Why was RIOT made?

[Seedy 324]

Hey all. If no one asked for RIOT, why was it made? I get the point that G1 had a semi RIOT based game made before LO got here but again, no one ever asked for this type of game even from G1. If we were not happy with the game as it is we would have asked for major changes. I dont recall anyone asking for any major changes to the game in this type of direction.

 

I have no issues with APB. For me the game runs perfectly at all times. If anything, the engine upgrade might just make the game look better but really, there is nothing wrong right now with APB. I have never asked for anything more than the normal bug fixes, better anti cheat and maybe some map tweaks to camping spots but even then i am 99% happy with APB. We have the new Anti Cheat so thats cool with me.

 

A new map would be great if nothing else. I see now that people are NOT playing RIOT already as it takes to long to get in to a game - new people are not going to play RIOT as they will instantly be stomped all over by golds. This is so wrong for APB.

 

Any type of answer is unlikely from a dev but you never know.

[Clandestine 390]

either because production was already started by Reloaded or because someone was 'visionary'

[vsb 6174]

2 minutes ago, Clandestine said:

either because production was already started by Reloaded

it probably was, remember the summer blog about a battle royale that g1 was working on?

 

we never heard anything from them again about it ofc but that’s typical g1

[Seedy 324]

1 minute ago, Clandestine said:

either because production was already started by Reloaded or because someone was 'visionary'

A visionary is great if the visionary played APB for the past 8 years like we have and sees something that we are essentially missing. If it is a new person that has just came on board with LOs acquisition, then the visionary needs to be controlled and not let loose.

 

Just because G1 had a system in place for a pseudo Battle Royal game doesn't mean that is was good for the game. An unfinished experiment that is taken over and developed further, still doesn't make the experiment viable. I think G1s outgoing staff and directors (company owners) may have deluded LO with this partial experiment as a sales pitch saying that we as players want this. The fools listened to the seller on the way off the sinking ship and continued on with the non viable experimental mode to is delivery last week. Now the empty districts must show a message that we don't want it so please remove it and concentrate on functions and features we do want and are more than willing to support with good hard cash payments.

[Clandestine 390]

5 minutes ago, Seedy said:

A visionary is great if the visionary played APB for the past 8 years like we have and sees something that we are essentially missing. If it is a new person that has just came on board with LOs acquisition, then the visionary needs to be controlled and not let loose.

 

Just because G1 had a system in place for a pseudo Battle Royal game doesn't mean that is was good for the game. An unfinished experiment that is taken over and developed further, still doesn't make the experiment viable. I think G1s outgoing staff and directors (company owners) may have deluded LO with this partial experiment as a sales pitch saying that we as players want this. The fools listened to the seller on the way off the sinking ship and continued on with the non viable experimental mode to is delivery last week. Now the empty districts must show a message that we don't want it so please remove it and concentrate on functions and features we do want and are more than willing to support with good hard cash payments.

The problem with visions in games is that in most it just doesn't work and it's better to look what would players want.

G1 shoved us like 3 or 4 chaos iterations. Each time it was no fun at all and it turns out that even with slapping objectives from Riot is not fun either. I feel sorry for them. 1 year of wasted man hours. It's unlikely that they will give up on it because of it and because they have planned Riot pass and so on. Man i'd rather take 10 new cars with kits or a new map with same old missions instead.

[Seedy 324]

Im just going to enjoy APB as it is. I have no real hope that LO will do something remarkable.

[Gothina 22]

Why was RIOT made?

 

Battle Royale is the thing now......

[TheMessiah 430]

Why release RIOT before the engine upgrade?

This question has come up a lot.

The simple answer is that we uncoupled these two efforts because I couldn't predict when the engine upgrade will be ready to officially launch. To put that statement into context, there is a big difference between opening access to the new engine for public testing and officially launching it. We're close on one date for opening access, but the date for launching it is still an unknown.

As a project, RIOT was mostly about content, art, and design systems that have been in the works since mid-last year. This effort had known requirements and a timeline that we could measure and work towards. While I am very aware of the current state of the game, I also believe we cannot only upgrade the engine and expect players to get excited about APB again. We need new content, and from its inception, RIOT was designed to ride alongside the rest of APB with the fewest dependencies possible.

The engine upgrade is a different beast entirely. For a long time we didn't have any idea of how much was left to do. As we were working through upgrading libraries, the game sometimes wouldn't even compile. Until recently, it was hard to gauge progress. At this point we're down to only a couple remaining tasks that can't be sped up by adding more team members.

