Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios is bowing to the pacifists and trialing a PvE mode in their extraction shooter. If you play between October 13th and 20th, you’ll be able to flick a toggle that means you load either into the traditional world of Arc Raiders, where human players vie for the valuable scraps left behind in a ruined world watched over by killer robots, or a slightly safer version where the machines are still deadly but the humans can’t hurt you.
“We’re seeing a large and growing group of Raiders who come to the Rust Belt for the co-op and the ARC, not fighting with other Raiders,” Embark say in the post announcing the trial. “That group has become a core part of our community, so it’s important we learn how to support them properly rather than leave them working around the game.”
To back this up, the studio share some data they’ve collected, showing that there are now more players that play only friendly co-op and never attack other humans than the merciless pure PvP bunch. Apparently the PvP group has remained at a stable 34% since the game’s launch, but the number of mixed players, who spend most their time being affable members of the post-apocalypse society but occasionally dabble in wanton homicide, has shrunk, with most opting to become full-time peaceniks.
Once again proving for the 903486362527484th time that “always on but optional” PvP is a stupid game mechanic which attracts exactly two kinds of players - griefers and people who really just want to play PvE.
Dunno, with the prevalence of cheating online these days I’ve mostly given up playing anything vaguely competitive.
Had zero interest in the game until the fully option toggle is added. Now I’m interested in trying it out.
What’s nice about it is it creates the option to play the game how you want. Traditional players who want to continue in the PvP side can do just that. If you like the thrill of “will they won’t they”, just leave the toggle off.
Not sure how this will hurt the game if I’m honest.
I think they’d have been better off putting in a pve only event for people to do like a horde mode or something. I tried to stick to PVE when I played but without the PVP aspect you lose the tension and the warm fuzzy feelings that come with encountering other friendly players. Yeah being murdered and losing all your shit sucks but it’s not that hard to get back. The real problem for me was the cheaters.
There’s always an XKCD: Borders
Is it a genetic thing that about a third of people just want to fuck everything up for everyone else?
While there are plenty of people like this, there’s more to PvP than that.
PvP is, first and foremost, about an unpredictable kind of danger. You can learn the behaviors of NPC mobs, and while you’ll look very cool dealing with 'em all, you may lose a thrill and adrenaline rush that comes with engaging the enemy you don’t know. And you don’t always know what the other person is up to.
I’m referring to griefers in games where people may not want to fight others
Oh, these are indeed weird. Probably some power fantasies.
This might get me to pick the game up again.
I bought it to play with friends because the robots and story setting seem great. But then quickly realised group play is (essentially) 100% PvP which avoids the reason I thought it was interesting.
I tried solo play because I heard the community playing solo were more PvE oriented but: 1. It’s not as fun without friends and 2. After a couple of bad encounters I was kind of over it.
To second your sentiments, I would probably pick it up for the first time… I abhor PvP, but the concept of the game sounds interesting enough to warrant checking it out.
Good developers pave desire paths when they appear.
Bad devs try to force the players to “correct” their playstyles because they are enjoying the game “wrong”.
It is mind-boggling how much more common the latter is.
The ARC devs have been the latter up until this point.
I knew it was a risk when I bought this game intending to play solo. About the 9th time that strangers killed me during extraction after being “friendly” through shared firefights, I uninstalled the game.
This mode might get me back in, if for no other reason than sunk cost.
I couldn’t deal with the sociopathy anymore either. Like I’m trusting you thru the entire raid and then betrayal at the exit… I know it’s just a game but there really is something twisted about it.
I basically detested the whole game. The core loop is just sneak and loot trash. Carry trash to extraction where someone will try to grief you. The guns felt meh. The AI voice thing was just weird.IDK if there was a story in there, but after 5-6 hours I was completely over it. Even with PvE I have no interest in the game itself because at its core it just felt like a shit version of fallout.
Part of the core design was the risk that maybe another raider could turn on you. The devs continuously hammered home that this was a core part of the game which couldn’t be changed and would result in a lesser game. So was that a lie or is the PvE mode going to be a fundamentally worse game?
