DanielZKlein

DanielZKlein



15 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by Totally_mirage

So does that mean the amped wall can only take a certain amount of damage?

Or that she'll be under too much fire and needs to relocate to a better vantage point?

You'll get more detail soon, but yeah, the wall has health! The amped shield part has a separate health bar from the base of the wall; the shield goes away pretty quickly under fire, but you'd need to sink a lot of bullets into the base of the wall to destroy that. The most important thing to internalize right now though is this: while it's building (there's a short animation where it goes from compact to fully built) a single bullet will destroy the wall, just like Caustic barrels as of 5.1; this means she can't just throw it down for instant cover in a firefight. She was crazy busted when she was able to do that.

Comment

Originally posted by WafflesNeedSyrup

Will Crypto’s drone destroy A-Walls/HMG?

I didn't work on Rampart myself, but I'm pretty sure it either destroys or disables them. I'd have to boot up my work desktop to check, and it's Saturday and I'm too lazy ;)

Comment

Originally posted by _AiroN

Can Rampart, in your opinion, be used aggressively (or at least favor proactive plays) by like, giving some cover in an open area and make more risky pushes possible?

I'm asking because of course the first thing anyone would think when looking at her is people camping like crazy with her + Wattson/Caustic and the likes... and while I don't think camping is prominent in Apex (at least until you reach higher levels), the thing I like about the game is that despite being a BR (a genre that usually bores me to death) it still felt hectic and fast-paced. Now, a good part of that is thanks to the movement, high TTK and good gunplay, but another component are movement abilities and stull like portals to relocate and make normally unpushable locations more accessible. I wouldn't want the "camp-y" legends to reach a critical mass and take all this away so I felt like asking... do you think this apparently very passive kit can be used the opposite way too?

NGL, I got kinda sc...

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Honestly, Apex is so much about the guns that any legend can be used any way you like, as long as your aim's good. I've absolutely seen Ramparts in playtest go ham and push all the time, only throwing down walls when they need to heal (after a while when you see the orange glow of Rampart's shield wall that's aimed toward the enemy, you know to back off). I have no idea how she's going to be used at the pro level tho. I think there might be too much setup for her HMG to be truly effective, but f*ck if I know. We'll see!

Comment

Originally posted by TVR_Speed_12

Kinda off topic, but how do I feel about Loba in the current end of S5? Anything happening for her in S6?

Also I got to plat 4 with her! Despite my teammates saying she's a throw pick I make it work

Loba's definitely weak. She started the season off strong and fell to the weakest spot by the end; that seems to be the way most of our new legends behave. We've got a little bit of a buff coming for her in 6.0, but it's not much. We're somewhat limited technically by what we can do; for instance, if we wanted to let you take 3 or 4 items out of her ult, that would require UI work, so that's not happening any time soon.


14 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by AgelessProdigy

Sounds resonable enough to be true.

When have we ever been reasonable?

Comment

Originally posted by rpm319

Probably will be situational. She’ll be a sniper magnet in busy areas sitting still like that. But during end game, on high ground, she could be very effective.

Grenades are truly the bane of Rampart's existence. If a Rampart's fortified with walls and her HMG, just throw a few nades her way and she's gonna have to go and rebuild somewhere else.

Now Rampart + Wattson, that might be a scary combo...

Comment

Originally posted by DetecJack

Really? Why is that? Im really curious

Cause now they gotta make sure every single surface that can be reached via infinite climb has an out of bounds / slip trigger on it / doesn't have any broken geo that allows you to glitch under the map and so on. Outside of jump towers, you generally can't meaningfully get to high places (you can get to them from initial ship drop, but you don't have a weapon, so it's no use to sit in some broken sniper spot naked)

Comment

Originally posted by Xeppeling

Just cover all of the off-limit areas in butter so Rev slips off

We call 'em slip triggers but cover them in butter sounds way better.

Comment

Originally posted by JiangXun

Oh DAMN! Didn't realise you were with Respawn now Daniel. I remember your work on League with Azir(?) and a few other champions. Great to see you on board with a great community though.

Yeah :D I love Respawn, and this community has been very good so far. I did work on Lucian, Azir, Tahm, Taliyah, and Kayn over in League land, but that isn't a reflection on what I'm doing here. Although Apex could do with a Tahm ult... hmmmm.... ;P

Comment

Originally posted by c6f8rs7td7rsi

You probably have your lips glued shut by the people in charge, but can you at least tell us if pathfinder is changing?

Nah. We can talk about what is or isn't there when the patch notes come out (next Monday!). Very happy to have that convo then. But I'm not gonna spoil stuff here and now.

Comment

Originally posted by O0804

ayo this was just a joke please don't add any of these

Haha too late!

JK but I wrote my part of the patch notes last week and seeing this I was like oh sh*t did I leak something


13 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by TheXIIILightning

Revenant with Infinite Climb would actually be rather cool XD

I think our Level Designers would kill us.


06 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by ronschelly

Sheila the name of her LMG confirmed?!

HMG thank you very much


05 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by PwnedDead

The only problem is that I really have gone entire matches trying to find someone, and end up I. The top 3 without seeing anyone.

I actually have a past reddit post where my entire team won off of zero damage and 0 kills. We literally spent the entire match looking for people.

