APB: Reloaded - The highs are very high and the lows are very frequent

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > APB: Reloaded - The highs are very high and the lows are very frequent

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Ghosts n Gopniks: Nov 2, 2004; Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.

Fight Club is amazing for arrests even against Gold 195s with gold guns and an entire clan to help them out, however some of them are not afraid to quit to lobby the moment they get stunned. Treat the Beacon Tower as a quick run and gun action game and the Shipping yard as Counter-Strike, and you should be on the way to success.

Or roll on a geographically handicapped server and give yourself a helluva boost, you'll be able to take OCA users head on with your CCG and win :3:

# ? Jan 31, 2012 18:08

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 14:33

AzureSkys: Apr 27, 2003

I have a hard time on FC because I can never find anyone. If I do, it's usually the whole team. I guess I haven't figured out the spawn mechanics or something. Though I get a good number of arrests, I don't think it's much more than what I'd have got with a few missions at the same time.

One further perk of LTL is the money. If you're hurting for cash, run simple with ltl for a bit and you'll do good to your bank.

And once again, the CCG is awesome. Just make sure cover is near by for reloading and do lots of baiting. Hit a few times, cover, reload, let them come to you and finish them off. Usually need a few hits on them first before you start taking damage or else the rate of fire will lose out to them.

Don't rush to arrest, too. You have a little bit of time so make sure any others are far away, dead, or stunned themselves. If you're not going to get the arrest, pistol em. Lastly, unsuspected stun nades are amazing things, especially to a group of 2 or 3 running next to each other.

# ? Jan 31, 2012 19:21

An Unoriginal Name: Jul 11, 2011; My favorite touhou is my beloved Nitori.

G1/Reloaded Productions done messed up! Now they're gonna do something about the mess!

The downtime/patch will be around 11am GMT, also known as sleep to everyone else not European. Tomorrow you will wake up to a better APB! just kidding :suicide:

http://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/251496-server-downtime-1115-am-gmt-approx-2-hours-threat-fix/

quote:

Threat in a nutshell
APB determines a player's skill level using two numbers (we're simplifying greatly here, but for the sake of keeping this brief�).

There is a 'threat' number, which is banded into green, bronze, silver and gold threat levels and shown in the game, as well as a behind-the-scenes 'uncertainty' value which represents how certain the system is of the threat number. The uncertainty value determines how much the threat number will 'swing' when opposed missions are won and lost. Big uncertainty = big changes in threat, small uncertainty = tiny changes in threat. All players start with a high uncertainty value (which is why your threat will move quickly at first when you win and lose opposed missions), but over time the system gets more and more certain of your threat number and the swing in your threat after winning or losing will get less and less, and it will take considerable consistent new behaviour for this to change (i.e. a truly massive winning or losing streak).

Also, to clear something else up, 'In Training' is not a threat band below green, it simply means that the character is new and any actual threat band shown may be some distance off. We use 'In Training' to hide the threat band below it (green, bronze, silver, gold) until the system is reasonably sure of the player's skill (usually after 10 opposed missions or so). So a character can be 'In Training' but still be gold (or green, bronze or silver) underneath. This was to prevent "OMG I LOST A MISSION AND DROPPED 2 THREAT LEVELS!!11!" as players weren't fully aware of the threat number and uncertainty value system.

What we changed in 1.6.1
In 1.6.1 we moved from individual character threat to an account-wide threat level (good players are good regardless of weapons/mods/vehicles available, any actual disadvantage on new or different characters is pretty small). This was to help matchmaking so that good (and bad) players would always be in the correct threat band, regardless if the character has 1 hour played or 1000 hours played.

In the transfer to account-wide threat we looked at all characters on your account and copied all the threat information from the character with the highest threat number to the account (so that no one would drop threat level anywhere). The problem was that for a few people the character with the highest threat number also had a really big uncertainty value (i.e. a new character that maybe only played a handful of missions and won them all). This meant that some players were seeing large shifts in their threat level from winning or losing opposed missions.

This would still have been fine, and the system would have sorted things over the next week or so, but some players started intentionally losing and de-threating their account due to their high uncertainty value. The problem we have now is that the system is pretty sure these players are rubbish, and has started to lock down their threat number (so we have the situation where genuine gold players have boxed themselves into a corner and are stuck at low threat bands). This, of course, has a negative effect on matchmaking.

What we're doing to fix this
To fix this we are going to reapply our initial transfer to account-wide threat with a small change. This time, we are going to go through the saved character threat data and pull the account threat information from the character with the lowest uncertainty value. This will generally mean that your account threat number and uncertainty value will match the character that you play the most on.

HOWEVER, if your new account threat number today is higher than that of the character with the lowest uncertainty value, WE WILL KEEP YOUR NEW THREAT NUMBER and only take the uncertainty value over to your account threat data. This means that any players who have increased their threat in the last week will KEEP it. Anyone who has de-threated should be pulled back up to where they belong. EVERYONE should have the same threat level as before (on their most played character) or higher.

