What this game needs, a developer perspective

[Duqe 2]

First off, I would like to congratulate Little Orbit on having very big plans for this game, some might even say the game may not even be deserving of these plans- while a good base and concept, the execution was kind of poor and the G1-era community throughout all of its lifetime gave it a very poor reputation which you (Little Orbit) will have hell trying to fix. Furthermore, I have some faith in this operation because you seem to be  implementing some of these changes already, have a road map laid out which you seem to be fairly faithful to, which is always good to see.

 

I was originally a player of the closed- and open beta of the original APB by Realtime Worlds back in 2011, located on Steam. Then still in college, I had a lot of input which the developers only ever partially seemed to listen to. Nowadays however I operate in the industry myself, which is in-part influenced by this very game. You know the story, the game failed no more than 4 months into its release before the extra-dark times came in the shape of G1 themselves, turning this game into a chaotic wallet-wrangling mess.

 

So, with experience under my belt now, I have a pretty good idea about this game. I've played as a new character for a week, and I have to say that the endgame isn't where you as a company should be turning your eyes. Player retention is nice, but you can't grow off of retention and the new player experience is one of the worst I have seen in any online game to date. There are very few players, but that should be no excuse to let the high-rollers play with the fresh meat. Repeated stomping isn't going to entice a player to keep playing, and with no attachment to the game that the older players have, offering more powerful weapons for cash is never going to work! The ARMAS pay-to-win element has been shaved off in some limited respect though, so that's a good start!

 

But new players should be encouraged to learn the game without having their face stomped in. Make it so bronze instances only allow stock weapons and 1-slot vehicles, limited player advancement to even the playing field with the rank 200+ players who currently just play there to club seals, with the silver instance allowing for 2 slots in both, and gold, ultimately, allowing access to everything the game has to offer. A player can then choose how advanced their experience is, with new players being dropped off in an environment where experienced players will be equals. Now. I'm certain that those high-rollers will say "oh but the gear doesn't matter, it's SKILL", but to that I say it's very funny that they say that while clutching their everything-slot equipment and would outright refuse playing with a slot-less weapon.

 

Matchmaking would largely be fixed by that, aside from some key exploitable locations on the maps. That's a trial-and-error issue, admittedly, so I can't fault you for not fixing an issue before it's widely known. So, lastly, the UI needs a massive overhaul. While the game is playable, it feels very dated and the interface is clunky and poorly optimized. This, again, is something fairly low-priority, but game feel can account for a surprising amount. A game that feels good to play will make players feel cheated if they fail far less often, than a game on which they can infinitely blame the mechanics for loss, causing for no real realization of gauge or personal skill, causing in players never improving.

 

tl;dr:

 

- Put less stock in your existing community and focus on new blood, dedicated players will stay, only those that demand constant catering will leave

- Limit Bronze, Silver and Gold instances by equipment so new players won't be farmed with the best gear

- Improve the UI to go through less different menus to reach destination, camera improvements, and improving mechanical feel (I honestly don't have too much input on this because it's subjective)

[neophobia 216]

there is no "best gear", apb is hugely experience/skillbased. weapons are fairly balanced, even the starting weapons (especially the fbw) are very much viable.

no slots needed. (indeed the star doesnt really benefit from most mods. and most mods are no straight upgrades - some synergize well with specific weapons but even then, they sometimes still do limit you in ways)

you argued with your "clutching to slotted weapons and not playing with no slot equipment"-non-argument. ofc people are mostly playing with what they acquired and modded to their desires. but i've yet to see anyone "clutch to them" and "refuse to play no slot" also, there are mostly modded presets from contacts that have a fairly balanced playstyle too. mostly not straight upgrades but reasonable sidegrades.

mods are never needed.

and also, slotted weapons are easy to acquire. i've mentioned presets - but you should get one-slotted versions quick enough - and most weapons are effectively changed by 1 or 2 mods already, the third slot is definitely not as important.

three slot weapons being superior is mostly based on perception, when you get stomped - or when looking for an excuse you lost.

 

they are already at improving matchmaking, which is a far better approach to this issue. maybe they should indeed limit the availability of e.g. explosive weapons - while they are definitely not superior than other weapons, new players tend to think so.

(which they do already by having those weapons have rank limits - but they are not enforcing rank limits during missions/in districts. i guess rank should be addressed in new matchmaking.)

(part of new players thinking this is probably that higher rank players that already have them - and already have more experience - tend to farm explosive kills in lower skill districts, where naturally new players are.)

 

banning weapons outright from districts seems not the right approach, it'd be just like open conflict districts, splitting the playerbase. well, tbf, maybe there should be a split between newer and older players. but that's not achieved by this. either players would just go to the newer district instances and farm there - without caring about explosives - or everyone would just play there to effectively remove explosives.

 

while apb feels a bit clunky and there is room for improvement, i hope they don't overdo that. cameras and movement in other third person shooters, e.g. pubg and gta might feel more smooth but also more restrictive and like... hard to describe. it feels like being wrapped up at times. for some reason apb just feels better in this regard (at times.)

 

the ui is outdated, no argument here.

 

 

new players are needed and maybe apb shouldn't cater to existing players - but there is a big base of previous players that just left because of no new content. in the end, they have to change on all fronts.

acquiring new players right now should - in my opinion - not be a focus yet though when stuff is still unpolished and in development. people would just come, laugh at outdated stuff, leave a bad review, leave.

Edited January 16, 2019 by neophobia

[Duqe 2]

59 minutes ago, neophobia said:

there is no "best gear", apb is hugely experience/skillbased. weapons are fairly balanced, even the starting weapons (especially the fbw) are very much viable.

no slots needed. (indeed the star doesnt really benefit from most mods. and most mods are no straight upgrades - some synergize well with specific weapons but even then, they sometimes still do limit you in ways)

you argued with your "clutching to slotted weapons and not playing with no slot equipment"-non-argument. ofc people are mostly playing with what they acquired and modded to their desires. but i've yet to see anyone "clutch to them" and "refuse to play no slot" also, there are mostly modded presets from contacts that have a fairly balanced playstyle too. mostly not straight upgrades but reasonable sidegrades.

mods are never needed.

and also, slotted weapons are easy to acquire. i've mentioned presets - but you should get one-slotted versions quick enough - and most weapons are effectively changed by 1 or 2 mods already, the third slot is definitely not as important.

three slot weapons being superior is mostly based on perception, when you get stomped - or when looking for an excuse you lost.

 

Now, that last part is an interesting thing, claiming that it's a perception issue or a sore-loser issue.

 

I've kept my metrics (fairly easy with your W-A rankings and kills being kept) and I can't feasibly figure out why I can be running a 3.11K/D in GTA:O through frequent deathmatch and team deathmatch play, as well as Master Guardian (between 1 and 2constantly) in CS:GO, and in APB:R it'd net me a roughly 0.1 K/D (yep, 11 total kills in 100 sample missions) when I'm still well-capable of cooking grenades and have tried numerous weapons over the course of this test run (N-TEC, OBIR, STAR, JG). The discrepancy is just staggering, and the only factor which could feasibly have influenced it was that I almost exclusively fought high-rank players. My TTK is considerably higher, my shot spread significantly greater even over medium-short (10-25m.) distances.

 

That, or I entirely forgot how to play video games whenever I quit one of above mentions (and a few others) and booted up APB:R, but that would be very unlikely. I think you are severely underselling the impact of weapon mods.

 

 

NB: Worth noting that one of my sample weapons was an ACT44 Golden Marksman PR1 which grouped shots almost 30% tighter at the same distance than a regular Act. 44. Had it left over from my short stint with G1's APB:R.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Duqe
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