Preview from Matt: Mobilize

[MageLO 144]

Hello everyone,

 

Today we're excited to announce the addition of Cross-District Matchmaking, something we have been working towards for over a year and should significantly help by improving the overall match quality!
 

We have also just published a new blog post from Matt which talks about all things Cross-District Matchmaking as well as significant improvements to our current Anti-Cheat solution and policies.

 

To find out more about Cross-District Matchmaking and our improvements to SARD please head over to our dedicated blog post.

[Darkzero3802 613]

I am skeptical as to how effective this will be in improving matchmaking quality and in banning cheaters. To date nothing has worked and they have easily skirted any cheat detection. Heres to hoping this will actually do something but one big thing that needed addressing yesterday is hitreg. You cant balance weapons when they dont work properly to begin with and that should have happened first.

[BlatMan 715]

"If we have 100% confidence that you are cheating, then you can be banned at our discretion. We have found that there are some players who cheat at a level there is no other solution. We have to ban them. It's unfortunate, but we can't ignore it. Cheat at your own risk. You may lose your account."

In other words, you will ignore players who are 100% cheating. If you were really going to put in any effect, you will have said "will" instead of "can" and "may"

[LilyRain 676]

tldr: EU is to help us debug Cross District matchmaking. NA can join next year with Cross World Matchmaking since... their population is too low for Cross District to matter.

Edited 17 hours ago by LilyRain

[Romique 10]

13 hours ago, MageLO said:

Hello everyone,

 

Today we're excited to announce the addition of Cross-District Matchmaking, something we have been working towards for over a year and should significantly help by improving the overall match quality!
 

We have also just published a new blog post from Matt which talks about all things Cross-District Matchmaking as well as significant improvements to our current Anti-Cheat solution and policies.

 

To find out more about Cross-District Matchmaking and our improvements to SARD please head over to our dedicated blog post.

dear LO, Mage,  We need a check box - Cross-District Matchmaking on/off - so i can choose like we do it now with LFG mode , do i want to be teleported or not. or for example  i want to play 2x2 in current empty  district, and still dont want to be teleported anywhere. it will help NA play as it was before  and EU will have a choice - use Cross-District Matchmaking or not. ty 

Edited 7 hours ago by Romique

[vsb 6172]

 So effective today, I'm amending our public policy on cheating.

If we have 100% confidence that you are cheating, then you can be banned at our discretion. We have found that there are some players who cheat at a level there is no other solution. We have to ban them. It's unfortunate, but we can't ignore it. Cheat at your own risk. You may lose your account.

Why would you word it like this, this is the worst phrasing I've ever goddamn heard. At your discretion? Cheat at a level there is no other solution?

 

In what circumstance are you not banning a player that you are 100% confident is cheating? 

Why is there a level of cheating that doesn't get a player banned?

 

And what the hell was the policy on cheating before if this is the "crackdown"?????????

 

 

For any detection of less than 100% confidence, our system will be assigning Cheat Points. I've spelled some of this out in previous blogs, but Cheat Points are now being used to segregate or feature-limit cheaters so regular players don't have to play matches against them. Effectively, cheaters will play against other cheaters. That segregation may be through matchmaking or it may be feature bans where we prevent you from entering or participating in some kinds of districts until your Cheat Points have come down.

I've been skeptical of "cheat points" since you first mentioned them, and this hasn't alleviated any of my concerns.

 

As far as I'm concerned the whole system is just an elaborate way to warn cheaters before they lose their accounts.

 

Now if they get shadow-banned (instead of actually banned), they can just rotate to another account until cheat points expire and suffer no consequences at all - they don't even have to lose the money they spent to buy a new max rank account anymore.

 

 

[Yapopal 175]

I wonder where to get a pool of players? Transitions between areas lead to bugs. How to complete a mission if there are no markers visible?

 

Have the matchmaking settings changed? Or will we still be offered missions without waiting, but with a reduced quality of selection of opponents?

 

The efficiency of the system directly depends on the matchmaking settings. If you leave everything as it is, the quality of the matches will not improve. Under no circumstances should beginners meet with seasoned players. Without this border, you will not achieve an influx of players.

 

Publish a list of applications and a list of client modifications that are not available for use.

 

A soft policy towards the gray zone has no less negative impact on the pool of players than cheaters.

 

Any modifications of the client as well as macros should be equated to fraud. But first you should put the graphics settings menu in order.

Edited 7 hours ago by Yapopal

[CookiePuss 5382]

How do cheat points affect fight club specifically? Will cheat point players still be able to join or will they be blocked since there is no alternate matchmaking queue there? 
And if they can’t join isn’t that just a 30 second way to see if you’ve been shadow banned? And if they can still join then wtf?

[yourrandomnobody74 106]

Quote

Lastly, Cross District isn't the end. We want to continue expanding matchmaking so that you can queue from any type of district. That would allow players to hang out in Social or even Fight Club while waiting. And from there, we want to enable Cross World matchmaking which would truly bring the entire player base together.

