MattScott

Hi everyone, I should have commented on this sooner. There is an active plan already in the works to remove the cooldown benefit from Premium. However I wanted to have a new benefit for Premium ready, so we can give Premium players something else to help create new value for their subscription. I’ll announce the new Premium benefit soon. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Lots of good feedback on this thread. We are going to postpone this merge till I get better information, so we can try to migrate more items. I have reached out to Innova to get a detailed list of transactions from them. To my knowledge, no one on my team has this (although that is not saying they didn't supply it to G1 before May 2018). Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, During this week's upcoming maintenance, we will be migrating all of the Nekrova characters to Citadel due to the shrinking population on the Nekrova world. Effective, Wednesday, March 6th, Nekrova players will need to log into Citadel for their merged characters. Unfortunately Innova gave out or steeply discounted many items before they shutdown, and we have no records of purchases with Innova. With that in mind we cannot migrate any existing inventory as those items don't match what are on Citadel. We cannot migrate any symbols, and we cannot migrate over APB$ or Joker Tickets. For the accounts coming over here is the plan: - All premium time will be unaffected and remain the same - Characters will be created from scratch using the same customizations as existing Nekrova characters - Character names will come across except where there is a conflict - Character progression will be copied across - Progression items will be awarded to the characters - Permanent account-bound Nekrova ARMAS purchases will be restored - Permanent character-bound Nekrova ARMAS purchases will be restored (if character still exists) - Any temporary weapons on the characters within the last 30 days will be restored - Joker Mystery Box purchases will be re-delivered as unopened JMBs To the players on Nekrova, I know that many players will lose items in this shift. We looked for ways to try and migrate more, but the results always created problems on Citadel. We hope this will at least give you an opportunity to pick up progression and play on more populated servers. EDIT: This has been postponed while we do more research to see if we can address some of the player complaints on our original plan. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I have updated my original message. We have fixed the issue. All servers are live now. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I have updated my original message. Again, I want to apologize to the players. This was an emergency maintenance situation that popped up from last night. Frustratingly, we fixed one issue and immediately ran into a second issue. This has been a bit more tricky. Unfortunately I don't have an ETA, but I will keep you posted. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I have just posted that we are working on an issue with the Login servers that may be contributing to this issue. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I want to give a brief update on an ongoing issue. For the last couple days we have had intermittent issues with the Login servers. There seems to be a communication issue between the various environments that prevents players from logging in and sometimes kicks players. The team is working on it. UPDATE 2/26 3:15PM PST Again, I want to apologize to the players. This was an emergency maintenance situation that popped up from last night. Frustratingly, we fixed one issue and immediately ran into a second issue. This has been a bit more tricky. Unfortunately I don't have an ETA, but I will keep you posted. UPDATE 2/26 3:35PM PST Of course as soon as I post, we fixed the issue. All servers are live now. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I have hidden a couple of the posts. Even though some of that information is public, I don't want private information posted about former staff. Techmech, Tiggs, and the other former staff names you mentioned are all long gone. I appreciate them for their assistance in transitioning the game to us. Honestly, there wouldn't be an APB today if they hadn't helped. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, I haven't updated this thread in a while, and some players feel like our Support has gotten worse. So I thought I would post a raw comparison between the last update near Thanksgiving and now. In November we had the following stats: We had 2,358 total tickets open (unsolved). 1,944 of those tickets had not been touched (contacted). Here are the current Customer Support stats: We currently have 2,060 total tickets open (unsolved) which is 298 tickets better than November. 1,246 of those tickets have not been touched (contacted) which is 698 tickets better than November. I fully acknowledge that we still have players who have waited 2+ months to sort out their ticket, and that is still an unacceptable time to wait. Please know that we will continue to bring these stats down till we get response times to industry standards. A couple players asked why we haven't gone to an outsource support group, but that's not something we can do. My team has to be trained across 4-5 different systems that they use to collect data and manage accounts. All of those require high security protection, which we can't arbitrarily grant to external companies. However, we will continue to hire and train new supporters. I appreciate your patience. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I wish you could see the tools we are working with. I realize this must appear easy, but it's quite the opposite. Bundles in bundles in uber bundles is the worst case right now. One would think that the store had some sort of rollup pricing with a discount. But it doesn't. Everything is manually priced, and there is no easy way for us to pull the contents of a bundle out into Excel. Our latest effort resulted in a spreadsheet with 70K rows that we eventually winnowed down to 9K rows. There is going to be a pass this week to get rid of the weird G1C pricing amounts that don't end in 99. But the more I dig into the code, the more I want to overhaul the whole store to be easier to maintain. Thanks, Matt

Oops. Not intentional. Thanks for the heads up.

