Brian Helgeland (Man on Fire, A Knight’s Tale) was writing the Game of Thrones spin-off 10,000 Ships, a series that author George R.R. Martin signed off on, but the show was never made. Helgeland has now shared more insight into the project and what it was aiming to be.
Speaking to Inverse, Helgeland said his script “came out great,” but the powers that be believed the idea for the show was “too far removed from the pillars of the original,” he said. While HBO never moved ahead with 10,000 ships, that doesn’t mean it’s dead and buried for good.
“Nothing is ever dead,” Helgeland said.
The story would have focused on Queen Nymeria, and the narrative would have been similar to the Biblical story of Moses, Helgeland said. The series would have taken place 1,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
“Her country gets ruined and her people are forced to live on the water, which is why the show was called 10,000 Ships,” he explained. “They end up having to leave and find a new home like the Israelites leaving Egypt. She’s leading all these people, trying to hold everyone together but things are always in danger of falling apart as they travel around a fictionalized version of the Mediterranean, looking for a new home to settle in.”
As Helgeland envisioned it, the show would have featured characters living a nomadic life on a “raft city,” or a “big floating city.” Sometimes, characters would go ashore, but they would eventually get driven off the land and back to the ocean to find “their version of the promised land.”
“I met with George R.R. Martin to pitch him the idea, which he signed off on. Sadly, I didn’t work with him closer, but I would have done if the show was picked up,” he said. “It was kind of like Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films mixed with The Odyssey. In a way, Nymeria is Odysseus, but instead of a 12-person crew, she’s responsible for every citizen in this floating city-state. My work is still there if HBO wants to pick it up. I enjoyed my time developing it, and you just never know.”
Martin said a live-action version of 9 Voyages could have been “prohibitively expensive” to make. That’s because a good portion of the show takes place at sea and the rest would be set at a different port each week, Martin said.
While 10,000 Ships and 9 Voyages might never get made, HBO is moving ahead with House of the Dragon Season 2, which comes out this June. Another spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, is coming in late 2025.
Coming off the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie early last year, which was both popular with critics and made a huge amount of money, Nintendo felt so good about how they handled that one that they greenlit a Legend of Zelda movie, to be handled by Maze Runner Trilogy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball–it’s still very early in that process, though, without even a planned release year at this point.
GameSpot had the chance to speak with Ball as part of his promotional efforts for his new Planet of the Apes movie, which lands in movie theaters on May 10. It didn’t take too long for the Zelda movie to come up after I asked him about how working on his Maze Runner movies, which were heavy on CGI despite having relatively small budgets, helped prepare him for life on this even-more-CGI-heavy Planet of the Apes movie.
Ball immediately gave me some perspective on just how much of an escalation Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was for him.
“Those three [Maze Runner] movies’ budgets combined are less than this one movie. I’d call them low budget in a way. I mean, the highest budget we had was like $60 million, I think,” Ball said. And one of the most important takeaways for him was just learning to deal with a fandom that actually cares about the property you’re adapting.
“It was good practice. I think when we started Maze Runner, for the first movie, it had sold like 3 million copies, which is nothing compared to the Hunger Games, but we were able to, like, create a franchise, and the movies were really successful for the studio, and I think the fans that they were intended for really got a kick out of them. So I got a little taste of that whole expectations game on those movies,” Ball said.
But even more important than that, Ball went on, was simply learning how to do what he wants to do on a massive film like this.
“I got to really sharpen my skills on the craft and execution front on those movies, I think more than anything. But yeah, you learn something on every one that you do. I learned a ton on this one, too, you know, and we’ll take that into the next one.”
That “next one,” of course, is a whole other escalation for Ball when it comes to fan expectations, because with The Legend of Zelda he’s going to have to deal with a fanbase that’s been waiting a long time for this movie. So I asked him to detail what exactly he’s taking from his experience making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes into his Zelda film.
“So much. All the stuff that you normally do, of how do you put the money on the screen, you know? And talk about expectations, there’s a tremendous amount of expectations on this one. I’m gonna wrestle with that.” Ball said.
