Dopefish

Toxicity is an issue, and just because you're fine with it, or say that people who are bothered by it should just stop reading chat, doesn't make it less of a problem. Hexerin phrased things poorly in his topic, but he's trying to bring up a serious issue. There's been plenty of harassment issues in the past, which have forced people to leave the game. It has been going on both inside and outside of the game, and if you have the slightest knowledge of this community's history, you know it's not something you can just close your eyes to and make it go away. Furthermore there should never be acceptable to be spouting racial or derogatory slurs in district chat, and much less insinuating that people should kill themselves. It's hurtful for the game's growth overall, where new players will be even less inclined to stick around after reading district chat, and receiving insult upon insult for just trying to get to grips with the game. Only reason I can see why someone would be actively against enforcing these policies, is if they themselves are actively participating in this "banter", and are worried that it would endanger their account.

Game will crash if you run out of disk space while it's trying to create player cache.

Kevlar 1, yes. Kevlar 2 would have minimal slowdown for weapons such as Nano or if you use mobility sling. They'd still be able to accelerate to full speed in a pretty short time since the difference is so minor. For Kevlar 3, you'd get slowed in marksmanship mode for most weapons except the ones who already have slow marksmanship speed, such as snipers. Compare it with original Kevlar 1-3: OCA 1000hp 8 shots to kill (0.64s TTK) Kevlar 1 9 shots to kill (0.732s TTK) vs 10 shots to kill (0.824s TTK) Kevlar 2 10 shots to kill (0.824s TTK) vs 11 shots to kill (0.916s TTK) Kevlar 3 11 shots to kill (0.916s TTK) vs 13 shots to kill (1.1s TTK) Joker Carbine 1000hp 6 shots to kill (0.75s TTK) Kevlar 1 7 shots to kill (0.9s TTK) vs 7 shots to kill (0.9s TTK) Kevlar 2 7 shots to kill (0.9s TTK) vs 8 shots to kill (1.05s TTK) Kevlar 3 8 shots to kill (1.05s TTK) vs 9 shots to kill (1.2s TTK) N-TEC 1000hp 6 shots to kill (0.7s TTK) Kevlar 1 6 shots to kill (0.7s TTK) vs 7 shots to kill (0.84s TTK) Kevlar 2 7 shots to kill (0.84s TTK) vs 8 shots to kill (0.98s TTK) Kevlar 3 8 shots to kill (0.98s TTK) vs 9 shots to kill (1.12s TTK) OBIR 1000hp 3x burst (7 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) Kevlar 1 3x burst (7 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) vs 3x burst (8 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) Kevlar 2 3x burst (8 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) vs 3x burst (9 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) Kevlar 3 3x burst (8 hits) to kill (1.2s TTK) vs 4x burst (10 hits) to kill (1.65s TTK) Yes, it would require plenty of testing to see if it's suitable to activate the acceleration after the threshold, or if it would be better to apply the acceleration penalty immediately instead, aswell as the values used to balance it. EDIT: @Kewlin Please note that original would sustain some explosive damage, while my suggestion wouldn't.

This is an prime example of what I meant with these changes not being intuitive. This is an experienced HVR user who even dug up the notes for the changes, and still didn't understand them. How do you expect new players to comprehend it? It forcefully nerfs jump shooting (which was mainly luck based before), and only slightly delay quickswitching. It does nothing against people who respawn in line of sight, and one-shots you because you were minimally damaged. Why not just nerf the damage to 750 instead of all these weird mechanics on it that doesn't make sense? It would still outperform the other snipers.

