'Fortnite' Disables The Baller Vehicle
Fortnite’s newest vehicle called “The Baller” has been temporarily disabled by Epic Games as [...]
Fortnite's newest vehicle called "The Baller" has been temporarily disabled by Epic Games as the developer looks into stability issues affecting the new feature. The announcement came on Monday after players got their first full weekend with The Baller to test its limits which led to some problems being discovered that are presumed to be bugs. A timeline for the return of The Baller wasn't given, though Epic Games said it'd share a status update once more information is available.
The Baller was added in Fortnite's latest update and essentially gave players a big hamster ball to ride around in, one that's outfitted with some limited defenses for the player and a Grappler stuck to the front to allow for mobility and fancy stunts. Epic Games' disabling of the vehicle means it wasn't even available for a full week before being removed, though it took even less time for players to discover bugs that either gave them huge advantages or outright eliminated people who tried to use Ballers.
We've temporarily disabled The Baller while we investigate a stability issue.
We'll roll out a status update once we know more.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 18, 2019
Players eliminating themselves by using Ballers is perhaps one of the stability issues Epic Games is looking into since more than a few players have experienced the bug over the weekend. Being inside a Baller protects players from incoming fire until the ball is broken and prevents them from taking fall damage, or at least it should. Some players have found that falling a height that would deal fall damage to a player won't have any effect while the player's inside a Baller, but exiting the vehicle causes the damage to then be applied. Sometimes it's enough to only injure a player, but other times it's enough to cause them to go down and perhaps lose the game.
A much less frustrating bug, at least for the people using those Ballers, has to do with the lava that's now in the game. Players who encounter the lava with a Baller can rocket themselves up into the air, far above the map, and can redeploy themselves to a new location, all while floating down slowly to avoid combat.
No timeframe for when Ballers might return was given, but Epic Games should announce their return once the issues are resolved.