[GAME] Threat Rating Suggestion / Possible Leagues System / Rewards for Ranking Up

[Salvick 248]

Let's bring some concepts I want to share since I've been thinking of this ideas for a while already.

 

The threat system as it is already have huge flaws that let the portion of the players in both ends of the rating spectrum out of having chances of decent match-making while also enabling every single player out there abuse this system in search of more advantageous matches in detriment of the overall gaming experience for everyone else, aka: dethreat.

 

Here are some reads about what has been done in the past in APB so we can base our discussion with acknowledgment of these previous updates to the rating (threat) system:

 

March 2011:  https://apbreloaded.gamersfirst.com/2011/03/missing-skill-ratings-and-thanks-to.html

April 2014:     https://apbreloaded.gamersfirst.com/2013/04/settling-score-version-11.html

 

 

 I think of a few options that might work to improve matchmaking and ensure encouragement of players to play fair, be more competitive and get rewards accordingly to their effort and skills.

 

Let's get into it:

 

 

1. Frequency-Playing-Based Rating.

 

• Let's say, as how the system currently works, that your rating is based in your last 50 matches. How is this affected if you were actually performing above the average but then you decide to skip objectives, avoid killing opponents and barely participating in a mission for a couple of days to game the system and get advantageous matches as result? Well, this is not new and it is basically how dethreating works and is being exploited, right?  But in such cases, there is plenty of people performing decently who maybe doesn't play too often and stop playing for a couple of days/weeks or more and then they return and get matched against tough players when are still rusty and even worst, since there's a constant flow of new players joining and leaving the game the overall scale of ratings varies causing a need of rebalance threats on such players who might be returning after a while. Usually a player returning after a couple of weeks or months should have his rating measurements reset so maybe they should play at least 5 matches or something like that before the game sets back a proper rating for such player.

 

Potential solution:

 

•  Monthly (or weekly) Rating System: Every week or month the threat system is restarted in a way that, while keeping the current rating every player has reach folded back, it requires you to play at least 5 matches to determine if you stay in your current threat level or you need a calibration to go up or down your current rating for further match-making.  During this neutral period your match-making is based exclusively in your win/lose ratio from the past 10 or 30 days or whatever these time periods are set, along with your K/D ratio from the same period so you fight against players with similar stats. Once you pass the 5 matches threshold it settles your rating and triggers the more complex system where your whole performance is considered to set your threat progression based on your completed tasks, assists, overall performance, such as K/D and W/L ratios, etc. so you start to earn the assigned rewards for your threat/league/rating.

       _____________________

 

2. Weapon-Role-Based Match Making:

 

• What happens when a group of experienced snipers who maxed out that role are teamed up against a group of CQC expert players? We are assuming here they are all on the same level regarding the overall performance of each one for any given scenario, but for some specific situations, having no snipers in your side when the other team is holding positions in high spots surrounding an objective with <4mins to finish it makes for a CQC team fall in the need of a very tactical and well coordinated moving to clear the area and reach the target before the time runs out, otherwise, we get very short missions as a result disregarding if you are in the winning or the losing team.

 

Potential solution:
 

• Favorite Weapon-Class-Based Match Making: Every time the server searches for players to get them in a match, it could do a quick check on their role ratings and apply this in a very small factor to attempt to at least balance the roles of each member of the team to ensure both sides could cover almost every situation. I know this is mostly impossible and even if it is possible it could be not very accurate given the fact that there are only 40 players of each faction which means you can have as much 10 pre-made teams of 4 players as much which doesn't leave much space for such diversity as the amount of roles we currently have that are a bunch, but at least if you have 2 or 3 free players ready for a mission to pick for a match, it could then add this last check to see which one of them might fit better and be more helpful to balance the teams regarding this. Why not?

       _____________________

 

3. Rewards for going up on a League System instead of only four threat tiers:

 

• When it comes to a wide player base the spectrum of skill ratings is way too big to actually have an accurate method to pair every player in a balanced match without risking to have an amount of them in the same pool with players way above or way below their level when there are so few tiers to frame them. Also in this particular situations there's the point where players looking for more rewards will try to game the system or would end up not getting proper rewards accordingly to their effort or skills put on the game leading to discouraging the new players or casual ones since they'll be struggling to get cash and xp or either making the more skilled ones get very few motivation to put an effort on improve and rank up if they could be getting same or better earnings and easier wins by just getting matched with less experienced players.

 

Potential solution:

 

• Monthly League Rankings and Rewards Accordingly: If we could have sub-tiers within the current threat levels we could have some sort of a league system where every player gets matched within other players of his same league/threat but subdividing the spectrum into maybe 3 or more tiers within each threat rank. I think there already is something like 10 invisible ranks on each threat? Let's say the weekly rating session starts and past week you ended up as Silver II, then you have to play 5 matches to settle it down and define if you'll stay as Silver II or maybe Silver I or III or even jump to Gold or Bronze depending if you are performing better or worst this time. Then there's a multiplier in your rewards based on the tier you are which means that if you put an effort to go up to higher tiers your rewards will be bigger and also maybe in addition to this you get the chance of having some other rewards such as a set of League JMB  with a small factor for bigger rewards and less relevant prizes when you are in a lower threat/league and a higher factor for important rewards and more relevant prizes once you go up through treat levels. This is also a way to discourage dethreating and add more interest for the players who will fight the best they can to get such mentioned rewards.

