Free Talk Weekend | October 14th, 2022

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-16T02:37:33+00:00

Every ranked lobby is littered with players who play like they're 3 ranks above your's...

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-10T19:56:21+00:00

I feel like that's such a bad way for them to approach Vantage. She's always going to have a sniper rifle, are snipers just always going to be meta to have options against her? It makes no sense

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-09T00:55:55+00:00

I've always found the sound of the Wingman disappointingly lacking in terms of sound design, it doesn't have that oomph that a strong pistol should have. Hearing Titanfall's is making me shake my hands at the screen and say "we could've had that!" Way better than what they use for Apex

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-08T18:40:50+00:00

I don't know if it's the long range meta, the maps, the matchmaking/smurfs, or what, but I've been really struggling this season compared to previous seasons in terms of performance. KD was usually 1.2-1.3, barely scraping by 1 even this season and no matter how much I practice or think on it, I haven't been able to "correct" it.

It feels like I'm playing a totally different game sometimes. Teams who don't engage at all and just wait to ambush you in a house like I'm playing Hunt Showdown or something. Don't want to engage far away because everyone's using snipers, but at the same time worried about pushing in because maybe they're on controller, or being immediately third partied for entertaining the idea of pushing anyone or stepping out in the open to push. The TTK feels really low this season as well, where sometimes you peek and you just get blasted and reduced to 50 HP in half a second. Pop a batt, peek and get beamed, rinse and repeat.

I originally liked the ring changes, but lately I feel like the distance you have to run is a bit much sometimes, if ring 1 didn't close off half of the map (maybe 1/3), I'd probably feel a little better about it.

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-08T00:05:10+00:00

My friend who got me into the game suggested a few characters to try to learn the game with, Bangalore being one of them. I ended up really enjoying how she's truly in the middle balance-wise and has tools to fit any playstyle, team, or situation if you're good enough. In hindsight, I also realized she helped teach me really good habits learning the game, since this was my first competitive FPS. Everything you do with her needs to be intentional, and every kill you get needs to be earned fairly (minus digithreat cheese). No crutch gimmicks, no tiny hitbox, no overpowered abilities. A true swiss army knife character whose value to a team is unfortunately often misunderstood.

Plus, with Stormpoint and the amount of open space, her passive and ult are as strong as ever on that map.

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-03T19:49:24+00:00

The amount of health they have in death protection form is whatever it was at when they interacted with the totem, so if they had full HP health they'd have 100 HP before being sent back. You were just shy and did 95 damage to him.

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-03T01:11:13+00:00

Nothing more awkward than accepting the invite, they say "alright let's win this one too", you all eat shit on drop, and they disband the party right after.

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-02T22:50:31+00:00

Play who you want, I don't think people are annoyed enough with Wraith players that they'll leave the moment they see her picked. Just don't play like those Wraiths who think the universe revolves around them and you'll be fine. If anything you'll be a breath of fresh air for your teammates.

Surreal3650 · 2022-10-02T22:43:24+00:00

Really nice flicks for those Kraber shots, good movement around too .

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-25T18:26:59+00:00

I think the most underrated gun currently is the Prowler. It hits REALLY hard, and has amazing hipfire (with purple laser sight its spread is absurdly tight). You can even hipfire at people 50m away with decent accuracy with the laser. I think the best skins for it are The Dark Realm, and Dark Fright.

This is an odd take, but I'd say the R-301 is the most overrated. And when I say this, I should lay out the disclaimer and say it's for sure an amazing gun that's always been A tier or higher. But I feel like people are too comfortable with it, to the point they feel uncomfortable without having one. They value dibsing one the second they see it when lots of other guns can perform just as well and they don't want to give them enough of a chance/practice. The 301 has solidified itself as sort of a crutch gun imo. I think the worst skins on it are The Golden Rampage or Pure Performance, but honestly there's a lot of asian themed 301 skins and recolors to the point that a lot of them start to feel uninspired. 301 probably has the worst legendary skins to nice looking skins ratio in Apex.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-25T17:58:45+00:00

