After its first few weeks of going live, the All Points Bulletin team are already geared up to respond to gamers ideas for changes. As mentioned in announcements by the team on their website and forums, the APB developers are bringing some big, and not so big, changes in the near future.
One Lead Designer, simply known on the forums as Jericho, stated the following: “The most common criticisms we see regarding vehicle handling are that vehicles are too unresponsive (laggy) and that they tend to slide around more than a lot of people are comfortable with.” Jericho went on to state that the team is already assessing this problem, dealing with accelerating, braking and steering. “In our internal tests we”ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to the changes, and our hope is to roll these out to PTW shortly to get your feedback too.”
Matchmaking was another issue the APB team is working on. Again, Jericho was all over the forums posting: “Simply put, not everybody who’s invited to the party decides to show up. In fact, we’re seeing a much higher decline rate for Dispatches and Calls for Backup than we expected. In a nutshell, this is how so many ‘broken’ matches end up being made. That 1v4 match that you’re in was probably supposed to be 5v4 or maybe even 6v4, but everyone else declined and you were left all on your ownsome.” The team is reaching out to the community to ask how to solve this problem before they make any rash changes. Overall though, the matchmaking is very messy and the team needs to do some maintenance to make for better games.
Some of the “less high profile issues” where addressed as well, as some nit-picking things were also giving gamers some minor problems. MMOCrunch will run down them quickly for you.
- Chat boxes will be made opaque for easier viewing.
- Stop solo players getting into the back seat of a car and instead always have it so whichever door they use they enter the drivers seat.
- Fix the big 4×4 cars to stop being easily pushed over by the small cars (esp. the Pioneer).
- Add more clothing storage.
- Missions with a 5-minute capture & hold (like Siren Song) should reduce the timer if you have no opposition.
- VOIP HUD personal indicator, maybe with an audio cue locally as well.
- Spawning. The spawn system seems adept at placing players in the line of fire of opponents quite frequently or miles away from where the action is.
- Escape missions. The proverbial hot potato. Great when it works and sucks when it doesn’t.
- Zoning into a district while at Notoriety 3/4 and immediately being dispatched against.
- Muting other peoples’ music playback when in the editors.
- More graphics options (32 bit).
- A decal mirroring option for the vehicle editor.
- No missions should be ‘farmable’ due to limitless time (e.g. Breadcrumbs).
- Better death camera.
Wow, so lots of re-vamps, add-ons and general updates. These large and small changes show the APB team’s commitment to their players and show that they are unsatisfied with their product if the players aren’t happy. What’s better – if you want to add your thoughts into the mix, the team is ready and willing to hear all you have to say about these changes and what else needs to be addressed.
To add your thoughts on any of these subjects concerning APBs Major and Minor Updates, head over the APB official forums and discuss these problems and any more you’re having directly with the developers.
For more on the matchmaking issue, click here. For a more in-depth look at all the small changes, head here.