Stormblood (SB) The SideQuest

Right let’s get to the positives about SB:

The story is pretty good with some interesting and fun characters.  A few of them you may just fall in love with.  This story has everything you can expect from a typical Final Fantasy.

The new areas are very large and at times feel like a bit too large but I would always choose large over small any day of the week.  You will spend quite a bit of time getting through the new content.

Abilities/Jobs have taken a large refresh with some being removed, some altered and some new ones.  As a WHM and part time BRD during SB I have to say I can’t complain.  I’m happy with these changes and I also the new jobs seems fun.  RDM will be my choice of new one once I’ve finished BRD/PLD to 70.

I think that’s it for the positives….  That’s the sad part.  This was always going to be compared to HeavensWard (HW) which many reviews and even me had said that HW was one of the greatest expansions made.  Not only was it’s story brilliant but the amount of content was unbelievable and its attention to detail was just as good.

SB though severely lacks that attention to detail.  You will find a lot of random buildings you can’t enter.  A lot of small villages which seem to contain about 5 NPCs each and the amount of side quests in this game is just insane.  You will see endless amount of !!!! all over your map.  Even the dungeons feel like something is missing..  what is it?  No new mid boss music, no new main boss music and even the main scenario quests seem to be using same old music.  HW presented endless amount of new music – I’d love to know how much more for those who want to do the comparison for me?

The detail attention is also shown in the new zones.  Where everything feels as if it doesn’t matter.  You’ve got a few nice things to look at but the detail of the zones seems as if they needed a polish.  It almost feels like going back to expansion packs on XI that were never finished.  You’d get some new content, new jobs but you wasn’t able to progress far because SE had not finished none of it yet.  This was my biggest grumble of XI – never being able to finish anything till years later.  The expansions were always missing something.

The usual run all over the map to earn the right to fly.  I sometimes enjoy this but some areas require you to walk all over the map for a single aether.  The worst part?  The locater will not pick up the nearest one.  You could end up walking to the other side just to find out one aether was right next to you – I did this several times.

This time around it really feels like SE didn’t spend the same amount of time working on SB like they did for HW.  Perhaps it was because they spent more time making general game changes like the jobs/abilities?  Maybe it’s because they had to make changes to co-inside with everything?  Even the Duty Finder had gone through a few changes.

Then we get to the release especially Early Access (EA).  Let me get started by saying this isn’t testing BETA or ALPHA EA.  This was a reward for Pre-Ordering the game.  The idea is SE knows exactly how well SB has done before initial release.  The sooner they have numbers the better.  This was not “please test our game for us”.

So those problems: 

• The server transfer to the new Omega EU server struggled after the first few hours of release
• Transfer system completely failed
• Two days wait time if you actually managed to transfer just before the system went down
• Everyone you know had already transferred
• Server you was on is a high busy/populated server
• The server transfer was made available during EA instead of two weeks prior to release
• Severe lag – after SE said it had implement solutions to cut this down
• Unable to proceed during it’s early single player instances – SE had implemented solutions to prevent this
• Random disconnections constantly
• Server queues going up to 6000 I think the highest I had spotted (that’s right queuing before you even start playing)
• High DPS queues of 30minutes – even after SE said this wouldn’t be an issue

You’d think in 2017 when servers are not as expensive as you think (I can spend £10K on a single virtual server).  SE said several times it had implemented a lot to cut down all the above.

This was also during a time SE said they suffered a DDOS attack which in all honesty is very possible.  It’s also possible that SE should have experience in prevention because both XIV/XI has suffered this in the past.  Course I totally accept that nothing is 100% secure as the world finds out daily.

I’ve not touched base on everything – I’ve not touched crafting, not finished the MSQ but I’m very close to it.  I’ve not done all the side quests – far too many.

I believe I gave HW a strong 8/10 or even a 9/10 with little room to improve.  I would have to give SB a weak 6/10 and feels a bit like XI days.  It seems SB has suffered a lack of attention to detail and certainly feels like there’s a lot more that could have been done. 

