Sunday 10/20/2024 Post

 Gave them Texans 16 points just to break their hearts in the end.  Field Goals are back on the menu boys!

Helene Update Day 22: INTERNET

 It is day 22 post Hurricane Helene interrupting our lives and Spectrum has finally restored our home internet.  While I am grateful for TMobile 5G home internet helping get us through the down time on Spectrum I won't miss the constant connectivity issues the 5G experienced.

 And yes I feel a bit of guilt being this excited over something as stupid as good internet access. Folks in our neighborhood are still months of repairs away from having their normal homes back.  Just north of us in western NC the scene is still apocalyptic in areas.  Their wait for power will be months and they may never get stable wired internet back; 5G or satellite are their only answers for the foreseeable future.

 So I'll take a moment to enjoy reliable low latency and massive download speeds but still think of those folks a short drive away and we'll keep volunteering and donating.  I'd suggest if you have any means to give that you do so.

 Also some visuals for anyone interested in what the difference means on our internet connection.

Network monitoring via Pinging.net web tool. 
TMobile 5G on the bottom; latency spikes and consistent drops.
Spectrum on the top; smooth consistent connection.
Literally night and day difference.

 

 

 

Speedtest results on Spectrum.  Note: speedtest isn't the greatest of tests but it is a simple way to illustrate a connetions potential.  For comparison TMobile 5G sometimes couldn't even run speedtest as it would die out during the test or if it completed it was 20-50 Mbps down and 1-5 Mbps up and latency was always 60ms+ (expected with 5G).

Thoughts after making level 50 in Throne and Liberty

 Even with my poor backup internet I was able to hit level 50 in Throne and Liberty last night.  I have some thoughts to share on the experience.

Yay! Level 50!

 First, I’m not sure if reaching level 50 in Throne feels like much of an achievement. This isn't your early 2000s MMORPG where you'd grind for weeks to max out. Instead, leveling in Throne is extremely fast and requires minimal effort—basically just completing the main story quests. Aside from a small grind from levels 44 to 45, the quests propelled me right to 50, and I hit that milestone upon finishing the final story quest.

 This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as leveling in MMORPGs has largely become a way to deliver the story and introduce game mechanics. However, I can’t help but feel that something is lost with this express-train approach. The fast pace means I didn’t stay in any single area long enough to truly appreciate it. 

 The fast-paced quest design also left me feeling disconnected from the world. Most quests followed a simple formula: go here, click, walk a few steps, click again, and fight a couple of enemies. After that, you’d enter an instanced story mode, complete an activity, teleport back to town, and move on to the next area. As a result, I never felt encouraged to explore the visually stunning world.

 Another issue was that the story itself felt incoherent and disjointed. I struggled to follow it from chapter to chapter, and the actions my character took—making potions, arming magic traps, breaking into buildings—didn’t connect with the actual game mechanics. It was frustrating to set up elaborate magic traps in a quest, only to realize I couldn't do anything like that in the open world.

 The lackluster story only emphasized how generic the world felt. Despite the visual variety, the environments didn't offer much meaningful interaction. Harvesting nodes were the same from level 1 to 50, and they often felt out of place. In New World, you can chop down any tree or break almost any rock, but in Throne, you’re limited to just a few types of gathering nodes.

 Enemy placement in the game was another immersion-breaking element. It often felt like I was walking into "dumb piles of mobs"—"mob" short for "mobile" from text MUDs.  These were just enemies that stood around waiting to be killed. In many areas, they respawned so quickly that it disrupted any sense of immersion. And then, in the next area, there’d be nothing at all—no enemies, no gathering nodes, just empty space.

 Unfortunately, this left me feeling unmotivated to explore. The world has beautiful environments, and the game’s morphing abilities allow you to fly, swim, and jump to all sorts of places. But there’s no real reward for doing so. Your best bet is to use the map, which tells you exactly where everything is, making exploration feel unnecessary. The entire exploration side of my brain was left unsatisfied.

