Lost Ark or Lost Bots?

 While I only briefly tried out Lost Ark (it wasn't

for me at the time compared to current offerings such as New World) the game has been interesting to follow.  Lost Ark was drawing massive concurrent player numbers on Steam for it's North American playerbase and as a fan of MMORPGs seeing a game regularly cruising at 300,000+ concurrent players is what I want to see for the genre.  Also of interest was how this game, already two years old in other parts of the world where it launched before, would manage when so much about the game was already known.  

 One key aspect of that is how bots would shape the game.  Bots a problem for all online games and Lost Ark, booming in popularity, seemed like it had its fair share of bots.  At time I heard jokes about "50% of players are bots" and some brave enough to say 50% was lowballing it.  Well now we have a pretty good idea that it was probably 50%+ bot population.

 Using Steam DB charts like the unscientific tool they are we can see the sharp drop in player numbers immediately after the massive bot ban wave in early January.  The game is just now recovering to 100,000+ player peaks and right after the ban wave the peak numbers were just a meager 50-60,000.  The game literally cratered from 300,000+ peak concurrent players to less than 100,000 which gives good evidence some 200,000+ players at peak concurrency were bots.  Holy freakin' crap.

 Lost Ark... neigh!  Lost Bots!  Hopefully the Lost Ark faithful, the actual players, are enjoying the freedom from bots.  I doubt all bots are gone but a good chunk appear to be.

Return of the Classes to Battlefield 2042

 Classes are somewhat coming back to Battlefield 2042 as outlined in this update from the development team.  As a player who more recently joined Battlefield 2042 I was already playing after multiple changes since launch that were targeted at bringing classes back due to player feedback about the specialist-only system.  These final updates bring back the classic battlefield classes (recon, assault, support, medic) with a twist.  With a twist come some thoughts.  With thoughts comes this post.

 In Battlefield games classes normally restrict what weapons and gadgets players can use.  In 2042 classes will not restrict weapon use but will limit gadgets.  Instead of limiting weapons classes will gain a proficiency in a weapon.  For example; Medics will be more proficient with SMGs (exact details below)

Assault + Assault Rifles: 3 Extra Magazines
Engineer + LMG: Improved Dispersion while Crouched or Prone
Support + SMG: Faster Draw Time
Recon + Sniper Rifles: Immediate, constant and steady scope

 At face value these are hard to evaluate. When I had first heard they were thinking of proficiency I thought it would mean a more dramatic impact; such as an assault player being unable to aim an LMG.  But stuff like assault getting stuff like three extra magazines on an assault weapon? When is the last time you've run out of ammo or lived long enough to go through stock magazines?  

 I don't think players desire for classes to return was just to have a limited set of gadgets to worry about when facing an opponent.  The guns classes were limited to was a huge part of the system. Without I am not sure what the point of having the classes is.  This could have just been a simple pass through gadgets to limit them to specific specialists.

 On the other hand these changes do at least bring classes back to the game in an official capacity without taking away combinations many players enjoy as far as their main pea shooter.  Gadgets getting restricted will certainly freshen up some things (no more Mackey zip-lining in with C5).  I hope this means vehicles have a little bit of a return knowing that not everyone can pop out with a rocket launcher.

 The changes will hit in the next month or so and shake the game up.  I've been playing a lot less 2042 lately so we'll see if I am around for the changes.  If so I'll probably have some more thoughts.