Westford

Well this certainly explains a lot. I guess my radical idea to allow everyone to use 3rd party tools wasn't too far off.

I am on the East Coast of US ,, and have faithfully been connecting to "West Coast" servers, ever since the reprisal of APB after the extended outage in February. Typically the latency is around 80ms, which is doable. Tonight, 180-210 ,,,, Something is not working... Please investigate. Update: Ran a Speed Test, wanted to spot check my internet.. 660 Mbps (down) 22 (up)

Little Orbit would not be the first. "Activision Is Suing the Creators of a Call of Duty Hack It Says Is So 'Toxic' It's Causing Fans to Quit Playing the PC Version of Black Ops 6 Altogether" Activision is suing the people behind a well-known Call of Duty hack it alleged is so "toxic" it's causing fans to stop playing the PC version of Black Ops 6 altogether. The lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California and viewed by IGN, takes action against Lergware and GameHook, two Call of Duty hacks that Activision has been trying to shut down for some time. Both hacks include a set of selftitled "toxic" functions, including features that let users "kick" other players from Activision’s multiplayer servers (sometimes referred to as a "rage" cheat), or even crash multiplayer servers entirely. GameHook also lets players cheat by using "aimbots," which cause weapons to automatically hit opponents, and "ESP Bots," which identify opponent positions and allow players to see through walls or other obstacles.

I think Matt has made it clear that he has no desire to ban people that were identified as cheating. His concern that he voiced in the most recent AMA, was that he cannot be 1000% sure that they were cheating. This does explain, I think to some degree, why the two "unban waves" that occurred in the last several years. They are planning on introducing there own "home-brew" antcheat program, and for those player that use 3rd party tools to cheat would suffer "sanctions" and the loss of features. (not sure what features they would lose, time will tell) I had another idea that LO might consider, although extremely radical and totally "out-of-the-box" thinking" Since playing on a "level playing field" is almost impossible to achieve when players are using 3rd party tools, why not just allow "ALL" 3rd party tools for all players ? Macros with Triggerbots, no-recoil, consistent fire rate, or for those players that don't mind paying a monthly subscription for some of those elite tools, like Aimbot, Smooth Aim, ESP and whatnot, everyone then would all be on a level playing field. Granted, it would remove the "competitive gameplay" from the game, but at least we would all be playing on a level playing field. I mean, we're really not afforded a competitive game play experience as it is now. Kind of like "May the best aimbot win" kind of approach. Ok, ok, so maybe some of the long time cheaters might not like this approach much, cause, the loss of a distinctive advantage and all. But at least the legit players of today, can enjoy playing on a level playing field. Hell, LO could ditch their in house developed anticheat, and release a Premium Only version of their Aimbots and ESP. I think this would be a WIN WIN for both the players and LO. Thoughts ?

I guess what threw me of was the pop-up asking if I wished to proceed with the Yes/No buttons. Thanks for clarifying.

I did, four times. "Do you wish to switch Districts for an instant Match.. YES/NO ......" I wish you could alleviate the suspense and just tell me what I missed. What did I miss ?

Two Waterfront Districts on NA , albeit west coast servers. But finally a full, or partially full two WF Districts so I can finally level up with the ever elusive, Lynette Casey. Ahh, my shining light. The end of the road as it were. Two WF Districts; Tot Pop /E /C D!: 72 /35 /37 D2: 54 /23 /31 I was in D1. pressed "K" ... cause I had my game face on. Big Window popped up... Do you wish to switch Districts for an instant Match.. YES/NO ...... I chose NO... And then I was "whisked" away to another District,,, So like NO, means maybe .. ? Asking for a friend. EDIT: My friend noticed... the second time.. Windows POP UP. NO System MSG: You will automatically be transferred to another District.

