Ashes of Creation PvP

  Ashes of Creation's most recent update focused on their caravan system, including PvP, and boy did it impress!

 I've beat up on past updates from Ashes for lacking in showing a cohesive game experience.  The updates were often lacking UI and failed to show complete game loops.  With this update, which was titled "the PvP update", we got to see a lot more than PvP.  We saw complete game loops with the back drop of players battling it out.

 What impressed me the most was actually the caravan and I'd argue this update was better in regards to caravans than the prior caravan update.   We got to see a caravan get ambushed and stolen.  The team showed off how caravans can be converted to barges and floated down river.  All of it worked with no issues (at least nothing obvious).

 My favorite part was watching the caravan convert into a barge.  The system seemed well thought out and featured complex visual stages for this early in the game's development.  The players had to defend the barge while it was converting and there was a sense of excitement as it pushed off just as the attackers pushed in.

 At the end of the event the caravan was back in town and stolen goods were taken care of.  I like that towns will have variety based on how they are "leveled up"; in the case of this video with a black market dealer.  This should hopefully lead to opportunities to make a niche for a town.  Hopefully there is a "if you take this; you can't take that" balance to it so towns don't become "everything".

 What I think this developer update lacked the most was the actual PvP.  We saw players slinging spells and arrows at each other but we really didn't get into the nuance of PvP.  The combat looked smooth and there was a variety of actions being taken, but no details on anything.  We saw stealth players ambushing and melee players leaping into the fight.  One poor soul was insta-gibbed.

 I'd like to have seen more around the nuance of combat; especially with PvP hot topics such as crow control, stealth, and ranged vs melee balance.  Also with the system as a whole there is going to be A LOT of questions about how griefing and exploitation will be addressed.  It was mentioned that spying on an opposing caravan's plans was a legitimate tactic they expected players to take.  

 Spying which is likely to occur outside the game... which brings into the question how are developers balancing that? What happens its the result of a hacked account? Or a hacked Discord server? Or if real life money exchanges hands for the info?  I forsee this being a huge sticking point for this game with it's desires to have PvP as a countering force in the world against other player's activities.

 The video did somewhat show that numbers will be a key aspect as well which is going to upset a lot of the PvP tryhards. Bigger forces (i.e. zergs) will smash smaller forces.  I don't see anyway around that yet in a PvP experience that is built around anyone being able to show up at any time.  Ashes is going to have to start answering these questions or it's going to be trial by fire and getting screwed over on something like this is 100% something players will quit a game over.

 While there are long standing questions on open world PvP that will need answering this update still showed a lot of promise.  Its cool to see where the game is at and where it is headed.  I did not buy into the Alpha 2 packages but I can see why players would have bought in to get early hands on with this type of gameplay.  The game is still a ways out but my interest continues to grow.

Nightingale Playtest Screenshots

 Some screenshots from the stress test for Nightingale.

Promising opening

Loading...

Bits of wood come off as you chop a tree down

Bigger tree; more chopping required

Campfire: the survival game basic

The start of a home

A bit dark but my house is in the darkness

Nightingale Playtest TODAY ONLY - DON'T MISS!

Update: 4p ET - test has been extended extra hours: Stress Test Extended Until 7 pm MST (6 pm PST, 9 pm EST, and 2 am GMT) 

Nightingale has a limited-time playtest today.  Sign up now so you don't miss.  DukeSloth covers more in the below video.

Day 2: Enshrouded

 I've continued my adventures into Enshrouded and am proud to report: I built a home... with a roof!  And I have workers!

It's not much but I built it myself!

 The core loop of Enshrouded: collect stuff, take it back home, and build stuff.  Then repeat.  Any other system is essentially a system of support to that core loop.  For Day 2 I found myself out and about gathering stone, wood logs, and .... tar? Yes, tar.

 The basic wall and floor building blocks in Enshrouded just require stone or wooden blocks; both easily attained and crafted.   I was even able to save a bit on resources by using walls with windows instead of solid walls.  Now I just needed to add a roof and to have something qualified as a roof it's a bit trickier.  As far as I could tell the most cost-efficient roofing option is tarred wood roof.  Wood? Easy. Tar? Where do I get tar?

 I had remembered that I could get tar from accidentally burning food or picking up an expired campfire but that nets one tar at a time.  That wasn't going to work for the hundreds I needed for a proper roof to my box-shaped home.

 In steps the Blacksmith.  Actually first came the Google search "where do you get tar in Enshrouded?". That lead me to needing the Blacksmith which pointed out to me that I needed to actually do some of these quests piling up in my journal.  That is a small gripe I have with the game so far; it doesn't really give me an idea of what is all possible with the building toolset.  

 Through quests or upgrading your flame alter new things become available, but until you meet those moments you don't know the possibilities.  Ideally the game would have a tech tree that I could explore that shows me all the possibilities.  It wouldn't need to explain exactly how to unlock them, but just show that they are possible and give a nudge in the right direction. 

 With my Google knowledge in hand I completed the blacksmith quest and summoned my first worker and with it unlocked new crafting stations.  Now I could set up the kiln to pump out tar in larger quantities.  A tarred roof was in sight (and in the screenshot above)!  If you wanted to see more about the crafting station a few of them are in the beginning of this Enshrouded video on YouTube.

 Knowing that NPC workers were the key to further progression I prioritized those quests.  I upgraded my armor with the blacksmith and off I went.  I now have the hunter, farmer, and alchemist.  Next up is the carpenter who I hear has all sorts of exciting stuff (like magic storage that lets you craft using items in the magic storage!).

 Also with the farmer I can take part in one of my favorite hobbies in digital form: gardening/farming!

 More screenshots:

Night time at the house!

Kiln interface

Nighttime shot overlooking an enshrouded area

House fire? Nope.  Just an eternal flame altar.

Diggin' holes.

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.