[Megathread] Amazon's New World MMO

[Fencers]

Wasn't able to play much this week but spent a few hours playing this evening again finally, and I have a few questions:

- I just got to standing 10 in Windsward, should I buy my first house (tier 1 obviously) or wait? As far as I can tell the only major perks of tier 2 to 4 are the reduced fast travel cooldown... and its gonna take me a while to get to standing 15, 20 or 30...

- I joined Syndicate early on, but have hardly done any faction quests for them. What does changing faction entail? I'm considering swapping to Covenant. Found the info about this.

Don't buy a house in a town you are not 100% sure you're gonna be working out of for a long time. The discount you get is only for the first house, regardless of the cost or location of the house. Houses scale with bonuses and money.

A shack in a starter town is nothing for the most part. Housing bonuses are global too.

Also it's not hard to get to 20 rep in a territory. It's pretty fast and gets faster as you level and can just drop thousands of materials into town missions and solo rifts/dungeons and so on.

[PACOX]

Did I read correctly that after all this time the game didn't actually have a transfer system. That's not a new MMORPG only having so much content at release problem, thats a fundamental design error. Enough MMORPGs have come out by now to know transfers should be a standard feature. It's how you sustain the game as it goes through its very stages of life and a feature enough players expect (and willing to pay damn near half the price of the game to use...frequently).

They should have had a sub team working on just that feature and how to meld it with core gameplay.


Its like cooking a nice dinner then forgetting you needed plates and silverware after the food was done. AGS is stuck with the turkey still in the over because they have nowhere to put it.

[rhorle]

It's how you sustain the game as it goes through its very stages of life and a feature enough players expect (and willing to pay damn near half the price of the game to use...frequently).

Expecting the entire stages of life to happen with in the first few weeks is amusing. They are working on adding it and have already started adding the framework for the system to the store. Relax. You don't need server transfers day 1 in order to have a healthy game.

[Mojo03]

Wasn't able to play much this week but spent a few hours playing this evening again finally, and I have a few questions:

- I just got to standing 10 in Windsward, should I buy my first house (tier 1 obviously) or wait? As far as I can tell the only major perks of tier 2 to 4 are the reduced fast travel cooldown... and its gonna take me a while to get to standing 15, 20 or 30...

- I joined Syndicate early on, but have hardly done any faction quests for them. What does changing faction entail? I'm considering swapping to Covenant. Found the info about this.

It's worth buying one asap in my opinion.

It's not just a fast travel, it's a fast travel you can use from anywhere (unlike normal fast travel)

AND when it's on cooldown you can spend some azoth to reset its cooldown.

So you can essentially fast travel back to it from where ever and when ever, which is HUGE.

Makes travelling much less of a headache.

[PACOX]

Expecting the entire stages of life to happen with in the first few weeks is amusing. They are working on adding it and have already started adding the framework for the system to the store. Relax. You don't need server transfers day 1 in order to have a healthy game.

But they kind of did need server transfers though. How many people had characters stuck on servers they didn't expect to have long queues? And they are needing to to start issue. People are waiting for transfers just two weeks into the game and AGS even said transfers would be available two weeks into the game. Why ship a game when your backend isn't even in working order?

[Cthulhu 2020]

Imagine the people that no-life'd it.




But let's be real, walking everywhere sucks. Wanna know a secret? At one point in development, it was bandied about movement speed would be tied to weight. I told the devs at Relentless that was a terrible idea.

Here's the thing about this meme: Play time does not indicate how complete a game is. You can get 100 hours out of single player games at best (with a few exceptional outliers), but that's about it. In MMOs, you grind the same content to increase your wealth and your player power since it is a massive multiplayer game. Many people are willing to grind far beyond the point where it stops being fun for this very reason. Part of the appeal of MMOs is that feelign of comparing yourself to others' progress.

So I can very well see someone playing for 300/400 hours and realize "Wow this game has a whole lot of features missing that most brand new MMOs should have." Things like worthwhile time sinks at max level, or straight up end game content. NW feels like a deja vu of Rift. There's somewhat fun but very repetitive content while leveling, and almost nothing to do at end game other than continuing to grind for money and PvP. The repeatable quests for factions and townships both fall into "Kill things" "Collect things from chests" and "kill this boss guy". Hell, most NORMAL quests fall into these 3 categories.

