Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Looks like a similar situation with Odyssey. There are a few detail settings that offer very little, but are particularly taxing.
 
Odyssey is what moved me to upgrade to a 2080ti when I got an X27. Although the HDR in this game just doesn’t impress as much because it’s just not as colorful.
 
Looks like a similar situation with Odyssey. There are a few detail settings that offer very little, but are particularly taxing.
AA is the only difference this time around. Odyssey it made almost no impact, here it’s huge.
 
Anyone familiar with the differences in the "exploration / map UI" settings? If I recall there are 3 of them and I'm not sure the ramifications of each in terms of what is displayed. Also, I may just be getting started but i notice they really changed how your "bird" can essentially no longer "tag" enemies, and instead only sees visual representations of what's already on your map in terms of landmarks? You cant reveal new stuff with your bird except maybe animals to hunt? Instead, it seems that in order to tag enemies, show where chests/sources of wealth (ie gold circles etc) are you have to do the "pulse" thing that spreads out from your current location. Now I hear that some things may change in time and as you level up, unlock new skills etc... so I guess we'll see?
 
Anyone familiar with the differences in the "exploration / map UI" settings? If I recall there are 3 of them and I'm not sure the ramifications of each in terms of what is displayed. Also, I may just be getting started but i notice they really changed how your "bird" can essentially no longer "tag" enemies, and instead only sees visual representations of what's already on your map in terms of landmarks? You cant reveal new stuff with your bird except maybe animals to hunt? Instead, it seems that in order to tag enemies, show where chests/sources of wealth (ie gold circles etc) are you have to do the "pulse" thing that spreads out from your current location. Now I hear that some things may change in time and as you level up, unlock new skills etc... so I guess we'll see?
Yes the bird no longer tags objectives or enemies, you can only use it to look manually and put markers where you want to go manually. It is 2 steps back compared to Odyssey, as is almost everything in the game.
I choose the smallest UI / least aided mode, and I still get quest markers at each objective, it is no longer a description of the place that you can use to find it on the map. You couldn't anyway as the map is in a fog of war and there are hardly any named places.

I still find the game extremely tedious and boring, and still there seems to be no loot whatsoever. I don't know what's up with that.

But the worst part has to be the combat, even the camera is all over the place during it. It feels clunky, they went in all the wrong directions after Odyssey. Sometimes the enemy ai is atrocios, they just walk around passively especially animals, but when they attack it is unpredictable. And they can often interrupt your already started attacks with an attack of their own, for which seems to be no recourse. And there is no parry, just four separate types of attacks. THe game forces you to use open combat instead of stealth. But stealth was always more fun even in odyssey, where open combat was actually pretty good also.

I'm sure glad I didn't buy the game. I want to like it desperately, as I loved odyssey, but now I've given it more than enough chances and it still fails to be any fun.
 
I will uninstall the game if they remove stuff like this. God forbid we have interesting characters who face adversity.

They're not removing the character, just changing the text. It's such a minor "whatever" that I don't think anyone should care one way or the other.
 
Ironically that's what the "other side" thinks as well. From an ideological point of view, I don't think Ubi should need to change anything. I don't see anything horribly offensive there and even if it was, I'm not sure I'd see the benefit of changing it vs adding onerous restrictions into a character's appearance, background, or motivations lest they offend someone.

However, I'm guessing that from a practical reason its unlikely Ubi would have responded to any random tweet on the topic ; unfortunately, THIS particular tweet came from one of the founders of "CanIPlayThat" which is a disability gaming review site. Now honestly I don't know how central this particular site/reviewer is to that community (I'm more familiar with AbleGamers who were the ones that Microsoft got to help create their well made Adaptive Controller), and I'm not sure if Ubi does either. However, even from a purely cynical PR perspective, if you get a tweet calling out your company/product as racist coming from some random twit, you will be unlikely to give it much credence necessarily. However, if that tweet came from a prominent leader of the NAACP, its likely the decision to respond and the tone would be different. This is not to say that your response should be guided exclusively by cynical calculus, either, but it is worth mentioning especially when it comes to large corporations ; its bad enough when they don't bother unless there's a significant threat from the beginning, but its even worse when they (or more likely, some well-meaning community manager) tries to extend an honest communication instead of a PR-testing press release which results in a firestorm, pretty much ensuring that honest reactions are not going to be tolerated in the future.

