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Current state of APB
Rhianne
Member UncommonPosts: 58
GamersFirst has been busy. They have made some tangible, positive adjustments to the game.
1. Lag is much better. Three weeks ago, the entire district would experience spikes lasting 3 to 20 seconds. This doesn't appear to happen anymore, though the game is instead persistently mildly sluggish. But overall it's a much better play experience.
2. Last week, they readjusted the rating system. People that were stuck at a rank indefinitely started to move a bit, and matchmaking was initially improved considerably.
3. Crashing has been improved. Everyone has a different experience, but of those people that used to crash, they could depend on an out-of-memory crash or GPF or other error about once every two hours. Now crashes are about once every 3-4 hours or not at all for those people. Results here vary widely, of course.
4. AFK farmers are almost entirely gone. This was a horrible, showstopping problem back in the RTW days.
5. They introduced a balancing technique that tries to put similarly-skilled players in the same district, but it's a very weak system.
Because of all of the above, I have enthusiastically gotten back into the game and wanted to love it.
Now for the bad news:
1. 3 or 4 days ago, there was a situation where all districts would disconnect people every 5 or 10 minutes. By itself, this was a temporary problem and they fixed it. Unfortunately, whatever was done *appears* to have contributed to #2, below.
2. Matchmaking was better for about a week, and now it sucks again, constantly. It appeared to get chronically worse after the event of 3 or 4 days ago. Mid-silvers can be guaranteed to be put up against a minimum of 2 golds every single match and have their asses handed to them. Backup, if it is ever offered, guarantees the outmatched team will get some buck-toothed noob trainee who makes excellent kill fodder during an important kill contest match.
3. Regarding the skill districting, the game tries to put you in a district with players of similar skill. This is very weak, because players seldom stay in the first district they are assigned. Especially when you encounter hackers and need to switch zones to avoid automatically losing. Worse, once you are in Financial or Waterfront, there is no way to intentionally have the game pick a good zone for you! You have to manually choose a district, which bypasses the entire idea.
4. Pay to Win! Premium accounts get extra cash and standing, which means they get better weapons, equipment, and cars faster. Worst of all are the P2W weapons. The Whisper gun is a close-range SMG that makes virtually no noise and has the best (level 3) damage enhancement. This gun costs a person something like $24 for 180 days of use (I refuse to stoop to this level and have never bought it so this price might be off). In the hands of someone that is already decent, this gun gives them a painfully unfair advantage in damage capacity and being able to know where your enemy is. For those of you who disagree that the Whisper is unfair, why did you rush out and buy it, then? It really is awful. You can still fight against a person with a Whisper in close quarters, but it's irritating as hell to know it's not a fair fight and that they paid extra to get something you can't otherwise get in the game. Too many people love the Whisper (generally those with lower sportsmanship standards), and they've sold too many to remove it from the game. This is one of those situations where I belive the profit-making need went too far and has irreparably hurt the game. Some manager decided to cash in on the greed of children.
5. Cheating. O M F G. It looked like cheating was becoming more rare as early as two weeks ago. Since then, however, it has been a plague that, it has been said before, will destroy this game. It seems to be worst during the mid-day hours when foreigners play and they won't even speak your language when you call them out on their obvious hacks. Anyway, some people are good. Some people are very good. And then there are people that just plain cheat and just don't care. They don't. They'll happily say it's your fault, and to get better, all the while blatantly using cheats without a care or a thought that they're sending a game that took thousands of hours to make into the grave. I don't know if GF is doing anything at all about this, but it is driving customers away. If they wait until non-beta to finally do something about it, there will only be cheaters left.
If you are really unfamiliar with the cheating problem in APB, please watch any of the many APB hacks videos on YouTube. You'll see the visual tracking of all people in the game, through walls with ranges, etc. and aimbotting that hits opponents in the head with every single shot.
It was recently pointed out in chat that, for cheaters, why even pay for an overpowered gun from the cash shop when you can buy the hacks from a third party and win with any gun?
Conclusion: Though some visible progress has been made, cheating (primarily) and P2W (secondarily) have put this game on a downward spiral toward death again. That's quite a shame, because the game can be really fun to play otherwise. It's also a shame that the selfishness of a few can and will destroy the game for everyone.
