Epic Finally Addresses Siphon and Material Change in Blog Post

Today, Epic released their new blog post that discusses the siphon/material change, the change to stretched resolution, their bug fixes, and more.

We've been waiting for Epic to address their changes to the core Fortnite game for a while now, but the silence has been deafening. Finally, after weeks of nothing, we got a blog post detailing why epic reverted the siphon and material changes.

The explanation? Well... I don't think you're going to like it very much.

The blog post kicked off by stating that Epic wants to be more transparent with the "why" of some of their changes, which is much-needed when you consider how long it took them to discuss their thoughts behind the siphon and material changes.

Here's what Epic had to say about why they reverted the siphon and material changes in the core Fortnite modes:

Let’s start with the Siphon and building material changes.

Under the pressure of intense broadcast competition, play styles differ significantly from regular play, with less aggression in the early game resulting in a crowded end-game overabundant in turtling. We introduced Siphon during the Pop-up Cup tournaments to provide incentives for aggression that more closely resembles how the regular modes are played, and to increase entertainment value and spectacle.

Under the pressure of intense broadcast competition, play styles differ significantly from regular play, with less aggression in the early game resulting in a crowded end-game overabundant in turtling. We introduced Siphon during the Pop-up Cup tournaments to provide incentives for aggression that more closely resembles how the regular modes are played, and to increase entertainment value and spectacle.

Everybody enjoyed receiving health and shields for eliminations after we introduced the changes to the core modes, but there was an unexpected consequence: players at large grew more frustrated with Fortnite play, feeling they had less of a chance due to encounters with high-skill players with full health and shields. Ultimately, Siphon increased engagement for the highest-skilled 10%, while the remaining 90% were more frustrated and played less.

Over time, players began to disengage in the core modes, stating that the game had gotten too intense to be enjoyable. The reduction in viable play styles in combination with this feedback was the basis of us removing the Siphon mechanic and the material changes from the core modes.

For players that prefer the sharper experience of Siphon, we do offer an always-available Arena mode that includes these Siphon and materials cap changes.

Apparently - according to Epic Games - the top 10% of players are the only ones speaking about these changes.

I know plenty of Fortnite players that run the entirety of the skill gap. I know players that don't know how to build a 1x1 and players that can do 90's up to the build limit in under a minute.

All of these players miss the siphon and material change. If anything, all players started playing less after the changes were reverted.

Other Topics

The siphon/material changes weren't the only topics that Epic discussed in the blog post, although they were arguably the most important.

Epic touched on stretched resolution and FOV, stating that the competitive advantage took away from the way they want their game to look. That's fair enough, but when you consider that Epic has been using the spectator camera for most of their tournaments, it shouldn't really matter.

They also touched on some of the major bugs plaguing Fortnite, and pledged their commitment to "doing a better job monitoring bug reports through Reddit, social channels, and in-game reports."

In my opinion, this blog post is going to add more fuel to the fire when it comes to criticizing Epic. We wanted them to speak up on why they made changes to stretched res and siphon, but the answers we got don't really seem to be what we were looking for.

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