Grockle Bay, a map I'd dreaded turned out to be a true pain in the posterior but a doable map once things got going.
The main hassle for me on this map was the sea-saw between cure rate and reputation. Despite having a great staff, well trained and multiple treatment rooms bringing in cash, the up's and down's meant a long wait to find parity. I think the thing that made both pop complete was a combination between an emergency and epidemic. The emergency patients needed curing which brought up the cure rate and clearing an epidemic helped the rep go up, as did the emergency completion. Luck as much as any skill. Thankfully it's done and I'll probably never be back.
Progress is ongoing for the event reputation vouchers on both platforms.
40% done for the XBox.
Just over 50% on PC.
The Discovery reputation for my PC main is also progressing. Not long now till it's done as well.
On XBox this week the Phoenix Prize event is also active, so I've been doing a bit with it.
The initial mission hand-in gets your character a free prize pack(daily) and a Phoenix Replica for the admiralty system.
That pack gave an uncommon token which I used to buy a Radan Tribble.
It's nice to be able to do an event like this that allows you to claim the more practical, usable items from previous in game events. It's a good catch up mechanic. So I spent a good bit of her Dilithium on 2 more prize packs.
With that Very Rare token I decided to get the Bozeman Impulse drive.
And with the Uncommon a Rep mark bonus pool.
So all progressing nicely.
Maybe it's with the increase of players for the events but I've experienced more game disconnects than at any other time. Twice while in a TFO and 3 times between Risa/Drozana and browsing the Phoenix rewards. The Xbox still remained online, streaming to the PC was still active, the game would just quit to the XBox Home Screen..... Makes me glad this is more a novelty than the main way I play the game.
We're giving away Age of Wonders 3 for FREE on Steam for a limited time! That's not all though! Taking part in this give away will also yield you a 10% discount on @APlanetfall Premium edition! https://t.co/ShtBwkfQV0
Battlefield, Battlefield, Battlefield. This Back to Basics theme has worn really thin the last week. For players like me it should be called, pistols week or throw your primary weapon away week.
Needless to say this last week has seen more Back to Basics. If I still had pistols to level up I'd be in heaven. I stuck 99.9% of my game time as Support so that meant lots of kills with mortars and pistol. I've also switched it up and swapped the mortar for the crossbow depending on the map and mood. That's not to say I've completely abandoned a main rifle. I just find the maps and mode/situations don't suit my gameplay with one. Despite my complaining I've been able to do some good leveling of my ol Support class. Getting there....
I got a notice today that my XBox gold sub had a few days left till I needed to renew. While I'd been mulling if I should keep it, the E3 €1 Ultimate pass upgrade was on my mind as well. So I was left with an imminent choice. Go all in or scrap it all. I went all in. 12 month's of 'gold' and the special €1 upgrade offer. For me 13 month's of ultimate at the price of €61(instead of €12.99 a month). It's an offer too good to miss. All the old access, freebies with all the new additions. €5 a month is a bargain, all the extra for an additional 8 cent! Yea that was a real bargain. That €1 upgrade offer goes further if you had up to 36 month's of live/gold time it would also have been all upgraded. That's a bargain I can't afford at the moment. I'll take the year while I can.
Abzû was the first game I decided to download and try. I'd heard about it but always assumed it was 'just' another or rather a 'lesser Subnautica'. That comparison does injustice to both games. Both are underwater and that's where the bulk of the similarities end. Even now I've not read much into/about Abzu's abstract nature. The journey in the game was enjoyable, it's worth doing. It's compelling and emotional. It's not a long game at all. Done and completed in slightly over an hour and a half. It's a pretty game to look at, the atmosphere and music are like the currents of the waters you swim in, it all carries you through the unspoken story. I didn't do much on the side of really exploring the areas of each stage. I didn't feel the need to look outside of what was needed to progress. The story in way's feels like a self fulfilling prophecy as the journey goes on.
All said and done, having played it, if I'd paid full price for the game I'd be having mixed feelings about it. €19.99 is a lot for what you get. €9.99 would still be borderline IMHO. That's not to denigrate the work that's been put into the game(3 years of development etc). It's a good game. Different. Where the journey is as important as the ending. And that ending is fulfilling. As is the interactive credits at the end.
So having gotten this game experience for next to nothing I shouldn't complain much. Other than to say I thought I was recording the whole experience, streamed to PC; Only going to stop the recording did I realise it hadn't started in the first place. Pity.
