Last chance for 50% G1 Credit Bonus, ends tonight (April 30)!

[Edit: May 2nd at 3:00pm PST: The bonus credit process just completed for all players. You should now have your 50% credit bonus in your account (if you spent credits in Armas during the bonus period). Enjoy!]

Just pointing out that 11:59pm PST April 30 (or 07:59am UK time on May 1) marks the end of the "post 1.7 and tactical gear" 50% G1 credit bonus, where 50% of the G1 credits you spend in the marketplace will be redeposited into your G1 account! So if you have not yet gotten your items from Armas, you should take advantage of the last few hours of the bonus.

We threw the bonus in as another incentive to smooth all the minor issues after the 1.7 major release and to coincide with the tactical gear pack this weekend.

Here is the forum link for the actual details: http://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/274877-urban-warfare-packs-50-g1c-refund-promotion/

Last time we had a G1 credit bonus was 10 months ago, when the game went from Closed to Open Beta (and at that time it was a 100% bonus!), so chances are that there will not be another credit bonus for quite some time after this one (though we usually try to throw them in once a year or so).

See you in San Paro!

/TechMech

Gear Up & Roll Out - Paramilitary and Tactical Armas Release!

As announced in our earlier posts we will be releasing the all new Paramilitary Pack along with a revamped re-release of the Tactical Gear Pack. When will you be able to get your hands on the new Gear?  This weekend starting Friday!

For those of you who remember, the Tactical Gear Pack first made its debut on the Armas Marketplace during Thanksgiving Weekend for a Limited Release.  The first rendition of the 'Tac Pack' had a very limited release as it was only available for purchase for that weekend only.

Five months later, we're bringing the Tac Pack back. While this release will not be quite as "Limited" as the first time we released the Tactical Gear Pack, we do have a limited offer some unique Bonus Gifts and suped up bundles that will only be available for the first couple of weeks for the release.  Here is what's in store for you:

• Paramilitary Gear Pack + FREE Paramilitary N-TEC 
• Tactical Gear Pack + FREE Tactical CR-5
• Paramilitary Urban Warfare Pack 
• (Includes Paramilitary Gear Pack, FREE Paramilitary N-TEC and Nulander Nomad Q134)
• Tactical Urban Warfare Pack 
• (Includes Tactical Gear Pack, FREE Tactical CR-5 and Seiyo Citadel V4)
• Seiyo Citadel V4 (4-Slot Vehicle)
• Nulander Nomad Q134 (4-Slot Vehicle)
• Combat Helmet
• Elbow Pads
• Knee Pads 

New Gear, new Vehicles, and new unique Weapons are here for you to gear up and roll out!

And because we want to share a little look behind the scenes of the making of this new release we have our Lead Character Artist, Peter Andersson, sharing with us the process and back story for our latest Armas release.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Written by Peter Andersson - Lead Character Artist)

With 1.7.0 we’re seeing both the release of the Paramilitary clothing and gear pack and the re-release of the Tactical pack. I wanted to give you guys an insight into some of the thought processes behind making them and also a hint at where we will be looking in the future when it comes to making more character assets.

To get the full picture I’m going to jump back to when G1 and Reloaded first took APB on. When we were asking ourselves what we could improve in our respective areas I had some pretty clear ideas of where I wanted the character assets to go. The biggest issue in my mind was that, for a game that primarily uses combat as its core game play element, there was a noticeable lack of character assets to support that notion. Work therefore started on a set of gear that was aimed entirely at pushing the combat aspect of APB. This eventually led to the release of the Tactical pack. Most of the inspiration came from professional combat units; tactical vests and webbing, ammunition pouches, Kevlar helmets, knee-pads, elbow-pads etc.

