MattScott

Hi everyone, The entire team has been crunching for September on the Engine Upgrade (including me), so I haven't had much time to blog lately. However, I have seen a lot of requests for updates, so I thought I would try something a little different. As I said on the latest Q&A, we're done merging all the content and code. We are just fixing bugs now. So below I'm going to list the exact bugs that we need to fix before we do the public OTW test. You'll notice we're not quite at the stage of fixing actual gameplay or collision issues yet. I'll try updating this thread each Friday to clear or add bugs as we move forward. All platform issues: Performance benchmarks - We've made a ton of changes recently, so we need all new benchmarks. From our earlier work, we feel the game is running well in terms of multithreaded rendering. The render threads are out performing the game thread. So all of our latest optimizations have been surrounding ways to improve core game logic. STATUS: Ongoing Various disconnect crashes - This only happens in "final" builds that we release to players. There is a crash in the game whenever you get disconnected from a server for any reason. This causes the client to flag itself for a full file repair, which is very annoying for testers. STATUS: In progress Level of Detail issue - This was extremely noticeable in the video that got released. Buildings popping in horribly. Trees disappearing. Etc. Turns out there was a tremendous amount of custom code in Live used to dynamically morph between various building LODs and to support individually lit windows at night. Reloaded tossed all this original code because none of it was supported under Unreal 3.5, and they just adopted the stock LOD system. Obviously this left many bugs. The team was able to pull in all the code we needed from the old engine and combine it with the new Unreal 3.5 LOD system. STATUS: Mostly fixed / Window lights on LOD0 at night don't work in "final" builds for players Texture streaming bug - Even though this isn't a crash bug, it has been our #1 issue. Texture streaming is a unique system RTW wrote to prioritize textures based on various methods, so that when the player's machine or console runs out of texture memory, the game can downrez textures that aren't used very much (or aren't very noticable). This is a lot harder than it sounds, and there are many different methods used (texture size rendered to the screen, distance from the furthest object using the texture, special flags for signage and other highly detailed textures, etc). For the most part, this is working MUCH better now. The game looks amazing. There are a bunch of signs in the districts that need to get special texture streaming flags, and in some cases we see oddball textures get downrezzed that shouldn't. STATUS: Mostly fixed NPC / Living city character lighting issues - This was very weird. We started noticing that sometimes many of the pedestrians were heavily under lit with a weird orange lighting that didn't match the scene. We've been chasing this for a bit, and found that the code for reflective lights was broken. The team was able to determine that reflective light values were being initialized based on whatever main direction light was active (or inactive) in the scene when they loaded into the district. This is being fixed so that we can control the reflective light values from our Time of Day data. STATUS: In progress / Mostly fixed Character customization saving is broken - There's a database change necessary in our external SPCT testing environment. The next push should fix it. STATUS: In progress Color Lookup Table grading is broken - This is a general post processing feature in Unreal where artists can apply color LUT files to modify the look of the scene. Right now, we're seeing some high thresholding / banding when LUTs are used. STATUS: Removed so the artifact doesn't show up / Awaiting dev resource Time of Day color values are broken - The lighting model for Unreal 3.5 is completely different than Unreal 3.0. As such, all of the values used to handle colors, depth of field, bloom, etc for midnight, dawn, noon, evening and night time need to be polished up. STATUS: In progress Streetlamps in Financial - It looks like an artist at Reloaded swapped all the spotlights to point lights for any lighting that comes from streetlamps in the district. In order to create the light halo on the sidewalk, they had to make the radius quite large. This means when the streetlamp is next to a building there is a bright patch where the light is affecting the wall. The team went back through and swapped back in the spotlights, but we have a bug in the prefab that needs our Financial map rebuilt. STATUS: Fixed but 2nd issue needs fixing Building feature LOD issue - We have a visual artifact because the rendering of mission features on buildings is not synced to the building LOD code. This means that for a small period of time we sometimes see holes in buildings where the features should be. STATUS: Awaiting dev resource We have submitted two console builds, and gotten kicked back for defects. Right now we're 94% compliant with the necessary checks that both Microsoft and Sony require to approve a title. Xbox One: 21 total must fix bugs (hightlights below) Title terminates on disconnecting the network cable anywhere in the title Null Characters are displayed on launching the title in any supported language other than English Background art and MAP fails to render on Xbox One X kit Title terminates on launching the tile in an Xbox One X kit The title crashes on suspending the title during the splash screen Title crashes in keeping the console idle for