Apex Legends devs respond to complaints about Olympus’ unclimbable fences
Apex Legends developers have responded to complaints about a seemingly odd design choice in which certain fences on Olympus are unclimbable.
After a Reddit user attempted the insane Octane jump on Apex’s Olympus map, they messed up but were saved by being able to infinitely climb a wall on the other side. Fans were unsurprisingly shocked at this revelation, but a comment in the replies caused Respawn’s Lead Level Designer to explain why some fences aren’t climbable on Olympus.
After seeing the player manage to repeatedly climb the wall on Olympus, Reddit user VisthaKai commented, “And then there are fences that cannot be climbed at all. This map, I swear.”
This prompted a detailed explanation from Respawn Entertainment’s Lead Level Designer, Dave “StryderPilot” Osei, who had seen that comment a lot and wanted to explain why they made the call.
Osei said that during the development of Olympus, “players fell off the map… a lot.” He explained that having unplayable open space was a purposeful design choice for the map, but players kept falling off the map to their death.
As these fences are see-through with playable space on the other side, players would often hop over them without realizing they would fall to their doom. The devs left the fences like this until complaints became common, and then “made the call to place non-climbable clip on the fences and the original feedback was never heard from again.”
While some players will see the pit on the other side and avoid it, Osei said that “others won’t depending on the situation (in combat, outrunning the circle, abilities blocking sightlines…etc.)” So it was a necessary compromise.
Osei also revealed that they considered adding the “lava float triggers from World’s Edge,” which makes the players float into the air, rather than falling down the pit. However, Osei said that “gave players too much mobility on a map with a Phase Runner, Tridents, and redeploy balloons, so we scrapped the idea.”
After another user suggested they put up “do not climb” signs instead, Osei said that the idea is for the fences to be “noticeable when you look for them and ‘invisible’ when not.”
While seemingly strange that certain fences can’t be climbed on Olympus, they have spared hundreds of players a frustrating and unnecessary loss.
Image Credit: Respawn Entertainment