An Open Letter from the APB community

[safdfsgkjhdgsjkhs 140]

13 hours ago, glaciers said:

i really don’t think you do lol

 

12 hours ago, USSVECTOR said:

We are entitled to our own opinions my friend lol 

"Understanding" and "Assuming you understand" are not the same thing.

[Nagletz 215]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:25 PM, explosiveUA said:

I don't think war is the cause

For fuk sake, i meant the Innova's Pioneer server. Half of Russians and probably Ukrainians used to play there, so am i. Don't really want it back tho, nostalgic fun times on Citadel is more precious to me somehow.

[SirBlackazz 12]

I have not been following what has been going on with this game for some time now. This game has by far provided the most fun i have had in a game ever and i hope that they can get things together and bring this game back to life. If/ when they do a major update they will need to us UE 4 or 5 preferably 5, at that point they may as well start from scratch.

[AlienTM 138]

30 minutes ago, SirBlackazz said:

If/ when they do a major update they will need to us UE 4 or 5 preferably 5, at that point they may as well start from scratch

Yea we struggle to implement stuff from unreal 3+ for more than a decade now.Unreal 4 and 5 gonna wait..

[Nagletz 215]

46 minutes ago, SirBlackazz said:

I have not been following what has been going on with this game for some time now. This game has by far provided the most fun i have had in a game ever and i hope that they can get things together and bring this game back to life. If/ when they do a major update they will need to us UE 4 or 5 preferably 5, at that point they may as well start from scratch.

 

14 minutes ago, AlienTM said:

Yea we struggle to implement stuff from unreal 3+ for more than a decade now.Unreal 4 and 5 gonna wait..

I suppose it depends on how things will get after the "x64 update". The game may succeed and LO will get funds for actual UE upgrade. If not, well... it may and it will stagnate for another 10 years, again...

But the thing is, you need to be really trick-minded to advertise already 10 years old, somehow polished, good game, and make it profitable multi-million project. And it have to be profitable project to keep it on a good course. No magical chinese non-existant company will save it.

[AlienTM 138]

2 hours ago, Nagletz said:

and make it profitable multi-million project.

Thats absurd aint happenin after the 64bit upgrade the game will get like 3k-5k players(i hope for more ofc)and what u think is like if the game gets like tens of thousand(better hundreds of thousands)of players.I dont see this happenin ever.Even gta v-the most popular game of this genre have like 100k current playerbase.APB not gonna get more than 10k and even dat is super optimistic so LO as company-aint gonna make such a colossal amount of money.Lets stay real and 1st hope for at least good launch of 64 bit cause even dat will be amazing after so many years

To upgrade the 64 bit(if even dat possible)to unreal 4 or 5-i dont see even the point.They better just start new game from scratch if they reach such point and have the money

Edited December 11, 2022 by AlienTM

[gremlen 18]

14 hours ago, AlienTM said:

Thats absurd aint happenin after the 64bit upgrade the game will get like 3k-5k players(i hope for more ofc)and what u think is like if the game gets like tens of thousand(better hundreds of thousands)of players.I dont see this happenin ever.Even gta v-the most popular game of this genre have like 100k current playerbase.APB not gonna get more than 10k and even dat is super optimistic so LO as company-aint gonna make such a colossal amount of money.Lets stay real and 1st hope for at least good launch of 64 bit cause even dat will be amazing after so many years

To upgrade the 64 bit(if even dat possible)to unreal 4 or 5-i dont see even the point.They better just start new game from scratch if they reach such point and have the money

3k-5k is too optimistic. I will say 1-1.5k at highest and will drop to 500-700 after a month of 64bit update. Many apb players don't realize that this game is too old and ancient. It won't find its audience among modern gamers. Every aspect of the game will negatively be met by modern gamers. For example a terrible optimization that won't be fixed with 64bit. Unreal 2.5 just can't handle more than 144fps and nothing LO can do about it. Gamers with good PCs who never played apb will be confused by such a bad framerate in such an old game. Or a terrible matchmaking with a faction segregation. Not only we're locked to 40v40 when the online is 300 the chances that opposite faction will have an equal skill level to yours are so low. Every modern MMO cuts faction segregation. Even WoW devs removed faction segregation in many aspects of the game

Edited December 12, 2022 by gremlen

[AlienTM 138]

1 hour ago, gremlen said:

For example a terrible optimization that won't be fixed with 64bit. Unreal 2.5 just can't handle more than 144fps and nothing LO can do about it

they upgrade the current with stuff from unreal 3+ so idk about dat fps dou if gonna go higher but i dont see the problem if game runs well

 

1 hour ago, gremlen said:

Or a terrible matchmaking with a faction segregation.

