Hexerin

I love when people bring this up because my mere existence proves its not true. Every time it's a full moon and I get that urge to go fuck with the golds, they consistently get pushed to raging (if not outright ragequitting) when I bring explosives to bear. If they're "so easy to dodge", why do basically no gold players (I'm talking the big names we all recognize here) ever mop the floor with me while laughing at my rockets/grenades? Instead, I get to chuckle at their sky-flying ragdolls. Just like any weapon, explosives usage is a skill that can be mastered. The difference is that the skill floor for explosives can basically just reach out slightly and touch its ceiling, and both are far lower than a normal gun would be. The main thing that sets apart the plebs from the elites is map knowledge and the ability to predict the actions of the opp based on the objectives in play. I'll never understand why people main them, but I fully understand why people will bring them out on occasion. It can be great fun and an excellent way to unwind from otherwise stressful play. Also, the Volcano laughs at your Flak.

It's funny how all these people supposedly in opposition to the bounty system change suddenly have an issue with it. Where the fuck were you all when we were all having discussions with Little Orbit about making these changes? It's almost like you're just stirring shit up because that's what you do...

The biggest thing a lot of people forget about tracers is that they were part of the balance of the sniper rifles. The heavy HVR that we all love to hate wasn't nearly as oppressive back then, because every single shot was a tracer shot that gave away the location of the HVR user to everyone in the area. Without tracers, you're still able to gauge but not to such a precise degree on the instant like that. I mean, that's because Innova actually gave a shit about the game. They did a whole ton of really great things, a lot of which that I wish had been brought over here.

Pretty sure it's also restricted specifically to that one unique NTEC that the bundle leases. Could be wrong on that one though. EDIT: I was wrong.

Just offhand based on the little I read of that doc before closing it in disgust. COBR-A, ISSR-a, and Strife. COBR-A's design is supposed to essentially be an automatic variant of the Carbine. Slower, but more accurate. True, it's currently a little on the undertuned side, but your suggestions destroy what it is by trying to make it an ADS assault rifle like the rest. ISSR-a is supposed to be a marksman / assault rifle hybrid. The current bloom recovery delay might be a bit too long, but overall it's a very powerful gun that also has anti-vehicle utility. Strife is literally supposed to borderline one-shot your target, that's the entire reason it has the atrociously slow fire rate. We already have shotguns that barely tickle in the form of CSG (and JG to a lesser extent), we don't need to homogenize the Strife to join that dull and boring group. It's already been given an unjustified nerf, we don't need it being destroyed further. It's a support weapon like the HVR, but it's actually balanced thanks to not having render distance range like the HVR's broken patootie. Won't see me saying otherwise, I'm a full believer in the philosophy that you should always endeavor to buff weaker things instead of nerfing stronger ones. There are of course times when nerfs are necessary (to preserve a chosen baseline/average TTK across the game, for example), but far more often it's totally possible to buff things without causing issues.

What is it with you people and wanting to destroy the uniqueness of guns? If you don't like them, then simply don't use them. Fuck off trying to ruin them for those that do like them.

Explosive weapons are fine. Explosive weapons having effectively infinite ammo thanks to suppliers is not. So obviously, the problem is the explosive weapons. No, that's not how it works. That's like saying NTEC is the problem because some theoretically buffed Improved Rifling giving it 20m increased range makes it obscenely overtuned. No, the problem is Improved Rifling. Similarly, the problem isn't explosive weapons but rather the various suppliers giving them effectively infinite ammo on demand. And people wonder why I'm always so frustrated with Little Orbit for listening to you people.

I'm not asking for explosive weapon nerfs though? With the exception of the Volcano, I see no problems with the balance on any of the explosive weapons as they currently are. Unfortunately, due to how the Volcano works there's nothing that can be done about it to balance it. The problem with explosive weapons is that they are freely usable. Now that they've taken the nerf to a full on removal of resupply from the ammo crates, they aren't as effective when off the streets. We're still looking at locations that can be shelled from the streets being a problem though. We're slowly moving in the right direction, but we aren't there yet.

Clarification requested: Does this also still extend to grenades like it already does? Does this apply to Resupply Box (Medium), the briefcase style supplier you can purchase with Joker Tickets? I feel like this should be extended to also apply to Mobile Supply Unit, Field Supplier, and Field Supplier (Wide Radius). Grenades should still be allowed from Mobile Supply Unit though, if possible to separate them... but if not, just write them off as a casualty of collateral damage because it'd be worth the cost.

