LO, more than a year ago, I wrote to you about your unhealthy addiction to all these "ultra-modern anti-cheat systems". I knew that nothing would come of it.
And without even considering it in the context of the lack of support for Windows 7, which, however, is relevant for me even now... The very essence of your approach was doomed, in these specific conditions:
1) Quantitative player base.
It's sad that you were hoping for a sufficient level of integration, even from a seemingly small and client-hungry company like SARD.
Only huge projects can afford this, and at the same time they can afford the associated damage. Loss of % of honest players.
And by some miracle, after all these years, it still reached Matt, judging by his last AMA.
2) Quality of player base.
Considering what I know about the "population" of Apb...
What it was like, and what is unlikely to change, even years later... One way or another, the overwhelming % of players know about cheats firsthand.
With rare exceptions, individuals bound by an unhealthy, pathological ideology that prevents them from even touching it. Including the strange me.
And from this it follows that you can forget about easy bans for cheaters simply, quickly, and with maximum confidence. And this should have been clear to all of you a long time ago.
Especially in a game where you don’t even practice hidden personal observation of players, a-la Counter-Strike.
At least because those who actively use something prohibited know how to do it. And how to do it correctly, avoiding problems with "advanced" anti-cheat systems for years.
The irony is that it took years for you to finally come to the conclusion that you need to build your own system based on a point system of infractions and penalties.
With the participation of the administration not reduced to a minimum, I will add. Which is important.
"What will fool the machine, will fool one head, but will not fool two." (c) Unknown couch philosophy
Of course, I know that you don't give a damn about my opinion... But still, I don't know why,(Probably because I'm a bit bored at the moment and decided to write this.) but I'll give you one more hint:
In all fairness, you should spend a little more time, rack your brain a little more, and abandon the client part entirely.
Understand this as you wish, but this is the only way you will be able to take control of all the player's actions, no matter what they use, on their side. If you show ingenuity, of course.
3) Your APB (unfortunately not mine anymore) is perceived by the majority of the global development community as a microscopic, unwilling to accept death, struggling in agony, insignificant relic of the past, with bad luck.
I knew that in the best case, in response to your bright hopes, the guys from SARD(like many others) will not just "not try hard", but will probably even try "much less for you".
I watch your actions from time to time.
And your constant inability to make the right decisions can even be called exemplary, in some senses.
Whether to perceive this message of mine as hate (which is what you most likely will do), the need to pour out my daily toxicity on someone, or, nevertheless, as food for thought - it is up to you to decide.
Let me just remind you that I have written about a lot of things, and at one time even some of them did not have a single counter-argument.
But still, it never went beyond couch philosophy...
For example, how much of the community would you have saved if you had added a few additional checks to the matchmaking system code in time?
All that was required was to limit any opportunity to pit players of too different skill levels against each other. Regardless of the overall threat of the team.
You've had years to see that it doesn't work... And even three newbies can't stand even half of an experienced player. That's how APB works.
It should have been something like this:
DO NOT pit Average-silver and below against gold-low and above, bronze below high, against strong silver, etc.
And at best add the auto-call function "You have been waiting for an opponent for 5 minutes, but you have the limit on the difference of threat enabled. Do you want to disable it until the next mission? Y/N"
Well, and the corresponding option in the "Gameplay" section.
And thus, cheaters would, willy-nilly, rise to where honest, calm players who play for fun would not be able to reach.
AND in order to ruin one mission for bronze-silver newbies once a day, they would have to stand for 4 hours and dethreat.
Simple? More than simple. Could you handle it? Considering what you've already done, you certainly know how to do something like this.
Instead, what did you make? A complex, cumbersome, inconsistent cross-server matchmaking system, with an escalation system that seems ridiculous to most.
And all this, however, does not even fulfill its main purpose - match division. Which is required in any PvP-oriented game.
Imagine in Dota, for example, MM, putting up one or even more than 8k players against 2k. In full statistical mode.
And in APB this happens all the time. Newbies come -> get their 1:1:17 in the kill list -> delete the game -> leaves a dislike in society. End.
"It doesn't matter how you put your foot down if you're going in the wrong direction." (c) Yet another couch philosophy
There was also a reasonable recommendation to return 1x1, provided that the corresponding option is enabled for both players.
And to limit the possibility of selection more than once, for a certain period of time, for specific characters.
In order to limit HEAVY abuse in this way. Because abuse by agreement has always been in APB. Let it be 2x2, or even 3x3 or more.
Add a corresponding notification/description for those who don't know that some missions will be unbalanced in this mode, and that's it.
Instead, the decision that your G1 predecessors made, and the decision that you didn't change, is the worst.
Not only did you not add much balance from a game design perspective, but you also recklessly abandoned content.
Which is something that should never be done. At least not if there is an alternative.
And especially in APB, which suffers from a general lack of content in game mechanics.
There were many attempts on my part at one time, both to gently prompt you and to give more direct advice.
And my suggestions were always maximally simple, but effective.
But what you so loved to call QoL, for the most part, was in fact garbage, the presence or absence of which, many people more than didn’t care.
I sometimes look at how the game is doing, which I honestly played for 12 years, without even touching any type of cheats, on any of my accounts.
And which you kindly blocked my access to(and not only my), with all this anti-cheat nonsense, which does not support my beloved Windows 7.
Real QoL as it is, what can I say...
