April 2016 - Page 7 of 8 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Official PS4 Remote Play

April 6, 2016 by Belghast

3.50 System Update

Some time ago I wrote a post about the unofficial Twisted Remote Play app. Since that time I have used that thing on a nearly daily basis, if for no reason other than the pull screenshots off of my PS4 without having to play move the thumb drive. It worked well, and honestly offered a level of game play that was nearly indistinguishable from sitting physically at your machine. It worked amazingly smoothly over my laptop downstairs and while I didn’t do anything super serious with it, I did spend quite a bit of time farming resources or doing daily bounties in Destiny through it. When I bought into the Alpha I believe it was $10 and since then he has shifted the pricing scheme to a free/premium structure. As a former paid user I got transitioned to premium, and from what I can tell the paid version just gets newer updates. However around the time I wrote my original post it was confirmed my Sony that they would be releasing an official version of the Remote Play application. For anyone who cares to know, it turns out that Twisted simply reverse engineered the existing Xperia remote play app that had been available on the android and then greatly tweaked and improved the net code. The improvements were not insignificant, and I honestly doubted that the official app release would even come close to the performance of the Twisted client.

I am guessing the existence of this unofficial dark horse client lit a fire under Sony and maybe caused them to improve their product offering to compete. As of this morning the 3.50 system update is available for the PS4 and with it brings the official client that you can download here. Out of the box it honestly performs like shit. The default is 540p 30fps and using your PSN account to find your machine over the internet. However if you kill the client and relaunch it, you will notice a settings box down near the bottom on the left hand side. I found that if I cranked up the resolution to 720p and the frame rate to High it also changed the way the application worked. Instead of finding your machine over the internet, it instead looked for it on your local network and as a result greatly improved the performance. Granted my tests this morning were over a wired connection straight into the same router my PS4 was connected to, but I have to say the performance was reasonable. I am not 100% sure if it is quite as smooth as the Twisted client, but it was absolutely playable. I popped into Destiny and ran around the planet working on some bounties and while it felt like at times there was maybe a tiny bit of lag in the input… it was absolutely playable. If you are doing anything serious at all I would still highly suggest sitting at your machine and just playing like Sony intended… however if you want to chill out from a laptop I have a feeling that the experience will be comparable to the Twisted client.

All of this said… I really hope that the Twisted client updates and gets fixed. There were a lot of interesting things that he was doing that I want to see continued. For example he was doing some work with emulating a Dualshock 4 controller with a Keyboard and Mouse. Now it wasn’t quite there yet but it worked “well enough” to play around with on bounties and such in Destiny. The other thing that I would love is for him to figure out how to pass through the Microphone input to the remote play application allowing folks to hang out and talk on PSN party chat while playing remotely. I also feel like Twisted is going to ultimately support complaints with his client far better than Sony will. PSTV for example is a mess and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of fixing it… given that they officially cancelled the product. I feel like the PC and Mac support here is just to be able to say that they can do this feature that Xbox One has been touting for awhile, and once that check mark has been ticked off they simply won’t devote the resources to making sure it continues to work as well as it could work. All of this makes me hope that they did not permanently break support for the method that Twisted has been connecting, because I really want to see that project succeed.

The Banner Falls

April 5, 2016 by Belghast

Plans Change

When I left work I had every intent to go home and play Iron Banner on the Titan all night long, in the hopes of getting some really awesome drops. That didn’t exactly happen, but I did end up playing Iron Banner up until the point when I decided to go to bed a little early. The change however was that I ended up playing on my Hunter. There is a clear pecking order between my Destiny characters. The Titan gets all the really good stuff… the Hunter gets the next tier of stuff… and the Warlock survives on scraps from the other two. Since I had already gotten the Titan to Rank 5, I was curious just how fast I could get the Hunter up there in levels. I had heard there was some sort of an alt bonus, that helped to push your second and third characters up faster, as well as now having access to both the rank 5 shader and emblem which also increase reputation gain. I made significant progress and after a half dozen matches I was sitting at Rank 3 staring down the barrel of Rank 4. Had I stayed up a little later I might have been able to hit Rank 5 all in one night. The big part was that I simply did not have the skill or the time to be able to complete the “brown” bounties on the Hunter since they take a lot of repeated effort. In theory next Iron Banner I might work on the daily bounties for both the Titan and the Hunter each day, and by the end of the week I should have enough progress to turn in those weekly bounties.