Comments
i havent touched APB in a month or 2 i dont mind hackers or campers as i have enough skill to notice when they are cheating and how to deal with them (if im able to) but the game just makes me rage.. 1 hit kill rockets to the head or ones that miss completely and hit the wall on the other side of the street killing you. people 1 hitting you with a pistol or a stun gun from more then 20 feet away.. game has/had promise but frankly the blatant abuse ingame makes the enjoyment very low. while its fun to drive around blaring music and smashing junk.. actual battling is more of a miss and miss, while you can compete against anyone with anygun. people who RMT for bonuses will always pwn you
i thought of going back and playing it again.. but frankly id rather play war inc on steam which sucks more then apb at this point, until i know for a fact i wont run in to unwinnable matches or people blatantly cheating
It's funny that the best points I picked out were similar to yours: fixing of lag and the absence of AFK teammates. Other than that, this game is still a steaming pile of dog poop.
Matchmaking is a game breaker. If Gamersfirst fixed this, the game may actually be playable for new players. *COUGH* Districts LOCKED by character rank 1-50, 50-100, 100+. The entire system of "threat" is completely moronic and open to abuse.
The community is still full of psychopaths who treat one another like crap.
Driving is even more horrible now than it was back in the day, the people of San Paro need to go out and buy tires that have some tread on them - many vehicles feel like they have completely bald tires.
I have just one question on item 4 but phrased a number of different ways.
A) Are you playing for free and expecting to have the same advantage of people with subs?
C) Are you playing for free and expecting to have the same advantage as people with a sub and that are using the cash shop
D) Are you paying a sub and pissed that people have an advantage that are using the cash shop?
E) Are you paying a sub usng the cash shop and pissed that people are spending more money than you to gain an advantage?
Its a complex issue (which is why I despise the business model) and was wondering what point of view you were coming from, if its A,B or C, then you have only yourself to blame for playng the game and expecting something for free.
If its D then its a P2W game and see my last response.
If its E then your one of those people that are contributing to the what I think is the wholesale slaughter of a once honest business model.
Hi Snap,
It sounds like you despise the P2W business model like I do, almost.
Here's what I expect: a fair, balanced game. I expect a game to follow one simple ethical rule:
Anything that affects core gameplay should be available to everyone in order to be fair, whether they pay or not.
As a correllary to this rule, in a "free" game, you should not be required to make purchases just for the priveledge of having a fair and balanced experience.
Ideally, paid materials should be a convenience for those that want to buy them, not an advantage that is unobtainable to those that don't pay. Sadly, APB breaks this one rule immediately with Pay to Win weapons like the Whisper, which gives players a huge tactical advantage that you can't get without paying.
The premium model, on the other hand, is actually ok. If you want to advance faster by paying, that's really completely fine. Now, the fact that the game will routinely match helpless lowbies against vastly overpowered overequipped players is one of the biggest failures of the game, but that's poor design, not a consequence of premium accounts.
Should paying customers get something? Absolutely. Faster advancement? Sure. Better cosmetic customizations? Sure. Faster equipment unlocks? Sure. Increased chances of getting free stuff after finishing missions? Sure.
Try playing chess against someone that paid a few bucks for an extra queen or two. It just ruins the entire point of the game. Especially when they predictably kick your ass and then tell you to get better.
Personally, I dont understand the motivation to cheat in a F2P game. Seriously, someone thinks its a good idea to go buy an aimbot to play a F2P game? You have to suck at the highest level to need to cheat in a free game. Strangely, APB does have a lot of hackers. You can see the list each week of hundreds of morons who are so terrible at video games, they spend money to buy a hack.
Its like taking your cousin to the prom, people might think you actually found a girl who likes you but deep down, we both know your a loser.
Oh, it gets better. The GF crew recently made some very long-overdue bans (see http://apbreloaded.gamersfirst.com/).
As you might expect, there are people that pay for an unfair advantage (Pay to Win), and there are people that remorselessly hack.
Then there are those that are so selfish and pathetic that they will do everything in their power to ruin the game for everyone else as long as they "win." Nearly 50% of hackers also paid to win!
There are some interesting stats for the crew we banned (and to give you an indication how this was NOT a 'public' or 'easy' cheat ban). Nearly 50% were paid accounts (!). Some had 1500 HOURS of game play (that's 240 hours a month for the period one of the players played!). Some had spent a lot of money. And they STILL could not keep themselves from breaking the rules and destroying the game experience for those around them. It's all VERY SAD.
Kudos to the GF team. Please keep up the banning!
That's good and all... but all these 'banned' hackers have created a new account are simply back in game - just login and have a look at all the high gold r>50 accounts.
And it took them, what, 6+ months to ban them? So saying 50% were paid accounts also means squat, considering it's likely the majority of them simply bought a one month rental of a whisper... which expired 5 months ago.