The matchmaking gonna be way better than current if we have at least 3k players..and we will get it dats the minimum i expect after the upgrade

and other thing-doesnt really matter anymore if the game is old/looks old or whatever.Depends more what the game itself is and how good it runs.Some of the most popular games right now are for low end pcs like fortnite,valorant and even among us which is like 8bit game.Well its true when it comes to gta type of game most people have diferent expectations but our game is differnt from the typical gta games is kinda like niche game

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

2 hours ago, AlienTM said:

they upgrade the current with stuff from unreal 3+ so idk about dat fps dou if gonna go higher but i dont see the problem if game runs well

 

The matchmaking gonna be way better than current if we have at least 3k players..and we will get it dats the minimum i expect after the upgrade

and other thing-doesnt really matter anymore if the game is old/looks old or whatever.Depends more what the game itself is and how good it runs.Some of the most popular games right now are for low end pcs like fortnite,valorant and even among us which is like 8bit game.Well its true when it comes to gta type of game most people have diferent expectations but our game is differnt from the typical gta games is kinda like niche game

Doesn't matter if APB had 100k players. You're only ever going to get a chance to be matched against like 10 people.

[R3ACT3M 489]

3 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

Doesn't matter if APB had 100k players. You're only ever going to get a chance to be matched against like 10 people.

wonder if the servers can be expanded at all. 80 people 40/40 is just not enough. Hopefully this phasing thing will be black magic like Matt makes it out to be

[AlienTM 138]

5 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

Doesn't matter if APB had 100k players. You're only ever going to get a chance to be matched against like 10 people.

if the game have 100k players dats like 200-300 districts.If you dont like the matches in 1 u aint gonna change it or what..also dats gonna bring way more threat lvls not just 4 like was before

Edited December 12, 2022 by AlienTM

[MonteJr 4]

Hopefully something cool comes in the future.

There's a lot I could ramble about, but I think most has been said already. While I'm not active anymore, I do hope maybe I can come back when things have picked up.

 

My big fear is putting so much hype on some form of engine update, when really what we need is content, but we need the update to get better content.

"Any sort of update on this engine is like putting a brick on a house of cards." -

[vsb 6171]

2 hours ago, AlienTM said:

if the game have 100k players dats like 200-300 districts.If you dont like he match in 1 u aint gonna change it or what..also dats gonna bring way more threat lvls not just 4 like was before

we already have more than 4 threat levels

 

having to change districts to get a mission is poor game design 

[Frosi 722]

 

On 12/6/2022 at 2:52 PM, NotZombieBiscuit said:

Why'd you hide your names

I authored the letter and intentionally made the decision to make it anonymous, this way players aren't afraid to give their unfiltered feedback to some of the serious topics at hand. The overall amount of toxicity in the game coming from some players will also make players not want to put their name on something they don't know the outcome of.

On 12/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, yourrandomnobody74 said:

also why not list the "18 page weapon balance
Who were the authors of proposed changes?

Here you go this was also entirely authored by me, almost all of these changes are my ideas and opinions, nothing is set in stone and this is nothing more than a passion project of mine.

On 12/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, yourrandomnobody74 said:

What model of game do they have in mind when balancing?

The changes in the document are balancing around the current state of the game and primarily focus on buffs to underused guns or some that were recently over-nerfed.

 

On 12/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, yourrandomnobody74 said:

Have they balanced around the actual weapons or around mods?

Both, its usually easier to buff guns without taking mods in mind considering many of them don't exactly have a set of meta mods to use on them especially when it comes to red mods which tend to change a gun the most. For Meta guns, nerfs shouldn't entirely kill a certain mod on a weapon (I am aware that was the case with CJ N-tec as well as HB2 N-tec back in the day) but in many cases there's also not a huge amount of room for nerfs in areas in which a gun is over-performing, again using the N-tec as an example, lowering the RoF would've been an option rather than nerfing its bloom / jump accuracy although this change was tested in a public test environment previously and was received with even more negative response than a simple max-bloom nerf. Balance is so incredibly subjective and guns like the Oblivion or even DMR-AV existed in that very state for the longest time before people have figured out just how strong they are after another part of the game has been touched.

