Forum Discussion

3 years ago

This game has never been more broken

I've played this game since its release. I'm not good, really. I've never had a season-end KDR over 1.0. Not once. I play for fun, not for sweat. I loved Titanfall and gravitated to this game because they didn't make a third Titanfall. Until recently, Apex has been very fun, and has always been my favorite game. Not anymore.

I try to make up for my lack of skill by not hot-dropping, while hitting the replicators off the jump to try and get at least one gun kitted out, using the ping system as much as possible, etc. A typical match for me doesn't even see a gunfight until the second ring. I don't engage a squad unless there's an advantage and I think my squad can win the fight. There's no shame in hiding and waiting for the right moment to strike. This strategy has worked very well until this year, when several unwanted changes were introduced. This game has stopped being fun, completely and totally. It's now too much like work for me to want to play it.

*Matchmaking is totally broken across all game modes (except maybe for Ranked, which I don't play, but seriously there's so many other posts about this, yeah I'm sure it's busted too). There's no reason for me to be in the same match as anyone with a Predator badge, the 20-bomb badge, etc. In fact, I've never been killed by anyone with these high-level badges until the last two seasons. More and more, I see people leave the dropship with high-level skydive trails - I don't even have any! Having to play against these sweats doesn't help me get better and only increases my reluctance to play at all.

*Audio, audio, audio. It's so bad now. People are constantly walking right up to me in utter silence. Sometimes I'm getting shot, LITERALLY TAKING BULLETS THAT I CAN HEAR HITTING ME, without hearing the gun, or the person that fired it. Legend abilities glitch out too. And yet, I can be next to a rock wall that's a quater-mile high and hear people walking on the other side of it? How is this OK, or even possible?

*Loot distribution is similarly screwed. I can rarely play a match these days and manage to get both guns fully kitted - and I'm not including hopups with that, I mean just the basic stuff like stocks, sights and mags. I frequently run into a situation where I pick up a sniper rifle when I first land, and never find any sights better than a 1-2 variable. If it doesn't happen that way, I'll find a 4-8 variable right away and never find a sniper rifle to put it on. Sometimes I don't ever find any sights for any gun at all. And remember, my play style is land, loot, engage. I often end up in ring 3 and still don't have a fully-kitted gun despite looting that whole time. And it's not just gun parts. Armor and helmets are often times poorly distributed. Once I landed at Lava Dome with a random squad, we looted every single building and all supply bins, and there was no armor. We rotated towards Maude, and none of the buildings in between had any armor either. Then, on top of the old train depot, there were 4 blue armors. Why they were all concentrated in this one little spot is beyond me but it used to not be like that. That being said, Syringes, Med Kits, Shield Cells, and Shield Batteries don't seem to be affected (yet).

*For whatever reason, Respawn saw fit to remove the ability to mark replicators before dropping. This isn't a glitch or an oversight as many other posters have surmised; it's clearly intentional despite there being no mention in the patch notes, otherwise it would have been put back in by now after more than half a season without it. This relegates replicators to an afterthought instead of an important strategy, basically there's no point to considering replicating unless you just happen to come across one during the match and have the opportunity to make something real quick. Which means, in a fast-paced match, replicating isn't viable. And yet, many of my daily and weekly challenges involve getting materials for the replicators.

*The shortened first ring time this season is complete overkill. It's far, far too short. It makes all the other problems way worse. Want to land at the edge of the map? Better hope that the ring is closing on that side or else you're forced with running for an entire match instead of being able to loot and build your loadout. Want to hit an Armory on Storm Point? That's a pipe dream, there's only one out of the four that isn't on the edge of the map and the time it takes to complete one (a little over a minute) means that you have to choose whether to do the Armory or run from the ring. It begs the question, why are they even in the game at all? Which is related to another question: Why is Storm Point still so big? Its size wasn't really a problem before they messed with how long ring 1 lasts but now it's just too risky to land on the edge of Storm Point, anywhere or any time. There's been times I landed at Barometer and STILL didn't have any time to loot before I had to run to stay in the ring. And then, on the other maps, they removed some jump towers, making this an issue even on the smaller maps. Why remove movement options at the same time movement across the map was made more difficult? Me and my regular squad used to love landing at Armories, or at Bloodhound's Trials on World's Edge but haven't been able to at all for this whole season. What's the point of even having these activities (Trials, Armories, Loot Vaults, Caustic Treatment) when you don't have time to do them?

