New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 4: Greatsword)

 For my other impressions of Brimstone Sands

• Part 1: Quests 
• Part 2: The Ennead Expedition 
• Part 3: Heartrunes and Runeglass Gems

Part 4: Greatsword - read on!

  With the Brimstone Sands update the New World developers brought to the game the quintessential fantasy MMORPG weapon: big honking swords (aka greatswords).  Players can now slap overly large swords over the top of their ridiculously large great axes and warhammers to complete that anime-but-if-anime-was-in-colonial-times look.  A bit snarky, but the swords are massive and I am here with some thoughts.

 First a note on the image included.  This is one of my all time favorite fantasy images.  Not only because of the honking big sword but also the entire outfit comes together in a "don't try me bro" way.  I used this image as the base for my guild recruiting poster back in the Warhammer Online days ("ask not what your guild can do for you but what you can do for your guild").  Needless to say; I'm a fan of big swords.

 But I cannot tell a lie.  I have not actually played with the greatsword myself so this impressions post will be entirely from the perspective of a player getting repeatedly wrecked by them in PvP.  Spoiler: a new weapon released in New World is stronger than others!

 The weapon as I understand it is broken into a stance mechanic whereby players activate and stay in a stance based on skills used.  Stances bring innate advantages and boil down to a defensive or offensive stance.  This is a unique weapon compared to others in the game and the stance mechanism is allowing it to fit into multiple play styles.  In fact I'd say it has hit the trifecta: great with light armor rollie pollies, great for medium armor bruisers, and great as a tanking weapon for heavy armor.  

 Regardless of stance; one thing the greatsword has going for it is mobility with players leaping and slashing their way to their opponents.  It seems whether you play the offensive side or defensive side there is a focus on mobility with the weapon.  

 Another unique aspect of the weapon is it scales equally off strength or dexterity where as most weapons have a primary stat they scale off of and a secondary.  This equal split approach for the greatsword means players can get a lot out of both the dex and str attributes and weapons that pair with either.  This is why I think we are seeing it paired up with everything from bow to heavy sword/shield tanks.

 As far as my experience playing against the greatswords?  I have definitely learned I need to stay and fight greatswords which unfortunately is not a great proposition for a heavy armor player such as myself.  My damage is too low to get through their defensive stance and their damage is so high on offense that it shreds right through the heavy armor I wear.  I have also seen the medium greatsword/great axe bruisers dominate in 1vX situations in PvP arenas and Outpost Rush.

 Speaking of heavy armor and greatsword there are some "turtle" builds popping up that make tanks look nigh unkillable.  The defensive side of the greatsword offers a ton of versatility for the defensive tank player so makes a perfect compliment to sword/shield.  At the same time it also brings the mobility and scaling off STR so feels like a perfect match.  I may have to swap it for my warhammer in my heavy frontline tank build...

 As can be guessed so far by my comments the greatsword is in its honeymoon phase and is every where.  I think this is a good sign for future weapon designs that a new weapon can function across the spectrum but it does create a gap with the existing weapons that don't enjoy this sort of flexibility.  Time will tell.

 What are your thoughts?

 

New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 3: Heartrunes and Runeglass Gems)

 For my other impressions of Brimstone Sands

• Part 1: Quests 
• Part 2: The Ennead Expedition

Part 3: Heartrunes and Runeglass Gems - read on!

 Heartrune? Heartgem? Runegem? Runeglass?  Apologies if you are confused as the names of the new heartrunes and runeglass gems sound similar and changed names during the testing period.  The Brimstone Sands update for New World brought some new toys to the end game.  Here are some thoughts on each.

 First we have the heartrunes (aka heart gems).  These runes grant players an extra ability to use alongside their weapon abilities which means a player has a fourth active ability at any given time.  They can be thought of as an ultimate ability as there is a charge up period before the rune can be used.  They are a neat concept and bring an extra layer of diversity to players without giving a strict power increase.

 Heartrunes can also be upgraded to give them perks for different effects (more damage, slow enemies, etc).  It is not readily apparent in game they can be upgraded but like many end game activities in MMORPGs the information is available on external websites.  The upgrades do require players to first acquire the minor version of the heartrune which are currently all part of expeditions; either dropped from the last boss or crafted via materia.  

 The materia crafting cost, 8,000 per minor rune, is pretty dumb as 99.9% of players will unlock it via completing the expedition long before they ever get to 8,000 materia.  I have no idea where they came up with this number for crafting from materia so I hope it changes otherwise the recipe should not exist.

 Another issue I find with the upgrade process is the materials required for each are all over the board in what they require; with some requiring a new "writ of adventure" which you get from faction vendor (20,000 freaking tokens) or Brimstone Sands quests.   As far as I can tell these writs only go into those five specific rune upgrades.  I am not sure we needed yet another legendary crafting component; especially one that costs that freaking much.

 The legendary upgraded versions of the runes bring a lot of variety and I can see using multiple different ones on my different builds.  There is a stoneform for defensive builds, vining to slow players down, and any number of buff/debuff in between.  There is also the standard "do damage" runes which is a bit unfortunate as I'd of hoped the runes would stick to utility and not just adding a damage ability.

 I do have a concern that the detonate (big bomb damage) is the "go to" for your average player.  I can see where the developers maybe wanted it to help break up clumps in modes like war, but while detonate is a great clump buster it is also just an extra damage spike tool that favors light armor DPS rolling all over the place killing things.  Especially with the brutal upgrade where you get higher damage but take more damage while charging; which means light dodge is basically required so you can dodge into your target right as it explodes.  