 

          To clarify this, let's say Bronze, Silver, Gold threats grants you better prizes (aka: JMB or JTickets) while the internal tiers (ie. Silver I, II, II, and so on) increases the multiplier for your cash and XP rewards

          and a chance of getting also a few JTickets if you earn MVP or something like that.

       _____________________

 

Now, what I think many of us will agree is that showing up that threat badge above our name tags only thing it did was not only segregate the community, particularly by separating servers, but also increased the amount of toxicity between players and discouraged a lot of newcomers of keep playing because they usually got bullied by other players who just reached a higher tier than them but were facing very stressful matches against higher threat players before so they learned it the wrong way, that's why I think threat badges should've never been there in the first place.

 

If you want to see your ratings, you should be able to check your stats privately and then if decide you want to share them or not is up to you. 

 

We could have some sort of ladders or weekly/monthly rankings for these who wants to take part in a separated competitive instance districts ruleset for that too where also prizes might be more interesting.

 

I'm not sure if I'm being accurate with my proposition in regards of what might be actually possible to do and what might be already in the board for future plans but by bringing this suggestion here, although it is a bit sketchy, I just want to contribute with some ideas I had based as well in what I saw around some other games where prizes for reaching higher leagues are a motivation that worked to stop tankers from dethreating and ruining the game.

 

 

In addition, I'm setting a poll to know what kind of rewards you'd like to have if  we could get a Leagues System with prizes for going up the ladder.

 

 

Waiting for your feedback guys, hope we have a good discussion about this.

 

 

Regards,

Sal.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Salvick
Game suggestion category added on tittle.

[Kewlin 692]

No, no no no, no.

 

Just no, none of this, everything you've said here is bad, don't do this, don't listen to this man, don't do any of these things.

 

We don't need bigger e-peens in APB, giving drastically better rewards for being better is an awful idea, and this won't stop dethreating. In addition, frequency based rating is not necessary, most people honestly don't get that much worse at APB after leaving for even huge periods of time for more than a few missions, or honestly a day at most (and if they aren't quite up to snuff. . . threat in APB is updated pretty damned quickly TBH.) Finally, role based matchmaking is against the spirit of APB.

 

So yeah, I can't agree with any of this.

[Excalibur! 207]

No? We should let the game roting with people bored and dethreating because someone is worried about epeens stroking. Totally right.

Not, pusillanimous.

--

I dont like repeating so i quote myself

 

18 minutes ago, Ken2 said:

Before any changes to threat system and matchmaking is done, we should wait to get a big population again.

 

Players should not be punished by their skill or time spent in the game, all the contrary.

Is like we should hide players customizations or symbols because they are way too good at it (?).

 

Dethreaters exist because facing another player of the same level is not well rewarded, plus cheaters. And going to lower threats they get the same rewards as they would on top and with easier oponents. Abusing lower skilled players has come an addiction it seems.

-Better rewards should fix this: money, progression, adquiring more useful items, cars etc.

-Incentive players to get better and spend time in the game, like they are actually progressing. Remove easy ways to get money like ramming, that would incentive players to find ways to make money.

-Ranking up to max would allow you to join the new map. Pushing players to rank up and spend time in the game, and completly rekt them if they are caught cheating because they would need to spend huge time to access said map.

 

There are so many ways to reward and incentive a player to get better and spend time in the game. Use your imagination.

 

This ranking up to max to access certain maps like fc or the new map they are planning is not bad idea because cheaters would need to spend a huge amount of time to access it (they could be get caught in the way there). Those maps will be cleaner than any map, with no low rank rambos guncoptering or with hilarious scores.

It would incentive players to get max rank, spend time upgrading contacts and playing the game while trying to get better and progressing with better rewards in their way to max rank.

 

Being max rank would be like a retirement, to enjoy those paradise maps where you could get nice rewards and be more unique maybe?

 

EDIT: meh, this sounds so good that i would actually rank up my crim, that i never do it because there is no reason for it.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[Salvick 248]

1 minute ago, Ken2 said:

This ranking up to max to access certain maps like fc or the new map they are planning is not bad idea because cheaters would need to spend a huge amount of time to access it (they could be get caught in the way there). Those maps will be cleaner than any map, with no low rank rambos guncoptering or with hilarious scores.

It would incentive players to get max rank, spend time upgrading contacts and playing the game while trying to get better and progressing with better rewards in their way to max rank.

 

Being max rank would be like a retirement, to enjoy those paradise maps where you could get nice rewards and be more unique maybe?

 

I do agree with some of what you say, but I think that's on a different topic regarding cheaters and such. I'm focusing this suggestion in the idea of bringing more people to play the game and give incentives. I'm not talking about rewarding the higher rank players, indeed these prizes and rewards would not only be limited, but also would become redundant once you gather a bunch and even more redundant once you get used to buy stuff from Armas and upgrade your rig yourself by your own means.

