APB: Finally, I Can Be A PUNK!

[veredus]

The shift key. It's right there.

where/

[WayAbvPar]

The shift key. It's right there.

where/

Well played.

[Falwell]

From their FAQ:

Approximately 10,000 players per world consisting of 100 player district maps. A hundred customized players driving unique cars, doing crimes, shooting or busting each other is well worth checking out.

Best guess is population controlled districts of 50 on 50.

[Mrbloodworth]

From their FAQ:

Approximately 10,000 players per world consisting of 100 player district maps. A hundred customized players driving unique cars, doing crimes, shooting or busting each other is well worth checking out.

Best guess is population controlled districts of 50 on 50.

Eh?

[IainC]

The Unreal engine will not handle more than 100 players per server even if they are just rendered as name tags on boxes. It's the exact same limitation that we are wrestling with and it's interesting to see how they have handled it.

[Mrbloodworth]

The Unreal engine will not handle more than 100 players per server even if they are just rendered as name tags on boxes. It's the exact same limitation that we are wrestling with and it's interesting to see how they have handled it.

Why would you use the unreal server tech? (i assume you are not referring to the rendering client, just the number of players the server can handle)

[IainC]

The Unreal engine will not handle more than 100 players per server even if they are just rendered as name tags on boxes. It's the exact same limitation that we are wrestling with and it's interesting to see how they have handled it.

Why would you use the unreal server tech? (i assume you are not referring to the rendering client, just the number of players the server can handle)

Because it's already built into the engine. Sigil wrote their own for Vanguard but for small studios like us (and I guess Realtime) there are good reasons not to. Atlas is the MMO extension for UE3 but it's only been recently announced so I doubt many people have had a chance to properly evaluate it let alone crowbar it into their games.

[Falwell]

Game play footage you say?

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/17693

Didn't see it posted earlier in the thread.

[Severian]

Game play footage you say?

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/17693

Didn't see it posted earlier in the thread.

Here's the powerpoint slide briefly glimpsed at the start of that video.

[rattran]

That just makes me think of

[Koyasha]

They're designing their game with a technical limitation that won't allow more than 100 players per server?  It seems that's highly unwise even if their design calls for only 100 players per server, since it completely closes off options for later.

Furthermore, if it's a 100 player limit on a server how is it going to work?  If you can only create 100 characters on any particular server, most of them are going to be empty most of the time.  If it's 100 players online at a time, are they going to have some queue bullshit?  If so I can't see that working out particularly well.

[IainC]

They're designing their game with a technical limitation that won't allow more than 100 players per server?  It seems that's highly unwise even if their design calls for only 100 players per server, since it completely closes off options for later.

Furthermore, if it's a 100 player limit on a server how is it going to work?  If you can only create 100 characters on any particular server, most of them are going to be empty most of the time.  If it's 100 players online at a time, are they going to have some queue bullshit?  If so I can't see that working out particularly well.

Don't get hung up on the 'per server' thing. Server in this case is not the same thing as an MMO server/shard/realm, in MMO terms it's closer to saying '100 people per zone'. How you manage that zone is independent of what the players perceive to be a 'server'. It can be a single zone in a larger world, or it could be unique instance of a map in the same way as an FPS server for example.

[Falwell]

Don't get hung up on the 'per server' thing. Server in this case is not the same thing as an MMO server/shard/realm, in MMO terms it's closer to saying '100 people per zone'. How you manage that zone is independent of what the players perceive to be a 'server'. It can be a single zone in a larger world, or it could be unique instance of a map in the same way as an FPS server for example.

Pretty much, in fact I've heard them call the 100 player areas "districts" a couple times. Server = city at large (roughly 10k per by the above statement), district = flashpoint, battleground, instance, arena, whateverthefuck you wanna call it.

[Mrbloodworth]

How big is the game world? And how many people fit on one server?


Approximately 10,000 players per world consisting of 100 player district maps. A hundred customized players driving unique cars, doing crimes, shooting or busting each other is well worth checking out.

[UnSub]

It's fair enough for whenever APB launches - rather than promising huge battles of 400 v 400, say that you are designing to do 50 v 50 (or 100 v 100) so that they play well.

[Mrbloodworth]

Link

ADD:

• fully integrated VOIP
• directional 3D sound (VOIP too)
  
• compose your own audio “kill songs.”
• deal with Last.fm
• PC only (Xbox 360 is likely to follow).
• “There really is no overarching story in APB,” Jones noted.
• The gameplay itself is match based, but there are no lobbies at all.
• So where do the NPCs fit in? They tend to act as the inciting force.
• APB will also feature criminal vs. criminal content.
• Progression in APB is more about options. (Yay planetisde!, some one was paying attention)
  
• Jones did indicate they have plans for a chaos server where all the rules are out the window.
• APB has signed a distribution deal with EA and Jones said the game is due out early in 2010. (Fucking EA...)
  

