I work in data analysis and being able to sift through some of this for a game I love would be so satisfying haha
Yeah, but then you also know how much of a risk there is that people will completely misread that data. Live first party data for a competitive multiplayer game is like the third rail of a subway: it's crucial to keep the thing going, but if you don't know how to use it, it can do a lot of damage ;P
Will crossplay have the option for console only?
Hey, so as a general rule I try not to talk about work that I don't know enough about; this goes doubly if that work was just announced but not fully explained yet. Sorry, this falls in that category; I'm not confident enough in the answer to give it here.
It would be nice if friendly footsteps were consistently a bit quieter than enemy footsteps. There's definitely a pretty big difference between the footstep audio of some legends!
I think they are! From a quick test locally they seem to be, but it's hard to tell in the heat of battle. There's definitely a lot more work we can do on footsteps. The goal for them is that they're distinct but equally noticeable. I don't know a lot about audio in Apex yet, so I'll shut up until I've had that conversation with our friends in audio.
My brother and I were talking about a Crypto buff that would make us want to play him more, as currently he's both of our lowest picks.
We were thinking he'd be more of a team player if he could ping a place for his drone to fly. Either with the ping wheel, or alternate button. This way he could run along with the team while getting the emp ready.
Yeah, we've definitely talked about this (and other ways of making your drone keep up with you as you run around) before, but this is what we game designers call breaking pattern: you're basically making a mechanic do something it didn't do before. Nothing wrong with that, but it's a LOT more work than adjusting numbers on the same mechanic; a lot of follow-up playtesting and tuning work. I absolutely think we should do this work for Crypto specifically, but I wanna set the expectation that the timelines on something like this are long; like, quite likely you won't see this in 2020 long.
I think Bangalore's general play with tactical and passive is great. Her ult is just so slow to actually go off it feels like it's incredibly easy to avoid. It seems like it is meant for area denial, like Caustic Ult or Revenant tactical, but with how long it takes to trigger the actual explosions for Bang it seems as though anyone that keeps their head simply goes where they were going to go anyways.
From what I hear from designers who were here when she was made, the idea for her ult was to use it to push, where you'd run in just behind the wave of explosions. I don't think that's manifesting in game? I've not seen it used like that.
parroting someone else's idea here: what about letting players see where the bombs are going to land on the minimap like Loba's Ult?
See this is sort of the problem I'm having a hard time communicating: we haven't even formulated a design goal yet. We don't know what we want to achieve by changing Bangalore's ult and yet we're talking about potential changes. That change you suggested isn't bad by any means! I do like better communication of gameplay effects! But what I've been saying is that to make any changes to Bangalore right now runs the risk of ruining an otherwise balanced character. I'm sure eventually the meta will move on to the point that Bangalore requires work, but at that point I'd want to take a holistic look at what her entire kit is trying to achieve (I think "safe pushing" is the best summary?) and find ways to make the ult support this.
So basically, him "staying off the grid" in the playrates is a reference to his personality.
The only buff I would imagine you guys giving him was for him to be able to destroy activated Caustic traps with the EMP (kind of contradicting myself). It's super annoying when pushing a building in ranked and the Caustic simply triggers his traps, giving his team time to heal again.
Not like I don't like Caustic, but he feels like he is at his definitive state, so instead of him being the only counter to himself, maybe adding another viable legend to the Caustic counter list would be amazing for ranked meta, and wouldn't affect Public matches that much really.
I hear you on Caustic being frustrating, but in general I'm dubious about fixing a problem with one Legend by giving ONE other Legend the answer. It's a systemic problem (in that everyone can encounter Caustic and Caustic can use his barrels against everyone), so everyone should have an answer.
I mentioned this to you elsewhere, but I think the only thing she really needs is to not be so ridiculously loud when she runs. I will never pick her just because I feel like good players will practically be able to wall hack me just because of how loud my normal walk is. It makes her much less viable in high level play where people use high end headsets.
For the record, this is also the only thing keeping me from using Bloodhound, but at least for him it's only while he ults.
I don't think either needs to be silent - just not so loud that they put a target on their back and are at a disadvantage strictly because of sound.
Bang's in a good spot all except one thing - any chance we can tone down the clinking noise she makes when she runs?
Sound while moving is so important the higher up you go in the ranks and this is the one thing keeping me from playing her competitively. It also doesn't make sense to me thematically. You'd think a soldier of her caliber would understand the importance of stealth.
Huh! That is actually the first time I heard of this. (Loading up the game in the background to check it out). That's... interesting! I don't think we consciously balance around foot step noise but now that you mention it, we obviously should.