The huge positive however is that thanks to the gear that managed to drop while running matches, I can now hit 302 on the Hunter. In total I managed to pick up both a chest piece at 306 and a set of arms at 285… the later I will probably push up whenever the infusion changes happen. I really like the Iron Banner armor look, and I have a feeling that before long that is what my characters will be decked out in. However the upcoming taken look stuff, will probably be what I put on my Hunter since of the three looks that is the one I like the best. Honestly of the Taken gear the only one that I really don’t like is the Titan, and that is largely because of the dumb helmet. The horns on that helmet look like the radar array off of a cruise ship or something. This gets into a complaint I have with Destiny as a whole. It is MMOish but only sorta… and the thing I wish it offered was a true cosmetic system where you could actually customize your appearance without changing your gear. That is one of the things I like the most about The Division is the ability to change my look and have it largely be independent of what I happen to be wearing. Sure there your only options are various pieces of clothing, but in Destiny you could create some really unique armor sets. However I guess with the lossless infusion system, it will make customizing your appearance significantly easier.

Ponytail Titan

Tonight is yet another Rookie Raid and it has become that night of the week that I really look forward to. There is of course a certain amount of trepidation as well, namely when it comes to the damned jumping puzzles. As I have said before Destiny manages to trip my vertigo worse than any game since Mirrors Edge. However I push through it in order to be able to get the tasty drops. This go around what I am really hoping for is to be able to walk out of the raid with the machine gun. I realize that I just put a bunch of effort into pushing up my Bretomart’s Stand to make it raid viable… but I just keep hearing that the raid machine gun is pretty much better in every way. You get hooked on guns with the Cocoon perk, and knowing that whenever you swap weapons there will never be an awkward situation where you have to reload. This would definitely make dps time in the light bubble on Oryx more efficient since you could swap weapons and pour shots into him while waiting on the machine gun to load itself. Cosmetically I am going with a sort of White Knight meets Hive Knight look, and I dig it… even though I kinda wish I had the rest of the Iron Banner gear. When the infusion changes go in I will likely be swapping over to the Iron Camelot shoulders that I picked up from Saladin. I am hoping next go round he brings boots so I can finish out the appearance.

The only regret from this past week is that I didn’t actually connect with any of my friends to talk them into helping me finish my sword quest. It is not like I can actually use it in the raid, since on several of the fights I actually need to use an exotic primary. However it would just be nice to know that I am done with it. I also missed another opportunity for the Black Spindle, because I believe that was last Friday night. I was so focused on Iron Banner that I didn’t even notice until I got an email from another friend asking if I was around to make attempts on it. I have a bit of a mental block now about that mission, since I have failed so many times at it. The other side project that I would love to work on is finding someone to recruit, so that I can get those sweet sweet recruit a friend bonus items. I absolutely want a Tron Sparrow, but unfortunately I can’t just do the World of Warcraft thing and set up a second account. A lot of the achievement steps require you to be doing stuff together. I’ve wondered for awhile now what it would take to get my friend Vernie hooked on this game… because I think he would absolutely like it. The only problem is he is a die-hard keyboard and mouse guy… just like I was before the siren song of Destiny. The thing is… all the joy I used to have playing PC shooters when we would do LAN games after work… I am having with Destiny.

