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.

Packers Beat Cowboys

 Alternate title: Sunday 1/14/2024 Post

 The Packers surprise everyone, even me as one of their most diehard fans, and stomp the life out of the Cowboysgirls.  The meme's even make themselves with the Cowboys fans reactions; my favorite below.

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 username blurred as they sent this via private chat message

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 2024

 

 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!

Pax Dei Early Access

 Continuing the "heartlessgamer playing around with AI" I asked Bing to summarize the news from the past day with Pax Dei's plans for Early Access.

NVIDIA featured Pax Dei gameplay footage during their CES 2024 special address. Mainframe Industries confirmed NVIDIA DLSS 3 will be included in "day one" of Pax Dei's launch. After a successful alpha test in late 2023, the game developers affirmed the highly-anticipated game is to enter early access in the coming Spring ¹. The game is a medieval flavored social sandbox MMO from developers from Blizzard and Remedy Entertainment ². The game will be available on PC and will feature AI accelerated DLSS 3 ². The early access offers are almost finalized with monetization confirmed as a single purchase grants access ¹. There is no specific date for Pax Dei's early access launch, but a second alpha test phase is in motion with sign-ups available on their website ¹.

¹: [KeenGamer](https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/)
²: [IGN](https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024)

Source: Conversation with Bing, 1/9/2024
(1) Pax Dei Early Access Features NVIDIA DLSS 3, CES 2024 ... - KeenGamer. https://www.keengamer.com/articles/news/pax-dei-early-access-features-nvidia-dlss-3-nvidia-ces-2024-address/.
(2) Pax Dei Nvidia DLSS 3 - Official Trailer | CES 2024. https://www.ign.com/videos/pax-dei-nvidia-dlss-3-official-trailer-ces-2024.
(3) Pax Dei Is Hosting Its First Alpha Test, Called 'Home Valley,' Starting .... https://www.mmorpg.com/news/pax-dei-is-hosting-its-first-alpha-test-called-home-valley-starting-on-november-14th-2000129436.
(4) RTX 500 and Counting: Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition & Pax Dei .... https://www.nvidia.com/en-my/geforce/news/ces-2024-dlss-ray-tracing-rtx-games-announcements/.