I think her Ult timing could be sped up slightly(?). Like gibby’s gives about a second of warning before it starts doing damage, but bang’s takes like what, 3-4 seconds before it starts dealing damage? Maybe if the impact stunned and then the explosion came after? That might be too strong, but I think speeding it up would make it less of a wet paper towel ult and more respectable. As of now most people just have so much time to get away from it compared to gibby’s.
Yeah like I said in my original reply, I'd be careful about touching her ult just for the sake of touching her ult. It is sad that it's so underwhelming, but if we look at the full Legend, she's a super well balanced character with versatile uses, and she's also the ideal beginner character.
I think Gibby is in a really good spot right now tbh. Not only that, but I do main Revenant and since he basically hard counters Gibby, I honestly don’t mind fighting him too much.
Oooh interesting! How does Revenant hard counter Gibby? Is it just the silence to stop him putting up a dome? That can't be it, right?
22k octane kills checking in.
Can you tell us the name of the designer so I can tell him thank you !
Haha! It's /u/pinedsman but he doesn't look at reddit much I think. I'll let him know you said thank you!
I get it but there's nothing more terrifying than a Gibraltar with a lvl 5 Evo shield + fortified + gun shield + devotion.
It's honestly pretty unfair in 1v1s.
Yeah that totally makes sense on paper, but the data do not bear it out at all. Gibraltar performs very poorly in terms of encounter win rate. Sure in that moment where you have to burn through all that health it feels extremely unfair, but it's offset by a few factors:
What is actually out of whack for him is fast res in dome, I'm pretty sure, but it's the least obvious thing when you're the enemy.
I feel like these might be a lot of questions, but any chance we'll see some Crypto adjustments?
I know that he is a very good character, but he doesn't really cater to new or impatient people, just feel like he could use something but I never know what.
And I also think that if you guys were to buff the EMP at this point in any way shape or form he would become a problem, so he seems to be in a super weird spot.
Yeah EMP is clearly an incredibly strong ability. It'll be buffed indirectly next patch because of an unrelated change. (I'm being cagey on details again because I don't want to steal anyone's thunder).
I think Crypto is probably the one Legend where you could make the argument that he should be niche; he's very intellectual in a game that's all about adrenaline junkies sprinting at each other guns blazing. That said, I think he's in a weak spot, and we've got a small buff (don't get your hopes up too much!) coming soon. I've got a long-term task on my todo list to take a closer look at him. My goals are to surface the usefulness of his scouting more to his team, make piloting the drone more interesting, and perhaps if inspiration strikes solve the "I used my drone correctly and now I'm 200 miles from my team and they're dead" problem.
I still think he deserves like 25% explosive damage resistance added to his passive, unique and fits his character! Or even like a free stim effect when hit by a grenade/ult? Imagine thinking during a fight... throw a grenade at me i dare you 😬
So what you're proposing there (25% explosive damage resistance) is definitely neat lore wise and it's a design space we haven't gone to at all yet... but it's also odd to put that on a Legend that is visually thin and tiny and not on, you know, the Legends with the "fortified" buff. Also the event that would trigger it is pretty rare in the game. We reduced grenade spam (and thank f*ck for that) and there aren't many Legends that use explosions as part of their abilities.
Not saying we'd never do that, but gut feeling is that's probably too niche to be truly useful and in the few instances where it would come in clutch it would mostly feel weird and unreliable to the enemy that threw the grenade.
Y'all got anymore of that Titanfall though?
I wished! Hey, at least Titanfall 2's coming to Steam. With some luck that'll inject a little life into the game. (I've been playing a bunch recently and I can generally find a match in a minute or two, but it's just attrition mode)
Third lowest encounter win rate, second lowest pick rate... I hear your frustration, but the data don't support a nerf at the moment.
(To be clear he has a super high game win rate; his team utility is through the roof)
So when are you going to nerf Gibraltar?
Third lowest encounter win rate, second lowest pick rate... I hear your frustration, but the data don't support a nerf at the moment.
Wow, that Caustic buff really made a massive difference, no wonder why I feel like I see him in nearly every squad now (can’t say I enjoy him being picked more personally lol). I didn’t expect Octane and Bloodhound to be tied third either, considering they’re both niche in terms of what’s meta. I’m gonna assume Pathfinder’s pickrate has drastically dropped because of the grapple nerf, wonder if he’s still in the top 5.
Again, can’t wait to see the patchnotes with the details to our speedy boi, I’d love to use him more as my secondary, and hopefully I can if the buffs are decent.
Yeah I think they both have super broadly appealing fantasies (speedy boy and hunty NB) and abilities with immediate satisfaction (even if good players know BH's ult isn't great due to it giving away your position, it feels like you're the PREDATOR). What's meta really only matters at the very top; most people don't play the game at that level.
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