vsb

it’s always been apb the shit performance has been complained about by thousands of people over the years, and it’s a major reason for why the game is dead rn

no comprendo

ah yes, the old “i don’t have this problem so it doesn’t exist” routine classic

he’s right tbh riot is a battle royale at its core but it’s so needlessly overcomplicated that it ends up losing any sense of gameplay direction i have no idea how orbit thought this mode would bring in new players from what we were told by g1 the map tools and the maps themselves are all custom built and therefore kind of suck not really an excuse for how poorly the new map changes were done, but idk if it’s as easy as you say

would have liked for this to actually have happened but whatever finally got around to making a semi-proper write up unnecessarily detailed list about riot, altho i probably could have just reposted my otw test feedback and it would still be 95% relevant -some images taken from streams, because i was too lazy to get my own footage and now jericho riot is a ghost town this is going to be long and boring tbh, you've been warned to start off, i'll just go through a riot match entering the district the first thing i see when trying riot is the district select screen [image courtesy of kempington - twitch.tv/kempington] there are no advanced district select options for riot instances this makes joining someone already playing riot difficult - joining via the friends list or the group list results in frequent crashes, you're left with cycling through the available riot instances (which also involves unusually high numbers of crashes) and hoping you're placed in the same instance together "Last Team Standing" seems like an incorrect way to describe riot, as eliminating all teams is both A) not required, and B) not a guaranteed way to win im not sure if its an intentional teaser or not but "Financial - Riot" is kind of redundant, as there's only a single riot district ideally "Last Team Standing" should be replaced by "Riot" because riot is the mode, similar to how "Social District" or "Mission District" is used above regardless of whether its "Financial - Riot" or "Riot" or "Financial", theres a lot of dead UI space around the district name the description text for riot district suffers from the same dead UI space within the description text - not sure why "Weapons", "Get Cash", and "Take out other Players" have odd capitalization the text "Total PvP" is slightly cut off when riot district is selected on the UI there's no warning for new players that this mode is not for new players (sparse tutorial, no matchmaking, necessary knowledge of other apb mechanics for optimal performance, etc) next is the riot loading screen, which i honestly like for the most part - it manages to be "entertaining" and also functions as a mini-tutorial [images courtesy of explosion - twitch.tv/exxplosion_] no mention of preset loadouts this is the only place "emitter" is used, everywhere else i can find uses "devices" no mention of the access codes that are needed to arm emitters no mention that arming an emitter will close down a block no mention of why cash is important getting cash is listed after closing down a block (arming an emitter), which usually isnt possible i feel like a new player wont be able to understand anything on this map other than maybe "skulls are bad" the player character and the zones also quickly change places, probably causing even more confusion no mention of why the truck is important, even though its shown both with ingame footage and as loading screen art no explanation of how the truck works (why its there, what the orange circle is for, etc) the player character actually runs into the toxic gas with no apparent concern in this clip, which is pretty misleading im undecided on this screen - on one hand there's no need to replay the previous riot tutorial (since it replays every time you switch instances), but on the other hand nothing about this screen really has anything to do with riot other than the text initial spawn/pregame "lobby" i've made it through the district select screen and the loading screen, now im in a riot instance initial district spawns are apparently random, for no reason as far as i can tell this makes it annoying for players (who don't know the old 'double click the contact icon on the map'/'double click the contact in the progression tab' tricks) to access the riot contact since they'll likely have to run several hundred meters - worst case scenario, the match starts before they get there and they're teleported away again this is the optimal riot pregame spawn - the match countdown is already started, there are lots of teams/players, everything is working smoothly but i'm not going to talk about optimal, i'm going to talk about this as a consequence of not having advance district select options for riot instances (or if your server can barely top 200 people), you can get placed in an empty district there is nothing to do in empty riot districts: no damage, no vehicles, no mods, nothing to interact with except the chat and the riot contact - its boring as fuck, fix this the map so whether i have 3 minutes to kill before the match countdown ends or im stuck forever in "waiting for players" riot purgatory i decide to check out the map, which i've masterfully marked out with my expert paint skills the actual map changes are actually pretty sparse and kind of random - there are multiple blocks with no changes whatsoever this results in less incentive to explore the map because most of the mission district "spots" are more effective than riot additions map changes are clearly a little overbalanced towards the center of the map, even though in my experience the final block is rarely in the central park area map changes almost all exist on or next to a street leaving huge portions of the map feeling and looking exactly like they do in mission districts i really can't overstate how bland most of the map changes are - they have a negative effect on gameplay ("perfect" cover overlooking open areas is bad), they fail to "balance" any number of base map problem areas, and don't open/add new areas of the map to explore barriers very common indestructible provides full standing cover provides full crouch cover (players can sometimes stand on the red line) can/cannot be jumped over, depending on whether orbit fixes the red line inconsistency less common indestructible does not provide full standing cover provides perfect crouch cover can be jumped over very common indestructible provides full standing cover cannot be jumped over can be shot under (marked with red line) less common destructible provides full standing cover cannot be jumped over can be shot under (marked with red