Clan System Overhaul - how to give clans more meaning

[mtz 496]

First things first, I obviously don't mean this as a suggestion for Right Now™. This is largely just slapping ideas together so that hopefully they can be used at some point down the line when APB is in a better spot and new content for the game can be developed and added properly.
Just because it can't be done right away, doesn't mean we shouldn't think about it at all.

 

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Let's address the elephant in the room: the clan functionality in APB in its current form kinda sucks.

 

In most cases, there's no reason to join up with other people in an in-game clan. The only tangible perk out of having a clan is the ability to set its name as a title under your character's name... which people often utilize by creating their own 1-person clans and getting themselves custom titles this way. Clans really only exist on the sidelines of APB as something that's available to the players, but has no real incentive to build it up.

 

I've read a few other threads regarding the subject of clans and people have been suggesting various things. Some of those suggestions are more grounded in reality, while some of them are... slightly less so. While thinking about how I would handle the subject, I've tried to consider what issues the other community members have tried to tackle in those threads and what issues were brought up in the replies there.

 

My idea/suggestion for the clan system boils down to a few key components, which I will try to outline to the best of my ability.

 

The placeholder clan in this thread will be the Dead Diamonds clan. It's a made-up clan whose logo came before the name (so don't tear into me too much about the name being bad; I am spectacularly bad with names) and which doesn't actually exist to my knowledge. Whenever Dead Diamonds are referred to, just imagine your dream clan in that spot.

 

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1) Establishing the Brand
Making a name not just for yourself, but for those you run with.

 

Being in an APB clan in current day isn't really noticeable to other players unless you specifically get your clanmates to dress up in identical clothes or do other stuff like that. I believe one way of changing that is for the game itself to let other players know about the clans existing.

 

APB should promote clans through providing them in-game visibility. One player acting alone isn't really noticeable, but a group of players flying under the same colours will cause some waves.
When Dead Diamonds roll out in a group, their opponents should *know* who they're up against.

 

 

This particular piece of my idea borrows from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which already does the same thing. If all players in the team are in the same Steam group and set it as their in-game clan, the scoreboard and HUD will display their team name instead of the standard "[COUNTER-]TERRORISTS" text.

 

Similar adjustments could be made to the ticker in the map screen. Regular matches in random alliances would remain in the old system: "[Team Leader A]'s team has won against [Team Leader B]'s team."
Premade groups of people from the same clan would, however, have their ticker text changed adequately: "The Dead Diamonds clan has won against [Team Leader B]'s team."

 

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2) Building the Clan Identity
Let other people know you're not just any random group of friends.

 

The name and the logo are just two aspects of a clan. There's more to them that meets the eye, and when facing off against one, you should be able to grasp who that other clan is.

The clan management interface could have an additional panel allowing the clan's officers to customize some aspects of how their crew shows up to other players.

 

 

Depending on the size of the clan (upon which I'll elaborate in the next section), its "brand" or "type" (or simply designation) can be changed from a set of options offered by the game.

Basic words such as "Clan", "Crew", or "Alliance" could be available to everyone regardless of whether they're Enforcers or Criminals, but faction-specific names could also be available (for example, a small Enfo clan could call itself a "Patrol", while a massive Crim clan would have the term "Syndicate" available for itself).
This could be further expanded by offering additional customization options in the Armas Marketplace, either as standalone purchases or as bonuses included with certain items. As a hypothetical, a clan whose leader owns all the Yakuza-themed items on Armas would also gain the ability to label itself as a yakuza.

 

The showcase in the mockup below is supposed to be the panel underneath the player's character card on the scoreboard. In current day APB it always shows the gray flag icon and the name of the clan, if the player belongs to any.

 

 

"Accolades" would display a statistic related to the clan, selected by the leader or officers. Possible accolades include: clan age, total sum of money deposited into the clan's bank account, missions won in a full group, missions won against other clans who were also rolling in full groups, etc... Showing nothing there would obviously also be an option.

 

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3) Assembling the Arsenal (or Sorting Things Out)
Because you're all in it together - and so is your gear.

 

Clans, by their nature, should offer players some benefits for deciding to work together. One way of promoting that is to allow players to share some select equipment - if you're sharing the metaphorical locker room with the other Dead Diamond schmucks, why wouldn't you also share the tools of the trade?

 

Each clan would have a shared "locker" available to all members. Said lockers would accept tradeable items, but wouldn't allow anything to be taken out - only destroyed. Instead of occupying a slot in each individual player's locker, they can be equipped for as long as the player is a member of the clan. All members can contribute items to the locker, but only the leader and officers can put something in the shared slots.

 

Items stored in the clan locker cannot be equipped by anyone, not even the Officers and Clan Leader, unless they are specifically placed in a shared slot.

Think of regular slots as disabled/inactive items, and shared slots as enabled/active items!

 

 

Each clan would also have its own Bank Account. It would be completely separate from individual characters' banked money and funds could be deposited by everyone in any amount they want, but they couldn't be withdrawn directly into anyone's wallet.

 

A clan's level could be determined by its member count and the amount of money deposited into its account, incentivizing putting the clan before one's own character - at least in terms of funding, that is. The higher the clan's level, the more slots it receives for the purpose of sharing items, along with further clan customization options to built its reputation further. Imagine having your clan reach a level at which your clan's symbol replaces the typical APB logo splash your opposition sees when starting an opposed mission...

Alternative requirements could also be utilized. Instead of measuring for money accumulated by the members in the shared bank account, one of the level up checks could be, for example, the amount of standing (without the Premium bonus) gained by the members during missions completed as a clan.