Next week, we're going to start open testing on RIOT.

Please know that while RIOT will launch first, the team's highest priority is getting the engine upgrade into public testing, and then everything will come together so we can begin the work on phasing and matchmaking.

This from april blog.In my opinion-they fkd up making this new content instead focus entirely on 3.5.Current playerbase confirm it

[sneekface 87]

Well as long as it doesnt affect the mission districts i dont see a problem with it.

[Painburger 15]

Why was RIOT made? 

 

Let's see...

Battle Royale games are the hot thing right now. As a game developer you want to get into what's hot. The problem is, games take years to develop. If you start a game that takes 3 years to get to market you run the risk of the BR craze being over and you fail to make the big profits you were hoping for.

Or, you find a game that's already out and mature, buy it, develop your BR mode and hope to God that you can expand your playerbase. People who like the old stuff will stick around, because you're not removing the old stuff, but you're really hoping for lots of new players who are going to want to drop a lot of money.

 

TL:DR, the whole reason LO bought APB was to get a BR game to market quickly and at a reduced cost.

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Painburger

[Seedy 324]

6 hours ago, sneekface said:

Well as long as it doesnt affect the mission districts i dont see a problem with it.

this is a good point. /d is working as expected and is still fun so yes this is very true. I want new things to play with but i dont want strange things. I want Phasing and /d coordination for matchmaking. this would in my opinion be a good thing to coordinate efforts towards.

5 hours ago, Painburger said:

Why was RIOT made? 

 

Let's see...

Battle Royale games are the hot thing right now. As a game developer you want to get into what's hot. The problem is, games take years to develop. If you start a game that takes 3 years to get to market you run the risk of the BR craze being over and you fail to make the big profits you were hoping for.

Or, you find a game that's already out and mature, buy it, develop your BR mode and hope to God that you can expand your playerbase. People who like the old stuff will stick around, because you're not removing the old stuff, but you're really hoping for lots of new players who are going to want to drop a lot of money.

 

TL:DR, the whole reason LO bought APB was to get a BR game to market quickly and at a reduced cost.

valid points. I have developed games (one took 4 years) so i know this is very true. BUT I think APB with BR style expectations wont work. If not enough people knew APB beforehand it will look like some weird BR rip off.

[wHisHi 206]

Same as asking any other company or developer why he took his time and effort to generate and fulfill his new idea.

You dont have to like it neither play it

 

[Thial 176]

6 hours ago, sneekface said:

Well as long as it doesnt affect the mission districts i dont see a problem with it.

1. The main problem is that the devs were told to work on riot instead of the engine so it got delayed even more now.

2. Instead of working on riot they could have worked on other things like matchmaking or threat or simply on updating outdated assets or fixing some balance issues like for example car gameplay or few guns.

3. a "BR" mode might actually hurt APB's already shitty reputation as it will be looked at as "another one of those".

4. The community will get even more divided than it is now and the actual mission districts will be half empty resulting in more people leaving as they will have nobody to play against.

 

There are many reasons why releasing a BR mode was a big flop.

[vsb 6174]

7 minutes ago, Thial said:

The main problem is that the devs were told to work on riot instead of the engine so it got delayed even more now.

it’s been said multiple times now that riot and the engine upgrade are being worked on separately 

 

i dont agree with riot riot as much as the next guy, but there’s a point in development (or so i’m told) where throwing more people at a project actually slows it down

 

i do agree that the riot devs could have been put to work on different, and ultimately more worthwhile things tho

[Thial 176]

5 minutes ago, Glaciers said:

it’s been said multiple times now that riot and the engine upgrade are being worked on separately 

 

i dont agree with riot riot as much as the next guy, but there’s a point in development (or so i’m told) where throwing more people at a project actually slows it down

 

i do agree that the riot devs could have been put to work on different, and ultimately more worthwhile things tho

Yes they are being worked on separately because the team has been divided. That still means a big delay because some of the skilled people who are needed for the engine upgrade might be working on riot instead. I don't believe that they have such a big dev team to have two different divisions. It's most likely one small dev team which was divided. Then comes the part that some of the leftover engine people might have to finish the work of the people who moved onto the riot which will slow things down even more because now they have to analyze the code of another person. I work as a software engineer so I speak from experience. Dividing a team never ends good and introduces big delays.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Thial