 So far in Outpost Rush it very much seems like detonate is the go to.  I have died more to it than any single skill I can remember.  The animation is also terrible in groups; you have no realistic idea if its your teams or the enemy teams detonate and if you are detonating its difficult to see if your opponent also starts a detonate.  Ideally detonate would result in your own death (i.e. you are blowing yourself up), but its just another big damage spike ability.  Sigh.

 Enough about heartrunes.  The other toy added was runeglass gems.  These new gems are used to slot into equipment the same as regular gems but bring small advantages over the regular gems.  For example; punishing runeglass brings extra damage to any gem type.  The advantages are small enough that it's not game breaking even when stacked on all gear.  

 The only downside is the runeglass cases are super expensive to craft and thus won't make much sense on PvE gear that requires constant gem changes for mutations.  They will also make top end PvP gear that much more expensive exasperating the problem of best-in-slot PvP gear being too expensive and limited to the big companies with the big gold piles.

 Some ideal changes for runeglass gems would be letting you take them out of gear so you can use them again or maybe you can slot regular gems over the top of them and swap back to the runeglass later; this way the runeglass is more permanent while regular remains dispensable.  Also maybe dial back the crafting requirements and/or make the unique materials available in more than just Brimstone Sands.  I already dread that I am going to be putting a 30,000 gold gem in my 15,000 gold weapon or 5,000 gold armor.

 Heartrunes and runeglass gems bring something for players to invest time and energy into and while offering some power creep to the "haves" vs the "have nots" it is not enough to break the game.  This is a good move in the direction of horizontal progression instead of strict vertical progression.  With a few tweaks to be friendlier to players they will offer a lot of options.  Without changes they will be longer term goals for many players.  Either way I like both and think they are a good addition to the end game.

 What are your thoughts?  Share a comment or two.

New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 2: The Ennead Expedition)

For my other impressions of Brimstone Sands

• Part 1: Quests   

Part 2: The Ennead Expedition - read on!

 With Brimstone Sands comes the new The Ennead Expedition and with it, in my opinion, the most challenging mechanical boss fight in the game.  The rest of the expedition is great as well and it doesn't overstay its welcome (...unless you struggle with the mechanically challenging boss fight).  Here are my thoughts as a 620+ gear score tank taking on the regular version.

 The Ennead is themed as an ancient pyramid and features a number of the new enemy types from the Brimstone Sands zone.  While not as visually stunning as Tempest Heart it is still a good looking expedition.  There is a mix of corruption along with the ancient theme and lasers, lots and lots of lasers!  Slight spoiler, but at the end of the expedition there is a neat little console you can activate for a quest line that calls in the trademark upside down pyramid top that is heavily featured in the Brimstone Sands area.

 As far as fights go there is not a ton of trash to work through.  There is one part that is maze-lite but nothing too challenging to work through.  There are floating guards that go through the expedition laser zapping anyone that stands in their sphere of influence. The guards are invincible so you do not fight them.  They keep players on their toes.

 When it comes to bosses there is some pretty tough mini-bosses throughout the dungeon.  They are mostly tank and spank but all seem to come with a group of adds and ranged minions.  The first major boss is a giant scarab in a room full of lasers and the scarab features its own giant laser beam.  While the scarab has an array of attacks and some positioning by the tank can help avoid group wipes it is a straight forward fight.

 The next boss, General Crassus, is fun filled mayhem.  The fight features a lot of continuously spawning adds and progresses through three phases.  The last phase is where it gets interesting with two hard charging cyclops, of course with laser beams shooting of their eyes, and its a race to either DPS the main boss down or take the cyclops down and then the boss. 

 The last set of bosses in the dungeon are sure to make plenty of players mad.  The last fight is a pure mechanics fight.  Players have to know what they are doing and when to do it in order to succeed.  My first run took us two hours to get it down and I've had multiple more that just can't get past the hump of the final fight.  It is a very challenging fight and I can't imagine how players are doing it on higher mutations; it is rough even as a 620+ gear score tank on regular! It's a fun fight to figure out and a sense of accomplishment once done!

 The only real issue I have The Ennead is that the last fight is hard and that sets it apart from other expeditions.  While there is the reward of earning a unique heartgem, Detonate, from the final bosses the rest of the rewards are your lock and stock expedition rewards: shards, materia, and some named items.  Unfortunately since other expeditions are far simpler and faster to run I do worry we will see a limited number of players wanting to run The Ennead in the future. It feels like some of the other new items with Brimstone Sands could of been added to this more challenging expedition such as glyphs for runeglass gem crafting.

 Over all I really like the new expedition and it was good to be challenged again.  I like the mechanically challenging fights but do think they will keep other players out since "quick run" can turn into a slog or a wall at the last fight.  I won't be running this one nearly as much as I've run the other expeditions, but feel like the challenge is worth the time spent even if rewards are the same as other expeditions.

 Have you got your butt handed to you in the last set of bosses in The Ennead? Share a comment!

 

New World Brimstone Sands Impressions (Part 1: Quests)

  I wanted to start sharing my thoughts on the Brimstone Sands release for New World.  This was a huge release that brought the new Brimstone Sands zone, a new expedition, major updates to the early game leveling progression, and multiple other changes to the game.  I will be breaking up my impressions into multiple parts over the next few days.  I wanted to start off by sharing my impressions on the quests in the new zone.

