APB Discussion

[Tbone]

APB Discussion

Based on the information we currently have, APB will be the first "major leaguer" to step up to the plate. Since that's the case, I thought it would be wise to focus on what we'd like to do/see for this game.

The Backdrop

APB: All Points Bulletin is set in San Paro, a persistent, online modern city which lives and breathes, filled with a population of civilians going about their daily lives. Joining the civilian population are opposing factions of players: Criminals and Enforcers, fighting for control and leaving their mark as they succeed or fail. Imagine a GTA-feel, but more gangs and less mobs (a la CrimeCraft). So the style is modern punk, you could say. I doubt we'll want to "thug" it out, but our style should definitely be something badass.

Criminal or Enforcer?

The game has two main factions: criminals and enforcers. The criminals aim to create a city rife with violent crime. The enforcers are pitted against them, protecting the civilian population and fighting the criminals at every turn. I imagine most people will be playing criminal. For this reason alone we should go enforcer, but also it suits our usual RP and style. I'm thinking we're a rogue group hired to stop crime by any means necessary, skipping the red tape and letting our guns do the justice. I have a feeling that's the vibe they'll be taking with the enforcers anyway.

Customization

The game brags that it will be extremely customizable. Some things to think about... What should our symbol look like? We have the FA symbol, but how to we tweak that for the APB world? They have an in-game symbol editor, so we'll probably have to get our hands on that first. Also, you can load music into the game. When you kill someone, your theme plays. What should our theme music be?

[Lits]

I vote our theme music should be the crescendo of "Furious Angels" into the instrumental part (from the rockier-sounding version).

Or a cutting of the E.S.Posthumous "Pompeii" we used for 'Angels of Vengeance"

Can other players hear this as well?

[Manic Velocity]

I've always like Rob Dougan's "Clubbed to Death 2" remix. But I also agree with Lits that E.S. Posthumus would be a good fit.

[Anamodiel]

So I got this e-mail about Beta. My G-Talk updates me when I have new mail and shows me the first two sentences of the e-mail without the title. Needless to say, I got a little excited when I saw this:

"Hello New Beta Tester! Are you ready to party like it's 1999, or wait... 2156? We are..."

Got a little excited for a second, only to find that it was for Fallen Earth. Blah.

[Tbone]

Quick gameplay video from Cologne. It's in German: http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=1589&pk=12657

[Tbone]

Much better gameplay video with a dev talking in the background. I heard some of what he said. Some important tidbits. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23kxafcGhPc

I'll make a new news post.

[Jeyk]

New Gameplay Trailer:

[Phienyx]

Holy Shit, the end of that vid was hilarious.

[Tbone]

Hahaha! The game is looking really good! Gameplay looks badass. Let's just hope it all lives up to its hype!

[Phienyx]

Hahaha! The game is looking really good! Gameplay looks badass. Let's just hope it all lives up to its hype!

Living up the the hype is where most games fail.  That percentage is much higher if just MMOs are considered.  I am hoping that APB is successful.






..........but I'm hoping even more so for The Secret World.

[Anamodiel]

Maybe this was discussed in another thread, but I'm still a little unclear on what they mean by "100 people in a city". Will it be like CrimeCraft where there's the Lobby and then the individual instances? Anyone have any idea?

Sorry if this was already discussed...

[Phienyx]

This is something that may be in discussion on their official forums.  I haven't looked, but it may be a place to start.

[Tbone]

The details are a little unclear, but the cities kind of act like servers and instances I believe. So when you first start off, maybe you'll be in the newb city. First thing you'll do is pick an instance with less than 100 people. Then as you level up, you go to the next city and an instance of less than 100 people, etc. etc.

The difference between that and CrimeCraft is CrimeCraft had a lobby area where all the other stuff happened and then had instances for matches. In APB, your instance will provide you with everything, and matches will be happening automatically behind the scenes. So, for instance, maybe you're in the middle of buying a new gun when you get an APB of a crime in progress. You then cancel your purchase (or complete it), run to the parking garage, jump in your car, and head in the direction of the APB. Or you can choose to ignore it and loose out on the loot/points.

I'm not sure whether or not you can make yourself "APB available" or not. I'm not a big fan of instances. Why can't games just have a world as big as MxO's and use that as one big seamless server? With all the action of APB, though, I guess that would be lag city pretty quick.

[Lithium]

I'm not sure whether or not you can make yourself "APB available" or not. I'm not a big fan of instances. Why can't games just have a world as big as MxO's and use that as one big seamless server? With all the action of APB, though, I guess that would be lag city pretty quick.

Eve managed to do one big sandbox extremely well. I have a friend at work that will just go on and on to me about how great Eve is... lol. Everything is pretty much player run, including banks.

[Tbone]

External was nice enough to let me borrow his account for Thursdays since he can't play. I downloaded the game today and was able to login for about 5 minutes tops before the server shut down! Hopefully I'll get some good time in on Thursday and report back!