Thursday, April 27, 2023

Why New World! Why!?

Wispy Spritz and Fire Motes!?

 New World's new spring event is live: Springtide Bloom.  The event has players zipping around the world killing wasps and picking flowers.  There is a trick to killing the wasps you can harvest the flowers and that trick is having Wispy Spritz on hand.  While plenty of Wispy Spritz is given away in the event the crafting recipe is a head scratcher as it requires fire motes; the most expensive motes in the game... so the price... as expected... is going up (2 to 2.48 gold per on my server).

 This highlights this weird imbalance New World has with some components. Some are overused in many different recipes and then get scooped into event recipes like this situation; and other resources in the same family have significantly less use.  In the mote example; Fire Motes are the most used mote and now is the most-most used because of the event kicking off.  Why New World? Why!?

New World Wispy Spritz
Why!?


Wednesday, April 26, 2023

New World Discord

Goodbye New World Forums

 New World is shuttering their forums and moving their community interaction to Discord. I would link to that forum post but whats the point when it won't be there in the future so here's a screenshot instead.

new world discord

 Maybe I am just an Internet boomer but I liked forums and I am going to miss the New World forums.  I thought the forums were well organized and functionally strong.  I really liked the dynamic timezone conversion capability so that I was always seeing event times in my local time.  It was also easy to search via search engines.

 I enjoy Discord as a voice comm platform but I really have not liked it as a means for replacing a game's website and forums.  I just don't find Discord functional in the way a web sites are.  It is also "yet another" program I need open on my computer.  I get it that many gamers live in Discord but I am not one of them; I live in my web browser (yes... I know you can use Discord in your browser... but that doesn't mean it works like a normal website).

 Either way I didn't spend much time in the forums.  The main use was when I am encountering a bug or connection error and seeing if others were in the same boat.  Discord should be good for this as I am sure folks will pile in with any widespread issues.  So I'll give Discord a try and lament not having the forums anymore.

 What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment.

Monday, April 24, 2023

Steam Backlog: Battlefield Bad Company 2

One of the best!

bfbc2
Funniest Battlefield ever sir!
 Next on the journey through my Steam backlog: Battlefield Bad Company 2!

 I am too obsessed with Battlefield 2042 currently to jump back into Bad Company 2 so this post will just be about my fond memories of destroyed battlefields!  This is one of my all time favorite Battlefield titles!

 Not only did this game have great multiplayer, but it also featured a great single player game.  In fact its the only single player campaign in the entire franchise that I can remember playing.  The characters were memorable and I can still hear "Rainbow Sprinkles"!


 Just watching that video brought back so many funny memories from this game's dialogue. I would even go as far to say that if Battlefield gamers were turned into virtual soldiers these yahoos would be the result.

 And talking about the rainbow sprinkles on the top: not only was Bad Company 2 amazing but so was it's Vietnam campaign.  For years I returned to play the Vietnam multiplayer.  Great maps and even better features! Ever see a helicopter airlift a tank into the middle of the battlefield?  Well guess what you can do in BFBC2 Vietnam!  Oh and the river patrol boats were overpowered... just saying.

 Regardless of Vietnam or the game proper the underlying gameplay was spot on.  Guns felt great.  Map destruction was top notch.  Vehicles felt balanced.  And one of the most controversial changes was removing the prone position.  If you wanted to snipe you had crouch as your best bet.  

 So many good memories here and this spot in the backlog is also timely as, unfortunately, EA is desisting Bad Company 2.

 

This post is part of my running series: My Steam Backlog (see all MySteamBacklog tagged posts).  

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Another Diablo 4 Beta!?

 The rumor mills are in full motion this morning after a "accidentally" posted Slack message tweet hit the Twitter from Rod Fergusson.  It suggest a secret announcement is coming with the upcoming Diablo 4 End Game stream.

 
 Combined with a tweet from the official Diablo account the suspicion is we are getting another beta; likely focused on the end game content of Diablo 4. 
 
diablo tweet

Get ready to block your calendars folks!

