=png&auto=webp&s=54c604a4888f2d5b66ce2b3a30274b02ea91d136

BUG FIXES

UI

  • Fixed a bug where Streamer mode wouldn’t anonymize the names on the scoreboard in Arenas mode
  • Fixed issue for when players would randomly get un-readied while matchmaking in Ranked.
  • Fix for Ranked Arenas: longest win streak number was incorrect for some players when viewed in the Stats screen.
  • Fixed cases where players would still see Ranked icons when switching over to Arenas while inspecting personal stats. 
  • Fix for cases where the player would still see the Abandon Penalty countdown when getting other messages like RECEIVED PREMIUM CURRENCY.
  • Removed the red speaker icon that would show up on the upper right corner of the screen that served no purpose.
  • Fix for when the Playlist Selector would sometimes flicker.
  • Players should no longer encounter a string issue in the Timeline when they have a ";" in their username.
  • Fixed cases where the name of killed players was not always showing up when a player died.
  • Fixed a rare bug that can cause the Observer to get stuck on the Intro Screen at the start of a match.

Fuse

  • Motherload ultimate will no longer highlight enemies far below the ring. 

Seer

  • Increased the hitbox for Exhibit Ultimate to better match the model.

Loba

  • Loba can no longer glitch into Skyhook when using her tactical.
  • Fix cases for when Loba’s ultimate visualfx do not appear while aiming down sites.

Rampart

  • Fixed bug that could get players stuck under the map after dismounting from Ramparts Turret on a Trident.

Bangalore

  • Fix for the times when pinging a Prowler would trigger a voice line that mentions a removed hop-up.

Lifeline

  • Switch Only - Fix for cases where players couldn’t complete training due to her Ultimate malfunctioning,

Gibraltar

  • Fix for cases where it appeared that Gibraltar's Ultimate caused dropped audio.

Wattson

  • Fixed a bug where Wattson would start matches with 30 fences.

Valkyrie

  • Fixed an exploit where players could get continuous missiles after exploiting Valkyrie's passive/tactical as well as use the Vtol jets infinitely.

Sentinel

  • Fix for when players would still see "Amped" or "Revved up" from Sentinel or Rampage after swapping weapons.

Wingman

  • Fix for reactive skins, “Precision Calibur” and “Attention to Detail” where part of the skins appeared stuck in place when shooting.

World’s Edge

  • Various fixes on World’s Edge cleaning up some bad collisions, exploitable hiding spots, and areas where players could get stuck.

Firing Range

  • Fix for the mysterious fire show that could appear in Firing Range and cause a crash.

MISC

  • Fix for cases where players were able to reach farther than intended when punching an enemy player.
  • Private Match Fix - Observers should no longer get stuck on the intro screen for the duration of the match.
  • Fix for Audio fluttering that could happen when killing someone during self-revive.
  • Various fixes to improve overall game stability.
  • (PC only) You’ll no longer be able to bind forward movement to the Mouse wheel on PC. This previously enabled an exaggerated movement tech known as "Tap Strafing. See the dev note below for more context.

DEV NOTE: TAP-STRAFING AND MOBILITY TECH

Written by John “JayBiebs” Larson 

Earlier this week, we announced our intention to “remove tap-strafing,” a decision that was met with surprise by many movement enthusiasts. Tap-strafing is a term associated with different sorts of movement, depending on who you ask. Internally, we generally use it to describe what many associate with scroll-wheel strafing. 

To be more explicit, this change targets multiple rapid directional commands after jumping. Movement should feel unchanged for controllers and for M&K (mouse-and-keyboard) players who hadn’t heard of the term “tap-strafe” until this week. Thanks to the work of a couple of our engineers, this is now easily tunable on the fly, and we have the ability to iterate on or even revert it completely without a client update.

Our goal is to remove some of the sharpness in momentum conservation around 90°+ angles. That’s what I’m thinking of when I use the term “tap-strafe” throughout this post. Things like wall-bounce redirects back onto that same wall should feel unchanged, but movement afforded by scroll-wheel strafing will be removed.

Since tap-strafing is a unique M&K mechanic, many platforms have asked about our approach to controller-specific systems like aim assist. As Apex and its players evolve, it’s only prudent for us to continue to evaluate whether or not aim assist needs adjustment.  When top-level controller players say they would be alright with nerfing aim assist, we definitely take note. Players should not feel forced to use a specific input type to stay competitive

When people say, “Gee dang it, Respawn’s balancing decisions cater to controller players,” the best answer I have is: “When it comes to accessibility, we often must consider controller players given the constraints compared to M&K. But, accessibility isn’t the same as balance design, and it’s a strawman argument to treat it as such.”