line) can be seen through less common indestructible provides no cover can be shot through can be seen through can be "jumped over" (opened) rare af indestructible provides no cover can be shot through can be jumped over given all this, i'd personally like to see the concrete half-wall replace most of the concrete full-walls, and more use of the double-wide gates - i feel this would provide better gameplay, as currently a majority of cover is both indestructible and provides perfect/near perfect protection scaffolding i dislike the excessive use of ladders too much vulnerability difficult to attack upwards, easy to defend downwards slows down gameplay some of the scaffolding leads to alternate paths and some new areas, but there's still some that just exist on their own and are therefore useless buildings/trailers grey prefab trailers are basically useless, they're just large blocks of uninspired cover red trailers are pretty well done imo (lots of variation in stacks, open/closed, contents, etc - but there could always be more) but they only exist in 3 places red trailers also have an overuse of ladders imo misc - construction site easily one of the best map changes provides effective cover provides balanced cover adds to overall district vibe misc - planks (not marked) these are all good, as far as im concerned there's no such thing as too many alternate movement paths add more though misc - lmao (not marked) seriously wtf these statues (afaik there's only 2) should be claimable, so anyone can have a giant version of their character that looks like a moron alternatively use orbit staff characters, preferably whoever came up with riot misc - vehicles (not marked) i didnt mark vehicles on the map above because there are so many, although as you can see they are not evenly distributed across the map - in my opinion this is a mistake as vehicles are often the only cover provided for the wide open streets of san paro a majority of the vehicles seem to be randomly placed leading to an amateurish and sterile feeling environment, there's no sense of any rioting and there's very little indication of a mass civilian panic/evacuation almost all vehicles are in the street or on the sidewalk bordering a street (similar to other map changes), furthering the bland environment feeling the fact that all vehicles are all already destroyed further even reduces environment impact - forcing players to be more careful around functioning cars that can be blown up, having vehicles blowing up during firefights, and opening up av weapons as a more viable option all add more engagement and depth to gameplay abandoned vehicles should be largely undriveable but still damageable, similar to the way an enforcer can shoot and explode a criminal objective car but is not able to actually get into the vehicle (and vice versa) there should be a small number of vehicles that can be driven these should be indistinguishable from normal vehicles, the only visible difference being the "press F to enter" prompt when aimed at riot match however long it took, there are enough players in the instance and the match is starting first spawn [images courtesy of explosion - twitch.tv/exxplosion_] the initial spawn is completely random as far as i can tell, this actually eliminates an important mechanic of most BRs the ability to choose a starting point allows for more gameplay diversity - do you choose a good map spot (location/pickups/riot devices) and risk fighting other players early, or do you choose to start in a more remote location to avoid other players and slowly build up your character? the presence of groups expands on this - does everyone stick together and pick between busy/remote? does the group split up? removing the initial spawn choice almost certainly eliminates early conflicts and causes slower gameplay overall the rng locations of the initial spawn also have a ripple effect on the rest of the match - cash, hazmat suits, weapons, and access codes are not evenly distributed so anyone with a lucky spawn is going to get an advantage over others groups groups as a mechanic need to go, they cause too many balance problems either remove them entirely and make riot solo only or create separate riot instances specifically for 2s, 3s, and 4s if you remember earlier during the match countdown teams were 27/27 but now once the match has started they're 10/10 math geniuses will note that 27 does not evenly divide by 10, so there is at least one group that is missing a person right from the start money sharing leads to groups making double/triple/quadruple the cash off every pickup compared to a solo player, leading to: way more flexibility with bribing easier respawns easier preset loadouts less risk allows for more aggressive play groups can revive dead teammates by collecting enough cash to pay for an extra life initial map a little less than half the map immediately gets gassed at the start of every match, normally i'd say this is too much but even with only 50% of the map riot matches still feel frustratingly empty most of the time the gassed section does rotate (north/south/east/west iirc) which forces a little variation into each match id like to see various individual blocks get gassed instead of one large chunk starting weapon why? new players arent going to be able to use the fbw any better than the snub veterans will most likely get tons of mileage out of arguably the best secondary in the game fbw as starting weapon gives a passive $500 bonus to anyone decent with it, since they no longer have to buy a preset secondary im honestly not sure how to fix this, since most BRs start off with melee which apb doesnt have, my choices are: start with blowtorch permanently equipped as starter secondary start with nfa9 as starter secondary start with no weapons but have bricks equipped in grenade slot, then disabled once any weapon is picked up pickups pickups (cash/weapons/hazmat suits/access codes) are not evenly distributed across the map the sparse map additions aside, the lack of pickups further decreases any reason to explore or make use of the whole map ease of access - too easy running over a pickup while spamming F (or whatever key a player has bound) is dumb perhaps add the small item animation to all pickups, or have all pickups be in riot containers that have to be interacted with (similar to a break in objective) or destroyed to get the contents cash is uncommon but too easy to get the rarity is decent, but it could be made more common if need be - this is the item that basically powers the entire mode after all force players to expose themselves or waste time if they want cash pickups - put them on rooftops, at the top of ladders, on spray points, anywhere that requires players to go out of their way