That said, its really a pity that this person decided to make the "ableism" conversation about that small block of text and theoretical representation issues as opposed to the very real benefits of Valhalla's tons of accessibility options for the game. Which, even if they aren't perfect, are vastly above the average game in both number and width of application fields.
 
Last edited:
Ironically that's what the "other side" thinks as well. From an ideological point of view, I don't think Ubi should need to change anything. I don't see anything horribly offensive there and even if it was, I'm not sure I'd see the benefit of changing it vs adding onerous restrictions into a character's appearance, background, or motivations lest they offend someone.

However, I'm guessing that from a practical reason its unlikely Ubi would have responded to any random tweet on the topic ; unfortunately, THIS particular tweet came from one of the founders of "CanIPlayThat" which is a disability gaming review site. Now honestly I don't know how central this particular site/reviewer is to that community (I'm more familiar with AbleGamers who were the ones that Microsoft got to help create their well made Adaptive Controller), and I'm not sure if Ubi does either. However, even from a purely cynical PR perspective, if you get a tweet calling out your company/product as racist coming from some random twit, you will be unlikely to give it much credence necessarily. However, if that tweet came from a prominent leader of the NAACP, its likely the decision to respond and the tone would be different. This is not to say that your response should be guided exclusively by cynical calculus, either, but it is worth mentioning especially when it comes to large corporations ; its bad enough when they don't bother unless there's a significant threat from the beginning, but its even worse when they (or more likely, some well-meaning community manager) tries to extend an honest communication instead of a PR-testing press release which results in a firestorm, pretty much ensuring that honest reactions are not going to be tolerated in the future.

That said, its really a pity that this person decided to make the "ableism" conversation about that small block of text and theoretical representation issues as opposed to the very real benefits of Valhalla's tons of accessibility options for the game. Which, even if they aren't perfect, are vastly above the average game in both number and width of application fields.
I really don't give a crab who they are, as they base their stance on their own bigotry. They are what they claim to be fighting against. They assume that a person with any kind of disability cannot be a normal person, they judge them to be less. And as such lesser people they cannot be represented normally in games.
 
I'm siding with the pitchforks on this one. Calling burn victims "disfigured" is really disrespectful.
 
I'm siding with the pitchforks on this one. Calling burn victims "disfigured" is really disrespectful.
Why what would you call it? The tyranny of words. Changing the word does not change their condition. While some people chose to get offended at words others might actually realize that they are real people.
 
Oh I think I may have ONE solution for those who are running into the periodic crash-to-desktop (without real freezing, without any listed issue or error msg etc..). Its possible it could be Denuvo raising its ugly head again and running headlong into your "not perfectly synced" OS timeclock! Here's what another user (fantazyz78 on Ubi's new forums) wrote about the issue....

"
There are many guides and help out there but as many have experianced they just dont work and are very popular on youtube reddit etc etc, they might work for some but for the majority, games just keeps crashing.

I too had this issue with Assassins Creed, Watch dog: Legion etc etc and i found out some interesting and very easy fix:
Your internal clock in Windows is not synced with time.windows.com (The live time sync feature used to set accurate time in windows).

Yes, if your clock is not accurate the DRM used in games might actually think the game is being tampering with and the DRM does what it is meant to do, stop you from using the license. Mine was 8 minutes behind realtime and this was enough for the DRM to just autoclose my games.

You can easy check if you have this issue by looking in the log file located in your PC, for me it is as below:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\logs launcher_log.txt
and if you scroll to the bottom in this file and you find something like this:
[10188] 2020-10-31 21:47:35 [18108] ERROR DenuvoGetGameTimeTicket.cpp (157) Unknown game response.
My belifes are that the DRM is monitoring time localy and time on server to determine if the client should proceed with game, and if it differs much, it just belive that there are some tampering and just auto close the game.

To adjust the clock in windows: right cllick on clock at start bar -> adjust time and date -> and push the "Sync" button.

