Make APB Great.....for the first time: A list

[Triksterism 137]

Way back in the day when GamersFirst acquired APB and made it into APB Reloaded, myself and many others who were/are passionate about this game due to its unique gameplay experience, worked on a lot of feedback (some going above and beyond in terms of effort). Unfortunately almost all of that feedback was ignored and we realized G1 had seemingly no real interest in improving the game, only trying to wring as much $$$ out of it as possible. I'm hoping Little Orbit is different. Sure, LO has to make $$, I get that, but I hope they are committed to breathing life into APB in order to make it last. It will be beneficial to both the players and subsequently themselves in the long run.

 

Here are is a list, mostly off the top of my head, of things that if fixed/changed, should greatly improve the overall quality of the game:

 

 

<<< Additions >>>

• Ability to see secondary weapons / grenades on score screen, possibly without revealing mods
• Ability to put a resupply box (consumable) in the trunk of a vehicle and resupply from the trunk area (similar to the vehicle mod Mobile Supply Unit)
• Better friends list akin to modern games (friend request, account-wide adding, etc...)
• Bring the district caps back up to 100 (50 and 50) -- Possibly higher OR implement some sort of cross-district matchmaking (sort of how WoW's phasing system works)
• High res setting for primitives
• Loose ping restrictions -- Boot players out of the district if their ping exceeds 350 for x minutes maybe
• Make "non-meta" vehicles viable --> Give vehicles bonuses to certain mods (Han Veo = radar range, Ceresco = % bonus to the cargo expander, etc...)
• Mission-length replay (very similar to the replay systems of PUBG and Fortnite)
• Permissions system: Allow us to set permissions on our creations be they clothing or otherwise so other people can modify what they buy or obtain from other players
• Return our precious bullet tracer effect (with optional toggle inside the options menu!)
• Weapon/equipment loadouts with save slots (this might make some weapon switching unfairly quick? idk!)

<<< Quality of Life >>>

• Ability to join a queue for full districts
• Account-wide storage (Sending legendaries or mods to other characters on the same account is tedious as hell)
• Account-wide currency ($$ & JT)
• Add a delay/invulnerability when switching to a stage that involves takeouts
• Allow players to attach multiple items to an in-game mail
• Better weapon sorting (Would love things to be alphabetical right now, but I'm sure the whole interface could use a revamp)
• Change how yellow mods work: Either make them unlimited (no cap) or when you hit the cap, stop receiving extras (mail spam)
• Consistency, consistency, consistency! One of my biggest gripes with the game since my first day back in 2011. Sometimes I have to aim behind people to 'hit' them, other times I can shoot where their actual player model is. Also this sort of ties in with inaccurate cross-hairs and client-side blood splats / hit-markers
• Dampen the sounds of people outside of your current mission slightly + have an option to 'mute' out of mission players (voip only)
• Different color 'tie' score screen (Green is currently shown for a win and a tie)
• Eliminate client-side hit markets / blood splatters and other things that can mislead players
• Ensure weapon reticles and such reflect a true accuracy
• Fix certain fence walls being unable to be shot through
• Fix certain map geometry to prevent seeing/shooting through
• Fix LOD on map geometry (certain walls, etc... disappear at strange ranges)
• Fix objectives (vehicles) in vehicle delivery missions from exploding in certain areas when you enter their vicinity -- Cant remember the mission name(s) but I run into this often in Financial around
• Fix progress on a point carrying over to another mission (Example: A break-in door objective that had progress on it but was never completed will have the same progress for whomever has their objective at the same door later on)
• Fix that one vehicle spawn in Waterfront that spawns vehicles facing the wall
• Fix the game volume / VOIP -- Currently you need to turn your in-game volume to max and then turn APB down in windows in order to have both sound and the ability to hear others decently on VOIP.
• Fix vehicle spawn areas so that, no matter the size, two vehicles can always spawn side by side
• Gas Can 4 has had a loose vertex forever which results in it 'exploding' during animation/use
• Item jump/drop 'trick' -- This was fixed for heavy items years ago but not for medium items. In lieu of this 'feature' give a player carrying a medium / heavy item x% more HP (only while holding said item).
• Make out-of-mission vehicles have 0 collision aka 'ghost' for people inside the mission but ONLY WITHIN x RADIUS OF AN OBJECTIVE
• Make sprinting 'always on' by default (auto sprint) -- There is little to no reason to ever not sprint in APB
• Minimize 'cheap' hold areas and other supreme choke zones by adding more ways to reach certain areas (There was an excellent thread with pictures on the APB forums years and years ago about this)
• More control over our settings in-game to remove the need for tools like Advanced APB launcher, shader edits, etc...
• More meaningful gun statistics (in-game) instead of the obscure bars we have now
• News / updates 'panel' on the login / character select screen to keep non-forum goers in the loop
• Only allow ammo/weapon switching at proper locations (ammo vendors / contacts / deployed ammo). Right now players are able to change weapons and such at mail boxes and car spawners which feels silly
• Remove the 'rocket protection' -- When you aim over a car, even if you have clearance, your rockets will shoot off to the side to 'save' you (this also affects grenades)
• Remove the various district specific compat files from the official game. There is no need and it causes problems.
• Remove weapon rank 16. It takes about the same amount of time to go from 1 to 15 as it does to go from 15 to 16. Quite an arduous grind!
• Revamp the tattoo system as it is easy to delete layers unintentionally, the layers are sorted backwards, etc...