Combat gear inspiration

Upon the first release of the Tactical pack there were two things that stood out in the feedback we received. Firstly, people seemed to like this choice of a pack of gear revolving entirely around the combat aspect of the game. That part obviously made us happy and feel that we were somehow taking this in the right direction. Secondly, they seemed to think it was much more useful for kitting themselves out as an enforcer than a criminal so that for criminal players, the pack felt somewhat lacking. When I saw this feedback I felt that the players very much had a point. Knowing that this pack had drawn its inspiration heavily from combat units which was the main idea, I also knew that those units were mainly elite police and army divisions. These professions obviously have a much stronger connotation to law enforcement than crime out there in the real world so this reaction felt natural and justified.

Too similar

We decided that even though the direction seemed good enough, some tweaking of the plan was in order to better support the idea of the criminal/enforcer factions. We therefore started looking into a set of assets that would serve the criminals better, which led to the creation of the Paramilitary pack. This pack features some assets similar to the Tactical pack like the idea of an ammunition vest, separate pouches and additional webbing, only for the criminals we have gone in a different direction with the style. Their version looks more like it would have been obtained from an army surplus store or some other unofficial source, maybe dug out from a dusty attic somewhere and appropriated for urban warfare. We’re looking at the same underlying idea but executed differently for each faction.

Same thing, different look

In my mind this strengthens the perception of factions in APB and will hopefully help players feel more unique in the game world. Whatever you decide to do with your character customization, this prevents someone from the opposing faction turning up looking just like you. Not only does it feel inappropriate that somehow an opposing faction member has been able to kit themselves out exactly like you, it tends to confuse game play quite a bit too. As we have seen already in internal play tests, introducing these rather distinguishing faction-specific items has meant that all of a sudden it’s become that much easier to see who is friend and who is foe in frantic fire fights. Having the art content support the game play in that way definitely constitutes a win in my book.

A clearer faction representation

There are indeed other areas we want to support too, such as the many fashion styles and subcultures of the real world you can draw inspiration from when you’re designing a full video game wardrobe for a game like APB. More fancy clothing is definitely on the agenda, not just bulletproof vests and ammunition pouches. Exactly what they are will remain undisclosed at this point but I’d like to let you know that work has already continued in both areas: cool clothing as well as more combat related gear. We are definitely not short of ideas. On the contrary the idea list is massive and the challenge we’re facing is rather determining exactly how and when these ideas will best manifest themselves.

I hope this provides a little insight into what lead up to this asset release and some clue as to what direction we’re planning to take it in. I’m looking forward to the next time I’ll be writing an announcement of new exciting stuff for the game.

1.7 now live (a.k.a launching is hard) and... One Free 3-Day Premium for All !

[UPDATE: the code distribution completed at 4:40pm PST April 20. If you do NOT have a code in your account when you visit the Armas marketplace after 4:40pm PST / 02:40 EU time - then please submit a support ticket. Keep in mind only accounts created BEFORE the distribution started are eligible for the code]

Ok - so - launching a build with as many inter-dependent changes as 1.7 is a giant task, and while having been thoroughly tested, you never know what little trolls will rear their heads in the machinery when it hits live volumes of players.

Just after launch we experienced several unexpected server crashes, most related to an unexpected bug in the auction house when dealing with live data. Most of the issues were mitigated throughout the day, and things are becoming more stable. Also - just because the timing could not have been worse - our private backbone provider, which links our datacenters, decided to have connectivity issues at the same moment, making our troubleshooting much harder than it would normally have been, and also introducing strange lag issues. That too appears to have been mostly cleared up.

We are likely to have a minor update patch early next week to patch lingering issues.

Now that the dust has settled, Quinzel and the APB team want to extend a general 'thanks' to everyone who have stuck it out and are now playing 1.7. It's critical to get as much play time in as possible into 1.7, so we can finalize all the changes going in to the next major version.

So just in time for the weekend she will be sending out a few million 3-day premium codes to everyone who logs in, so look for a notice in your email inbox in the next day or so that your personal code has been activated (and no - you don't really have to do anything to be eligible to receive one other than just play the game).

Once the promo has been triggered, you just need to open the Armas marketplace (and if you haven't done so before, this could be a new experience), and claim your free 3 day premium by clicking the "Redeem Code" button at the top of the Armas marketplace page.

