Patch v10.20 is bringing a few changes and new items to Fortnite, including the return of the Floating Island and the all-new Zapper Trap. There are also a number of small Hotfixes recapped from the past week, specifically dealing with the B.R.U.T.E.'s Air Stomp, which stirred up controversy among the player base.
New to the game is the Zapper Trap, which is a thrown consumable that takes up an inventory slot. On impact, the object deploys a damage trap that affects both sides of a building piece. If the trap impacts terrain, it automatically creates a wall and deploys the same trap to both sides of the new wall. Players within one tile will take 50 points of damage. There is a one-second delay in deploying before an effect is triggered and a half-second delay before firing once triggered. After damaging a player, there is a two-second cooldown before they can be triggered again.
The item is sure to be useful since building is such an integral component of Fortnite. However, for this reason, it may also be controversial. Building efficiently and editing quickly is a skill that is practiced and honed by competitive players, so this feels like a simple way to bypass that skill. Still, it seems like the Zapper Trap was designed to discourage turtling and overly defensive play.
During the first Fortnite World Cup, most matches resulted in the best players in the world moving slowly and building massive, complex structures to avoid being eliminated. Something like a Zapper Trap would force more dynamic combat, which is sure to be more entertaining for the viewing of esports, but ultimately would shift the direction of the game in a way that competitive players may not appreciate.
The return of the Floating Island is a welcome surprise. Similar to before, the Floating Island is separate from the land below and can only be accessed through a low-gravity vortex. The Motel has also returned and is now high up in the sky on the Floating Island.
As for the hotfixes recapped throughout last week, they are as follows:
- From hotfix on August 27 - Removed the overheat sound from the Minigun. This was to address an issue in which the overheat sound would play longer than intended and/or incorrectly represent the overheat value.
- From hotfix on August 28 - Made changes to Turbo Building. The details of these changes can be found in Fortnite's blog post.
- From server on August 29 - Resolved an issue in which the names of POIs would not appear on the map.
- From server on August 31 - Resolved an issue with the B.R.U.T.E.'s Air Stomp.
Finally, Creative Mode has received two prefabs. The first is for the Prison, while the second prefab is for Flush Factory:
Unfortunately, the B.R.U.T.E. is still included in the game. Will it ever be vaulted so that we can see a return to normal, balanced gameplay? Only time will tell.
Source: Epic Games