There are a few (FEW) games who do F2P the right way, one of them is League of Legends. APB on the other hand is the definition of P2W.
I paid for a subscription. But basically you get fuck all + some discount for the cash shop. The guns in the cash shop are better. They're modified with attachments which can't be bought ingame. Trust me, APB is bad. But it's more because of G1.
One of the only games where a trainee can be put up against 195 golds who are pay to win.
Also one of the few games where I can compete with many low-gold players 1v1, and in the very next game get completely rolled 1v1 by some silver... I've played this game since RTW owned it, I know what's possible, and I usually - overly even - give people the benefit of the doubt, but there are times when I just put my face in my palm and sigh.
This game is absolutely brutal. Don't expect any kind of level playing field - ever. It just does not exist. If people don't out gear/level/threat you, they will use whatever advantage they can get over you - camping high ground, difficult places to reach, etc. It's all part of the game though, and consistent with good strategy (put yourself out of reach from being killed and you will never die, which is basically part of the "Art of War").
I wouldn't care if this game did the circular dance around the toilet bowl before going down the drain... but I just don't see that happening with the overly-competitive nature of psychopathic humans who want to dominate and destroy others and have a few extra $$ laying around. If you play this game, I hope you have thick skin and masochistic desires.
...
Just uninstalled the game after playing for 4 hours and not being able to compete with anyone I was placed against. I can normally flank and if not, I can normally get in close range with an OCA and compete with the best. The last 4 hours were just so utterly brutal that even in a 6v3 my team of 6 was getting destroyed by people who were holding what should have been indefensible ground. Followed by match after match of people who always knew where I was coming from, completely unable to flank anyone at all. People will never cease to amaze me, it's not about competition or a good fight, it's about winning. How sad.
Terrible game. "Pay to win" concept is lame. Programming is terrible. Community sucks. Sorry, but I can't think of anything good with this game.
the one good thing about this game... the customization ... its hands down the best i have seen in a long time. wish more games had similar options for toons or whatever
rather then being the 1002988th person with a "neon green bob"cut hair style or the asian spikes from dragonball...
So after not playing for nearly 3 months, I decided to log in to APB and see if they've made things any better.
NOPE. I have an R44 enforcer with no upgrades and no weapons of any consequence, but because she's gold, I get placed up against R195s CONSTANTLY. Half of them paid to win with whispers AND are R195.
Really, please, somebody, explain to me why Gamers First continues to believe that absurdly mismatched teams are a way to run a game.
Today I was on a team that was R17 + R44 + R20 vs R195, R195, R 152. So yeah, basically 80 vs 550. Who the #@*% makes decisions like this?!?
For a short while today I thought I would be able to come back to this game and have some fun. Sadly, no.
Any recent updates on the game...seems like aghost town on the forums here.
State of the game update please.
I was hoping someone else would chime in on this, since I tend to be pretty critical of the game and its faults. I, like a decent number of other people it seems, play the game in bursts. The game can be fun under the right conditions, but those conditions are very hard to come by. I have fun for a while, then have unfun for a long while, and then stop playing again.
Anyway, with regard to your question:
In the last two weeks of February 2012 or so, the game seems to have become inundated with rabid mobs of immature, prepubescent trolls. (Colby server.) At about the same time, perhaps a little longer, it has become increasingly evident that the hackers are back. There was a fairly successful purge of hackers at the end of last year, and it looks like it lasted for a while. But since cheat-providing companies are in the business of ruining the enjoyment of hundreds in the name of profit, they appear to have been busy updating their cheats.
I don't know if the two are related. I'm guessing they probably are. So, what you have are bored, pathetic 13-year-olds who get their kicks, not from the game itself, but from launching acrid, hate-filled insults at anyone that will listen to them in global chat. And if anyone responds to them, 3-5 others will pounce on them. The insults often don't even make sense and are designed to irritate anyone with any sense of morality or intelligence, both of which are shunned by this group. Yes, I know this is the very definition of trolling and a sensible person simply wouldn't respond. But when you're actually trying to play the game and watch the chat panel for important information, it's just annoying to have your chat cluttered with pre-teens spouting "y u so mad brah?" like mindless r-tards at anyone and everyone that says anything, ever.
The game has a maximum number of people you can ignore, which is just a dumb (and lazy) design decision.
