Assassin's Creed Odyssey

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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
I was thinking to play it in 4k on my PS4 pro but I think I'll get better performance on my PC. The PS4 / Xbox versions run at 30fps. Plus ultrawide will be more immersive for me. I'll have red dead to play on my TV soon enough.

The setting is why I decided to get this too. Black flag is the last AC game I played and didn't really finish it. But having rpg style elements to this one is nice.

Origins has pretty much the same elements, based on the ~15 minutes of it that I watched. I actually thought that I would eventually get it because of that, but I still haven't. Likely would have been the same for this one, but eh, it just happened to come with the card, so that's nice.

had to edit this...typed Odyssey instead of Origins. confusing.
 
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sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Tried to install the game via Uplay tonight and of course it asks me for my 2 factor authentication which I haven't used in ages. Last time I used it, was for ghost recon wild lands that came with my gpu.

So I'm all locked out of my account and can't use the key I bought from Green man gaming. Have to contact Ubisoft support to disable that 2 factor authentication but there is a suspension period on my account now :(

Need to wait some time before I can login and then reset all my security. This is why I prefer steam although I got 20% off buying from Green man gaming.

Edit: Game won't even launch for me. Gets to the Ubisoft icon screen on load then just crashes back to desktop..do I really need an amd card lol??

Apparently my CPU may not support AVX which is required by the game?
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
Tried to install the game via Uplay tonight and of course it asks me for my 2 factor authentication which I haven't used in ages. Last time I used it, was for ghost recon wild lands that came with my gpu.

So I'm all locked out of my account and can't use the key I bought from Green man gaming. Have to contact Ubisoft support to disable that 2 factor authentication but there is a suspension period on my account now :(

Need to wait some time before I can login and then reset all my security. This is why I prefer steam although I got 20% off buying from Green man gaming.

Edit: Game won't even launch for me. Gets to the Ubisoft icon screen on load then just crashes back to desktop..do I really need an amd card lol??

Apparently my CPU may not support AVX which is required by the game?

Well, I think you have to launch it through Uplay anyway, regardless of where you buy it. I launched Uplay for the first time in years last night, and was luck that the password I had wasn't changed (I keep all of them in a text file stashed away somewhere).

I set up 2-Factor for the first time as well, so while it was a bit of a PITA (had to also install google authenticator for some reason? jerks...), I didn't go through your struggles. ....I will say so far it is alright? I'm not blown away by anything yet. It certainly starts off like every generic contemporary action-RPG fetch quest whatever for the first while.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Ubisoft recommended that I install their launcher and the game on the same drive the OS is running on. I have about 557gb free on the 1tb ssd where the OS is installed. So I removed the game and client and am reinstalling now on my C drive. I wanted to install it on my other ssd for saving some space. Maybe this will fix it..if not then I'm out $50 bucks I guess and a crappy experience with Ubisoft.
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
10,999
733
136
I still need to get Origins. Well, Black Friday is coming soon enough, I guess.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
From what I've read, Odyssey takes place before Origins. Origins covers the start of the Assassin's Guild, which makes me think this game has nothing to do with that. I haven't played it, so I can't say too much about what happens as the story progresses. I did see some note of the Hidden Blade in the season pass's description, so there might be a light link there. It also looks like the season pass includes a remaster of Assassin's Creed III and Liberation. Didn't know that they needed it. :p

Only bad thing about getting this is that I prefer to keep my games on Steam -- it's just easier for me to keep track of Steam on all my machines -- but that means I have to buy it from Steam at full price. :(
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Reinstalled the game on my OS drive along with the Ubisoft client. The game will still not launch. Crashed right to desktop. They now want me to uninstall and reinstall the Microsoft c++ libraries but I fear this may mess up other games that i have on there now which are working fine.

They asked if I bought the game on steam and I did not so there won't seem to other steps I have to do. First PC game I have that's given me this much trouble..pretty unbelievable.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Reinstalled the game on my OS drive along with the Ubisoft client. The game will still not launch. Crashed right to desktop. They now want me to uninstall and reinstall the Microsoft c++ libraries but I fear this may mess up other games that i have on there now which are working fine.

