APB Reloaded (Part Three)

Gameplay
Putting Breakwater Marina aside, the type of gameplay that you will be engaged in (within the game) largely depends on the district that you've joined.

Financial And Waterfront
As previously mentioned, players joining these two districts are given the options to either interact with the NPC inhabitants found there (this is mostly for criminals I'm afraid) or team up with other gamers to participate in group-based missions.

If your a "Criminal", typical NPC interactions include mugging pedestrians, raiding shops and stealing cars.

However, performance of such deeds aren't without its risks.

Should there be a player "Enforcer" nearby, there is a good chance that they can "witness" your crime and issue an "arrest warrant" on you.

Upon doing so, I've heard that a "tug-of-war" kind of chase would break out whereby both "sides" (the criminal's and the enforcer's) will have to fight it out to see who can gain control of the "loot" (depending on the crimes committed, it can be the mugged cash, raided shop items or stolen car) and bring it to their "home base" (a designated drop-off location within the district).

Not quite sure on how to do this, as I've never successfully gotten it to work (and the criminals never stood there long enough for me to figure the whole thing out), but most probably its by pressing "Alt" twice.

The first time's to "witness" the crime to place a "handcuff" tag beside the player's name and the second time is to start the "chase"?

Now if your an "Enforcer", then I'm afraid that your out of luck here.

As your involvement in this form of activity depends heavily on there being criminal players performing bad deeds (and frankly...none of them would be that stupid to do it in a server full of cops), your ultimately "reduced" to merely running around retrieving stolen cars (that criminals hijack while doing their group-based missions) and putting them into the impound (for quick cash).

However, do note that the "quick cash" that you've gained from doing this isn't quite "yours" yet. It will be placed in some escrow-like "money bag" first.

Money in this form can be robbed by others if you get killed by them.

Once again, you will need to bring yourself to yet another "designated location" first...in order to convert that cash into a safe, non-lootable form.

I believe the same holds true for criminals when they mug pedestrians, raid shops and steal cars. They will have to bring it to their own "cash" and "item" drop-off points. (Yup, they're separate...so you'll have to look closely at the icon shown on the drop-off point.)

And in case you don't know about it, medium and large objects that you have to carry with your hands (and prevents you from shooting), can be thrown into your vehicle via pressing "F" (while your standing beside it, at the passenger back doors or car's boot).

You can retrieve it back by pressing "F" again (while at the same spot where you've deposited it) once you've arrived at your destination.

Alternatively, if what your interested in is group-based missions, you can simply press "K" to ready yourself up (once you've entered the district). The system will automatically assign you to an (appropriate) active group and you can then join up with them to do whatever mission that you've been allocated with.

Typical information to look out for during a mission is the names of your team-mates (lest you fire upon and kill them accidentally), their skill/threat levels (the silver/gold icons beside their names), the mission details (which stage your on, what you need to do and the amount of time left to do it) and the waypoints (green represents location of your team-mates/vehicles, red refers to enemies', orange are waypoints to go to, purple are stuff that you need to pick up, blue shows points to hold/defend, etc).

However, do note that regardless of whether your being put into a weak or strong team, you aren't allowed to leave the team/mission (once you've been assigned to it).

In other words, so long as the system deems both sides to be "balanced", you'll have to tough it out no matter the odds. But if the system thinks that the match is "unbalanced", the weaker side's group leader is allowed to call for reinforcements (via pressing "B").

Upon finishing with the mission, whether you've won or you've lost (though winning is better), whether there's an opposing team or not (the payout is very poor without one), you will be rewarded with some money and standings...so long as you've contributed towards the mission of course (slackers don't get paid).

Okay so the cash is a given, but what's the standing all about?

"Standings" are some sort of "points" which you would get from completing missions in the two districts, Financial and Waterfront.

And basically, so long as you've pledged yourself to a "Contact" NPC (such as the one shown above), all of the "standings" obtained from a mission (in the same district as the contact) would be put forth into raising your "friendliness" with that contact. Or in other words, your "standing" with the contact.

Note that you may only pledge yourself to one contact at any point in time and only in the same district as that which you've joined.

You will also need to re-pledge yourself every time you log into the game or switch districts.

Contacts like these are littered throughout the two districts. And the name of the game is to go about raising your standings with the contacts that you have...maxing them...and then being referred to the next.

Basically, you will have to unlock them one by one...kindda like "leveling up" in an RPG.

By doing so, you will slowly gain access to more weaponry, modifications, cars, decals, clothings and other whatnots.

And once you've maxed the contact, you will also get to do some kind of "Daily Activity" for the contact...in exchange for some "Joker Tickets"...which can be used to acquire some special stuff from NPCs found in the Social District.

Additionally, I must point out to you that the leveling up of these standings is very important for your character actually. For not only do they serve to unlock more items for you to use, they also act as the "prerequisite" condition for you to use some of those unlocked items as well.

The so-called "Rank Requirement" for you to use the particular item.

And coincidentally, this "Rank" (that you will need to be at) is actually just the "sum" of all the standing levels of your contacts...if you do take the time to add them all together.

It has totally...I repeat...totally NOTHING to do with the "skill/threat level" (bronze, silver, gold) that was mentioned earlier.

That skill/threat level has more to do with winning missions and being able to kill other players more often than they could kill you.

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