Login Server is working... 2FA is not working ,, 20:02 EST 3/27/2025

Just a heads up.... The Login Servers are down ... 19:12 EST

Oh gosh no, he talked about a lot of other things. lol The GamersFirst Technology Platform and their internal AntiCheat caught my interest the most. lol That's why I mentioned it here. He also discussed their; - continued prototyping of UE5 - adding EMP grenades - Car Racing - new PVE games - discussing nighttime displays - possibility to bring back the "Refer a Friend" program - possibility to bring back the old Armas Event page - Internal Voice chat - Player run Tournaments - Potential to bring back Console Play - etc .. A whole bunch of stuff. I just didn't mention everything, sorry. I figured if there was enough interest, people would watch the recorded AMA. Can you forgive me @explosiveUA ? Haha EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the questions was if Tails could be added to the Clothing store. Matt was unable to commit to this. For those interested in this discussion, you can skip to the time slot of the AMA 1:37:15

I also watched the AMA, and thought that it was really informative. Sorry, I have no TLDR; Matt briefly discussed the outage that occurred during the month of February, their plans on spinning up the East Coast servers in New York, upcoming Patch tentatively in May, amongst other things. May Patch Release: New contacts and the release of a new application framework called GamersFirst Technology Platform. This platform will be used to create and manage Leader Boards, rewards and such. This platform will be comprised of standards and application protocols that will be used by other games under the LO umbrella, with the possibility to license said platform to other companies. The GamersFirst Technology Platform will also include their own internal AntiCheat. The discontinued use of SARD AntiCheat. Matt Scott had realized that 3rd party AntiCheat software, was ultimately incompatible with APB due to a number of factors. When a player is banned, any ban appeal has to go through the 3rd party vendor, it is no longer in the hands of LO. As players are banned from APB, “cheat makers” provide timely updates to their “cheats”, as 3rd party AntiCheat companies lag behind in providing subsequent updates to their software, resulting in a constant circular effort of keeping up. LO realized that 3rd part AntiCheat software was extremely difficult to fully integrate with APB’s backend. This lack of full integration resulted in many holes in obtaining a “comprehensive” AntiCheat approach. LO had announced that as part of their in-house developed GamersFirst Technology Platform, a component of this framework would include their own an internal AntiCheat framework. This internal AntiCheat framework would be comprised of a client side kernel level AntiCheat, and two Server level AntiCheat components. Matt realize that there are cheats designed to bypass the client side methods in order to inject their cheats into the APB application. Hence the server side components. Matt communicated that he is reluctant to outright permanently ban players for cheating, as once a player is banned, they are gone, and there is absolutely no way that you can be 1000% sure that it was not a mistake. He has expressed his frustration of trying to unravel the mix of legitimate bans from the false positive bans from the past. His approach besides segregation in the District Mission Pools, based on the number of Cheat Points accrued, is to impose sanctions on those players that use 3rd party tools to evade fair gameplay. What does Sanctions even mean ? He referenced the disabling/locked out or removing “features” from a player that has been detected as using unfair game practices. This had me thinking what Features are available that a cheater may lose, either temporarily, or permanently. FightClub Lockout Access Can only join districts Weapon Loadout. Disable/Lockout weapons in the players weapon locker Both Primary, Secondary and Grenades Disable/Lockout weapon mods Character Loadout There are four character slots that can be populated with anything from Car Surfer, Fragility, Ammo Box, etc …. Disable/Lockout individual Character slots Car Loadout Disable/Lockout cars in a players inventory Disable/Lockout Car mods I think the most extreme scenario for a player that has reached a high enough threshold of cheat points, would have just the Starter Weapons and Car availble to them. STAR 556 FBW Frag Grenade and the starter car Joker Store Lockout the ability to Rent/Buy using Joker Tickets accrued Email Lockout the ability to Send/Receive/Retrieve Attachments MarketPlace Lockout the ability to Buy/Sell Designer Lockout Vehicle. Symbol, Music designer I’m sure there are other features that LO has on their list, but I think this would be a great start for those players who do not support fair gameplay. Matt also mentioned that he is considering providing “some” AntiCheat stats on a regular basis Keeping it high level, potentially just Number of Detections Identified & Number of Sanctions Administered. I hope he decides to implement this. Matt’s initial thought is that a player would hopefully realize that the AntiCheat is working when completing a mission, that fairness was intuitive. Problem is, that so many times in the past, it has not always been intuitive, hence the constant hackusations that occur. Even when their opponent is not cheating, they were just a good player. By actively communicating on a consistent basis, it does send a clear message to the player base; “We are actively and consistently vetting all players to ensure fair gameplay is maintained” This level of communication is, in my opinion much more effective than a blog post that is provided every few months. It communicates regularly and consistently , that the AntiCheat is active, and issuing remedial actions. This, in my opinion, is a reassuring, consistent and positive message.

