TheDogCatcher

I wouldn't buy a multiplayer game from LO until they prove they can manage one properly. Also offering a PC game for preorder without listing recommended specs seems a bit iffy.

I liked those dynamic events G1 had running for a little while, I'm not sure why they were stopped ( giving away too much free stuff ?). Having something like this during times when the population is low might help .

if they ever make APB into a full free roam city then that would make it easier wouldn't it? That wouldn't really work in a game like APB, having huge maps would have a negative effect on gameplay , all the missions would have to be reworked to take into account the longer time it would take to get anywhere, so longer missions longer time limits. Teams could be spread far and wide at the beginning of the mission so if you had one group of players bunched up in close proximity to the objective they'd have a massive advantage - you already see this to a small extent in the game as it is now. Then factor in the sheer amount of time it takes to get anywhere, it can already take over a minute to get from one side of the map to another - do you really want to be driving for 2,3,4 minutes before you get to the objective ? I'm all for new maps/content but I think the current map size is perfectly balanced for the way the game plays.

I think it's great if you can disagree and still respect eachothers opinions. It's a shame that so many people these days don't understand that ..... f'k postmodernism. There's nothing like a lively debate.

You can always tell if someone is a moron or not when they repeat the same closed minded statement "once a cheater always a cheater" over and over. I know many people who cheated back when they were younger who grew up and learned from their mistake. I don't believe that for a second, I've been playing games ever since there were games and I've never cheated even once not even in single player games- you have to have a particularly "special" mindset to cheat at a game and I don't think that ever goes away.

Once a cheat always a cheat , sadly there's too many people out there with fragile eoges who'll do anything to get a win even at the expense of everyone elses enjoyment of the game. It's a pity that there's no way to tell which players were banned legit and those that were not, but I think that the overall result of the unbanning has been quite negative.

I get that some people were unjustly banned and that sucks, it really does, but you must admit that the vast majority of those bans were entirely justified. There were litterally hundreds if not thousands of players banned under G1 and there were maybe 1% to 5% false bans the rest were the scum of the earth and they deserved everything they got. In anything like this there is always going to be some collateral damage and while it's really sh!tty for those that got falsely banned the overall effect was a positive one.

The original Descent was great, the team was split after that and one half went on to form Volition who made Freespace ( that was one franchise that died before it's time), then they went on to make the Red Faction and Saints Row games . Another similar game was Forsaken , I loved that game but someone stole my copy ..

This isn't LO's fault. Well it kind of is because they unbanned a bunch of toxic a'holes. Having said that I had some real fun matches tonight so maybe there is still some hope.

At this stage the entire game is on life support whether you play on Jericho or Citadel, Waterfront or Financial makes very little difference. This game needs a decent amount of people playing or it's only going to spiral down the drain, due to the low pop noobs are getting matched against golds almost every game and who would stick around for that when there are so many other games they could be playing ?

I think LO probably bit off more than they could possibly chew, they had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. APB isn't some Disney game for kids. The more I think about it unleashing a bunch of banned players into a game that was already in decline just seems like such a boneheaded idea, then instead of focussing on things like matchmaking they decided it would be a good idea to start messing with weapon balance, their priorites are all wrong. I feel for them in a way but it seems to me that they brought much of this upon themselves and at this stage I don't really know what they can do to reverse this trend.

How much longer can this game survive ? Dethreaters running wild, total lameness everywhere, you guys done fk'd up . A new website ain't gonna help you. Time is of the essence folks and it's running out fast, the figures speak for themselves and they are depressing. https://steamcharts.com/app/113400

The threat system is totally broken so this would be a good place to start. A year or so back I made another account so that I could test the threat system, I deliberately played like a complete idiot, I didn't get a single kill or complete any objectives and yet within 10 or so missions I made it to silver simply because my team kept winning, so threat has absolutely nothing to do with individual player skill which is totally ridiculous.

Since they implimented Battleye I've only seen one player that I thought looked a bit suspect in missions, and they could very well have just been a high ranked dethreater farming noobs and drunks like myself. The game is nowhere near the cheatfest it was when I first started playing.

