Call of the Wild: The Angler Multiplayer Woes

  The multiplayer system in Call of the Wild: The Angler does not work and is poorly designed.  It should be the top priority for the development team to fix and make fundamental changes to.

The multiplayer mode in CotW: The Angler allows up to twelve fishergamers to drive, boat, and fish together on a single map (known as a reserve in the game).  Unfortunately the "join friend's game" does not seem to work as I have yet, after dozens of times trying, been able to join a friend's game.  In fact most of the time the game doesn't even represent the online/offline status of friends correctly (usually saying they are offline when they are online playing).  The "join game" option on the friends list does throw an error at the user though and then connects to an online map anyways.

More irritating than "join friend" not working is the mind boggling decision that random match making
online multiplayer would be defaulted to ON with no option to have friends-only or private sessions.  To top it off the setting for turning mutliplayer off does not save properly so every time you launch the game you have to remember to go turn it OFF again.  Fortunately there is no chat or way to communicate with other players in the game so right now there is no risk of getting spammed or told something that would make my mother blush.

Defaulting to ON may seem harmless, but it can mess with the new player experience.  What I ran into in my first fishing trip is that I couldn't do the boat driving 101 or driving 101 because another player had spawned a boat or vehicle and it wouldn't allow me to spawn another from the same terminal.  Also since we were all playing right at the launch of the game I have no doubt some of my early frustrations not being able to catch fish in the beginner spots for the tutorial was directly because a dozen other players fished the area out (which is a real possibility with how the game works in populating fish in the world).

Anyways; it is 2022 and there is no reason to be defaulting players to multiplayer match making with random strangers unless that is what they explicitly want to do.  I do not understand why the system does not work exactly like Expansive World's other game theHunter Call of the Wild.  In theHunter you have to actively turn your map into a multiplayer session and then you can control if its public or friends only.  It is just baffling that the Angler went with random match making turned on and provides ZERO options for setting up a friends-only session.

Other improvements needed in multiplayer.  Voice or chat communication is a must have if there is going to be random match making and public servers.  Ideally we'd also get the "search for available games" browser available in theHunter so we can find games (especially important when new maps launch).  There also needs to be away to share your catches with others nearby or over chat.  How am I supposed to brag about that monster I just landed?   I guess I'll just lie about the catches like I do in real life.

At least it is neat to see other players fishing.

Sunday 9/11/22 Post

 Ya... ya.. a post a day.

Here is the post for Sunday 9/11/2022

The Witcher

 My history with The Witcher was the video games first (1,2,3 right in order), then the show on Netflix, and now finally the first book.  Here are some thoughts on the experience.

When I first watched the show version of The Witcher on Netflix the first season was difficult to follow as far as a storyline.  Still it was an amazing show with near perfect casting, great acting, and the gritty feel of the video games.  I can imagine no other actor than Henry Cavill as Geralt to which the author, Andrzej Sapkowski, agrees.

 

 

 

 

“I was more than happy with Henry Cavill’s appearance as The Witcher.” The novelist added, “He’s a real professional. Just as Viggo Mortensen gave his face to Aragorn [in The Lord of the Rings], so Henry gave his to Geralt — and it shall be forever so.”

 

 

 Having read the first book, The Last Wish, I realized how faithful the show's first season was.  Reading the book helped me better understand the narrative arc and what it was trying to convey.  Which then helps set up the story in season 2 and now I'm hooked even more into the world.  I am not sure I will read much more of the series, but man I can't wait for season 3 of the show and hopeful for many seasons beyond.

This has also brought me back to remember my times in the video games.  I will admit the story lines of the games is not fresh in my mind, but I feel like parts of the games fit together better.  It's actually surprising how the games, show, and books really fit together.  Again, Henry Cavill just nails it as Geralt and when I drop back into any of The Witcher games he is who I see in Geralt.  Visually as well the world has consistency across mediums.  Specifically the Nilfgaardians are spot on from book to game to show.  Amazing work by all the teams involved.

It's fun getting to see properties like this take off and have success in the main entertainment areas I have interest in.  I hope The Witcher sets a blue print for others to follow.

Housekeeping Incoming

 

 I am going to be doing some housekeeping on the blog.  As I strive to hit my goal of "a post a day" I want to get the blog looking a little better for all one of the readers out there.

First Week Thoughts on Call of the Wild: The Angler

Call of the Wild: The Angler launched last week and I've gotten a few hours to put into it.  I shared my pre-launch thoughts here so I wanted to follow up on how the game shaped up.

The first item I was interested in was the open world aspect of the game.  I've enjoyed my time exploring the world and finding different fishing spots.  The driving and boats are a bit like driving a hammer in a swimming pool, but they are better than hoofing it out on foot.  There is a good bit to do beyond fishing and for anyone looking to get a pot of money to start out with doing the "Golden Tour" quests around the map is a great way to get starting cash.

I mentioned a "proven track record" for the developer in my first post and I feel the game has launched in a good state.  There are no major bugs and stability + performance has been good for me.  Scanning the forums, discord, and Reddit there has not been an uproar of issue reports so I take that as a good sign.

Now, there is the other side of the track record, which is "is the game fun/challenging?".  That is a little more of a "jury is still out" situation.  There are some things that were done in theHunter Call of the Wild (Expansive Worlds last major game) that would be perfect fits for Angler, but for some reason were not part of the base game.  

The first major gap is the lack of a skill/perk progression system. The only progression, and I hesitate to call it progression, is earning cash and buying heavier gear.  Once you have that heavier gear you can catch anything with it which means you plateau pretty quickly.  A skill/perk system that unlocks better rods/reels/fishing methods along with "knowledge" type skills would go a longs way to improving the game.

The second major gap, which dove tails with my comments about heavier gear being a plateau, is the lack of a "harvest check" equivalent system.  For anyone that played theHunter the harvest check system served as a way to ensure you used the proper equipment when hunting different animals.  You could not earn a diamond trophy rating by blowing away a turkey with an elephant gun.  Oddly there is no such check in the Angler; if you catch a blue gill on 50lb braid and a heavy rod/reel and its a diamond ... it's a diamond rating.  Since you can see the fish in the water this makes catching the diamonds trivial.  

For comparison; after casually playing theHunter for close to a year I've yet to bag a diamond kill.  I came close a couple times with diamond-eligible targets but missed my shots or in one sad case used the wrong caliber weapon.  In the first hour of Angler I caught multiple diamond fish and to be honest they felt no different than any other fish.  

I still have confidence in Expansive Worlds to improve this game but there are some head scratchers on design decisions for the game thus far.

I was also excited to give multiplayer a go, but its implementation is buggy and also in the "head scratchers" category of design choices.  Multiplayer is on by default so you are always put into a multiplayer match unless you turn the setting off (which you have to do every session).  Joining a friend is difficult because they are always getting set to a full map with everyone being defaulted to multiplayer.  This system makes no sense and a game like this should NEVER default to multiplayer = on.  I should be able to create lobbies that are public, private, or friends only.  The developers have acknowledged the issues so I am hopeful for quick resolution to the issues.

Over all I am having fun with the game.  It is a relax and chill style game.  The fishing doesn't require a ton of skill, which I assume they will address longer term, but its enough fun for me to log on and catch some fish every day.  With the lack of a progression system it's hard to see a long term investment so I'd weight that as a key priority for them.  Anyone looking for an arcade like fishing experience with a side of open world exploration this a game worth giving a try.  If you are looking for a full fledged fishing game then I'd hold off until they make some improvements.