APB Reloaded Frequently Asked Questions

APB Reloaded Frequently Asked Questions by BreadMan

This FAQ was assembled based on, and largely quoting, posts made by the producer for APB; Neume and other admins that were a part of the original RTW team who are now part of the reloaded team. The other sources are the APB Blog and some original research.

EVERYTHING here is subject to change.
-APB:Reloaded Mod Squad

GENERAL

Q. What is APB: Reloaded?

APB: Reloaded is a pseudo-MMO Free2Play Cops-and-Robbers game.

Play as an “Enforcer”, a vigilante given the power to enforce the law by the “City Security Act” as an extreme measure to try and cut down on the large amount of crime that has taken the streets of San Paro to hell. Arrest criminals, neutralize potential terrorists, and protect the people of San Paro using everything from sidearms to rocket launchers.

Play as a “Criminal”. Take what you want, when you want. It doesn’t matter how hard San Paro tries to crackdown (pun) on crime, you will work your way to the top. Smash storefronts, steal cars, mug civilians, plant bombs and work with the drug trade. Avoid too much attention from the Enforcers, or go all out, it is entirely up to you and how hard you want to push back.

Q. How much does APB: Reloaded cost?

APB: Reloaded will be Free2Play as part of the GamersFirst network.

Q. What are the names of the servers for APB: Reloaded?

At this time, the server names have not been released.

ACCOUNTING

Q. Will I be able to reclaim my old APB: Reloaded account?

Veteran RTW players are able to reclaim their old characters here. Keep in mind that you must have an empty character slot to be able to reclaim a character.

Q. Are accounts region specific?

It is unknown at this time whether those that registered for the EU servers will be able to play on North American servers. There has been some hints in the APB: Reloaded devblog there may be cross-region play.

TECHNICAL

Q. What are the minimum and recommended system specifications?

THE CURRENT SPECIFICATIONS LISTED HERE ARE OUT OF DATE AND MAY CHANGE AS DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES ON APB: RELOADED.

Minimum:

• • OS: Windows XP
  • Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or equivalent
  • Memory: 2GB RAM
  • Video: NVidia GeForce 7800 256MB
  • Hard Drive: 15GB
  • Sound: DirectX 9 Compatible Audio Card
  • Internet: Broadband connection required to install and play

Recommended:

• OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 (We recommend a 64-bit operating system for the best experience)
• Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad or equivalent
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Video: NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 512MB or equivalent
• Hard Drive: 15GB
• Sound: DirectX 9 Compatible Audio Card
• Internet: Broadband connection required to install and play
  [b] [/b]

Q. What would be needed to play the game at MAX settings?

Quadcore 2.3 or higher
4g RAM or more
2 strong video cards (Nvidia 200 series or higher).

Q. How will APB: Reloaded be distributed?

All Points Bulletin: Reloaded is distributed through GamersFirst Live! and subsequently uses Pando Media Booster.

Q. After updating APB: All Points Bulletin, Punkbuster complains that it can’t update because PNKBSTRB is in use. Will this be a problem?

You may be able to ignore it unless you get disconnected during gameplay. First, reboot your computer and try again. If that fails, you may want to consider a manual Punkbuster install.

Q. APB: Reloaded crashes when I try and start it?

Crashes are common in the PC field, and require a bit of elimination to figure out hat the problem is. The first few steps are to make sure your video and sound drivers are up-to-date.

ATI Video Cards
nVidia Video Cards
Creative Audio Cards

You may want to consider using something like Driver Sweeper to insure old installations of problematic drivers are completely removed.
NOTE: Follow the instructions to the letter. This program is not endorsed, nor guaranteed by GamersFirst, God, Batman, Bobby Kotick, and yours truly.

Q. What does “Error: 08” mean?

It means that the servers are either offline, or you can’t connect to them from your current network.

Q. What does “Error: 10010 mean?

During the beta phase of testing, those people seeing Error: 10010 means that either they are incorrectly supplying their password and login details, or their account has not been accepted to the beta yet.

Q. My framerates are pretty bad. What can I do to increase them?

First, double-check you are within the minimum (and more honestly, the recommended) system specs. Then start by turning the detail down. “Low” still looks great, and “Minimal” is there just in case. You might also want to not use custom music, and that you have the “Capture” utility off (or turned down as much as possible).

Custom music has in the past caused massive performance issues on it’s own as it tries to read the music, and the capture utility is effectively a form of FRAPS.

People with nVidia video cards could potentially squeeze a few frames per second out of their system by possibly shunting PhysX processing to the CPU. To do this, right-click on the background and go to your nVidia Control Panel. Select “Manage 3D Settings”, and Add APBprogram. Once you have APB selected in the drop-down box, look down for “CUDA – GPUs”. Change the setting to “Use these GPUs” and uncheck all or any that you have. Hit apply, and try again.

The actual performance gain is dependent on your system configuration.

Q. Why do cars feel so odd when driving?

Cars in APB: Reloaded are controlled by the server, so you are in essence driving “on” the server.

For example, let’s say you want to make a left turn. Normally you’d make a left turn, and the car would go immediately. If you have a bad connection, anyone else with a good connection would see you moving around as your position is updated after your control has been processed. The end result is that driving is chaotic, and not exactly smooth for everyone observing.

In APB: Reloaded, you want to make that left turn. You press “A” for the left turn, and the input is given to the server. The server then processes that command, and turns the car left where it is and gives you the position data. The end result is that controls feel delayed (especially on higher-latency connections), but everyone sees the cars relatively in the same spot. This prevents frustrating results where you might get hit by a lagging driver, who didn’t really hit you on his side.

Latency and “server framerate” are the two pieces of data that directly affect driving quality.