This game has never been this broken. It's just not fun anymore, it's work. I already work. Games are supposed to be fun. So why should I play?

Lots of commenters are saying that Respawn is catering just to to the pros and streamers when they introduce these changes. That may be, I can't say for sure. I'm part of the gaming community that doesn't care about watching pros, or watching streamers, I just want to relax with a game I love. No matter what Respawn's motivations are, the results are the same: this game is really starting to suck. A lot. And if they want to maintain this part of their player base, they can't continue as they have been.

*If Respawn is determined to keep the first ring so short, then Storm Point should be cut in half and made into two separate maps. It's too big to be viable with this new timeframe. (Really, it was too big without it.) Likewise, extraneous activities like the Armories, Bloodhound's Trials, Caustic Treatment, Loot Vaults need to go, or be relocated so that they can actually be used again. Same goes for Replicators, unless they decide to allow us to mark them at the beginning of the match again.

*We should have options for controlling the different sounds in the game. At least then, when Respawn does something that causes glitches, we can at least try to compensate by increasing/decreasing volumes individually. For instance, footsteps, team gunfire, opponent gunfire, ambient sounds, and abilities should each have their own volume slider in the options menu.

*Matchmaking needs a serious makeover. Either it's skill-based, or it's not. Stop telling us it is when it clearly isn't, or just admit that it isn't. If Respawn insists on labeling it as skill-based, then it needs to be made that way. This goes for the LTM's as well. And to put it out there, it's not really my problem that people that are that good might face longer queue times while the game tries to find equally-skilled opponents. That's the price of being awesome. I shouldn't be punished by becoming a loot pinata for a lobby full of Predators. You can't get better if you never get to shoot more than one mag in a fight, and you can't have fun that way either.

These days, if I drop and the second ring is on the other side of the map, I just quit the match and try again. It's too frustrating to spend the whole match running to stay in the ring. Replicators aren't even something I consider anymore, since I don't know where they are, and the same goes for the Armories and the other activities. If I get killed by a player with high-level badges (preds, 20-bombs, etc) two matches in a row, I turn off the game. That happens every day, by the way. Every. Single. Day. It's actually the most common reason I switch to another game - it used to be I wouldn't even think about switching games until I at least completed my daily challenges.

So, the game needs to change. Or, they could just call it 'Apex Legends - the Job'. Because it's that much like work.

gameplay discussion

17 Replies

itZ_BubZzz
3 years ago
THIS RIGHT HERE. EA are you listening???? ReSpawn are you watching???? EasyAntiCheat do you even work properly???
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@KikAzzDrumr

I'm agreeing with virtually everything you've said, but I'll put a different spin on some of it.

First, the loot situation is atrocious, yes. But it's a situation that affects everyone equally. I've killed third-place squads often this season and plundered their death boxes to find nothing good whatsoever. I dislike the thinner loot because it makes the game more luck-based, but that's only at the level of any specific match. Overall, over multiple matches, we're all affected equally.

Storm Point: Still not too big. I edge land every single game and until they remove the tridents then everything still works.

That said, yes, the shorter timer is the root of all evil this season. It's worse on King's, imo, but bad everywhere. Another luck accelerator. Drop lucky and your odds of winning go up. Drop on the opposite corner and you can still make the ring, but you won't have anything when you get there. And there will be three better-equipped squads waiting for you.

The SBMM isn't great, but I'm not finding it any worse than it's ever been. Not sure what that means. Maybe it means I'm getting better, or am less at the mercy of bad squadmates. I too see diamond/master/pred dive trails in almost every match. But I've had enough of them on my squad to know that, when not travelling triple stacked, they put their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. For some reason my masters are always the first one down. And they quit like a bald Wraith. Like clockwork. What a pack of clowns. They're a lot of fuss about nothing if you ask me.

But I do feel your pain. I'm hoping for some changes too.
HappyHourSumwur
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@KikAzzDrumrS14 has been trash, so I agree with you mostly.

Matchmaking has always been crap but is the worst ever in S14.

