killernerd

Man I was early in the closed beta (like second group of invites) and do not remember seeing that old style radar. Then again it's been about 15 years I'd wager so you'll forgive me for not having perfect memory Edit: just noticed you were in the heavy hitters group of the closed beta according to your .. uh banner (or whatever that footnote thing is called). I believe that was the first group of cb play testers if memory serves me right. I was in the next group I think. Sharp shooters, was that the name? Something along those lines probably. Again, it's been 15 years lol. Edit 2: looked it up, the 3 groups were furious fighters, heavy hitters, and then sharpshooters. Couldn't find the order in which they were invited but if the listing was chronological then chances are I was in the heavy hitters too.

Not just pre-release, that was a very old pre-alpha version of the game that was only ever shared with maybe a couple journalists (I don't recall seeing any other footage from this version of the game at least). If it wasn't obvious it's completely staged too, none of the players you see are actual players, all of them are RTW employees putting on a show lol. By the time the closed beta rolled around the HUD was already pretty close to what we have today (unless LO made changes to it since I last played this game years ago but I somehow doubt that). Also the fact this game hasn't shut down yet is nothing short of a miracle. Love how optimistic OP is too, 'just' make some new content lol. Sure thing bud, let me just snap my fingers and the content gods will bless us with a new district, slap a price tag on it. Free money! Nah fam, this game is on life support, has been for years. Barely makes enough money to keep the lights on probably. Aint no way they got the manpower or the financials to pump out any significant new content.

I played the shit out of this game from all the way during its beta days up to LO's takeover and I'm honestly surprised this game hasn't died yet, I visit these forums every once in a while because of the fabled engine upgrade (that is now apparently dead) and every time I come back it feels more deserted.

LTL/arresting has always been a frustrating mechanic for both parties and right now LTL is quite weak compared to what it once was. It's why G1 said they were going to "revamp the entire system", that was way back when people still thought G1 was actually going to do something with the game other than milk it though. So you know, at least 6 or 7 years ago and it never actually happened. I'll say this: the discussion has always been the same for as long as I can remember. frustrated crim: LTL is op, prolonging respawn is OP, ltl is broken. frustrated enforcer: LTL isn't op, have you tried using it? It's hard, you're vulnerable and your teammates constantly kill your targets.

I seem to be one of the few who don't really mind VIP missions but I agree it'd be more fun if both teams had a VIP. At least that way it doesn't become a one-way street in terms of running/camping/attacking. All missions in apb are heavily favored towards the defenders though so they're pretty much all badly balanced. The attacking team needs to succeed in ALL the objectives and then whatever the final stage is, the defending team only needs to win ONCE.

Didn't LO say they were looking into reworking the instance and matchmaking system? Something along the lines of how some MMORPGs work with channels, you'd simply join the map you want (financial or wf) and be put in the channel that (the system thinks) is best suited for you and your group. Matchmaking would then be allowed to select missions/opposition from ALL the different channels rather than just the one instance you (and your group) are in and move either or both groups to a mutual channel. Same could go for backup. Also, switching channels would only require the client to load the players and NPCs of the new channel and not the entire map. Pros: - No more deliberate joining of bronze/silver distracts to stomp on newbies - Fixes a whole host of matchmaking issues in general - Makes balancing/fixing matchmaking a whole lot easier - no more "spam joining" that one district with decent population - fairer opposition for everyone disadvantages? - doesn't fix dethreating - switching channels might incur a bit of lag or even require a short loading screen - NPCs, players, and all vehicles would "phase" in/out as you switch channels (if you can call this a disadvantage to begin with) - probably quite a few technical challenges that I'm missing.

g1 dropped the mission rewards to get people to buy premium stating that "not having premium should leave you with just enough cash to buy a decent car with some effort and lease 1 or 2 weapons a week but no more". Paraphrasing but that was the gist of it.

so not just me then, managed to log in to character select but so far unable to get past that.

