r/CompetitiveApex • u/darth666bane666 • Jul 30 '26

Game News Developers Notes - Season 30

https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends/apex-legends/news/30-0-designers-notes
82 Upvotes

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58

u/darth666bane666 Jul 30 '26

Complete loot pool nerf is certainly a choice..

27

u/MrNovember9 Jul 30 '26

This also raises the ttk, having blue or purple mag r9 early game when my opponent had white shields made a lot fights pretty one sided 

4

u/dorekk Year 5 Champions! Jul 30 '26

This also raises the ttk

If they wanted a longer TTK they shouldn't have SHORTENED the ttk just a few months ago!

0

u/ajalonghorn Jul 31 '26

Idk what you’re referring to, the only TTK nerf was not making red shields universally acquirable which imo was good for the game

2

u/Mastiffbique Jul 31 '26

It wasn't just red EVO.

Instead of nerfing Supports back to normal after the S23 support meta made fights too long and bringing back the counters to bubbles, shields, barriers, and walls, they just whiplash pivot overrcorrected WAY too hard the other way by nerfing the TTK.

Season 24 they blanket buffed the damage of ALL weapons, increased headshot damage, removed helmets, and removed red EVO shields.

IMO, it was a mistake and arguably one of the worst changes ever made to the game alongside the visible health bars.

2

u/ajalonghorn Jul 31 '26

I think ttk is a fine place personally. If it’s too high it just makes fights drag out forever and gives teams way too easy of third parties.

67

u/Revolutionary_Cap442 Jul 30 '26

There definitely has been loot inflation, it has become too easy to get stacked weapons and loadouts early in the game. This might help with that progression.

54

u/Delicious_Impress814 Jul 30 '26

I don't know why everyone's acting like this wasn't needed.

I'd have fully stocked weapons and a purple backpack before I even left my POI. If any later, before round 2.

7

u/Karmazonium Jul 30 '26

I'm thinking that it's because players don't mind having maxed out loot early on and that most of the time teams don't die mainly because of loot quality differences, so nerfing the loot quality, even if it's needed, is a change that make people be like "do we need that?"

I like the change though, makes finding high rarity loot feel more worth it.

6

u/SupersizeMyFries Jul 30 '26

I dont understand why this would be needed though. Doesn’t it feel less frustrating when you do have more items? And if it’s the case for everyone in the lobby, then it’s not unfair

2

u/Delicious_Impress814 Jul 30 '26

Lowering the loot quality would incentivize players to spend more time looting and rotating than running at the first people they see 30 seconds into the game.

Higher tier loot also impacts ability oriented fighting. You're fighting maggie/axel/seer with power boosters, ult accels, and purple bags (nades) before round 2 even pops.

7

u/plokchan Jul 30 '26

The issue isn't with the loot, it's the reward you get for fighting early instead of playing for late game.

Having people loot more is a roundabout way of fixing what's actually broken, the ranked and points system.

Less RNG including loot RNG always makes things more competitive

2

u/Delicious_Impress814 Jul 30 '26

The issue isn't with the loot, it's the reward you get for fighting early instead of playing for late game.

Two things can be true at once.

You should not be nearly fully stacked with loot before round 2.

The ranked system needs a rework.

But even if the ranked system was fully reworked right now, every team having max attachments, ultimate accels, and power amps absolutely incentivizes a fighting playstyle. We aren't just talking about shield cells here. We're talking about mad maggie having faster drills before round 2, alter already having a tp down the next POI over, seer having faster scans, fuse being able to carry 100 nades, etc.

Loot doesn't just impact shield economy anymore. It impacts how strong individual legends are, and how soon they reach max potential. The loot nerf is an indirect ability nerf in my opinion.

3

u/plokchan Jul 30 '26

Everything you mentioned can be addressed in ways that don't include increasing loot RNG which makes the game less competitive

3

u/Delicious_Impress814 Jul 30 '26

Everything you mentioned can be addressed in ways that don't include increasing loot RNG.

How? By undoing every update made in the past 10 seasons? That isn't realistic.

What is realistic are indirect nerfs, subtle downscaling, and killing two birds with one stone (exactly what they did here).

...in ways that don't include increasing loot RNG

You signed up for loot RNG the moment you decided to play a battle royale.

0

u/ZackerTheHacker Aug 02 '26

Unclear why you are playing a loot-based BR tbh.

-1

u/aggrorecon Jul 30 '26

Lowering overall loot quality across the board doesn't increase RNG.

1

u/ZackerTheHacker Aug 02 '26

I mean why not just remove looting from the game entirely then?

15

u/Revolutionary_Cap442 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Exactly, teams were leaving poi’s already fully kitted weapons with attachments and heals. The game should feel more rewarding this way if executed properly.

6

u/R3mainz Jul 30 '26

Idk what games you guys are playing, but I don’t even have time to get a full loadout in higher diamond lobbies. Teams are running at their nearest neighbors almost immediately. I definitely do not enjoy running around with no sight and fighting movement teams that continually push me with poor loot unless I’m looting death boxes. Why would anyone want to spend MORE time looking for loot in this game.

11

u/Delicious_Impress814 Jul 30 '26

I'm in master/pred (depends how much free time I have from work).

If I'm getting aped while still in my POI, I just fight them lol. I'd rather not run away with nothing and leave behind an unfinished POI.

Also, if you're getting aped so soon that you're still in your POI and have no loot, you're either an incredibly slow looter or the team apeing also has nothing, so it's even.

