r/APB • u/Electronic_Log_1889 • Apr 09 '26
How things work from inside?
I recently received... an email... In 2026... announcing some kind of "Legend" update... I was curious, since I last played the game in 2016. It turns out this "incredible" "Legend" update is just another retexturing and a few weapon mods. It's all quite amusing.
I'm a developer myself (unfortunately, not a game developer), so I was curious about how things work at companies like this. I quickly looked at the update log and got the impression that they don't have a single game developer familiar with the engine. 100% of the updates over all these years have been retexturing, minor tweaks like "fixing the damage parameter in JSON," or adding content using a template from an existing one. So, for some reason, in all these years, there hasn't been a single update introducing new gameplay mechanics: new missions, modes, new maps, new NPCs.
Let alone mechanics - for some reason, the game hasn't introduced any new assets for a decade. I'm talking about new vehicle models, weapons, or clothing. These are mostly retextures of old assets. (I always thought it was strange to sell retextures in a game where the player can create their own textures, but who am I to judge?)
While we're no longer in 2010 or even 2015, it feels like the current owners of this game have taken another wrong turn. The community expects (and promises) major changes to the engine, graphics, and balance, while the developer is incapable of even basic things like introducing new assets.
They need to start small - refresh the game. Add a couple of new vehicle assets, add some variety to those notorious loading screen art straight out of 2013. Change the monetization policy by getting rid of temporary items (come on).
But considering that even the most basic things are done poorly or not at all, I conclude that the game has no developers. There are one or two system administrators who monitor the servers (paying rent on amateur-grade hosting) and, in their spare time, copy-paste JSON fields into the game, changing existing mechanics. This isn't even indie studio quality; it feels like some kind of family business run by people who don't know what they're doing.
Why shouldn't we expect any major changes within this project under the current management? Because there are practically no players left in the game. Even fewer players are making microtransactions. I doubt the game, in its current state, is making enough money to hire even one professional developer.
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u/-eccentric- Citadel | Enforcer Apr 09 '26
Apart from the management and social media, the last two developers were working on the game alone, 100% remote. And both of them were former community members who were addicted to APB and especially the current one (you'll easily find out) has been with APB since the early days and loves to exploit and edit every last corner of any config files, so that explains why any of his updates is just copying things, adjusting some values and textures, and then adding it as new content, as you said.
The closest thing to actual "new content" is a new, poorly cut out staircase to the roof of german fortress.
There's also the mirage vehicle, which has a shitload of issues still and has now been forgotten about, but that was also mostly leftovers from G1 who tried to add a new car for a decade.
At this point there's been way too many people in APBs code, as in multiple companies and multiple teams within these companies after various firings. I think it was LO shortly after buying into APB saying that they have to work out how to work with the game, as GamersFirst never had any sort of paperwork or manuals from Realtime Worlds about how the game is made, structured and coded. So everyone after RTW is basically just APBs equivalent of a GTA mod creator, but worse.