Back in 2011 or so, that's how Kevlar used to work, but the problem was that the acceleration didn't have a minimum speed where it started being applied to, so you'd pretty much come to a complete stand still every time you wanted to strafe in the opposite direction. Another fault with Kevlar is that it only adds the ability to survive one or two extra shots mostly, which is nearly insignificant with this low TTK. With the heavy movement penalty, you're bound to take a few extra hits anyway, since you can't dodge or take cover as easily, meanwhile your pushing abilities become significantly reduced. Not to mention it makes it feel alot less enjoyable to move around. As previously mentioned, CA3 pretty much allows the same benefit (if you utilize cover briefly throughout the fight), without any of those drawbacks. Longer healing is a good trade-off for CA3, it's just that Kevlar's benefit is too small, while it have too many drawbacks. To make it more interesting, I'd suggest adding bullet damage reduction (similar to what have been suggested previously), but explosives and fall damage would affect the player as normal. Buffing the damage reduction slightly, so it affects more weapons and scales better between Kevlar 1-3. Finally I'd add acceleration, but make it so it only kicks in after a certain threshold. This would of course need to be tested, to see how it feels and plays, while also finding appropriate values for the acceleration. Also, would someone be able to help me out with phrasing for the extra acceleration threshold? Kevlar Implants I -15% damage from bullets Requires slight additional effort to reach sprinting speed. 69% of sprinting speed threshold (414cm/s) before additional acceleration. Kevlar Implants II -25% damage from bullets Requires moderate additional effort to reach sprinting speed. 46% of sprinting speed threshold (276cm/s) before additional acceleration. Kevlar Implants III -35% damage from bullets Requires considerable additional effort to reach sprinting speed. 23% of sprinting speed threshold (138cm/s) before additional acceleration. Below is some comparisons for how it would be affecting damage: OCA 100% 8 shots to kill (125dmg per shot, 0.64s TTK) 85% 10 shots to kill (106.25dmg per shot, 0.824s TTK) 75% 11 shots to kill (93.75dmg per shot, 0.916s TTK) 65% 13 shots to kill (81.25dmg per shot, 1.1s TTK) Joker Carbine 100% 6 shots to kill (180dmg per shot, 0.75s TTK) 85% 7 shots to kill (153dmg per shot, 0.9s TTK) 75% 8 shots to kill (135dmg per shot, 1.05s TTK) 65% 9 shots to kill (117dmg per shot, 1.2s TTK) N-TEC 100% 6 shots to kill (185dmg per shot, 0.7s TTK) 85% 7 shots to kill (157.25 dmg per shot, 0.84s TTK) 75% 8 shots to kill (138.75 dmg per shot, 0.98s TTK) 65% 9 shots to kill (120.25 dmg per shot, 1.12s TTK) HVR 100% 2 shots to kill (850 dmg per shot, 1.75 TTK) 85% 2 shots to kill (722.5dmg per shot, 1.75 TTK) 75% 2 shots to kill (637.5dmg per shot, 1.75 TTK) 65% 2 shots to kill (552.5dmg per shot, 1.75 TTK) EDIT: These changes would make Kevlar 3 be able to survive three bursts from OBIR, and would also make the HVR require three shots, if its damage got nerfed to at least 765dmg.

Maybe the benefits are too small for reduced healing duration, but I based the suggestion on current CA3 and default regen. I'd be open for tweaking the values further, but it would mean an much more ambitious change. Med spray is seeing little use in the current game, except for the few who doesn't use CA3. But it would be possible to make it more viable by simply making it so that it halves the time it takes to regen (50% regen delay, and 50% regen time) until the next time you take damage or are fully healed.

If every weapon would become viable, it means that every weapon would become a viable purchase.

Ah, then I understand what you mean, and I appreciate the discussion about what flaws it may have. Kevlar 2 would require ~7 seconds of time to regen to survive the third shot of the scout. Kevlar 3 would require ~5.5 seconds.

I'm not concerned about health regen for Flak Jacket, but I do think Kevlar would need testing with the suggested changes to see how it acts during actual gameplay. I wouldn't add custom health drawbacks to the other mods, as they become harder to understand, and it would go against the whole point of making CA3 the default regen. Yes, I think each mod should be viable, and I tweaked CA1 specifically in my suggestion for that purpose. I agree that its current version is pretty pointless. The changes I suggested were meant as something that could be applied immediately, without requiring too much work, or affecting the other mods too much. I still believe that every mod should be looked into and tweaked. There are some drawbacks on how some of those mods are used, like you being exposed without cover on a car roof, or that you're a sitting duck while using ammo resupply. And yes, we're almost asking for the same thing here, just a matter about how its tweaked.