“How to trust all the incredibly talented people around you, you know, to help kind of see the vision forward, you know what I mean? So there’s all those things that kinda carry forward. And then just the continued thing of, every movie you get a little bit of experience about things that you thought you knew or you thought you understood, but didn’t.”
Ball’s Zelda movie doesn’t have a release window yet. But you can see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in movie theaters starting May 10.
The original X-Men movies famously shied away from using the characters’ iconic superhero costumes. So for over two decades, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine couldn’t even wear his blue and yellow outfit from the comics. Deadpool and Wolverine finally gave Jackman a chance to change that, and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“We almost did it in The Wolverine,” Jackman told Empire. “But from the moment I put it on here, I was like, ‘How did we never do this?’ It looked so right, it felt so right. I was like, ‘That’s him.’ There are different sides of Wolverine we haven’t seen before in the movies. It was exciting for me.”
Jackman also recalled going for a long drive while considering his Wolverine comeback after seemingly ending his run with Logan in 2017.
“I was about an hour into the drive,” said Jackman. “And that question came into my head: ‘What do I want to do?’ And as soon as I asked the question, I wanted to do Deadpool & Wolverine. I just knew it. I drove for another hour. Couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I got out of the car, called Ryan, and said, ‘Ryan, if you’ll have me, I’m in.'”
Deadpool and Wolverine will hit theaters on Friday, July 26.
Apex Legends Season 21 is the first new season we’re getting after the implementation of the legend upgrade system, a feature that allows playable characters to choose options from a skill tree to upgrade their passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities mid-match. Apparently, this feature makes it easier for the devs to adjust each playable legend too, offering more opportunities to finely tweak each character beyond simply buffing and nerfing their abilities.
“It’s made it a lot easier,” Apex Legends balance game designer John Larson told me. “It’s just been easier to approach a certain element or vector of power in any given character’s kit without disrupting a core pattern–that can carry more risk or it can be a little trickier to nail down a healthy change. And so I think both in the [Season 20] mid-season update and with the update in [Season] 21, we’re trying to shift as much as we can that we have the bandwidth for, whether it’s just swapping one out or giving a character a different upgrade to see if it moves the needle anywhere or just makes it something fresh for players to experiment with. I think it’s been a great way for us to balance more quickly and flexibly.”
Now Playing: Apex Legends – Official Alter Legend Animated Reveal Trailer | “Based on a True Story”
Though the full rundown of every change is being saved for the Season 21 patch notes, Larson did detail some of the more notable adjustments. The changes being made to Newcastle feel most intriguing to me. For Season 21, the team took inspiration from how some pro players would pair Newcastle and Wattson’s ultimate abilities together–the former creates a large wall to block bullets while the latter erects a pylon that zaps away grenades and explosives–and gifted Newcastle’s Castle Wall ultimate the capacity to do both.
“Any sort of ability, projectile, or grenade that’s not like an artillery strike,” Johnson clarified. “So you could still get a [Gibraltar Defensive Bombardment] or a Bangalore [Rolling Thunder] strike in from above, and you could still get other abilities or grenades in from the sides or from above or from the back. It’s just if you are facing the [Castle] Wall, you will not be able to sneak a [grenade] through or in.
Larson continued: “It’s something we had been wanting to do to help the [Castle] Wall succeed more–even before watching scrims–but I coincidentally had been watching scrims and [Northeption] has a team that had been experimenting [and] they’re still running Newcastle/Wattson. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’d be nice if they could free up a whole legend pick so they can do the thing that Newcastle should just be able to do.”
Crypto and Catalyst are also getting big changes that will undoubtedly improve their ability kit in Season 21, and adjustments are being made to Fuse, Octane, and Bloodhound as well. The one legend I wanted an update for, however, is not getting love this season: Horizon.
And, to be fair, Horizon is a powerful legend with a tactical ability that has incredible utility in both navigating the map and getting better positioning in a firefight. She doesn’t need a buff. Frankly, a buff is not what I’m looking for. I’m more irked with the first choice on her upgrade tree–when reaching Tier 2, Horizon can pick between Big Bang (see nearby ordnance through walls and on deathboxes) or Ammuvision (see ammo in deathboxes). Neither choice feels thematically appropriate for a legend who wields gravity as a weapon, leaving Horizon’s upgrades feeling a little tacked on in comparison to the other playable characters.
