April 2024 In Review

 Taking some inspiration from The Ancient Gaming Noob (TAGN for short) I wanted to start up month-in-review posts.

Microsoft Designer / prompt "an image to represent a blog post summarizing the month of april"

The Blog

 I will likely write a bigger post about this but I had a "surprise" after researching recent random traffic spikes.  The findings are best explained in this summary which guided me through blocking spammers that are abusing Google Analytics GA4 tags.  Needless to say my bubble was deflated as 90% of the traffic to my blog has just been spam and not real traffic (which explains why I see so few comments).  So where I was thinking I had 1,000 visits a day I really just have 100 (and that may still be high).  

 Anyone using Google Analytics should read that article and take the actions to block the spammers and build reports to review your historical traffic without that traffic counted.  I did parts of this through April so won't have a full picture quite yet and will share more on traffic stats in future monthly updates.

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 22 (at least one per week day)
  
• Posted: 16
• Difference: -6
• Why the miss?  Work.  It's been busy so spare time has been gaming instead of blogging.  Fortunately clearing up here for May to get back on track.
•  Search Trends
• "new world ultimate trophy" is the main search driver to the blog and then hundreds of other New World search terms after that (daily checklist, season 5 artifacts, upgrade named gear - just to name a few)
  
• "call of the wild the angler multiplayer" is the big non-New World driver anytime that game seems to have a hiccup with this multiplayer features.
  

What I Played

 New World continues to dominate my time even though there isn't much new to do in the game.  My main focus has been on 3v3 arenas and the Springtide Bloom event.  The spring event, while bugged, was a good "do it and chill".  The bug let you get rewards faster so I was able to get all skins and rewards from the event with less effort than expected.   For 3v3 arenas I peaked into the top 10 for wins briefly for Season 5 and am back to 12th.  My main playing partner hit #1 though so that was cool to see; though both of us lack the time to stay on the top for the full season.  We'll still give it a go though.

 Fallout fever caught me as it has so many others and I gave Fallout 3 a couple hours of attention, but will admit it fell off almost immediately in favor of New World.

 I also got time with the Pax Dei Wilderness Alpha and spent several hours there.  The game has a good bit to improve but there is a little glimpse of promise of game there.

Years Ago

 One thing I wanted to steal from TAGNs is his look back over the last twenty years (we're getting old!).  My look back will mostly be from my blog history but a real life event may pop in here or there.

1 Year Ago

 April 2023 brought us Season 1 in New World and Rabbits Revenge (which due to patch delays we did NOT get in 2024).

5 Years Ago

 April 2019 caught me in my drought of blogging so had no posts, but my youngest son was also just turning 3 months old at the time so I was plenty busy.

10 Years Ago

 April of 2014 was all about the MEGASERVERS coming to Guild Wars 2.  Ten years later and we still have MMOs thinking they can launch with single servers.  How I wish New World had a megaserver model!

15 Years Ago

  April of 2009 I was looking at the news about A Dance With Dragons being delayed and fifteen years later, while we did get Dance, we have NOT gotten the next book in the series!  But GRRM is not my bitch so I'll leave it at that (if you get this comment you get it).

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.  And April of 2005 I was not yet blogging, but that was all about to change as I started in May 2005!  Which means I was thinking about it in April!

Pax Dei: Wilderness Alpha Feedback

 The Pax Dei Wilderness Alpha has come and gone and I put a few hours in so have feedback to share.

Welcome to Pax Dei!

 First, the world feels immense in scale and that is apparent from the moment you start out picking where you are going to put down roots in the world.  The size of the world is reinforced as you begin running around looking for resources and realizing hours later you still haven't left your own starting zone let alone reached any of the many other zones on your server.  

My starting zone; one of many, many zones.

 The next reality that hits is that you can claim any piece of this world (at least the zones I was playing in) as your own and begin building a home.  Pax Dei is a survival crafting game where you carve your spot out in the world.  Err well maybe not so much a survival game but definitely crafting and building your place in the world.

