StevenDeckard

@ViolaDeWynter Thanks, this is much appreciated. As FirstCommander said you are very welcome to ride out on patrol with us if you feel like doing so. @FirstCommander - Prime work, as usual on the new HKPD car and uniform! And thank you for taking the time to make all those patrol videos and sharing them. Sufe sure knows how to drive, it is amazing how he always manages to evade us cops and slip away eventually (even with a normal car). One definitely sees a lot of the town when chasing him. I do agree though that the mission time is sadly way too short and usually expires just when things get interesting. @Fenton - Good to see you & nice job on the HKPD car and uniform as well!

@FirstCommander - Thanks for making and sharing those patrol videos! It is very interesting to see things unfold again and watch our teamwork in taking those bad guys down.

@FirstCommander: Nice job, might not be original for the customs branch but sure looks hardcore - in fact it reminds me of the Belgian tactical police units (Directie van de speciale eenheden / Direction des unités spéciales / Direktion der Sondereinheiten) or the French BRI (Brigade de recherche et d'intervention) guys, which where prominently featured on the international news during the 2015 terrorist attacks. Thanks for posting the video as well - was fun watching you on patrol and chasing down those criminals.

Surprisingly, there was a lot of open world crime going on yesterday evening, which made the latest patrol with Officer FirstCommander, Officer Foxtail, LAPDSquad-Rookie JustinSider and myself quite an adventure. For example: We had a nice hot pursuit after a break-in, ending in a truly epic shootout - leading to the violent death of quite a few of our officers - with two very determined criminals. Which, despite the losses on our end, was loads of fun.

@USPStyle: Just wanted to say "Thank You!" for putting together that launcher. It helped me (and quite a few other people I know) run the game for many years now, despite low end equipment.

@FirstCommander: Very nice job on recreating that Douane van, FirstCommander! I am sure it will serve us well in bringing all the seized loot safely to the evidence vault. @Mehdiitrickz: To the contrary, RP does work very well the way we do it and this way - as an additional perk - we do not have to endure any of those players who love to squeal their lungs out during gameplay

Do not want to derail the thread too much, but I always wondered why "repairing" a vehicle at the gas station does not seem to cost anything (at least I never seem to be able to see any price tag for that action). Would it not be better - as a money sink - to add something like a (reasonable) repair price for vehicles, which should be considerably lower than respawning a new vehicle (which in turn should cost a lot more than it does currently in my humble opinion). That way repairing - and thus maintaining a vehicle - would make more sense and add some king of a little meta-game. Otherwise people just spawn their best vehicles, regardless since it practically costs peanuts (play a mission and you practically get enough cash to spawn loads of cars).

Was fun patrolling the streets yesterday with you and Fox, even more so as the entire get together was completely unplanned... *lol* ...we definitely have to do this a bit more often again (as time and circumstances allow).

Thanks for the insight mate, much appreciated!

Not sure if that has been addressed elsewhere already, but I do wonder: Will Battleeye be a problem for those of us, who have old computers and thus have to rely on the use of the "APB advanced launcher" to get the game working on their "potatoes"?

@Lebowi - Hey there, thanks for posting and welcome back to the game! Sorry that the reply took some time, but most of us are, once again, back to a level of normality and busy with RL and work. In any case to answer your question: We only play on the EU server (Citadel), as for the ping and play-ability for US players - well, it might be best to just give it a try and see if it works on your end.

@FirstCommander - All good on our end mate. With things somewhat returning to a first level of normality, people are starting to be busy with RL and work again (so people are not online as much anymore). Still we had a nice little patrol just yesterday evening with Fox. I also will put up a reminder in our daily announcements today, as I noticed that some of our members seem to have suddenly forgotten, that they are supposed to use at least one LTL weapon and arrest criminals. Anyway, the biggest problem with the game currently seems to be that the APB servers are pretty much packed and maxed out these days (probably the result of a mixture between the global crisis and the announcement regarding the engine update) so the game runs somewhat unstable and lag is common place (at least on my end). Whats more the amount of "golds" and "dethreaters" is starting to be staggering again in bronze districts and players there are getting shot to pieces again and again and again. I wish they would rather do something about matchmaking instead of any engine upgrade, since being matched against golds and dethreaters makes for a horrible game play experience and is driving away new players quicker than anything. Hope to catch you in game soon - until then stay safe and take care mate!

