In the latest episode of “Forged in Aeternum,” a video series dedicated to discussing the popular MMO, New World, key figures from the game’s development team addressed a range of community queries and concerns. Episode 72 featured Scot Lane, the Game Director, David Verfaillie, the Creative Director, and Scott Geiser, the Senior Gameplay Engineer, responding to questions regarding content updates, faction imbalances, and issues related to hacking and bugs.
Delay in New Content until May Explained
The team clarified that while major updates are planned for May, this doesn’t mean a complete halt in new content. They announced a Public Test Realm (PTR) going live, featuring a group finder to enhance the PvE experience, a new ten-person trial, updated main story quests, and several new artifacts. Additionally, the team is planning events for the Year of the Dragon and updates to existing events’ rewards.
Addressing Aim-Hack and Lock-Target-Hack Concerns
The New World team acknowledged the existence of hacking tools and shared their approach towards combating them. They work closely with Easy Anti-Cheat to detect and ban players using such tools, focusing on in-game measures rather than legal action against third-party websites. The team emphasized that detecting and banning hackers is an ongoing effort and that they are committed to maintaining a fair gaming environment.
Faction Imbalance in Open World
The developers acknowledged the issues of faction imbalance during influence races but pointed out that the data does not show extreme discrepancies in faction sizes. They mentioned that while there are mechanisms to balance factions at a macro level, individual event participation is harder to regulate. They encouraged players to find the influence races rewarding and fun, which could help draw more players to participate actively.
Improving Reward Systems for Replayability
Responding to queries about the game’s reward system, the team confirmed their awareness of the need to update rewards for certain content. They are considering enhancing the replayability and attractiveness of the 10-man and 20-man trials by revising the reward systems. The team also expressed enthusiasm for a gear pattern where items have two fixed perks and a random third, which has been well-received in the community.
Bug Fixes and Quality of Life Improvements
The team addressed the ongoing issues with the main story quest bugs and requested specific details from players to aid in resolving these issues more efficiently. They also discussed the challenges in reproducing these bugs due to the various player states and achievements. The team is committed to fixing these as a priority.
Furthermore, they touched upon the quality of life improvements, such as increasing the number of mutators per cycle and addressing the bug where players can’t see their objectives.