Note: I am opting NOT to link to Twitter; so screenshots is all you get!

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Infernus!

 Infernus dropped!  Woot!  The Infernus farming build and guide I put together paid off.

infernus bunny face
Look at that bad boy (the sword; not bunny face)!





infernus drop
It dropped! It dropped! Woot!

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Frustrating x4!

 Seriously!  New World developers... this is so frustrating.  To go with yesterday's picture; now I have four completed activities I can't get rewarded for.  This design is so dumb!

new world dumb


Monday, April 17, 2023

Frustrating!

 New World developers: this is frustrating!  I've completed a task and there is no place to stamp it on my card.  This is dumb!

new world season activity card


Friday, April 14, 2023

Battlefield 2042 Shutdown

 Battlefield 2042 has a new special event, Leviathan Rising, and includes a game mode called Shutdown.  

Attack, Plant & Protect - Infiltrate enemy objectives & plant the Lances; a new mode objective in Shutdown, protect them, and score as many points as possible.

Defend, Locate & Disable - Locate and eliminate Lance Carriers, prevent their dropped Lances from being picked up, and defuse any that do get planted, with prejudice.

 Basically it is conquest but players get to plant the flag (the Lance).  It is also infantry-only so no vehicles.  Combat is all close quarter as the maps are small.  This is an entirely different experience than normal Battlefield.

battlefield 2042
 Personally, I do not find the mode to be much fun.  I enjoy the change in pace with the infantry combat, but matches can get lopsided quickly and it's pretty miserable spending 7 minutes (max for half of a round) getting killed repeatedly.

 This mode may be fun in a coordinated group, but as a solo player with unorganized teams this is a mess.  I will play enough to get the rewards but then I'm done and back to breakthrough.

Thursday, April 13, 2023

2 hours, 400 rabbits

New World: Defiled Storage Chest of the Hare

 After about two hours of grinding and killing 400 rabbits I have my Defiled Storage Chest of the Hare.

Defiled Storage Chest of the Hare

 Now to find a spot in the house I want to put it!

Internet Outage

Offline Gaming

 My internet was out this morning... of course the one morning where I woke up early to play some online games.  Instead I had to settle for offline gaming.  My offline game of choice is Wreckfest and I nabbed first place in a race on my favorite track: Tribend.  Woot!

wreckfest first place
Look ma! First place!


Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Rabbit Face

new world rabbit mask
Hip hop mother f*ckers
0.50% drop chance

 I jumped on to kill some corrupted bunnies in New World's "Rabbit's Revenge" event that started today.  One of the drops that is possible, with a 0.50% chance of dropping, is the Corrupted Rabbit Mask skin.  On my 6th kill; it dropped. Woot!



Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Why are runeglass gems so expensive in New World?

 Why!?

 Just a quick gripe: why are runeglass gems and their components so expensive in New World?  The game actively requires players to change gems between content... why make it so runeglass gems and their components cost thousands of gold or hours to farm together materials?  Why can't they be on the same level as regular gems that cost a few hundred gold?

 #frustrated 

runeglass prices in new world
Look at these prices!


Monday, April 10, 2023

New World: Infernus Farm Build

AKA the Solo Myrkgard Build

 As I mentioned in my last post I have been working to obtain Infernus in New World.  I am doing this solo which requires a build that can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.  This means heavy armor and the ability to self heal.  And since we are in Myrkgard already; we may as well farm it... solo!

 The key's of the build are:

  • Heavy armor with corrupted ward
  • A warhammer with Trenchant Recovery
  • A sword with life steal

Note: see image at the wayyyyyyyyy bottom for all of my current gear.

Armor and Attributes

 The good news on the heavy armor front is there is plenty of corrupted ward heavy armor.  If you've run Tempest Heart chances are you have various pieces of Tempestuous armor.  Or the Lorica Squamata chest piece from The Ennead.  Or from the Winter Convergence event you have the patterns that come with corrupted ward not only do you get the ward but also +Luck.  Upgrading the armor to 620+ also goes a long ways and the set can double for tanking corrupted expeditions.

