Epic Games admits it messed up with the Overpowered Infinity Blade in Fortnite

[AlTech]

The Verge reports that Epic Games has admitted it messed up with the overpowered Infinity Blade in Fortnite.

 

Their response has been to remove it.

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Epic announced this morning that its new and controversial Infinity Blade “mythic” item has been removed from Fortnite, following widespread criticism over the item’s overpowered nature and game-breaking position as a pinnacle, late-game weapon. The reversal, while not the first time Epic has changed course on an unpopular design decision rather quickly, is notable for the language the developer used to announce it, as well as how much Epic hyped up the item in marketing and promos for the recently released season 7.

 

This is what Epic Games had to say:

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“We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game. The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items. Thanks for calling us out on this!”

 

 

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But overall, players, including pros who used the sword to handily win games, were furious that such a powerful item had been dropped into a highly competitive game — one with grand e-sports ambitions, no less — with little to no foresight as to how it might drastically alter the game and its e-sports landscape. Now, that backlash appears to have prompted a more definitive action.

 

The Verge speculates that the Infinity Blade was meant to make Casual players feel like they could win a game instead of forcing them to learn the skills required to get good. Which would indicate that Epic knew what they were doing and are only backpedaling now to avoid damaging their reputation.

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Whether it’s adding the ability to re-deploy your glider or making explosives deal damage through structures, Epic is always tinkering with ways to make Fortnite’s skill gap — or the delta between the best players and the average ones — smaller.

There’s a reason for this. Casual players won’t keep coming back to Fortnite every day (and spending money on emotes and skins) if they can never win a game or constantly get out-skilled by seasoned players, or if there’s not something fresh to check out to keep the experience interesting.

 

I'm all for celebrating and remembering the Infinity Blade stuff Epic did in mobile almost half a decade ago but this clearly wasn't working out and I'm glad all the 12 year old mature and reasonable Fornite players came to this agreement .

[Princess Luna]

What will make our very first e-sports tournament the most "epic" possible?

 

When the developers don't seem to have played the game they code like once.

 

They never learn it~

Spoiler

 

[Cyberspirit]

So, what was this blade all about? Was it an instant kill or, what made it so OP?

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Cyberspirit said:

So, what was this blade all about? Was it an instant kill or, what made it so OP?

Apparently this:

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For one, the item gave players unprecedented mobility, the ability to nearly one-hit any other opponent, and the ability to break down any player-built structure, all while restoring a significant chunk of the player’s health back with each kill.

 

[r2724r16]

2 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

So, what was this blade all about? Was it an instant kill or, what made it so OP?

The blade was just really overpowered (it did lots of damage), and it was very hard to kill the player with the blade because they had so much health.

[Cyberspirit]

Well then, how did they not realize that it would be OP? If anything I'd make it so, the player takes damage whenever the blade is used.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Cyberspirit said:

Well then, how did they not realize that it would be OP? If anything I'd make it so, the player takes damage whenever the blade is used.

The Verge speculates that they knew it would be OP but that Epic didn't anticipate such a negative backlash.

[r2724r16]

8 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

Well then, how did they not realize that it would be OP? If anything I'd make it so, the player takes damage whenever the blade is used.

Tbh the sword is only OP if you know how to use it. In normal games (not pro matches), it's usually easy to kill someone with the blade since no one really knows how to use it. But in pro matches where everyone is a good player, the weapon is too OP.

[Cyberspirit]

12 minutes ago, r2724r16 said:

Tbh the sword is only OP if you know how to use it. In normal games (not pro matches), it's usually easy to kill someone with the blade since no one really knows how to use it. But in pro matches where everyone is a good player, the weapon is too OP.

I mean, that can be said about pretty much anything in a game. A sniper, for example, is only good when the person using it can actually land some hits.

Still, I find it ridiculous that it was that OP.

[r2724r16]

7 minutes ago, Cyberspirit said:

I mean, that can be said about pretty much anything in a game. A sniper, for example, is only good when the person using it can actually land some hits.

Still, I find it ridiculous that it was that OP.

The way competitive matches are played is quite different from "normal" matches. People box up and build/tunnel their way to the next circle in competitive matches.

 

But the blade can break right through everything people build making it very OP, whereas a sniper is much less OP in competitive matches (even if you're a good shooter) since it's rare that you'll have a chance to snipe someone.

[BananaInSandals]

42 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

For one, the item gave players unprecedented mobility, the ability to nearly one-hit any other opponent, and the ability to break down any player-built structure, all while restoring a significant chunk of the player’s health back with each kill.

