APB: All Points Bulletin - Beta

I both love and hate this game. It's a lot of fun when playing with my friends but at the same time there ARE lots of cheats (just Google it and you'll find plenty) and that frustrates me to no end. Also I don't understand how some weapons are so completely weak while others are absolutely destructive.

Also you can leave your character at the garage (car tuner) and you get Tuner ranks and thus more cash. I'm doing this will all the characters so I have a lot of money . Up to over 200k from two characters just sitting there hahaha. Also it takes 10 hours to get max ranks from one of the kiosks.

 

Any advice for starting out in this game? A guide, FAQ, or something for new players? There seems to be little in the way of documentation (the "Vault" still seems to be under construction). I played for around an hour or so the first time and managed to get exactly 0 kills :dead:

 

So, I had a look on the games website, expecting to see pages of patch notes that were recently released.... to my disbelief, all I see was ONE tiny patch. Did they REALLY release the game in it's current condition!?
That's pretty harsh. Not sure how people can find doing the same stuff over and over with very little rewards fun.

 

Hasn't changed very much from beta, apart from the lag issues more or less being sorted out. I cancled my pre order a week before it was released. Which is a shame as i kind of liked playing but i am not paying 30 quid for it.

 

It's more of a shooter IMO. I didn't get this game to do missions and quests. I got it to play cops and robbers and shoot people and run them over with cars. This is definitely not the game to get if you're looking for a story.

To be honest though I'm actually really enjoying this now that I'm getting better at it. It was pretty damn frustrating getting killed all the time by upgraded weapons all the time. Now I'm just waiting for the day when they ban the cheaters. I still encounter some bugs (like yesterday I crouched beside a car and it teleported me on top of it for some reason. I'm still trying to figure out how that even makes sense) but for the most part it's pretty solid.

In any case, I really like the game. Seeing bodies fly away from my shotgun is quite hilarious

 

Why would i use the EU version :S

To EU from Australia I ping about 550ms
To US from Australia i ping about 250ms

US version is 10 times better.

MMOs never get local servers in australia.

Look at wow...major game...no servers.
aoc..same...eve...same...

 

I feel so bad for you Aussies in terms of gaming... My electronic heart goes out to you!

 

yeh its stupid...

 

Park your character overnight at the clothing kiosk on tuesday evening, then on wednesday evening park your character at the driving kiosk. You will have about 100,000 after that to buy things by Thursday morning.

Once you do that, make another character and do the same thing, then send the money to your main guy. I think that enforcer is definitely easier to play as.

I have no idea where you get the weapon upgrades. I keep playing against teams that have way better weapons that my friends and I.

I wish there were actual custom missions instead of random tasks or burn this, or sabotage this or go and hold a point...since it is supposed to be a rpg type mmo shooter. The shooting could be a lot better than spray and pray...The bread and butter of the game is shooting and driving, both of which have serious flaws.

 

Weapon Upgrades are purchased from your contacts (on the left side the default drop down menu says Weapons... you can change that to Upgrades and some other stuff too). The other drop down menu selects the class to be sorted (ie Sub-Machine Guns, Shotguns, etc).

I'm on the Zombie server, as a criminal for now though I freakin' hate it since the stun guns are infinitely cheap and getting random APBs on you all the time is bloody annoying. My characters name is Zahariel.

 

Cool, thanks. Sounds like something they'll patch out soon, so I better hurry, haha.

And I agree with you about some of the flaws, but for some odd reason I'm hooked on this. I'm still getting destroyed in... well just about everywhere, but it's just addicting. The only thing that really annoys me is the occasional piece of work that starts screaming on the mic because you aren't really any good- relax buddy, I'm shooting at the right guys at least...

I've never really had any interest in any of the MMO's out there, but I still took a chance on it despite a lot of the complaints. I'm normally the harshest critic of games that don't measure up but APB seems to defy that logic. Between the customization (probably the best I've ever seen in a game) and a sense of chaos at all times, I'm pretty hooked right now.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/realtime-worlds-dave-jones-interview?page=1

A good read that explains a lot of how the games is and plays.