 I did find it confusing what my purpose was in the game.  Was I meant to just plunk down a claim and build a house? Or was I building towards producing armor and weapons to go on an adventure?  The game leaves this open ended which may be fine for some players but personally I found it unappealing.  I felt like the game should have nudged me in some sort of direction.

 There was no tutorial so I had to spend some time on Discord asking how to get started.  Part of the issue was that when I started the beginning materials were not abundantly available in my area.  It seemed like that may have been a bug because they were more easily located later in the test.  A tutorial that assures resources to get started would be ideal for launch.

 Once I had starting materials I was off and crafting.  The game was on par with any other crafting survival game except there is not a pressing survival component (i.e. I didn't starve to death immediately).  I built a campfire.  I built a starting workbench.  I built the next thing and the next thing and...

 ...then I hit a wall.  The crafting progression has some bumps.  As I mentioned early on in the test some of the starting materials were tough to find.  My first day I couldn't find clay so I couldn't make a kiln and thus everything past that was blocked.  Later in the test I encountered recipes for starting crafting stations that had steep material requirements and little help guiding me to where to get them. I think the progression can be smoothed out with a pass on what recipes require what materials so they fall in more logical order.

Eventually I was able to get a kiln.  Don't ask where my clothes went.

 Gathering was also bumpy.  Again there was clear issues early on where some resources didn't seem to be available or weren't re-spawning (at least that's my guess).   However, part of the issue is the game seems to have a "node" system so there were times where I was surrounded by rock but I couldn't actually gather any of that rock for recipes that needed rock.  I got used to games in this genre, like Enshrouded, where you can just go bash a rock pile to get rocks.

Rocks, rocks, everywhere but I can't gather any of them.

 One thing that I had hoped would happen naturally was that if I hit a bump in progression that I could rely on a neighbor who maybe had made further progress but I found it very difficult to interact with players in the game.  In fact I don't think I once was able to communicate or interact with anyone even though we ran past each other numerous times.  I had to jump out to the Discord server and even then couldn't find folks in my area and I wasn't up to run long distances to get to them.  The game needs to make it simpler to find and interact with other players.

 Crafting in the game features both station crafting where I stood at a station and crafted as well as factory crafting where a station took inputs and some time later provided an output.  When crafting there is a chance of success or failure that improves as skills improve.  Personally I didn't like this as there was only a "down side" (i.e. failing the craft) and no "up side" where if you got lucky you got a bonus or some masterwork version of something.  

 Also each individual item has to be crafted by itself and the success/failure bar has to fill up for each.  Unfortunately this meant a lot of time just watching the bar go up and not a lot of time playing. Add in the progression of recipes and a massive quantity of inputs required and players in the alpha found themselves spending hours just standing at stations doing nothing.  I would recommend they get rid of the success/failure mechanic and just make bulk crafting instant.  Don't waste players time.  It is fine to have "factory" stations that are time gated  but once I have materials just let me craft with one click.

 As I continued to play I made progress and eventually equipped myself with a weapon and shield.  This brought me into combat.  My first encounter was with a bear which ended with me dead.  I opted to pick on a boar next which... also ended in my death.  Each death meant a run back to get my corpse to get my items back.  Corpse runs are fine I suppose.

 Boar or bear there is risk to fighting with the basic weapons and part of the problem is combat is... how should I say this... bad.  It is just bad.  As it was an alpha I feel like I owe more words in feedback so I'll try to give some here but don't let these words lead you to believe there is anything to this combat system.  It is really, really bad even for an alpha (note: they have also said this is the combat system they expect to have for early access).

 The first issue with combat is there isn't anything to it.  You left click to attack.  That is about it.  Combat feels floaty and your actions lack weight which is odd because combat is terribly slow.  Animations are... not good... making it hard to connect with what is visually happening to what inputs you are providing.  Add in desync situations with the client/server connection and it's a poor experience.  I can't see myself playing a game with a combat system this poor.  New World combat has spoiled me.

