Working to catalog all of my past characters

 Just dropping a post to reference my page: "The Many Characters of Heartlessgamer"

 I am going to attempt to catalog all of my characters in any game I put significant time into.  Goal is to "remember" characters from the past 25+ years of gaming and include server and class/race information as I am able to recollect.

Monday Screenshots: No-UI New World Aeternum

 I finished the new main story quest for New World Aeternum on my alt character on the seasonal PvP server.  Along the way I took some no-UI screenshots.  Enjoy!

Riding past a shattered obelisk

Shattered Mountain in the distance

Not part of the MSQ, but a shot from the Glacial Tarn expedition

This ghostly tree was part of the original MSQ and I was happy to see it still there.  One of the iconic moments from the original MSQ.

Finishing a soul trial (solo boss fight)

I always enjoyed the visuals of the corruption areas and while the MSQ no longer goes through the Tempest Heart expedition there is still a visual replacement in one of the new MSQ's solo trials.

More corruption.

This floating island is new and I was disappointed that so little time was spent here.  I need to go back and see if I can get back to it now that I am done with the MSQ.

One underappreciated part of New World is that many of the props, such as this bench in a camp site, can be interacted with.  Here I am catching a break sitting around the campfire.

Isabella still sits at the end of the MSQ.

Inside the new solo trial boss fight with Isabella.

When I saw this view I needed to stop and take a shot.

Riding off into Brimstone Sands after defeating Isabella and finishing the first leg of the MSQ.

I didn't remember this hidden chamber hiding in Brimstone Sands so grabbed a shot for the scrapbook as I mined away on a stone scarab I defeated.

 

Gameplay from the new Battlefield 6

 Some gameplay videos have appeared online for the new Battlefield game!

 In the first video we get a healthy look at a building being destroyed (grabbed a screenshot above).  It will be good to have heavy destruction back in the genre!  While there is some destruction in 2042 it pales in comparison to past games like Bad Company 2.

 In the second video we get some infantry game play.  The theme appears to be modern times which will be a return to the trend of BF2, BF3, and BF4. I am looking forward to a return to the modern battlefield for the series!

 

Digg

 Hell yes; Digg is coming back.

 

Deadlock makes big changes; still a MOBA

 A lot has been going on with Deadlock lately.  It recently became the most wishlisted game on Steam.  There were also a sweeping set of changes to how the game plays along with a revamped map.  Because while players are wishlisting the game players are also able to play the invite-only early access alpha beta testing version of the game.  Honestly, who a I kidding here?  The game is effectively a live game and its a MOBA.  And it's still a MOBA even after all of the changes that were made recently.  And to me that is a damn shame.

 First lets look at Deadlock's popularity since its invite-only test launched.  It rocketed up to 170,000+ peak concurrent players but has steadily dropped since and now enjoys about 17,000 peak concurrent players.  Considering it is a new game from Valve those are not huge numbers.  For comparison Valve's other MOBA, DOTA2, sees 600,000+ peak concurrent players and while not its absolute peak it is not far off.  DOTA2 also saw a steady climb from it's earliest test periods (i.e. there was no drop off as we are seeing with Deadlock).

Chart from SteamDB

 

 So Deadlock is on a downward trend in it's early access phase which makes you wonder if that downward player trend is resulting in the team reconsidering the design of the game.  With the most recent changes many of the gameplay aspects that set Deadlock apart from other MOBAs are being replaced with standard MOBA fair.  The map went from 4 lanes to 3 lanes.  Last hitting became more static.  Mobility and map traversal is reduced.  Basically Deadlock is more like any other MOBA that has come before than it has been at any point in it's early life.

 For me personally the biggest disappointment of Deadlock is that it still remains a MOBA.  Why is Valve making another MOBA?  The theme of Deadlock is fresh and new.  There are so many more interesting things Valve could be doing with that theme.  And so far it seems players are saying the same thing by voting with their playtime.  16,000+ peak concurrent players is nothing to sneeze at but its tiny for a Valve game.

 Maybe I have too high of expectations for Valve and bringing a new game to market that doesn't fit into their stable of existing genres.  Even so it still seems like a waste that the creativity behind Deadlock, it's world, and it's characters is just for another MOBA.  Maybe I'm just not like other gamers with my expectations.

February 25 In Review

February 2025 is already done!?

The Blog

Blogger stats for Feb: 40,187 (note: below graph includes March dates)

In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 0
• Posted: 3
• Difference: +3 (I was really demotivated in Feb so the fact I got 3 posts out is a win)
•  Search Trends
• "once human end game" (and its variations) along with "once human lea research lab" popped up this month and there was increased traffic to my August 2024 post: End Game Thoughts On Once Human: Finished LEA Research Labs
  
• "new world inferno build", "inferno build new world", "new world flamethrower build" keep on trucking as folks continue looking for builds for the Inferno artifact.  My out of date but mostly still relevant Frigid Inferno Build is where they often land.
• "new world PvP server" also caught some traffic directing 
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continues with my post Best Battlefield!?
  

