Hey what is going on guys, in this video today we're gonna be going over the recent shield
drought which has been an ongoing problem in Fortnite.
The lack of shield availability in Fortnite is a complaint that has started to become
more and more common in recent weeks.
Obviously, there are always going to be those random unlucky games, where you loot maybe
loot 3 or 4 chests and 1-2 full buildings without finding any shield.
However, not only are those types of games suspiciously becoming more and more common
for a lot of players, but, you're also starting to see some truly insane examples of how hard
acquiring any kind of shield can be.
I saw a video a few days, and I'll throw it in the description as proof because you probably
won't believe it, this guy opens 17 total chests in a regular Fortnite game without
receiving even a single item which gives shield.
That is plain and simple something that should never ever happen, and you may wanna just
chalk something like that up to just some incredibly bad luck, but, I think there's
a lot of other factors at play here.
Luckily, an Epic employee just announced that they are planning to make slight changes to
try to combat this problem, but, it remains to be seen if it will make a noticeable difference.
This is a really important issue, because a lack of shield changes the way that Fortnite
is played, and also increases the amount of RNG present in the game.
So, this should be a really interesting video, and without further ado let's get right into
it.
Alright, so to begin to understand the problems that are leading to this shield drought in
Fortnite, we need to first take a look at all of the different types of shield available
in the game.
So, in total there are 4 different items which can grant players shield in Fortnite: Mini
shields, big shields, slurp juices, and chug jugs.
And, I'll also mention the shield mushrooms which naturally spawn on the map, even though
they don't really count as an item, since you can't get them from chests or floor loot
drops.
Let's take a look at when each of those shield-giving items were added into in Fortnite.
The big shield has been in Fortnite Battle Royale since it's initial release in September
2017.
Slurp juice was added to the game in update 1.6 in October 2017.
Mini shields were added in update 1.11 in December 2017.
And finally, the chug jug was the last shield item added in patch 2.3.0 in January 2018.
Do you guys kinda see what I'm getting at here?
At the time I'm making this video, we have now gone almost exactly 1 year without any
kind of new item which grants shield being added to Fortnite.
And we all know how active Fortnite is with their updates, at this point, we're basically
getting some kind of new weapon or item added to game every single week.
It's just absolutely crazy to me that with how much Fortnite is constantly changing and
evolving, if you teleported back a year into the past, there would still be the exact same
healing items available as there is in Fortnite right now.
I mean, just compare that to mobility items available right now.
A year ago there was no grappler, no rift-to go, no balloons, no shopping cart, no ATKs,
no planes, just totally different.
And that type of constant change is really the same for any category of items or weapons,
except for the shield items for whatever reason.
And the fact that Fortnite is so active when it comes to adding new content to the game,
is actually one of the biggest factors that is leading to the lack of available shield
on a game to game basis.
Think about it like this: Every chest in Fortnite spits out the same 4 things every time.
A weapon, ammo for that weapon, a stack of 20 materials, and a consumable/throwable item.
Each new item/weapon that is added into the game creates more competition for that weapon
spot and for that consumable/throwable item spot.
And, it's kinda the same deal for floor loot spawns too.
Using the weapon slot as an example, that's one of the biggest reasons why I always get
happy whenever very bad weapons get vaulted.
It makes it so that they're no longer taking up spots in the item pool, and therefore,
increases your chance of finding actually usable weapons in chests and on
the ground.
But, Epic does something else that makes this problem even worse.
I'm not sure if they've ever publically admitted to doing this, but, if you pay attention,
you'll notice that anytime Fortnite adds a new item, they'll increase the drop rate of
it for the first couple days after it was added to the game.
I'm not 100% sure if they do it for every item or just the majority of them, but, the
2 most notable recent examples I can think of were the mounted turret and the gliders
item.
The gliders item especially was just outrageous, I think they've finally brought the drop rate
down to a more normal value, but between like Tuesday and Friday it was just insane how
often you would see them on the ground or in chests.
Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this video, it was announced today by Epic Games
design lead Eric Williamson that "Coming this week there will be small tweaks made to shield
availability, a reduction to the spawn chance of mobility items and vehicles, and a few
more vaults."
Now the term "small tweaks" being used when describing the changes to shield availability
certainly isn't the most encouraging thing in the world, but, it's definitely a step
in the right direction.
On top of that, I think the reduction to the spawn chance and potential vaulting of certain
items may actually end up being the more impactful change here.
I'm just hoping that whatever changes Epic end up making actually cause a noticeable
increase in the availability of shield.
So now that you guys understand some of the main things that lead to the shield drought
in Fortnite, I wanna go over why this is such a major problem.
At the end of the day, I truly believe that Fortnite is a game which is designed for players
to consistently have at least some amount of extra shield on top of their base health.
About 2 weeks ago, I made a video on my channel where I talked about the impact that bloom
has on Fortnite.
And, my general thoughts on it were, although it's a very fluky and RNG based mechanic,
Fortnite wouldn't be the game it is today without it.
What makes Fortnite so much different than all of the other shooter and battle royale
games out there, is the fact that being able to reaction build to protect yourself creates
a very major skill gap.
In Call of Duty, if a decent player catches you with your back turned to them, you're
dead 99/100 times.
I've never really played much PUBG, but, I'm guessing it's pretty much the same thing there.
If you were permanently stuck at 75 or 100 health in Fortnite, it would become a lot
more like those types of games.
Let's just say you go the first 5-10 minutes of a game at 100 green health with no shield.
You can be 1-shot body shotted by any pump shotgun over green rarity, you can be 1-shot
body shotted by any of the sniper rifles in the game, you can be 1 bursted by either of
the famas's, and you can be 2 shotted by any scar, silenced scar, or heavy AR if one of
those 2 shots landed is a headshot.
Any as I'm sure you can imagine, being at 75 health makes these problems so much worse.
At the end of the day, shield basically prevents you from being killed before you have the
ability to reaction build in the majority of scenarios.
I mean, just being at 125 total health instead of 100 total health, makes it so that the
only weapon in the entire game which can 1-shot body shot you, is the heavy sniper.
Plus, making shield less common simply makes it so that the players who get lucky enough
to actually it, are at a much bigger advantage than ever before.
It would be so much better for shield to be overly common to where every body has it,
then for it to be really rare where finding it gives you a significant advantage over
every body else.
So, let's talk about some of the potential ways to fix this problem and prevent it from
ever happening again.
First off, I think the first step is to add a new shield-giving item into the game.
To say that Fortnite is due for this, is definitely an understatement.
Ideally it would be somewhat common so maybe green or blue rarity and it could literally
be anything.
I saw a great idea online where it's basically just a campfire that gives 50 shield instead
of 50 health.
Obviously, that would be really powerful in squads especially so even purple rarity for
it would be fine.
And, I mean we have mini shields and big shield so why not like a green rarity medium shield
which you drunk and it gives you something like 35 shield.
I don't think anyone really cares if it's "cool" or a super creative idea, as long as
it gives us shield I'll be 100% ok with it.
Also, I think what Epic is doing is a positive thing as well.
Vaulting and lowering the drop chance of other weapons and items in the game, makes it so
that shield stays more common.
As long as they continue to do that and keep the weapon and item pool less diluted with
mostly useless things, it should keep the problem more or less under control.
And finally, another really interesting idea I saw was to add a 5th item slot to chests.
Instead of having it be weapon, ammo, materials, and consumable/throwable item, they could
instead makes it weapon, ammo, materials, consumable item, and throwable item.
They would probably need to make some changes to the drop chance of certain items to make
this work, but, that is a more dramatic solution which would really make a major difference.
So, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and if you watched the entire thing be sure to
let me know with a comment down in the comment section below.
I wanna know, have you guys noticed a decrease in the amount of shield you've been getting
over the past few weeks or so, or not really?
Be sure to leave a like, leave a comment, subscribe, turn on post notifications, do
whatever the heck you want, and I will catch you guys next time.
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