I am rather excited about this title....

[schild]

Chaos server?

This suddenly got interesting.

[HaemishM]

Chaos server?

Yeah, they should call it the shower.

[Nebu]

A bunch of ethugs pretending to be real thugs.  This is like a self-parody. 

[Mrbloodworth]

A bunch of ethugs pretending to be real thugs.  This is like a self-parody. 

Whatever, you know you will try it. 

[schild]

A bunch of ethugs pretending to be real thugs.  This is like a self-parody.  

No worse than a bunch of larpers pretending to be warriors and shit in WoW.

Seriously though, the only horrifying thing in APB is the built-in voice chat. I honestly think that will drive me away faster than any actual game mechanic. Typically, I'd want such a thing. But in this? noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

[Nebu]

WoW has built in voice chat, but noone uses it.  I wonder if the same thing will happen in this title.

This may be the first MMO released that I have zero interest in playing. 

[NiX]

I don't see why it's still being called an MMO. I'm putting it on par with MAG, but with a bit more persistence behind it.

[Morfiend]

I don't see why it's still being called an MMO. I'm putting it on par with MAG, but with a bit more persistence behind it.

Except one of their bullet points was "no persistence".

[squirrel]

“There really is no overarching story in..."

BANG! Papapapapap. BANG! <sound of gunfire>
 
"Shut the fuck bitch! DIE"

Yeah, I think they got that about right.

[tmp]

I don't see why it's still being called an MMO.

The obvious question for many of our readers is simple: is APB really an MMO? Yes, and no. It all depends on someone’s definition. In the purely traditional sense, 100 man “districts” are a bit small to call it an MMO (there are 10,000 person cities, which are composed of multiple districts and more akin to a server in a traditional MMO). However, the game features persistent character progression, persistent worlds, guilds, no lobbies and all the other hallmarks. The line continues to blur between online games and MMOs, but this has more than enough of the core hallmarks that it looks and feels like one. That’s good enough for us.

The gameplay itself is match based, but there are no lobbies at all. Instead, players hang out in persistent “districts” and their actions within that common area automatically generate matches on the fly.

i guess it's somewhat similar to question if say, WoW was still MMO if you were granted max level on character creation, and the game was cut down just to the permanent open PvP area or something similar...

[NiX]

So, even they say persistence and admit it's really not an MMO, but use semantics like "Depends on your definition" so they can probably charge for something.

[Kageru]

It's an MMO if they think they can charge 15$ a month for the pleasure of playing?

[Le0]

This is really looking interesting I'll keep an eye on it. Call it whatever you want but having seen the character customization tool in action it is quite revolutionnary

[Nebu]

Call it whatever you want but having seen the character customization tool in action it is quite revolutionnary

Revolutionary in what sense?  

Serious question.  I'm a customization fan.

[Mrbloodworth]

Call it whatever you want but having seen the character customization tool in action it is quite revolutionnary

Revolutionary in what sense?  

Serious question.  I'm a customization fan.

I don't know if I would say revolutionary. But its dam impressive. The first is the over all fidelity of the player models. High poly, high texture quality and most likely most of the more modern texture layers. Beyond that, fully transformable, there seems to be a slider for everything. I am reminded of the earlier smack down series of wrestling games by THQ in the number of options.

The other cool part, is the decal system for player and car. Seems not only do they have a rather large library of images to use, but there is a secondary tool with in it, so you can make you own designs by combining others into a composite, then apply that to your player or car. Of course there s the standard tinting (quite a large range with small steps) and clothing and accessory options.

[Lantyssa]

Revolutionary in what sense?

Serious question.  I'm a customization fan.

Watch one of the e3 vids for it.  It's pretty impressive.

If the pricing model doesn't turn me off, I'm so making an idealized punk version of myself.

[Mrbloodworth]

Revolutionary in what sense?

Serious question.  I'm a customization fan.

Watch one of the e3 vids for it.  It's pretty impressive.

If the pricing model doesn't turn me off, I'm so making an idealized punk version of myself.

The thing that scares me about pricing, is EA. They have some of the most convoluted account pages ever created.

[tmp]

Revolutionary in what sense?  

Serious question.  I'm a customization fan.

Probably best to watch one of their customization videos like others said. Basically though it seems to allows to combine multiple layers of clothing, to apply decals both to player's skin and the clothing (and cars as well) and these decals can be custom-made, scaled and placed nearly freely. They also allow to customize the hairstyles by adjusting lenght of hair (either all of it or just parts) and iirc, to wear various attachments which can be also placed pretty freely.

edit: GDC2008 customization demo & E309 demo

[Mrbloodworth]

Link to customization VID.