Back in the Streets AMA with Matt

[sweetLemonade 121]

14 hours ago, LilyRain said:

Your original point is a lie because:

1- This is about TTK. Accuracy is usually more often than not considered already when it comes to TTK (unless a player full Auto's N-TEC, meaning true TTK can indeed be slower than advertised, not faster. Ironic because your post directly mentions N-TEC).
2- Even if accuracy is considered, you have elaborated exactly why a Veteran has the advantage here as well even if a newbie comes from a shooter-background. PLUS Veterans actually having access to accuracy mods while Newbies have to get them first.

Nice try but it is time to take a step back and rethink a bit.

1 — TTK & Accuracy (total bullet spread) should always be linked together in a discussion and it's completely ludicrous to treat them as separate entities when discussing balancing attempts.
One cannot implement longer TTK properly without adjusting accuracy.
My point with the N-TEC is to have a full-auto gun which doesn't have bullet spread in ADS (or at least has a 100% accurate 1st shot) and only has consistent recoil & range to deal with. I'd even go a step beyond and change walk modifier to 1 across all guns in the game, to make it viable to move & shoot in ADS.
I don't see what's “ironic”. I'm getting the sense that you're trying to devalue my arguement with some ad hominem attempts without fully reading through my posts & getting my intention.
2 — I get the feeling that you've never played a competitive PvP game, in which there is a clear distinction between skill tiers based on aiming mechanics & game positioning level.
I've even explicitly mentioned that I don't want modifications which provide an accuracy (or change accuracy for worse in form of larger bullet spread) & TTK benefit to players with more access to resources.
I want the stock guns to have MM_Modifier=0.
I want new players with a STAR to have an equal change at beating an NTEC consistently if their aim is mechanically better than their opponents. I don't want RNG (bullet spread) to decide whether someone wins encounters or not. It's that simple.
You seem to want to give the worse player a larger chance against a better player due to the current prevalence of high bullet spread.
When you extend that analogy & design approach to higher levels of gameplay, where veterans are having encounters between each other, the better player wouldn't consistently win.
This is how it is in live right now. This is terrible design in a game that purports itself to be competitive. Matt has explicitly stated that APB is competitive.

If you want me to be even more specific: 
- Removing HS3's accuracy benefits, only allowing it to adjust FoV (values can be decided upon later), removing LRR, IR, CJ altogether
- MM_Modifier=0 across all primary & secondary guns, ideally changing out bullet spread implementations across all of them as well. 
- Walk Modifier=1 across all primary & secondary guns, potentially even run modifier=1 on secondaries since they rely on hipfire combat mostly, though I'm unsure of how this will play out in practice.
- Elongating the TTK of problematic guns (<0,7s TTK) to a range of 0,9–1,1s (upper range bound can be evaluated further), which would mean adjusting 32 out of 49 (65%!!) distinct guns in the game. Only 17 guns in the game have an adequate TTK.
- Making shotguns & snipers at minimum 3 STK, not 2STK. One can implement them into a "2STK for 85"-type of approach

Please stop twisting my words & read through my paragraphs with a unbiased mind. I've written & repeated myself enough.
I've assessed that your intention is to belittle the other party and not have a meaningful discussion about this.
If you want more of my opinion on balancing matters, take a look through my post history for further elaboration.
Have a nice day.

 

8 hours ago, Yapopal said:

I envy you. You must be playing a different game. In my game, TTK is determined by the presence or absence of delays and lags. In my game, a character dies from two pistol shots. In my game, it is not clear whether the bullets hit the character or not. Competitive play should have equal conditions, but APB cannot provide them. Everything you are talking about is relevant for a bunch of gold players.

You should consider fixing your hardware & software stack if you are battling with this amount of lag, where you cannot determine the difference between 0,6s and 1,2s
Your game also seems to suffer from the large bullet spread that's available in the game, as per your second sentence. 
There are only a handful of guns which promise you 100% accuracy in marksmanship mode.
Try using guns such as the iSSR-C, Coroner, Enchantress, OBIR (HS3), Oblivion, Scout for a while and you'll understand where I'm coming from.

