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.