When you get to that location, the code will "automagically" have been deposited in your account (it will appear at the bottom of the "Redeem Code" page - so you need to click the code to activate it in your account.

Once you redeem your code, you will enjoy 3 days of 20% off everything in the store, as well as faster progression and all the other premium goodies.

This is our little token of saying "thanks for playing right at the launch, in spite of any hiccups that may crop up at a major version launch!"

Check your email in the next day or so, and we'll see you in San Paro!

/TechMech

More 1.7.0 - Get Ready for Countdown!

Welcome back to the second half of our “New Breed Part 1” blog post!  As mentioned in the first half, here we will get into more details on the other new features coming with the big 1.7.0, including environmental changes, new weapon mechanics, and new character mechanics.  

As with any of the changes made to the game, we make a concerted effort to take into account the feedback given to us from the Community.  In 1.7 we have tried to address both community feedback and to implement new items that will give us room to grow the game in the future.  On that note, without further ado;

Environmental Changes: You will see that we’ve made quite a few improvements in both the Financial District and the Waterfront District.  While, most of the changes focused on Financial we think you’ll like what we’ve done for both.  And we didn’t forget about our latest maps from Fight Club. Some of the things we did to improve Fight Club maps include removing a few camping spots and adding details where we felt more depth was needed. While city planning can be a full-time job, we’ve also made sure to add a few new areas in preparation for future content updates, where some of the other New Contacts (cough – New Breed Part 2 – cough) will have a home.

Financial

Gaijin Club: A smoking area has been added to the back of Gaijin for late night clubbers. This is accessible through a new entrance on the top floor and from the alleyways around the rear. This extra entrance helps make the area a lot less impenetrable as a defensive location.  Now you can dance, hang out, and assault other players all in the same locale.  Sounds like a fun night to us!

St Medina's Incinerator: The Incinerator Building (opposite Wilson LeBoyce) will now have an extra rear entrance added to the roof, so take advantage of this new route of attack. The rear courtyard now contains overflow waste waiting to be incinerated.  This place might be ideal to hide a dead body or two – I mean – an ideal place to recycle a thing or two!

Alexandra Park and Display: The top two floors of the car park have been opened up, with the top floor TipToe’s stomping ground. Multiple entrances and a gaping hole in the floor for access to the level below make this a great combat space also. Remodelled parking complex in the Financial District now gives players access to its top floor.  Keep one thing in mind – only visit the top floor if you have business with TipToe. If you don’t she might give you a one-way express ticket to the ground floor (courtesy of the gaping hole in the floor)…

New-Cross Skate Park:  You might remember getting a first glance at this area from our sneak peek video of the new Brick Mod. The Skate Park has extensively been rebuild and re-envisioned. This area now features a number of ramps and jumps, and has access to vehicles. The perfect place for all you aspiring stunt car drivers and extreme sportsmen/women.

Pretorian Offices (Justin Teng): A new stairwell has been installed in the rear of the building allowing access to the upper section of the building, making this popular camping ground far harder to hold.
SSPD Offices (Violet Prentiss, Ty Durrant & Grissom): The interior decorator has been in and given these offices a fresh lick of paint and installed some new lighting fixtures. 

Waterfront

Prentiss Boxing Club: For all you real contenders out there head to his spot to train in the “noble art” and maybe learn a few more “unorthodox” methods of combat. The gym itself is not currently open to the public but its break area and upper balcony are, offering a strongly defensible location to set up in. A stairwell and offices have been created inside the Prentiss Boxing Club to give better access to the roof-top as well.

Villanueva Hotel: The luxurious sea front property has had some work done to its upper balcony, allowing Michael Simeone to relax in style - though he’s thinking of hiring some security to keep to riffraff out… An extra stairway has been created to the top level, and the area has had some graphical improvements to bring out the hotel class.

Rimbaud Cocktails: A new cocktail bar has been opened in the down town area the Waterfront district, just across from the Tsunami Casino. An exclusive bar, its popularity among the wealthier of San Paro inhabitants has blessed it with a 24-hour alcohol licence. The cocktail menu is mixed Mandarin and Renaissance Italian. Apparently, the house Absinthe is the best in the city.

