Amazon’s new MMO New World will be released in August. Information about the large PvP battles raises the question of whether solo players will also have fun with it. We are looking into this.
Here’s what’s currently happening: In New World, fortress battles play an important role. These were detailed in a blog post at the beginning of May.
Based on impressions, there are now discussions about whether solo players can actually experience the epic sieges. Because participating could prove to be difficult, at least some users on Reddit think so.
However, they only focus on statements from the developers in videos or blog posts. There are no exact details since New World is currently in development and will only be released in August 2020. At this point, we still do not know how the release version will ultimately look and what features it will have.
For solo players, it is still an important question whether they can experience the siege battles alone. We have summarized the current sentiment on this.
Guild Leaders Determine Participants in the Siege
How do sieges work? The process of fortress battles was explained in detail in the blog post. Notably, the leader of the company controlling the fortress can decide alone who participates in the battle:
- A company (guild) declares war on another.
- The defenders set the date and time for the war.
- All players, regardless of whether they belong to the company or not, can sign up for the battle at the notice board.
- The governor of a company, that is, the leader of a guild, decides which of the 50 registered players will participate in the battle.
- Players from the third faction, which is not actually involved in the war, can also register for participation.
This sounds at first like in other online games, where the guild or raid leader assembles the respective raid and decides who can join. But unlike in World of Warcraft, there is no raid finder for solo players here.
What some players fear: The reddit user OstensiblyChicken writes in a thread that hardly any solo player will ever witness the large PvP battles in the game. He cites the following reasons:
- That battles only take place at most every 4 days at a fort.
- That the governor will most likely select the 50 best players, as well as notably more members of his guild from the registrants.
This could lead to players who do not want to join a guild and thus can hardly make a name for themselves with the governors being excluded.
In the thread, some users agree with these fears. They see too much power in the hands of a single player.
What do the counterarguments say? However, other users do not share these concerns. The Common-Scientist points out that there is more than just one fortress in New World, and players could disperse accordingly.
There is a chance that a guild that does not reach the full 50 members may depend on the help of solo players.
The user Talyonn, on the other hand, sees many advantages in the system:
If you really want to participate in such a battle, then you join a guild. If you’re just there to try out a siege and disappear after the first death to chop trees and let others assemble the battle, then you shouldn’t participate […].
It’s a harsh system, but it rewards the involved players and serves as a goal for casual players at the same time. It is not difficult to participate in such events if you really want to.
These are Alternatives for Solo Players
If you do not want to focus on the sieges in PvP, but still want to participate in epic battles, you can dive into the PvE invasions.
These generally run similar to the PvP sieges, but have special rules that make it easier for solo players:
- The governor of the defending guild can only select 10 players for the invasion. The other 40 will be randomly drawn from all other registrants.
In the siege, you must then fight 8 waves of PvE opponents, defend your fortress, and in the end, you will receive great rewards.
What else is there to do? The game world of New World also offers solo players some additional tasks through which you can farm equipment and prepare for the endgame:
- Complete quests to level up your hero.
- Explore the game world to discover rare resources.
- Craft your own weapons and equipment.
- Build the cities with other players.
- Participate in open world events against the Corrupted.
Also the arenas to fight difficult bosses are part of the PvE content. However, these are intended as a group activity. For solo players, it should currently be difficult to win in arenas.
Currently, New World is still in an alpha phase, under an NDA. How everything will unfold in detail and whether the fears are justified will likely show only with the start of the beta, planned for July 2020.
