APB: Finally, I Can Be A PUNK!

[Modern Angel]

No, no. It's just fine! They'll get it worked out and the cheater's running rampant is on purpose so they can catch them.

[Threash]

I'm still playing several hours a day, still haven't run into more than a couple people (since launch) that i knew for sure were cheating.  Still getting accused of cheating several times a day.  Also, i still suck horribly.

[Chinchilla]

Gotta see if any new patches helped my locking up issue on my blah laptop.

[UnSub]

Populations shrinking

I've got no doubt there are plenty of APB players sitting on hours they can still play from the box purchase, but are waiting to see the next update.

The payment system is nice and player friendly, but screws RTW hard.

[Kageru]

They didn't launch with nearly enough content to justify a subscription fee. If anything this model allows them to stage a "recovery"... unlikely as I think that is when the faults are so systemic.

[Stormwaltz]

Rumors of massive layoffs at RTW.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/35616/Further-staff-redundancies-at-Realtime-Worlds

[Kageru]

Beaten to it. Pretty dire news (especially of course for those laid off) because it means any corrections to the launch flaws and weaknesses are going to happen at a slower pace which means the game loses subs and interest in the interim. Very much the Fallen Earth trajectory in fact.

There must be some fascinating stories from the inside. It seems like they had some very big plans, and maybe the intention to on-sell some of their technology (especially for MyWorld) but it didn't pan out. Although the quote below taken from the linked article seems to suggest they believed APB would generate enough income to fund MyWorld to completion.

APB has sank the company, essentially - it was never the plan to seek out a publisher for MyWorld, that was a last gamble.

We were supposed to have enough money in the bank to get to market with both products, unfortunately that turned out not to be the case, and APB basically sank without a trace at retail, meaning the incoming revenue just wasn't enough.

Can't blame anyone really (apart from management, IMO, for a million reasons), APB was ground breaking in many ways but was killed by its lack of content, business model, technical issues, and some terrible PR. Fundamental failure to execute. No excuses for it, really.

[Shatter]

Anyone else having STO deja vu? 

[statisticalfool]

Anyone else having STO deja vu? 

This doesn't feel like STO at all. STO feels like a successful cash-in: they made a bunch of money on lifetimes, box sales. Their retention probably is pretty low, but the goal seemed to be: make enough money, move on. Cryptic, as far as my google-fu can tell, has avoided layoffs, it seems.

The Fallen Earth comparison makes a lot more sense. Little notice, little retention.

[Shatter]

STO I dont believe had layoffs but rather moved people from STO to other projects once the game went down hill.  When I compare STO to APB Im looking at it more from the amount of time it took the game to fall apart and enter rapid sub drop status.  Both STO and APB practically broke records on how rapid that decent was whereas FE I believe actually went up for a while then slowly died off over a 6 month period. 

[Stormwaltz]

STO is still rapidly updating. The recent patch added a huge swath of diplomatic missions, ship interiors, fluidic space raids, a level cap increase, and a bunch of irritating minigames.

I wouldn't say it's a massive success, but it appears to be holding its own quite capably. Failures don't add features.

[LK]

Maybe this is why I was so upset when the game launched because I knew this would happen.

[Kageru]

Apparently the 3 and 6 month subscriptions not being sold anymore? They must be prepping for sale or closure. There just seems little chance APB can fund its own way out of trouble.

[Threash]

That's true, and clearly a bad sign.

[Azazel]

Thay shoulda just made another good PS360 game... 

[Outlawedprod]

means any corrections to the launch flaws and weaknesses are going to happen at a slower pace

I would think it would translate to never happen. The article indicates that they let go the entire MyWorld team.  I think that's pretty much GG. I can't see anyone wanting to buy this game off them.  There's just too much missing/different to guarantee making any money.

[Azazel]

Despite my taking a dump on the game (and Bloodworth) earlier in the thread, this does suck. Another case of great potential (and people's jobs) being wasted by piss-poor management and assumptions on what the market will tolerate. Echoes of Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London. Mythic and WAR.

The market (and devs) keep chasing after the almighty MMO World of Warcraft dollar, and their unpolished mismanaged releases keep getting scythed down like so much wheat. I've gone from wondering when to if they will ever learn that "yeah, this is probably good enough to release" just guarantees a flaming crash and burn.

