LO should consider rethinking APB future

[Garemie 33]

The US server is essentially capped at its current playerbase due to 40-40 limitations and no queue system. There's only one bronze server and one silver server at the PEAK of Jericho. You can sit there and click spam join district for 20 minutes but MAN does that feel like a really low quality way to spend your time. There is STILL no way to put yourself in a queue to join a district. You don't just give up and join an empty district, so with that in mind, we are capped at our current PEAK playerbase. I'm fairly confident that developing a queue system is more important than developing a gamemode that (almost) nobody wants. I hate to say it but we may not end up needing a queue system at this rate, if playerbase continues to decline and we never see full districts.

 

I get that Citadel still has a pretty decent playerbase however, and maybe a queue system isn't so essential since there's multiple districts to choose from.

 

Re-inventing the APB wheel isn't going to save the game, but new content and the EU *might*.

 

So, either LO is in way over their heads and cannot develop a queue system, let alone an engine upgrade, or they have really poor prioritization in my opinion. The player reviews of RIOT speak for themselves, "neat...but meh". People play APB for its unique gunplay and customization, not for BR elements. (Yes I know some people will disagree and argue its not BR but it is, it really is)

 

 

I get that there are people out there who are utterly stoked for RIOT, so I don't want to sound like I'm being ignorant, but I think the vast majority of people would rather see other things happen to APB.

 

I believe RIOT will be added to the pile of failures along with open conflict among other things.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Garemie

[Darkzero3802 606]

Many ppl have been saying for awhile now that LO having the engine upgrade and riot top priority is the wrong thing to do and the playerbase decline is proof of it (as well as other things). Hacker count is once again on the rise and we have ppl joining for the sole purpose of being able to cheat and get away with it while legit vets who have soldiered on through all this are leaving making the quality of play that much worse. LO needs to prioritize hackers and balance as #1 as getting rid of these ppl and making it so threat and matchmaking work will bring ppl back. Then maby something like my thread below to make ppl want to play for new stuff and create stuff will draw more ppl back and while ppl are going after this stuff LO can finish the engine and new contacts/content for the main districts along with riot.

 

[warau 8]

I agree. I don't really care for riot. I probably won't even play it, and if I do it'll just be to take a quick peek and maybe chill with old friends for a bit.

 

LO, I think most of us really just want this engine upgrade. I know my complaining won't do any good but please please just work on the engine upgrade. 

[vsb 6170]

lazy repost of my riot thoughts

 

On 5/13/2019 at 12:57 PM, Glaciers said:

i think it’s hard for most players (myself included) still hanging around to be totally objective, we obviously like regular apb a great deal as we’re still here after all the garbage years and riot is not regular apb, yet it clearly has the priority 

 

i can understand the reasoning behind riot - apb was never that popular of a game so why not attempt to make it into a different (hopefully more profitable) game? - all that said, i doubt it will pay off

 

chasing new players is necessary but alienating a large chunk of the (already hilariously small) “hardcore” playerbase at the same time seems foolish at this point of apb’s existence 

 

the br market is supersaturated and riot, as a completely average br mode, doesn’t have enough to offer to stand out over games that are 10 years newer

 

i don’t think apb lends itself to br gameplay - nebulous, free-for-all, no-objective fighting has always been a weakness of the game, at one point even causing a (then) new mode to fail pretty spectacularly (chaos/anarchy districts)

 

similarly, will apb’s current pay model stand up to a br focus?

who’s going to buy expensive cosmetic items when the dumpy hazmat suit is a staple of riot gameplay?

will anyone pay 20 dollars for a “premium” weapon in a br game - where finding free weapons ingame is the standard?

what use does actual premium have - it has no effect on br cash pickups, there’s only one br contact to level, and apb$ is worthless in riot mode because all the standard moneysink costs (cars, guns, mods, ammo, etc) don’t exist

 

theres a lot of smaller flaws (both with the mode as an apb concept and in actual gameplay) that make me think riot is going nowhere fast

 

but it’s hard to judge atm, maybe the engine upgrade will allow orbit to truly pump out enough new content/fixes that it won’t matter how riot does, because the rest of the game no longer needs a miracle - but again, i doubt it

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Glaciers
typo

[Haganu 104]

I feel like Glacier's opinion on RIOT is one of the few that makes sense, but at the same time I wonder how to please a playerbase that's so stuck with their feet in the ground on anything that's drastically different from what they're used to, when it comes to gamemodes and/or gameplay (not talking threat/matchmaking or weapon/mod balancing). Any change - even if it'd be allegdly on a fresh and new bandwagon that wouldn't be oversaturated - would receive immense amounts of backlash from the people commonly posting on the forums, because it'd not be what they're used to in their daily APB lives, while honestly APB's current state is at a point where garbage would be softly spoken, IMO.

