Octopus Overlords

Probably my skin. I bet its from the last forum update. Its probably been this way a good while and I got used to it. I'll leave it.

I don't know how much I like this game. It's VERY dependent on your teammates not running off like idiots and 90% of the time I die because I run out of ammo. People are bullet sponges and there isn't enough ammo. And half the guns just totally suck balls. The best gun is a freaking pistol.. Meh... I really like the controls and the map etc... The loot and weapon balance just seems totally off to me.

I suspect your opinion will change with more time in the game. It's not that I think your observations are wrong, only that over time your average game is going to play out differently.

The guns have low clip size by design (to drag out fights for the average player, I suspect) and extended clips can help with that, but not remove it entirely, and while players are tankier than PUBG, they aren't as tanky as compared to Call of Duty or other similar multiplayer shooters. I die and (rarely) kill in seconds. Armor plays a big part in that obviously. Typically you're going to have a VERY hard time sniping someone down at long range. That's just not going to happen often. At medium to close range however, people last only slightly longer than PUBG. WTFMoses initially suggested the time to kill was too long as well, but later conceded that it really wasn't very long at all.

When I'm against a scrub similar to myself, the fight can last entire seconds. Against less scrubby players I often die before I can spot my attacker. Even in PUBG where the time to kill is incredibly short, I can usually spot my attacker first. I chalk it up to learning a new game.

For me the bloom kind of came off the rose after playing for several hours yesterday. A little introspection has shown that it's just my usual disappointment in being destroyed in seconds at times (which is the nature of BR's it seems) and when I do get a kill, it is not very satisfying. That's a problem I have in PUBG as well, so I can't blame Apex for that.

I don't know if the game is going to last. I kind of think it won't, but I have little experience in evaluating what the gaming world wants and likes, so it's just a guess.

There's apparently a rarity higher than legendary:

Heirloom Loot



If you get one, you get the whole set. Odds are 1/500, and if you don't get one by your 500th apex pack then you get one at that point guaranteed.

wonderpug wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:23 am
If you get one, you get the whole set. Odds are 1/500, and if you don't get one by your 500th apex pack then you get one at that point guaranteed.

As implied by wonderpug here, the loot boxes are "insured" against bad luck, so while they start with standard probability, they prevent duplicates. And if you have an unlucky streak without a top tier reward, you automatically get one after a certain number of crates (don't recall the number).

So that's a nice touch and will keep people from being completely screwed by probability.

You're guaranteed to get a Legendary every 30 loot boxes.

Probably the best idea to keep them from being labelled as gambling in some European countries.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 10, 2019 10:59 pm I suspect your opinion will change with more time in the game. It's not that I think your observations are wrong, only that over time your average game is going to play out differently.

The guns have low clip size by design (to drag out fights for the average player, I suspect) and extended clips can help with that, but not remove it entirely, and while players are tankier than PUBG, they aren't as tanky as compared to Call of Duty or other similar multiplayer shooters. I die and (rarely) kill in seconds. Armor plays a big part in that obviously. Typically you're going to have a VERY hard time sniping someone down at long range. That's just not going to happen often. At medium to close range however, people last only slightly longer than PUBG. WTFMoses initially suggested the time to kill was too long as well, but later conceded that it really wasn't very long at all.

When I'm against a scrub similar to myself, the fight can last entire seconds. Against less scrubby players I often die before I can spot my attacker. Even in PUBG where the time to kill is incredibly short, I can usually spot my attacker first. I chalk it up to learning a new game.

For me the bloom kind of came off the rose after playing for several hours yesterday. A little introspection has shown that it's just my usual disappointment in being destroyed in seconds at times (which is the nature of BR's it seems) and when I do get a kill, it is not very satisfying. That's a problem I have in PUBG as well, so I can't blame Apex for that.

I don't know if the game is going to last. I kind of think it won't, but I have little experience in evaluating what the gaming world wants and likes, so it's just a guess.

Possibly, but it was worse than freaking PUBG with the weapons for me. Could just be that I'm looking in the wrong spots. I was planning on playing with my daughter, but then her sound got all jacked up on her computer. Have to sort that out when I get home. She's freaking ridiculous at FPS games. She was playing one game where she named herself The Plague and she had like 11 kills and everyone else had like 1-2. She was running around screaming everyone gets shot down by The Plague. Hell she gets good enough maybe she can make a few bucks streaming when she's older. WITH NO CAMERA!