“Now that Crypto’s gotten some love with the upgrades, I think Horizon’s probably the last one on the roster that still has some underwhelming or undercooked ones,” Larson agreed. “And part of that in Horizon’s case was just fear when upgrades were shipping about making an already oppressive and popular legend even better. But I think the deathbox vision-related upgrades in general are ones that we’ve been trying to deprecate. So she’s not getting anything this time around. We don’t want to be too disruptive, especially just not knowing where she’ll sit at and land [in the meta]. She’s definitely a candidate for some changes to those deathbox ones coming up.”
Even if she’s not getting love on the upgrade front, Horizon’s getting a fan in Season 21’s new playable legend, Alter. Alter will come to the game alongside map changes to Broken Moon and a new battle pass. Solos mode is also returning, despite Respawn saying it would never come back.
We’re in the endgame now of Destiny 2’s Lightfall era, and while you’re probably hunting for a perfect Blast Furnace or Luna’s Howl roll, you can also check in with everyone’s favorite arms dealer this weekend for new Exotic gear. Here’s where you can find Xur this weekend and what he has for sale.
This week you can find Xur in the EDZ, in the Winding Cove area. For his weapon, Xur is offering Prometheus Lens. Hunters can pick up Lucky Raspberry; Titans can grab Dunemarchers; and Warlocks can buy Getaway Artist.
Xur Location
Spawn in at the Winding Cove transmat zone, then hop on your sparrow and go north. Take the collapsed overpass on the left and look for a cave near the bend in the road. Follow the tunnel through the cliff face to reach a higher ridge where a Fallen dropship has crashed; you’ll find Xur waiting there.
Legendary weapons and armor – 50 Legendary Shards, 1,000 Glimmer
Exotic Armor
Lucky Raspberry (Exotic Hunter)
An old favorite, Lucky Raspberry enhances Arcbolt Grenades to a new lethal high. Chaining abilities with this Exotic equipped are increased, you’ll get extra grenade energy when jolting enemies or picking up Ionic Traces, and these grenades can stun pesky Overload Champions. The discipline stat could be higher and you’ll want to increase the intellect numbers on this roll, but the rest of the stats are well distributed.
Mobility: 17
Resilience: 8
Recovery: 10
Discipline: 12
Intellect: 2
Strength: 17
Total: 66
Dunemarchers (Exotic Titan)
Like the vast number of Titan Exotic leg armor pieces, Dunemarchers is all about hitting hard and fast. The Linear Actuators perk increases your sprint speed and lets you build up a static charge that can chain to nearby enemies after you land a melee attack. It’s a great Exotic for clearing the way ahead for your teammates. Fittingly, mobility and resilience have decent stats on this roll, but you’ll want to mod your strength to really make the most of this Exotic.
Mobility: 18
Resilience: 15
Recovery: 2
Discipline: 14
Intellect: 10
Strength: 6
Total: 65
Getaway Artist (Exotic Warlock)
This fun Exotic allows you to convert your Arc grenade into an Arc Soul and become Amplified. Pair that with the right Rift ability, and you’ll never be short of a powerful turret to watch your back. You’ll need to buff your resilience and strength stats on this roll, but everything else is nicely balanced on this version of Getaway Artist.
Mobility: 16
Resilience: 3
Recovery: 16
Discipline: 16
Intellect: 14
Strength: 2
Total: 67
Exotic Weapons
Prometheus Lens (Exotic)
Xur has offered Prometheus Lens a couple of times, and it’s still one of the best Solar-energy weapons in the game right now. This trace rifle can do some heavy damage, as not only does the laser add Scorch stacks to a target, but defeating an enemy will partially refill its magazine from reserves. A great weapon for dealing with cannon fodder enemies and for incinerating tougher foes.
Prismatic Inferno
Chambered Compensator
Projection Fuse
Flame Refraction
Composite Stock
Hawkmoon (Exotic hand cannon)
Hawkmoon is an easy skip this week, as the Surplus trait on it isn’t that great. While you will get increased handling, reload speed, and stability for each charged ability, the boosts are minor at best.