 

[UnSub]

If there ever was a title NOT chasing WoW, I'd have to say APB was it. They really did try some different things.

However, it really appears that RTW did not understand how MMO and FPS players operate / behave, nor how PvP games work.

Pure PvP is going to be a niche category until someone hits critical mass with it. Betting the farm on being that title that hits that critical mass is an incredibly high risk.

[Lantyssa]

I'm betting on it being Blizzard.

*sigh*

[Kageru]

I think the message designers are missing is that having PvP doesn't excuse you from having content and variety. In addition to PvP being very sensitive to game balance.

But something more serious went wrong with APB. It just seems staggeringly obvious that it has some amazingly cool supporting systems (death themes, customisation, urban ambiance) but only the most cursory consideration of how they would provide enjoyable, balanced and varied gameplay. As with fallen earth a couple of people into gaming should have been able to sit down and come up with ways the game mechanics could end up as a sucky experience, or be exploited, lvery early in the design process but just didn't.

I suspect it's what happens when they believe their own hype - "It is going to be soooo cool!" and suspend thinking about negative scenarios. MyWorld looks like much the same. I believe good companies like Blizzard and Valve have safety valves where other teams call them on it fairly early in development. That and they run real beta-test processes on the gameplay.

Sigh, Blizzard so needs some competition that doesn't explode on the launch pad.

[Azazel]

If there ever was a title NOT chasing WoW, I'd have to say APB was it. They really did try some different things.

I mean in terms of chasing the mighty MMO dollar, not sub-genre. APB didn't need to be a Quasi-MMO.

[rk47]

I for one, cannot see the draw on subscribing  MMO shooters. If you really want organized shooter PvP, there's always Clans outlet on Counterstrike or insert whatever shooter game is out there. Do some research, get good at it, meet up skilled ppl and team up.

There's no need to shell out dollars every month hoping it's going to give you 'attractive' PVP in the veins of Grand Theft Auto multiplayer. That's my take on the customer's perspective on what APB is trying to sell. There's just not enough incentive, and now they went F2P but can't muster the box sales. Double ouch.

[Mrbloodworth]

We''re pleased to announce that the PTW is will be back online from Tuesday 17th!

The PTW (Public Test World) is where we get you, the players, to try out the latest changes and give us feedback before a patch goes live. With the return of the PTW we decided that you should try out the latest and greatest patch, 1.4.1! This isn''t just another set of bug fixes this is the beginning of some of the most fundamental changes to date. These are the APB features you''ve been waiting for!

So without further ado, enjoy a sneak peak of what to expect when we open the doors to the PTW next week!


Combat and Gameplay has been updated!

Gameplay has been improved to produce a smooth, immersive, and skill-based combat.

* Vehicle handling has been improved.
* All weapons have been rebalanced and now include recoil.
* All weapons fire out to 100 meters.
* All weapon audio has been updated.
* Audio in marksmanship has been altered subtly.
* Crouch is now client-side predicted.
* Accuracy modifier on sprinting.
* Accuracy now regains over time rather than instantly.
* Weapons can be switched during the re-fire timer.
* Default mouse sensitivity is lower.
* Time for open world vehicle break-ins has been lowered from 10 to 3 seconds.
* Arrest and Rescue times have been lowered.
* Vehicle husks now block weapons fire.
* Field of view is now weapon specific.
* Hit VFX should now align with the direction of the weapons fire correctly.
* Upon purchasing a new weapon players are offered the option to auto-equip that item.


Matchmaking

Accepting missions and backup has now been replaced with a Ready/Not Ready setting which anyone who plays online games will be fairly familiar with. Each individual group member can toggle their status to ''Ready'' and when all players in the group are ''Ready'', the group as a whole is considered eligible for a match. The matchmaking system will then select a suitable mission/dispatch and automatically put the group on that mission. At the end of the mission, all players return automatically to ''Not Ready'' to allow time to re-supply, re-spawn cars etc. The group can then set themselves back to ''Ready'' for their next mission, allowing the group to set its own pace.

