Embark Studios has announced that it is now testing a PvE toggle for matchmaking in PvPvE extraction shooter ARC Raiders. The studio announced this through a new post on its official website and confirmed that the test will take place from October 13th to October 20th. The toggle will give players the option to pick between a regular ARC Raiders session or a PvE experience that emphasizes co-op gameplay.
The PvE experience will have zero player-to-player damage, with the gameplay purely focusing on raiders teaming up to take on ARC threats. It will feature Solos, Duos, and Trios players in the same sessions. However, some map conditions – Night Raids, Hidden Bunker, Locked Gate, and Frigate – will not be available in PvE sessions at all during the test. Players also won’t have to worry about their PvPvE matchmaking rating while playing in PvE sessions.
To encourage the regular PvPvE experience, during the test, the PvE mode will have lower overall loot value that the studio has said will compensate for the relative safety of the mode. The studio has also recommended that players downed by ARCs try to remain as still as possible, since ARCs will retarget players in motion. “We’re trying this to maintain some tension to compensate for the lack of a PvP threat.”
Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal discussed the studio’s overall vision for ARC Raiders, bringing up the fact that the title was originally envisioned as a “raid-based PvE co-op game with looting mechanics.” This vision would see plenty of changes, however, leading to ARC Raiders turning into a PvPvE experience. Bringing up the fact that ARC Raiders started being known as the “extraction (don’t) shooter”, Grøndal said that Embark Studios has been quite proud of what the game became.
Grøndal offered a further breakdown of player behaviour in ARC Raiders, with players being split between three broad categories: friendly co-op players, mixed players, and pure PvP players. 37 percent of the shooter’s overall player population focuses on friendly co-op gameplay, and this is the group that has grown consistently in number since ARC Raiders came out. 27 percent enjoys a mix of PvE and PvP gameplay, while 34 percent are described as “pure PvP players”, with the latter’s population remaining stable since launch.
70 percent of the friend players, along with 40 percent of PvP players, have seemingly requested the studio to have fewer hostile encounters in ARC Raiders, and 51 percent even expressed an interest in a dedicated PvE game mode. This, paired with the fact that friendly players often do their best to simply avoid PvP entirely, has led Embark Studios to the decision to test a PvE toggle.
Two of the core metrics Embark will be paying attention to during the testing phase are how the player economy changes due to PvE sessions likely seeing more successful extractions, and how the toggle affects matchmaking and queue times.
Grøndal has also noted that the PvE toggle is being tested, and that there is a real chance that the mode doesn’t work out and Embark Studios scraps it entirely. If it does work out, he also said that it’s possible that future versions of the PvE mode could vary quite a bit from what is being tested out in October.
