Westford

Oh, I really don't care if players use a widescreen display resolution, I think it looks like crap, but no reason for them not to play like this. Myself personally, I set the in games resolution to the whatever the highest available that my GPU and monitor can support. That's just because I like the aesthetics. But now you have me curious. Why play in a resolution the elongates the display like that ? Does it improve the FPS, or .. ? I had to take a look at the video again, and I did notice the red "center" dot instead of the default. I can see how this could be really helpful. I don't think I can change that in the graphics setting, but I will double check. I don't know, it might be because I am either lazy, or just don't care as much to go above and beyond what the in game graphics settings allow for config changes. I never bothered with the APB Launcher that was approved by LO, like I said, I just can't be bothered. I realize that this is important to some players, particularly if they have a very old computer. My CPU was released in 2017 and my GPU in 2019, so some might argue that I have an old computer, but I get decent performance with APB even on high graphics settings. Maybe I am missing out, and my gameplay would be a vast improvement if I made these types of changes.

I would hate to hear that there are some players using computers that are as old as this game, what is it 15 years ? That would be enough to make a grown man/woman/them cry. I know that a lot of players change the game files to achieve graphics setting that makes the game look extremely wonky. I have seen some vids where the graphics configs results in a horrible looking elongated display. This player may have a 15 year old computer. https://youtu.be/DK59h4tKCw8?si=X0scgMGeRJW3pcCe

It would be great to see 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. If this type of SARD transparency is frowned upon by Little Orbit, I’m confident or just hopeful, that this will be explained by an official post or perhaps on the next AMA later this year.

If we take a quick look at the last 6+ months, Aug 2024 when New Horizon was announced. I thought this was a great update by Little Orbit, new contacts and what not. Everyone saw the population increase. YEAH !!!! My thoughts are that if they had implemented SARD months prior to the New Horizon release, it might have retained that population boost. c’est la vie It is what it is And then the SARD anti-cheat forthcoming, with the announcement that "Noone" will be banned, instead Cheat Points will be assigned and subsequent high profile cheaters will be segregated. Ooof A "gut punch" to the legitimate players wanting fair competitive gameplay, and much "rejoicing" amongst those player who might rely on 3rd party tools. The message was clear... No Cheater will be banned. And the Cheater population blossomed. I imagine there were Legit players that just "threw in the towel" and started to use 3rd party tools, cause.... They want to play on a level playing field. "When in Rome" I thought I saw a forum post here, where Matt Scott had posted on Discord, that after reviewing the SARD analytics, he was shocked, or maybe even horrified at the number of cheaters actually present on either Server. Ok, so I had to rummage through my closet to find my Tin Foil Hat before posting my thoughts. What if.... The number of cheaters is so bad, that by banning them out right would significantly lower the population to a dismal amount ? EU might survive much more so than NA. I would hate to think that this is the dilemma that Little Orbit faces. I mean, you have to remove the bad actors that compromise fair gamplay, but at what cost ? 25%+ or more of the population ? If this is the challenge that they are facing, I do not envy them. They definitely got themselves stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place" Anyways, I hope they figure this stuff out, and it would be nice to see some monthly SARD stats by Server/Faction/Rank Thanks

@Reprimand This is a great informational guide. Appreciate the effort you put into this. Of course I have been perusing this list for my preferred weapons, will have to experiment with some of your suggested mods. Thanks EDIT: I looked through your list of suggested mods for the "High Mag Scope", which I own, and did not see it referenced, which made me sad.

If I understand your statement, your position is that "Cheaters", players using 3rd party tools to gain an unfair advantage in game, is a secondary issue to other issues in this game. ie, Matchmaking, Weapon balance .. etc Or maybe I misunderstood your statement. I think that the number one priority would be that everyone should be able to play on a "level" playing field. An untarnished baseline needs to be established before any changes can be made that will prove to be effective. If the scales are tipped, in favor of players using 3rd party tools, then there is no competitive gameplay. and LO would be operating on a skewed baseline. Altering/Tweaking the Matchmaking system will not mitigate or accommodate for those players Cheating. I doubt that any amount of changes to the Matchmaking system to insure fair gameplay in an attempt at creating evenly matched opponents is possible if there are cheaters on either team. Again, the baseline is skewed, and not yet established. Weapon balance changes might be difficult, as data is harvested/anaylized as to the effectiveness of any weapon, when using macros, triggerbots or aimbots. I would think that that data gathered from weapon use from both legit players and Cheaters might not be an accurate representation of any weapons capabilities or performance. Just my thoughts.

It would be great if we had some SARD stats.. I think SARD is on ........ Oh well... 2025 is a New Year.

So yeah ,.. this is not a great message.. I personally do not know if SARD is up and running on the NA Servers. Above my pay grade... but a lack of messaging only invites "Tin Foil" hats EDIT: I am not a conspiratorial type of a person ..... I have a dog.

Hmm

It is unfortunate that some people use them for disrupting missions, but in another scenario, when I am not in a mission, and I see the unauthorized use of these municipal vehicles, as an Enforcer, I turn on my siren's and chase them down. I have been able to make a few crash as I chase them across the district. There have been many times where other Enforcers join the pursuit, which often results in a fireball of vehicles ending the havoc that these joy riders have inflicted on the District. It's a fun distraction. EDIT: I noticed last night in Financials the Cement Trucks had a Santa hat on the cab. ’Tis the season

Thanks

Very much appreciated.. Thanks

Game is running smooth as butter on EU 12/18/2024 EST 19:35

Have not Checked ... Will try now - 12/18/2024 EST 19:12 Will update this post News FLASH Update: Was able to connect to EU. I had new mail. A lot of mail. I received a Snowball RPG.... but it's in Europe.. 12/18/2024 EST 19:18 I don't live in Europe.