 Before the release I was nervous I may find myself uninterested in doing the quests in the new zone.  Since my character is max level I have no need for experience.  I have not done many quests in the game because I am holding out hope that at some point they add an aptitude system for experience gained after max level.  So I set off and did the zone unlock quest which I thought was a neat way for players to progress into the zone instead of being able to just charge in.

 My concern about not wanting to do the quests was put to rest when I got a look at the quest rewards.  Yes, they still grant experience that goes to waste, but all of the quests in Brimstone Sands are LOADED with other rewards.  There are numerous legendary weapon rewards, and not just mediocre weapons, but actual weapons I have and will use.  On top of that quests also grant gypsum orbs, umbral shards, and numerous end game crafting materials.  Bottom line: I felt rewarded for doing the quests and a little bummed I've finished the majority of them!

Legendary weapon as a quest reward!?

 

 The quests also lead players to the new heartgem runes which are like ultimate abilities you can use.  I'll have more thoughts on heartgem runes in a future post, but using quests to introduce new features is the right way to go.  Quests also introduce players to the glyph system unique to the Brimstone Sands zone.  While I have not gotten all of the glyphs it was fun being sent around the zone to unlock glyphs which in turn let you unlock more aspects of the zone (for example you can open new doors once you have learned the glyphs for them).

 Also the glyph quests were used to help me learn about different mechanics in the zone. For example a quest had me try and unlock a glyph in a pool of acid so that I would learn how to use acid tinctures to avoid death while standing in the acid pool (note: I may not have paid attention to this detail so paid for it in repair costs to my gear after multiple failed attempts...).

 The quests themselves are also greatly improved compared to the "kill 10 rats" or "loot 10 crates" quests of the original zones.  One of the most memorable quests features a jumping puzzle and some uniquely placed goats that I am sure I will fondly remember years from now (not really, fuck the goats).  There was also a lengthy puzzle quest involving portals that I had to just cheat and look up online.  And my favorite was the quest line that lead to an instanced solo boss encounter with a fight that was actually challenging as a solo player.  I really hope they add more of these instanced solo boss fights.

 My comments are also just touching on the quests in the new end game Brimstone Sands update.  There is also plenty of freshness to the quests in the revamped new player leveling experience from 1-25.  I have not done much of it but the quests I have done have the same level of polish and uniqueness as the ones in Brimstone Sands.

 The new approach to quests and how the Brimstone Sands zone was set up with things like glyphs really gives me hope for the future. If the developers keep looking at ways for us to progress horizontally and not just vertically this is a winner for me.  I really enjoy this approach to MMOs and it was immediately familiar to me as a long time Guild Wars 2 player.  I had so much to do on day one and still have so much more to now progress and while I am taking it bit by bit I don't feel in any regard I am behind other players as far as power level. 

 Part 1: Quests = 10/10!

 What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment.

New World Fresh Start to the MOON

 We're going to the moon baby!  New World fresh start worlds have launched and the game is closing in on 100,000 concurrent users on Steam (probably over by the time you are reading this).  The game is also 50% off for anyone interested in jumping in.

 This is a well deserved hockey stick for the New World development team.  It will be interesting to see how long this peak lasts and where it tops out.  There is also the Return to Aeternum event that will be running through Nov 18th.

Ashes of Creation "New World is the gold standard of harvesting/gathering"

 I caught up with the recent Ashes of Creation live stream (I actually watched it via Asmongold's reaction video -- don't ask why; I just like watching Asmongold's reaction videos for Ashes updates).  

 In this update the Ashes team shows off the gathering system they are lifting directly from New World.  Every tree is now able to be chopped down (previously in earlier alpha tests it was sparse nodes across the world) and that will expand from there to other node types such as rocks, plants, and more.  Asmongold's quote to kick off the video was "New World is the gold standard of harvesting/gathering" which I'll agree with, but also as my comments will show there is room for enhancement.

 For anyone that has played New World this is very familiar.  New World brought this type of mechanic out of the realm of survival games and into an MMORPG.  Chopping down a tree is one of the most satisfying feelings in all of New World.  I can't imagine playing a future MMORPG that doesn't let me cut down every tree, break up every rock, and gather almost anything I can see.  I am all for games like Ashes lifting ideas from other games and this was the right idea to grab from New World.

 What can, or what will, Ashes do to improve on the system?

 First, they can add more variables to the system.  If there is a knock against New World's system it is that the node spawns are static and do not vary at all which means farmers and bots can camp them.  A great change for New World and where Ashes could improve this type of system is to randomize the spawn locations of the nodes.  Certain areas could still limit what type of node spawns so players know where to go to gather but the actual placement in that area could be changed up.  This would reward the often overlooked explorer play type.

 The good news is it sounds like Ashes is solving for this with their surveying skill which will allow players to find and learn about node spawns and if I understood it correctly it will allow players with higher surveying skill to find randomly placed nodes.  This brought back memories of surveying in Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) which allowed for players to locate and find unique resources and cash in on them before others showed up.  The key to the SWG system was randomization and time limited nature of where you could get the resources.

 Next the Ashes developers talked a good bit about how the materials you can gather will vary based on seasons, "node" (referring to their land parcel system), and other player actions.  It definitely sounds like to be a successful gatherer you will need to know the systems and the world as well as have leveled up skills.  The question is whether they can make the system where it rewards the average player and doesn't just become a system where the elite players lock everyone else out.

