Lions gonna Lion

 As a Packers fan there are oh so many memes fit the occasion for the Lions.  Some of my favorites:

 First time blowing a double digit lead in the NFC Championship Game?

Not gonna lie; they had me in the first half.  Premature celebration?

Lol

Go Lions!?

 Don't let the 49ers win please.  Thanks.

Day 1: Enshrouded

 I took the plunge and grabbed Enshrouded on Steam.  Here are some thoughts at initial glance (about 30 minutes of play).  Welcome to a new world heartlessgamer!

Straight out of the pot!

 The game dumped me out of a metal pot and off I went through a series of caves; well that is only if the player opts to go into the caves.  My first attempt was jumping off the cliff and enjoying my first "you died" screen.  I will have to break some habits from New World where fall damage is not a consideration!

Who knew you'd die jumping off a cliff?

 

 Once I took the subtle hint to follow the glowing sprite to the caves I hit the tutorial.  This sequence introduced inventory management, basic traversal, and combat. As far as introductions goes it didn't overstay its welcome and I left with what I needed to play the game.

 In short order I was off into the world.  While there was a quest to build my starting alter there were no guard rails preventing me from venturing off into the world.  Sure enough a goat caught my attention and off I went chasing.  I did double back and build my alter, craft a few items, and then placed a camp fire.

 I had nabbed some mushrooms and rabbit meat while venturing so I sat down to cook them over the fire.  Unlike other games with recipe screens and progress bars I was pleasantly surprised to see my character pull out a skewer and roast the food over the fire.  Even more surprising was burning my first mushroom by holding it over the fire a bit too long.  While neat to start I can imagine I'll get tired of cooking in this fashion later on.  Hopefully I can find a cook or get an automatic oven!

 After making my food was cooked I opted to run off to the next quest marker.  It took me through one of the games namesake areas cloaked in shroud.  The quest took me through the area and promptly handed me my second, third, and fourth deaths.  Wolves and other baddies are around the quest area and while they are only level 3 (I am level 2) they are not slouches and easily killed me each time.

 That is where my Day 1 ended after about 30 minutes of play.  I enjoyed the start, but felt combat was a bit clunky.  Dodge and attacks felt very unresponsive, but that may be an offshoot of playing New World which has a very responsive combat system.  I suspect that attacks/dodges get faster as well the higher level I get in the game.

 I see some promise in the game and it is a nice break from MMOs.  My oldest son is looking to play as well so looking forward to some multiplayer hijinks.  I also want to get into some building and get my "cabin with a garden". 

New World Cooking Changes? +Bonus Q&A!

 New World's 4.0.3 patch is coming tonight.  Check out the notes here and watch the breakdown video below.  Jump past that for some comments and wild speculation about cooking changes!

 This is a relatively small patch with various bug fixes, but hiding in the notes was a mention about future cooking tradeskill changes!

Legendary Fish

    To set the groundwork for Cooking Trade Skill changes coming next season, Legendary Fish will now require a higher Luck stat to catch.

 Let's speculate wildly!

 So what could be changing with cooking trade skills?  My initial guess would be removing some of the legendary fish from recipes that are needed for common consumables.  It was always a bit crazy that certain attribute foods required legendary fish while others required rabbit meat which is far more plentiful.

 That level of change is boring though so lets speculate further!  I'd love to see New World move into a model where buff food had a much longer duration and thus required more investment in terms of resources to craft the meals.  Or allow us to slot stacks of food that get auto consumed so we dont have to think about it when one wears out; it just keeps consuming until it's empty.  Thus they could be tied to gear sets easier and give more value to gear sets!

 One thing I'd also steal from Guild Wars 2 is "feasts" where a single player an set up a "feast" that other players can interact with to get a buff.  I'd prefer it be part of the housing system so folks have to enter a house and interact with something to get the buff.  This would help avoiding more spam in crowded towns and give additional value to housing which is underutilized.

 Another cooking change I'd love to see is getting rid of crafting skill foods.  It is dumb that you need to consume something that will last for an hour+ when you are crafting for just a few minutes at most even if you are doing large crafting requests.

 Interested to see where this goes!

 Wrapping up there was also a bonus community Q&A in the notes regarding server merges.  Summarized: we listened when you asked us not to merge, but still need to do some merges.  In the future we'll do less merges because we'll have more cross-server activities.  Which I agree with.  Enough said.

The Monday After Post (Packers 2023 Season Wrap Up)

 If I had a heart I'd be heartbroken.  The Packer's Cinderella season came to an end against the 49ers this past weekend.  Thus it is time to wrap up my thoughts on this unexpected season.

 Like many Packer fans I can admit this year's playoff run was unexpected and it felt like the team was "playing with house money". We squeaked into the play offs with the youngest team in the league in what was otherwise a "rebuilding years" so I am grateful for the extra games, but I am also disappointed in how it ended.

