Redhill Wrap up and Rewards!

[MattScott 15242]

Hi all,

 

As promised here is the final breakdown of the ARG event complete with reward descriptions and who will be awarded them.

 

First, I want to use this opportunity to address a bit of lore clarification that has come up from players. The district in San Paro is "Red Hill". The company name is "RedHill Institute of Technology". There is a tiny space between Red and Hill in the company name, so I know we weren't super consistent with that and felt the need to clarify.

 

Stats from the Unofficial APB Discord channel:

@SKay posted a fun breakdown of the Discord chat during the ARG. There are some interesting stats there. I appreciate the support that Natzu and the team on that server gave us. (Many players have asked for an Official APB channel, and that is something I'm still considering)

 

Stats from the Redhill website:

Since Skay posted their stats, I figured I would do the same. The game ran from February 23 through March 28, and was never directly advertised. The URL was initially only available in-game on select billboards and was later spread by players here and on Discord. During those weeks we got more than 2.2K unique visitors to the site.

 

The highest single day was March 27th with 738 unique visitors. Anonymous user data showed our most engaged player visited 38 times and spent a total of 5 hours and 43 minutes going through pages and images. 

 

21.83% of visitors were from the US.

19.62% of visitors were from Russia.

8.4% of visitors were from Germany.

6.11% of visitors were from the UK.

 

And now.. the rewards.

 

Redhill Newsletter Reward

We had just under 300 sign-ups as of EOD 3/28. That list has been pulled, so signing up now wont get you the reward. Some players used fake emails. But for anyone that took the leap of faith and trusted us with their real email, we'll be mailing out a unique (1 time redeemable) code for an account wide Tin Foil Hat.

 

Participation Rewards

The ARG itself was very experimental for us. We had initially decided on a reward structure that would limit the winners and go to the Top X that solved the puzzle. But as the game evolved it was clear that codes and solutions would be shared with the community. Rather than discourage this behavior, I wanted to encourage it. So we changed gears and decided to eliminate the reward limit and group effort based on tiers.

 

I'm going to list these rewards in reverse order.

 

These categories below (formerly referred to as Tiers) stack.

That  means if you redeemed the code and participated and posted a winning solution, you'll get Category 3, Category 2, and Category 1.

Category 3 - Final ARG Code redeemed in ARMAS

This reward goes out to anyone who redeemed the long GUID-based code from the end of the ARG up through noon PDT today.

 

Those accounts will get 3 Days of Premium.

NOTE: Premium will start today and run through the weekend. All accounts who redeemed the code will get an email letting them know.

 

There were more than 2,200 of these redeemed.

 

Category 2 - Contributors

These rewards go out to anyone who participated in the brainstorming and contributions to puzzle solving. My team is working with SKay and Natzu to pull the list of Discord usernames who where involved in the #redhill channel on their server. Admittedly, I opened Pandora's box here, because we need to reach out to each of those players and get their APB account info to deliver the rewards. My producer started that effort yesterday, but was identified by Discord as a Bot and shut down their ability to keep messaging.

 

These players will get an account wide title "Conspiracy Cracker", and an exclusive new Weapon Skin made just for the event.

NOTE: The Weapon Skin and title both need to be patched into the game. Give us a couple weeks to collect all the account info and get these in.

 

Lots of players in this category. In addition to all the players who contributed to our Official Forums, there are well over 200 players who contributed on the Unofficial Discord.

 

Category 1 - Winners

These rewards will go out to anyone who was early to publicly contribute part of a puzzle solution. Again, this is a bit of a subjective thing to determine since there were 3 threads discussing the game (thanks @Yood for pointing that out). It’s hard for us to gauge who was absolutely first, and it's possible that people solved the puzzle and didn't post it, but I wanted to reward the people who got the solutions right.

 

Obviously these players contributed, so they will all get Category 2 rewards plus 1000 G1C.

The team is going to try and get the G1C issued today, so it can be combined with the Premium reward from Category 3 over the weekend.

These winners from the forum posts are:

Ketog & Kevkof starting the main thread, posting the billboards, url, and updating the post as details emerged which I think all heavily contributed to the success of the game

Nanometic & SKay - finding the hidden link in the first puzzle

MartinPL - finding the valid username in the second puzzle

Latsha - catching the updated password hint in the second puzzle / finding the spectrogram in the audio file for the third puzzle

Wewhoo - figuring out the password in the second puzzle

CookiePuss & Weeb_TheEpicGuyV2 - piecing together the RIOT Preseason skin image

IROCkiller & PancakePower - finding the bit.ly link on the camera that linked to the audio file in the third puzzle

EyePop - brute force solve for final password in the third puzzle

SK4LP - puzzle solve for final password in the third puzzle

 

There are some others from Discord that I'll likely add to this list after reviewing.

EDIT: I already have a couple more, but it's getting too cumbersome to keep editing the list of winners.

 

NOTE: My intention isn't to overlook anyone, so if you feel you publicly posted the solution somewhere first, and we missed you, then reach out with proof, and we'll try and sort it out.

 

Easter Eggs and loose ends:

There are quite a number story items that were left open. Some of them will get addressed as the mode rolls out. Some of them *might* be carried forward in another ARG down the line before the year ends. I am considering an AMA or some other format where players can get online with the producer who worked with our design team to craft the puzzles and narrative. If that becomes a possibility, I'll let you guys know.

 

Lastly the biggest Easter Egg was this image that players pieced together.

 

This is a tease for an upcoming free weapon skin that players will be able to earn when RIOT launches.