I would be happy to just check my mail ...

Was able to connect to NA-Social ..... yet again... (3rd time) Was at the Mail Kiosk.. Just reading my mail... Disconnect... EDIT: If I have enough time next time... I'm going to use the "Report" feature. Wish me Luck.

Yeah,,, Was able to hit the Login Screen. Selected Jericho for connection ..... connected Select District (Social for me) switches to Loading screen. It's Regurgitating..

Ok. I'm back in. Seen people using a Snowball RPG. Need to check my mail ...

Jericho suffered a minor disconnect. Seems like people are getting back in .. Edit: Gesundheit .........

I would hope, cheat points only expire while that character(account) is active in game. They are active in game, and no longer using cheats. Accumulated cheat points start to decrement. If cheat points expire when a user decides not to use that account for a period of time, that would be a poor way of implementing the "cheat point" expiration. JMO Another thought. If a player that is cheating and has reached the threshold for a shadow ban, they might decide to offload any weapons/mods/cash to another account, and just abandon their current shadow banned account, and continue on their newly prepared account to receive all that bounty. There should be a Trade lock on that shadow banned account at some level of cheat points accumulated before they dump their ill gotten gains.

Same .. I wanted more ..

I’m kind of up in the air about the proposed “Cheat Points” accrual, and subsequent segregation pools. I’m guessing this approach is specific to Districts and not Fight Club. A segregation pool for Fight Club would imply that Cheaters would be forwarded to one instance of FC , but non-Cheaters would be forwarded to another instance of FC. I do not believe Jericho has the population to populate 2 FC’s. If this is the case than Cheaters and non-Cheaters would still exist in only one FC instance, defeating the purpose of “Cheat Points” and segregation. And with no more bans, FC might not be the best place for non-Cheaters to engage in any competitive gameplay, as it has not been able to exist between these two player types. So basically no competitive gameplay would be had in FC. So with Districts being the viable option where the population “might” support this concept of segregation pools, then comes the question of incentives. No Bans anymore for Cheaters. Cheaters can enjoy the use of 3rd party tools, potentially a short lived experience going up against non-Cheaters until that Cheater reaches a certain threshold to be segregated to the Cheater Pool. A fair assumption that there will always be some Cheaters that have not yet reached that threshold, and until such time, will continue competing against non-Cheaters. What incentive will there be for non-Cheaters to not Cheat ? There are no longer any penalties for Cheating, so …… There really is no incentive that I can see for a Cheater to not cheat. They will continue playing, potentially going up against other Cheaters. May the best Aimbot win, so to speak. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how this is all going to all play out. Although, it may be a few months I guess until Microsoft certifies the SARD drivers and such. Curious how this will all work. If Matt ever wants to do a Q/A specially about this new concept, that would be an interesting discussion. EDIT: Here's another scenario that will probably come up, but not sure how it would be handled. 4 friends create their group to team up and play. One of the players has reached the "Cheater" threshold, and marked for segregation. The other 3 friends have not, or are non=Cheating characters/players. They K up for a mission. How is segregation handled in this scenario ?

I think @VanilleKeks has a point, concerning NO real ramifications for using 3rd part tools. On one point, the solution would be to ban the offender to insure fair game play. APB has followed this Mantra for a some time.. Just like any other gaming company. The other argument is to segregate the offenders to match up with other offenders, assuming that all have reached the “Cheat Point” threshold. Citadel, may very well survive this approach, as their population’s high point, on any given day is around 350 players. Probably less time to wait for a “K” up mission to start. Jericho will have a problem, as their population on a good day is around 120. I hope Jericho's population decline is not because of players using 3rd party tools...... Smaller pool of players to create segregation pools based on “Cheat Points” A legit player, or even a segregated player will probably have to wait longer for a district match up in Jericho. Penalties: Penalties for using 3rd party tools to gain an advantage. A) Perma ban.. Lose character and Inventory. with a possible unban 2 or 3 years later. (the unban is not a guarantee) (Goal of the cheater is to test the efficacy of 3rd party tools, and to forward all ill-gotten gains to the primary account - Non-cheating account) (alt accounts are throw aways) Pros: Clean district for a very short window of time for competitive game play. (window of time has been around 3-10 days) Cons: Banned player starts new account with anon email of 20+ waiting to start up. (need to direct proceeds to Primary (non-cheating) account.) (money, weapons, etc) Report discrepancies to “Tool Maker” for updates. As Matt Scott has explained.. “Rinse & Repeat” B) Segregation: Players using 3rd party tools to gain advantage earn “Cheat Points” to create a segregation pool for match up. Might be effective depending on what server. Server with a larger player base might work. Question: If players using 3rd party tools to gain an advantage will only be segregated and not banned, or at the very least, lose some inventory, does that not “promote” the concept of…. “When in Rome”.. I mean, everyone could use 3rd party tools with no concerns of being banned. Would that not bring us back to competitive game play ? Albeit with the help of some 3rd party tools ? (this discussion should be interesting .. haha) C) Inventory Loss: Player achieves a certain threshold of “Cheat Points” Segregation and the following potential losses. Let’s use a Cheat Point score to 100. 1) 25-50 Segregation 2) 50-75 Segregation Loss of money & 2-3 inventory items (player receives email of Cheat Point notoriety) (they have 20+ email accounts, will they ever see the email ?) 3) 75-100 Segregation Loss of money & most of their inventory items Maintains a threshold of 75-100 for a period of time. Bank Wipe.. Also, let us keep track of who they are trading with. Co- Conspirators… or maybe the Primary account. Yeah, no punishment… I dunno, maybe we should all just jump in the pool.

I would advise against it. But that's me.