<<< Revisit >>>

• Contact vehicle unlocks -- Why would a new player use anything other than their starter car (1 slot with mobile spawner) when it takes a long time to grind up a 1 slot car?
• Differences between both factions (restricted spawners, vehicle types)
• Equip times on certain weapons (I'm looking at you Silver Nano)
• Gun preset mods -- Most preset guns you buy have awful mods for the modern era of APB (HB3 SHAW / HB3 Alig / Any shotguns with reflex sight / etc...)
• Kevlar
• Marketplace 20% tax
• Out-of-bounds system -- This needs some tweaks (several rooftops can still be exploited by crouching) as well as perhaps some slack for people goofing around outside of missions
• P5 / N5 -- Getting these in a mission usually causes the person doing good to lose the objective and can be very annoying.
• Ram raiding (does anyone do this for $$ anymore?)
• Spawn system -- This honestly used to be worse before elective spawning was introduced but it's still far from perfect. The biggest problem being people spawning down range of enemy snipers.
• Threat system (Though I'm not sure anything can be done to make things better given the # of people per district)
• TTK -- Some weapons, especially in CQC situations, can kill people before they can react and this seems a bit silly (Yukon is probably the worst offender)
• Tutorial district (or something similar)
• Two equipment slots are still locked
• Vehicle carry limit (Namely for the Vaquero and Mikro as they cant carry a heavy item without a special blue mod. This was done for ram raiding years ago, seem archaic now)

Edited July 9, 2018 by Triksterism
More list edits

[vsb 6170]

list #348 has been archived with the others

[Songbearer 72]

1 minute ago, BXNNXD said:

list #348 has been archived with the others

Can I have a list of these lists

[vsb 6170]

Just now, Songbearer said:

Can I have a list of these lists

archive is not accessible without sufficient permissions

[Aeronaut 647]

8 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

archive is not accessible without sufficient permissions

where do i get these permissions

[vsb 6170]

4 minutes ago, Aeronaut said:

where do i get these permissions

permission requests are available in the archive

[mynd 120]

Pretty good list. I guess TTK concerns are controversial, but I wouldn't mind a small increase in TTK across the board.

[Puffdragon 131]

• Flamethrower
• Molotov cocktails

[Farquaad 26]

Cars.

[vsb 6170]

4 minutes ago, ◕‿◕ said:

Cars.

 

whats wrong with cars

[Farquaad 26]

1 minute ago, BXNNXD said:

 

whats wrong with cars

They respond like coda cans.

[vsb 6170]

1 minute ago, ◕‿◕ said:

They respond like coda cans.

aside from a few poor examples (cisco lol garbage) and the slight server verification lag, i find the vehicles in apb to drive pretty normally

 

i wouldnt say realistic, given some of the physics, but they have a fairly accurate sense of weight and handling

[Puffdragon 131]

14 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

aside from a few poor examples (cisco lol garbage) and the slight server verification lag, i find the vehicles in apb to drive pretty normally

 

i wouldnt say realistic, given some of the physics, but they have a fairly accurate sense of weight and handling

The cisco really does handle like a popcan with a rock in it.

[Rumple 35]

We need some non-segregated districts. It's more important when pop is low, but also for friends of different threat levels to play together.

