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All Points Bulletin: Why APB?
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
All Points Bulletin Lead Designer EJ Moreland writes this new developer journal that tells players what sets APB apart from other games and why they should give the game a shot as it creeps closer and closer to launch.
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Hello, my name is EJ Moreland and I have been involved in the development of APB for the last three years as the Lead Designer. I’d like to take a moment to talk about APB and the choices we’ve made.
What is APB?
For those who haven’t heard of it, APB is a persistent – online – action game that focuses on player creativity and player-to-player conflict. Players participate in fast-paced third-person combat across a sprawling urban city and have a comprehensive set of customization editors at their finger tips to create their own unique designs for imagery, clothing, vehicles, and music.
Ultimately, we believe players will show off their prowess at the action game or their creativity with the customization – or both – to become a celebrity within the community.
Read Why APB?
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Check your expectations at the door
We're an open-world, urban action game where Criminals fight Enforcers - it's seems easy to have expectations such as " online" or "Cops and Robbers online", right?
Not exactly. We certainly share some similarities with both expectations above but we recommend coming into APB with an open mind - it shares as much with experiences like Counter-strike as it does with any open world crime game.
All Points Bulletin is something that we feel is completely different than what's out there online or offline - and at its core it's about you... your tastes, your creations, your skill, and your stories.
See you in San Paro.
I guess the guy should google / wiki "open-world". Lobbied deathmatch will never be open world.
Open worlds are like Ryzom / Darkfall or even WoW (vanilla) ...
Its like we would go back the evolution and see smaller and smaller worlds being "open-worlds" .
Overhyped + marketing.
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Definately agree with Xianthos. "Open world" is the weakness of APB and not the strength.
Even though you're correct, from what I read, it sounds like you are just trying to find something to complain about.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
It doesnt matter if i complain or not. Still they abuse the words "open-world" for a game which doesnt have "open world" period.
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You obviously haven't played the APB beta then, sure, it's not as "open" as a few other games, but majority of mainstream games use instances, APB is mostly completely open, other than the districts (you have to be in the social district to customize your character .etc) which are really just servers set on a map.
Almost all MMO's availible can't really be called "open-world" , since there with the way quests/missions are structured, there's always only one 'right' way to do it (killing a character, obtaining a particular item .etc), where in APB, say you're an Enforcer and you're dispatched against a group of criminals trying to steal something, you can stop them any way you want, all that matters is that you stop them from completing their objective. You could keep them busy in car chases so they don't get a chance to complete the objective, you could sit down and camp, or you could go and hunt them down.
Oh how surprising, people nitpicking at "open world"!
The zones are 'open' and fairly large - you're free to go where you like in them. They're not some small arena-like map you'd in Quake or CS. It isn't lobbied either.
'Open' world/zones does not mean you have to have some huge world to explore with inevitably nothing much in it.
This is an action game, not Vanguard.
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
"...matchmaking system that lives in the background and does its work while you're playing rather than making you wait in lobbies to find ideal opponents."
Read the whole article next time. They say they are not lobbied...
The only action in the game is driving and combat. I don't count hitting a button and waiting for a timer to finish, action.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
So it's safe to assume that it bothers you?What you say would matter normally, because things that you and I say make or break the game, believe it or not. If you want to continue to play DarkFall, World of Warcraft or Ryzom , go right ahead. But I won't stand for it seeing how I am really sick of the typical fantasy crap. I just think it's funny that one of the first comments up is bashing the game. If you have so much hatred you should probably mount a metal pole outside and hit it until it comes out of the ground.
This might solve some of your issues.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
if we're nick-picking then NO GAME has an 'open-world' except the real life world. I would say more but anyone even with an ounce of common sense will know what i mean.
Well yes - combat/pvp generally is the action in FPS-type games isn't it.
"If all you can say is... "It's awful, it's not innovative, it's ugly, it's blah.." Then you're an unimaginative and unpolished excuse for human life" -eburn
This game, to start with, is not a MMO. It is most certainly NOT an open world as what the definition means. You only interact with players in the lobby except for the small team based combat modes.
Just another Diablo format in more of a FPS mode.
If you enjoy this type of game, have fun, not criticizing the game, just how the developers seem intent on classifying it.
Well, there are FPS games and there are Action games. Games like Tomb Raider are action games. To me anyway. I'm sure the definition is subjective. What I was getting at though, is that you do not rob people or steal cars or break into places to rob them. You don't even physically arrest anyone. You simply click a button and wait for a timer. I would like to be able to actually break into places and look for loot and stuff. Real actions instead of timers.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Which is correct. Now this is not at you Ozmodan, but everyone in general. What Ozmodan did right here was point out a fact with the brief definition. Think of it this way though, all of those people who "cry out" for smaller based game areas , or complain constantly because there is no fast travel, " to realistic" , takes up to much time... they all can be in this game. So instead of driving people away from it, push them towards it.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
l2read.
there is no lobby.
you join a district (100 player server) and you're 'matched' against other players as you play.
basically (as an enforcer) it goes like this:
join server
get in your car and cruise around to see if you can witness any criminals commiting crimes
get a backup request, accept it
help the people you're backing up accomplish the mission
group leader accepts a mission, your group starts doing it
the matchmaking competition gives another group a mission to stop your group.