add more ways to spend cash (ammo machine resupplying, hazmat suit vending machines, legendary/meta weapon machines, etc weapons are too rare, but they should be fairly easy to get increase the amount of weapon pickups increase weapon diversity, ideally to valentines/xmas box consumable levels - wacky mod combos included weight weapon spawn odds so that more effective/meta modded weapons are rarer limited ammunition to encourage frequent pickups/resupplying add grenades 1 grenade per pickup make them very rare, 1 of each grenade type per instance legendary weapons arent actually legendary (they should be renamed to 'uniques' or 'exotics' but thats another discussion) and should not be labeled as such - no map markers, no yellow glow indicators, etc current legendary indicators should be used for meta weapons, or perfectly modded weapons hazmat suits are fucking everywhere given that we have extra lives, hazmat suits are way too common - having 5 or 6 per location is ridiculous having so many different locations is also ridiculous - there should be 10-20 per match closing down a district should be a valid way to eliminate players but hazmat suits make this almost a nonissue as far as i can tell there's no limit to how many hazmat suits a player can collect i'd suggest 2 or possibly 3 have the (now rare) hazmat suits marked on the map, to encourage players to fight over them lower the cooldown - ideally if your hazmat suit runs out the cooldown should last just long enough to put you at rock bottom health (starting from full hp) before you can activate another access codes are also too common make access codes rarer, something like 4 or 5 per match this should also help with hud markers popping in and out due to shitty UI issues the timer should be removed, once a player has a code it should be usable on all riot devices players carrying an access code should be visible to other players somehow, either: change riot device activation UI text to include the character name of whoever activated it make any player carrying an access code ping on radar every x seconds if they're within x meters make any player carrying an access code ping the vip marker every x seconds if they're within x meters system messages in chat whenever a player carrying an access code enters a block riot devices - not really a pickup but related to access codes rewards should be increased for activating riot devices to encourage conflict over access codes and conflict while chasing access codes possibly increasing rewards for each consecutive riot device a player activates without dying preset loadouts honestly just delete this whole mechanic its complete shit no reason to worry about finding a decent weapon pickup when i can buy my own perfectly modded weapons anyone with armas weapons has a larger pool of preset loadouts to choose from, adding further imbalance no reason to worry about spending cash on preset loadouts because i now have a perfectly modded ntec/obir/hvr/whatever and i can kill 10 people and steal their cash UI [images courtesy of explosion - twitch.tv/exxplosion_] its basically all horrible tbh unnecessary notifications for everything large UI text for teammates unlocking primary and secondary weapons large UI text for teammates getting enough money for an extra life large UI text for the current location even though thats shown on the radar large UI text stacked for RIOT DEVICE ARMING and riot device armed seriously why large UI text that the area is gassed even though the air is literally green large UI text to remind you to use your hazmat suit large UI text to inform you that gas is harmful large UI text after death to inform you of respawn large UI text to inform you of player kills, even though there's already a UI element large UI text to inform you of picking up a hazmat suit, even though the consumable slot is used for the same purpose large UI text informing you to find a riot code, even though there are hud markers pop ups for access code spawns even though they're marked with hud markers hud pop up for cash pickups even though theres a sound and a UI element already, above equipped weapon also cash pickup pop ups seem to get stuck on screen rather often, the only way to fix it afaik is to pick up more cash pop ups telling you to arm riot devices (including a timeframe) even though the hud markers for riot devices pop up and there's already a timer on the main riot UI element pop ups when you pick up a weapon even though there's already a UI element for that pop ups to purchase weapons safe area hud marker that appears and disappears im sure there's more that im forgetting system message spam in the chatbox crushes any chance of text communication between PUGs difficult to follow the scoreboard is bad not available until either the round ends or your entire team is dead doesnt show anyone else's information once dismissed for too long, its gone respawning [image courtesy of explosion - twitch.tv/exxplosion_] the concept of extra lives sounds good but i feel it quickly becomes tedious in actual gameplay everyone has to be killed at least twice due to one free respawn the larger the group the more likely they are to have several extra lives due to increased cash gains respawns are generally far away from the action, 200m or more in my experience teams can revive dead teammates by collecting enough cash all of this combines to drastically slow down every match respawning often places players in toxic zones or zones with activated riot devices this leads to wasting hazmat suits - one is automatically equipped (if available) when spawning in gas often players are respawned so deep into the toxic zones that they cannot reach a safe zone before dying - wasting lives, money, and time players exiting toxic areas are often at a disadvantage vs players already in safe zones its easier to see into toxic areas from safe zones than it is to see into safe zones from toxic areas players may already have taken damage from gas players usually cannot afford to take cover or find an alternate route in toxic areas due to time constraints possible solution to respawn issues would be to copy apex legends' system, with an apb twist teammates have to have enough cash teammates must go to one of several ambulances that spawn around the district (they could be static spawns, but i'd prefer them to be random each match) teammates must interact with the ambulance (similar to a break in objective) to deliver cash once enough cash is delivered, dead teammate revives the ambulance is destructible, so people could potentially hunt these down and blow them up for spite - perhaps ambulances only show hud/map markers if you have a dead teammate revived teammates should have no spawn protection and no gear