Showing posts with label New World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New World. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2024

No New World expansion this year?

 Some keen Reddit faithful caught a developer quote in the New World Discord.  In the Discord message NW_Kay made a statement that there was no planned expansion for this year.  This is a very odd way to make a very big announcement during a time when New World is losing player interest.

An image of a discord message from NW_Kay

 We don't have a road map for 2024 and the next road map update was delayed until June "for something big".  If there is no expansion then what is "something big"?  As mentioned in my recent posts the assumption is that console is the "something big".   

 I am honestly losing my patience here.  I am the faithful defender of New World and the dev team.  I think there is a lot of negativity that is unwarranted about the game and the developers.  New World is a fun game even if it hasn't held player interest at a level I'd expect.  It's biggest downfall is just being unable to pump out content to match player pace of consuming that content.

 If the "something big" is just a console release that is going to break me.  That would be the dumbest thing to be hyping up if there is no major content expansion to come with it.  I really hope by "no expansion" they mean there won't be a paid expansion but we will get some major content updates this year.

 Also how on earth did NW_Kay get in a position to haphazardly drop a reply like this in Discord?  I never want to discourage developer interaction with the community but this isn't interaction... this is leadership level decisions being casually dropped in a community discord.  Why even touch this comment... the user wasn't even asking a freaking question.

 /sigh

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

New World New Low

 New World is hitting new lows in peak concurrent player counts.  The game that launched at 900,000+ peak concurrent users is now dipping to 6,000 with a peak just short of 15,000.  Here are some thoughts on what is going on.

 

An image of Steam charts for the game New World showing new low peak concurrent player counts
Low!

 I am writing this post a day after Season 4 was supposed to complete and Season 5 was supposed to launch, but as I posted previously that plan was delayed.  Also we still don't have the road map for 2024 and won't have it until June at the earliest. This is one of the drivers to the low numbers: there isn't anything new to do or to look forward to in the game.

 Content and the promise of new content continues to be king in the MMO genre and New World has slowed down in it's content creation and been unable to tell us whats next.  The most recent major content drop was the Rise of the Angry Earth back in October 2023 but it was more of an appetizer than an actual meal.  Most players moved through it within a week.  We got a new expedition with Season 4, but for many players there wasn't more than a couple hours of experience.  

 So Season 5 getting released will help right?  Not really from a content perspective.  Season 5 is bringing a new 10-man trial but that is going to be short form content. The Season pass itself  is not really content.  Some new artifacts will interest players, but are more reasons to do old content than new content.  There is nothing meaty in Season 5 to bring players back or for players to invest in.

 This doesn't mean the New World team isn't doing anything.  In Season 4 they launched cross-server expeditions with an improved group finder.  This is a key tech to ensure players can get into content more reliably; especially with the lower player population playing currently.

 Also with Season 5 they are launching a rewritten combat system which is a major overhaul to the combat code and offers a promise of better changes and faster bug fixes in the future.  This no doubt took a tremendous development effort and getting it right is a likely reason Season 5 has been delayed.

 Controller support is also part of Season 5 which is speculated as a precursor to June's road map update announcing a launch to consoles.  A console launch could also explain why not much other content has come out recently as the team is busy on the changes needed to support consoles. 

 There is a debate to have if a console release is about New World itself or about the underlying Azoth Engine and future games being console ready from day one. My honest opinion about a console launch is that it has to come with a massive content update. If all that the team brings forward is a console release of the current game it will affirm that the diversion to console support was about other games than New World.

 However, if we get a console launch + a big content expansion it will say a lot about New World's future.  I am hopeful this is where we are headed because personally I am finding myself playing New World less and less even though I really do enjoy the game. 

Friday, March 08, 2024

New World Woes

 New World Season 5 is delayed.  This announcement comes within shouting distance of the recent news that the game's next road map update is delayed from May to June.  "Woe is me" sighs the New World fan.

A picture of a disapointed PC gamer.
Sigh

 The Season 5 delay was not unexpected.  The update has a major change for the game as the dev team has re-written the entire combat engine in a new scripting language called slayer script.  The team has said this change will allow them to move faster and fix more issues.  

 This is a good change for the game and sends a good message that AGS is dedicated to the game's future.  However, this is also the sort of change that a game cannot recover from if it launches poorly.  This is a rewrite of the combat system which is the core experience that New World offers and what sets it apart from other games on the market.

