To shake up Fortnite’s endgame, Epic Games may add a building cap

By Steven Petite June 22, 2018

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Building in Fortnite differentiates itself from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, making it more than just a clone. Sure, Fortnite has the same basic setup, all the way down to parachuting into a match, but the building makes Fortnite a unique experience. From the wording of Epic Games’ latest blog, though, it sounds like the novel feature could be diminished down the road.

“It’s important to support a variety of late-game strategies, that don’t boil down to ‘just build lol’,” the post reads. Then, in bold: “We strongly believe that the evolution of Fortnite supports a wide range of play styles and counterplay.”

Epic went on to list certain elements of the game that players have seemingly relied upon too much, to the detriment of the overall experience in Epic’s eyes, it seems. “Currently, the superiority of shotguns, rockets, and uncapped building are such a dominant play style in the final circle that most other strategies are being drowned out.”

What exactly are these other strategies that are being hurt? It’s hard to say, but apparently Epic wants to shake things up. Beyond balancing weapons such as the aforementioned shotguns and rockets, Fortnite could receive “resource caps.”

If that sounds odd, it sounds strange to us, too. Almost everything in Fortnite can be hacked into resources to use for on-the-fly cover walls or late-game elaborate towers and fortresses. Setting a limit on the number of resources players can acquire throughout a match would fundamentally change the experience.

As of now, the most skilled Fortnite players often accumulate an abundance of resources to build strategic fortresses for the endgame. Being able to collect piles of wood, stone, and metal while paying attention to your fellow competitors is a big part of what makes someone good at the game.

Epic did not go into specifics about the potential building cap, but it did say that “not every encounter should have to end in a build-off.” The studio will continue to look into this possible change in the coming weeks.

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Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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