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I have been sitting on this post for at least 5 years and probably well over a thousand hours of game play. I remember specifically making an account to post on the forums way, way back in 2014, but for whatever reason, this post never saw the light of day. I know it is a veritable monster wall of text and I tried to organize it as cleanly and succinctly as possible. But, after all, it is the product of 5 years of off and on critical thought and discussion on the matter. For those who do not have the time or cannot be bothered with the details, a compact summary is available in the section labelled "Conclusion". Foreword The crux is as follows: despite a plethora of gun options, only a tiny fraction dominate the game in terms of usage (which seems to be indicative of power). While I wholly recognize there will never be an absolute perfect balance in this sense, some of these offenders not only dissuade people from using a great many different kinds of weapons, but also seem to directly contradict the game's own combat design. I believe some kind of re-balance and/or redesign is needed. Game Play & Gun Play Although at first this aspect of the game can be bit complicated, it really boils down very simply. Guns are meant to be chosen in reaction to 1.) an enemy's load out & 2.) to a very specific situation. For example, an OCA is great at stuffing a sniper (with the help of a vehicle) and excels in close quarters areas. This game play loop of reactions can certainly be navigated around to a certain degree with player skill. An exceptional sniper, for example, could still probably defeat a mediocre OCA user, even at the OCA's preferential range. However, if all things are equal, one would expect success for the sniper to be in the negative at worst and wildly inconsistent at best in the aforementioned encounter. Given that this "mini game" of rock-paper-scissors and reaction to environment/needs is so central to game play, it only makes sense that the game try to offer us various different options for each range and role to best suit our individual play styles. Shotguns and OCAs, for instance, fulfill the same role of being close-range killers while the OSMAW and Alig are vehicle-slayers. The issue is that in many of these roles are dominated by only one or two weapons that are used almost without fail despite there being many, many more options. In the close range niche, the OCA (and its associated re-skins) as well as the Colby Shotgun and NFAS (specifically the True Ogre) more or less dominate weapon picks. All things considered, this role is actually probably among the best balanced as people still do often pick PMGs. However, shotguns like the Strife, Agrotech series, and Tommy Guns are all left in limbo. Tommy Guns, arguably, also could fit into mid-range niches, leaving its precise design intention a bit ambiguous. Long range is also in the same decently-balanced realm. Generally, players will pick a heavy sniper or a Scout. Obeya and OBIRs are not bad, but generally lack of the flexibility of the Scout series in particular. This said, it still does leave a range of snipers wanting. While the Agrotech snipers can do good vehicle damage, I find they really need another team member to be coordinated with the sniper to really be useful (which begs the question, why not just run an ALIG or OSMAW/Volcano). Both the N-ISSR-B series and DMR-SD series are a mystery to me in terms of what niche they are supposed to fill. Finally, the Anubis, a legendary weapon of significant rarity is just utterly out performed. There are other weapons I can talk about, such as the SHAW and Euryale/Medusa basically dominating the LMG niche (barring the ALIG, which has it own sub-designation as a vehicle counter). Vehicle-destroying weapons seem varied enough to me, though as mentioned previously, some weapons appear to want to be an option in that niche, but simply are not. There will be a section a little later on truly vague weapons. For now, onto the meat and potatoes; the reason I felt this post was necessary at all. The Tyranny of the N-TEC I feel that this needs its own section because that is just how prominent it is. Earlier I mentioned that some weapons seem to deliberately contradict the aforementioned system of situational weapon niches and reactionary weapon swaps. This is the poster child of that supposition. The N-TEC (and its associated skins) is good at everything and downright absurdly great at what its really supposed to do -- which is mid-range combat. I have seen this weapon dominate at all ranges and completely eclipse basically every other weapon in its niche for years and years on end. While it certainly is not unbeatable, I do not think it is an overstatement to declare it the best weapon in the game. It is so solid in its hegemony that using a STAR, Vanguard, Misery, or even