Why would anyone pick CA2 instead of CA3? It's mainly long range players, that prefer the faster regeneration, and who have more readily available cover. If you don't think that's enough players, how would you compare their numbers to the amount of people who isn't using CA3 currently?

I think you must have misunderstood my suggestion. The new default would be exactly the same as CA3, and vice versa. It's important to keep in mind that mods are not meant to be upgrades, but rather a way to make your character more niche. You get better at something specific, at the cost of something else. There shouldn't be any mod that feels like a must have to be competitive in the game. If you don't feel the downsides for Fragile or Flak Jacket are enough by themselves, then those should be looked at instead of having the lack of a superior mod act as a drawback. I understand why you'd like CA2 as default regen, since it's a good middleground, and your personal preference of choice, but does that mean you'd remove all other Clotting Agents except CA3? Your second point makes no sense to the suggestions I posted, as the current CA3 would become the new default regeneration for players, meaning that an unmodded player would regenerate as if he had CA3, and the mods would instead work in reverse to bring health regen back to how the current default is.

Have you considered the other mods and systems in place before considering such a change? Yes, though I'm uncertain if Kevlar and Fragile would heal fully in 17.6s, or if they'd be calculated around the new rate. If it's based on the latter: Fragile would regen fully in 15.36s, 2.24s shorter (currently 11.44s). Kevlar 3 would regen fully in 22.6s, 5s longer (currently 13.2s). Med spray would become largely useless except for the new CA users, but that wouldn't be any different from the current meta, as everyone is running CA3 anyway. It would be worth rebalancing the other mods as well, but I believe these changes would work even without doing that. All other green mods would become a lot more viable, and we'd see a lot more variation in matches.

As already mentioned, CA3 currently let's you regen enough for one or two extra bullet after the brief use of cover, rather than having to back off from the encounter entirely to heal. It's a playstyle that suits APB's faster pace better, which is the reason why CA3 is the current meta. It's still viable to not use CA3, but that's more suitable for long range engagement with safer use of cover, and thus more niche. Making default character regeneration work the same as CA3, would lessen the gap between new players, and higher ranked one, aswell as act as an indirect buff for the other green mods. The description of the mod even says "Coagulants in the bloodstream cause any damage taken to regenerate itself faster, after the initial delay", which implies the opposite of the current effect. This would make the other green mods alot more viable. @LO_Beastie, I would suggest the following changes to character regeneration and clotting agent: Default (62.5hp/s, 17.6s total) 1.6s health regen delay 16s health regen time Clotting Agent I (80hp/s, 14.9s total) 2.4s health regen delay (150%) 12.5s health regen time (78.125%) Clotting Agent II (125hp/s, 13.6s total) 5.6s health regen delay (350%) 8s health regen time (50%) Clotting Agent III (250hp/s, 12s total) 8s health regen delay (500%) 4s health regen time (25%)

Would you be able to screenshot the location?

@LO_Beastie, the Improved Rifling changes seems really good, and the absolute increase (as opposed to just having percentage increase) makes sure the low range weapons gets an appropriate effect, while also making sure it doesn't become too effective for ranged weapons. NTEC Test A, together with the jumping accuracy from Test B, and coupled with a slightly faster bloom increase seems like it would be good to test out. I don't think accuracy decrease would be a good change, since it wouldn't do much against its CQC effectiveness, might make it too random on range, and alter the feel of the weapon. Can't provide much comments on the shotgun changes without seeing them in action, but increasing the TTK of the CSG to differentiate it from the JG seems like a good idea, although 0.8 seems like it might be a bit excessive and I'd suggest trying 0.75 instead. OCA Test B is the best out of the two options, as I've never felt the OCA really were overshadowed by other SMGs in the past. Can't say for sure how an across the board change of ranges would impact things, but I think it's a good change to test. Might consider altering the hit marker indicator to reflect the amount of damage you're doing at range, to make it easier for players to understand the mechanics (especially for weapons with non-linear drop-offs). Could either change the thickness or transparency of the damage marker depending on the max/min damage, or alter the marker altogether. Would also be good to use Open Conflict districts on the normal servers for testing, rather than OTW, as not as many players participate in the testing otherwise, and non-US players gets kind of a high latency which skews their experience a bit. Alternatively announcing times for testing on OTW, sort of stress testing for weapons. All in all, I'm happy seeing the game getting some well needed balance updates, and that LO aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty, despite how vocal a part of the community can be. For me personally, the attempt to balance the mods is the one thing who have gotten me most excited about the current changes, so I hope you'll keep it up.

