My first, late, impressions of Osiris: New Dawn

Osiris… what is it? Osiris New Dawn is an Open World Sci-Fi Survival Horror RPG that was released for public consumption in September of 2016. In traditional Helltrek fashion, I was late to the party and only stumbled upon this little gem a two weeks ago after flipping through my 37th auto generated Steam Queue in a late night “I’m exhausted but I refuse to go to bed” struggle. After watching some of the videos Steam had listed, it looked to be a solid foundation of a game that has a lot of potential and it’s always interesting playing a game as it evolves. I thought why not give it a try.

The setup of Osiris is: your spaceship crash lands (way to go dick), leaving you stranded on a strange planet where you have to survive the elements, big scary aliens, collect resources to build a habitat to be safe, weapons to fight with, vehicles to travel, droids to do droid things and SPACESHIPS which will allow you to leave the planet, visit the surrounding planets and build space stations. Basically, it sounds like ARK or Rust but in space with droids… I’m all in.

So what happened?

After creating my little space pirate Helltrek, and a very quick cut scene of your ship crashing, Panic set in within the first 30 seconds. I spent a few seconds just looking around and admiring the Alien world and the wreck, taking in the scenery until my spacesuit starts beeping at me, my breathing is getting heavy, my health is going down… WTF IS HAPPENING AND WHY AM I DYING ALREADY?!?!? In a fury of sensory overload, I noticed there was a mission listed, which was to build an Inflatable Dome. In a mad rush smacking things with my little space hammer I stumble upon the illusive Dome. Health rapidly declining, Oxygen levels at 0%, I am fumbling the keys to figure out what opens my inventory and how in the hell to deploy this thing. BAM found my inventory, deploy the Inflatable Dome… IS THAT ALIEN TRYING TO EAT ME?! Using the assault rifle I found in the wreckage, I frantically spray space bullets at this over sized alien bug and kill it as I try to make it into the dome. Suit is breached, I have no Oxygen, My health is at about 5% and declining, my space pirate is dragging ass as I try to get into this stupid Dome but I finally make it inside. Ahhhh finally some safety.

NOPE! STILL DYING!

In a last ditch effort to not die in the first 2 minutes, I noticed Duct Tape is equipped on my person… Lightbulb Duct Tape fixes everything!! A few clicks later, the suit alarm stops, Oxygen levels are on the rise, my health is at 2% but it is no longer on the decline. Duct Tape DOES fix everything… even in space!

This set the pace for my experience so far. It can go from calming to heart pounding in a second. Much like any survival game, a grind from resources comes with the territory. Those random sneak attacks from the creatures within the game keep you on your toes and takes the monotony of the process away. The addition of a personal droid does help in some situations especially with tasks that are not that exciting, anywhere from repairing assets, collecting resources, hauling resources or being a somewhat helpful combat companion (the droid AI does need some work but is on the top of the dev’s list to address). Being able to tell your droid to mine basic resources as you head out to find the more rare materials is a nice feature or instructing the droid repair assets as you expand the Colony is a very welcome addition.

With only about 10 hours in game so far, I know I have barely scratched the surface with the content that is currently available. With an incoming update the end of this month which will improve the visuals with the new Unity 5.5 engine, as well as new content on the horizon, I am eager to see how this train rolls. Make sure to check back on the game’s progress in future additions of this series on Osiris.

 

Keep tabs on Helltrek’s journey through his own person Hell….Gaming

Twitch | Twitter | YouTube | Steam

 

 

Back for the Attack

After a nice hiatus, I will be returning, maybe not super structured, or news breaking like some of the well-known bloggers. But. . . back.

 

Just a quick update. I have now moved over to the “Dark Side” and currently working on a DoK on Gorfang. Sitting at 35/34 and charging through. Something tells me I might end up just like my Warrior Priest though. . . collecting dust. The idea of being able to hand out some damage while healing yourself and occasionally others always sounds like a great idea, but tends to get boring to me. I do have a few other classes in the Shute collecting rested in IC just in case though 😉

Things will be a bit sporadic here and for me, I recently am out of work and now playing the role of Mr. Mom to a 9 month old. Who just started crawling. . the days of “sit here and play” are over, it’s now the “how many times can I make daddy get off his ass” game. But still enjoyable. Just. . . different. Anyways. Hopefully more to come and hopefully something that is actually slightly entertaining. Till then.

Gold, Silencing and Skaven . . . OH MY!