 Having played on the PTR (public test realm) with the changes I can agree that a delay was needed.  The combat does feel like it is improved and there is a lengthy list of bugs they have fixed with the move to the slayer script.  It does seem like the team can move faster and fix more with the scripting change. There is a but coming though: the combat doesn't feel right yet on PTR.

 It is hard to put it into words.  For me the main issue is that melee combat still feels off in PvP.  Melee attacks still struggle to register a hit just like they do in the current system.  PvE seems fine, if not improved over all, as things feel snappier and cleaner in dense combat situations.  That doesn't seem to translate to PvP where something is just not there yet with the changes.  

 I do admit this could just be my thousands of hours of experience with the current live game compared to just a couple hours on PTR.  Regardless; I want to get my hands on PTR again with the next set of changes so I feel comfortable the release isn't going to give any more ammunition to the negative-Nancy crowd.

 New World has to get this update right.  In a perfect world the season wouldn't be tied to the update so that we could get the new 10-man trial and get working on the next season pass, but I get that is not reality.  I will be patient.

Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Player density in competitive modes and individual player impact

an image for a blog post about too many players in an online game mode
The zerg approaches!

 I've jumped back into Battlefield 2042 recently and it has me thinking about player density and the impact that I, as a single player, can have on a competitive match.  Battlefield games are known for their large match sizes (up to 128 players!) and big maps, but with that scale comes a loss of any single player's ability to impact the outcome.

 Before we get into the larger match sizes of Battlefield games let's look at some common team sizes across games.  The most common team size I can think of is 3.  New World's arenas are 3v3.  Apex Legends and The Finals are both 3-person squads.  After 3 is 5 (and 6).  Many games feature grouping sizes of 5 or 6, but not always in competitive modes (for example; New World groups are a size of 5 but there is no 5v5 mode). I think 3 hits a sweet spot where each player's contributions are maximized.

 While 3 may be the sweet spot it doesn't evoke any sort of feeling of being in a battle and many games are targeting giving players that sense of battle.  As the player count increases per team/side the player's ability to impact goes down.  

 Think about a Battlefield match with 128 players.  It is chaotic and tons of fun, but of those 100+ players how many are actually having a meaningful impact to the outcome?  Not many outside of maybe the elite helicopter pilot farming kills. Even with multiple points of conflict to fight over there is still likely a large number of players in any one area.

 Now look at a Battlefield match of 32 players with multiple points to defend/attack.  Spread out evenly that may be 4-8 players fighting over each point.  Losing one or two players is going to have an impact and it's more realistic to think that a single player could go Rambo and wipe out an entire team.  It also means the "elite helicopter pilot" is going to be that much more of a factor.

 In a game I am much more familiar with (3,000+ hours played and climbing) is New World.  There are a few modes we can zero in on: 3v3 arena, 20v20 outpost rush, and 50v50 war.

 I've spoke about team sizes of 3 earlier, but a common request I see in New World is for a 5v5 mode since the group size in New World is 5.  Personally 3v3 is the sweet spot.  While 3v3 can get bogged down due to healing/heavy tank builds that is not that common.  It is also possible for groups of 3 without a healer to compete.  If the arena was 5v5 there would be no way to go other than healer + clump strategies and the matches would boil down to which healer dies first.

 Jumping to the top end is war at 50v50.  Having played a fair number of wars and seen a fair number more via streamers I would argue there is a limited few individual players that have a major impact and almost always the "elite helicopter pilot" is the healer.  So I'd agree individual healers can have a massive impact on wars and thus anyone landing a kill shot on a healer has an impact, but otherwise war doesn't offer a lot for individuals to sway.

 This takes us back to 20v20 outpost rush (OPR) and where I feel the ceiling is for individual contribution. In OPR there are multiple objectives which change over the course of a match.  There are also activities that individual players can partake in that, when done well, can contribute to a team winning.

 As a quick aside here, as I am noting with OPR, a lot of what a player's contribution comes down to is the design of the game mode.  As we'll see breaking players up into various objectives decreases the population in any specific spot.  However, this has an eventual breaking point where if player numbers are higher it doesn't matter how many objectives there is because humans tend to always favor wanting unbalanced conflict and so you end up with "zergs" of players rolling over each objective.

 In OPR the 20 players per team + three main outposts to fight over with side events such as the baron fight results in a good mix of players across the match.  No part of the match is really 20 v 20; it is a of 3-5 player fights.  Within those smaller fights individual players can sway the match.  A single player can hold off a team trying to sneak behind and take a backline outpost.  A single player can gather supplies and show up in time to build doors on an outpost.