 Despite my gripes, I did enjoy the journey to level 50. While I didn’t explore as much as I’d have liked, the visuals were stunning, and jumping on the back of a giant flying whale to watch the world pass below is a core gaming memory for me now. Now that I’m level 50, I can finally dive into the game’s many progression systems. There’s a lot to explore—tokens, contracts, various UI screens, and mountains of unopened reward boxes. But with so much complexity, there’s a chance I’ll just get irritated and return to New World instead. For now, though, I can recommend Throne and Liberty as a decent free-to-play experience.

TLDR; Throne and Liberty: OK experience up to level 50. 

Note: this post was edited with the help of AI/ChatGPT. The thoughts are my own.  The grammatical correctness is the AIs.

Once Human up to more crazy stuff

 I haven't checked back into Once Human since stopping after the first season ended on our server, but I caught Force Gaming's video update featuring some of the new content and it's some crazy (thematically) stuff!  I especially liked the theme park area featured in the video.  I may have to go check this update out!

New World Aeternum is FINALLY here!

Here we go.... again

 Today is the day that New World relaunches as New World Aeternum and launches on consoles along with bringing a slate of updates to the game for PC players.  There is a new 10-man raid, match making in PvP modes (arenas and outpost rush), a free-for-all PvP island, new gear score max of 725, and many other changes.  Annnnnndddddd I won't be able to enjoy it because my backup internet solution (due to Hurricane Helene knocking out our main wired connection from Spectrum) can't cut it for action gaming!

 One item that has been a hot topic is the addition of target lock in PvP. During the Aeternum open beta the target lock was pretty aggressive and could track a locked-on target pretty well.  It made sense to have a target lock to help controller players, but with how sticky the lock was it took away most of the "skill" to be able to land attacks.  Players found they could just spam left click and the game would keep them on target (as made famous by TrickTrick winning a duel blindfolded and just clicking his way to the win).

 With the final patch notes for the Aeternum launch provided there are numerous changes coming to the target lock:

• Killing a PvP opponent in target lock will no longer automatically switch to another target
• Target lock now breaks more aggressively when losing line of sight to your target
• A character’s turn speed is now slower when using target lock

 These are all good changes that I think will help make target lock more palatable.  The biggest issue from the open beta was target lock sticking you to the enemy and performing in ways you could not realistically do normally.  It is now closer to the "assist" form that it should be.

 I was originally in the camp of NOT wanting any target lock at all but in reflecting back on it I came to the conclusion that the game needs to try new things to have a fighting chance at a long future. Console is a big part of the current future and there are plenty of games I've played where console players are given some assistance to compete with PC/Mouse&Keyboard players and those games were fine so why not expect that from New World?  There will still be outcry from a vocal few but they are the same vocal few that complain about everything.

 We are also finally getting a new season after Season 5 seemed like it was never going to end and I think it is appropriate they call the new one "Season of Opportunity".  This is the opportunity for the game to turn around.  We are only an hour into the launch here and Steam Charts are all hockey sticking upwards which is a good sign.  That is also just tracking the PC playerbase; we really don't have a sense yet of the uptake on the console side (I don't think it's going to be crazy high but hopefully enough to have made the work worth it for the New World team).

The type of graph we like to see!

 I am a bit bummed I won't be in Aeternum for a bit here until my internet situation stabilizes but I'm excited to get back to New World!  Being excited for the game once again is a better place to be than where I was at back in June with the game.  I'll take it!  See y'all in Aeternum... maybe.... hopefully sometime soon :)

Monday Screenshots: Throne and Liberty Post Helene

 A quick catch up if you haven't followed my Hurricane Helene posts.  I played a few hours of the early access launch for Throne and Liberty; right up until the hurricane took out my internet.  Fourteen (yes, FOURTEEN!) days later we got internet back via TMobile 5G home internet. Unfortunately it's not ideal for gaming due to poor signal at our house, but I did give it a go with Throne and Liberty.

 There were lots, and I mean lots, of deaths.  Disconnecting in the middle of a fight or more fun; lagging as you approach a cliff and learning that there is fall damage in Throne and Liberty.  But I at least got to grab some screenshots to share!

Heartlessgamerr (with two Rs)

Completing a public event

Flying over areas never gets old in this game

Amitoi house where you send your little minions on missions to get you free stuff

Waiting for the giant flying whale

Love the size and scope of this castle

Puzzle quest

Another shot of the large castle

Upgrading green gear to 6 to then transferring it to blue gear

Fishing!