ATTAC (though those do sometimes crop up) seems like a willful downgrade. I would be comfortable placing bets that this weapon alone is the majority of players' "go-to" weapon and I generally expect to see 1-2 every time I get opposition. Although I unfortunately cannot prove these claims without a whole lot a data collected from a whole lot of screen shots as proof, I do not think any honest player would seriously argue how common the N-TEC is. To me, this overwhelming presence is indicative of a weapon that is too powerful and, by relation, kills gun diversity and the strategic design of the game. Not to mention, its free nature dissuades players from interacting with the ARMAS Marketplace (barring, perhaps, getting the Ursus N-TEC which is an even greater offender of everything mentioned prior). Specifically what is wrong with the N-TEC? I would say it is a jack-of-all-trades gone much too far. In a game that appears to value weapon niches (sometimes valuing them so much, in fact, the niches are too ambiguous to understand) the N-TEC is a viable if not the singular forerunner pick in almost every niche. To a lesser degree, but still a behemoth, the carbine (and its associated skins) does the exact same thing -- which is pretty much everything barring blowing up vehicles. Vague Weapons This is a section for weapons that just sit in very odd places. I mentioned a few of these before, but they still make me scratch my head. A weapon I like a lot, although using it is often an exercise in masochism, is the ISSR. It kills in 4 shots and does solid vehicle damage. Cool at first glance, but its rate of fire is far too slow to compete with basically anything at any range and more or less requires you to either ambush or cover-pop to survive any sustained gunfight. Moreover, its clip is too small to blow up almost any vehicle without needing to reload. This totally shoots the gun design in the foot because it tends to get vehicles down to their "burning" phase which cues the drivers to hop out -- meanwhile you are reloading while the opposition is abandoning ship. This is a fun weapon, but what, exactly, is it for? It seems to be an oddball, pale reflection of the jack-of-all-trades idea, but in this case does everything just up to the most crucial point, then peters out. The Agrotech and DMR-SD weapons are much the same. While the former can support better car-destroying weapons, the latter is just bizarre. It basically does the same thing as Obeya and OBIR, which are generally already secondary picks to the Scout and N-HVR. The N-ISSR series of sniper is very similar. Also everything from the Horseman line of weapons is weird except maybe the Curse which is not too bad (though basically boils down to being an OCA). The Strife was clearly meant to be the N-HVR of shotguns, but because you have to be right in someone's face to use it, you frequently die waiting to shoot one more time or while switching to a secondary. The Misery shoots slow and just gets mauled in any honest gunfight. And, frankly, I do not even remember the name of the sniper off hand. Probably Suffering because that is how it feels to use it. Acknowledging Skill Gaps & Gun Favoritism & Metagaming I absolutely recognize that skill goes a long way in defining weapons. Perhaps the most iconic demonstration of that in APB or otherwise, is close-quarters sniping; an instance in which overwhelming skill completely overrides a weapon's intended purpose. I also recognize that APB is a very, very strange beast. On average, there are very few "average" players. This means it can be difficult to gauge if designs are either fundamentally breaking down or, as with the sniper example, are simply being stretched to their absolute limits. While this skill gap poses another, separate problem, I still believe that if the game's internal logic for gun play is as I theorize -- a system of reactions to situations -- then that logic needs to be preserved in gun design. Not only should this system be clear (perhaps explicitly mentioned in the tutorial), but niches should be clear and understandable. Obviously, no one gun should rule over any one niche and certainly not over multiple niches. Without the formula for success being clearly defined, new players will only be further lost as they get picked off and, eventually, quit. This is a circumstance that would only serve to preserve the skill gap, not close it. Second, I realize some readers might think I am poo pooing their favorite weapon here. I am definitely poo pooing the N-TEC, but that aside, I use plenty of "off-brand" weapons. Its fine to have fun, but my point is that right now the "competitive" weapons make up a fairly insignificant slice of all that is available in the game. Additionally, some of the weapons I have mentioned are locked behind price tags. While trials are available, it often is not clear to particularly new players