 Visually the game offers stunning views, but I found the details to be less impressive once you were up close.  The mountains are stunning at a distance but generic up close with no character.  The world is clearly procedural generated for the most part and thus lacks any points of interest unless you walk for long distances to somewhere hand crafted.  I suspect player buildings will make it more interesting once the game is live but player buildings currently don't offer much of interest aside from "oh cool" or "not sure what they were building" moments.

 For an alpha test the game offered a lot of pieces and I really liked day one where a little neighborhood started popping up.  Crafting and building are in a good spot and can get better with more reviews of progression and recipes so they are more logical.  Seeing other players share their builds there is a lot of potential out there in seeing the world come alive.  If the game can then add in some better reasons to seek out and work with other players it will hit a sweet spot for some gamers.  However, combat 100% needs a do-over. If they cannot massively improve combat this game is going to miss for many players. The crafting/building is NOT better than other games in the genre and the only advantage Pax Dei has is it's massively multiplayer with the promise of thousands of players building in the same world together.  If they an figure out combat and interesting content to go with it this game will be a winner.

Some more screenshots:

Swim two feet, die.

Amazing views.

Again, don't ask about the clothes.  No, I didn't finish my house.

Wilderness here I come!

Yay!

 I've been invited to the next Pax Dei alpha test entitled "Wilderness".  This will be my first time testing the game and I am looking forward to this one.  Part survival, part builder, and an MMORPG - right up my alley!

Some more info on the Pax Dei Wilderness Alpha

What can you expect in this Alpha?

For this second large-scale test, we’re going on an adventure!
 
Our team has been hard at work on every aspect of the game related to challenges, and we now want to test that foundation with our community.

We hope you will have a great time, and we are looking forward to your feedback.

•  Gear up. We have revamped and introduced new statistics for all gear in the game. With hundreds of items for mixing and matching, you will have no lack of choices in crafting your own role.
•  It is dangerous to go alone. Denizens of the world will now present a real challenge. Don’t wander away from home without a party and the proper equipment.
• Master your weapons. We’ve added new spells, combat abilities, and weapon types. Keep an eye on their durability, you don’t want them to break when you need them the most.
• Welcome to Fight Club. Divine peace doesn’t extend to Lyonesse, our new province. Enter here at your own (mortal) peril, if you’re willing to try out our first iteration on PVP.
• Build & craft away. We've made multiple changes to the peaceful aspect of the game as well, be sure to check our release notes for a comprehensive overview.

MMORPG Alphas! MMORPG Betas! Oh my!

 2024 is shaping up to be a big MMORPG year.  Along that line new alphas and betas are coming soon for Throne & Liberty global launch and Pax Dei!

 First, Throne & Liberty has announced their long awaited global beta for April 10th!  More details below:

The upcoming Closed Beta Test will start on April 10 at 1PM PT (8PM UTC) and run until April 17 at 1PM PT (8PM UTC). Selected players will receive their invitation via email on April 2, and will be provided a code via email on April 4 with further instructions on how to participate.

 I've signed up and am hopeful to make the beta.  I have a lot of interest in Throne & Liberty as it seems to be on of the few games really striking for the "massive" portion of MMORPG.  For some folks a PvP fight with 1,000+ players may seem muddled but to me it sounds fun.

 

 Next up is Pax Dei with their next "Wilderness Alpha" phase coming.  Check the news post for more information.  If you end up signing up for alpha access feel free to enter my referral code "heartlessgamer_friends".

We just announced that our upcoming Alpha will start on April 23rd. In this post, we want to explain the delay and provide more details on what our teams have been working on during the past few months, as well as what you can expect to test this time around.

 The team looks to be making good progress with the game; specifically on the RPG side.  The sandbox building side looked to be in pretty good shape from previous alpha testing.  With this new alpha there is a hefty set of changes to animations, skills, and thus combat is changing.  The animations of the prior alphas was not polished so looking to see the changes.