 

APB's gameplay needs a drastic change for it to become any form of interesting again for outsiders. I'm glad Little Orbit is trying despite all the backlash from the insiders.

When I see threads and posts asking from small fixes that have been (albeit poorly) attempted over and over, it wouldn't make that much of an impact in the long run. Short-term a lot of people that currently play would be happy, but outsiders wouldn't be interested at all. I for sure wouldn't be. A lot of fixes I still do look forward to all seem to require Unreal 3.5. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Haganu

[Garemie 33]

3 hours ago, Haganu said:

APB's gameplay needs a drastic change for it to become any form of interesting again for outsiders

I think we're about 7 years passed the point of any large hordes of new players coming to APB. Our best bet is having players return, and maybe bringing a few friends.

[Nickolai 206]

I don't post much but I think its time to do it here.

 

RIOT is meh. Sorry LO nothing personal, but its a mess overall. Its already confusing for veterans, how do you expect new people to pick up and play?

 

EU was promised 6 years ago, RIOT was not. I say to deliver what was promised because people are starting to get impatient (myself included). Closet cheaters, poor server performance, unbalanced missions, horrible matchmaking, no REAL content since 2015! There is only so much veterans can take before saying "Fuck this I'm out"

 

As for a new game mode.....I HONESTLY think people will like this more than RIOT mode: 

 

For those who have watched the movie, they know what I mean. I believe this type of racing has its place here.

 

We already have the car kits to make vehicles look like that (NightRider, Waragi, Pursuit Special)

 

Besides RACING DISTRICT WAS PROMISED AND ADVERTISED YEARS AGO!

 

Think about this @MattScott

 

I legitimately stand by adding a game mode like this. Haters can downvote the fuck outta this post! I won't change my mind!!!!

Edited May 17, 2019 by Nickolai

[LittleMoneyFirst 66]

I dont think a race related mode would work, but using vehicles in apb is one of the best thing the game has. I would like to see more vehicles involved in missions.

People complain a lot about "running with items" and other car activities because they cant drive for shit and i witnessed it enough. Totally handicaped. I cant even understand how anyone would have so much troubles to drive in apb... play some nfs, you disgust me.

 

[Doom32 23]

Well, the mistake they made was they thought they could just prop models on a map and call it a day.. the game mode looks boring, unappealing, very bland.. long time to start, no action it seems, i'd rather see a search and destroy horse crap implemented into missions before i played this apb take on "br". way to hop on the bandwagon. And its not really creatively different from any other br game out there. 

 

*edit*
Why not implement seasons for "Mission Districts" too? 
Why not focus on the core aspect of the game before bandwaggoning onto something that apb just isn't meant for.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Doom32

[CrysisSeries 0]

 

I think Matt should wake up and give people 2 weeks of free premium to everyone, the way he did it didn't make any sense. Hell, i logged in the day after the server problems and still didn't get it. it would at least bring players back if he gave everyone premium.

 

as for new content, let's see, same 2 maps from 2010, asylum map not completed, no engine upgrade even promised 4 years ago. game is isn't going to get any better.

[LittleMoneyFirst 66]

4 hours ago, Haganu said:

APB's gameplay needs a drastic change for it to become any form of interesting again for outsiders.

No, it doesnt, it just need to be properly executed.

Lot of works in the "mmorpg" aspect. Improve rankings etc, make players feel they are progressing and reward them for it, something you could feel before. That what pushed me to keep playing, because i felt it worth it.

 

Theres so many ideas you could spice apb with... i cant believe people is so unimaginative with the potential one game has.

