Billy Buskell streaming MEAMP.

...

H... how...?

Maybe he thinks what people call the off-host headshot bug is that off-host headshots are not possible at all?

If anything, this garbage dump has really hurt the game. My Apex keeps steadily climbing on a daily basis (meaning more and more people are leaving the game).
21,084 Apex puts me at at #226 on PSN. I was #500-600 a few weeks ago and barely moving on a daily basis. My daily play time has remained the same.
I would always throw down a $20 spot for support of worthy content and to keep things coming. No more, they won't get any more $ from me. It was a VERY bad move.

I also will continue to enjoy the game. It's just sad those last five characters are probably the last we get. I would love the Quarian ArK DLC as it would bring Quarian and Drell to MP. I don't see it happening now as the player base is really dwindling fast. It's a shame as the game still has so much potential and they did improve most things...

Thabks! I hope the vid gets posted eventually. It doesn't play on my mobile for some reason. Would be interested in hearing what he said about hacking.

Interesting. My climb (as well as my teammates) in moving up quickly. Looks like XBONE is gaining a little steam and PS4 is losing a lot of steam...One friend of mine has moved all the way up to #56 and he was below me prior to 1.09. He is playing every time I look at my app though...

We have been playing Plat Apex pretty exclusively so maybe that helps a little?

unclemonster

Bronze through Gold Apex missions gives 10 rating per completion. They also give 10MF. I wonder if Platinum Apex missions give 15 rating since they give 15MF? I know you only get the MF once, but you get the rating bump every completion. If Platinums do give more rating, then yes, that would contribute to it. At the very least, you are smart to re-run Apex missions since non-Apex matches only give 5 rating per completion.

How complete was your manifest before 1.09? You get 50 rating for ranks V and X of weapons and characters.

Have you been completing challenges? Those give 25 rating a pop.

For my part, I have not been completing more than 1 or 2 Platinums a day. I also have all my pre-1.09 golds so I'm only rarely getting a bump from my manifest.

I'm probably gonna thread the line between devils advocate and critique here:

I think the decision to add in weapon variants was Bioware likely seeing the anxiety that the hardcore players had when maxing out their UR's; in both MEA and ME3. They implemented this new system not only as a means of making it easier to get into Platinum (or even Gold), but also so that the hardcore players felt as though they were always getting something tangible once they've completely maxed out everything (save for UR's). The issue that Billy isn't grasping is that some players simply don't consider a max manifest as maxing out everything to Rank X. For some, a max manifest is acquiring EVERYTHING. It's a completionists goal. For someone like Billy, and probably a vast majority of Bioware devs, this concept doesn't carry as much significance to them as it does to us.

Additionally, a reasonable majority of players who are working towards a maxed manifest probably don't need to rely on weapon variants for higher level difficulties. More pressing than that is the fact that acquiring new characters, when other characters may already be at Rank X, will be more of a challenge because of veteran rank cards taking their place. While Billy may have said that priority is given to the base cards you don't have, this hardly feels like the case for many. These players will continue to play the game, but are likely upset that the goalpost has been moved even further down the line. This gap will only be widened with the release of more characters, weapons, and - potentially - more weapons mods.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that there should have only been one rank to each weapon variant, especially with how small the bonuses are for Bulwark and Siphon variants. I can't speak to off-host headshot shenanigans since I personally don't like sniping in this game anyway. Enemies move too erratically, enemy heads never tend to stay level, and the buff to shield-gate amount makes sniping a pain (even moreso with single-shot snipers). Hopefully, they take the criticism they've received from this recent patch and apply it to the next one. As much as people here wanna throw feces against the wall (justifiably so, at times) Bioware has been generally responsive to what we ask for.

Destiny 2 ... instead of work on Andromeda .... how nice.

pre 1.09, I needed around 60 UR weapons, my UR kits and everything else was max. I did spend about 2,800 MF on common weapon mods which gave me a 400 Apex boost.
(this got me a Rank IX pistol targeting mod which is great on Rozerad)
I don't do challenges my challenge rank is 1,997.
I typically complete 6-8 Platinum matches a day playing about 3 hours a night. payouts are great though with the 10%-15% Apex credit bump.

Because it's human nature?  Like any kind of relationship, there are highs and lows, good and bad points.  Sometimes almost any reason is good enough to continue with it.  But once the manifest is complete, one would have to reevaluate the relationship and whether to continue playing.

Vids didn't help convince BioWare PS3 ME3mp had memory...

What saved ME3 wasn't the loot, it was the repeatable challenges.

Regulars maxed their manifest within 400 to 800 hours, but we still played over 1k to 3k hours after maxing everything. The loot wasn't the end goal, thus the end goal wasn't the grind.

MEA makes the end goal the loot, thus they make it the grind.