 In the Ashes stream Steven (the guy at the head of Ashes design/funding/everything) asked us to think about two areas when giving feedback and talking about this update so I wanted to oblige him.

Feedback Focus 1: Steven asked the community how we feel about the change to have far more resources available for gathering in the game?  A caveat was most of the increase in gatherable materials it would be focused on general construction and trade; not necessarily for making gear.

Answer 1: As I mentioned earlier in the post I can't see myself playing an MMORPG that doesn't have this sort of harvesting/gathering system.  Chopping down trees may just be a "minimum requirement" going forward for me to consider a game.  I think this was the right choice and with the surveying system it looks to improve on the system from New World.  The only concern I have is it may get too complicated.  There is a benefit to the simplicity of New Worlds system: see tree, chop tree, get stuff.  Adding too much more to that loop may make it less fun.

Feedback Focus 2: Thoughts on the visual fidelity of the gathering actions.

Answer 2:  I tend to not get deep into visuals in games these days.  They play a role, but not as they did in the past.  As long as it feels like it fits and doesn't take away from performance then I am fine with what I saw in the video.  Not necessarily visual, but the audio in the demo was not that great.  New World nails the sound of chopping and mining so feel like Ashes has some room on the audio end to improve.

 The Ashes devs also commented on group gathering.  This is a great idea and something that Crowfall had (probably one of the only things that game did well). I love the idea of having to team up to gather.  I love the idea of needing a second player to take the other end of a giant saw to go at a massive tree.

 Steven also asked about what players felt about the system where what is inside a node is only revealed when you take the harvesting action.  The example given was a rock that once broken revealed there was a crystal inside and a second harvesting action was required to gather the crystal.  I am fine with this but over time it may become irritating having to harvest nodes twice instead of just getting the internal materials on the first pass.  Will have to see how it feels when playing.

For those that need it here is the Ashes update embedded below.

Speaking of gathering; let me harvest your thoughts by leaving a comment.  Thanks!

New World Paladin Build (updated for Brimstone and not what you expect!)

 Wanted to share this New World Paladin build video I saw on Youtube.  If you have the PvP light armor set you are 75% ready for this build.  I am a couple pieces short and am currently playing heavy armor with warhammer/sword'n'shield, but looking to give this build a try with some other armor pieces slotted in.

Enjoy and leave a comment!

Nerfs NOT in the details?

 Yesterday I posted about the nerfs lurking in the details of the New World PTR (public test realm) notes.  One of the changes was to musket damage which at face value screamed "nerf!" but upon further analysis is not a nerf and when all changes taken together there is a buff to musket damage.  For anyone playing New World you can guess how the community is reacting.

 The net of the analysis so far is that the changes will actually bring a net 15% damage increase.  While there is some drop off on damage at longer range it is negligible.  Quoting PTR testers "The Ballistic Advantage 50% damage 'nerf' sounds big, but in reality it's more like a 0.5% damage decrease."

 The same testers are finding there is a net buff to musket damage and that buff comes in with the changes for Hit Your Mark passive.

Hit your Mark Passive:
Updated passive to apply to all hits and not just headshots and critical hits.

 As can be seen with the screenshot on the left this means longer range damage is now increased for all shots.  Sure there is drop off on damage at distance but as quoted from testers so far the drop off is not anywhere close to what is being gained from this passive change.

 Combine this buff with other changes that take away stagger from sticky bomb and muskets are encouraged to "sit on top of a rock and shoot people far away" and that is 95% of the problem with the weapon.  With that said I don't want another bow situation where strong ranged DPS weapon also gets a bunch of mobility.

 This whole situation just leaves me with questions on what the right approach to musket is.  At the heart of the matter is the fact that musket is a hitscan weapon in a game with no other hitscan weapons.  It also has no maximum range.  There is also the question of why is ammunition still in the game where a musket player has to buy, at a significant gold cost, ammunition to get their maximum damage.  It seems like hitscan, max range, and ammunition would be the logical things for the developers to focus on before getting too deep into balancing damage numbers.

 What are your thoughts on muskets?  Leave a long ranged comment.

 

 

Nerfs in the details... New World patch notes

 Yesterday, I covered the general patch notes for New World's upcoming PTR (public test realm) but I missed the full patch notes posted to the forums.  There was some additional goodness (nerfs!) hiding in the details.

First a nerf to musket damage:

Ballistic Advantage Passive:
Updated passive to no longer remove damage fall off entirely, but reduce damage fall off by 50% after 50m.

 This is a needed change and I'd go so far as saying they could have gotten rid of the passive altogether.  There is no reason muskets should hit for full damage at long range -- the farther away the less damage; its that simple.  This is not a modern era sniper rifle; it is a musket!  As a long time musket fan it pains me to say the weapon is ruining the game.  OPR may be jokingly called BowPR but muskets are a far worse problem than bow.

 Another needed change (nerf!?) is coming to Shirking Fortification:

Adjusted issue where the base duration and max duration of the Shirking Fortification perk was set to the same value. Base value was meant to be lower. Reduced duration of fortify from 6s to 4s.

 This is a 33% duration reduction in most cases which is good. Shirking Fortification is a "must have" perk because of how strong it is.  This doesn't make it useless but brings it more in line with what it should be.  I'd still argue this perk should be for heavy armor only similar to how Shirking Energy is for light only, but I'll take this change over nothing changing at all.  3s instead of 4s would even be better!  Note: I am currently playing heavy with multiple Shirking Fortification pieces.

