xREL.v3

Closed Beta 1 - Public Release Notes

Progression

Reworked from the ground up, primary changes are as follows:

Organization Leveling has been removed from game.
Leagues removed from the game until we can implement in a less exploitable way (League Display points are now either free or purchasable from the auction house).
Contacts split into Weapon and Vehicle contacts, rewards split accordingly.
Adjusted rating requirements for each contact level. This has decreased at low levels and increased at high levels.
Majority of Existing Roles moved to Achievements. All achievements moved to 1 level only and rewards removed.
Rebalanced Achievement requirements.
This includes Car Thief.
Added Roles for each piece of equipment and each weapon niche. Advancing these roles unlocks weapon upgrades and high level equipment/open slot weapons.
Levels in Roles and Achievements no longer count towards your rating. It is now purely based on contact progression.
Added Random Rewards (that are only gifted once), for unlocking each symbol, some pieces of jewelry, and emotes. Each contact unlocks different random rewards (around 50% chance at mission end, depending on mission performance).
Reworked item costs for all items. Preset cost lowered, Customisable Asset prices increased. Weapon prices increased, Upgrade prices increased.
Reduced Costs of Heat Buyoff to a trivial level.
Removed unused tutorial contacts (Simon Tran/Pagan Bloodrose) from progression trees.

Gameplay and Miscellaneous

Your group members now show on your radar.
Fixed the issue where players would accidentally get into the back seat of cars when their characters were next to the front doors (original calculation was based on reticule location). Now only the front doors are considered valid options if the car is empty (note: did anyone ever really want to hang out alone in the back-seat? if so – Closed Beta participants are welcome to weigh in).
The death camera now rotates towards your killer instead of looking at your ragdoll to provide better awareness of how you died.
Fixed the railing grid material used extensively in Waterfront, which did not originally allow bullets to pass through it. Now player can shoot through railings properly.
Added new roof access to the San Paro Port Authority building in Waterfront.
Added new splash screen images.
Added objects to block vehicles from using certain Waterfront areas to jump on rooftops and then exploiting other rooftops with no collision.
Fixed collision issues on trees that allowed players to sit 'inside' them.
Fixed the Ammo Vending Machine having a far too complex collision mesh.
Made certain in-game items tradable between players that were previously not tradable.
Progress indicators (X/Y) added to Roles and Achievement pages to provide clearer progress status.
Camera position moved out slightly to avoid player's head overlapping crosshair when moving right (comments for new camera position sought from Closed Beta participants).
Damage taken from falling increased. It's now possible to die from impact after falling great heights.
Slightly increased the distance players need to fall before playing the 'heavy landing' animation.
Negative medals (Teamkill, Killing arrested player, Suicide) are now marked as such and have had their negative effect on rewards heavily increased.
VoIP now defaults to 'Push to Talk' instead of microphone activated (now using “Z” button by default).
Player now stays in strafe mode for 5 seconds rather than 2 after firing/reloading.
Pickup task items now lie close to the ground instead of floating at waist height.
Updated Open World drop off location names; now named 'Fence', 'Chop Shop', 'Impound' and 'Evidence Locker'.
Increased Loading Tip Time to 15 seconds from 5.
Loading tooltips added, describing premium and leased content.
Players can now jump and fall in marksmanship mode (jump accuracy modifier still takes effect)
Weapons now have a separate modifier for moving at walking speed (such as when crouching or in marksmanship mode).
Customisation pods removed from the factional areas in the Social District.
Disabled Witnessing temporarily until we can fix it (Ready system broke it pretty heavily).
Players who have been freed from arrest no longer give rewards for arresting or freeing until they die.
Default keybindings have been changed to more logical layout. See chart for details.

Weapons

All Weapons rebalanced, changing accuracy, shot damage, firing rate etc.
Weapon Time to Kill lowered across the board (without adding extra 1 hit KO weapons)
Accuracy model adjusted to put more importance on burst firing with most weaponry. Weapons mostly start accurate then very quickly hit their minimum accuracy threshold. The rate at which accuracy is regained after stopping firing is also much increased.
Balancing with Effective Range reduced somewhat in favour of mainly using accuracy to determine effective range.
SHAW moved from an anti-vehicle weapon to anti-personnel suppression weapon.
STAR moved from slow firing long range rifle (analogous to OBEYA/OBIR) to a fast firing assault rifle (same niche as NTEC. Less accurate to begin with, but can handle being fired full auto at close/medium range without becoming unwieldy).
HVR can once again not switch to pistol until it has completed bolting the next round.

New weapons added to progression:

Colby PMG-28: Low Cyclic Rate SMG.
Joker SR-15 Carbine: Mobile close-medium range semi auto rifle.
ALIG-762: Low Cyclic Rate LMG, anti-vehicle weapon primarily.
Items

Renamed majority of upgrades.