 

• Not enough new dungeons/trials
• Not enough attention to detail on the areas
• Huge lack of new music
• Lack of new characters
• Story was good but not great
• Bad state of connection/instance problems

 

The Technical Problems

Read on if you care or ignore them if you don’t.  One thing people will always know who work in the IT profession.  The developers are not always the ones at fault but as long as they voice their concerns it’s no longer their responsibility.

I manage a large IT network of almost 1000 PCs, 1800+ users and my network must be online 24/7.  We are around 97% 1GB networking and around the same regarding decent PCs.  We will stick SSDs in most of those machines next year.  So things are not 100% perfect on the speed front.

We do how ever have the ability to increase our equipment needs with no degradation of performance from the servers.  Another words – we could handle another few hundred users connecting up and using their data areas (we call them network drives) with no performance impact.  This is VERY similar to SE and their servers connecting thousands of users concurrently.

It is my job to ask my team to say “are our servers currently stable”.  They can lie to me and say yes – in which case they’re no good to me and I don’t want them in my team.  They won’t do this.

They will instead tell me that the data storage server is currently sitting at 35% remaining which is questionable.  This means we are currently looking at Cloud alternatives or purchasing a new SAN system with 4 times the current storage capacity at least.  We also purchased not long ago a NAS server to deal with our film editing suites (around 100 students doing film studies making large DVD/Blu Ray size videos).

So I say this:  Someone at SE didn’t anticipate this amount of traffic or perhaps secured their system well enough.  DDOS attacks are usually halted by good IT staff in around 24-48 hours.   I know this because I was once part of a network that suffered this and it crippled our broadband connection.  The problem was resolved in around 32 hours suffering a day and a half of impacted lessons.

What SE should have done, is disconnected their system even if it meant the rest of us couldn’t access XIV.  I’d rather have it shut down for a day to resolve the problem and drag it on for a week

SE these are lessons to be learnt.

Update:  So now I’ve gone through the majority of SB and finished the story.  I can’t help but feel unsatisfied. It’s becoming very repetitive where a character never dies, always comes back and never really feels threatening.  Out of all this content only two boss fights stand out.  The final MSQ one – you will know what it is and the ‘different’ boss that doesn’t require fighting.  That’s it.  Also only one dungeon stood out again the last one for the MSQ.  All the others felt disappointing.  Even swimming feels almost underwhelming.  It’s brilliant to finally be able to swim but…. Could have been used more even in dungeons to travel.

Now it’s time for me to cap my gear (which I’m doing quite well on it – new AF is alright but already got about 4-5 pieces better off).  And do my next job and due to the state of DPS queues I will be doing PLD next.

 

The positives:

• I’m happy with the state of job classes
• Swimming
• PVP has greatly improved with queue times very low
• Few good characters
• A huge new City
• Possible known story for 5.0 which I hope see’s the end of… certain type of characters (all the main bad guys appearing since 1.0) and the empire.
• Improved chocobo speed
• General improvements to the game it self (from DF, jobs, menus etc)

I've probably not covered everything but this will do.

Formula 1: That Vettel Incident.

This will sting a few tails and egos.
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The moment of madness, the moment very esque of Michael Schumacher and there’s been plenty of 50/50 ones too.  Over the years we’ve seen drivers go for gaps that either didn’t quite exist or were closed quickly resulting in accidents.  These tend to be 50/50 on racing incidents or the driver penalised for ramming another driver.


There have been moments where the driver has purposely tried to take out another car or give them a knock.  This time around there was no doubt Sebastian Vettel had purposely tried to knock Lewis.  It’s an incredibly silly thing to do because it can put you both out.  We’ve seen these cars take far less knocks that puts them out.  Vettel was very lucky that Lewis didn’t suffer a DNF because of it.  If he had I wouldn’t have any sympathy for him being banned for 1-3 races for taking another driver out.  You can’t do it.


