New World Talks PvP And Faction Balance, Wealth Transfers Back Online
It’s been a rough month for Amazon Game Studios following the launch of New World due to persistent launch issues and having to quash exploit after exploit after exploit. The studio, however, has temporarily shifted the spotlight away from the recent gold duping exploits to talk about the current status and issues surrounding PvP, War, and territory control in a new dev blog.
“I know there have been some serious lag issues in War and a number of exploits (including the invulnerability exploits) that have marred your experience,” said Amazon Creative Director Zin Ramu. “We’ve made an initial set of changes to address some of the issues, and are working on some higher impact changes that need more testing. It is a top priority for the team to get war to a stable, performant state where the skill and coordination of the best team determines the outcome.”
Unlike most MMORPG’s PvP isn’t forced on players in New World, in fact it’s entirely possible to reach level cap without killing a single player or even a single mob. The team’s vision, however, is to create a game where PvP and PvE go hand in hand and not only co-exist but also support each other. “We also want ‘wars not ganks’ — meaning we want to support meaningful PvP in War and the open world conflict between the three Factions,” said Ramu.
To realize this vision, the team is looking into improving the benefits of participating in open world PvP, especially in the end game. Players can expect to see an increase in luck and a reduction in the durability damage to gear when flagged for PvP in the short term and changes to rewards for PvP kills a little ways down the road.
As for War, Ramu says that this week’s patch should resolve the lag and exploits that have been ruining the experience for players. The devs will also be constantly monitoring Wars to ensure that they remain balanced. “Defenders are winning more often than attackers which is what we want (currently defenders win around 80% win of wars). We want to reward defending companies that build up their ranks and upgrade their forts. But we will keep an eye on balance as we resolve the major exploits and make sure that both sides have a fighting chance.”
On the subject of balance, while there are a few servers dominated by the Syndicate of the Marauders, Ramu reports that they’re still seeing a good spread between different Factions on majority of the servers due to the systems that help maintain faction balance.
“We allow players to switch Factions, but don’t allow them to switch into the dominate Faction. We also increase the influence underdog factions earn for PvP faction missions to give them a better chance at earning the right to declare war, but we may need to do more,” he said. “We are watching Faction balance on all the servers and if it becomes a general problem we have a few ideas to help resolve it in interesting ways.”
The devs are also planning to make changes to how tax incomes work to ensure that income is generated more or less equally across all territories. New PvP mission types will also be coming soon to add more variety and help spread PvP out to multiple locations.
Meanwhile, wealth transfers are back online in Aeternum following last night’s update despite player reports that the gold duping exploit still exists. Amazon, however, insists that it’s been fixed and warns players against trying it. Compensation is also in the works.
“It does not look like the dupe actually exists in the way folks are reporting, but to be sure, none of you should attempt using this because even an attempt, once it hits our exploit threshold, will trigger a suspension/ban,” wrote the devs on the official forums. “We are confident we can address the gold and the items, as well as take action on those who used the exploit.”