Just to let Goo down gently, I uninstalled yesterday without ever playing a match. I just can't get myself interested in squad play. Solo I can only let myself down. Don't try your logic on me, it doesn't work that way!

I've watched a few matches on twitch with the same streamers I watched play PUBG and it is fun to watch but doesn't feel like something I need to play.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:17 pm Just to let Goo down gently, I uninstalled yesterday without ever playing a match. I just can't get myself interested in squad play. Solo I can only let myself down. Don't try your logic on me, it doesn't work that way!

I've watched a few matches on twitch with the same streamers I watched play PUBG and it is fun to watch but doesn't feel like something I need to play.

No sweat coop. Definitely didn't want to guilt you into anything. I've only played sporadically in the last little while.

If you're talking about loot locations, finding weapons Oct, I agree with you and that was my initial impression as well. Now that I've played a bit and know that certain locations are *not* loot spawn locations, it's a little better, but it's still possible to hotdrop and find 10+ attachments and no weapons. And that sucks in any BR game, including this one.

I have been playing a lot of Realm Royale lately for my Battle Royale fix but am downloading this now to try it out.

Goo, I sent a friend request.

I am morlac00.

I’m Octavian230 on Origin if anyone wants to add me. I know I can be a bit annoying to play with sometimes but I’m game if you see me online.

You don't scare me...invite sent

I accidentally sound like a judgemental version of this guy sometimes. More than one rando has made fun of my stoner laugh.

Octavious wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:06 pm I accidentally sound like a judgemental version of this guy sometimes. More than one rando has made fun of my stoner laugh.

I can get behind that LOL.

EDIT: I'm red51ve on Origin if anyone wants to send a req.

People on Ludes should not play Battle Royales. Just sayin'.

And yet I'm probably the most hyper player. I loot like half the town before everyone gets through one building.

It's fun watching streamers out of their comfort zone. They make excuses, rationalize, reset their attitude and try again, complain, and generally feel uncomfortable about not being a master of the game at first.

It's pretty eye opening to watch their confidence shaken. I like it. In choco's defense, he externalizes his problems the *least* and generally understands that he doesn't know the game well enough to have a solid opinion of it yet, let alone be instantly good at it. His ego is growing, but he's still rooted firmly on the ground, which I like.

Octavious wrote: ↑Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:21 pm And yet I'm probably the most hyper player. I loot like half the town before everyone gets through one building.

...looking for doritos and microwave burritos.

I thought I had replied to this yesterday but I guess I screwed it up.

I got to play two matches with Greengoo guiding me over the weekend. It was a real rush and I had probably the best time I've had in this style of game (FPS and/or battle royale) in many years. I can see why people are drawn to this Hunger Games style gameplay. The interface for this game is definitely one of the best I've seen and easiest to pick up for an FPS; most everything is pretty clearly marked or self explanatory.

Unfortunately the combat is still just too FPS-y for me (meaning just too fast and chaotic). I know that's fun for a lot of people and part of it is me aging, but it's just a little too crazy hectic for me. I honestly don't see the point of having a "support" role or "healing" when you basically die in seconds or less. Maybe if you play a ton so it just becomes reflexive? Or maybe there are certain times when fights last a little longer so this comes into play? I could barely hit myself with a heal thing before I dropped dead, let alone find a teammate and use the healing thing.

With Anthem coming out soon, I most likely won't have enough time to devote to much more of this, but I definitely want to thank Green for taking the time to explain many details of the game to me (and on the forums).

My pleasure Rich, I only wish I could process tactical information and communicate at the same time. My communication center just shuts down the moment someone is trying to shoot at us, especially if I'm talking about something other than the shooting at us part. If I trailed off mid-sentence that's why.

I'm definitely feeling my age as well, and I've had some repetitive stress injury on my mouse wrist for decades that I've never had treated (if there even is such a thing) and both of those don't help me in combat at all, so you're not alone in finding the combat challenging. That said, games like this are like taking everyone who has ever picked up a basketball, dumped them in a room, then randomly selected teams from that room and pitted them against each other. We're talking players from grade school gym class through the NBA all-star team. It's not supposed to be fair, but it can be incredibly unfair when you take looting into account as well.

Two nights ago Redfive and I played with a random player and we had multiple drawn out shootouts, with rezzing teammates multiple times. Admittedly that's not the norm, but it's not abnormal either. Typically what happens is a 3rd team joins in and slaughters everyone before they know the new threat has arrived. It's the nature of the BR genre. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with it.