"

Note that some have said that this didn't fix their issues, but for others it was the key piece of the puzzle. I'm about to try it myself but I didn't have my OS time sync'ed with Microsoft so its entirely possible, along with the presence of those Denuvo errors. I'll report on the outcome Hope it helps at least some of you! However, if this is the issue for some of us, why the hell can't Ubi Connect or AC:V itself report on it! All we need is a pop-up error box talking about Denuvo or Ubi w/ time clock syncs and suggesting users resync their OS clock or something! Not telling anyone for obfuscation is silly, especially if its printing very clear "DenuvoBrokeBecauseOfTimeSync" type strings in the log!

P.S. - Really curious to see if this issue happens on Linux (w/ Proton) as well; I've not tried AC:V on my main Linux drive as of yet after hearing about some of the bugs even in Windows

Edit: Tentatively, this may have been the cause of my crashes! I was able to play for far longer until I logged out of my own accord earlier today. I should say that this issue makes sense in the case of my Win10 x64 install which A) Had the error messages in the log as described and B) I had set my time manually awhile ago because it wasn't accepting my time and time zone correct. Now, I have it sync'd again and then just set time automatically to on for good measure.
 
Last edited:
Oh I think I may have ONE solution for those who are running into the periodic crash-to-desktop (without real freezing, without any listed issue or error msg etc..). Its possible it could be Denuvo raising its ugly head again and running headlong into your "not perfectly synced" OS timeclock! Here's what another user (fantazyz78 on Ubi's new forums) wrote about the issue....

"
There are many guides and help out there but as many have experianced they just dont work and are very popular on youtube reddit etc etc, they might work for some but for the majority, games just keeps crashing.

I too had this issue with Assassins Creed, Watch dog: Legion etc etc and i found out some interesting and very easy fix:
Your internal clock in Windows is not synced with time.windows.com (The live time sync feature used to set accurate time in windows).

Yes, if your clock is not accurate the DRM used in games might actually think the game is being tampering with and the DRM does what it is meant to do, stop you from using the license. Mine was 8 minutes behind realtime and this was enough for the DRM to just autoclose my games.

You can easy check if you have this issue by looking in the log file located in your PC, for me it is as below:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\logs launcher_log.txt
and if you scroll to the bottom in this file and you find something like this:
[10188] 2020-10-31 21:47:35 [18108] ERROR DenuvoGetGameTimeTicket.cpp (157) Unknown game response.
My belifes are that the DRM is monitoring time localy and time on server to determine if the client should proceed with game, and if it differs much, it just belive that there are some tampering and just auto close the game.

To adjust the clock in windows: right cllick on clock at start bar -> adjust time and date -> and push the "Sync" button.

"

Note that some have said that this didn't fix their issues, but for others it was the key piece of the puzzle. I'm about to try it myself but I didn't have my OS time sync'ed with Microsoft so its entirely possible, along with the presence of those Denuvo errors. I'll report on the outcome Hope it helps at least some of you! However, if this is the issue for some of us, why the hell can't Ubi Connect or AC:V itself report on it! All we need is a pop-up error box talking about Denuvo or Ubi w/ time clock syncs and suggesting users resync their OS clock or something! Not telling anyone for obfuscation is silly, especially if its printing very clear "DenuvoBrokeBecauseOfTimeSync" type strings in the log!

P.S. - Really curious to see if this issue happens on Linux (w/ Proton) as well; I've not tried AC:V on my main Linux drive as of yet after hearing about some of the bugs even in Windows
I've had zero crashes with it but I keep all of my home systems synced to my NAS, which is synced with time.cloudflare.com.
 
Gotta admit, Now that I getting into the story more I am enjoying it a little bit better. I feel the game is a little bit more rpgish to me that Odyssey.

Just got to England, and going to take a break......I will admit I think the graphics/art took a little bit of a step backwards, but imo I am a huge fan of Viking lore/history so having fun.
 
Gotta admit, Now that I getting into the story more I am enjoying it a little bit better. I feel the game is a little bit more rpgish to me that Odyssey.

