New World: Merge Day and Community Q&A

 New World is gaining momentum again. The server merges are scheduled for tomorrow, March 27th. Following that, the Season 5 update will be released next week on April 2nd. Additionally, the March community  Q&A update has been released.  Let's dive in!

 First, the server merge that is relevant to me.  US East/Castle of Steel is merging into Valhalla.  I am not deep into the server politics or war scene anymore so that aspect is irrelevant for me (though I am sure it will cause some grumpy faces for others).  What I like about merge days is the interruption to my daily routines.

 I have a consistent set of open world runs I like to go on.  I am not talking about elite chest runs; I am talking more about areas of the world I like to hit up and usually do so the same time every day.  With the merges I will get to see new faces and as I'm PvP flagged 90% of the time that means the fight may be on!

 Also with merge days comes the collision of trading posts.  In the past I'd have spent the better part of the week before merge scouring for deals to buy low and sell high post merge. This time around I am not putting that level of effort in but I do have stockpile of stuff ready for merge day.  I am also sitting on 300,000+ gold which is 200,000 short of the cap for gold so I can't generate too much wealth until the Season 5 update when gold cap updates to 1,000,000.

 The developers also took time away from Game Developers Conference (GDC) to give our March community Q&A.  

 I found this update to be refreshing and it restored some hope.  Nothing major was said but the team was more blunt in their responses which was helpful.  For example the team finally said "we are not working on adding daggers to the game" vs past statements that were wishy-washy such as "we think daggers are cool yadda yadda" which lead players to keep asking for updates on daggers.

 In that list of more definitive statements the team confirmed:

• Daggers, as noted, are not being worked on
• They are working on PvP updates for the game; more to come in the June announcement
• They are NOT talking about the June update at this time
• They are NOT working on a new OPR (outpost rush) map
• They are NOT working to change town buffs
• They are going to get rid of the perfect salvage pop up
• We will get cross server 3v3 arenas in 2024
• They believe they have a fix for the title spam on changing game modes for Season 5 (4/2)

 For me these answers were a breath of fresh air.  I liked the answers.  I continue to enjoy that the team confronts negative feedback and "stick to their guns" on topics.  I am frustrated like other players we have to wait for June for the next big info dump but at least they are confirming PvP is part of that update.  They seem excited about the big announcement so that gets me excited.

 This time next week we'll be playing Season 5 and fighting in the new combat code/animation system.  I am glad they chose 4/2 instead of 4/1 so we can all be spared the April Fools jokes should another delay occur.