Iron Banner Results

April 4, 2016 by Belghast

Evaluating Guardians

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend looking at this screen or one very similar. As I stated the other day, this is my first time really doing the Iron Banner weekend content, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The only sadness that I feel is that it seems like I am deeply leaning into the game as many of my clan mates are leaning out. I did however get to run a few matches with the Axioma clan crew, but unfortunately I had someone come to the door and had to run quickly to go answer it leaving them somewhat stranded with some dead weight. The biggest take away from the weekend is that I am not nearly as bad at PVP as I always thought I was. There were several maps where I lead the score count, which is a pretty cool feeling. I rarely if ever however have the best KDR. I am super objective based and there are many times I will bum rush an objective just to keep the opposite team from having time to secure it. It feels like maybe the rest of the folks in Iron Banner are not necessarily doing this. I saw an awful lot of deathmatching in areas that were nowhere near objectives and since the name of the game was control… it felt like I spent a lot of time trying to make up for team mates that clearly had no interest in actually playing the “game”.

As the weekend went on I felt like I learned a lot. I fell for far fewer “traps” where people were trying to bait me into attacking and ending up getting picked off easily. I also started to learn the maps significantly better. There are still a few that are the bane of my existence… namely the Firebase Delphi, and the Dreadnaught map are ones that no matter how many times I play them I just feel like I struggle. Then there are maps like Widows Court and Bannerfall that I always seem to do really well on, but I guess this makes sense as there were always maps I did better on in Enemy Territory or Soldier of Fortune 2. I mention those games because in many ways playing Crucible and Iron Banner reminds me of all the time I spent playing shooters during the late 90s and early 2000s… and it has been shocking how fast certain aspects of it has begun to feel “natural”. I’ve been wondering if I had done myself a disservice all of these years by not playing PVP in MMOs and now I am starting to realize that it is just a different experience. MMO PVP just does not feel anywhere near as fluid as Destiny, and because of that I am doubting if I will feel anywhere near as good. That said I do absolutely intend to take some time and give World of Warcraft battlegrounds and Rift PVP another chance.

Spoils of War

Yesterday afternoon I managed to hit rank 5 with the Iron Banner and in doing so got quite the cache of goodies. I of course bought the cosmetic rewards first… because I kinda have a thing for emblems and shaders. Based on all the various emblems that I saw during the event, I am wondering if they alternate between designs or something? As far as the shaders go both were thoroughly obnoxious and I doubt I will use either, but I still had to pick them up regardless. The weapon I was most interested in this go round was Finnala’s Peril the Hand Cannon because I am really hoping that with the April changes we see some quality of life improvements to that type of weapon in general. Though if there is any evidence by the number of times I was killed by a Hand Cannon this weekend, I would say they are mostly doing okay. Other than that I have always liked the look of the Iron Banner Titan gear, so any of that I could pick up would make me happy. At some point I would absolutely love to be rocking a full set of the gear so that I look like the tank that I always thought I was. I still have one full day to try and get some drops, and I have a feeling that tonight I will be upstairs on the PS4 doing just that.

Iron Companion Plate – 290

Finnala’s Peril – 285

Iron Companion Helm – 312

Iron Shell – 310

The gallery shows off some of the drops I managed to get through the weekend. In total I have gotten three different versions of the chest piece, and the one that I am showing off in the above image is not actually the highest level version I got. I am now trying to level up a 309 light version to be my primary chest piece. Similarly I have seen I believe three of the Hand Cannon drops but sadly most of them are pretty crappy stat wise. I did manage to get one that was worth holding onto, but hopefully tonight I might see some with better rolls. From my Rank 5 package I managed to get a really awesome 312 helmet and a 310 Ghost Shell… then about fifteen minutes later got a 320 version of the same shell. So all in all I managed to get at least three pieces of gear that I will be holding onto and making part of my permanent set. As far as purchases, I picked up the Iron Camelot shoulders, and Bretomart’s Stand Machine Gun. I kinda went back and forth on the Machine Gun as to whether or not to purchase it. Comparing it to the Legendary machine gun that I had been using, I actually thought it was a little better and have now infused it up to usable levels. I gotta say I really enjoyed Iron Banner this week and I have a feeling that I will be trying to do this next time it comes around. Sure it took up a lot of my time, but I really enjoyed that time spent. I can also already tell that once Iron Banner is over… I will be back to playing a lot of Crucible.

