New World Economy

 New World's dev team recently released an edition of Forged in Aeternum talking about the game's economy.  Anyone that knows me knows that online game economies are my jam!

 I missed commenting on this video when it was fresh but something in the patch notes yesterday brought it forward in my mind.

Temporarily adjusted the drop amounts for Mythril Ore veins until we can place more in the world.

 This is... odd.  Even odder when you consider the economy video where they talk about how they closely watch and monitor raw materials to see what may be too abundant and what may be too scarce.  They talk in the video about changing crafting recipes to consume more materials or giving new uses to things like Wooden Coins.

 Anyone looking at the current state of Mythril Ore knows Mythril Ore is not the problem.  The problem is Orichalcum Ore which is the bottleneck.  My own storage tells that tale.  I have thousands of Mythril Ore and I've never once gone out to farm it so this is just from passing by a node and getting it.  I can't refine that ore because I can't get Orichalcum Ore and I'm not paying the market price for it.

 To illustrate those prices further (thanks to New World Market Prices)

• Starmetal ore 0.22
  
• Starmetal ingot 3.82
  
• Orichalcum Ore 0.81
• Orichalcum Ingot 10.79
• Mythril Ore 0.20
• Mythril Ingot 22.99

 As you can see Orichalcum Ore sticks out like a sore thumb.  Higher cost of "ori" shows its a clear bottleneck.  As ori ingots are required to make mythril ingots and thus a lower supply of ori means more expensive mythril ingot costs so less refining and thus mythril ore is becoming worth less and less.  

 And... the answer is to make more mythril ore available?  What the heck.  This single example trumps the content of the video.  The ores are the center piece of New World's economy just as "metals" are the center piece of most fantasy RPG crafting systems.  It really bugs me that they are increasing mythril, which is not hard to get currently, while ori still remains way too rare.  Ori should increase first before messing with mythril.

 Ah!!!! But that is economics sometimes and if books like Freakonomics has taught me anything it is that sometimes its not always obvious why something has/does not have an effect. So maybe, just maybe, increasing mythril will do something we are not expecting.

The Changes No One Asked For

 New World posted the patch notes for the upcoming PTR for the Eternal Frost update.  There were some unexpected changes buried within the notes.  Some which I don't think anyone was asking for!

The biggest area of "no one asked for this" is a nerf to 3v3 PvP arenas and the rewards they grant.  Effectively nerfing rewards by 40%.  I will let the developers own notes speak for the change:

We originally wanted 3v3 Arenas to be a more challenging space with additional value for the winning players, so we greatly improved the PvP XP and Salts given by the mode in the expansion update. It was a successful change in that sense, but now our other PvP game modes are suffering. We're reducing 3v3 Arenas so they don't overshadow other modes as much. As a result, Outpost Rush and War will grant greater rewards.

The maximum reward given by 3v3 Arenas has been reduced to 1200 XP and 500 Salts. The other contribution tiers have also been updated in a similar fashion.

 That is down from 2500 XP.  So instead of 4 wins unlocking a PvP track it will now take 8 wins; even more if you are not a winner like me.  That sort of sucks; both for the future but also anyone that hasn't gotten to enjoy the current reward structure.  This will make unlocking the PvP artifacts that much longer of a process compared to folks like me who have them all done already.

 The good news (I guess) is that other PvP game modes such as Outpost Rush (OPR) and influence races are being buffed to give more rewards.  This was definitely a change needed as the time investment in those events did not match how long they took to complete, but at the cost of arena rewards it feels cheapened.

 On to other changes no one asked for...

Increased maximum non-sprint move speed to 4.0 m/s.

We just got mounts and now.... NOW.... we're increasing base move speed?  I'll take it but really?

Fixed an issue that prevented all of the Elk related creatures from being skinned.

The irony in this one is everyone assumed that elk could not be skinned unless you owned the territory; sort of like the "king's woods" concept where only the king can harvest the male animals.  Guess it was just a bug!

Removed the consumable heal mod PvP adjustment. Consumables now heal at normal amounts in PvP.

In Season 3 potion heals were reduced in effectiveness in PvP.  Now they are being moved back to normal.  Ping meet pong.  I personally enjoyed less potion healing in PvP.  Fights felt a lot better.  My main fear is this makes healers that much harder to kill since they can self heal + pot at 100% effectiveness again.

Updated the Ankh Artifact heal mod to also decrease lifesteal healing (gives bigger trade off and creates additional differences between it and the Blooddrinker ring).

Blooddrinker Artifact - Added a 5% bonus to all lifesteal healing while active.

This one actually makes sense.  I personally was using Ankh with leaching/lifesteal because... well... I get all the 25% bonus heal with none of the downside of Blooddrinker.  Now Ankh will mostly be for group play (which I think is what it always should have been) and Blooddrinker actually has a purpose and increased effectiveness to go with it!  Nerf buffs are the best!

I doubt I am getting a refund for the time and effort + materials I dumped into upgrading Ankh though...

Anyways.

