izigame.me

Preface: I do recommend this game - Only for short lengths of time. Maybe an hour or two TOPS. Any more than that and you run the risk of rage quitting and uninstalling due to one or more of the issues I list below. You have been warned.
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This game has now been around for over 2 years. PLENTY of time for the developers to establish a trusting relationship with their players/users. Typically, that is what a decent developer does: A swath of players will complain about a certain aspect of the game and the developers will actually listen and at least make attempts at fixing the problems.
NOT. IN. THIS. CASE. EVER.
I understand that a portion of what a game developing company does is supposed to generate revenue for the company - And they do! A separate, and equally important, aspect is that the company is also supposed to improve the game by listening to their users and addressing issues in a timely manner - hopefully, before their users get angry enough to drop the game altogether.
This is precisely where EA/Respawn have failed. And I will break it down for you, precisely HOW they have failed.
1. Cheaters:
This game has an inordinate amount of cheaters. There really is no easy way to say it. And it is OBVIOUS and BLATANT. EA relies upon the absolutely defunct Easy Anti-Cheat system. Please, hold your laughter... In their defense, however, they have made sure to spread rumors of a revamped anti-cheat system, designed specifically for Apex. The real issue is how LONG they have been spreading this rumor. I can only assume that it was a PR stunt to quiet those complaints of cheaters. How can I make that assumption? Mainly because they seem to focus on things of little or no consequence - Like adding badges to shield batteries and medkits... I mean, what?! Why would you focus on cosmetics when you have a huge cheater problem?!
2. Match-Making (MM):
Very rarely have I seen an MM quite as laughable as the one being used in Apex. I understand that there it a lot of complexity involved, what with ranked splits resetting every month (for the most part) and making everyone, essentially, noobs. But, there is a SUPER easy way to fix it (which I will detail later). I understand why they do the ranked split as well: they want to force players to play more often to keep their ranking high - DUH! The more players there are, the more likely it is that they make money and that those players will spread the word so that even more players will play and give them even more opportunity to make more money. But an MM based solely on your current in-game rank is absolutely asinine. And that is just ranked. What if you don't play ranked? Good luck! You could be paired against ANYONE, professional players and noobs alike.
3. Maps:
Currently, there are a total of five maps in Apex (for BR). Every season they have two maps in rotation for pub games. TWO. And those two maps rotate every hour or so. For ranked matches, they use ONE. Over and over, on and on... Maps should be randomized except in tournaments. Going into a game, you should not know where you are going to land, what characters you should be playing, etc. It should be a friggin' BATTLE ROYALE! Formulate your plan based on who is on your team and what the map is, ad-hoc, just like everyone else. No one should know what map your're landing on until the drop ship starts its flight across it. Add some aspect mystery to the game.
4. Weapons:
There is a good selection of weapons in the game, but the real issue is with practicality. Take, for instance, the so-called top sniper rifle in the game - the Kraber. It's supposed to be a .50-cal sniper rifle. It LOOKS great, but that's where the good news ends. If you hop into the firing range and test out all of the sniper rifles available to you, you will catch the glaring issues. The Sentinel, the Longbow, and the Charge Rifle all use sniper rounds (NOT a .50; Something smaller like a .308). All three can reach WAY out and touch your enemy. The Charge Rifle can literally reach all the way across an area of the map - over 800m. The Sentinel and Longbow can shoot pretty accurately to 400+m (depends on optics in use, graphics, screen size, FOV, etc). With the Kraber, the bullet starts dropping wildly at just 200m. Yeah...the highest-powered weapon in the game, using the highest-caliber bullet can BARELY eke out a 400m hit with accuracy. Let's add to this the 30-30 Repeater and the G7 Scout - A heavy ammo, medium range pew-pew and light ammo medium range pew-pew, respectively. Both of these rifles can out-shoot the Kraber with accuracy. WHY? And the Charge Rifle - Why does this not use energy ammo? I mean...CHARGE Rifle...it shoots a beam of light!...sigh...
5. Legends:
Don't get me wrong, there is a use for every single legend in the game. Whether it be for hiding, sniping, guarding, tracking...it's useful stuff. It is also getting really out of hand. First, how many freaking legends does a game like this need? At some point in the near future, you could probably have a pub match where every single player in the game is a different legend. I'm not even joking though I wish I were. Second, when EA unveils a new legend, they typically add it to the game and then they forget its existence. No re-balancing of legends, no fixing bugs, etc. And if they DO fix something with a legend, it is usually a heavy-handed nerf beyond what anyone that actually PLAYS the game was expecting. The abilities of the legends are pretty unique, but the overall effect of those abilities is copied across other legends. The exception to this is both Loba and Lifeline. Loba has her black market (so you don't have to hunt around an area if you know what you are looking for) and Lifeline has her health drone - The only legend that can heal your flesh-wounds. Other than those two, you can pretty much classify all other legends into categories like defense, offense, or recon and their abilities, while varied, have ultimately the same effect on the game. Offense legends can quickly get up in your face and kill you, defense legends can slow your entry into an area while sapping your health, and recon legends can track you and your team down. Simple. And boring too. Meh.
On to my ideas on how we can fix BOTH the cheater AND MM issues in Apex:
1. New DB table - Player AVG DMG (>10) Last 10 Games (PAD).
2. New DB table - Player AVG DMG Rating (PADR); 11-300: Rating 0; 301-700: Rating 1; 701-1200: Rating 2; 1201-2000: Rating 3; 2001-3200: Rating 4; 3201-4200: Rating 5 (AND account marked for review); 4200+: Rating 6 (Insta-banned - If the pros can't do it, pubs can't either without cheating).
*NOTE - Keep in mind that these are averaged over the last TEN games where damage done was greater than 10.
3. Players can only be matched with other players of the same PADR -/+1.
4. Teams have an AVG DMG Rating (TADR) of ((PADR1+PADR2+PADR3)/3)-1 (always rounded UP) for BR Trios. 1 player with R2, 2 players with R3 would be ((R2+R3+R3)/3)-1=R2. Teams can only be matched with other teams of the same TADR.
THREE birds, one stone. Fix MM, catch a boatload of cheaters, AND the games are more fun because you are playing with players very close to your own skill level instead of non-stop sweats OR non-stop noobs.
*I'm not saying it is not possible to play a 4K+ DMG game. I AM saying it IS impossible to play 10 *consecutive* 4K+ DMG games without cheating. Again, if the pros can't do it, neither can the pubs without programmatic assistance (cheating).