MattScott

Hi everyone, It's the end of a crazy year for us, and many players have been asking about the state of APB. In the December newsletter, we mentioned this update, but due to time constraints I didn't get to it until this weekend. Here is a recap of 2018 and a little of what is planned for 2019: https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/news/2018/12/29/state-of-the-game-2018 Thanks, Matt

Hi there, I am working on a State of the Game post for each of our active games - including Fallen Earth. Once that goes up, I'll link to it here on the forums, and then we can discuss some of the remaining questions. Thanks, Matt

Happy Holidays, everyone. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, For the OP, this is a reasonable suggestion. The rewards for this mode were the last things to go in. I don’t think we knew there would be extra symbol variations when development was in progrss. We do need a UI in-game. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything that would be reasy for the 19th when the event was supposed to start. We did our best posting everything here in the forums and sending out a news blast to the Slay Bells Walk through page. Thanks, Matt

I believe the symbols for Halloween were sent out to all KTTC owners in November. I don’t think we have settled on a name for the title yet.

Hi there, I tend to disagree with the statement that we don’t fix things that are reported. In fact we did a large round of fixes about two months to address about 8-9 very old bugs in the game. This was primarily driven by players messaging and opening tickets showing us videos of bugs. Also even with the staff we brought over, it wound be impossible to know about every bug in a project as long as this one. In the future I encourage you to submit a ticket, but we will look into this. Happy holidays. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Autumn Assault account bound skins have been sent out to everyone who logged in at least once during the event. The title is being prepped and will be awarded to players who actually won the event. The title requires another patch, so it should go in on Jan 2nd. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, Honestly, the team has been so busy with events and other tasks that we ran out of time to prep a big sale. So the unfortunate answer is there wont be any sales. We did give away a 2 day free Premium code ‘APBXMAS’. Premium gives a 20% off discount. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, We have fixed this issue. Players entering the code will still lock up their screen, but anyone else wont be affected. Thanks, Matt

Hi all, I appreciate the various community members helping out with responses for other players in the new and old Holiday modes. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, The plan is to still let you choose any server you want to hang out with friends while you’re waiting for missions. Then the system will aggregate the players in the same mission to the ‘best fit’ server alongside other players in other missions. Opponents can be matched on any server (so best population matching possible). Each action district can still feel populated, but we get to control the load balancing. Thanks, Matt

I’ll PM you to collect details.

Hi there, This one appears to have slipped through the cracks. It was scheduled to be fixed this patch, but it got lost in all the Slay Bells craziness. We believe it is a client patch, so there is no way to ‘hotfix’ it. We have to schedule down time with the playerbase. Apologies, Matt

Hi all, We are very sorry for the delay. The issue was related to how mission objectives show up in the client in any action district. It affected players in full districts the most with about 50% of them crashing. If the bug had been limited to just the Slay Bells districts then we would have left everything else up, but all players had a random chance of crashing. Apologies, Matt

Hi all, We are very sorry for the delay. The issue was related to how mission objectives show up in the client in any action district. It affected players in full districts the most with about 50% of them crashing. If the bug had been limited to just the Slay Bells districts then we would have left everything else up, but all players had a random chance of crashing. Apologies, Matt

You've asked a great, very honest question. I'm sure it's natural for a player to see something happening in-game and wonder "Why aren't they doing something about this?" I don't want this next bit to sound defensive. I'll be the first one to admit that Little Orbit is just not very good at this yet. However I also don't think players realize the sheer volume that we deal with on a daily basis. APB isn't a very popular game right now, but it still does have its fair share of players. - We have 3 platforms (PC, XB1, PS4). - Each platform has 2 worlds (NA and EU) + RU PC - Each world has a minimum of 10 districts and often more (4 threat levels * 2 action districts + social + FC). That's 70+ districts. It takes 210 GMs for us to cover those districts for a single day in 8 hour shifts if they work every day of the week. I'm sure it wont be a surprise to anyone to know that we don't have 210 GMs on staff. In May, there were no tools to help us process the sheer volume of chat logs to search for cheaters / spammers / harassment, etc.. It's like drinking from a fire hose. Now add that in the last 30 days we have also been running 4 concurrent development projects to finish 2FA, /Report, Engine Upgrade, and the new gameplay mode. All while dealing with 1200+ new incoming customer support tickets a month. That is not my conclusion at all. We don't have any of those odd administrators. In April, Little Orbit had never run an MMO or online multiplayer game. This month, if I were self evaluating Little Orbit, I'd say we are now mediocre at operating the game. I do feel like we've learned a hell of a lot, and we're getting better at it. Thanks, Matt

Hi there, I love all the effort being put into this. Looking forward to the final shot! Thanks, Matt

Evidence is great. Keep sending it. We do evaluate it. My point was that 99% of the time it’s not enough to immediately act on. It takes time to investigate. However we now have better internal reporting and the beginnings of our own server-side anti cheat that we are using to help collect additional evidence to see if there is any action against the reported player that we need to take. The /report system is fairly complicated, which is why it took so long to create. Most of that data gets autonatically filtered and re-ranked based on volume and reliability. I have answered these questions in the past. If you modify data files, you put yourself at risk of negative consequences. The only 3rd party tool that is approved is the Advanced Launcher as the creator shared the code. It’s not something that I will allow forever, but until we can optimize the game or add options ourselves, I’m fine with it.

Hi there, We don't want to promote reporting cheaters in public. (1) That creates toxicity and name calling between players. (2) That alerts possible cheaters that they have been reported. Instead, we have systems like /report in-game and our support site where players can privately report cheaters with any evidence they have, and we will research the player and determine if they are cheating. Thanks, Matt

We wanted to get 2FA out the door as soon as possible. But bypassing the trade ban is in the works for people who have 2FA on their account. I can't give an ETA yet, because we have a lot of other active development at the moment.

