April 2019
Ok, this post might feel like a bit of a rant, but I write with the hope that people respond with their own opinions and it picks up enough that the devs notice it.
So, I have about 400+ hours into this game, bought the battle pass (unfortunately) and I still enjoy the gun play, movement mechanics and the overall "feel" of the game. I consider myself to be an average player at best, although I play at 25-30 fps so its kind off hard to know. I want to see this game succeed, and I would like to keep playing. However, it is becoming so exhausting to play.
Although this game gives the impression of a finished product, if you look closer you will see it is far from it. There are huge, massive problems that have no place in highly competitive shooter like this, especially if you have any hope of creating any kind of e-sports scene. Bad design behind hitboxes completely destroys balancing, and makes certain legends far worse / better then others. Bad netcode, which causes you to get hit behind cover is not only frustrating, but extremely rage inducing as well. Server issues that cause your match to be laggy, in slow motion, or glitchy only add another layer of frustration.There is no reason, no goal, no incentive to play the game besides collecting cosmetics. These cosmetics are beyond underwhelming. Due to the way this games looks and how it plays, even the legendary skins are barely noticeable while in game. You can't see it, since its first person perspective, and the enemy can't see it, since to them you are just a fast moving blob that is shooting at them. Although cosmetics are a small problem compared to some of the other things, they disappoint me so much I had to mention them.
However, the reason I decided to write this post is the matchmaking, or the lack of it. Current matchmaking does nothing but cram 60 players into a match. No balancing at all. How is it okay to put a new player vs a Twitch streamer or a professional gamer who literally plays games all day for a living. Since everyone likes to mention Shroud, I remember him saying that ranked matchmaking has no place in a BR game since it would not make the game fun, and every match would be "sweaty". That was about the time Apex was released. Now he is saying that the game is too easy, or boring in other words. Of course that is the case, since top players like himself can enter a match which has no balance at all and stomp a wide variety of noobs and new players. I mention him to point out that 0 balance affect both sides of the spectrum. New players get frustrated and discouraged because they get stomped by top players, and top players are bored since there is no challenge for them. Right now, I log in, play maybe 3-4 matches, and get so tired and frustrated I just shut the game off. Even if just 1 player in your squad is a newbie, you are still handicapped from the start because of it. It got to a point where I just leave a match if i get a low level in my squad ( which is a d**k move I know ). I tried adding players through the forums and Discord channels, and out of 20ish players on my friend list, almost none play anymore.
Hitboxes, netcode, server issues, matchmaking. These are big issues. These are issues that take a lot of time to fix. However, I could give the devs the time they need, if they do something about this matchmaking, so that matches at least become bearable.
April 2019
Constantly see posts about matchmaking on this forum and Reddit. As far as I know Respawn have said nothing about it, which is worrying..
This game is unfinished it's as simple as that, it shouldn't have been released. It's only after you play it for a long time that you see how horribly unfair the game is when it comes to matchmaking, what you say about streamers is completely true, it's ridiculous that these "semi-pro" streamers are put against any random skilled players.
This game needs ranked or at least some better matchmaking, it's damaging the playerbase that there isn't. People will quit if it's ignored and left as it is, new players don't want to be stomped, skilled good players don't want to play with new low skill players. No one is happy.
April 2019 - last edited April 2019
EXACTLY! So many of us have been calling the issues out but it took them almost 3 months to FINALLY start adressing the hitbox/balancing issues between legends and, while they said they would pump it up if needed, 10% of damage reduction is so small that if you take 5min to do some calculations with every single weapon's damage times 0.9 you will immediatly see that it does NOTHING in terms of balancing beside for the longbow and triple take as they shoot so slow so one more bullet to kill CAN make a difference but that's only against a 200hp gib or caustic. But for all other weapons, either it does not change the amount of shots required to kill or it increases by a single one. Anybody with a brain will understand that if your weapon has a rate of fire of say 500rpm or more, you will not even see the difference for one bullet more or less.
Now there are still many issues like on top of said hitbox/balance between legends :
The game had a great launch but then it felt like it rested on it's laurels and barely anything was added or improved since.
P.S.: if you want to add your voices regarding the lack of matchmaking : https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Feedback/Skill-based-Matchmaking-is-mandatory-for-better-player/td...
April 2019 - last edited April 2019
When I think about it I have never seen EA put a ranked and unranked queue in any of their games, ever. I guess I thought this might be the first since they made 90 million the first month and it was hugely popular among pro gamers. But I've lost hope. All they did was keep nerfing guns. The latest nerfs I'm not too happy about. The game felt real different from other assault rifle shooters at first. Now not so special anymore. And a BR with random noob teamates is torturous. Absolute sadistic misery. I keep forcing myself to play now.