@Creator20204 We have tried to catch you online, but as of yet no luck.

Could not agree more - a way to disable music would be much appreciated. The same goes for having to endure the often incredibly loud and annoying music players often have blasting out of their vehicles - if they want to have music playing in their cars fine but do not force it on others please!

Yesterday I run into a group on Citadel (EU Server) all dressed up in full SS uniforms (of course with all associated Nazi regalia clearly displayed). Worse was that one of them had even created an Adolf Hitler lookalike character! I have also come across openly displayed words of high praise for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime on vehicles in APB on several instances in the past, plain text that unmistakably glorifies and applauds the Nazi regime, Nazi figures and Nazi crimes, so there is no mistaking what that person meant to say and proclaim! While true that swastikas, letters of the runic alphabets (or even the infamous Hitler salute) were appropriated by the Nazi regime, to use any of these symbols in a certain way - even in mirrored or slightly changed versions - still denotes and in the process glorifies the Nazi regime. This is clearly shown by the fact that practically everyone that comes across something like that in APB immediately recognizes these things as being Nazi flags, Nazi uniforms and Nazi figures and perceives them as such! Producing such decals and putting then on vehicles and clothing and even going to the length of recreating infamous Nazi figures as characters is a conscious act and no mistake, especially since this is not a WW2 themed game. Something like this has, in my humble opinion, NO place in this game! Here are some legal considerations regarding this matter for interested members:

We've put together a short list of the most important LAPD radio codes that we commonly use during RPing. It was added to the first posting in this tread as a reference for all of us to use. Note that while there are many more types of crime going on in APB, we only have included those codes & corresponding crimes that enforcers are able to "witness" and thus start an official mission against the criminal (i.e. allowing cirminals to be arrested by police, and criminals in turn being able to harm the responding police officers).

Some are trying the game out due to the current situation - but with "dethreaters" haunting all of the bronze districts and "*lol*-stomping" new players, it is very likely that most will not stay (which is unfortunate).

Like I said above I have seen bigger teams being pitched against one another (and playing it "lag-wise" was not any worse than when the game decides to select the same mission locations for different teams at the same spots). My initial question (and idea if you will) revolved around the fact that clans usually like to play together with their own clan-mates (if not they would not be in that clan in the first place). Let me give you an example: When our cop-clan is out in force, we easily can fill two 4-player groups. As we are a roleplaying clan, it would be very nice to have everyone in one big group, so we could do things together as a "real" group (i.e. know where everyone is), as opposed to two 4-player groups. This would be especially useful for us when we do our normal police-roleplaying stuff (like for example patrol the streets, looking for open world crime, removing abandoned vehicles from roads and impound stolen ones). I am aware that this type of gameplay might not be what most people like, might want or even know is possible or done. The bottom line would be to give clans at least the option to have/play in bigger groups if they want to, but not to force it either. Aside from that it would of course be nice to not get any random group or random players as "backup" in normal missions, but have clan-mates in the same district be the first the game adds (if group sizes for clans are not changed). This is the main reason why we almost never call for backup, since one usually ends up with random players despite having one's own clan-mates available too. (Needless to say, aside from the availability of bigger groups, we would LOVE if more open world crime options for both enforces and criminals would be available, as there are so many possibilities of what could be added, even including dynamic events, making missions more unpredictable and fun for the participants).

@Crusadeer - Might be a bit off topic, but if you do not mind my asking but what servers do you play on? Our clan plays on the EU servers and we regularly have games with more than 4 vs. 4 players being pitched against eachothers, so something like 4 vs. 4 is usually no problem (that most of the opposition is made up of "golds" and "fake silvers" (i.e. dethreaters) thesedays is another matter that seems to get worse each day - a topic that is also - sometimes heatedly - discussed in several threads on the forum).