If I understood the blog post correctly, you (indirectly) want to tackle the griefing problem with cross-district matchmaking?
If so, that'll be great.
However, this quoted line could be a big issue if this is enforced on everybody.
I don't want to play against 150ms players personally, as with anybody who wants to play this game remotely serious.
But I fear that this won't be a consideration for LO in any way, cause that's their way of solving the dying game population (as remarked by LilyRain)

I do think there needs to be a bigger emphasis in more easy to-do things, which require basic changing lines in a file.
I'll give you an easy one:
There's absolutely 0 reason to play any gun in the game right now apart from the Scout, Coroner, Oblivion, all ISSR guns (especially ISSR-C).
Why? Because they are the only 0 to none bullet spread guns in the entire game.
The arguement of "BUH UH NTEC IS FASTER TTK" is also irrelevant since ISSR-C exists, which has no movement penalty in MM mode and has almost pixel-perfect total bullet spread regardless of firerate.
All guns should behave akin to the mentioned guns above, it's ridiculous to implicitly enforce longer TTK by "SKILLFULLY CLICKING BETWEEN SHOTS" while not even having the base accuracy of the aforementioned guns.
Why does this matter? Because this game is a TPS game and it's the only way to counter someone pixel-hugging you from a certain distance. You need accuracy & a longer TTK together, they come in a package together to form the bigger picture.
The game ACTIVELY tries to harm any kind of incentive to grind it fully because of this. This was the main issue people had with the game for years now.
Not cheaters, not content, but actual core gameplay foundations not being well-thought-out. Oh and the fact the server is stuck at these low tickrates doesn't help it either.

I'd even go as far as increasing the overall character health of the game to 1500 or 1750. It would allow for more leeway for balancing the sheer amount of redundant guns you've brought into the game.
Drastic changes are needed:
- Mods that change TTK, range, rate of fire, MM accuracy should not exist (CJ3, IR3/LRR, HS3 - hs should only change FoV),
- Vastly different sprint to run modifier is also just unnecessary bullet spread / randomness added to the game,
- Slow crouch speed and the lack of any movement mechanics in fights completely make this game linear and boring. It's as bland as it gets.
- MM modifier = 0 and elongating TTK to 0.9 - 1s range across all guns is a must, it would make the game playable.
- Removing broken / redundant mission selection in districts (anything that isn't capture point or plant bomb on Fight Club is just ridiculous)
- Balancing the broken spots in districts which have been an issue for years (roofs near the west side of Waterfront close to police station, German Fortress etc.)
- Adding melee weapons or a melee attack (the animations are there, ever since blowtorch came out people have been wanting it. as easily seen with goomba stomping)

Then you can worry about things such as UI unification (Kismet & Scaleform are still intertwined, opt for ImGui if any of those are an issue), tutorial, adding new game modes (a 5 vs 5 mode bomb plant mode, BR, PvE modes which you've seemingly been exploring for next set of contacts if I understood Matt correctly), a new map (the groundwork for Midtown has been done by forum members), clan war content

Even trivial things such as finally adding the missing vending kiosks in Social's Gallery would be a welcome QoL addition to the game, or just unlocking all equipment slots.
 

2 hours ago, CookiePuss said:

How do cheat points affect fight club specifically? Will cheat point players still be able to join or will they be blocked since there is no alternate matchmaking queue there? 
And if they can’t join isn’t that just a 30 second way to see if you’ve been shadow banned? And if they can still join then wtf?

Why does it matter if cheaters realise they've been shadowbanned?
Now that you mention it, it would be funny if they only apply cheat points to accounts in action districts...
Can't wait for all the false bans in a 300 pop game, just because someone was mad over getting stomped by other players (indirectly just APB's RNG) ^_^

Edited 7 hours ago by yourrandomnobody74

[Romique 10]

13 hours ago, MageLO said:

Hello everyone,

 

Today we're excited to announce the addition of Cross-District Matchmaking, something we have been working towards for over a year and should significantly help by improving the overall match quality!
 

We have also just published a new blog post from Matt which talks about all things Cross-District Matchmaking as well as significant improvements to our current Anti-Cheat solution and policies.

 

To find out more about Cross-District Matchmaking and our improvements to SARD please head over to our dedicated blog post.

Dear MAGE, we often playing arranged games - its like private matches team vs team, we set time and place, prepare and train , we go to empty districts and play 2x2 3x3 4x4, or else, We need a check box - Cross-District Matchmaking on/off, to have an options to play our arranged matches with enemy group that we made a agreement, and stay in the district and not be teleported anywhere, and so nobody will be teleported to us and ruin our arranged games, after we press K. TY 

[Yapopal 175]

1 hour ago, Romique said:

Dear MAGE, we often playing arranged games - its like private matches team vs team, we set time and place, prepare and train , we go to empty districts and play 2x2 3x3 4x4, or else, We need a check box - Cross-District Matchmaking on/off, to have an options to play our arranged matches with enemy group that we made a agreement, and stay in the district and not be teleported anywhere, and so nobody will be teleported to us and ruin our arranged games, after we press K. TY 

Look at the root. You need a copy of the district with a population limit of 8 people, with robbery missions disabled, with inter-district matchmaking disabled and marked "team against team". The function you suggested can be used as a glitch.