I would love to say that I have been busy with IRL things, or something epic was happening that I couldn’t post. . .but the truth is. . I have just been lazy and didn’t really have much to post. There hasn’t been too much to really to get me excited enough to post as of late, with the lack of information flowing from Mythic. Anyways, enough Negative Nancy speak.

With 9/21’s Hot Patch we have seen some small yet decent changes to the game. . specifically MOAR OFFICER MEDALLIONS! Now, I am not sure on the actual change or “ratio” that was added, but I do know that with my Witch Hunter, Grekor Heretictcklr, being freshly into T4 this week, he has over 130 Officer Medallions. Small change, and I LIKE IT. I also like how they are slowly putting the smack down on Trial Accounts, in this Hot Patch Trial accounts will no longer be able to speak in Global Chat Channels, including Advice and Region. Now. . . kick them off the damn forums!

Also, upon us is the Two Year Anniversary of WAR. Along with it, a few Rewards for those with a cumulative subscription of two years.

• WAR Double Aegis – Let those who stand beneath these twin banners never know fear in the face of their enemies!
• Regenerating Firework Launcher – Using this unique item will launch a fireworks display.  After each display, it will regenerate, allowing it to be used forever!
• Celebratory Cloak – Crafted of the finest satin and inlaid with a decorative pattern, this cloak commemorates two full years of WAR!

So, really the “best” thing out of this is the Double Aegis, which comes with a nice 20% increase in XP/RR/INF. And fireworks would be nice to set off over the dead body of a slaughtered Gobo as well, but not necessary.

Along with a Double XP/RR Weekend (which of course I missed because I was too busy drinking my face off at a campground) and the 2 Year Anniversary Rewards, we get a nicely put together Video Podcast from the Crew at Mythic. Now. . . watch it all the way through. I would have preffered some in-game footage of these creatures at their best. . . but concept art will do for now. . . I guess.

August Producer’s Letter is out. . .

and I can sum it up in one word. . . . .  CRAP!

Feel free to read it for yourself HERE.

Awesome deal on a Razer Naga!

So, I was going through my normal sites this morning and was checking all of the “woots” [woot.com , sellout.woot.com, kids.woot.com]. And happen to see an amazing deal on a Razer Naga Mouse on today’s featured deal on sellout.woot.com that I feel compelled to share since it has made my WAR experience MUCH more fluid and enjoyable. If you are checking this post and it is NOT 8/26/2010 then please disregard, but frequent those sites, because they always have great deals daily.

Now, I bought mine at Best Buy a few months ago for just about twice the price. If you are looking for a mouse . . . You NEED this mouse if you are an MMO Player. . and if you are reading this . . you are. . . so stop fucking around and go buy it. Before using the Naga I was a “Clicker”, using my mouse to click each ability. Using the Naga has allowed me to focus more of my attention on what is happening around my character and focusing more on killing someone in the face instead of glancing down to make sure I click the right ability. The mouse is quality, as you would expect from a gaming peripheral company like Razer and highly customizable. Now if you already are very comfortable using the keyboard for your abilities, then it won’t be a HUGE jump in advantage for you but I would think would just help make things flow a little easier.

10 Stars out of 5 in my book for being a former “Clicker”. Just figured I would share this with the two people that check this site 😉

RvR Pack Breakdown

I haven’t really posted much recently, partly due to lack of motivation and partly due to all of this RvR Pack mumbo jumbo. It is interesting on how Mythic took this approach to make this announcement, and what information they decided to give out. On one hand, I can understand why the announcement was made with such little info being given. The WAR Community has been begging for new content for sometime now. New content is always good, and helps keep the game fresh and exciting and the little amount of info given gives us a glimpse of what is to come in the future and that Mythic is working on it. But at the same time . . . why fly out to Germany to basically say “We have an RvR Pack coming out at some point in the next year. It will contain Skaven, New Zone, and a few other things. Everything else, we are still working on and/or can’t talk about”.

Well. . . that honestly could have been taken care of in a short Forum post and is really the confusing part to me. Yes, I understand the eagerness to make an announcement. Shit, that is the main reason I do all of the Birthday/Holiday shopping for my wife last minute. Once I pick it up, I can’t keep my mouth shut and end up just telling her or giving it to her early! The only difference being . . . when I tell her . . . I actually give her details.