More upgrading gear!  Oooh... Ahhhh... pretty!

My first PvP event... I died a lot since I am well behind on level

Sunday 10/13/2024 Post

 O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?  Packers beat up on the Cardinals and Romeo Doubs comes down with two amazing TD catches a week after coming off a suspension.

 

Helene Update Day 14: I PLAYED THRONE AND LIBERTY

 My TMobile 5G home internet arrived late yesterday which gave me a chance to jump in and play some Throne and Liberty.  This is the first online game I've played since Helene hit two weeks ago! 

 For anyone that hasn't followed along on this journey I bought into the Early Access for Throne and Liberty which started on 9/26.  I played right up to the point where my internet service went out as Helene started making its way inland.  Little did I know it would be 14 days later before I'd be able to return!

 During my hiatus from being offline my friend group, who had NOT planned to play Throne and Liberty, decided it would be a good idea to start playing and then constantly ask me "where you at bro?".  Since they started post Early Access they were on servers that I could not transfer my Early Access character to.  Thus Heartlessgamerr (with two Rs) has been born!

 

Heartlessgamerr

 I had only made it to level 27 on Heartlessgamer proper on the Amos early access server before Helene knocked me offline which was just a few hours of work.  So starting over to play with my friends was not that big of a hit to take and as I'd find out re-leveling was the least of my worries.

 I work in telecom so I hate to throw shade on telecoms and technology that is helping in otherwise tough times, but 5G Home Internet is just not great.  We actually had a better signal than I expected at the house for TMobile but even with that signal the technology is just unreliable.  There is consistent packet loss and latency spikes; not to mention regular periods of it dropping out altogether.

 The result is an unreliable service to play games on, but that did not deter me and it actually highlights one area that Throne and Liberty absolutely shines in!  As I explored there was a bit of rubber banding and frustration waiting for interact actions before eventually hitting some disconnects.  

 But the beauty of Throne and Liberty is its performance and whatever voodoo they use I was able to play effectively and when a disconnect did happen I could get right back into the game.  I am still amazed how they pull off not having long load screens even when dropping me into areas with hundreds of players all while I am on spotty internet!  This performance is entirely worth the price of early access admission and sets a new bar for competitors to match.

 For comparison if I was disconnected from New World it would easily be 4-5 minutes before I was back in game.  In Throne and Liberty I was back within a minute; basically as fast as my PC could boot the game back up.

 It's good that I confirmed to myself that gaming on 5G home internet is NOT reliable but in a pinch it is serviceable.  I still wait patiently for Spectrum to return more reliable service via cables in the ground.

Helene Update Day 13: Wooting 80HE

 As I posted yesterday we've taken a good number of steps towards normalcy in our post Hurricane Helene journey.  One more step today was heralded by the arrival of my long awaited Wooting 80HE delivery!

 I had ordered the 80HE almost a year ago at this point when it was first announced.  The 80HE brings all the goodness of the Wooting keyboards and lekkar switches in a "slightly bigger than 75% keyboard layout so we'll call it 80" size.  Compared to my 60HE this brings back my F keys, arrow keys, and a few extras like PgUp/PgDn/Del/Ins.  While I loved my 60HE I did miss all of extra keys; especially the F keys.  

Helene Update Day 12: Hoping Milton Stays South

 It is day 12 of our Hurricane Helene experience.  A quick recap: 

• We have power
• Spectrum internet is still down with basically no communication on progress
  
• Roads are mostly open now 
• Gas and food is readily available
• Most limits on purchases are also being lifted (hooray for being able to buy two loaves of bread now!)
  

  To attack the Internet issue I have ordered T-Mobile 5G Home internet.  I know the signal is not great here but its better than nothing and definitely better than an hour of commuting each day and paying for parking downtown.  It should arrive in the next couple of days.

 Next we are staring down Hurricane Milton to the south.  It should NOT swing north towards us but hurricanes were also never supposed to be bad for us before Helene dropped 40 trillion gallons of water on the area and knocked down every other tree within driving distance!  I am pretty confident Milton will stay south.