Hi all, I believe ARMAS bundles have now been sorted out. None of them should be more than they were. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, This is in development. We have just been focusing on the engine upgrade. But the plan is to eliminate the tradelock that occurs when hardware or software updates happen if your account is secured with 2FA. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, Something like this has been discussed a lot internally. I like the idea of a test area where players can shoot targets and get more visual feedback on ranges and damage from the gun they are testing. Right now, nearly the entire team is focused on the engine upgrade, and after that we have a couple other big dev items to release. But then we might be able to take a look at the tutorial and gun training. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, While I am intrigued by the idea of more melee weapons, I think we are still too new to APB to be making this kind of change. Adding melee weapons would require a significant amount of change to the game including controls, UI, weapon balance, and even mission design. Maybe someday. But melee weapons are not in our roadmap right now. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, Our migrations attempt to move the character names, but if that name is already in use, then it has to be changed. Unfortunately, it will not be possible for us to bring over any of the unique items that were active on Nekrova. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, We definitely see the player population issue with Nekrova. This is happening soon. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, We found that spamming /cointoss to get kicked was actually negatively affecting the server, so we fixed the exploit. We are now having a discussion about if or when we should allow players to drop from matches. This was supposed to be mentioned as part of the patch notes, but we missed it. I’ll take up the GM issue internally. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Apologies for the issues in the upgrade. We are looking at things now. BTW - I want to acknowledge all the work people put into this thread pulling comparisons. We did actually build a spreadsheet and dump all the new pricing and then apply a discount for bundles. However, there appears to be a situation with bundles in bundles that caused an issue. Also many items were manually edited with extra discounts that got missed. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, Fight Club can be an amazing experience in APB when everything works as intended. However, since there is no threat segregation and we allow team killing, these districts have some unique problems. Moving forward, we are requiring a minimum of rank 30 to enter Fight Club. We feel that this will help newer players avoid this area till they have more experience. We have also had some player disciplinary issues, and now it will take them longer to raise up new characters to enter these districts. As always, we will continue to monitor this change to make sure it has the intended effect. Thanks, Matt

I can appreciate your sentiment. We're just buried and all of our focus is on 3.5.

Lots to unpack from the comments/questions. I'll do my best to try and answer. I don't believe we have messed with Weapon Trial periods yet. But that is on the roadmap. It's also worth noting that some of the changes to ARMAS were based on simplifying pricing and information for new players. We're evaluating those options, but we wanted to take baby steps first. This re-pricing effort is a bit extreme, and it affected nearly everything in the store. I'm not going to disagree. But it's difficult to gauge when 3.5 will be stable enough to rollout. So right now RIOT is disconnected from 3.5 simply so that we have the option of turning it on. If the timelines work, then it's relatively easy to port RIOT into 3.5 and launch them together. I appreciate the kudos. I've been leading companies and actively developing software for more than 20 years, but building transparency week after week on a project this size is one of the most challenging things I have ever done. There are days where I spend all my time answering players and writing/editing blogs, posts, newsletters, tweets, or other communications to try and share where we are at. And then there are other days where I have to ignore everything because I have other more pressing matters. There are too many moving parts to always have a solid timeline that we can hit. We had intended to do the ARMAS update in January, but the scope of it took much longer than we intended. So our only choice was to just keep plugging along and have a quiet month. Given the history here, your fears are totally valid. While I'm proud of our progress, Little Orbit still hasn't delivered on anything game changing enough yet. We'll get there. Prices will change when we launch the AMOROUS store. And now the more important answers: I guess I should put my resignation in now.... (I don't honestly know who made the character.) MartinPL's version is really good! Perhaps we should have the community help us generate a nicer looking avatar. This is probably a good post for an entirely different thread. I haven't done the 23andme.com test, but as far as I understand it, I am Scottish, Irish, Dutch, Welsh, German, and a tiny amount Native American. There is no criteria. Players send us stuff they made, and so far we have been able to post most of them. Little Orbit definitely lost productivity in the office during the "Cupid Challenge" to make the avatars that GMs will be running around as during the event. We'll be paying royalties to AsgerLund in the form of Valentine's Day heart candies. Thanks, Matt