More Goodness on New World PTR

 Another patch is dropping on the PTR for New World featuring some of the changes discussed in recent developer updates. 

 First the new mutated expedition that mashes up Amrine and Starstone Barrows will be available.  These are both lower level expeditions so I was curious if we'd ever see mutated versions.  It makes sense that they are being mashed up into a single mutated version as standalone they are both relatively light on mechanics and length.  Combined it should be a fun romp down memory lane (though I will admit I've never done Starstone Barrows!).

 Some tweaks to refining and crafting stations are included.  Nothing major but all good changes.

 Probably one of the biggest smallest changes in the patch is that players no longer are required to be in a faction to join a company.  The specific notes are:

Players no longer need to be in a Faction to join a Company, but Companies must still declare a Faction. Non-Faction-affiliated members may not become the Governor or participate in Wars.

 At face value this is pretty simple, but points towards more changes coming to not require players to join into the faction system.  I think this is an excellent change as being in a faction can bring some issues if you, like me, end up bouncing around companies.  I can now think about going factionless but still be in a company which I could not before.  

 The long awaited shell companies and war fatigue system are coming in this PTR as well.  I am not a war player but I have been around and in some competitive companies and the shell company game was truly exhausting and irritating.  I understand why the sweaty tryhards did it but it was a toxic approach so it is good these changes are happening. Hopefully this will open up wars and territory control to more companies and players.

 Leaderboards, the last item from their roadmap, is also included.  From data mining it sounds like there will be leaderboards for EVERYTHING (1500+).  For example; each fishing hotspot has its own leaderboard.  I think we have a lot more to learn about this but I find it neat that I may actually have a shot at finding a niche somewhere to make it onto a leaderboard.  Hopefully the bots keep getting whacked or the gathering leaderboards will be ... well ... bot infested. 

 New World keeps on delivering!  What are your thoughts?  Share a comment.

New World October Dev Update

 New World has posted their October Team Update.  The video is embedded below and read on for my summary and thoughts.

A summary of the update 

• BDLG and Redbyrd visit!
• Current roadmap is complete except leaderboards which are still a work in progress
  
• December Winter Convergence Festival will be back
• New expedition in December that is "pretty fricking cool" that is a combo of Amrine and Starstone (both lower level expeditions) for end game expeditions mutations
• Updated road map in December
• The sandworm in Brimstone will be a raid
• Territory control changes coming in the next few months; changes to influence and how war is declared.  Bigger plans as well but not ready to talk about yet.
• A springtime event is being worked on for next spring (which means all seasons have an event)
  
• Cross-server Outpost Rush is coming!  This is their first step in cross-server content so they will look to learn lessons here and expand to other instanced content.
• Gear sets and management system; taking slowly to make sure they get it right and expect long test period on the PTR
  
• Two new expeditions featuring Varangian Knights
• Group finder improvements
• Transmog system is being worked on
• Fresh Start Servers on track; slow roll out of worlds with multiple phases so you can plan when you want to jump in
• Return to Aeternum community event (watch the video; its complicated but sounds fun)
  
• Redbyrd and BDLG asked questions to the combat developers
  
• Devs confirmed there is too much "escapability" in PvP so are looking to nerf the worst offenders such as the recent changes to rapier.
• Musket was called out by Redbyrd (good for PvP but weak in PvE).  Changes for it are being tested with fall off damage for longer range and less stamina damage when blocking shots.
• Firestaff flamethrower pain point; more mana consumption for using it vs the infinite flamethrower it is now
• Armor balance; specifically blocking and light DPS meta was discussed.  Looking at stamina damage while blocking (reducing it mostly) and how blocking works in group situations.  Goal is to improve blocking viability.
• BDLG asked what the ideal meta is for the combat devs.  Answer: more melee oriented than it is now; dev agreed it is too ranged dominant currently.
• BDLG asked about PvP arenas. Answer: dev not happy about where arenas are at and talked about the recent update to split group and solo queues and gear score scaling.
• Redbyrd asked about group finder for PvP game modes.  Unfortunately no immediate plans.  Bummer.
• Territory control had a features section in the video
• Talked about changes in recent patch
• Distributing gold to all faction members from taxes is not being considered
• War fatigue system in testing on PTR and focus to address shell companies and ensure more players can get into wars vs just the cool kids club as it is currently
  
• Influence system change to drive players to certain zones during certain windows to drive open world PvP
  
• BDLG questioned how they will combat zergs in this scenario.  Hoping long timing windows and having multiple hot spots will help spread out players.
• Practice wars are something they want to do, but not on roadmap yet
  
• Crafting section
• Continuing to work out the pacing of gathering, refining, and crafting gear so that they line up (i.e. if you are a level where iron is common, then you are refining iron, and then are crafting with iron and thus keeping them all in pace).
• Talked about crafting better gear; they want to give players more agency and control (i.e. more predictable outcomes).  Goal is to just taking smaller steps such as timeless shards and golden scarabs to get better outcomes from crafting so you feel rewarded for doing something out in the world and getting a reward like the scarab.
  
• Talked up trade skills and how satisfying it is to chop a tree down in New World (which I agree) and how future trade skills need to bring something to the world (like music and how it brought relevant buffs)
• BDLG asked about how you can't tell what recipes you have unlocked and those that may be out there to unlock.  No plans currently.
• Depth of crafting
  
• There was a section on Brimstone Sands questions
• Can we fight the sandworm?  Already noted at the start of the video that it will be a raid.
• Brimstone set new standards for content and world building for the team and thats the standard going forward
• Brimstone is a large zone but is on the larger side of zones they expect to have.  More likely to see zones closer to Reekwater or Ebonscale Reach.