* Players can no longer deliver open -world items during missions.
* Players who are low threat and playing solo will receive no dispatches against them and will instead join the group who are being dispatched against opposition. The exception being that solo players can still be dispatched against when a bounty is placed on them.
* Bounty Missions are only generated as a result of witnessing by Enforcers
* Criminal vs. Criminal Matches have been disabled


Information

* The /Help command has been added. This will now display the full list of slash commands available to players.
* A new set of dynamic tooltips have been added to the loading screens in order to remind new and old players alike of some of APB''s more subtle features.



Mirroring Garage Decals

Players are now able to mirror decals on both sides of a vehicle.



Advanced Graphics Options

An advanced graphics menu has been added to the video settings page of the options menu. This sub-menu features the following graphical options:

* Dynamic Shadows
* Environment Shadows
* Ambient Occlusion
* High-Quality Bloom
* Distortion Value
* Anisotropy
* Anti Aliasing



VOIP Improvements

We have made further improvements to the in-game VOIP system in order to address some of the issues players have been experiencing during play. These include:

* An issue where players lost VoIP when district switching has now been resolved.
* PTT functionality has been improved.
* Various VOIP related crashes have been resolved.
* The accuracy of the VoIP status indicators has been improved.
* Player- controlled microphone sensitivity options have been added.



Improved HUD Messaging

We are reworking the way in which PvP kills are conveyed to the player. This will supply players with valuable information as to what weapons both opposing and friendly players are using, without the need to manually enter the scoreboard.



New Content

We have introduced some fun new content for players to use in the form of clothing items, clothing presets, vehicle kits, vehicle presets, symbols, instrument packs and new songs. These additions comprise of the following:

* Trilby hat
* Cowboy hat
* Beret hat
* 8 New preset outfits (one outfit per gender, per organization)
* Pet Vet Shop symbol set
* Zen Pack symbol set
* Funky Beasts symbol set
* 4 New vehicle body modding kits
* 4 New vehicle presets (one preset per organization)
* 4 New original songs created with the new instrument packs
* New original song composed and produced by the UK music producer ‘Nocturnal’
* Nocturnal Instrument Pack: Bees Synth, DrumKit, Drum/Lead, Orchestra, OrchestraHit (OrchHit), Rise Synth, Bass, Sub Bass, Synth Arp(Arpergiator), StacString (Staccato String)
* Wilson LeBoyce Instrument Pack: Guitar, Drum Kit, Organ, Bass, Clavinet
* Simon Tran Instrument Pack: Bass, DrumKit, Harp, Lead synth, Strings, Synth
* Double B InstrumentPack: DrumKit, Guitar, SFX, Synth_Bass, Synth_Lead
* Britney BloodRose InstrumentPack: DrumKit, Bass, Guitar, Strings



To chat all about 1.4.1, you can now visit our new PTW Forums and leave us your feedback! Keep an eye on the forums next week as we''ll be announcing all the important details such as where to download the PTW client and how to use your existing characters!

APB isn''t going anywhere. Don''t listen to gossip and hear say. Yes a number of staff members have unfortunately left that company but they were the guys working on MyWorld. Not APB.

The APB team is still hard at work improving the game you guys are here for.

[Rendakor]

There's just not enough incentive, and now they went F2P but can't muster the box sales. Double ouch.

Wait, what? When did this go f2p?

[Margalis]

But something more serious went wrong with APB. It just seems staggeringly obvious that it has some amazingly cool supporting systems (death themes, customisation, urban ambiance) but only the most cursory consideration of how they would provide enjoyable, balanced and varied gameplay.

Shades of Spore.

[Mrbloodworth]

There's just not enough incentive, and now they went F2P but can't muster the box sales. Double ouch.

Wait, what? When did this go f2p?

They haven't announced anything like this, people here are speculating, mostly it seems based on a glance at the official forms.

[Kageru]

Interesting comment from "exRTW" poster which has a certain ring of authenticity at RockPaperShotgun. I think he's overly generous as to the relative strength of the game but he's probably correct in that if they'd managed beta to improve word of mouth and released free2play with a cash shop it would have much better reflected the value of the game.

Certainly Dave J has great, strong, ambitious ideas for his games. But he’s a big believer in letting the details emerge along the way, rather than being planned out beyond even a rudimentary form. For most of the lifetime of APB, he was also CEO of the whole company, as well as Creative Director.

