Rabbit, Run

There was a time, once, when I could find my screenshots from New World. When I played the game directly from my own hard drive by way  of Steam it was easy. I just hit the screenshot key and there they were.

Actually, there they weren't. Steam doesn't make finding screenshots as easy as it might be. Like DCUO, for some reason they like to use a string of gibberish rather than a comprehensible filename. Fortunately, there is a handy option in the main Steam interface that lets you browse your photo album and open the files on disk.

When I started playing New World through GeForceNow I lost all access to Steam controls even though I still have to login via Steam. That was okay. GeForceNow has a nice screenshot facility of its own. I was using that for a while until I wasn't. It just didn't seem to work any more. Then it did. Then it didn't. It was frustrating. And Confusing.

I spent a good while fiddling about, changing various settings, altering the keybinds, getting more and more irritated. Sometimes I couldn't seem to take any screenshots at all, other times the game told me I had but I couldn't find them anywhere.

At one point I resorted to hitting PrtScr then tabbing out and pasting the clipboard into Paint.net. That's where the shot at the top of the post came from. Primitive but it works.

This evening, when I came to write this post, I tried once again to find the dozen or so screenshots the UI confirmed I'd taken a few days ago. They were pictures of the new event, the one where you hunt corrupted rabbits. Once again I couldn't find them anywhere.

There's only so long I can stand searching through folders for photos that may not even be there. It occured to me it might be quicker to log in and take some more. So I did and it was.

Of course, this time when I took the shots they all went straight into the Gallery folder where they're meant to go. I swear I did exactly the same as last time but logic suggests I probably didn't. Whatever it was I did differently will have to remain a mystery. A very boring mystery no-one in their right mind would want to solve.

The important thing is that I now have a dozen shots of my character chasing rabbits. Wow. That was really time well spent, wasn't it?

The event, Rabbit's Revenge, is very odd. For a start, that name. Makes you think the rabbits are turning aggressive, doesn't it? You imagine there are going to be fights. You versus some big, mean bunnies, Night of the Lepus style.

Yeah, that's not happening. The rabbits are just the same as they ever were except they have some red marks in their fur now. They still hop about amiably, run away if you get near them and die in one hit. I'm not sure where the "revenge" comes in.

There also don't seem to be any more rabbits than there used to be or rabbits in any different places. I didn't see any for a couple of hours while I was down in Cutlass Keys and Monarchs Bluff. Rabbits don't do swamps. 

Eventually I remembered there are usually a few of them hopping about outside Everfall so I ported over there to look for them. It took me about five seconds to find one on the path just outside town. They appear on track but it's hardly necessary. 

The next part is kind of undignified. You sidle up to the rabbit, hoping it doesn't spot you. Animals in Aeternum tend to be oblivious to any threat from behind. If you get within striking range that's it for the bunny. A level one character can kill a rabbit in a single blow and my character is a shave away from fifty-nine.

If the rabbit spots you, however, it taks off like a hare. Erm... They zig-zag a bit and there's a lot of undergrowth and trees so it's a bit of a Benny Hill performance to catch one. I imagine it's a lot easier and more dignified if you use a musket or a bow but I use a hatchet and that's that.

In the end you get your bunny and it drops a bag. Nearly always. I did think it was a guaranteed drop but it isn't, quite. The bag contains a lucky rabbit's foot. You can only have five of them each day. They stack and you can use them for a Luck bonus.

I couldn't figure out if that was worth doing or not. There's a caveat on the tooltip warning you it replaces other luck bonuses from consumables. The rabbit's foot gives 4.9% Luck but I couldn't find anywhere on my character profile that told me how much luck I already had. Not that I know what luck is good for, anyway.

Theoretically you can also get something called Diamond Gypsum as a drop from corrupted rabbits but I have yet to see any. For me, it seems to be as hard to come by as the "Exceedingly Rare" Defiled Storage Chest, the big ticket item from the event.

I confess I don't really see the point of this event. It doesn't seem to be particularly entertaining in itself and the rewards seem either pointless or far too rare to encourage people to bother trying to get them. I haven't played all that much but it was very busy when I was killing my rabbits and no-one else seemed to be remotely interested. I had the entire warren to myself.

I guess any event is better than none but I think I'll call this one done for now, unless anyone knows of anything I've missed. There's probably something. There just about has to be.