That being said, I am exciting to see what will be coming out in the next few months. I would hope that by the end of September they have a more solid idea of what is happening and can start talking about what we can get our grubby hands on. But, for now, here is all the info that some of the other talented bloggers have found and published. All credit goes to them for their awesome work finding this info and being so quick to share it with us. The one thing that I will post first is a link to some Skaven Concept art from a link that I pulled from one of Carrie’s Tweets.

You can watch a view videos from Gamescom that Andy has posted on Mythic’s YouTube Site.

A short interview with erdknuffel.de [UPDATE] and part 2.

Werit did an awesome job at following the news and tracking down some of the interviews, here is his coverage:

• WAR News from Gamescom
• WAR News Day 2
• WAR News Day 3
• WAR News Day 4
• WAR News Day 5
• More WAR News

Shadow-War also did  great job on rounding up info from various sources:

• GamesCom – Friday
• [UPDATE] via Shadow-War’s Twitter Account: Gamereactor.com’s video interview with Carrie. . . of which she states that Skaven are “Renegades for hire”. Meaning the Skaven will be up against both Order and Destruction. Interesting. . . I am guessing that a factor will have to conquer or acquire something to gain the Skaven Partnership. Will it have something to do with Warpstones? Only time can tell when the actual details are released.

Gaarawarr Gabs attended the Blogger Q&A with a few others at Games Day in Baltimore. He was kind even to transcribe the entire session for us that couldn’t be there.

• Games Day Baltimore – The Interview

Bioware Mythic announces an RvR Pack

While hitting refresh and digging on tons of sites after Andy tweeted “So I see the OnRPG article hit already…a little more detailed information will be coming out of #GamesDayBaltimore this weekend”. I finally found it! FULL LINK

Details:

Warhammer Online Announces the ‘RvR Pack’

In an interview today at the GamesCom in Cologne, Germany Carrie Gouskos, Producer for Warhammer Online, disclosed the first details of an upcoming ‘RvR Pack’. Carrie would not give out the name yet but she did tell us that while Skaven are involved they will not be implemented as a standard race that players can play from level one. “We want to do something… different with Skaven” – She said.

On top of that the pack will introduce 20 new renown ranks, letting players go to Renown rank 100! To make sure that lower renown rank players don’t get disheartened they will be making the progression through the renown ranks on earlier levels smoother.

With the RvR pack Bioware Mythic wants to move away from the standard “Release a huge expansion every 2 years.” system and wants to adopt a system that allows players to “customize their game experience”.

Even though this may sound like a move towards a Free to play system Andy Belford, Community Manager, was quick to announce “We’re currently not looking into the Free to Play model at all.” Carrie added “We are learning from the Free to Play model, adopting the things that empower the players to shape their own game experience.”

Other things that the team are currently exploring are often requested items such as Name Changes and Server Transfers.

We’ll keep you posted on the developments here at the GamesCom!

-So, you will not be able to play Skaven from level 1. Well. . . the crafty way that statement was worded leans towards possibly playing Skaven LATER in the game.

-RR 100?! FUCK, I’m not even at 50!!

Looks like this is all we are getting until Saturday at GamesDay. Unless the interview with Massively.com will divulge a little more info. Way to be a cock tease Mythic.

1.3.6: Against All Odds

Well, the day has finally arrived . . . for people to STOP asking why in the hell the Auction House isn’t working!! As well as the release of WAR’s 1.3.6 patch which will bring yet another big set of changes to the dynamics of WAR as we know it. Take the time to read the full Patch Notes HERE. Take note that Friendly Collision has been REMOVED from 1.3.6 due to player feedback. Mythic catches a lot of shit from their players, but it does seem that they really do take note and seriously take into consideration players feedback. Which is all the more reason to voice you opinion on the Official Forums and not letting a minority speak for everyone. Your voice is heard and listened to.

Here are some of the biggest changes of 1.3.6:

Item Appearance

No longer do players have to sacrifice their sense of fashion in the name of better stats! To allow players options to customize their appearance players now have the option of selecting the appearance of any piece of equipment while at the same time choosing their best option for statistics. This is accomplished by selecting the “Appearance” check box in the lower left corner of the character portrait on the character window. Then simply drag and drop a piece of equipment to its appropriate equipment slot to take on its appearance. The item used for appearance remains in the player’s backpack and isn’t destroyed in the process. The new item appearance is tied to that piece of armor, so even if the armor is removed the alternate appearance will be saved. To remove an alternate appearance simply right-click on the alternate appearance slot you wish to clear.
* The following slots may have their appearance changed: Helm, Shoulder, Back (Cloak), Chest, Gloves, Belt, Boots, Main Hand Weapon, Off Hand Weapon, and Ranged Slot Weapons.
* All use restrictions apply (Career, Race, Rank and Renown Rank) when attempting to apply an item’s appearance.
* Using an item in the appearance slot will bind the item to the Character.
Custom appearance armor may also be dyed! To change the color of an appearance slot item dyes must be applied after the appearance has been set.