There is muscle memory and whatever it's called when you get more familiar with a task so that it requires less active thought involved. BR's are rough to learn as they throw you in the deep end and you have to figure out what you need to do then figure out how to do it, all while under extreme time constraints and enemy threats. The gameplay is NOT user friendly, although the game systems in this one are the best I've seen, which reduces the learning curve.

I should note that I am by no means a BR expert. I liked PUBG and spent way more time and effort on it than I ever expected, but I haven't touched Fortnite or any of the others (not even playing the Armada H1Z1 or whatever it was) and have only just started to play this game. I've played quite a few hours in Apex and feel like I've barely even loaded it up. These games are designed to be difficult to master, particularly when the main obstacle you need to overcome is other players' skill.

Healing is something that is either done during down time (after you've won the encounter) or during the rare "safe" moment when you've taken cover and the enemy is either preoccupied with your teammates or is afraid to push ("push" in these games means to bring the fight closer to the enemy, driving forward, flanking, and generally making sure the enemy doesn't have time to regroup/heal/whatever). You fight, you get shot, you take cover, you heal (about 4-6 seconds depending on the heal item) then re-engage if you haven't been pushed and/or died yet. Lifeline can drop her heal station behind cover, so her team mates can retreat to that cover and get healed automatically. There really isn't any healing while actually shooting/being shot at. You need cover and a few moments in time to get away with it. There's a certain rhythm to combat in these games and while it's true that it is over super fast (PUBG can be even faster, if you can believe it) it can also last 30-60 seconds. Anything longer and someone else is going to eat both your lunches. 60 seconds is a LONG engagement.

I'm not going to say that your initial impressions are wrong. They are almost certainly correct and applicable to most first time players. The way these games are played evolves as skills develop and systems are analyzed and exploited (traditional meaning, not cheating). As a player your skills will develop and what seemed like insurmountable problems will seem trivial after awhile, replaced by new insurmountable objects.

In any case, I am glad you took the time to play with us, and I'm glad it was better than past attempts, even if it's not your cup of tea. It is incredibly cutthroat and frustrating, but sometimes things go your way and suddenly everything is sunshine and roses. Just not often (or not often enough, it feels like).

Played PUBG last night. I think tonight is going to be Apex, if anyone is looking for a teammate.

Given that I can afford free, I may give this a try sometime soon.

As far as FPS games go, I've been playing them for years, but in the last few months I've been on a quest to improve my skill in them, partially to counter my aging reflexes. I've managed to make a noticeable (to me) improvement. If anyone's interested, I can post something on what I've been doing.

Of course we're interested.

They doing maintenance on PUBG today anyway. Guess I'll try this again. I played a couple of rounds and dropped back into PUBG after running into the same cycle of being under looted and dying.

Frey and I were playing duos in pubg. I landed approximately 2 seconds before an opponent on Erangel. We both entered the same building. I took the half that had 5+ loot spawn locations, he took the half that had 2 loot spawn locations. I found a backpack and some random bandages and such. He found a 1911. I punched him once, then waited until Frey was ready to start a new game.

The point being that even though I agree that loot can be uneven in Apex, we are still learning the loot spawn density on the map, and the quality of loot that spawns at those locations. Even if Apex is as bad as first impressions indicate, Erangel is worse.

I played a bunch tonight and had a much better time. Thunder and I won a match woo.

Patch notes:

VALENTINES DAYS

Added "Live Die Live" Banner Badge: Revive a member of your squad between 2/13 and 2/19 to earn this limited time badge.
Added Valentines Day cosmetic items to the store. They will be live and available in the store starting 2/13 until 2/19 and then they’re gone!
“Through the Heart” Longbow Epic DMR skin
"Love of the Game" Pathfinder banner frame
​

STABILITY / BUGS / PERFORMANCE / QoL

Various improvements and tweaks to UI.
Extended timeout that was causing players with slower hard drives to crash.
Addressed a number of client and server stability issues.
Fixed exploit where you could keep duplicating items in your inventory.
Addressed a number of stability and performance issues.
Fixed issue where players would get a gray screen in lobby when connecting for the first time.
Fixed issue where your friends list showed all your friends as offline and unable to party.
Shortened duration of Bloodhound’s Eye of the Allfather clones to remain in the world by 1 second.
​

GEAR

Arc Star now displays a grenade warning indicator.
KINGS CANYON

Addressed a number bugs with map geo like holes you could fall through and areas that players could get stuck in plus a bunch of other polish issues.
PLAYSTATION PLUS PLAY PACK

Art updated for the Playstation Plus Play Pack to the Flatline skin and Banner Card and changed the names to Deep Blue. This will affect all players that already have been rewarded the skins as well.
We still have a lot of work to do and we hear those frustrated by disconnects and crashes and are working to improve stability and performance as well as provide more visibility for everyone.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 7:56 pm Given that I can afford free, I may give this a try sometime soon.