more than 20 minutes on the Music player Game Event limitation popup is displayed during gameplay SpaceBar is displayed for jump in Tutorial during gameplay Unnecessary Resolution option is displayed in Video Options Title crashes on adding friends from inside the game Title displays a black screen for more than 12 seconds right after the initial splash screen Title displays unnecessary button call out during gameplay Title allows the muted user to communicate through text during online gameplay Title allows the blocked user to send Group Invite User is unable to dismiss the interact menu by pressing B button after interacting with another user Title randomly crashes during normal gameplay The achievement 'Olympic Contender' fails to unlock on meeting its criteria User is unable to scroll thorough the description using RS in descriptions Title does not provide an option to invite another user to the game PlayStation 4: 12 total must fix bugs (highlights below) The term 'Sony Entertainment Network account' is displayed in the title screen Application provides 'Resolution' setting in the 'Video' tab Application soft locks upon selecting a user from the ‘Search’ tab of 'GROUP & FRIENDS' Gameplay - Incorrect naming convention is displayed in ‘Tutorial’ Incomplete online ID is displayed in the ‘Friends’ tab in ‘GROUP & FRIENDS’ Application fails to transition to a mode which supports play together User B fails to join the User A's session using 'Join' feature Application crashes on exploding a bunch of cars during gameplay Application incorrectly displays the SIE-specified text in the ToS Gameplay - Incorrect naming convention is displayed in 'Drive the vehicle 500 meters' tutorial Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, I'm posting early today, due to meetings later. Big push this week. I think we're through a large chunk of the Nekrova players who had migration issues. There are now 905 total tickets and 674 tickets that have not yet had a response. That's a big drop from last week. Today we are answering tickets from September 9th, which means that we are at 25 day response time, which is nearly a week lower than last week. If your ticket is older than September 9th, and we have not reached out, then I recommend updating your ticket and asking for status. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, We're going to pause this effort for a number of different reasons: 1) Most importantly, our email newsletter system is being rebuilt, and we have not been able to properly message individual accounts that are in danger of losing their names. It's critical we give everyone enough lead time to respond and login. 2) Also I was made aware of a large number of players who are planning on griefing/squatting on released names tomorrow. I feel like this is simply going to create the same problem, and since players can create endless emails to register endless new accounts - we can't restrict how many names they can claim. 3) I had made the core assumption that we needed to release these names in order to facilitate a smoother consolidation of Jericho and Citadel, but that strategy has also been changed. The end result will be the same, but we have come up with a new way of identifying players that will eliminate conflicts. In summary, the name release WILL HAPPEN. For those that bought name changes, we're not that far out. I just need to think on how to do it in a way that wont get abused. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I should have mentioned that Shotguns are the next major category we are tackling. I'll amend my post to reflect that. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, For the OP, I can't know how frustrating it is to wait that long and get a copy/paste response. I'm actually frustrated reading this, because we have internal standards that are designed to prevent agents from do this. However, I will say that often for griefing, hacker, cheat, exploit tickets, the only response they can give is an "acknowledgement of receipt". The team has been trained how to research these cases and then properly escalate specific data points to Easy Anti Cheat. But from there, we rarely get any feedback from EAC until there is a ban wave. In other words, it's not feasible for us to track all these types of tickets and respond when action by our anti-cheat has been taken. Per the OP's request, I'm locking this thread. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, After a couple weeks of investigation, we're changing strategies on this effort. I'll be posting separately on the reasons, the new timeline and the approach. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, First, this week we are going to push the older weapon balance changes to LIVE. We aren't done yet. We will be updating Prototype districts with new changes for other weapon categories soon. In making this post and reviewing all the changes, it appears we pushed RSA and ACT 44 changes to Prototype Districts, but the stat changes got missed in our patch notes. I recognize players might have missed these, but since they are very minor buffs, I have approved for them to go live as well. For the patch this week, we will be including the following changes: Low-Yield Fragmentation Grenade: Explosion Radius 700 -> 550 Health Damage 575 -> 515 Stamina Damage 365 -> 295 Hard Damage 435 -> 376 OCA-EW 626 (And varieties): Fire interval from 0.092 to 0.098 seconds, Accuracy Recovery from 5.675 to 5.25 Joker RFP-9 (applies to the base stats of RFP variants): Health Damage: 133 -> 110 Magazine Capacity: 21 -> 24 Ammo Pool Capacity: 105 -> 120 Radius at 10m: 10 -> 20 Min Damage Range: 25m -> 15m Marksmanship Modifier: 