To do or not to do (MIDTOWN)

[Ellix 415]

NEW THREAD HERE

 

 

 

 

 

Read_the_old_thread_here

 

Hi all,

I love this post. and have enjoyed checking it occasionally to see the responses from players.
I figure it's probably time for me to weigh in.

First, I think the OP did a fantastic job organizing information and data about Midtown. We do have quite a bit in the archives, but the work was all temporary and never intended for the final product.
Second, I don't think the current version of the game would benefit from LO building out Midtown right now. In my opinion we need to make sure there is enough content in the current 2 action zones so they can progress characters and get matches. Having said that, we do have some ideas for possibly incorporating Midtown in the future when the game has different matchmaking and streaming systems. As others have mentioned, I also think it would be fun to free roam and drive all over the map from district to district.

Thanks,
Matt

 

------

 

Thank_you_very_much_for_the_response! @MattScott
I will keep working on Midtown as long as I can
(As a video game designer student this project is the perfect sandbox for me hehe)

I hope that one day it could be used for something!

 

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Hi there !
First of all I'm sorry that this thread is not originally supposed to be posted in creations
However I would like to give it some time to sit right here because this is a very important topic for me and I think that can help APB somehow
Well this whole project is based on APB...

This is project Midtown which is a project I started few years back and also posted a thread about it on the old forums.
It was abandoned but right now with the new management and with the news that APB is going to be ported to Unreal Engine 4
I hope that there could be a reason that Project Midtown could be renewed!
 

 ----------------
Now let me tell you about Midtown!
----------------
My name is Nick and I play this game for about 6-7 years
I always loved APB and it's great potential and lore
So when I was in high school (So about 3-4 years ago) I tried to make a project based on APB and it's lore

As you may know San Paro is a big place



There is a lot of lore files hidden mainly in in-game email you receive trough time.
My favorite place in San Paro to read about is Midtown.
So one day I downloaded Sketchup and started to model something that looked similar (in my vision) to the Midtown District as described ingame
in email and by contacts..

I looked for references and some of old APB videos that apparently may have been some sort of early versions of the district as well as making (As seen in the image above a mock-up of full San Paro.. 
References such as APB Retribution and old leaked content helped to base the theme of the project.
Also I took an existing concept of the Midtown District and copied the clock sized and the roads..




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As you can see Midtown is a bit south out of what is known as Financial District







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Based on concept art and lore it's quite easy to see what the original developers were going for..











  

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I started with basic concept of a building and expanded from there 
First I looked at the concept art and then I tried to model something similar
Later I discovered that it is better to stick to current APB sized (Such as base ladder is 4m and etc.)
Current version is APB size based

Recently I tried to import the map to MAYA and work on it and there are some results..

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 CONCEPT



 Sketchup





 Maya



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Eventually it's planned to test if the ready blocks can be exported to Unreal 4
And now as we know Little Orbit is working on exporting APB to UE4

Anyhow few years back I made a thread on APB forums describing my work and also tried to gather a small team of people who
may want to help with the project.

So for example Queen of Love helped with designing 3D models and was in charge of a block's environment design...





Soon enough the map started to look a bit more alive
It is far from being finished however there is a base image of environment to you can see the basic gameplay that is 
possible on this map.




For example on the image below you could place the RAMP prop in APB and cars can get into the balcony of the
Police Department Building 



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Here we can see the Letsby court of Midtown (as described in the lore emails)  it's concept version..





 PAINT 3D



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Next step was importing some APB models
So I used Jenz's NinjaRipped models from the game and placed the m in Sketchup
This was somewhat the result:









This is the same place in Maya



And view in Paint 3D

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There been a lot of versions of some spots and it should be all balanced
Here is an example of such place
First image represents never seen environment feature of APB i would like to implement - Vents.
And second is more closed environment based on current level design seen ingame 

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Some areas still need a lot of work and it is not clear yet in which direction some of the map changes should go
However if it it possible that the map will be implemented it should be balanced on the used game mode/cars and weapons

(Green spot is place of Dump Truck)

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So to cover this all there is still a lot of work to be done however I see a possibility that this version of Midtown (Or some parts of it)
Could eventually be used ingame.. 








Midtown's streets are based on existing lore name and some parts of it are combined with Red Hill district
To compare the actual planned size for the map you can compare it to existing 2 mission districts...







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Some concept envirompents





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So in the end when the map will be processed in Sketchup/Maya and other programs for designing and modeling as well as ported
into Unreal 4 I hope that it could be actually used for APB:Reloaded on Unreal 4 as a map that could be used as a mission district or 
entirely new game mode!

@ Little Orbit team
 Hi guys I'd like it if you could answer if this project is something that is worth working for to export it to APB
I think it will be a great addition to the game considering you guys would like to add new maps to the game
In any case it's great to see that you guys are working on expanding the game and I hope that the future for you
and APB will be awesome! 

To finish off I'd like to say that this is a very exciting project for me because it may let me insight into real video game level design
which is also very good for my studies of video game art design.
I don't know what will happen to this district next but I could always use this map with few changes in my own projects..
Still I hope that one day this project may come alive!

Thanks for your time!

-Nick
Ellix 


 

Edited September 3, 2020 by Ellix
Twitch

[EMilika 41]

Awesome work dude. i'm all for.