This is why we believe tap-strafing exists solely as a design problem. Even in a M&K-only Apex world, or a scenario where controller and M&K could tap-strafe just the same, we don’t believe it would be a healthy change with the freedom it currently allows, for three main reasons:

The first issue: it’s highly inaccessible. By “inaccessible,” we mean that it’s an opaque technique that’s practically impossible to learn organically (and the most egregious examples require a strange keybind). 

Secondly, tap-strafes have terrible readability and limited counter play. Path grapples and Octane pads aside, I’ve seen clips of players breaking ankles with victims (including high-skill players) who are at a loss for what to do. While it’s not terribly prevalent, I’m concerned about how this could continue to evolve as more players adapt and further develop their tap-strafe mechanics.

The third point, and the most problematic, is how tap-strafing is exacerbated by movement abilities. I can buy that a tap-strafe at normal velocity in a gunfight occurs infrequently and is relatively mild enough to not immediately kill with fire. But Path grappling past and tap-strafing back into your face with a Mastiff, or Octane cranking 90s while maintaining ridiculous speed both bring up greater gameplay concerns.

Mobility creep is something to be very mindful of in this game. While many love the freedom that Apex’s movement system affords, constraints are just as important. It’s not surprising that mobility legends are highly popular. Why don’t we just do more of that? Well, over time (and I’d say we are already seeing it) mobility creep can open up a Pandora's box of new problems to solve. How is third partying affected by mobility? Within a fight, how are frontlines defined? How quickly can I close the gap on an enemy? As a game, Apex is designed to work well with a finite number of movement possibilities.

I feel it’s important to note that limitations don’t always equate to lowering skill-gaps; there are skill-gaps in working within constraints. One could argue that bunny-hop healing lowered the skill-ceiling—players could make up for misplays with less constraints on their ability to safely heal. Different types of skill expression are changed when we touch something like perfect air control, for better or for worse.

Hopefully this provided some context, and as always, we’re happy to hear your thoughts.

Source

External link →
about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by MegaLCRO

EARLY LEAVER WARNINGS

YESSSSSSSS

Thank you! It always makes me so happy and proud when someone is hyped for my contribution. Even if I did have to scroll an awfully long way to find it, I am honored to have delivered something that you would "YESSSSSSSS" to!

Take this Nessy (aka Snek) as gratitude.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by StarfighterProx

This is only for modes that currently have the leaver penalty, right? Or are you adding a penalty to BR pubs?

Only for modes with the leaver penalty - Ranked, Arenas (both Ranked & Regular Arenas). This is NOT adding a penalty for leaving in BR pubs.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by IllustreInconnu

This looks like such a great implementation too, the color change and holding the button. A few times I've routinely clicked the button like I'm used too, thinking I was in the clear (self-revive in the team being a major bait). I was thinking maybe put the button in a different place but this is better.

While we're on the subject QOL changes, here are a few ideas if you don't mind, some of which have been regularly debated here :

  • Re-add the "switch weapons" button when looting a death box that disappeared with the S5 loot menu overhaul.

  • Add the option to disable "double ping to ping ennemies". So many times people accidentally double ping.

  • Add the option to not perform melee attacks with the "fire" button. To prevent punching the air when I cancel a healing item or exit a portal or land from a skydive. If I want to melee, I will use the dedicated key.

  • Make it so only the "attack" button button cancels healing items. It makes no sense that the sprint action cancels heal items.

  • Microphone sound quality is subpar, I don't know if something can be done in Apex, but there are way older games with better mic audio.

  • Show the time remaining until ult is ready, alongside with percentage/gauge.

  • Add a preferred list of three legends. The game automatically picks for you based on it, if someone took your legend and you didn't choose.

  • Add a per-weapon, per-hop-up choice to automatically switch fire modes or not in the options. This is no longer as useful with Anvil Receiver and Selectfire out of the game for now, but it would be good if they came back.

  • Display teammates information in the inventory screen, like amount of ammo they have, ult percentage/status, or items they asked recently.

  • Custom crosshairs (shape, color, thickness, width...)

I know it's a lot to take from the millionth random guy on the internet, I just feel sometimes that Respawn is not always aware of some the small defects of the game. I don't mean to be nagging the devs, this is just ideas. We know you work hard, and everytime there's a major update, the general feeling is that a lot of good things have been implemented.

Thanks. It's a very good list. And valid, relatable reasons for all of them. Not sure I agree on all of them, but in those cases it's just personal opinion.

Generally speaking, the "add option" is a tricky one. Option menus can easily become way overloaded and useless. Like, most people never touch their settings, and that gets worse (in general) as you add more options. Plus the more "options" you have, the more that you have to track and the more potential there are for bugs. So I definitely understand wanting options, but options are a delicate subject.