Weapon and equipment disparity is as bad as it has ever been, and GF has no interest in fixing it. That's how they make money. It has even been made slightly worse with the Valentine's day event. The Tommy gun is kind of like an upgraded OCA with more bullets or miniature light machine gun. Details and video can be found in an article here: http://my.mmosite.com/ecc3fa76e45f658b27b57693d41a9053/blog/item/b0794ded910288b4afc0479f85558843.html.
And some people read that this weapon was supposed to time out in 10 days and didn't work through the levels to unlock it. Then surprise, it's permanent! (And available for a price in the cash shop.)
There are two new "Fight Club" zones. The only one that's ever populated is the shipping container zone from Waterfront. It's a crim vs. enforcer fight of generally around 6-15 people on a side, first side to 100 kills wins. The payout for a win is pretty weak. This can be somewhat fun as a diversion. Some problems, though: you can't kick anyone from your side, so if you have some jackass that's teamkilling, there's nothing you can do about it. One day there was even someone running around with their microphone on solid with their foreign language radio playing in the background. They couldn't be kicked, and since they don't speak English, they didn't respond to any of the dozens of messages telling him to shut the **** up.
The game is still only fun if you have a good group or clan you can team with. If you don't have this (or they all gave up on the game), you might get lucky and get a random good group of people that you can team with. This happens about 20% of the time.
Zones are now color coded. If you're gold and enter a silver zone, you get a 25% reward penalty. While this is the start of a good idea, it's barely half baked. Gold zones tend to be harsh gold zones. Maxed out players, heavily P2W twinks, and maxed out, heavily P2W twink clans live here. If you're just a casual gold player with no clan, you will just get destroyed and it won't even be a contest.
So, casual golds often travel into the silver zones, even with the penalty, and the occasional casual gold among good silvers is often a fair fight.
The problem is, those aforementioned maxed out, heavily P2W twink clans, never interested in a fair fight to begin with, will also go to the silver zones and obliterate silver players. Since they're already maxed out and pay for premium, the penalty means nothing to them.
Some will say that there are sometimes no gold zones to go to. That's actually true sometimes. But then it's arguable that there are no active gold zones because the golds are all busy farming in the silver zones.
Anyway, long enough post. Thanks for reading.
I joined 4 of my friends to play apb, and it was actually really fun for a while until we started facing countless aimbots and people who were ranked 190+, it was almost impossible to win some matches, that and the fact when we did win alot of the time some of us would get sent offensive messages for 'camping' etc, i even got a death threat once which was quite surprising just because i had dropped a mission item and it subsequently lost the mission.
But it wasn't just this that made us leave it was the lack of imagination in terms of mission types and objectives that really got to us, we ended up getting bored to tears after 2 weeks, that sided with the terrible community that comes with these sorts of games and well you have yourself a crock of sh*t.
The customization i think should be sold on however to a more competent company, possible even for single player games and open world games, if there is one redeeming feature it is that.
i enjoyed everything about the game other than the Missions and the trolls. allow me to go screw around, mug people, rob stores. cool, even the occasional cop that saw me made the game more fun. but as soon as i got passed the Tier 1 contacts i was forced into missions. and that killed the game for me.
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Well, I went back to the game and played a while after a 3 month absence. For a brief period of time, I genuinely had fun.
There have been some cosmetic changes, new cars, and a few new weapon mod variants. But the horrific stupidity of the designers when it comes to game balance is ever present.
I worked on my new enforcer character, who is R70. The new max is R215.
Unless you pay extra, normal R70 means you finally got your first 1-slot gun and can get a wimpy level 1 mod. You can afford a crappy car that's faster than what you started with. You also probably have two level 1 character mods that make you heal trivially faster and keep you from dying from a short fall. So probably +3 in overall mods. (3 level 1 mods.) You've probably purchased 2 or 3 different guns, but only one is modded.
R200+ means you have basically any weapon you want, and you probably have every possible gun you need for any situation. Your main gun has PLUS NINE in mods: +3 of accuracy, +3 increased rate of fire, +3 heavy barrel, etc., etc. You have an amazing car that is super fast, has turbo boost, and can withstand extra damage from all incoming attacks. You have ultrapowerful sniper rifles, automatic modded supershotguns that kill in 2 shots, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, light machine guns, and more, all the best that money could buy. You have +3 ultra healing that starts the moment you take damage and a +3 mod that allows you to survive falls from nearly any height.
R200+ means you've also been playing for months, have huge amounts of experience, and very likely have joined a clan of others that are enormously powerful.
Fortunately, R200+ groups rarely encounter R70 groups.
OH WAIT, I WAS WRONG. IT HAPPENS ALL THE F**KING TIME!!!!
