July 2019
The Argument
Here's the deal: since Assists are worth nothing in the game—in terms of experience, kill credit, dailies, and achievements—they only currently serve to promote toxicity within a team rather than promoting teamwork.
The Analysis
In my opinion, it should ALWAYS feel good to take down an opponent in a team-centered game. Unfortunately, this is not presently the case in Apex: Legends.
While the current systems are extremely rewarding to players who take down an enemy—awarding them the coveted kill, promoting them as the kill leader if they've done enough, and rewarding experience and account progress at the end of the game—teammates who deal damage but cannot secure the kill gain nothing from their contributions to the team. This is particularly punishing to players who are strong at engaging but bad at sustaining through the whole fight, as well as snipers who often contribute massive damage but cannot secure the kill due to their low rate of fire.
The more frustrating aspect of assists, however, is that the game does nothing to detract (and in fact, promotes and rewards) people for "stealing the kill." This should NEVER be a feeling in the game, since it undermines the "win as a team; lose as a team" center on which the game relies.
> I should NEVER resent my teammate for swooping in and "stealing" my kill.
> I should NEVER resent a teammate for dealing the last tick of damage after I've done a vast majority of the work.
> I should NEVER resent a teammate for playing the game as its intended to be played.
Unfortunately, this is the feeling whenever someone swoops in at the end of a fight I'm winning, or picks off a player on whom I've worked to gain an advantage. It sucks, which is why I feel that assists should be almost (if not equally) as rewarding to players as kills.
The Solution
At the root of the issue, I feel that assists should be rewarding to players.
There is certainly some level of logic that can be applied to what it means to "earn" an assist, but fundamentally, I believe they should award the same progress towards achievements, dailies, and other aspects of the game as kills when earned. Here's what I'd propose:
The bottom line is that players will not feel punished when a member of their team helps them take down a baddie. This will hopefully alleviate the pain of the stolen kill, removing one of the chief aspects of inter-squad drama that crops up on the battlefield.
Thanks for the consideration; let me know if you agree or disagree below!
July 2019
July 2019 - last edited July 2019
I feel like if they made it so that all kill RP was pooled and divided equally between team mates it wouldn't need to be so complicated. RP should be the result of your performance, and done in a way so that you could concentrate on playing well, rather than tailoring your performance to things that aren't directly relevant in game (i.e who got the most damage or the killing blow - this shouldn't matter in a team game).
The fact that I got the most damage or just the last bullet on someone shouldn't make any difference - my team got the kill. If someone takes 0.00001 of a second to decide whether to shoot me or someone else in my team, they've helped by providing that space even if they're AFK
If they made the rewards ENTIRELY team based : no one would have any reason to see their team mates as enemies or competitors. Your only focus would be back where it should be : playing well and winning the game.
July 2019 - last edited July 2019
@Koochi-Q I don't mind people being difficult and bringing up the questions that need to be asked! *Pathfinder Thumbs-Up*
The idea of changing up who is awarded the kill or assist is largely to award the individual who does the work. The solution may be as simple as making assists worth something while leaving the kill logic the way it is. That said, I think there is room for improvement where we can look at the 95/5 split and identify a scenario where the person who did 95% of the work should probably reap the most prestigious award...even if the difference between kill and assist is (relatively) small.
I do like the idea @Anlbrd pitches, as well, since the idea of team over individual helps mitigate the issue as it stands. I do think assists should still be tracked and rewarded in some way, but changing up the system to focus 100% on the win could be an interesting iteration.
Thank you both for the feedback! Keep it coming; I definitely want to try and get this point across to the development team so it is worth their consideration!
July 2019
@Koochi-Q I don't mind people being difficult and bringing up the questions that need to be asked! *Pathfinder Thumbs-Up*
The idea of changing up who is awarded the kill or assist is largely to award the individual who does the work. The solution may be as simple as making assists worth something while leaving the kill logic the way it is. That said, I think there is room for improvement where we can look at the 95/5 split and identify a scenario where the person who did 95% of the work should probably reap the most prestigious award...even if the difference between kill and assist is (relatively) small.
I do like the idea @Anlbrd pitches, as well, since the idea of team over individual helps mitigate the issue as it stands. I do think assists should still be tracked and rewarded in some way, but changing up the system to focus 100% on the win could be an interesting iteration.
Thank you both for the feedback! Keep it coming; I definitely want to try and get this point across to the development team so it is worth their consideration!
July 2019
@Koochi-Q wrote:
Good post tho I just like being difficult
I don't mind people being difficult and bringing up the questions that need to be asked! *Pathfinder Thumbs-Up*
The idea of changing up who is awarded the kill or assist is largely to award the individual who does the work. The solution may be as simple as making assists worth something while leaving the kill logic the way it is. That said, I think there is room for improvement where we can look at the 95/5 split and identify a scenario where the person who did 95% of the work should probably reap the most prestigious award...even if the difference between kill and assist is (relatively) small.
I do like the idea @Anlbrd pitches, as well, since the idea of team over individual helps mitigate the issue as it stands. I do think assists should still be tracked and rewarded in some way, but changing up the system to focus 100% on the win could be an interesting iteration.
Thank you both for the feedback! Keep it coming; I definitely want to try and get this point across to the development team so it is worth their consideration!
July 2019
Doesn't call of duty do this or battlefield. I'm not sure which one but the player who does the most damage to a player gets the kill if he doesn't secure the kill but that enemy is killed with in a few seconds after taking damage. I also hate the weekly challenge of getting a certain amount of knockdowns in certain areas of the map. It just makes team split up because they want to complete their task for the battle pass.
July 2019
@javi060108 wrote:Doesn't call of duty do this or battlefield. I'm not sure which one but the player who does the most damage to a player gets the kill if he doesn't secure the kill but that enemy is killed with in a few seconds after taking damage. I also hate the weekly challenge of getting a certain amount of knockdowns in certain areas of the map. It just makes team split up because they want to complete their task for the battle pass.
I do know there are other games that do that sort of crediting. I'm not saying it's a perfect fit for Apex, but there could be some reward systems to draw from when coming up with the proper kill and assist crediting.
The pain points of dailies and weeklies are another topic that I'm sure someone has tackled, but I agree that they have certainly exacerbated the issue with kills.
July 2019 - last edited July 2019
@Aleph_OmicronTBH it is the fact that there are damage stats and kill counters that make the game more toxic within a team, because people are selfish and think they deserved the kill because they did the most damage. Here is a quick example, lets just say if said toxic players teammate didn't help out and said selfish player died he would be crying and complaining about his teammate not assisting him... unfortunately this climate of selfishness when it comes to bragging rights with the stat trackers is what ruins this game for me. Just look at the Xbox LFG, all the posts are about badges and stat requirements that are unrealistic and just toxic. All I care about is winning the match, not caring about showing off my stat tracker that shows me hoarding kills or strictly third party gun battles, lets face it, a lot of people in this game are used to running through newbs and casuals in the casual mode, ranked has changed up the gameplay and made it more conservative so these roid ragers are getting de_stroyed now.