What I'm recommending is precisely fighting for equal conditions for someone that just started playing the game & someone who has accumulated in-game items. Equal capability to consistently win duel based upon aim mechanics, not relying on RNG (bullet spread) to determine the outcome. This is not only relevant for gold players.

Edited March 12 by sweetLemonade

[NotTheEnforcer 226]

Vehicle Related Questions

Q1: Are there any plans to make kits or addons for the Mirage? The car itself seems nice, but the lack of any real customization kinda leaves it in a barebones state at the minute.

Q2: The Moirai desperately needs a fix to its Reverse gear acceleration. Can we please have someone look at that and just massively up its torque/power value? Currently it's almost as slow as the dumptruck, rendering the car basically unusable.

Q3: There were talks previously about bringing the "early" vehicles like the Patriot T-25 to be more in line with the "Later" vehicles like the Vegas, Bishada, and Jericho. Are these plans still in place, or have they been shelved? Having a cool pickup truck again would be nice, but I feel like the truck itself would need to be updated in some form. Maybe give it the 4x4 treatment (if its not already), add some mass+power+armor and a kit or two it would be all set. Same for the rest of the vehicles.

Weapon Related Questions

Q1: The FFA R&D 3 is effectively just a reskin of the OBIR with slightly less zoom. While as a veteran player myself I do somewhat understand the essence of "rarity" items, this gun seems like an odd choice to be kept behind an "invisible wall" persay. Is there any chance we could get it as a permeant addition to the JT store since it has no actual unique modifiers to it?

Q2: Are there any plans to go back and look at/change the old legendaries that have been neglected over the years and currently have mechanics that are deemed unlikeable?
Such weapons issues like:
-FFA Bullshark being utterly useless in every regard that its literally earned the nickname "Bullsh*t".
-The Huntress's reload timer serving no real purpose
-CAP40/Colby Commander piercing being overly situational in a game where most objects cant be pierced.
-Medusa's spreadfire. (Doubly overrun when most people have the Euryale.)
-Hazardous not even having any legendary effect.
-New Glory being laughably bad.
-EOL Series as a whole just needing a rework. (Maybe no timers?)
-Anubis having the god awful sight.

Edited March 12 by NotTheEnforcer

[Hexerin 1150]

2 hours ago, sweetLemonade said:

I want new players with a STAR to have an equal change at beating an NTEC consistently if their aim is mechanically better than their opponents. I don't want RNG (bullet spread) to decide whether someone wins encounters or not. It's that simple.

This isn't a competitive shooter. It's an arcade shooter that has some allowance for team coordination and personal skill to grant certain advantages in some situations. What you're asking for simply isn't within the parameters of what this game is, nor will it ever be. Additionally, it's very clear (and has been for a very long time) that MattScott doesn't give a shit about competition-level balance in the game. Hell, the person currently in charge of the weapon balance is yellow-plated.

Edited March 12 by Hexerin

[Yapopal 189]

A very relevant question... When will shotguns become more dangerous than a rubber banana? There is a whole type of weapon dead in your COMPETITIVE game. I believe that the old NFAS specifications were competitive. This weapon ruled where it should rule, and lost where it was needed. Limited fans of a limited style of playing with a machine gun and a pistol are to blame for this. They are also to blame for the nerf impact grenades. A smart person will die once from NFAS or shock grenades, then they will draw conclusions and change the style of the game. A fool will run to scribble complaints and insult players in a game chat. Tell me Matt, why do you listen to fools?