[vsb 6170]

1 hour ago, Puffdragon said:

The cisco really does handle like a popcan with a rock in it.

i think with the proper vehicle kit we could make the cisco into the gta 5 hovercar

[TheOppositePolarBear 93]

3 hours ago, Triksterism said:

• Ability to join a queue for full districts
• Ability to see secondary weapons / grenades on score screen, possibly without revealing mods
• Account-wide storage (Sending legendaries or mods to other characters on the same account is tedious as hell)
• Better friends list akin to modern games (friend request, account-wide adding, etc...)
• Better weapon sorting (Would love things to be alphabetical right now, but im sure the whole interface could use a revamp)
• Bring back the tutorial district (or something similar)
• Bring the district caps back up to 100 (50 and 50) -- Possibly higher OR implement some sort of cross-district matchmaking (sort of how WoW's phasing system works)
• Different color 'tie' score screen (Green is currently shown for a win or a tie)
• Eliminate client-side hit markets / blood splatters and other things that can mislead players
• Ensure weapon reticles and such reflect a true accuracy
• Fix certain fence walls being unable to be shot through
• Fix certain map geometry to prevent seeing/shooting through
• Fix LOD on map geometry (certain walls, etc... disappear at strange ranges)
• Fix progress on a point carrying over to another mission
• Fix that one vehicle spawn in Waterfront that spawns vehicles facing the wall
• Fix the game volume / VOIP -- Currently you need to turn your in-game volume to max and then turn APB down in windows in order to have both sound and the ability to hear others decently on VOIP.
• Fix vehicle spawn areas so that, no matter the size, two vehicles can always spawn side by side
• Gas Can 4
• High res setting for primitives
• Item jump/drop 'trick'
• Loose ping restrictions
• Make players have more HP or make guns do less damage/higher ttk
• Make players sprint by default (same as the auto-sprint config edit) or give us a reason to need to 'jog'
• Minimize 'cheap' hold areas and other supreme choke zones
• Moar tickrate please
• More control over our settings in-game to remove the need for tools like Advanced APB launcher, shader edits, etc...
• More meaningful gun statistics (in-game) instead of the obscure bars we have now
• News / updates 'panel' on the login / character select screen to keep non-forum goers in the loop
• Only allowed to do ammo/weapon stuff at proper locations (ammo box or vending machine)
• Overall fixes that make the game more consistent in its feel vs "Am I going to have bad hit reg this mission?"
• Permissions system: Allow us to set permissions on our creations be they clothing or otherwise so other people can modify what they buy or obtain from other players
• Possibly dampen the sounds of people outside of your current mission slightly
• Remove green threat / hide threat all together
• Return our precious bullet tracer effect
• Revamp the 'out of bounds' system by allowing non-mission players to reach weird spots if they want to (building roofs for instance) but force a respawn on them if they are in such a spot when a mission starts
• Revisit equip times on certain weapons (I'm looking at you Silver Nano)
• Save slots for loadouts (this might make some weapon switching unfairly quick? idk!)
• Two equipment slots are still locked

idk why you want a higher ttk, but as stated beafore, it is controversial(and im in the other side of the spectrum - mantain or lower). higher ttk means its a lot harder to fight multiple enemies as one man. those multiple enemies already have a big advantage in numbers, they dont also need a tank (for more on the subject: check the division... cof... cof... ).

 

another controversial thing: only allowed to do ammo/weapon stuff at proper locations(this one... im not sure where im at).

sure, getting ammo from a car spawner doesnt make much sense (a car spawner doesnt make much sense eather) but its one of those "quality of life" thing, you know?.

in 2.5K hours of APB, i dont really think i ever thought "oh man, if they werent getting ammo from the car spawners we would have totally won that mission!"

but that might happend. once again, not sure if its really necesary, but controversial might be.

 

 

let me add to your list

 

• fix spawn points (players spawning behind other players that just spawned)
• (controversial) fix spawn points for snipers (sniper players having the enemy in sight and in range literally as soon as they spawn)
• fix door frames (nades can go through doors)

 

i also have some personal suggestions but i dont think people will like them / they tend to be kind of unpopular:

• give us another way to open doors, so we dont need to choose between sacrificing ourselves to the enemy fire or exploit the game... i mean "doing a really skill-based move"
• eliminate missions with something to do with cars (really, it gets ridiculus when the mission beacomes a soccer game of pioneers and spacios using the objective car as the ball, or when the whole mission is "did the attackers got to the objective first? no? use an AV/vulcano to blow up the objective and race to the next location").
• allow players to hurt players inside cars (give us a chance to not die to the guy with kevlar 3, OCA, and a rushing vegas, when the objective is in the middle of the street)

3 hours ago, BXNNXD said:

archive is not accessible without sufficient permissions

 

/sudo getList -x -L  ???

Edited May 31, 2018 by TheOppositePolarBear

[Puffdragon 131]

2 hours ago, BXNNXD said:

i think with the proper vehicle kit we could make the cisco into the gta 5 hovercar

Hovercraft or back-to-the-future delorean would be nice.

[Ohshii 215]

6 hours ago, Triksterism said:

 

~words

 

 

 

Good list and wb. ^^

[Fleshpound 7]

6 hours ago, BXNNXD said:

permission requests are available in the archive

But do I need APB O5 access to do such thing?

