Matchmaking and threat issue

[Bowie 3]

We all know that  matchmaking  is terrible in this game for now until the new engine will come but for now due to low population

I think it should be good if  GMs or someone that will have the   abilities  to move  players Manually to the right district for them

also the ability to let players call for a GM    that will be in F10  and it will give Notifications  for   any online GMs  in the game

 

The GM  could  see  in the current district  that he has joined in   player's name rank  threat  if he is inside a group or not  and who is inside the group

if they are all silvers they should be on silver district same as the other threat  

if the group is  mixed with different threats the group  will be   on the district  which belong  to the highest  threat that in the group 

if the highest threat is gold and the rest of the group are bronze  they could be only in  gold district 

 

the reason why  it should be   to call a GM could be good idea against  cheaters  and dethreat users

when you call a GM you will need to write on the  description  the problem  

Edited July 12, 2019 by Bowie

[VickyFox 353]

How many GMs there are and what times zones they're in...

 

How many GMs have you seen in this year? Give yourself a cookie if you seen a GM more than once a month!

[Bowie 3]

1 hour ago, VickyFox said:

How many GMs there are and what times zones they're in...

 

How many GMs have you seen in this year? Give yourself a cookie if you seen a GM more than once a month!

 

ask the GMs for your questions...

the only thing I can say about for what do we need GMs if they are maybe talking too much in social  if they are online instead of trying to help new players to enjoy the game

how can we keep new players if  toxic old players just destroy them? and the rest of the community  doesn't care about  low population

 

 

as a community we  can  help to keep new players  for short time and easily  but with Little Orbit  we can do it  in a much better way and for that we will have to wait

 it looks like that the community doesn't  care about to keep new players in the game

by the way there is no need for toxic comments  its  so  unnecessary

 

 

[VickyFox 353]

I apologise for coming across negatively but there is a few layers to this suggestion that need to be addressed:

It must be about 50 times this year i've seen suggestions of have threat level segregation, I am against it because GamersFirst introduced a soft segragation in restricting threat to district equal or 1 threat level below. This meant gold players could not join a bronze district, this is when Dethreating became a problem and people actively tried to circumnavigate the the soft threat lock.

A harder threat lock I think is just going to be more of an incentive for people to dethreat rather than a deterrence.

 

Bare in mind with population numbers where they are at, forcing a hard threat lock would divide district numbers by 2 thirds!

 

My personal believe is that while practice makes perfect, One doesn't become better unless they try to do better.

In real life I have had 10 years Emergency Response and First Aid experience, but those years of practising and actively doing it doesn't make anything more than what I've practised. I am brilliant in the First Aid I do but that doesn't make a Paramedic or Doctor!

You can practice being bronze and silver, but that won't make you gold if you don't try to go against harder opponents. Some lessons are best learnt the hard way, sometimes a hammer is just simply the best (or only) tool for the job, but not always.

 

Regrettable Little Orbit is a small team and while they are working hard, It is at Staff's digression on how many GMs they would like and how much responsibility they should have.

Being a mod can be a demanding role but to have a good coverage throughout the day would require a dedicated team and it would be a very demanding role to try and keep as many players to their districts as possible. bare in mind people log in constantly.

This is something which i think is unfair of an expectation on GMs when automated systems could do this, there is better things they could be doing with their time. The flip side of the coin is the GMs are busy while new players are left not sure how to play APB and all the experienced plays who may be willing to offer advice and guidance (including me) to new player are forced out of district

 

It is very much a chicken and egg situation where the game needs fixing with the engine and coding, the matchmaking system and threat system needs a rework, But before all that the total population is probably going to crash but who is going to want join and play a game that needs is nearly 10 years old and needs repairs.

What comes first? The critical repairs needed to help create new in game content and features as well as encouraging new player to try APB as it doesn't seem as outdated, OR focus more efforts on encouraging new players stay while also trying to stem the haemorrhaging population numbers because the game needs repairs, has looks which makes PlayStation 3s look good and runs like an Xbox 360 at the best of times.

It's nearly 2020, this isn't good enough by modern gaming standard.

 

If new players are not going to leave because of the Matchmaking then I suspect then we got to consider if they would want to stay for the gameplay when they could pay for GTA V and play GTA Online?

