TheDogCatcher

I don't think LO are deliberately killing the game, that would be stupid, they just bit off more than they could chew. From where I'm sitting APB seems to be following a very similar trajectory to another game I used to play - Defiance. Both games started off as commercial releases before going free to play, both games attempted to impliment a major upgrade with limited resources at their disposal, both games were abandoned by their original devs. Defiance is now dead and buried and I suspect it won't be long before APB joins it.

How was it a good idea to drive away many legitimate players because they now believe the game is infested with hackers ? I don't dispute that many players might have been wrongly banned, but by unbanning everyone it just looked like LO weren't taking the issue of cheating seriously, this in a game that already had a terrible reputation for stuff like this. Just look at the numbers on steam charts if you don't believe me, when LO took over the number of players doubled almost overnight, so it's not like people weren't willing to give them a chance, then when they unbanned everyone the number of players dropped like a lead balloon and never recovered. Again, it's not about doing the right thing by those who were unfairly banned, it's about maintaining your current playerbase and being seen to take the issue of cheating seriously, gaining the trust of players and slowly building from there. It really isn't a matter of ethics, it's a matter of good business sense.

I maintain that the biggest problem that APB faces and always has faced is one of image, it has always been seen by the wider gaming public (rightly or wrongly) as a pay to win game that is riddled with cheats, I personally dispute the pay to win claims but I don't think anyone can seriously say that this game doesn't have a problem with people cheating, it's a free to play game and all free to play games have this problem to one degree or another and again rightly or wrongly APB has historically always been seen as one of the worst. This is the biggest hurdle that anyone running this game has to overcome - cleaning up it's image, a new engine will do nothing to fix this issue, you can have all the new content you like but if this game is seen as a hackers paradise you are never going to get your players back. When LO first aquired APB one of the first things they did was unban all previously banned players, in my opinion (and I doubt I'm alone here) this was monumentally bad optics, then we had the utter farce of them switching anti - cheat provders every few weeks, this only served to make them look even worse, I think by this point they have lost the trust of gamers to get this most important aspect right. We can argue all day about whether the bans dished out by G1 were deserved or not but I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that a good proportion of them must have been justified, anyway it's not even about that it's about public perception and this game is still percieved as a hackers paradise run by devs who really aren't in control of the situation. Without trust you are building your house on a foundation of sand and with this in mind I strongly believe that APB is way beyond salvation at this point.

I think stuff like this is a big part of the problem, LO really don't understand the appeal of the game, by trying to sanitise it they are killing it. APB didn't die , it was murdered......

I doubt you'll have to wait for long, I can't see how LO can possibly be drawing in enough revenue to pay the bills at this point. I can't see the engine upgrade ever getting a full release ,and if it does I suspect it will be such a disaster that it'll make the launch of CP2077 seem like a resounding success .

All you people wondering when this game will eventually die seem to have missed the fact that it's already dead. Any game where the active playerbase is measured in the hundreds is beyond redemption. You may think I'm gloating here but I'm not, I'm actually really saddened by this, I spent quite a lot of money on this game and it was one of the most fun multiplayer games I've ever played. However it was pretty obvious soon after LO took over that they had no chance of resurrecting APB:R, they simply lacked the talent/experience to pull it off, they had a very small window in which to turn things around but they blew it with a series of quite fundamental blunders. After that it was just a matter of time, the law of diminishing returns kicked in and it's been downhill ever since. RIP APB you will be missed.

This game doesn't need an engine update, it needs the services of Herbert West.

I see you're still wearing those rose tinted shades, don't take them off you'll get one hell of a shock.

Reintroducing the threat system will not help with matchmaking. I've given this a lot of thought and in my opinion there is only one way to make matchmaking fair in APB and it's ridiculously simple. From my experience gold players stomping noobs is only really a problem when the golds are in a premade group, lone golds are rarely an issue, so the fix is simple. Have one server that alows premades and one that doesn't, allow all the less skilled players to go in the non premade server where they can group with randoms and half a chance at a decent match, and let all the tryhard premades fight eachother, problem solved. The threat system in APB is needlessly complicated and utterly unworkable with such a low pop, a new phasing system won't help either with current population levels, so I strongly urge the devs not to overthink this issue, keep it simple, save yourselves a lot of work and just maybe you'll get something right for once.

I'd be happy for it to simply not explode when launched, I'm not holding my breath though.

Firstly we've already covered this, I got the wrong end of the stick, it happens. Secondly it's not my account but a friend's, he only made the account so he could play APB with me, it was a long time ago and he forgot the password. so thanks for the sermon but it wasn't really needed.

