Never Mind The Quality

A couple of hours ago, I didn't have anything much to post about for today. Well, I had an idea for a music post that I'll probably still get around to doing at some point but I'm a bit wary of relying too heavily on music posts. They're altogether too much fun to put together. If I don't exercise some restraint I could find myself writing a music blog and then where would we be?

Anyway, my fact-finding trip to YouTube, looking for suitable songs to support the premise I had in mind, didn't go quite the way I expected. There turned out to be far more candidates for the theme than I ever imagined there could be. It's going to take some time and effort to sift through the possibles to find the best ones and I'm not sure the idea merits that much effort.

With that one back in the draft pile and nothing else coming to mind, I decided to do my dailies in Noah's Heart and hope something occured to me later in the day. Beryl the dog was sound asleep in the armmchair behind me so I had a bit of peace and quiet for once. It seemed a shame to waste the opportunity.

At this point I'm going to re-iterate something I've said a few times about Noah's Heart already; I know it's not a great game but, for reasons I think I understand quite wel now, it's been a great game for me these last few months. 

It's been a strange time in some ways. I've retained my interest in mmorpgs but haven't been able to find the necessary enthusiasm or commitment for anything more challenging than the kind of low stakes, low-intensity gameplay on offer here. Every other mmorpg I've played of late seems like it demands too much - too much time, too much effort, too much loyalty. It's not that anything about the games themselves has changed, of course. It's all me.

What Noah's Heart offers is the sensation of playing an online rpg with lots of other people, only with almost all of the awkward parts taken out. It's not quite on the level of an idle game but it's definitely a game for slackers and I'm very much an mmorpg slacker these days. I think I'm entitled to be, after nearly a quarter of a century playing the damn things!

Just as a for instance, take the autoquesting system. I'm on record as loving this particular implementation, which I think is one of the best I've seen. The thing is, after six months using it, I find I don't just appreciate it in Noah's Heart, it actively annoys me that all the other mmorpgs I play don't have it too.

Yes, it's true. I really am so lazy now that I begrudge having to press down a key to move. I mean, come on! It's the 2020s! Even our cars are going to be driving themselves soon. And as for finding NPCs and locations by looking at a map... seriously? I know these worlds generally don't have satellite communications but they have fricken' magic, ffs!

Anyway, that's just one factor. And it's actually quite misleading to suggest Noah's Heart is barely more than an idle game. There is a decent amount of input required from the player. It's just that there don't seem to be all that many barriers in the way of achieving your goals. Other than a modicum of time-gating and a barrel-load of rng, that is, but you can't have everything.

It also helps that I tend to set my sights very low. I've talked in the past about the fashion system - in the same post linked above, in fact - and how every look is obtainable if you're just prepared to do the minimum and wait. The ugly truth is, I'm not even willing to do that much. I could have had several more outfits by now if I'd just knuckled down, done some gathering and made sure to use all my Energy every day. 

Instead, I do a bit of mining and logging now and then, when I remember, and I go days and days with my energy sitting maxed at 9000. Use it or lose it, they say. They shouldn't have made it a choice.

Today, for once, I didn't just stop after I'd done my dailies. I started going through some of my stats to see if there was anything more I could do, which was when I noticed I only needed to make about a hundred four-star dishes to gift to Johanne Kepler, the phantom whose Affection I'm currently courting, to reach Level 12, which is when she's due to hand over the pattern I need to clone her signature look.

I was about to get started on that, when I also noticed I still hadn't maxed the Tailor career. I hit Level Five in Masterchef and Craftsman ages ago, without even trying, but Tailor has been lagging behind. On checking further, I saw I'd exceeded all the criteria necessary except for the most basic one of all - Mastery. 

Mastery is just your skill level in that particular career. It raises every time you make something that gives you crafting xp. I simply hadn't made enough frocks. Or enchantments. Or wallpaper. Or any of the other things a Tailor makes.

Well, that was an easy fix. The same as in every other mmorpg. Make a whole bunch of things you don't want or need and either sell them or salvage them. Or, in my case, stack them on top of each other in your house so you also get Decoration and Practical xp so your house levels up, too!

I wasn't sure it would work but it did. I made a load of rugs, put one in each room as I went through the house, then piled the rest on top of each other in the final room. They stack perfectly and invisibly. That room looks the same as all the other rooms. You'd never know you were standing on a dozen, identical carpets.

For the rest of the xp I made some wallpaper and put a feature wall in every room with a window. Along the way, I had to refine some wood and cloth and I got xp for that as well. In a few minutes I'd hit my target of 1500 Mastery and redecorated my house into the bargain. It was very easy but also surprisingly satisfying, which about sums up my experience of playing Noah's Heart this last half-year.

After that, all I needed to do was speak to Tina, the Tailor trainer. She wanted me to make her some fine leather to prove I was ready to be promoted. I had plenty left over from my crafting binge so I gave her some of that and she was fine with it. Again, no friction between intent and execution.

So, now I'm maxed in all three careers. It doesn't mean I'm done with crafting, though. I still have a lot more locked recipes in my books than things I can make. Next time I get the urge to do a bit of crafting I guess I'll work on unlocking some of those. 

That's something for later. For now, I've done what I wanted to do and gotten a post out of it. What more can you ask for out of a game?