Anything that reduces the effectiveness of explosives in general gameplay is a good thing. Explosives should only be a tool of last resort in very specific situations. People literally maining them as their primary weapon of choice (and being able to actually be effective in missions with that) is a very serious problem for game health.

That's literally not how game balance works.

^^ THIS ^^ Just do it already, nobody actually likes the consumable design. With the addition of Joker Tickets to the end of mission rewards also reducing the consumable reward rates, they're even more frustrating and clunky than ever. Not to mention a lot of us are sitting at cap on them, which means our mailboxes are getting spammed to death with them.

That's exactly the statement I was referencing, thanks for bringing it here. I truly believe you should reconsider the decision to not go that path, as shotguns will remain inconsistent and frustrating to use otherwise. The very limited data you get from the testing districts isn't going to give you a valid picture of the weapon's live state, and once you push those broken stats live the entire weapon class will become just as forgotten as it was before in favor of the significantly more consistent bullet-based alternatives. Ultimately though, nothing will be as effective as the rayscaling. I weep for the fact that you guys listened to the idiots who don't even play the game and demanded you revert, instead of listening to the rational players who asked you to simply adjust the stats to tone them down ever so slightly. You were on the precipice of shotguns being perfectly balanced, but just like Gamersfirst/Reloaded you went full pants-on in the other direction because of that clique shit. Shotguns were actually fun to use with rayscaling, because if you shot a person they would be assured to actually take damage. Prior to rayscaling, you could shoot a person dead-on and they would suffer almost nothing because half the pellets scattered to the worst possible places they could. It's fucking absurd, and it's what you guys are putting the guns back to.

6 years? The game's 10 years old.

This is something people just can't seem to grasp the concept of. The absolute strongest stat in the game, above all others by a hilariously massive margin, is mobility. Vehicles are the highest contributor to this stat, as they literally determine the baseline for how long it takes you to get to an objective.

It really isn't though, if you look at it more closely. Most of those other games have plenty of alternatives that feed the same itch. APB, for better or worse, is completely unique. You can't get this gameplay anywhere else, and it's a type of gameplay that appeals strongly to a vastly diverse audience. That's also why it keeps getting repurchased by new companies, they can see the potential and thus keep thinking that it's worth the investment... but then they quickly realize how painful it is to actually host and that's when you see their morale crumble.

Exactly. I don't mind playing serious when I have a coordinated group to roll with, but I haven't had that in years so no point playing currently.

NA population has always been significantly lower than EU population, ever since lauch. This isn't news.

The Low-Yield nerfs have nothing to do with the EOLs, and the Kickback hasn't changed since introduction. Have you ever even used the EOLs?

Kickback if you're trying to push down some hallways. The best of the three for anti-personnel, and the area saturation is great. Deep Impact if you're trying to stop vehicles. It's really bad against players, but with practice you can sort of make it work in a pinch. Hammer is objectively worthless. It's a Kickback with a 33% reduction to ammo and one less mod slot. Ultimately though, getting good with the OPGL is best. It's significantly better at anti-personnel than the Kickback, while also being almost as effective against vehicles as the Deep Impact.

Yes, primarily (there are other concerns as well, but less important). The game is currently running on a heavily modified version of one of UE3's beta builds, which is the source of most of the game's issues. Upgrading to the stable UE3.5 (which is what the upgrade is doing) will significantly improve performance as well as make it significantly easier to add more features to the game. Significantly higher optimization for modern hardware (be it PC or console), as well as the ability to push significantly higher graphical quality if they take the time to remaster the assets.

@MattScott mentioned it in passing in an older blog post, to the effect of "the Australian team couldn't make it work, so we're dropping it entirely" with no further elaboration. The current engine upgrade (which is the one getting update posts in the pinned thread) will upgrade the game to UE3.5, and that will likely be where the game sits until it dies for good (assuming it even lives long enough for the thing to release in the first place).

Just another week, but damn if the wait isn't full of suck.

Hiding the colors won't have that effect. Instead of just giving up instantly, the player will instead give up after going in 2-3 times. Which is worse, because it has a significantly higher "I wasted my time" impact on the psyche, which will result in faster burnout on the game. It's pretty much a no-win situation. Could've been avoided if the game wasn't mismanaged so hideously badly over the years though.

Without context, that literally means nothing.