Matobar got a lot of good info too.
Multiplayer Livestream Summary - 15 June 2017 (self.MECoOp)
submitted 7 minutes ago by JRandall0308XBOX/JRandall0308/USA (Eastern)
I'm filling for /u/The_hezy for a few weeks. This is more stream of consciousness because I was also asking questions in the Twitch chat, which I will post later.
Just prior to the Twitch stream, Bioware announced that there were some server-side post-patch 1.08 updates made:
Fallback pools for Arsenal and Reserve packs now include items from other pools (weapons, characters, and mods)
Players who finish a match now receive full rewards, regardless of how many waves they participated in. Players who don’t complete a match now receive partial rewards.
The latter should address complaints about not getting enough XP/Cr from joining games in progress (GIP).
Onto the stream.
Billy is back from vacation and at the controls again, with Bastiaan at his side. Fernando is answering tons of questions in the chat.
They are playing with Twitch streamers @draec @acidqueen5426 and @sizesixteens
Showing off the new daytime Icebreaker map.
There's a new Apex mission this week, Silver difficulty vs. Roekarr. See blog.bioware.com/2017/06/15/10490/
The Apex mission this week has two match modifiers, Weakened Assault Team (-25% health and shields) and AR Skirmish (+50% AR damage, -50% other weapon damage).
Armored Compartments are in the Equipment store. +50% ammo, +1 power cell.
Billy is using the Angara Exemplar again.
Bastiaan talking about R & A packs. If you had already completed Rare chars or weapons there is now an additional fallback to whatever you don't have, if possible. (If all Rares are maxed then only the UR roll matters, obviously.)
Asked about a GIP indicator, Bastiaan stated they are not planning to add GIP indicator because of the fix to getting full credits for extraction. You will know you're joining a GIP if no countdown timer. When I pointed out in chat that you realize this too late to act on the info, Fernando says he will follow up with Bastiaan about this.
Bastiaan says they are always working on lots of networking improvements but they don't necessarily mention it in the patch notes. Billy pointed out you can't typically quantify these improvements (like "made a 7% improvement to networking").
Reiterating there will be no DLC for MP. One reason for no DLC is it caused problems of friends trying to play together but not everyone had DLCs DL'd. They try to release chars and weapons more quickly, release them when they are ready. Can't announce it until they announce it basically.
Regarding the cover system, Bastiaan: really tricky when you have automated cover systems. Have to first walk in, go into cover animation, then you should be able to turn around and still be considered in cover. If you walk in backwards or sideways it won't work. System doesn't know you are in cover at that point.
Regarding the Arsenal and Reserves packs, each pack has its own pity timer per Bastiaan. Billy later said there is nothing fancy about how they work: they roll to see if you get a UR; if you do, they roll to see which one, randomly, but weighted for Weapons or Characters. (Weighted, but NOT guaranteed.) There is no order that things drop and no tricks like you have to play a character type to get more URs of that character type. Basically: RNG is RNG.
Bastiaan talking about the map. There was a demo map to test how far they could go with jumping and scenery destruction. Originally had walls all the way around. Gradually adjusted it to make it more open. I think the implication is the test map grew into Icebreaker. Very late in development they added spots where you could chokepoint enemies and take cover, on the roofs. Added railings, bunker areas on roofs. Completely changed the map and how it played. (Good example of user testing leading to new design insights!)
Billy talked about how MP maps during testing just had color names related to their scenery, like MP Red was originally a desert map, then it became lava, so they renamed desert to MP Orange. Some people still refer to them by color name as shorthand.
Billy says if you like maps and want them in the regular rotation, let them know on social media, or by posting here or on BSN.
They considered PVP but PVE is a lot easier to re-use the systems from SP. Also there was general hissing and boo-ing of the PVP idea in the Twitch chat. (ME3 / MEA are the only PVE games of their type while there are zillions of PVP games out there.)
Bastiaan confirmed that enemies like Krogan are designed to flush you out of cover so you are vulnerable. Billy: like an alley-oop in basketball.
Triple Hydra on Silver Roekarr!
Looking at improvements to objectives. re: Uploads. Also, Fernando says multi-objectives waves might not be possible on same wave but they might consider back-to-back objective waves.
Bonus Stats: a little thing to reward you. Small encouragement reward for playing a lot. Don't grind it out. Per Bastiaan.
Daily Challenges reset at roughly 5:00 PM Mountain / 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 PM UTC (assuming I did the conversions right)
They will add a way to get old Equipment! if you missed some from previous weeks.
Bastiaan confirmed you won't ever be able to see other peoples' custom character names in MP because of legal, profanity concerns.
If you like the Apex Elite pack and want more let them know.
Billy died a few times towards the end of his second mission but at least he didn't get synch-killed like /u/Salsadips. May 11, never forget!
Billy handed over the controls to Bastiaan for a third game, but I had to drop out around this point.
