When Arc Raiders underwent testing, the game's machines overall received negative feedback, and the team's initial reaction was that it was simply an issue with content, that there wasn't enough variety and they needed to make more. It seemed straightforward: more enemies, better gameplay. It was a seductive instinct, but it was wrong.
The data team realised that, no, players loved the Arc as a concept, just not all of the individual types. This insight shifted everything. Rather than designing new machines, Embark Studios looked harder at what was breaking the experience. Making new enemies is much more fun than fixing the ones you have that aren't performing, but it was nonetheless a necessary step.
Two machines became case studies in what happens when design ambition outpaces player understanding. The Hornet's armour was insane and players didn't understand it very well, which was likely fixed by giving the Hornet unplated areas like its back rotors. What sounded terrifying on paper—a fully armoured drone swarm—became frustrating in practice because players couldn't identify weak points.
The Sentinel faced a different problem. At the time, we didn't have the targeting cone, so it would just shoot at you, leaving players confused over how it functioned. A targeting indicator transformed the encounter from baffling to readable.
This largely came down to players' understanding of how to fight them, and some admittedly unfair balancing. The machines weren't too difficult; they were too opaque. Players needed to understand what they were fighting against before they could strategise.
After fixing a handful of the Arc machines, player sentiment flipped positive. Feedback on any of the current Arcs indicates that they don't require similar tweaking, more or less because learning this lesson during development paved the way forward.
The lesson extended beyond enemy design. One of the most impactful changes was to slow the game down by roughly 60%, which helped the team realise how strong aspects like the sound design, tool sandbox, and maps were. Sometimes the right answer isn't adding more content; it's seeing what was already there.