Octus: What did you learn about the Competitive Active Reload system (the ability to Active Reload at any time) from the Beta?

Ryan Cleven: The initial response to the Competitive Active Reload system was mixed, but over time more positive feedback emerged as players reflected back on the Beta. We did hear fan concerns about pre-Activing happening too often and how Power Weapons became more lethal with the ability to instantly Active on pickup.

We’ve improved the system to really showcase its original design to introduce timing as another dimension to mastering Gears combat. We want Actives to be something you choose to do, and always weigh the risk vs reward. In the Core tuning, Actives add a very small boost to lethality (on average around 5%) which is also much less than the boost from Actives in prior Gears games, as well as a slight increase in the cooldown times. It’s an added edge, not a fight winner by itself. In Competitive, boost is higher but the base damage is lower. The cooldowns are also much longer, increasing the risk and reward

We’ve also made every power weapon use the system as we had missed a few in the Beta and at the same time, made a key improvement. We trigger the Active cooldown whenever you pick up a weapon. Now, when you pick up a Power Weapon, you need to decide to use it while it’s weaker or tactically save using the weapon until your Active is ready to gain the benefits.

Octus: The Gnasher is always a big talking point in the community. What did you modify following the Beta?

Ryan Cleven: Gears is balanced around the power of the Gnasher, and we feel like the Gears 4 version gets a lot of its consistency from the current damage tuning. We heard fans about the power it deals over distance, and how that impacts moving into a fight, so for Core we’ve toned down the range slightly to keep it within its expected damage at distance. For the Competitive tuning, it’s a much different story. We’ve brought the effective range in much further to allow the classic Gears Gnasher dance to breath more.

Octus: What other key changes have been made to weapon tuning since Beta?

Ryan Cleven: To highlight some of the bigger changes – the Hammerburst has been changed to be a 3 shot burst weapon (down from 6) and can now beat a Lancer at long range, but requires a patient head at mid-range to have any chance against a Lancer.

The Dropshot explosion radius has been toned down to require more player accuracy, and we’ve added ‘team colors’ to the targeting laser to help you identify a friendly drill from an enemy drill. Based on feedback from our color blind fans, we’re happy to share that we've added new Color Blind accessibility options that also apply to the team colors for the targeting laser!

There’s also been some changes to our grenades too. You can now only have one active Frag Grenade tagged to a wall, and the explosion has an increased delay – Frag Tags are now for catching opponents unawares or slowing their advance. An aware player with good reactions can now roll away before the tag goes off.

We've also changed the way we treat Smokes since Beta. Smoke Grenades now emit smaller volumes of smoke for a shorter period of time. They’re still thick to help you push a position in combination with the stun, but teams wanting to make a big push on a fortified position will need to throw multiple smokes together to form an effective screen.

We're still working every day to make further improvements to our tuning and balance to provide the best Gears of War Versus experience possible come release.