John-Enee Merriex: I remember getting the call from our COO, where he asked me what I thought about APB. I said it was a pretty good game at which point he asked if Gamersfirst should buy it and I yelled ‘YES!’. It’s got all the great components of a great MMO.
From that we got the game and then examined it from the ground up. From a high-level design perspective, APB was originally designed to be an RPG with the idea that the higher level the player is, the better stuff they had. This meant that as a new player, you pretty much sucked at everything. You couldn’t shoot very well or drive in a straight line. This had to change to something more enjoyable, so we changed the direction of the game.
So we have made the game more skill-based, with players using certain weapons becoming more specialised in their use. So players will come in as jack-of-all trades and then as they play they get better and better in one specific area. Later on they can specialise in other skills as they progress through the game. That idea has underlain all of the changes we have done.
SPOnG: Can you give us some examples of how this new design philosophy has permeated APB Reloaded?
John-Enee Merriex: Sure! For example the new starter weapon is the SCAR that is one of the most powerful guns in the game. Looking at the kill rates during the beta, this is one of the most popular weapons. It’s a multi-situational gun as well as being powerful, hence its popularity.
New players also get frag grenades right off the bat, again a change from the original game. We’ve also reduced the recoil affect from gun fire and improved the accuracy marker by narrowing the reticule when the shot will be more accurate.
SPOnG: Tell me about the driving mode, have you addressed the issues from the original game?
John-Enee Merriex: Well we changed the starter vehicle, with the original offering the worst in the game. Instead we offer not the best vehicle, but it does handle the best and cannot be easily flipped over! It has really good acceleration but the lowest top speed. So you won’t go very fast, but you will get around the city and because it’s so small you can drive to places other vehicles can’t.
We’ve also spent a lot of time and resources reducing latency as that really affects driving dramatically. We’ve even built our own ISPs across North America and Europe to ensure this is addressed as it’s been a real focus of ours.
SPOnG: You hinted earlier that you have changed character progression. Can you explain what you have done to it?
John-Enee Merriex: Previously there were organisations and contacts that you had to do missions for that then fed to more contacts and more organisations. We’ve done away with that now and have also streamlined the way in which missions are handed out. These can be called up at any time rather than requiring the player to find a contact and get the mission in person. We want to make it easier for people to play the game.
John-Enee Merriex: We have a lot of plans including clan vs clan combat with a ranking system and tournaments. We will then move on to implement turf wars that will enhance the PvP aspect of the game by including areas of the city under control of parts of the city. Then we will be looking into making hideouts, much like a guild house in fantasy-based MMO’s. Finally there will be a racing district that we’re really looking forward to creating. This will have vehicles fully armed to the teeth.
SPOnG: Thank you for your time.
APB Reloaded is currently in open beta for the PC and it will be fully released later this year.