I am coming across pessimistic but APB:Reloaded is really on the back foot and it has been for a few years as GamersFirst were slow to react to new technologies coming out, new games acting as competition, and changing industry and consumer trends.

 

Those are my personal opinions and while one tries not to be pessimistic, It does get a bit tedious hearing the same suggestions that may not consider wider aspects, implication of root causes of the problem.

 

 

 

 

 

TL;DR:

I use the analogy of trying to increase water pressure in a broken fire hose to help fight a fire but you're just wasting time and resources when it could be quicker to just do the repairs needed, and the results from the repairs have a more effective.

 

GM's time shouldn't be used trying to keep people to their threats when the game should be able to do that anyway, GMs who are busy and with experienced players now taken moved on leaves new players on their own to learn everything with little to no advice or help except what the game provides.

 

Matchmaking system and Threat algorithm needs updating and threat segregation is the main reason why dethreating became a actual problem, It did happen before then but it didn't matter and people did it just to troll. But now it's mainstream to if you want to play and are gold.  I'd suggest reserve the soft threat lock and give an actual incentive for people to play in the district under their own volition.

 

Forcing players to play in their threat districts will significantly drop bronze and silver district numbers when they are already low!

 

 

 

...I've been typing away for probably 45, 50 minute or maybe an hour. I honestly lost track of time and yeah probably is more I could say...

 

...Yeah we've heard a lot of suggestions on how to address Threat levels, Matchmaking, New players feeling overwhelmed, Game updates.

It's a lot to factor in and a lot needs to be done, but locking people to districts with their threat level is a sticking plaster of a fix. It  won't last a week before people find a way to get around it and everything returns to the way it was before or actually may actually make things worse!

 

 

What I can say for a fact though is yeah the community can be toxic. But this DOES NOT mean that they do not care, or are not concerned about the low population numbers.

Edited July 13, 2019 by VickyFox

[Bowie 3]

9 minutes ago, VickyFox said:

I apologise for coming across negatively but there is a few layers to this suggestion that need to be addressed:

It must be about 50 times this year i've seen suggestions of have threat level segregation, I am against it because GamersFirst introduced a soft segragation in restricting threat to district equal or 1 threat level below. This meant gold players could not join a bronze district, this is when Dethreating became a problem and people actively tried to circumnavigate the the soft threat lock.

A harder threat lock I think is just going to be more of an incentive for people to dethreat rather than a deterrence.

 

Bare in mind with population numbers where they are at, forcing a hard threat lock would divide district numbers by 2 thirds!

 

My personal believe is that while practice makes perfect, One doesn't become better unless they try to do better.

In real life I have had 10 years Emergency Response and First Aid experience, but those years of practising and actively doing it doesn't make anything more than what I've practised. I am brilliant in the First Aid I do but that doesn't make a Paramedic or Doctor!

You can practice being bronze and silver but that won'y make you gold if you don't try to go against harder opponents. Some lessons are best learnt the hard way, sometimes a hammer is just simply the best or only tool for the job, but not always.

 

Regrettable Little Orbit is a small team and while they are working hard, It is at Staff's digression on how many GMs they would like and how much responsibility they should have.

Being a mod can be a demanding role but to have a good coverage throughout the day would require a dedicated team and it would be a very demanding role to try and keep as many players to their districts as possible. bare in mind people log in constantly.

This is something which i think is unfair of an expectation on GMs when automated systems could do this, there is better things they could be doing with their time. The flip side of the coin is the GMs are busy while new players are left not sure how to play APB and all the experienced plays who may be willing to offer advice and guidance (including me) to new player are forced out of district

 

It is very much a chicken and egg situation where the game needs fixing with the engine and coding, the matchmaking system and threat system needs a rework, But before all that the total population is probably going to crash but who is going to want join and play a game that needs is nearly 10 years old and needs repairs.

What comes first? The critical repairs needed to help create new in game content and features as well as encouraging new player to try APB as it doesn't seem as outdated, OR focus more efforts on encouraging new players stay while also trying to stem the haemorrhaging population numbers because the game needs repairs, has looks which makes PlayStation 3s look good and runs like an Xbox 360 at the best of times.

