9/28/2023 Thursday Post

Ya... ya... I got it.  Here it is.  Packers got smacked... hard.  Hopefully the young team learns from this and can start putting together complete games.

New World: Eggs For Breakfast

 Mmm... tasty eggs for breakfast this morning in New World.  The screenshot is from the Siege of Sulfur event.

New World Expansion Disappointing?

 There are rumblings in the New World community that the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion and Season 3 changes will ultimately be disappointing for players.  Videos such as the one below from DukeSloth are contributing to the concerns.

 I don't want to get lost in DukeSloth's specific feedback (my comments are on the video if you are interested), but wanted to hit the high (low?) points I'm seeing across the community.

 We've waited a long time for the territory control rework and what we've gotten is a few new "basic" control points in each zone and time-locked windows (sucks to be you if you can't play during those times) to push influence to declare war.  The current system is boring and the new system, other than encouraging players to be in the same zone, still seems like a lot of running from A to B instead of encouraging PvP combat.  The "basic" control points are a far cry from what most imagined when "control towers" were announced.

 Territory control: possible disappointment.

 The expansion is adding one new zone which I've covered before.  The zone is smaller than other end game zones we've seen such as Brimstone Sands.  The main quest line on PTR only took a couple hours to work through.  There is only one new expedition.  Over all there is not a lot of content to go with this "expansion" which is not what many players are used to when an MMORPG says it is launching an "expansion".

 Expansion size and scope: possible disappointment.

 Crafting rework is promising but not promising.  Players can now craft specific best-in-slot gear but it will require a pile of time-gated materials so will take time and effort to craft.  However, all the crafts were raised to 250 (from 200) but only some gained the new crafting targets so it feels like grind added for no other reason than to grind to 250.

 Expansion crafting changes: possible disappointment (but also HYPE).

 Heartrunes upgrade to 700 GS now but require a ton of investment to upgrade.  It is not clear why this was added.  Heartrunes are a defining ability for players and gating players away from one of the few abilities they have in the game seems like an odd choice.  I didn't even realize this was a thing until I watched the DukeSloth video I linked.

 Expansion heartrune upgrades: possible disappointment.

 Stuff is just going to be silly and probably broken with all the changes.  Artifacts will lead to broken builds. Certain perk combinations feel really strong at first glance.  Whatever ends up being broken will probably be the flavor of the day and players are going to complain until the balance patches hit.  Current New World is in a good spot for balance (from my view anyways) so for some players going into a wild west period of builds will be frustrating.  Personally I find this time period fun; I like trying different builds!

 Silly broken builds: possible disappointment.

 Over all I am not worried in the slightest.  I love New World and will love it with all the changes even of some miss the mark or are underwhelming.  There are things I know for a fact that will just be better: the gear system is better, mounts are going to be awesome, and I am going to get to try all sorts of new things out with builds because of artifacts.  I agree that it doesn't feel "big" for an expansion but I didn't need it to be.  I am fine with just getting a bunch of new stuff to chew on.

New World Rise of the Angry Earth Preperation Checklist

 With the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion barreling towards New World players on October 3rd I figured it was time to share my checklist of items I am doing to prep for expansion.

 A few key items to keep in mind:

• Gear score max will change from 625 to 700; current 625 (and below) gear will become obsolete
• Note: save it to salvage after the patch
  
• Max level will be increasing from 60 to 65
• A new faction tier will be available with new faction store rewards
  
• Refining and crafting max level increases from 200 to 250
• There is a new set of time-gated refining materials

On with my "New World Rise of the Angry Earth Checklist" (more detailed comments below)

• Bank 10,000 of all raw materials (see below for full list) so that I can power through refining to 250
• Then will use this to work on crafting, but I have no plans on
  
• Bank 30 completed faction quests so that I can level up to the new faction tier
• Faction tokens around 100k (max is 150k, but you need room to get your rewards turning in your banked faction quests)
• Bank some completed town boards so that I can turn them in for level 60-65 progress
  
• PvP salt saved up (I am at 80k)
• PvP track ready to complete
• Do the "Siege of Sulfur" event for named items
  