 They also have new dungeons which look much better than the caves of the prior updates.

Pax Dei Early Access

 Continuing the "heartlessgamer playing around with AI" I asked Bing to summarize the news from the past day with Pax Dei's plans for Early Access.

NVIDIA featured Pax Dei gameplay footage during their CES 2024 special address. Mainframe Industries confirmed NVIDIA DLSS 3 will be included in "day one" of Pax Dei's launch. After a successful alpha test in late 2023, the game developers affirmed the highly-anticipated game is to enter early access in the coming Spring ¹. The game is a medieval flavored social sandbox MMO from developers from Blizzard and Remedy Entertainment ². The game will be available on PC and will feature AI accelerated DLSS 3 ². The early access offers are almost finalized with monetization confirmed as a single purchase grants access ¹. There is no specific date for Pax Dei's early access launch, but a second alpha test phase is in motion with sign-ups available on their website ¹.

¹: [KeenGamer](https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/)
²: [IGN](https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024)

Source: Conversation with Bing, 1/9/2024
(1) Pax Dei Early Access Features NVIDIA DLSS 3, CES 2024 ... - KeenGamer. https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/.
(2) Pax Dei Nvidia DLSS 3 - Official Trailer | CES 2024. https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024.
(3) Pax Dei Is Hosting Its First Alpha Test, Called 'Home Valley,' Starting .... https://www.mmorpg.com/news/pax-dei-is-hosting-its-first-alpha-test-called-home-valley-starting-on-november-14th-2000129436.
(4) RTX 500 and Counting: Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition & Pax Dei .... https://www.nvidia.com/en-my/geforce/news/ces-2024-dlss-ray-tracing-rtx-games-announcements/. 

Pax Dei Alpha This Year?

 It is almost November, but the Pax Dei team is still maintaining that their alpha test is going to happen this year according to this MMORPG.com article.

The Pax Dei team is affirming their plans for alpha this year and has released some stats from the small Friends and Family playtest.

 I also found the numbers from the friends and family test intersting.

Those testers have used over 346,749 building pieces with the top builder having used 25,767.  Since everything in the game is player created, it does make one wonder what 25k pieces added up to. There have been  5,284 deaths by NPC and 1,771 deaths by falling. Dungeons have seen over 180,000 square meters covered, and over 47,200 km explored. Those testers have also killed over 3,500 rabbits.

  The building numbers specifically stand out.  This tells me that building is a big part of the game and not just a secondary pursuit.  Also coming from a game like New World where fall damage is something you laugh off it will be an adjustment to fear falling from great heights again. And the poor, poor rabbits (though not as many as I'd suspected so maybe they are more evasive than your standard MMO rabbit).

 I will continue to watch this one with interest.

Pax Dei

New MMO on the block

Pax Dei is generating a lot of buzz, and in my opinion, it should serve as a warning to games like Ashes of Creation. The first trailer offers a glimpse of combat and the user interface, all from the perspective of the in-game engine. If games like Ashes don't launch soon, titles like Pax Dei may swoop in and steal their audience. The first look of Pax Dei is pretty impressive, and it has convinced me to join the queue for alpha access.

 Not only were the visuals striking, which is to be expected with the Unreal Engine, but I felt like shots were taken at games like Ashes that have been hesitant to show combat and user interface as both were featured in the Pax Dei release trailer.  Granted it is not in depth but it gives me hope the game is further along than just being a set of ideas.

 Also impressive in the video was the support for cross platform.  They showed the game on a tablet which is exciting.  I don't do much gaming on mobile platforms but that is because most games don't offer it as a supported option; the more I see games like this support it the closer I get to jumping into gaming on something other than my big rig.

 I didn't know this game was out there working its way towards an alpha, but after the trailer and some of the interview videos I am firmly in the camp of "excited to see what comes next".  Again, I got the sense Pax Dei is closer to reality than games that suck up a lot of community buzz currently and the MMO market is ripe for some disruption.