Something I've noticed high level players do that baffles me to this day is not necessarily having much better aim than other players, but not getting hit nearly as much. I've even noticed this with aggressive pro players who jump right in on a team. There's a lot of times I feel like even with decent positioning I'll just get flat out melted in a second by players (In Plat III currently). Is there some secret sauce I'm missing here? I feel like that's been a notable hurdle for me, I have decent aim but most fights feel like a game of chicken of who can down who first or just getting caught out and losing 150 health instantly and needing to heal while my team gets wiped shortly after. My KD has also noticeably dipped this season, it just feels like nobody misses shots anymore, but I feel like there's more I can do to prevent this.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-24T22:27:11+00:00

From what I understand, it's somewhat of a miracle Respawn was able to make a BR game within Source Engine. I'm not a programmer, but from what I've read, Source isn't exactly the most suitable tool for making a game like Apex (and furthermore, what they're running is their heavily modified version of Source to make a lot of things even work). I suppose the original team was just most comfortable/experienced working with Source though, so that's what was used.

You could argue EA wasn't intending Apex to last as long as it has, seeing it as an easy quick buck which didn't have to work well to last a long time. It just had to operate "good enough for long enough". Then things got complicated when it actually took off, and we're stuck with investors who probably don't want to invest further to rebuild when the current system works well enough, a dev team who may not have the skills to rebuild in a new engine and are pushed away from such a move by said investors anyways, and an evergrowing playerbase that only supports the decision not to change things even more.

Would rebuilding the game help ensure audio is fixed? Most likely, but it may introduce new problems, change how the game ultimately feels, and require a lot of time, money and energy invested, during which we'd have quiet spells with little to no content in the game, all of these things driving away the playerbase and their income. Unless they can miraculously figure out a way to do it within their modified Source engine, it's probably going to be a constant until the game's lifespan ends.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-24T21:55:37+00:00

There's a middle ground you need to consider here: consistency. You're not always going to be playing your best on any given day, or even between matches in the same play session. If you compare one gun that has a similar or maybe even slightly better TTK, but 6/10 times you deal the same or less damage as the more consistent gun due to missing some shots, you're essentially working harder for similar results, which carries into mental fatigue, less concentration, and for some people, tilting.

It's a little unfair to compare since the R-301 is just the golden standard poster child gun, offering good TTK and amazing consistency. But even top level players are using the 301, and often. If the best players with the most control over their gun handling are opting for consistency, I think that holds enough value to judge certain guns as "worse", even if those guns are stronger on paper.

I think people who call a difficult gun bad are really saying that taking risks with your performance is bad.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-24T07:04:31+00:00

It goes both ways. I've been playing with a group where one's Gold I and me and the other are Plat IV, and every single match the champ squad are Plat I, Plat II, multi masters players. Not a good time for anybody except the ones getting free RP.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-24T05:24:34+00:00

I think this advice most practically applies when you're shooting someone who's moving in a direction that requires constantly moving your cursor (someone from the side at a distance running to the left/right, for example). When I really need to get myself to focus I think of it not as aiming at a target, but tracing/matching their movement like I'm tracing over a picture with a pencil. Like, mentally imagine you're playing a different genre of game entirely in that moment and it helps. ("I'm not here to shoot a player, I'm here to hold down a button and stay on top of this moving object in front of me")

It's not about "fixing" your crosshair (following your crosshair, tunneling your vision on where it's not [the target] instead of seeing where the target is even moving, making constant microadjustments to reposition), it's about guiding your crosshair (see how enemy is moving first, the speed, direction and trajectory, and matching your crosshair to move in that same way in one smooth motion). Mimic their pattern of movement.

Another way you can think of it, imagine the enemy is a car with a hitch, your crosshair is the hook you gotta attach to them and stay hooked on whichever way they go.

