tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132667512024-03-17T23:07:02.184-04:00Heartlessgamer.com gaming blog. MMORPGs and more!Heartlessgamer.com gaming blog. MMORPGs and more!heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.comBlogger161115tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266751.post-24295813032198627452024-03-17T11:11:00.004-04:002024-03-17T11:11:45.758-04:00Spring break from the blog!<p> I am off to spring break vacation! See y'all in a week! </p><p>A little AI fun as we go out the door:<br /></p><p><b>AI:</b> Microsoft co-pilot</p><p><b>Prompt:</b> a gamer going on vacation</p><p><b>Result:</b></p><p>Certainly! Here's a playful depiction of a gamer embarking on a well-deserved vacation:<br /><br />🎮🌴 Gamer's Vacation 🌴🎮<br /><br />In the pixelated world of games,<br />Where quests and battles endlessly unfurl,<br />Our dedicated gamer, controller in hand,<br />Decides it's time to escape the digital whirl.<br /><br />🌅 Destination: Sun-kissed shores,<br />Where palm trees sway and waves gently kiss,<br />No respawn points or save files here,<br />Just golden sands and ocean's bliss.<br /><br />🕶️ Gamer dons shades, inventory intact,<br />Sunglasses as epic as legendary loot,<br />They trade their headset for a sun hat,<br />Ready to explore, adventure afoot.<br /><br />🏖️ Beachside quests await:<br />1. **Sandcastle Construction**: Gather resources,<br /> Build fortresses against the tide's assault.<br />2. **Seashell Collection**: Rare shells hidden,<br /> Like legendary drops, waiting to be caught.<br /><br />🌊 The gamer wades into azure waters,<br /> Swims like a mermaid, no lag or latency,<br /> The sun's rays level up their tan,<br /> XP gained: Vitamin D proficiency.<br /><br />🍹 At the Tiki Bar, they order a potion:<br /> **Mango Mojito +10 Refreshment**,<br /> Sip, recharge, and watch the sunset,<br /> Pixels fade, reality's enchantment.<br /><br />📸 Selfie time! Gamer strikes a pose,<br /> Sand between toes, joy in their eyes,<br /> Caption: "Logging off, embracing life,<br /> Vacation mode: Activated. 🌴✨"<br /><br />And so, our gamer finds balance,<br /> Pixels and pixels of a different kind,<br /> For even heroes need a break,<br /> To recharge, reset, and unwind.<br /><br />🎮🌴🌊🕶️🏖️🍹📸<br />```<br />Bon voyage, gamer! May your vacation be legendary! 🌟🎒🌞<br /></p>heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266751.post-5692234017863162092024-03-15T10:49:00.005-04:002024-03-15T10:49:36.789-04:00No New World expansion this year?<p> Some <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/newworldgame/comments/1beyu12/thoughts_on_no_expansion_this_year/" target="_blank">keen Reddit faithful caught a developer quote in the New World Discord</a>. In the Discord message NW_Kay made a statement that there was no planned expansion for this year. This is a very odd way to make a very big announcement during a time when New World is losing player interest. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGT3km7Jfa2LO84Z7CUgCs9HcFUKBOxp8bcYn1wx4vDWN-OV2V-2ERiCtzK3QrXiy7R2HVp6S36w8fqLuONBy3-wPwjXe5DNWsjd3zP0nxo8_xDuYgaSgidHuruAEG0VQs14bMhxWjJJymlfriGqJI7NRwlKVNqkASf7awpsFcZ50ePwomYw6Fw/s549/no%20expansion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="An image of a discord message from NW_Kay" border="0" data-original-height="71" data-original-width="549" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGT3km7Jfa2LO84Z7CUgCs9HcFUKBOxp8bcYn1wx4vDWN-OV2V-2ERiCtzK3QrXiy7R2HVp6S36w8fqLuONBy3-wPwjXe5DNWsjd3zP0nxo8_xDuYgaSgidHuruAEG0VQs14bMhxWjJJymlfriGqJI7NRwlKVNqkASf7awpsFcZ50ePwomYw6Fw/s16000/no%20expansion.png" title="An image of a discord message from NW_Kay" /></a></div><p></p><p> We don't have a road map for 2024 and the next road map update was delayed until June "for something big". If there is no expansion then what is "something big"? As mentioned in my recent posts the assumption is that console is the "something big". </p><p> I am honestly losing my patience here. I am <i>the </i>faithful defender of New World and the dev team. I think there is a lot of negativity that is unwarranted about the game and the developers. New World is a fun game even if it hasn't held player interest at a level I'd expect. It's biggest downfall is just being unable to pump out content to match player pace of consuming that content.<br /></p><p> If the "something big" is just a console release that is going to break me. That would be the dumbest thing to be hyping up if there is no major content expansion to come with it. I really hope by "no expansion" they mean there won't be a paid expansion but we will get some major content updates this year.<br /></p><p> Also how on earth did NW_Kay get in a position to haphazardly drop a reply like this in Discord? I never want to discourage developer interaction with the community but this isn't interaction... this is leadership level decisions being casually dropped in a community discord. Why even touch this comment... the user wasn't even asking a freaking question.