[Yapopal 189]

3 hours ago, sweetLemonade said:

You should consider fixing your hardware & software stack if you are battling with this amount of lag, where you cannot determine the difference between 0,6s and 1,2s
Your game also seems to suffer from the large bullet spread that's available in the game, as per your second sentence.
only a handful of guns which promise you 100% accuracy in marksmanship mode.
guns such as the iSSR-C, Coroner, Enchantress, OBIR (HS3), Oblivion, Scout for a while and you'll understand where I'm coming from.

What I'm recommending is precisely fighting for equal conditions for someone that just started playing the game & someone who has accumulated in-game items. Equal capability to consistently win duel based upon aim mechanics, not relying on RNG (bullet spread) to determine the outcome. This is not only relevant for gold players.

It's not about guns and how to use them. The game was much more convenient on the Pioneer server than it is now. Let's say I can't use the AP 45 right now because of frame stuttering and target teleportation during shooting. I have a new computer, but that doesn't solve the problem. For a COMPETITIVE game, you need more servers scattered around the world.

Edited March 12 by Yapopal

[Yapopal 189]

A few suggestions for the game:

What about closing escalation and backup if the timer is less than one minute?

How about awarding a penalty medal for 30 seconds of inactivity?

Edited March 12 by Yapopal

[LilyRain 689]

9 hours ago, sweetLemonade said:

You seem to want to give the worse player a larger chance against a better player due to the current prevalence of high bullet spread.

Also sweetLemonade: "Q4: Are there any plans for balancing the faster TTK weapons to a higher value, making them longer TTK? I'm talking about lengthening the TTK of problematic guns (NTEC & faster) to around Snubnose TTK (0,9 – 1s). Having a longer TTK & higher base accuracy in marksman mode would greatly enhance new-player experience and reward players for refining their aim."

Again, we're discussing TTK here,. I have also made it quite clear that N-TEC usually doesn't perform at its advertised TTK of 0.7s when accuracy is factored in..

Again, Newbies are by default at a disadvantage due to lack of experience with APB. You can circle jerk around all you want when it comes to their prior experience with shooter games. As if they would magically nullify a decade+ old Veteran's abilities with a mouse in APB.....

 

 

9 hours ago, sweetLemonade said:

Please stop twisting my words & read through my paragraphs with a unbiased mind. I've written & repeated myself enough.
I've assessed that your intention is to belittle the other party and not have a meaningful discussion about this.
If you want more of my opinion on balancing matters, take a look through my post history for further elaboration.
Have a nice day.

Or you can just quit the BS.

Again, we've seen what happens when APB gets longer TTK. You can go enjoy that in Quake, it doesn't fit in this game,

Edited March 13 by LilyRain

[Ardita 150]

15 hours ago, CookiePuss said:

Without getting into the “do configs give an advantage?” debate, the last we heard the plan was to add those low graphics options to the game so you won’t need a config anymore

this should at least make it “fair”.

Thanks for the info, and I can relate till why we don't take this debate in the question section.

[Jazeker 1082]

Hi Matt,

To make a little fun of the political situation a while ago, some funny masks were added to the game. Question: could you consider having these make a one-time reappearance to obtain?

Have a nice day!

[EC2Jonathan 10]

On 3/9/2025 at 9:51 PM, Ardita said:

Question:
When will Little Orbit look into the using of low graphic configs who clearly give those who're using it an advantage in combat?

 

Also, can we please nerf the .45 so other secondary's can have a chance in the weapon pool? 

My favorite questions.

[MageLO 215]

Hello everyone,

As it turns out even AMA's need a little extra time to get ready. We will be starting one hour later than planned so reload, regroup and we'll see you today at 7:00 PM UTC.

 

See you at the AMA!

[Ardita 150]

AMA Twitch link video for those who didn't saw it live:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2406573679

[Yapopal 189]

Please tell us briefly what Matt was talking about.

[Ardita 150]

30 minutes ago, Yapopal said:

Please tell us briefly what Matt was talking about.

I watched this 2h20min you need to do as well  

[Westford 182]

8 hours ago, Yapopal said:

Please tell us briefly what Matt was talking about.