 In summary: too many players is too many players no matter the design.  Limiting player and providing divided objectives breaks up the action into a size where individuals have impact and when combined those impacts have an effect on the over all game mode.  It feels like the 16-20 player-per-side range is where that sweet spot is hit in my experience.

Monday, March 04, 2024

New World New Drip

 To go with my Frigid Inferno (heavy fire staff / sword and shield) build I updated my transmog in New World.  I wanted to lean into the Frigid Dawn armor set and ice theme.

A screenshot from the MMORPG New World showing my transmog armor and weapon skins focused on Frigid Dawn armor set.
Stone cold.

  All of the armor pieces are the Frigid Dawn base skin except for the chest which I kept as the Arisen Commander skin with a silver blue dye to blend in the colors.  The firestaff skin is Sizzling Snow (which you can get via crafting one of the event patterns (1, 2, 3) if the patterns are available on your server's trading post).

 Not shown, but similiar to the firestaff the shield skin is Frigid Bulwark from the winter event patterns. The only other change I've thought about is making the sword have the Iceburst skin.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

New World: Season 5 Artifact Changes

 New World has an update on the public test realm (PTR) for the new artifacts coming in Season 5 (March 2024).  The biggest change is to Phoenix (the new amulet artifact).  The changes are covered in the following YouTube video from TrickTrick.

 As noted the big change is to Phoenix.  The initial version had a perk that was a copy of the original Defy Death ability for Hatchet.... which was long ago nerfed out of existence in the game. As expected there was an uproar in the community that it would be coming back on an amulet that anyone could use.  Fortunately the developers changed how it will work with Phoenix.  The new PTR wording is below:

Phoenix Vengeance: When you receive lethal damage, avoid death and become invulnerable for 4s, after which you die. (180s cooldown).

 The last part is the key: the player will die no after the four seconds expires giving them a last hurrah before taking their dirt nap! However, as noted in the video there is a way on PTR using Ice Gauntlet's Entombed ability for a player to avoid the "die" portion.  That has to be fixed or this is going to be abused.  Even with that oversight fixed this is still going to be strong; especially for those players that love diving into piles knowing they are going to die anyways and just want to take a few folks down with them.

 The spear artifact Venom was changed to only trigger on heavy melee attacks from the other equipped weapon.  Previously it included ranged attacks so, as an example, bow heavy attacks triggered Venom.  Ranged weapons are already very strong in the game and this would of made them even stronger.  This is a good change.

 The third artifact changed was the Tempest Fury Great Axe where Keen Speed was replaced with Refreshing Move.  This was a sensible change since the weapon already has a ton of speed boost built into it and didn't need anything extra.  Refreshing Move is a sought after perk on Great Axes for bruiser builds in war and as called out in the video by TrickTrick this will likely see some action in wars.  Personally I am going to try a "spin to win" build with the Fortifying Whirlwind aspect.

Friday, February 16, 2024

Back to Back First Place in Outpost Rush

 Crushed a couple Outpost Rush matches back to back in New World landing first place both times and walking away with wins in very competitive matches (as opposed to getting rolled or doing the rolling).

new world opr
W: 1000 to 741 / 13 kills, 43 assists, 3 deaths

new world opr
W: 1000 to 911 (close!) / 6 kills, 55 assists, 2 deaths


Thursday, February 15, 2024

New World PTR Patch Notes: Season of the Guardian

excited for patch notes
Patch notes!  The best kind of present!
 

 For Valentine's Day we received the patch notes for the upcoming public test realm (PTR) updates for New World's Season of the Guardian update! Lots of exciting changes here so let's read through the finer details.

 First; I had a prior post going over the bigger topics so don't want to rehash them here.  You can read that here: Exciting Changes Coming to New World.  That post covers the new 10 man trial, the new artifacts, controller support, main story redesign, cooking overhaul, and magnify changes.  For this post I'll key into other notes.

 The big one of course relates to fort doors in Outpost Rush (OPR); currently the true invincible end boss of the PvP game mode!  

We are implementing the following changes to address ongoing feedback regarding OPR gate strength, while still being mindful of PvE players who prefer focusing on building up fort structures. We will continue to monitor feedback on this topic and consider further changes as necessary.
  • Added a 50% weakness for Siege damage to fort gate doors, allowing siege weaponry (e.g., powder kegs) to deal bonus damage to these structures.