What I Played

For Feb it was ... wait for it... New World.  Shocker! I still love this game and still play almost daily.  The big change for this month was that a long lost acquaintance and a chance encounter in 3v3 arenas convinced me to try out the Season 7 PvP servers.  The selling point to get me to jump is that he could get me leveled up to 65 "in 5 minutes".  True to his word I was basically leveled to 65 in a few minutes thanks to being able to turn logs into ethereal dust which crafts into animus that you get 2,500 XP for opening.  So a few minutes at the crafting station and hundreds of clicks opening animus and I was 65.

There is also drop on death PvP gear that is easy to obtain (easy to lose as well) so I was geared up in no time (and then promptly ungeared with my first open world death).  And while I was max level with gear there were still some annoyances I had to deal with such as leveling my faction up to max level which requires me to finish the main story quest to access a specific zone. I am still working my way through that and enjoy the frequent open world PvP skirmishes since everyone is flagged and there is always the chance they are loaded with PvP drop-on-death gear! 

I also jumped into the Anvil Empires early access test and that game simply isn't ready for much serious testing consideration.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

Feb of 2024 brought us Enshrouded and I enjoyed my time digging around that world.

My beloved Green Bay Packers once again exited the NFL Playoffs with a loss to the dreaded San Francisco 49ers.  Boo!

I was also in my very early stages of playing around with AI image generators.  Its a bit crazy to look back over the last year and see how much AI has changed.  I really need to take some time to share more of my AI dabbling.  There is some cool stuff out there.

5 Years Ago

Feb 2020 featured no blog posts.

10 Years Ago

Feb 2015 I felt obligated to post and so I did.

15 Years Ago

In Feb of 2010 I was playing Allods Online open beta and then had my launch reaction and then promptly started arguing about its plans for a cash shop.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was a hot game heading our way in Feb 2010 and still ranks as one of my favorite Battlefield games.  I spent time comparing it to Battlefield 2, talking about SecuROM DRM, and 

Some of us bloggers also challenged ourselves to try and make believe that Warhammer Online wasn't shutting down or going into maintenance mode.  Oops.

 Oh and I started the idea of posting regular monthly look back posts with my first "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" post that looked at the month prior of Jan 2010.  I must have had more free time back then; I played a lot more games.

 20 Years Ago

I started blogging in 2005 but not until May so come back in May for the big 2 0 extravaganza.

 

Playing 3v3 Arenas with PvP Server Gear and WINNING 1vX

 I made another New World Aeternum video; this time showcasing my new character "heartlessgamer2" from the PvP server Scalvia.  I just finished leveling to 65 and grabbed a set of the 725 "Swarm's Mighty" gear which is unique to the PvP server.  This is a great way to jump right to 725 gear score and jump into arenas.  I ended up winning against the odds 1v3 in the first round and we brought it home at the end for a great arena win!

 

New World's New OPR Map: Coral Divide

 New World's new outpost rush (OPR) map is available to preview this weekend so I gave it a spin and boy did I have some fun!  So much fun in fact I had to clip one of the matches where our team came back from 300+ points down to steal a win in the final moments!  Not only that but I scored first place! This new map is a ton of fun!

 First the video:

 I am playing my heavy sworld and shield/firestaff build with a key change to using Burnanator as my firestaff.  This thing BURNS; even after a slight nerf this patch.  It fits my playstyle perfectly!

 A screenshot of the scoreboard as well; 1000 to 986 is about as close as you can get in OPR!  I went 31 kills / 6 deaths / 61 assists.  Over 2.3 million damage!

January 2025 In Review

The first month of 2025 has come and gone; lets take a look back.

The Blog

Blogger stats for Jan: 21,700

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 22 (weekdays minus holiday)
  
• Posted: 9
• Difference: -13 (motivation, lack there of)
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world inferno build", "inferno build new world", "new world flamethrower build" have been gaining momentum since New World Aeternum (NWA) launched thanks to my build post: Frigid Inferno Build.
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continues with my post Best Battlefield!?
  

What I Played

For Jan it was more New World.  I just can't stop playing.  I enjoy the game and play almost daily.  I cycle through the same activities: play the in-game market, queue up for 3v3 arenas, and then queue for Outpost Rush.  Once a week I venture off into the FFA PvP zone for my golden coconut.  Some call it boring and repetitive; I call it just plain fun.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

January of 2024 brought us Enshrouded and I enjoyed my time digging around that world.

My beloved Green Bay Packers once again exited the NFL Playoffs with a loss to the dreaded San Francisco 49ers.  Boo!

I was also in my very early stages of playing around with AI image generators.  Its a bit crazy to look back over the last year and see how much AI has changed.  I really need to take some time to share more of my AI dabbling.  There is some cool stuff out there.

5 Years Ago

In January of 2020 I was putzing around with a mono black devotion deck in Magic the Gathering: Arena.  If memory serves me it wasn't exactly competitive but it caught some folks off guard every once and a while as its a nonstandard way to win a game.