It's nearly 2020, this isn't good enough by modern gaming standard.

 

If new players are not going to leave because of the Matchmaking then I suspect then we got to consider if they would want to stay for the gameplay when they could pay for GTA V and play GTA Online?

I am coming across pessimistic but APB:Reloaded is really on the back foot and it has been for a few years as GamersFirst were slow to react to new technologies coming out, new games acting as competition, and changing industry and consumer trends.

 

Those are my personal opinions and while one tries not to be pessimistic, It does get a bit tedious hearing the same suggestions that may not consider wider aspects, implication of root causes of the problem.

 

What I can say for a fact though is yeah the community can be toxic. But this DOES NOT mean that they do not care, or are not concerned about the low population numbers.

 

 

 

TL;DR:

I use the analogy of trying to increase water pressure in a broken fire hose to help fight a fire but you're just wasting time and resources when it could be quicker to just do the repairs needed, and the results from the repairs have a more effective.

 

GM's time shouldn't be used trying to keep people to their threats when the game should be able to do that anyway, GMs who are busy and with experienced players now taken moved on leaves new players on their own to learn everything with little to no advice or help except what the game provides.

 

Matchmaking system and Threat algorithm needs updating and threat segregation is the main reason why dethreating became a actual problem, It did happen before then but it didn't matter and people did it just to troll. But now it's mainstream to if you want to play and are gold.  I'd suggest reserve the soft threat lock and give an actual incentive for people to play in the district under their own volition.

 

Forcing players to play in their threat districts will significantly drop bronze and silver district numbers when they are already low!

 

 

 

 

...I've been typing away for probably 45, 50 minute or maybe an hour. I honestly lost track of time and yeah probably is more I could say...

 

...Yeah we've heard a lot of suggestions on how to address Threat levels, Matchmaking, New players feeling overwhelmed, Game updates.

It's a lot to factor in and a lot needs to be done, but locking people to districts with their threat level is a sticking plaster of a fix. It  won't last a week before people find a way to get around it and everything returns to the way it was before or actually may actually make things worse!

 

I didn't mention that it will lock threats to their own district.  This suggestion will be temporary until the engine arrives,  my intention was mainly as I said for the new players.

GMs will bring all the bronze, green and  T players that they will find from other districts to a green district.  I think one GM is enough for switch from district to district and try to bring new players to the green district instead of that I believe most of the time GMs are in social so for what there is a need for GMs?

 

the reason why there are bronze and green players it's only because they got a very bad PC otherwise they will be silvers.  the main problem with the bronze district is because many max levels around so they cant practice against their own level.

 

You know we can also do that as community, by creating a new account, invite  them to your own group as leader and just join as team to the green district  and for then we need  one player in each faction at least and I would like to do that for the new players but alone it's impossible.

 

 

I believe Most of the new players thinks this game is P2W because of the armas guns that they are getting killed by them, but it's because of the mods and weapons with slots. 

I would say in numbers this game is like P2W 30%   and 70%  because of the skills of a veteran player.

 

 

the way  I see toxicity is because when someone writes a negative comment and his comment will be unexplained,  like you did in your first comment but after that you comment me a nice interesting comment that I can write for you back another comment.

[VickyFox 353]

43 minutes ago, Bowie said:

the reason why there are bronze and green players it's only because they got a very bad PC otherwise they will be silvers.

Personally my computer has a Intel Cor 2 Quad (Q9550) a CPU from 2007, And a EVGA Geforce GTX 760 from 2013/14

...A bit of a tangent but actually due to Unreal Engine 3.0 Multi core CPU are not utilised properly, Matt Scott has said this is the primary reasons why more high end computer are actually running worse than older computers. The reason for this is Unreal Engine 3.0 take and runs on a single core (ideally the strongest).

So when people have 8, 16 or even 32 cores in their CPU. The game will only use 1!

 

Can you imagine playing APB for years and yet after spending over $2500 for a new high end computer and some kid is having a better experience playing APB on his mom's laptop!

 

I will agree that a there is a lot of veteran players who just go to bronze to use new players as practice, to troll, or just because they want to be lazy with an easy game and easy opponents.

