Apex Legends devs say players are hiding from each other too much, as Season 18 promises to target ratting
Apex Legends players are deliberately avoiding each other to last longer in the team battle-royale shooter’s ranked mode, according to devs Respawn. That’s a bit of a problem when it’s a multiplayer game about, y’know, shooting - so the studio plans to target what it says is a rising trend of “ratting” in the upcoming Season 18.
The declaration of war on ratters came via a detailed breakdown of Apex Legends’ ranked matches over on Steam, which revealed a notable increase in the time that players have spent idle since the start of the game’s current Season 17.
Respawn confirmed that “ratting” - a term for players trying to avoid fighting each other to survive longer and earn more points - had recently grown in popularity recently across both standard ranked matches and even pro-level teams playing in its Apex Legends Global Series esports league.
“A portion of this is due to an increased number of players waiting for ring closures, but we can safely say that it is mostly due to players hiding and avoiding others (while crouching or standing),” the devs wrote.
As such, the game’s next season will make a number of changes when it arrives on August 8th, tweaking the timing of rings to coax players into encountering each other earlier, tune its damage so that players are encouraged to stay inside it and fix specific “ratting spots” - with more fixes on the way.
“Hiding and avoiding firefights isn’t a rewarding way to play Apex Legends,” Respawn said. “Season 18 has some updates to target this, and more are coming in future seasons to address the core gameplay issues around inactivity and avoidant playstyles.”
The lengthy overview of upcoming changes was candid about a number of other issues in Apex Legends’
Read more on rockpapershotgun.com