Theres no even to do great changes... here goes a quick idea that ive got just typing: it goes as simple as having tier weapons. For example make legendaries legendary, they are mostly shit. Make people desire them. Make new tiers, you just need to fucking change its icon colour and give them some pristine name like "epic" -or some bullshoot like that, people would feel they are diferent- and give them a little more tier. Even more desire for weapons like that would be more rare and so on. That would revive the economy and make apb$ worth getting and worked on, that would motivate players to keep playing etcs.

 

Simple ideas like that that could keep moving the wheels, how is that so f4cking hard, and there they are working on a mode that barely anyone gives a shit.

God i am tired of seeing smart people ruining stuff.

 

edit: its not even an idea, its already done in plenty of places and gives flavour to the games.

Edited May 17, 2019 by SillyBear

[Doom32 23]

4 minutes ago, SillyBear said:

 

.For example make legendaries legendary,  Make people desire them. Make new tiers, you just need to  change its icon colour and give them some pristine name like "epic" -or some  like that, people would feel they are diferent- and give them a little more tier. Even more desire for weapons like that would be more rare and so on. That would revive the economy and make apb$ worth getting and worked on, that would motivate players to keep playing etcs. 

 

 

the weapons are what they are, only thing I got from this is "lets market our weapons to sell g1c" 

[LittleMoneyFirst 66]

I even gave matt another idea about prem that could be impremented using other games ideas. Since everyone is so obsessed with free stuff, they could pay prem with apb$. So people who pay for prem can get some extra ingame income to buy those "legendaries" and freeplayer have a chance to get prem for free, so they dont need to make premium "balanced" or not p2w because everyone has the fucking oportunity to get it and stop crying for p2w like the retards they are.

Edited May 17, 2019 by SillyBear

[Doom32 23]

That's a good idea. Would make everyone happy. 

[LittleMoneyFirst 66]

4 minutes ago, Doom32 said:

the weapons are what they are, only thing I got from this is "lets market our weapons to sell g1c" 

They could use the multicolour weapons as rewards and make people happy with multicolour shit. As simple as it goes.

But nooo, censorship and being triggered for a furry video on forums is more important.

 

1 minute ago, Doom32 said:

That's a good idea. Would make everyone happy. 

Is not even an idea is being implemented in most places.

[Doom32 23]

least they aren't fucking up as bad as game of thrones season 8 writers are. I can at least give them that. 

[Fortune Runner 796]

6 hours ago, Darkzero3802 said:

Many ppl have been saying for awhile now that LO having the engine upgrade and riot top priority is the wrong thing to do and the playerbase decline is proof of it (as well as other things). Hacker count is once again on the rise and we have ppl joining for the sole purpose of being able to cheat and get away with it while legit vets who have soldiered on through all this are leaving making the quality of play that much worse. LO needs to prioritize hackers and balance as #1 as getting rid of these ppl and making it so threat and matchmaking work will bring ppl back. Then maby something like my thread below to make ppl want to play for new stuff and create stuff will draw more ppl back and while ppl are going after this stuff LO can finish the engine and new contacts/content for the main districts along with riot.

problems with this statement

 

1. The majority of people complaining about the Engine Upgrade do not really know how the current one works and their posts shows this because the current engine is limited and can not fix APB's problems.

    The engine upgrade is a must have because of it. A vast amount of people who quit APB all these years quit because of no engine upgrade which would of helped better content and better graphics and performance etc.

 

2. I have noticed 3 suspicious players the past week but that does not mean they are cheaters.

    I was in silver as well as bronze and only noticed 3 suspicious people.

    I have also noticed you in particular are inaccurate over who is a cheater and although this may be insulting to you , it is not meant to be.

    I suspect your computer may not have been fast enough on fps from hat you have said in the past.

 

3. Focusing on cheating and balance would need the engine upgrade to begin with.

    The matchmaking we currently have is a problem and it will take the engine upgrade for Little Orbit's solution to that which has been acknowledged by the community already.

    Why so many of you are in a rush to do what has to come later is beyond me.

     It wont work at all the way you are saying because of current engine limitations causing this mess to begin with.

    Also keep in mind no anti cheat is 100% and we already have the best for todays market for APB.