Baylan

There has been an extra 'base' area added near the cranes, and the enforcer spawn point has been moved to the Dog-Crate in the north-west. The previous enforcer spawn has also had a small makeover, with extra entrances in and out. This is primarily to facilitate the new 'Scavenger' Game-type (I'll cover that in the Fight Club Challenges section).

A shipment of new creates was recently “commandeered” by the factions and relocated (with some planks they also “borrowed”) to give them new routes to navigate the Baylan container yard. The Criminal faction have also set up a new, better fortified, base at the feet of the crane. The billboards by the Enforcer’s base are now free for anyone looking to throw up some of their tags.

Beacon

The top floor of the north tower in the beacon has had a few changes to make it less defensible. In addition, the scaffolding on the west side has been extended, giving an extra (though risky) fast access from the fifth to eleventh floors.

The construction site has recently had some new scaffolding installed, making it easier to ascend to the roof from the front of the building. General work has been on going, so you find various tweak and changes to this decadent high rise building. Some blank billboards, that are just asking to be tagged, have also been installed at the entrance to the construction offices.

Vehicle Changes

New ambient taxi with a roof mounted advertising board. Mobile billboard sounds like a good place to advertise and recruit new clan members? Maybe you are planning on having a player event and want to spread the word. The sky is the limit for things you might want to show on that cab! (Just keep in mind the limit for the things you CANNOT show, and you will avoid the banhammer).
We also will have new vehicle kits for both the Enforcer and Criminal carrying kits for you to carry your group in style.  And as hinted here and there we’ll have a few new Uber Packs, new Vehicles and Kits in store for you soon.

New Weapon & Character Mechanics

Now, Qwentle, our Lead Designer spent some late evenings a long with the rest of our team, trying to make some of these needed adjustments become a reality.  So if you see him around be sure to say ‘Thanks’ or emote some happy dance.

Marksmanship and sprinting mobility improvements: Now we have different speeds for Marksmanship, depending on type. For all but the heavy weapons, this has either increased or stayed the same. Large weapons such as the heavy-snipers and LMGs have had their marksmanship and run speeds reduced, but have been given the ability to sprint, albeit at a much lower speed than normal weapons. This removes an arbitrary constraint (not being able to sprint) while still maintaining the effect (the weapon is bulky and slow).

Marksmanship and sprinting movement speed is now modified by the weight and encumbrance of a weapon. This means that you can technically sprint with every weapon, but how fast you move will be determined by the aforementioned modifiers.

Kevlar Change: Kevlar will now only adjust movement speeds, and not acceleration. It now slows as follows:
L1: +10%hp, -10% Sprint Speed
L2: +20%hp, -10% Sprint Speed, -10% run speed
L3: +30%hp, -15% Sprint Speed, -15% run speed

ACT44 ‘Last Stand’ Change: Qwentle wanted to ensure the retail box magnum was not overpowered, and perhaps erred too much on the side of caution.  But to re-balance things, we’re switching out the mod for this weapon and replacing it with a mobility sling mod. This should allow it to move faster when aiming. This should fit it into a fairly interesting place, being a high damage side-arm that can be aimed and fired when moving at near run-speed.

So there you have it folks!  We hope all of you are prepared for New Breed Part 1 (1.7.0) and as you get to make your way with exploring the new content please feel free to share your feedback with us.  For more nitty-gritty details, we’ve pre-emptively posted Release Notes on our Official Forums - http://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/270423-170-patch-notes/

There have of course been many additional improvements that will make life harder for unpleasant players and for cheaters, though we will not discuss those in an open forum. That's an ongoing battle which continues unabated behind the scenes.


So stay tuned for more news about 1.7 when we go LIVE and keep your eyes peeled for some special upcoming promotions and Armas Releases around the release of 1.7, by visiting the Armas or checking your registered GamersFirst e-mail.

Genitalia and Bigotry - "Drawing the Line" !