They asked if I bought the game on steam and I did not so there won't seem to other steps I have to do. First PC game I have that's given me this much trouble..pretty unbelievable.

Let's take another approach to this. Check the Event Viewer to see if we can gleam any information about why it's crashing. If we're lucky, it may detail if something is missing.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
From what I've read, Odyssey takes place before Origins. Origins covers the start of the Assassin's Guild, which makes me think this game has nothing to do with that. I haven't played it, so I can't say too much about what happens as the story progresses. I did see some note of the Hidden Blade in the season pass's description, so there might be a light link there. It also looks like the season pass includes a remaster of Assassin's Creed III and Liberation. Didn't know that they needed it. :p

Only bad thing about getting this is that I prefer to keep my games on Steam -- it's just easier for me to keep track of Steam on all my machines -- but that means I have to buy it from Steam at full price. :(

I've been on noob Island so far in Odyssey, so I haven't spent much time in the story. In the very first moments, however, you get to play as Leonidas during the battle at the Hellspont. ...Honestly I don't think this was really touched in that opening sequence directly, but your character, years later, is supposedly descended from Leonidas. They claim so, anyway. ...being that this is within the first 5 minutes of the game, I don't think it's a spoiler at all but I will tag it anyway

Your secondary, "assassinate" weapon is the broken spear of Leonidas. You carry it with you throughout your life. I'm 100% certain that the spear blade eventually gets refashioned into the first hidden blade mechanism. You mentioned the description in the DLC, I saw that too" "Play alongside the original wielder or something. I think it is the player character, or some other bloke in the event that the player character in Odyssey does a Sean Bean at the end of it.

I actually might pick up the DLC, being that I got this for free. ....eh, if it ever goes on sale, of course lol. The addition of the remastered full games is intriguing, but also makes me think that the actual DLC is rubbish...or that Ubi essentially regards their Assassin's Creed franchise and each release about as meaningful as AOL install disc.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Let's take another approach to this. Check the Event Viewer to see if we can gleam any information about why it's crashing. If we're lucky, it may detail if something is missing.
I think I figured out what it was. Nothing crazy going on in event viewer. But I unplugged my flight peripherals and then the game finally got past the logo screens.

Default graphics settings set by the game for me was ultra high. With async adaptive quality set to high I ran the benchmark and got an average of 52-57 fps at 3440x1440.

When setting the adaptive sync quality to adaptive I get an avg of 67 fps running the benchmark. But if you choose adaptive you then have to select 30, 45, or 60fps. Which doesn't seem to be working as I would think anytime it drops below 60, it should keep it at 60.

Also still on the first island myself. Did most of the side quests. They actually aren't bad with a decent story to go along. I'm not having any issues with the combat on PC using a keyboard+mouse. I figured I would use my Xbox oculus controller but it's fine on kb+mouse for now.

Character models could be better. Running it fine with no hiccups at my resolution. Only thing I don't like is the cutscenes. No ultrawide support for them so they are set with black bars on the sides. From what I read, origins had ultrawide cutscene support.
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
I think I figured out what it was. Nothing crazy going on in event viewer. But I unplugged my flight peripherals and then the game finally got past the logo screens.

Default graphics settings set by the game for me was ultra high. With async adaptive quality set to high I ran the benchmark and got an average of 52-57 fps at 3440x1440.

When setting the adaptive sync quality to adaptive I get an avg of 67 fps running the benchmark. But if you choose adaptive you then have to select 30, 45, or 60fps. Which doesn't seem to be working as I would think anytime it drops below 60, it should keep it at 60.

Also still on the first island myself. Did most of the side quests. They actually aren't bad with a decent story to go along. I'm not having any issues with the combat on PC using a keyboard+mouse. I figured I would use my Xbox oculus controller but it's fine on kb+mouse for now.

Character models could be better. Running it fine with no hiccups at my resolution. Only thing I don't like is the cutscenes. No ultrawide support for them so they are set with black bars on the sides. From what I read, origins had ultrawide cutscene support.

weird, is that a thing now? I assumed not/had no idea that any games had it.

Odd that peripherals were causing issues with a simple launch....did you also have to unplug your AGP graphics card and reset IRQ values manually through Device Manager? :D Crazy, I would have gone nuts....