0.64 -> 0.32 ACT 44: Decrease Marksman Modifier from 0.63 to 0.55 Colby RSA: Decrease Marksman Modifier from 0.50 to 0.40 I want to thank the players who participated with feedback and iterations. Second, I want to discuss the Joker RFP-9 "Fang". The base Joker RFP-9 is designed to be a close to medium ranged weapon, mimicking the OBIR in design while being held back in range. However we have noticed that the 'Fang' variety of the Joker RFP-9 is currently dominating both medium and long range, due to the Improved Rifling 3 modification. The blooming of the Joker RFP-9 makes the drawback of Improved Rifling largely insignificant, leaving the gun in a very overpowered state. As a result, a lot of guns designed specifically for long range sit in the Fang's shadow. It has become the go-to secondary weapon for anyone playing a close range primary. If all of that wasn't bad enough, this gun is only available behind a paywall, which makes it purely pay to win. We have been making a strong effort to balance the P2W aspects of the game, and unfortunately the Fang is one of those outliers that needs to be addressed. For the record, I really hate changing a gun that people have paid for, even though I recognize we have already been forced to do this. Just know that we take it seriously. I would love to see the new Colby RSA and ACT 44 come back into the spotlight for long range secondary weapon engagements. In order to do this it is important to alter the Fang so that it is no longer dominant without breaking the base gun, which also just went through a lot of re-balance. We do not wish to change how the gun is played, but rather fine tune its role. With all of that in mind, I'm going to go on record saying that IR3 on the Fang sits at the heart of the problem we are seeing. It is simply a bad design decision. It's worth mentioning that we can't do mod changes in the Prototype Districts, because unlike stat changes, we can't change mods per district. The recommendation from design is to swap the Fang's mod from Improved Rifling 3 to Hunting Sight 3. Improved Rifling 3 increases the range while also increasing bloom gain. Hunting Sight 3 greatly improves accuracy in marksmanship mode. We can always tweak the base RFP once the mod is changed. But since we can't test this change without actually pushing it live, let's discuss it here. Thanks, Matt Edit: Shotguns are the next major category we are tackling.

Hi all, We took the servers down for about 20 minutes to make a quick patch to the event. Was back up very quickly earlier. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, We are still pushing hard to clear the merge tickets and catch up. There are now 957 total tickets and 768 tickets that have not yet had a response, which continue to come down from last time. Today we are answering tickets from August 26th, which means that we are 1 day over a month response time. If your ticket is older than August 26th, and we have not reached out, then I recommend updating your ticket and asking for status. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, After weeks of testing and tweaking, our final event for this version of Fallen Earth is ready. The event will start tomorrow on September 27th and end on October 14th when we will be closing this chapter of the game's history and turning off the servers. We hope you will spread the word and organize with friends to go on one last adventure (for a while) and say goodbye. You can find details here: https://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth/news/2019/9/24/the-last-stand We look forward to seeing you in the Wasteland. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, The devs are looking at this. No need to open a ticket. If you made a purchase, we’ll get you sorted. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, We've hit a snag with the updater service that builds the patches. Obviously this infrastructure hasn't been used in a long time. The team is continuing to work on this through the weekend, and I'll give updates as we move along. At this point it looks like we stand a good chance of missing the 9/22 with this event. Regardless, we're going to run it anyway as soon as it's ready. I appreciate everyone's patience, and I hope everyone enjoys the various player-run anniversary activities tomorrow. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Commander has been applied to everyone. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, Support has been bogged down with tickets from Nekrova merge players. It nearly a week to get through the 16th and 17th of August, but things are picking up now. There are now 1020 total tickets and 824 tickets that have not yet had a response, which are both down from last time. Today we are answering tickets from August 20th, which means that we are at a month response time. If your ticket is older than August 20th, and we have not reached out, then I recommend updating your ticket and asking for status. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, We are running a little behind. This is our first event from scratch, and we've had a couple bugs blocking completion of the event. However our team just solved the last bug, so now they are adding in the rest of the sub quests. Then we'll need to do some testing. We are going to be cutting this very very close.. likely patching tomorrow or possibly early Sunday morning. As soon as things are close, I'll do another post here on the forums with the event details (along with some social posts linking here). Also, there has been some questions about when the server will go offline. I want the event to run for a full 2 weeks. I'll announce the last day when the event goes live as well. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, We are evaluating a number of tweaks and additions to the bundle to fill out alternate options. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, We are looking at fixing this. Thanks, Matt