  • Reduced the Strike/Slash absorption of fort gate doors from 10% Strike/20% Slash to 0% for both, ensuring that Strike and Slash damage types are not reduced when attacking gates. We aim for melee to have a bit of an advantage on the gates, as Thrust/Elemental damage is more prevalent in ranged weapons than melee.
  • Increased build and repair time for fort gate doors by 25% for the T2 gate and 50% for the T3 gate, reducing the strength of each repair tick.

 This change should make doors less invincible and more of a speedbump as they should be.  The change is looking to strike a balance between attacker and defender which is good.

 More changes are coming to equip loads.  The notes:

Equip Load Changes
  • Medium equip load is now the baseline, with damage, crowd control durations, outgoing healing, and block stability values adjusted to 0 across the board.
  •  Heavy equip load: has a 20% decrease to incoming CC status effect durations and +15% block stability. Trade-offs of -15% damage and -30% outgoing healing. Also has increased threat generation from taunting gems and perks to account for the decrease in damage output.
  • Light equip load: has +15% damage and +30% outgoing healing. Trade-offs of -15% block stability and +10% incoming CC status effect durations.

Comments:

Medium: good change.  Medium lacked an identity and while "default" isn't sexy it is at least something.

Heavy: this feels like a damage nerf but I need the experts to break this down for me on what it really means.  The rest seems fine and I am trying to figure out if this means the 55 stamina dodge is gone in favor of 50 stamina dodge again.

Light: similar to heavy; this feels like a damage nerf but need experts to weigh in.  I don't like that the healing boost is so much in light.  Feel sorry for healers being boxed into light so aggressively.

 Another small change I caught in the notes: "Players now have limited rotation while dodging forwards or backwards."  I believe this is related to players being able to pull of some very fancy dodges that are frankly annoying because they defy the logic of the characters current position vs where they can get to with the dodge.  Maybe this will correct that.

 Yay! "Increased the total number of active artifact quests a player can have simultaneously in progress from 5 to 10."

 Boo! My heavy flamethrower build keeps getting beat up! "Ensured mana regen does not occur while Flamethrower is active"

 It's the little things that matter (and now count!): "Killing small prey with a mount now progresses quest objectives and awards XP."

 Also hiding in the notes was an extensive section on changes to PvP ranks and rewards from the track.  Over all the rewards will be better the higher rank you are including higher gearscore of armor/weapon rewards.  Proof will be in the pudding and I feel sorry for lower rank players who will still be getting basically worthless gear rewards since lower ranks will have lower gearscore rewards.  For those of us at Rank 200 this should be a good change.

 The magnify changes are also written out so it is good to read that you can choose between how it works today and the new model where you pick the attribute.  Somewhat confirms we can still use magnify to split stats if you do it correctly (for example  I can get 300/300 with my current build which has 7 magnify pieces).  Exact wording below:

Adjusted how Magnify functions. Magnify now has a drop down on the attribute screen, and players are able to pick between Highest Stat (current functionality) or any of the other core attributes. If picking a core attribute like Strength, all of your magnify points will convert to Strength.
 Next, and maybe I am just hopeful for the future, there is mention of a seal extractor.  I am hoping this lays the ground work for other types of extractors to get valuable resources out of our gear.

Added Seal Extractors to the Faction Shops, allowing adventurers to remove custom attribute seals from their faction armor and revert its attribute back to Constitution.

 And last but not least: "Increased player wallet coin cap from 500,000 to 1,000,000."  Now if I could only get more than 500k gold :(

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

New World Year of the Dragon Event

 New World's mini event, Year of the Dragon, has been active for a bit.  It is a light weight event with light weight rewards to go with it. 

new world year of the dragon
Burning down the Year of the Dragon with my flamethrower!

 The good thing about the event is it is quick to participate in each day.  The bad thing about the event is that there is no challenge to it; even if you are doing the world event solo.  I don't mind that there is easy content, but this is too easy.  A little more challenge would have been welcome.

 As far as rewards AGS continues to trend of event rewards being 675 GS which effectively makes them worthless as 675+ GS gear is easy to come by.  The skins are not even all that special so there isn't a transmog driver.

 The event does introduce a new consumable, the Spicy Hotpot, that grants bonus faction token gain for an hour.  You can only get one per day so it is a premium consumable and lots of folks are willing to pay a good price for yours if you are open to selling (I sold mine the first day for 1500; now averaging about 800 per day).

