Why Solos Is Detrimental to the Design of Apex (And why you shouldn’t continue begging for it)

[iamtakingcontrolofthedrummachine]

I wanted to write about this because there has been a notable amount of posts in the forum about adding a solos gamemode to Apex, with people raising several reasons for wanting it in the game, from bad teammates to player choice.
First, the main reason why this gamemode is bad for the game is because of the mode itself because of how it quite literally opposes the design philosophy of the game, mainly to do with the balancing of the characters. Certain legends’ abilities are either partially/completely negated (Crypto, Lifeline, Bangalore, every defense except caustic and maybe Rampart) or completely broken (pre-chaos theory Caustic, Wraith, Revenant, Bloodhound, etc.). And even the legends who aren’t in the class of broken or useless are completely outclassed by unbalanced ones (same goes for underpowered legends), which leads to a huge balancing issue with the game, as if balancing for the core game wasn’t enough of a headache for these developers.
Second, another common reason for this gamemode to permanently exist in the game is that people seem to find their teammates a liability that slows them down and gets in their way. However, cooperative and team-based is how the game was designed at its core. to quote a Respawn design director, in response to a player’s frustration with random teammates, as they say “I am going insane over people leaving the game the second they get knocked or sooner. It happens in 80% of matches with randoms:” “We hate this too! […] Clubs’ design is meant to tackle this exact problem […] We are always talking about ways to combat the leavers without being overly punishing to people who are just playing the game the way they want to play […] It won't be solos, as I've explained in the past! (we are a team game. flag planted)”
* https://i.imgur.com/sPXBCuZ.png -here's a good point from that same AMA thread too
Finally, I see people argue that the developers of the game take choice out of the players’ hands by lacking a solos gamemode, but the ends justify the means. If solos were added to the game permanently, it could make the game lose retention of the game’s playerbase because the gamemode is broken and does not work with the game. I’ve seen someone argue that the same thing can happen with solo queue leavers in trios/duos, but that’s what clubs were created to counteract and deal with There’s no doubt that the amount of people complaining about certain legend abilities and weapons would be unparalleled because the gamemode was broken from the start of it’s conception.
TL; DR; Solos is a gamemode that fundamentally opposes how Apex Legends was designed and goes against what the vision that the developers have for the game. Therefore, there’s little to no point asking for it to be added into the game, even if you disagree with me, for the reason I just mentioned (again, to quote another individual from the development team, “[Solos] can lead to an unstable experience [and] isn’t something [they’re] willing to do”). Even if you don’t believe this is a substantive argument against solos, I wouldn’t bother bugging the developers about it online, because it’s highly unlikely to happen any time in the future.
thx

[RoboticDog]

Thank you for this post, you worded things perfectly. Extremely exhausting to see all these "solo" demands when it's not going to happen and if it did it wouldn't promote use of multiple legends. The multiple legend playstyles is one of the selling points of the game.

[chaotic fried rice]

I just don't believe it's that fundamentally opposed to the design of Apex. Solos would develop an interesting meta of it's own. It would just be another way of playing the game it takes nothing away from the trios mode it would be a separate thing where people could go to just play without having to play with randoms or lfg. I feel like this game really needs a mode where people can just hop in and practice gunplay and movement against other random players, solo is that mode.

[Dephty]

引用自 snake：

I just don't believe it's that fundamentally opposed to the design of Apex. Solos would develop an interesting meta of it's own. It would just be another way of playing the game it takes nothing away from the trios mode it would be a separate thing where people could go to just play without having to play with randoms or lfg. I feel like this game really needs a mode where people can just hop in and practice gunplay and movement against other random players, solo is that mode.

Then people would start demanding balancing around solos.

[JKjoker]

You can choose who to play from any legend, if you pick one not suited for solo play ITS YOUR FAULT NOT THE GAMES FAULT. The excuse is ridiculous.

Yeah solos would have lots of wraiths, valks and octanes .... JUST LIKE TRIOS... AND DUOS... AND ARENAS

[JKjoker]

引用自 Dephty：

Then people would start demanding balancing around solos.

You mean like the way they are balancing around esports despite only a fraction of the player base caring about it ?

[RoboticDog]

引用自 JKjoker：

You can choose who to play from any legend, if you pick one not suited for solo play ITS YOUR FAULT NOT THE GAMES FAULT. The excuse is ridiculous.

Yeah solos would have lots of wraiths, valks and octanes .... JUST LIKE TRIOS... AND DUOS... AND ARENAS

I'm not sure why you think it would be the solo players fault, not the games fault. The game is not balanced for solo play. Ergo, it WOULD be the game's fault if it added a solo mode to encourage even more Wraiths and Octanes, and discourage other legends like Gibby or Lifeline, effectively making about half the roster nearing useless. Game development is all about subtly guiding the player towards certain choices. The Apex devs want to guide the players toward team play, not solo play. That is the game.

[JKjoker]

引用自 RoboticDog：

I'm not sure why you think it would be the solo players fault, not the games fault. The game is not balanced for solo play. Ergo, it WOULD be the game's fault if it added a solo mode to encourage even more Wraiths and Octanes, and discourage other legends like Gibby or Lifeline, effectively making about half the roster nearing useless. Game development is all about subtly guiding the player towards certain choices. The Apex devs want to guide the players toward team play, not solo play. That is the game.

It doesnt have to be balanced, the players will balance it themselves with their choices

The devs can do whatever they want , just say "we dont want to add solos", stop giving stupid excuses. I already know they would sell less skins without other teammates to show them to

[RoboticDog]

引用自 JKjoker：

It doesnt have to be balanced, the players will balance it themselves with their choices

The devs can do whatever they want , just say "we dont want to add solos", stop giving stupid excuses. I already know they would sell less skins without other teammates to show them to

You have an odd way of seeing balancing, but I suppose that's your perogative.