If an MMO does not launch with compelling content to do at end game (or at least a dev post saying that said content will be releasing <4 weeks after launch to allow people to level up at their own pace) then it is an incomplete game. Period. If Amazon thought town ownership PvP would keep lots of people spread over 600 servers engaged, they didn't do their market research.

Other than PvP, there's a shallow gear treadmill involving repeatable dungeons.

But aside from a lack of compelling end game content, it just seem that most people are quitting in the level 30-50 range. Most of them cite repetitive gameplay. And it's true. There's very little variety in this game. Combat with two weapons and three skills each gets old pretty fast to the point where people are telling others to swap their weapons out to spice things up. I shouldn't have to swap weapons to keep things fun. I should want to keep playing my weapon.

But I think the most egregious offender, on top of ultra repetitive quests, is the travel times. I love games with giant sprawling worlds. I dislike having to run 20 minutes to get somewhere, only to have that NPC tell me to run all the way back. Sure, there's fast travel, but it's limited to only traveling to and from very sparse and inconvenient locations.

Was New World worth the $40? Sure. I don't have the inclination to refund the game (although with the amount it makes my video card crash, I was almost inclined to). But I'm probably going to hit 60 and then stop playing and check back in a year and see what they've done with it.

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But they kind of did need server transfers though. How many people had characters stuck on servers they didn't expect to have long queues? And they are needing to to start issue. People are waiting for transfers just two weeks into the game and AGS even said transfers would be available two weeks into the game. Why ship a game when your backend isn't even in working order?

This.

There are many features in MMOs these days that should be considered standard. Especially with a game like New World, server transfers should have been in at the start. I don't get why so many people are willing to give incomplete MMOs a pass just because releasing incomplete games has become standard practice in this day and age.

The one redeeming factor about New World's incompleteness is the lack of sub fee. But I do not doubt that as a buy to play game, there's going to be a $15 monthly membership thing that gives people some shop currency and other boosts.

[Collected]

Does anyone know if there is a set of rules that influences new character start area? I've been trying to spawn on the Windsward beach and the game refuses to let me do it. The other three? No problem. Repeatedly spawning in those areas. Windsward? Forget it. And I'm talking 30 or so spawns. Yes, I'm that bored.

Before anyone replies, yup, I know. I can run to the other beach after the first hand in. But I'm just wondering why the game seemingly never wants to spawn me in Windsward. Is it down to how many players are in the city of each area or have they turned that spawn off due to a bug?

[Collected]

Something that surprised me is a box fee MMO launching with practically an empty store. If your main source of revenue post launch is micro transactions, why launch with a store that has nothing attractive in it to buy? I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting to throw some money at this game in the form of cosmetics, similar to POE. But there's nothing in the store that appeals to me.

[Nyel]

Half-assed thought I had about this game.

I've seen people on /r/newworldgame post stuff like, "I'm an adult with a full time job. I don't have time to play other MMOs, that why I love New World."

Never understood that take because statically most MMORPG players are in their late 20s to late 40s with jobs, anyway. Why play a game that disrespects your time with long ass travel times and monotonous tasks, then? Especially when there's other options on the market? If my free time is limited I'm not spending it in a walking simulator.

There's a lot of reasons why people champion the game, I just think the 'because I have no time' one is weak.

It's just one of the many excuses brought up to defend very questionable design choices in New World. "I don't have time to play other MMORPGs, that's why I am playing New World which lets me run around for 80% of the time, totally disregarding my own time investment."

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Did I read correctly that after all this time the game didn't actually have a transfer system. That's not a new MMORPG only having so much content at release problem, thats a fundamental design error. Enough MMORPGs have come out by now to know transfers should be a standard feature. It's how you sustain the game as it goes through its very stages of life and a feature enough players expect (and willing to pay damn near half the price of the game to use...frequently).

They should have had a sub team working on just that feature and how to meld it with core gameplay.


Its like cooking a nice dinner then forgetting you needed plates and silverware after the food was done. AGS is stuck with the turkey still in the over because they have nowhere to put it.

They are postponing transfers. They eventually might come, but they have postponed them already twice. The new ETA is next week, but they said that one week ago as well.

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If even only one of the devs had played a game like say FFXIV they would've easily known how to add fun time-sinks and evergreen content at end-game without requiring too much resources.