 

The plan is to do a RIOT Preseason as soon as the mode is ready - sort of a beta test for the various systems so we can work the kinks out in a live setting. This initial season wont have any Premium rewards, so everything will be able to be earned by players through regular play. The skin itself is the first in a series of new Japanese themed skins that were designed by our lead UI / UX artist. I feel like it represents Little Orbit's first "real" skin that we did from scratch with a full understanding of the system.

 

Here is a WIP shot of what the skin looks like in-game.

 

 

Thanks,
Matt

[cheater 296]

You get a reward for Bruteforcing ? LMFAO WHAT JOKE

shit rewards, as if it is G1 back with the 99g1c reward, sad.

Edited March 29, 2019 by cheater

[Parthian 344]

please make an official apb discord

[Guest]

Can't wait to see RIOT.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Guest

[Ketog 1031]

Awsome ! also im totally up for the creation of an official APB discord (APB Discord Rich presence integration when ? <: )

 

Even if all servers had the main objective to bring the players together they all got their bad side too , having an official APB discord server would finally make everyone in those discord servers to be treated equally without any kinf of background modding / favoritism , which has been a problem quite a few times by now .

Edited March 29, 2019 by Ketog
fixing horrible typos

[Rhexx 39]

10 minutes ago, cheater said:

You get a reward for Bruteforcing ? LMFAO WHAT JOKE

shit rewards, as if it is G1 back with the 99g1c reward, sad.

What did you expect? a handjob and a milkshake? The rewards are fine as is. No one that just enters a redeem code should be rewarded 1000 g1c  for doing nothing.

[iTzBlackout 139]

Thanks for the post! I hope I entered my right email in the newsletter because I entered a lot there in hope to find something out :')

I also like the Japanese themed skins. Good work lead UI / UX artist!

Edited March 29, 2019 by iTzBlackout

[CookiePuss 5378]

Oof

just... oof

[Ketog 1031]

@MattScott I would like to mention that while i was documenting the post, the FIRST picture of the redhill billboards were from @Kevkof he is the one at the origin of the ARG spreading in discord.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Ketog

[Flaws 1033]

Yiss! I was hyped for that being a weapon skin. A massive upgrade from the previous weapon skins you've presented. Very good.

 

Looking forward to seeing what RIOT will play like.

[Weeb TheEpicGuyV2 269]

1 hour ago, MattScott said:

The skin itself is the first in a series of new Japanese themed skins

[Nanometic 265]

Was worried that the tier 1 reward would be something totally crazy, glad you went with just 1000 g1c, pretty sure anything else would cause an uproar, having flash backs of the Autumn Assault.

Fun event, nice rewards, I enjoyed this a lot.

[bruised 114]

TLDR more shit events with shit rewards thanks Tiggs very cool

[LilyRain 674]

I am now convinced that I have the power to read the future....

 

[mtz 496]

I, uh... I honestly didn't think that me spotting that cpritcher is a valid username would count. That's... actually incredibly nice to hear.

 

Though I still have a couple of reservations about the event (specifically, what it turned into at the final stretch - but that is not Little Orbit's fault), I really appreciate the event as a whole. The lore developments have been a great thing to follow.

 

Once again, massive thanks to Little Orbit for organizing the event, and giving the community an opportunity to work together (for the most part :^) ) towards the goal.

You've only been with us (the community) for a year and you've already given us so much. You are very much the heroes San Parites (or San Parians? ) need but don't deserve!

[Selaya 17]

Okay... weird conïncidence LittleOtbit ? Looks kinda like my tattoo.....

I made it after the new year. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Selaya

[Qevo 10]

Make this "Conspiracy Cracker" title BEE colored.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Qevo

[GhosT 1301]

That weapon skin is actually pretty damn amazing!

Most of the current skins in APB are meh so I'm kinda hyped for this one. Especially since it suits my criminal character.

 

I like the rewards and I feel like they're fair and well balanced.

[vfterlife 87]

Stop using the "Joker CR-5" for the presentation of new skins. 

This is the weapon on which almost all skins look good. Show how the skin looks on ntec, Star, obeya rifle, OSMAW. 

[IROCkiller 210]

Wooo! Thanks to Little Orbit for doing an ARG for APB and RIOT mode! This shows me you guys care about the game, and I love you for it!

[Eyepop 21]

Woah, didn't expect Tier 1, but thank you!

[Fumiku 249]

"These players will get an account wide title "Conspiracy Cracker", and an exclusive new Weapon Skin made just for the event."

So there is the RIOT free skin and a themed event skin ?

 

[IROCkiller 210]

4 minutes ago, Fumiku said:

"These players will get an account wide title "Conspiracy Cracker", and an exclusive new Weapon Skin made just for the event."

So there is the RIOT free skin and a themed event skin ?

 

I'm assuming it's going to be a Redhill themed skin, which I would LOVE

[Inquitoria 108]

I'm pretty happy with these rewards, I think that's cool. I especially like that Tier 1 doesn't get something exclusive, because that would create a lot of salt. Very decent and fair rewards. Would still prefer the next one to be without rewards though.

 

Creating an official discord is a very good idea. Outside of #redhill in the unofficial one, it's a pure clusterfuck. Actually, all of the unofficial discord is a clusterfuck.  AMA with the team behind the ARG is a cool idea also.

 

Thanks again for a cool event.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Inquitoria

[Forumuser12312 7]

New contacts will be really cool! Will they be voiced like the ones in the current game?