 

In the meanwhile I think this as an effective solution to get people back on track with the competitive spirit of the game and the chance of getting rewarded above the current expectations is aimed to get lower rank players motivated to climb up the ranks ladder, and I quote you yourself too:

 

22 minutes ago, Ken2 said:

Dethreaters exist because facing another player of the same level is not well rewarded, plus cheaters. And going to lower threats they get the same rewards as they would on top and with easier oponents. Abusing lower skilled players has come an addiction it seems.

-Better rewards should fix this: money, progression, adquiring more useful items, cars etc.

-Incentive players to get better and spend time in the game, like they are actually progressing. Remove easy ways to get money like ramming, that would incentive players to find ways to make money.

^This is what I aim to with this ideas I had.

 

When people have something to grind for, they put a bigger effort than just posing around with a gold badge looking to be "the best player" and also there are lot of factors that discourage lower threat players from trying to play when they get nothing more than the frustration of a bad match making and a little reward for trying while at the same time, the experienced players know they'll get the same reward for playing against easier/less skilled players than if they try hard against the top ones.

 

That's why so many people, specially average and newcomers, are skipping a mission every time they get matched against those who already stomped them earlier, but if you give everyone something worthy to fight for they stop skipping missions and ruining the game for everyone else.
 

I might don't know about a lot of games, but I can tell for a few I saw where this problem of people tanking/de-ranking to get matched against weaker/less-skilled players was a big problem, they stopped doing it when there was implemented a league system where the higher tier you play the better the chances of getting good prizes are.

 

Also the most important thing of introducing leased Armas weapons as an ingame prize along with some special JMB (with basic prizes maybe or very, very low chances of getting a relevant prize) is a good marketing strategy to introduce freebies to the market where they could eventually decide to invest some money. It is from a business perspective that I see it this way.

 

I understand from a gamer perspective a bunch of players (including myself) might feel this goes against the elitism feeling this game brings when someone can buy all the stuff they want to

show-off while plebs shouldn't have access to exclusive stuff for free, but from my perspective, every improvement that can provide other players with a better experience is a chance to make the population grow bigger and make the game last longer along with the attractiveness to potential customers spending money in the things they want to have.

 

APB is a very attractive game for a huge niche of average/casual gamers out there that have been trying to join but left because of toxic competitiveness but if the casual players and freebies get the chance to taste what they could get if they decide to buy something then the chances of having more people spending money on stuff are increased considerably at the same time the "product" (players to play with and against) refines and offers a better quality game since you ensure that the customer's investment will worth the fun they'll get if we have decent amount of players to get matched with more diversity of skills and equipment in the streets.

[Dopefish 248]

32 minutes ago, Kewlin said:

We don't need bigger e-peens in APB, giving drastically better rewards for being better is an awful idea, and this won't stop dethreating.

I don't agree with the original post suggestions in regards of threat levels or MMR, but leagues used to available in the past for the game, which could give things as display tokens for statues and billboards, but also rewards such as vehicles. Gamersfirst removed it together with the detailed threat levels, in an attempt to make players less competitive, but this made no difference on how players played the missions. Instead it removed the incentive for players to maintain their threat levels and play consistently well, and turned clans into nothing more than glorified friends lists.

 

As you can probably guess, this later made it easier for players to decide to dethreat as they had nothing to lose, with no work needed to get back to "highest" threat level or caring about their rankings in the leaderboards. If these things would get reimplemented again, they'd of course need to be balanced to the current version of APB, but display tokens and joker tickets seems like appropriate league rewards.

 

[Excalibur! 207]

@SalvickI brought cheaters because it would be an extra benefit that i think it should be named.

@DopefishYou may be right. It would be nice for people who like it hardcore.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[Kewlin 692]

24 minutes ago, Ken2 said:

~snip~

 

The last thing APB needs is more newbies complaining that they don't get to have fun because they're not high enough rank, lol.

 

 

7 minutes ago, Dopefish said:

I don't agree with the original post suggestions in regards of threat levels or MMR, but leagues used to available in the past for the game, which could give things as display tokens for statues and billboards, but also rewards such as vehicles. Gamersfirst removed it together with the detailed threat levels, in an attempt to make players less competitive, but this made no difference on how players played the missions. Instead it removed the incentive for players to maintain their threat levels and play consistently well, and turned clans into nothing more than glorified friends lists.

 

As you can probably guess, this later made it easier for players to decide to dethreat as they had nothing to lose, with no work needed to get back to "highest" threat level or caring about their rankings in the leaderboards. If these things would get reimplemented again, they'd of course need to be balanced to the current version of APB, but display tokens and joker tickets seems like appropriate league rewards.

 

Can't say I agree with you entirely. You *still* occasionally here people trying to brag about the ratings they got to back when your exact threat was shown. I'm closer to the people who think Threat should be hidden entirely than y'all who want to see your exact threat. You won't get me with the clan stuff 'cause I've never liked clans (I don't mind that people like clans, I just don't.) Lastly, I just don't think APB needs people getting rewards for being on top. APB's biggest problem is with noobs and newbies, and that'll only get worse with exclusive content for people on the top.

 

Also, I know I'm the only person who thinks this, but the old threat icons were ugly, especially the criminal ones.

