New World has announced the first server merger. This adjustment is eagerly awaited by many players to finally move away from empty servers. Which servers are affected, when the merger takes place, and how it works exactly, we will explain in this article.
Which servers will be merged? The European server Mardi will transition into the server Brittia. Since December 4th, you can no longer transfer to either of these two servers.
The merger will take place on December 8th at 4:00 PM German time.
How does such a server merger work? The small server X (in this case Mardi) is integrated into the larger server Y (Brittia). All progress such as level, gold, items, factions, or companies will remain intact.
However, the world will remain in the version that currently exists on server Y (Brittia). This applies to the state of events, upgrades of settlements, and ownership of the different territories.
Which worlds will be merged in the future? There is currently no information on which worlds will be merged in the future. However, the developers have revealed the criteria for such a merge:
To determine whether a world is unhealthy, we look at several factors, including population size and overall activity. Once we determine that a world needs to be merged, we compare it with existing worlds in the world set to find the optimal partner world by comparing elements such as faction, play style, and language. Merging within a set means that a US-West world can never be merged with a US-East world, but a US-West world could be merged with another US-West world.
According to the FAQ, future server mergers will always be scheduled for Wednesdays to avoid any potential maintenance with the patch. This also effectively means that content updates will be released on Thursdays, such as the upcoming patch 1.2:
Server merger is currently a big wish in the community
Why are the merges so important? Since the release, New World has significantly lost player numbers. However, the developers opened dozens of new servers directly at launch. This now leads to some worlds having very few players left.
But too few players lead to problems, such as in the fight for territories. Therefore, many players hope that their empty servers will be integrated into larger servers before Christmas, so they can at least play properly over the holidays.
However, there is a concern shared by players, including Twitch streamer Shroud. Players from smaller servers could significantly disrupt the economy on the new server. They keep all their previous items, and it should be easier to hoard thousands of items on smaller servers.
More on this can be found here:
Twitch streamer explains that an “inevitable problem” is looming for New World