Some of the reviewers pointed one thing out a long time ago: most of the developers of New World are inexperienced with the genre and they are making all the mistakes all the other dead MMOs before them ever made. As soon as I heard the reviewers saying there was nothing to do at end-game a red flag instantly for me went up because this is exactly what made me (and most of the rest of the playerbase) quit them.

This especially is very confusing when the higher ups from New World are (in)famous MMORPG developers. Scott Lane is a senior designer / developer for MMORPGs and he's basically running the project. They have other big names as well. But surprisingly all of these seasoned people never expected these issues or saw that most of their systems are not working at all? It's very confusing, honestly.

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Something that surprised me is a box fee MMO launching with practically an empty store. If your main source of revenue post launch is micro transactions, why launch with a store that has nothing attractive in it to buy? I'm sure I wasn't alone in wanting to throw some money at this game in the form of cosmetics, similar to POE. But there's nothing in the store that appeals to me.

This has been brought up several times as well. The game wants to get funding solely via the in game shop, but the in game shop has nothing that makes you want to buy them. That's why it's so odd that they're sticking to their "no mounts yet" decision. Mounts are one of the biggest generators of cash, next to lootboxes. While I condem the latter, I think mounts in the store is the smartest move from a financial perspective. Basically like ESO does it: give your players the most basic mount models in game while the fancy ones do cost money. I hate this approach, but it clearly works.

[Redwyrm]

This has been brought up several times as well. The game wants to get funding solely via the in game shop, but the in game shop has nothing that makes you want to buy them. That's why it's so odd that they're sticking to their "no mounts yet" decision. Mounts are one of the biggest generators of cash, next to lootboxes. While I condem the latter, I think mounts in the store is the smartest move from a financial perspective. Basically like ESO does it: give your players the most basic mount models in game while the fancy ones do cost money. I hate this approach, but it clearly works.

Unfortunately, in a PVP centric game such as NW, any speed increase would give a huge advantage to whoever has it. And mounts would be a speed increase that if purchasable in the shop would be a pay to win feature in any PVP battles.

Although I do confess to not knowing how PVP works in NW so such a speed boost may be irrelevant?!?

[Nyel]

Unfortunately, in a PVP centric game such as NW, any speed increase would give a huge advantage to whoever has it. And mounts would be a speed increase that if purchasable in the shop would be a pay to win feature in any PVP battles.

Although I do confess to not knowing how PVP works in NW so such a speed boost may be irrelevant?!?

Mounts would be available to everyone inside the game. But you can only get ugly horses by playing the game. Fancy skins like lions, rams, stags or whatever are shop exclusive. That's how ESO makes most of its money, by putting shiny mounts in the store while the only mounts you can earn in game are boring horses. The mounts share the exact same stats or advantages, the visuals (aka "skin") is different.

[UnifiedDivide]

If an MMO does not launch with compelling content to do at end game (or at least a dev post saying that said content will be releasing <4 weeks after launch to allow people to level up at their own pace) then it is an incomplete game. Period.

Player A believes X game does have compelling content for them to do at end game.
Player B believes X game doesn't have compelling content for them to do at end game.

Does the game have compelling end game content?

[Redwyrm]

Mounts would be available to everyone inside the game. But you can only get ugly horses by playing the game. Fancy skins like lions, rams, stags or whatever are shop exclusive. That's how ESO makes most of its money, by putting shiny mounts in the store while the only mounts you can earn in game are boring horses. The mounts share the exact same stats or advantages, the visuals (aka "skin") is different.

Gotcha. I thought you meant mounts in general. If it is just skins then no biggie.

[kenn9530]

Did I read correctly that after all this time the game didn't actually have a transfer system. That's not a new MMORPG only having so much content at release problem, thats a fundamental design error. Enough MMORPGs have come out by now to know transfers should be a standard feature. It's how you sustain the game as it goes through its very stages of life and a feature enough players expect (and willing to pay damn near half the price of the game to use...frequently).

They should have had a sub team working on just that feature and how to meld it with core gameplay.


Its like cooking a nice dinner then forgetting you needed plates and silverware after the food was done. AGS is stuck with the turkey still in the over because they have nowhere to put it.

