Let's chat quickly about the War Games event that's coming next week, and "Takeover" modes.
Designing Play Apex Takeovers has been a big win for the game. Injecting new gameplay into normal Trios and Duos does a few things that we really like.
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Mostly, it keeps our matchmaking healthier. More people jump in to try the modes, earn the cosmetics, etc. - and they all play in the same queues.
This means you get faster matches at better quality at more hours of the day.
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It does lots of little things, too.
Some people can't find the LTMs or forget there's one active.
Some people bounce off the LTM because the gameplay is too different and their skill doesn't translate well. Takeovers are designed to be closer to the core BR loop.
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Mostly it's the matchmaking. Having more players playing in the same queues does amazing stuff to the game "feeling" better.
Separate LTMs just split people off. Those queues are smaller, which makes them take longer to start and the matchmaker can't do it's job as well.
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Our first Takeovers (Airdrop Extravaganza and Locked and Loaded) were received really well.
With Ring Fury, we saw good engagement! But we heard some feedback that helped us shape our approach to Takeovers for the future.
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What we learned: Takeovers are best when they change the game in positive ways for the player. This seems obvious, but designers like to make new challenges for you to overcome. Like big ring flares!
Ring Fury would have made a better LTM than a Takeover, I think.
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We looked over the schedule of the War Games event after we heard feedback on Ring Fury. Here's what we did:
- Remove Flare Up from the event. It was another variant of Ring Fury.
- Removed another mode from the event that wasn't fulfilling the goals.
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We discussed removing Killing Time, because the reduced round timer can be surprising, but we think this mode is important to test. It aims to solve oddly paced games, and it's something I've wanted to try since we launched.
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Overall I think players will enjoy the modes we cooked up. They change every few days, so try them all and tell us what you think!
If you don't care for them, remember Ranked is still classic Apex.
Thanks for reading, if you got this far!
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Loba's tactical doesn't work well on large areas of World's Edge. Since the Marble Goddess thread seemed interesting to people, I figured I'd break this down a bit and give insight to what we're doing.
(thread below: 1/11)
If you're curious, we create giant volumes (triggers) around the cliffs on the maps to stop players from staying up there. You'll see the out of bounds warnings if you land in these places.
We don't want Loba teleporting up there, so her tactical will fail when it lands in one of those out of bounds triggers (or a kill trigger, at the bottom of a map). That's expected behavior.
Kings Canyon was designed around "zones", which are large areas that feel like big, outdoor rooms. Players can peak into the rooms from the chokepoints (usually on high vantage points) and decide if they want to enter based on the activity they see.
Fights feel more understandable and contained in the room, and afterwards let the squad feel like they won and, in turn, now "own" the room. Until the next squad rolls up.
One example of a "room", or the zone known as Cascades. This was my first attempt at this in the early block outs, and is probably still one of the more successful ones.
We are looking for awesome level designers at @Respawn! Specifically on our shooter team, ideally with some PvP experience. What I love about working here is that our LD's are really empowered to make cool stuff!
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Our LD’s often spark the ideation for their level and drive it all the way to ship. We like each level to have strong design goals before production begins, and LD’s are responsible for driving the theme and hook. DRIVE your own work!
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We get the art teams invested early and ideas and inspiration can come from all departments. We playtest the game *every*day* for 3 hours, and you can jump in and out at your own leisure. Most people play for 1 hour but I often go for 2. EA has made that very easy for us!
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