 To summarize the loss to the 49ers: missed opportunities.  For the majority of the game the Packers looked like the #1 seed and the 49ers looked like the intimidated #7 seed.  In the end though the Packers couldn't close the game out and unfortunately just as a missed field goal by New Orleans early in the season helped us make it into the play offs; a missed field goal is also what helped see us out of the play offs. 

 The field goal was not the only missed opportunity in the 49ers game.  The Packers had multiple trips to the red zone and came away with field goals or gave the ball back on downs (tush push is stupid; stop trying it).  The defense dropped multiple easy interceptions.  Last, but not least, Jordon Love -- for all the praise he deserves for turning it around this season -- regressed back to his early season form on the potential game winning drive and threw an unexplainable game losing interception (I am still baffled on what he thought he was doing).  We hadn't seen a WTF play off INT like this since Favre!

 The season ended on a heartbreaker, but the future seems bright.  The season was full of surprises from this team.  We got to see Jordon Love prove he deserve the starting spot after a rocky stretch early in the season.  The ownership of the Chicago Bears, including a season ending win-and-in game, remains intact.  Young players on offense earned their spot on the roster.  Most importantly: the team is playing as a team.

 If there are any red flags from the season they are the defense and special teams units.  I don't get how the Packers, over multiple decades now, have been unable to field a capable special teams unit.  While we had Mason Crosby reliably making kicks for years the rest of the unit struggled in the return game and punts.  Now the return game seems in good shape (mostly thanks to NFL rules changes), but the kicking game with a rookie kicker struggled and ultimately missed at the worst possible time in a play off game.

 As far as the defense I don't want to be too much in the "FIRE JOE BERRY!" camp.  Folks seem to forget early in the season when Jordon Love and the offense were struggling the defense kept us in many games we'd otherwise not have been.  Eventually the offensive struggles flip flopped with the defensive struggles and the defense struggled through the end of year and ultimately gave up the go ahead score in the last play off game.  With the full season in scope I am 50/50 on the defense.  I like consistency in coaching staff but also don't think Joe Berry's track record is that strong.  I would not be surprised with a change here.  Oh and I am still pissed they ever got rid of Mike Pettine who did nothing but deliver top 10 defenses...

 What started as a rebuilding year ended with the Packers going toe to toe with the best teams in the NFC.  Through the season the front office's decision to draft Jordan Love has been validated should he keep his current trajectory into future seasons.  The Packers are a team on the rise and the future is bright.

Final Thoughts Before Packers v 49ers

 

 The Packers shocked the NFL world last week sending the Dallas Cowboys packing and moving on to the divisional round to face off against the 49ers.  Here are some final thoughts heading into kick off.

 The story of the 2023 Packers is a story of nobodies.  If you asked the average NFL fan at the start of the year to name a Packers player they maybe could give you Aaron Jones or Jordan Love.  Past that there really was no one.  This is the youngest team in the league.  Not even fans did we know the players even if we maybe knew a few more of the names.

 And it is that team of "nobodies" that I feel is the strongest point in the Packers favor going into the game against the 49ers.  There is a lot to be said for a team that doesn't know who they are or what they are supposed to be capable of.  There is even more to be said for the team that showed up last week and declared they would not go quietly.  

 In fact this team of nobodies is becoming a team of somebodies and that should terrify the 49ers because the big question is who's night is it tonight to make their name known.  Last week it was Love and Doubs (we already knew Aaron Jones owns Dallas).  This week it could be any of the rest of the cast.

 Let's go.

Throne & Liberty Castle Siege INCOMING!

 I just caught the below video for Danneh on YouTube walking through the impending world first castle siege that is going to happen in Throne & Liberty which launched in Korea in December.  The possibilities are just mind boggling and this video 100% increased my interest in the game.

First, the video:

 What jumped out at me is the scale of the fight.  The "castle" is massive with large exterior areas that are fought over before the massive interior of the castle is rushed.  There are multiple points that guilds can fight over to get a piece of the pie at the end.  It also sounds like thousands (yes thousands!) of players will be able to participate.

Massive castle map!

 To go with the scale are also the siege golems that can be spawned.  These massive beasts can smash walls or gates or serve as mobile transport (from the video you can see a golem carrying a group of players towards the outer walls).  I am definitely curious to know more about the golems.

 The castle itself also appears to have tons of features that can be destroyed so players aren't forced to bottleneck through a single gate.  Players/golems can smash walls or small groups can sneak inside to open gates (requires multiple players to activate the gates).  This is much more than some simple battleground mode; this is a full on castle siege with variety and different paths to victory!

 The reward for winning also seems massive; translating to thousands of dollars in real world value.  I am sure that will cause some to pause in regards to "gold selling" and "pay 2 win" which is fair but those items are persistent in every game (or game discussion) these days so I'm not going to let them ruin my interest here.  Also key is that it is NOT a winner-take-all system; various guilds can fight over their piece of the pie and none of them appear to get anything if over all a victory is not achieved so this will encourage team work (hopefully!).

 Coming from a game like New World where "end game" PvP "wars" are 30 minute instanced fights for 100 players (50v50) the described siege about to occur in Throne & Liberty seems much more fitting of the title "war".