As far as FPS games go, I've been playing them for years, but in the last few months I've been on a quest to improve my skill in them, partially to counter my aging reflexes. I've managed to make a noticeable (to me) improvement. If anyone's interested, I can post something on what I've been doing.

I have an arthritic left thumb, crappy eyesight and aged reflexes. I'm all ears....they still work fine.

I posted it in PC Games.

This seems to be the only thing I can play now. And I hate battle royal games. In this one its ok but after living 5-20 min and shooting someone a full mag of ammo full only to have them turn and 1 or 2 shot me is getting old.

I just tried this for the first time today.

I am terribad. Learing curve + middle aged reflexes = oof.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:48 pm I just tried this for the first time today.

I am terribad. Learing curve + middle aged reflexes = oof.

Usually there are some people on the OO discord server who might be looking to team up. Misery loves company.

15 minutes into a match we have killed 3 squads and doing well and the ring is shrinking to its near final time...and I crash out of the game. Only the 2nd crash Ive had but both were near the end of good matches.

I've only had one crash so far.

I have managed to be on one winning team so far (I'm level 11). It's safe to say that I had nothing to do with the winning, other than being fairly good at running away. It's frankly embarrassing when I actually try to shoot someone.

Mirage is my main character so far. He is literally Gob Bluth.

PC servers crashed this morning. It was down as of 11ish. Considering the volume of players they are getting I'm not all that surprised. And after my initial concerns I have to say I really like the game. It's nowhere near as rewarding to win a match as compared to PUBG, but it's a ton less stressful too. I played a match this morning and one of our teammates disconnected. The two of us pushed along anyway and won. The dude had 11 kills. I had 2. I feel like I'm getting better so at least that. The pace and the way combat works takes some time after playing PUBG so much.

And the loot seems fine to me once I got the hang of where things are and such. The key is to keep landing the same spot over and over until you know it. Rinse and repeat.

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Feb 21, 2019 1:33 pm And the loot seems fine to me once I got the hang of where things are and such. The key is to keep landing the same spot over and over until you know it. Rinse and repeat.

Congrats on the win!

I think I started to internalize the loot thing when Miramar was introduced and by the time Sanhok came along I was more accepting that learning a new map sucks but that the answer lay in understanding where loot spawns occur and the best way to learn that is by repeatedly playing through the pain. At first you don't even know where to look, so you spend a lot of time looking in places that will never have any loot. It *feels* like everything sucks more. To the best of my knowledge loot doesn't spawn on rooftops in Apex, and that unreasonably bugs me. I want there to be loot up there, and I think there should be loot up there, and when there isn't, I feel like something is wrong.

That said, Erangel can absolutely screw you loot-wise, and I think Apex has moments of that as well only to a lesser extent, but at this point you would know better than I would.

I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of Apex, I just know it's easy to be unhappy with the unfamiliar particularly when coming from something that you are VERY familiar with, and had to force myself to give the game "a fair shake".

I look forward to seeing where Fortnite and Apex are in 6 months or a year. Should be interesting to see if Apex has legs or not.

My initial impression is that I would be surprised if it isn't still super popular in 6 months to a year. They just seem to have their shit together and it's really a fun game. The found the nice balance between fortnight and pubg. There's no stupid building and they took out pretty much all the dead time you get in PUBG. Matches are so quick that even if I die halfway through i don't feel like I lost a ton of time. The most frustrating thing in PUBG is to loot for 15 minutes and then get killed by the first person you see or don't see.

I still like the realism of PUBG and will bounce back and forth, but this game isn't giving me the rage fits that PUBG does.

Octavious wrote: ↑Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:07 pm My initial impression is that I would be surprised if it isn't still super popular in 6 months to a year. They just seem to have their shit together and it's really a fun game.

That's my impression as well. I'm interested to see if our impressions are correct or not.