 For gems I just went with opals in the armor.

 Attributes are 300 CON / 200 STR.  If you want to spend a lot of time being flung around but have a little more damage you can go 300 STR / 200 CON, but with the Season 1 patch moving the grit passive to 300 CON I am preferring the 300 CON build (with my heavy builds in the past I always went 300 STR because of the grit passive).

Weapons

 For the weapons I go with Warhammer and Sword and Shield.  For the hammer the key is Trenchant Recovery so you can self heal with heavy attacks.  For Sword the key is life stealing and shield you want the corrupted ward.

 The weapon builds are focused on defense and gaining life. Don't overthink it; there is a lot of flexibility here as long as you get the parts of the trees that boost defense and life gain.  I use Path of Destiny on my hammer because I have a hammer with Leeching Path of Destiny perk.

new world hammer build
Warhammer Build

new world sns build
Sword and Shield Build

Misc.

To go with the armor and weapons you will want the following consumables:

  • Corruption Tinctures (I use Strong as its the most cost effective) - this stops the damage ticks from corruption (my tincture running out in a bad spot is the only reason I am at risk of death).  These only last 5 minutes regardless of level so take lots of them.  Note: if a group clears the portals then the corruption is not active until the portals respawn so no need to use tinctures if the portals are cleared.  Also read below on a spot you can sit between kills that is safe from corruption all the time.
  • Infused Health and Regeneration potions; don't use many as you heal mostly from your attacks but good to have in a pinch and if you end up with more than one group of enemies (you can tank quite a bit at once with this build).
  • Hearty Meals.  They are cheap and I eat one before each kill for a little bit of healing.
  • Carrot Cake.  It is the cheapest attribute food for STR/CON and I always seem to forget to bring enough so I get them in bulk!

 Where/what to farm?

 Simple: Disciple of Disorder in Myrkgard is the only enemy that drops Infernus.  Fast travel to the Tempest Heart shrine and it's a quick jaunt over some stairs and down to where Disciple of Disorder spawns.

 There is approximately a 5-6 minute respawn time.  In-between respawns I either do PvP arenas, recall to the house, or wander around Myrkgard farming other stuff/opening elite chests.

location of disciple of disorder new world
Map from linked website

Fight Mechanics

 The fight is straightforward.  Disciple of Disorder spawns waves of hound minions, but with your ward armor, 300 CON, and Trenchant Recovery and life steel on abilities you should be near full health the entire fight (remember to use corruption tincture or the corruption ticks will make it a lot harder to stay alive).

 My normal rotation is Shockwave followed by heavy attacks with the hammer.  I use Clear Out if I get surrounded by the hounds.  I throw in a Path of Destiny if a group of hounds are lined up (it can really charge up your heartrune).  Then I use Detonate whenever I can to speed up the fight but be careful as you take extra damage while using it.  I try to dodge the knockdown waves.  Dodging (so I don't have full stamina) also increases my damage due to my runeglass gem on my hammer and also triggers shirking fortification.

 I only swap to my sword when I am bored with hammer or if I end up with a bunch of extra adds that need to be blocked.

Safe spot from corruption

 There is a spot where you can sit up on a rock between a wall and a house right next to Disciple of Disorder that does not tick corruption.  Note: you cannot fight Disciple in this spot; it will leash and reset.  You will also aggro Disciple and the other corrupted that spawn here so it's not safe safe; just safe from corruption ticks between kills.

 See the screenshot below for the spot:

new world safe spot myrkgard
Safe spot!

Current Gear

new world myrkgard farm build
All my gear for farming Myrkgard and for Infernus!


Sunday, April 09, 2023

Farming for Infernus in New World

Great Tanking Sword

solo farm infernus
A farmin' we will go!

