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[Giant Snowman]

It seems it's not a standard mmo but more of a system to set up 100-player deathmatches. I haven't heard anything about having to kill ten rats. It sounds like every mission is just an excuse to get players to shoot each other. I disapprove of this. I don't need a mission to shoot people!

Maybe I should drive around with only hand on the wheel so I can hold a Spanner in the Works in the other for its bonus to collision damage with vehicles. Then I could try to get a slightly literal version of the 30 Xanatos Pileup.

[Aqizzar]

It seems it's not a standard mmo but more of a system to set up 100-player deathmatches. I haven't heard anything about having to kill ten rats. It sounds like every mission is just an excuse to get players to shoot each other. I disapprove of this. I don't need a mission to shoot people!

I need to read a lot more about the game, but that actually sounds pretty cool to me.  The big draw in MMOs is supposed to be cooperating with and/or demolishing other players, preferably at the same time.  It's all that grinding build up that makes it boring.  Taking essentially the non-persistent gameplay of a mass-lobby shooter and putting in a persistent world of stuff-acquisition and wild customization is exactly the kind of thing I was expecting back when I first heard of MMOs in the late 90's.  I've had my doubts about the "tone" of APB, but it looks like it'll have enough culture variance anyone happy.

Then I could try to get a slightly literal version of the 30 Xanatos Pileup.

What, like have a whole bunch of players with Jonathan Frakes' face mosh into each other?

[Soulwynd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it_O7JSsIEM

Their goal is to make sure you fight the least npcs as possible. Whenever you go to a mission, you will fight players. You can call for backup as well, making the confront even greater. In the enforcer mission shown in that vid, you can see how a criminal and then another join up to stop the enforcer mission. So yeah, it seems like most missions will be putting you against players, so you don't get that stupid retarded AI which is so annoying in MMOs.

You can say it's a sandboxy TF2 or CSS, which is a very very good thing. But unlike games like Huxley and Global Agenda, you don't do server transitions, you're not limited to the number of slots a map has.

Hopefully it will be as good as the idea sounds like. =p

[Aqizzar]

No server transitions makes me worry.  Something I've never understood for as long as MMOs have been around is the reticence companies have against players moving a character from one server to another.  You need multiple servers, that just how the Internet works.  But if you make a character on one server and find out your friends are elsewhere, usually you're just stuck having to make a new character there instead of being able to transfer your hard work to where you want to play.

I know some games do allow characters to be moved between servers, but I remember FF11 charged like stupid amounts of game currency (or was it real currency?) for the privilege, and you couldn't choose which server you used.  Maybe I heard wrong though, I never touched the game.

So yeah, I'm hoping that there are server transfers.  And if it's anything like a real MMO, the number of players the server can allow should and would never be a problem.

EDIT: Let me restate that.  I hope there are reasonable provisions for voluntary server transfers.  If the game just shunts you into a server based on availability, or traps in one server forever, then I'll be mad.

[Soulwynd]

Oh, I think you misunderstood me or I wasn't clear. I meant each mission plays somewhat like a CSS (or any other online fps) round, except you don't go around picking servers between a few matches and facing stance loading screens. It's all smooth without any transitions.

They do work with several servers, each able to hold 100 players. How and if you can transfer a character from one to another, they haven't said yet.

[Aqizzar]

They do work with several servers, each able to hold 100 players. How and if you can transfer a character from one to another, they haven't said yet.

Well, that's exactly what I was worried about.  Time will tell I suppose.

Having now watched the video, I already have a couple problems.  More than anything, I think the vehicles are a cop-out.  I love vehicles and putting them in MMOs sounds like a blast, but what's on display there is goddamn lazy.  If driving is going to be such an important part of gameplay, as it would appear, you think they would have made it a little more elaborate than the exact same problems driving games have had from the beginning.

Utterly binary throttle - you're either going or not going.  The cars wander all over the road with no appreciation of momentum or ability to hold to a straight line.  And several times he clearly plowed into other cars or solid walls at 45mph with virtually nothing to show for it.  I know they're going for a more arcade feel than realism, but tighter controls and an incentive to drive well would be nice.

I think the markers over people's heads is lazy too.  In game about cops versus robbers where everyone looks like a gangsta, it would have added a fantastic level of mindgaming if you had to guess by context and socialization who's good and bad.  But no, just a floating marker.

And this might be too much to ask for, but I'm disappointed to know that people involved in one "quest" or another (you think they have a more urban term) can't interfere with each other.  What's the point of putting everyone in one play area if you never actually effect each other aside from formally joining the action?  It completely eliminates the possiblity of Tarantino-esque hilarity of different heists and stings blundering into each other by accident.

[Soulwynd]

I think I may have lost faith in vehicles in any free roaming game, so it didn't even bother me to be honest, but now that you pointed it out, yeah, the handling seems bad. But it has been in most games with this style, I hope they will try to improve it however.

Yeah, I hated the floating marker. I guess that keeps things simple, but at the same time takes away that... who's who deal from the game.

They mentioned you can't? That will suck. I hoped anyone could join in. I know they mentioned people do join in when you call for backup.

[Pandarsenic]

nvolved in one "quest" or another (you think they have a more urban term) can't interfere with each other.  What's the point of putting everyone in one play area if you never actually effect each other aside from formally joining the action?  It completely eliminates the possiblity of Tarantino-esque hilarity of different heists and stings blundering into each other by accident.

I WANT THAT SO MUCH ;~;

[inteuniso]

nvolved in one "quest" or another (you think they have a more urban term) can't interfere with each other.  What's the point of putting everyone in one play area if you never actually effect each other aside from formally joining the action?  It completely eliminates the possiblity of Tarantino-esque hilarity of different heists and stings blundering into each other by accident.

I WANT THAT SO MUCH ;~;

You know what's awesome? You can!

He mentions that in the chaos ruleset, you can mess up other people's missions. Two gangs heisting the same bank, anyone?

[Soulwynd]

Oh yeah. In chaos you can shoot anyone at any time (not sure if there's friendly fire or not). I bet it must be hard to travel. Hmm. I will totally want to play on chaos most of the time.

[head]

GAH I GOT SELECTED FOR BETA TEST.

ARAWRAW DOWNLOADING NOAWS.

[Goron]

Heh, I have a feeling I won't be selected until the very last round(s) if at all.
In the input space that was something like 'Why would you be a good beta tester?' or something like that I wrote (paraphrased):

Honestly, I'm not going to go out of my way to find awkward bugs or issues. I'll play for my own personal evaluation. Think of me as a perfect stress test candidate. But, I'll likely report issues I do find

I've late beta'd too many games to care anymore, and I never feel like devoting the time or attention to an early beta. I did it a couple times with some of the early MMORPGs but it feels too much like work  for me to do for free:-)
So recently my beta applications are pretty weak- but I still usually get in the late beta (along with the rest of the world) anyways.

[fenrif]

GAH I GOT SELECTED FOR BETA TEST.

ARAWRAW DOWNLOADING NOAWS.

Are they doing another playtest this weekend?

[head]

GAH I GOT SELECTED FOR BETA TEST.

ARAWRAW DOWNLOADING NOAWS.

Are they doing another playtest this weekend?

I hope so. the beta forums calender doesn't make sense at all.

[fenrif]

GAH I GOT SELECTED FOR BETA TEST.

ARAWRAW DOWNLOADING NOAWS.

Are they doing another playtest this weekend?

I hope so. the beta forums calender doesn't make sense at all.

Yeah its confusing, the servers were up for a weekend, and then there was no new info... and now the playtime page is giving me 404 errors ¬_¬