Some of the more general topics around "favoriting" is an ongoing topic. We've introduced more features around teammate status, and I think that's definitely an area to explore further. You'll note, for example, when a teammate pings ammo, we now tell you how much they have.

Regardless, appreciate the feedback and there's some good stuff in here to think on further.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by a-sal

Can a leaver penalty be removed from arenas if placed in a match with unfair teams like 1v3 or 2v3

That's already the case. You will NOT be penalized if you're short-squaded. Likewise, if someone else leaves your party first, they will be penalized, but if you then do not want to stay, and you leave, you will NOT be penalized.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by Tropenfrucht

Hey, I have one suggestion for BR pubs. The game right now is infested with people who jump from game to game as soon as they are downed, dozens of matches I end up alone because my random teammates immediately leave instead of waiting for the clutch.
Frequent leavers should receive a cooldown in my opinion, it would greatly improve the quality of random matchmaking.
Thank you for your work!

On a personal level, I agree with this. Tracking this does become a much more complex task, though; doable, just a bigger problem to solve. I can raise this internally. An issue like this I'm definitely not "the decider," but I can raise with the team.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by FuriusAurelius

Thanks for explaining the reasoning behind the decisions! It really goes a long way to help us understand why things are the way they are.

One little addition to the list: now that it shows the ammo count a player has when pinging for more, could we also have the count shown when pinging a stack of ammo on the ground? I won’t run 100 meters to grab 3 x 20 light ammo, but I might for 3 x 60.

Just ammo on the ground? Or perhaps you'd also like to know the amount of ammo in a deathbox or blackmarket as well? ;)

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by AgateSlinky4829

If you see this or feel like responding. Is there a reason as to why there is no penalty to leaving public matches?

So this has been asked a couple times. It's a mix of technical and UX decisions. Essentially, the system has to be 100% automated; it's not something like content moderation where having some human oversight is practical or reasonable. And, really, it ought to be simple. Because the more complex it gets, the more likely that something goes wrong. That's why even though I like the idea of something like penalties for frequent leavers, it's also potentially worrisome to add even more complexity into a system. So basically, the system - as it exists - penalizes you if you leave. It doesn't care WHY you left. And that's because 1) it's quite hard (impossible) to truly know why and 2) because if it tried to care why, people would exploit it. So basically, if you leave - whether by accident or because your power went out or your internet went down (has happened to me, and I was penalized for it, as I should have been) - you will get a penalty. Because the impact on your squad is the same regardless of why.

Given this, from a UX perspective, having a penalty in BR pubs feels overly strict. The idea of leaver penalties is two-fold - one is that you are agreeing not to leave (without consequence) and the second is that your teammates also are agreeing not to leave (without consequence). We only added the penalty to Arena pubs because we saw how impactful a leaver was on the match statistically. We don't see the same impact on BR pubs. Hiding/camping is a viable strategy in BR in a way that it just isn't in Arenas, for example. There are tactical options that are at least possible with a short squad in BR that simply do not exist in Arenas.

I'm totally in the feelsbadman camp on BR pubs leavers. So I'm not saying this is the "right" decision. I totally see the case for a penalty in BR pubs. But I also see that BR games are already so hard, and so intense - there is no "easy mode" in Apex (especially for not-very-good players like me) - that I think there's something to be said for letting people leave, especially when we have Ranked that's there as the more "serious" alternative. I totally respect the validity of opinions on the other side, though.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by heroyi

This is not true. I was penalized for leaving a 1v3 when my teammates left during the legend selection. And to be specific, I played two round with no teammates before leaving and getting penalized

I'll put a bug in for this. This SHOULD not happen.

about 3 years ago - /u/RobotHavGunz - Direct link

Originally posted by TVR_Speed_12

Speaking of Black Market, was it difficult to code basically a giant loot box?

I didn't do the original deathbox. But I did do a bunch of reworking of it to simplify it - there were some pretty substantial under-the-hood changes to deathbox menus between some of the early seasons, so I did a bunch of work to simplify and unify all of that in S9. In the process, I managed to break looting for a surprisingly big group of players. We tested this a TON, but people who bound "alt-use" to A-Button (on XBox; i forget the equivalent on PS... Square?) and then had "activate" (normally "A") as D-pad right couldn't loot. Who knew that people ever setup their controllers in this way... But they do. I ended up needing to override that particular mapping - A will always activate in a deathbox, which is a big part of what gave me perspective on the challenges with controller button mappings and how it's a huge can of worms that is not to be opened lightly. I can say that the overall deathbox system is one of the more complex systems within the game (at least that I've touched). I'm glad I just had to refactor it and not write it from scratch...