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.
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.
Thanks!
There’s no “PvP only” mode in the game so you’re mistaken.
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.