what a gun's niche is and whether or not it excels in it or even suits them as an individual over the course of these trials. I am not saying make everything free as APB is absolutely a business, but I am saying weapon niches need to be more clearly defined and, as much as possible, especially for ARMAS guns, people should feel the value of their purchase. The ISSR is a great example. I did a trial and then paid for the gun and still did not really know what I had until a good week of fiddling with it. In short, I am not trying to degrade how you play the game. Rather, I am simply advocating for clarifications, balances, and more viable player choice. Finally, metagaming is always going to happen. I mentioned in passing before that expecting every weapon in the game to be perfectly viable is ideal, but unrealistic. Players will always optimize for success in any game and therefore core weapons, strategies, and so on will arise. To presume otherwise would be naive. This said, I do not believe there is ever any harm in expanding a meta as much as possible. Our current "rock-paper-scissors" could be "rock-paper-scissors-shotgun" and even that could go on and on. Although I admit doing this in a game requires a delicate hand and attention to detail -- it is not as easy as just slapping on new stuff. Suggestions I know I have covered a broad sphere of topics in this post. Yet, I have not clearly suggested anything yet. I need to first say that I am not in the least a game developer, just a passionate player. I do not know or have all the right answers. However, my first suggestion would be making it explicitly clear what every weapon is supposed to do; in the tutorial, in the weapon descriptions, and certainly in ARMAS. Is it for killing people or destroying vehicles? What separates it from other weapons in its niche? Where should I use it? My second, and probably less reasonable suggestion, is a call for localized nerfs or near-universal buffs. I think at this point my ire for the N-TEC is starkly clear and it would be my first choice for re-balancing. Or, take a hard look at other assault rifles and try to make them more competitive. Though, naturally, these buffs would have to extend beyond just assault rifles. Make vague weapons less so (give the ISSR more shooting speed or a bigger clip; doing one or the other will really help define it as a weapon for killing people or ruining vehicles). There are so many ways to do this and all of them are very dependent on individual weapons. I would be happy to elaborate in the future, but this post is already a monster in size. Another option, although probably far too great an undertaking, would be to somehow integrate a new way to practically customize weapons. Conclusion Finally, I will just briefly reiterate my points. There seems to be an internal logic to combat that the game pushes: weapon swap in reaction to environments and opposing load outs/play styles (this logic can be somewhat overridden with skill, something APB is highly saturated with). Despite this system of reactions which relies on clear weapon niches, a very small portion of available weapons currently dominate their niches. Some, such as the N-TEC and Carbine, even are extremely viable in niches they are technically far removed from (particularly long and close ranges). My suggested solutions include better clarity in the ARMAS, on weapon descriptions, and in the tutorial as to this reactionary system and the niches of weapons. Further, my solutions include either specific, localized nerfs to weapons such as the N-TEC or broad buffs to currently less viable weapons. Additionally, vague weapons such as the ISSR or Strife could use tweaks to better make clear what their niche actually is. The specifics of these changes I opted not to suggest citing both my own inexperience as a game developer and that it would require another long post given each change would be on a case by case basis. Now I would like to thank any readers who have gotten to the end. I know it was probably a hassle, but I am passionate about the game and really want nothing other than for it to succeed. While much of my input is subjective, it is also based on extensive time across almost 7 years of APB. This is my honest take on one of the greatest issues with the game right now, comparable to the issue of the skill gap -- which, for the record, I believe to be the largest problem facing Little Orbit. If anyone from Little Orbit puts eyes on this post, I want to personally thank you for giving it the time. I recognize that what you all must have on the table right now is a tall order and by extension recognize that suggestions such as my own are probably logistical impossibilities at the moment. Regardless, I appreciate the time and effort. I am hopeful that Little Orbit can breath life into APB and claim a bit of the glory the game has always deserved.