Ring timer is annoying AF for all the reasons you state bit I think this was intentional. The season is name zhunted after all, so I think Respawn wanted you to be on the run, frantically trying to get in the ring.

Replicators are still marked on the full map by the teal/blue shading, but removing the F1 preview makes no sense. If anything, the Replicators should be marked by default.

Storm Point isn't too big, IMO. The ways to move quickly around it are just too risky or placed in bad spots. Move the Tridents inland from edge POI's and make them either quieter, faster, or where you take less damage in them. Make Gravity Cannons quieter or give players more movement options when using them, either more range moving in the air &/or the ability to slide on landing like Horizon can ( so much fun). People don't use either enough because they're too risky and as a result you end up running for minutes across the map, sometimes uphill which is even worse.
Dnewhouse1990
3 years ago
You're so right, Ive played half the time this game has been out.. I started late, so it took me a while to start getting any good. But then the last 2 seasons seems like all I am is free kills for those sweats that ruin the game. I hardly get on apex anymore.. it's a terrible game now in my opinion. Sbmm is literally non existent. Unless they mean no skills put in for skilled people! Sorry respawn, but I hate this game now.. you've ruined it for the population as a whole, to make it fun for sweats. Why? Put them in together, actually USE SBMM. I've had lots of times that I've tried to play recently, and there's hardly anyone playing.. I'm pretty we're not the only ones that are sick of it.
Midnight9746
Hero+
3 years ago
At the start, I'm talking about "season 0" and season 1, the matchmaking was perfect. Everyone was still getting used to the game and it wasn't unbalanced. As the seasons went by, the "skill" gap got larger and larger. This is to be expected.

However, matchmaking is just shoving everyone into a match using a "engagement optimized matchmaking", or EOMM. This form of matchmaking aims to keep us engaged by basically rigging the game. Each loss makes you wanna "do better", and when you win, you may feel like you want to keep playing. Some players choose to stop playing after a win, so that they can end the gaming session on a high note. Yet, those who keep playing are just badly curb stomped by the matchmaking as it tries to make the player do better again.
This kind of matchmaking only annoys players and drives them away from the game.

You may also be wondering "how is it rigged?" The answer is simple.... how else are your teammates a bunch of new or no skilled players, while the enemy teams are in diamonds, masters, and pred rankings? That's right, because its rigged in an attempts to get you killed off sooner, in which you'd feel like you need to keep playing because you just can't turn off the game after that one match. As humans, we feel the need to try, try, and try again. This is what EOMM latches onto and abuses to try and keep us playing. Another result of this is that it just causes players to become more and more toxic, as the game annoys them more and more. Usually after 7 or so bad matches, I get slightly better teammates and maybe even a win.

From my observation, matchmaking operates like this:

bad teammates/high skilled enemies -> loss -> bad teammates/medium skilled enemies -> loss -> medium teammates/medium skilled enemies -> loss -> good teammates/low skilled enemies -> win -> medium teammates/medium skilled enemies -> win or lose (doesn't seem to matter at this point) -> bad teammates/high skilled enemies

Assuming matchmaking is still the same, or worse from when I had a "play 10 games as <legend>" challenge back in season 11, (in which I played duos with a friend who had the same challenge, and we both just kept skydiving off the map), you can literally test what matchmaking looks like by falling off the map at least 10 games in a row.
What you should see (assuming its not fixed), is that your teammate's levels, badges, and stats slowly rise up the more you throw away matches, while the champion team's levels, badges, and stats should also be go down to where it looks like your team would have an advantage. This is EOMM's way of trying to give you a win to make you feel like you're doing better, before cranking the difficulty back up.

This change is best shown when your team is wiped out quickly, and it doesn't seem to matter if you're solo queing, playing with friends, or what mode you're playing in as long as its not the firing range. I would say "don't go ruining matches for other players by dying right away", however chances are the match was already ruined by the EOMM, bad servers, zero audio, smurphs, and cheaters.

