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.
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.
Still under the weather and facing down travel for work so going to keep things general topic for a few days here and yes I know I said 2023 blogging would be more about gaming moments/memories instead of opinion and blather but bear with me as I fail yet again to do what I say I'll do. With that said today I wanted to chime in on my experience so far with the Wooting 60HE keyboard. It is like legal cheating.
What you can do with this keyboard creates immediate difference in how you play games; especially any game where quick movement via WASD, such as side to side strafing, is advantageous (which is basically all FPS). Out of the box this wasn't apparent but after watching YouTube videos like the one below and tweaking settings I found the difference remarkable.
The main tweak enabled by the keyboard's lekkar switches is per key actuation settings. Setting one key to actuate (i.e. register that it was pressed and released) at 0.7 mm and another to actuate only at full key press 4.0 mm lets you have keys be super responsive or require a full key press (i.e. eliminate you hitting it by accident).
My Wooting 60HE
In my use case, as in the video, it is FPS games and WASD at 0.7 mm which gives such a crazy sense of response. It is the closest I've ever felt to movement keys responding to the speed my brain is working at. Depending on the game and how snappy movement is influences the feeling, but for many modern games such as Overwatch in the video or Battlefield 2042 for me it changes how you move in the game.
Movement advantage wasn't as obvious in New World, but what is clear is being able to avoid accidental activation of things like my heartrune (like an ultimate ability) or key skills I want to be purposeful in using.
There is also capability that other keyboards have such as mod tap where a single key can be set to do one thing with a tap or something else if it is held. I don't have many creative game uses for this but since its a 60% keyboard with no arrow keys I have keys set up to act as arrow keys on tap but their normal action on hold. No arrow keys is probably my biggest gripe with moving to a 60% board.
The difference is not just noticeable in games, but in general productivity as well. If, like me, you are prone to typing errors because you hit keys by accident going in and setting those keys to longer actuation or shorter if they are one's you miss easily (for me its P that I set to actuate faster just the way I reach for P).
Then throw in things like the keyboard saving all the settings on the keyboard itself, being able to manage via a web browser instead of needing an app, and just so many nice quality of ownership features and this thing is crazy. Any serious PC gamer is at a disadvantage without this keyboard. Will it make you into a chad gamer just by using it? No, but you should feel a difference and that is saying a lot for a $175 keyboard when there are many more expensive "gaming" keyboards out there that don't do anything remarkable.
Under the weather so don't have the energy to share my thoughts yet, but wanted to post that the community Q&A with the New World developers has been posted. Take a look and tune in over the next few days to my blog feed for my thoughts. I will share though that I am happy hippos are coming to Aeternum!
