orangesherbet

One bug I found- I went afk as I was changing to a new district and I think the new game must have started while I was gone (had not entered district). When I tried to click on Double B to spawn in, my FPS went to about 10 and just sat there spinning, never entered the district. If a player fails to enter within a specified period before the game mode starts, it should force them to enter. Not sure it's helpful to have to click on the spawn area anyway unless there are going to be multiple RIOT contacts in the future. The lack of sound just makes the game feel.... empty. We need more ambient noise like the RIOT device should be slowly spooling up, then the gas pouring out when it equips should be a big "whoosh", the car husks should have a very slight smoldering or fire crackling noise, any little touches of audio would help. The spawn system has been talked about enough, but that was my main complaint tonight. I know of a spot on top of the hospital where someone could sit and camp players that spawn in (although spawn protection could get you killed.) Several times someone either spawned right on top of me or me on top of them. Until the spawn system is worked out, it's hard to see the potential for this game mode. Also, some vehicles would be nice- even if they are low tier cars. The obstacles on the map make it hard to drive anyway. There is just nothing exciting about this game mode for me- and if it isn't exciting for a veteran player I don't know how this will draw in new players. There is much work to be done if this is going to be promoted past the current APB players. There are better options for F2P options for similar game modes, on a far superior game engine. I say similar because this will be marketed as APB-flavored BR, no matter how different it is, people see it in that narrow genre. It's still early days, but I would implore the developers not to release this until it's ready. There are some good concepts here but it needs a lot of work.

When you play a game for thousands of hours like many veterans have- myself included, there is an expectation of performance or at least feeling you had a chance to win. Packed in with that is everyone's arbitrary set of rules of what is "fair" or "accepted" with loadout and tactics within the mission. If you get one thing wrong and your enemy loses the mission, whatever "rule" you broke will be singled out as the reason. Meta weapons, running with VIP or items, blah blah blah. Thus is APB. Any actual reason to be upset losing missions other than ego? Perhaps threat level or mission rewards- other than that, nope.

Bugs I noticed: (did not recreate these as I did not have enough time) Purchasing secondary weapon auto-equips it and a picked up primary weapon is deleted occasionally as a result. Expected result: picked up primary weapon drops at your feet. Hazmat suit icon was inconsistent- sometimes appearing, sometimes disappearing after consuming one of my stock of suits. Expected result: Hazmat suit icon stays on the screen after consuming. VOIP seems to have more trouble with the codec, many times my teammates sounded like their connection was lagging out (robot effect) My first match I didn't understand how the lives system would work, but I think my teammate earned more money and then my money went over $1000 and the game popped up a dialog asking if I wanted to purchase another life. I pressed Y and no effect- then after the timeout the popup happened a second time. Suggestions: A more cohesive way to spend money - a global key you can press or a radial menu that you can purchase your loadout, extra lives, and I don't see why you couldn't purchase a haz mat suit too.... if you have zero in your inventory that is (and for a high price like $500). The current popup system feels weird, and clunky. Should definitely limit players from jumping into the RIOT districts until the tutorial is completed. Otherwise, you will be hammered with complaints of players not spawning with grenades equipped (I'm assuming RIOT won't automatically do that for them, nor should it). I have seen this mentioned before and I will echo this sentiment: some audio for the start and end of the match would be nice.... Something about the start and end of match just feels unfinished and empty. In a mission, you would see the scoreboard and hear the death theme of the player with the most points. In this mode, perhaps a small cinematic of the truck pulling away and an aerial camera shot of the entire map devoid of all players. (see L4D2 cinematics as source material) >>>> https://youtu.be/e_TLyagUE3E

How does RIOT compare to other APB game modes? This is very different than a normal APB mission, or fight club. The district feels very empty, and eerie since there is a lack of ambient noise. Maybe if there were more players allowed it would have that typical chaotic "APB feel" Would you encourage your friends to play RIOT? APB is free to play and I always encourage people to try it out for that reason. RIOT is one of those modes that should draw in even a newer crowd that like the Battle Royale flavor... How would you explain RIOT to someone who has never seen it? It's a unique APB-styled BR mode with 4-person squads. Money is used to spec your loadout and give you an extra respawn. Players can control which areas of the map are blocked off. What ONE THING would you change about RIOT if you could? Make the rounds shorter... at the moment it takes a bit too long in my opinion. What is your favorite aspect of RIOT? Teamplay matters. What about RIOT do you like the least? The map feels like a ghost town with no ambient noise. Additional suggestion: Give players an easier way to add each other to friends list- I may have missed it but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to add people to your friend list who you grouped with randomly (other than the clunky chat command). Also, players should be educated on how to mute your teammates if you need to. New players may be subjected to loud mics or abusive teammates, and not know how to mute them. Overall, new players may have a hard time knowing how to play this game mode if they haven't played APB before..... I guess there's the tutorial but we all know how good that is at the moment.