 

I am solo farming Infernus, a tanking sword, in New World.  I will post more info and a guide with my build and the consumables in the near future, but for now here is a screenshot of try number 20 or so (not sure how many times I'll have to do this until RNGesus answers the prayer)!



new world infernus


Saturday, April 08, 2023

New World Rabbit's Revenge (2023)

Rabbit's Revenge: 2023 Edition

 Rabbit's Revenge is back in New World starting 4/12 and with it comes this creepy poster image!  Also it comes with some quality of play improvements; rewards are now guaranteed after 200/400 slain rabbits (last year there was no guarantee; I gave up after 600+ kills without the chest reward).

 
 Sorry Stanley, everyone will be gunning for you!



Friday, April 07, 2023

Day 3: New World Season 1

Bugs Bunny

new world problem
 My day 3 in New World Season 1 featured bugs.

 First; I ran into a bug where refining Tier 5 materials doesn't seem to count towards the activity card task.  The first 5 counted, but the rest did not so the task sits at 5/50 and cannot be completed as far as I can tell.

 The next bug I ran into was that you sometimes cannot change the skin on your gear.  This is irritating considering you are awarded several skins in the season pass (and there are skins on the Twitch drop currently).  It is also random which piece of gear will not let you change skin and then on your next login it changes which gear is bugged.  For example; I could not change my chest piece skin this morning but all other slots were fine.  Yesterday it was all gear slots I couldn't change.

 While frustrating; these are not game breakers.  I am still over all enjoying the season and finding myself doing more and more of the card activities.  I tackled the first couple of quests in the storyline and hit level 39 now on the season!

Thursday, April 06, 2023

Day 2: New World Season 1

Day 2 of New World Season 1

 New World Season 1 hit the servers this week and yesterday I posted about Day 1.  Day 2 is now in the books.

new world empyrean forge

 For Day 2 I focused on starting my progression on the Season levels.  I opted not to start the story quest line and instead focused on some of the tasks in the season journey as well as completing activity cards.  

 I like the season journey as it gives a good cross section of activities to try out in the game.  Two of the activities, duels and playing music, brought me to parts of the game I've not touched in months.  While they were brief visits back to these systems it was good to be reminded they are there and to get rewarded for participating in them.  This, to me, is the best way for battle passes to work in games.

 The activity cards are mediocre.  They do hit that theme of encouraging players to explore different parts of the game, but I question why there was a need to add the complexity of the bingo card system.  There is too much time spent looking at menu screen for the card and tasks; time better spent actually playing the game.  I would much have preferred just a simple daily/weekly task list where a quick glance tells me what to go knock out.

 At least the task list on the cards can be refreshed because there can be a big discrepancy in level of effort between tasks.  One task will be "complete an expedition" that will take 30 minutes while another will be kill 10 enemies that will take a couple minutes while yet another will be "eat 10 food" which takes 30 seconds.  Refreshing, which costs azoth the more you refresh, can result in a simple bingo completion.  And again this micromanagement is happening in the menu taking away from engaging in the game.

 Another gripe of the activity cards (and season journey) is that it's all housed in the menu.  I would have loved if I could add tracking to the overlay UI so I could see progress the same way that I can pin a quest or recipe.  I spent way too much time in the menu and it took away from my engagement with the game world.

 These complaints may seem like I am not enjoying the season, but that is not the case.  I am enjoying it a bunch.  I really dig battle passes in games as it gives me defined purpose to my playtime that is not just a repeat of what I've been doing for the last year (gypsum + OPR/arenas + the same faction quests in Ebonscale).  It will wear off as the season winds down but then I look forward to season 2.  I also don't mind the cost of premium as the rewards are outstanding in my book as a more casual player.

 If AGS cleans up the card system to be less annoying they are on the right path with Season 1!

 So what else is on the agenda with Season 1?

  • I still want to get going on a New World Paladin build with all the Season 1 changes, but have to admit my sword and shield/greatsword build (medium armor) is holding up without any gear swaps.
  • I need to try out the new Empyrean Forge expedition
  • I need to do the season storyline 
  • I need to jump into Outpost Rush and PvP Arenas to give them a whirl with all the balance changes
  • Watching more Twitch to get the !drops - watching Work2Game this morning

Wednesday, April 05, 2023

Day 1: New World Season 1

new world logo
My Day 1 Experience

 New World Season 1 hit the servers yesterday and with it a ton of changes.  So what did I do with my time on Day 1?