I also watched the AMA, and thought that it was really informative.
Sorry, I have no TLDR;

Matt briefly discussed the outage that occurred during the month of February,
their plans on spinning up the East Coast servers in New York, upcoming Patch tentatively in May,
amongst other things.

May Patch Release:
New contacts and the release of a new application framework called GamersFirst Technology Platform.
This platform will be used to create and manage Leader Boards, rewards and such.

This platform will be comprised of standards and application protocols that will be used by other games
under the LO umbrella, with the possibility to license said platform to other companies.

The GamersFirst Technology Platform will also include their own internal AntiCheat.

 

The discontinued use of SARD AntiCheat.

Matt Scott had realized that 3rd party AntiCheat software, was ultimately incompatible with
APB due to a number of factors.

When a player is banned, any ban appeal has to go through the 3rd party vendor,
it is no longer in the hands of LO.

As players are banned from APB, “cheat makers” provide timely updates to their “cheats”,
as 3rd party AntiCheat companies lag behind in providing subsequent updates to their software,
resulting in a constant circular effort of keeping up.

LO realized that 3rd part AntiCheat software was extremely difficult to fully integrate with
APB’s backend. This lack of full integration resulted in many holes in obtaining a “comprehensive”
AntiCheat approach.

LO had announced that as part of their in-house developed GamersFirst Technology Platform,
a component of this framework would include their own an internal AntiCheat framework.

This internal AntiCheat framework would be comprised of a client side kernel level AntiCheat,
and two Server level AntiCheat components.

 

Matt realize that there are cheats designed to bypass the client side methods in order to
inject their cheats into the APB application.
Hence the server side components.

Matt communicated that he is reluctant to outright permanently ban players for cheating,
as once a player is banned, they are gone, and there is absolutely no way that you can be
1000% sure that it was not a mistake.

He has expressed his frustration of trying to unravel the mix of legitimate bans from the false positive bans from the past.

His approach besides segregation in the District Mission Pools, based on the number of Cheat Points accrued, 

is to  impose sanctions on those players that use 3rd party tools to evade fair gameplay.

What does Sanctions even mean ?
He referenced the disabling/locked out or removing “features” from a player that has been detected
as using unfair game practices.

This had me thinking what Features are available that a cheater may lose, either temporarily,
or permanently.
 

FightClub
Lockout Access
Can only join districts

 

Weapon Loadout.
Disable/Lockout weapons in the players weapon locker
Both Primary, Secondary and Grenades
Disable/Lockout weapon mods

Character Loadout
There are four character slots that can be populated
with anything from Car Surfer, Fragility, Ammo Box,  etc ….
Disable/Lockout individual Character slots

Car Loadout
Disable/Lockout cars in a players inventory
Disable/Lockout Car mods

 

I think the most extreme scenario for a player that has reached a high enough threshold of cheat points,

would have just the Starter Weapons and Car availble to them.
STAR 556
FBW
Frag Grenade
and the starter car

Joker Store
Lockout the ability to Rent/Buy using Joker Tickets accrued

Email
Lockout the ability to Send/Receive/Retrieve Attachments

MarketPlace
Lockout the ability to Buy/Sell

 

Designer
Lockout Vehicle. Symbol, Music designer
 

I’m sure there are other features that LO has on their list, but I think this would be a great
start for those players who do not support fair gameplay.

 

Matt also mentioned that he is considering providing “some” AntiCheat stats on a regular basis
Keeping it high level, potentially just Number of Detections Identified & Number of Sanctions Administered.

I hope he decides to implement this.

Matt’s initial thought is that a player would hopefully realize that the AntiCheat is working
when completing a mission, that fairness was intuitive.

Problem is, that so many times in the past, it has not always been  intuitive, hence the constant
hackusations that occur. Even when their opponent is not cheating, they were just a good player.

