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.

 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
  

Day 1: New World Season 1

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.

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!

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

• Tried all steps for a corrupt install: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004307527--Windows-Corrupt-Installation
• Tried installing the Canary client; still errors
• I also unpacked the DiscordSetup.exe with 7zip, copied to my root folder, and then extracted and ran the files inside (I followed guidance on YouTube but lost the video link)
• This at least causes the Discord opening screen to show up, but then it fails to a JavaScript error noted in this Screenshot https://imgur.com/lSFtVuO

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.

New World Season 1

For Real, Maybe

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

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!

 

  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:

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

New World Season 1

Still Delayed

Looks like we'll be waiting a few more days for New World Season 1.  April 2nd is the new target.

New World Season Pass

Complete the pass in 2-3 hours?

 I came across a video by Lemoni that explains how to complete the New World Season 1 pass. According to Lemoni, the pass can be completed in just two to three hours, which is significantly less than the "50 hours to complete" quoted by the developers in a recent video on seasons. Watching Lemoni's video has left me wondering where the developers got their estimate of 50 hours from, and why the pass is structured in this way.

 Video embedded below:

 To speedrun the Season Pass, the key is to pre-stage objectives and have items ready to turn in, which many regular players likely already have. Once the player has prepared, they can use a 2x season experience potion and turn in all the pre-staged objectives to receive double the experience. This way, players can maximize their returns within the short time the potion is active and quickly complete the pass. While it may not be possible for every player to complete the pass in just a few hours, this method demonstrates how players can make progress much faster than the estimated 50 hours. 

 I'm not against maximizing return in a video game, but I think this shows a poor design to the season pass where experience is rewarded lump sum and the potions apply to those lump sums.  This is counter to pretty much every "battle pass" I've come across. Just using the Battlefield 2042 Season 4 pass as a comparison; any experience boost only applies to passive experience gained for actions taken.  Any mission completed that rewards experience is not affected by the pass.  Also you can't save up to "turn in" a mission later on; it just completes when you reach the criteria.

 The main two issues with the New World season pass as I see it: passive experience is negligible and there is too much tied to the moment something is turned in (aka lump sum).

 Passive experience is what is gained by just playing the game.  Kill a wolf; get season experience.  Complete an arena match; get season experience.  For some reason New World decided passive experience was going to be so small that it would be impossible to use just passive experience to complete the pass (even though they try to say it's possible in their video).  Yet, in the "card" system player's can get a lump sum reward for things as simple (and dumb) as eating 10 stacks of food.  Not even eating 10 stacks of food over normal play where you have to let the food buff expire; you can just ram down 10 in 10 clicks and be done!  Yet going on an open world adventure and fighting through hordes of enemies will barely be noticeable on the progress bar.

 Since passive experience from just playing the game is not the way then what is the way?  That is the lump sum card system where players get a literal bingo card of objectives to complete (like the eat 10 food).  However, the bingo card spots don't autocomplete.  Player's get to choose what part of the bingo card are completed after fulfilling the requirement. This is why Lemoni's method works: you just keep saving up completed items to cash in during the boost.

 There are also lump sum reward challenges for the season; quite a few as Lemoni notes in his video you can get ready ahead of time since they are all turn-in related actions and thus you can cash in with the double experience.  It is so bizarre that lump sum rewards get doubled by the boost potion.  Unaware players are going to be punished for not knowing and those that do know are going to progress faster than the developer planned 50 hours.  No doubt speed runners will then complain about a lack of content for the season.

 The sensible way for this to have worked is that players get passive experience for almost all of their activities and the boost potion doubles passive experience gain for a short period.  Lump sum rewards should be static and unaffected by the boost.  This would mean players get more rewards for just playing the game instead of putting together a shopping list / completing a task list and lumping it all together for one giant boost.

 Also while I have not played the pass on PTR myself just watching the videos I am not a fan of the bingo card system.   The game didn't need another system to define objectives; it needs to drive players to existing structures such as town boards.  The season story quest line and challenges are fine, but the addition of the bingo card as the proposed main way to progress is overly complex compared to just rewarding us for playing the game.

 Season 1 is still delayed from the original planned 3/28 launch so we still have some time to wait.  What are your thoughts?

The Role of PvP in Online RPGs

Insights from Elden Ring

 I came across an interesting infographic from Elden Ring that sheds light on the state of PvP in online RPGs. One of the standout data points was that out of the 9 billion+ deaths in the game, only 2% were caused by other players. Additionally, there have been over 1 billion summons, but only 12% of those were invasions (i.e. the PvP mode).

 These figures are not surprising since Elden Ring is primarily marketed as a single-player RPG. However, they highlight the fact that most gamers tend to prefer cooperative play over competitive play when it comes to multiplayer games.

 Even though 12% of a billion and 2% of 9 billion may seem like small percentages, they still translate to a considerable amount of PvP gameplay. In fact, it may even exceed the amount of PvP gameplay found in some PvP-focused RPGs.

 From my perspective, this data underscores the importance of solid PvE and cooperative play as the foundation for multiplayer RPGs. While PvP can be added to the mix, it should never detract from the main focus of the game.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

 

 

 

 

Original image source: https://i.redd.it/zdwlwdh5sxoa1.jpg

No Rodgers News

Where is the Aaron Rodgers trade!?

Still no Rodgers news so I guess the answer to the question I posed before vacation, "I wonder if we'll have final Rodgers news before I get back?", was a no.

Trump was also not arrested as he told me he would be.

New World's Season 1 update was also delayed from March 28th to March 30th.

Diablo 4's beta actually ran a day longer than expected so I got to give it a whirl.

I guess I should say thanks for the universe pausing while I enjoyed not catching any fish while on vacation.