APB: Finally, I Can Be A PUNK!

[Ollie]

I'm with Hoax and UnSub on this one. Having subjected myself to bucketloads of butthurt in the beta, the only way I'd be willing to give APB another go is if it was F2P. Were the barrier of entry low enough, I might pop in now and again for a few hours of harmless fun. Who knows, I might even use the cash shop.

As it stands now, meh.

[Mrbloodworth]

Really, this just seems like a way for people to work for a commission paid in "real money".  That said, I haven't looked at all at the RTW points Marketplace but I imagine it's pretty barren.

Its mostly player created stuff that I have seen. I sold a few of those GWAR patches in it already.

[Der Helm]

So I bought this game on steam and got (for some reason)  the EU version. This was not obvious while buying it and the only way I noticed is was because of the server names and the APV-EU name of the game directory on my harddrive. I am a bit angry right now.

The game seems fun though.

[TripleDES]

At least there seems to be determination to save this turd. For all the fun I have in this, I have like 5x or more grief. I'm not sure how worth it is. This thing really needs at least one driving based district, ideally stunt oriented.

[Mrbloodworth]

The public test server is making some rumbling sounds. (Not my image)

[Threash]

I'm getting constantly accused of cheating, it's fucking ridiculous.  I have about a 30% win ratio, if that.  Some people just can't handle losing.

[Furiously]

The public test server is making some rumbling sounds. (Not my image)

It would be pure win to have matchmaking auto change your district and have it be based on your teams accuracy on your last five kills.

[Threash]

Uh, no thanks.  Takes me for fucking ever to change districts, once a play session is enough for me.

[Chinchilla]

Uh, no thanks.  Takes me for fucking ever to change districts, once a play session is enough for me.

Me too.  My PC is fairly slow, but I do change if my guildies are in another area.  Hopefully my GF works late tonight so I can get on with some uninterrupted gameplay.

[Mrbloodworth]

MMORPG.com Review - 6.5 Mediocre

Let me preface this whole review by stating right off the bat, that All Points Bulletin is a whole lot of fun. I actually find myself liking the game, despite its many glaring problems, and that speaks loudly for the potential (yes I said it) Realtime Worlds’ sophomore game has at its disposal. Because despite the problems I have with the title, which we’ll get to in a bit, I really can’t help but enjoy the time I spend with it.

This reviewer is the one to have spend the most time with it, and has even been blogging about it the whole time. I can't say that about the others. There isn't much I disagree with in this review.

EDIT: let me take this back, I don't need a sticky cover system.

[Der Helm]

They offered me a refund, so someone could gift me the US version. What now ? 

[Threash]

MMORPG.com Review - 6.5 Mediocre

Let me preface this whole review by stating right off the bat, that All Points Bulletin is a whole lot of fun. I actually find myself liking the game, despite its many glaring problems, and that speaks loudly for the potential (yes I said it) Realtime Worlds’ sophomore game has at its disposal. Because despite the problems I have with the title, which we’ll get to in a bit, I really can’t help but enjoy the time I spend with it.

This reviewer is the one to have spend the most time with it, and has even been blogging about it the whole time. I can't say that about the others. There isn't much I disagree with in this review.

EDIT: let me take this back, I don't need a sticky cover system.

That sentence pretty much captures exactly how i feel about the game.  I agree with all the complaints people have, i am still having a hell of a time and can't wait to log back in.

[UnSub]

There doesn't seem to be any way for RTW points to enter the system without a person buying them from RTW. (?)

Really, this just seems like a way for people to work for a commission paid in "real money".  That said, I haven't looked at all at the RTW points Marketplace but I imagine it's pretty barren.

The point was that although it sounds like a good idea subsidising the people who generate the crafted content, they are actually the players more likely to stick around (and pay). Plus there has been a boom at launch on a lot of designs that completely violate copyright laws (see: Bloodworth's GWAR content, unless he's actually a licensed GWAR merchandiser). To that end, RTW is going to have to go through and clean a lot of those out which is going to make a lot of people unhappy. The right thing to do would be to remove / refund all RTW points spent of IP-violating custom works, but that would also be a gut punch to the player base.

Moving forward, there are going to be a ton of launch players with enough RTW points to not pay for quite a while to come, while later crafters are going to find it hard to ever make that kind of RTW again. There are players using up their complimentary 100 RTW points, but that demand is going to drop with the population.

(I'll say that this is based on my understanding of RTW points - you can buy them and then use them to buy crafted items - but I've never seen it clearly laid out and I'm not buying a box to check.)