 

so, shortly his game is good? or not?

 

Good idea, but looks like full of bugs and gets boring quickly.

I would say wait a while before getting it. That is what i am doing it

 

as i said on my previous post on top of this page.

 

Both my criminal and enforcer characters are on LaRocha...What is the difference between the servers?

 

Hmmm. Lets wait and see.

 

Picked up this game a few days ago because it looked like a lot of fun...

I have mixed feelings at this point, but I keep coming back to it for some reason.

Almost every time I finish a session with it though, I leave it in disgust due to some frustration that crops up. If a car is empty, and you don't line your character up carefully with the front door, you'll end up in one of the passenger seats...wtf? In missions which are running low on time, this can be a killer in completing the mission if it happens two times. How hard would it otherwise be to do a check on the state of the car before having the character enter it - I can think of absolutely no use to having the player enter the car in the passengers seat if it's not already occupied...a stupid little thing over all, but after the 10th time it does wear on your nerves.

The world is also very static, which is unfortunate in a game like this. Some of the reviews I've read (some of which were honestly a little too harsh IMO) make some mention of this...I was hoping for more destructibility of the environment, which would make the firefights much more pleasant...

Which brings me to my next big gripe: the firefights.

Usually, either the other team is far too advanced or your team is, and the firefights don't amount to much more than (if the other team is better) run in, try to outshoot the other guys, die, wait to respawn, go back in. Even coordinating with your team doesn't do much to alleviate this, so it really boils down to who has the better guns and equipment. I've unloaded ridiculous amounts of ammunition into enemy players only to have them shoot me a few times and kill me, which is frustrating to no end.

Granted, it's up to the team leader to pick the battles and NOT choose fighting against a hopelessly advanced team with maxed out equipment, but there's not much you can really do if you're not as well equipped even if the teams are otherwise relatively well balanaced.

Communication also appears to play a major part in coordinating fights, and most of my fights have been played by being paired up with a team by the game, so I can't complain too much about that experience because I haven't honestly been paired with a great deal of good teammates - usually, they don't even bother to talk. Having a good team would probably increase my fun with gunfights by a good factor.

Graphics are ok, kinda buggy on my 10.5a/Xfire 5870 setup but nothing too bad except the occasional shadow flickering and pop-in (which sucks when you're trying to spot an enemy from a distance - they're simply not drawn!). The customizations that are possible are pretty cool, but I prefer to spend my time playing the game as much as possible rather than spending an hour in the garage terminal trying to paint my vehicle and add details to it, or dress my character.

Only certain objects in the environment can be 'quick jumped' over, which is another nerve grinder - basically only non-barbed and wooden fences, which leaves the feeling that little creativity went into the design of some of the areas which need to be accessed. Moving up ladders is buggy as hell sometimes, especially when you have two people trying to move up at the same time...it's just awkward and painful to witness when it happens, especially when it gets in the way of firefight or moving to an objective.

Not a lot of life in the districts really, the NPC 'population' just sorts of walks around randomly and become objects to run over when you're driving. Having some drug addicts, bums, prostitutes, etc would be a nice touch to the style. But maybe I'm just being overly picky...I hate to do a GTA comparison, but it's kind of impossible not to due to the obvious inspirations that were taken from it to make this game what it is; Liberty City had an honest 'alive' sort of feeling to it that just isn't there with APB, maybe it's just the fact that throughout GTA you're getting to know people with very specific character traits that 'anchor' you to the game's world, and in APB there's really nothing like that...not to mention you get a very clear feeling for the boundaries that are there that limit how you can maneuver throughout the district.

Driving around takes some getting used to, but isn't totally broken and actually becomes pretty fun when you get the hang of it. Some cars are just totally useless and I've learned to not even bother getting in some of them unless to just screw around.