Paracausal Shot
Fluted Barrel
Alloy Magazine
Surplus
Smooth Grip
Legendary Armor
Titan
Type
Mobility
Resilience
Recovery
Discipline
Intelligence
Strength
Total
Seventh Seraph Gauntlets
Titan Gauntlets
17
14
2
22
2
10
67
Seventh Seraph Plate
Titan Chest Armor
12
6
14
14
2
16
64
Seventh Seraph Mark
Titan Mark
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Seventh Seraph Helmet
Titan Helmet
2
12
20
7
18
6
65
Seventh Seraph Greaves
Titan Leg Armor
10
10
11
14
2
15
62
Warlock
Type
Seventh Seraph Gloves
Warlock Gauntlets
18
12
2
6
15
12
65
Seventh Seraph Robes
Warlock Chest Armor
16
2
15
16
2
15
66
Seventh Seraph Bond
Warlock Bond
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Seventh Seraph Hood
Warlock Helmet
22
10
2
15
7
10
66
Seventh Seraph Boots
Warlock Leg Armor
16
2
15
10
15
7
65
Hunter
Type
Seventh Seraph Grips
Hunter Gauntlets
10
2
18
10
7
16
63
Seventh Seraph Vest
Hunter Chest Armor
18
2
12
15
10
7
64
Seventh Seraph Cloak
Hunter Cloak
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Seventh Seraph Cowl
Hunter Helmet
2
20
11
15
14
2
64
Seventh Seraph Strides
Hunter Leg Armor
6
20
7
14
2
16
65
Legendary Weapons
True Prophecy
Kinetic Hand Cannon
TrueSight HCS / Crossfire HCS
Steady Rounds / Alloy Magazine
Overflow
Elemental Capacitor
Tier 2: Reload Speed
Truthteller
Energy Grenade Launcher
Confined Launch / Linear Compensator
Proximity Grenades / Implosion Rounds
Grave Robber
Swashbuckler
Tier 2: Handling
Shattered Cipher
Heavy Machine Gun
Polygonal Rifling / Smallbore
Appended Mag / Tactical Mag
Under Pressure
Unrelenting
Tier 2: Reload Speed
Gridskipper
Energy Pulse Rifle
Chambered Compensator / Full Bore
Appended Mag / Ricochet Rounds
Moving Target
Snapshot Sights
Tier 2: Range
Tarnished Mettle
Energy Scout Rifle
Corkscrew Rifling / Extended Barrel
Accurized Rounds / Tactical Mag
Rapid Hit
Voltshot
Tier 2: Stability
Fire and Forget
Heavy Linear Fusion Rifle
Full Bore / Smallbore
Enhanced Battery / Projection Fuse
Rangefinder
Chill Clip
Tier 2: Charge Time
IKELOS_HC_v1.0.3
Energy Hand Cannon
Extended Barrel / Hammer-Forged Rifling
Extended Mag / Steady Rounds
Triple Tap
Focused Fury
Tier 2: Stability
Xur is present every weekend in Destiny 2, starting with the daily reset at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET each Friday. His exact location is always a mystery when he first arrives, as he is not listed on the map, and for novice players, he can be easy to miss. However, there are a set number of locations where he takes up residence, including the Tower Hangar area, on Nessus in Watcher’s Grave, and in the Winding Cove area of the EDZ.
Apex Legends Season 21 is right around the corner, kicking off next week. The new season introduces the first major map update to Broken Moon, reintroduces Solos mode, and also adds a brand-new playable legend, Alter. The mischievous, tiefling-looking character hails from a never-before-seen reality in the Titanfall multiverse and has an ability kit centered around walking through practically any wall in the game–not an easy feat to figure out.
“Your instincts are good,” Alter designer Ian Holstead told me when I asked how hard it was to put a playable hero who could walk through walls into a 20-team battle royale, all of whom could feature an Alter. “It wasn’t the easiest problem to solve and we did have to develop quite a bit of tech to do it. And some of it is a little bit unconventional–it honestly was pretty cool tech development, but it was something that I was concerned about from a technical standpoint.”
