Friday test on OTW!

[Emily 139]

Hello everyone!

Last week we had Open Test World open to everyone. And with such short notice, we thank everyone that participated and reported the issues to us! It has helped us tremendously.

Our developer has been very hard at work and has fixed all of the issues that our community has reported and so, this Friday once again starting ay 7PM GMT, we would like to invite you all again to join us in testing matchmaking!

If you have not yet, make sure to grab the OTW client and download it ahead of time so that you can participate: http://apb.patch.ot.gamersfirst.com/APB_OTW_Installer.exe

If you were not part of last week here are the notes that are part of the testing:
Matchmaking Improvements:

• With this build, we have deployed new code based on the existing matchmaking functionality on Live. We have changed the way data is interpreted, used, and calculated with multiple players, but the underlying individual skill rating formulas are the same.
• Matchmaking has been moved from District to World.
• Matchmaking will only function in the same district - at least for now. We plan on expanding matchmaking to function cross-district within the next coming weeks.
• Attempting to ready up cross-district will fail without any errors. This is a known issue and we are tracking it.
• Threat is visible for testing purposes, but may disappear in the future once we are certain the build works as intended and we have proper analytics to ensure our players are always getting the highest quality matches.
• Backup is disabled for this build and will not function. This will be added in a future deployment.
• Unopposed missions are no longer present in this build, and all missions are instantly opposed.
• Team alliance is non-functional and will be re-implemented.
• The matchmaker will no longer attempt to make matches that are unequal in size. You will be matched exactly according to initial mission sizes - 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4.
• Fight Club, Social and Minigame Districts will be unaffected by these changes and are outside the scope of our testing. However, they may be present.

 

See you all there!

[ninjarrrr 218]

was a failure last week and will be a failure again, whats the point?

[Frosi 719]

8 minutes ago, ninjarrrr said:

was a failure last week and will be a failure again, whats the point?

Testing the stability of the new system and making sure its absolutely ready for live, you'd be whining non stop if last weeks iteration released to live and would've went "Did anyone even test this?!"

[ninjarrrr 218]

1 minute ago, Frosi said:

Testing the stability of the new system and making sure its absolutely ready for live, you'd be whining non stop if last weeks iteration released to live and would've went "Did anyone even test this?!"

the new system is shit anyway, world matchmaking is an awful idea and fixing the matchmaking should've been a prioty years ago not when the playerbase is lower than ever

[Kiida 454]

pls stop complaining purely for the sake of it

be happy the game's getting any updates at all, let alone major ones like this

Edited November 15, 2023 by Kiida

[TheMessiah 424]

The disconects from last test are fixed right?I wasnt even able to start a match and had to wait like 15 min before login again

[FakeBungo 242]

5 hours ago, ninjarrrr said:

the new system is shit anyway, world matchmaking is an awful idea and fixing the matchmaking should've been a prioty years ago not when the playerbase is lower than ever

yeah it will just kill the game further, and there was nothing wrong with in-district matchmaking to begin with. if anything it was a feature of apb that other games lack, as apb is uniquely open world.

 

if they cared to develop the game they would fix the servers, lag, bugs, and ban cheaters.

Edited November 15, 2023 by FakeBungo

[Yapopal 123]

Will be glad to take part in this test. Don't think it will help you if I just go into the game and start playing. To do this i will ask:
1. What should you pay attention to during the test?
2. Where should I send information about identified problems?

[CookiePuss 5356]

5 hours ago, Yapopal said:

Will be glad to take part in this test. Don't think it will help you if I just go into the game and start playing. To do this i will ask:
1. What should you pay attention to during the test?
2. Where should I send information about identified problems?

We may get more detailed instructions if needed, but for the most part we just need people to show up and K up. That’s about it, then just play the missions as normal. 

[Frosi 719]

6 hours ago, Yapopal said:

1. What should you pay attention to during the test?

Mainly just if it works and if you encountered any bugs, maybe also the time it took to get opposition (although the latter isn't as important for OTW tests)

 

6 hours ago, Yapopal said:

2. Where should I send information about identified problems?

In this thread or the LO discord would be my guess

[Talla 81]

I'd like to help test but my PC doesn't want me to play APB anymore.
I think the cache cleaning algorithm on respawn/death is incompatible with my 4090.

 

Anyone else with recent hardware in the same predicament?

Edited November 15, 2023 by Talla

[BlatMan 656]

Like I said in the previous test thread. I can run this test with a single workstation. Run as many VMs as you want. Run them all in linux. We're not testing cross district matchmaking, we're not testing game performance, so no need to test with real players.

 

Also, most people's test accounts are going to have the wrong threat applied. No one is going to play enough missions on the test server to equalize their threat. Even then, there's no way for players to compare the existing system to this new one, because we can't see the real threat value, only a solid color.

 

And your forum editor is still broken. It decided to randomly post my comment while I was in the middle of typing. Maybe I accidentally hit Enter, but I doubt it since this keyboard requires 70g of force to press a key.