I do hope they fix some things with the game, as I really believe it has some potential, but I don't see myself playing it beyond the 50 hour limit that I got with the Steam purchase at this rate. But far I've been entertained and keep coming back...the novelty is just starting to wane a little.

 

I suppose I'll try to 'defend' the game a bit, even though I agree with most of your points, Reciprocity.

The first thing is getting in passenger doors. That pissed me off until I found out that you get in the door that you're aiming at. It still isn't perfect but I very rarely get in the wrong door now, haha.

Static world, I suppose so. If you keep an eye on the pedestrians you'll notice they do random things like visit mail boxes, checkout storefronts and other random things. I know that's not a huge amount of things but it IS a bit better than just walking about.

I completely agree with the firefights. I was able to pick up a Push Broom (Lv3 Auto Shotgun) for 90k, and not even the next day they were going for over 500k. I've been using it ever since and I absolutely love it because it's relatively reliable for me. I've also got the Undertaker (which I earned), and don't find it as useful for some reason.

Graphics are pretty decent though it doesn't seem very optimized as my system sometimes chugs along. Smoke destroys my framerate 100% of the time (even when it just comes out of the sewer).

The areas where most of the firefights take place are actually extremely well done when you look at the construction of them. I was actually pretty impressed with that. I thought it was just going to be open areas and boring stuff but it actually requires a bit of thinking and quick movements of the mouse to keep an eye on everything.

It's easy to take advantage of the 3rd person view by standing near a corner and turning the mouse so you can see around it without being seen. But that's nothing the game can help.

Driving does in fact take a bit of getting used to but once you master it it's pretty fun. Unless you get stuck driving a crappy car .

At a minimum it's worth it for the free time you get even though it should really be a month. I decided to get the unlimited month for 10$ because if I'm going to be playing a lot, it's going to be the first month. Once this month is over I have that 50 hours to randomly jump in to see if it's worth keeping/playing without spending the 10$ only to find out that it's gone downhill.

 

I actually never bothered to sit and watch what the pedestrians do for more than maybe 30 seconds at a time as I'm running around, so the fact that they did add some scripted actions that break them out of their 'walk up and down the sidewalk' routine is nice to know.

The passenger doors thing...well, I guess I can chalk that up to my own lack of finesse or rushing to get into the vehicle. I just wish I didn't have to think so much about it especially after I've been killed three times in a row trying to recapture a checkpoint without any help from my teamate and the friggin clock is running out! lol

The only chugs I generally get on my setup are explosions and - like you - smoke, which completely kill my framerate (not sure why as the smoke/explosion details aren't totally mindblowing and my system is more than capable of handling them). I'm sure this is something that will get fixed and it doesn't happen enough that it kills my experience, and I don't wish to cruficy a game that's only been out of beta for a few days really, it's just weird to witness.

Most areas that require holding or capturing an objective are, I'll agree, are pretty well laid out, but always benefit (as perhaps they rightfully should) the team with the better strategy and cooperation. At least half of the time when I'm grouped up, most of my team runs around looking for stuff to shoot rather than watching entrances/exits for incoming rushes from the other team, or just rush into an area that requires overtaking without coordinating an attack and we just get slaughtered over, and over, and over again until the time limits runs out or our number of lives runs to 0.

So with that, I'll say that my fun with the game is strongly proportional to the team I'm playing with...I've with some extremely cool and efficient teams a few times, and that's really what's kept me playing - I really do like how you move in and out of battles as you continue to play, usually facing off against a completely different group of attackers - and obviously getting a winning streak doesn't hurt the fun either.

I still find it fun despite its shortcomings and easily find myself blowing several hours and making excuses to play it...the game will probably get more fun once my character gets up to speed and acquires better weapons and supplies, but for anybody considering buying it definitely be well aware of what you're buying into...you'll probably either love it or hate it within the first few hours of playing