Edited September 19, 2018 by EMilika

[BL0SS0M 26]

If i had to pick one thing I always loved about APB, it'd be the maps. I really like what you've got so far. Hope we can see some new maps in the future. 

[thesamscout24 14]

Wow, this is something. Good work man!

[Hexerin 1140]

It's basically just a slightly modified Financial. Not worth the cost, both in dev time and playerbase splitting (not that what little playerbase we have could even sustain such a split).

[Keshi 436]

Awesome tbh. 
Now if we can have 1 server where everyone can login and find all the districts from all across the world to join, then maybe we will have enough players to keep all districts as full as posible

[magik 184]

These look great!
Takes me back to some older days past, hopefully it can be actually added to the game should we get a high enough population.

[Ellix 415]

I will be throwing some images here so you guys can see the basic level design..















 

[Clandestine 390]

Wow that's a lot of work. I would rather use the Esri City Engine or some freeware generator, base it on base layout and then do props and interiors manually.
I hope your work will get used by LO.

[owzzy 179]

Imagine having 1 BIG map with all the districts connecting up to each other. You'd only ever have to load into one map. And you could either drive to each district or maybe fast travel or something like that. So instead of joining another district to complete missions for a contact, you'd only need to drive over to a different part of the map.

[Ellix 415]

1 hour ago, Clandestine said:

Wow that's a lot of work. I would rather use the Esri City Engine or some freeware generator, base it on base layout and then do props and interiors manually.
I hope your work will get used by LO.

I feel like I have more comfort over balancing the spots using only Sketchup and Maya for now

[Deftonez 123]

i support this 100%

[eazy-vinny 22]

Great idea and nice to see you putting alot work into this to show your idea
respect +1 

[Tosei 45]

i dont know how this was made but i can see the effort and time you and your team put in, you need more attention, hope LQ see this post

[vsb 6170]

i remember thinking the og thread was pretty cool

while we dont have enough contacts or content (or population, as least on jericho) for a new district, i cant say that a map change wouldnt be crazy refreshing after all these years with financial and waterfront

[Keshi 436]

7 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

i remember thinking the og thread was pretty cool

while we dont have enough contacts or content (or population, as least on jericho) for a new district, i cant say that a map change wouldnt be crazy refreshing after all these years with financial and waterfront

even a new map can bring A LOT of players in. Even those who "quit" for like the 999th time 

[CookiePuss 5373]

1 minute ago, Keshi said:

10 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

i remember thinking the og thread was pretty cool

while we dont have enough contacts or content (or population, as least on jericho) for a new district, i cant say that a map change wouldnt be crazy refreshing after all these years with financial and waterfront

even a new map can bring A LOT of players in. Even those who "quit" for like the 999th time 

Until the game runs like something other than shit, and the weapon balance isnt also shit... aint nobody coming back for long.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

For those wanting midtown I am going to stop you. During the development of APB Midtown became Financial (map wise, not lore wise). All the design decisions and gameplay fundamentals in those play spaces are almost the exact same. Bringing in Midtown District provides no new gameplay space as it mimics Financial in its design. If a new district is to be, people should look elsewhere.

[vsb 6170]

9 minutes ago, NotZombieBiscuit said:

For those wanting midtown I am going to stop you. During the development of APB Midtown became Financial (map wise, not lore wise). All the design decisions and gameplay fundamentals in those play spaces are almost the exact same. Bringing in Midtown District provides no new gameplay space as it mimics Financial in its design. If a new district is to be, people should look elsewhere.

i mean, there would be different gameplay merely because of the map being different

as for weapon choice, i'd be fine with a repeat of financial meta since its pretty well balanced for all weapon types

[Seedy 324]

nice attempt.. All you need to do now is skin all the models (3 times over due to distance and detail changes) and make the game mechanics for it.. See you in say 5 years for your alpha preview if your quick  

[Aeronaut 647]

45 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

i mean, there would be different gameplay merely because of the map being different

as for weapon choice, i'd be fine with a repeat of financial meta since its pretty well balanced for all weapon types

doesnt the prefix inversely correlate with the height of the buildings?

uptown - short buildings
midtown - medium buildings
downtown - tall buildings



 

[Dopefish 248]

Really neat, and hopefully it can be used as a base for a new district in the future. Though I miss your old topic with level design balancing for the existing districts:
https://forums-old.gamersfirst.com/topic/329214-not-so-lazy-ideas-for-map-changing/

I believe there's some work being done on the levels at the moment for the upcoming UE3.5 update, so I think now would be the most optimal time to post suggestions for improvements.

[vsb 6170]

1 minute ago, Aeronaut said:

doesnt the prefix inversely correlate with the height of the buildings?

uptown - short buildings
midtown - medium buildings
downtown - tall buildings

[Fortune Runner 796]

As long as midtown is bigger than financial and waterfront maps together then I'd be happy.
We all run into each other way too much.
Hope they get an overhaul to be bigger maps too.

[Aeronaut 647]

Just now, Fortune Runner said:

As long as midtown is bigger than financial and waterfront maps together then I'd be happy.
We all run into each other way too much.
Hope they get an overhaul to be bigger maps too.

that's what they want you to feel though.
that "running into each other" is supposed to give you the feeling of a living, breathing city.