 Over all a forgettable event but one I don't mind hitting daily for the minimal rewards.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Exciting Changes Coming to New World

 We don't have the 2024 road map from the New World developers, but we did get news on some other exciting changes coming over the next few months.  The team has rewritten the code for the combat engine, are launching a new 10-man trial, and are bringing back some seasonal events.  Watch the update below and read on for my thoughts.

Too long/didn't watch summary on Reddit: LINK 

 First, the roadmap update has been pushed out to June.  It sounded like something "major" internally is causing the delay.  With controller support coming soon there is a lot of assumptions about a console release and a big update to go with it.

 A new 10-man trial was announced.  It was specifically mentioned to be targeted at pick up groups so difficulty level is expected to be "easy".  I feel this is a miss. There is no shortage of "easy" content in this game (Mutation level 3 and the Sandwurm 20-man raid being the only real challenging content).  The game needs new harder content and the 10-man trial could have been that (or at least bring a mutator system to it).

new world phoenix artifact
Phoenix? Broken?
 We will also get a slew of new artifacts.  The one causing alarm is Phoenix; an amulet that grants a two second invulnerability period upon reaching zero life.  This is the same as the original "defy death" on the hatchet which was too strong and nerfed so I am not sure how the team thinks adding it back on an amulet makes sense.  I foresee a lot of complaints if this makes it live as shown in the video (screenshot at right).

 As alluded to up front controller support is coming with this update.  I do own a Steam controller but not sure I will be interested in giving it a try.  The little bit they showed off did not seem like it'd be much fun to have to use (they showed a cursor being moved around by controller like it was a mouse instead of a more controller native interface where you press left/right/up/down to move through items).  It will also bring "aim assist" and "target lock on" which was stated as PvE only.  This is  concerning if in any way it makes it into PvP.

 The main story quest redesign for 1-60 will now be complete.  Personally, as I've shared before, I think this was a waste of time.  I don't like the new narrative as it dramatically differs from the original concept of New World.  Instead of mysterious island in the age of discovery we have morphed into King Arthur and rehashed fantasy. 

 Cooking is getting an overhaul.  I am looking forward to this as most of the cooking recipes are pointless.  Consolidation and simplification of recipes will go a long way to improving the profession.  I am also hopeful recipes will use a wider range of ingredients vs some of the most useful recipes being very strict on ingredients (and thus one ingredient is disproportionately more valuable than others of the same tier/effort to gather).

 Mounts will be allowed in Outpost Rush.  Finally.

 Most exciting in the news is the combat engine overhaul.  This is not a change to skills or balancing, but a code rewrite.  The developers noted that this will allow them to better isolate and troubleshoot problematic areas like desync where the server and client don't match up to what a player sees.  The revamp should also give better performance over all, but it was noted it may take a couple releases to realize that improvement.  I suspect this took a massive effort on the developers part so I am keen to see what this does and while not targeting balance it likely will influence build choices that may have performed poorly before but now are more reliable to play.

 Another exciting change was related to Magnify.  Players will now be able to determine the attribute it applies to.  This will make it easier to use pieces with Magnify.  While not ideal in my view the reality is that Magnify was everywhere and needed a better way to manage it.  Personally I've felt they should dial magnify way back to only few items; had they done this then the current system would of been fine.  I am also worried this new approach will eliminate "tricking" Magnify to split across two attributes which is the cornerstone of my current build.

 We are also getting repeat events.  Rabbit's Revenge where we kill lots and lots of rabbits.  Then Springtime Bloom returns. 

 All of this is expected during Season 5 which will kick off on March 12th (TBD exact changes we get on that patch vs later patches).

 

 

New World Mutations Updated 2/13/2024

 Just a note to mention I've updated the current mutations (mutated expeditions) in New World on my tracking page: Current New World Mutations

 

current new world mutations

Thursday, February 08, 2024

New World: Frigid Inferno Build (Heavy FS/SnS Flamethrower) Season 4

 With the 4.0.4 patch in New World the Frigid Dawn armor became craftable in the gypsum kiln and I was able to finish out the gear set I've been wanting to try for a while with my heavy armor firestaff + sword and shield (FS/SnS) build.

 New World Buddy Link: Click Here

 Build summary: high defense with high damage (relative to heavy armor builds) focused on the use of Flamethrower to pressure opponents.  High CON combined with lifesteal, improved potion healing, and fortify.

 How I play it:

 PvE: flamethrower on.  Repeat.  It's that simple.

