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/