Fortnite developer Epic Games is making a few changes to the popular shooter, balancing out its matchmaking feature and adding bots to matches.
In a blog post, Epic explained why it has decided to tweak some of Fortnite Battle Royale's gameplay elements to suit gamers' evolving play styles.
"Since Battle Royale launched, the matchmaking strategy for our core modes has remained mostly unchanged," the game developer wrote.
"Over the past two years, however, the range of player skill has grown considerably. In Arena, we use Hype-based matchmaking to ensure players are matched evenly across platforms."
Fairer Matchmaking
With the release of Fornite's v10.40 update, Epic is tweaking the game's matchmaking logic to help create fairer matches. Players will now be able to go up against opponents closer to their skill levels to even out their play sessions. As they become better at the game, they will find more players of equal skill and experience to theirs.
The improved matchmaking feature will slowly be rolled out to all regions across Fortnite Battle Royale's core models, with Epic continuing to monitor its performance as it does. The company said it plans to get it out to all players and will provide further updates to the system. It will notify gamers once the feature fully becomes live across all regions so that it could get users' feedback.
Introducing Bots
Epic said it is also adding bots to Fortnite with the upcoming release of Season 11. This is likely to spruce up Battle Royale's gameplay, which has been dominated by human-controlled characters since the start.
The new bots are designed to behave similarly to human players and will give players a better way to improve their skills through their play sessions. These computer-controlled characters will work in conjunction with the revamped matchmaking system.
Less experienced players will be able to match up with bots to help them become familiar with Fortnite's gameplay. However, as they become more skilled in the game, they'll encounter fewer bots during matchmaking sessions.
One area that players won't have to face bots is in Fortnite's competitive playlists since Epic said it's still looking at ways to develop this feature further.
Epic hasn't released an exact release date for Fortnite Battle Royale's v10.40 update, but some observers expect it to come out later this week.
Other New Features
To help celebrate Batman's 80th anniversary, Epic Games is also rolling out bat-themed content throughout Fortnite. This is part of the announced Fortnite X Batman crossover that will run until Oct. 6.
Players will be able to obtain various cosmetics and gear inspired by the Caped Crusader such as the Batman Comic Book Outfit, the Dark Knight Movie Outfit, the Grapnel Gun, and the explosive Batarang. There's also the Bat-glider that can help players move about in the new area of the map that has been transformed into Gotham City.