You do realise the game was designed to be a set community per server right, they didnt want players to just freely jump servers whenever they wanted, and we are still getting server transfers, server transfers should not really be a thing, they should only be available when really needed and we are still getting them when they are suitable to implement.

Even if someone says something will be ready in 2 weeks, there is no guarantee that it will be ready especially in a game, you do know things dont always go as planned especially in game development.

[rhorle]

Unfortunately, in a PVP centric game such as NW, any speed increase would give a huge advantage to whoever has it. And mounts would be a speed increase that if purchasable in the shop would be a pay to win feature in any PVP battles.

That is pretty easy to fix. Have a cooldown with mounting. Can't do it in combat, can't do it X mins after combat. Give us items to "Catch" a mounted person. It could even be limited to roads. Mounts (or any speed boost) only work when on roads.

I would love mounts, or something, to increase speed but I'd also simply be happy with a a "flight path". An auto-travel that can happen while AFK. I don't care if it takes 10 or 15 mins it would be worth the savings in Azoth to travel between a town. And there are zones you can't capture for the fast travel discount. There are lots of things they could do that would have little impact on PvP.

[Nerph-]

Thanks @kenn9530 @Fencers and @Mojo03 for the housing advice. I might wait a little bit and see how fast getting from 10 to 20 standing takes, if I feel it's going too slow (comes down to how much I play, what I do etc, all those variables) then I'll just get a tier 1 house I suppose. Nothing hurt by waiting a bit either way I guess

[Fencers]

Thanks @kenn9530 @Fencers and @Mojo03 for the housing advice. I might wait a little bit and see how fast getting from 10 to 20 standing takes, if I feel it's going too slow (comes down to how much I play, what I do etc, all those variables) then I'll just get a tier 1 house I suppose. Nothing hurt by waiting a bit either way I guess

Make sure you can afford the taxes weekly too. Also, be in a faction/company that is consistently winning the war where you want to have a house. Some of the higher level zones are not controlled by any company. Keep that in mind.

You can get royally screwed on the taxes week to week depending on where you live.

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If an MMO does not launch with compelling content to do at end game (or at least a dev post saying that said content will be releasing <4 weeks after launch to allow people to level up at their own pace) then it is an incomplete game. Period.

Nah, this is total bullshit.

[kenn9530]

Yeah, people expect content, how insane is that. Totally their fault there they are not staying for... nothing.

It's not about WoW, it's about blaming players for corporate development studio fuckups. Yeah, guess what - if you don't put content that makes people stay, they don't stay - crazy how that works.

I'd hope the studios would learn that one after so many MMOs crashed and burned exactly on this very same problem.

New World has plenty of content, you could say it has more to do than what WoW releases in a new expansion, its been weeks and most players are not max level in new world, NW is not just about what there is to do at max level and there is a fair amount to do if you want to get the best gear in the game from crafting.

[Nerph-]

Make sure you can afford the taxes weekly too. Also, be in a faction/company that is consistently winning the war where you want to have a house. Some of the higher level zones are not controlled by any company. Keep that in mind.

You can get royally screwed on the taxes week to week depending on where you live.

Good point. Right now I'm not either in a company, or a faction winning much... Syndicate on my server has a zone or 2 but it seems Covenant is the major player.

And when it comes to companies, there are no English speaking ones on either Syndicate or Covenant on my server... looks like I'll be moving off once the long awaited transfers arrive.

[Fencers]

Who the heck is doing the taxing on houses, anyway?

Even the most unexplored, savage, wild lands have bureaucrats and HOA's I guess.

Well, to be fair. The colonists were pretty bureaucratic when the Americas and Caribbean were being exploited by Europeans.

As a gaming system, this sucks. Well, I guess it sucked IRL too. But ya'know.

I wish there was a way to vote out companies in this game. There are companies that totally exploit the tax situation and don't do shit to improve the town. Windsward is a goddamn ghetto on my server. Brightwood, almost as bad. The guild that is controlling First Light are assholes too.

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Good point. Right now I'm not either in a company, or a faction winning much... Syndicate on my server has a zone or 2 but it seems Covenant is the major player.

And when it comes to companies, there are no English speaking ones on either Syndicate or Covenant on my server... looks like I'll be moving off once the long awaited transfers arrive.

Taxes will be double after the first week, btw. So be ready. Owning a house is a rich man's game. Just like the US IRL, I guess.