APB now got stagnant population - and this is source of all APB problems

[Haganu 103]

Kinda in the same boat as the guy above me.

 

This is a problem that should've been solved 6 years ago. If the dev studio from back then wanted success they would've tackled this issue within the first year of it being a problem, and to those saying it wasn't a problem back then - sorry to say but you have the memory span of a goldfish.

 

LO should've tackled this problem right from the moment they pulled the strings, but nobody seemed to want that other than a handful of people.

 

The latest Steam charts look beyond pathetic. I'm very much hoping nobody is going to reply making up all sorts of excuses. If there are people yet - even the forums look empty these days. 

 

But hey if this keeps up there might be just about 100 players around when 2.1 releases!

Pointless to invest into this any further.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Haganu

[Hexerin 1140]

Friendly reminder that the root cause of most of the game's current problems stem directly from the original institution of forced threat segregation all those years ago, and the equally problematic zero-foresight actions of a few players in response to that segregation.

[AnOldAPBFart 15]

3 hours ago, Hexerin said:

Friendly reminder that the root cause of most of the game's current problems stem directly from the original institution of forced threat segregation all those years ago, and the equally problematic zero-foresight actions of a few players in response to that segregation.

This, too, is correct.

G1's poor decision and their vastly worse listening skills stemmed from being intertwined with, or basically a rebranding of what was a company called K2 Networks or some crap which was a notoriously shady P2W studio IIRC.

 

They made some changes to the core framework of APB, screwed up the bloom settings, broke a bunch of crap, and literally did not create a backup of RTW era files. Changed the Threat system, removed or broke a ton of missions... I mean, the list goes on.

 

That drove down the player count more and more. The literal lack of anti-cheat system also did a lot of that too. More staff left, game kept getting worse. Matchmaking got bad, because it used to mean something to be gold, and they skewed those brackets with the changes too. People started Dethreating, further shrinking the player count, and it snowballed. studio continued to shrink. Engine upgrade talk began. That was f***ing 2014. Years go by, basically nothing really happened from then on except a few "changes" to matchmaking and the respawn system, which, honestly, did not solve any problems. Years went by. Then in came LO.

 

This game... I mean, its a relic in technology terms. RTW initially started development of this game in like...I want to say 2005-2006. This game's bones are OLD. The largest amount of development this game saw, outside of RTW days, was between 2009-2011, which was the RTW ---> G1 transition, and was on life support ever since.

 

I'd say LO has done an amazing job with the Overhaul, and its beta feels and looks good. Definitely needs polish, and content, but damn despite those 2 things and framerate issues, I truly want this game to do well. It deserves it, true underdog style.

 

But man... yeah. Reality sets in at some point. Hopefully, by some miracle, LO has a trick up their sleeve in the marketing department.

Edited December 22, 2020 by AnOldAPBFart

[JiMMY13 19]

Great point Hex and top post Oldfart.

 

While that segregation was a notorious change, this game definitely needs to cater for two main types of players.

 

The competitive players who prefer small teams with a huge emphasis on teamwork and winning and the casual players who enjoy larger, more chaotic, social teams.

 

The competitive players rarely call backup, as it stands to compromise their teams' co-ordination and when these players are in the bronze district ( as silvers ), newer players don't stand a chance. Hence why they leave.

 

It's also the case when silvers or "yellows" go up against a team of competitive gold players... They want to leave, but they have a second option to continually dethreat back to bronze.

 

Newer players will benefit a lot more playing with better players, than playing against them and the current system sees the former happening a lot more and it's understandable that some don't have the desire or patience to help them out, which is fine. This is why at least one segregation would be beneficial over none at all, IMO.

 

Old-school players have posted RTW scoreboards that have predominantly large teams with varied threat-leveled players and that is exactly what newer players will benefit from. They should have good players to learn from on their team as well as some newer players on their opposition that may give them a decent shoot-out or two. That's what I would hope the casual district to be like.

 

Meanwhile, the competitive players will have their 2vs2, 2vs3, 3vs3 matches with little to no desire to use the backup system.

 

Merged.

 

Just played a round of the new Beacon game-mode with what I can only describe as a Call of Duty weapon patch.

 

The current game is extremely slow paced compared to many popular shooters these days. A trend which became very apparent after 2010. COD has always been fast paced and with it's surge in population during the MW and MW2 days, triple A developers started to add infinite sprint, increased sprint speeds and increased weapon accuracy.

 

A personal example is the change from Battlefield 2 to Battlefield 3. BF2 was much closer to this game's pace and weapon handling and BF3 became a COD clone. No loss of accuracy simply meant the AR or SMG with the highest RPM was often the best choice and shotguns became OHK.

 

It also has to do with the higher percentage of millennial gamers who desire higher kills-per-minute for higher dopamine releases. A new player to this game gets absolutely none of that. Assists don't count, as they are merely "kill steals". Battlefield 4 even introduced "assist counts as kill" in an attempt to keep them happy.

 

As lame as it all sounds, this game's graphics and engine may not be a problem at all when it comes to how "dated" this game may feel to people who are used to current shooters.

