APB September Update

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Greetings All,

Firstly let me thank everyone who has so far registered their interest in Realtime Worlds and APB: All Points Bulletin. It’s great to see so much interest at this stage and hope we can grow that interest over the coming months. Anyone who still hasn’t registered and would like to receive news direct to their email can sign up at: http://www.realtimeworlds.com/index.php?id=399&pid=3

September Update:

September has seen the APB project moving forward, with progress made on various parts of the project, so this month’s update will cover this progress, along with what to expect from the team in October.

In the middle of September we moved into the final phase of internal alpha testing with regular play tests involving 100+ employees enjoying the various elements of APB currently available. The aims of this phase are to tidy up the current experiences whilst we prepare to move out of alpha, in the future phases we will begin the tentative process of allowing others into the game. Initially this will be a very core, select number of trusted friends of employees, but does mark the start of what can be considered the ‘Closed’ Beta stage of APB. Whilst any dates for future phases depend on the progress made, we will keep you updated in our future monthly updates.

Via various fan sites and forums, we have been collecting up all the ideas you guys have put forward for APB. Moving forward we plan to focus on 3 ideas in each newsletter, to help give you folks an idea of the direction of APB and how your ideas fit with that direction. Each month we will highlight one idea which already exists in game, one which we have taken under consideration for the game, and one which has been rejected (along with explanations for each) so please keep your ideas coming.

Idea already implemented: Arrest / Capture system

Enforcers have an arrest system available to them which serves to take out a criminal player until they are freed or the arrest timer expires and they must respawn as if killed. This can reduce the criminal force for longer periods of time than killing them would unless freed by their criminal group-mates.

Idea under consideration: Stealth systems

We are currently working on ways of implementing “stealth” into missions, however details of how this will work are not yet finalised.

Idea rejected: Selectable Classes such as Detective or SWAT

At this time there are no plans for playable ‘classes’. Instead a players ‘class’ is defined by their play style in game.

Community News:

We have this month agreed on the new official APB Logo which is designed to have a stencilled ‘graffiti’ feel. We believe it fits in well with the art style we are going with in APB and the overall theme of the game. Following on from this we have also been working on the final stages to finish and release our new teaser website at http://www.apb.com. This will serve to generate interest in APB until the fully integrated version of the website is ready (which will also incorporate our new official forums for the game.

The official forums will mark a key stage for the community team here at Realtime Worlds..........what’s that? I hear some of you asking how I can call myself a “team”? Well that leads me onto the next bit of news. I’m pleased to announce that Chris ‘Deum’ Collins is joining the community team shortly and will be let loose on the new forums when they are released. He comes in with a big interest in APB, and I’m sure some great ideas/plans for you folks.

As some of you may already know, we are now listed on MMORPG.com at this link; http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/358 If you haven’t already, please head on over and join in the discussions, and if you want to show your interest in the game, please hype it.

Coming up in October:

Here’s a little teaser of what to expect in next month’s newsletter;

• More news on our use of Facebook as a major community tool
• Update on the new teaser website and forums
• Chris ‘ Deum’ Collins’ thoughts of his first month at Realtime Worlds
• Updates on the APB game status
• Announcement of our Facebook Art design competition winner
• Lots more

Competitions and other news:

We are currently running a competition via our Facebook group where fans can submit APB themed art to the fan pictures section here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Points-Bulletin-APB/10139489470; We will announce the winner next month who will win a custom framed APB artwork incorporating the winning graffiti design.

Finally I’d like to send a big thank you to Richard and the guys over at Saitek http://www.saitek.com who have provided us with some full Cyborg sets to give the community team an edge over the rest of the employees in our play tests.

http://tinyurl.com/Saitek-gear

Be sure to check them out when you are upgrading your gaming equipment, and keep a look out for the new official forums as we will be giving one set away as a prize in a future competition (technically its Deum's set but he can go back to the standard kit ha-ha).

Until next month,

Chris ‘Ulric’ Dye

Community Relations Manager