An Apex Legends developer from Respawn has confirmed that the team has "stuff in mind" for rebalancing the battle royale's plentiful weapon pool, acknowledging that "we know we can't keep releasing weapons without considering the health of the loot pool".
After being tagged into a tweet over the weekend that demanded the team "remove weapons for God's sake, nobody cares about P20, Bocek, or 3030 and actually help with the loot pool distribution", associate live balance designer John Larson responded to the tweet.
After first taking issue about the cavalier remarks about the game's less impressive weapons – "You take that back. I care about the Bocek," Larson teased – John added: "We got stuff in mind. We know we can't keep releasing weapons without considering the health of the loot pool."
You take that back. I care about the Bocek.We got stuff in mind. We know we can’t keep releasing weapons without considering the health of the loot poolNovember 13, 2021
When challenged to consider a change to the game that could see players spawn in with weaker weapons like the P2020, Larson replied: "This was a hot topic when we were implementing starter kits.
"I was against it because of how quickly a coordinated team could wipe a solo on a contested drop. It's already a common strat in high-level ranked. The initial gun scramble buys some time for everyone to react."
While Larson stopped short of detailing what kinds of things the team might be considering, it's interesting that Respawn has publicly acknowledged that the wide array of weapons currently available in the battle royale may eventually need addressing, particularly if there are even more weapons on the horizon.
ICYMI, a number of developers working on Apex Legends recently discussed how Respawn has avoided crunch, which is a period of extensive overtime – and overworking – that frequently occurs in game development to hit targets. Principal environmental artist Jobye-Kyle Karmaker retweeted a quote by Apex Legends’ game director Chad Grenier, which said: "We also refuse to crunch the team, so we’ll probably be slower at making content than if we worked 15 hour days but that’s just not something we’re willing to do."
Karmarker responded with: "Feel incredibly lucky to be on @PlayApex. It’s so nice to have leadership from @ChadGrenier & crew that value team health & that actively take steps to protect it publicly + internally."
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