# ? Jan 31, 2012 19:43

Goofballs: Jun 2, 2011

I'm not sure how effective that change was. I logged in to check what happened and I'm still bronze. Before the patch I was gold and before that I spent a long while at silver. I haven't been honestly bronze in about 250 hours. Hurrah I guess if the fixed it for most people? I get to pubstomp for hours before being thrown back into the murderbox.

Goofballs fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Jan 31, 2012

# ? Jan 31, 2012 20:57

keeb: Sep 24, 2003; The Shocker

I was green yesterday, now I'm gold again today. I am very disappointed I have to dethreat all over again.

# ? Jan 31, 2012 21:07

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

keeb posted:

I was green yesterday, now I'm gold again today. I am very disappointed I have to dethreat all over again.

Apparently they've fixed the loopholes that let you dethreat. I guess we'll soon find out!

# ? Jan 31, 2012 21:10

TerminalSaint: Apr 21, 2007; Where must we go...

we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves?

keeb posted:

There's only a market for the blue mods, because they're machine gunner unlocks, and no one does that.

Minor quibble, but mag pull is blue and unlocks with rifleman. :spergin:

# ? Jan 31, 2012 21:17

Davoren: Aug 14, 2003; The devil you say!

I am having an amazing time in this game so far, thanks largely to CaptainSwing and Filzee taking me under their collective wing and not getting too frustrated when I gently caress things up. :3:

Also Filzee let me drive his car and I managed to get it stuck like this within like 10 seconds:

# ? Feb 1, 2012 03:15

Aye-Aye: Jan 23, 2007; We've become more monster than monkey.

if anyone is playing crim let me know, i'll take a clan invite if its not enforcer.
lvl 70ish.

# ? Feb 1, 2012 04:24

Captain Swing: Dec 30, 2006; You should have a little more faith in your captain.

There is someone walking behind you,
turn around, look at me.
There is someone watching your footsteps,
turn around, look at me.

# ? Feb 1, 2012 06:26

TerminalSaint: Apr 21, 2007; Where must we go...

we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves?

Best use of /whistle ever.

# ? Feb 1, 2012 07:06

The REAL Gtab Fan: Apr 12, 2007; Let it post, let it post, can't wait to shit post anymore~
Let it go, let it go, gonna vote one and move onnnnnn~

That picture is fantastic Swing, did he end up noticing you or did you just get tired and kill him?

# ? Feb 1, 2012 07:58

Captain Swing: Dec 30, 2006; You should have a little more faith in your captain.

The REAL Gtab Fan posted:

That picture is fantastic Swing, did he end up noticing you or did you just get tired and kill him?

Had to put him down

Tried the same thing a little bit later, on the same guy, but the conditioning kicked in and he turned around after the first /whistle.

# ? Feb 1, 2012 15:54

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

Join us for the Massively Livestream tomorrow night!
Here's all the details:

Date: Thursday (2/2)
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
Link: http://massively.joystiq.com/livestream

# ? Feb 2, 2012 02:25

An Unoriginal Name: Jul 11, 2011; My favorite touhou is my beloved Nitori.

less than three posted:

Join us for the Massively Livestream tomorrow night!
Here's all the details:

Date: Thursday (2/2)
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
Link: http://massively.joystiq.com/livestream

Everyone please attend this event if you can. The dress code will be scantily clad with pink. Bring your best Pioneer! :clint:

# ? Feb 2, 2012 04:09

TerminalSaint: Apr 21, 2007; Where must we go...

we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves?

Hey POTUS, hope you don't mind that I stole your thing. I figured I'd save you some stress and make it myself rather than ask you.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 05:39

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

Imitated,

Never duplicated.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 08:57

Huszsersvn: Nov 11, 2009; Nice world you've got here. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

TerminalSaint posted:

Hey POTUS, hope you don't mind that I stole your thing. I figured I'd save you some stress and make it myself rather than ask you.

I couldn't have done it better myself. Great caricature!

# ? Feb 2, 2012 09:58

Secret Sweater: Oct 17, 2005; dup

I feel like that should unlock some sort of achievement. That was 1 conc grenade, in case you're wondering.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 10:49

Meis: Sep 2, 2011

less than three posted:

Imitated,

Never duplicated.

I used to have that exact same tattoo on my left arm that you do.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 12:54

Songbearer: Jul 12, 2007; Fuck you say?

Ugggh I want those window louvres. I wish you could just buy parts single.

G1 why don't you want my money

# ? Feb 2, 2012 13:48

QQmore: Jan 10, 2010

An Unoriginal Name posted:

Everyone please attend this event if you can. The dress code will be scantily clad with pink. Bring your best Pioneer!

I'd better work on my pink commando gear and vegas :3:

Or retrofit my no slotter pioneer for this.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 17:50

Akion: May 7, 2006; Grimey Drawer

Did someone say Scantily Clad and Pink?