 First, I was stoked to see Redbyrd and BDLG from Studio Loot helping to host the update.  They have hosted the New World to Go podcast since long before launch and as far as I know are the only New World focused podcast that is still going post launch.  They are also all around good dudes and run a great site over at newworldfans.com.  Their presence gives me confidence that Amazon Game Studios gets how important community is in these games.

 The best part of BDLG and Redbyrd's presence, even though I am sure they were kept on a short leash, was that they spoke for the community and did it well.  You could feel the passion and love for this game as they talked with the developers.  I almost lost it when BDLG said "BOWPR" out loud (for anyone not hip to the lingo; bow is a very strong weapon in the OPR (outpost rush) game mode and it's to the point there is so many bows we just call the entire mode BOWPR). These two are the perfect ambassadors for the game.

 Next it was good to hear gear sets are still being worked on and that a transmog system was also under work.  These are key systems for a game that has as much variety of gear available and asks players to change gear as often as this game does.

 The comments on combat were all refreshing to hear.  They acknowledged range is a problem and that melee is getting the short end of the stick.  The discussion around blocking in PvP was well received (by me at least) and it will be good to get another avenue of play into PvP that isn't just damage or healing.

 I will save my thoughts on territory control for a future post.  In short; I still don't think they are headed in the right direction.  They need to stop making it a cools kid club activity.

 No major updates for crafting this go around which feels like it is in a good place.

 It was good to hear Brimstone Sands is the standard going forward (as far as quality of content, not zone size).  I am still working through the zone and it's quests and having a blast doing so.  I will share more thoughts later this week.

 Over all another solid update this month and very cool to see the community be such a key part of this one as we crossed over the one year mark for the game.  I get more excited every time this dev team puts out an update.

Some Screenshots from Brimstone Sands

 I am away this weekend camping in the real world MMO.  Enjoy some of my screenshots from my brief adventures in Brimstone Sands!

And here we go... after unlocking the quest to access the zone.

SQUISH! Small scorpions get squished by running over them.

A cozy camp.

O_O This legendary rapier was a quest reward for one of the first quests!

More legendary quest rewards!

I swear there was a giant sand worm in this picture when I took it!

Amazing atmosphere in the desert.

A tower to explore (have not gone in yet!)

The main city.

A pool in the main city.

Amazing places to be found in every nook and cranny; or canyon in this case.

And last, and not part of Brimstone Sands, but this is the new facade for Monarch's Bluff

New World is so fun to play right now

 New World is so fun to play right now.  That's it.  Fun.  I love the Brimstone Sands update so spending time there instead of writing anything of length here today.  More comments next week on my impressions.

Brimstone San... oh shiny... New World Buddy

 I beat down the login queue, fixed my crashes (driver updates and a specific driver rollback), and enjoyed some of Brimstone Sands last... oh what is this shiny thing... New World Buddy!?  I will get to my Brimstone Sands impressions (probably next week), but I really want to talk about this tool.  It is very slick.

Oh shiny!

First there is the question "aren't mods against the terms of service?".  

No Games or Mods: sorry, but it's not okay to make your own game using our game content or to create mods. If things change for a particular game, we'll let you know.

Yes, mods -- as can be seen above -- are not allowed.  However, this tool is not a mod.  It does not interact with the game.  It is simply showing the same data that any of the New World websites such as New World Fans or NWDB are showing.  In fact I suspect many of it's data sources are the same as those websites.  

In addition to giving quick access to tons of information about items, crafting recipes, perks/abilities, and points of interest it also has an amazing feature for tracking gear sets.  When I clicked into the gear builder and started putting together my build for tracking I realized how slick this tool was.  You can select any gear and if it has set attributes/perks it brings them in.  If the gear has variable perks it lets you set them to what you have in game.  Then it has a screenshot tool that lets you quickly screenshot the build (see screenshot below - just me playing around to track a build so its not complete).

Output from screenshot tool on Gear Builder

There is also quick reference to information such as umbral shards required to upgrade, XP required to level, and crafting recipes (especially helpful this release with the introduction of Heartrunes and Runeglass gems that require a lot of materials to be collected).  On top of that there are various calculators such as gear score and access to crafting calculators with the ability to import prices from nwmarketprices.com for your specific server.

Over all this is just an amazing tool for a community member who made it "because I got tired of tracking things in spreadsheets".   I absolutely love things like this coming from the community and it enhances my play experience with the game.  I understand why AGS had to crack down on things like the in-game overlay map tools that were being built because its a step too close to interacting with the game.  But this, this little buddy, is amazing and just brings information to your finger tips as well as giving a better solution for build tracking than using a spreadsheet.  I can't imagine AGS would have issues with this tool as it just a glorified website in an app.

Want to give it a try?  First; you do have to trust this developer as Windows will flag it as not trusted.  Proceed at your own risk.  See the info below (and there is a discord server linked on the site if you want to get more involved):

This is an open source windows application (electron app)
https://github.com/giniedp/nw-buddy
http://nw-buddy.ginie.eu/

Brimstone Sands First Impressions

 My Brimstone Sands update impressions thus far...