This has been fixed. https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/patch-notes We did an Alienware/Steel series promo a while back, and players felt the preset for the car was bland/boring, so we thought we would try something different this time around. Do players want a black shirt with a green logo? Feels like they could make that pretty quickly themselves. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, Fair points. I’ll see what we can do going forward. The notes on the Patch announcement have been passed along. I’m told the Razer Promo is working now. Anyone who hasn’t received the items should try logging out and logging back in to force the system to back grant it. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, New weapon harnesses are available: https://www.gamersfirst.com/marketplace/ingame/index.php?storetype=g1c&gameID=20&catID=65&subcatID=152 Going to lock this thread. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, We've had a number of issues reported. We'll be doing a patch to address them as soon as possible. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, I'm sorry you feel the Issues section is ignored. I do try to have the team run through there on a regular basis and give me a list of what is being reported. We are seeing the issue with the Razer promo. The team is working on a fix. We'll back grant the items to anyone who made purchases. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, You’ve raised a number of good questions. These forums will stay on while we rebuild the game. Internally we have a set of test servers that we are using to make comparisons for the original game. Those will remain active for our dev team through out development. However it’s not always feasible to post progress this early, since so much of the work is in rebuilding the backend server code. I will do my best. Releasing a single player version is nearly the same as redoing the game. It’s not really feasible to do that much faster than what we already have planned. Lastly, I have publicly said we will do our best to preserve as much of your progress and items as we can from your accounts. However that will depend on how much we change. Again, we will do our best. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, Even if you cannot log into the support site, you can also email support@gamersfirst.com to open a ticket. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Since we took over, I've been pretty vocal about the F2P implementation of APB. Aside from reducing ARMAS prices and balancing the value of G1C, I have always felt that we also needed to finish what Reloaded started. The changes to the Joker Store were a step in the right direction, but effective Wednesday, September 18th, we will start giving out Joker Tickets as rewards for opposed missions. For the longest time, players have only been able to earn JTs from events, Daily Activities and Fight Club. Now regular Free-to-play players will have a repeatable method for earning permanent items within the primary method of gameplay. As you can imagine, we're approaching this fairly conservatively, so please know that all of these values are subject to change as we collect more data. Here is how this system will work: 1) Regular Mission Districts Opposed missions in Financial and Waterfront will offer a random chance to win from 0-10 Joker Tickets. You need to participate and complete the mission to be eligible, but you do not have to win. There is a Daily Cap to how many Regular Mission JTs you can earn, which is based on your highest threat level reached that day. The Regular Mission District Daily Caps are: Training - 0 Green - 100 Bronze - 100 Silver - 150 Gold - 200 This means that you can cap out at Silver, but if you reach Gold then you can earn 50 more that day. 2) Weapon Prototype Districts In addition to the Regular Missions, players can also receive 1-10 Joker Tickets from doing opposed missions in our Weapon Prototype Districts. This doesn't sound like a big difference from Regular Mission Districts, but during our internal development, we were able to rack up tickets a lot faster. Weapon Prototype Districts have their own Daily Cap and track the JTs earned separately from the JTs earned in Regular Mission Districts. The Daily Cap for these districts is a flat 200 for everyone. Just to make things interesting, we have two extra rewards that can sometimes pop up if you haven't reached your Daily Cap in the Weapon Prototype Districts: Weapon Prototype Boxes. Players can open these to reveal a temporary random Legendary for them to try with limited ammo. A very rare 250 one-time JT reward. This wont count against your Daily Cap. Once you have reached your Daily Cap, you can still earn Weapon Prototype Boxes. 3) Future Premium Bonus We're going to watch the numbers, but sometime in the future we would like to add a bonus for players with Premium. This will be a guaranteed amount of JTs per mission that is added to the random reward. There are still more changes coming. We have a new design to address the gambling issues with Joker Mystery Boxes, and a potential new way for Legendaries to be collected. But rest assured that we will continue adding more permanent character items to the Joker Store and more cosmetic account level items in ARMAS. In fact, you'll see some new ARMAS items in this week's patch as well. Thanks, Matt