If something like that happens. It wouldn’t be fair to have a white evo against a stacked red evo team.

Hell. I get preds in my lobby, I don’t mind SBMM. I think it’s fair. I get why it’s implemented, but a fully stocked pred squad would have the clear advantage with there red evos late game.

I do think it could be countered though. If the evo should could slowly evolve with the ring. Maybe after the 2nd/3rd ring. It evolves without damage.

That problem is 100% a real thing; I would love to attack "I wanna fight another squad but I can't find anyone" in the game, but even outside of that we'd find a way to fix the "I never met anyone so my EVO sucks" problem if we were to ship evo armor only.

Comment

Originally posted by theavengingewok

Please don't do this. The mad scramble at drop when no one has armor is usually complete chaos and I love that.

We'd find a way to maintain that.


04 Aug

Comment

Originally posted by ParagonRenegade

Honestly the evo shield should be mandatory at this point, in the base game modes as well. Best addition to the game by far.

Always glad to see it pop up in an LTM

Good idea!


02 Jul

Comment

Originally posted by TVR_Speed_12

Wow that's a eye opener. It's kinda like how Wraith for awhile was the must pick due to her hurtbox and tactical. At a high level of play you was really pressured to go Wraith or lose. (My highest is plat so I don't think it ever applied to me but I get the concept. Also great job on the Wraith changes she feels so much more fun to play now!

I see now why the intent is too strengthen current tools rather than introduce new ones into the mix. Hearing the thought process behind game development is fascinating especially on the never ending battle of balance.

Also out of curiosity in World's Edge I think Loba can teleport anywhere that was added in S4 but S3 surfaces are a no go, does that sound about right?

That does seem like a bug! I'm not working on this one, but I definitely heard chatter about it. My understanding is the design intent is that Loba can go anywhere, within reason: we might exclude "RETURN TO THE BATTLE" triggers and slip triggers (where you can't stand on a thing because it constantly pushes you off).

Thank you for the kind words! Do remember that game design is not a precise science; I've been doing it for nearly 8 years now, but I'm still constantly double-guessing myself: is this actually true or do I only think it's true because it would make a neat pattern if it was true.

Comment

Originally posted by MawBTS1989

This was an interesting comment - thanks for the "if you can, you must" idea.

We've seen this exact pattern occur several times through Apex's life, particularly in high-end play where money is on the line.

- Unlimited zipline jumping

- Lifeline heal drone camping outside zone

- Super long Wraith portals that go around in circles to avoid late-game zone damage

- Caustic gas traps spammed like grenades

- Abuse of golden res shields to avoid elimination while knocked

- Dropping your armor to avoid damage from Crypto's EMP

All of these were "glitch in the matrix" type things, not intended design. They would have been fine as occasional tactics, but because they conferred an advantage, they swiftly became the dominant meta until they were patched out of the game.

Pro players can't not do stuff, even if it's cheesy or abusive. That's leaving money on the table.

Those are all great examples, yes! I think the dropping armor on the ground thing got fixed before I started--IIRC EMP now also damages armor on the ground. I'm glad my design thought made sense! Whenever someone says "here's a nice thing that players can do" I immediately double check if it falls under this heading.

Comment

Originally posted by TVR_Speed_12

If I may make a suggestion? Ok so one of the reasons I really like Loba is for her scouting capabilities like Bloodhound but it's with loot instead of other legends.

I feel like whenever I'm not Loba I don't really see others use her passive to let the team know where all the good loot is. When I play her I try to use a sniper scope to scan as much as possible .

Maybe there's a way to incentives players pinging out loot and make it easier? (Idk tho, it's really easy enough as it and now that I'm typing it's more of a player issue than a design issue?) I will say pinging 2 items next to each other is impossible with her(while scoped with a sniper at range) as the pings will overlap each other.

Pings having more precision... Maybe a small bonus to CD for every item pinged?

Alternatively you could always just buff her teleport however I don't think that'll be the best move for the overall health of the game or herself.

Her passive remain t...

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Ah, great, I'll use this comment to talk about one of my pet theories. I call it "if you can you must", and it's what we call a "degenerate pattern" in competitive multiplayer games. Here's how the pattern goes:

You put in a small incentive that gives the player meaningful power in a competitive environment, expecting them to use it sometimes / when it makes sense. The player discovers that doing X thing gives them power, and because they CAN use it all the time, they MUST use it all the time or they're not playing the character at their highest power level.

(Sidebar: this is actually one of the reasons why mana costs in League are such a liberating mechanic; I've never designed a character without them, and this is a big reason. By adding a resource cost to an activity you gate the payoff behind a cost; now it's no longer a no brainer to always do it whenever the game lets you, and you can design incentives without worrying about "if you can you must").

Let...

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01 Jul

Comment

Originally posted by dungeon99

I see, is there a chance that he could get a full rework like mirage amy time soon? Maybe that could solve his problem?

It's funny what's considered a full rework in Apex! Coming from League where a full rework would pretty much reinvent the character I wouldn't have thought of the Mirage changes as a rework, but it makes sense: 2 out of 3 of his abilities were changed.

As for Octane, I'd say no rework: even if his squad win rate and high skill pick rate never come up, he's clearly a super fun character for casual play / highlight reels. That's a success in my books. Not every character has to be a sweaty tournament must-pick.