Hi there, The new /report system does a lot more than just store what you submitted. I encourage all players to use the report feature where appropriate because it is directly tied in with our in-game and support systems. Over time, we should be much better about responding to incidents. Thanks, Matt

Yes. We will be updating all the console content to match PC.

I'm running a little behind (you have no idea how long it takes to write these things).

I'm hurt. I made that Rudolph Nose myself. Good catch. That was a mistake. It was pointed out to me after we posted the rewards that the Elf Hat wasn't in the reward list. I respect your opinion. You raised some good points during the last event, and we have tried to address most of them. The problem with only doing a role is that people blow it out in a single day and then move on. We're attempting to find a middle ground, and after this event we'll do another round of feedback to see how people felt.

Hi all, This month's Developer Discussion is likely a can of worms, but I feel like Little Orbit is damned if we don't talk about this, and damned if we do. We have been accused of not taking Cheating seriously enough, or being too slow to act. So in the spirit of transparency, I'm going to open this topic anyway. It is meant to be a conversation starter. Please try to keep this civil, and try to respect each other's experience in-game. Let's start at the beginning. 1) Why do we care about cheating? Unlike many other online games, in APB there is no PvE (player vs. environment) content. In APB, you're always playing another live player. Where there is a winner, there is also a loser, and that kind of system only thrives if players know they are getting (a) fairly matched and (b) other players don't have a significant advantage to win. 2) What is cheating? Some players might describe cheating as "gaining an unfair advantage over another player", and while that may be technically true, it's not an enforceable definition for me. In my opinion, there is no true way to level the playing field between players without one or the other having an advantage. One player will always have a faster computer or less latency. I would argue that is not a cheating topic, that's a match making topic. For me, cheating is consciously tampering with a game to gain extra information or advantages which make it easier to win. That includes (but is not limited to) aimbotting, triggerbotting, wall hacking, and other forms of scripting. 3) How do people cheat? Very few cheaters have the know how to create their own hacks. In my opinion, the largest pool of cheaters pay for it. They go online and buy cheats that are supported by other hackers. No matter what you hear or believe, cheating is a business based on supply and demand. The bigger and more competitive the game, the more likely hackers are to create cheats for it. I am surprised that any hacker feels APB is worth their time to make cheats for. 4) Why do people cheat? This is wildly subjective. But in my opinion, people cheat for one of two reasons: (a) they are afraid of being embarrassed by losing / they want fame or glory for winning. or (b) they want to ruin other people's fun. Now onto the more difficult parts... 5) How do we know someone is cheating? In traditional FPS shooters there are very specific ways we can detect cheaters. But this game is unique. In my opinion, APB has one of the largest skill gaps in any game I have come across. The distance between a novice and an expert is massive. Many of the behaviors that are commonly flagged as cheating in other games, are not only valid, but considered good gameplay in APB. Experienced players will master the map and their surroundings. They will anticipate what their opponents are going to do next and appear like they are wall hacking. They will control their camera, and execute "snaps" to flip around and snipe opponents while running away. They have spent hours practicing with their weapon to utilize distance and falloff so they can consistently deal maximum damage to an opponent who wont be able to retaliate. And sometimes, they are just cheating. The problem is telling the difference. To detect cheaters, we use one of three systems: BattlEye - a commercial client-side anti-cheat that is constantly upgraded to identify and block all of the common entry points for cheats. This system inspects player hardware at runtime while they are in the game. There are a lot of myths about BattlEye, but I can assure you there isn't a "good" version and a "bad" version. There's isn't a "lite" or "premium" version. That literally makes no sense. Why would BattlEye want any company running around damaging their reputation with a version of their software that didn't work 100%? Companies pay money, and they get access to the product to integrate it into their games. Some do a good job and they upgrade all the time. Some do a poor job and don't upgrade. We're probably somewhere in the middle. We have been running BattlEye since May 2018. and I've very happy with the results. Internal - a custom client-side anti-cheat that we implement and maintain. This is a secondary watchdog that we use to protect BattlEye and other known vulnerabilities. It's a system that we upgrade less frequently, but it does a good job of catching folks off guard. FairFight - a commercial server-side anti-cheat. This is a system we inherited, and I'm going to officially say that we are no longer moving forward with it. This is not a disparaging review of Gameblocks or their product. They are a great company. They worked with G1 for years, and it's fine for most games. But as I said above, APB is unique, and after evaluating the results, I've decided FairFight isn't a good long term solution for us. To be clear, we absolutely need a great server-side anti-cheat. But based on our experience with custom solutions like Trade Locking and the new /Report system, we have started implementing our own server-side anti-cheat that integrates with all of our GM and Support tools. 6) What is not considered evidence of cheating? This is the next tricky area. I am often sent videos, screenshots, or other forms of evidence that players feel "undeniably" shows that another player was cheating. And while I sympathize, please know that we cannot blindly accept this as a reason to ban someone. We *must* take the effort to monitor and collect evidence to properly prove they were cheating. 7) How do we handle cheaters when we detect them? Based on APB's history, I didn't feel we could permanently auto-ban cheaters based on any of the systems mentioned above. We do temp ban for a window long enough that my staff can review the data and then decide whether to extend the ban or remove it. Overall, I consider cheating to be one of the most difficult parts of running APB. I honestly wish we didn't have this problem, because it damages the enjoyment of the game. Please know that we continue to invest lots of time and effort into making this a fun, fair game to play. We aren't perfect. No anti-cheat is 100%. But we are working at getting better at this. Thanks, Matt