Open RVR

Against All Odds: A Realm outnumbered within an RvR Lake will now receive a scaling bonus to Experience, Renown and Influence based on the odds stacked against them, becoming active when a Realm is outnumbered in a specific Lake by 20% or more. The bonus amount cannot exceed 400%, will not apply to monster kills, and requires a minimum of 6 players from each Realm to be present within the RvR Lake.

Sovereign Armor Split Sets

The Sovereign Armor sets have been redesigned! We have introduced Split armor sets, giving each Career multiple options of armor selection based on their play style. Players who already have Sovereign Armor sets will find that their armor has been replaced with the newly redesigned “Primary” sets for each Career. To purchase your secondary sets, simply visit Nazul Vazela in The Inevitable City or Gunther Haroldin in Altdorf. Secondary Sovereign armor sets are purchased by exchanging the primary set at the above NPCs. PLEASE NOTE: As a result of the dramatic changes and new options for the Sovereign armor sets, all Talismans currently equipped in existing Sovereign armor will be removed and returned to the player backpack upon a character’s first log in following the patch. This is a onetime, automatic service and will not be offered again.

Auction House

The Auction House UI has been updated! (Helltrek Note: I have been using AH add ons for so long, I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the default AH is like!) In order to improve the user experience, we have removed some of the least used options to provide a more simple and easy to use tool. One such change is that all Auctions are 48 hours. Additionally, since auction duration has been standardized, all auctions are restricted to Buy Out pricing only.
Players can now search the auction house by the following categories:
* Item Category (Weapon, Armor, Accessories, Crafting, Misc)
* Item Type (when applicable)
* Item Slot
* Item Rarity
* Level
* Statistic
* Career Restriction

If that isn’t enough for you. Slide over to Werit’s Blog to look at the great collection of all things 1.3.6. Now. . .we only have to wait a FEW more days to find out what is being Censored!

Massively takes a look into their Crystal Ball

Take a quick trip over to Massively.com to see what Greg Waller is seeing in his Crystal Ball for the high anticipated “announcement” from Mythic this week in his WAR Column ‘Waging WAR‘.

Waging WAR: Gamescon and Mythic’s Anti-Hype.

A Deeper Look into the 8/6/10 Q&A Session

Q – Do you plan on doing any other minor patches before 1.4.x?

Carrie – That’s still undecided but currently the plan is to plow towards 1.4.x.

Starts us off light, but could 1.4.X be the “BIG” one we are looking for? If anything 1.4.X was mentioned in a previous Producer’s Letter, Carrie said she was VERY excited for it. I would think it would be released in conjunction with some sort of big content. . . reaching for straws? . . . Probably

Q – How do you add to end-game RvR after everyone kills the King? Do you expand laterally or do you create a new high-end goal?

Carrie – Is this a theoretical question? How does one if one were expanding? I think the answer is you try to do both to some degree. You certainly want to be conscious of not nullifying the end-game. Obviously we’re aware that the people that have been playing the game for a while are looking for new things to do. So you try to accomplish both…in this theoretical question.

Q – Hypothetically, if we were to see something like an expansion, what might be seen as far as new content? Would it be more Trials of Atlantis or Shrouded Isle or New Frontier style?

Carrie – Again, these are hypothetical questions/answers. There are enough people at Mythic who’ve been with us a long time, so I think we’re not interested in going with a TOA style if anything. But this is entirely hypothetical, so it’s hard to say what direction we would go in.

Andy – If we were, in fact, to do something like that…hypothetically.

So. . . new armor, new weapons, lvl cap raised as well as new content to slaughter in? I have been a bad boy, and have not gotten up to speed on Warhammer Lore, but Trials of Atlantis out? Whats better Lore buffs, Shrouded Isle or New Frontier? Eh. . its all theoretical of course

Q – How do you intend to balance the power gap between people who are just Rank 40 and those that are Renown Rank 70+?