Now Playing: Apex Legends – Official Alter Legend Animated Reveal Trailer | “Based on a True Story”
They continued: “We also developed a lot of tools to help us test this–log issues, automated testing, stuff like that–because I knew that we were going to have problems all the way up until [the Season 21] launch and even after the launch because there’s just so many players and our maps are huge. If we were developing [Alter] from the start of Apex, we probably would change how we design our maps. But we don’t have that option when we have all these maps that are already out and so we have to make [her] ability [kit] fit to what we have. And so it was technically challenging, but I do think the results were worth it. I hope people will be really pleasantly surprised by how reliably it does work–people will find that you can go through pretty much anything and you can get really creative with how you place your portals.”
Falling into the Skirmisher class, Alter is built around movement and hit-and-run tactics. Her passive ability, Gift from the Rift, allows her to loot deathboxes from a distance, while her tactical ability, Void Passage, opens two-way pathways in walls, floors, and ceilings. Her ultimate trick, Void Nexus, places a device in the environment that she and her allies, even while downed, can teleport back to through one-way portals if needed. Though that last ability draws parallels to Ash’s current ultimate ability and Revenant’s old ultimate ability, there’s currently no one in Apex Legends who can do anything akin to what Alter can.
“We like to explore legends that bring something new and interesting to the match,” Holstead said. “I would say with [new] legends, especially these days, we’re not so much filling holes or fixing problems–I’d say the legend reworks might fit a little bit more into that category. If we’re not really happy with how a legend is delivering on fantasy or gameplay or whatever. But I think that we look at new and interesting avenues we haven’t explored [with new legends]. And so breaching and creating portals and stuff like this was definitely something we hadn’t explored yet and it sounded super cool. And so we tried it and it was super cool.”
“I can speak to that from a narrative standpoint as well,” Alter narrative designer Jaclyn Seto added. “We have sort of a similar approach. When the design team comes to us with a prototype to work on, we’re always looking for what is the space that this legend can occupy without treading on the others. We really wanted to make a villainous character because we hadn’t had one for quite a while. And so, we were thinking, ‘What villains do we have and what spaces do they occupy?’ We have Revenant, we have Ash, we have Mad Maggie and they occupy very specific spaces for the villains. Alter is more of a fun-loving villain, which we didn’t really have yet. And so that’s kind of where we went with her and I think we definitely managed to find a space for her.”
Though she’s prescribed as Apex Legends’ latest villain, Alter doesn’t have as dastardly a playstyle as the baddies who’ve come before her. All of the villains–from Caustic and Revenant, to Ash and Mad Maggie–had abilities when they launched that could seriously mess up an opposing team (and three of them still do–the one exception is Season 4’s Revenant, who got a new kit in Season 18). That’s not really the case with Alter. Though trailers market her as this dastardly Nightcrawler-like character who can teleport enemies into dangerous situations, that’s not how she plays in practice. First and foremost, Alter is designed to aid her teammates’ ability to get around each map. She’s not a trapper who can trick or force enemies through portals to pull them through the floor into an ambush. So she’s a bad guy, but she’s a helpful bad guy.
“If you put [Alter’s portal] right below an enemy, it won’t shoot them through,” Holstead clarified. “You can’t kidnap them. We had that in the game for quite a while and it was very funny, but not necessarily the most fair. If you put a portal under your teammate’s feet, however, then it will pull them through, so you can still have a little bit of fun there.”
Alter can’t instantly act once she goes through a wall, either. For a brief moment after going through her portal, you enter phase–a stage of invulnerability where people can see you and you can see them, giving both sides a chance to react. If you’ve played on the Olympus map and used the Phase Runner, you’re already familiar with how this works.
“It gives the Alter player a chance to understand their surroundings because teleporting into a space you cannot see can be very disorientating,” Holstead said. “So when you go through Alter’s portal and you’re in phase, the enemies will actually be highlighted if you have line of sight. You won’t see them through walls or anything, but it helps you go, ‘Oh, there they are.’ Because the void is very washed out, it could be hard to spot people. Likewise, when you come through, there will be lots of big sparkly effects and [another team] should know exactly where you are. And so you’re not going to be able to just pop through and [party-kill] them.