So Much Cheese Pizza

April 3, 2016 by Belghast

April Fools On Me

ThePizzaOrder Yesterday morning began with a really interesting turn of events. I got up, got dressed, went out to get breakfast… and as is often the case when I finally got set down I opened email to see if there was anything important for me to deal with. In my inbox was an order receipt from Domino’s Pizza… which at first in my sleepy state didn’t seem all of that odd. Then it dawned on me… that it has been weeks since we last ordered anything from Domino’s so I opened it to figure out what was going on. Much to my shock… it was a very real looking order statement for some $600 worth of stuff… ordered at 1:30 in the morning and to be delivered to my address at 11 am Saturday. The list goes something like this…

25 Large Hand Tossed Cheese Pizzas
13 2-Liters of Coke
3 Stuffed Cheesy Bread with Bacon and Jalapeno
25 Side Marinara Dipping Cups
6 Side Garlic Dipping Cups
6 Side Ranch Dipping Cups
25 Side Blue Cheese Dipping Cups
25 Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
25 Side Icing Dipping Cups
1 Sweet BBQ Bacon Specialty Chicken

It seemed like someone had gotten into my account on Dominos.com and placed an order, using an old credit card that was on file there that expired sometime in 2015. At 8 in the morning on a Saturday neither the local Domino’s or the corporate Call Center were open, so I instead called my credit card company who assured me that they denied the order. So for a little bit I went on about my business yesterday morning with the intention of calling the local office around 10:30 when they opened to make sure they realized it was a fraudulent order. I had been in the backyard spraying weed killer for a bit, when I went back inside and realized I had a few missed calls. Apparently the manager of the location had physically come by the house to verify that the order was legit before processing it. His workers however apparently thought nothing of it, and were just about to start in making the pizzas. I mean who orders 25 cheese pizzas? I am not sure if this was a targeted attack on me in particular, or if this was just some sort of scripted attack, whatever the case it made for an interesting morning… and a very interesting story.

Day of Chores

RemotePlay 2016-04-03 09-17-13-72

Yesterday as a whole was a day filled with doing stuff around the house. I got to play exactly one match of Iron Banner yesterday before shutting back down to run some errands. It was largely a day for doing a bunch of stuff that had been needing to be done for a bit. One of the major goals of the day was to get the new wireless multi-function printer hooked up, and working with all of our devices. Other than taking a bit to install drivers on each machine this actually went pretty smoothly. There is some strangeness with Google Cloud Printing, in that the printer must be owned by one google account, and then shared to other Google accounts. But I have to credit my wife with figuring that bit out. It is kinda cool being able to print from a chromebook finally, or print from chrome itself anywhere and have it come out on the printer at home. I could see that useful sometimes, especially for printing order receipts. The next mission was to try and figure out why our high volume printer just stopped working last week. When I went to investigate whether the Parallel to USB cable was still hooked in tightly… the entire thing fell apart in my hand. Not sure what happened but it seems like I simply need a new one of those.

As far as today my goal is to play some more Iron Banner because I really want to be able to hit rank 5 and maybe see some of the weapons as drops. I am not sure that any of the rolls available on Lord Saladin are really worth purchasing, but in theory if I got some better perks it would be well worth my time. I still need to get several heavy kills to complete the weekly bounties. I am holding onto all of the brown bounties because I have been told that they greatly increase in value as the event comes to a close. We have the usual laundry and cleaning to do, but my hope is that unlike yesterday… today can be largely a day of gaming and chilling out. Yesterday was a really strange day, but other than the pizza thing a good one. I was super excited that for the most part AggroChat went off without a hitch. We recorded a fairly long show about a bunch of interesting things, and there was zero occurrence of chipmunk Belghast.