By actively communicating on a consistent basis, it does send a clear message to the player base;
“We are actively and consistently vetting all players to ensure fair gameplay is maintained”

This level of communication is, in my opinion much more effective than a blog post
that is provided every few months.

It communicates regularly and consistently , that the AntiCheat is active, and issuing remedial actions.
This, in my opinion, is a reassuring, consistent and positive message.

 

Edited March 17 by Westford

[Yapopal 189]

3 hours ago, Ardita said:

I watched this 2h20min you need to do as well  

Unfortunately, it's difficult for me.

[MACKxBOLAN 452]

It doesn't matter what he said, this game favors cheaters and rewards them with gold. 

They need to rewrite the threat system so that legits have the same ability to get gold as the cheats. 

Until I am made perma gold, I won't pay, play or participate.

 I believe they have constructed the threat system to count every loss ive had in 10 years, 

while fighting their hackers. Why are the hackers 'theirs? Cuz they either dint ban them, dint have the 

Anti cheat or simply let them in recruiting them back into the game. 

Suppose to be a Cops V Robber/Villain game, not sand box shooter. 

You give no points or cash for damage unless its an assist.

 Your people can hide behind a pole and hide their hud marker from view and still shoot you. 

You have nothing to grind, nothing to buy that gives me a major edge over golds, so nothing to 

really motivate me to go take L's and grind for. 

You used to have the system to show the player how much more work to get silver or gold;

 silver 8 bronze 10 ect, ah no its some damned State Secret as to the exact method of measuring who gets 

up threated or down threated, Yet we get new license plate names turn gold in a few missions.

 I've come to believe that all video games are just plagued with cheats. 

These are the Evil Doer's of todays world.

[explosiveUA 48]

23 hours ago, Westford said:

I also watched the AMA, and thought that it was really informative.
Sorry, I have no TLDR;

Matt briefly discussed the outage that occurred during the month of February,
their plans on spinning up the East Coast servers in New York, upcoming Patch tentatively in May,
amongst other things.

May Patch Release:
New contacts and the release of a new application framework called GamersFirst Technology Platform.
This platform will be used to create and manage Leader Boards, rewards and such.

This platform will be comprised of standards and application protocols that will be used by other games
under the LO umbrella, with the possibility to license said platform to other companies.

The GamersFirst Technology Platform will also include their own internal AntiCheat.

 

The discontinued use of SARD AntiCheat.

Matt Scott had realized that 3rd party AntiCheat software, was ultimately incompatible with
APB due to a number of factors.

When a player is banned, any ban appeal has to go through the 3rd party vendor,
it is no longer in the hands of LO.

As players are banned from APB, “cheat makers” provide timely updates to their “cheats”,
as 3rd party AntiCheat companies lag behind in providing subsequent updates to their software,
resulting in a constant circular effort of keeping up.

LO realized that 3rd part AntiCheat software was extremely difficult to fully integrate with
APB’s backend. This lack of full integration resulted in many holes in obtaining a “comprehensive”
AntiCheat approach.

LO had announced that as part of their in-house developed GamersFirst Technology Platform,
a component of this framework would include their own an internal AntiCheat framework.

This internal AntiCheat framework would be comprised of a client side kernel level AntiCheat,
and two Server level AntiCheat components.

 

Matt realize that there are cheats designed to bypass the client side methods in order to
inject their cheats into the APB application.
Hence the server side components.

Matt communicated that he is reluctant to outright permanently ban players for cheating,
as once a player is banned, they are gone, and there is absolutely no way that you can be
1000% sure that it was not a mistake.

He has expressed his frustration of trying to unravel the mix of legitimate bans from the false positive bans from the past.

His approach besides segregation in the District Mission Pools, based on the number of Cheat Points accrued, 

is to  impose sanctions on those players that use 3rd party tools to evade fair gameplay.

What does Sanctions even mean ?
He referenced the disabling/locked out or removing “features” from a player that has been detected
as using unfair game practices.

