New World Combat Balance Dev Blog

 New World posted a short Dev Blog on an upcoming Combat Balance Update.

 

  

 I wanted to share a few thoughts on each area they mention.

 In order they mention balance changes to

• Fire Staff - The running community joke is whenever there is a balance issue with any weapon the only correct response is to nerf Fire Staff again.  I can't imagine they'd nerf Fire Staff as its been nerfed multiple times (but I'd argue FS is still very strong in the right hands)
• Bow - The BowPR meme for OPR (Outpost Rush) is real.  Bow has been very strong for a while and stronger the more skill the player has.  My biggest issue with bow is that it combines mobility and top tier ranged damage.  I'd like to see mobility cut down with bow or damage reduced on range to balance out the mobility.
• Musket - Musket.  What can we say about musket?  The main balance change is nerfing the heck out of its seemingly unlimited range.  It needs to be effective at a short range and about worthless at a distance.  For PvE the musket needs some way to match melee left click spam to dish out damage.
• Hatchet - The only thing that is a problem with hatchet is Defy Death so I assume that is what we'll see a change to.
• Greatsword - The community is begging for a change to Greatsword.  It is the weapon of choice everywhere PvE or PvP.  Hard to pinpoint exactly what needs to change.  In my experience greatsword just feels right and I wish more weapons felt as good as it does.  Will be interested in what is changing here.
• Equip loads (light/medium/heavy) - This may be the biggest part of this balance update and is wide open as far as what may change.  I've talked on this blog before about changes I'd like to see such as restricting the Shirking perks to specific loads the way Shirking Energy is light only.  Ultimately light is simply too strong; damage/healing increase and best dodge roll.  Something has to change with it or Medium and Heavy need serious upgrades to be comparable.

 No matter the changes I expect backlash because gear will be impacted.  It may be a key weapon ability changing and thus making that perfect weapon with it's weapon perk worthless now.  Or it may be what I suggested around Shirking perks.  Could you imagine if Shirking Fortification (as an example) got restricted to just heavy equip load?  That sort of change would ruin a massive amount of gear (shirking fortification is a desired perk for most PvP armor).

 I hope AGS has the courage to be aggressive with changes even if they do cause unrest or impact player's gear.  Gear is getting easier to craft and get desired results and a good crafting economy relies on consumption so players having to swap to new gear will drive consumption.

 Now we just have to get the update on PTR and let folks pick it apart!  What are you hoping for in the changes?

Hitting the nostalgia hard! Coe's Quest!

 Watching my own Minecraft video from 11 (11!) years ago had me waxing nostalgic for those glorious early years of Minecraft.  A hallmark of those years, at least for me, was Coe's Quest on YouTube.  Anytime my oldest son starts talking to me about Minecraft (a daily occurrence) I hum the closing theme song to Coe's Quest... "talkin' about Minecraft.  Talkin' about Minecraftttttt".  Episode 001 is embedded below and some thoughts are shared below.

 Chills watching this!

Videos from my past: Minecraft Mondays 001

 With 2023 I am looking to do more with video content.  This has had me reminiscing about my past video endeavors.  There are some videos lost to time from when I published to Google Video (before they bought YouTube).  I am hoping to find those on old hard drives and resurrecting what I can.  With that said there are some videos on my YouTube channel so I figured a trip down nostalgia road would be neat.  Below is my first Minecraft Monday video and I share some thoughts after.

 The first thing that jumped back at me was the silence of the video.  No music or sound?  As best I can remember this was during a time of YouTube uncertainty around using music and getting your videos kicked off the site and I just wasn't ready at the time to share my voice with the world.

 As far as the content of the video it warmed my heart to see our old Minecraft server and my mountain base (still my all time favorite build).  This was a server we played on from our work PCs before workplaces got so hardcore about locking users away from the Internet.  I remember how difficult these minecart stations were to make and relying on glitches like minecart launchers where two carts get stuck together and glitch to move the cart forward (this was before powered rails)

 It is also crazy to me that this was 11 freaking years ago!  Even more amazing is the staying power of the game that is Minecraft.  This game is still one of my all time favorites.

 If memory serves me this video was captured using Fraps and edited using whatever came with Windows at the time.