Neglect of the Live game

[MattScott 15245]

Heading into the next topic on the list, 70% of participants feel strongly about the neglect that the Live game is receiving. The engine upgrade / 64Bit upgrade or whatever you want to call it nowadays has to happen, that much is clear, but the Live game has basically been in maintenance mode aside from what feels like yearly weapon balance for too long at this point. This doesn’t sit well with players and makes them feel as if Live has been completely abandoned in hopes that some sort of Engine upgrade will succeed in the near future. There are MANY issues the game is facing every day that could be fixed in todays engine and then ported over to whatever LO is hoping to build the games future on, things like making it so the out of bounds system only applies to players in a mission, account wide versions of the Criminal Nulander Pioneer or Enforcer Seiyo Espacio as well as a account wide Han Coywolf, things such as lowering the Rank restriction of R195 mods to somewhere around R80-85, a Inventory and Mail system overhaul, changing how inventory expansions work by setting a new baseline so every player has the same amount of space and it doesn’t differ from character to character, UI modernisations such as making the Weapon stats UI easier to understand instead of using outdated bars, account wide roles, balance of any kind. There are MANY things that can make the day to day gameplay of APB better while players wait for 64Bit, many of these things have to be done regardless, many even by the time 64Bit releases if LO wants to increase their chances of players sticking around making the whole thing a win-win situation for us the dedicated players still playing and those returning whenever 64Bit launches.

 

“Once LO had to choose between working on the live game or working on the engine upgrade I was initially supportive of their decision to put all their eggs in the engine upgrade basket. It sounded like the new engine was just around the corner, and it seemed silly to change things once for the live client and then have to do it again for the new engine. As the delays began to pile up and the population continued to dwindle, the community continually asked for QoL changes; more weapon balance, new contacts, phasing, etc. At first, I did my best to defend LO, but it became harder and harder over time until I couldn't defend them at all. Once the engine upgrade was abandoned, QoL changes should have become a top priority. In the spirit of fairness, upgrading to 64bit does, I think, count as a QoL change. We can only hope this is the start of things getting back on track.”  -Community Member

 

Here is a document that lists many of these QoL changes that LO can do now that I myself together with the community have put together.