 

43 minutes ago, Bowie said:

You know we can also do that as community, by creating a new account, invite  them to your own group as leader and just join as team to the green district  and for then we need  one player in each faction at least and I would like to do that for the new players but alone it's impossible.

It is really sad if veteran players who are willing to offer support need to have to make a new account to give advice, feedback and mentor new players. If this was for the odd friend then yeah I can see that happening.

But who is really going to take advice or feedback from a new account with green threat level, claiming to be a veteran player?

 

Also this is one way that people can bypass the threat system and GM may not be able to tell if this is genuinely a new player that is very good with shooters, or if it is a veteran player playing on a alternative account.

 

43 minutes ago, Bowie said:

I believe Most of the new players thinks this game is P2W because of the armas guns that they are getting killed by them, but it's because of the mods and weapons with slots. 

I would say in numbers this game is like P2W 30%   and 70%  because of the skills of a veteran player.

This is very good observation which I agree with.

There is a perception that APB is Pay to win with guns from armas, that and the perception of there being a high amount of cheaters (due lack of awareness of dethreating).

 

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, Bowie said:

the way  I see toxicity is because when someone writes a negative comment and his comment will be unexplained,  like you did in your first comment but after that you comment me a nice interesting comment that I can write for you back another comment.

I've tried to be polite as I can be but now is the time for me to be brutally honest and truthful to myself.

 

It is absolutely nothing personal and i'm not upset at all but just trying to make people aware that fixing APB in the community, trying to prioritise problems and keep everything in prospective is tiring and painful... and not just this year, The Engine Upgrade has been talked about since 2013 and we're still waiting for the single biggest fix to a majority of APB's technical issues.

 

After reading very similar suggestions for what feels like the 100th this year, you write a short reply trying to raise awareness of the same issues and outstanding problems which are much wider, and complex than the simple solution that was suggested.

 

You do get pissed off at the same sh-t!

This is why I'm not a mod, or working in customer service.

I'm really sorry!

 

@cyral will confirm my stance and probably get a laugh out of me reacting like this.

Edited July 13, 2019 by VickyFox

[Bowie 3]

 

19 minutes ago, VickyFox said:

Personally my computer has a Intel Cor 2 Quad (Q9550) a CPU from 2007, And a EVGA Geforce GTX 760 from 2013/14

...A bit of a tangent but actually due to Unreal Engine 3.0 Multi core CPU are not utilised properly, Matt Scott has said this is the primary reasons why more high end computer are actually running worse than older computers. The reason for this is Unreal Engine 3.0 take and runs on a single core (ideally the strongest).

So when people have 8, 16 or even 32 cores in their CPU. The game will only use 1!

 

Can you imagine playing APB for years and yet after spending over $2500 for a new high end computer and some kid is having a better experience playing APB on his mom's laptop!

 

I will agree that a there is a lot of veteran players who just go to bronze to use new players as practice, to troll, or just because they want to be lazy with an easy game and easy opponents.

 

It is really sad if veteran players who are willing to offer support need to have to make a new account to give advice, feedback and mentor new players. If this was for the odd friend then yeah I can see that happening.

But who is really going to take advice or feedback from a new account with green threat level, claiming to be a veteran player?

 

Also this is one way that people can bypass the threat system and GM may not be able to tell if this is genuinely a new player that is very good with shooters, or if it is a veteran player playing on a alternative account.

 

This is very good observation which I agree with.

There is a perception that APB is Pay to win with guns from armas, that and the perception of there being a high amount of cheaters (due lack of awareness of dethreating).

 

 

 

 

I've tried to be polite as I can be but now is the time for me to be brutally honest and truthful to myself.

 

It is absolutely nothing personal and i'm not upset at all but just trying to make people aware that fixing APB in the community, trying to prioritise problems and keep everything in prospective is tiring and painful... and not just this year, The Engine Upgrade has been talked about since 2013 and we're still waiting for the single biggest fix to a majority of APB's technical issues.

 

After reading very similar suggestions for what feels like the 100th this year, you write a short reply trying to raise awareness of the same issues and outstanding problems which are much wider, and complex than the simple solution that was suggested.

 

You do get pissed off at the same sh-t!

This is why I'm not a mod, or working in customer service.