On 12/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, yourrandomnobody74 said:

Do said changes catter a certain crowd more than another?

With the exception of the DMR-AV nerf I want to say that none of the changes in the document cater specifically to one type of play, this is also largely helped by the fact that its almost all buffs to weapons that never see any use in high level play anyways.

On 12/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, yourrandomnobody74 said:

Does better mechanical skill win?

I honestly think that higher mechanical skill already wins you fights, aiming, knowing how to play around cover and so on, I know the suggestion of overall lowering the bloom / increasing base accuracy exists but that'd require a rework for more than half the weapons in the game so I personally don't see that as an option, if balancing a hand full of guns is an issue then I don't see how this is a possible path.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Frosi

[gremlen 18]

On 12/12/2022 at 2:21 PM, AlienTM said:

The matchmaking gonna be way better than current if we have at least 3k players..and we will get it dats the minimum i expect after the upgrade

and other thing-doesnt really matter anymore if the game is old/looks old or whatever.

Even with 3k online matchmaking will still be bad. You're always locked to 40v40 and you will never have the fairest district instance. Also a faction segregation is also a big problem. I think you had a time when opposite faction in a district is literally dead or consist of players with much lower skill level than you. It turns out to infinite loop of empty missions.

On 12/12/2022 at 2:21 PM, AlienTM said:

Some of the most popular games right now are for low end pcs like fortnite,valorant and even among us which is like 8bit game.Well its true when it comes to gta type of game most people have diferent expectations but our game is differnt from the typical gta games is kinda like niche game

Valorant reaches 300fps on low end pc while apb's engine can't handle such framerate. The current engine is so ancient, it is from the era when people didn't even think they will ever need something beyond 60fps. Unreal engine 2.5/3 is not optimized to run on high fps. We will never have something beyond 144fps on low end pc and even low end pc that runs valo and fortnite 200+ fps barely runs apb with 144fps and 64bit won't change it, it will only fix stutters and add smoothness.

 

Merged.

 

19 hours ago, Frosi said:

Here you go this was also entirely authored by me as well, almost all of these changes are my ideas and opinions, nothing is set in stone and this is nothing more than a passion project of mine.

 

You're trying to balance weapons that in its core are trash and had to be never released. For example, norsemen. G1 tried to reinvent oca and combine it with aces. This weapon should be removed entirely and its model should be used for a reskin of a baseline weapon. It goes to almost every new weapon that was added with a vision of being alternative to baseline weapons. 

 

Another example is FAR. It supposed to be an ntec alternative. But the problem is that it's basically a reinvention of ntec with slightly different stats. G1 had to make a weapon with unique mechanic in ntec effective area. G1 made a great balance decision while making several choice in marksmanship role. For mid-long range there're obeya or obir, for cqc-mid range carbine or oscar. G1 didn't reinvent another obeya or carbine back in the days, they made weapons with a different mechanics in their effective areas. The same should be implemented with ntec alternative. FAR either needs to be balanced as pmg/oca balance with same ttk but different stk and firerate or it needs to be turned out into a weapon with a burst mechanic with higher accuracy but slower ttk as in competitive pairs of obeya/obir or carbine/oscar

 

For OCSP it would be better being just an fbw reskin. Basically, the balance for the pistol will be same as a balance between the sitting duck and a regular scout rt1.

 

Post-2014 G1 spammed the game with multiple useless weapons that are either op as hell comparing to what weapon it had to be alternative or an alternative weapon with slightly worse stats.

 

My suggestion is to cut half of weapons that are not used. It's not possible to balance it right without changing the meta from a baseline weapons to those that are locked behind a paywall or a long jt grind wall.

 

P.S. I agree with said words about jg and csg. These weapons should not exist in its current iteration in a 3rd person shooter.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

10 hours ago, gremlen said:

Even with 3k online matchmaking will still be bad. You're always locked to 40v40 and you will never have the fairest district instance. Also a faction segregation is also a big problem. I think you had a time when opposite faction in a district is literally dead or consist of players with much lower skill level than you. It turns out to infinite loop of empty missions.

Valorant reaches 300fps on low end pc while apb's engine can't handle such framerate. The current engine is so ancient, it is from the era when people didn't even think they will ever need something beyond 60fps. Unreal engine 2.5/3 is not optimized to run on high fps. We will never have something beyond 144fps on low end pc and even low end pc that runs valo and fortnite 200+ fps barely runs apb with 144fps and 64bit won't change it, it will only fix stutters and add smoothness.