You post inspired me to check a few things regarding adaptive sync vs set to high, vs whatever...none of that made a difference, but I did go into Adrenaline, and switched AMD Freesync from "Optimized to AMD" to "On."....and it seems to have eliminated a lot of the fullscreen vertical line/"container box" flashes that I get when running Freesync. I think those happen when dropping below a certain frame limit, and so whatever that setting did, maybe drastically reduced the limit? I don't know.

It only happens now, rarely, when switching to menu or something. But not all the time. I should test on the other games that I currently have loaded. ...it still happens when loading the game, a bit, but I might tolerate such a thing.

EDIT: I lied, it's happening again. I think it's related to thermals on my Vega. Fan barely does anything, flashy flashy flashy, winds up a bit, things are good, then some action...OK but flashy flashy flashy if too much action, fan whines even more....sorta OK, then not so much.

sigh
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
Yeah man, this is a seriously good game and I am totally digging it. I sorta abandoned my very recent Final Fantasy XV playthrough, about 15 hours in, and am now unexpectedly focused on this. ...and I so far dig FF XV, which is weird and strange, but has its own thing.

This game does look gorgeous once it opens up. Certainly a far cry from AC II, lol. I have no experience with what they do with naval warfare in these games before, so that is fun to figure out. I rescued some hobo prisoner in a bandit camp, conked him on the head as he tried to flee, recruited him to my ship and assigned him. He decided to join a boarding party on a bandit ship, got quickly skewered during what would be our victorious assault, and was summarily deposited in the sea, his service thus rendered. Need to go "rescue" another lieutenant now, I guess....

Those mercenaries really start to bunch up early on, and seem to get very angry rather quickly. Also kinda interesting that your level ~11 PC can quickly and frequently encounter level 50, lion-accompanied mercenaries so early in the game. It is fun watching them at a distance, though, getting assaulted by lowly Athenians that kill their horse, they slaughter all of them, run back 100 yards to steal another horse, then soldier on.

I'm also thinking that once you have bounties, they seriously start tracking your movement if you decide to get all murdery in a mission. I was running through a leader's house, collecting clues and killing guards, when a roaming mercenary decided to up and make the house his own personal jogging zone. He started pacing my path a good bit after me, so I guess that suggests that maybe they have something of an internal map that will start to track all of your blood trails, hidden or otherwise, once you start earning some bounty targets on your head?
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
I'm on level 8 so far and I've got to find better weapons. It seems the stealth part of this game was pretty much taken away. I'm always surrounded by enemies in a fight. Have to make good use of the block and parry but sometimes it doesn't always work as intended.

I would say my favorite skill so far is being able to take away their shields. I remember watching some people on YouTube play up to the part I'm at and they already had legendary gear. I haven't found much of it and they were also just progressing the story while I'm more of the type to go do all the side quests then do the story misisons.

Not sure how I feel about leveling up either because once you level up, your enemies level up with you everywhere you go. I think there is a cap in some sections for the enemies like one zone will be 7-9, etc.

The bounties do track you if they see you in their vicinity. I've actually had to run away several times and wait until one of them decided to give up following me. You can pay them off if your bounty level is too high. It sucks when you're trying to complete a fort or something and you constantly have to fight regular soldiers while the bounty is also trying to get you as well. I usually avoid them until I am at their level and then try to isolate them and take them out that way.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Not sure how I feel about leveling up either because once you level up, your enemies level up with you everywhere you go. I think there is a cap in some sections for the enemies like one zone will be 7-9, etc

In Origins, zones were defined with specific level ranges; however, in a later patch, they added an enemy level-up feature where enemies would stay within your level range. This helped as some people would do everything and gain levels too quickly. So, you may want to check your settings and turn that off -- if it is still an option -- if you're not really getting too far ahead.

The bounties do track you if they see you in their vicinity. I've actually had to run away several times and wait until one of them decided to give up following me. You can pay them off if your bounty level is too high. It sucks when you're trying to complete a fort or something and you constantly have to fight regular soldiers while the bounty is also trying to get you as well. I usually avoid them until I am at their level and then try to isolate them and take them out that way.