 The first thing I did was log in and drop $100 on marks of fortune.  Then I bought my six additional gear sets.  Following that I grabbed the Premium season pass with the +20 level boost (because time is my limiting factor these days; I'll just have to forgo avocado toast this month to make up the dollars).

 Then I just... did... nothing.  The original plan a lot of players had, which involved saving up a ton of stuff too turn in, was nipped when the production version of the Season XP Booster was found to only apply to passive experience and not all experience gained so those saved up activities were not going to be a "complete the pass in two hours".  Honestly this was a good change for the health of the season pass and the content surrounding it, but it did shoot my day 1 plans in the foot.

 I also watched BDLG's stream.

 I also started theory crafting my next build.  I wanted to go back towards heavy armor PvP tank or maybe a sword and shield/lifestaff build (aka the New World Paladin build).  With the changes to heavy armor it may be more feasible this time around.  Until then I am just rocking the sword and shield/greatsword build I've had for months.

 More to come as I move forward into more content later today.

Tuesday, April 04, 2023

New World Season 1 IS HERE

Season 1 FINALLY!

 New World Season 1 is rolling out as this post is being written (morning of 4/4/2023). Hype!

Monday, April 03, 2023

FIXED: Discord Install Failed: Can't find PresentationCore 4.0.0.0

Fixed: Can't find PresentationCore 4.0.0.0

Update: 4/11/2023 - I finally fixed this error.  The final fix was updating .NET framework to version 4.8.1 (which I got from here).  As of 4/11 the recommended version is 4.8, but multiple uninstall and reinstall of that version had no change in the error on install.  However, on a lark I tried the most recent version 4.8.1 even though it is not recommended a voila; problem solved!


Original post

Note: I have a support case open with Discord but no resolution yet. Figured I'd post here as well and also on Reddit.

History of issue:

  • One day Discord stopped opening; click icon and nothing opens - no process started that I could see in Task Manager
  • Figured I'd uninstall and reinstall.
  • Used Windows uninstall; would click uninstall and nothing would happen.
  • Ended up downloading Revo Uninstaller to uninstall which was successful
  • After uninstall I am now unable to install

What I've tried

What is happening?

All installs fail and generate a log and in that log everytime is a failure noting something in regards to being unable to find something called PresentationCore (assumed to be a DLL; part of Microsoft .NET)

Unhandled exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'PresentationCore, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'PresentationCore, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.executeCommandLine(String[] args)
   at Squirrel.Update.Program.main(String[] args)

I have verified PresentationCore.DLL is in the correct folders. I have used Microsoft's .NET framework repair tool.

As a note I went into Windows > Assembly folder and I see PresentationCore listed twice - both as version 3.0.0.0. It seems like I am missing version 4.0.0.0 but no real idea, even after a ton of googling, how to get 4.0.0.0 to show up in assembly.

Appreciative of any ideas anyone has while I also work with Discord support.

Sunday, April 02, 2023

New World Season 1

For Real, Maybe

Two more days of waiting; 4/4 for the Season 1 launch in New World.

new world season 1 delayed 4-4

Saturday, April 01, 2023

Steam Backlog: Bejeweled 3

How did this get in here?

 Next on the journey into my Steam backlog is Bejeweled 3.  I don't ever remember buying this game or even remember wanting to buy this game.  But it's in the backlog so it must be played!

 

bejeweled 3 start

  The game is a straight forward puzzle game.  Swap gems and line up three.  Get lucky (or plan strategically) and an avalanche of combinations is possible.  Line up more than three and get special gems that explode or have other effects on the board.

 I put in my hour of playtime and feel satisfied enough to check this one off my Steam backlog checklist.  My final score:

bejeweled 3 end

This post is part of my running series: My Steam Backlog (see all MySteamBacklog tagged posts).