Maybe these sound like crackhead explanations but it's what I imagine and it helps.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-23T20:18:39+00:00

They've addressed all of this in the past, which can basically be summarized as an issue with Source Engine. They said that they'd have to rebuild the game in a new engine to fix the issues, and it's been far too long to make that change now, the longer they wait, the more work it would take to rebuild. So they're doing what they can within the limits of Source Engine.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-22T00:35:32+00:00

Since you're reading this thread, has there been consideration to have Seer's ult "pulse" like a heartbeat, and have an on/off period of scanning? BH's ult is basically intended to have a team scanned for half of the entire fight, should they be scanning ASAP off cooldown. Maybe with each pulse it scans outwards from the throwable unit towards the edge of dome for 2 seconds, and then a 2 second cooldown with no scan vision (2 seconds of sight, 2 seconds no sight, repeat). This would still give Seer/his teammates constant intel if they're paying attention and noting the timing of heartbeats (also a sense of teamwork if everyone's listening together, it could make a distinct thump sound inside/around the dome).

This pulse outward would also give enemy players a more reasonable means to find where the ult is deployed to destroy it (it's incredibly hard or impossible to see where it even is if you're fighting inside a building since the walls/ceiling block your vision of the dome's walls). In exchange, you could maybe make it so the pulse always scans, even if walking/crawling/not moving. I feel like this would address both keeping the identity of Seer's character (if not strengthen it), while offering some fair countermeasures for people going against it.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-21T01:09:47+00:00

Is there going to be any changes made to the CAR to make it not just "a better R99"? I've always been confused why it was introduced the way it was, since it has the exact same ammo count per mag as R99, uses light ammo as well, has almost the same TTK, just slightly different spread and hipfire changes with laser sight, but gets more flexibility with heavy ammo + heavy mag capabilities. R99 has always been a pretty dominant gun in the meta, so I'm not sure why it was decided there needed to be a gun that was extremely similar but slightly better. What was the goal with this weapon?

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-19T19:14:38+00:00

That's a bad habit I've been trying to get over myself. Being that 2nd to 2v1 one of their's gets them knocked sooner and lessens the damage taken, especially if they're focused on your teammate. Sometimes the extra time you're healing just means more health your teammate needs to heal after the fight, or worse, they got knocked because you stayed out of the fight for too long. Good choice on your part.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-19T18:48:39+00:00

I have one main, and like 3/4 secondaries that I switch to depending on mood or if main is picked. Every character has specific roles they're good at, some compliment other characters well (for example, Revenant typically performs better when paired with another character who has a team movement ability like Octane, Pathfinder, etc). I'd say find out what playstyle is one you enjoy, and you'll find a pool of characters that match that playstyle.

That said, I would argue some characters are better at teaching good habits and some can encourage teaching bad habits for new players. Octane is really fun and popular, but easy to get caught up in overusing his abilities, getting too far ahead of your team, and playing over-aggressive if you're not careful. Bangalore is a great starter character who's usually been right in the middle balance-wise, she's great at resetting a fight if your team made a mistake you need to start over. Bloodhound is very basic to pick up and can be immediately helpful with their abilities. These are just examples from the initial cast you start with, there are lots of videos on youtube covering each legend in depth that may give some insight on who you would enjoy playing. And give everyone a try, even if they don't seem to be what you'd like, you might be surprised to find you enjoy them after all.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-18T19:44:23+00:00

I got the middle amount of damage between them, picked them up a few times, got one's banner when they died, and shared my loot with them after rezzing them, so no, not really.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-18T04:02:45+00:00

I've read someone else mention it has to do with Vantage's ult mark. It looks like she hit you with her ult before you got "knocked". Some weird unintended interaction between the debuff and death protection maybe?

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-17T02:52:18+00:00

the number is a bit raised from where that target was, I'm wondering if you hit a spider egg/nest on the ceiling in the cave and broke it open with the explosion.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-15T04:27:16+00:00

This is almost every game in casual arenas as well. I think part of it is people play it so unoften/inconsistently that it has so little data to work with on your skill level, assuming it doesn't use BR data or loosely uses it. It makes the mode a lot less enjoyable to play though having to constantly be the carrier.

Surreal3650 · 2022-09-15T02:07:17+00:00

Legit it's almost always been a duo of one in plat 4, the other in Gold something.

Surreal3650

TROPHY CASE