To make matters worse Sebastian acted like he did nothing.  That’s right – nothing.  Every time some one talked/asked about that collision Vettels response was “the one where Lewis slowed down”.  This means he was in complete denial about it.  Maybe his state of mind isn’t in a happy place.  Maybe there’s tension at Ferrari.  We never know the full story till the end of the season when contracts are renewed or not.


If Seb had simply said “I’m sorry, I was angry because I strongly believe Lewis break tested me to freak me out.  It was a moment of madness I was pumped for the race and wanted to get going.  All I can say is I’m sorry.”


On that I think the world would have gone silent.  I’m a fan of his because he loves British comedys and I love his sense of humour.  He’s a talented young guy and just like Lewis, just like Alonso and all the other great champions – when pressure hits.. when things don’t go so well they react VERY badly.  Almost in an act of desperation.

This moment makes me think that things are not perfect in Team Ferrari.  For two races now Ferrari have dropped in the pace and now it’s looking like race pace is a 3 horse race with Merc slightly ahead on qualifying and races as well.  With RBR fast approaching on race day.  What does this mean?  It means the title is still not resolved and it’s anyone’s guess who wins it.  If Lewis suffers a bit of bad luck Bottas can quickly hit the points.  Likewise for Seb.

Seb must know this is the best chance Ferrari have had for years to win the title.  No longer do they need to rely on consistency but they can win although that’s two races now it’s changed.  Ferrari can lose.

Lewis Did Not Break Test

Argue all you want.  We’ve all used the breaks, we’ve all gone racing in some form – we know what break testing is.  It’s where you hit the breaks to scare the driver behind – that’s right it’s where you USE THE BREAKS.  It’s not called break testing for a reason.  Lewis did not use his breaks this is fact.  Unless the data Merc/FIA have is false.  If it is false – Merc deserve to be banned a few races and perhaps docked points for falsifying data.

Let’s face it though – the onboard camera showed two things.  Lewis slowed down and Vettel speeds up when leaving the corner.  

Every driver knows what happens when the safety car comes in.  The teams relay this information to the drivers.  This means a few things:  Prepare to get the race back under way.  Do not over take till the safety car line.  Be prepared for the pack to be bunched up and SLOWED DOWN.  The lead driver effectively becomes the safety car.  The lead driver dictates the pace but is NOT allowed to speed up and break dangerously.

So why is it that one driver failed this – Vettel.  Why is that an experienced 4 time world champion failed this moment – madness? Mindset? Issues at Team Ferrari? We will never know.  He denied all this.

The weird thing is I’ve hardly seen any defenders of Vettel.  They’ve either been quiet or instantly looked at Lewis – “Oh look team instructions” or “He started it by break testing”.  Instead of “Vettel what are you doing…”.

As a Lewis Hamilton fan if that was my driver.. I’d be furious.  It reminds me when Lewis refused a team order to move over for Fernando so he could complete his qualifying lap.  What was he thinking?  It also reminded me of the moment he and team Mclaren lied about overtaking under the safety car.  Technically Mclaren did nothing wrong but because they lied about the entire thing…  it became a mess.  What was Mclaren and Lewis thinking?

There’s also this:

http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/32421/10928991/rachels-diary-interviewing-sebastian-vettel-and-lewis-hamilton-after-baku-mayhem

The clear refusal to talk about that incident.  Every time Vettel is asked about the contact he immediately reverts to “break test”.  No Sebastian that’s not the question and stop avoiding it.  He’s taking a clear lack of responsibility here in fact he’s also changing the wording to his “break test” to more like “well err I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose”.  So either HE DID break test you.   Again another question came on about the contact 2^nd time – “I waved my hand….  “


No mater which way you put it.  He refuses to talk about THAT collision.  He knows he did wrong and he knows it’s a serious thing.  On this matter I really can’t feel for Sebastian.  He’s seen the footage and probably is starting to realise that Lewis may not have break tested him but maybe Lewis wasn’t being very smart in to doing it right after the corner? 

Funny isn’t it.


The British Press

I’ve often talked about the press.  And I see silly comments like “If that was a British driver that did it.. it would be all quiet”.  WRONG.