It's been a good while since I last took a crew through a dungeon run. Almost a year ago I was deep in the last expansion, doesn't seem that long ago! I was at a loose end tonight and clicked into the game to remind myself of where things had been left off. Before I knew it I found myself in my Radiant Campaign. Where my lack of recent familiarity and new found game ignorance could do the least damage. It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things.
With my recent revisit and recalling the second game in the works I've been pondering if I should do a Vanilla run of the main campaign. Might be fun. Not sure about doing it's coverage mainly by blogging (meta theory crafting waffle) or uuuuuh tubes videos. Maybe a mix of both. A bunch of videos where I may actually have to verbally waffle. Or as it is the Darkest Dungeon.... Curse a lot.
Sweaty Palms is a hospital that I've only tried once before. So only getting back to it now may seem slow but that's only because of a delay due to the first DLC distraction(not to mention other games).
From what I knew I was grimacing for the challenge ahead but in reality it turned out to be 'not to bad'. The greatest problems for me were in maintaining the cure count and hospital value. Increasing the number of trained doctors with matching facilities and more training on top soon increased the value and in turn the number of cures, percentage wise. Both things that need long-term management. Time is the key thing here, try and rush it and you'll have problems. It's a balancing act more than most.
I admit I did do a few of the cash research jobs. Research done in my main R&D hospital and finished off in Sweaty Palms for some extra help. Doing that never felt necessary. Cash does flow on the map. The R&D cash boost just helped to train, upgrade and build faster than to wait for the cash to build up normally.
Cash is also handy to maintain the large amount of air-con units necessary, along with an army of janitors to maintain them. All that and an erupting volcano with some epidemics on the side make for a hefty amount of micromanagement to keep you going.
I got to do some more streaming from the XBox to PC. It's a lot easier to record non stop on pc than in 10 or 15 minutes chunks on XBox. But I got some BF1 footage and got to see how the gampelay would work out... streamed. For the most part it worked out well. There were a few moments when it would 'lag out' like a hitch(stitch?) in time. No great hassle as I don't really take the XBox version of the game 'seriously'(Big level 5!). If the 'hicup' was constantly happening it would be a pain and lead to frustrations. If it was on the PC version I'd be smashing the keyboard wanting my millisecond back! In retrospect I chose the worst weekly event to drop in and test it out on XBox, Back to Basics is a tough mode with iron sight aiming, which is especially hard to do using a controller! Still the XBox footage will give an idea of all that.
I'm finding it a bit hard to believe I've already done 20 weekly(ish) video compilations/mash-ups for my BF1 gameplay. For the matches I did do on PC this week it was more leveling up my support....
Since the start of this years summer Steam sale 'game' I've taken a greater interest in Two Point Hosp. The game gives the steam 'sale game' a 10 point bonus per patient cured within Two Point. That's of no interest to me but it has made a few friends come back to Two Point! So I've taken advantage of that fact to help complete the community/co-op projects. Which has in turn brought me fully back into playing Two Point Hospital properly.
But as they have become weary of the Steam game they have started to drop out of Two Point.
I've been having to much fun with the Bigfoot expansion.
Swelbard has been well abused. It's become the new center of my research and cash creation. My go to map for 90% of my research and multiplayer challenges. It also contains 3 of my level 5 specialist doctors (researcher, diagnosis and surgeon). I leveled up a level 5 psychiatrist on the castle map.
The castle is also my secondary research location. Backup for when(if!?) I ruin Swelbard
I've still not been anywhere near the Pebberly Island expansion. My wife has completed it. Her war stories about the maps means I'm not looking forward to doing them myself, so I'll be ignoring them for another "while".
The main campaign maps I'm currently battling with are: Duckworth, Sweaty Palms and Grockle Bay. With Sweaty Palms being my current center of attention, for now. I'm trying to get over these bumps in the road with researched cash injections from Swelbard. Not sure that's a real gaming of the system but it's all one organisation there should be a central cash reserve! My effort's will take more time to really kick in but it's getting there. Cash is more a help with hiring and mechanical upgrades than anything else.
As for the career goals, I'm still plodding away with them. With each new unlocked hospital adding to the career list objectives (like Cubism); There's probably a few more to pop onto that list yet.
