In their last update, Respawn spoke about the changes they had made, and the ones they were planning on making, to prevent cheating in Apex Legends. A couple of days ago, one of the Apex devs took to Reddit to give an update on the goings-on at Respawn regarding the game as well as preview of changes coming in the next patch. The post focused mainly on issues that they are aware of and have already touched briefly upon in their last blog update. However, since Apex is on a mission to squash cheating, there was one specific mention of the banhammer coming soon.
Coming in the next patch will be a fix for the hit registration issues experienced by some players. The post notes that the bug may stem from the way the game client and the server treat character animations. While Respawn believes the fix will help, it’s also a way to better isolate the less severe issues, leading to a permanent fix. They also say a fix is coming for the fortified bug introduced with the balance changes released for Gibraltar and Caustic in the latest patch.
The next patch will also address the slow-mo some players experience at the beginning of the match, though they do say they’re still working on a true fix for it. “We have a few server optimizations rolling out but there are many more areas of work left and as we identify these, we will be rolling out optimizations and fixes and keeping players updated.” During their health checks to determine the root issue, they have found faulty servers, which have been promptly removed from use, stating that “match quality should be noticeably improved in all datacenters.”
Along with bug fixes and general optimizations to the game, it wouldn’t be a true Apex update without a quick brandish of the banhammer. The target for this go-round are the match piggybackers. “Piggy-backing is when a player drafts off other players in the squad to carry them to a good position and level up faster but doesn’t actually participate in the match [meaning they never collect a weapon, fire a shot, don’t deal any damage, etc.]” Respawn says they’ll be instituting temporary bans for violating players as well as permanent bans in extreme circumstances.
With Apex Season 2 details coming at EA Play next month, we can expect Respawn to work tirelessly to address as many issues as they can before the next season. You can check out the full update on Reddit, as well as the Apex blog for more information on changes to come.