APB Dev. Blog :: July 5th, 2009 Options

Alright before we get started, Happy 4th of July to those of you in the US. Hope you had a safe and fun weekend, possibly involving the grilling of meat and the detonating of small explosives. Last week we skipped out on the blog a little bit as we were finishing some things up. If you checked back on the prior one, PointlessAmbler uploaded some new preview shots of the Heavy Tank which had a few adjustments made since you last saw it.

If you didn't catch that, go look now. Okay, now to get started. Game Updates were also posted for the Luna crates and the new M16, so check those out as well.

New M16A2 and Soviet lunar crate - Click for Thread

Gamma Updates

Technician Party - Click for Big

We had a pretty good weekend with some solid testing logged, identifying some balance problems that slipped through (like the overcompensating Mechanic who can outrepair the combined attack power of an RPG, Hind, and Tesla Tank) and introducing a little extra polish to existing effects. We weren't screwing around all this time, we promise.

During the testing we managed to record a little bit of video, which you can watch below. There is a new YouTube account we've set up for posting videos like this, which might encourage us to do it more often so you can see things as they actually play out. In this, you can see some of the new weaponry effects, including the Dragon's Breath shotgun shells finally being visible, and some improvements to the SAM, RedEye, LAW, and V2 appearances. If you watch closely you might also notice the Hind's had some significant performance improvements.

Gamma Test Video - Click for Play

Update

If you are concerned about the shotgun appearance, a quick reminder: our shotguns aren't shooting buckshot, they are actually shooting a combination of zarconium and phosphorus. They are incendiary shells which is why you take lasting burn damage from them. You can check out some real ones firing at this link and in related videos.

SAM Updated

Click for Big

R34ch redid the SAM missile so I went ahead and slapped a texture on the thing, then redid its smoke, thruster, and sound. It also uses the new impact marks. R34ch is actually also in the process of redoing the SAM launcher itself, so look forward to seeing that in a later blog, possibly next week. Here are some shots of me bothering the defenses on the Gamma version of Seamist. You'll drown if you wander out into the ocean (or are shot down while flying over the water), by the way. In these shots, the SAMs were scaled slightly smaller than what you will see in the video above and in Gamma itself. While on the topic of SAMs, a Mammoth now does much better against aircraft, a V2 will one-shot a Longbow or Hind, and an artillery shell will mortally wound any aircraft it hits.

Click for Big

Handy Update

Eggman's working on the rigging of the hands and their animations for the weapons. We've told you that already, but here are a few shots of what he's working on. More will be shown as they're done, but a full set of these will be present in Gamma. For previews, by the way, we're displaying default blue arms but these will change to fit the unit (so a Technician holding a Beretta won't look the same as a Thief holding one).

New Hand Poses - Click for Big

man I love the new rocket trail effects. That technician party is awesome with their wavy arms (Will they wave their arms like mad every time they run?). I also like the way the grenadier was set on fire rather than the smoldering that is currently being used as a burn effect. The gunfire visual of the shotgun is great. However, I was rummaging through beta's always.dat file and found an alternate shotgun gunshot/reload sound. I'm currently using it ingame, replacing the old renegade shotgun gunshot/reload sound. Will it be set as the default sound once gamma comes out?

Ahaha, I see me getting pwn'd by PA's shotty and me Phasing that guy dead

But yea, it was pretty interesting, not to mention...fun. The new SAM looks awesome...and the shotty's tracers are epic.

xD techy party
shotgun-thing looks somewhat weird
SAMs look much better than in renegade
nice burn effect, but it need improving (?)

WOW this blog gave me goosebumps

WOW, I cant believe how damn good this looks!

You guys really have out done yourselfs!

This is simply AMAZING! Thank you guys for your hard/ but slow :P (jk) work

It really is looking fantastic.

/me like new V-2 smoke. =D

I chuckled when I saw the techie party

Wow, a blog for the ages!

Absolutely loving it, it's amazing what a video can do that typed word cannot.

It looks amazing. I love the new missile smoke effects, the Hind actually defeating a Rocket Soldier and new shotgun effects the most. (looks like it plays amazing too!)
-The Zama Allied base looks a little more imposing with those massive concrete walls up too, although having the river crossable kinda removes the purpose of the bridge, no?
-The new Seamist base arrangement is nice, good to see Tesla Coils returning.
-The only thing I find disagreeable is the V2 one-shotting Longbows/Hinds...Its not RAlistic or fair for that matter. V2 actually did slightly less damage than it does in Beta to helicopters in RA...Just a nitpick though really, considering Longbow will be faster and the Hind seems a bit more maneuverable.

Love the new hands...Gamma is definitely a leap forward in graphical appearance for APB.

Excellent work, guys!

(also: Techy Party is epic, it convinced me you guys were totally not screwing around.)

This post has been edited by EVA-251: Jul 6 2009, 06:33 AM

The only thing I find disagreeable is the V2 one-shotting Longbows/Hinds

It's not like you're gonna be hovering in the air being a sitting duck




Don't talk about the n00bs, even newbs know better than to stay in one place in an FPS

shotgun-thing looks somewhat weird

We never really got this across well in Beta, but it's supposed to be firing something called Dragon's Breath shot, which is a nasty, illegal round.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Breath

It's not like you're gonna be hovering in the air being a sitting duck
Don't talk about the n00bs, even newbs know better than to stay in one place in an FPS

IDK about you, but most of my hits on Longbows with V2s occur when the helicopter is moving. And I suck with the V2.

Techie Party! All looks awesome. Excellent work.

-The only thing I find disagreeable is the V2 one-shotting Longbows/Hinds...Its not RAlistic or fair for that matter. V2 actually did slightly less damage than it does in Beta to helicopters in RA...Just a nitpick though really, considering Longbow will be faster and the Hind seems a bit more maneuverable.

This can be very easily avoided by not approaching a V2 head-on. Sure, some lucky or particularly skilled V2 drivers should be able to pull off an LB kill more often than most people, but the Longbow has a definite advantage in that matchup.

The bridge on Zama is there now for prettiness.
I saw me chating in the video on Zama lol. It was something to do with the Soviet base. :P

Damn, missed the tech party... ;_; Love the new hands and effects!
Epic blarg as always.