They continued: “Early on, when we didn’t have that, we did actually see people playing it almost like they would play a [Gibraltar] dome where they would poke through the portal, do one shot and poke back. It was interesting, but it wasn’t necessarily the gameplay we really wanted to go for. And it made the fight a little chaotic. So this [grace period] also just slows down the pace at which you can portal. You can’t go back through the portal when you’re still in phase. And so by extension, you can only go back and forth each way, every two-ish seconds. So it slows down the pace of that whole encounter and gives the enemies an opportunity to react to you and a moment to sort of figure out where you are and where the targets are.”
Even with these checks and balances in place to limit her, Alter still has a potentially very strong kit, one built around an avenue of movement previously unexplored: solid walls. Doors and open windows have always been potential sources of danger or ingress for squads but the walls, floors, and ceilings of buildings and caves have remained stalwart shields to all manner of invasion–Alter’s addition makes that no longer the case.
In that way, Alter feels akin to Season 9’s Valkyrie, a playable legend built around the simple concept of making a character who can fly, creating pathways over pitfalls and through the air that previously were impossible or extremely difficult to navigate and subsequently could be ignored. I distinctly remember how the Apex Legends team described one of the main catalysts for making Valkyrie was to create a legend who could fly because flying is fun. So as I spoke to Holstead and Seto and listened to them regularly reiterate how Alter’s ability to walk through walls is just really fun, I felt a sense of déjà vu–I had almost the exact same conversations about Valkyrie ahead of Season 9.
And in the same way Valkyrie finally added a person of Japanese descent to Apex Legends, Alter is the first playable character of Chinese descent to be added to the game, speaking to the other legends in both English and Cantonese. Though Alter’s backstory is purposely being kept ambiguous for now, her relationship to her culture shines through in her characterization.
“I was actually play-testing the other day and one of the things that made me really excited about it is because you really can’t avoid the Cantonese voice lines,” Seto told me. “You’ll definitely hear her speak Cantonese while you are playing her, so that really comes through. With [her] skins–we definitely drew on some of her culture for some of that. You’ll see that with, I think, at least one of her legendary skins.”
She added: “We did consider a lot of other things, too, like animations. That was a little bit more difficult just because Alter is not the most respectful person and a lot of things that you do in Chinese culture are to show signs of respect. So it was hard to do that with the animations, but we did find more opportunities to showcase her culture with things like her holo sprays and banners. So you’ll see that as well. And, like I said, her voice lines. We got a voice actor who also speaks Cantonese, so I was really excited about that. That’s Crystal Yu. I truly listened to so many auditions before we found her, but I think she makes the perfect Alter.”
Of course, I couldn’t leave my conversation with Holstead and Seto without asking about Alter’s design. Alter has a mechanical tail, wears boots that resemble cloven hooves, has eyes with black sclera, wears gloves that look like claws, and has body modifications on her forehead that emulate horns. She looks like a sci-fi take on a tiefling, which warms my D&D-loving heart.
“We definitely drew from those inspirations when designing her,” Seto said. “Essentially, before the design, we had decided that we wanted to create the villainous character and so we already had the personality down pat before we even went into the visuals on that. But because the idea was that we were going to make her a sort of devious trickster and when you hear that, it kind of comes with some visual ideas already–like what you were saying, devils and tieflings and things like that. I think our concept artist, Xiao Young, drew from those inspirations when coming up with [Alter] because we knew she was going to be this villainous character. Obviously, you can’t have a villainous character if she doesn’t look villainous.”
She continued: “One of the things we also wanted to make sure was easily seen was that she’s clearly from a different dimension. And I think if you look at her, she looks so different from the other characters that you can tell that she’s not from this Apex world.”
We’ll have to wait for the start of Season 21 to learn more about Alter and her mysterious past, as well as how much she alters (heh) Apex Legends’ meta. Trailers have already teased she has an admiration for Horizon, and in my conversations with the Apex Legends team, Seto told me that puts Alter “on rocky ground” with Ash given the simulacrum’s rivalry with Horizon. Alter also “really likes” Mad Maggie and “really doesn’t like” Newcastle, meaning we’re likely in for some spicy new narrative developments when Season 21 hits.