Tons of changes to gems... which are fine but not sure anyone was out there asking for them.  One pretty big nerf though:

Gambit (Opal) - By far the most used Gem. Reduced damage values from a range of 6% to 15% to a range of 4% to 12% while stamina is not full.

 And another one that makes sense.  You almost always used opal because it was just mathematically better as it was active more of the time.  Now other gems have higher % damage compared to opal and thus makes sense to try other ones out.  Still think even 12% is high for opal; should be more like 8% since it is easily active 2x more often than ones that do 16% damage.

Updated the Life Staff Sacred ground upgrade "Anointed" heal mod to not affect consumables or lifesteal healing.

Updated the Life staff Sacred Protection passive to not affect consumables or lifesteal healing and buffed its value from 5% to 10%.

 The life staff/healing nerfs we all wanted! Yes!  This actually is a good change. It was comical being able to stand in a sacred ground circle and basically be unkillable.

Brutal Road Map Update for New World

 Ouch.  The November New World developer update was brutal.  Most of the final road map for 2023 has been cut and/or delayed.  Coming off the expansion, which was rightfully criticized for lacking in content, a lot of players expected a full course from the Season 4 road map.  Instead only a couple of items are going to make it.  Check out the cuts below.

Sunday 11/5/2023 Post

 

Seed Catalog Time!

 One of my real life hobbies is gardening and it's that time of year for Seed Catalogs!  So I am here to shill for Johnny's Selected Seeds and their new digital catalog!  Believe it or not this is not a paid promotion; just sharing it as it came across my inbox and I was out of time and ideas for a blog post today.

So much stuff... so little time!

 Work is a bit crazy and my leisure time has been spent playing New World so blogging has suffered as a result.  I wanted to mention a few things.

New World's dev team released a new edition of Forged in Aeternum talking about the game's economy.  Anyone that knows me knows that game economies are my jam so I do want to try and find time to make some comments.

Throne and Liberty released a video ahead of their December launch in Korea.  Lots of information about the game and video looks good as T&L videos always seem to.  I am hoping they've made some progress from the previous iterations that basically crash landed in the western MMO market killing any and all buzz about the game.

Ashes of Creation also released their long awaited "caravan" demo. Surely this is the update where it all comes together?  Right? The game is shaping up but I still walked away unimpressed so want to drop some more comments about it.

NaNoWriMo also kicked off and as it's 11/2 and I haven't started I will just have to pass again for this year.  Oh well!

Low Effort Halloween

 Happy Halloween you rascals!

Pax Dei Alpha This Year?

 It is almost November, but the Pax Dei team is still maintaining that their alpha test is going to happen this year according to this MMORPG.com article.

The Pax Dei team is affirming their plans for alpha this year and has released some stats from the small Friends and Family playtest.

 I also found the numbers from the friends and family test intersting.

Those testers have used over 346,749 building pieces with the top builder having used 25,767.  Since everything in the game is player created, it does make one wonder what 25k pieces added up to. There have been  5,284 deaths by NPC and 1,771 deaths by falling. Dungeons have seen over 180,000 square meters covered, and over 47,200 km explored. Those testers have also killed over 3,500 rabbits.

  The building numbers specifically stand out.  This tells me that building is a big part of the game and not just a secondary pursuit.  Also coming from a game like New World where fall damage is something you laugh off it will be an adjustment to fear falling from great heights again. And the poor, poor rabbits (though not as many as I'd suspected so maybe they are more evasive than your standard MMO rabbit).

 I will continue to watch this one with interest.

Sunday 10/29/2023 Post

 Possibly the worst team in the league.

New World Servers Down 10/27

Update 10/27 10:15a ET: Servers back up

>>>>

 When you log in to check your Trading Post buy/sell orders but New World servers are down:

Looks Interesting: The Finals beta

 The Finals is a new FPS in a short beta period starting today.  Looking to give it a try later tonight.

Mind Blowing Star Citizen Video

 Anyone that has talked to me about Starfield likely knows I am not a fan.  I'd go as far as to say Starfield is a bug-ridden mess of loading screens.  With my disappointment in Starfield it has had me on the look for other games to scratch the space opera itch.  The two that come to mind are No Man's Sky and Star Citizen.  Itching even harder today is Star Citizen after I watched a mind blowing tech demo video!

 Does this mean I am a Star Citizen fanboy now?  Am I drinking the kool-aid?  Am I upset about a major financial investment I've made in Star Citizen?  No x3.  I am honest when I say Starfield sucks and there is a serious itch I want to scratch for a space exploration game.

 Also the more I've learned about Star Citizen the more I realize the general "Star Citizen is a scam and will never release!" sentiment online is way off base.  First off, there is a valid Star Citizen alpha that is online and playable.  Just watching a few videos I'd argue it has numerous aspects that beat out games like Starfield by a mile.

 I think the sentitment about Star Citizen comes from its ever-growing scale and watching this video I can see where that comes from.  But this video is in their engine.  This is in theory a literal path a player could take without ever hitting a loading screen.  Jump in your ship, fly to a planet, explore, hop back in that ship, zip off to a space station.... and it goes on and on and on.  Consider me impressed, if not mind blown, by where Star Citizen is at.  I shall watch it with much more interest now.

