Chat with Matt! Tuesday Nov 21rst!

[Emily 144]

Hey everyone!

 

Big news on the horizon! Our CEO, Matt Scott, is gearing up for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event to discuss the latest updates and changes coming to APB. This is your golden opportunity to dive into the details, so get those burning questions ready!

 

Here's how it works: Drop your questions in this thread, and we'll add them to our list. Feel free to upvote the questions you're most excited to see answered!

 

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, November 21, at 7 pm UTC / 11 am PST. Join us and say hi to our CEO during this live session! Don't miss out on the chance to be part of the conversation.

See you there! 

Little Orbit Twitch Channel

[CIoud 26]

⠀

Edited January 29 by who

[RandomAPBplayer 30]

OK. So after all important stuff like matchmaking, console fix and contacts are done, what type of content will be added afterwards?

[CROWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW 3]

Any upcoming QoL changes coming any time soon?

[SuperChaffee 69]

1. Would it be possible to get rare skins, for example the Butcher, Joker or others by means of new events, or sales in the Joker ticket store?

 

 

2. Would it be possible to do different events with the gms more often, or to do events similar to those in the past, e.g. hunting and chasing gms through the district?

 

 

 

3. Will the new contacts include new rewards ?

 

 

 

4. With the future arrival of new contacts, will there also be new levels, e.g. ranks higher than 255?

 

 

 

5. Would it be possible to level up or get unique rewards in the Fightclub district of Asylum?

 

 

 

 

6. There will be new clothes or items for sale, for example those mentioned in the NEW CLOTHING CONTENT SURVEY ?

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by SuperChaffee

[(Xbox)MortisedGuide 46]

2 hours ago, Emily said:

Hey everyone!

 

Big news on the horizon! Our CEO, Matt Scott, is gearing up for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event to discuss the latest updates and changes coming to APB. This is your golden opportunity to dive into the details, so get those burning questions ready!

 

Here's how it works: Drop your questions in this thread, and we'll add them to our list. Feel free to upvote the questions you're most excited to see answered!

 

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, November 21, at 7 pm UTC / 11 am PST. Join us and say hi to our CEO during this live session! Don't miss out on the chance to be part of the conversation.

See you there!

 

I know I'm coping but.

 

Will we ever see a update for console. Like give me a predicted or suggested time slot of a console update.

 

I'm not holding out I play PC but it would be nice. Same as optimization for series x consoles and ps5 cause the game still doesn't run good. Same as more issues. It would be nice for the content update for console. 

[BlatMan 706]

Any word on the performance loss caused by the EAC patch on 11/08/23? The frame rate slowly decreases over time. 1 CPU core gets pegged at 100% usage, while all other cores are below 20% usage. This is not normal behavior. Prior to that patch, APB would run 2 CPU cores at about 80-90%, and the rest between 10-30%. I could leave APB open for 6+ hours in the background and have zero performance degradation. Now the framerate loss is noticed within 30 minutes.

[TheMessiah 430]

Have only one question dat bothers me and is essential(for me at least)How you gonna do anything in future in this massive/messy game if its clear dat u have no funding(because all external project failed by ur words)and with one person workin on this game?How i can believe dat this game have any future..

[FakeBungo 248]

do you think unbanning cheaters was a good idea after the fact, seeing as there is approximately 0 people playing jericho servers and EU is full of cheaters?

[R3ACT3M 489]

(for some of my questions. I'm well aware other fundamental things need to be solved, but I still want to know)

1. I know it will probably be something for the far future, but will we see any of the 3.5 visual changes backported to life? Like the palm trees in social or the LOD improvements we saw being made?
2. Will there be a plan at some point to rework gun play in APB (changing many guns fundamentally to try and improve boring meta's; this is not me asking for nerfs or buffs but changes in how guns are actually played and feel)?
3. What other systems are in the scope of fundamental rewrites that might take a year or two to complete? When most of these rewrites are complete, what kind of content plan will we see for APB? Will more team members be added to the dev list for content?
4. Will we see the real ads tested in the 3.5 beta brought back to Live?
5. At what point in development will you look at APB and say, Yeah, this is good. Let's make premium something users can pay for again?
6. Will NA and EU be merged after the final matchmaking update?