And they have pretty much said that. A quote from OP, quoting a Respawn statement: "It won't be solos, as I've explained in the past! (we are a team game. flag planted)”

[KiT2142]

"to quote a Respawn design director, in response to a player’s frustration with random teammates, as they say “I am going insane over people leaving the game the second they get knocked or sooner. It happens in 80% of matches with randoms:” “We hate this too! […] Clubs’ design is meant to tackle this exact problem […] We are always talking about ways to combat the leavers without being overly punishing to people who are just playing the game the way they want to play"
Did Respawn design director ever thought about adding actual SBMM instead of EBMM? Or maybe functioning leagues system instead of the one where you can get to gold dropping solo and going afk?
If you played this game for any periods of time you can understand your odds at success in 3 minutes just by looking at your teammates behavior, and if I see some braindead 33 damage octane after fighting 2 squads who also managed to get killed- I leave even if I wasn't knocked. So I perfectly understand people who leave immediately.

As for the solo mode- legends could've been reworked and have 2 sets of abilities. Or make their abilities behave differently in solo mode. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
But we all know why they insist on nonexistent "teamplay" and it has nothing to do with it)

[iamtakingcontrolofthedrummachine]

引用自 JKjoker：

Yeah solos would have lots of wraiths, valks and octanes .... JUST LIKE TRIOS... AND DUOS... AND ARENAS

not really

引用自 JKjoker：

You can choose who to play from any legend, if you pick one not suited for solo play ITS YOUR FAULT NOT THE GAMES FAULT.

my fault for the game not being balanced properly ?

引用自 KiT2142：

Did Respawn design director ever thought about adding actual SBMM instead of EBMM? Or maybe functioning leagues system instead of the one where you can get to gold dropping solo and going afk?
If you played this game for any periods of time you can understand your odds at success in 3 minutes just by looking at your teammates behavior, and if I see some braindead 33 damage octane after fighting 2 squads who also managed to get killed- I leave even if I wasn't knocked. So I perfectly understand people who leave immediately.

i agree, EOMM is trash and needs to die tbh

引用自 KiT2142：

As for the solo mode- legends could've been reworked and have 2 sets of abilities. Or make their abilities behave differently in solo mode. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
But we all know why they insist on nonexistent "teamplay" and it has nothing to do with it

i'm not sure how much time and effort reworking the current and future roster of legends would take to make them work in a one man squad without being completely broken or useless
+'non-existent teamplay', which is why crypto/wraith/revenant had to be nerfed and revtane is absolutely broken

[JKjoker]

The choice of legend is YOUR responsability, pick one that works well on solos or deal with the consequences

[iamtakingcontrolofthedrummachine]

引用自 JKjoker：

The choice of legend is YOUR responsibility, pick one that works well on solos or deal with the consequences

ok, if they aren't meant for solos, why are they even there in the first place ? it's silly for players to have to learn to not choose certain legends for solos by themselves, that's bad game design
*it's quite obvious that that's too great a symptom to bother implementing solos without rebalancing + reworking every character
"we know every match will be just octanes and/or wraiths but it will be fun ! " ok lol

[TEAM O & A]

引用自 tf_holiday 3：

引用自 JKjoker：

The choice of legend is YOUR responsibility, pick one that works well on solos or deal with the consequences

ok, if they aren't meant for solos, why are they even there in the first place ? it's silly for players to have to learn to not choose certain legends for solos by themselves, that's bad game design

Some legends are intended to not be good in certain game modes.

They added Arenas as a permanent game mode yet some of the roster is useless there. They even make new legends that don't fit with that game mode on purpose. No reason for them not to add solos because of that.

Examples includes Loba, Ash (the newest legend added) and Maggie who is favored as the next Season 12 Legend

[JKjoker]

its not silly, learn, stop asking for everything to be spoonfed.

There are plenty of mechanics to learn in this game, if you are not even willing to learn how each legend works and get an idea of which ones work best for you for each mode then you wont learn any of the other things, have a terrible time and you would be ignoring the best part of Apex: the extremely wide room to get better

why are you even playing it if you are not willing to learn ?

[iamtakingcontrolofthedrummachine]

引用自 TEAM O & A：

引用自 tf_holiday 3：

ok, if they aren't meant for solos, why are they even there in the first place ? it's silly for players to have to learn to not choose certain legends for solos by themselves, that's bad game design

Some legends are intended to not be good in certain game modes.

They added Arenas as a permanent game mode yet some of the roster is useless there. They even make new legends that don't fit with that game mode on purpose. No reason for them not to add solos because of that.

Examples includes Loba, Ash (the newest legend added) and Maggie who is favored as the next Season 12 Legend

even if we were talking about arenas, which we aren't, the effect of applicability of legends being lost isn't as bad as it would be with solos
only legend whose part of their kit is completely negated is lifeline because there isn't really anything that comes out of her care package that you can obtain quicker or cheaper

引用自 JKjoker：

its not silly, learn, stop asking for everything to be spoonfed.

asking for a well-designed game isn't really asking for everything to be spoonfed

引用自 JKjoker：

There are plenty of mechanics to learn in this game, if you are not even willing to learn how each legend works and get an idea of which ones work best for you for each mode then you wont learn any of the other things, have a terrible time and you would be ignoring the best part of Apex: the extremely wide room to get better.

Why are you even playing it if you are not willing to learn ?

there's a stark difference between experimenting with mechanics in the game or improving at the game overtime* and learning each legend and the developers leaving in characters that just are objectively not meant for it
**i'd imagine that to be a weird experience to be honest with you, like "why create these characters if they aren't even made for solos lol?"