[Salvick 248]

12 minutes ago, Dopefish said:

I don't agree with the original post suggestions in regards of threat levels or MMR, but leagues used to available in the past for the game, which could give things as display tokens for statues and billboards, but also rewards such as vehicles. Gamersfirst removed it together with the detailed threat levels, in an attempt to make players less competitive, but this made no difference on how players played the missions. Instead it removed the incentive for players to maintain their threat levels and play consistently well, and turned clans into nothing more than glorified friends lists.

 

As you can probably guess, this later made it easier for players to decide to dethreat as they had nothing to lose, with no work needed to get back to "highest" threat level or caring about their rankings in the leaderboards. If these things would get reimplemented again, they'd of course need to be balanced to the current version of APB, but display tokens and joker tickets seems like appropriate league rewards.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this because I've met the game just in the official G1 release and not before.

 

Basically what you are pointing out is the reason why I brought this suggestion, giving incentives instead of punishments usually works better since it is attractive as well for potential players who might join instead of discouraging the current ones from playing.

 

Also that screenshots clearly says there is already something L.O. could put an eye on in case they want to consider anything such like this without the need of start coding these features from scratch.

 

Excellent input @Dopefish

[Excalibur! 207]

13 minutes ago, Kewlin said:

 

The last thing APB needs is more newbies complaining that they don't get to have fun because they're not high enough rank, lol.

Why wont they have fun playing the game? How did all we started playing? Action district and getting our characters developed, while trying to grow our skills. Do you see any of that happening? No? Why? Maybe because all that been said upside?

Listening to cries is what killed this game. I dont care a noob is not good enough, i care 10 to get into the game and get interested in it and spend time fascinated with the progression, graphics, customization, rewards, the clean game, etc. you name it.

 

Enough bullshoot with crying and equality, to heck with that.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[cyral 25]

good idea for toilet paper.. and u r correct when you said the threat system needs an overhaul pretty damn badly.... the dethreat system in place as it stand does cause a lot of hurt feelings...I for 1 would LOVE  2 see most players who abuse this system be banned for life and their gear be placed in a joker lotto thing...100 joker tickets for a lotto ticket...

I for 1 am tired of EACH AND EVERY FREAKIN MATCH  I get into on my CORRECT THREAT DISTRICT   being FACE FU@#ED  because if these COWARD A$$ GOLDS who have the freakin skill level to face people in the HIGHER threat districts, but instead the STAY in the BRONZE areas of the game just because they can get 20 kills a match...they treat the bronze districts like their personal fight club....and yet when an equal opponent for them does show up, they run and hide and BIT(H,,, oh they BIT(H up a freakin storm when they have an EQUAL MATCH...

the only thing to me that made any sense on how to balance it was this<<<<<<requency-Playing-Based Rating.>>>>>> I personally have a 3.4 kill ratio in my over all hours of games played......and yet i keep getting opponents who have a 50+ kill ratio in total gaming hrs played....this is EXTREMELY UN FU(KIN FAIR 2 ME and other people like me who have  a low skill rating...and low skills for that matter 

 

Dethreaters exist because facing another player of the same level is not well rewarded, plus cheaters. And going to lower threats they get the same rewards as they would on top and with easier oponents. Abusing lower skilled players has come an addiction it seems.   

i totally agree here....i've been playing for almost 7 months now and have seen this in full force.... For I am a daily player that has been abused by the handful of morons who do stay in the BRONZE DISTRICTS cause it's easier for them to get kills....and get the SAME rewards as from the higher threat districts....

and yes i do skip missions pretty damn regulery cause of the stoppin i get in previous missions w/ the same freakin opp.....and i do suffer on points and cash for that as well...it beats trying my azz off for 0 points and cash and im out 500 rounds of rifle ammo...which i have no way of replacing...

 

MY 1 FREAKIN SUGGESTION THAT KEEPS GETTING SHOT TO HELL AND BACK WOULD REFREAKIN DUCE SOME OF THE BRUTALITY OF DETHREATERS.....

iF THEY CANNOT GET IN A DISTRICT 1 level BELOW their CURRENT THREAT LVL>>>>they would have to dethreat all the way to bronze to get back in...and most cannot do that....so please remove the ADVANCED OPTIONS MENU for DISTRICT SELECTION.....

if they NEED to play with friends of a different threat level then they are, they can use OPEN CONFLICT..... That's what that district is there for....

I guarantee you this,....if an ADMIN goes into any bronze district at any givin time they will see 2/3rds of the population is GOLD....most of that population if not ALL OF THEM are the DETHREATING scum bags that hurt the game growth,....because its easier for them 2 keep their kill rate high as hell...and their points/cash is out ragious  

and in my humble opinion, dethreaters are hold overs from G1s attempt at threat segregation in the 1st place..... they were created to help them make mega cash in the ARMAS marketplace....while the screwed up match making went on, people needed to buy a better guns to help them fight off the sorry craps that brutality raped em in every mission....only to find themselves out of hundreds of dollars and still getting raped...

[Excalibur! 207]

5 minutes ago, cyral said:

good idea for toilet paper.. and u r correct when you said the threat system needs an overhaul pretty damn badly.... the dethreat system in place as it stand does cause a lot of hurt feelings...I for 1 would LOVE  2 see most players who abuse this system be banned for life and their gear be placed in a joker lotto thing...100 joker tickets for a lotto ticket...