You can't really compare physical addictions like drug addiction to psychological addictions like gambling they are two very different things. Although to be honest I would rather see the drug market legalised and properly regulated rather than left in the hands of criminals, drugs can be harmful but by banning them we are merely sweeping the issue under the carpet and infact making the problem much worse because we have absolutely no control over the market. As things currently stand anyone of any age can go out and buy whatever they want with no restrictions whatsoever. It would also be easier to monitor the health of addicts and provide appropriate treatment where needed in a more open environment. anyway this going way off topic, so I won't derail the thread any further.

I don't care about people with addictions, they are sick and should seek help for their problems not drag the rest of us down to their level. If we banned everything that people are addicted to we would litterally not be able to do anything.

probably because most players are only bronze or green for a few missions before they turn silver. and most gold players dethreat to silver. silver is the most popular colour.

Well first off it's not even about making a profit for a game like APB ( I doubt APB has made any significant money for quite some time) it's more a case of survival at this point, there are very few F2P games out there that don't rely on some kind of gambling type mechanic for the main bulk of their revenue, there are one or two that I can think of but these are the exceptions rather than the rule. Next up yes I have known people with serious addiction issues ( drugs, alcohol, etc. ) and it is always a case of personal responsibility. Take drink for instance most people can go out and have a few drinks and do so responsibly, a small minority are unable to do that, they always go over the top and end up in trouble, does that mean we should ban drinking just because a small minority can't handle it ? ........ of course not. If people have serious problems they need to take personal responsibility for them and avoid anything that might trigger those issues. If you let them the weak will always drag you down to their level and it's up to the rest of us to ensure that doesn't happen.

I've never really had a problem with free to play games having loot boxes ( AAA games having them is a whole other matter), you need to be able to monetise the game somehow, servers and staff all cost money. Cosmetic items don't really bring in enough money because there's a finite number of these items available to buy, and once you've got them all (or all the ones you want) there's no real incentive to spend any more money. A game like APB needs something to keep generating revenue long term and other than loot boxes there's only premium which again suffers from the issue of being limited in the amount it can generate ( you will only buy 1 month's worth of premium per month) . So really unless a better alternative can be found loot boxes are kind of a neccessary evil if this game is to pay for itself. There are issues with loot boxes for sure but they are problems with individuals who lack self control or people who don't properly supervise their children, I'm not sure that these are the people we should have dictating to us with regards to what we can and can't enjoy. If people have gambling problems maybe they should avoid games with loot boxes, and if people can't adequately supervise their kids then maybe they need a sharp kick in the wallet to teach them a lesson.

Ah my bad ... appologies for the rant. It's still a pain in the arse trying to log in for some older returning players though.

This is idiotic, I just had a friend visit and we wanted to play a bit of APB for old times sake but of course he couldn't log into his account because of the password change also he couldn't remember password for his old email address. The only way to contact support is by registering a new account and then waiting for support to respond, we didn't have time to sort all of that out, and anyway it takes support weeks to respond. Now you want to delete his character in a month if he doesn't log in , a character he spent good money on, you guys are the pits. E2a: no wonder the population is dying , half of them probably can't be bothered to jump through all the hoops needed just to log in.

To be honest I had quite a strong suspicion that APB would end up here when LO first took over. I think their overall startegy was flawed and somewhat naive .

This absolutely reeks of desperation, no self respecting developer would ever sell off their main IP if they weren't deeply in the brown stuff. It's obvious by now that LO are struggling badly, once the money from this sell off runs out it'll be curtains for APB because they sure as hell aren't getting much revenue from the game with the current population which fell to a record low last month.

I really appreciate the opportunity to spend all those worthless joker tokens that I've accumulated over the years, however I do wonder how this is going to affect ARMAS sales. also not sure if allowing players to purchase a permanent OSMAW is really a good thing, you can't even get one of those with real money.

If you are ramraiding and have over 30k in your pocket you are doing it wrong. When I was ramraiding intensively I could pull in about 1.5 mil a day with premium but I would never have a big stash.

Only problem with that is that the game is failing even harder since they took over, every time they introduce wide ranging changes to the game even more people leave.

That sounds awful, how would N5/P5 work ? Are they trying to turn this game into some sort of damned safe space ? APB's greatest draw for me is all the random chaos you can encounter in the space of a mission, there's no other game like it. I really hate the direction LO are taking this game in, not one of their ideas has made me think "wow this is awesome", it's almost like after over a year at the helm they still don't understand what makes this game tick.

Car bomb is an essential mod for bronze district, how else can I blow up scrubs who decide to go for a joyride in my vegas 4x4 instead of playing the mission.