The reason why I suggested it as something clan specific is, that it seems unlikely that random players would group up this way (except if they would be people from one's the friends-list). Clan members on the other hand are bound to want to play with their clan-mates. While I do see problems getting normal matches I was not even thinking about normal missions, rather about "open world" missions (would LOVE to see more open crime mission possibilities, with dynamic mission parts that include vehicle pursuits, crime scene investigations, evading the cops,etc.), which I do like a LOT more than the normal ones to be honest. For example our police rp clan loves patrolling the streets, just like cops tend to do IRL, and it would be much more fun to do, if the group could be bigger. So instead of having two 4-player-groups trying their best to more or less cooperate their patrol, having an 8-player-group being able to do so much more efficiently.

The current standard group size of 4 players max, is very limiting, if one wants to play together with more than 3 members of one's clan. I am pretty sure that other APB clans might feel the same way and that they find it equally annoying that one can not invite more than 3 other clan members into one's group. Hence my suggestion that clans gain an increase in standard group sizes and thus the ability to invite more members into a single group. It should not be a problem in my opinion because many "teams" that are thrown together in normal missions do count more than 4 players on each team. That way clans would gain the ability to better play together (do not get me wrong members in our clan still try to play together, but not really having everyone in the same group still is very limiting). Anyway I wonder how other clans see this issue and would like to hear your opinions. Thanks!

@VickyFox - Thanks for your input and sharing your thoughts on the matter! Things were as bad before the threat levels came back, only then you had no choice and could not even report dethreaters. --------------- @Fortune Runner - I could not agree more, especially the past few days have been a total catastrophe. I did not encounter a single bronze opponent in the past 20 matches I had in any of the bronze districts. Instead found myself constantly pitched against max leveled players, using highest character mods and assets as well as gold weapons and weapon mods. Any new player having to endure something like that over and over and over will eventually turn around, uninstall and never touch the game again. Worse the "golds" even taunt others they stomp, making fun of how bad their opponents are - saw quite a few bronze players and beginners become completely desperate yesterday (we could have really used the help of a GM at that point)! Some even openly say they dethreat or worse they honestly claim they are "new" players (when evidently they are nothing of the sort if one checks them: level 255, high powered mods, etc.). What these "players" want is to stomp others, nothing more (seems more like the fulfillment of some rather petty power fantasy), they practically "farm" low level players and the game even rewards them for this. They do not want any real challenge or opposition, or else they would play in the gold or even the silver districts! And if they would those districts would not be empty. Oh I forgot it is more "fun" for them to stomp new players... - ...so sad and so maddening! Do not get me wrong, I like a challenge and do not mind loosing - but it is different if you play against someone who is at your own skill level and he/she manages to best you than being forced to play against some overpowered enemy against which you have no chance at all, no matter what or how hard you try. The way things are now any new player is greatly discouraged.

Could very well be due to the increased use of the internet and online features worldwide.

After having to suffer through several consecutive missions, fighting against waves of dethreathers (i.e. "gold" and "fake-silver" players) in bronze districts (both in Financial and Waterfront), I remembered that I did have a discussion revolving around this issue with a fellow player not that long ago in another thread. As the situation is growing worse it seems, I thought it best to copy-paste these parts into a new thread, to be able to discuss everything further (see the quotes below). The gist of the discussion was, that it might be helping the dire situation to introduce some kind of an automatic system, that moves someone who gets to "gold" thread-level to the appropriate gold server, disabling his ability to manually change back to any bronze district. In addition to that, the ability to gain points or earn credits should be severely limited for anyone playing at a lower threat level: Gold on Silver 50%, Gold on Bronze 5%, Gold on Green -100% (making them in fact loose money and with their kills not even being counted). I also do wonder why there is no system in place to disallow de-threating at all, especially since data from each player must be available (otherwise we would not be leveling up and all that), could that not be used to recognize if someone is playing badly on purpose to dethreat and punish that? Best thing for us bronze players and all the new players would of course be to not make it possible for "golds" to ever go back to a bronze district, period, no matter how badly they try to play. Also yes I am not a particularly good player and only play casually and for fun (mostly doing police RP, but having to do normal missions from time to time to progress in order to gain new items). But matches against overpowered golds are no fun for new players, casual and/or bronze players like myself - even if some gold players really seem to think so (getting wrecked and getting GG whisper spams is even less fun btw.).

@FirstCommander Holy moly, you guys really caught a truly big one there - congrats on that arrest!