GAMEPLAY

Q. Can I move characters between servers?

No, once you assign a character to a world, it is there permanently.

Q. Can I make a Criminal and an Enforcer on the same server?

Yes, just make a second character, and select the faction you prefer.

Q. Why can’t I add tattoos while creating my character?

Tattoos can be added after the creation of your character in the Social Districts. Adding tattoos costs “APB” (in-game) cash to do, however.

Q. How do I unlock more clothing choices?

You unlock more clothing choices by earning reputation with your contacts.

Q. What are display points, and how do I earn them?

Display points are where you can show off your avatar, clothing, and cars. There are many in the Social District, and a few in the action districts.

For those points in the Social District, some are puchased in the market by filtering everything to “display point” and buying the appopriate token. You can find the name of the display point you want by examining it.

Some points are also obtainable by winning certain events as a clan. League rewards such as most arrests, most missions won and more provide display points facing the main park in the social district. Prime spots are typically for the month-long leagues, while others are for 7-day and 1-day leagues as well.

In the action districts, they are all pretty much first-come, first-served. They are hidden, and can sometimes be tricky to get to but once you get to them, you can spray your “symbol” or tag on it for all to see. There are a few competitive display points as well, though not many. Examine them to see what their requirements are.

Q. As an Enforcer, how do I witness people, and what does it do?

Witnessing is done by pressing the ALT key. More specific details will come post Open Beta.

Q. As a Criminal, what kinds of criminal-things can I do?

• Ram Raids
  • Take
    a car, and hit a storefront’s window! Window breaks, out falls
    pieces of awesome stuff like computers, safes, and jewelry.
  • Pick up the stuff and take it back to your contacts for money and reputation!
  • This is very noticeable, so Enforcers could spot you doing this easily.
• Mugging
  • See that important looking businessman walking across the street from the subway station? If you go up to him and press “F”, you can start mugging him for some cash, and also any items he’s carrying!
• Stealing Cars
  • See car, take car! All without the hassle of red tape (at the cost of attention of course.)
  • Take the car to a vehicle drop-off to get cash and reputation/rank. If it’s in perfect condition, you’ll get a bonus!

Q. As an Enforcer, what can I do?

• Witness criminals in the act! (Currently Disabled)
• Return stolen property!
  • Find a criminal that’s stealing things from pedestrians and storefronts!
    Take the items before the criminal does and drop them off at a contact!
• Return stolen cars!
  • See a criminal riding around in a car that isn’t his? If you manage to get it, you can return it to your own vehicle drop-off points for cash and reputation. If it’s in pristine condition, you even get a bonus!

 

Q. How do I activate my field supply perks?

After you equip it at a Joker Ammo machine, press F1 to pull it out and rearm. It lasts for roughly 45 seconds(?) and has a cooldown of two minutes. Keep in mind that you are VERY vulnerable while using this as it takes a second to put it down, and pull it back up.

Q. How do I use my custom music?

Hit “P” to enter your playlist. You can then use the UI to import music by selecting the folder where your music is stored. At the moment, APB: All Points Bulletin only recognizes MP3 formats, though a few have asked for m4a (iTunes) support.

Q. My custom music doesn’t seem to get identified by LastFM/APB. What can I do to help fix this?

LastFM bases it’s detection on tags embedded in the music files. First, make sure all your music is in MP3 format. This is the only format usable by All Points Bulletin.

You’ll then want to use something like MusicBrainz Picard [Musicbrainz.org]. Use this to import your converted MP3 files (I find it best to move all the MP3s to another folder entirely) and use the “Lookup” tool on all the MP3s. This should automatically try and find what album the track belongs to, and will move it to the right. If it fails to find the track properly, your next tool is the “scan” tool.

The scan tool will have MusicBrainz Picard scan the actual music to try and identify it better. It’s slower than the lookup tool, but can be effective on hard-to-identify racks.

Once you’ve identified all you can, look at the right side. Look through each album for any mis-matches. When it is done, right click on the album and save. Keep in mind that by default, Picard will replace tag data with the “proper” detected tags.

You should then be able to import these tracks into APB with a higher chance of having the tracks identified by LastFM.

Q. What are contacts for, and what does pledging to them get me?

Contacts are used to climb up the “ladder” of each organization. They give you missions, cash, and rewards when you do well. Pledging to a contact forces all of your missions on that contact, allowing you to specify who you want to work for.

Q. How do I identify how much space my car has for cargo?

Look in the upper right hand corner, and you’ll see a box with a number next to it. Smaller cars tend to have less space, while utility vehicles and trucks tend to have more. Once the car is full, you cannot put any more cargo into the vehicle, and must remove things before you can add more.

Q. What does matchmaking use to determine teams?

APB: Reloaded uses a combination of “Threat”, Notoriety or Prestige, your win:loss ratio, how many players are in your group, and if your group was manually formed. The higher your threat, notoriety or prestige is, the more difficult missions become.

Q. How does the video capture system work?

The video caption system works simply by pressing the semicolon (; ) while playing. This will start a recording using the settings in your “capture” options page. Options in there include things like resolution and other things. The higher the quality, the more disk space the recording will require and the more severe of a performance impact will be felt.

The “Quick Capture” is a handy little thing that records the previous 30 seconds of footage continuously allowing you to play and just hit record should something ridiculously awesome happen. That said, this has a massive impact on performance as the game is effectively recording your playing ALL THE TIME. For performance, it’s best to turn it off (even on higher end machines).

credit goes to Gotitdone, BreadMan, and Freyar for typing and editing this FAQ. If you have anything you feel that needs to be added send BreadMan a private message on the forums to discuss it.