I had not realized that there would be much objection to monthly SARD ban stats. I was wrong, but am curious as to why this type of transparency is a bad thing. And I never said that I do not trust that cheaters are being banned or not, I did not realize how uncomfortable this level of transparency would be received by some players. I understand that for some legit players, as @BlatMan had mentioned, this information would be useless, and those players would not even bother to take a look at the stats. So no problems there, as they would never see the stats. That information to them provides no value. why would you trust that the devs would post legitimate ban statistics? Good question. Let me see if I can make an analogy. LO releases patch notes fairly regularly. One might assume that these patch notes are released for the sake of transparency, which is a good thing. But now you have me thinking, what if… those patch notes are not legitimate. How can we trust them ? Seriously ? Yeah, I trust them, patch notes and all. Would be kind of ridiculous to post made up ban stats, but now you’ve got people thinking. lol Hey, if people are so dead set against ban stats, fine. Again, not sure why this information is so uncomfortable to some. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDIT: I have explained my reasons and value added to the player base as to the benefits of SARD monthly ban stats. - Transparency - Reassurance that bad actors are being removed on a consistent basis I have not read any negatives to providing this level of transparency. The argument that "cheaters will be able to use those stats to determine what is getting them banned." I do not believe is valid, as there is not enough data being posted that could provide ANY indication as to why any cheater was banned. Cheater X is banned on the 13th of the month. Cheater X knows they have been banned since they get the infamous error code when trying to log in. They do not know what was identified that caused the ban. At the end of the month Cheater X's ban is tallied up/or not tallied up with the others for a cumulative count. Cheater X still does not know anything, or even if the ban stat listed included themselves. So, can anyone provide some information/details as to WHY ban stats are a bad thing. Please. Thank you

I am not sure I agree with all of your opinions, and I usually stay away from making any assumptions unless there is more information available. Providing those ban stats will be useless for legit players I do not agree with this opinion. I am a legit player, and having the knowledge that “cheaters” are actively being banned, does provide myself, and other legit players that SARD is flushing out the bad actors on a consistent basis. I am sure I am not the only legit player that feels this way. I agree that there will be some legit players that would find this information useless. but cheaters will be able to use those stats to determine what is getting them banned Interesting…. I am curious how Server/Faction/Rank will provide enough meaningful data to the cheat community as to what cheat they used that caused a ban. Also, there would be some lag time between an individual’s ban, and when they would be tallied into the stats. Can you elaborate more ? Are more bans a good thing? More cheaters banned or just bans in general ? If you are referring to cheaters, than of course. Yes, that would be a good thing. Do you disagree, and if so, why ? Does it mean the anti-cheat is working as intended? Only LO will know if it is working as intended. Posting ban stats would provide transparency to the playerbase that SARD is actually doing something. Would it improve the confidence level of the playerbase ? I believe it would, but that would only be my opinion. As you said, for some legit players, it would be useless information. Does it mean there's more cheaters? More than what. Than initially assumed ? Sorry not following the question. What percentage of cheaters are caught? Not sure that can be determined. If a cheater is not caught, then there is really no way of knowing what percentage are caught vs not caught. Or maybe I am misunderstanding your question. Besides, a bronze player won't know the difference between an aimbot and the character turning when shooting. Not sure how this is even relevant to the discussion of SARD ban stats. what difference does it make if a Bronze. Silver or Gold player can or cannot tell the difference ? I didn’t want to hijack this post on discussing whether or not LO should or should not provide ban stats or not. I’ll leave it to LO to decide.

Question: Could LO provide monthly SARD stats by Server/Faction/Rank ? Just add it to https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/news/ Non interactive, with no names to avoid the trash talk drama fest that so many of us enjoyed during the Fairfight days. I think that most players would agree that some/any type of regular communication would go a long way in reassuring the community that “things are getting done” with regards to those players who are not supporters of fair gameplay, and their continued use of' - Cheats (Aimbot, Wallhack.. etc) - Macros (Consistent maximum fire rate (.45 pistol comes to mind)) No Recoil Triggerbot (color identifier) etc Do you support this level of transparency ? Would this effort be labor intensive, or just a matter of running a query and formatting the results ? Thank you