...which means I haven't gotten to play in the new zone yet (Castle of Steel server).  The times I did get in I hard crashed (PC shuts off) so have been working through drivers and other possible causes on my computer.  Honestly a little frustrated with the queues and the fact you have to be in game to transfer servers (which means I have to wait ~3 hours for the login queue during peak hours if I did want to transfer to a lower pop server) and then only to have my PC crashing with the game.

Anyways; I don't have any actual impressions to share yet and I have a pretty packed week and will be away this weekend so I may be a week late to the launch party here.  Apologies to my faithful reader(s?).

 Back to my pre-launch predictions from yesterday's post: Here. We. Go. Brimstone Sands is here!  I questioned what sort of player bump we would see with the release.  

The answer looks to be about a 25k peak player count increase (40k increase to 65k) according to Steam DB charts.  Note: this is players that have the game open (not necessarily logged into a world).  Today as of 11:30a EST we are back up to 52k but leveling out faster so assume peak may be less.

A noticeable bump to peak concurrent but not the meteoric upturn some predicted (I saw many folks say we'd be back over 100,000 peak concurrent users).  

This is still a good increase and the peak login queues (3+ hours!) on the original merged servers in NA East shows players are coming back to check it out.  We will have to see where it is at after a week and things settle down a bit and then what the remaining effect is in a month.  Twitch viewership was also up but influenced by drops + major streamers returning.

Are you stuck in queue as well?  Drop a comment and we can commiserate together.

 

Here. We. Go. Brimstone Sands is here!

 Brimstone Sands is coming to New World and the patch notes are HUGE and if you are reading this as of 9:30 AM EST on 10/18 you can get the patch and get logged in.  There is a ton to unpack with this update so I will share my thoughts on different aspects as I play through them over the next few days.  For this post I wanted to toss out my prediction for player population expectations and if we will see a bump here or not.

There is a lot of buzz around this update and New World has seen an increase in peak concurrent players since its announcement (15k to 40k peak).  This is a good sign that the changes announced are taking the game in the right direction as it seems many of the returning players came back to get ready for it.

Even with the buzz I am still leery on whether we will see a large bump in players beyond what we've already seen.  Here are some of my reasons why we may not see a bump:

• The previous free weekend event was a total bust and registered no bump to peak player counts
• The big PvP arenas update had good buzz (nothing near Brimstone Sands but still some buzz) and it had no impact to peak players.  The first "official PvP arena tournament" was a total bust.
  
• As mentioned already, many players already returned to get ready for the patch, so we may be at the bump peak.
• Fresh Start Servers, which are the biggest draw for a bump, don't come out to 11/2.  We may not see a real bump until then.
• Last: we may see the big streamers bring a crowd, as they always do, but I am sure it will be short lived albeit painful queues on the servers they end up on.

I may be proven wrong and we return to six figure peak concurrent players and I'll be fine with that outcome, but I also wanted to prepare myself for the possibility the game's popularity is at or close to its peak.  Time will tell and I look forward to finding out!

What are your predictions?  Leave a comment.

Saturday Update 10/15/2022: New World lessons learned and Warhaven Beta

A couple quick items to meet my "post a day" quota for today.  

New World lessons learned

 First, Scot Lane has a guest article posted on Venture Beat: New World: What we’ve learned during our first year.  I will have some more thoughts on this article to post later this coming week, but for now I am really glad to see this quote up front:

There is a saying that live games are owned by the development team until launch, and then at launch they become the players’ game. I couldn’t agree more.

I couldn't agree more myself and feel this is how the New World team has and continues to handle this game.

Warhaven

 Second, I caught wind of a game called Warhaven that is in a free beta period.  Ironically it caught my attention because of New World and the below video posted by Atlas Fishmo on Youtube.  What I like about what I've seen so far, and I hope to play it later today after it downloads, is that the combat has weight to it.  

This isn't the rollie pollies combat of New World; this is medieval combat with some heft and weight to it.  Fights are up close and personal and attacks and abilities are highlighted so the player can understand what is going on without having to rely just on catching an animation or sound clue.  I will share thoughts this week on my experience.

New World: Piecing a build together for Firestaff/Warhammer

  I watched this video (embedded at the end of the post as well) on YouTube for a unique build combining the Warhammer and Firestaff in New World PvP.  It caught my attention because it focuses on the incinerate skill which brought back memories of my first "build" I played at launch to level from 1-60.  At the time I rolled around in heavy armor with a firestaff and sword/shield; incinerate skilled out for life gain.  

  The flow went: run around and get the attention of twenty mobs, pull them all together, and slam down incinerate and regain a bunch of health and watch everything burn to death.  Rinse and repeat.  To be honest had I connected the dots with warhammer's area of effect stun with shockwave back then I would have dropped sword/shield.

  Fast forward to now and I play a heavy melee sword/shield and hammer build, but have been looking for something new to give a whirl because, to be honest, playing heavy melee is just penalizing yourself in the light-armor-dominant PvP meta.  I also don't want to just jump on the flavor of the moment builds or abuse the broken weapons like rapier.  I want something unique and thus I want to piece together the build from this video and got some insight from the related Reddit thread.

Attributes

Based on the video we can estimate

CON: 150 (up to 200)
INT: 300+ (i.e. everything else)
Assuming nothing is added to strength; hammer is just for the stun and not for any damage.

