Some thoughts on the vaults.
So my main problem with the vaults is that it opposes one basic foundation of a BR which is the high risk-high reward principle. The probability of getting top tier loot should directly correlate to the risks you take (dropping in high loot areas and winning fights). The vaults on the other hand is a room full of the very best items in the game and its all yours for very low risk/cost; all you have to do is to shoot the right bot which frankly isnt even rare. When carrying the key, you can even see if the if its still locked, so you dont even have to risk running into another team who just looted the same vault want and you wont have risk a detour to an empty vault.
So here is my suggestions how to make the vault make more sense in context of the game. All these suggestion would ofc work independently and most would also work in combination with each other.
- Make the key rarer. Simple.
- Nerf the loot in the vault. Also simple. Maybe just change the high tier loot for some "ordinary" loot, like ammo, heals, weapons etc
- Make it so ALL players can see when someone got a key and also which vaults are still unlocked. This will increase the chance of getting ambushed when running to the vault = more risk.
- Make a specific audio announcement in the arena speakers whenever someone unlocks a vault. Like "The vault at Lava city has been breached".
- Make it so the players with the key no longer can see which vaults are looted. This would make it a risk to run to one if its already looted.
- Make it so the key only drops during a certain color of the drop bot, for instance red. This color should last less time than the other + not in a pre-programmed order + it should ONLY contain the key and nothing more, because its kinda sick you can get both the key and other goodies in the same bot.