Well that explains why it looks like it was somewhere between ad-hoc or absent game design... because in fact it was. You can probably get away with that approach on a single-player console game but thinking that would work in a subscription based MMO shows surprising ignorance. But of course since he's the boss who's going to criticise him?

[Shatter]

I dont really care about all the corporate BS, its simple.  Game wasnt ready, launched too early, reap the consequences. 

[Outlawedprod]

I dont really care about all the corporate BS

I'm interested in the corporate BS but only if we get some AAA dramaz out of it.  Like oh I don't know some Korean company claiming they now own the IP =p

[Hoax]

But the real killer, IMO, is the business model. This was out of the team’s hands. The game has issues, but I think if you separate the business model from the game itself, it holds up at least a little better. A large scale team based shooter, in big urban environments, with unprecedented customisation and some really cool, original features. The problem was that management looked at the revenue they wanted to generate and priced accordingly, failing to realise (or care) that there are literally a dozen top quality, subscription free team based shooters. Many of which, now, have progression and persistence of some sort – for free. The game would have been immeasurably better received it had simply been a boxed product, with paid-for in-game items, IMO. This may not have been possible, given what was spent on the game and the running costs, but the market is tough. You can’t simply charge what you feel like earning and hope the paying public will agree with your judgement of value. Many of us within RTW were extremely nervous at APB’s prospects long before launch, and with good reason, as it turns out.

  You think?

I'm going to say what is never supposed to be said instead of the usual "blah blah I'm so sorry they lost their jobs" spiel. Anyone who didn't have their resume ready and wasn't already looking for work from the second the revenue model was launched or at least from the second the first review hit or they played their own beta. No fucking sympathy. If this caught you off guard you are part of the problem because this game had failure tattooed on its fucking forehead.

[Sparky]

There's an interesting insider perspective from some guy claiming to be ex-RTW over at RPS.  It's super long so I'll just link it:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/16/redundancies-at-real-time-worlds/comment-page-1/#comment-491791

[caladein]

But the real killer, IMO, is the business model. This was out of the team’s hands. The game has issues, but I think if you separate the business model from the game itself, it holds up at least a little better. A large scale team based shooter, in big urban environments, with unprecedented customisation and some really cool, original features. The problem was that management looked at the revenue they wanted to generate and priced accordingly, failing to realise (or care) that there are literally a dozen top quality, subscription free team based shooters. Many of which, now, have progression and persistence of some sort – for free. The game would have been immeasurably better received it had simply been a boxed product, with paid-for in-game items, IMO. This may not have been possible, given what was spent on the game and the running costs, but the market is tough. You can’t simply charge what you feel like earning and hope the paying public will agree with your judgement of value. Many of us within RTW were extremely nervous at APB’s prospects long before launch, and with good reason, as it turns out.

  You think?

I'm going to say what is never supposed to be said instead of the usual "blah blah I'm so sorry they lost their jobs" spiel. Anyone who didn't have their resume ready and wasn't already looking for work from the second the revenue model was launched or at least from the second the first review hit or they played their own beta. No fucking sympathy. If this caught you off guard you are part of the problem because this game had failure tattooed on its fucking forehead.

Really, when they had to walk back on the "We're going to charge you money to manufacture items." in the very late stages of beta, I knew they had no ideas how to monetize the game.  The game not being particularly well-made just made it all the more obvious that one needed to get their fun in early before it all went up in flames.

[Margalis]

Edit: Kind of a sad but also sadly predictable situation.

They should sell a book of the concept art to try to recoup some money. Great stuff.

[Outlawedprod]

http://www.develop-online.net/news/35644/Breaking-Realtime-Worlds-enters-administration
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-17-apb-and-crackdown-dev-collapses

[Threash]

As you may or may not have already read, RTW has recently announced that it has entered into administration. When reading this news, you’ll probably be wondering what effect this will have on you, the players.

Well, the good news is that it doesn’t. APB will continue to run, receive updates and is completely accessible. There will be no disruption to the service.

Hopefully that holds true for at least 3 more months as that is how much free time i've accumulated so far.