I for 1 am tired of EACH AND EVERY FREAKIN MATCH  I get into on my CORRECT THREAT DISTRICT   being FACE FU@#ED  because if these COWARD A$$ GOLDS who have the freakin skill level to face people in the HIGHER threat districts, but instead the STAY in the BRONZE areas of the game just because they can get 20 kills a match...they treat the bronze districts like their personal fight club....and yet when an equal opponent for them does show up, they run and hide and BIT(H,,, oh they BIT(H up a freakin storm when they have an EQUAL MATCH...

the only thing to me that made any sense on how to balance it was this<<<<<<requency-Playing-Based Rating.>>>>>> I personally have a 3.4 kill ratio in my over all hours of games played......and yet i keep getting opponents who have a 50+ kill ratio in total gaming hrs played....this is EXTREMELY UN FU(KIN FAIR 2 ME and other people like me who have  a low skill rating...and low skills for that matter 

 

Dethreaters exist because facing another player of the same level is not well rewarded, plus cheaters. And going to lower threats they get the same rewards as they would on top and with easier oponents. Abusing lower skilled players has come an addiction it seems.   

i totally agree here....i've been playing for almost 7 months now and have seen this in full force.... For I am a daily player that has been abused by the handful of morons who do stay in the BRONZE DISTRICTS cause it's easier for them to get kills....and get the SAME rewards as from the higher threat districts....

and yes i do skip missions pretty damn regulery cause of the stoppin i get in previous missions w/ the same freakin opp.....and i do suffer on points and cash for that as well...it beats trying my azz off for 0 points and cash and im out 500 rounds of rifle ammo...which i have no way of replacing...

 

MY 1 FREAKIN SUGGESTION THAT KEEPS GETTING SHOT TO HELL AND BACK WOULD REFREAKIN DUCE SOME OF THE BRUTALITY OF DETHREATERS.....

iF THEY CANNOT GET IN A DISTRICT 1 level BELOW their CURRENT THREAT LVL>>>>they would have to dethreat all the way to bronze to get back in...and most cannot do that....so please remove the ADVANCED OPTIONS MENU for DISTRICT SELECTION.....

if they NEED to play with friends of a different threat level then they are, they can use OPEN CONFLICT..... That's what that district is there for....

I guarantee you this,....if an ADMIN goes into any bronze district at any givin time they will see 2/3rds of the population is GOLD....most of that population if not ALL OF THEM are the DETHREATING scum bags that hurt the game growth,....because its easier for them 2 keep their kill rate high as hell...and their points/cash is out ragious  

and in my humble opinion, dethreaters are hold overs from G1s attempt at threat segregation in the 1st place..... they were created to help them make mega cash in the ARMAS marketplace....while the screwed up match making went on, people needed to buy a better guns to help them fight off the sorry craps that brutality raped em in every mission....only to find themselves out of hundreds of dollars and still getting raped...

Or, you could learn to play? Facing stronger oponents makes you play better and learn from their tactics. Thats what i did when i started as a bronze, then silver and i was really happy when i got gold. Some golds would freaking destroy me in a blink, while i was playing with 300ms because i picked the wrong server.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[cyral 25]

6 minutes ago, Ken2 said:

Or, you could learn to play? Facing stronger oponents makes you play better and learn from their tactics. Thats what i did when i started as a bronze, then silver and i was really happy when i got gold. Some golds would freaking destroy me in a blink, while i was playing with 300ms because i picked the wrong server.

i can't believe your dumbazz went there....with the current match makin system in place alls it's making me do is want/need to find a few of these idiots and rip their freakin throats out.. ...i have a problem seeing with my eyes at times... and after 7 months of getting brutally raped in EVERY FU(KIN MATCH is taking its toll on me...how is that FU(KING helping me get better????

and right now ALOT OF THESE FREAKING IDIOTS is abusing the mission areas of the game...if i was a GM id ban em all for life...be glad im not..

[Excalibur! 207]

4 minutes ago, cyral said:

i can't believe your dumbazz went there....with the current match makin system in place alls it's making me do is want/need to find a few of these idiots and rip their freakin throats out.. ...i have a problem seeing with my eyes at times... and after 7 months of getting brutally raped in EVERY FU(KIN MATCH is taking its toll on me...how is that FU(KING helping me get better????

and right now ALOT OF THESE FREAKING IDIOTS is abusing the mission areas of the game...if i was a GM id ban em all for life...be glad im not..

You may find a game that makes you more comfortable... i allways, since i started, wanted to be gold and play with golds. I played about 500 hours with 300 ping until i could reach gold status. Now you play a few games and you are already gold.

You have the privilege to do such thing all the time and you are complaining? This game may not be for you honestly.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[Dopefish 248]

16 minutes ago, Ken2 said:

Or, you could learn to play?

That's not very constructive, as there are legitimate reasons why people can't perform better, such as having a underwhelming computer and be playing at low framerates. Telling these people that they don't belong is counterproductive for the game as a whole.

 

Dethreating people are scaring away what could otherwise be paying customers, removing revenue that could be used to improve the game. Not to mention that a multiplayer game stands or falls with its player base.

[Excalibur! 207]

1 minute ago, Dopefish said:

That's not very constructive, as there are legitimate reasons why people can't perform better, such as having a underwhelming computer and be playing at low framerates. Telling these people that they don't belong is counterproductive for the game as a whole.

