01/22 PATCH ANNOUNCEMENT

[MageLO 173]

Hello everyone,

 

Our standard weekly maintenance will be held this Wednesday (01/22) starting at 9 AM UTC. The game should be back up and running in 6 to 8 hours.

 

Patchnotes

 

This weeks patch features more game balance as well as some changes in interaction priorities.

 

Balance

 

VBR 'Enchantress'

• Minimum Damage % increased from 30% to 45%.

 

Dev note: This is a slight increase to its 2 shot range (2 meters) but makes it so it is a little better at poking outside of its effective range, allowing it to kill in 5 shots within 100m.

 

DOW Shotgun

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 80 to 70.

 

NFAS-12

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 150 to 110.

 

NFAS-12 'True Ogre'

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 150 to 110.

 

Low-Yield Fragmentation Grenade

 

• Max damage radius increased from 2 meters to 3.5 meters.
• Maximum Stamina Damage increased from 295 to 365.
• Maximum Hard Damage increased from 375.95 to 434.66.

 

Dev note: A lot has changed since the Low-Yield meta that we addressed many years ago so we feel like we can now bring those grenades back up in power without causing another meta that is dominated by this grenade type.

 

Bishada Rapier & Kissaki

• Weight increased from 1.5 to 2.5.
• Chassis Torque Factor lowered from 0.08 to 0.04.
• Suspension Stiffness increased from 60 to 100.
• Health Increased from 1150 to 1300.

 

Dev note: The Bishada has been pretty easy to push around or even flip due to its low weight. We have increased its weight and adjusted the amount its chassis moves as well as its suspension to be able to support the increase in weight. Our goal with this change is to keep the Bishada handle roughly the same as before so please let us know if you encounter any sort of strange behavior in the way the vehicle drives after this change.

 

Patriot V20 Jericho & Nightrider

• Health Increased from 1150 to 1300.

 

Charge Mikro & Raptor - Packer Vaquero & Toreador

• Max Speed increased from 20.5m/s to 21.8m/s

 

Gameplay Interaction Priorities

 

• Interacting with the Cargo/Trunk of a vehicle no longer takes priority over entering the vehicle, instead it now prioritizes the action the player is looking at.

 

Dev note: This is an experimental change to make the interaction system more intuitive as well as fixing many cases in which a player carrying a medium item would want to enter a car but would instead put the item they were holding into the trunk of the vehicle, this issue was particularly common on smaller vehicles such as the Charge Mikro or Packer Vaquero.

 

• Decreased the priority of breaking into vehicles to avoid cases in which players prioritize breaking into vehicles over picking up task items next to it.
• Decreased the priority of opening gift boxes to prevent item cheesing.

 

Miscellaneous changes

 

The following two weapons are now skinable:

• CSG-20 "Country Gent"
• Colby RSA "Hunter"

 

Thank you for your patience during this period.

[Uhtdred 242]

DOW Shotgun

RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 80 to 70.

Does it mean it was buffed or nerfed? No clue.

[koenyboy500 39]

It's honestly not even the changes that I'm excited about.
It's the fact that we are getting 'balance' updates.
Love it!

[N66 101]

The Enchantress is a ****show, it needs a proper buff, 50-55m 2 shot, and at min damage it should probably 4 shot with no overkill, 5 shot is silly

 

As for the cars, since you're mentioning multiple names for each car, if those are individual "cars", you may have missed the other variants (according to naming), namely: Bishada Mako & Spectre, Mikro Cheetah, Jericho Phantom & Packer Vengador.

 

28 minutes ago, Uhtdred said:

DOW Shotgun

RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 80 to 70.

Does it mean it was buffed or nerfed? No clue.

Should be an accuracy buff, less spread; but if the damage variance per additional pellet is still in place, this means it can also reward accurate players more than hitting partially, which is probably the way it should be to begin with.

 

 

[EC2Jonathan 8]

35 minutes ago, N66 said:

The Enchantress is a ****show, it needs a proper buff, 50-55m 2 shot, and at min damage it should probably 4 shot with no overkill, 5 shot is silly

 

As for the cars, since you're mentioning multiple names for each car, if those are individual "cars", you may have missed the other variants (according to naming), namely: Bishada Mako & Spectre, Mikro Cheetah, Jericho Phantom & Packer Vengador.

 

Should be an accuracy buff, less spread; but if the damage variance per additional pellet is still in place, this means it can also reward accurate players more than hitting partially, which is probably the way it should be to begin with.

 

 

does this also mean the thumper got buffed as a side effect?

[vsb 6178]

6 hours ago, MageLO said:

A lot has changed since the Low-Yield meta that we addressed many years ago so we feel like we can now bring those grenades back up in power without causing another meta that is dominated by this grenade type.

nothing has changed about grenade use since low yields were nerfed 

[Talla 87]

10 hours ago, MageLO said:

[...]