Hi everyone, I've just posted the newsletter here. And my February Blog on "Listening to the Community" is here: https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/news/2019/2/8/listening-to-the-community Thanks, Matt

FEBRUARY 2019 Criminals are Red, Enforcers are Blue, San Paro is out of control and desperately needs you. With Valentine's day on the horizon, we wanted to show our affection to the players who continue to support and contribute to the world of APB. This update brings us a sweet treat in a revamped ARMAS, the return of our Valentine's day event and Matt's update on where the game is going. There is much to love so continue below for all the latest and greatest in APB. UP & COMING FEELING AMOROUS? WE ARE. Starting in early February, ARMAS will be transformed into the AMOROUS Marketplace. Come for the exclusive V-Day weapons and stay for a refreshed ARMAS store that has seen significant reductions in pricing on a ton of cool stuff. We have heard your feedback and took it to heart. We are thrilled to introduce a new simplified pricing model that makes it even easier to understand and gets you the gear you have been lusting over at significantly reduced prices. Here are just a few of the highlights from the updated store – Standardized pricing across the board. Everything within ARMAS has been reviewed and or updated – over 2,500 items. Due to lack of use, we are saying good bye to the 3 Day options for weapons. The majority of weapons have seen a price decrease. Of the items reduced, the price has been lowered on average by 30%. The amount of bonus Joker Mystery Boxes awarded to console players are now in sync with PC. Bundles have been updated to reflect the standardized pricing with some seeing an increase. The cost of Premium has been reduced on console by up to 20%. Dropdown menus now make navigation a breeze. SHOP ARMAS LOOKING FOR LOVE? Can you smell it? Love is in the air and our Cupid is invading San Paro. Starting soon, track down our surly cherub for a chance at swag that will make your heart swoon. Keep an eye on the APB Twitter feed for details. APB TWITTER HIGHLIGHTS COMMUNITY CREATIVITY Back again this month, we wanted to highlight one of our fans in the community. We have amazing players out there and we wanted to highlight a cool find. We thought this was particularly impressive. Keep it up. We love seeing the passion and creativity. It’s inspiring. GORDO GAMEPLAY EPISODE 3 OF APB TORQUE NEWS MARCHING FORWARD We are checking in with Matt this month on the transition to Unreal 3.5 and the progress on syncing up the PC and console versions of APB. As always, this is a great opportunity to get a sneak peek behind the curtains and see what it takes to get you the great game we all love. At the beginning of the month, Matt gave a quick update on progress. READ THE UNREAL 3.5 UPDATE Also Matt's February blog is up, and this month he talks about how listening to the community is driving changes in APB. READ THE FEBRUARY BLOG ARMAS STEALS & DEALS Check in daily to see what's new and featured in the ARMAS Marketplace. Be sure to take a look at the following gear that will make your heart race. Love-Gun Heartbreaker Casanova SHOP ARMAS

Hi Wastelanders, What's better than surviving a nuclear holocaust and wandering your way across a blasted brown landscape rife with societal collapse? Why, sharing said wanderings with someone you love, of course (or at least, someone you lust after in that we've-got-to-do-this-for-the-future-of-mankind sort of way). Starting from February 13th through February 26th, the gruesome festivities will include a special "My Bloody Valentine" mission which features a Heartbreaker item and a crafting recipe that will enable players to rip out, preserve, and gift their hearts to whomever they desire. Check out the details of the Valentine's Day 2019 event. https://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth/news/2019/2/8/valentines-day-2019-event Thanks, Matt