Open Beta Release On Hold until next week
Release 1.5.1.85 maintenance today 4pm PST
Here is Thursday's update - and the aim here is clearly to be crazy-transparent with what we are doing, so for those not that interested in the technical stuff, the short version is; Open Beta is on hold until next week. For Closed Beta users we are going to roll out patch 1.5.1.85 at 4pm PST / 7pm EST / 24:00 GMT / 01:00 CEST today
 
For the longer version continue reading below;
 
The Closed Beta issue we have run in to causes the disconnection of all players on a server. Unfortunately it happens to be of those vexing problems that only shows up at full production load, and an issue that leaves almost no traces of its origin in our logs. During QA and testing loads the issue doesn't materialize (throw 50 people on a server and everything seems just fine), even with large static loads and testing the game from multiple locations.
 
Specifically the issue manifests itself where districts with 60-100 players suddenly lose IPC (inter-process communication) functionality which then leads to the district dropping all players and the district crashing. This happens anywhere from 1-6 hours from the district starting up. Normally this would be easily grabbed by our crash processor and it's usually a pretty straight forward to identify the location of any GPF, however with this particular issue, the logs don't show anything that helps narrow down the scope other than it's part of the changes for Open Beta.
 
Rolling back several versions is certainly not the preferred option as it puts us firmly back into Closed Beta, but could be done (it would take us back to somewhere in the 1.5.0.7x range), so instead we are making one last push to get through the current issue with the production load, and we continue to ask our Closed Beta testers to help hammer the servers over the weekend so we can reevaluate where we are on Monday.
 
Today we are also pushing ahead with release of 1.5.1.85 which further adds information to what is happening, fixes an unrelated client-side GPF that happened when a song changed tracks (a general Audio GPF), and potentially MIGHT solve the district disconnect issue (but again, won't be visible until it's on full production load for a few hours).
 
Once we enter Open Beta, the patching schedule becomes very different (and slower). We will also at that point recruit our first "Test Monkey Crew" for APB - basically volunteers who will get early access to builds in return for running live tests on a public test world, specifically designed to catch these types of hard-to-QA issues. The TMC gets various in-game benefits for being early testers. But again - that system goes in to place after Open Beta goes live and Closed Beta has ended.
 
I will continue updating this blog daily until the the game is in formal Open Beta. Also while this is being worked on, be mindful that very few of our tech staff will be active on the boards or blogs, since this is pretty much an all-consuming issue for everyone.

Open Beta Set for May 23
6:00am PST / 9:00am EST / 14:00 UK / 15:00 CEST
The last patch fixed the annoying disconnect issue we were dealing with, so now version 1.5.1.85 will in fact be the formal Open Beta. Since it is STILL a Beta game, keep in mind we will have various known issues, but at this point we are confident the game will hold up technically while we work on the series of game items we need to improve on and polish (and part of Beta is of course to get those kinks worked out).

A f***ing player just parked her car on the drop-off zone and I couldn't deliver the package. Also I think she were cheating because she killed me with a shotgun in 2 shoots within 1 second and with no missing while she were running. Her name was Kalisha. Ban her.

Game Update 1.5.1 (90)
 
 
Here are the patch notes to the latest version 1.5.1 (90) update hot off the press.
 
General
 
    Fixed an exploit where players would close the game in order to avoid losing a mission and losing Threat. All incomplete missions now count as losses and player Threat will adjust accordingly.
    Added a background to the chat area of the screen to make the text easier to read. Both chat and the background fades out after 15 seconds of inactivity. Reduced number of lines of text in chat from 8 to 5. Full chat (accessible via the ‘Home’ key) is unchanged.
    Fixed a bug where if the group leader had been ready for over 30 seconds before the rest of the group was ready, the mission system would skip looking for dispatches and go straight into an unopposed mission.
    Fixed the Social District graffiti display points not activating.
    Adjusted the reward weighting for font pages to make it more likely to receive them first and added them to the following Contact’s random reward lists:
        Veronika Lee, Terri Quan, Britney Bloodrose, Strega Bloodrose, Shift, Chiro, Byron Bloodrose, Suji, Javez.
        Ty Durrant, Eva Orlandez, Chung Hee, Violet Prentiss, Grissom, Sabbat, Stu Pheonix, Mirri Kent, Saul Linklater.
        Players past this point can still receive these packages by pledging to the contacts and playing missions.
 
 
Weapons and Vehicles
 
    Updated Bishada Rapier and Patriot Jericho V20 handling.
        Rapier - Increased turning speed, increased suspension speed, slightly increased health.
        Jericho V20 - Rebuilt from scratch basically. Now fast, fairly nippy (though not as much as the rapier), fairly heavy, good handling, decent health.
    Increased Nitro power at max torque. Reduced Nitro cooldown from 90 to 60 seconds.
    Fixed an issue where pearlescent paint on preset vehicles wouldn’t display correctly for the owner, but would display correctly for other players.
    Fixed a subtle issue with car interior lightmaps showing incorrect colours.
    Removed debug projectile tracers toggle in game files that players were exploiting.
    Updated the inventory and kill icons for the STAR ‘LCR’.
    Fixed an issue where the STAR bought from ARMAS would use the old weapon model.
    Fixed the Scoped NTec not having a unique kill icon.

Permanently Add the N-HVR 243 Scout PR2 to your Arsenal!
 
For a short time you can make this gun yours permanently for only 4999 G1 Credits ( 45 €)
This weapon will only be available in the Armas Marketplace for a limited time, so make sure to pick yours up today!