 

Personally I enjoy it. It reminds me of BF2 and CS in a GTA setting, but food for thought all the same.

[HighSociety 148]

2 hours ago, JiMMY13 said:

...BF3 became a COD clone...

Sorry but u can't call a game with actual bullet ballistics and map destruction "clone" of a point and click shooter

For me CoD always was a CS clone and BF was something else, something bigger.

 

APB is nothing of that cuz of all the lovely RNG bullsh!t. Thats what makes APB feel so slow paced imo.

[AnOldAPBFart 15]

On 12/23/2020 at 7:10 AM, JiMMY13 said:

Just played a round of the new Beacon game-mode with what I can only describe as a Call of Duty weapon patch.

 

The current game is extremely slow paced compared to many popular shooters these days. A trend which became very apparent after 2010. COD has always been fast paced and with it's surge in population during the MW and MW2 days, triple A developers started to add infinite sprint, increased sprint speeds and increased weapon accuracy.

 

A personal example is the change from Battlefield 2 to Battlefield 3. BF2 was much closer to this game's pace and weapon handling and BF3 became a COD clone. No loss of accuracy simply meant the AR or SMG with the highest RPM was often the best choice and shotguns became OHK.

 

It also has to do with the higher percentage of millennial gamers who desire higher kills-per-minute for higher dopamine releases. A new player to this game gets absolutely none of that. Assists don't count, as they are merely "kill steals". Battlefield 4 even introduced "assist counts as kill" in an attempt to keep them happy.

 

As lame as it all sounds, this game's graphics and engine may not be a problem at all when it comes to how "dated" this game may feel to people who are used to current shooters.

 

Personally I enjoy it. It reminds me of BF2 and CS in a GTA setting, but food for thought all the same.

Hoooooo boy.

You would NOT have liked APB in the RTW days, where the TTK was 2x across the board.

[Raichu 45]

They should have developed to the strengths of the game such as missions and customisation. Instead of making console apb they should have made new contacts so everyone has more things to do while playing missions. And instead of making riot mode and overly detailed preset armas clothing, they should have made more plain highly customisable clothing. Alot less wasted time and resources and more people happy for longer.

[Fortune Runner 796]

What I wonder about is why the current maps were never updated by anyone to be larger with more to do in them.

wow because you need a story ? Story is more city came out of full lock down so open it up or whatever. there's your excuse meh

new content would help , but would need someone who is expertly skilled at map making to do that.

 

and no i didn't say little orbit i had said anyone as in why didn't anyone consider it in APB history.

a major update like that is as important as an engine upgrade so of course i dont expect it tomorrow , or at all , but it would help if it were done

 

" hey i dont remember that building there "

"wow do you even pay attention to your surroundings , what are you a rookie ? "

good enough  excuse for npcs to say about it as well

[vsb 6170]

2 hours ago, Fortune Runner said:

What I wonder about is why the current maps were never updated by anyone to be larger with more to do in them.

map alterations are very time consuming and/or difficult because every actual building or road has to be custom made as there's no real "map editor" for apb, the original devs were basically pioneering online open world gameplay afaik

 

technical stuff aside each new block also has to be balanced and conform to apbs design philosophy, with the block itself being like a mini deathmatch arena and (theoretically, because apbs maps arent actually perfectly balanced) while also acting as a balance for the surrounding blocks

 

i assume these are the reasons why riot map changes were 99% just adding props to the existing map, and those changes still werent very good lol

[Nymphi--DoubleDee 83]

I said it years ago... Need to strict lock threats to their districts.

 

Need to lock out dethreating to at bare minimum to once a week, but even once per two weeks may not be enough.

[CookiePuss 5373]

On 11/21/2020 at 3:40 PM, Fruitini said:

Everyone should be gold. 

 

If by some miricle and you arent by now, either you play drunk or you solo ALOT

Most players are not gold. 

As it should be.

[Fortune Runner 796]

On 12/26/2020 at 12:16 AM, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA said:

map alterations are very time consuming and/or difficult because every actual building or road has to be custom made as there's no real "map editor" for apb, the original devs were basically pioneering online open world gameplay afaik

 

technical stuff aside each new block also has to be balanced and conform to apbs design philosophy, with the block itself being like a mini deathmatch arena and (theoretically, because apbs maps arent actually perfectly balanced) while also acting as a balance for the surrounding blocks

 

i assume these are the reasons why riot map changes were 99% just adding props to the existing map, and those changes still werent very good lol

 

On 12/25/2020 at 9:53 PM, Fortune Runner said:

new content would help , but would need someone who is expertly skilled at map making to do that.

 

[Darkzero3802 606]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:46 PM, Nymphi--DoubleDee said:

I said it years ago... Need to strict lock threats to their districts.

 

Need to lock out dethreating to at bare minimum to once a week, but even once per two weeks may not be enough.

Strict locking golds to gold districts back in the day is what caused the massive dethreating problem we have now. Before then it was a very minor issue but once they started locking all the golds that wanted to curb stomp newbies dethreated and it backfired so bad G1 had to revert the change to what it is now. Dethreating has continued ever since because this community is so toxic and unfriendly. At this point nothing short of community policing will resolve these long standing community issues.