 I still have reservations about the tab-target / action combat hybrid that Throne features, but I can get past that if there is events like this on the scale (thousands of player's y'all!) that is being talked about.  I've already seen other open world boss fights that occur with PvP active and the number of players present is just crazy!  I really, really want to play this game now!

Looking for feedback on YouTube intro!

Looking for feedback!

I did another thing on the YouTube today.  I played around with Canva to come up with this updated intro clip to use on videos.

My first Youtube upload in over 12 years!

 I did a thing that I said I was going to do: I made a Youtube video!  My first video upload in -- checks Youtube and blog history -- 12 years!!!  It's been a minute (or 6,307,200+ minutes to be more precise)!  I was mostly encouraged to make the video to show my oldest son some things he could do with his video editing as he ventures off into his video making career.  Also figured this would make a good blog post on how I combined some AI and design tools together to make this thing happen.

 First; the video featuring a race from Asphalt 9 Legends that I've been messing around a bit with lately.

I had a few goals when setting out to do this video

1. Be done in a day
2. Use AI tools to make some images
3. Make use of sound effects
4. Create an intro and an outro I can use in future videos
   
5. Get feedback on how to do better
   

 In order to be done with this in a day I decided early on that I needed to use a game I am less attached to.  Had this been a New World video I'd probably still be agonizing over what footage to use or how to frame it.  Asphalt 9 Legends was easy because it features super fast races with cinematic mode to capture the footage.

 I did hit some issues on capture so will be looking for feedback and suggestions.  I used AMD's software to do the recording.  The game play was smooth but the video had some hitches and it didn't record in a format that I could use in Camtasia 2021 (I use this to chop up videos for work).  I had to use Handbrake to encode the video recorded in AMD and after that encoding, even after playing around with settings a few times, it had a lot of freezes as can be seen in the final product.

 Also AMD records my mouse cursor over the screen even though it is NOT visible when playing the game.  Maybe I just need to use a different recording method or program?  My son uses Microsoft Gamebar (or whatever comes up hitting Windows + G).  I've also seen suggestions to use OBS (Open Broadcast Studio) for capture.

 Next I wanted to hit some AI tools; mainly image generation.  I used Bing's image generator which to come up with a "Let's Race" and "Crash" images to use in the video.  I used Microsoft Designer to clean the images up and make backgrounds transparent.  It works remarkably well but did find it sort of confusing and/or limited in what it could do.  I had some final editing that I just did in Paint.net on my local PC.

 

Apparently "transparent background" to the AI means a checkered background.  I used Microsoft Designer to remove the background and save it afterwards as truly transparent.

 AI only got me so far.  I've had a catchy tagline I've wanted to use for a while of "To the point, no bull, game play footage." with an asterisk of "*Not a pro gamer", but I couldn't get a decent image with the text so I ended up over in Canva creating my own.  Canva was impressive for my first time using it beyond just copying a template from it!  It also converted my work to short MP4 videos for easy use including a subscribe animation!  Static copies of the intro and outro I created.

Intro (created with Canva)

Outro (created with Canva)

 I also learned about Youtube's audio library which I nabbed some sound effects and free music from for the video.  This was honestly an amazing free resource that I think should be recommended more; there is a ton to pick from.

 So enjoy and I hope this maybe inspires some creativity out there!  If this old gamer can do it so can you.  Maybe even my kid will pick something up here from his old man!

New World Economy Update Q1 2024

 The New World team gave their quarterly economy update for the game and addressed concerns from the community as well as provided insight on how they arrived at their last update.  Watch below and scroll down for my thoughts!

 The team did a good job covering what they look for in the economy and this time brought charts to go with it.  In the last economy update there was more talk than visuals and the first video was shot well before it went live so the economy had shifted a good bit and thus felt like the developers knew what they were talking about.  Most of those concerns are gone for this video; it was up to date to the current state and again brought visual aids.

 The main core of the economy discussion was focused on the fluctuation of the economy between "sink" (more gold going out) and "faucet" (more gold coming in).  This of course is a discussion as old as time within MMORPGs.  The term "gold sink" entered the gamer lexicon to describe ways for developers to remove in-game currency from games. It is refreshing to see a developer actually show where a game is at in regards to sinks and faucets.

 The ideal state, one would think, would be to be right in-between a sink and a faucet where as much gold that comes into the economy goes right back out.  However, that is not realistic.  Players come and go with online games and thus their liquid currency sits in stasis for when they come back.  It was not clear from the New World video if they account of inactive players in the "sink".

 Also an economy at equilibrium is... well... boring.  Fluctuations between times where the economy is flush with currency and times when currency is hard to come by creates opportunity for those of us that like to "play the market".  It also drives in game behavior and the types of content players engage in.

 To me its less about where the economy is at and more that the developers are reacting to it and that is what this update cemented for me: AGS uses the economy and data behind it in making decisions.  We can debate if they are the right changes or if the changes are released in a timely fashion, but the important piece is the economy is a driving factor for the team.  For me that is a win.