 

Officers and the leader of a given clan would have the option to "Buy for the Clan" at any given vendor, which would use funds from the clan's account instead of that character's funds and instantly put the item in the clan locker.

Items bought with clan funds would be able to be customized in all the corresponding places (so, for example, clan cars could be edited in the Garage Kiosk, just like any other car). Item editing permissions would apply to all Officers and the Leader of a clan. Deployment would not be limited to just one person at a time; multiple clan members would be able to equip and use the same item at the same time.

 

 

If a clan were to get disbanded or deleted, all of the items in its locker would be deleted and become inaccessible.

 

I think that APB's built-in clan hierarchy system could probably work just fine. To illustrate:
* Leader - Rank automatically assigned to the founder of the clan; can be reassigned to other players. Has basically all permissions and can choose whether regular members (as in, besides them and officers) can also invite new members.
* Officer - Rank second to the leader. Can't kick the leader & other officers, change invite permissions, or disband the clan, but has editing permissions for clan info and clan items.
* Member - Rank indicating regular membership in the clan.

 

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4) Talking the Talk & Walking the Walk
Showing the naysayers that you're not just bark - you're also a whole lot of bite.

 

Let's face it - Breakwater Galleria is painfully empty (aside from our new RedHill buddy occupying the topmost room). A section of it could probably be dedicated to clan affairs. As monitors/display points would showcase the highest-ranking clans and dedicated contacts would open menus that allow to see more in-depth statistics and leaderboards, those who grow their clans would have their reputation precede their actions.

 

Each player could visit the Clan Aisle (placeholder name; I'm not good with names) in the Breakwater Galleria and check the clan leaderboards to see who's at the top, what's their clan biography, what category they're at the top in, and compare them to the others...

 

...not much else to say here, I think. (Or at least I can't think of how to expand this section properly.) In my opinion clan leaderboards are a bit of a given when there's clan functionality. It only makes sense to incentivize players to grow their clans through competition with other clans.

 

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There's probably a whole bunch of things that could work well in combination with the clan system. Ultimately, this is just a concept with a few images to go with it, written with passion for the game and none of the knowledge about the technical feasibility of such systems. Still, it's something I wanted to share for the sake of discussion, so yeah, there's that!

 

Hope you enjoyed the thread! I'm looking forward to your feedback!

[JeSuisSansoa 4]

somethings like

top 10 APB clan reward for all the recrue something like 

1 - 500 JT per month 

2 - 200 JT per month

3 - 100 JT per month

4 - 50   JT per month

 

but reward like oscar 3 slot its unfair for me :') . I mean everyone can be able to have a reward with the value of 1 mil.

sorry for my bad english im french.

[TzickyT 212]

would even add more stuff but thats a good start.

[proxie 271]

Or they could just bring back the feature that they removed. The system where there was a weekly leader board for missions wins and the top clans get some unique rewards.  Could even be monthly so it's less work.

Edited December 26, 2021 by proxie

[mtz 496]

10 hours ago, proxie said:

Or they could just bring back the feature that they removed. The system where there was a weekly leader board for missions wins and the top clans get some unique rewards.  Could even be monthly so it's less work.

That would be a smaller deal of features though, wouldn't it?

 

As a sidenote, I think "they" is inaccurate since I'm pretty sure that was taken out of the game long before Little Orbit took over. Different devs nowadays and whatnot...

[Acornie 490]

I appreciate you coming up with this and putting the effort into writing this all down, I myself have pretty lackluster ideas improving clans even though I personally see them as an important system in expanding the Apb, um, experience and could help with player retainment. 

I think that 'clan visibility' isn't too bad in Apb, aka on the scoreboard, so I don't know if I'd want it to be as complicated as showing every detail. Custom color and variations on the brand are good ideas, though.
Some ideas (that come from the few other games I've played that seem to clans well) one is having a system that allows you to have your clan listed on a 'recruitment page' along with the requirements listed out for joining in which a player can apply. Could also be a money sink in order to have your clan on the page, idk.

Having clan items more easily available is a tricky one, having a shared bank is nice, but in some MMOs I've experienced is that they have unrealistic demands on members, e.g. having to deposit a large amount of ingame $ per week into the clan bank. Would need to weigh all the pros and cons of each feature, possibly gaining passive funds (a set percentage of what each one earns playing) 

 

Food for thought is something I've noticed in Apb about clans, there seems to be two types of clans (other than the obvious 'custom title generator') 1. large clans that actively recruit, which were more prominent back in the day and 2. small clans of friends that play missions together and don't actively recruit, would seem pertinent to take both types into consideration when deciding on how to improve clans. 

 

I almost would want to suggest letting people be in more clan than one, but curious what what people would think about that, knowing how toxic Apb is that might be a bad idea (people can get weird about things and start drama, etc)

Edited December 28, 2021 by Acornie

[imV 110]

I like this ^^

Edited December 30, 2021 by imV

[PLAYLUXE 54]

I like those suggestions.

I'd also suggest adding clan rewards for clans which can be achieved by completing missions together like in Asphalt 9.

Every time a member completes a mission or event, a specific amount of points will be added to the clan rewards progress bar. Every time the bar hits a milestone (like 1000, 5000, 10.000 points etc.), a permanent reward will be unlocked for all clan members - could be dollars, tickets, emotes, designs, skins or even vehicles and weapons as the highest reward.

After a month (or any other period) the progress bar will reset and new rewards will be ready to be unlocked.