In a recent post that was made by Epic Games, it was officially announced that with the next patch update which is scheduled for next Tuesday or Wednesday Fortnite will receive a new “Glider Re-Deploy” feature which will according to Epic take up one of the player’s item slots and allow the players to freely deploy their gliders at any point they desire in order to provide them with more mobility.
Official Epic Games Post:
Heya folks,
A while back we ran a test for glider re-deploy. There was a very split response on the mechanic which revealed some positives as well as some negatives. We removed the mechanic from default modes, but feel an alternative implementation will help in solving some of those negatives and better suits our goals.
The goal with the item is to provide mobility and utility, but in a form that can be balanced and iterated upon. By implementing glider redeploy as an item we can iterate on multiple different levels (i.e. redeploy height, movement speed, drop chance, charge count), including inventory slot tension.
Not everyone is stoked about this. Check out some of the streamers reactions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3mcTN4vv4Q
Epic has continued on in their post to elaborate and provide detailed information regarding the “Glider Re-Deploy” button which you can see below.
A quick overview of how Glider Redeploy will work in v7.20:
- The Gliders item will take up an inventory slot and can be found from normal loot sources.
- Activate Glider Redeploy as you normally would, you do not need to select the item.
- Each deploy will remove one charge when all charges are used the item disappears.
- Use of Launch Pads, Rifts-to-Go, and LTM respawns will not consume a charge, as these put you in Skydiving mode.
- The new Glider Redeploy item can be found in floor loot, Chests, Vending Machines, and Supply Llamas.
After going into details regarding the new re-deploy feature, Epic has continued to elaborate on how this feature will affect the special Soaring 50s mode and other larger team based modes.
What about Soaring 50s or other large team modes?
When you drop from the Battle Bus you will automatically be granted a Glider item with 50 charges. (This counts as being put into Skydiving mode which will not consume a charge of the Glider item.)
We’ll be watching the item closely and adjusting as necessary so please be vocal with your discussion and feedback!
Conclusion
Along with this information, a new sound file was leaked which contains audio data related to the new feature. While different opinions range between players from positive to negative to anything in between, there is no telling how this feature will affect the gameplay and balance until it is actually implemented in the game.
Keep in mind that many features have been added to Fortnite just to be removed and end up in the infamous vault after realizing how unbalanced and overpowered some of those features were upon their release.