Apex Legends players have identified a new bug involving the game’s newest Legend, Rampart, that’s causing some players’ games to crash. The bug has to do with her Amped Cover ability which allows her to deploy a shield to amplify her team’s shots while deflecting incoming damage from enemies. Rampart can put down more than one shield at once, but if you do that and shoot through them in some regions, it’ll send players right back to the main menu with an error informing them that their game has crashed. Respawn Entertainment is aware of the issue though and said it’s been fixed for a release in a future update.
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The best example of the bug in action was shown in a post on Reddit where a user shared evidence of the bug sending them back to the main lobby when in the Firing Range. They said they’d experienced the issue first in a real game and was then able to reproduce it.
Rampart bug: When 2 rampart tactics are placed and shot through, the player dc’s. Happened in a real game and tested it out in firing range. from r/apexlegends
Shooting through two shields instead of one to double-amplify bullets seems like something players would try often, so it’s not hard to imagine how players encountered this bug. However, it appears the shield stacking isn’t actually a necessary part of reproducing the issue. Senior designer Chin Xiang Chong shared some insights into the bug and how it came to be through an anecdote that goes back to the days of Titanfall.
“To be clear – the error occurs only in certain regions (like Japan), and it occurs when you destroy the top part of Rampart’s wall,” the senior designer said. “Stacking walls as shown is unnecessary, but shooting a bullet through stacked walls destroys the top part of all walls except the one closest to you, which triggers the condition mentioned above.”
This all works fine, except if you’re in a region like Japan where it’s not ok to have blood and guts. In those regions, 6 year old script tries to play a less gory effect on the chest of an Amped Wall.
Spoilers: The Wall has no chest.
BOOM ERROR. https://t.co/O1dE1mMUXf
— Chin Xiang Chong (@tangentiallogic) August 19, 2020
Elaborating on Twitter, the designer said the bug has to do with how mature effects are handled in different regions like Japan where gore has to be toned down. When shooting through the Rampart wall in a certain way, the game tries to play a certain effect on the wall’s “chest” but can’t do so which then leads to the crash.
The problem doesn’t affect everyone since it’s only limited to certain regions, but it’s at least been fixed internally and will be resolved in a future update.