The British press made huge news out of Lewis being pulled over by the police in Australia.  Mark Webber’s response was “Typical nanny state” about his home land.  Yet the British press went on about this for 24 hours.  About how his car was impounded, picture of him in the back seats of the police car.  All for a bit of fun on the road which most people do in nice cars.  To be fair – I gave no sympathy to Lewis.

All that for a simple thing with Lewis Hamilton?  What about when he split from his father being his agent? This hit the news.   What about when his father crashed his car? This hit the news.  Every incident that occurred including the LieGate – it hit the news.

So rightly so Vettel purposely ramming another driver has hit the news.  Like it or not – F1 and especially Lewis Hamilton is news.  Good or bad.


People who claim they only go after non British are full of rubbish.


The overall drivers tend to not take the blame during the emotional period.  They do however tend to admit their mistakes after seeing the footage.  However again this time around Vettel still refuses to admit responsibility.  How do you define that?  This isn’t a racing incident where a driver has gone for a gap which got closed.  This isn’t a moment where Lewis/Seb turned in to each other.

This is a bit of a reminder of the Vettel/Webber where by the camera you could see which driver slightly turned in to the other – Vettel.  Although this time around it was not at high speed and the turning was much clearer and much sharper.  Vettel had turned in to Lewis.  No Ifs, No Buts and no data required.  It showed it on both onboard cameras, from the front, the back and even on board with Bottas.  Vettel had turned in to another driver.


The sad thing is – I don’t see this being the end.  I can see something happen – there’s already talk about an investigation.  The punishment wasn’t good enough but I wouldn’t punish him any more.  Instead I would look at the Stewards rules.  If a driver is intentionally hitting another one (where there’s no doubt) that driver should be black flagged.  This wasn’t an overtaking moment.  It wasn’t a fight for a corner it was a blatant turn in to the driver to hit the car not to gain a position.  Remember MSC turning to JV? That was a blatant – I’m going to hit you.


You can’t do that in 2017 Formula One.  The whole world is watching you.  I will say this though it does show a sheer lack of consistency in the fans.  Those who couldn’t defend their driver instead lashed out at another.  It’s pathetic.  If that was my driver I’d be embarrassed.. shocked and disgusted.  Like I was as a Mclaren fan over the SpyGate and LieGate.  What penalty did Lewis suffer over a pathetic little lie.  Everyone went mad over a Lie which they didn’t need to do.  Instead this caused a bigger storm than what we’ve seen over the RamGate.  Mclaren faced a suspended 3 race ban over the mess.  A simple lie which was an honest mistake on track which then became a constant lie.  A man lost his job at Mclaren.  The press, whiting and the FIA went mad.


You know if I drove up to a colleague and rammed their car or lied to my boss – which was the most punishing crime?  There’s no comparison.  I’d most likely be facing the full force of the law for driving dangerously.


This is what I find most ridiculous.


Update: For those who want to continue whining about “opinions” over facts.  Just remember if Lewis Hamilton had break tested – he’d be rightly punished.  Instead there is no investigation.


It appears there’s now a video that shows both restarts controlled by Lewis with Seb behind.  Both videos showed Lewis slow down at that corner but the 2^nd time Seb was much closer.  It appears Seb really did accelerate in to Lewis.  I’d say an honest mistake that happens. 

https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2017/6/Vettel_vs_Hamilton__their_controversial_Baku_clash_examined.html

See the video – it also shows the accident which again no one can deny it was done by purpose.

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/19733657/mercedes-data-shows-lewis-hamilton-brake-test-sebastian-vettel

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130388

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-hamilton-vettel-baku-brake-testing-923425/

http://www.planetf1.com/news/fia-analysis-proves-hamilton-did-not-brake-test-vettel/

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/06/26/f1-fanatic-round-up-2606-4/

http://www.eurosport.co.uk/formula-1/fia-data-rules-out-hamilton-brake-test_sto6230877/story.shtml

http://www.grandprix247.com/2017/06/25/fia-find-no-evidence-of-hamilton-brake-test/

The data was released to the FIA.  Either the FIA are corrupt and are protecting Lewis Hamilton – In which case we’re talking about something bigger than the SpyGate saga or Lewis is innocent.