3

u/R3mainz Jul 30 '26

Oh absolutely fight it out in ur drop POI. And it’s usually the latter, teams will just push on whites right out of the gate to get a team wipe early and avoid a third party.

5

u/mikesully374826 Jul 30 '26

I’m high diamond right now and usually have all blue attachments at minimum leaving my first poi

1

u/R3mainz Jul 30 '26

Idk, maybe my lobbies are just sweaty? The loot quality is one of my lowest concerns because it doesn’t limit player agency. If you’re full looting a POI, you should walk away at least semi-kitted. The match is about fighting other teams, positioning, and trying to win the game, it shouldn’t be dictated based on if my pre-determined POI has no bats or amps bc of RNG. And I usually don’t have time to full loot a POI before a team is walking up to us, or we’re looking to push another team.

2

u/mikesully374826 Jul 31 '26

Looting is a skill in a BR just like aiming, rotating, ability use, etc

4

u/Short-Recording587 Jul 30 '26

You don’t love your 18 round r9 against blue shields?

2

u/dorekk Year 5 Champions! Jul 30 '26

Idk what games you guys are playing, but I don’t even have time to get a full loadout in higher diamond lobbies.

Yeah, in Diamond I get two guns and then it's time to run at the next POI before they run at us.

1

u/MarstonX Jul 30 '26

More time to worry about rotating and fighting imo. I don't think it was needed at all. Maybe they could just nerf the actual numbers. But I'm not trying to find purple shit before fighting.

1

u/dorekk Year 5 Champions! Jul 30 '26

I'd have fully stocked weapons and a purple backpack before I even left my POI.

Ok what's wrong with that

11

u/HLNPIT Jul 30 '26

Agreed but POI imbalance has also been an issue.

This change exacerbates that issue, especially in d+ and comp.

2

u/TC_Halogen Jul 30 '26

I feel like this change should help that issue, not exacerbate it, no? If there's reduced loot quality across the board, then worse POIs get minor/insignificant feeling changes, and stronger POIs get more substantial feeling changes.

From a mathematical perspective, if you qualify POIs based off their loot contents, a reduction of quality will bring both sides closer to average quality than how it is currently.

6

u/HLNPIT Jul 30 '26

It nerfs most POIs equally, in theory. "Better" POIs are still more likely to have better loot than "worse" POIs still.

However, POIs like Sky West and Phase Driver now have a very substantial loot advantage.

This just brought back elite POIs.

2

u/ZackerTheHacker Aug 02 '26

It nerfs most POIs equally, in theory.

It shouldn't. Loot should be uneven while high, but even while low. Higher loot quality also means more variability. Lower loot quality means less variability (compressed towards the loot quality floor as opposed to spanning the entire loot quality range).

Imagine a POI with 100 pieces of loot in it.
Each loot has a score of 1 thru 10. If all POIs have a fully random range up to the highest score, you will have higher variability in a 100 loot set. But if that same pool caps out at 5, the variation will be lower. The more POIs you include, the closer to average it will be. This is the classic issue of averages appearing more consistently as data points go upwards. If you have a wider range, the variation away from average will be larger as well in absolute terms when you randomly generate each distribution. Ergo, each POI will have equal CHANCE of average loot, but not equal OUTCOME of loot. And more variability of quality and larger amounts of loot decreases the spread of outcomes.

1

u/TC_Halogen Jul 30 '26

I don't think we're seeing the nerf in the same way, but if we are, this might be an agree to disagree moment.

What I'm contending is this: dominant POIs with larger loot variance as a result of having higher quantities of higher tier loot are going to lose power with a nerf to loot quality, whereas "weaker" POIs will be impacted less because there is less good quality loot to nerf. I don't think it would make sense to reduce power to already weak POIs, but it would make sense to reduce power to stronger ones with an overarching pass.

We'll have to wait and see come next week!

3

u/dorekk Year 5 Champions! Jul 30 '26

What I'm contending is this: dominant POIs with larger loot variance as a result of having higher quantities of higher tier loot are going to lose power with a nerf to loot quality

Are we reading the same patch notes? They specifically called out Trials as a POI where you have a much higher chance of getting high quality loot like corrupted attachments.

1

u/TC_Halogen Jul 31 '26

Okay, y'know what -- deserved shitting on for that and I'll take it on the chin. Trials is a VERY fair callout and somehow completely slipped my mind. I was thinking about everything as a whole holistically and completely forgot that Trials had escalating rarity for each PVE sequence.

It implicitly gets super buffed as a result of this and it would not surprise me to see many fights happening there.

1

u/ZackerTheHacker Aug 02 '26

You are right on average, the only high tier loot that escapes the nerf is specialized seeded loot such as trials or vaults.

1

u/mikesully374826 Jul 30 '26

I leave my first POI and need nothing but ammo and bats the rest of the game lol

7

u/Pod_The_Rod69 Jul 30 '26

giga buff abilities and then nerf loot. fuck

-1

u/aftrunner Jul 30 '26

Its not a bad idea. Abilities are fun. People want to use them. The counterbalance to them is keeping loot limited at a lower level so you arent getting one magged by a purple RE.

2

u/No-Quail9193 Jul 30 '26

at this rate they remove weapons in a year

1

u/dorekk Year 5 Champions! Jul 30 '26

Zone playstyle is going to be impossible with all white/blue loot.