Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Tonight we start off with a discussion about Destiny and unintentionally the storyline a bit as Darkness has finally arrived. Bel talks about the degenerate gameplay of the AFK Forge and how it more or less brought the game to a halt. We also talk about the gear sunset as Bungie tries to do MTG Standard but for Destiny. From there we talk about Guild Wars 2 and how Tam thinks it is the best mount system. Bel and Grace disagree, but we continue from there about some general discussion about the game and more specifically the Dragon mount grind. Lastly we wrap up with a quick discussion of the EA Play 2020 event, Star Wars Squadrons, Cross Play for All Platforms and that EA is probably still evil in spite of them really wanting us not to think that.
With the AFK Forge Farm broken, the planetary activities appear to be back on the menu. I spent a good amount of time last night on Io rolling from one event to another with no fear of having enough folks to actually be able to defeat the heroic boss at the end. This is what Destiny feels like when it is good, an effortless series of events that ignite off the conclusion of the last. The unfortunate thing however is that it never quite stays this way. For now everyone has renewed vigor for something other than AFKing for hours and getting free engrams, and as a result I am riding it for all that it is worth.
One of the things that is making everything feel so damned good is a new auto rifle that appears to be in the rotation. I have no clue where it originally came from, but I played an excessive amount of gambit and never seemed to find one. I love this thing so much and for the first time in years that I have had anything that felt close to my beloved Haakon’s Hatchet from Destiny 1. I am very happy that I will in theory be able to carry this weapon forward for a few seasons. You can tell this fact by the little yellow number that shows 1360 power, meaning that this thing can be capped for a few more seasons before it becomes defunct.
What does not bring me joy is the stark realization that so many of my favorite weapons are going to be gone after this current season. Notice on my perfect roll of Bad Omens that it shows 1060 power, which is the current seasonal cap meaning that after this go round this weapon will no longer be able to grow. Bad Omens however is currently dropping from Umbral Engrams, so I am hoping that through all of this I can maybe get another one of these to drop that extends the life for a few more seasons. With cluster bombs and tracking this is pretty much as close to feeling like the Gjallarhorn as has ever exited in Destiny 2.
Nothing will ever likely replace the easymode farming that was the AFK Forge, but simply going out and playing the game seems to yield a fair number of engrams on its own. I played for a few hours last night and managed to walk away with six umbral engrams, a powerful engram, several random legendary drops and an exotic drop which seems like a pretty reasonable haul for playing some Crucible and Gambit. Right now I am mostly focusing down the various things that can reward powerful or pinnacle gear, as well as working on the various bounties associated with the season to stockpile on currency. I am not sure why I am back playing, but I am… and I think it is at least in part a desire for one last ride with my favorite gear before it starts to go away.
The post One Last Ride appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Birthdays are always a weird time for me, because they seem like they should be these important occasions in your life… but in reality it is just another Thursday. Traditionally I take today off, and as a result you don’t get a post because I go into “vacation mode”. However with the whole Covid 19 situation and the fact that I am still working remotely, combined with some stuff going on at work that I don’t feel like I can miss.. you are getting me in the flesh today. I had a subtle realization this morning and I thought I would share it with you, my friends and readers.
I have been writing to you through this blog for a quarter of my life. Back in April Tales of the Aggronaut turned 11, and as of this morning I myself turn 44. It is weird when numbers line up like that, but in truth I am not sure if I could have found a better group of companions to listen to me as I ramble on about nonsense. Thanks for being there on this journey, even if it has been in passive lurker mode. I do appreciate however each time someone comments about something going on in my life because I feel significantly less alone in the world.
Once upon a time I was one of those kids who made zines, and I was especially prolific during the fighting game heyday. I would print them up at home and then go pass them out at the various arcades I visited, because they also sorta served as a general guide for new players when something like Mortal Kombat II was booming. Admittedly there was a lot of rumor filtered in with the truth, but for the most part they were a guide to how to do all of those things like Friendships and Babalities, allowing new players to stop getting dunked on with a simple guide to all of the abilities. Writing my blog post each morning is sorta like trying to hand you a zine, and even the folks who didn’t want to take it… I appreciated them not throwing it away while I was still watching.
There are still several events happening in the winding down of what would have normally been E3 week. Today at 6 pm my time I should be able to tune in and watch the EA Play Live show, at which point I am hoping EA continues its path towards being a less horrible company. I mean to be truthful we have some pretty solid evidence that something has changed there recently. For starters instead of nuking it into oblivion, they are rebuilding Anthem and going to give it a second chance. A few weeks ago they put all of their games back on Steam, and even though they still require the presence of Origin… that is a start. Lastly we have the evidence of Jedi Fallen Order being a phenomenal game that exists without any micro transactions in spite of EA’s once stance of cramming them into every game. I am willing to give the company an olive branch, and also I am wondering if it is only Americans that personify companies like this.