</p><p> /sigh<br /></p>heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266751.post-56729345149893211562024-03-14T07:00:00.047-04:002024-03-14T07:00:00.139-04:00Friendship ended with Wooting 60HE<p> Friendship ended with Wooting 60HE and friendship started with Wooting 80HE! Well not started yet, but the <a href="https://wooting.io/wooting-80he" target="_blank">Wooting80HE</a> is entering it's <a href="https://wooting.io/post/80he-founders-campaign-sneak-peak" target="_blank">founders period</a> today and I'm jumping on the buy button if I can snag one!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxJxO9HWeunaBv4c9JM5UT7-nKCtqg-QkPNxatIzCSuCm3vUrtV5Rgn6Acu8uCOr0NhOm7aHU1lX9GOAJWB9CGBA2qJgZPwFQdGmgUqxoL4Gw7H0SkrxnQTse57d9jMfZL6qc_Eo_nKKxlt_RlA6Vffol5XeivRarfeThIoWpAPIUnyVh4CsBBw/s1200/65ec6d7b07f48006a2957ff6_toewmbnail.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A picture of the Wooting 80HE keyboard" border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxJxO9HWeunaBv4c9JM5UT7-nKCtqg-QkPNxatIzCSuCm3vUrtV5Rgn6Acu8uCOr0NhOm7aHU1lX9GOAJWB9CGBA2qJgZPwFQdGmgUqxoL4Gw7H0SkrxnQTse57d9jMfZL6qc_Eo_nKKxlt_RlA6Vffol5XeivRarfeThIoWpAPIUnyVh4CsBBw/w400-h200/65ec6d7b07f48006a2957ff6_toewmbnail.png" title="A picture of the Wooting 80HE keyboard" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">80% layout!? WTF!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p> As I've said before <a href="https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2023/01/wooting-60he-is-like-cheating.html" target="_blank">playing with my Wooting 60HE feels like cheating</a>. I gave up my old Glorious GMMK to my teenager when I moved to the Wooting and the few times I go to use his PC I immediately miss my Wooting.</p><p> While I love my Wooting 60HE I have to admit I am not a fan of the 60% layout. I really liked the 75% layout of the GMMK. The good news is Wooting is bringing us a bigger layout with the 80HE with all of the other features I've come to enjoy and rely on to be the l33t gamer that I am (not really)!</p><p> In classic Wooting fashion they couldn't just be like the rest of the world and give us a standard 75% layout and instead landed at an 80%. It is hard to say what actually makes the up the 5% difference and there was a small uproar in the keyboard community about the placement of the arrow keys (too far to the left). The arrow keys will be moved to the right slightly in the final version.</p><p> For me I just want my F# keys back and arrow keys. As much as I've adapted to using customized key settings and the FN key on my 60HE I will be happy to be back to just using an F key or an actual arrow key. Also delete instead of FN + Backspace will be nice.</p><p> Of course all of the other Wooting goodness will be there and I'll still be legally cheating in all the games I play because of it :)<br /></p>heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266751.post-20728419874739332582024-03-13T11:56:00.004-04:002024-03-13T11:56:51.404-04:00New World New Low<p> New World is hitting new lows in peak concurrent player counts. The game that launched at 900,000+ peak concurrent users is now <a href="https://steamdb.info/app/1063730/charts/#1w" target="_blank">dipping to 6,000 with a peak just short of 15,000</a>. Here are some thoughts on what is going on.</p><p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM28r9oZA3HEvV8SBJ9UK1RGAtp4zYQbxxOfZhE7-g42RXRuA9WwK_AcK-UGZ8NpMMMZN57v-XCK7RtLY986kwAXynioI1MYkY4_6koWhVHTwVcBKpb0SAEk_sYBNH_HsFX2jPFha7EhtQx-g95wNzM9_6oJ_52W-5mwnQMXxKmyhnNrX_C2ILQ/s1452/new%20world%20steam%20charts.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An image of Steam charts for the game New World showing new low peak concurrent player counts" border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="1452" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPM28r9oZA3HEvV8SBJ9UK1RGAtp4zYQbxxOfZhE7-g42RXRuA9WwK_AcK-UGZ8NpMMMZN57v-XCK7RtLY986kwAXynioI1MYkY4_6koWhVHTwVcBKpb0SAEk_sYBNH_HsFX2jPFha7EhtQx-g95wNzM9_6oJ_52W-5mwnQMXxKmyhnNrX_C2ILQ/w400-h233/new%20world%20steam%20charts.png" title="An image of Steam charts for the game New World showing new low peak concurrent player counts" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Low!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p> I am writing this post a day after Season 4 was supposed to complete and Season 5 was supposed to launch, but as <a href="https://www.heartlessgamer.com/2024/03/new-world-woes.html" target="_blank">I posted previously that plan was delayed</a>. Also we still don't have the road map for 2024 and won't have it until June at the earliest. This is one of the drivers to the low numbers: there isn't anything new to do or to look forward to in the game. </p><p> Content and the promise of new content continues to be king in the MMO genre and New World has slowed down in it's content creation and been unable to tell us whats next. The most recent major content drop was the Rise of the Angry Earth back in October 2023 but it was more of an appetizer than an actual meal. Most players moved through it within a week. We got a new expedition with Season 4, but for many players there wasn't more than a couple hours of experience. </p><p> So Season 5 getting released will help right? Not really from a content perspective. Season 5 is bringing a new 10-man trial but that is going to be short form content. The Season pass itself is not really content. Some new artifacts will interest players, but are more reasons to do old content than new content. There is nothing meaty in Season 5 to bring players back or for players to invest in.