We have just 2 type of account use, Premium and "Freemium". Why dont add ,maybe as loyalty reward a special new type? Like "Vip Client". When player reach an amount of loyalty points (with real g1c spent) player could reach the permanent status of "Vip Client". Nothing exagerate for dont ruin the Premium revenue, Just some symbolic benefits . for example allows: 9 symbols on car (+2) 4 symbols on dress (+1) 30 decals on symbol (+5) 10 Daily Mission Rewards avaivable. (+5) 1 Motorbike ok , this not, for now. I guess "Vip Account" Could be appreciated ,especially by artistic part of community. "Vip pass" could be also on market as an unique product, could cost less than a KeyOfCity but more than a precious permanent gun.

yeah, I think I've probably spent almost 2,000 usd if not more.. I feel like people who invested into their accounts shouldn't feel like they were ripped off by supporting the game before the new owners.. in time, no matter how much people have spent, there will be more to buy..

Completely agree with previous posters. ARMAS prices are all over the place. Overall the prices are way too high. Some bad weapons cost a fortune while some of the good ones are on the lower end. Many ARMAS pictures are also misleading, for example they are displaying wrong mods. LO should probably completely revamp all the prices so they would make sense instead of having the mess that we have right now. if I could get 2 or maybe by some chance even 3 account wide guns for 60 $ which you pay for a single one right now I would be happy.

In response to @Unclean I think people are going to feel cheated regardless. They do seem to want to adjust prices and overhaul Armas, so someone somewhere is bound to be pissed that they could’ve bought it for cheaper. I can’t count how many times I’ve bought a game and it’s gone on sale a few days after I bought it. But in terms of the micro transactions in this game, I think Little Orbit needs to research and have a real discussion about what microtransaction models make for a successful game and what’s worked for other games that were struggling and what is able to breathe life back into a game. I mean we can say to just do cosmetics but maybe that model doesn’t necessarily work in their favor financially. i personally don’t like that some weapons are behind a pay wall, would’ve rather bought something that gives me “free” access to those without Joker tickets or G1 credits. But again, its up to LO to figure this out and us to point them in the direction of things that have been proven to work.

This whole post is just one giant cringe. You realize the reason you're constantly losing and getting beat is because you're just not good at the game, right? Can we please stop coddling the bad players and actually force them to either get better or just suck it up? The ONLY solution is LO fixing the matchmaking into something better. Still isn't going to change the fact that some silvers are on the cusp of gold and MIGHT get it once or twice and then lose it. That doesn't mean they're dethreating, that means they aren't good enough to play higher-skilled golds. On the same spectrum, just because someone is completely and utterly destroying you as a silver, and you're silver, doesn't mean they're dethreating. I know a lot of the "Low threat" players are new, but APB has had (And still does) a threat system that goes from 1-10. A silver 1 is exponentially worse then a silver 9, but because we don't see that additional information anymore, we all assume "Silver" is a universal skill when it's simply not. As @xFera said, I've also played in Bronze against silvers and golds on alt accounts. I can tell you first hand, after playing over a hundred missions in the past few weeks that dethreating is literally a non-issue. The "Golds" you think are the top-tier end all/be all dethreating gods are so amazingly bad at the game, they only have that threat because of playing other incredibly bad players. What LO honestly needs to do is just do what the Console Version does and completely get rid of threat while fixing the matchmaking.

Taxes are 21% in Spain. Case KO (Character lifetime) : 41.36 EUR Case KO (Account lifetime) : 51.70 EUR Kinda stupid knowing that this is just a reskin, as many other guns in armas. Nevemind I just realized its about the in-game marketplace.

Currently the Growl "MAMBA" Kit is only available for purchase on one character at a time. All the other Growl kits offer an "Account Wide" purchase option. Since the Growl is a car that can be purchased account wide, it makes sense that the kits for it should be available account wide as well.

