APB First Impressions/Q&A

[Tbone]

Due to our very nice newest member, I've had an opportunity to play the Beta of APB for a very limited amount of time. Right now we are sharing an account, and the Beta only takes place for 4 hours a day, 3 days a week during the afternoon here in the US, so I really haven't been able to do much more than figure out the controls and mess around with customization and a little combat/missioning.

I'll reserve this spot for a full first impressions once I've had a bit more time to play.

I did want to see if I could answer any questions you guys might be having about the game, though, so feel free to ask.

I will say just a few things.

-The customization is pretty extensive, but a lot of things are locked when you start out. As you keep playing and level up, you unlock more customizations.
-Having artists/composers will be helpful. The customization works like Photoshop, only you are limited to predefined shapes. These shapes can be manipulated in many ways though, so a lot can be accomplished with it. Letters are also included, with fonts being unlocked as you level. I made a thefuriousangels.com logo for the back of my jacket before the server went down! Your theme music is limited to handmade tracks in the game using an interface that was too complicated for me to waste time delving into.
-The music player was pretty cool. There's already a few songs in the game to choose from, but you can also choose a folder from your computer to upload into the game. It will analyze the songs and tell you which ones it recognizes. The ones that are recognized can be matched so that if someone else has uploaded it, they'll hear it from your car. You can choose whether it plays in the b/g while you play, in your car stereo, or both (switching back and forth).
-The social district reminds me of the social district from CrimeCraft, only without the crafting. I could hear really annoying foreign people talking in my ear whenever I loaded into it, and the option to turn off district voice chat didn't seem to be turned on yet. This got annoying. The voices also didn't seem to be coming from directional players but like I was on TS with them. It would be nice if voice was directional depending on the direction of the player.
-There seem to be only two combat districts so far. Financial and Waterfront. I've only been to Financial. To me the world felt very small, especially compared to MxO where I was used to districts and neighborhoods.
-The UI is not near complete. They know this and are working on completing it, but it makes the learning curve pretty steep right now. I spent a majority of the time trying to figure out how to equip my new weapon and spawn my car, as well as how to buy new clothes and equip those.
-Still getting used to combat. Some people seem to have gotten the hang of it and are using strategy with grenades and such. I ran around with my pea shooter most of the time, but I was able to kill the player I was sent to kill. Actually my favorite part so far was when I was sent on a mission to stop this criminal and he must have not been paying attention to his mission screen, as I found him checking his mail at a mailbox. It was nice to execute him in the back of the head with my pea shooter. Heh.

[Broin]

So your mission actually sent you out to go eliminate another player?

[Manic Velocity]

Can you hyper-jump?

[Tbone]

@Broin: Yes, it matches you against other players during your mission. I believe there are some missions where you do a few phases and then it APBs the enemy. Also, I believe you can request backup during your mission. There was one time I got an APB and the shootout was already taking place down the street. I hopped in my car and ran over two of the guys shooting in the street. Heh.

@Manic: No hyperjump. But there is jump. Also you can press F to hop over fences and climb ladders.

[Strod]

Wow, so the game itself will send you after other actual players. That's really cool, I'm really eager to get in and poke around a bit.

[Manic Velocity]

@Broin: Yes, it matches you against other players during your mission.

That is fucking sweet.  So the APB happens in real time?  Can you determine how the game creates the match?  Like, do the opposing sides need to be engaged in similar mission objectives in order for the game to pair you up against each other?

Example:
Say you request a mission to arrest a car theif.  Does the game search for an opposing player already running a car theft mission, and send you after them?

Or does a random APB come through while you're engaged in a mission against NPCs?

Also, are there such things as "stake out" missions where you need to trail a suspect?

[Tbone]

@Broin: Yes, it matches you against other players during your mission.

That is fucking sweet.  So the APB happens in real time?  Can you determine how the game creates the match?  Like, do the opposing sides need to be engaged in similar mission objectives in order for the game to pair you up against each other?

Example:
Say you request a mission to arrest a car theif.  Does the game search for an opposing player already running a car theft mission, and send you after them?

Or does a random APB come through while you're engaged in a mission against NPCs?

Also, are there such things as "stake out" missions where you need to trail a suspect?

Ok, I had more time to play today. Now that I got a feel for the controls and UI, I had a lot of fun!

Basically, there are NO enemy NPCs in the game. Anyone you are fighting is another player. You pledge to take missions from an organization and then every few seconds a mission will pop up at the top of your screen. You hit "Y" to accept or "N" to decline. Sometimes they are set missions for your organization. Other times they are APBs to help others or be the enemy against other people during their mission.

So let's say you start off on your own mission. Your first objective may be to raid an enemy area. So you go to the objective and batter the door to get the suitcase. As you are battering, the little siren goes off in your lower left screen and tells you that an APB is out and that so-and-so has been dispatched to take you out. Meanwhile, so-and-so received a mission that asks for his help in "getting rid of those pesky pigs" or something similar. If he accepts, then he either gets the waypoint to my objectives and has to prevent me from completing them, or is given my waypoint and told to kill me 3 times or so.

So sometimes you'll have to defend a waypoint, sometimes you'll have to complete an objective, and sometimes you'll have to hunt someone. This gets more complex as you start grouping up.

I had a few missions that didn't get an APB put out on me. I don't know if that's because the person it was offered to declined or because that particular mission didn't trigger the APB.

I'll post more later, including screenies if I can find a way to secure them.

[Fuse]

That is awesome... What do you need to secure them?

[Tbone]

Screenies are in the screenshot thread!

[Jeyk]

Is there any way to transfer custom logos to the game?

[Tbone]

Logos are made with the logo editor within the game. As far as I know, there is no way to upload logos made from other means.

[Tbone]

"We just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for continuing to help with beta.

As you may have seen, we've been steadily increasing the numbers of participants in the last week or so and tonight we are expecting numbers in game to reach our current capacity. As a result, you may witness some queuing when trying to get into the game. This problem will decrease as we progress with beta and expand the hardware that is available.

Thanks for your patience and see you on the streets of San Paro tonight!"

That was Thursday. Looks like they sent out invites all last week until they hit their max. Probably won't send another wave until they get more servers...

[Tbone]

So this is something I just found out. If you follow a criminal around and see him doing a crime (his mission), you can press "G" to witness the crime and get the APB to go in and take him out!

[Tbone]

I will be playing today from 2-6 FA time and will be on TS. Feel free to drop by and if you have any questions, I can explore the game to find out the answers!

[Fuse]

After a few days of playing it, is it still fun? I mean do you sense a grind in it already? How's the community inside the game?