</p><p> This doesn't mean the New World team isn't doing anything. In Season 4 they launched cross-server expeditions with an improved group finder. This is a key tech to ensure players can get into content more reliably; especially with the lower player population playing currently.</p><p> Also with Season 5 they are launching a rewritten combat system which is a major overhaul to the combat code and offers a promise of better changes and faster bug fixes in the future. This no doubt took a tremendous development effort and getting it right is a likely reason Season 5 has been delayed.<br /></p><p> Controller support is also part of Season 5 which is speculated as a precursor to June's road map update announcing a launch to consoles. A console launch could also explain why not much other content has come out recently as the team is busy on the changes needed to support consoles. </p><p> There is a debate to have if a console release is about New World itself or about the underlying Azoth Engine and future games being console ready from day one. My honest opinion about a console launch is that it has to come with a massive content update. If all that the team brings forward is a console release of the current game it will affirm that the diversion to console support was about other games than New World.</p><p> However, if we get a console launch + a big content expansion it will say a lot about New World's future. I am hopeful this is where we are headed because personally I am finding myself playing New World less and less even though I really do enjoy the game. <br /></p>heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266751.post-85381451887759847542024-03-08T11:03:00.000-05:002024-03-08T11:03:22.954-05:00New World Woes<p> New World Season 5 is delayed. This announcement comes within shouting distance of the recent news that the game's next road map update is delayed from May to June. "Woe is me" sighs the New World fan.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHseGGhCkYe9rzvgDzi7Z2CPBGsuTeG81Jpq9MwS_PMrjA352b4TG239XqYEt9EGAg_obcCvHNJzHq4FN6zifgm9Xk7ecV2zpYL74DBrv2Z-xi5TTsE7X-EZgF38r-urVo5fI2feS2Ebd3gRKXgw6DNhYhqZvPpwuJIo9sXXs0LQOvwrzR7z9zLw/s1024/Designer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A picture of a disapointed PC gamer." border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHseGGhCkYe9rzvgDzi7Z2CPBGsuTeG81Jpq9MwS_PMrjA352b4TG239XqYEt9EGAg_obcCvHNJzHq4FN6zifgm9Xk7ecV2zpYL74DBrv2Z-xi5TTsE7X-EZgF38r-urVo5fI2feS2Ebd3gRKXgw6DNhYhqZvPpwuJIo9sXXs0LQOvwrzR7z9zLw/w320-h320/Designer.png" title="A picture of a disapointed PC gamer." width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sigh</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> The <a href="https://www.newworld.com/en-us/news/articles/season-of-the-guardian-update" target="_blank">Season 5 delay</a> was not unexpected. The update has a major change for the game as the dev team has re-written the entire combat engine in a new scripting language called slayer script. The team has said this change will allow them to move faster and fix more issues. </p><p> This is a good change for the game and sends a good message that AGS is dedicated to the game's future. However, this is also the sort of change that a game cannot recover from if it launches poorly. This is a rewrite of the combat system which is the core experience that New World offers and what sets it apart from other games on the market.</p><p> Having played on the PTR (public test realm) with the changes I can agree that a delay was needed. The combat does feel like it is improved and there is a lengthy list of bugs they have fixed with the move to the slayer script. It does seem like the team can move faster and fix more with the scripting change. There is a but coming though: the combat doesn't feel right yet on PTR.</p><p> It is hard to put it into words. For me the main issue is that melee combat still feels off in PvP. Melee attacks still struggle to register a hit just like they do in the current system. PvE seems fine, if not improved over all, as things feel snappier and cleaner in dense combat situations. That doesn't seem to translate to PvP where something is just not there yet with the changes. </p><p> I do admit this could just be my thousands of hours of experience with the current live game compared to just a couple hours on PTR. Regardless; I want to get my hands on PTR again with the next set of changes so I feel comfortable the release isn't going to give any more ammunition to the negative-Nancy crowd.</p><p> New World has to get this update right. In a perfect world the season wouldn't be tied to the update so that we could get the new 10-man trial and get working on the next season pass, but I get that is not reality. I will be patient.<br /></p>heartlessgamerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02809717223567961650noreply@blogger.com0