Either your steamlinked email (and account for that matter) is different either there must be something wrong with your account and I would advise contacting support and resolve the issue from there. But I just don't see how you could possibly have 2 accounts tied to the same email. Have you had an innova account before it merged with g1? Maybe the integration didn't completely pass through

Well you could still grind the achievements on every character and receive all G1C on the same account.

Yeah, thats why you create a smurf account and join em in bronze you silly billy.

...in which case, why even have different characters at all? You want players to be able to only progress through the game once and that's it. This scenario can (and will) result in multi-accounting. The distinction between threat levels should be reworked, not removed. In its current state, APB's threat system has been incredibly offset by dethreaters and the like. Right now, gold doesn't mean "one of the better players", but "anywhere between top and average". Separating players by their in-game rank (especially according to your proposed schematics) is a silly idea. There's no effective difference between a R197+ player and a R255 player when it comes to equipment choices, since all variantless mods (i.e. Clotting Agent has 3 variants, Fragile has no variants) are restricted to players above Rank 195. Even then, the variantless mods and equipment available in the R197+ endgame provides no straight advantage. As a matter of fact, one of the meta weapons is the N-TEC 7 with Hunting Sight 3 and Improved Rifling 3 - all components of this are available before R195.

Im playing since 2010 best character is gold threat R130. But i had a max rank character until my account got hacked and the character deleted. Thats why i want to have something like an account Rank (not the threat its useless) which is used for matchmaking. So I would weight more in matchmaking.

Quite alot of the hours i've spent on apb has been messing around flying on rooftops or jumping out of the map, driving on water etc etc. maybe when the player base gets better, you could add a playground district, where the out of bounds is off and maybe also remove or shorten the cooldown on abilities on that district. know quite alot of people that would enjoy such a feature.

How does it change anything if I bought weapons accountwide? If i merged accounts, I might get them on all of them then, so that would actually be "worse" They could always base it on account"value" as well though (somewhat over 70 weapons accwide + something over 10 legendaries here) merging accounts as a paid service would just be another source for money it would "punish" people for not buying character slots and creating the accounts instead if they now wanted to merge them and they'd need to pay (more), if they now want to have all chars together

Put new accounts into a newbie district (use green districts for this) up until rank 60 or 10 hours playing time on at least one character, and prevent all other players from accessing it. Also restrict green to new players and make it unattainable once silver was reached.

I used to have an account with the original APB from start 'till finish and I was part of the APB:R CBT, which I would say was the "golden era" of the game. (I lost my main account years ago because of an incident involving an adult video link being posted in DISTRICT and not in WHISPER). Personally speaking from what I've seen over the years. The only reason we won't see a resurgence in new players is because of the issue with one large threat level. That level being GOLD. Because GOLD players are unwilling to stay in the GOLD servers and contain themselves there, it is only suitable that the new development team "Little Orbit" moderate them by force and re-instate the THREAT-LOCK on servers. This will solve two main issues at once. GOLD servers being empty and the loss of a player base due to GOLD players seal-clubbing. If this isn't solved as soon as possible, by 2021 All Points Bulletin: Reloaded may be gone forever. By keeping the game open and (basically) refusing to balance said game, you will be unable to attract a new audience of players thanks to an uncaring community of those who wish to benefit for themselves. The few that do care for newcomers will be unable to keep those newcomers into the game for long if at all since those newcomers will constantly be seal-clubbed constantly by higher levels. One of the main things Little Orbit should do before they even start on an Engine Update is re-instate the District THREAT-LOCK.