[Threash]

Well i do have 100 points i musta got from somewhere.  How much does a monthly sub cost in rtw points?

[Mrbloodworth]

400 Points.

[Threash]

Well that's nice, i just made my montly sub from selling an n-tec adeen.

[Chinchilla]

I have TS3 setup, but I didn't see anything about a PW in the MOTD.  I'll have to ask you guys once I see you ingame (I can't alt tab out of the game though).  That causes all sort of headache.

[Mrbloodworth]

I have TS3 setup, but I didn't see anything about a PW in the MOTD.  I'll have to ask you guys once I see you ingame (I can't alt tab out of the game though).  That causes all sort of headache.

It currently has no password.

[Chinchilla]

I have TS3 setup, but I didn't see anything about a PW in the MOTD.  I'll have to ask you guys once I see you ingame (I can't alt tab out of the game though).  That causes all sort of headache.

It currently has no password.

weird. Maybe I wrote down the server wrong.

[LC]

I see this game is failing as I predicted.

[Threash]

On what numbers are you basing that on?

[LC]

On what numbers are you basing that on?

The number of people I know that purchased the game, but are no longer playing it.

[Threash]

Very scientific.

[Malakili]

Very scientific.

Video. Game. Forums.  Come on.

Seriously though, these things tend to be more accurate than the people who want the game so succeed are willing to admit.  How many times have we seen a new game where the fanboys say "Nah, its doing fine." "You don't have real numbers." and so forth, but people have a decent idea for player population and reception.  If the reception is generally mediocre to bad, and they are already bleeding players (thats a big IF because I really don't know I haven't been paying attention to this game at all), then they are already well down the road to maintenance mode.  We've seen it over and over again.

Not so much making a point about this game in particular, but rather in general.

[Threash]

Right, but i wasn't saying the game is doing fine, i actually was hoping there WAS some numbers.  If we go by that metric the game is doing great because my friends haven't quit.

[Mrbloodworth]

Very scientific.

Video. Game. Forums.  Come on.

Seriously though, these things tend to be more accurate than the people who want the game so succeed are willing to admit.  How many times have we seen a new game where the fanboys say "Nah, its doing fine." "You don't have real numbers." and so forth, but people have a decent idea for player population and reception.  If the reception is generally mediocre to bad, and they are already bleeding players (thats a big IF because I really don't know I haven't been paying attention to this game at all), then they are already well down the road to maintenance mode.  We've seen it over and over again. Its still second in the top seller list on steam.

Not so much making a point about this game in particular, but rather in general.

Using /pop during prime time, there are 6k+ players on my server. There are at least 4 servers for the game currently (2 us, 2 eu). It may not be the numbers RTW was hoping for, but only they know if they are breaking even or profitable.

Reception has been decent on most gaming forums I have read, though they all say the same thing "game has issues, but can be a hell of a lot of fun, if not down right addictive for some", its the reviewers that give it a thumbs down (most seem to be because they thought it was a quest based wack-a-foozle, other than the issues everyone acknowledges). I would think where RTW goes from here is keep to a success or not. This game may very well be just a niche game with decent populations, in the grand scheme of things, that's not bad for a MMOFPS considering this sub genre is kinda niche by principle alone. "MMOFPS" of any kind is still in its infancy, and has a huge hurdle to even approach the DIKU RPG cousins. So, personally I do not even begin to expect it to get millions of players.

People use "fail" way to liberally.

[Modern Angel]

LC is also functionally retarded so there's that.

[Chinchilla]

I'm still enjoying it and I see clan ppl on all the time.  So that's an improvement over what happened to F13's Fallen Earth clan :).

Oh and I got TS3 working.  Guersan called it... I put the port down wrong.

[SnakeCharmer]

"game has issues, but can be a hell of a lot of fun, if not down right addictive for some"

This is it for me.  50 percent of my missions leave me pissed off to no end (why yes please APB me out to 4 guys with 4 slotted character mods, 3 slotted OCA's/Ntecs).  40 percent leave me kinda meh. 
 
The remaining 10 percent of 'HOLY SHIT I JUST BARREL ROLLED A CAR 5 TIMES OFF A BRIDGE JUMPED OUT AND SHOT THAT CRIMINAL SUMBITCH IN THE FACE AS MY CAR EXPLODED BEHIND ME' is what keeps me in the game.

[Der Helm]

So, since the European servers seem to be crawling with russian players (who do their best to live up to any clishee you can think of), would there be any of you US players able to "gift" me the US version of this game ? I suppose I will get a refund to my paypal account, could I use that to "pay" for that "gift" ?