 

14 minutes ago, Talla said:

I'd like to help test but my PC doesn't want me to play APB anymore.
I think the cache cleaning algorithm on respawn/death is incompatible with my 4090.

 

Anyone else with recent hardware in the same predicament?

 

Game runs like crap since the 11/8/23 EAC update. I have a W3680. Friends have between 7th Gen i7 to 13th gen i5. All of us experience the same low fps during missions. It's not nessessarily just low fps, it's choppy. 80fps feels like 30 or lower when the fps drop happens. For my PC, I don't know if it's Epic Online Services or Windows 10 causing the issue, but for my friends they had 10 prior and didn't have as many fps drops before the update.

 

I couldn't stay connected to EU Financial but EU Waterfrontran fine. One friend kept DC'ing on US servers, depsite having 10ms to US West and less than 90ms to US East. I've had multiple people complain about hitreg in /w and on discord. The one guy was screaming about his shots not hitting me, then all of a sudden I see him peak the corner and min ttk me, as if the server was running seconds behind.

Edited November 15, 2023 by BlatMan

[Frosi 719]

4 hours ago, Talla said:

I'd like to help test but my PC doesn't want me to play APB anymore.
I think the cache cleaning algorithm on respawn/death is incompatible with my 4090.

 

Anyone else with recent hardware in the same predicament?

I'm on a 4080 and I am not experiencing any of those issues.

[BUC0 5]

I am very happy to see and test new mm system since last week i was out of town, it is great to see something new and get some news. Excited to try it on larger scale when there will be full on cross district mm. 

I would just like to ask some questions or say some of my opinions.

On 11/15/2023 at 2:00 AM, Emily said:

Threat is visible for testing purposes, but may disappear in the future

Does this mean that thread may not be visible in final version of new matchmaking system?

I know lot of people complain that being gold is one of the reasons that people start cheating but i do not really see this as valid reason since i feel like getting to gold is quiet easy, also i like to see rank and color to know what can be expected from opponent or team mate, if he is skilled or not, you can even spot tryhard based on thread, rank and weapon of choice and equip to it accordingly. Or play more relaxed if you got matched with some new players. i understand this issue might get completely solved by new mm system and you will always try to play your best but still it helps with reading of next actions of your opponent. For example i see someone unskilled and i know i can try to get them straight on with just gunplay, on the other hand if i see some very skilled player i should first find good cover and angle to get as much advantage as possible (usually too lazy to do it like that).  

 

On 11/15/2023 at 2:00 AM, Emily said:

Unopposed missions are no longer present in this build

Will this be in final version too? Sometimes i am not even mad to do solo mission sometimes it is interesting too and you can learn map better and try random things while you are not under pressure.
 

 

On 11/15/2023 at 2:00 AM, Emily said:

The matchmaker will no longer attempt to make matches that are unequal in size. You will be matched exactly according to initial mission sizes - 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4.

Same as before... will this be in final version too? Maybe it would make calling backup unnecessarily. So are teams gonna be always equal sizes in final version? And will there be larger teams than 4 as of now we can make nice and large chaotic missions.

[Frosi 719]

4 minutes ago, BUC0 said:

Will this be in final version too? Sometimes i am not even mad to do solo mission sometimes it is interesting too and you can learn map better and try random things while you are not under pressure.

For the time being it looks as if unopposed missions are just not gonna be a thing anymore, I wouldn't expect to see them back for some time, definitely not back for when the system goes live.

 

5 minutes ago, BUC0 said:

Same as before... will this be in final version too? Maybe it would make calling backup unnecessarily. So are teams gonna be always equal sizes in final version? And will there be larger teams than 4 as of now we can make nice and large chaotic missions.

Teams will always be equal in size, lop sided matches usually imply giving a side extra players to make up for a larger gap in mmr between players so they got away with this for the sake of better match quality, so yes this is how it'll be when the system goes live, however, during testing players also voiced their concern about not having the occasional super large, chaotic mission anymore and LO is looking at a possible opt in option to allow the matchmaker to make larger missions for those that really want to play them, this however won't be part of when the system goes live, its something they can consider/do down the line.

[TheMessiah 424]

13 minutes ago, Frosi said:

during testing players also voiced their concern about not having the occasional super large, chaotic mission anymore and LO is looking at a possible opt in option to allow the matchmaker to make larger missions for those that really want to play them

50 vs 50 mode for finan/waterf in 2 separate districts(visually:on the dist select-below the 2 current mission dist-another 2 for the mode like how was open conflict)U just press K and join this 1 big mission for 15 min and u encounter enemys everywhere around the map(win/lose by score:enf 150-crims 135 for example)U progress contacts,no camp spots,fair match,better performance(yes will be better when only 1 mission runnin-halloween event prove it)also better understanding for new players-u just kill the red names and team with the green ones.I suggest this for years now..is better option than messin with this new matchmaking

[Frosi 719]

14 minutes ago, TheMessiah said:

50 vs 50 mode for finan/waterf in 2 separate districts(visually:on the dist select-below the 2 current mission dist-another 2 for the mode like how was open conflict)U just press K and join this 1 big mission for 15 min and u encounter enemys everywhere around the map(win/lose by score:enf 150-crims 135 for example)U progress contacts,no camp spots,fair match,better performance(yes will be better when only 1 mission runnin-halloween event prove it)also better understanding for new players-u just kill the red names and team with the green ones.I suggest this for years now..is better option than messin with this new matchmaking

Not everyone likes these large missions, I'd even go as far as say its not even half the population that would want to play these large missions non stop or very frequently, they can be fun every now and then but even those that like it would probably get tired / exhausted of playing them all the time and those that don't like them just wouldn't really enjoy themselves either.

