Is it possible to turn APB into a community-developed game?

[Boba 51]

After reading the last few engine updates, it's clear that at this point Matt is coding through the engine upgrade by himself.

 

Any software engineer/programmer would know that it's usually infeasible to handle an executive job as well as developing a game that's broken in so many ways. And given the endless amount of issues that still have to be solved, it would be impossible for Matt to finish this himself, and I suspect that financials aren't going as planned so hiring a paid team might not be an option.

 

So maybe the only option left is turning APB into a crowd-developed project. It would be great if we have a discussion with Matt or some of the moderators if this is a feasible option in terms of legal/technical/other standpoints. I understand that games being crowd-developed is sometimes challenging especially regarding sharing source code (which can cause a huge number of legal/vulnerability issues). But it would be great if this option is taken into consideration, especially that I'm sure that there are hundreds of experienced programmers ready to help save this game together.

[NotTheEnforcer 222]

Considering exactly this happened to DayZ Standalone, after the studio inside Bohemia Interactive that was handling DayZ effectively collapsed it became a mostly community-produced game. Many vehicles, guns, systems, etc, that shouldve been in the game years ago all got made within the span of a few months by dedicated people who wanted to see the game's vision thoroughly, and made quite high quality stuff. Take the Namalsk map for example. Sumrak built his own cold mechanics, frostbite mechanics, AI, spawn systems, etc. He alone changed the entire course of DayZ through his release.

 

Unfortunately for APB, that kind of community doesnt really exist here anymore. Im sure theres a few who can probably make some stuff happen, but APB is spaghetti-coded to oblivion and outdated by a long time. DayZ was at least relatively modern and used the same mechanics as the ArmA series so a huge amount of people already knew their way around the code and knew what to do from the start.

 

I think it'd be hardpressed to find many people capable of community-producing this game, much less people willing to learn.

 

Dont get me wrong,  I like the idea and think it'd be a good move to at least give people the access to create shit for the game, but Im not sure theres much that can be done at this point.

[Boba 51]

11 minutes ago, NotTheEnforcer said:

Considering exactly this happened to DayZ Standalone, after the studio inside Bohemia Interactive that was handling DayZ effectively collapsed it became a mostly community-produced game. Many vehicles, guns, systems, etc, that shouldve been in the game years ago all got made within the span of a few months by dedicated people who wanted to see the game's vision thoroughly, and made quite high quality stuff. Take the Namalsk map for example. Sumrak built his own cold mechanics, frostbite mechanics, AI, spawn systems, etc. He alone changed the entire course of DayZ through his release.

 

Unfortunately for APB, that kind of community doesnt really exist here anymore. Im sure theres a few who can probably make some stuff happen, but APB is spaghetti-coded to oblivion and outdated by a long time. DayZ was at least relatively modern and used the same mechanics as the ArmA series so a huge amount of people already knew their way around the code and knew what to do from the start.

 

I think it'd be hardpressed to find many people capable of community-producing this game, much less people willing to learn.

 

Dont get me wrong,  I like the idea and think it'd be a good move to at least give people the access to create shit for the game, but Im not sure theres much that can be done at this point.

Very respectable opinion. I agree with your points, it's just the last bit of hope we have, so like you said, they should at least consider giving people the access to help and hoping for the best...

[NotTheEnforcer 222]

Just now, Boba said:

Very respectable opinion. I agree with your points, it's just the last bit of hope we have, so like you said, they should at least consider giving people the access to help and hoping for the best...

Without a doubt. I remember a game, I dont know what it was, but the studio was dissolving and going bankrupt, and as a last ditch attempt to keep the game alive despite the studio dissolve, they gave everything to the community. All the source code, all the tools they used, every bit of info and tech they could think of. And the community used to all to the max and kept the game well alive for more than a decade. Ill try to remember what it was sometime

[PotatoeGirl 220]

On 7/21/2021 at 9:42 PM, Boba said:

So maybe the only option left is turning APB into a crowd-developed project.

You give this community too much credits. With all the cheaters this game has, the first thing that will happen after code is shared will be private servers popping all over the place. 

[NotTheEnforcer 222]

1 hour ago, PotatoeGirl said:

You give this community too much credits. With all the cheaters this game has, the first thing that will happen after code is shared will be private servers popping all over the place. 

Itll even itself out, assuming it regains population. Like the similarities with DayZ, there are plenty of servers that just hand you everything so you can PVP without a grind or anything, however those servers retain either a very specific-minded community, or just cycles through people who try it, dislike it, and leave. 

 

But with every private server that hands everything out, there will be geometrically more servers that will retain the normal game style. For DayZ as an example, there is maybe 10 private servers that focus purely on PVP that retain any consistent population. And yet, theres several THOUSANDS of other servers that remain the normal game, or a more hardcore-style game.

 

The cheaters will still be a problem, sure, but thats MMO's for you. However, theyre surprisingly rare on DayZ. Maybe because BI does a good job with BattlEye, or maybe because theyre all on the PVP servers. Either way, theres ways to combat cheaters.

[R3ACT3M 489]

If that ever happens im sure most would look at the code, then go: Nooooooohhoooohohohoho nononono noohohoho      no

[PotatoeGirl 220]

11 hours ago, NotTheEnforcer said:

Itll even itself out, assuming it regains population. Like the similarities with DayZ, there are plenty of servers that just hand you everything so you can PVP without a grind or anything, however those servers retain either a very specific-minded community, or just cycles through people who try it, dislike it, and leave. 