 PvP: the key to success with the build is understanding how your opponent feels pressure.  Stacking up 5x burn stacks + landing a big fireball at point blank range can make folks panic.  Burn out and leaping strike let's you close in for the kills.  However, getting to the point where you can stack that pressure takes some practice.  

 This build is not going to net a ton of solo 1v1 kills unless you have a stubborn opponent that sticks around.  This build however will win a surprising number of 1vX situations because enemies often have a level of comfort in having you outnumbered but flamethrower and fireball let you hit multiple targets.  I've had multiple fights in Outpost Rush (OPR) where it started 1v1 and I could not close the kill out only to have it turn into a 1v2 and get both kills because players stop trying to run away until its too late.

 However, solo is not where this build shines.  It works best in group play; whether just 3v3 or in war or OPR.  The best strategy is to follow close behind other heavy players; especially those that lay down a lot of crowd control, stuns, or disruption.  You don't want to be directly in the clumps but just on the edge flamethrowing in.

 Another strength of this build due to it's defense and high health pool is pushing through frontlines into backlines.  In OPR fights emerge on the roads often and can stalemate if no one pushes the other sides backline.  Unlike light ranged builds that tend to skirt the sides to get at the backline the heavy flamethrower can burn out through the frontline right into the backline.  This will end in death if your team doesn't follow but many times the initial burn out damage is enough to get backline players to scatter like cock roaches.

 With firestaff remember that Inferno does extra damage up close so while its enticing to lob that fireball at a distance to start a fight it is much better to save that fireball to get a quick burst of damage up close.  Many of my kills come from turning off flamethrower and sticking a fireball in their face.  Fireball is also great for getting folks running away at low health. 

 Since we have lifesteal and divine to improve it you can "race" other flamethrowers.  Heavy, medium, and light flamethrowers are all over the place and nothing is more satisfying than winning that race.  Flamethrower enjoyers are a stubborn lot; we always assume we're going to win the flame race.

 Don't underestimate the sword either.  A well timed leaping strike can change a fight or get you out of a sticky situation; just keep in mind it will track to the nearest enemy and not always just leap where you expect it to.  Leading off with a shield rush and three light attacks can stack debuffs in your opponent before pulling out the flamethrower.  A rended target from the light attack chain can be cleaned up quick with a big ole' fireball and some flamethrower action.

 The bane of the build is anything that has multiple interrupts.  If you can't keep flamethrower going you are at a disadvantage.  In group combat you have to be aware of disrupt builds which will shut you down. If you are expecting to get disrupted make sure to end flamethrower so you don't get interrupted with it active and suffer the cooldown.  You can end flamethrower by dodging or other actions and then turn it back on.  It takes practice; the transition to on/off with flamethrower is not as smooth as other abilities in the game.

 Attributes: 300 INT / 300 CON - due to so many magnify pieces this is the only stat split possible.

 Gear (see screenshot for full details)

  • Armor
    • Void Darkplate chest (artifact)
    • Frigid Dawn for head, legs, hands, and feet
    • Key armor perks
      • Critical Retribution
      • Accelerating Flamethrower
      • Fortifying Burnout
  • Weapons
    • Inferno (firestaff artifact)
      • Upgraded perk is Flame Attunement; may try a full Lifesteal build in the future with leeching on it
    • Sword / Shield
      • Empowering leaping strike
      • Ruby conversion gem (otherwise damage is super low)
      • CON or INT depending on other pieces
  • Jewelry
    • Amulet perks: Divine and Health are key
      • I opt for Fortified to maximize fortify duration from the rest of the build.  Fortify goes a long way in this game.
    • Ring perks: Fire damage
      • The rest is open to your playstyle; I prefer the leeching for the extra health back.  Invigorated Punishment I am not sold on but I spent A LOT of gold on this ring so I'm using it!
    • Earring: Endless Thirst (artifact) with Regenerating upgrade
 

Embedded build from NW Buddy



Wednesday, February 07, 2024

New World Frigid Dawn CRAFTING!

 Hallelujah! Frigid Dawn armor is now craftable in the Gypsum Kiln in New World as of the 4.0.4 patch today (2/7/2024)!  It costs 3500 dense mutator materia per piece.  Enjoy!

frigid dawn crafting new world
There it is!


Tuesday, January 23, 2024

New World Cooking Changes? +Bonus Q&A!

 New World's 4.0.3 patch is coming tonight.  Check out the notes here and watch the breakdown video below.  Jump past that for some comments and wild speculation about cooking changes!

 This is a relatively small patch with various bug fixes, but hiding in the notes was a mention about future cooking tradeskill changes!