Any intelligent person would look at the TYPICAL pairing and see a full group of 3 to 4 maxed out insanely overpowered R200+ characters vs. a hopelessly outclassed, outequipped scrubby group of R50-R100s and exclaim, "What selfish, chubby, nine year old bucktoothed retard was put in charge of this game's matchmaking system?!?"
I tried a new outlook on the game this time. I decided that, despite the game's rampant, seething unfairnesses, I would just let it slide and do the best I could.
But when you've got +3 in mods and the enemy has +15, it's like a slingshot vs. a flamethrower. And when it happens ALL THE TIME, it's impossible for a lowbie to have any fun at all.
Oh, there is one other difference in the game since 3 months ago.
The population is down by about half of what it was in February. Right now, Sunday night with a holiday tomorrow (Memorial Day), there are only about 800 people playing on the Colby server.
Guess that's what happens when you utterly ignore game balance, player experience, customer feedback, and customer satisfaction and instead focus all of your efforts on the cash shop.
Hi Rhianne,
The log in servers are down, and the gamersfirst website, so my search for the issue lead me here. That, coupled with your post, actually caused me to register to this forum, so thank you.
You are absolutely correct that the match making is bogus. T's against golds, etc. This is mainly due to golds being on lower threat servers than they are supposed to be, however, if you get on a server that is decently populated, 90% of the time the golds will get to have fun playing with themselves, waiting for the last minute on objectives, hoping to get opposition.
You have 3 types of gold players: those that want easy opp (described above), those that play on gold districts like they are supposed to, and hackers (which are a rapidly dying breed and are rarely seen anymore).
Silver servers are your best bet for evenish play, depending on how good you are (golds looking for "easy" opp dont want too much of a challenge, hell, a silver might actually kill them). And being good does not mean loads of experience, or lots of cool gadgets. Other than the happy landings character mod (so you can jump off stuff), you don't need any of the things you listed that the R200 get as an "advantage." Every mod has a pro and a con. The bigger the pro, the bigger the con. Clotting agent for example. Yes, you start healing sooner, but it takes longer. I actually prefer unmodded weapons. Some say they are the best. Granted, situationally, a grenade launcher or an osmaw is a huge boon. But its not insurmountable. Neither are gold players. They are not immortal. In fact, the ones you run into on bronze threat servers are the one's that suck the most as far as golds are concerned. All you have to do is FLANK and have decent aim.
Flanking is very important. However, 90% of your fun in this game is dictated by who you have standing next to you, or better, who is running up on your opposition from the other side. Find players that use the in game voice chat. Communication is always key. And remember, this game is objective based. Go for the objective, not kills. If someone putses around and doesn't go for objectives, kick em, or dont group with them. This isnt TDM.
There are a few other guiding principles to know as well. If you are using a Star, or another long ranged weapon that basically requires the use of marksman mode, stay about 40 or more meters away. Find high ground, or positions across the street. If you are using an OCA, or another hip fire weapon, remember to wiggle. Dash left and right when being shot at. They can't track you as fast as you can run. The key in this game is get there first, and get set up. Always look around for things to climb up on.
I play on Colby as well, so if you ever want some tips, or someone to play with, my enforcers are Zanvan and Vanzan187. My Crims are FuckYourCouch and Slamhound. (I created a fresh account, less than rank 30, no mods, and it's still a Gold threat account. You just gotta play smart.)
Hello Zanvan,
Welcome aboard. It's good to have another sociable and intelligent voice in the forums. I'd almost caution against displaying your game names here, but then very few people actually come here.
Thank you for your generous offer. I will have to look you up sometime provided my tolerance for the game lasts. Or maybe start a new account like you did--that's a good idea.
I hate to say it but I logged into APB Reloaded recently and I have to say this game is done for at least on my server it is quite empty compared to when ABR Reloaded first launched, and when RTW released the game.
APB Reloaded has so many hackers it isn't funny and that right there drives me away, but what is even worse is G1 customer service, and their management of both APB Reloaded, and Fallen Earth it is very bad.
** APB Reloaded could have been so much more, the only reason I like the game really is freedom to customize characters, but better missions, and Real Story would be great. I would love to see a company who could actually turn APB into something like Saints ROW.**
For example APB Reloaded feels Pay 2 Win, they removed the old way that RTW had people selling things for RTW points which was a mistake, restricted perm guns for everyone and seriously the game is dead now.