“Erratic” It’s not erratic to slow down ready for the restart.

Every argument/opinion I’ve witnessed has presented nothing new or remotely plausible.  The FIA have access to the cars data something that is a must have.  Any alterations of that data or miss-leading (as we witnessed with the LieGate) – receives a harsh punishment.  In fact they’ve presented nothing new to the argument just “Lewis break tested.. okay he didn’t but he drove erratically”… he drove exactly how every safety car start has been.  Slowed down through normal means not breaking.  Something he has been slapped for before – which rightly so shouldn’t do.

 

 

Review: June Updated Mass Effect Andromeda

That Mass Effect Andromeda Update

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You know every time I see an update coming I think – PLEASE FIX THIS GAME.

As I’ve previously posted about this game I think it’s fantastic and I’ve already finished this 3 times but now slowly working on a 4^th (amongst other games).

Fundamental Issues with this Game

• Animation problems still exist
• Glitches on quests and again animations
• Facial expressions still are poor

These are issues that start from the get go till the very end of the game.  This isn’t something you get to see once every now and then (like forming a relationship with characters) this is fundamental to the game.  It’s also caused it to sell poorly – this means we might be very lucky to get an Andromeda sequel but because of these core issues.

 

Then I saw #MakeJaalBi

I honestly don’t care if characters are bi/straight or even different genders.  I think it’s a great idea to allow people to explore whatever relationship with any character in this game.  BUT I’m sorry to say that these relationships are not fundamentals to the game.  It’s the first thing people fell in love with during the very original Mass Effect 1.  You don’t get to have any kind of relationship till mid stages of any of these games.  The first 30 minutes of Mass Effect was what made it popular.  The presentation, the graphics, the gameplay and the choices.  The latter being the icing on the cake.


Here we are, a company working on something that is the least of its problems.  I’m sorry if people take this personally (because that seems to be the world we live in now) but working on relationships or even sex scenes in Mass Effect Andromeda should not be a priority and really is poor prioritisation on behalf of Bioware.  I’m just waiting for the accusations of homophobia because again that’s the sad pathetic world we seem to live in.  Any negative comments about something that relates in any way to sexual orientation must be homophobia – even though this entire point is down to Bioware making an effort for relationships in a game over core problems that impact from the start to the end.  It’s like writing a book and ignoring poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and huge plot holes but changing a characters sexual orientation..  


The core issues with this game is preventing more sales, that’s more profits, that’s more attraction, players and fans to a popular series.  Instead let’s worry about a small group of people who seem to care about sexual orientations in this game above its core problems.


If Bioware had fixed all it’s more important and crucial problems I’d have absolutely no issue in them updating character options.  And let me also state that Bioware has added more character options….  Again what a waste of time.  People who have already played this would like me – almost be done with it while others are not even going to touch it because -----  CORE PROBLEMS ------.

As many who read/follow me I work in IT.  This means I have to prioritise.  It would be ridiculous for me to put resetting a student password first above our system failing.  It would be me worrying about an untidy cable instead of a server that’s died.  During the NHS Cyber Attack it would be them worrying about an untidy cable instead of entire systems being offline – POOR PRIORITISATION.  It doesn’t matter how you word it or how few would be angry over it.  There’s priorities and Bioware seems to have a major issue with this.  Perhaps the same people who defend this action ask yourself:  Would you prioritise buying a new BluRay Movie or perhaps bills/food?   One is a priority to live – the other is not.


Poor form Bioware poor form.  If this is how updates are going to be I expect this last run of Mass Effect Andromeda could be my last.  Perhaps in the DLC they can concentrate on giving us more relationship options instead of more story, improved animations and fixing glitches.  I mean who cares about all that right?  Just give us more relationships and more character customisation.  Now watch that DLC sell not so well….  People really have forgotten what games require – perhaps that’s why Bioware made a game with core issues they’ve forgotten about what’s important.