Legendary Fish

    To set the groundwork for Cooking Trade Skill changes coming next season, Legendary Fish will now require a higher Luck stat to catch.

 Let's speculate wildly!

 So what could be changing with cooking trade skills?  My initial guess would be removing some of the legendary fish from recipes that are needed for common consumables.  It was always a bit crazy that certain attribute foods required legendary fish while others required rabbit meat which is far more plentiful.

 That level of change is boring though so lets speculate further!  I'd love to see New World move into a model where buff food had a much longer duration and thus required more investment in terms of resources to craft the meals.  Or allow us to slot stacks of food that get auto consumed so we dont have to think about it when one wears out; it just keeps consuming until it's empty.  Thus they could be tied to gear sets easier and give more value to gear sets!

 One thing I'd also steal from Guild Wars 2 is "feasts" where a single player an set up a "feast" that other players can interact with to get a buff.  I'd prefer it be part of the housing system so folks have to enter a house and interact with something to get the buff.  This would help avoiding more spam in crowded towns and give additional value to housing which is underutilized.

 Another cooking change I'd love to see is getting rid of crafting skill foods.  It is dumb that you need to consume something that will last for an hour+ when you are crafting for just a few minutes at most even if you are doing large crafting requests.

 Interested to see where this goes!

 Wrapping up there was also a bonus community Q&A in the notes regarding server merges.  Summarized: we listened when you asked us not to merge, but still need to do some merges.  In the future we'll do less merges because we'll have more cross-server activities.  Which I agree with.  Enough said.

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

New World Economy Update Q1 2024

 The New World team gave their quarterly economy update for the game and addressed concerns from the community as well as provided insight on how they arrived at their last update.  Watch below and scroll down for my thoughts!

 The team did a good job covering what they look for in the economy and this time brought charts to go with it.  In the last economy update there was more talk than visuals and the first video was shot well before it went live so the economy had shifted a good bit and thus felt like the developers knew what they were talking about.  Most of those concerns are gone for this video; it was up to date to the current state and again brought visual aids.

 The main core of the economy discussion was focused on the fluctuation of the economy between "sink" (more gold going out) and "faucet" (more gold coming in).  This of course is a discussion as old as time within MMORPGs.  The term "gold sink" entered the gamer lexicon to describe ways for developers to remove in-game currency from games. It is refreshing to see a developer actually show where a game is at in regards to sinks and faucets.

 The ideal state, one would think, would be to be right in-between a sink and a faucet where as much gold that comes into the economy goes right back out.  However, that is not realistic.  Players come and go with online games and thus their liquid currency sits in stasis for when they come back.  It was not clear from the New World video if they account of inactive players in the "sink".

 Also an economy at equilibrium is... well... boring.  Fluctuations between times where the economy is flush with currency and times when currency is hard to come by creates opportunity for those of us that like to "play the market".  It also drives in game behavior and the types of content players engage in.

 To me its less about where the economy is at and more that the developers are reacting to it and that is what this update cemented for me: AGS uses the economy and data behind it in making decisions.  We can debate if they are the right changes or if the changes are released in a timely fashion, but the important piece is the economy is a driving factor for the team.  For me that is a win.

Friday, January 12, 2024

Nice People Do Exist on the Internet!

 Just sharing this nice comment I got after helping someone out with Firestaff questions for New World on Reddit.  While lots of folks just use Reddit or other platforms to complain about games every once and a while one person helps another out and shares some knowledge.  While I may not have a heart; I am always willing to share with others in the games I am playing!

reddit comment
Reddit username blurred as they sent this via private chat message


Thursday, January 11, 2024

Day 1 Rewards from Legacy of Crassus

 To go with my last post about the Legacy of Crassus event in New World here is what I netted in my first three runs on day one of the event.  

 I was caught a little off guard getting Wrath of Decimus multiple times, but I'm not going to complain having two copies of an awesome great axe since I can upgrade and change the 3rd perk on each for different builds.

 I was also surprised by the perk mods as I had overlooked them as rewards.  While not the rarest perk mods these were still in demand perk mods which are nice to drop in storage for future use.

new world legacy of crassus rewards

new world legacy of crassus rewards

new world legacy of crassus rewards


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

New World: Legacy of Crassus 2024

legacy of crassus

 

 The Legacy of Crassus event is back in New World starting today so I wanted to break down how players should approach the event and rewards to shoot for.