[CommandantSteele 52]

Less of a question, more of a giant concern that I'd like to bring forward for discussion. I'll be copying my post from the other thread.

 

Quote

Step 2 leverages the logic at the World server to allow for Cross District matchmaking with the ability to aggregate players across any District server to move them all onto a single District server for their match. In this Phase, players can join any district and threat is removed. All of that is used behind the scenes during matchmaking. It also means friends can play with friends anywhere they want - even Social - while they queue for matches.

 

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I have severely mixed feelings on this. I understand the intent: Allowing for more people to get into more matches, but it feels like this will kill the spirit of the game. Part of the magic of APB, for me at least, has been the quasi-open world nature of the game. Everyone exists on the map at all times. This makes the city feel like it lives and breathes in a way that a lot of other games fail to capture. Now, it is undeniable that this leads to problems like people taking dump-trucks and ramming cars around or blocking off streets with massive piles of stolen vehicles, but I think that there are more elegant and focused solutions to those problems that don't affect the feel of the game as a whole.

 

Going back to having everyone existing on the same map, I've made a number of friends by noticing someone on a mission had a cool outfit that I liked. So I sent them a message saying that I liked their outfit, followed up by a friend request when their mission was done or they were otherwise not in a gunfight for a minute. It was nice. These changes feel like they'll cripple this social aspect of the game, because who would I see anymore? The ability to queue for games in the social district means that there's basically no reason to ever leave it. It also means that if I'm playing with a group of friends I can't go and be AFK for a moment by hopping over to the social district, because if I can queue or be queued for games in that district, I can never get up for a moment and allow the rest of my group to keep playing.

 

Not to mention that if you're not running on a powerful computer + high speed internet that can handle loading and reloading into districts all the time, your enjoyment of the game is going to plummet.

 

I agree with removing threat, as it's become an extensively problematic aspect of the game that is only used to support elitism and generally toxic behavior. One of the big reasons why I stopped playing is that I would get into a mission and immediately have teammates start leaving, either because they were gold and didn't want to play with a silver/bronze, or they were silver/bronze and wanted a team of golds to carry them to gold, and so on and so forth. At the end of the day, it's something that personally should've been gone long ago.

 

But, for the main point, I understand why Cross-District Matchmaking is appealing, but I worry about it killing the social aspect of APB, the living city aspect of APB, and making APB feel more like every other lobby-based shooter. I'm sure there's tons of things that I don't know about because I'm not a designer, but this is a strong aspect of APB that I am severely worried about being erased. Why bother customizing my character or my car if nobody's going to passively see it? 

 

I beg of you, Little Orbit: Consider letting people matchmake from anywhere carefully. I don't want to have two-thirds of what makes APB special deleted because the population's a bit low.

 

P.S. because I don't know where to put this: Fight Club might be a fun aspect of the game, but please don't turn the entire game into Fight Club with CDMM.

 

For an actual question:

Are we ever going to see much of a graphical/model update? The graphics that we have now are passable, but for a game so focused on customization it would be a lot nicer if things were less blurry and I couldn't see the individual detail tile things on player models.

Edited November 20, 2023 by CommandantSteele

[ninjarrrr 248]

tell us more about unit game, since u sold the rights and then they also disappeared off the earth

[Ellix 415]

I'd like to ask if it's possible that we will get some map balance changes in the future

Both Waterfront and Financial have some rather unbalanced spots and objective placements.

 

 

 

[Yapopal 164]

What are you aiming for? How do you see the future of game? Is APB a game you love and keep running as a hobby? Or do you want to turn the game into a successful commercial project that can support your company?
In the first version, I would like to express my gratitude to you. In the second option, I would advise allocating more resources to development.

[Frosi 722]

What are the plans for adding more resources to APB? Whether that's hiring or simply shifting resources back to APB?