Just got to England, and going to take a break......I will admit I think the graphics/art took a little bit of a step backwards, but imo I am a huge fan of Viking lore/history so having fun.
I only started enjoying it, when I decided to just ditch the gang, and avoid raiding entirely and go my own way doing regular quests. Raiding is awful and takes all the fun out of the game for me.
Unfortunately we still have level gates. They just call it "power" now. Again they think we are stupid or something? Just becausae you call it power instead of level, it's still the same thing.
I wandered into another region, and instantly all enemies are OP as hell. Of course the game says recommended power: 55. I'm on 20. Scaling is a bit less than in odyssey but it's still enough to prevent you from freely wandering the world, until you grind up to the necessary level.
 
I only started enjoying it, when I decided to just ditch the gang, and avoid raiding entirely and go my own way doing regular quests. Raiding is awful and takes all the fun out of the game for me.
Unfortunately we still have level gates. They just call it "power" now. Again they think we are stupid or something? Just becausae you call it power instead of level, it's still the same thing.
I wandered into another region, and instantly all enemies are OP as hell. Of course the game says recommended power: 55. I'm on 20. Scaling is a bit less than in odyssey but it's still enough to prevent you from freely wandering the world, until you grind up to the necessary level.
it's just a form of "pathing" aka invisible walls. Sure you can trudge off on the unbeaten path but the game is still a game.
 
I only started enjoying it, when I decided to just ditch the gang, and avoid raiding entirely and go my own way doing regular quests. Raiding is awful and takes all the fun out of the game for me.
Unfortunately we still have level gates. They just call it "power" now. Again they think we are stupid or something? Just becausae you call it power instead of level, it's still the same thing.
I wandered into another region, and instantly all enemies are OP as hell. Of course the game says recommended power: 55. I'm on 20. Scaling is a bit less than in odyssey but it's still enough to prevent you from freely wandering the world, until you grind up to the necessary level.

Is the gear still impossible to keep leveled up? The gear level vs enemy level vs character level system in Odyssey was so bad and broken. If they could keep the "power" of the weapons on par with your character progression that would at least be a step up...
 
love this game, its way too easy on anything but the hardest difficulty, gotta go with pathfinder, berserkr(hard) or Drengr(very hard) and master assassin for any type of challenge, I'm running it with Drengr and you really gotta pay attention in combat becaue I've been slaughtered left and right.
 
I feel like the combat is more...cludgier?...than Odyssey and Origins at least in the relative early goings. I'm soon for England. I understand he's a Viking, too. Anyone else feel that way? I have this at default difficulties for everything and I don't see myself turning any of that up.
 
Where the f is the yellow longboat? I've spent the last hour sailing up and down the river, and flying with the raven everywhere. But I'm not even sure where the hell am I supposed to look?!
 
love this game, its way too easy on anything but the hardest difficulty, gotta go with pathfinder, berserkr(hard) or Drengr(very hard) and master assassin for any type of challenge, I'm running it with Drengr and you really gotta pay attention in combat becaue I've been slaughtered left and right.
You can brag all you want, but stealth especially is 10 times more difficult in this even on normal. It's barely usable, enemies will spot you instantly. I've played about 7 hours and maybe 10 minutes of that was stealth gameplay. That's why I Don't like the game. I've spent 75% in stealth in odyssey, this game does not favor stealth at all.
 
Is the gear still impossible to keep leveled up? The gear level vs enemy level vs character level system in Odyssey was so bad and broken. If they could keep the "power" of the weapons on par with your character progression that would at least be a step up...
You have to upgrade gear still, which they made even more difficult now, as the gear has a "quality" which determines how much it can be upgraded. So some weapons must be taken to a blacksmith to increase their quality before they can be upgraded. So it's basically upgrade squared. TBH I totally forgot that I should upgrade my gear. But what'S even funnier is that 7 hours in I'm still using the same weapon I found in the first 20 minutes. As I have not found anything else since. As I've mentioned there is no loot in the game, which makes exploring locations utterly pointless.
 
You can brag all you want, but stealth especially is 10 times more difficult in this even on normal. It's barely usable, enemies will spot you instantly. I've played about 7 hours and maybe 10 minutes of that was stealth gameplay. That's why I Don't like the game. I've spent 75% in stealth in odyssey, this game does not favor stealth at all.
Huh thats kind of crazy, because as soon as I got to England i found that stealth combat was pretty good. Been mostly using it when I can.

