We gave our 13 year old a phone for Christmas

 We gave our 13 year old a phone for Christmas.  We went with the Pinwheel phone for the parent portal and controls.  It is an extra cost but worth it for peace of mind.  No gaming on this phone though (mobile gaming is terribad anyways).

Sunday 12/25/2022 Post (Merry freaking Christmas)

Merry freaking Christmas folks! 

The Green Bay Packers play off chances are looking:

 

 

Defense in the first half... meh.

Defense in the second half... oh yeah.

 

Cold. No power.

Happy holidays y'all!

Happy Holidays from the Battlefield team!

 Saw this and figured I'd share and maybe someone can explain to me the context for the penguin?

Monday 12/19/2022 Post

 A day-ish late but not a dollar short!  Still in the play off hunt BABY!

New World COMMUNITY QUESTION: What do you want to see happen with the Territory Game?

 

 First, watch the embedded video from the New World developers on the territory influence system.  Then read on for my thoughts and my answer to the question posted to the community.

The video covered

• Leaderboards and how they will track influence related data points
• They talk about timing windows for pushing influence to compress the action for attackers and defenders
• They are in early (EARLY was stressed) concept phase of control point activities for influence pushing

 The changes mentioned between timing windows and control point activities are steps in the right direction, but they are small changes on top of a system that is fundamentally not fun.  The missions are boring run here and then run back.  It is too easy for one side to out zerg the other sides.  Once a player dies they are worthless for PvP experience for a good bit so it gets really annoying having to kill someone over and over and over and over and over and over and over and what was I talking about again?

 Oh right! The territory push via PvP missions is crap. Which brings us to the community question: What do you want to see happen with the Territory Game? 

 First and foremost this system has to become more about the faction and not just the individual company.  No offense but my faction's companies are equally as likely to screw me on taxes as any other faction so why do I care... at all.. about the system?  The Territory Game needs to be more about the broader faction than single companies.

 We also JUST started getting way from super companies with shell companies owning the entire map.  Even with the changes there is still examples of large companies still owning more than makes sense.  These large companies already organized and plan territory pushes so they are really setting "timing windows" already.  Official timing windows just means they can take a breather until the actual window and be even more prepared for it.

 And this goes right back to point number one: the territory game is for the elite WAR gang.  So the answer to the question, in my view, STOP MAKING THE TERRITORY GAME ABOUT ONE GOSH DARN COMPANY!  Make the territory game relevant faction-wide!

 A few ideas (outside of getting rid of the idea of companies owning towns since that is not on the menu):

• Give all faction members a clearer reward and benefit for a territory being owned by that faction (tax break, access to a unique crafting station, free fast travel, etc). 
  
• Add aspects to territory influence that are not tied to combat and boring missions; involve the crafters and gatherers.  With more wide reaching rewards for the faction this gets more players involved.
  
• Update the taverns to be full of cool stuff for the controlling faction; stop in to get unique food and music related buffs.
• Instead of the repeatable faction quests; just give every player in the faction a set of task-like quests to complete when the influence window opens.  Then let players share these quests with other faction members so they can be completed. Once the window closes the quests go away.  The key is faction members get them automatically so they know there is something to go do.  Some examples:
• Gather 10,000 X resource that can only be gathered while PvP flagged in the zone and prevents fast travel.  The resource drops if you get killed and the defending faction can also turn it in.
  
• Kill "named boss" while defending faction has "defend named boss" (boss would have to be unique to the territory game)
  
• Capture points; goes with the boss suggestion
• Remove companies from owning towns (sorry couldn't resist); let home owners elect governors
   

How would you answer the community question?  Leave a comment and tell me.

Fixed: Battlefield 2042 Matchmaking Failed

 With the most recent Battlefield 2042 update players have been getting a Matchmaking Failed error.  I started getting it myself and figured out a workaround (which was also confirmed by others using similar methods).

The error: 

Matchmaking Failed
Error Code: 3:2907J:2903J P:84955732

The fix: 

 Queue up for co-op solo, cancel, and then rejoin the mode you were trying to join and you will not get the error.

 Quote from the Reddit post with their steps "If you get the matchmaking error, search for a game of coop/solo and wait for the countdown to start. Cancel the lobby and then try online again."

 Hope this helps!  It has worked for me every time.

Farmable Heavy Armor Ward Sets in New World

 Credit to the Reddit post embedded below outlining some farmable +Ward heavy armor sets in New World.  Enjoy!

Copies of the pictures from the post:

New World: A different option than changing gems between mutations

 Caught this video from BDLG on a different approach to mutations in New World that doesn't require you to swap out gems on all armor when the mutations rotate.  This approach saves thousands of gold and expedites swapping resistances (basically now just one click).  Watch the video or read below for the basics of the approach.  Hope you enjoy the tip!

 The basics of the approach:

• Cut Pristine Opal gems on all armor slots (increases all elemental resistances)
• Amulet with specific protection (nature, fire, etc) + a gem that matches that protection (amber for nature)
  
• In the video there is the example of Eyes in the Abyss named amulet which has Nature Protection and then you slot an amber gem; total nature protection is now ~27-28%.  

 For each mutation it is then as simple as swapping your amulet and leaving the opals in all the armor.  That is gold saved (not buying new gems each rotation) and time saved (not having to swap gems out).  Brilliant!

Note: another named amulet with protection mentioned in the video was Scorpion Stone.

New World Has A Problem

 New World has a problem.  This weekend is a free weekend for the game, but it doesn't seem anyone cares.  Based on player activity on nwdb.info and Steam charts, other than the highlighted "Free Weekend" note on Steam charts, you would not know anything was happening.  There is no discernible bump in player populations.  This was the case the last time a free weekend was tried.  Why is this the case?

 I think the main reason on the lack of interest for the free weekend was New World's massive success at launch when we saw a peak of 900,000+ concurrent players.  Most gamers that wanted to try the game bought it and tried it already.  As there is no subscription cost for the game players can return at any time "for free"; they don't need a free weekend.

 And what brings back players to New World?  New content.  Brimstone Sands and the fresh start servers were hockey stick charts for the game.  Players returned in droves, consumed the content, and now are settling back out to wherever the came from.  I am sure the next big content drop will see the same sort of bump and settle.  That is where resources need to focus; not free weekends.

 The question is what level of resources does the free weekend cost?  And what is the loss to other development efforts?  Nothing ever happens in the world of software development free of cost; there is always a trade off.  Only AGS can answer this so I don't want to dwell on it and I hope AGS is considering it when planning these events.

 At least with this free weekend they didn't create 70+ new servers (yes, they literally had 70+ dead servers for the last free event and none of the servers hit more than a small handful of players).  This free weekend players just play on the existing servers.

 What do you think?  Leave a comment.