 

Initially I believe the plan was to shift resources back with the release of the engine upgrade but clearly that hasn't happened after the release of 64Bit, hence why the population once more plummeted after players returned for 64Bit and there was nothing really to keep them around. APB could seriously do with updates every couple of weeks and there is PLENTY of things that you could do that do *NOT* require any coding whatsoever, server side changes such as finally making 80% of the Armas guns that are complete trash relevant which I'm sure would also make you money and will also feel like new content for many as we've been in the same meta more or less for over a decade or even things such as fixing up Waterfront, fixing some of the quirky missions with absurdly long objective timers or stage timers that are too short, making more cars viable, adding new guns (you are long overdue for a legendary) and the list goes on and on.

 

People wouldn't mind waiting a few months for major system overhauls if you at least gave them something to keep them interested in-between said major system overhauls and you can do so by doing things you have to do sooner or later anyways, of course it won't stop everyone from leaving but players will only return so many times before they feel like they've been in this scenario before in which they return, they then have to wait months for something new and they just lose interest because players are basically conditioned to have a short attention span when it comes to games nowadays as just about every popular free to play game spoils their players with bi-weekly updates to keep them interested.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Frosi

[TzickyT 212]

1. Will there be an update for APB's threat system? At this moment the system distinguishes between good and bad players, similar to a ranking system in battle royals or competitive games.
For example wil we able to see new segragations in colors like Diamond and Platinum? or will there be a spot where we can see the mmr added to our info board on how good a person is in standing?
or wil there be no such things as leaderboards or segregations in the future?
 

2. Griefing is one of the biggest issues as a player. for example: Mission blocking, Road blocking, Car spawn Blocking and garage blocking. all precious seconds that you lose when you are doing a mission.
with this availability i wonder if people who intend to play the game on a serious level, wil get frustrated. also presenting the game towards the public with these issues is not pleasent. wil there be a day where these things wil not happen anymore? or are we going to see evolved griefing? like object blocking while a hidden player wil place a dumptruck infront of the item and go in and out repeatabe to stop a person from doing there objective? or people who hiding after predestian cars get there cover stolen becous the car becomes invasble becous an hidden player drives off with it?
 

3. The next step is phasing and at this moment im curious on how Little orbit is going to program this master piece in this old game. i don't see phasing possible vs servers or do you already have a visable idea of what you want to create with this Phasing update?
 

4. Contacts play a significant role in APB, and their impact is crucial in the game. Currently, max-level players have access to all items, while newcomers might be limited to their starter gun and no mods. Is there a possibility of updating the contact unlock method to allow new players to get settled before reaching rank 85? This could help them face max-level players on a more equal footing, providing a better experience for everyone. Or do you have other ideas for this?
 

5. I'm enthusiastic about the potential for modded content in games, and I've asked about this before. Is there a possibility for concept artists to contribute their work to the game in the future? This could include skins, outfits, car kits, maps, gamemodes, and character updates. I'm looking to games like Fortnite, Elder Scrolls and GTA which have thrived for years due to their inventive creations. Would you consider allowing other creators to submit content for the game to be added at a later date?
 

6. Given the controversy surrounding Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) and certain ban waves in the community, can you clarify the company's stance on anti-cheat detection policiesIt would be helpful to understand the approach and measures in place to address cheating concerns within the community. Also are there plans to implement measures against cheat-sellers? Taking action against those who sell cheats is an important aspect of maintaining fair play and integrity within the game.

[iMaverick 7]

There are already good questions on the comments before than me, so I want to suggest something else.

 

Could there be a map where players are not against each other or a new mod where both enforcers and crims fight together maybe. Something PvE but also rewardful. Could be a mod that everyone is trying to survive, there can be many other scenarios. I have been playing fight clubs only and I would love to play such map/mod Just for having fun. It's like playing aram and fun mode games instead of rankeds in League of Legends for example.

[TasteMyKetchup 16]

1. Can you and more colors rank 

Green, Bronze,  Silver, Gold, Diamond 

2.Can u bring back droping weapons after dead... 

