Season 17 Wishlist

With the S17 teasers trickling out, a few things we'd love to see:

• Improved Server Performance on Console

As matchmaking improves and the player base becomes more competitive, the raw difference in skill between opponents shrinks. This greatly inflates the effects that net-code, server policy, and connection quality have on players' returns to skill and effort.

In high-ELO TDM lobbies (diamond+), for example, player rankings seem to be determined by relative ping. Judging from my playgroup, it's common to place first in low-ping games (<30ms), only to finish last in high ones (>90ms).

While S16 marks a new low, server performance has been steadily degrading over the past few seasons. For reference, I play wired direct to fiber, with an average ping of <15ms to anywhere in the continental US. I never see my in-game AL ping drop below 18ms, and it's usually stuck between 40-80ms.

In-match, server stability is increasingly volatile, with BR (even ranked) frequently stuck above 100-150ms, and even low-ping server instances regularly dropping packets. Delayed-reaction effects (server lag) severely overemphasize first-shot advantages, compressing TTK. Dying behind cover/walls has become constant.

This kind of randomness completely nullifies the investment of players' time and effort in developing skill, tactics, and strategy. Opponents magically wink into existence. Whole squads get wiped before they know they're being shot at.

Bad servers collapse AL into a chaotic, shallow game of chance; with only the pretence of player agency.

Today's AL feels like an elaborate game of craps, where the cost of entry is the memorization of recoil patterns and high-ground rotations. Without consistent server performance, and more equitable net-code, Apex Legends only presents the illusion of the competitive integrity publicly espoused by the Respawn team.

No amount of new content can/will fix this. Every new skin, character, map, gun, or LTM only serves to distract from the foundational, mechanical deterioration of the game and its platform.

No matter the content, bad servers leave players with a bitter sense of unfairness, souring even the most hardcore AL fans.

So, for this new season, the only thing I'd like to see is better server performance. Anything else won't really matter.

- neb and co (Steady Operators)