And yeah I am still using....the special axe he records from said bad guy laugh. Upgraded it as much as I can so far.

Just curious what set did you settle on playing with? I went with the bear set for now.
 
Huh thats kind of crazy, because as soon as I got to England i found that stealth combat was pretty good. Been mostly using it when I can.

And yeah I am still using....the special axe he records from said bad guy laugh. Upgraded it as much as I can so far.

Just curious what set did you settle on playing with? I went with the bear set for now.

I would suggest its the player and not the game. He complained about Oddessy for pages when it was released.

Frankly they are fun, but very easy games since they departed from the heavy stealth and assasinate and run style of the earlier series.
 
I would suggest its the player and not the game. He complained about Oddessy for pages when it was released.

Frankly they are fun, but very easy games since they departed from the heavy stealth and assasinate and run style of the earlier series.
So do you also suggest I changed since odyssey? And no longer able to play the exact same game? No, the game has changed.
And I complained about Odyssey because I ran into a bug where the easiest combat difficulty was actually the same as the hardest, lest you forget. After I switched from easy to normal the game got much easier, curious, eh?
 
Huh thats kind of crazy, because as soon as I got to England i found that stealth combat was pretty good. Been mostly using it when I can.

And yeah I am still using....the special axe he records from said bad guy laugh. Upgraded it as much as I can so far.

Just curious what set did you settle on playing with? I went with the bear set for now.
You are forced to do raids, and there is no stealth during those and enemies spawn from thin air left and right. Even if you clear the camp / monastery beforehand solo, as soon as you start the raid dozens of new enemies appear out of nowhere. Which makes it pointless to clear the base in the first place.

Is there are any other than the bear set? I don't like the look of it very much so I''m not wearing the hood, IDK if that negates all set bonuses. But I don't care. It's not that the combat is hard, it's that it is more annoying than in odyssey, and doesn't feel fun. Of course the naysayers here will just say the game is perfect and the problem is with me. Sure. I'm also imagining all the AI bugs, and other things that are broken in the game as well.
 
I'm sure this is my fault too:
20201112221708.jpg
 
So do you also suggest I changed since odyssey? And no longer able to play the exact same game? No, the game has changed.
And I complained about Odyssey because I ran into a bug where the easiest combat difficulty was actually the same as the hardest, lest you forget. After I switched from easy to normal the game got much easier, curious, eh?

No, I suggest you are bad at games and your post history kinda backs that up.

Its ok to be bad, but to pretend that everyone has the same experience you do is laughable.

I played all three of the latest AC games on the hardest difficulty because frankly, they are too easy.
 
Is the gear still impossible to keep leveled up? The gear level vs enemy level vs character level system in Odyssey was so bad and broken. If they could keep the "power" of the weapons on par with your character progression that would at least be a step up...
It is quite easy to be over levelled. In Origins and Odyssey, enemies would have been twenty levels below me without scaling.
 
It is quite easy to be over levelled. In Origins and Odyssey, enemies would have been twenty levels below me without scaling.

While I understand a degree of scaling, most Ubi games are completely overcompensating for bad design with their level scaling.

What is the point on leveling up if it brings me no real value? Its just a bad gate in Ubi games.
 
You are forced to do raids, and there is no stealth during those and enemies spawn from thin air left and right. Even if you clear the camp / monastery beforehand solo, as soon as you start the raid dozens of new enemies appear out of nowhere. Which makes it pointless to clear the base in the first place.

Is there are any other than the bear set? I don't like the look of it very much so I''m not wearing the hood, IDK if that negates all set bonuses. But I don't care. It's not that the combat is hard, it's that it is more annoying than in odyssey, and doesn't feel fun. Of course the naysayers here will just say the game is perfect and the problem is with me. Sure. I'm also imagining all the AI bugs, and other things that are broken in the game as well.

I mean for the record, I dont think I ever heard of Vikings raiding a town/village while being stealthy? I mean I am ok with not being able to be stealthy in a raid...
 
I mean for the record, I dont think I ever heard of Vikings raiding a town/village while being stealthy? I mean I am ok with not being able to be stealthy in a raid...
couldn't stealth in the battles in oddessy either.
 
Back
Top