Fallen Earth pretty much the same thing Single Player or PVE it is okay, but once you get PVP people are Aimbotting, Exile Gamers the clan are harassing peeople, and pretty much it is two or three factions with the strongest clan dictators telling people how to play their game. G1 does nothing about any of it because they as a clan have al of members when these type of dictator clans their leaders should be suspended/punished for their clan constantly harassing people which is what goes on and btw the leader of Exile is one of the ones who did harassing, along with their officer they should be gone from the FE community because what they do political was not wanted.
I spent a total of over $200 in Fallen Earth, even still have a subscription which will expire in 2 months, but in its current state with the clan harassment, and politics which G1 will not remove friendly fire because these Troll clans want to be able to have dictatorship similar to Face OF Mankind, I will say it was a wasted subscription, and currently I have no plans of returning to APB, or Fallen Earth for that matter.
G1 seriously needs new management for both these games, not only because of the stalking issue, but because their recent patch with Fallen Earth nerfs F2P members so bad that a lot of people don't like the changes but did they revert or change it back yet, the answer is no.
G1 is just a very bad company whoever is in management of these games/services needs to be FIRED, or quit their JOB and give someone who knows how to actually run a company that responsibility, and that is really what I have to say because both these games are totally dead now in my eyes.
G1 just might go bankrupt or be forced to close down some of their games/services soon if people stop paying, or in the most stop development on a lot of their games aka they need to make profit, but are going all about it wrong and have probabily ruined themselves as a company...
Anyone have a report on how much income G1 has made this year compared to the other years?
first this dude says he have enough skill to deal with hackers and on same breath is raging about hacks. jesus.
i popped here to see if there would be a decent conversation going in about the state of game since im about to give it a go again but seems like its more of a same state where it was when i left last time.
conclusion until punkbuster is changed to something that actually works this game is unplayable, so i wish that server files would be released so one could run this whole game and play with non cheating friends only against computer police or criminals.
cheers
I honestly seem to manage, I don't see your complaints really. G1 is banning often now.
APB is a great game. I have about 400 hours logged on my Enforcer. I'm a member of WASP inc. I'll tell you right now that guns you buy with real money are never better then guns you earn. Its about time VS money. Which one do you have more of? For instance, i bought a car and got a joker box with it that contained a 3 day whisper. I suck with the whisper, i couldnt hit anything. Normally i run around with an Obeya, Joker, JG1140 or a oca. The only gun i use with mods is the JG. The others are stock. I can say that i barely ever lose. Let me tell you why.... TEAM MEMBERS! Being in WASP inc. I have many possible team mates i can play with at any time. I know how they play, i know what they are going to do and we COMMUNICATE (TS3). The key to this game is to find your niche. CQB? Sniper? Figure out your role and master it! You really need to group with people you play well with too. I almost always lose if i group via the LFG function. When i play with clan mates, I win. This game is a lot of fun. yeah, there will always be players that are better then you. If you play the game long enough though, you might get just as good as them. Now, there are hackers. I see them every day. But you CAN beat them. They arent immortal in ANY WAY. And by the way, there are no headshots in this game. I feel as though APB is a really good game. It is fair aswell. You cant assume you're going up against a random selection of players. There are A LOT of clans in this game that are tight, play well, and communicate. Find a clan to play with, communicate, cordinate and DOMINATE!
Seriously, a GREAT game!
Just wanted to add my personal thoughts about the matchmaking system...
Even since RTW days it has always been a flawed system, its not that it doesnt work or that the numbers are wrong, the entire problem is that it is a system designed to work with a pool of many more players than it ever gets.
If you take 90 players (a full zone), chances are 20% will be 'non ready' or not participating in the system, another 50% will already be matched and thus not in the system so you end up with around 10-20 players who are looking for a match. Now take into consideration that many of these players are already grouped and the system suddenly has a tiny pool of players to match thus the only possible outcome is that your bronze/silver guys will be matched to a gold.
There have been alot of suggestions about how to fix this problem but considering the best G1 could do was add a overall threat rating to each district and add reward penalties on these, its unlikely the system will ever be fixed.
In addition the system does not take into account your 'Rating' (note not threat rating but overall time played rating.) This results in players who have been playing the game for months being pitched against players who have been playing a day, its brutal but when you take into account the already tiny pool of players above, it would only make the problem worse.
There are of course those special moments when your pitched against equal opponents, and have a mission that could go either way, but if you find yourself in a loop of facing the same 'insert obsessed clan' gold god players, your best bet is to either take a 5 min break (to allow that pool of players to move into the already matched) or swap districts so that your pool of potential matches is swapped entirely.