Last night I played some Destiny, and I admit I am feeling a little rudderless. I am not exactly sure what I want to be doing or how I should be doing it. In theory I should be focusing the various avenues to get powerful or pinnacle gear, but this season doesn’t really seem to have a clear path forward. At the very least I am not exactly sure what I should be doing to level up the magical engram box for the Drifter. The acquisition of that level up currency seems significantly slower than any of the other similar seasonal mechanics. I feel like we are missing something like the Vex event to pour our energy into, because the planetary events are just painful to try and get started. I think right now everyone is focused on the next easiest way to get engrams… grinding Nightmare Hunts.
I’m also still playing a significant amount of Phantasy Star Online 2, but I gotta admit things have slowed to a crawl there as well. I’m level 68 and about halfway through it, and in truth what I really need to find is a group to grind advance quests with. The challenge there is that my natural play group that is associated with AggroChat podcast is time shifted from me. Kodra, Tam and Thalen are all getting on about the same time that I am logging out for the night. Ash is an option but I think he is back engaged with Guild Wars 2, and Grace never really attached to PSO2. In theory I should be running with Pizzamaid and friends but I am not exactly sure if those times line up either. Essentially it leaves me in a state of limbo where I spend most of my time soloing.
I realize this post turned weird all the sudden. I guess birthdays become a time for introspection. I hope the day goes smoothly, because there are significant landmines in front of me to cross. The day could go south really fast if a few things go the wrong way. Regardless thanks for hanging out with me all of these years and listening while I talk some nonsense. I write like I am talking to myself, but as I have said many times before I do greatly appreciate knowing there are real people out there reading what I write.
The post One Quarter appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
One of the interesting shadow drops to come out of last weekend was the release of Torchlight 3 to the Steam Early Access program. I’ve been a member of the Torchlight alpha program that was covered under an NDA since the game originally was Torchlight Frontiers back in November of 2018. I of course could not talk about my experiences publicly, because I was under NDA. I did however briefly describe the game to a close friend as “very free to play”, which was a bit of a damning indictment. The way the game was initially designed, it relied on creating a number of artificial barriers and segmenting the world off into frontiers with effectively their own progression path. The writing on the wall was that we would get new frontiers released through the course of the game allowing us to buy into these effectively independent areas and progress through new content on the same character.
This was not super well received by the community, but in truth I mostly focused on reporting technical bugs. Scan ahead to current times and the shift to branding the game “Torchlight III” and I once again got into the testing program. At the point in which I last played the game very much felt like Frontiers with a name change, but it seems while I have been gone the game has been rapidly changing into what is a really fun and enjoyable experience today. The core game is solid now and pending they can ever solve the infrastructure issues that are plaguing the early access release, it is going to be a really fun experience to hang out and play with your friends.
One of the things that I am blown away by is just how much better the game looks. There are subtle tweaks and polish applied that makes the entire experience feel better. I of course was under NDA and have no screenshots of my early characters to compare to, but the world feels more “real” as I explore it even though it is very much a cartoony setting. The robot now feels like a robot because it is sufficiently metallic feeling instead of what was a more flat shaded and plastic look. One of the challenges I had with this game is that it did not exactly have a class that I naturally graviated towards. I mostly play barbarian or paladin type characters in action RPGs and you are given a weird blend of classes including.
Forged – Robot that seems a bit tanky, but also has a gun in its belly and a heat/explosion mechanic that you are regularly balancing.
Dusk Mage – A class that alternates between darkness and light and represents the closest thing to a traditional caster.
Railmaster – This is the strangest pet class to ever exist in a game, because you carry a massive hammer and lay down track for your rail car loaded with weapons to travel along and attack things.
Sharpshooter – This class is a blend of the Demon Hunter and Necromancer from Diablo 3 and based on what I have seen of it is extremely potent as a result.
I’ve spent most of my time in game thusfar playing the Forged, because like I said it seems to be the tankiest of characters available to me. I would have loved to have something more akin to a sword and shield warrior type, but alas I am stuck with the odd designs presented. Torchlight has been known for having quirky class design, but I was able to more or less make the Destroyer in 1 and Engineer in 2 into the type of classes that I enjoy playing. For now I am trying to do that with the Forged, but I find it is far more effective to play this as a ranged class using the belly gun and heat mechanic to whittle down encounters.
The only negative of this entire experience is that the game itself is not quite ready for prime time. There are numerous issues that get in the way of actually playing right now. I’ve run into many situations where I could not zone into an area or teleport to either town or the player created fort. We tried to play with four players on Monday night and ran into issues where it took us multiple tries to get all of the players in the same zoned instance of a given map. Then there have often been issues just logging into the game in the first place. So for now, this is a really interesting experiment… but it is one that is not quite ready for prime time. If you are not already commited to this experience, maybe wait a bit for early access to feel not quite so “early”. Great strides have been made, and I have great faith that when this finally releases on all platforms it will be worthy of the Torchlight name. Right now however it is not for the impatient.
The post Torchlight 3 Early Access Thoughts appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