 

Dethreating people are scaring away what could otherwise be paying customers, removing revenue that could be used to improve the game. Not to mention that a multiplayer game stands or falls with its player base.

Thats why we are giving sugestions.

 

Filling with complaints of that kind (using the fucking word every sentence) is not healthy either. Crying for your oponents either -when i already told my little story-.

If you have so much issues with your hardware you may find a game you can run... let others enjoy the game.

 

What would you do if you joined a game with no ranks whatsoever? You will be put with skilled people. Example: i started using the pc and i was fascinated with cs 1.5. Joined any server to get destroyed by headshot every single round. I had nowhere to cry, ask for advice, victimize myself etcs. That didnt stop me to learn to play and get to the point that i would be banned from any server even when i never cheated (ofc i was younger and mad gamer... and no, i am not boosting myself).

 

Lets not sensibilize this so much... it may cause more harm.

[cyral 25]

i have been a VERY LOUD VOICE  on the poor match making in this game....and i will continue to do that until something gives....im not askin much, just that it be a little more fairer...people's skill levels in this game do very a freakin lot......instead of matching a brand new T against a 255 gold that's been playing for 4 years, the T is gonna uninstall...no questions asked...i have watched over 100 people a month uninstall this game in my 7 months playing because of the poor match making..  in battle or during any kind of movement i get between 12-18 FPS...respectfully...and some have told me thats eye cancer because its so low... but these same idiots take full freakin advantage of it and kill me 20 times a freakin match, while i see 0 pts or cash..

that's severely unfair 2 me..and i really do love this game......id like to see around for another 20 years if possible...

[Excalibur! 207]

1 minute ago, cyral said:

i have been a VERY LOUD VOICE  on the poor match making in this game....and i will continue to do that until something gives....im not askin much, just that it be a little more fairer...people's skill levels in this game do very a freakin lot......instead of matching a brand new T against a 255 gold that's been playing for 4 years, the T is gonna uninstall...no questions asked...i have watched over 100 people a month uninstall this game in my 7 months playing because of the poor match making..  in battle or during any kind of movement i get between 12-18 FPS...respectfully...and some have told me thats eye cancer because its so low... but these same idiots take full freakin advantage of it and kill me 20 times a freakin match, while i see 0 pts or cash..

that's severely unfair 2 me..and i really do love this game......id like to see around for another 20 years if possible...

Let me tell you that matchmaking is broken due the lack of players... give it more time this game is filled once again, some tweaks on matchmaking, better rewards etc. Meanwhile try to enjoy the game as it is and help people understanding it with your current knowledge -you already played 7months, you are not new-.

[Salvick 248]

40 minutes ago, Kewlin said:

 I'm closer to the people who think Threat should be hidden entirely than y'all who want to see your exact threat. 

[...]

 

APB's biggest problem is with noobs and newbies, and that'll only get worse with exclusive content for people on the top.

 

Regarding this, I forgot to clarify in the OP that also I think threat/rating should not be visible at all, or taking the example of CS:GO competitive match-making, you only get to see your opp's rank after the match has ended.

 

About exclusive content for top players, I think I didn't expressed it clearly, but my idea is to provide rewards for everybody as an incentive for lower threat players to climb up in look for better rewards.

 

Then you could simply put some sort of limit in the amount of rewards you get every day while also I think this would happen naturally once you are maxing out your character's progression because the items you could get as "mission reward" or "league progression prizes" etc. shouldn't be much better than what you finally get once you are involved with the game, unlocked basically everything from NPCs and bought ARMAS items, I think being on top, regarding character progression, along with a consistent high threat rating, would be an inherent regulation of this system since these rewards would turn redundant.

 

In that regard, maybe special multipliers in the APB$ cash rewards or some extra Joker Tickets would be something worthy to keep grinding for.

 

Also, my suggestion lacks of some details such as the scale of the rewards because I don't think I would be aware of what the business model of the company is in order to create a proper scale, but based in other games, there isn't such a huge difference within the rewards you get in the different stages of a league, depending if it is a currency or items, usually they set the biggest price as something that represents like ~20% or 25% of a decent paid item you could get and then from bottom to top you get the smallest rewards as private/bronze/rookie which then increases by a small factor of 5% or 10% till it hits the max reward.

 

A rough example I could think of to graphic what I'm saying:

 

 