(Post by Quinzel, Producer of APB)

San Paro - a city where anarchy and iron-fisted justice clash.  Who is to say what is “right” or “wrong” in this concrete jungle?  Where does that leave you in this M-rated game?  What does “rated M for Mature” even mean in San Paro?

It would surprise me if anyone playing the game has not seen an inappropriate player-created image.  Whether it is a customized van with a “graphic” paint job or a topless toon on one of the display points in Social District – we have seen it all!  Now, what happens when players do this?  Some players get banned and some players are warned and you are left scratching your head asking, “Where do we draw the line?”

Apparently we (the production team) are all-powerful and as noted before we reserve the right to ban people for any reason what-so-ever. But as the producer of the game, I really do want to help define what we think “our community standards” are supposed to mean, even in a game intended for a 18+ audience.

One morning, I found an e-mail thread reported by our Community Team that there were some questionable nudity images in Social:

G1 Staffer 1, “We need a clean-up in aisle Colby – display points section. Is there anything we can do about this – I have the name of the players that posted this stuff. Let me know please.”

G1 Staffer 2, “I don’t see the problem. It’s just some boobs :P?”

G1 Staffer 3, “I second that  J 18+ Rated game J

G1 Staffer 4, “I actually find it kinda comforting…”

G1 Staffer 5, “Unless she has a swastika for a nipple or something I don’t think we have to remove it, 18+ game.”

We discussed this thread in one of our weekly team meetings to make sure we define our general policy and refreshed messaging to the community.  One point mentioned was that the game by design has characters that show a lot of skin.  If you go to our Character Customization Editor you can get characters down to their underwear.  Seeing as this was something we built how can we fault the community for doing the same?  

Quick answer – we can’t and we won’t. 

But what about more “disturbing” images involving nudity?  We were already taking actions towards players who created and displayed images that were “disturbing” to both us and other players.  Were nipples acceptable?  How about butt-cheeks?  

So one take away from the meeting was - genitalia is where we draw the line; we did not create that by design.  That line is the base.   Certainly, there are things that exist beyond that line which I’m sure if your imagination wonders far enough you will find.  Furthermore, our rated M for Mature is based off of content we created and have designed for the game.

Looking back at some of the legacy APB Sourcebooks, (documentation from RTW days), I found the following text in one of the design documents:

1.1.1      Adult Material

·         Adult material must be sensitively handled – we are not trying to needlessly shock or offend, but we are trying to put across a real seeming world with a definite edge.

o   No story elements should be gratuitous.

·         Hardcore brutality or cruelty, etc. must be played down.

o   However, the world must feel capable of such things (e.g. such events may be referenced in the story).

·         Explicit sex must not be depicted.

There you have it!  So here is where we can roughly define what our take on “disturbing” might mean; it says right there “Explicit sex must not be depicted.”  It also states, “we are not trying to needlessly shock or offend.”  So here is the general rule of thumb next time you ask yourself, “Can I put this image that I’ve created out on display?”

The last reply from G1 Staffer 5, (“Unless she has a swastika for a nipple…”), is a perfect segue to my next point of discussion – bigotry!

While my office is based in the U.S. my team (GamersFirst and Reloaded) are spread over different continents.  Our APB Reloaded team is an international bunch not to different from our player-base; we have an international player community spread across the world.  With that said, we all should recognize that as an international community we have a diversity of players from a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

We have zero tolerance for any disrespect of diversity. 

It’s not uncommon practice for us to ban accounts that are infringing that respect between players so think twice before you create a characters, symbols, or images in game that are racist, sexist, or discriminate against any of the Protected Classes (based off U.S. anti-discrimination laws).  We clearly DO draw the line at Bigotry, and we also reserve the right to enforce 'community standards' when it comes to sexual imagery.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the “Protected Classes” generally include race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex and disability (and in some states sexual preference as well).

