BioWare begins attempts to fix Anthem with a priority on new loot systems

In one of the first updates since BioWare announced its initiative to redesign Anthem, the developer is putting its focus on fixing and bettering loot drops in the game.

9

It’s been a while since we heard anything regarding the ill-fated Anthem or BioWare’s attempts to right what went wrong with the game. BioWare did promise to look deeply into how to make the game better, and recently it finally posted an update on what direction its taking in this process. Apparently, the effort to turn Anthem into a better game will start at redesigning its loot and equipment systems.

BioWare dropped its latest update detailing the fixes coming to Anthem’s loot on the BioWare blog on July 31, 2020. According to the dev team, equipment and loot drops were one of the most problematic areas of the game among players, so that’s where the team is putting its attention first.

“A good player experience depends on the loot system being extensible and robust, and a lot can go wrong,” the post reads. “A lot did go wrong. We fell short here and we realized that building something new from the ground up was going to be required – starting with taking a long look and understanding the best in class of the many great games that inspire us.”

From increasing respecting player time to increasing loot and gear utility, much of Bioware's changes to Anthem's loot system are built towards making the loot grind more satisfying overall.
From increasing respecting player time to increasing loot and gear utility, much of Bioware's changes to Anthem's loot system are built towards making the loot grind more satisfying overall.

To that end, BioWare’s rework of Anthem’s loot tables goes in depth, reworking the rarity system, loot drop occurrence, loot tables, and much more. The loot system will respect player time better with better drop rates and improvement of a bunch of items to make them more competitive and viable. Moreover, BioWare is aiming to take some of the randomness out of the loot drops by giving players opportunities to pursue specific tables of gear in questing and with specialized vendors. Other changes include making the overall feeling of collecting gear more satisfying, yet also making the quest for obtaining better gear more accessible.

There’s still a lot to be done with Anthem and fixing the game’s loot system is only the beginning. BioWare admitted when it announced it was going to redesign Anthem, and reiterated here, that there’s no easy path to getting this done. But it would seem the studio is dedicated to solving the equation of fixing Anthem on multiple fronts and working with players and fans every step of the way to get it done. Stay tuned for more details on the loot system and other fixes coming to Anthem as they become available.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 31, 2020 10:29 AM

    TJ Denzer posted a new article, BioWare begins attempts to fix Anthem with a priority on new loot systems

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 11:19 AM

      kind of late, right before the next gen, to start beginning to fix it. should just do an Anthem 2, New and Improved, or whatever, for PS5 / XBX

      • reply
        July 31, 2020 11:23 AM

        I wonder how much money they made off that game

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        July 31, 2020 11:53 AM

        They can't just abandon this game and expect to have the credibility to sell another one. They need to fix their image. There's no reason they can't evolve this into a live game that carries forward to next gen, just like Destiny 2/Warframe/etc.

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 11:22 AM

      It just feels to me like the horse has bolted on this one.

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 11:24 AM

      [deleted]

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        July 31, 2020 12:23 PM

        Nobody is an enthusiastic because the game was bad, but I think a lot of people have been waiting to give it a try after a major overhaul. There are many such success stories, even years after launch like FF14.

        • reply
          July 31, 2020 12:26 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            July 31, 2020 1:19 PM

            Attica Blue was the one who posted the most about it, I think.

        • reply
          July 31, 2020 12:40 PM

          or No Man's Sky

        • reply
          July 31, 2020 1:09 PM

          I actually just started playing it a couple days ago... well I tried, the intro seems kind of long? I fell asleep the first night I tried and continued last night and the power went out. I might play it some more this weekend.

        • reply
          July 31, 2020 1:28 PM

          I wanted to like it, I wanted another cool destiny to play with. Another world with different lore and what not.
          When you love games you don't want to see cool ideas fail like that. Flying around was awesome, the graphics were nice, but after that the gun play didn't feel right and the story was paper thin.
          Esp for a developer known for story it was just a weird mess. It was fun but not worth spending time after beating it just once.

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 1:23 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 1:25 PM

      I'd say it's too little too late, except it can be done. See: No Man's Sky. So, good luck to them!

      • reply
        July 31, 2020 3:20 PM

        Massive successfully pulled it off with The Division, too. My recollection is that the game was significantly popular after the 1.8 patch that changed around many of the game's components (while keeping the widely lauded fun parts). I think they were over a year and half in at the time.

        • reply
          July 31, 2020 10:20 PM

          Then they released Division 2 and made the same mistakes they had just got done fixing in Division 1, so now like a year later they've redone the fixes in 2 that they had to do in 1. It's a weird lifecycle they have there.

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 1:27 PM

      I feel like that game had promise but damn if it doesn't feel too late at this point

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 3:14 PM

      Sigh. I want to believe, but....

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      July 31, 2020 8:01 PM

      In the history of these type of games, I feel like more of them have been bad at launch than not.

    • reply
      July 31, 2020 8:48 PM

      I thought we were getting a FFXIV level of fix?

Hello, Meet Lola