the truck [images courtesy of zeals - twitch.tv/zealslive] it just appears out of thin air i find myself curious what happens if a player is standing in the exact spot the truck would occupy when it spawns the large orange circle for cash bribing is bad its visually distracting it allows players to fight at the same time as they deliver bribe money delete the circle and its dropoff mechanics, instead force players to interact with the truck (similar to a break in objective) in order to deliver bribe money the top half (red painted part) of the truck can be shot through im split on this tbh - i understand that having the truck act as solid cover makes it too easy to just hide behind it and deliver bribes, but it also feels very unnatural shooting through what appears to be a solid object its not explained anywhere that the truck can be shot through in fact the truck mechanics arent explained anywhere other than some UI text at the very top of the screen and the purple hud marker, and these only appear once the final block "round" begins rewards getting the same amount of cash for a riot match as i would for a mission is disappointing receiving consumable pack emails is irritating more irritating, consumables can't be used during riot matches standing rewards are bugged and don't show up on the end-of-match scoreboard, but they're also equivalent to mission rewards swapping instances feels clunky, at best loading into another instance adds even more time, on top of potentially waiting for players and the match countdown the group leader is the only one who can swap the whole group no prompt to swap instances until the entire team is dead if you switch instances before that, you don't get any rewards afaik final impressions final thoughts on my riot gameplay experience, complete with not-even-being able-to-play saltyness bland map while at first i was excited for new map changes, once i ran through a few riot matches the shine quickly wore off as i realized how little the changes actually do anything to truly reshape the district or alter gameplay a majority of the gameplay is boring the incredibly slow start of every riot match where everyone is spread across the map gathering cash is boring as hell, further compounded by the lackluster pickups (that are almost always in the same places every match) and the bland map (that offers no incentive to explore) there are fun moments the final block/bribe stage is chaotic, dynamic, and usually a lot of fun - the only problem is its preceded by 10-15 minutes of Running Simulator: Reloaded there's just not enough payoff for the buildup - i could get the same chaotic, dynamic, and fun gameplay from fightclub over and over and over and over, without any of the bad elements that come with riot rewards are trash i understand that this is a "beta" but a single skin for 5 levels of progression isnt enough at least throw in some exclusive titles or preset clothing to encourage people to take part the daily rewards (5 day leases of various guns) after maxing out the riot contact are pretty worthless if preset loadouts are removed (as they should be), then players will be winning rewards that they can't even use in the mode why are the leases so short? other f2p leases (purchased with apb$) are 10 days and 7 days - was there really a need to add more complexity to f2p players' lease renewal schedule? the minimal amount of JTs awarded throughout leveling and from achievements are just that - minimal performance lots of crashes minimal fps stability improvements over mission districts - likely only because there are typically less players and less player vehicles per instance visuals a very personal opinion, but all the glowing pickups and the tall toxic "clouds" make the already dated game look even worse its very obvious that a lot of the "new" UI features were shoehorned into existing UI elements the loading screen is a decent attempt at keeping with the existing art style replayability for citadel - very low, riot just doesnt offer many positives that can't be had from other modes for jericho - zero, the population is so low that riot instances have remained below capacity for a majority of the last few days overall too many problems to be worth playing, and even if all issues are fixed (if thats even possible) i worry that its too late for second impressions miscellaneous random shit that i don't like in no particular order, this section is going to get whiney tutorial this is the only place the radar/map icons are shown the starting handgun (fbw) is very good "dark blue" text isnt actually colored dark blue "large numbers" means maybe 4 weapons, usually all the same the starting handgun (fbw) is very good the "light blue" text isnt actually colored light blue "large numbers" means maybe 4 weapons, usually all the same from my experience, secondaries tend to spawn less frequently than primaries hazmat suits have a "dark blue" radar icon, but have a "purple" glow effect ingame access codes arent all that contested because there are just so many of them cash glows "green' ingame, this is not mentioned cash pickups award $250 arming riot devices awards $300 there's no mention of needing cash to bribe the truck during the final block riot contacts who designed these awful characters? they're almost as boring as the map changes this would have been a perfect opportunity to hold a contest for the community to create these contacts my mans holland is in the floor where is the quality control? contact icons these really stand out, which could be good or bad depending on your preference i hate it why do these contact icons not look like all the other contact icons? block visuals i realize this is a super minor issue that would require crazy amounts of work to fix but it still looks bad this also results in weird borders with the toxic gas itself (not the same location) car spawns car spawn icons still show up on the ingame environment vehicle props some float a little some sink a little some sink low enough to sneak past all the testers honorable mention to this unreleased content missing prop [image courtesy of explosion - twitch.tv/exxplosion_] there's a vending machine prop missing from this corner in riot instances nametag bug dying and respawning occasionally results in your player tag getting "stuck" in place even while you run around like a mong city hall this awful spot is back for no reason other than to further fuck up map balance church its now possible to get to the very top of the church building a weapon will spawn on the back corner, which is basically useless to most players uneven pickup spawns idk it just triggers my ocd, there are a few of these ok im done, finally tl;dr - riot sucks, what the fuck are you doing little orbit?