Renamed all Preset clothing items to better highlight which outfit they belong to.
Added 'Creator Names' for each Vehicle and Preset clothing piece.
Adjusted descriptions for all Upgrades and Weapons.
The majority of weapon presets have been renamed.
Vehicles

Han Cellente (original starting vehicle) removed from game.
Added engine cut out at 20% vehicle health.
Improved Turning speed of all low-end vehicles.
Macchina Calabria 127 added to the game as the new default vehicle. This is a small coupe with decent acceleration, stable and responsive handling, though a low top speed.
Balkan Kolva (Truck): Heavily Increased Weight of Vehicle. This improves its ramming power immensely, but heavily reduces its initial acceleration. Also heavily increased HP.
Bishada GX 8800 : Renamed to Bishada Rapier and reduced maximum health.
Patriot Jericho : Reduced maximum health, increased torque in gear 1 (improving starting acceleration)
Patriot Vegas: Slightly improved health, acceleration heavily increased and weight increased.
Dolton Montaine (Pickup): Improved health. Increased Top Speed to be on par with Patriot T-25 (King Cab). Increased trunk Capacity to be more than King Cab, Reduced Damping on suspension to make it a little more bouncy. Changed from Rear Wheel to Front Wheel Drive.
Increased Weight and Health of Dolton Fresno while keeping acceleration and speed the same. Also reduced suspension damping significantly.
Packer Ceresco (Standard Van) is now Front Wheel Drive and has the best Carrying Capacity in the game (25, compared to Armoured Van 20)
Charge Mikro: Health very slightly down so it's just below average vehicle health, rather than just above. Grip heavily improved. Top speed reduced.
Packer Vaquero: Health very slightly down. Top speed reduced. Incredibly bouncy suspension.
Very minor tweaks to Sungnyemun Moirai (Exec Saloon). Upped Wheel turn distance and slightly reduced suspension stiffness.
Upped weight of Seiyo Espacio
Updated Nulander Pioneer. Now a bit slower, with a lower clearance, but a lot heavier (so it doesn't mount cars any more). Also enabled the Limited Slip Differential, making handling easier on rough terrain.
Enabled the Limited Slip Differential for both SUVs (Charge Sentinel and Nulander Kurai), making handling easier on rough terrain.
Updated Nulander Kurai. Pretty much untippable now. Much bouncier now as well. Ride height increased significantly but suspension stiffness decreased, so it'll rock and sway. Also, increased cargo capacity from 8 to 10.
Ambulance updated. Ambulance is now a fast but very light large vehicle. It leans around corners pretty spectacularly, but doesn't really fall over much.
Added rating requirement to previously existing pre-order vehicles. Now can be used at the same level as the normal Cisco/Morai.
Updated Nitro Effect. Now much higher effect but much shorter duration and cooldown.

Upgrades

Grouped Upgrades: Only one upgrade of each group can be used at a time. This is a little excessive right off the bat (especially for Character upgrades), but will become a lot more important as we add extra modifications. Groups are…
Health (Character): Coagulant, Kevlar Implants
Utility (Character): Happy Landings
Activated (Character): Field Supplier
Generic (Vehicle): Explosives, Fast-Fix Chassis
Chassis (Vehicle) : Chassis Strengthening, Ramming Plate, Steel Plating
Engine (Vehicle): Armoured Engine, Fireproofing
Trunk (Vehicle): Extra Cargo Capacity
Activated (Vehicle): Nitro Booster
Magazine (Weapon): Bandolier, Extended Magazine, Magazine Pull
Barrel (Weapon): Heavy Barrel, Improved Rifling, Cooling Jacket
Upper Rail (Weapon): Reflex Sight, Hunting Sight
Receiver (Weapon): Three Point Sling.
Added tutorial mail explaining upgrades, how to equip, and what groups mean.
Removed Monolith upgrade (functionally it was identical to survivor).
Removed Energizer upgrade (LTLs are now weaker than their lethal counterparts).

Premium Accounts & Leased Items

Set Max Primitive Limits for Free Accounts on Symbol Editor, Garage and Clothing Editor. Initially free player limits set at 25, 5 and 5 respectively. Premium Accounts get 100 primitives per Symbol, 50 Symbols per Vehicle and 50 Symbols per piece of Clothing
Leased Weapons Added (will be random rewards initially, until the Armas Underground weapons dealer is implemented in the Social District to provide leased weapons):
N-HVR 243 Scout: A bolt action sniper rifle with a lower calibre round than the 762, but with the ability to sprint and hang out of vehicle windows.
OCA-626 'Whisper': A silenced SMG with a scope (we're still waiting for the audio for this, so initially it might not be silenced). Silenced weapons no longer have tracers.
Colby CSG-20 Shotgun: A shotgun that fires a lot more pellets than the JG. It has the same damage output, but the shot dispersal is a lot more fine so you're less likely to lose a ton of damage if a pellet misses.
Scoped N-TEC 5: An NTEC with a scope on it for a higher level of zoom. It's also got slightly less recoil so it feels the same despite the lower FOV.
ACT44 GM: A gold plated ACT44 with an elongated barrel and a scope. Same damage potential as the normal pistol, but with an improved zoom and slightly better stability.
STAR 556 'LCR': In APB Reloaded, the normal STAR 556 has a comparable fire rate to the NTEC. We've added the LCR for players who really liked the old one.
OSMAW / O-PGL: Just the base Rocket Launcher / Grenade Launcher. We've allowed players to purchase them as leased weapons if they can't wait to get them.

