Excitement quickly turned to frustration as the new setting was not what players had been expecting.
For a long time now, the Fortnite community has been asking for an option to turn off Pre-Edits. The developers consistently maintained that it was in the works, but never gave a real timeframe.
Well, it’s finally here… sort of.
What are Pre-Edits?
Pre-Edits give you the ability to proactively edit a structure before you place it. You do this by selecting which tiles you wish to edit on the blueprint, rather than the build piece itself. For example, if you Pre-Edit a window into your wall blueprint, the window will appear automatically the next time you place a wall.
The issue comes when players attempt to chain together multiple edits in quick succession. Especially for those on high ping, you can often find yourself pressing buttons too fast for the game to keep up, meaning you end up Pre-Editing something by accident. This leads to a whole lot of confusion and wasted time, which can be fatal in-game.
This is the Way https://t.co/mWsyh8NJpb
— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) December 15, 2020
Ahead of the v15.10 patch, Epic Games sent an email to creators which detailed upcoming changes. Along with new weapons and improved FPS on next generation consoles, a setting to disable Pre-Edits was also mentioned.
They explained, “Based on player-requested feedback, we’ve added an option to toggle on or off Pre-Edits; with Pre-Edits ‘off’ new builds will always appear in their default, unedited state when building”.
Unfortunately, it appears that this wording was more than a little misleading. When the update went live, players soon discovered a massive oversight.
To find the new option, go to Game Settings and scroll down to the Building section. It is called “Reset edits when entering build mode”.
As hinted at by the name, this setting does not actually turn off pre-edits. Switching it on simply means that you can reset a Pre-Edit by exiting and re-entering build mode.
Pre-Edit's have not been Removed, They've only been Improved from r/FortniteCompetitive
A post by u/AriesBosch on the Fortnite Competitive subreddit discusses the issue further.
Although this may come in handy every once in a while, it is not at all what people have been asking for. It does not address the key concern with accidental Pre-Editing, and has left fans feeling somewhat let down.
Whether this was Epic misinterpreting feedback or a deliberate decision is unclear. Potentially, fully disabling Pre-Edits is not technically possible and they are trying to do the next best thing. We will have to wait and see if there is any response and opportunity for further iterations down the line.