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Sunday, January 16, 2011

End of Week 9 Update : We are still here!

As promised last week, as we move closer to Beta these postings will get really really (really) short, until just before the beta launch when we will indeed have more details to share about the actual beta content.

Therefore this week's post is just a quickie "blip" on the radar, and I will answer just a couple of questions from last week's comments before jumping head-first back into the logistics of getting the game out;

First; YES (and it bears repeating), the goal is to let you keep ALL customizations you created using the old game. In some cases that might mean some odd situations, such as having items that may or may not fit the new progression system, and having items that the new F2P model may not have let you design unless you had a premium account (or similar "issues"). That's ok. You will basically be unique thanks to you having played the game "back in the day" and our goal is to make sure your many gazillion of hours of investment do not go to waste.

Second; To set Beta expectations correctly; we are indeed long term working on "Purposeful End-Game PvP." However, this modificaiton is not likely to make it in to the first beta (and in fact is one of the hardest and most complicated modificaitons we can make to the game). So in addition to the many balance fixes, one of the real goals with the game long-term is to turn it in to a platform for many different unique experiences. As such, high level players need something to sink their teeth into after having done all the initial grinding. But; we don't expect that to appear in Closed Beta, but, we are indeed working hard on ways to add higher-level-purpose to the long term experience. As that initiative gets closer to completion we will clearly discuss that in more detail - both here and on the message boards.

So - with this very short update - til next week. Also starting next week, expect a few guest columnists reporting from the various activities going on in and around the game.

Cheers,

42 comments:

  1. Glad to hear it, guys.
    Keep up the fantastic work, we all appreciate it.

    -Rapid99 (Zombie)

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  2. I have just one question. Is the music list going to remain untouched?

    Oddly enough the very diverse playlist was one of my favorite parts of APB.

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  3. more endgame sounds good. just don't make it to grindy :p before it was nice to be done with everything so you could help other players grind their contacts

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  4. Yay! Just an FYI to readers, the SanParoPost.com is back already and SanParoATLAS.info should be relaunching shortly as well.

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  5. Well I'm pleased to hear that the beta is getting more closer so I'm going to be ready.

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  6. Will you restore cars with custom body kits? Or my bishada with details from 12th "car thief" achievement is gone? :)

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  7. As somebody who made a lot of themes, I was restricted by the locker limit of 10. I (and lots of others in my situation) took advantage of the mail system to permanantly store themes to make sure they were backed up.

    Glad to hear we'll keep our previous works, and hopefully you can expand on the chances of retaining things such as ingame mail that might contain these nuggets!

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  8. Great news! Thanks for the info.

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  9. Im sure this has been asked, mentioned, discussed and screamed about, but are players who played APB before re-release being reconized in any way? Even if it is just access to closed beta or simply a symbol by their name. I would really like to get into closed beta just to see what has changed and too see what imporvments have happened.

    I really enjoyed this game before it got shut down but i feel bad that i spent the money on it and then it just went...no refund because i bought it through steam, also bought RTW points 2 days before it got some free to play elements to it towards the end of its life span.

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  10. I am sorry but RTW was just doing so good with the game (except for advertising) and I don't think some of the changes being made are for the better. I have had bad experiences with K2 Networks and they promise F2P games however they give a premium option or make everything in game cost a bunch (warrock)and that makes people willing to pay money a lot better and it is never balanced. Another thing is that most K2 games are infested with hackers. I remember playing warrock and I couldn't leave the base without getting wallhacked by some noob who bought a vip hack from another website. The old APB had no hackers (I don't know why people said there were I never experienced it) and the game was fairly balanced (after the latest update) I also don't care if the old APB was P2P because that just gets the developer more money to make the game better. I played EU Closed Beta, NA Open Beta, EU PTW, NA PTW, the NA Keys to the City, and the NA Regular Game. If I don't get accepted to the beta and get some great things worth all of the time I put into APB I am going to be ticked and never play another K2 game again. K2 please don't turn APB into warrock.

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  11. Also just wondering if you're going to be getting rid of the silly World system, where there are multiple worlds that you can play in. I think this is silly because what if your friend is playing the game, and he joins a different "world" to you, then you can never play with him. Yes you might say organize it before hand, but what about other people you meet online that you want to play with, from the forums etc, it's best to have everyone in the same "world" so we can play together. This includes keeping NA and Europe in the same world too, although to help "lag", you should automatically send them to district instances based in their region unless they choose not to, they might want to play with a friend.

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  12. Can you guy take out the APB playlist? I just want my own songs in there. The APB playlist sucks...

    -Chingy
    -Zombie

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  13. Awesome. Thanks for all the updates, it's good to know exactly whats going on.

    I'm really happy to hear that you're all working on some end game content because that will inevitably effect just how many people stick around.

    Keep up the good work.

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  14. I founded the San Paro Grand Prix Racing League just before the game was shut down. It was going to be very popular.

    Any chance we might see an NPC that allows up to sign up for a race against a friend for in-game money?

    If not, will there be a way to prevent griefing during races if we'd like to set up our own?