[Romique 10]

4 minutes ago, Yapopal said:

Look at the root. You need a copy of the district with a population limit of 8 people, with robbery missions disabled, with inter-district matchmaking disabled and marked "team against team". The function you suggested can be used as a glitch.

we often playing arranged games - its like private matches team vs team, we set time and place, prepare and train , we go to empty districts and play 2x2 3x3 4x4, or else, We need a check box - Cross-District Matchmaking on/off, to have an options to play our arranged matches with enemy group that we made a agreement, and stay in the district and not be teleported anywhere, and so nobody will be teleported to us and ruin our arranged games, after we press K.  - i want to use what we already have - just check box

[Haganu 105]

We got a working SARD before GTA VI Pog

4 hours ago, CookiePuss said:

How do cheat points affect fight club specifically? Will cheat point players still be able to join or will they be blocked since there is no alternate matchmaking queue there? 
And if they can’t join isn’t that just a 30 second way to see if you’ve been shadow banned? And if they can still join then wtf?

This is a question that very much needs an answer

[kiky 2]

i hate it.it just randomly took me from  a missions final stage to select other district.You try to bring a dead game to life-making it shit like this ,makes you guys lose even more players.

whats the effing point of even doing missions anymore if you cant win since you will be randomly teleported to other district?

 

[Yapopal 175]

1 hour ago, Romique said:

we often playing arranged games - its like private matches team vs team, we set time and place, prepare and train , we go to empty districts and play 2x2 3x3 4x4, or else, We need a check box - Cross-District Matchmaking on/off, to have an options to play our arranged matches with enemy group that we made a agreement, and stay in the district and not be teleported anywhere, and so nobody will be teleported to us and ruin our arranged games, after we press K. - i want to use what we already have - just check box

Ask the developers for a special area for your matches. This is more reasonable than another crutch with ticks.

[Yapopal 175]

My guesses are correct. A small pool of players prevents the system from working properly. We need to reduce the maximum number of players in the copy of the district. And allocate special slots only for players from another area. Also set a timer to cancel the readiness for the task. 

The quality of the opponent's selection has not improved! The missions are still unbalanced. If this is not fixed, then the price of your work that you spent a year on is worthless. 
Due to the frequent change of areas, the game works worse. The number of ghost shots increases with each change of the copy of the district.

Edited 4 hours ago by Yapopal

[VanilleKeks 741]

It makes no sense to shadow ban people in a game with such low population. If you prevent access to districts, when sometimes only ONE instance is available, cheaters will easily be able to finetune their settings to avoid this threshold because you have a very easy way of verifying when you are shadowbanned.

 

I don't know if you are confident in some secret strategy that will make APBs population blow up, but these recent changes are very clearly intended for that scenario. Which means that you are either extremely confident or extremely tone-deaf. As an initial implementation, SARD should just slam detected cheaters. Assuming the system is somewhat competent you will be able to count the false positive cases using 10 fingers with the current pop.

[Yapopal 175]

The configurations of the Flavs graphics have become very relevant due to the deterioration of the client's work associated with frequent changes of copies of districts.

 

As usual, you take too much on yourself, you spend a lot of time working. But the result is always bad. You spent a lot of time on the 64-bit version, but the quality of the game has not improved.  You spent a lot of time on matchmaking and on a new anti-cheat. Matchmaking has earned bravo! But the quality of the matches remained poor! And a new global performance issue has been added. The new anti-cheat is working, they spoil everything for your stupid rules. Your self-confidence is ruining you, you are not calculating your strength and resources. The game is not ready for the new matchmaking system!The pool of players will be reduced even more! Your game becomes a cheat testing tool! 

 

 

[Romique 10]

18 hours ago, MageLO said:

Hello everyone,

 

Today we're excited to announce the addition of Cross-District Matchmaking, something we have been working towards for over a year and should significantly help by improving the overall match quality!
 

We have also just published a new blog post from Matt which talks about all things Cross-District Matchmaking as well as significant improvements to our current Anti-Cheat solution and policies.

 

To find out more about Cross-District Matchmaking and our improvements to SARD please head over to our dedicated blog post.

Dear Mage, after a day of plying - i can tell u for ALL APB PLAYERS that r left to play  - YOU HAVE TO ROLL BACK CROSS DISTICT matchmaking!!!!!!!! - or  THE END IS NEAR! i hate to say it but it is what it is! 

[Hexerin 1140]

So did the original plan of seamless instance switching happen, or are players going to be hit with full loading screens every match when they get pulled to another instance? If the latter, how does it handle mission starting in the case of not everyone having the same loading times? Will the mission wait for everyone to load in, or will slow loaders become a burden on everyone else?