the community has been "lenient" for more than a year now, at what point is it acceptable to complain? 2 years? 5? 10? its impossible to know if apb would be dead by now if not for orbit - its likely, but we'll never know

in my experience you'll get a kill or two off opp purely because the concept of anyone using kevlar is so foreign, after that (assuming opp is decent players) they'll just crush you with mobility or weapons that bypass kevlar

they're arguably better without the preset mods because they have more available slots compared to the ffa which is just a default open slot weapon, regardless of whether its a legendary or not

do you still believe diamonds are rare too? lmao also i find it interesting that you apparently arent concerned at all that the cap40 and the thumper are also being distributed

ive been sitting in a riot instance (jericho) for nearly 2 hours as of this post and there hasnt been more than 6 people meanwhile fight club and financial are populated people only have so much free time, i cant blame them for not wanting to waste it sitting idle in an empty district when they could be playing other modes

nice find do u have any info about the rumored 3rd faction i am really interested in that more than a dumb queue system

5 day rewards are fine imo altho i seriously question who was the brainlet that decided on weapon lease rewards in a br mode - you know, where scavenging random weapons should be and would be the norm the inconsistent number of slots should be fixed ideally, give them all the same number of open slots

there's maintenance every wednesday morning, i think that's your warning

working as intended

when were the best players involved with weapon balancing?

negatory

having weapon roles disabled is dumb, as removing any reason to play, regardless of how small, is a very bad thing - especially when it comes to something that already struggles to get players like riot i do wonder if locked weapon roles are just hard coded into the district though, every single new instance like riot’s has had this “feature”, all the way back to g1 notoriety/prestige is likely disabled because going p5/n5 during a riot match would just be ridiculous

all i can find on fairplayhq is a facebook group and a website that doesn’t seem to work on mobile

he’s support staff

iirc all that’s been stated is that there will be more additions in the future, nothing so far about rotation

finally

apologies™

just because i post more doesnt make my input any more valuable

how much leeway should we give them? this isnt the first time orbit has seemingly ignored community feedback (shotguns/ir3/bugs/events/etc) and based on their previous actions it wont be the last still no pinned feedback thread btw