Close. Movement is server authorative, meaning you send a "move me" signal to the server but your client will start moving your character on your screen without awaiting the response. The server will keep track of your location/speed to make sure that your movements are "legal", and thus tries "predicting" your movement, even though it's more like "keeping your movement going in the direction of your last input". If the position of the character on your client is too far from what the server thinks it should be (aka an "illegal move") it'll move you to the "correct" location. BOOM, there's your teleporting and rubberbanding. The same goes for enemies. The server sends your client information about things like position, orientation, movement, ... for your client to render. The thing is that your client will keep simulating the last "movement update" it received from the server even if the enemy has already changed direction. That's why enemies teleport when the server is having a shit day, your client is still using the information from the last update from the server which said the enemy was moving left. Now you get a new position and movement package and it seems the enemy has long since started moving in another direction, AKA the enemy teleports. This is explains things like: - why you can keep moving freely even after you get the "disconnect" countdown timer - why you can't enter a car, change weapons, throw a nade, change the shoulder the camera looks over,... while "disconnected" - why cars and players might start flying or running into walls when you're disconnecting ...

The only moment I'm slightly annoyed at a running enemy is if there's a minute left on the clock during a takeouts stage. So there's not enough time to swap weapons and start chasing but y'know they were *technically* winning already by being ahead in kills so whatever. Other times I've been called out for camping with an item or as VIP. When they finally got us off the spot we started driving and got called out for doing that so yknow. Some people are just salty. Their definition of fair seems to be "give me the item" or "let me kill you" but that's not how shit works. Apparently the only way to fight with honor is to drop the item (or, as VIP, stand) in the middle of the street and fight it out there.

G1 tried a couple of things, from reducing rewards to full on segregation where you couldn't join a district below your threatlevel. I believe they even considered a health/damage debuff for joining a district below your level. The only real solution is to remove district select altogether and change to a more MMORPG style approach using "channels". Put all the players in one big pool and let the matchmaking system pick from there. If your opposition is in a different channel then all that needs to happen is for your (or their) channel to change. Should be doable without loading screens (after all the map is already loaded), only thing you need to be careful about is a potential increase in load (both on client and server) because the players around you do change as you switch channels, which means reloading their textures, symbols, cars, music, ... PROs: - matchmaking can now select from entire playerbase (that's playing the same map) instead of just 40 players - no more joining silver/bronze districts to stomp on noobs - no more whining about trying to join full districts - might actually make it viable to have player groups > 4 (though campspots might become a real issue) CONS: - dethreating still possible - might increase load on server/client as customizations need to be loaded for characters, vehicles, music, ... each time you switch channel

I'm still sad they nerfed the range on it all those years back, it was one of the very few weapons that could deliver acutal counterplay against the nhvr at a decent range. Coincidentally that's also when the nhvr-ntec meta really took off. Still have my cyborg, hasn't been used in years tho.

my buds and I have a word for that: getting silvered or Silver tactics There's just something typical about the way silver (and bronze) players play that you don't see with (high) gold tryhards. Mostly in a "what the fok was that guy even doing there" or "what the hell is that guy doing" kind of way. Always in good fun though, makes us laugh.

pssh, that's nothing. I was in the first wave of the second group of the RTW closed beta players. The only way you played this game earlier than me was if you were either a first-wave closed beta tester (of which there weren't a whole lot) or an RTW employee. (I still win!) Or lost... a whole lotta money cuz I pre-ordered it back then. Not sure if I knew at that point that they were going to put a subscription fee on it too... I was even there when the RTW servers shut down for the last time, which was a sad moment (but also awesome because everyone was going apeshit during those final days/hours). Afterwards I kept opening my launcher hoping for a sign of life or... something. After a couple of weeks they put one last message on that launcher about RTW being "in talks with someone interested" in buying the game which would later turn out to be G1. So get off my lawn you young whipper-snapper before I get out my cane and beat you.

Oh, what do I get for winning the "who's been here the longest" contest? Also, everyone who's better than me is a cheater. I must know, I've been here since 2010.