(Game) Revive the Prestige/Notoriety Mission System

[Akumaka 33]

I've heard a lot of chatter lately about how P/N5 players tend to be disruptive of missions and other game activities, even during the recent Q&A, and that is an entirely fair observation.  It's not uncommon to log into a populated district and see 2 to 4 Bounties running around the zone causing havoc.  What people may not know, is that P/N5 was a lot less common in RTW APB, and that was due to a Prestige/Notoriety-based Mission System that was removed when the game relaunched into APB: Reloaded.

 

They were called APB Missions - yes, they were literally named along with the game.

 

The following is purely through my own recollection, but it was a long time ago so any older players can feel free to correct me if I get any of it wrong.

 

Here is how the system worked:

 

At P/N3, you would begin to have a chance to be pulled into a short, 1-stage kill mission called an "APB."  This could happen whether you were "Ready" (K'd up) or not.  A big "APB" logo with flashing lights would appear on your screen, and a player or players from the opposing faction who were queued for a mission would be placed against you and you would duke it out until you won or lost.  Backup could still be called, if you wanted, but I recall people got annoyed if they got called in to one of these short one-stage missions.

 

At the end of the mission, if you won, you would maintain or more likely increase your Prestige/Notoriety.  If you lost, your Prestige/Notoriety level would be reset back to 0.

 

Once you hit P/N4, the chances of being pulled into an "APB" were higher.  At P/N5 they were higher yet again, but with the additional challenge of having a free for all Bounty on your head just like we have today.

 

The end result, relevant to recent complaints, was far fewer P/N5s running around.  It was harder to get, and it was much more of an accomplishment to do so.

 

The Prestige/Notoriety system used to be so much more a part of the game than the current system, where it's just used for rewards multiplication and bounties.  I would love to see it put back into the game, especially as it was once such a core feature.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Akumaka
Grammar