Bronze district should be ashamed of itself, and why in god's name is LO doing nothing about it?

[CookiePuss 5373]

So I recently got some friends to try APB. I'm a gold player so I was not able to help them learn the game. Within 2 weeks every person I persuaded to try APB had uninstalled. Every single one had the same complaint, "How am I supposed to learn the game playing against nothing but fully kitted out Vets?". This is a complain we hear often, and normally its one I just shrug off and ignore as a sort of "add it to the pile" type complaint. But these friends of mine were all very competent gamers, and all are very experienced with shooters, so I thought to myself, "Is it really that bad?". Well today I made a smurf account and decided to find out.

 

 

Bronze district should be ashamed of itself...

The first and most obvious thing I noticed was the VAST number of players who had absolutely no business in the beginner district. That's right, bronze is the beginner district. If you start playing APB, the only district where you can learn the game is bronze. And yet, every match was stocked with players who have hundreds if not thousands of hours in game just stomping on new players. Using all the r195+ mods, rocking legendaries, and just going fucking HAM on any noob they find. These are the players killing the game, the ones who have done more damage than hackers, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. Just like us, they know they don't belong there, but since there are apparently no consequences to doing so, I guess I cant really blame them solely.

 

 

Why in god's name is LO doing nothing about it?

Just as common as the player who has no business being in bronze seemed to be the dethreater. Nearly every single match I played had at least one player dethreating. Just getting one kill, and feeding their opp. Getting one kill and unequipping all weapons. Chatting in /d about dethreating.... admitting to it openly. Dethreating is not the exception in bronze district, but rather the rule. Players dethreat as if its a normal part of the game and for some reason Little Orbit does nothing about it. At this point we've had well over a thousand players apply for GM positions, and yet, you never see them online and even if you do, they don't even seem to have the authority to do anything about dethreaters... Not even a kick for players openly admitting to doing so.

 

This all occurred during roughly a 4 hour (FBW only to make it more fair) play session on this smurf account. I have to say I was appalled. I cant imagine there is any new player retention at this point. This has been an obvious problem for years now, long before LO took over, and yet to this day nothing is done about it. Its depressing really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tl;dr   APB has no place for new players because neither the player base nor LO will let them have one.

[Darkzero3802 606]

This has been going on for years, well before LO took over. Ive brought it up, others have brought it up and all we got was the report function to report dethreaters and a tos stating dethreting isnt allowed. A big help that does when the tos was never followed to begin with and theres no enforcement by the GMs on this or any other rule within it.  Just like when G1 ran APB the GMs are a joke, moreso now then ever given that they cant even ban anyone.

 

TLDR: Add it to the pile of problems that have been ignored for yrs.

[gordIsMyName 104]

amen to all of that that cookie said.

 

and you just can't get it until you experience it for yourself. it's painful. it's ridiculous. and it's impossible to like this game as a new player unless you REALLY like abuse and wanna play it. i don't like it and i have a few thousand hours invested.

 

to say it's "not fixable" is not an answer. nor is the cheating situation. it just isn't acceptable. we need to do better...

[Rolpack 99]

arent you 5 years late to the party? its been like this since forever lol

[PitterPatter 139]

I skimmed so sorry if I missed the point, but I've been saying this for years. Just because you're trash at the game it doesnt mean you should be playing against low rating players.

 

The mentality and excuses made for "YoUr LeVeL DoEsNt MeAn SkiLl" is what killed this game. Level doesnt directly mean how skilled you are, but it does have something to do with the amount of advantages you have against new players whether its map/gun knowledge, hidden interactions like the jump kicking doors or just straight up having more gear. 

 

Also this community is what killed the game. Refusing to fight people your level and above all the while driving newer players to quit because you get your jollies off stomping them.  If you are a 255 bronze/green or even silver and do nothing but farm bronze district you are a cancer to the game. I dont care if golds are too pro for you. You sucking isnt an excuse to bully new players. 

 

This game will never pick back up if you let these scrublord bronze/silver veterans farm new players. 

[Fortune Runner 796]

THIS IS WHY I HOPE PHASING GETS INTRODUCED ASAP

55 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

tl;dr   APB has no place for new players because neither the player base nor LO will let them have one.

if your friends decide to come back ill go to gold district to play with you guys

we can just have a bar brawl then

[Ohshii 215]

Cmon now. The gold players or even silvers in bronze district issue goes a lot deeper than what you're presenting here. I mean with all due respect, leaving Bronze players to themselves makes them mid/high rank with a bronze level skillset, aka they will be bronze literally forever unless they go really far out of their way to actually improve. The fact that the game allows bronze players to have their sandbox to hide in all the way to max rank is absolutely ridiculous, absurd, and 100% counter productive. It's so stupid that silver and gold players have long since caught on to this stupidity and have spent years exploiting it because literally, why the fuck not?? It's the exact same reason why Gold players go to Silver districts. So getting mad at the players for playing the game, for literally using the tools given to them instead of getting mad at the actual mechanics of this game is the real problem here.

 

The entire system is ridiculous and should've been changed back in 2007. There are a lot of other shooting games out there who allow new players to have their own districts, but they kick you out at a certain rank, forcing you to either commit to getting better vs better teams or get rolled forever until you quit.

 

Games like this will NEVER cater to the casual playerbase. You put in work, you get work. Period. Veteran players who have put in years of work will almost always beat up new players and veteran players who live in bronze district will also never beat or be as good as top tier players because at some point in their APB career they decided to consciously settle at being bottom tier and spending their free-time beating up new players, giving up/AFKing/Hackusating vs veterans and acting important in social district even though no one's ever heard of them because they just live in bronze district. It's the game's fault this mentality even exists in the first place. Facts.

 

Like it or not, there's no middle ground. There's no quick fix. This game does not and will not ever cater to new players. There are far too many factors new players must learn, from cars, to guns, to mods, map locations, solo tactics, team tactics, etc. The list is literally long as actual fsck. This isnt Halo or CSGO; you cant just get the generic FOTM gun and beat up everyone. It's not all about your individual aim. Look at former pro shooter gamers who stream on twitch who came to APB. While their aim is god tier, they got 100% bodybagged by silvers and 10000% decimated by golds. There's more to the game than making your gun go bang bang. And most people who try the game, get destroyed and quit, will never understand that because they can't see past themselves to literally grasp that concept.  And because of that, it's pretty safe to say, they don't have what it takes to be top tier in APB. 

 

But then again, most people who play this game don't, hence why there are so many cheaters.

 

And that's the way the cookie crumbles in the land of APB.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hexerin 1140]

I mean, one of the first things @MattScott stated when Little Orbit took over the game (in explicitly clear terms directly at this specific issue) was that they have absolutely no intention whatsoever to do anything about this. He fully expects that once the whole district phasing for matchmaking thing is implemented (which won't be coming for several years at the rate they're taking with the engine upgrade), that this issue will magically fix itself and that everyone will just stop abusing the system.

[CookiePuss 5373]

4 minutes ago, Hexerin said:

I mean, one of the first things @MattScott stated when Little Orbit took over the game (in explicitly clear terms directly at this specific issue) was that they have absolutely no intention whatsoever to do anything about this. 

Can I get a source on this?

Because I do not think you are correct. 

[ShadowXS 130]

1 hour ago, CookiePuss said:

So I recently got some friends to try APB.

Shame on you for being a bad friend. 

[Ohshii 215]

Lol you dont need a source. If LO was gonna do something about it they'd of done so already. While it may be on the list to fix in the future, it's not gonna happen anytime soon so get cozy. They're busy making new game modes for APB that absolutely no one asked for.

 

So til the engine upgrade happens at the very least, it's pretty obvious that nothing is going to change. So get used to it, or convince your friends who ragequit to come back and push through the learning curve like the rest of us did already.

 

PS: Downvoting the truth doesnt change the fact that it's still the truth sir. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news lol.

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Ohshii

[CookiePuss 5373]

1 minute ago, Ohshii said:

Lol you dont need a source. 

What? 

So he didn't say it?

[Darkzero3802 606]

51 minutes ago, Rolpack said:

arent you 5 years late to the party? its been like this since forever lol

Not only late they been blowing it off for 5yrs as not an problem rofl. Funny how its suddenly a problem when it applies directly to them.

[CookiePuss 5373]

2 minutes ago, Darkzero3802 said:

Not only late they been blowing it off for 5yrs as not an problem rofl. Funny how its suddenly a problem when it applies directly to them.

It's a problem for anyone trying to get into APB. 

 

Bottom line, if you ever play in bronze district and you aren't new, you are a piece of shit. 

[Iosono 44]

Ya know, I find this thread odd coming from you.

its just the current state of the game.

yea, generally I feel disgusting in bronze district... but when I need to level a contact and/or that’s the only district with players... what am I to do?

id like to note that I have never dethreated once. Sometimes I’m good and sometimes I’m trash, so, I’ll end up being silver.

without the population, sometimes were left with little choice.

and of course the issue of being fully geared out the higher your rank is just...asinine.

the game is geared to make new players miserable.

we all know that 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Iosono

[CookiePuss 5373]

2 minutes ago, Iosono said:

~snip~ 

 

 

How does it escape players that silver is only empty because of everyone dethreating to play in bronze?

 

That matches are lopsided in silver for the same reason?

 

Dethreating has literally been killing APB for years, we can't keep pretending it is in any way ok.

 

 

[Alani 475]

58 minutes ago, Signarly said:

I skimmed so sorry if I missed the point, but I've been saying this for years. Just because you're trash at the game it doesnt mean you should be playing against low rating players.

 

The mentality and excuses made for "YoUr LeVeL DoEsNt MeAn SkiLl" is what killed this game. Level doesnt directly mean how skilled you are, but it does have something to do with the amount of advantages you have against new players whether its map/gun knowledge, hidden interactions like the jump kicking doors or just straight up having more gear. 

 

Also this community is what killed the game. Refusing to fight people your level and above all the while driving newer players to quit because you get your jollies off stomping them.  If you are a 255 bronze/green or even silver and do nothing but farm bronze district you are a cancer to the game. I dont care if golds are too pro for you. You sucking isnt an excuse to bully new players. 

 

This game will never pick back up if you let these scrublord bronze/silver veterans farm new players. 

majority of those people who say 'your level doesnt mean skill' are the people who are silver and play in bronze until they hit gold, stay in there as long as possible, leave game. Come back, go into silver district and either 

 

a. Play until they get silver again

 

b. Dethreat until they're silver again

 

c. think they're hot shit for being gold, cry about losing a lot and use b.

 

Then go back to bronze district to kill.

[Iosono 44]

Just now, CookiePuss said:

How does it escape players that silver is only empty because of everyone dethreating to play in bronze?

 

That matches are lopsided in silver for the same reason?

 

Dethreating has literally been killing APB for years, we can't keep pretending it is in any way ok.

 

 

Touché

[Ohshii 215]

6 minutes ago, CookiePuss said:

How does it escape players that silver is only empty because of everyone dethreating to play in bronze?

 

That matches are lopsided in silver for the same reason?

 

Dethreating has literally been killing APB for years, we can't keep pretending it is in any way ok.

 

 

 

 

I agree dethreating is a trashcan move and that it ruins the game. However, what I said earlier is still the truth. It's the system that is the issue.

 

Missions arent and never will be balanced. Matchmaking will never be balanced. And as long as whoever is in charge of APB does nothing to force bronze players out of bronze districts at some point in order to actually experience the game properly, people will do whatever they can to stay in their safe space bronze district sandbox to hide from the majority.

 

Just the way it is. I dont like it as much as you do; so down vote me some more please it changes nothing lol

 

[Delete884943468320878423 172]

Community of hypocrite trolls, that pretend to be gentlemen on forums, but ingame are all kinds of fine scum.

[CookiePuss 5373]

6 minutes ago, Ohshii said:

 as long as whoever is in charge of APB does nothing ... people will do whatever they can to stay in their safe space bronze district sandbox 

#hardfacts

[Ohshii 215]

"To hide from the majority."

 

If youre gonna quote me please quote my entire statement. There's not a single rank 125+ bronze player who purposely stays out of gold/silver district for any reason other than to avoid playing them. They will word it however they want, some will go really far out of their way to deny the fact, but at the end of the day it's the truth.

 

I mean look at it like this; in their kingdom of sand they are the kings and queens. But outside that oh-so-familiar sandbox, they are just peasants. So what's the point of leaving the sandbox?

 

I dont blame a single player who plays Bronze district full time even if they are silver or even super low tier gold. I don't. It's not their fault they opt to stay in their comfort zone vs putting on the big kid pants and trying their asses off in a game that is super low population and full of super good veterans and cheaters who want to beat super good veterans. Theyre just gonna get caught in the crossfire and end up hackusating everybody they play against because they literally cannot tell the difference from the top tier vs cheaters. I dont blame them one bit for staying in bronze. Yes, it's a bad look. Yes, I agree they shouldnt be there or allowed to be in there. However, it's the game that allows it to happen, not the players.

 

Place the blame where it belongs. RTW glorified noob stomping. I loved doing 4v8-12 missions in RTW and pubstomping everything. It was absolutely stupid af but it was hilarious. G1 fixed that only because having that many people in a single mission made their miserable servers shit the bed. And now that LO owns the game, they have so far shown they care about making Armas guns and game modes that no one asked for, while giving us the infamous SoonTM speech about content that we've all been waiting for, for damn near a decade at this point.

 

There are literally players in this game who played this game when they was a kid and now they have graduated college and have careers. There's adults who played this game in college and are now married with children, holding master degrees. I had hopes LO would make huge changes to the things that made the game hemorrhage players such as dethreating, but I mean all I see is new armas guns and game modes that literally mean nothing to me as a regular player, all the while, so many bad aspects of the game that made the game lose players during RTW and G1's reigns are very much still here.

[CookiePuss 5373]

1 minute ago, Ohshii said:

~snip~

Sorry, it's just you are all over the place, often contradicting yourself. It's hard to understand what your actual position is. 

[NotTheEnforcer 222]

This has been I problem since before I even started playing APB. With the rate LO is taking to do the engine upgrade, I can't imagine this being addressed anywhere in the next YEAR at least. 2019 is already half over and the population is dwindling as it has been.

 

https://steamcharts.com/app/113400#All

 

May 2018, ~2000 peak players. July 2019, ~800 peak players, with an average peak of ~730 and an average minimum of ~320.

 

If this, along with the myriad of other major issues plaguing this game aren't addressed within the next few months, APB will likely face its final death throes before it's shut down for good.

[CookiePuss 5373]

9 minutes ago, NotTheEnforcer said:

 

https://steamcharts.com/app/113400#All