Off Topic First

I spent the long weekend with the family at the cottage.  Still some snow left on the ground, and the lake is frozen over.  Should be all gone by next weekend.  We’ve had an odd winter.  Very long, and very wet.  So much wet that the ground hasn’t thawed and the snow’s nearly almost gone.  That has caused some serious flooding – one of those ‘every 50 years’ types of events, but it also happened 2 years ago.  One particular region an hour or so away has had 5 natural disasters (including a tornado – which is like a 1 in 100 year event) in the past 5 years.

I’m a fairly green person, but there are some things I could do better.  I remember heading to Ft Lauderdale and being amazed that no one there ever recycles.  And here I am putting out 4x more recycling than garbage at home, and large amounts of compost.  It’s really picking at the back of my brain lately…

Patches a Plenty

Both Anthem and Dauntless are receiving patches today.  Big patches.

Anthem

At some point today (between 7 and 12 PST) the Anthem 1.1.0 notes will be up.  The only “known” item in this right now is a new stronghold.  There are some gameplay improvements, but no one knows what they are.  It’s unfortunate that last week’s live stream was cancelled due to the internet cut.  And this week’s is coming after the patch lands.  Which really seems like a bold move, since people will have had the chance to play it before the stream.  If it’s in-line with expectations – a 15 minute stronghold and some bug fixes – then it’s going to be a bad time.

It really does feel like watching a trainwreck in slow motion… with another train coming down the tracks.  While I am 100% certain that BioWare is doing everything in their power to get Anthem on track, it’s also 2019 on the calendar year, and complete silence from a dev is viewed as a negative.  Could certainly mine the salt mines of the official Reddit thread.  The simple perception of lack of leadership/accountability means that pretty much any good faith from the community team is torn to shreds.  A true leader would take the hits and protect their team.

Dauntless

The patch notes are up now for OB 0.7.  There are some really significant changes within the notes – Mastery System, Alternate Specials, Weapon Mods, Voice Chat, Guild Changes, End of Hunt, Daily Quests, Hunt Pass Season 4, Re-worked Main Quest.

Fixed a bug where the Stormclaw would build fences like it was 90% Off! Everything Must Go! at the fence factory.

It’s nice to see a dev find some humour in their bug fixing.  In particular if you saw this bug in action; fences everywhere and all the time.

Can I mention how endearing it is to have non-sales people pitching something?  Back to Anthem livestreams for a minute – Chris and Drew do this exceptionally well.

Quite the polar opposites of community management, and quite the opposites of managing expectations.  I do hope BioWare can catch their footing.. and quickly. EA’s push for both Anthem and Apex sure don’t look like it’s panning out.. so it will be curious to see how all this comes to pass.