As an example, there were players in game who were going around wearing swastikas. The symbols were making players around them feel uncomfortable and so we asked that they please remove those symbols.  They refused so we blocked their accounts.  Soon after the banned players tried to contact us through customer support and dispute that we (GamersFirst) were the ones acting discriminatory; they claimed that they were banned for expressing their political views while other players with religious character names were allowed to run around in-game.  These players who were sporting the Nazi symbols in game were defending themselves saying that they never griefed any players in game, never used hacks or exploits, and further more felt uncomfortable seeing players in game with names that had some religious reference or players wearing religious symbols or national flags.

While I don’t want to go into a whole WWII dissertation or lesson in auspicious Asian symbols, let’s just say that in general - in today’s society - Nazi symbols are taken as symbols of hatred. Any symbols or actions that actively and deliberately are aimed to express such hatred are not tolerated. 

While one can argue that swastikas are a political symbol rather than a hate symbol, political affiliation is not a protected class.  There is a difference between a character named “STFU [FILL IN PROTECTED CLASS]” vs.  a character named “iLUVBuddha." And in plain English, if we think you are being overtly and actively offensive, we will ban you. 

Generally we DO try to give players a warning first. So, take this post (and also previous forum posts that have informed the same) as an official first warning.  We are not obligated to warn players but we’d like to think that everyone can make a mistake and try to give people a chance to correct themselves.

We hope that this post has helped clarified any mystical questions about what the boundaries are and why.  If you have to ask yourself twice better not chance it. 

GAME ON!

New Breed Part 1 (1.7.0 Update)

(Post by Quinzel, Producer of APB)

Thank you, TechMech for the formal introductions!  So as promised, with mic in hand, I’ll start getting into all of the juicy details of “New Breed Part 1” – our 1.7.0 Update.    

You might ask yourselves, “Where did the name ‘New Breed Part 1’ come from? Does this mean there will be a Part 2, Part 3…?”  While 1.7.0 might not be considered a major expansion by MMO standards, we felt this MEGA-Update was worthy of a name.  That name is inspired from our added progression content – our “New Breed” of contacts you will get to meet in game very soon. 

For all you Criminals out there, we have a special lady waiting to wreak havoc with you.  Her name is Tiptoe, and she is the long lost daughter of one well-known Bloodrose - Tyron Sennet!  She’s employed by the Blood Roses but runs with her own brood of elite sociopaths. You can find Tip Toe hanging out on top of the APD car park in Financial.  But be warned - the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

As for all of you Enforcers out for blood, we have a Prentiss Tiger on the prowl and he’s got a pedigree for taking people out.  Meet DevilDog, an ex-sniper who was honorably discharged from the Marines on medical grounds. DevilDog can be found on the roof (naturally) of the abandoned “Munson’s Screw & Bolt” factory in Financial. 

Should you get on either of these two new contacts’ good graces then you will be rewarded with unlocks for high level Vehicles, Inventory space increases, New Modifications, and new Weapons / Weapon skins.

As some of you have noticed in the past couple of weeks we have been releasing some sneak-peek images and videos for some of the New Modifications through our Official Forums and Facebook.  Here is the full list of Mods and Weapons below:

New Modifications:

• Radar Jammer: This is an activatable character modification that jams all enemy radars within a 50m radius. At the same time, it covers their radar screen with your personal graffiti (or a generic one if you don't have any equipped). It also obscures your own radar (but not your teammates) so it's best to fire just before an engagement when you know where the enemy is but they don't know where you are coming from.
•  Hard Landing: This utility character mod completely removes the 'Heavy Landing' animation, meaning you can drop from heights and be ready to go right away. It comes at the cost of a slight increase in fall damage taken.
• Brick: An office favourite, this activatable vehicle mod places a brick on the accelerator, allowing you to exit your vehicle and have it fly off into the distance. It's great as a distraction tool when entering a combat situation, or coupled with Explosives on a damaged vehicle for a semi-guided bomb.
• Valzipram Tablets: Fairly simple one this, it's a utility character modification that allows you to be hit by vehicles at higher speed without dying. Fairly niche, but good as a utility improvement (though naturally it’s mutually exclusive with Happy Landings and Hard Landing).
• Mobility Sling: This receiver weapon modification improves the speed at which you can move in marksmanship mode, but increasing your equip time.
• Tagger: Familiar to anyone online during the Valentine’s event, we’ve added this to the first contact’s progression. It’s a receiver modification that adds a target above anyone that is hit by your weapon, allowing easier coordinating of fire between groups.
• Muzzle Brake (Horizontal): A barrel modification for weapons, this takes propulsion gases and steers them horizontally, lessening the recoil in that direction at the expense of vertical.