???
win/lose
So many people in this thread are missinformed, or just down right wrong. Such as Ozmodan.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Played beta and bored like hell - my opinion
hmm
And you assume i got hatred out of what?
Had to know that here are so many "hobby psychiatrists".
Did i told you anything to not to play this game? Cant remember that i have done it. If you care about the game, its fine, but dont start flamming or raging that someone pointed out something. You should get a girl, would help to lower your aggro.
Only thing is i pointed out that guy told its "open-world" while its not. Otherwise it wouldnt be limited to 100 players zones period.
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I don't think even the people working on the game call it an MMORPG. But rather an online action adventure game, hence the different payment methods and only 100 players per server.
Now perhaps it will appeal to some folk out there but I can easily see this going free to play in a few months and so would suspect most people will put off on a purchase. With Lotrs a real MMO going free a glorified fps can't really ask people for a monthly or hourly sub can it?
It is half free to play, only action districts cost playtime (although that is 80% of the game), APB sh!ts on LOTRO's t!ts in all departments except the whole simeltaneous player thing, but really, does anyone LIKE having tens of thousands of players squashed into one city? Players with lower end systems lag like balls and I personally try to avoid entering main cities in MMOs (my opinion).
when it comes down to it, it is up to the player's personal intrests, but after having played the APB beta, I would strongly reccomend any gamer to at least try it, even if they dispise games of it's type.
All i can say is if you enjoy playing GTA you will enjoy this.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
Will Buy =D
I play it and i love it plus if you dont accept missions or get 5 stars then no one can kill you,so when i done a few missions and made alot of money i just enjoy buying cloths and tatooing my char and decorating and kitting my car and you can spend ages doing that.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/3845509852.png
There you go assuming again. I can safely say I'm married with a daughter as well. I only FLAME and RAGE, because this is actually how tons of other games have died sadly. Because of players who have gone off the deepend. If you are so intuned with not only your opinion or let alone how you present yourself even if it is online, people are very impressionable. How many times a day do you see a post of "what do you think?" People then do end up going off of those posts because they are either to indecisive or can not think for themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong but the last I checked, again what we do say matters. A LOT. So even nit - picking like you are does hold some water here as far as my argument goes.
Edit: Oh and might I add there are people who are like you and me who are too opinionated to let one or the other falter.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
Loved the last bit saying the game was open world, infact the game is 80 man instances and only has 2 zones, Not counting the social district which is a small courtyard with 6 buildings in it. I'm not sure how they got off saying thats open world but it most certianly is not.
Thankfully they didn't try to claim it was an MMO in the article, however they do try to claim its an MMO with the billing model. The game costs as much as an MMO and offers less content than a 1 time purchase free for life shooter. This game would be fine as free to play shooter with DLC every few months but either RTW or EA got greedy and decided to throw in a monthly fee. The hourly payment model is over priced and worthless the majority of people (20 hours for 7$ as opposed to 10$ for 30 days) but neither payment method is worth it for this game.
Continueing on, the game is entirely PvP however the alleged matchmaking system that runs in the background is complete garbage. Firstly it matches based on 'threat level' which is only based on your win/loss ratio, the game is entirely equipment based, so matching on something other than equipment/rank is utterly stupid and has been proven so. Even at that, the game is limited to 80 people per instance, idealy this is 40 criminals/40 enforcers, such a small pool of people means that you are actually being matched against whoever is avialable and it has nothing to do with any type of rating/threat. So what comes into play is the lower your threat, the more people you can call in for backup. So what in actuallity happens is you get boring 2-5 Vs. 1 fights where the other person is not able to do anything because you lost a bunch of missions and the game thinks you suck, so you get a string of free wins out of it with overwhelming odds in your favor. After which the exact opposite happens til your threat drops back down with maybe 1/10 missions balanced enough to actually be fun and enjoyable.
This was a game I was highly looking forward too and even got many of my friends interested in with their 'no monthly fee' payment model. To bad that was just false advertising to hype the game up. As is the typical 'hater' thing to do when summing up a game, I will leave my prediction of how long it will last before its dead. I give the game 1 month before everyone is through all the content and bored, 3 months before the game is a ghost town and there is only 1 of each of the 2 80 man instance running. By then RTW/EA might have their heads out of eachother's asses and be willing to listen to the community and do something productive.