It doesn't show original price vs new price so you know there's a discount. If the system is automated at a set time intervals, it would be nice with a countdown to the next refresh of items for the featured tab

What would you suggest? That would need an entire topic of its own, and I'd require alot more time outlining a suggestion for it, but it would involve reworking the mechanics for LTL, witnessing and ram raiding in general. As all of these systems feels completely separate from the actual game at the moment, I'd focus on integrating them into the normal game experience one way or another.

I believe LTL need a complete rework before contemplating expanding it.

I've usually used Sony Vegas for editing, but that program cost a bit. DaVinci Resolve seems to be much better and is free, so I've considered switching to that: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

Bloom got nothing to do with making things more colorful. It's just supposed to create those light blobs around bright areas. Problem in APB is that it doesn't just disable bloom, as it disables the color correction aswell, and the base game for some reason is extremely dark and desaturated.

Would mean that the system would have two separate timers, since you can switch between the spawn points instantly. Don't think it would add much to it, but it's nice to think of alternative ways to balance it, aswell as trying to make it more strategical, as compared to how it is now.

> CAR SPAWNER - Remove cooldown - Add 60m range limit to objective - Increase enemy range limit to 60m > CAR SURFER - Disable the mod if a user equips a heavy weapon (can still car surf with secondary) > REMOTE DETONATOR - Always detonates after 3s, no matter the range - Detonation sound triggers immediately, instead of a second later > BLOW TORCH - Makes you unable to use it while leaning out of car windows > LOW YIELDS - Lower max damage radius from 400cm to 275cm - Lower radius from 700cm to 400cm - Increase fuse delay from 3s to 4s > RADAR TOWER - No change needed as far as I know. Radar jammer might need a buff instead. > YELLOW MODS - Either make them permanent, or purchasable from regular contacts. > BOOM BOX - No change at this time. > MED SPRAY - Remove the green particle effect (sound is enough) - Add an quick animation on use (force players to do the equip time for their weapon) > MOBILE COVER - No change at this time. > RESUPPLY BOX (both) - Remove the ability to resupply grenades > EPINEPHRINE INJECTOR - Remove the blue particle effect (sound is enough) - Add an quick animation on use (force players to do the equip time for their weapon) > SATCHEL CHARGE - Increase health damage to 500 > VEHICLES - I don't have a good suggestion for vehicles at this time, but it's important to keep the game intuitive, and not to make it too complex with unique behavior for each mod per vehicle. EDIT: They have the exact same blast radius as frag grenades currently, they explode faster, they travel faster, and do almost the same damage. There's a very low requirement for aiming with them, and they're currently a straight upgrade from frag grenades. That's why they need to be rebalanced.

For those who's wondering about the Thunder variant of the Showstopper that will be released as a new JMB next week, it comes with a Pistol Choke mod and a unique skin. Pistol choke: -35% fire rate -66% pellet spread +12m effective range This patch also have the networking updates, changes to the friends system, and raised the max fps cap to 145.

The consistency is good, but I believe that 15m is a bit much, and I'd suggest making it 12m effective, and 22m min range. Came up with these values after seeing how effective it is on OTW, and after discussing it with @Tobii, who was kind enough to provide some really good illustrations for the damage drop-off.