That works in riot

 

I still can't get my perm weapons from mail becouse of lack of eq space

Edited November 20, 2023 by TasteMyKetchup

[Daarin 19]

1. Is the matchmaking update a do or die thing? I mean that in a sense are you going to try your hardest and keep working on it until it """works""" even if turns out to be harming the game, or give it a decent try and if it fails as a concept (because of how it changes core design of the game, not talking about technical execution) revert the game back to current matchmaking system? I have also written a bigger post about my concerns with new matchmaking system here: https://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/20886-my-thoughts-on-2023-roadmap/?tab=comments#comment-229993 and i would appreciate if you could read it.

 

2. If all the things from past roadmap go according to plan, how many average concurrent daily and unique monthly players are you expecting? Wgat do you think would be peak possible playerbase for APB if most of your goals are met now and in future. Is the main plan to slightly increase the playerbase and work on player retention, or to work on promoting the game and reaching out as many players as possible?

 

3. Are we going to see more events and sales, and i mean that in quantity, not in terms of quality? There is an easy opportunity to always have the events and sales going on, why not for an example always have something on discount, both on armas and JT store, free rotating weekly trials for JT store guns, more ways to earn JT and other rewards with logins, small missions. New event every 2-3 weeks with basic rewards that are already in game would be very engaging and easily boost player retention imo.

 

4. Are you going to be investing into more projects or are you going to focus solely on APB now? However you look at it, the game has been neglected, besides one or two devs doing their best to improve it. Are there any plans to increase the number of devs working on the game?

 

5. When can we expect more active engagement from staff and more communication? And how frequent is the communication going to be?

 

6. Beard grooming tips, do you use any products etc..

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Daarin

[CommandantSteele 52]

Some more questions that came to mind.

 

1: Is APB ever going to see a revisit to certain weapon concepts that were deemed non-viable when originally considered? Things like dual-wielding, super-heavy weapons, and melee weapons.

 

2: Will we ever see a double-barreled shotgun introduced into the game? It's been floating around conceptually for ages.

 

3: Would it be possible to implement an expansion to the current slider ranges for character customization? APB is fantastic where it is, but it would be neat to have the ability to play a character that's freakishly tall, for instance. That being said, I recognize the design difficulty in attempting this with APB's hitboxes/physics, so I can understand hesitation. Still, I'd like to see a bigger variety in ranges on a lot of the sliders.

[Nickolai 206]

1. Clan Overhaul System - We are 10 Years overdue for a complete overhaul of the outdated clan system (also known as the extended friends list). We need custom clan ranks, a clan bank, a system that allows us to distribute clan assets like clothes, vehicles, symbols ect. I have dedicated 2 Max Rank Characters for the storage, creation and distribution for clan assets because there is no system in place to do it and most people don't have the patience or will to do inventory juggling (can't blame them). For an MMO this is unacceptable.

2. Email Search Function - Self explanatory 

3. Unreleased 4 Slot Vehicles - When will we get the 4 Slot Versions of the Charge Sentinel and Dolton Montane? Odd thing to ask but since I'm a completionist I would like to have them available for purchase. 

[nndrei 129]

What is your plan to bring more players to the game?

Do you have any suspicion why so few people play APB despite being Free to play?

Edited November 20, 2023 by nndrei

[jmiIos 24]

When are u going to do about the people playing on the most disgusting graphics?

 (and no the game being "competitive" is not an excuse, Even the most competitive game Counter Strike has standards, especially now with CS2 even on higher graphics there is a very minimal visual change).   You seem to care more about people editing time of the day or skybox as if the game has always been known for it's amazing dynamic weather and not the design, which you can COMPLETELY get rid of and   strip the game of any artwork and to make matters even worse those graphics barely even boost any FPS compared to the horrendous graphics they have. Hell, only one change like turning off texture   streaming gives a higher fps boost than all of those settings combined and it doesn't change the visuals at all. At the very least raise the limit for "LightAndShadowMap" to 1024, "Environment" to 256 and   Characters to "256/512". This is what makes up most of the game and they have minimal fps impact compared to the visual changes they bring.

 

When are u going to do something about the core mechanics of the game? 
nade cooking behind a corner with infinite shoulder switching, crouching and leaning having only two state hitbox with no fatigue (Even CS that's FPS has fatigue for it). How can it be competitive in any way (not even causal competitive) when it doesn't punish players for their mistakes, not even going to talk about insta car get in glitch.