 

APB doesn't exactly flow all too well in these larger mission sizes, even 4v4 has issues that lead to frustrating gameplay experiences and I think the overall gameplay quality would degrade quite fast if larger missions were made the norm so I'd much rather they focus on what was initially intended and designed around which is 4v4 being the cap for even matches.

 

In the future they can look into options to allow for larger missions like they already said but the main thing this requires is players as no one should be forced into these larger missions if they don't enjoy them and would much rather stick to what the game was designed around which was 2v2/3v3/4v4. For now they want matches to be more fair and fun rather than lean into a niche that was caused by years of poor matchmaking leading to backup wars that accidentally created these large missions that were never part of the games overall design.

[Y2Venom 199]

1 hour ago, TheMessiah said:

50 vs 50 mode for finan/waterf in 2 separate districts(visually:on the dist select-below the 2 current mission dist-another 2 for the mode like how was open conflict)U just press K and join this 1 big mission for 15 min and u encounter enemys everywhere around the map(win/lose by score:enf 150-crims 135 for example)U progress contacts,no camp spots,fair match,better performance(yes will be better when only 1 mission runnin-halloween event prove it)also better understanding for new players-u just kill the red names and team with the green ones.I suggest this for years now..is better option than messin with this new matchmaking

 

When ever there was something like this, it never really worked as intended. It just became a huge stand off where everybody switched to Sniper and camped. Personally i do not think APB should be any less then 4 V 4 . Scrap 3s 2s and most definitely scrap 1 v 1 .

[vsb 6131]

4 hours ago, Y2Venom said:

 

When ever there was something like this, it never really worked as intended. It just became a huge stand off where everybody switched to Sniper and camped. Personally i do not think APB should be any less then 4 V 4 . Scrap 3s 2s and most definitely scrap 1 v 1 .

Anarchy and Chaos mode didn’t work in the past because there were no objectives to push players around the map

 

With objectives, it would essentially just be a better version of fight club but without the issues that come from the too-small fight club maps, and then could be expanded upon with additional mechanics that would never work in fight club 

[BUC0 5]

Yea i think so too, if there were some objectives to move players to specific area it could be cool, dont know about 50v50 but imagine big shoot out for 10v10 everyone behind cover or on roof, someone pushing with opgl osmaw and dump truck, basically am just imagining old trailer

[Gothina 22]

Getting kicked from server x2.

I'm in for like 5 min driving around. Does not get in any mission.

 

Trying for the third time, now I can't choose any off my 2 chars. I can not delete any off them. So I'm stuck att the starting screen.

 

4th try, my character has been logged in on another place for over 30 min.

 

I'm out......

Edited November 17, 2023 by Gothina

[Talla 81]

Is there a Discord for testers?

I'm in the good ol' APB community one.
https://discord.gg/uU7xQmdd

 

EDIT: Installing OTW build atm, will report here once testing is over.
/*Crickets noise*/ Pretty empty in here, hopefully the devs won't have to test-drive in the live environment.

1st try: 10007 - Login failed - Servers unavailable
2nd try: Error code 4 : Steam Login failed - Check your user & password

Edited November 17, 2023 by Talla

[Gothina 22]

1 hour ago, Talla said:

2nd try: Error code 4 : Steam Login failed - Check your user & password

I'm not sure but I don't think you can log in with steam.

You have to log in with your mail and password.

[FakeBungo 242]

11 hours ago, BUC0 said:

Yea i think so too, if there were some objectives to move players to specific area it could be cool, dont know about 50v50 but imagine big shoot out for 10v10 everyone behind cover or on roof, someone pushing with opgl osmaw and dump truck, basically am just imagining old trailer

there was rare times you got something like 8v8 matches, they were super fun and chaotic. i feel like apb sucks as 2v2 and 3v3, its too easy if you have 1 good player just win easily. 4v4 feels more like a good minimum match size from what i recall.

[Y2Venom 199]

20 hours ago, Talla said:

Is there a Discord for testers?

I'm in the good ol' APB community one.
https://discord.gg/uU7xQmdd

 

EDIT: Installing OTW build atm, will report here once testing is over.
/*Crickets noise*/ Pretty empty in here, hopefully the devs won't have to test-drive in the live environment.

1st try: 10007 - Login failed - Servers unavailable
2nd try: Error code 4 : Steam Login failed - Check your user & password

I had the same issue.  Servers unavailable, try again later. I gave up.