There was a bit of a mix up on my part yesterday due to very similar tweets from the official Star Trek Online tweets. One for the free pack for XBox which I saw and shared; When I looked again it said PS4. I thought I'd miss-read it. But there were 2 tweets, one for each platform! Not that it really mattered. There were technical problems and the freebies weren't immediately available when the tweets went out.
Anyway, I got to claim the pack today from the Xbox store.
Which is then claimable on the in game Zen store.
The combat pet will be useful even if it is enormous. The non combat pet on the other hand is tiny!
Unpacking the rest gave some useful items.
For the weapons pack I chose the Omni-beam for a rear turret on my new ship.
I also added in a phaser turret to assist with the 360 degree shot coverage.
Being a new character I probably should have sold it for cash.... If it wasn't bound to the character...
Still a nice assortment to have and maybe help with some upgrades.
The other item unlocked was a kit module. Nice to have considering my character has so little.
Lots of nice freebies to have.
While re-sorting things I took the opportunity to check out the summer event reputation. My character has no rep whatsoever. The summer event does have a free ship.... Maybe not better than the Nandi for PvE but a free ship is a free ship...... Already with so little game-play I've amassed a good amount of free items. Ships, ship gear, ground gear, pets, costumes, buffs, bonus's, level skips..... I think I'll be playing more of this game over the summer.
Doing the first race to start the rep with a rented floater pack.... It's so slow and hard to manoeuvre....!
Today has seen a glut of STO posts..... Maybe I should have spaced these out more, but I'm an impulsive blogger.
Today is the start of the Summer Risa Festival. A free ship for doing a daily mission, who can resist. The 'floater' daily gives 40 vouchers, 1000 vouchers completes the project and the ship can be collected. So 25 days of a daily mission. I'll maintain my Discovery reputation project as well and add in any festival items that take my fancy.... Non combat pets etc.
I did trade in some Lobi crystals for two days worth of vouchers.
Given it's the first day of the event and downtime was only just over there wasn't as many people 'on' as I thought there would be. Downtime didn't cause any problems. I still experienced some minor lag. I'm sure the player count will pick up in the next hour or so.
Risa is still looking as good as ever but I think the sunset may have been given a bit of a face-lift.
Having my Xbox One next to my PC and connected to a monitor on my desk meant till now I've had no reason to stream games from XBox to PC. I've also had no need to capture such streamed footage(I usually capture quickly and unplanned on the XBox itself and then upload to OneDrive then download from there to PC). With all the talk of streaming services I thought I'd try some in home game streaming... XBox to PC. The XBox is a foot away from the PC and both about 3 foot from my router. PC is wired, Xbox is not.
I've never had any XBox connection issues with it being wireless. Even gaming online.
I do have Chomecast's on TV's and every once in a while there's an 'interruption'. Nothing major. If I had to put a number on it maybe a second in every 6 hours of streaming. Like a slight second of garble. Watching a show or movie that's no real problem. But in the hour of STO XBox gameplay I streamed to my PC there was an 'interruption' twice, which disconnected me from the STO servers. Thankfully this only happened when the game was loading up lots of graphical assets. Specifically during ship store browsing and in ship purchase NPC; Essentially the same in game action from two different in game methods. If it had happened in mission I would guess that like on PC it may reconnect you at a mission spawn point, or reset the mission altogether if your disconnected long enough.
As for my current broadband speed test to a server 100Km away, I'm happy with it.
I know that having decent broadband is needed, but so is having a decent router. With a world where so many devices are connected in the home. Only my phone and the XBox were on the WiFi when I did my little test and it still dropped out twice.
Just an unscientific test....
I can imagine a home, even my own with a lot more on and active would cause more problems for the game/connection/streaming.
But I'm even more doubtful about Stadia now. It's not the processing power of their servers I doubt; I doubt their ability to bring that power to players via so many levels of broadband access never mind the complexities of household WiFi. With everything on/active there would be 14 connections in my home(between PC's/laptops/phones/chromecasts/chromebook and home/hive devices). The strain on WiFi is strong and only getting stronger as time goes on. Tech geek paranoia?
For streaming any game on any device in that environment; I don't see it being flawless. My little test was local and not flawless. The more flaws(interruptions) the more frustrations for gamers.
Pay a service to stream games to anywhere on any device....
Pay a service to stream to their device I just bought over WiFi they don't control....
Still to many if's and but's, so many questions.
Well when they deliver it and it's the next big thing that everyone is using, I'll see then.
Just my two cents....
