Quentyn K. August 15, 2019
Respawn Entertainment recently updated its Apex Tracker, a bulletin board of priorities for future Apex Legends updates, by adding a slew of new bug fixes and quality of life changes.
The Trello board now includes 16 issues that Respawn will address in future updates.
According to the new information, fixes are inbound for a bug that inadvertently gives players a second wind-like ability. Players sometimes found themselves able to fire their guns after taking lethal damage, reminiscent to the Last Stand perk in Call of Duty. While it isn’t necessarily an unfamiliar mechanic for players, it remains out of place in Apex and will likely be remedied soon.
Alongside that bug fix are some UI improvements. Respawn is working on an improved post-match screen to better display Battle Pass progression. For fans of the cosmetic side of Apex, Respawn is exploring the possibility of letting players randomize their loading screens.
A number of interesting quality of life features are also being tinkered with.
The most intriguing potential new feature is the ability to add custom sensitivities for each level of zoom. An automatic sprint option is also being dabbled with for console players, and fans will also have the option to disable automatic weapon swapping when they run out of ammo.
Finally, ranked players will be happy to hear that they will no longer lose Ranked Points for being disconnected from games due to server failures.
These updates are confirmed to arrive in future patches, though Respawn never guarantees the timing of their arrival.
“Code:leaf” and “code:net” errors dog Apex players
Sadly, the game’s most annoying issue has persisted for weeks.
The “code:leaf” and “code:net” errors, which kick players back to the main menu after failed attempts to load into the match, continue to mire the Apex experience. Respawn is still investigating, though an update on July 26 implies the team is making meaningful progress in fixing it.
The reason issues like “code:leaf” take so long to resolve is that their triggers are unpredictable, forcing Respawn to turn to the community for help in replicating the conditions that caused the kick. Without that, the developer’s data teams struggle to pinpoint the problem.
Deep transparency is rare in the gaming industry, but Respawn shared its findings as it worked through each phase of the “code:leaf” saga in a previous update at the Electronic Arts Answers website. There, players learned that the server disconnects all users whenever the error occurs and that user clients fail to connect because they think the server timed out, not vice versa.
These distinctions seem minor from the outside looking in, but this backtracking is paramount to finding and fixing these bugs.
Though Apex Legends has its share of issues, Respawn is doing brilliant work in terms of communicating with its fan base. Though fans will have to wait for many of these changes, they will have the Iron Crown event to keep them entertained in the meantime.