Each PvE only match is going to be a foot race to see who gets to the loot and extract first with zero risk; the bots pose so little danger that you could run around with an empty loadout and not worry about losing anything. Conversely, each PvP enabled lobby is going to be a deathmatch with no looting because you have nowhere else to use your weapon loadouts and you have the PvE mode for looting.
Looting with no risk gets super boring super fast; unless they provide some steep incentives for NOT queueing up in PvE only, this game is going to fall flat on its face.
Looting with no risk gets super boring super fast; unless they provide some steep incentives for NOT queueing up in PvE only, this game is going to fall flat on its face.This is a fascinating take. You feel adding an optional extra mode will make the game fail? Not adding it will allow it to succeed?
The goal is increasing the user base, right? I’m someone who never plays PvP. I’ll never play Arc Raiders without a full PvE option. You seem to be full in PvP. You’re already playing. If they add this mode, I’ll likely buy it and play the PvE maps. I suppose the question is, will you stop playing PvP?
Concerning your statement about risk, it’s completely your opinion. I find games like Power Washing Simulator incredibly boring, but they’re successful enough to inspire sequels and clones. The solution is simple: I don’t play them. If someone finds PvE boring, they can elect to never play. I find plenty of challenge in other PvE games like Helldivers 2, Deep Rock Galactic, Borderlands, and a myriad of other dedicated co-op (no PvP or “versus” mode) games. So for someone to say “I don’t like this mode so I don’t think it should be there” is a nonsensical response to me.
You feel adding an optional extra mode
If it doesn’t have a separate progression system, it’s not really optional—not in the way that you imply. It changes the incentive structures of the game as a whole, which means the whole game must be played differently.
As a basic excercise, let’s think about a game with a dark hallway that has scary monsters. Most players don’t want to walk down a dark hallway with scary monsters, so how do you get them to?
This is a fascinating take.
Thanks!
You seem to be full in PvP.
There’s no “PvP only” mode in the game so you’re mistaken.
. . . it’s completely your opinion.
Duh.
It was originally supposed to be a coop PvE game, but turned into PvPvE along the way.
The PvE and PvP lobbies are basically like that already. I have carebear lobbies for solo and trios are pure PvP. People literally do naked runs where of they don’t get the right spawn, they surrender and try again until they get the right spawn, then run straight there and loot, throw the thing in their safe pocket and surrender. The only time people fight arc in the PvP lobbies is if they are stopping them from looting the players they just killed.
Night raids, Hurricane, Locked Gate, etc. are all not eligible for PvE lobbies in the new system, and the loot value is reduced if you do PvE.
Aside from the official page, has there been any clarification for things like harvester and queen events being eligible for PvE only? They seem to be the events most requested to have PvP removed but where the risk from PvP seems impossible to avoid.
They could make the robots much harder or change the extraction more risky.
I have not played this game, only watched some videos but there are ways to rebalance a game without ruining it. It is up to the devs to figure out how they will do that.
The game was initially planned as a COOP only game, so no big surprise. The game sadly got basically “culture war´d” by a shitload of toxic people. A lot of them were not even playing the game. They always tried to create a lot of friction in the player base, but they eventually left and got bored and moved on.
The biggest problem the game has that it has basicall no “endgame” content. Engaging the largest Arcs is not worth it and the game needs more complex content that maybe goes a bit into the direction of dungeons of Destiny 2 or at the very least some of the more complex public events.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I don’t hurt other people and I think most don’t but I feel like that what makes other people feel nice, knowing they could hurt you but choose not to. If I’m in trouble I think most people are more likely to help than hurt me. A little bit of danger makes it exciting.
This happened with Ultima Inline years ago, they made two servers, one for people who wanted PvP and one for those who don’t, and you could switch between them relatively freely. The PvP side ended up being a total death trap where you would get PKed instantly while the other side felt too safe.
I’m also unsure that a PvE mode will be good for the game. I know there are some people who don’t want anything to do with PvP, but I think what the majority are tired of when it comes to PvP is deception. Players acting friendly but then killing you when you least expect it.
I think what the Chinese dev team is doing might be a better fix. That or a faction system, so you can immediately see if another player will be hostile
You VILL play the game the way we want you to!