[HighSociety 148]

1 hour ago, Darkzero3802 said:

...

Yes cuz it was wrong to implement this sh!t at all...

This was not the fault of LO but they have to handle it now.

 

Still my opinion as oldscool gamer -> don't segregate and hide threat!

Edited December 31, 2020 by HighSociety

[Delete884943468320878423 172]

So what im supposed to learn from this topic basically? You gonna make this game better or improve the social compound in order to develop future standards?

Cuz basically you made the same shit that's been made since forever by everybody else so far for a topic... difference being trolls making it higher than usual topics.

I mean i been making repeated crap myself, but give some actual basics for a change, at least i tried... oh nvm.

I believe that in order to gain ppopulation you need to be new and hope you are going to be popul;ar by the time u launch, this game will never be hype, and hype is the new standards, if ure not hype, ure dead from the start,. Lol i think that in order to make a hit, LO will need to make it all new, it doesn;t mater that its a good formula, it needs to be absolute new...

Edited December 31, 2020 by Vnight

[Darkzero3802 606]

4 hours ago, HighSociety said:

Yes cuz it was wrong to implement this sh!t at all...

This was not the fault of LO but they have to handle it now.

 

Still my opinion as oldscool gamer -> don't segregate and hide threat!

I agree with not hiding threat however segregation is needed. The curve for APB is so steep its pretty much required as is the need for community policing. Anyone who says this community can do the right thing on its own is shitting themselves, time and time again the proof of how accepted toxicity is in APB is made clear. Breaking tos, cheating, hacking, threat shaming. its constant, accepted and even defended. Change is required from the top in order for the community to finally shape up.

[HighSociety 148]

11 hours ago, Darkzero3802 said:

segregation is needed

But it's worthless... anyone can make thousands of new accounts to be a Trainee with 10000h Playtime.

Star + Fbw in the right hands will destroy newbies too.

If they want to stomp, they will be able to as long as it's f2p.

[wHisHi 206]

18 hours ago, Vnight said:

So what im supposed to learn from this topic basically? You gonna make this game better or improve the social compound in order to develop future standards?

Cuz basically you made the same shit that's been made since forever by everybody else so far for a topic... difference being trolls making it higher than usual topics.

I mean i been making repeated crap myself, but give some actual basics for a change, at least i tried... oh nvm.

I believe that in order to gain ppopulation you need to be new and hope you are going to be popul;ar by the time u launch, this game will never be hype, and hype is the new standards, if ure not hype, ure dead from the start,. Lol i think that in order to make a hit, LO will need to make it all new, it doesn;t mater that its a good formula, it needs to be absolute new...

Current trend, you are right. 

[KyoukiDotExe 231]

On 12/21/2020 at 7:57 PM, AnOldAPBFart said:

I'm not sure if you realize this...

But, APB has had a stagnant population for YEARS now, and has continued to dwindle each year since 2013/2014.

 

I've watched this game go from 1-2k average daily player count (Just on West Coast) to a literal Ghost town, and as much as any of us doesn't want to admit it...

No amount of anything will ever revive this game to "Glory Days" levels of players (and I'm not even talking about the RTW days pre-G1) because it has a horrendous reputation and is now on its 3rd developer since 2010.

 

Sad, I know... but let's be real here. This is far from a new problem, and any of us still around from the old days, is all too painfully aware of it.

 

Edit* And just to add on to this, NONE of APB's problems are LO's fault. I just want to be clear, none of my pessimism is directed at them. This game just has a really scuffed history.

This is the proper answer, extremely scuffed history.

[zaniska 0]

I'll be returning to US servers soon after a year break. Hopefully there's enough people on to find me a game or 2. 

 

Out of curiosity anyone still playing that was on the old joker US server? Would be great to re connect with people i used to play this game with!

[Darkzero3802 606]

On 1/1/2021 at 5:18 AM, HighSociety said:

But it's worthless... anyone can make thousands of new accounts to be a Trainee with 10000h Playtime.

Star + Fbw in the right hands will destroy newbies too.

If they want to stomp, they will be able to as long as it's f2p.

And thats where community policing comes in. If the community cant behave and actually be nice then LO has to step in and make them play nice. Its all avoidable if ppl stopped being toxic dicks.

[Jilleroo 349]

On 1/2/2021 at 7:54 AM, zaniska said:

I'll be returning to US servers soon after a year break. Hopefully there's enough people on to find me a game or 2. 

 

Out of curiosity anyone still playing that was on the old joker US server? Would be great to re connect with people i used to play this game with!

Joker drools, Colby rulez!

#2Kool4School

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

14 hours ago, EvaPooh said:

Joker drools, Colby rulez!

#2Kool4School

NA COOLBY BEST

[Acornie 490]

2 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

NA COOLBY BEST

I'll fite you. #JokerBest

[Jilleroo 349]

1 hour ago, Acornie said:

I'll fite you. #JokerBest

Colby player or poopy player.
 

Got 'em.