How could that be "balanced" in any competitive gaming... Don't even need a game dev to see that. It's essentially a god-mode. Whoever made that either had the biggest brain fart in the galaxy or they were trying to rig the game... Way too powerful without any sacrifice is never good.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Princess Cadence said:

What will make our very first e-sports tournament the most "epic" possible?

 

When the developers don't seem to have played the game they code like once.

 

They never learn it~

  Reveal hidden contents

 

That seems to be a regular trend these days. Need for Speed Payback felt like its own developers had absolutely no idea what made NFS games fun (it was fiddling with cars and cops). And yet they turned fiddling with cars into a freaking slot machine and removed cops entirely from free roam. Like, do you ppl even know what the hell are you doing? And don't get me started on things we had in older NFS games going over decade back that was just gone in a modern game. Fallout 76 was a similar thing. It's like they had no clue why people loved Fallout or The Elder Scrolls. Or latest Battlefield V...

 

Games from the 90's were made because someone was passionate about designing incredible experience and also earning bucks for a living. These days it seems it's all about churning out same games every year and milking money. Zero passion or feel that people doing them are are really invested into gaming or that they are gamers themselves.

I mean, wouldn't you expect a developer of Need for Speed to know everything about the iconic series before doing them? Same goes for programmers and creative directors. It should be a prerequisite before you're even hired.

[SupremeGOAT]

1 hour ago, Cyberspirit said:

So, what was this blade all about? Was it an instant kill or, what made it so OP?

The blade deals 50% target hp damage per hit and has 100% multi hit lifesteal effect with a 10m range that ricochets to any enemy unit within 100m of the initial target. Excessive healing from the lifesteal effect becomes a shield that that reflects all dmg. The crit rate of the blade is 100% and crits inflict a paralyze and bleed effect. The blade's passive "Shmoogley" allows the user to be in complete stealth if enemies are within 100m of the user. The blades's active "PWNED" allows the user to fly double all the blades effects... it needs a buff... jk jk 

[suicidalfranco]

Now resume development and release Infinity Blade: Dungeons for the iPad, please

[BuckGup]

Hahhaha it wasn't that OP in squads. Maybe solo though

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, suicidalfranco said:

Now resume development and release Infinity Blade: Dungeons for the iPad, please

Pretty sure Epic publicly said they're killing off all Infinity Blade stuff. Could be wrong tho.

[Doobeedoo]

Can they just get back developing new UT ffs add BR there on some huge map UT style just complete the damn game.

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Pretty sure Epic publicly said they're killing off all Infinity Blade stuff. Could be wrong tho.

they have, and followed up on it by releasing all game assets for free. Would still love them to resurrect that unreleased game though. It was that one game that almost made me buy an iPad when they revealed it.

But since the game never came, I never got to buy that iPad.

[PCGuy_5960]

They really didn't. A day before this post, they made another post saying that not only would this stay in the game, but they were going to add more items similar to it. Yeah, the they removed it only because literally everyone gave them flak for it and they were too afraid that players wouldn't buy as many skins.

 

Hell, they even ran a $1M tournament while it was in the game. 

 

-Not really Tech News, moved to PC Gaming-

Edited December 17, 2018 by PCGuy_5960

[PlayStation 2]

This post tells me that I can report on the stupid ass patches that happen in TF2, like this one from about two months ago:

[Brooksie359]

4 hours ago, Cyberspirit said:

I mean, that can be said about pretty much anything in a game. A sniper, for example, is only good when the person using it can actually land some hits.

Still, I find it ridiculous that it was that OP.

Nah Bridgette is a thing in overwatch. Has been OP since release and is insanely easy to use. Sometimes things are plain busted and easy to use. 

[Sfekke]

I gotta give it to Epic Games for owning up to their mistake.

I'm no big Fortnite player, but did see the issue with the new update; instead of blaming us for not being able to "just deal with it" they did the right thing and admitted their mistake.

 

Rockstar I'm looking at you with your Opressor Mk.II that thing NEEDS a nerf .. really badly!

[suicidalfranco]

25 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Bridgette

Lol, managed to go from silver to gold by only playing her. Then it reminded me why I had stopped playing the game

[Brooksie359]

2 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Lol, managed to go from silver to gold by only playing her. Then it reminded me why I had stopped playing the game

I could easily make it to somewhere around gm if I had abused Bridgette but it wouldn't be fun so what's the point. Would rather be low masters dps than high masters/gm Bridgette player. 

[D13H4RD]

Well, it was remarked by Radriar in Infinity Blade as the blade itself being capable of killing even the Deathless