Just saying....
On to Trek.
I enjoyed my time on STO XBox. It's the same game but with a different feel to it, more engaging.
It's a console version of the PC edition so not without it's quirks as well. Some cut-scenes can lose camera angles, so start off in the wrong position or don't pan to follow the action. Some mission text/speech can be repeated after you click next, which can be weird and confusing.
The gameplay and graphics are solid enough for fun that can be had.
Space combat is still the best combat in both games.
My 'main' character on console was a level 10. I think I had to get that level to claim some freebies.
As a free to play game my character has had a lot of free stuff... Free stuff that really makes a difference. Two of the best being a free Ferengi Nandi Warship and a free level 50 to 60 booster.
So this session was centered around quarantining myself with the game and the controls.
It wasn't hard for me to go from keyboard and mouse to a controller. The conversion of STO to console has been done well and the controls are on par with that conversion. I'm sure that with enough practice it'll become second nature. Muscle memory etc.
The hardest part for me was the ground jump button, A. quick press for jump and long press for menu access. It was sensitive so I ended up in a menu rather than jumping over things.
The main thing to hit me when I went back to the PC version was the UI/game size seemed so small and detailed. The console version seems to be very zoomed in but I only really noticed it when I went back to PC. Both work in their own right.
I can see myself going back sooner rather than later to STO on XBox.
Here's some edited footage I captured:
A 'starter' mission Stranded in Space and the first duty officer pickup....
The stats are out for the Summer Event reward ship; The Risian corvette (T6).
It's still a good looking ship.
When I first read the stats there were a few things that stuck out. That it's a fast and maneuverable; As well as leaning towards fast burst dps(+accuracy, +crit, +damage) modifiers. A run and gun ship.
It didn't click in my head that this ship was aimed at PvP till I watched CounterYolo Gaming's video on the ship.
It's a ship that doesn't outdo my other characters ships regarding PvE. Like other ships having more slots, experimental weapon etc.
I've never really thought about PvP; But to have a ship claimable on all my characters, maybe I should have one PvP character after all....
The new purchasable and tradable ship 'gift' token is a nice idea that adds in a lot of utility for gamers. For themselves(when flush with cash(zen?)) or for gifting in game. It may be a kind of cash grab idea but it's not to much of a blatant cash grab idea(see CCP in Eve Online for 'blatant').
Inside will be available from July 1 to 31 playable for Xbox One. A good game, one I got free a while ago on Steam for PC. Good as it is I doubt I'll be back to it on XBox.
Big Crown: Showdown is from July 16 to August 15 for Xbox One. A four player party game. Looks good but not a game that interests me.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is available from July 1 to 15 for Xbox 360 as well as Xbox One. Again another good game and again another game that doesn't interests me. I was never really into the franchise. I do have fond memories of the first game on the NES.
Meet the Robinsons will be available July 16 to 31 for Xbox 360 as well as Xbox One.
Still a good looking game with some interesting levels. But again a game that I've no interest in.
So all of this months offerings are a miss for me. As usual I'll claim them for the collection....
I've been questioning my membership of Gold a lot more recently. I barely use it for anything online.
Star Trek Online and World of Tanks would be my main online games but even those in the last year or two have been downsized, gameplay wise. Used only during promotions or special events(Toy tanks at Christmas etc.) So why bother getting another years sub let along the Ultimate sub.
Guaranteed when I let it lapse and the Games with Gold will then be newer and better then ever before....
Subbing for the new Ultimate pass may be good value for what you get access to but I'd rather just get the games I want when I want. Judging that from my past purchases may as well be none existent. The more subscription based the games/services become, the more online they become the more I'm put off by them. If Microsoft is the best/better of what is out there; And I'm in no way interested in it.... I I think I'm 'done' with consoles.....
The latest target was an unchanged legacy run. Not a bad thing necessarily but when you see the target has the very same routine or the secondary target is exactly the same.... Well for me it's not so much a bad thing, the pro Hitman 2'ers out there I'm sure were not too happy.
I usually wait and see whats being done by the community. Even then it's usually "easy" enough to follow. Some timing and interpretation can usually be done. The game is flexible to allow leeway most of the time. It would have a lot more engagement with the average player if it wasn't for the permanent-ish failure of the mode, one try and your done. It's a mode for the pro's to engage with maximum danger. But being casual I like the rewards so of course I'll take every advantage I can get.
