Weekly(ish) Update 31(this year); Or blog lifetime post #3590....

Waffling the waffle once more....

 

It's only just hit me that this blog is now over 10 years old... August 2013. 10 plus years of waffle; Who'd have thunk it... Guess I should have done more than waffle some more.....

 

This time of year is where time is flying more than it seems to usually; Especially as I mentioned the time warp last week it's only gotten 'faster'. With all the good, bad and ugly.

Seems after all I'll be getting an Xbox One Series X soon™; Sooner than I thought(This time next year). No doubt there will be a better deal on an Xbox Series X after the season, never mind early next year. But I'll be glad to get it. Let the technology shuffle begin when it arrives.

 

The Fallout 'tv' series looks interesting, a lot of questions about seeing a lot of things in it, so I'm not making any assumptions from the trailer regarding story, timelines of whats see etc. Other than it's not dirty enough. A lot of things are way too clean outside that vault. More info needed for sure. 'Fans' are pilling on the show as bad due to it's Fallout 4 looks. I'm biased as Fallout 4 was my thing(1000+hours), so very biased. Heathen that I am I was never really 'into' Fallout 3/New Vegas as much. 

Not to mention Fallout 76's aesthetics being the 'current' of the franchise. 

Early days indeed, I look forward to more info and trailers...

 

 

November's gameranx video is interesting, 10 WEIRD Gaming Stories of November 2023

It was nice to also see Kingdoms and Castles get it's console release. A milestone indeed. I've not been back to the game on PC so on Xbox I'll not get it but it is a good game. Xbox players will get a lot form it as there aren't that many games like it on the platform.

Powerwash Simulator is going to get a new DLC next year based on 40k. Interesting.

The weekend(last of November), I took the opportunity to have a 'go' at the free weekend for Battlebit(remastered). It's good, not as good as some have made it out to be. It's a way faster paced game in person than I'd seen online. All that said it's got good mechanics. With time and practice I'm sure the "time to kill" wouldn't feel so 'harsh'. But I've not bought it. Yet?

Darkest Dungeon, has taken a bit of a backseat. What gamplay has been done is 'more of the same'. The roster is the expected mess now that the Crimson Court is open and infecting everything it touches. 

Were bananas a mod thing?

 

With the increase in the crimson curse it's been no wonder (slightly overdue) that the Fanatic should be wandering about. That'll be 'fun' going forward.

 

Euro Truck Simulator 2 has also taken a backseat, so much so I'm not in game much at all. Minor bits of gameplay sporadically. The latest DLC still has a lot of space to explore but time and other games get in the way. I'm still not sure about my DLC based garage to experience it's area/content; And I'm still undecided on the colour scheme.... Lots to faff about with, if only I could spend time and make a decision or two....

 

News and patch notes for it and ATS are a lot more of my truck sim 'game' atm. Patches (like ETS's 1.49) seem to be coming quick and fast so there's a need to 'keep up'. As I keep saying it's good to see.

 

 

Even American Truck Sim has been seeing a lot of development. 

SCS Software

 

Planet Crafter has seen me continue to 'faff' away with, tweaking and improving all round in my main save. My 'bases' of operation, bases that are redundancies of redundancies, because I can, have all seen 'changes'. Fun in it's own right but more than enough to whatever may come in the game. If it wasn't for the issues with the drones(unbalanced? bugged?) I'd be in other games. I could be doing more productive and better things in other games... Like ETS2/ATS. But mood and whimsy make the choices...

 

 

 

 

So maybe the new news about the co-op play is the breath of life to further more meaningful game-play(beyond the games  2024 plan); But yea co-op with myself and my wife. Hmmmm? I can hear the fun 'arguments' on item/base placement already......

 

Miju Games

 

 

Dave the Diver, has seen me do a lot of gameplay to both build up stock and improve the 'business', staff and menu etc. It's been all about 'just' doing it. Farming veg and fish; Servicing customers, earning coin, selling excess etc. Dare I say, collecting better quality fish.... For now 2 of every kind... I'm not there yet but I can see that 'need' around the corner as a 'reason' to play....

 

On Xbox I've been doing a bit more on Mad Max. A real surprise of a game despite it being more than 8 years old. Hard to think that the Fury Road movie is 8 years old as well. Talk about time flying! The game really does take on the universe of that movie. It's a crowd-pleaser if your into the movie for sure(I am). As a casual gamer I can say I appreciate it's easier to get into style. Not as complex in fighting systems or open world as say an Assassins Creed like Origins/Odyssey; But big and complex in it's own ways without being overwhelming. A lot of options if you want to get involved and a lot to bypass if you don't. Still all in the eye of the beholder and I've been enjoying it.

Star Trek Online has once again seen me to do more in the Xbox version than on PC. Getting that third KDF recruit on PC has made me feel that burnt out feeling and a change was needed. Dailies are still done on PC but not much else at all. A break; Time away and then a catch up needed me thinks. Will see.

 

  

 

Although the dailies are still ongoing I've convinced my wife to also do The Swarm TFO with both of us in the "jelly fish"; Cnidarian Defender. In a form of no F's given. And it's been fun. Especially when there are other players in the same ship with the same idea. Hilarious.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

So the same experience but different on XBox; With a more serious eye this time round. I've been going over all I'd built up over the years in the account bank and I decided to share the love to all the characters. Even the Delta's! They may not need it but I decided to spend time and gain Dilithium and in so doing could not help myself to improve them. Ships/traits/officers/abilities; Inventory/bank clearing/sorting and overall maintenance.