TIL you can harvest the statues in Elysian Wilds!

 Since the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion launched for New World I will admit I've not spent nearly the amount of time in the new zone, Elysian Wilds, as I should have.  Today reminded me of that as I was wrapping up my mount quests and I came across the realization I could "harvest" the stone statues scattered across the zone.  When I learn; you get to learn with me!

Sorry buddy!

 

 The statues are of various animals our human characters.  Walking up them you can interact and "mine" them with your pickaxe.  The result is Petrified Fragments which are a crafting material in a few recipes.  I will admit I am not exactly sure what these crafts are for, but at a minimum there is seasonal objectives tied to upgrading your spore jelly container which requires the fragments.  As soon as I learn more; I'll share.

Halloween cometh!

 Always love Halloween events in MMORPGs.  Some screenshots from the current New World event.

Turning in rewards at the cauldron

Fighting the big Halloween baddie.  Love the circling crows!

Sunday 10/22/2023 Post

Losers.

New World: How to use the Twitch Call of the Wilds drop

 This may have been obvious to some folks, but it was not to me.  Earlier in October there was a Twitch drop for "Call of the Wilds" to celebrate the launch of Rise of the Angry Earth.  With this drop came a mount attachment.

 The drop did not come over as a chest that had to be claimed nor do anything show up in player inventory.  That is because the mount attachment is a skin and it may not be obvious to players, like me, that mount attachments have skins!

 To use the Twitch drop skin open your mount equipment screen and then select the attachment slot you want to change.  Right click the item you have there currently and pick change skin.  This works just like changing skins for any other item slot.

Right click > Change Skin

 

Call of the Wilds skin appears

End result!

Poor progression model for named items in New World

 With the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion for New World many new named items were added to the game that leave the third perk slot open.  The named items can then be upgraded, for a hefty cost, in the gypsum kiln.  This upgrade moves the gear to 700 GS (max) and allows the player to set the last perk.  This is great for players wanting end game 700 GS gear, but comes with a big downside.

 The named items, such as Woodgrain Breastplate, drop as 2 perk purple items from 626+ all the way up to 700 GS with 3 perks (3rd perk being random if it rolls as legendary).  As a legendary drop it can be really good or not usable depending on the random 3rd perk.  If its a 2 perk purple then chances are it won't be something that replaces other gear.

  So the big downside is that while this gear is great to see in your loot bags its only because of the future promise of what it could be.  There is no real live progression model with these items.  One moment they are junk and the next they are possible 700 GS best in slot.

 Personally I like how artifacts are implemented where there are quests to progress the artifact and unlock its perks.  Players can try the artifact on and work through the quests and thus get a feeling of progression of the item through actual use.  Then a final decision is made if a final upgrade of that artifact is worth the expense.

 I'd love to see that applied to these named items.  Instead of one big dump of resources; let me build it up over time. Maybe start with letting me slot the third perk and then slowly work up the gear score level.  Give me a one time discount to swap out the perk if I find I want something else. 

 With that said; I still really enjoy these named items.  I am charting a path to my upgraded gear and feel, for once, that I have actual control over reaching the destination.  Previously it was mostly random luck as my build was unique that there was never anyone selling pieces I needed on the trading post so I was either waiting for PvP drops or hitting the crafting lottery.  Now I can invest some time in farming up armor like the Woodgrain set and with a little patience and a pile of gold (about 30k per piece + perk mod cost which can be upwards of 50k for adamant) walk away with a 700 GS item.  I'll take that even if it means its a leap to the end vs a climb up a ladder.

Not sure what I expected...

 The Halloween event is live in New World and with it player's are given some candy!  Candy... that... umm... well... I am not sure what I expected here.

 It literally turns you into a fish...

 Trick I guess? Also still can't swim even as a fish.

New World "health perk" rant

The health perk is dumb for armor in New World.

It is baseline mandatory just like ward and resilient were.  Its only benefit is it works across PvP and PvE equally.  It is also something that could have easily been baked in.

Now the perk mod for crafting, adamant, is so rare it is going for 60,000+ gold on most servers.  It would be one thing if something like the old resilient perk mod or the amulet perk mod for health worked, but no we got a new perk that is impossible to get.

Also this totally takes the fun out of so many armor artifacts that don't come with health... you have to use the free perk slot to slot in health as you are literally at a disadvantage if you don't stack 5x health.  Just pointless to give us flexibility only to have a new mandatory perk.

Additionally we are right back with a bunch of randomly dropped gear that is mostly worthless if it doesn't have the health perk... just like anything without resilient or ward were worthless before.

I can't imagine I'm the only one frustrated by this!?  I don't get why they went this route.

/rant

Follow my Reddit thread here.

New World PvP Builds S3

 Looking for New World PvP builds for season 3?  You may want to check out https://nwchamp.com/