When Apex Legends Season 21 kicks off next week, the game’s fifth battle royale map, Broken Moon, will finally be getting a facelift. This is the longest any battle royale map in Apex Legends has gone without a major update, as every other map has gotten a permanent layout change within two seasons of launching. Broken Moon, which was added in Season 15, is only now getting new point of interest landmarks and adjustments to the environment–that’s six seasons later.
“We’ve been working hard on a lot of content,” Apex Legends lead level designer Steve Young told me when I asked why adjustments for Broken Moon took longer than usual. “I think on the map side of things–and obviously Broken Moon is not the only thing that we’ve been focused on, but to that end–I would say that this is a pretty heavy lift as far as the changes that you’re going to see. And yeah, it’s been a long journey, but I’m really happy personally with where Broken Moon is, and I honestly think that fans are going to dig it too. [Also,] we have a lot of active maps right now. These are very detailed maps and we have to keep up with all of them and develop new maps on the side.”
Now Playing: Apex Legends – Official Alter Legend Animated Reveal Trailer | “Based on a True Story”
The most notable adjustment to Broken Moon is the destruction of Promenade, the centralmost POI that acts as a major chokepoint given its long, snake-like structure. It’s not uncommon to find yourself contending with three or four other squads (or more!) if you decide to rotate through that location in the latter half of a match because that’s when a lot of people choose to do so (or are forced to depending how the ring is closing). This has led many players to actively avoid the landmark altogether. In Promenade’s place, Broken Moon is getting a brand-new POI called Quarantine.
“Since we basically nuked Promenade–which I assume a lot of people may be happy about, I don’t know, but maybe–the whole center of the map had to receive a pretty significant update,” Young said. “Which means that rotations and chokes and all the connective tissue [of the map] is much more intentional and intuitive, and that’s all to accommodate the redesigned center of the map, the Quarantine zone.”
Broken Moon has a unique form of transportation known as zip rails–long, yellow rails that curve and twist around the map. If you grab one, you’re propelled along the line, gradually picking up speed. Their primary purpose is to aid squads in moving about the outskirts of the (frankly, too big) map before the first ring starts closing. In addition, all the rail tracks eventually funnel toward the center, helping squads get from one half of the map to the other. Previously, that meant all roads lead to Promenade. Not anymore.
[Zip rails] used to bleed into the center and kind of funnel everyone there,” Young said. “And so yeah, a lot of those have been removed and it is hard to call out specifics, but let’s just say all of the connective tissue has received a pretty significant update across the map, but especially leading into the new Quarantine zone. And then we have, in my opinion, the most creative and fun use of zip rails in the Quarantine zone itself, specifically right now. They’re designed primarily as a rotational tool within the POI because it’s a lot faster paced, but it’s more… controlled chaos, I guess, is a good way of putting it. You’re now going to be able to identify threats and formulate a strategy for how to navigate through there. So you can either use the zip rails within the POI–they’re only contained within the POI–to either rotate or if you just want to make a really big spectacular play off them, that’s easy to do now too. Well, easy if you’re like [Apex Legends balance game designer] John Larson.”
The narrative reasoning for Quarantine’s addition is that after Apex Legends’ third map, Olympus, collided with Broken Moon and destroyed Promenade, alien eggs of an unknown species were discovered and the location was coordinated off. Badly, evidently, if the legends are still using the space as a battleground for their blood sport but that’s neither here nor there. Regardless, I asked if this might hint at future PvE elements coming to Broken Moon, similar to the prowler dens and spider nests on Storm Point.
“No,” Young responded, chuckling. “It helps contextualize the containment zone area that was set up, so the eggs themselves are within these storage containers that you can look at. I’m just trying to hype up how ridiculous the biome update is because it genuinely looks and feels like a brand-new map, and that was one reason I was calling [the eggs] specifically out, but now I’m realizing I need to be a little bit more careful.”
Alongside Quarantine, Broken Moon is receiving several smaller adjustments across the map, as well as the addition of a few smaller POIs injected between the larger ones. The map is also getting a cosmetic facelift–the gentle greens and pinks of grass and shrubbery will transform into sharp reds and purples, and the previously clear skies will now look like Broken Moon has been transported to another, more alien realm in the Titanfall multiverse, likely in reference to Season 21’s new playable legend, Alter, a tiefling-looking villain who can walk through walls.