New Weapons:

•  Low Yield Fragmentation Grenades:  lighter frag grenade with the same range but damage similar to percussions. The light nature means you can carry three, along with allowing them to be faster flying and having a shorter fuse timer. Great for flushing enemies or steering combat.
• Tommy Gun: Those that completed the Valentine's event will already have seen this. It's a high capacity, high recoil SMG best fired in marksmanship mode.
• Unique NTEC5 Skin: As a final reward, both DevilDog and Tiptoe give out a personalised NTEC. These have a solid stock with unique colouring and decals.

New Weapons and new Modifications are not the only new things you will get to play with. With the new patch we’ll be adding a number of new character Gear items to purchase on Armas. There’s been a lot of speculation about where the Tactical Pack went after the Thanksgiving sale, and the reason has been because we felt that we were being a little bit unfair. The Tactical pack was very Enforcer themed, and we wanted a Criminal themed set to add as a counterpart. As such, with 1.7.0, we’ll be bringing back a revamped Tactical Pack and adding a Paramilitary Pack for the criminals.

Last but not least, the other major feature to this colossal update will be the highly anticipated Fight Club Challenges! These occur weekly and give players the chance to complete for various prizes. These prizes will range from straight up APB$ (low end prize) to unique vehicles and weapons (top end prize), along with things such as limited usage of Armas weapons and inventory increases.

Each week, both fight clubs will be set to a specific map, game-type and challenge. As we only currently have two maps, these will stay the same until more are complete, while the game-type and challenge will change weekly. The challenges will have three tiers, with the third and second prizes being straight up requirements, and the top prize requiring you to be in the top X% of players that have taken part in the challenge. Our first week’s challenges are as follows:

Deathmatch


Challenge 1: Deal Damage to Enemies in The Beacon and you will qualify for these prizes:

• 1^st Prize: (Top 10% of players). An OCA-626 'Fireball' - a uniquely skinned OCA with a new stock and 3 Open Slots. This prize both gifts a 10-Day version of the weapon and unlocks it for purchase.
• 2^nd Prize: +2 Clothing Inventory Space.
• 3^rd Prize: $10,000 APB$

Scavenger

Challenge 2: Win Matches in Baylan Shipping Storage and you could win these prizes;

• 1^st Prize: Vegas G20 'Firebomb” -A flaming muscle car with a twist, this version contains a unique modification called 'Meteor' which acts like Brick but also causes your car to explode when it next hits something. It also causes it to become much more susceptible to gunfire when active. This prize is both a 10-Day lease and the unlock to purchase.
• 2^nd Prize: NTEC-5 Solid Stock: A 2 Slot Solid Stock NTEC with Mobility Sling and Hunting Sight. This prize is a 20 day lease.
• 3^rd Prize: $10,000 APB$

Seeing as this post is getting a bit lengthy, we’ll save Environmental changes and New Weapon mechanics for our next blog post.  So stay tuned and get ready for New Breeds Part 1!!!!!!!

Now, I should probably explain Scavenger. When the mission starts, both teams are given a base. A number of task items will spawn in the map, and the player's goal is to grab the items and take them back to the base. The difference to the normal 'Grab and Deliver' style modes is that once you have captured the item, it doesn't disappear. Instead you drop the item (you can no longer interact with it) in your base and you gain points for every second you hold it. The enemy can steal the items back. It's kind of like capture the flag, only there are multiple flags and the enemy has to come and get them back.

So that’s what’s coming up in the near future. This work is currently sitting with our QA Team, so we’ll have more for you on dates once we’ve finalized things.