 

The three deltas also became ship/race specific; Human, Romulan and Klingon. It felt like the thing to do at the time..... The ships do not have perfect fits; But on those characters it all works and works well(for me) from what they had.

 

 

 

 

 

Compromise, with ships and characters like this it's all about compromise. Which starts a compounding escalation of decisions; So I've been trying to not overthink itt.... Or at least knowing when to stop tweaking....

On my Jem'Hadar character(the non Breen theme one), the racial theme also saw me finally use a T6 'free' token reward from an event campaign. A ship I really like on my PC 'main' Jem'Hadar, so it 'feels' right here.

 

My KDF recruit has his one remaining task(still), on his transponder, progressing every so slowly. Making progress it's not feeling like it. At least it counts both ground and space TFO's so with the next event in the new year 'randoms' should get done. Just 50 more to do.

 

Which brings me to an annoyance. The Gravity Kills TFO on Xbox has been bugged for a long time now(over a month). No player can pick up particles for TFO progression... So players are stuck, have to bail and get the 30 minute cooldown from 'leaving' an active TFO. It's a waste of time to stay in the TFO as trying to explain it's bugged causes more hassle at a player level... Some players don't 'get it' which is a whole other rabbit hole. Staying in the TFO to get it to time out after players leave is an even longer wait than the cooldown, so not worth it. All that said, over a month and no fix and it's still listed in TFO's. Very annoying when I'm trying to do random TFO's and someone else in the world decides to pick it. Even worse when it's the Universal Endevour!!!!! Really puts a damper on trying to get any randoms done.

 

 

More than likely I'll use my 'breen' Jem'Hadar for the Winter event; To work on his 'Breen' space fit...

There's a Phoenix event coming up right?!!!???? Riiiiiiiight????????? I'll get that Breen ship easy....... Right? I'm sure it'll all work out!!

Speaking of the Winter event The Tamarian Deep Space Cruiser seems to be a decent ship. Three Youtubers worth looking at have done vid's on the event and the ship.

MC Stu has done a video here.

CasualSAB has done a video on here.

&

Augmented Dictator Games has done a video here.

Speaking last time I mentioned a character that didn't have the Nimbus clicky..... My first goto item for new characters to get.... And what do I see on another character, a Delta, they didn't have it either..... What was I thinking.... Yea I was thinking at the time I was using the character that they wouldn't be needed again. Well I'm making up for it now I guess.

 

Eve Online, the pleasure and the pain, Eve giveth and CCP taketh away. Yea that chip on my shoulder isn't going way. 

 

The changes for security statues of some hi-sec important hubs like Hek is a welcome change if permanent.

 

With the test of the FPS the new launcher is "in my opinion" awkward; At least in looks in it's initial showing. In practice it's proved that point, an extra step(character select in launcher rather than game) to whats already there, I'm not fond of it(maybe I'll actually get used to it, not like there'll be a choice tho). The reason behind it is the release of the Vanguard FPS. My minds eye envisioned a new launcher as a version of the 'current' one with a toggle at the top between characters that flips portraits from Eve to Vanguard. But this new launcher, meh.

 

Yea I get it's all in testing but... that but on my shoulder makes that chip ache. The other thing that surprised me about the FPS was the PC specs.

MINIMUM:               NVIDIA GTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

RECOMMENDED:   NVIDIA RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT

Very high on the GPU side(imho). To test it, on purpose I used a pc with a much lower GPU. I was surprised and it even ran the game but given the lower non spec I was using it wasn't in a unplayable state. GPU is king I guess. I wonder if CCP factored that into the general player base. On steam the numbers are interesting. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

I wasn't a fan of the open mic either. I'm sure that'll be an option if it's not been changed already. 

As for the game in general it lacks "in my view" the ease of access that Dust had built in with the PS3's end days. Time will tell if this game is playable free or not and what side of eve players will play it(null groups dominate just like in eve) etc. As for the NDA, Yea just like CCP to take a player out of the game for blogging. Totally leaking all the super secrets here, don't you know. Anyway the surprise of the specs to the game were indeed a surprise. A case of less is would have been more?

Between all the info about Vanguard and in looking back at the old Dust footage I've had to be less critical. The biased negativity(CCP, Dust, Eve, the works) I've been simmering is real. The new footage I've seen of the weapons handling is better than I've seen(post test) and before I overdo any dislike needs to be seen. December will indeed tell when it gets into the hands of the masses. I want a good game but I don't want CCP to maul it with everything that could be negative. Monetization etc etc etc....

 

While there's a world away time zone gap in gaming with a real life friend, we've been co-op industry profiting. 

 

 

I've mentioned him often in past posts over the years; He has a knack of loosing ships in ill conceived ways.... Some more surprising than the next. Maybe it was tiredness or maybe it was a beer too many but his latest loss earned him a gank. He was AUTO PILOTIJNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course he was! My initial reaction was to to say all the WFT acronyms interspersed with wild laughter. When I think of all the effort to gain the % margins on sell orders and the efforts involved.... I may need to make a new corp medal... 'I must think on this'.