Are those the Phylaktes of this game? Those guys were fun to fight in Origins. I even took on ones that were a higher level than me as you could just game their AI using the bow for a while and just dodging like crazy.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
In Origins, zones were defined with specific level ranges; however, in a later patch, they added an enemy level-up feature where enemies would stay within your level range. This helped as some people would do everything and gain levels too quickly. So, you may want to check your settings and turn that off -- if it is still an option -- if you're not really getting too far ahead.



Are those the Phylaktes of this game? Those guys were fun to fight in Origins. I even took on ones that were a higher level than me as you could just game their AI using the bow for a while and just dodging like crazy.
In Odyssey there isn't any option to turn off the level scaling..yet. Also no widescreen cutscenes while origins had them.

You have to be certain levels to do some quests. I noticed that if I try to attack someone higher level than me, it does like zero impact on their health bar. Or they will show a skull avatar above their head.

Same for the bounties, if they are higher than you, you basically don't do any damage on them.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
In Odyssey there isn't any option to turn off the level scaling..yet. Also no widescreen cutscenes while origins had them.

You have to be certain levels to do some quests. I noticed that if I try to attack someone higher level than me, it does like zero impact on their health bar. Or they will show a skull avatar above their head.

Same for the bounties, if they are higher than you, you basically don't do any damage on them.

I did try the patch that you linked for fullscreen cutscenes, and the one for my Uplay install worked really well. So were you able to get that working? Not that it's really tolerable that it wasn't supported from the beginning.

I did manage to take out one or two mercenaries that were ~2 levels higher than me. I am pretty much working toward and all crit, all assassin type build. There is an early assassin skill that can do serious one-hit damage to most mercs leveled around you, nearly 1/4 damage, and pretty much one-shots most captains. So, that definitely helps and kinda trivializes things for now.

I definitely think I am leveling up to fast because I am sitting just on top of my current quest level and region, but I'm learning which of the "contracts" can simply be ignored, because they really add nothing but over-leveling and cash. ....I also find this daily mechanic for contracts and time-limited missions to be very annoying. It does not help my OCD. I think I will pretty much just focus on the ones that offer orichalcum, and are once per day and week, I think. The "kill this bandit!" endless contracts are the AC version of saving Preston Garvey's stupid settlements.

I also find it annoying that when I open the map on a new load, I am seeing morons photos pasted everywhere. I set it to NO PHOTOS, every time. It doesn't save my preferences. I want to strangle this company. I don't care about some idiot's photos in this single-player game.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
also, there are some really bad bugs and even account breaches, I think, regarding orichalcum and the quests. I noticed that on the first time I met the orichalcum merchant in Phokis, my then-stash of 37 suddenly...disappeared. It was no longer in my material list--even the icon was completely gone, and I didn't have enough to purchase the cheapest, 20 ori item.

so I reloaded various other saves before activating that merchant, and it was still gone. I did this a few times, and eventually it popped back up on my account. That is the first time that happened. I was searching for this bug in forums, and saw that there was a data/account breach or something with Ubi servers and people were losing this from their accounts. Apparently, ori, the ori missions, and items are stored separately on your account--kinda like their own independent login server from all the other stuff on your account. This way, it logs whether or not you have done the weekly or daily missions, and whether or not you have spent it--you can't for instance, buy the grab bag, reset if you don't like the item, and keep doing it until you get something you want. It's like an MMO loot box. ...but then it would be nice if that actually worked.

I've so far had 2 weekly and one daily mission just disappear from my log on re-loads so far. 5 days to complete...oh, suddenly you aren't doing this anymore and you can no longer access it on the bounty board. sucks to be you. Oh, you opened this one an hour ago, 12 hours to complete, logged out and came back? Sorry, we removed it. The only ori mission that is now available--wasn't there an hour ago!--is "expired" for some reason. so you can't do it.

This is very annoying. I recognize a lot of this is bugs that will likely be patched, but the idea of logging in on a daily timer to catch whatever reset time is for missions before they expire, and have the real life time to finish them before they expire...is really annoying. I also realize that eventually one will be able to quickly complete some of these, but early in the game when you have weekly that wants you to win 3 occupations for one nation across the world...which essentially means removing power in three different regions--killing soldiers, burning stuff, killing leaders...then winning those battles....you simply can't do that in the time frame. Those really don't seem to scale like they should.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Yea I got the mod for ultra wide to work which is nice but then I reverified my game files and it reset it. Just wanted to make sure nothing was screwed up so I'll probably go back to it because it just makes it nicer on the monitor.