Balance

 

VBR 'Enchantress'

• Minimum Damage % increased from 30% to 45%.

Dev note: This is a slight increase to its 2 shot range (2 meters) but makes it so it is a little better at poking outside of its effective range, allowing it to kill in 5 shots within 100m.

Thank you for listening feedback from the players! 🫡 @MageLO

 

EDIT:

I'd expect the gun to be buffed another notch to be competitive.

Definitely a good change, considering this gun is in the "sniper rifle" category.

 

New breakpoints according to range :

Minimum damage = 550 x 0.45 = 247.5 @ 70m

2 STK @ 0-40m

3 STK @ 41-60m

4 STK @ 61-69m

5 STK @ 70-100m

 

Old breakpoints according to range :

Minimum damage = 550 x 0.30 = 165 @ 70m

2 STK @ 0-39m

3 STK @ 40-54m

4 STK @ 55-62m

5 STK @ 63-66m

6 STK @ 67-69m

7 STK @ 70-100m

 

 

Edited yesterday at 03:59 AM by Talla
Added new STK

[Yapopal 183]

I am pleased with the news about the change in the system of interaction with the car and objects.  At critical points in the mission, transportation and delivery related deficiencies in these functions caused a loss. It was very annoying. I hope the innovations will work well.

[Reprimand 117]

I'm happy you've buffed two of the shotguns I wish to play with, however I'm a little sad you still haven't buffed the SG-21 Strife, which has been very weak for quite some time. That deserved to have his spread lowered and fire rate increased to bring it in line with other shotguns.

Hopefully we get 3-slot Raptor and ISSR-B soon.

[Nagletz 223]

N-FAS buff, my prayers has been answered!

Other buffs are very welcome too

[Reprimand 117]

17 hours ago, MageLO said:

Hello everyone,

 

Our standard weekly maintenance will be held this Wednesday (01/22) starting at 9 AM UTC. The game should be back up and running in 6 to 8 hours.

 

Patchnotes

 

This weeks patch features more game balance as well as some changes in interaction priorities.

 

Balance

 

VBR 'Enchantress'

• Minimum Damage % increased from 30% to 45%.

 

Dev note: This is a slight increase to its 2 shot range (2 meters) but makes it so it is a little better at poking outside of its effective range, allowing it to kill in 5 shots within 100m.

 

DOW Shotgun

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 80 to 70.

 

NFAS-12

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 150 to 110.

 

NFAS-12 'True Ogre'

• RaySpreadAt10m reduced from 150 to 110.

 

Low-Yield Fragmentation Grenade

 

• Max damage radius increased from 2 meters to 3.5 meters.
• Maximum Stamina Damage increased from 295 to 365.
• Maximum Hard Damage increased from 375.95 to 434.66.

 

Dev note: A lot has changed since the Low-Yield meta that we addressed many years ago so we feel like we can now bring those grenades back up in power without causing another meta that is dominated by this grenade type.

 

Bishada Rapier & Kissaki

• Weight increased from 1.5 to 2.5.
• Chassis Torque Factor lowered from 0.08 to 0.04.
• Suspension Stiffness increased from 60 to 100.
• Health Increased from 1150 to 1300.

 

Dev note: The Bishada has been pretty easy to push around or even flip due to its low weight. We have increased its weight and adjusted the amount its chassis moves as well as its suspension to be able to support the increase in weight. Our goal with this change is to keep the Bishada handle roughly the same as before so please let us know if you encounter any sort of strange behavior in the way the vehicle drives after this change.

 

Patriot V20 Jericho & Nightrider

• Health Increased from 1150 to 1300.

 

Charge Mikro & Raptor - Packer Vaquero & Toreador

• Max Speed increased from 20.5m/s to 21.8m/s

 

Gameplay Interaction Priorities

 

• Interacting with the Cargo/Trunk of a vehicle no longer takes priority over entering the vehicle, instead it now prioritizes the action the player is looking at.

 

Dev note: This is an experimental change to make the interaction system more intuitive as well as fixing many cases in which a player carrying a medium item would want to enter a car but would instead put the item they were holding into the trunk of the vehicle, this issue was particularly common on smaller vehicles such as the Charge Mikro or Packer Vaquero.

 

• Decreased the priority of breaking into vehicles to avoid cases in which players prioritize breaking into vehicles over picking up task items next to it.
• Decreased the priority of opening gift boxes to prevent item cheesing.

 

Miscellaneous changes

 

The following two weapons are now skinable:

• CSG-20 "Country Gent"
• Colby RSA "Hunter"

 

Thank you for your patience during this period.

Could you edit this post to reflect that the DOW change also applies to the Thumper, please, @MageLO?