    Not much more can be done at the moment because of limitations for various reasons.

 

4. New content will not keep people playing if the engine upgrade is not done to fix the core problems with APB.

    Doing it this way is completely pointless and is how g1 drove us to this point. No thank you.

 

[vsb 6170]

1 minute ago, Fortune Runner said:

I have also noticed you in particular are inaccurate over who is a cheater

understatement of the year

[Fortune Runner 796]

6 hours ago, Garemie said:

The US server is essentially capped at its current playerbase due to 40-40 limitations and no queue system. There's only one bronze server and one silver server at the PEAK of Jericho. You can sit there and click spam join district for 20 minutes but MAN does that feel like a really low quality way to spend your time. There is STILL no way to put yourself in a queue to join a district. You don't just give up and join an empty district, so with that in mind, we are capped at our current PEAK playerbase. I'm fairly confident that developing a queue system is more important than developing a gamemode that (almost) nobody wants. I hate to say it but we may not end up needing a queue system at this rate, if playerbase continues to decline and we never see full districts.

 

I get that Citadel still has a pretty decent playerbase however, and maybe a queue system isn't so essential since there's multiple districts to choose from.

 

Re-inventing the APB wheel isn't going to save the game, but new content and the EU *might*.

 

So, either LO is in way over their heads and cannot develop a queue system, let alone an engine upgrade, or they have really poor prioritization in my opinion. The player reviews of RIOT speak for themselves, "neat...but meh". People play APB for its unique gunplay and customization, not for BR elements. (Yes I know some people will disagree and argue its not BR but it is, it really is)

 

 

I get that there are people out there who are utterly stoked for RIOT, so I don't want to sound like I'm being ignorant, but I think the vast majority of people would rather see other things happen to APB.

 

I believe RIOT will be added to the pile of failures along with open conflict among other things.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

The new engine is needed for a proper queue system that wont  make as many problems as it solves.

While a queue system can possibly be done now , the strain it can cause would most likely make far more problems fro the current engine collapsing from it causing strain one a single district.

 

The current engine is limiting us and rushing  out new content now is a bad idea.

Too many threads with too many reasons given why.

Little Orbit is testing RIOT now with us and planning on that releasing with the engine upgrade at the same time which is the proper time to release it.

 

Re-inventing the APB wheel is bad?

Without the engine upgrade we can not have a better performance to fix the performance problems we have now.

We could not update the graphics later or setup APB for phasing as it would help with matches or any number of other reasons.

1 hour ago, Nickolai said:

For those who have watched the movie

the game came first and people enjoyed it back then

[Clandestine 390]

I wonder how many people stopped playing because of lack of the que system myself included. Many times when I wanted to play and had to spam it was ending with quiting the game for weeks or months.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxX 280]

What I find fascinating and weird every time this topic comes up is that people seem to assume that RIOT is made to replace missions/FC, instead of being another option for players who want to play it. At no point was this ever said (far as I know anyways).

As for the idea of a queue system, it may just create more issues than it solves. Just imagine 30 people in a queue waiting for a single district to open a slot each for them individually. I've seen it said before and I agree that it's true. If more people would stop trying to spam into a single district and instead start populating one of the empty ones, this would be far far less of an issue (at least on EU, NA is a lot more scuffed pop wise to go with that approach unfortunately)

[vsb 6170]

9 minutes ago, WhiskeyTangoFoxX said:

What I find fascinating and weird every time this topic comes up is that people seem to assume that RIOT is made to replace missions/FC, instead of being another option for players who want to play it.

aside from the obvious low population issues on a certain server, i’m more concerned that it seems like all new content is going to be tied to riot, at least for the first few seasons 

[WhiskeyTangoFoxX 280]

11 minutes ago, Glaciers said:

aside from the obvious low population issues on a certain server, i’m more concerned that it seems like all new content is going to be tied to riot, at least for the first few seasons 

valid concern, but I kinda trust Matt to be smarter than that

[YeOldLegends 51]

Me personally. Not really interested in Riot mode and just looking forward for that engine upgrade. Q1 2014

[MooTownSnacker 4]

Re: queuing, if they can't do it server side, then just have the client loop until a spot opens up.  My poor wrists would be eternally grateful.