Weapons 

Warhammer with the Sundering Shockwave perk to maximize damage

Firestaff with Stable Incinerate (gives you grit so less likely to be interrupted) and Thwarting Strikes (gives more damage when you have grit.. which you get from the stable perk)

Weapon Skill Trees

Hammer is focused on Shockwave, Wrecking Ball, and Clear Out.  All compliment the main concept of getting in, locking down targets, and dropping the bomb.  Clear Out I think is interesting to send everyone flying with burn stacks.

Firestaff is focused on the left side of the tree for incinerate and the rune to place on the ground to max out damage.  Fireball for some damage and Burnout as well.

Armor

Armor will be light as the light dodge is critical to get in and out to drop the bomb.  Light armor also gets +20% damage.

Armor perks 

• 5x Resilient (required for PvP)
• 2-3x Freedom (assume critical for getting in and out and minimizing effect of CC abilities)
• Shirking Fortification is probably worthwhile here since you are up close and personal
  
• Shirking Energy would be good since its available to light
• As far as weapon perks on armor Empowering Fireball is the only one that jumps out at me
• For fun maybe Repulsing Clear Out to send folks flying even farther after incinerate
  

Amulet/Ring/Earring

Not sure here; don't know whats considered good for mage.  Will have to research this.

Video embed:

A PSA for the PSA: New World, Easy Anticheat, and your computer's security software

 There is a PSA (public service announcement) circulating for New World players that proclaims a fix for "desync" (i.e. your computer and the game server being out of sync).  The fix asks you to exclude Easy Anticheat (the anticheat software used by New World) from your computers security software (usually just Microsoft Window's firewall).  This PSA is asking users to punch a big old hole in your computer's defense against rogue actors on the internet so consider this most my PSA for the PSA.  

DON'T DO IT (and no, I won't link to it)

This change is a bad idea and any "positive" result from making the change is likely a placebo effect.  While there is a plausible technical explanation that game + anticheat traffic is being combined together and thus allowing anticheat a free pass through security processing will improve performance it is an unlikely scenario.  If it is actually happening then that's a risk in and of itself.

For science I did make the change and there was zero change in how the game performed.  With the change reverted the experience is the same as it was when the change was in effect.

Why is it a bad idea to make this change?  Because anticheat software has unfettered access to deep levels of your computer to catch cheaters.  That unfettered access is fine if all its doing is trying to catch cheaters, but if that anticheat is ever compromised (see video at end of post) then letting it bypass security software is a terrible idea as it will give hackers that same unfettered access to your computer.

If I was a hacker that had access to compromised software this type of PSA to a group of users motivated to make the change is exactly the sort of stuff I'd love to see.

I could go on and and on about this, but instead I'll leave this below video on the risks with anticheat software.  I'd encourage anyone evaluating making this change to watch this video and decide if any possible benefit is worth the risk to giving anticheat a free pass to and from the internet.  Anticheat is a necessary component of online gaming, but there is no reason to take extra steps to make it any more of a risk.

A Couple Suggestions for the New World Trading Post

 One of my favorite parts of MMORPGs are the online markets that they host.  I love making a few virtual bucks buying low and selling high.  I played Guild Wars 2 and Albion Online for a long time just off flipping stuff on the market and turning the profit into silly things I didn't need for my characters.  With my current addiction still being New World I find myself in the same boat with it's auction house.  Here are a couple suggestions on how it could be improved.

The first suggestion is adding a couple more filters to the recently added filter page.  Filtering by perks, gear score, and attributes were all great adds but there is still a lot of hovering or sorting required to find exactly what is needed.  A couple filters being added would finish out the filters in my opinion.

• First change: If I want to find only heavy armor I have to hover over each item to see its weight.  Adding an armor weight filter would solve this.
  
• Second change: If I select an attribute filter of STR and CON then I have to sort through all the split stat gear that has, for example, CON + FOC when I just want STR/CON split stat gear.  Ideally a filter would be added that allows for "only these two split attributes".

After these changes, again, I think filters are nearly perfect.

Next I would advocate  for a better buy order system for specific armor and weapons.  The buy order system for the rest of the items in the game works fine but its not useful trying to find very specific gear.  While you can define perks + gear score minimum + attributes desired in the current buy orders there are three main issues.  

First, you have to specify a specific item instead of just a certain slot (for example; you have to say Defiled Gloves instead of just "all heavy armor gloves").  Then secondly finding the buy orders as a seller/crafter is near impossible due to having to look through all the specific items instead of a general category.  Third; placing buy orders for a larger sum of gold is prohibitively expensive and only lasts a set number of days.  Combine these together and you are better just spamming TRADE chat.

To fix this I would separate the buy orders for specific gear from the rest of the commodity market.  Create new screens and ways to view the buy orders and then a way to much more easily match your inventory to those buy orders.  For example; "show all great axe buy orders" so a crafter can determine what they may want to try and craft or another example "show all matching weapons I can sell" for a seller to click sell from a single screen.  

Remove fees for having a buy order posted and instead limit how many a single player can have at a time.  I'd keep the 1/3/7/14 day durations to ensure the trading post doesn't get clutter, but make it easy for a player to renew a listing instead of starting over.  Then have a fee only for when a sale is made.

New World has a unique gear system with a ton of variety.  Players can swap gear on the fly as needed for different content.  It is part of what I find makes New World so fun to play.  Helping match buy orders and sell orders to the right players would go a long way for everyone.  There is likely gear being salvaged as you read this that is the perfect piece some is desperately trying to find to buy and that is unfortunate.  The in-game market should connect that buyer and seller!

What do you think?  Leave a comment.