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APB 1.4.1 is on its way!
ShredderSE
Member Posts: 197
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
Comments
Is this still going? I thought the company was in administration.
If that's not the case, then I might give it a try, as this sounds quite cool.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
"APB will continue to run, receive updates and is completely accessible. There will be no disruption to the service."
APBMonkey COMMUNITY OFFICER
From EU forum.
That's BS. Just like Toxico said the Layoffs were only the Myworld staff right? Not even a few days later HE was canned.
As far as I've heard they had 6 weeks to sell the game and that was a week ago. So in ~5 weeks the game will be sold or shut down. Even if that's incorrect I trust that a whole lot more than a guy paid to spout sunshine and hapiness all day.
EU servers down for Patch 1.4.1
RTW is in administration, this means someone else comes to make RTW more cost-effective so it can pay of their debts. This usually means canning jobs that can be done by someone else. RTW considering its playerbase for APB doesn't need two community managers. It's sad for Toxico he got the boot, but that doesn't mean the APB service won't run without disruption. Or that us customers should feel it, which is exactly the point of Administration.
As far as I've heard they had 6 weeks to sell the game and that was a week ago. So in ~5 weeks the game will be sold or shut down. Even if that's incorrect I trust that a whole lot more than a guy paid to spout sunshine and hapiness all day.
RTW is in administration, this means someone else comes to make RTW more cost-effective so it can pay of their debts. This usually means canning jobs that can be done by someone else. RTW considering its playerbase for APB doesn't need two community managers. It's sad for Toxico he got the boot, but that doesn't mean the APB service won't run without disruption. Or that us customers should feel it, which is exactly the point of Administration.
I think you both are right to a degree:
Opinion: Fun Is Important, But So Is Your Business Model
"TO MICHAEL!"
This patch defintely made the game much better. I hope they can make more zones soon. This game would be awesome if the had a zone that it was straight crims vs enf. Maybe have some type of capture zone control aspect. The limit of 4v4 or 5v5 is lame.
Yes this patch did make the game MUCH better.
Math in a moment.
First, though, who are the people paying $28 per month? I don't know if I could find one person that's paid that much. Unless you count the people that get tricked into buying two months of time instead of one because RTW's gametime purchase site is dogass slow and gives you no feedback whatsoever that your first purchase attempt actually worked. Or maybe they're counting the (one time) box price plus one month of service divided by the first two months as $28 per month.
If the "average" player pays $28 a month, this suggests that there are a bunch of people paying more than $28 a month. Some people pay $10 a month, and some people pay to win. Let's say that there are so many losers out there, fully half of the players have to pay to get ahead. That means these people (65,000 people) would have to pay an average of $46 a month to give us our average of $28. If you think the number of losers is lower, say a quarter of the population, then around 32,500 people pay about $82 a month while the rest pay $10. If you think the number of losers is higher, well, then that's a really sad statement about our society and this game's community. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if that's the case, then I'd wager that this type of player would get tired and move on quickly, which would make this a temporary and poor source of revenue.
So, ok, fine. Let's go back the original numbers. Let's also be generous and just accept that somehow there are 130,000 players that pay an average of $28 a month and that these aren't heavily manipulated figures.
$28 * 130,000 * 12 months = $43,680,000 per year
It gets repeated that this game cost $100M to create (see the quoted article above for one source). If this is true, and if all of these players continue to play AND continue to spend an average of $28 a month, then it will take 2.29 years just to break even. This does not factor in any ongoing costs.
So IF the quoted values are true, and ALL the players stay AND pay this high amount continuously, AND there are no other costs to consider, AND no other games steal anyone's interest in the next two years, then, around Q3 of 2012, APB will finally only make its development costs back. Woot!
With the exception that you forgot to figure in box / initial game sells into that figure. APB sold at $49.99.
You are also figuring in that they do not release any type of expansions / additional paid content to the game. Something that they have said they wanted to do before the game was even released. Future Districts, future purchaseable outfits, ect.
Not to mention the game is ripe with ideas on future potential additions. The game features a fully mapped out theater system that was to be used to play in-game recordings of the top players and guilds, ect. You are also factoring in that the game doesn't grow any at all over time and just maintains a 130k player base.
Hmm, I see a bunch of in the "future" maybe's, things they "wanted to do", things that were "meant to be used" but never were, and the dreaded "potential".
That's why this game and its devs are floating dead in the water right now, and the boat is sinking fast. Much faster than any "future" update is going to come out and save it.
By the way, that $49.99 box price? The publisher (EA) gets the biggest chunk of that, not the developer (RealTime Worlds). Not to mention many people bought it for half price on Steam or discounted from Amazon.com.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Firstly, I don't play the game at all. I tried it for about a week and it's not my thing.
Also I doubt it's gonna cost $100M to make every year. Start up cost? Yea could easily be $100M. But I can't see the ongoing cost being that much. Start up and initial cost will obviously be high, but afterwards it should be alot better since the bases are covered.
I wouldn't call them losers because they have to pay to get ahead. Most of them probably don't even find the time to play online much, and as a hobbyist, like doing so. So making it up with a portion of what you get when you're not gaming doesn't seem all that far fetched. It's funny how we (MMO Gamers) see people that are hardcore, who wither their life away gaming, as elite. Then we see people that can't play as noobs. And anyone that wants to play but chose life over gaming as losers... It's their money, and they're free to spend it on what makes them happy. In the same sense, every MMO gamer could be seen as losers for paying subscription to play the same game, to the non-gamers. I don't see why it's OK to spend $15-$20 a month, but not $50...seems a bit hypocritical to me.
First, thank you for posting about a game you don't even play. I'm sure we all need your opinion.
Second, pay attention. At no point did I, the referenced article, or anyone else in the forum ever say the ongoing costs were $100M. It's hard to see where you came up with this conclusion.
Third, by claiming that it's ok to Pay to Win, that places you squarely in the loser category along with all the people you're trying to defend. If you're in the habit of avoiding hard work and skipping over all the content the designers built for you, then yes, you're a loser. It's not a matter of how much time you have to play; it's a matter of principle. You are unprincipled.
Fourth, your accusation of hypocrisy demonstrates you have no understanding of the distinction between paying money to play a game (required) and paying extra money to get ahead (not required). Good players like an even playing field. Bad players use exploits to get ahead. Exploits range anywhere from "legal" but still unsportsmanlike (paying money to get ahead) to outright cheating.
Which type of player are you?
I would love to see a deathmatch server/district. I never liked seeing a bunch of players running around that I was unable to shoot at. Not asking for a FFA, thought that does sound fun also, but the missions and matchmaking are sort of boring and pointless to me. They divide the players up too much. I want the entire Criminal or Enforcer faction on my team.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
All weapons fire out to 100 meters?
Ahh.. that doesn't sound right
It's not working like that. This tweak makes it so much more fun to play. It's a bit hard to explain, but trust me, if you played this game before 1.4.1. you'll see the difference.
You don't need to walk another 20m just to get a red cursor anymore. This improves teamwork and cover.
Guns have an effective range. 100m is not it.
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"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