 First let's go over the daily limits:

  • The first 3 kills each day net unique event bonus rewards
    • Event armor and weapons (3 per day)
    • 15x Dark matter (45 per day)
    • 1 Obsidian Gypsum (3 per day)
  • Note: All unique bonus event rewards can be earned after 12 kills (so 4 days, 3 kills per day)

 To go with the limited bonus daily rewards each kill will also net random armor/weapon drops including a low chance at Brimstone Sands named items along with consumables such as health potions.

 The dark matter alone makes completing the event 3x a day worth it so I'd at minimum go for that.  The random item rewards should also net a few extra dark matter from salvaging.

 As far as weapon/armor rewards of particular interest there isn't too much (at least from my view).  The main reward I am going for is the Wrath of Damicus great axe.  The axe comes with Thwarting Strikes and Enfeebling Maelstrom and a random third perk.  Per NWDB it can be upgraded to 700 GS and the third perk can be changed.  This makes it an ideal great axe!

 To a lesser degree there may be some value in the Vesuvius fire staff for PvE.  Lots of folks sleep on the Mortal Refreshment perk but combining this staff with Refreshing Pillar of Fire on your armor (since the staff has a weapon perk already) can result in a machine gun of pillars coming out in PvE clump fights.  So niche use in PvE for anyone interested.

 Lastly, as a housing items hoarder, the cyclops statues look sweet!  Good luck in the event y'all!

NW_LegacyOfCrassus_HousingItems_Rewards_1920x1080_Final_CT-003096.jpg


Saturday, December 30, 2023

What Disappointed Me In 2023

 I can confirm that 2023 was a year and with it came some disappointments.

Starfield (game)

starfield
 Starfield is ending the year with "mostly negative" reviews on Steam and it 100% deserves them.  This loading screen infested mess of nothingness is an embarrassment to gaming.  I was so hyped when the original trailers came out, but they were misleading to the extreme.  The game in the trailer is not the game we got.

 With that said the game we got is what we should probably have expected. It is the same game engine behind their other games, like Skyrim, and performs exactly the same.  The challenge with Starfield is it's not a single terrestrial world and thus ends up with far more loading screens to get players between planets, ships, space, buildings, etc.

 Add onto the loading screens a combat system that is lackluster, a story that is nonsensical, and a myriad of systems that never make sense when brought together and you have the biggest gaming disappointment of 2023 and possibly the last decade.  How this game sold 10+ million copies is beyond me.  Had I not gotten my copy with my new graphics card purchase I'd of hit refund on Steam within the first hour. 

rebel moon movie poster
Rebel Moon (movie)

 If you told me Rebel Moon was a movie about Starfield I would believe it.  Story that makes no sense? Check. Every cliche under the sun (ha!)? Check. This movie doesn't deserve the words I've typed let alone more words.  Such a disappointment.  Do better Netflix.

New World (live service game)

 Some may find this surprising considering 91% of my game time this year has been spent playing New
World, but I can't help but admit that the end of year really soured my mood on the game.  We did get the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion which did bring amazing features like mounts, but it was very lacking in content.  The five extra levels (cap raised from 60 to 65) were laughable as far as effort-required and the new story + zone lasted all of an hour.  I hate to admit it but that was NOT enough to be worthy of the title "expansion".  I'd rather have had this delivered as a seasonal update.

new world

 The lacking expansion would have been fine as it was coming right before a big set of new features that were listed on the road map.  Then the road map was updated -- and this is why New World is on my disappointment's list -- they literally canceled the majority of the road map and delivered almost nothing.  Instead of the expansion being a launching pad into the future it was a speed bump that most players were done with the first week it came out.  I am still a huge New World fan but find myself less interested each update.  

 To cap it off we did not get a 2024 road map yet and instead have been asked to come back in May for "something big" which is mind boggling considering the number of items that were good enough to put on a road map before and are now many don't even sound like they are being considered.  How does that happen?  I can get a one off feature being dropped but the majority!?  What the heck.

Green Bay Packers Defense (supposedly a football team)

 What can I say.  We entered the year worried about whether Jordan Love was the future QB of the Packers.  Little did we know the age-old Green Bay Packers "worst defense in the league.... again" was the real worry.  If we make the play offs... it will be a miracle.

 

Monday, December 11, 2023

You owe it to yourself to watch this New World update video!

 This is hands down the best holiday event video I've ever seen for an MMORPG.  As one commenter on Reddit put it "not the update we wanted but the update we deserved"!  My hat off to the New World team putting this together!