MrChan

EDIT: I accidentally skimmed over Rapid99's rough transcript which makes this kinda redundant, but since I've gone and done it, I might as well leave it here. Abridged version of of the Q&A for reference and for those who haven't got the time to watch it yet. I would encourage everyone to put aside 50 minutes for this at some point, it is worth it and Matt comes across very well in it, imo. Plus I might have completely misunderstood something. Timestamps are from the recording on Kemp's twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/265424620?t=05s @ 3:36 - Cheat detection Battleye will be introduced in "the very next patch". FF will be retained in the background, but will not be automatically banning. FF not tuned in APB for over a year because G1 couldn't pay for it. Matt can say from sitting in with support that there "unequivocally" were improper bans. "A majority" of the playerbase will be unbanned. The bulk of bans for cheating will be undone. This will not happen immediately, it will happen after Battleye is introduced. Bans will not be broadcast. Matt considers the practice toxic. Banned players can still post on forums whilst the ban policy is being worked out. Not clear if this is a permanent plan. @11:23 - Rough Roadmap First part will be "infrastructure": - New Support & Forums - New anti-cheat - New two-factor authentication Second part is "unification" - Bringing PC versions to Unreal 3.5 and unifying the PC & Console codebases. - Announcement on this in 1-2 weeks. - Unreal 4 is being worked on. No timescale was given on this. Third is dealing with critical mechanics. Fourth is 'minor' content patches. Clothing etc. Lastly 'major' content including a map. @16:36 - ARMAS / Microtransactions Matt does not consider APB pay 2 win, but there is a pay 2 win stigma. No plan to change the fundemental economic model of the game. Matt would personally like to bring the ARMAS pricing down. He thinks the excessive prices could contribute to the p2w stigma. Considering putting some current ARMAS-only items into contact progression. @ 19:26 - New Code of Conduct (nekkidness!!!) Greater GM presence. Wants it to be interactive rather than policing per se. No place for nudity in APB No hate & racically inappropriate symbols to be allowed either @22:03 - Dethreating / Threat System Threat considered part of the 'critical mechanics' to be dealt with. Needs to be reworked or possibly rebuilt from scratch. Matt finds the ability to track your matchmaking level / progress over a short time problematic. Threat changes should take longer or the ability to exploit it should be removed. @23:50 - Kemp goes for a slash and Matt reads chat. @24:55 - Devstream / Devblog / Future Q&As. Matt's enthusiastic about things like this Wants to do more Open Letters, possibly vLogs, etc. @26:12 - Login screen & music Wants to bring it back, but needs to check the legal situation on the old music Doesn't think we need a 'loading screen to get to a loading screen' @27:34 - Performance & optomisation on consoles Wants to work on this, feels its long overdue Will be worked on during both the 'unification' and 'critical mechanics' stages @29:20 - Purchasable ignore list extensions Feels charging for an ignore list expansion is the wrong approach Ignore list can't be infinite, but will seek to increase it from its current level for free @31:19 - Prestige / Noteriety system Falls under 'critical mechanics' Griefing in-mission players general needs to be tweaked / re-designed to eliminate the 'feel bad' moments @32:55 - Character server transfers Technically problematic, especially with APB's level of customisation Wants to allow it Han server placement was mis-handled, hoping to give Han players the ability to migrate to Jericho Nekrova more problematic with unique content, but still wants to find a way to balance it to allow migration to Citadel @35:57 - Trading system Wants to add one Can be a problem in terms of third-parties involving themselves in the APB economy Also opens up the possibility Credit Card fraud / laundering Trade System might be locked to above a certain level if implemented to combat this @39:12 - Competitive Scene Can't answer directly on the stream It is being discussed and he does see a place for it in APB @40:18 - Refer a Friend Loves the idea of RaF, but it has to be handled correctly On the table to be looked at in the future to re-grow the playerbase @41:43 - KttC bans These will be reversed @43:32 - Joker Boxes Rewards will be non-tradable to make the JMBs compliant May reduce price of JMBs in the future to compensate @45:16 - Shaders / Advanced Launcher "Slippery slope" Crosshair options & low config modes should be made avaialble in game Recommended players not use the Advanced Launcher until they've tested it against Battleye @48:45 Acknowledged the Fallen Earth players @49:15 - Weapon balance Weapons are fairly well balanced with some exceptions Wants to avoid a heavy-handed approach Weapon balance is overdue, however @51:04 - Daily / Seasonal Events Will do their best to get to this, but it's a little further down the roadmap

Pretty sure Support said in as many words that it was against the old CoC too, they clearly could not enforce it.

He said it'll be after the next patch when Battleye is put in. I don't really agree with giving cheaters a second chance, I think it's a cop-out for people who don't need a second chance because they didn't blow their first one yet. And it's clear from what he said about sitting in on support tickets and discovering that there have been unfair bans that they have the records to judge whether an existing ban was right or not. So I'd prefer they deal with the bans case by case and only unban the unfair ones. But tbf, maybe they won't have the resources to do that. If Battleye is effective, it won't negatively effect the game ultimately.

Kinda surprised you're being cynical about it now when you seemed very much in favour on the old forums. So long as BattleEye promptly deals with anyone who relapses.

Ah sure it'll be grand like. They won't cheat again. (Or more hopefully BattleEye will 86 them quickly and their fantasy about being unfairly banned will be shattered in front of everyone)

There are guides and stuff worth retrieving from. Plus the stuff about exporting 3D models, Jenz's huge render, etc. You're not obliged to retrieve negative things if you don't want to. Like for example a guy posting a vid of people he played against that thought were cheating, whilst clearly cheating himself.

If I remember the forum chatter correctly, they changed it so that something to do with loading in other players' customisations (possibly the whole lot, but I'm not sure) used Hard Drive space when it previously had used RAM. That slowed down things for most of players, but those with APB on an SSD would feel it less.

Tbf, my PC wasn't a top of the range model when built and I would have replaced this year except I went and bought a house and consequently have no money. But still, the performance deterioration is real. And some issues seem to be server side, so even brute forcing with a very high single thread performance i7 or Ryzen has its limits. I wonder would my old Core Duo that I played APB on when it first came out still run it at all...

Could we not resort to blaming people's hardware when it's well known that APB's performance got worse on a patch on patch basis (back when there was patches)? My current PC is 3 and a half years old. When it was new I had no stuttering on the standard launcher. Then I got some stuttering after about a year. After about a year and a half, I switched to the Advanced Launcher and eliminated stuttering with some tweaks to texture detail. Now I'm stuttering even with Advanced Launcher. My PC is not chocked with spyware, and my performance on other games has been consistent.

They said it on the old forum post announcing the new Community Manager, iirc.

Tbf, I'm at the point of stuttering with it unless I make the game look like the Build Engine (which I don't want to do), so it probably won't make a massive difference. I want to hear what he said about undoing FF bans.

Yeah, I picked that up with my edit.

"Please don't use Advanced Launcher for the time being in case it upsets out cheat detection" That... might be a problem. (TBF, I think it's more a PSA style warning that it might accidentally get you in trouble more than anything else, but still... might be a problem)

Where have you been since the 10th of May?

It's okay Ray, we can repost the vids where you used your triggerbot. Has said URL been revealed yet? Can't find it, but that could just me being dumb.