Raw Materials

With the refining skills increasing to 250 and a new set of time-gated materials becoming available it will be important to get to 250 refining as soon as possible so you can start refining the cooldown materials.  So I am working through banking a large amount of the following raw materials:

• Weaving
  
• Fibers
• Silk Threads
• Wirefiber
• Logging
  
• Green Wood
• Aged Wood
• Wyrdwood
• Ironwood
• Mining
  
• Iron Ore
  
• Starmetal Ore
  
• Orichalcum ore
• Note: I don't pass up Silver, Gold, or Platinum but I am not banking them
• Leatherworking
• Rawhide
• Thick Hide
• Iron Hide

There are folks that have done the math for how much of each is needed to get to 250 but I'm just using a generic "10,000 of each" farming target.

Note: you can then funnel these refined materials into cooldown mats or pushing crafting levels. Or just sell for gold as the market will likely be elevated for a while by folks just buying their way ahead.

Faction Quests and Tokens

You can have a max of 30 faction quests  and since there is a new faction tier to level up with the expansion any completed, but not turned in, faction quests will net you experience towards that level.  I am going to try and get 30 completed and ready to go for day one; at minimum as many as possible in the towns I own houses in.

As a note I am also banking about 100,000 faction tokens to buy new faction shop items. The cap is 150,000; so a 50k buffer for all the faction quests I will be turning in.

Town Boards

With the level increase to 65 it will be possible to get a jump start by having town boards completed but not turned in.  Many of the town board items are very simple; just need to have a few items stashed in storage or craft something.  I am avoiding the "go kill X or collect X" town boards.

PvP salt and track 

The PvP tracks will be a key source for end game gear and it is possible to see 700 GS rewards on the track on day 1.  These rewards will cost a good amount of azoth salt (20,000 if it follows current reward cost).

You can also "store up" a completed PvP track.  Important to note that this will stop new PvP XP gain so time this for right before you log off the day before.  The theory here is two things:

• If the current track has Umbral Shards as a reward choice that will change to Dark Matter post patch; so leave the shards unselected and hope for the dark matter to select post patch
  
• Since you are completing the track once you login you will get an immediate fresh track with new rewards on the new GS scale up to 700; if enough PvP XP rolled over you may get to pick one right away
   

Siege of Sulfur

The current event, Siege of Sulfur, was extended due to bugs so is still active.  This event spits out current 590 GS named items which will upgrade to 625 with the expansion.  They then can possibly salvage into Dark Matter.  This event is worth doing.

At least Starfield looks good

 I haven't done anything in photo mode so need to give that a try but here are some shots from the adventure so far.

Shotguns out when exiting the ship!

The ring.

Sadly I am not actually flying the ship.

Oh. Ah.

Neon aka "loading screen town"

Sunday 9/24/2023 Post

 Like I said last week.  What-the-freaking-ever.  Mind blown the Packers won this one.

Pre-Expansion Burn Out

 I am so excited for New World's first expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth, that I've burned myself out.  I am still playing and doing stuff, but I have no real drive for anything specific.  It's also hitting my desire to blog about it as well; I didn't even post yesterday!

 So I'll be over here chilling in the meantime and will find some other stuff to blog about; like complaining about Starfield.

Starfield is not a good game

 Here are my thoughts on Starfield after eight hours of play: Starfield is not a good game.

 I had big hopes for Starfield.  Not out-of-this-universe hopes, but I really thought it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime game launch.  A launch you'd tell your grandkids about it (I am getting old!) like you tell your kids about World of Warcraft's launch.  Sadly, I was wrong about Starfield.

 Before we get to the bad I can at least admit that I dig the NASA-punk style.  Sitting down in the cockpit of your spaceship is an amazing visual feast.  Zipping around with lasers and ballistic cannons firing in space while all the screens and dials whir in your cockpit is awesome.  The spacesuits are slick.  Building exteriors are cool.  The few cities in the game are visually stunning.

 However, as far as nice things to say though; that's about it.  The game looks good some of the time.  I can't even say it looks good all of the time!  There is a lot of, to put it politely, grey-green-brown mush in this game.  Right alongside amazing starships and folks boost packing around in epic space suits is planet after planet of visual famine.