[PineapplePizza 0]

18 hours ago, MageLO said:

Max Speed increased from 20.5m/s to 21.8m/s

while it's very much appreciated but why not add some weight to mikro as well? it's ridiculous that everyone can use it as a soccer ball and kick it back and forth across the district.

also kinda stupid that you can almost outrun this car on foot when it's loaded with just a couple brief cases. 

Edited yesterday at 12:10 PM by PineapplePizza

[Yapopal 183]

2 hours ago, Reprimand said:

I'm happy you've buffed two of the shotguns I wish to play with, however I'm a little sad you still haven't buffed the SG-21 Strife, which has been very weak for quite some time. That deserved to have his spread lowered and fire rate increased to bring it in line with other shotguns.

Hopefully we get 3-slot Raptor and ISSR-B soon.

I suggest adding a feature for the SG-21 Strife weapon. One-shot murder at point-blank range.

[xnyuu 28]

2025 the new golden age of APB?

 

It's great to see these weekly thought through patchnotes, giving the game the love it deserves.

 

 

Step by step. ♥

 

 

[killersan6 33]

So another micro patch, that change literally nothing.
Exactly what we needed, thanks.
I hope that this 100 players online is an exact value they wanted to see, otherwise i see no reasone why do they keep making all of this pointles changes, instead of actually shift the meta to make the game more balanced and friendly to new players.

[Ardita 84]

14 minutes ago, killersan6 said:

So another micro patch, that change literally nothing.
Exactly what we needed, thanks.
I hope that this 100 players online is an exact value they wanted to see, otherwise i see no reasone why do they keep making all of this pointles changes, instead of actually shift the meta to make the game more balanced and friendly to new players.

I actually agree with you, not that I say they shouldn't focus and change things which need to get fixed BUT without focusing at the balance in the matchmaking system and get more friendly for new players, they can change everything and won't get further with more than 500 changes in a year.

 

Playerbase increased with few new contacts but not sure that's how it is at this date..

[MACKxBOLAN 444]

All the nade nerfs did was nerf the legits use of them. 

 They all have nade aiming hax. 

  So the meta nade stayed the same being the Conc, 

cuz they nerfed the perc as well.

 

More friendly players, Ha. You won't get a lasting increase in 

player base till some kind of control is put forth toward cheating. 

For the NA server I have seen zero change in cheating, I have heard 

zero from others about cheat points placed on them or what restrictions 

they got, We got zero missing people, so no bans. 

 So they will keep cheating and the rest will remain angry about it. 

So You're not gonna get friendliness out of the current player base, 

and any true new player won't enjoy the toxicness and the long grind 

to max rank, unless they are a gluten for punishment.

[Ardita 84]

3 minutes ago, MACKxBOLAN said:

So You're not gonna get friendliness out of the current player base, 

and any true new player won't enjoy the toxicness and the long grind 

to max rank, unless they are a gluten for punishment.

It's true that the player environment is toxic as hell and for new players that could overall be quite overwhelming for them as well. A simple read in the district chat would answer that, and the people who says it's like that in every free 2 play game, I need to say it's not that hard to act friendly and respectful rather than fool around with "die of cancer"-quotes and I could write so many other stupid quotes here. You know them all.

 

7 minutes ago, MACKxBOLAN said:

More friendly players, Ha. You won't get a lasting increase in 

player base till some kind of control is put forth toward cheating. 

Those few times I have been playing afterwards the update about the cheat points, I don't really been seeing any changes myself. Again, I don't really believe that the SARD is working or even ON. I rather believe it is like that rather than its on and not give a f*** for cheaters...

[Hexerin 1146]

22 hours ago, MageLO said:

Low-Yield Fragmentation Grenade

• Max damage radius increased from 2 meters to 3.5 meters.
• Maximum Stamina Damage increased from 295 to 365.
• Maximum Hard Damage increased from 375.95 to 434.66.

Dev note: A lot has changed since the Low-Yield meta that we addressed many years ago so we feel like we can now bring those grenades back up in power without causing another meta that is dominated by this grenade type.

This does precisely fuck all for yolos. Until you revert the absolute gutting that they got to their health damage, they'll still be unusable garbage.

[sweetLemonade 119]

4 hours ago, killersan6 said:

So another micro patch, that change literally nothing.
Exactly what we needed, thanks.
I hope that this 100 players online is an exact value they wanted to see, otherwise i see no reasone why do they keep making all of this pointles changes, instead of actually shift the meta to make the game more balanced and friendly to new players.

Very concerning that it took me this long to find a critique of LO in a patch thread. Though thankfully, the 2 of us are not alone.
It seems that most people don't wanna face the real situation this game is in.
Either that or everyone passionate has already left.