Client Size, Performance and Other

Integrated the game with GamersFirst accounts and backend systems.
Updated and activated PunkBuster.
Various small run-time memory usage savings totaling ~50MB.
Client size has been reduced from 8GB for the original game to 5GB for the Closed Beta RC1 (note: with future procedural texture inclusion and patch modifications, the target is to get the full client download to 3 GB without noticeable quality reductions).
Updated VoIP system to address various voice issues.
Improved the in-game compatibility checks at startup:
Updated the list of detected graphics cards from the latest compat file from Epic, as well as published lists of cards from amd.com and nvidia.com.
Updated the preferred compat level for each card to roughly match the expected performance.
Updated lots of cards that wouldn't be able to run the game but were originally given a supported compat level. Those cards probably crashed in the earlier release (without warning).
If a component doesn't meet the minimum requirements we now tell the user which component is the problem, instead of just displaying a generic error message.

Updated Control Scheme

Updates to the control scheme are below but all bindings can be customised by the player. A full listing of the default controls is later in this document.

Movement – “Crouch” is now bound to 'Left Control' as well as 'C'.
Movement – “Walk” has been unbound from 'X'. Players can manually rebind this if they wish.
Combat – “Activate/Deactivate Field Supplier” has been moved from 'F1' to '5'.
Combat – “Throw Grenade” has been moved from 'Left Control' to 'G', and is also bound to the Middle Mouse Button.
Combat – “Switch Weapons” has also been bound to '2', so that players can use '1', '2', or the Mouse Wheel to switch weapons.
Actions – “Drop Item” has been moved from 'Z' to 'X'.
Actions – The “Player Interaction Menu” has been moved from 'V' to '.' (period).
Actions – “Ready for Mission” has been moved from 'O' to 'K', to avoid confusion with '0' (zero).
Actions – “Voice – Push to Talk” has been moved from '7' to 'Z' to make it reachable without having to move one of your hands.
Camera – “Look Behind” has been moved from 'G' to 'Alt'.
Camera – “Switch Camera Side” has been moved from '4' to 'V'.
Music – “Previous Track” has been moved from ',' (comma) to '['.
Music – “Next Track” has been moved from '.' (period) To ']'.
Music – “Pause/Resume Playback” has also been bound to '\', so that players can use that or 'Right Control'.
Interface – “Clan Management” has been moved from '[' to ',' (comma).
Interface – “View Support Pages” (Help) has been moved from 'K' to 'F1'.
Interface – “View Leagues/High Score Tables” has been moved from 'F4' to 'F6'.
Interface – “Chat Channel Commands” has been moved from 'F6' to 'F9'.
Interface – “Chat Console Commands” has been moved from 'F7' to 'F10'.
Interface – “Chat Emote Commands” has been moved from 'F8' to 'F11'.
Interface – “Screenshot” has been moved from 'Pause' to 'Print Screen'.
Interface – “Toggle HUD” display has been moved from 'End' to 'F12'.
Full Default Control Listing

Movement

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Forward W
Backward S
Left A
Right D
Jump Spacebar
Crouch Left Control C
Sprint Shift
Walk

Combat

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Fire Weapon Left Mouse
Reload R
Marksmanship Mode (Hold) Right Mouse
Marksmanship Mode (Toggle)
Lean Left (in Marksmanship Mode) Q
Lean Right (in Marksmanship Mode) E
Grenade G Middle Mouse
Next Weapon 1 Mouse Wheel Down
Previous Weapon 2 Mouse Wheel Up
Activate/Deactivate Field Supplier 5
Put Away Weapon `

Driving

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Forward W
Backward S
Turn Left A
Turn Right D
Handbrake Spacebar
Horn Left Mouse
Activate/Deactivate Nitro Shift
Vehicle Special Function Right Mouse
Left Turn Signal Q
Right Turn Signal E

Actions

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Action F
Ammo Resupply T
Drop Item X
Player Interaction Menu .
Ready For Mission K
Toggle Movie Capturing ;
Voice – Push To Talk Z

Camera

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Look Behind Alt
Rotate Left Left
Rotate Right Right
Switch Camera Position V
Toggle Camera Distance 0
Zoom In =
Zoom Out -

Music

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Next Track ]
Previous Track [
Resume/Pause Playback Right Control \

Interface

Function Primary Binding Secondary Binding
Accept Offer Y
Decline Offer N
Call For Backup B
Scoreboard Tab
Character Info J
Groups & Friends U
Inventory I
Locker L
Map M
Music Player P
Options O
Last Hint H
Clan Management ,
View Support Pages F1
Leagues F6
Quick Chat /
Quick Reply Backspace
Chat Window Enter
Open Full Chat Home
Chat Channel Commands F9
Chat Console Commands F10
Chat Emote Commands F11
Main Chat Scroll Down Page Down
Main Chat Scroll Up Page Up
Screenshot Print Screen
Toggle HUD F12