MATOBAR
EDIT: Got a lot of questions answered during today's stream, including about every question that was posed in Reddit's community questions thread. Lots of good info this week!
DiscoBabaloo: We'll take a look, is this across all difficulties or mostly in later?
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Great to hear! I mostly play gold, and they're really fast there. Can't even land a shot. I'm less sure about lower difficulties.
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar k, i'll make a note for us to look at in upcoming internal playtest
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Great!
Next question: People are asking for some Barricade adjustments. Specifically, it feels bad when you pop it down but get popped back up by a Nullifier shot, or you get killed during the throw-down animation. Any input?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar will take a look
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Excellent, thanks for the response! Up next: Mods in the Item store were really well received, but people keep asking for more Boosters. Specifically, Rail Amps and Ammo Boosters having more availability. Can we expect changes in this area?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar we're talking about that - can't promise but something we're looking at
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Thankls a bunch for your responses! Next one: Will we see new types of ammo or grenade types? (Biotic Ammo/Grenades, Phase Ammo/Grenades) make an appearance in the future?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar possibly - as usual, we don't talk too much about future content
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo We didn't see any mention of MP stability/network improvements, or the off-host weakpoint issues in 1.08. Were these touched on at all in the patch and just not mentioned? Or was the team unable to get such fixes for that patch?
Answered on stream by Billy and Baastien
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Have you thought about making it harder to stagger a kit that is using Fortify?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar yes.. a few knockons so its not straight fwd - maybe something we can improve later on
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo There's been a lot of talk recently about BW Montreal's goings-on. I won't speculate, but I hope you know we all love you guys and hope you'll be around supporting the game for a long time
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar ty, much appreciated
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Why were Pariah's shields colored Blue instead of Purple? Was that ever up for discussion?
Skynet3141: @matobar haha you're really adamant about purple shields aren't you?
Matobar: @skynet3141 Everyone has their pet issue let me have mine Keepo
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar not sure actually
maybe just aesthetic choice
vtiiiii:
DiscoBabaloo Anyone looking into Human Soldiers getting Frag grenades and Concussive shot swapped around and not getting a respec to fix?
DiscoBabaloo: @vtiiiii yes, sorry about that
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar ha, yes - but we already get lots of Q's about why we lock to difficulty
The more restrictive the less people can participate :/ doesn't mean we wont do it in future, but something to keep in mind
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo What are your thoughts on Racial or Class-specific Modifiers for APEX MIssions? I'd love a Krogan Mission SMOrc
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Why does the Anointed Soned slow you down once it starts hitting you?
Answered by Billy and Baastien in chat
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Can we get a brief moment of invulnerability when we use a Revive Pack, to prevent us from going down again immediately?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar will check, i thought it was supposed to actually
vtiiiii: @bioware any thoughts on multi step objectives? so many start with a disabling of device, followed by an assasination and then hack/upload or along those lines?
DiscoBabaloo: @vtiiiii you mean as part of same wave? maybe - would need to confirm the way it works allows for that, or if it has to be in a new wave (in which case, we could do back to back obj waves)
corvusnoctis:
DiscoBabaloo the Upload Objective doesn't seem to be well balanced compared to Hack Objective, are you guys aware of that? any plans on balancing these?
DiscoBabaloo: @corvusnoctis yep on the list
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Some Semi-Autos don't reach their max fire-rate, no matter how fast your fingers are (Sandstorm, Halberd). Can we expect a fix?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar will check
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Will the Turian Havoc's eyes be fixed soon? They've been broken since release, and it looks a little weird.
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar on the list
Matobar: @bioware Why can't we see the character names and descriptions we make on APEX HQ App in the main game?
Answered by Billy on Stream.
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar on the list
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo / @bioware Will we ever have a way to remove scopes from guns that have them by default? Maybe with a damage loss as a result?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar prob not at this point, but maybe something for down the line at some point?
Matobar: @bioware /
DiscoBabaloo Will we ever see Augmentations make their way into the Multiplayer? I want to make my Architect's Jump Melee do Ice damage BibleThump
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar future
def not anything we would look at right away, still lots to do in the short term
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo Will we see more fights with the Roekaar, maybe outside of APEX Missions? How important is it for the team to differentiate them from regular Outlaws?
Answered by Billy on Stream
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar right now that's where they live, but maybe like maps we may be able to open them up in future
Matobar:
DiscoBabaloo / @bioware Will we see more improvements to S weapons? Suggestions include some inherent traits, or possibly getting a 3rd Mod slot?
DiscoBabaloo: @matobar we'll talk about any balance/updates when we get there
common unclefucking sense that we like guaranteed URs from completing events. 
Next question: People are asking for some Barricade adjustments. Specifically, it feels bad when you pop it down but get popped back up by a Nullifier shot, or you get killed during the throw-down animation. Any input?