If LO expects anyone to touch & STICK to this game when the basics of what makes a shooter game aren't established, such as:

1.) Game having the least amount of RNG as possible (there shouldn't be any bullet spread) when it comes to weapon & game mechanics
   There's no coherent weapon design philosophy. Why are there 0,5s and 1,5s TTK guns in this game? 80% of guns in this game are <0,8s TTK, a value which the game originally wasn't designed with. Why are there guns such as the ISSR-C, Dog-Ear and Oblivion which have 100% accuracy regardless of moving or not? Why are all guns inferior to this? Why not just make the whole game actually skill-based instead of introducing a small set of guns which behave as they're supposed to? This game wasn't designed for the <0,8s TTK that Qwentle wanted, it's a failed philosophy. Get over it already.
   Apply MM_Mod=0 to all guns already and adjust from there on. Push the TTK of all guns into 0,9s–1,1s range already.
    Remove the stupid inverse curves or at least make them known to players in some way, shape or form.

2) Bloated weapon pool (+49 unique guns)
   The VBR 'Enchantress' and addition of LRR reinforces my opinion above even further, where the lead game designer is completely out of touch with what's needed for the game.
   Whether on purpose or out of ignorance is irrelevant.

3.) No unified UI.
   We're still stuck between Scaleform & Kismet for +10 years now.
   This in itself pulls the strings on many topics such as :crosshair customizations, inability to host 3 fight club instances, inability to expand inventory space, vague weapon statistics displayed instead of concrete numerical values, lack of in-game FPS capping method (this is a severe problem)

4.) Game completely loses sync past 120fps.(sliding bug)
   I don't understand how something this crucial still isn't fixed for ages now? Do you think anyone remotely serious will stick to this game without this being in check?

5.) Non-existant anti-cheat and LO seemingly being silent over any counter-measures against blatant cheaters.

6.) Unbalanced missions & district spots
   Waterfront as a whole needs a desperate revamp and there hasn't been much talk about this on last AMA either. I don't understand the wait for it?

7.) Complete lack of new-player friendly game mechanics and lack of tutorial.
   The above mentions of how to balance the game would indirectly lead to a easy to get into experience for new players, along with a proper tutorial.

8.) No separate competitive and casual queue.
  Matt mentioned that APB is competitive, so what's the issue? No, the arguement that the game doesn't have enough players doesn't fly.
  There are players who just don't want to face against a 3 premade made up of veterans, with bronze players in their team and want to play the game casually.

9.) No login awards, gift system, no incentive to play or log into the game
  
...then they'll be in for a surprise.


And APB specific quirks such as:
- Bloated mod pool (LRR, consumables which are a meme in itself... spending in-game money to get a finite amount of consumables is ridiculous), tho this ties in with above mentions
- No new game modes which would entice older players to come back or new players to flock in (BR, racing district, PvE or just letting people do their own game-modes akin to Fortnite Creative)
- Locked equipment slots (in a 100 pop game.... people are swapping equipment mid-game due to this nonsensical limitation...)
- Gender-specific clothing still not having their counterpart
- Ability to grief any kind of other player mission
- Lack of clan warfare content & generally underused clan system
- Arguably dated graphics, though I'd rather have these graphics refined over jumping on newer bloated engines.
- Particles destroying the game's performance (just a lack of performance optimizations)
- Broken weapon tracers & (subjectively) hideous shaders / bloom

And many more which I can't think of right now.


These small, byte-sized patches are something which could've been done in a single grand patch. 
Especially considering that the current lead designer is someone who played this game for +10 years.
It's not someone who never touched this game, such as is the case with many other games.

From what I also recall, they seem to be interested in releasing the game to the Epic Games Store soon.
In the same patch, the supposed PvE district & the new contacts are supposed to be released.
The game is barely in a beta stage in terms of shipability...

TLDR:
Only way this game can sustain a decent population & revenue is by fixing broken game mechanics, fixing UI, having a proper ban system for blatants, introducing separate comp & casual queues, allowing community-made content such as OW, FN, CS or R5Apex 
NOT by these types of patches, where you're merely sweeping the dust under the rug. 

Edited 17 hours ago by sweetLemonade

[koenyboy500 39]

14 hours ago, Reprimand said:

Hopefully we get 3-slot Raptor and ISSR-B soon.

APB is simply not ready for that. 3-slot Raptor would result in some disgustingly overpowered weaponry.

I always have to choose between either Hunting Sight 3 for range, MagPull 3 for personal-playstyle or CoolingJacket 3 for TTK. But having the option to combine these would result in some pretty strong overthetop weaponry.

 

 

But hey, I've been wrong before.

[Ardita 84]

Think APB is more than ready to start fix the problem with the anti cheat first rather than focusing on weapon/grenade balance things