Remember that Insider Sessions is covered by NDA which prohibits the recording/capturing/sharing of XDefiant visually. Insider Sessions is in-progress content that we are still working on.
Last week we reached out to players and fans across Discord, Twitter, and Reddit to share their questions about XDefiant with us. Your responses were tremendous, and we appreciate everyone who took the time to send a question our way. We’ve collected several of the most common ones and got together with Mark Rubin, our Executive Producer, to provide the answers you’re looking for.
How will skill-based match making be handled in matchmaking?
First, it’s important to note that we will have both Casual play and Ranked play. Ranked matchmaking will obviously be based on your rank, but in casual play matchmaking will be based on ping. There will be no SBMM in Casual.
Now to caveat that, when you first start the game there will be a Welcome playlist that you can only play in if you are under a certain level to let players ease in and get acclimated to the game. You will be able to play the other normal playlists as well if you want, but once you pass the level limit that playlist will disappear.
Now, in the future, we may create a secondary matchmaking pool for lesser skilled players. So, depending on what our skill curve looks like, those on the bottom of the curve (left on the bell curve) will prefer to matchmake against each other rather than the general pool. This should only be for a small group of people. Not the bottom half for instance, but rather, maybe just the bottom 10%.
One final point, we will be balancing teams based on a hidden MMR (Skill). So that each team in a match has a fair chance to win.
How are you going to handle cross-input matchmaking?
The plan for input-based matchmaking is to prefer the same input in matchmaking. Mouse and Keyboard will play with other Mouse and Keyboard players and Gamepad players will play with other Gamepad players regardless of platform. However, we don’t want to prevent friends from playing together just because they have different inputs, so we will still allow for friends to group up and play regardless of input.
Do lobbies disband after every match?
We are doing our best to give players the best experience possible when playing. If you pick a single game mode to play, let’s say Escort, then at the end of the match you will stay in a lobby with the other people that picked that mode as well. However, if you want, you can create your own custom play list with multiple modes. If you do that then you will re-matchmake after every match. Hopefully this gives players the best of both worlds.
What will you be doing about cheating & hacking? Will devs manually ban cheating or solely rely on automated bans? How can the community help?
Anti-cheat is of course a very serious issue with games. We have quite a few things going on to combat cheating. There is a lot that we won’t ever talk about because that could give hackers info they can use. Regarding how we ban we use both manual and auto-bans. We also have ways for the community to help us find and ban these players via reporting tools.
Will there be incentives for people to get a higher level and complete challenges?
Absolutely! We have a number of short, medium, and long-term objectives for people to challenge themselves on. Additionally, because this is a live game, there will always be new content and new challenges that will be introduced to give players the incentives to play.
Is there a mastery skin if you complete all the challenges for a weapon?
We have a Weapon Mastery system that will allow players to unlock unique weapon skins that are only available via perfecting Weapon Mastery for each weapon. This will be a long progression that will unlock multiple tiers of weapon skins.
What types of things can be bought in the store vs what is obtainable through grinding the game?
We’ll have more details on this coming soon, but we can confirm that anything that impacts gameplay can be unlocked for free.
What are the dev team’s favorite weapons to use?
One thing I’ve been really happy with in regard to our weapons is how much weapon diversity we see in our internal playtests. We all have very different answers. I’m usually an AR main, but I also love Marksman rifles and have picked up shotguns more than I ever have in past shooters. I still can’t snipe to save my life.
Will we get more linear modes?
We are currently working to create some new and exciting modes for both Linear and Arena style gameplay. We really love our maps and modes and feel that they add a unique experience to XDefiant.
Will there be support for a creator system?
Yes, we believe creators are an extremely valuable part of our community and we are working on tools to support them in and out of the game. We will be looking to help creators grow their following and maximize their interaction and enjoyment in the game.
What is the team’s approach towards graphics?
The general graphical direction that you see in the Insider Sessions is the direction we are aiming for, but there is still a lot of polish and improvements to be done. As well as performance improvements for all platforms.
How does the mini-map work?
The mini-map should be a useful way to boost a player’s situational awareness and help new players learn the map. Friendlies will be visible on the mini-map as team-colored directional arrows and as directional indicators if they are outside the view area of the mini-map.
Enemies will show up as enemy team-colored dots under certain circumstances. If a teammate has an enemy in line of sight, they will show up for as long as they are visible to that teammate. If an enemy player fires an un-suppressed weapon, then they will show up on the mini-map when they fire and for an amount of time after.
There are attachments that will reduce the time that the red dot from firing shows up and attachments that remove the dot from showing up on the mini-map altogether. The mini-map is always up and functionable unless you’ve been affected by a device, ability, or Ultra that would scramble your mini-map.
Is there a final killcam or play of the game highlight system?
We are working on both killcam and final killcam. It will take time to refine these systems, and we will update the community as it progresses.
When will there be a console test?
Regarding console, technically people have already been playing on console in the Insider Sessions. Right now, it’s just a small group and some sleuths may have noticed them in their games. As you may also know, our last Insider Sessions of the year is this Friday, October 21st, before we take a break from Insider Sessions to get ready for a busy 2023 (and because I want to make sure people take some vacation time).
When we come back in January, we will be having a bigger Insider Sessions crossplay test with current gen (PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC). This specific test focuses on the current generation of consoles and PC to help us have a smooth experience for our first major console test. If you would like to be included in this test, be sure to register for Insider Sessions. If you already have registered, you can change the platform you are registered on.
The test will be for multiple days (not 3 hours) and include many more people.
And that’s all the questions for now! Thank you to the fans who’ve patiently waited to hear more and to the players that have been participating in our Insider Sessions. We’re excited for the road ahead and you can expect to hear more from us again in January!