Also anyone in the know on how the ping to US servers is from Europe ?



And now a game related question. Why can't I hit shit at point blank range while people with sniper rifles run about and kill me in 2-3 shots ? They can't all be hacking, right ? Right ?

Why is everybody using an N-Tec and why is it so good ?

What are named weapons doing and how do I get them ?

[Threash]

Everyone uses the N-TEC because its a jack of all trades, decent at most ranges not the best at any.  At higher ranks i see a lot more people using the undertaker than the N-TEC.  Named weapons are just pre slotted weapons, only the ones with three mods are worth using over something you can slot yourself (unless you somehow unlocked weapons with 3 empty mod slots, in which case please tell me how).  You get them by raising your contacts, the better ones of the higher level contacts, usually at levels 3 and 6 with each.

[Koyasha]

Well, not all named weapons are worth using over ones with 2 mods, necessarily.  Some of them aren't slotted well, and better choices in 2 slots might be better than meh choices in 3.  Like the "Grassy Knoll" HVR really only has one thing I like, the level 3 equip faster.  The range increase from rifling is worthless (it already shoots to draw distance, and kills in 2 shots at that distance, just like any other distance) and the quick reload is questionable.  Having one that shoots faster might make the difference between squeezing off that second shot before the enemy can dive for cover, and none of the named ones have that particular mod.

[Mrbloodworth]

Dam it!

Someone beat us to it!



Also, putting this here for clan mates.



Also, if you are playing, you may wish to vote on this poll if you have an opinion on it.

[Shatter]

lol pure win right there

[Mrbloodworth]

APB doth speak:

Over the last number of months, through closed beta and then KttC, we've collected a huge number of issues, complaints, suggestions and requests covering all aspects of the game. Because of the focus on getting the game stable and going through the process of launch, many of these (especially the ones requiring significant changes) may appear to have fallen through the cracks. But they didn't - they''ve been sitting in our rather copious 'to do' list, waiting for us to have the time to begin to address them properly. We also wanted to get a chance to contrast the feedback from new live players with the feedback from the beta community to help us draw up our hit list for the first few months.

So, here's an idea of some of the areas of gameplay that we'll be tackling over the coming weeks (by no means an exhaustive list). It's our goal to involve the community as much as is practical when tackling most of these areas - as we''ve said all along, and hopefully demonstrated throughout beta, RTW's goal is to grow APB into the game that its players want it to be, so we''ll be asking for comments, posting polls and throwing ideas up for you to mull over at various points throughout the process.

In the meantime, let us know what's at the top of your own hit list and what you think should be at the top of ours. This is your chance to help us prioritise our development efforts to tackle the issues that most concern you, or add the features that you most want.

Some examples of the issues we're already looking at are:

Cheaters
Catching and removing cheaters from the game remains our top priority. Expect further news on this soon.

Vehicle Handling
We're already underway on a major overhaul to vehicle handling to make cars more responsive and less slippy overall. You'll still be able to power slide around corners in stylish fashion, but steering is more responsive overall and easier to get the hang of early on.

Combat
We're looking at almost every aspect of combat - how it looks, feels and sounds, as well as weapon characteristics and tactics. Weapon changes will be put up on the Public Test World to get some feedback in due course.

Matchmaking
We're taking a look at both the way in which player threat is calculated and how mission offers are distributed to players to try and improve the matchmaking experience overall.

Camping
We'll be addressing a number of the worst camping spots in the game in an upcoming patch. We'll be tackling the rest on an ongoing basis.

Missions
Investigations are already under way into ways to make mission objectives more interactive and to try and add a bit more strategy to the actual missions themselves, not just the combat surrounding them.

Rulesets
We're currently looking at adding a 'newbie' ruleset to give players a safe place to learn the game against other new players, and of course we're still progressing work on the 'pure skill' ruleset that was mentioned towards the end of closed beta. The Chaos ruleset hasn't been forgotten about either.


That's just a sample of the things that are currently going on here, and we're already very excited even with some of the early prototypes. The APB Public Test World will host each of these changes in turn to allow players to give us their feedback before we make a move to push any changes live, so watch the website and forums for announcements about how and when you can get involved in upcoming PTW events.

A number of adjustments to mission offers and matchmaking are already being prepped for PTW and we'll giving you details about when these will be available for you to try very soon.

I'll be starting up more detailed threads on lots of our top development priorities over the next few days, starting with Matchmaking tomorrow. These threads will be a chance for us to explain the issues as we see them and share some of the ideas that we have for addressing them - and a chance for you to let us know what you think about those ideas, or even throw in some of your own.