 

Are you going to do something about making the game more team based?

 People keep talking about it being very team based but yet it's as bland as it gets, ratting and car glitching 24/7. At the very least adding smokes with some optimisations for fps/trolling for it like smokes only   being visible for the people in the mission and limiting resupplying them from field supplier only with higher resupply time than nades. Or increasing the nade limit to 3 (2 HE nades + 1 smoke). Optionally   they could take 1 frag and 1 conc (2 HE). Or implementing "location pinging" for specific stuff like CS/Apex has.

 

Remove explosives from fightclub or at the very least fix resupplying from contacts/mailbox/car spawn and remove Joker Ammo?

 Currently ammo is under appreciated since u can get it from so many places (mailbox, contacts, joker ammo, car spawn, car, big ammo box , field supplier) it would be a lot better if they could just resupply   from field supplier. I think Frosi talked about this in his weapon balance notes

 

What about adding clipping for these 2 places?

I already talked to Secrets about but he said he was busy with MM. Despite that this still shouldn't be a lot of work and it would be a significant change map balance wise

 

adding a clipping on the lower window above the door from both sides is all it takes, currently only the upper side of the window has clipping. From there you can jump on the speaker then wall and then the 3rd floor.

Adding a clipping for the lower white wall so you could jump on the pole and then the 3rd floor.

 

With ONLY these two clippings people could now navigate different places A LOT faster. If the item is on the 3rd floor instead of having to fight through the 2nd floor stairs (which is most of the time covered) or going from the first floor ALL the way around to flank they could just climb here and sandwich people. Like the narrow "JG staircase" for example.

[mtz 496]

First things first, massive thanks for breaking the silence and coming forward with an AMA stream (though I do understand the reasons behind the silence as described in the recent blogpost; again, my condolences, and I wish the best for the future).

As for the actual questions I would have, trying not to repeat the ones I've already seen here:

1. For all of the love I have for the game as a whole, I'm also eager to point out that APB's first time user experience (FTUE) is absolutely abysmal. The tutorial system is clunky and uninviting; some time ago I'd managed to get a friend of mine to give the game a shot and he said he found my advice a lot more comprehensible than the tutorial menu. I remember that plans to improve FTUE were already brought up in the past, but approximately speaking: how much of a priority is improving FTUE?
    
2. One of the things from APB's past which I would actually say was a good idea is the Refer-a-Friend system... on a conceptual level. Its implementation left a lot to be desired, owing largely to the fact that the actual invited players saw no profit from the system and the inviter got to reap the full benefits, including some really good items to get as account-bound. Would LO be willing to reintroduce the Refer-a-Friend system in some shape or form at some point? Otherwise, are there any plans to encourage or incentivize players to recommend the game to others?
    
3. The interface of the game is honestly a bit dated in various ways. Besides having mechanical issues (the UI running on both Scaleform and Kismet being probably the biggest one, but there's also the reliance on non-descriptive bars instead of exact values) I think it's also showing its age visually and aesthetically. Are there any plans to modernize or otherwise update the game's user interface?
    

I think that's it from me. Looking forward to the Q&A!

[Hexerin 1140]

20 hours ago, SuperChaffee said:

1. Would it be possible to get rare skins, for example the Butcher, Joker or others by means of new events, or sales in the Joker ticket store?

That image on the bottom left isn't weapon skins. Those are actual weapons, custom created for specific players by G1/RG. It would be in extremely bad taste to make those weapons (and/or their skins) available to everyone. Especially since they're all just functionally identical variants of the weapon, with a fixed Tagger mod that uses their spraypaint.

 

https://apbdb.com/items/Weapon_SniperRifle_HVR243-SD_Sluttles

https://apbdb.com/items/Weapon_SniperRifle_HVR762_Slot3_Rapid99

https://apbdb.com/items/Weapon_SniperRifle_HVR243-SD_PurpleCat

https://apbdb.com/items/Weapon_Pistol_FBW-SD_Kitteh

https://apbdb.com/items/Weapon_Explosive_OSMAW_Bastard