    Another content idea: Social zone (bar, coffee shop) within a district where you can socialize or have your avatar sit in a chair. Maybe even some mini games available?

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  15. The old APB had no hackers? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    There was publicly-available video proof of the hacking, not to mention it being incredibly obvious when it happened. It wasn't as widespread as some of the forum doom and gloom claimed, but yes, it happened, and it happened a lot.

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  17. nice :) so excited

    btw: found this on youtube

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JifyuznCMj0&feature=player_embedded

    looks awesome

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  18. Wait, so I could get those level 3 upgrades I used to have on my avatar, weapons, and vehicles back? That would be sooooooooooooooooooo nice for u guys! I just got very frustrated after spending almost 1k usd to get those vehicles, weapons, and upgrades but the game end up closing really soon. Who would expect that to happen anyways? Or maybe I just didn't see it coming. But yeah. Please do. Thanks!

    - Staedtler

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  19. I really loved the game, it going bankrupt made completely no sense at all to me. It was mostly because the low ratings even though the game was amazing.

    I really hope you guys don't modify the core gameplay of the game.

    I would love to be part of closed BETA as was in the top clans "back in the day".

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  20. First of all, I'm hyping up for this release every bit as much as I was when APB was first coming out. Despite the obvious flaws it had at release it was still a lot of fun to play and if you guys can improve upon that design then you're going to get a big thumbs up from me.

    Second, Kudos to Moax for finding that video on youtube of proposed changes back in the day; Devs, even little graphical changes like in that video make a world of difference in how the game looks, you should look into that.

    This game always had a lot of promise, and it still does. Maybe this is exactly what the game needs, a fresh set of eyes with the money and drive to continue on, if only you had picked up the rights to MxO as well when it went down.

    I sense good things on the horizon and am looking forward to getting back into the game, with my old character or new. I'll definatly be going premium, I don't see why I shouldn't, I was willing to spend money on it before, and my clan will be reborn.

    That said Anyone from Twelve ounce Kings still lurking around here? Look for me, we're making a comeback.

    Westerburg ~Twelve Ounce Kings~ (La Rocha if I remember correctly)

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  21. "End-game PvP" now that get's me excited :)

    I wonder if you could manage to design some territorial control in... own our own bases of operation and all that :)


    Also, if you can manage to code in an actual cover mechanic like the one we see in games such as Rainbow six vegas, gears of war, etc. etc. that would really make the combat a lot more intuitive and engaging. Even the new GTA 4 has it. Just taking cover behind a car leaning against it is really nice and makes it much more intense :)

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  22. can't wait for the game and rly guys thanks for tryin to keep our old accs with our many hours work!!!
    P.s. if fo me im ready to pay fo prem acc just to keep those :D

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  23. keep it up.. My anticipation is growing.

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  24. One of the interesting things about APB under Realtime Worlds was that you were able to create custom content, and sell it for RTW Points, which in turn you could use to pay for your play time.

    This was great because youd be paying for your playtime with your time spent creating content.

    Is this something that will also make it into APB Reloaded?

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  25. Hey guys Moax got reason with the comment you should improve the point system that video is awesome:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JifyuznCMj0&feature=player_embedded

    Please you should put this kind of things to improve the experience and make it easy for the newbies.
    Thank you for working on this we understand the difficult that could be to bring a game back from the extinction. Last thing I would ask for is for a video with new footage please!!! we are desperates man we wan't to go back to San Paro!

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  26. Add the Russian language on the site.
    Please.Прошу если не трудно!

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  27. Good work there! I was wondering something though. You said we keep all customization and content but lose all progression. Am I right if I say this?

    -We keep our 3slot Ntecs, but lose our levels.
    -We keep our NL9s, but our arresting-level/achievement disappear.
    -We keep our Health III.

    Ofcourse the names are just examples :3. Also, if I got this right, will we be able to use the items we get to keep but require a rating/level/achievement? Or do we keep them but can't equip them till we got the prereqs?

    Thanks!
    Valdun

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  28. Once again THANK YOU (x999) for taking the time to restore our original accounts. It's great to hear your company truely cares for us (to many companies would have said 'no we won't allow them to revive there old accounts', so thank you for taking the time). I really wanted my old account back and for that recovery I can start off were I left when the game closed (one of the worst days of my life)

    As for the PVP, genious. I was wondering how you would keep the game alive and you answered it. Nice work taking the time to satisfy the gamer and make us happy. You guys are up there with Valve for me (those are my highest, I wrote a huge article about how gaming was destroying itself and spent a bunch blaming developers, and you guys fix everything I get mad at)

    So GamersFirst thank you so much for thinking of the the Gamer first, for making us happy and thinking what we want (I just can't type how greatful I am of you guys reviving the game and all you have done)

    APB FOREVER (Ange1ofD4rkness, Zombie)

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  29. Having been in the gaming industry for the past fifteen years, I feel and have always felt from day one that APB is, hands-down, one of the best MMO's ever created. It was such an amazingly fun and creative game and had so much potential. Needless to say, I'm excited to get back to the mean streets of San Paro once again, and look forward to seeing what K2 has done with APB!

    *gets in her Bishida, rolls down the window and yells, "Long live San Paro!" as she races away.