So I'm gonna start this off with a quick response to people who think about using the "you can just buy it response" I do buy stuff on Armas i own multiple account perm guns and loads of other stuff. Now lets get started So currently when it comes to ways for people who cannot afford to buy guns on Armas is through Joker and the grind just to keep one of them weapons is really tough, along with this there are guns on Armas that you still cannot get on the Joker store or even obtain without buying a pack (looking at you revelations). So with this I would like to propose a way to handle introducing Armas weapons into game and making them easier to obtain. So my suggestion is that an attempt is made to eventually move all guns to be available through contacts on leases with Armas being mainly used to permanent buys and the joker store as a holding ground. So for example when a new gun releases on Armas it is at the same time released on the joker store, when it comes around to release a new contact LO can look at the guns in the Joker store and select the guns that have been there the longest and use them with new contacts. Doing it this way means that the guns are able to be accessed by almost every player on release and in time giving access to literally any player if someone enjoys the gun they are still going to go to Armas and purchase a permanent version but a player who wants to try it out can eventually go to a contact and purchase it without having to use their joker tickets or real money. APB needs more content and restricting guns to just Armas or just the Joker store can limit some players ability to use a gun they like, this could start with bringing some guns that are currently on the joker store now to the new contacts that are coming after 3.5. I personally believe giving players access to as much of the games content as possible is beneficial for APB looking into the future and I hope you agree. I'm not the best at putting these posts together so if you have any questions feel free to ask away -Explosion Edit: When i refer to the revelations pack i meant as a perm buy the only way to get the guns from it is through the pack which like come on we should be able to buy them guns separately!

I'd expect this to have to wait for 3.5, but, yes. Inventory/UI Related: The inventory desperately needs a sorting system, preferably by categories such as Newest first, Oldest first, or Alphabetical. Money and joker tickets should be account wide, people still transfer things between their characters the game just makes it as inconvenient as possible to do so. (excluding joker tickets, obv.) The inventory storage needs to be increased drastically, or account wide, preferably both. It's incredibly inconvenient having to spam the marketplace with my belongings to reorganize what i have in my inventory vs the mail. Same with having to log onto another character to mail stuff. When mailing weapons in particular, you should only see what you can mail, and none of the rest of the crap. District queue, and maybe a "Don't show me this again" for things like threat prompts. Customizable crosshairs Ability to change theme and symbol anywhere in the world Mission Related: Objective timers should be standardized across the board, as in all hacks have the same time, etc. You all know what i'm talking about when you get that one mission that has one hack or hijack that takes a millennia even with rank IV equipment for no reason. Misc/Balance Disabled collision for out of mission players during an opposed mission. Consumable ammoboxes should not let you change orange mods without resetting the cooldown as if you changed it normally. Options: Sprint toggle/hold binds. Crouch toggle/hold binds. Marksman/ADS toggle/hold binds

So I wanted to spend some time/energy/money into this game. However I'm a baby and can't use my own credit card blah blah blah, all I have is debit, and so I just can't spend money into this game, which for me (I wanna grind out all crim contacts) is a bit of a killer. I am legitimately thinking of getting premium, unfortunately I don't have the paying method. So I thought about LO linking pay methods through steam (If there aren't already, hence this might be a question and not a suggestion) with linked accounts. Any benefits for LO? Honestly not all that much I can think of, for me it's easier because I can put money into steam easily with pay safe cards :v This might be the case for more people so maybe, just maybe LO could get a nice profit out of it. Yes I am aware of additional charges, which I'd be willing to pay for LO.

Don't know ... maybe because I created account way before it came to steam ... or even to G1. Or I don't want to link it ...

You shouldn't even have google connected to things. If possible all your accounts should be separate entities.

You are online security aware but find long secure passwords an inconvenience...? Sorry but there are player are underage and probably have siblings who also play, and I'm 100% certain that if passwords could be saved then it's going to throw up complications with people playing on other's account. I can be cynical but I don't think anyone can say "no, this categorically won't happen". While more scams, hacking and account theft could happen and it wouldn't be my problem. I know it would be more tickets to customer support and possibly more unnecessary forum posts asking for help. If you want convenience then you have Steam account linking. Sorry but security and convenience just do not go hand in hand in most aspects of life.

No. I have accounts on all servers they are totally different in game content things be like ?

That would be the "out of bounds" thread where we already suggested that out of missions we be allowed to do this again like we used to.