APB 2.1 Changes & Building Work news

Downtime & Delay

We recently had some downtime and have moved to what should be a stable host; let me know if you still see any problems cropping up. You might notice we are using a new domain (BluehellProductions.com) but you can go ahead and keep using APathBeyond.com or RenAlert.com if you wish. We still need to work out the details there with Crimson, who has hosted our site and IRC channel for the past several years and is responsible for those domain names. Do note that our IRC channel is still at the same place it has always been, on network irc.n00bstories.com at the #apathbeyond channel.

As we do the bulk of our testing (and a lot of development) on weekends, especially lately due to final exams for many testers/staff, the recent downtime and server migration has set us back slightly but we've got another double-edged sword to place the blame on: feature creep. The 2.1 balance adjustment patch has grown quite a bit as we play the game along with everybody else and watch your reactions, and as the TT engine development team works to fix bugs and solidify new features.

Trees and Performance

It's probably for the best that we've delayed. APB 2.1 is aimed heavily at reducing lag an increasing framerates. For example, on top of all the performance increases already announced (20% here, 30% there, 15% for another reason) we were able to increase performance on the map Zama by another 50% this past week.

Several new sets of trees are part of the reason, such as this smaller deciduous forest shown on The Woods Today. They help us look better, and get past the CPU bottleneck we have run into with vanilla APB 2.0 which translates directly to improved performance. Zama, for example, gained a 50% framerate boost despite adding probably ten times more actual trees, as the newer ones render much faster. The Woods Today now has much more actual woods, but yet again it will unintuitively run faster thanks to the newer trees.

Fabian and ChopBam did a good job with them. There are a few new kinds of trees, although you won't see them all in APB 2.1 as they would not necessarily fit into the existing maps. There are some new pine trees and some new poplar trees, shown here on this dark new mystery map.

Silo Destruction

The final 'base defense' style building to be fixed up, the Ore Silo now has its destruction complete, thanks to Cuddling. Have a look. First, a fiew from the back; then, a video of it in action.

Other New Buildings

A full set of new buildings won't be out until the next major release. In fact, it is pretty much the definition for being the next major release. Here are several buildings being worked on by ChopBam and one mostly complete by Cuddling, next to the old buildings for comparison. Remember, these won't be in APB 2.1, unlike the silo above.

The APB 2.1 Changelist

Here are a few of the things that have changed, gleaned from my (Chronojam's) own notes on the matter. Note that there are several other map changes, code changes, and balance adjustments not reflected here. Many of the map and code changes contribute to increased performance that has been alluded to over the past several news updates.

Reduced support pistol maximum firing rates (Beretta and Makarov)

Added slow auto-fire to all support pistols

Replaced Beretta with Silenced Beretta for Thief

Added quick auto-fire to Silenced Beretta

Increased pistol effective ranges to 50 meters (was 10)

Set build limit on Demo Trucks: 2 at any time (was 4)

Set build limit on MRJ: 2 at any time

Reduced MRJ scrambling volume by 25%

Added MRJ fake EVA warnings

Increased MAD chargeup audio

Increased cloaked visibility distances by 5 meters (Phase Tanks, Gap, Mines)

Reduced Supply Truck mass (cannot ram others easily, shoved more easily)

Replaced Supply Truck acceleration profile (won't take off like a rocket)

Reduced Light Tank turn rate (cannot zig zag quite as quickly)

Adjusted Light Tank ramming capacity (cannot shove others as easily)

Changed Ranger handling to recover from falls and ramming easier when driven

Reduced Ranger steering (turns a little slower and stabler)

Changed V2 handling to recover from falls and ramming easier when driven

Replaced V2 acceleration profile

Increased Ore Truck velocity

Increased Ore Truck mass

Increased Ore Truck turning rate

Mirrored Supply Truck settings to Demolition Truck, but increased its mass further

Increased Supply Truck health to 110 health /110 armor (was 110/0)

Increased Demolition Truck health to 110 health /110 armor (was 110/0)

Reduced Longbow climb to 38k (was 48k)

Reduced Hind climb to 21k (was 28k)