I don't like the idea of lootboxes, I bought a few of them when I first started playing but soon realised they were a bit of a con. I do wonder though how much of the game's income relies on their sale, I'm guessing it's a pretty hefty chunk. If LO got rid of them what could they replace them with ? Something would be needed to fill the void, I doubt clothing and weapons sales could ever make up the shortfall.

yep that's pretty much what they did with Defiance 2049 .... screw that game.

thanks for that, I was getting worried .

and peace broke out on the APB forums.... did I just wake up in an alternate reality ?

To be fair to G1 their biggest problem towards the end was lack of manpower, they couldn't do the things they wanted to do because they had nobody to do it. Put yourself in the shoes of the management for a few seconds, if you have a game with a reletively toxic community and absolutely nothing to show them what's the point of making blogposts when all you can offer is empty platitudes ? Sometimes staying silent is the better option. And for what it's worth I don't see LO being anything like that just yet.

heh, maybe we can have a civilised discussion on these forums, whoever would have thought .. It's obvious we both care quite a bit about this game, and honestly I think LO has a big enough and capable enough team to deliver on some of the more ambitious things like the engine upgrade etc. My focus however is more on the smaller things, they are just as important as the big ambitious things if not moreso , it's those things that players see when they first enter the game and it's those things that will shape their opinion of it. They don't see the potential for the future, hell there's a good chance they won't even be aware of the devs long term plans, as the old saying goes first impressions last. You may well be fine with LO's little hiccups but I'm guessing that the majority of players are far less tolerant and it's those guys you've gotta convince. New and returning players are gonna see things like shotguns being broken and not getting fixed for a couple of weeks and will immediately assume those guys suck and move on. It's things like this that give me cause for concern and I feel like it's my duty to the game and to the devs to speak out about them. I know it looks like I'm being negative all the time, but criticism and feedback play a very important role in the creative process, nobody is perfect and we all learn by our mistakes but only when we realise we've actually made a mistake and sometimes we need to have that pointed out to us.

yeah maybe I phrased that badly, what I meant was that there's not much point in having a long term vision when you're short term future is far from certain, fix the immediate problems before worrying about what you'll be doing several months down the road. If you can't get the short term stuff right there will be no long term, end of. and honestly if you think I care about your opinion of me you are very much mistaken. I care about this game because I have invested quite a bit of money in it over the years, that is all.

I dunno what any of that is supposed to mean, all I see is the population of citadel (you know, that server that the majority of the population plays on ) dropping day by day, it's getting abysmal now. As much as I love this game I really can't see it lasting much longer, I don't care about roadmaps etc. they're totally irrelevant - if nobody is playing they mean nothing. What I care about is what is happening here and now and it ain't good, I've seen games die before and APB is displaying the exact same pattern. My expectations are far from unrealistic unless you call a company doing their job properly unrealistic. Your expectations must be bargain basement low if you think this is ok and I don't think the majority of players share them. Do you even have any understanding of how game development works ? I've worked in this industry for 18 years and I can tell you quite categorically that LO are f'ing up big time.

No accounts that have had money spent on them should ever be wiped. There are games I only play once every couple of years or so, I'd be gutted if the accounts got wiped due to inactivity.

I'm not sure what you hope to achieve by being such a brown tongue. Constructive criticism is far better than pretending evreything is ok when it's not, what you're doing is something akin to sweeping the mess under the rug. If you are toally blind to the game's faults those faults will eventually turn around and bite you, it's better to accept that they exist and open up a dialogue that way they at least have a chance of being fixed. Whether you realise it or not your blind adoration for the devs is far more destructive than any criticism.

I'd say it's a lack of faith in the devs rather than high expectations. LO took over the game and a lot people came back hopeful that the game was now in the hands of someone who would do good things, then LO made a series of mistakes, unbanning cheaters and the shotgun changes were probably the worst of these, and players lost faith in their ability to deliver and left. The shotguns are way better now but the damage has already been done, fixing stuff that should never have been broken in the first place isn't going to bring players back. Hopefully they'll handle the engine upgrade better as it's probably the last chance to save this game.