Test mode idea for esports/scrims

The goal of this mode aims to reduce looting inefficiency, RNG, and other non-preventable factors that aren’t competitive. This would be something like a “test flight” for true competitive games, without sacrificing the fun of apex if it was an LTM mode.

1. Guaranteed weapon spawns. No finding attachments or ammo. Where a weapon can drop, it WILL drop with the potential bonus of an attachment. Looted ammo stacks drop double, with the exceptions of energy/sniper ammo.

2. All weapons spawn with a full set of white attachments that can be swapped out if an upgrade becomes available. Weapons will also come pre-equipped with hop ups if they can take them, minus the p2020 and Mozambique for early-game reasons. This will reduce the loot pool clutter, allowing you to gear up for a fight much quicker, and not be at the mercy of RNG.

3. No white knockdown shields/armour. Players will fall from the ship at the beginning of the match with depleted white shields, so that if they are unlucky with finding armour they can apply 2 cells and be good to go. Where a white knockdown shield/armour would’ve spawned, it is simply blue instead. Blue armour fits the breakpoints the game is balanced around much more accurately.

4. Healing items are unlimited. This way, the ability to heal, specifically for early game, isn’t RNG dependent. With the third party meta running rampant, this will allow players caught in unfortunate 5th party fights off the rip the ability to at least reposition and fight the engagement with at least some health, instead of not finding basic resources and dying for free. It makes sense anyway, as the health meds are a tiny injector and the shields a battery you carry around. Just put that sh*t back in your carry bag man, stop littering.

5. Siphon. The same as shadowfall. 25 bonus health or shields upon successful elimination.

6. The maximum backpack carrying capacity be lowered to blue to make up for the lack of needing to carry meds, and each player spawns with a blue backpack. I stand by this and have since launch: Backpacks should not be lootable items. This way, you can carry the tools to engage if needed and no luck in finding one is required.

7. Complete removal of gold armour. It works in an arcade-pub style matchmaking, it’s fun. Competitively, it is the most unbalanced item in the game by far.

8. Grenade stacks lowered to 1, so you can’t carry a full inventory of grenades. Grenades are powerful in this game, so this forces a much more tactical usage of them. Most players sink their entire inventory of grenades on the first person they see anyway, so having 4 grenades gain zero value is the same as 8 missing their target.

That’s it. A mode meant to be as competitive as possible while still carrying the BR feel. A mode meant to curb as much unnecessary RNG as it can. Could be released as an LTM to playtest and make changes, and for a mode specifically pertaining to tournaments/apex predator ranked play, it could t hurt to include some pro feedback as well. Feel free to include meaningful feedback, not just “wow it’s great” or “go jump off a bridge”, some explaining would be appreciated.