[YukitoYatogami 0]

Give me the Joker mission for Nano from contacts after 3 years Plz xD

[Triksterism 137]

17 hours ago, TheOppositePolarBear said:

idk why you want a higher ttk, but as stated beafore, it is controversial(and im in the other side of the spectrum - mantain or lower). higher ttk means its a lot harder to fight multiple enemies as one man. those multiple enemies already have a big advantage in numbers, they dont also need a tank (for more on the subject: check the division... cof... cof... ).

 

another controversial thing: only allowed to do ammo/weapon stuff at proper locations(this one... im not sure where im at).

sure, getting ammo from a car spawner doesnt make much sense (a car spawner doesnt make much sense eather) but its one of those "quality of life" thing, you know?.

in 2.5K hours of APB, i dont really think i ever thought "oh man, if they werent getting ammo from the car spawners we would have totally won that mission!"

but that might happend. once again, not sure if its really necesary, but controversial might be.

 

 

let me add to your list

 

• fix spawn points (players spawning behind other players that just spawned)
• (controversial) fix spawn points for snipers (sniper players having the enemy in sight and in range literally as soon as they spawn)
• fix door frames (nades can go through doors)

 

i also have some personal suggestions but i dont think people will like them / they tend to be kind of unpopular:

• give us another way to open doors, so we dont need to choose between sacrificing ourselves to the enemy fire or exploit the game... i mean "doing a really skill-based move"
• eliminate missions with something to do with cars (really, it gets ridiculus when the mission beacomes a soccer game of pioneers and spacios using the objective car as the ball, or when the whole mission is "did the attackers got to the objective first? no? use an AV/vulcano to blow up the objective and race to the next location").
• allow players to hurt players inside cars (give us a chance to not die to the guy with kevlar 3, OCA, and a rushing vegas, when the objective is in the middle of the street)

 

/sudo getList -x -L  ???

My reasoning behind higher TTK are weapons like the True Ogre and the Yukon (extreme examples). Weapons like those + the general low tick/high inconsistency of APB in general means corners are death traps that you cant humanly react to before dying. I agree with your additions about spawn points. Not sure how you'd fix them for snipers without just increasing people's invulnerability or nerfing sniper rifles themselves somehow. Nades through doors is a two pronged thing because on one hand, yeah, it's goofy but on the other you have another point you made about not being able to open doors without sacrificing ourselves typically.

 

Not sure if I agree with the 'taking damage inside cars' thing, maybe further into the future after everything else has been fixed/changed but part of this game's charm is how arcadey it is. I know where you're coming from but I feel like tactics / specialized weapons are enough to deal with that particular thing as it stands now.

 

Vehicle missions definitely need a look at for sure. Some of them, especially Majong Money, I think it is, has triple Ciscos to drop off. Good luck against any non-braindead team.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Triksterism

[vsb 6170]

3 minutes ago, Triksterism said:

My reasoning behind higher TTK are weapons like the True Ogre and the Yukon (extreme examples). Weapons like those + the general low tick/high inconsistency of APB in general means corners are death traps that you cant humanly react to before dying. I agree with your additions about spawn points. Not sure how you'd fix them for snipers without just increasing people's invulnerability or nerfing sniper rifles themselves somehow. Nades through doors is a two pronged thing because on one hand, yeah, it's goofy but on the other you have another point you made about not being able to open doors without sacrificing ourselves typically.

 

Not sure if I agree with the 'taking damage inside cars' thing, maybe further into the future after everything else has been fixed/changed but part of this game's charm is how arcadey it is. I know where you're coming from but I feel like tactics / specialized weapons are enough to deal with that particular thing as it stands now.

 

Vehicle missions definitely need a look at for sure. Some of them, especially Majong Money, I think it is, has triple Ciscos to drop off. Good luck against any non-braindead team.

theres a vehicle mission that uses 3 of those cars you get from the tutorial as well

 

cerenzas i think?

[Triksterism 137]

Just now, BXNNXD said:

theres a vehicle mission that uses 3 of those cars you get from the tutorial as well

 

cerenzas i think?

Yeah, and you reminded me (somehow) of that bug where the vehicles that spawn in the parking garage (Financial) and a few other locations, will explode when you get in their general vicinity.

[vsb 6170]

Just now, Triksterism said:

Yeah, and you reminded me (somehow) of that bug where the vehicles that spawn in the parking garage (Financial) and a few other locations, will explode when you get in their general vicinity.

so many almost  inconsequential things that need to be tweaked lol

[Triksterism 137]

1 minute ago, BXNNXD said:

so many almost  inconsequential things that need to be tweaked lol

APB in a nutshell right now