    -Maxxi, Enf - Zombie
    Zoelle, Crim - Zombie

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  30. Michelle couldn't have said it better.

    I am a pretty smart guy and extremely good at analyzing things (and very creative) and know when something is good and when it's just a 'popular thing'. From the minute I layed eyes on APB I have and still am declaring it one of the best games of all time (I preached it in the game and all over the web even during the downfall). I was so at lost when the game was closed praying everyday for a buyer when people told me to "just give up" or "let it go". And the day it was bought I kept telling people I told you so.

    So look for Ange1ofD4rkness and
    M3dusa rolling the Zombie server, all who remember me I was getting known as a top designer (red bull logo I kept trying to sell in social, 98 layers, 8+ hrs of work)

    So Michelle I'll roll with you in my Jericho or Vegas

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  31. I loved the game, even with all the things I thought were flawed with it. I cannot stress enough though that one of the biggest issues with the game before was optimization. I personally think this should take priority before fixing anything else because back when RTW had control they didn't fix it. I had about 20 friends interested in the original game but out of those only three of my friends could run it. Mostly because most of my friends still have dual cores. And none of those could handle APB or ran it poorly. How are you going to get people to play your game when they can't even run it?

    I hope you guys are working on balancing stun guns too. I don't have a problem with them in game but there was a huge debate over whether they were OP or not mostly a crim vs enf. debate.

    If you maintain the district system please have more people in each district. The districts usually just felt empty and towards the end they were empty.

    And thank you for allowing us to get our characters back, I miss mine a lot. I spent a long time customizing my character and felt like it went to waste when RTW went under. Thank you.

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  32. Huh, memorable names in here. Point one is great news. I've signed up for updates and I'll continue to follow along. Here's hoping we all have a better experience this time, eh...?

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  33. @ Matthew
    I'm not sure you know what you are talking about dude, APB had a TON of hackers and they were all that remained towards the end because they knew it was getting shut down (so they figured what the hell i guess) But even before that, they existed... Now, i dont know how K2 Networking works, if they did that stuff in Warrock or not (had to pay for good items and F2P basically cant compete) I have seen this crap before, Global Agenda tried this and almost killed their own game - luckily they got smart, quick. They went F2P and no holds bar on all items.
    Now, Hellgate London - as cool that game was... shot themselves in the foot because they split the community with 2 different pay models (a F2P and a pay) and they died... simply because if you didnt pay, you got crap items and there wasnt a point in playing the game because you cant compete. That BETTER NOT be what happens here with APB:R even though i plan on subscribing anyway because i love this game. I have friends who would probably fluctuate between F2P and bumping up into a Premium accounts, and if they got burned on F2P or felt like while they were on F2P it wasnt as good - thats a bad, bad sign.
    I just really want this game to come out again, the right way, but also as fast as possible. We know there is a playable game there because hell, they passed it off once as a full released game - now its back to a beta (it is understandable because its K2's Beta) but still, get it out and patch up the rest. I hope all of us previous players and hardcore fans and the ones in CB because its the best way to tell how its come and see the ways its going.. i mean unless gamers firss/K2 employees actually played the game before, even THEY dont truly know what they have.

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  34. "Purposeful End-Game PvP."

    Now that's what I am talking about! Keyword "Purposeful".

    Thanks for the update, I am even more excited about the release.

    I also am very interested in the premium option. When LoTRo went f2p they included different account levels. What I like about that is that it allows people who are willing to pay monthly fees to experience full content as they would with a regular p2p MMO. While others can play f2p and pay for individual items as they go. I hope that's what a premium account would provide in APB Reloaded, full access to everything, I would choose that in heartbeat over a basic f2p account.

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  35. nice :) so excited

    btw: found this on youtube

    Yah if your card can handle it
    Speaking of which my card can handle the game (bought a new one just for the RTW's APB beta) however my processor cannot. The game uses 100% CPU whenever I play it. It still lags some. If the APB Reloaded team could fix this processing issue that would be great. I know it would be harder to do than some of these other suggestions but that would expand your players to people who don't have an amazing computer.

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  36. Very excited about the upcoming APB release but not the company taking it. Gamerfirsts customer support is the utmost worst unless your waving cash under their noses.

    The only credit I will give GamerFirst is for standing up and buying the game. Hopefully whoever is in charge of this blog can run things better for the company.

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  37. Hi Micheal

    Sorry you feel we are not providing support to free players (ie your comment of you only get support if you are "waving cash under our noses?")

    That's not quite true. We are actually one of the few companies that offer any support to free players. Most other companies provide only forums for free players. So we intend to continue some basic email support even for free players, at least for certain issues.

    Also one of the problems we have when supporting some of the other games in the past is that since we didn't actually write most of them, in some cases it can take a long time to get the original developer to fix, update or confirm problems. That's part of the reason we are moving toward our own developed games like APB as well as more games to be announced shortly. A huge benefit with APB is that this is 100% ours now, thus EVERYTHING is ours to fix and figure out. Looking forward to seeing you in the game.

    Thanks,

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  40. I will literally cry if I don't get a beta invite.

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