 There are so many things wrong with the game, but the biggest grievance I have is the number of loading screens and traversal via game menus (fast travel).  I recorded one such chain of events:

• Menu to fast travel to destination
  
• Loading screen into space
• Menu to land on planet
• Loading screen to land
• Loading screen to exit ship
• Walk short distance to building
• Loading screen to enter building first room
• Loading screen to exit first room
• Loading screen for second part of building
• Loading screen to exit back to first area
• Loading screen to exit building
• Menu to fast travel back to ship (walking is for suckers)
• Menu to pick destination
• Loading screen to launch into space
• Menu to pick destination
• Loading screen to travel
• Menu to land on planet
• Loading screen to land
• Loading screen to exit ship

 That may seem extreme as an example but that is literally how you play the game.  Menu, load, menu, load.  Some will say "but you are supposed to do it the hard way and you will see the real Starfield, all the random encounters!".  Huh!?  Sure I can scoot around in space for a bit and fight a random pirate for the 10th time, but at some point I still have to go through menu + loading screen to get anywhere.

 The loading screen approach really kills the excitement for the game.  Other than the arcade-lite space combat system there is no point at which you or your crew is flying your ship.  Want to go somewhere on planet; it is menu > load > menu > load > hoof it out on foot.  They couldn't even bother to give us land vehicles in the absence of being able to fly our ship around the surface!

 To make the menu > load loop even worse the UI is trash.  So much so that one of the first mods for the game to gain traction was a mod for a better UI.  In a matter of days modders have better UI than Bethesda after how many years of development?  I admit that UI is a very hard item to get right, especially when the game crosses consoles and PC, but I swear to all that is noodly that if the Starfield UI swaps the function of a button one more time from one screen to the next I'm going to scream. It wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have to spend half my time playing the game buried in the damn UI!

 The story in Betheseda RPGs is something you either like or dislike.  I've never been a huge fan, opting to "click and get on with it", but there has always been a certain quirky quality to them that got me through.  Starfield's story though, barring some major improvement past where I am at currently, is a dud.  It is hard to follow and is nothing more than glorified fetch quests.

 Then there is the combat and general character experience/progression.  The gun play feels terrible; my pistol whip does more damage than 100 bullets.  Melee is garbage and has zero variety of choices.  Enemies are braindead; easily fooled or just outright skipped.  Ammunition is stupid scarce and you'd be better off just buying a new spaceship vs trying to buy enough bullets for one fight.  My best weapon is my freaking mining laser.  The progression makes no sense.  Loot drops way too much.  You can carry almost as much as your entire spaceship can... and inventory management is a nightmare.

 Systems are sometimes over explained, then others are not explained at all, and so few systems seem to connect together in any logical way.  Sometimes we say games are "made by committee" to indicate they are generic; Starfield is a game that feels "made by lots of committees that didn't talk to each other".  Every system is just mush and boiled down to basics.  As mentioned; space combat is arcade-lite. Researching, mining/gathering, ship building, outpost building, crews... all of these systems are feature incomplete and none of it makes any sense. 

 Oh and there is space magic.  Why? Who the freak knows.

 I am baffled by anyone playing this game that thinks its good.  I would never recommend the game and am very happy it was just a freebie with my GPU update (I had planned to upgrade anyways for New World).  I'd be seriously pissed if I spent money on this game (note: I did technically as I bought a copy for my 14 yo son; he seems to enjoy it but his context is Minecraft).

 Summed up: Starfield is like a box of random toys dumped in front of a kid with a parent trying to make up a story as they got along playing with them.  Starfield is not a good game.

 

Twitter? X? How about you join us on Mastodon!

 Now seems like as good as time as any to recommend Mastodon.  If you are wondering "whats after Twitter/X" with Musky-boos latest dumb idea then let me suggest Mastodon; specifically come join us on Gamepad.Club's Mastodon instance (where all the cool MMORPG bloggers hang out).

New World Player Numbers

 New World is enjoying a resurgence in player interest as The Rise of the Angry Earth expansion nears.  We are still 2.5 weeks out from the 10/3 launch but up go the Steam charts!