Nate – There’s a couple different environments that that can come up in. When you’re talking about Open RvR, to a large extent Open RvR, if you think about it this way, is like the Wild Wild West. It’s just a big pile where everybody goes in and we’re not going to do a lot of balancing like that because it’s such a large-scale battlefield. When you start talking about things like Scenarios, where it’s significantly fewer people and much more focused and targeted gameplay, we do have some thoughts and plans of how we’d like to make Scenarios a little more competitive for everyone involved but it’s a little too early to get into details.

Q – Do you feel the power gap in terms of itemization between Rank 40 players and higher Renown Rank players is ok or does it need more work?

Nate – There is a bit of a power gap, obviously, between a new and a higher Renown Rank player. I guess the short answer is yes, we feel that sometimes it is a little too much and we’re trying to make it feel better for everybody at both the high and lower levels.

Now this is something I would really like to see implemented. Not in the form of nerfing or anything of that nature. And not necessarily in ORvR, more on the Scenario front. Nothing is more demoralizing, then going into an SC as a new T4 member or lower RR player and just getting THROTTLED by higher Renown Ranked players. It would be great to pull from FPS Multiplayer Matchmaking in this situation, set a priority on trying to match pugs and groups to closer RR levels trying to keep things on a closer playing field like T1-T3 are. Similar rank, similar gear, usually similar skill levels. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a priority system set into place that attempted to match Premades to Premades/Pugs to Pugs as well.

Q – For people that have been playing the end-game for two years, are there any plans to add any more end-game Cities or Zones?

Carrie – Yeah, I think I’ve finally given up and said no to the Cities. Not because they’re not cool and not because we couldn’t possibly do them in the future, but we’re going to focus the gameplay experience on Altdorf and the Inevitable City. That being said, we’re aware that the people that have been playing for a while would like some more options for the end-game and that’s certainly foremost in our minds.

. . . Damn. I wouldn’t mind seeing some development on that unused realestate. Hopefully come the end of August we will find out what is “certaily foremost in our minds” coughexpansioncough

Q – Do you have any plans to add more things to buy with Insignias once you have your weapons?

Nate – Yes. We want to continue expanding the alternate currency uses pretty indefinitely into the future. We just want to keep adding more and more to keep the system feeling lively and fleshed out.

Well this is good news. New items are always a good thing. . unless they are timed Talismans that boost your speed by 1%. . . 1%. . . . really? That being said, I guess if I didn’t have Toon A.D.D. I might actually have enough insignia’s to buy something. Still good news for players that have alternative currency they don’t know what to do with.

Q – Any chance you’ll introduce Critical Hit Reduction talismans for Shoulder slots?

Nate – Maybe…

Stop being a tease and just say yes or no damn it!

Q – Can we see a WAR iPhone app?

Carrie – “No, you can’t see the WAR iPhone app” is the answer to the question.

Now. . . this is something that I would LOVE to see. Specifically, something similar to the Fallen Earth iPhone App. A few highlights on that app:
* Check in-game mail
* Interact with clan members and online friends
* Visit the auction house to browse bids and keep tabs on auctions
* View available crafting recipes and check progress on those active
* Examine character profiles and equipped gear
* Access the world map

Fan-F’ing-Tastic. And with the way that answer was worded. . I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw one pop up in the future. Which would make me giddy.

Q – Can we expect any “fluff” like Player Housing or improved Crafting?

(dead air)

Andy – I’m guessing that’s a “No Comment”.

. . . . LOL

Q – Are there any plans to make the game more playable for people on less expensive computers in large-scale RvR?

Nate – The change we made in 1.3.6 to the collision detection should hopefully have drastically improved your performance in large-scale RvR.

Carrie -As well, we basically have people who work full time on performance and things like that.

(This would be referencing the removal of Friendly Collision) This is actually something I am really excited about. Nothing is more annoying then 100 players trying to cram through a “tiny” Keep door. So, to remove that annoyance AND give me a 15-20% performance boost? SCORE!

Q – What is the patch date for 1.3.6?

Andy – Soon (TM).

Carrie – We don’t give out patch dates until we give them out.

If Friday was the last PTS test, my guess would be by the end of next week at the latest.

And that’s really about it. So, really nothing concrete (surprise) but some small hints and a little bit of info to chew on. There is plenty more info that was discussed in the Q&A, a lot of class and mechanics questions which I could honestly care less about at this point. So, if you are interested in the full transcription, please visit Gaarawarr’s Blog.