10 Years Ago

In January 2015 we received the announcement about Guild Wars 2's Heart of Thorns expansion which was the first expansion for the game and piqued my interest.

15 Years Ago

In January of 2010 we were beta testing Allods Online.  I am sure my younger self thought it surely would be the World of Warcraft killer (narrator: it wasn't).

Star Trek Online was entering open beta as well. 

And we were all enjoying Avatar in movie theaters.  I really didn't want to like the movie but had to admit it was a fun movie.

 20 Years Ago

I started blogging in 2005 but not until May so come back in May for the big 2 0 extravaganza.

 

New World PvE

 I made a lengthy reply on Reddit about PvE opportunities in New World Aeternum.  It gained some traction and has been shared a few times on different subreddits.  I wanted to capture a version of it for the blog and long term keeping.

The question asked: "Just bought it! How is the PVE? Is the loot drop rewarding as well?"

My answer:

PvE during leveling is a good experience; you will get a lot of enjoyment out of that.  The game has some of the best "cinematic experiences" for expeditions (aka dungeons) and personally my first trip through some of them such as Tempest Heart were a visual treat (though "story mode" expeditions are very easy challenge wise).

The "rewarding loot drop" depends on who you ask.  New World has a classless system where your build is determined by your gear.  Gear is variable with 3 perks, a gem slot (except on some special items), and which attribute bonus (INT, STR, CON, etc) it has.  What is "best" for a piece of armor, a weapon, or a jewelery thus has variability.  It is not like other games where that one raid drops that one tank sword that every tank has to get.

The game also drops a lot of gear and I mean A LOT; more in the line of a Diablo type game than a normal MMO.  Most of that gear is randomly generated and is basically garbage that you will just salvage.  That goes all the way through end game where a lot of gear drops are just underwhelming.

The game does have a system called "loot biasing" where gear from many end game chests (elite, expedition, etc) will match close to the gear you are currently wearing. So if you are heavy armor with INT as your highest attribute you will likely see heavy armor with INT as the highest attribute.  Unforutnately this comes up short because it doesn't consider weapons and armor drops with weapon perks for other weapons. I personally feel like this is a miss that they should fix with the system.  A heavy armor piece with INT is great if thats my build but if it drops with a flail weapon perk and I don't use a flail its just one more piece of gear I need to salvage down.

But that is just the gemeral loot drop system.  There is lots of "named" items in the game that drop with locked in perks and many end game named items let you upgrade the item to 700 gear score and set the 3rd perk to your choice (there are "perk buckets" with rules so its not any perk, but lots of options to choose what the 3rd perk is).

Then there are artifacts tied to specific content.  Often it drops after a few tries and has pity mechanics so you do get it to drop. Artifacts are end game armor, weapons, and jewelery that you will build entire builds around.  It feels good to get an artifact to drop after working towards it!  And there is a ton of artifacts in the game now and are in every lane of gameplay from solo PvE to group PvE.

Expedtions are a main PvE end game activity; specifically the mutated version.  Each week new expeditions get mutated and have levels 1-3.  "M3" aka mutation level 3 is the hardest.  Mutated expeditions are where many artifacts are obtained and they drop a ton of other rewards, but as mentioned its hit or miss on how great those drops are (most not so much).  Mutated expeditions are also a good way to get dark matter drops for end game loot upgrades which is a necessary part of the end game.

More recently they added the first raid to the game.  It is 10 person and is the hardest end game PvE content.  Many players complain about it being too hard for casual groups if that gives you a sense.  Personally I think its spot on; hard for a pick up group to complete but not impossible; while still being challenging for organized groups.

The raid offers gear up to gear score 725, the new max, and drops rare schematics for crafting which is where a lot of the true best end game gear comes from outside of artifacts.  The artifacts that drop from the raid are also sought after; some pick up groups solely focus on just getting past the first boss just to get folks the artifact that boss drops.  The issue though is the raid drops rewards only once per week; once done with your weekly run there is no reward for repeating.

There is also a 20 person sand wurm "raid" that is a single boss fight with good end game drops as well.

With that said there is tons of ways as a solo PvE player to get 700 gear score gear and it's not hard.  While 725 is the new max; 700 is more than capable in PvE and PvP.  Artifacts can all be upgraded to 725 so many folks end up with 3x artifacts (max you can have in a build is 1 weapon, 1 armor, and 1 jewelery artifact) and 700 on the rest.

While not your traditional "rewarding loot drops" of other MMOs you can set your sights on the gear you want and work in PvE towards it.  Crafting is also a source for tons of end game gear and plenty of PvE activity can be done to earn gold to fund your own crafting or buy from crafters/trading post.

I personally really like that as a mostly solo player I can play this game and match the hardest of the hardcore in builds and capabilities on my character.  Having a group makes it easier to get stuff like the raid or mutated expeditions done, but not a requirement at all in this game.  That is the biggest selling point for me.  As I said I am 4,000+ hours in, have maxed everything, have a maxed build I love playing, and dabble in PvE and PvP.