APB Watcher - https://will.io/apb/

[Westford 205]

Wanted to reach out to the staff for any update on access to this offline
“APB Population Status” utility.

https://will.io/apb/

Many of times, I have used this utility to view the stats on NA-Fight Club back in the day.
(cause I really liked FC,  No commitments and such), fond memories.

Anyways, the last AMA 10/21/2025,  I believe this topic came up.
Matt Scott had mentioned that he would like to reach out to that developer,
to discuss the API and recent GFAC implementations.
 

Just curious how that’s going ?
Any progress ?

Any feedback from the community is of course always welcomed,
and would be overjoyed to hear some official word from the LO staff.

If this message would be better served on LO’s Discord, let me know.

Comments from @CookiePuss is always welcome, and I would be most “honored”,   
if @EC2Jonathan could approve this post as soon as possible.

Much Thanks

 

[Westford 205]

@Ardita, if you have any thoughts on this, many of us would be appreciative.

 

[Ardita 249]

1 hour ago, Westford said:

@Ardita, if you have any thoughts on this, many of us would be appreciative.

 

 

I just launch Discord and join #apb-general at Little Orbits discord server, to figure out if game is up or down.

If up, only few people who's stuck there chatting. If down, tons of questions: Is servers down or whats going on?  

 

2 hours ago, Westford said:

Matt Scott had mentioned that he would like to reach out to that developer,

Communication skills is not the best thing in Little Orbit. Perhaps he meant in few years he will reach out to that developer >_<

Edited April 23 by Ardita

[CookiePuss 5396]

I don't know any more than you. Sorry about that.
Would love to see this come back in some way, though.

 

 

Edited April 23 by CookiePuss

[EC2Jonathan 35]

Greetings Master McDoubler Westford,

 

We apologize for the late approval, our CEO was attending a Sesame Seed convention. As per your approval application, MCD HAS DECIDED TO APPROVE THIS POST!!1

 

-

Edited Friday at 11:18 PM by EC2Jonathan

[cowhorseman 477]

More then likely never updated when they shifted to new servers. I would assume thats an LO job, but it would be nice to see if asylum is up and running. Better then trying to play missions against the same 5-6 people who think APB is life

 

Also aslyum 40v40 is the best thing ever. until we get a kitchen/church/operating room/pool room match. then you can not hear anything over the 30 OPGLs.

[BlatMan 744]

The server status shouldn't be accessible from a 3rd party, even just pings. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, or it's my bias from working in datacenters, but I don't like having unnecessary server access.

 

What LO should do is add a widget to these forums. There's that useless 'members statistics' sidebar. Replace it with servers status, sorta like this:

 

Edited Saturday at 05:12 PM by BlatMan

[Darkzero3802 634]

1 hour ago, BlatMan said:

The server status shouldn't be accessible from a 3rd party, even just pings. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, or it's my bias from working in datacenters, but I don't like having unnecessary server access.

 

What LO should do is add a widget to these forums. There's that useless 'members statistics' sidebar. Replace it with servers status, sorta like this:

You have a game where a hacker was able to get in and completely copy the game code into hacks and cheats. There are bigger issues out there.

[BlatMan 744]

42 minutes ago, Darkzero3802 said:

You have a game where a hacker was able to get in and completely copy the game code into hacks and cheats. There are bigger issues out there.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a working server status on the game's official website, and lock down some access elsewhere. Do lock anything you own? Same premise.

[Talla 89]

If someone wanna renew this as a fan project, you have access to a part of the original source code:
https://github.com/McSimp/APBWatcher

 

Personally, I think the best possible solution would be Little Orbit adding an API to query the servers within reasonable usage limits.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 01:59 AM by Talla

[ezmegaz68 203]

I imagine they don't want to add it officially because it would create an endless problem

"I want to play asylum and nothing else but I don't know if its alive. Let me check https://will.io/apb. Oh its empty? Guss I won't log on either."

I know that's what I did

If enough people have this mentality asylum will always be empty, and the game overall will have less players online because they don't need to log in to check the 1 thing they're interested in

Edited Sunday at 03:09 AM by ezmegaz68

[CozyGangsta 72]

14 hours ago, ezmegaz68 said:

I imagine they don't want to add it officially because it would create an endless problem

"I want to play asylum and nothing else but I don't know if its alive. Let me check https://will.io/apb. Oh its empty? Guss I won't log on either."

I know that's what I did

If enough people have this mentality asylum will always be empty, and the game overall will have less players online because they don't need to log in to check the 1 thing they're interested in

Taking timezones and work schedules and the wild amount of choices people have to play instead when they boot up their systems these days I am in the boat that if I don't see others already piled in then I won't either because I have no idea what some dude in Poland or Australia or something is doing and I don't want to work my schedule around the dudes by waiting in fightclub while bro treats m'lady along a french river cruise. I was there for the days of tony hawk pro skater park editor and I already spent enough time alone in virtual spooky warehouses. The reality is I would probably be playing a lot more (fight club at least) with some QoL on this subject

 

IMO what they should do is have an official population ui on the launcher (along with a mini mode?) so if pop is popping you can click the lobby that suddenly has 5 or so people in asylum and launch into it from the launcher itself. When people look over at the launcher wherever they tucked it away on their screen and see a FC lobby filling up they will say "nice" and hop in and suddenly it's getting full because it's getting fuller and fight clubbers like a full lobby. Would also serve those just wanting to play FC as a warmup round or two

[Darkzero3802 634]

On 4/25/2026 at 3:01 PM, BlatMan said:

That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a working server status on the game's official website, and lock down some access elsewhere. Do lock anything you own? Same premise.

Having an official status means LO has to do work. And they dont like working. Its also resources pulled elsewhere to make something else vs working on something that could actually detect and ban the cheaters. But see point 1 on that.

[Ardita 249]

1 hour ago, Darkzero3802 said:

Having an official status means LO has to do work. And they dont like working.

[☮Cornelius 2]

8 hours ago, Ardita said:

Don't make me chuckle so much

[BlatMan 744]

On 4/26/2026 at 5:25 PM, Darkzero3802 said:

Having an official status means LO has to do work. And they dont like working. Its also resources pulled elsewhere to make something else vs working on something that could actually detect and ban the cheaters. But see point 1 on that.

They don't care about banning cheaters. They want them in game. There's a few examples that upload frequently on Youtube.

 

Besides, server status on their website or launcher will be much easier to implement. Then again, the servers shouldn't be down often enough to need that type of monitoring.

[Westford 205]

14 hours ago, BlatMan said:

Then again, the servers shouldn't be down often enough to need that type of monitoring.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my sole use of the "APB Watcher" website,  was to see the population 
of the Districts, primarily Fight Club districts, as those were my favorite.

Baylan Shipping was my all time favorite, Abington was my second favorite.

I haven't played NA Baylan in almost 3 years, never populated,
and the last time I played NA Abington was maybe 2 years ago.

I suppose I could check out EU Fight Clubs, even though I do not have as many weapons over there, 
and the ping is higher for me.

It was just a nice "QOL" game feature to see if a district is populated enough to 
pause whatever movie I was streaming, and to hop in game.

So, I never used that website to see if APB was up and running.

I posted this question to the LO staff here around 6 days ago.
It's been kind of whisper quiet so far.

Might have to venture over to Discord and give it a shot over there.
Wish me luck.

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Westford