Threat&Tier	Multiplier	JTickets	JMB Chances Rate	JMB possible items	JMB Leased Legendary Weapon
Green I	1	0 to 5	0%		No
Green II	1	5 to 10	0.5%	3 days stock weapons / 500 to 1000 APB$ / 10 to 50 JTickets	No
Green III	1	10 to 15	1%	3 days stock weapons / 500 to 1000 APB$ / 10 to 50 JTickets	No
Bronze I	1.05	10 to 15	2%	5 days stock weapons / 1000 to 2500 APB$ / 30 to 70 JTickets	5 days low tier secondary
Bronze II	1.10	15 to 20	3%	5 days stock weapons / 1000 to 2500 APB$ / 30 to 70 JTickets	5 days low tier secondary
Bronze III	1.15	20 to 25	4%	7 days stock weapons / 15000 to 3000 APB$ / 40 to 80 JTickets	5 days low tier secondary
Silver I	1.20	20 to 25	5%	7 days stock or low tier armas weapons / 1500 to 3000 APB$ / 40 to 80 JTickets	10 days low tier primary
Silver II	1.25	25 to 30	6.5%	7 days stock or low tier armas weapons / 1500 to 3000 APB$ / 40 to 80 JTickets	10 days low tier primary
Silver III	1.30	30 to 40	7%	10 days stock or low tier armas weapons / 3000 to 5000 APB$ / 50 to 90 JTickets	10 days low tier primary
Gold I	1.40	35 to 45	7.5%	10 days stock or med tier armas weapons / 3000 to 5000 APB$ / 60 to 100 JTickets	10 days med tier primary
Gold II	1.50	45 to 50	8.5%	10 days stock or med tier armas weapons / 3000 to 5000 APB$ / 60 to 100 JTickets	10 days med tier primary
Gold III	1.60	50 to 60	9%	15 days stock or med tier armas weapons / 4000 to 6000 APB$ / 70 to 100 JTickets	10 days med tier primary

 

This shouldn't be considered as part of the suggestion but is just a sketch of what I think would be a system of scales to set the prizes the players can access on each league/threat rank.

 

 

 

Also there should be a one time only reward for hitting a higher threat level, such as a fixed amount of APB$ cash but unable to get the same reward again if you go back to a lower threat level and then rank up again.

 

Of course looking at the example I'm giving this kind of stuff implies a whole adjust in the overall economy and specially in the Joker Tickets items pricing, but despite that I think this serves its purpose of just provide an example.

[TheFreelancer 27]

This system is in my eyes too competitive based. Remember not everyone wants to play this game competitively. These people will be forced to do so however if this ranking system is introduced.

[Salvick 248]

1 minute ago, TheFreelancer said:

This system is in my eyes too competitive based. Remember not everyone wants to play this game competitively. These people will be forced to do so however if this ranking system is introduced.

Good point.

 

We still have these different rules set instances such as Open Conflict, alas we could have separated non-ranked instances.

 

Yet, the game is vastly considered quite competitive since it is a PvP MMO while you can play it casually or just decide to stay in a lower tier rank if that's a concern. Indeed, casual/average players will gravity naturally to the tier they belong. That's also why I think as same as Kewlin said that threat rating shouldn't be visible.

 

In one of the articles linked in the OP you can read what the old staff used to say about giving players some ability to "set a match", which I think is something to be considered too, sadly, when we had the ability to just kick a player from the mission, this was abused and every time a silver/bronze/green was dropped into a team of goldies, specially pre-made groups, they usually were insta-kicked by the team leader.

 

I still think there should be some options they could think of to provide the players with some abilities to set what kind of matches they'd expect to get, without letting this be mandatory meaning that if there are no chances of get the match they want the game would simply put them on any other available match. But this is something that only works for a solid highly populated community, otherwise the game falls into an eternal cycle of people playing the same game mode once and once like it usually happens.

[JoshuaPTR 4]

Im agree with dopefish point

[VickyFox 353]

Matt Scott indicated a few times that APB is a game which can be competitive but it's a fine line between Competitive and Elitism.

Unless these JMBs were unlocked solely by gameplay then I'm going to say no and this is just going to make the behaviour of the community possibly more toxic and we do not need more lootboxes!

Edited May 28, 2018 by VickyFox

[Excalibur! 207]

11 hours ago, TheFreelancer said:

This system is in my eyes too competitive based. Remember not everyone wants to play this game competitively. These people will be forced to do so however if this ranking system is introduced.

How is a shooter game not competitive? I can't even understand that.

 

2 hours ago, VickyFox said:

Matt Scott indicated a few times that APB is a game which can be competitive but it's a fine line between Competitive and Elitism.

Unless these JMBs were unlocked solely by gameplay then I'm going to say no and this is just going to make the behaviour of the community possibly more toxic and we do not need more lootboxes!

Bringing the word toxicity in a thread were there are constructive critics is being toxic. Stop using that word it doesnt benefit anyone and is practically an insult that should be censored.

11 hours ago, Salvick said:

Good point.

 

We still have these different rules set instances such as Open Conflict, alas we could have separated non-ranked instances.

 

Yet, the game is vastly considered quite competitive since it is a PvP MMO while you can play it casually or just decide to stay in a lower tier rank if that's a concern. Indeed, casual/average players will gravity naturally to the tier they belong. That's also why I think as same as Kewlin said that threat rating shouldn't be visible.

 

In one of the articles linked in the OP you can read what the old staff used to say about giving players some ability to "set a match", which I think is something to be considered too, sadly, when we had the ability to just kick a player from the mission, this was abused and every time a silver/bronze/green was dropped into a team of goldies, specially pre-made groups, they usually were insta-kicked by the team leader.

 

I still think there should be some options they could think of to provide the players with some abilities to set what kind of matches they'd expect to get, without letting this be mandatory meaning that if there are no chances of get the match they want the game would simply put them on any other available match. But this is something that only works for a solid highly populated community, otherwise the game falls into an eternal cycle of people playing the same game mode once and once like it usually happens.

