New World has introduced a new feature: the Umbral Shards. This is a new item system that allows the strongest players to upgrade their equipment from 600 to 625. There are already heated discussions about it on reddit. Some fear that the system could make the “most powerful 0.5%” even more powerful, while the rest fall behind.
What kind of system is this?
- The “Umbral Shards” are a new upgrade item that will come to New World with the new January patch.
- The system works so that players can gradually increase the gear score of individual items from 600 up to a cap of 625 using the shards.
- For each new level of the item, more shards are required than for the previous one; several thousand shards are needed to upgrade an item to 625, especially at higher levels the costs increase enormously.
This is how you get the shards: There are said to be 3 ways to acquire these shards:
- Through PvE, from dungeons with mutations, which is basically the “New World+” content
- From crafting, when you create an item with gear score 600, provided you also have 600 expertise with that item
- When you open a gypsum cast for an equipment slot that is already at 600 expertise
“Forced Grind” that disadvantages 95% of players
This is the criticism of the system: On reddit a frequent player criticizes the new system. He says it only benefits those who are already among the richest and strongest players in New World and who possess 600 gear everywhere.
These would be the “powerful” of a server, who also own a territory through which they earn large amounts of money.
The vast majority on a server, however, would not have such good items and therefore would not benefit from the system.
“This system is absolutely detrimental to 95% of players who are likely already falling behind and who do not own a territory and do not have the best possible equipment.”
A user on reddit
The system is criticized as “another forced grind for the top 0.5%” that will not help bring players back. The system is only made for the benefit of those who already have such a lead over others – plus, it would devalue all items that are not at gear level 600.
Furthermore, the shards are also counter-intuitive, since you have to play PvE to get them – but the items would then bring significant advantages in PvP. There should at least be a way to earn them in PvP as well.
Are there other opinions as well: Yes, one user says: the complaint is just the typical whining of reddit users who are falling behind – as usual.
Others say: this is just the concept for the test server for now, maybe something will change.
What’s behind this: This is indeed an interesting question of design philosophy. In many established MMORPGs, it is common to allow players who are falling behind to catch up by toning down content that yields good gear or by implementing other “catch-up mechanisms” before giving new toys to those at the front.
Cortyn once wrote, that the whole World of Warcraft has become a “catch-up” mechanism. Especially World of Warcraft is known for frequently enabling players to catch up so that frequent players never “run too far ahead.”
In New World, the new maximum level for equipment and further improvements come very quickly. Apparently, New World is reacting to the complaints of frequent players – like Twitch streamer shroud – that there is nothing more to do and quickly brings improvements here by modifying existing content.
However, this can’t be a comprehensive solution in such a short time – that would be completely new content, but is only a temporary workaround that also sparks discussions.
Overall, there is a large discussion about the new patch in January:
