Anti-Dethreating Measures / Disable "Gold" and "Fake Silver Players" on Bronze Servers

[StevenDeckard 273]

After having to suffer through several consecutive missions, fighting against waves of dethreathers (i.e. "gold" and "fake-silver" players) in bronze districts (both in Financial and Waterfront), I remembered that I did have a discussion revolving around this issue with a fellow player not that long ago in another thread. As the situation is growing worse it seems, I thought it best to copy-paste these parts into a new thread, to be able to discuss everything further (see the quotes below).

 

On 3/25/2020 at 4:12 PM, StevenDeckard said:

Would be much better for new players and players that have a lower threat-level (i.e. bronze) if dethreatening would not be possible or if a player gets to gold threat level, he is allowed to finish the current mission and then is automatically spawned to a gold district (without the ability to immediately de-threat again). Gold-districts are almost always empty and one encounters hundreds of "silver" and golds in bronze districts, shredding lower-threat and new players.
Another option would be to disable a de-threater's character mods, car mods and weapon mods automatically (there has to be a way to check if someone does this on a regular base) if he enters a lower level district, giving the population there a chance.

On 3/26/2020 at 6:09 AM, Artorius_ said:

What if....when you turn gold in a bronze district, you get a timer "You are going to be kicked to silver/gold district in 2m 30 sec" or Spend 150k to play in bronze district for another 2 hours (And nobody will spend 150k cuz it aint worth it). And When you turn gold you dont get your silver threat back (even if you play bad) until 2 hours. Then you can play and have fun and not worry about turning to green in silver district because thats ONE of the biggest issue for ppl who dont play in silver district. And When you turn silver you cant become gold/bronze until 2 hours, Your threat will only be affected by how you play after 2 hours.
This will fix dethreating
And probably fix hardcore veterans playing in bronze district issue.
And matchmaking..alot.
(Sry for my bad English tho im not american/british/canadian/australian/anyenglishcountry)

On 3/26/2020 at 10:34 AM, StevenDeckard said:

@Artorius_ - The timer idea and having to shell out cash a huge amount of cash to remain (would even say having to pay that fine per mission and getting 95% less payout - although I still think auto-moving golds to a gold district is the best solution, since the pay-option would not deter griefers) as well as the inability to dethreat for a longer period - here I would suggest something more like for example 12 hours or even 24 hours - are a good ideas and should definitely help to get the situation under control. Had three matches in a row yesterday against those kind of players and it was an absolute nightmare - any new player would immediately uninstall the game after that, since such matches are no fun at all for anyone.

 

The gist of the discussion was, that it might be helping the dire situation to introduce some kind of an automatic system, that moves someone who gets to "gold" thread-level to the appropriate gold server, disabling his ability to manually change back to any bronze district. In addition to that, the ability to gain points or earn credits should be severely limited for anyone playing at a lower threat level: Gold on Silver 50%, Gold on Bronze 5%, Gold on Green -100% (making them in fact loose money and with their kills not even being counted).

I also do wonder why there is no system in place to disallow de-threating at all, especially since data from each player must be available (otherwise we would not be leveling up and all that), could that not be used to recognize if someone is playing badly on purpose to dethreat and punish that? Best thing for us bronze players and all the new players would of course be to not make it possible for "golds" to ever go back to a bronze district, period, no matter how badly they try to play.

 

Also yes I am not a particularly good player and only play casually and for fun (mostly doing police RP, but having to do normal missions from time to time to progress in order to gain new items). But matches against overpowered golds are no fun for new players, casual and/or bronze players like myself - even if some gold players really seem to think so (getting wrecked and getting GG whisper spams is even less fun btw.).

Edited April 7, 2020 by StevenDeckard

[SmilyFace 300]

I mostly agree with thigns you said, but need to tell what i think, what's my opinion about all of this.

 

As myself i can say, playing since very long time now, this have been always the best game for me, but not talking about that.

Im not able to play serious, i stopped playing "competitive" or how you wanna call it, back in 2015.

 

Since that year i just play for fun, wins, loses, i don't care, bronze, silver, gold, i don't care, BUT.. i need to say that being Silver is the best threat out there.

I can say that i am too good for Bronze districts but not for the Sivler ones, that means im jumping from Silver threat to Gold every.. 3/4 matches i could say, which is absolutely, inconsistent, unplayable and shit.

That's why in the last year im playing only when friends asks or when i really feel it, sadly i can't play how i want as i said, not anymore, and also.. i don't want my threat to jump back and forward like a rabbit.

 

The problems here are 2:

1) Population is too low;

2) Matchmaking is bullshoot.

 

I should mention also this, even a good matchmaking would require a good population.

Poor population means the matchmaking needs to do its best to make sure everything works fine, but it struggle to do this, because of how much is low the playerbase and all the other factors around it, also the threat itself is a problem.

 

Wouldn't be useful anyway makes you obligated to switch district if Dethreating is possible, you will jsut lose 1/2 missions like everyone do inside Sivler districts, and then you can come back where you was before.

 

Green could be a good threat level for new peoples.

But we can't discuss about threat really as i think LO will remove it completely, reworking that method adding other stats and things, instead of having different colors.

 

Like i wrote in other topics, many things need to be reworked, we can talk, we can speculate, but as far as we go, we wouldn't in anyway know how it will change unless the company come up saying here you go guys, this, this and this.

 

Talking about Grifers for a bit of time, they needs to be kicked and if keeps going, banned.

But here we can't do nothing about them if not report and record the actions made by those lasts.

LO should have more GM's online that monitor if not each district, most of them, and take the right actions against those annoying peoples, i wouldn't call them players due to their missing brain.

 

You can't alredy join bronze districts if you are gold threat, as silver, well, you can, this is how it works since years.

It may change like i said, well, it will, not soon but is coming.

 

I think there are no GOlds inside Green districts xD, i mean, who really waste it's time to come back bronze from Gold and then join Green district and kill all the population, which will be like.. 3/4 players each day, or even less.

 

No, you can't recognize that data, i could kill myself for error many times, i could be bad in aiming and keep suicide with Osmaw, or i could also dethreating, how you can recognize something liek this, isn't possible, only if you spectate that person or see how he/she act and play.

 

Im sorry to hear that, hope it will be better in the future.

[Officer_Foxtail 501]

I could not agree more! The past days bronze districts felt like "gold central", I even had to check if I had not accidentally picked a gold district. We have some brand new players in our clan who became so frustrated after being pitched against those dethreaters again and again that they chose to play something else.

 

Either:

   - introduce an automatic system that immediately forces anyone that reaches gold threat level out of bronze districts

   - disallow dethreating in the first place

 

Having to report dethreaters one currently seems to spends more time with reporting them than actually playing the game...

[Rat1oNRUs 70]

here we go again.

[VickyFox 352]

If you force a restriction then it will only drive those determined enough to evade it even harder.

11 hours ago, Officer_Foxtail said:

  - introduce an automatic system that immediately forces anyone that reaches gold threat level out of bronze districts

   - disallow dethreating in the first place

 

MattScott said that LittleOrbit intend to add "Phasing" as a new form of matchmaking, players will be matched up automatically rather than segregating threat and making districts population numbers lower.

 

Threat segregation is what caused dethreating in the first place.

[Fortune Runner 796]

4 hours ago, VickyFox said:

Threat segregation is what caused dethreating in the first place.

yes but no.  toxic players are what lately has been the majority of dethreaters that are gold in bronze.

how they treat bronze district players openly can be seen by anyone in those districts.

 

when detheating first began silvers were fleeing from golds but that was a different era.

now a days a vast majority are not fleeing golds but are in fact gold daily in bronze , and completely dominate bronze district for easy wins with nearly zero chance of losing.

 

I seriously hope the engine upgrade and phasing can be done soon since the gold in bronze problem is worse than ever.

its bad enough if a gold is in bronze who dethreated to be there but to be toxic on top of it is by far not healthy for APB in any way shape or form.

[StevenDeckard 273]

@VickyFox - Thanks for your input and sharing your thoughts on the matter! Things were as bad before the threat levels came back, only then you had no choice and could not even report dethreaters.

 

---------------

 

@Fortune Runner - I could not agree more, especially the past few days have been a total catastrophe. I did not encounter a single bronze opponent in the past 20 matches I had in any of the bronze districts. Instead found myself constantly pitched against max leveled players, using highest character mods and assets as well as gold weapons and weapon mods. Any new player having to endure something like that over and over and over will eventually turn around, uninstall and never touch the game again. Worse the "golds" even taunt others they stomp, making fun of how bad their opponents are - saw quite a few bronze players and beginners become completely desperate yesterday (we could have really used the help of a GM at that point)! Some even openly say they dethreat or worse they honestly claim they are "new" players (when evidently they are nothing of the sort if one checks them: level 255, high powered mods, etc.).

 

What these "players" want is to stomp others, nothing more (seems more like the fulfillment of some rather petty power fantasy), they practically "farm" low level players and the game even rewards them for this. They do not want any real challenge or opposition, or else they would play in the gold or even the silver districts! And if they would those districts would not be empty. Oh I forgot it is more "fun" for them to stomp new players... - ...so sad and so maddening!

 

Do not get me wrong, I like a challenge and do not mind loosing - but it is different if you play against someone who is at your own skill level and he/she manages to best you than being forced to play against some overpowered enemy against which you have no chance at all, no matter what or how hard you try.

 

The way things are now any new player is greatly discouraged.

Edited April 9, 2020 by StevenDeckard

[I-Reaper-I 46]

As long as the playerbase remains so low and there is no diversity in who you play against, it is pretty much inevitable that new players will quit.

The main issue with the whole threat system and how this game works is:
You meet the same damn person throughout 5 or 6 missions before you miraculously get matched against someone else or just rage quit!

So you want to have fun playing this game? Start inviting more people into the game and populate the servers to a healthy amount.

Edited April 15, 2020 by I-Reaper-I