After me and my friend "played" our 10 matches, our 11th game was an utter joke, as everyone in the lobby played like bots or like it was their very first time in a match. No one had any kind of aim, no one had any sense of direction, or anything. We both were able to just hipfire each team we came across. This might be changed now, where its tough regardless of how many times you lose matches, but I doubt it.
r1ggedgame
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@Midnight9746 I would even say its rigged to a point where i suspect shadowbanning. Getting the same unskilled Mates 3 times in a row when the MM says over 200 ppl in Queue ?
I didnt get any team mates with more frags than me the whole Season, got maybe 5-6 mates that actually matched my Rank from last season (but no mates that exceeded my rank at all). Mostly i get those Rookie players that somehow got to Gold this split without any aim or deeper understanding of how and where to drop, they just jump in the fire (mostly way to late) and die after 30sec ... and complaining about me splitting up and ratting them points they didnt even deserve in the 1st place.
Cant even remeber when i got my last win in Ranked ... i just play it to prove my point, work on my mental (this is maybe the best part about it, i dont get titlted anymore ... im just disappointed) and gather more data.
Btw, the devs read this stuff over here ... they now closed the option to quit the queue in ranked without penalty, thats why i had to play those 3 times in a row with the same brainiacs.
I dont know what i did, but im clearly getting shadow banned. my friend with way lower K/D, overall dmg/kills ect. gets Mates way above his rank when he queues up solo (i suspect the amount of money he spend on the game [about 10-15x my investment] to be a deciding factor ... P2W runs deep with EA). He also states that playing with me in a 2 man squad makes his games exponentially more sweatty as queuing alone.
DarkAmur
3 years ago
@KikAzzDrumr You could write a book from what u just wrote over there.
I feel ya, I understand the frustration and the fact that the game is just cancer but there is nothing You or I , can do something about it.
The dont give a damn about YOU or Me or anybody else. Mind as well they are telling us to *Go and f ourself * with all the complains.
Apyhs
3 years ago
The most frustrating fact comes with a BR game it self. Its completely random.
Even when this EOMM kicks in and gets you Master teammates against bot enemys you still can land in an area only providing attachments and supplys, but no weapons. The bots players just landed one bin to the left and draw a Eva8 and a 301 from that bin.
If you have no weapons it will become a bit complicated.
In that case you ask your self how powerfull that enemy was. But he wasn't. It was just 100% rng luck.
That's BR
The only thing really need to change is to put premates in separate lobbys from solos, as even the best MMOR od SBMM can't tear this pre-made group apart to fit them into a suitable match.
Nightstick24
3 years ago
@KikAzzDrumr Wow, it's a novel but it perfectly, and I mean PERFECTLY TO AN ABSOLUTE T, describes my experience lately.

I've been playing since launch. But I'm BAD at Apex. I know I'm bad, I'm fine with being bad, I play because I enjoy Apex, not to win games or get 20 bombs.

But playing Apex isn't enjoyable when I'm getting absolutely dumpstered by people who are truly excellent at the game. I'm not complaining about these other players, I'm sure they've put in a lot of time and effort to improve and I respect that. But they're FAR, FAR better than me. I don't stand a chance. There's absolutely no fun in getting lasered by the current #16 Predator in my pubs game. Neither is there a whole lot of fun in running into the full TSM three-man in my pubs game. Why are there a dozen different Predator trails in my games constantly?

The highest rank I've ever achieved in Apex is Bronze 4 one season because I don't play ranked. Why am I against some of the best players in the game?

And last Season I was sick of it so I thought I'd try Ranked and see if that, at least, would actually have matchmaking. My first game of Ranked in 6 Seasons I was put with two Silver 1's and killed by a 3-man Gold squad. My second game I was with a duo Platinum squad and killed by a Solo Masters player.

The Audio issues have been nuts, as stated I frequently have entire squads walking on the floor above me and I don't even hear it, but other times I'm hearing their steps like they're inside of me when they're 80m out. And it's ONLY on Apex, every other game I play is completely normal and fine sound.

The loot has been absolutely awful lately. Glad to see I'm not just actually cursed and it's a common complaint.

The one point I'd like to comment on is replicators. I didn't even notice that they'd removed the ability to ping them, but you can find where they are by looking at the map. Areas with replicators, at any time in the game, will have a light blue colouring, so they're quite easy to find still. Though I don't have a clue why they'd remove pinging them...
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@Apyhs

No, that isn't BR. It isn't 100% rng luck. It's the lottery of the hot drop. If you don't want luck to ruin your matches then stop putting in yourself in the position of being dependent on luck. Stop hot dropping. It really is that simple.