Don't forget APB has a similar issue to games of the time that it just struggles to pump out large amounts of pixels. Even back then 1080p was only just the standard. A lot of the old APB media material is in 720p too. 1440p, let alone 4k was not thought of.

[gremlen 18]

4 hours ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

Don't forget APB has a similar issue to games of the time that it just struggles to pump out large amounts of pixels. Even back then 1080p was only just the standard. A lot of the old APB media material is in 720p too. 1440p, let alone 4k was not thought of.

Many games of that time relied more on CPUs than on GPUs. Unreal engine generation of that time struggled with allocating all available resources from gpus. That's why not only apb but many other games on UE3 had big problems with providing a stable frametime without stutters. I wonder why people are waiting huge changes with 64bit release. It won't fix problems that caused by the entire engine core.

[AlienTM 138]

So this is the orb from last update couple of hours ago.Can some1 tell me what we see?Like this is the editor ready before any map loaded in?or what..

 

[OmikronOverload 22]

1 hour ago, AlienTM said:

So this is the orb from last update couple of hours ago.Can some1 tell me what we see?Like this is the editor ready before any map loaded in?or what..

 

They got APB´s modified UnrealEngine3 Working on 64bit. With Assets loading correctly, as Demonstrated by this "Debug Object".

Edited December 14, 2022 by OmikronOverload
tsupid

[MrLek 35]

Suggestion: Little Orbit, use your social networks frequently '-' Mainly instagram and youtube.

Not necessarily just for APB Reloaded, but to move them around and show that the company is still alive.

[Todesklinge 143]

The only way the reacue APB is to add BOTs to the game that filling the districts + action districts. So every time you can play the game and all districts... many times the action districts are empty of players

This is very very important to protect the beginners! It makes no sense if pro/veteran player do slay beginners because of missing matchmaker... they have no chance against and quite the game!!!

 

Another thing is the balance of all green mods and other mods too!

Same for weapons... i am thinking it is better to make many general weapons and all other are just skins (like color skins, also easy to change). So we can easy buy or Grind for weapon skins without to run in to a trouble of unbalanced or weak weapons!

 

Same for all vehicles, we dont need copies of them just as a new one!

So everyone need a general vehicle to add the skin on it, the marketplace and the general reward system works better.

An example:

I am a huge fan of the Waragi (Big Pioneer), so i am allready own both full kits the Armas. But in future you can only purchase the skin and not the vehicle too!

This keeps the grinding alive and makes sense to play the game to level contacts etc.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Todesklinge

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

54 minutes ago, Todesklinge said:

The only way the reacue APB is to add BOTs to the game that filling the districts + action districts. So every time you can play the game and all districts... many times the action districts are empty of players

This is very very important to protect the beginners! It makes no sense if pro/veteran player do slay beginners because of missing matchmaker... they have no chance against and quite the game!!!

 

People want to play against other people. Not bots. APB is a pvp game, go play a pve game if you want bots.

 

I do agree some basic bots for players first few missions as a tutorial experience would be good. But is way too much dev effort for the reward it gives.

[BringBackTomorrow 43]

So we will reach another planet for humanity before we reach engine upgrade...?

[MACKxBOLAN 431]

Too Little Too Late

 I could say that If this whole thread n its sub threads amounted to what one would call, 

Too Little.

 You bring me Nothing.

Only thing U bring is that U admit other people have complained and wrote 'Letters' about Hackers.

Not that U (Matt) agree Hax exist en masse, just that someone wrote a letter.

Not that Your gonna DO anything about them, Oh We're just gonna talk about it.

So the best Action LO can come up with, is to make forum threads n talk about things

that we as players already have had thousands of threads on the various sub subjects related 

to engine upgrade and anti cheat capability.  And

 And We have to wait for yet another Vacation for ya to Respond about these various

subjects. So ya haven't even brought me a Response to call it Too Little Too Late.

 Far as I know from all your postings, You don't even know about desegregation.

Don't know or care that it ruined the game for non golds, never said nothing about it.

And Non of this stuff, your content, contacts, skins, cars, n the rest of your techno garbage

Matters at all. Its the Cart before the Horse Until U Do Something about Hackers

[BringBackTomorrow 43]

No need for LO Community Managers when the community is thin as GamersFirst had faith in APB:Reloaded