There are plenty of topics asking this already including this one: Using the search feature is your best friend

Everyone has their own version of the truth about APB and what each company has succeeded / failed at... it's tiring and unproductive. Isn't it a bit early to say what is the ultimate fate of APB? We all know that nothing lasts forever. Enjoy yourself while it lasts, or stay forever bitter at whatever your notion of the "best version of APB" was or could have been.

This was a really fun exercise - I tried participating a few days while at work, but people beat me to the punch with most of the solutions. My prediction that a solution could be found through sending an email was .... kinda right I guess? Still, really cool and Friday should be interesting! Thanks LO!

I'm guessing the RedHill site will come back tomorrow with an apology for the "downtime" and another clue. Thoughts?

I asked Matt about this in January on Twitter and he responded: (I'm assuming what I asked back then is the same thing the OP is asking about)

I'm guessing the next chapter to this story will come on Wednesday (the 20th) if that wasn't entirely obvious. Kudos to those who worked out the riddle thus far. I noticed that you can "compose" a message and send it, although that had no effect. It seems to work with any "valid email address" but perhaps if you sent a message to right address it might trigger an auto-response?

This is pretty much my issue as well ... runs "fine" on Financial, but Waterfront is a hot mess My Specs: Threadripper 1950x , GTX980TI, 32gig RAM, SSD, Win 10 64bit. I'll try playing after the Halloween event is over, perhaps some of the added objects are causing errors. Not likely, but I was doing fine performance-wise before update as well.

Latency was mostly improved on Jericho late last night with some lag spikes and a few hit reg issues. A step in the right direction, with much improvement still needed!

I want to remain hopeful but with these attacks going on for years, it's pretty demoralizing. I have no expertise in this area, but have LO considered asking some other studio contemporaries how they have handled similar issues? I've never seen a game's servers be so crippled by attacks.

GG!

I thought the exact same thing, how this person did an "interview" then just said... nah that's not right m8. It is weird to me how an outsider can take one look at the shooting, driving, UI and basic features and totally dismiss everything. There hasn't been one journalist that I know of that has had good things to say about APB, yet the player base that stuck around since the beginning will have a much different view of the game, sort of like when you look at "rotten tomatoes" for a review of a movie and the critical response is vastly different than the audience. APB has PVP that is not p2w, vast customization features that have not been rivaled by any game since, and a skill ceiling that can only be reached by learning something every time you play. It's a game that is easy to pick up and play but hard to master. The best multiplayer third-person shooter ever made that "experts" will seemingly never understand.

looking forward to the extra bump in population- and a chance to rub shoulders with some devs!

BungMonkey was a nice guy to gift me a mask to complete my RickSanchez character

Good point. I tried to think of worst case scenario, but I understand there is always something potentially bad about giving people power.

In a perfect world, yes. But having volunteer programs like this can't hurt, even if redundant. Some people simply want to be involved in helping the community, just my take.

No I do understand that, and I don't mean to infer that being gold makes you that much more knowledgeable about the game, or willing to help players for that matter. I am just looking for pitfalls for the volunteer system (which did exist and I don't remember how it worked exactly). I also agree with the current threat system needing work, but no idea how to "fix" it.

It's not a bad idea if done correctly - I'm not sure that new players will come to the forums to ask for help so having volunteers answer questions in the district could be quite helpful for some. Is there not an issue with being able to join the lower tier district (bronze) though? Not saying that is where people would need the most help, but in some cases there would be people there that did, and no one there potentially to help out. (perhaps GM's would be present I realize) My concern is always that the new players try the game out after finding it on Steam, hear the bad reviews and salty commentary about it, try it for a few hours, get rekt and never return. Pointing out a few simple things could make someone's experience that much more enjoyable. Also, the volunteers aren't only helpful for brand new players- a game with as much depth as APB, lots could benefit from this. Just be careful that the people you give this tag will represent the company in a positive manner- we all know how easy it is to start an argument while in the game.

Will there ever be a queue system for joining districts? We have all been there - getting on to play with friends, you want to play in a populated district and the only way to do that is to spam join until someone leaves the district. Perhaps this is a moot point with a different matchmaking system but currently (and for years) it's not a fun part of the game.

Most dethreaters will announce it to their team willingly as there hasn't been any sort of enforcement of their actions. They don't seem to care about their reputation as a player or the impact it has on the players around them. Admittedly, I haven't done my part in submitting evidence to support to attempt to punish them either... can't be bothered most of the time. I can play for an extended period and encounter no cheaters, but for sure I will encounter at least one if not more dethreaters (as a mostly solo player this is highly demoralizing). What does that say about the current state of affairs? Time will tell if the proposed changes will have an impact on this scourge. I am happy the issue is being recognized for what it is, at least.