 

But with every private server that hands everything out, there will be geometrically more servers that will retain the normal game style. For DayZ as an example, there is maybe 10 private servers that focus purely on PVP that retain any consistent population. And yet, theres several THOUSANDS of other servers that remain the normal game, or a more hardcore-style game.

 

The cheaters will still be a problem, sure, but thats MMO's for you. However, theyre surprisingly rare on DayZ. Maybe because BI does a good job with BattlEye, or maybe because theyre all on the PVP servers. Either way, theres ways to combat cheaters.

Idk, mate. I just came out of a game where cheaters crashed the official server nonstop until they forced it to close just to make ppl to play their own private servers.

3 hours ago, R3ACT3M said:

If that ever happens im sure most would look at the code, then go: Nooooooohhoooohohohoho nononono noohohoho      no

I don't think the code is bad (maybe some parts are) but the main issue is probably because it is too optimized to make a game like this to even run well on U3 engine. So I can imagine a lot of corners had to be cut just to make the game run fine. I am still impressed that they were able to pull off terrain streaming in such a heavy engine for its time. 

The reason the game is such a mess right now is simply because building on top of a code that is not fully understood. 

 

The fact that the companies that came after couldn't reproduce the same level of performance in their engine update builds just show how much more advanced the coding of the original game is. 

Edited July 28, 2021 by PotatoeGirl

[TzickyT 212]

we had some content creators who wanted to do some stuff like community focused game creation. i feel like its a good idea to do that but i doubt it wil happen before the engine upgrade or even ever. right now we have the SPCT hitting the hammer of what can change and what would change.

[KillerHippie 3]

On 7/27/2021 at 1:31 PM, PotatoeGirl said:

You give this community too much credits. With all the cheaters this game has, the first thing that will happen after code is shared will be private servers popping all over the place. 

See you are saying that likes a bad thing. If APB did become abandon ware then yes you will see a lot of servers, but they will all have restrictions. Especially on weapons' and mods. 

What you will not see more than once is cheaters, as whomever is hosting the server will be swinging the ban hammer liberally.  Also if a cheater were to try and host a server that allowed cheating, it would die from lack of players in a week.

 

The problem right now is that LO is afraid of banning cheaters. However if it was your server, you would ban them as fast as you saw them. For the non-hack cheaters, three (3) strikes and your out and on a public ban list.  LO may want to spare the feeling of cheaters, I say not only broadcast it on district chat like the used to but have a page of shame again. And on a private server, you could.

 

The main thing is having access to the assets, remapping to modern skins would take very little time. There is nothing wrong with the current animations so those could easily be tweaked if necessary.  the rest of the code. well instead of keeping it in unreal I would  look at making it a TC in the dew drop engine. But that's just me. If they did  APB as abandon ware you have access to everything.

[Haganu 105]

APB becoming a crowd developed game would certainly be interesting, but I feel that that would be more sensible after the engine upgrade is released. 

I'm sure among the players there's quite a bunch that's really intrigued in the game, its world building and RTW's vision on it, and would be humbled to be able to expand on it and fill in their vision where a series of poor lead producers over the years left nothing but gaps.

 

There are a lot of things that could fit within the world building of APB and RTW's vision that have been untouched.

[Mitne 724]

I'm all for this idea.

With this idea or not - cheaters will be still there.

Game hitted stale point right now. The same thing as NotTheEnforcer mentioned happened with DayZ few years ago. Now you see DayZ as flourishing community despite it's obvious flaws.

[Sniperturtle 65]

On 7/28/2021 at 6:58 AM, R3ACT3M said:

If that ever happens im sure most would look at the code, then go: Nooooooohhoooohohohoho nononono noohohoho      no

Never underestimate the ingenuity of modders. They fix broken games, develop workarounds for hardcoded bugs, no telling what they can do with source code. That said, it would take so much work in rewriting the code for address information, retrieval of data, protection of back-ends, etc. etc. etc. that it seems like an impossible job.

 

But then again, never underestimate the ingenuity of modders.

[Talla 84]

Yes, but actually no.
https://unitgame.com/about_us.html

 

Still, making a pull request on APB's public repo would definitely be somewhere on my life's bucket list.

Edited August 15, 2021 by Talla

[R3ACT3M 489]

13 hours ago, Sniperturtle said:

Never underestimate the ingenuity of modders. They fix broken games, develop workarounds for hardcoded bugs, no telling what they can do with source code. That said, it would take so much work in rewriting the code for address information, retrieval of data, protection of back-ends, etc. etc. etc. that it seems like an impossible job.

 

But then again, never underestimate the ingenuity of modders.

I do know that at somepoint some guys were trying to bring back APB but gave up.

I just highly doubt that modders could do better than LO a company with trained professionals trying to bring the game onto newer tech. Albeit slow, im sure in the long run it will be more beneficial.

I would say something more realistic, could be 3D designers could 3D model some assets for LO to use.

But even that seems very unlikely... 

[FakeBungo 248]

On 8/16/2021 at 5:30 PM, R3ACT3M said:

I do know that at somepoint some guys were trying to bring back APB but gave up.

I just highly doubt that modders could do better than LO a company with trained professionals trying to bring the game onto newer tech. Albeit slow, im sure in the long run it will be more beneficial.

I would say something more realistic, could be 3D designers could 3D model some assets for LO to use.

But even that seems very unlikely... 

LO has done nothing except for downgrade the servers cos they are cheapskates

[ChristmasElf 15]

Thats great idea! make the code public so cheaters can cheat harder. How didnt anyone think of this?