Overhauled helicopter handling

Decreased Grenade secondary inaccuracy to 4 (was 6 degrees)

Changed SAMs to AntiAircraft, better against aircraft and worse against others (was Shell)

Changed AA flak to AntiAircraft, better against aircraft and worse against others (was Explosive)

Increased A-Bomb blast radius to 120 meters (was 100 meters)

Increased A-Bomb damage to 1000 damage (was 785) (could not kill a CY before)

Reduced Sniper speed to 6 (was 6.5)

Incrased Spy Shocktrooper speed to 6 (was 5.5)

Corrected Spy fake weapon effective ranges and hitter types

Changed SVD to behave identically to Enfield (snipers)

Replaced Spy Flamethrower disguise with Spy Sniper disguise

Added proper impact effects to Volkov's weaponry

Fixed impact effects on soldiers

Reduced Repair Tool, Golden Wrench, Mechanic radius

Fixed AOE repair and damage logic (affects repair tool, mechanic, golden wrench, flamethrower detonate)

Increased M60 range to 75 meters

Increased PKM range to 75 meters

Swapped PKM/M60 spray error (1 / .8 degree, respectively)

Increased M60 magazine to 75 rounds

Increased PKM magazine to 75 rounds

Increased M60 velocity to 390

Increased PKM velocity to 390

Increased PKM damage to 12

Incrased M60 damage to 10.25

Changed M60/PKM to use Steel_NoBuilding warhead (former Hind warhead)

Increased Captain/Kapitan price to 250 (was 200)

Replaced Hind Chaingun with Hind Autocannon (blast radius, damage changes)

Incrased Shock Rifle secondary damage to 15 (was 11)

Incrased Shock Rifle secondary spray to 3 (was 2 degrees)

Increased RPG effective range to +3 meters beyond actual

Increased LAW effective range to +3 meters beyond actual

Increased RedEye effective range to +3 meters beyond actual

Adjusted Rocket warhead slightly (better versus Volkov notably)

Set LAW to use Rocket instead of Explosive

Removed LAW guidance/homing

Increased Phase Tank frag damage to 35 (from 30)

Added new locking/theft logic to all vehicles

Added new vehicle theft logic to Spy

Added new vehicle theft logic to Thief (a new ability)

Added friendly Mine radar visibility (an X on radar for each mine)

New AP Mine graphics

New AT Mine graphics

Added cloak effect to mines

Increased AP Mine health to 60 (was 40)

Increased AT Mine health to 60 (was 40) plus 120 weak hitpoints

Decreased AP Mine blast to 4.5 meters, scaled (was 7 unscaled)

Decreased AT Mine damage to 600 (was 700)

Increased AT Mine blast to 8.5 meters, scaled (was 8 unscaled)

Decrased AP Mine detection radius to 4 meters (was 6)

Set Mine Limit to 800

Changed GoldenWrench to destroy mines

Decreased GoldenWrench swing rate by around 50%

Increased Minelayer ammo to 8 (was 5)

Increased V2 blast to 36 meters (was 30)

Moved APC to Tech Level 2

Moved Snipers to Tech Level 3

Moved Longbow to Tech Level 4

Moved Hind to Tech Level 4

Removed newline \n from all weapon names

Removed newline \n from all vehicle names

Added strings to all weapons that lacked them

Renamed Technician Tool to Repair Tool

Fixed Ctrl-3 radio command

Fixed Ctrl-Alt-0 radio command

Shortened preset names for many objects to under 12 for proxy purposes

Created "Z Powerups" for Zunnie- Captain, Mechanic, Medic, Rocket, Sniper, Spy, Tanya

Created unscripted "Z Powerups" as icons

Added clustered trees and new deciduous forest trees

Replaced many conventional single trees on maps with clustered arrangements

Added Guard Tower as LE placed object

Reduced door activation zone size (you must get closer now)

Added several new strings for mapmakers

Adjusted Civ_Cannon settings to remove stealth and correct exit zones

Removed 'cover' from Purchase Terminals (you cannot hide against them to avoid damage)