Safe places can be invaded by bad intentioned players, like dethreaters. And it will.

Prematch games can be abused too... to farm rewards and stuff.

 

Maybe it was because i just played the game and didnt visit the forums, but before i never seen someone complaining about elitism and the poor victimis that cant play the game and everyone was actually playing the game. And it was filled with people enjoying and focused on it.

Caring so much about people that can't or dont want to play the game if you dont modify it to their personal comfort is what i think its harming APB.

 

Now if you tell me that you want to apply these comforting changes to console (ps4, xbox or whatever they are called) to please every player with a huge dose of equality so they can feel back in the kindergarden, i wont opose.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Ken2

[Salvick 248]

4 hours ago, VickyFox said:

Matt Scott indicated a few times that APB is a game which can be competitive but it's a fine line between Competitive and Elitism.

Unless these JMBs were unlocked solely by gameplay then I'm going to say no and this is just going to make the behaviour of the community possibly more toxic and we do not need more lootboxes!

Exactly what I think, and there have been a huge elitism on this game since ever, which is in my personal opinion the reason why the previous staff got so intoxicated by a minority of players who got all the attention while the newcomers were totally lost every time they tried the game and even the proper introduction to the game and training curve of such players relied in each one of us who were trying to play the game and ended up mentoring and even baby-sitting a bunch of new players.

 

On a side note, me myself been a noob (just evolved to an experienced noob tbh) and some veteran players helped me in such a way that was so kind and nice that inspired me and that way I've been with everyone else since then.

 

However, regarding the idea of some sort of "low tier" JMBs, aka look boxes, I think there woudln't be any harm done if we get something such like that and the concept is to let everyone who gets involved with the game have a taste of what the ARMAS items are and what a JMB feels like when you open it.

I'm bringing what I think is a *win win* solution for both, the players willing to have more fair and competitive game and the company looking for new ways to attract free players to invest some money in the products the company sell. Its from a business perspective that I focus this proposition of adding prizes and rewards just for playing, and this also helps a lot to mitigate the "P2W" perception that a F2P game always gives.

 

 

1 hour ago, Ken2 said:

Safe places can be invaded by bad intentioned players, like dethreaters. And it will.

Prematch games can be abused too... to farm rewards and stuff.

 

Maybe it was because i just played the game and didnt visit the forums, but before i never seen someone complaining about elitism and the poor victimis that cant play the game and everyone was actually playing the game. And it was filled with people enjoying and focused on it.

Caring so much about people that can't or dont want to play the game if you dont modify it to their personal comfort is what i think its harming APB.

 

 

Exactly, but yet having some options would help sometimes, although I'm not sure how that could work in APB and I'm not bringing this particular matter into discussion and my suggestion would be just an addition to the existing mechanics.

 

Regarding elitism, there might be few complains/threads about it, but if you would be more involved with the forums you could find out this is also a big issue in this game since ever, specially because it is the main product this game sells: the ability to stand out of the crowd either by buying exclusive vanity items or having unique versions of the available guns, which basically means you can pay to "be better than anyone" in many different meanings, plus the core player base, the oldest veterans (not all of them) and the hardcore players have been always screaming loud about anything they disagreed with the old staff giving the terrible impression that they were the ones leading the game development and forcing decisions to the game management.

[Excalibur! 207]

23 minutes ago, Salvick said:

Exactly what I think, and there have been a huge elitism on this game since ever, which is in my personal opinion the reason why the previous staff got so intoxicated by a minority of players who got all the attention while the newcomers were totally lost every time they tried the game and even the proper introduction to the game and training curve of such players relied in each one of us who were trying to play the game and ended up mentoring and even baby-sitting a bunch of new players.

 

On a side note, me myself been a noob (just evolved to an experienced noob tbh) and some veteran players helped me in such a way that was so kind and nice that inspired me and that way I've been with everyone else since then.

 

However, regarding the idea of some sort of "low tier" JMBs, aka look boxes, I think there woudln't be any harm done if we get something such like that and the concept is to let everyone who gets involved with the game have a taste of what the ARMAS items are and what a JMB feels like when you open it.

I'm bringing what I think is a *win win* solution for both, the players willing to have more fair and competitive game and the company looking for new ways to attract free players to invest some money in the products the company sell. Its from a business perspective that I focus this proposition of adding prizes and rewards just for playing, and this also helps a lot to mitigate the "P2W" perception that a F2P game always gives.

 

 

 

Exactly, but yet having some options would help sometimes, although I'm not sure how that could work in APB and I'm not bringing this particular matter into discussion and my suggestion would be just an addition to the existing mechanics.

 

Regarding elitism, there might be few complains/threads about it, but if you would be more involved with the forums you could find out this is also a big issue in this game since ever, specially because it is the main product this game sells: the ability to stand out of the crowd either by buying exclusive vanity items or having unique versions of the available guns, which basically means you can pay to "be better than anyone" in many different meanings, plus the core player base, the oldest veterans (not all of them) and the hardcore players have been always screaming loud about anything they disagreed with the old staff giving the terrible impression that they were the ones leading the game development and forcing decisions to the game management.

Why do you care about elitism?

 

What examples can you give me about changes made by elitist golds? If every change that been added was for the benefit of low skill players and thats what killed the game.