I'm really sorry!

it doesn't really  matter what is inside the pc   the point  is and I will give an example about me

i had a shit pc from 2007 in 2013 I played this game   until level 70-80  and i was  a bronze player and  i quit

i start to play again in a new character after a year  with a better pc  with 60+ fps  and I was a silver and i dont remember me was  a bronze  player with  a newer pc

 

Now and again you said  things that I never said before I didn't say that  veteran should be a mentor for the new players that is what GMs need to be if we starting to talk about that

but I said  even without the GMs we can bring them all to green district   with   the join as team  ability when you are a leader of the group  and you know what is funny most  of them new players doesnt know english  i just add them to friends and invite them to group and simple join as team to the green district but they gone when on the other side there are no  players who ready and the mission can not start

 

 

[cyral 25]

@VickyFox, thank you, I really did get that laugh and i needed it..

And i do happen to agree on the P2W, that's crap... The ARMAS Guns are just reskins of the contact 1s that you do not need an advanced Rank to purchase and use...

Anyway on to another out of the box idea..

Lets get rid of the color separation now

Lets go ahead and merge Jericho back to 1 Super District that it was at 1 time...

The Open Conflict Districts, if I remember right, could hold right at 100 cops and crims each.

1st of all we all know that APB is primary a SHOOTER Game and nothing else..... the objectives are just a reason 2 get people to shoot each other...

Now onto the dreaded Miss Match Making;)

Instead of your color threat being used lets use a players k/d ratio as a baseline for opponents..

For example A. Jonny on ave. gets 10 kills an hr in and dies 4 times regardless of how many missions he does. Thats a 2.5/1 ratio at the moment...this is on ave of say 100 hrs of gameplay...

B. Jimmy in the same 100 hrs gets 2 kills and dies 15 times... thats a 0/.1333334 ave..

in any other game but APB these 2 would never be opponents..

C. now lets say Suzie pops up and can do 12 kills and 3 deaths per hr... thats 4/1 ratio and that would be a good fair match for Jonny with a+/- 30% of Jonnys orgininal  K/D ratio...

But we all know this is too much for the Design Teams of APB's past 2 handle...

So lets go ahead and Kill Jericho off altogether and merge w/ Citidal 

lets face it 2/3rds of the current population  on Jericho are re-rolls anyways...or Multi-accounters looking for that EZ Bronze farm district that they always are allowed to terrorize to the point any true new player uninstalls within an hour of character creation...  

[Bowie 3]

15 hours ago, cyral said:

@VickyFox, thank you, I really did get that laugh and i needed it..

And i do happen to agree on the P2W, that's crap... The ARMAS Guns are just reskins of the contact 1s that you do not need an advanced Rank to purchase and use...

Anyway on to another out of the box idea..

Lets get rid of the color separation now

Lets go ahead and merge Jericho back to 1 Super District that it was at 1 time...

The Open Conflict Districts, if I remember right, could hold right at 100 cops and crims each.

1st of all we all know that APB is primary a SHOOTER Game and nothing else..... the objectives are just a reason 2 get people to shoot each other...

Now onto the dreaded Miss Match Making;)

Instead of your color threat being used lets use a players k/d ratio as a baseline for opponents..

For example A. Jonny on ave. gets 10 kills an hr in and dies 4 times regardless of how many missions he does. Thats a 2.5/1 ratio at the moment...this is on ave of say 100 hrs of gameplay...

B. Jimmy in the same 100 hrs gets 2 kills and dies 15 times... thats a 0/.1333334 ave..

in any other game but APB these 2 would never be opponents..

C. now lets say Suzie pops up and can do 12 kills and 3 deaths per hr... thats 4/1 ratio and that would be a good fair match for Jonny with a+/- 30% of Jonnys orgininal  K/D ratio...

But we all know this is too much for the Design Teams of APB's past 2 handle...

So lets go ahead and Kill Jericho off altogether and merge w/ Citidal 

lets face it 2/3rds of the current population  on Jericho are re-rolls anyways...or Multi-accounters looking for that EZ Bronze farm district that they always are allowed to terrorize to the point any true new player uninstalls within an hour of character creation...  

 

My suggestion is for until the new engine will come but, it's not that effective but it's better than nothing.