For Fortnite , there has been trouble for weeks due to a change in the rules that mainly affected strong players. Siphoning and the faster gathering of building materials have been abolished. Epic now explains the background: The new rules frustrated 90% of players in Fortnite.
This is the conflict: With Patch 8.20, the basic rules for Fortnite were changed in all main modes. The new rules that Epic introduced in February 2019 were reverted, and the “old” rules with which Fortnite started applied:
- No more siphoning – Before 8.20, players received 50 health or shield points back for a “kill”
- More resource harvesting – Before 8.20, “harvesting” with pickaxes yielded more building materials, kills also granted resources, and the cap for wood/stone/metal was at 500 (now back to 999). Players had to spend less time collecting building materials before 8.20.
The rule change came without much explanation, and some pro players have been up in arms ever since. They have been complaining about Epic for weeks.
Pros feel mistreated by Epic
This is the mood among the pros: The professional players feel that the current Fortnite is significantly “slower” than the previous version. Additionally, they are annoyed that there are now two different forms of Fortnite:
- The “normal” Fortnite with the slow rules
- And the “competitive” Fortnite with the fast rules – but there are too long waiting times here
The pros complain that they cannot train for the lucrative World Cup.
The pros demand “Revert” – Epic should revert the rules. Pros have felt in recent weeks that Epic is just punching them in the face and does not care about their needs.
One even says: We only play Fortnite because it involves so much money – not for fun anymore.
Siphoning was meant to make competitive play more aggressive
This is how Epic explains the rule change: After weeks of silence, Epic has now spoken about these changes and its further plans for Fortnite eSports (via epicgames.com).
According to Epic, they only introduced the “aggressive” rules because competitive play was too slow. The professional players were playing defensively, resulting in many reaching the endgame.
Epic wanted to create an incentive for eSports players to play more aggressively with “siphoning”:
- It worked in the competitive mode – that’s why the rules remain active there
- However, in the “normal” mode, many players were already playing quite aggressively earlier, says Epic. Now many players felt it was frustrating because they believed they had little chance to win. Because now the strong players always had full health and shields.
90% of players were frustrated
Epic says: Siphoning would have led to 10% of players having more fun, while 90% were frustrated and played less.
“More and more players” would have ignored the main modes and said Fortnite had become too hard for them.
This is what Epic says about the resolution: Another topic of controversy for the pros is the “fixed resolution.” Many would prefer to play in a different screen resolution or adjust their field of view as they wish. They demand a “Field-of-View” slider (FoV).
Epic says they do not want to introduce a feature that allows a clear gameplay advantage.
Players would take advantage of it, even if it makes the game look worse.
Therefore, they do not want to give players opportunities to create such gameplay advantages.
Thus, they are in favor of a “Fixed Native Resolution” and against a “Field of View Slider.”
Is there anything positive for the pros? There are two more statements from Epic:
- They want to change the gameplay as little as possible in consideration of the World Championship – but acknowledge that they want to keep the game fresh, because that’s how they earn the millions they then can give as prize money
- And Epic says they want to improve communication with players and will henceforth show more presence in online forums
This is how the pros react: They are understandably upset.
Pro players Tfue posted a clip of his friend xQc, showing him having a meltdown
Tfue’s partner, FaZe Cloak, is exercising the rare art of irony and thanks Epic for the super update. He hopes Fortnite will soon bring back the airplanes (which were generally hated by pros).
For TSM_Myth, Epic’s latest statements are an attack on the hardcore community. A lot of money doesn’t help.