You can actually damage others higher than you but not by much. I've got to level 10 now and I'm not anywhere near where you are yet. Still have the first battle to do after I kill this one bounty.

I actually ended up killing two level 9 bounties randomly and it helped complete part of the odyssey quest because along side of these guys were 9 other Athenian soldiers. I'll probably play more tomorrow if I have the time. I do want to progress more but I still have a lot of ? areas in Megaris to visit.

Something to note, if you are not getting decent performance turn volumetric clouds quality down to high instead of very high or ultra. There was a video on YouTube of someone going over the performance eating settings that you could lower and apparently that gains you about 20% for not so extremely fluffy clouds. I still have everything set on ultra quality and I guess my performance is decent, close to and above 60 at times.

Which is odd because the game is very resource heavy and the character models don't look all that great and the environments are just decent.

I didn't know you can turn off people's photos in the game. I need to do that because I also find it annoying. I don't do any of the daily quests or message board items. It's just way too much to do and often I find myself getting into fights I don't want to. Tonight I almost got killed by chickens trying to mount my horse and I accidentally hit one so a flock of them just came swarming at me.

There is a perk where you can get 25% health so I have that assigned and it tremendously helps in fights because I find it hard to do combat with pressing space bar all the time. Sometimes I'll press q to block and he won't do anything..guess it's not timed right.

I also like a lot of the side missions too they have more than just go fetch this. I ended up recruiting odessa on the ship and it brought my armor up quite a bit.
 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,068
649
126
I got a code for Project Stream and tried this out. It is not bad but there is obvious compression at times, I don't have the fastest internet, about 26Mb. One thing that is bugging me though is the sound, sounds like I am listening through a tin can. Really distracting. I am not sure if it is just overly compressed or something with my system. Will try later this weekend when I have more time.
 

ArchAngel777

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
5,223
61
91
I have not actually played the game yet, nor changed any of the settings. Apparently my nVidia drivers are out of date. Anyhow, I was surprised how low performance was. I am running 4670K @ 4 Ghz all cores and a 1080 FE. The benchmark had me dipping close to single digit minimums (13 fps min) and an average of like 46 fps @ 2560:1080 (21:9 UWS)

I'll have to see if drivers improve performance, or if this is normal. I also recently saw some benchmarks that indicate it might be the CPU holding things up.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I got a code for Project Stream and tried this out. It is not bad but there is obvious compression at times, I don't have the fastest internet, about 26Mb. One thing that is bugging me though is the sound, sounds like I am listening through a tin can. Really distracting. I am not sure if it is just overly compressed or something with my system. Will try later this weekend when I have more time.

I got a code for Project Stream today, so I'll be checking it out later. It'll be interesting to see how well it works as my connection is a bit faster (600/40), and especially being able to compare it to what I've seen playing Origins natively. The one thing I'm wondering is whether or not your save game translates between Project Stream and the "real game". I'm assuming it does since it connects to uPlay and requires a uPlay account.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
damn, I didn't know what project stream was until you guys made those posts (streaming never has interested me I guess, heh). But it's weird to see the game being offered via a huge Google beta for free (limited), and a big AMD GPU offer (Free).

Seems Ubi wanted this game out there.

It is a great game, and it is certainly gorgeous at moments. ....it's a bit derivative of everything that came before it, from all AC games, of course, and Witcher action play/quest design, Bethesda endless questing and NPC design, etc. ....but damn it's fun. So who cares?
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,515
29,100
146
Some 100 hours into this game and I killed a giant farting boar. (one of the legendary beasts).
 

Skel

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
6,214
659
136
Some 100 hours into this game and I killed a giant farting boar. (one of the legendary beasts).

I hated that boar the most out of everything in this game. It was stupid to put in, and painful to defeat.

I did finally finish this stupid game last night (joys of my RDR2 getting delayed) and am glad it's over. There were some good things about the game, but it felt filled with time wasters that served no point other than dragging out the gameplay.