Suggestions for how to adjust aim assist
Since sudden changes will result in a sudden increase or decrease in the player population, if you are going to adjust aim assist, we recommend not making it public, but only increasing or decreasing...
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First, making changes like that without saying so publicly creates a serious credibility problem for a developer who already has enough of them.
Second, adjusting on a per-player basis? I know there are plenty of sports that use a handicap system, and I know that skill-based matchmaking is itself a form of handicapping. But introducing yet another factor into the game where it works one way for one player and completely differently for another? I'm pretty sure it would be a gameplay disaster, and I KNOW it would be a public relations disaster.
Third, "appropriate value?" What is the appropriate value? Obviously it's different for every player? Does that mean the system will handicap every single player a different amount until we all have exactly the same accuracy numbers? What's the end goal with this system? I have the exact same odds against a predator as I do against a bot, or is it just to do away with all AA over time? What would this do to the integrity of a ranking system? What would that do to drive cheating, already a pretty serious problem in this game?
Sorry for not being clear enough. This does not mean adjusting aim assist for each individual. What I want to say here is that when changing aim assist, we recommend changing the values at a level that players cannot intuitively understand, waiting a certain period of time, and then making the same adjustments again, gradually searching for the optimal value. Since only the developers can check the detailed analytical data, we believe it is up to the developers to decide the appropriate value for aim assist. As for unannounced update content, as with the most recent developments, this has been happening for some time now, so we don't think there's anything to worry about.
Okay, I see where you're going with this. But I still see a problem. Even if you could change slowly enough that people simply adjust without pain... you're assuming that they play Apex in a vacuum and never play any other game. I already experience this every time I bounce back and forth between Apex and Halo Reach. In one game my accuracy is abysmal and in the other it's spectacular. At some point wouldn't the average gamer just stop playing Apex where he makes 25% of his shots and go full time with Fortnite where he makes 50%? Wouldn't this create a situation where gamers are simply choosing between a title where their efforts go unrewarded and another title where their efforts pay off? Why does every game have to be designed to elevate players with godly aim (probably some sort of brain defect) and leave the rest of us chaff on the floor? I know that in theory it wouldn't matter as long as sbmm is properly sorting players. But we know that's more of a promise than a reality.
The short version is: I would have called Apex a game with a very high, VERY HIGH skill ceiling. And it seems as if what you want to do is make it even higher. Not to mention the fact that the WAY you want to make it higher is the way that lends itself most completely to cheating.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be a discussion about aim assist. There should. But before we can have that discussion we need to have one about mixed lobbies, one about high functioning anti-cheat, and yet another about the wisdom of wide skill gaps.
Basically, all communication is done through machine translation, so I apologize if there are any misunderstandings.
I largely agree that effort should be rewarded. However, whether Apex is in a state where effort is rewarded depends on whether aim assist is appropriate or not. If aim assist is too strong, a game pad player will be able to beat a keyboard and mouse player with a lot of effort with little effort, and if aim assist is too weak, a game pad player will not be able to beat a keyboard and mouse player with a lot of effort, even if they put in a lot of effort. This is something that requires very difficult balancing, and it is an issue that developers who have incorporated it as a specification should deal with responsibly.
If we are to discuss skills gaps, then skills gaps that result from hard work are welcome. In fact, I find it more fun to play a game where effort makes a big difference in skill than a game where effort makes no difference in skill. And this is my personal opinion, but if we want to make a game where effort is rewarded, I think it's okay to greatly weaken the aim assist that allows you to become stronger without effort. However, there is another important idea that I personally think. I also want all players who play Apex properly to be able to enjoy the game. In that case, I understand that simply weakening aim assist is not enough.
As I mentioned earlier, if we want to achieve the ideal, this requires very difficult balancing. Therefore, it is an issue that the developer who has incorporated it as a specification should deal with responsibly. Personally, I don't know how far the developer has gone, so I am stating here what I hope will be helpful to the developer in making Apex a better game.
I appreciate all the thought you've put into this, but in the end I keep reading a compelling argument for an end to mixed lobbies, not a compelling argument for changes to aim assist values.
If Respawn announced tomorrow that there would no longer ever be a PC player in a console lobby, or a console player in a PC lobby, what do you think that would do to the game? To put it another way, is there enough of a benefit to mixed lobbies to justify all the headache we put ourselves through trying to justify more AA or less AA or an end to AA? In my personal opinion, the answer is a resounding NO. No, there definitely is not any benefit to any player. Only to the developer. Which is why we still have mixed lobbies despite years of complaining about them.
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