This had me thinking what Features are available that a cheater may lose, either temporarily,
or permanently.
 

FightClub
Lockout Access
Can only join districts

 

Weapon Loadout.
Disable/Lockout weapons in the players weapon locker
Both Primary, Secondary and Grenades
Disable/Lockout weapon mods

Character Loadout
There are four character slots that can be populated
with anything from Car Surfer, Fragility, Ammo Box,  etc ….
Disable/Lockout individual Character slots

Car Loadout
Disable/Lockout cars in a players inventory
Disable/Lockout Car mods

 

I think the most extreme scenario for a player that has reached a high enough threshold of cheat points,

would have just the Starter Weapons and Car availble to them.
STAR 556
FBW
Frag Grenade
and the starter car

Joker Store
Lockout the ability to Rent/Buy using Joker Tickets accrued

Email
Lockout the ability to Send/Receive/Retrieve Attachments

MarketPlace
Lockout the ability to Buy/Sell

 

Designer
Lockout Vehicle. Symbol, Music designer
 

I’m sure there are other features that LO has on their list, but I think this would be a great
start for those players who do not support fair gameplay.

 

Matt also mentioned that he is considering providing “some” AntiCheat stats on a regular basis
Keeping it high level, potentially just Number of Detections Identified & Number of Sanctions Administered.

I hope he decides to implement this.

Matt’s initial thought is that a player would hopefully realize that the AntiCheat is working
when completing a mission, that fairness was intuitive.

Problem is, that so many times in the past, it has not always been  intuitive, hence the constant
hackusations that occur. Even when their opponent is not cheating, they were just a good player.

By actively communicating on a consistent basis, it does send a clear message to the player base;
“We are actively and consistently vetting all players to ensure fair gameplay is maintained”

This level of communication is, in my opinion much more effective than a blog post
that is provided every few months.

It communicates regularly and consistently , that the AntiCheat is active, and issuing remedial actions.
This, in my opinion, is a reassuring, consistent and positive message.

 

He spent 2.5 hours talking about anti-cheat and punishment for cheaters?
lol.

[Westford 182]

5 hours ago, explosiveUA said:

He spent 2.5 hours talking about anti-cheat and punishment for cheaters?
lol.

Oh gosh no, he talked about a lot of other things.

lol

 

The GamersFirst Technology Platform and their internal AntiCheat caught my interest the most.

lol

 

That's why I mentioned it here.

 

He also discussed their;

 - continued prototyping of UE5

- adding EMP grenades

- Car Racing

- new PVE games

- discussing nighttime displays
- possibility to bring back the "Refer a Friend" program
- possibility to bring back the old Armas Event page

- Internal Voice chat

- Player run Tournaments

- Potential to bring back Console Play

- etc ..

 

A whole bunch of stuff.

 

I just didn't mention everything, sorry.

I figured if there was enough interest, people would watch the recorded AMA.

 

Can you forgive me @explosiveUA ?

Haha

 

EDIT:

Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the questions was if Tails could be added to the Clothing store.
Matt was unable to commit to this.

 

For those interested in this discussion, you can skip to the time slot of the AMA 1:37:15

 

 

 

Edited March 18 by Westford

[Ardita 150]

Still think the cross-world matchmaking could be very awesome

[Hexerin 1150]

20 hours ago, Ardita said:

Still think the cross-world matchmaking could be very awesome

They couldn't even make cross-instance matchmaking work, you expect cross-world to ever exist? Lol, lmao even.

[AWBtwo 16]

matt, i think the update wiped guns from my account. the support ticket page is broken. my ama question is can u help me lol. this account is old as dirt.

[Ardita 150]

12 hours ago, Hexerin said:

They couldn't even make cross-instance matchmaking work, you expect cross-world to ever exist? Lol, lmao even.

Who's talking about my expectations except of you actually?

 

I stated my opinion that it could very awesome. Nothing more, nothing less. Saddle up.