I lack a Pioneer and the money for one. Is a Broadwing acceptable?

# ? Feb 2, 2012 19:02

QQmore: Jan 10, 2010

Akion posted:

Did someone say Scantily Clad and Pink?

I lack a Pioneer and the money for one. Is a Broadwing acceptable?

A Broadwing is a fine griefing car, perfect for flipping over many vehicles.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 19:49

An Unoriginal Name: Jul 11, 2011; My favorite touhou is my beloved Nitori.

I only suggested a Pioneer because of its amazing ability to crush anything that gets in front of it. You can bring any car you wish to bring, just make sure it's got a really flamboyant paint job for the whole world to see when the stream starts.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 19:57

QQmore: Jan 10, 2010

How long is the stream planned?

# ? Feb 2, 2012 19:57

An Unoriginal Name: Jul 11, 2011; My favorite touhou is my beloved Nitori.

QQmore posted:

How long is the stream planned?

The previous stream lasted an hour so it'll probably be an hour again, or less if the streamer gets frustrated to the point of cutting it early (probably won't happen since I'm sure the streamers are paid to do their hour-long things).

EDIT: Also I'm gonna assume they'll do prizes again so if you want REALLY COOL IN-GAME PRIZES that lasts a week you should make a throwaway Twitter account so you can be ready to answer some really, really difficult trivia questions. They were so hard that we were answering before the streamer even finished the question. Whew!

An Unoriginal Name fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Feb 2, 2012

# ? Feb 2, 2012 20:03

Akion: May 7, 2006; Grimey Drawer

I ran out of Decal Layers. =(

# ? Feb 2, 2012 20:43

Meis: Sep 2, 2011

I have a customizable broadwing and premium. Debating whether to use that or to use the not-so-good pioneer i got from someone.. more trolling, less pink... decisions, decisions...

My character looks great though. I will upload a screenshot later if I remember.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 22:04

Eigo: Mar 21, 2010

Sadly I have class when this happens tonight, but did they ever make the premium vehicles customizable in terms of looks? I can see the reasoning behind the equipment slots being locked but not being able to do decals is dumb. (also I am disappointed they never did a cash shop dumpster, not that it was reasonable :v:

)

Also it's really nice they finally made 5 star arrests faster (unless I'm imagining it), already managed to arrest 3 bounties without some jerk shooting the guy while I arrest.

# ? Feb 2, 2012 22:11

Akion: May 7, 2006; Grimey Drawer

Meis posted:

I have a customizable broadwing and premium. Debating whether to use that or to use the not-so-good pioneer i got from someone.. more trolling, less pink... decisions, decisions...

My character looks great though. I will upload a screenshot later if I remember.

The Pink Army shall destroy!

Seriously. I have a mental image of Flight of the Valkyries accompanied by a street full of pink vehicles swarming some poor bastard.

Does anyone know what district this will be in?

# ? Feb 3, 2012 00:20

Deutsch Nozzle: Mar 29, 2008; #1 Macklemore fan

Dusted off and patched my APB client just for this. Didn't resub PRIMIUM or anything, but this should be a fun break from SW:TOR.

# ? Feb 3, 2012 00:35

Ghosts n Gopniks: Nov 2, 2004; Imagine how much more sad and lonely we would be if not for the hard work of lowtax. Here's $12.95 to his aid.

How long until they revert to a functional TL system? :v:

# ? Feb 3, 2012 00:39

Akion: May 7, 2006; Grimey Drawer

MrLonghair posted:

How long until they revert to a functional TL system?

Dunno. I'm loving how I can win matches and go from Silver to Green, though!

I get so many whispers about being a de-threating rear end in a top hat. It's like griefing without even trying.

# ? Feb 3, 2012 00:49

Secret Sweater: Oct 17, 2005; dup

Threat would fix itself if they gave incentives for higher threat scaling up from green. Incentives in both money, standing gain rate and cosmetic to appeal at least partially to all boats.

Unfair to greens/bronzes? Not really, golds frequently fight much more difficult opposition. As it stands you are only punished for being high threat.

# ? Feb 3, 2012 01:15

Oglogoth: May 16, 2010; Daaaaarling~

Anime?

Anime!

# ? Feb 3, 2012 01:45

less than three: Aug 9, 2007; Fallen Rib

# ? Feb 3, 2012 02:02

TerminalSaint: Apr 21, 2007; Where must we go...

we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves?

# ? Feb 3, 2012 02:43

Oglogoth: May 16, 2010; Daaaaarling~

Dr. Grant's Wonderful tattoo:

# ? Feb 3, 2012 02:55

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# ? Jun 8, 2024 14:33

Meis: Sep 2, 2011

I nabbed a pic too, once punkbuster stopped kicking me. I wanted to get some shots of the action, but I was too busy keeping an eye on the stream and chasing the streamer, hoping my PC wouldn't explode.

# ? Feb 3, 2012 03:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > APB: Reloaded - The highs are very high and the lows are very frequent

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