Amazon Game Studios revealed during the PC Gaming Show that New World will have its beta launch on July 23. To mark the occasion, MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowsi conducted an interview with David Verfaillie, Head of Player Experience. They talked about what the team learned during the alpha and what lies ahead.
The interview includes information about:
- What the team learned during the alpha
- Why more lore and quests came to New World
- Why PvE arenas were adjusted in difficulty
- Details on how players are chosen for a PvP war
- Why balancing New World will be so challenging
- The start of the beta and how you can participate
In the alpha, the team learned that players want more quests
What you need to know about New World is that the game was originally supposed to be a survival sandbox game. A strict forced PvP with full loot and no mercy was planned. However, during the very first alpha tests, developers realized that experienced players sought out new players as easy targets. They took pleasure in killing them and ruining the fun for others. Amazon changed New World from a sandbox survival game to an open-world MMO with additional PvE content.
Of course, I was initially curious about everything that happened during the alpha.
MeinMMO: What has changed since the alpha, what feedback have you received, what data have you collected, and what will happen before the beta launch?
David Verfaillie: “Having the alpha was extremely useful. MMOs are massive games with many interconnecting systems. Therefore, it is very difficult to foresee how everything will play out in the end. You cannot test everything; you need to let the players in. Some of the big things we discovered were larger exploits that we would never have discovered on our own. Players are extremely clever and find things that we developers could have never foreseen. For example, how to level up or get gold faster than intended. […]
Another major aspect is balancing. One thing we really love about our game is the classless progression system. By choosing your weapons and armor, you can essentially create your own class. With the weapon mastery system, you can even specialize further. With so many options, of course, it is very difficult to balance the game. The alpha was a critical factor in this process.
And the third thing we learned is what players like about our game, what they don’t like, and what they want more of. We found out that players enjoy quests and therefore delivered more and more of them at the start of the alpha. We are still an open-world MMO with […] the appropriate open-world systems like territory control, player-driven economy, and housing. But we also wanted direct content like quests. That’s why we created a story questline that introduces you to the story of the world. The various territories in the world also have such quests. We only learned this from the players and then implemented it accordingly.”
Already in February, before the global pandemic lockdowns, I visited the Amazon Game Studios in the USA. Here I had the opportunity to gain a first impression of New World and immediately noticed the tedious “fetch quests,” in which I mostly just ran back and forth. The developer explained how they adjusted the quests even during the alpha.
David Verfaillie: “We did two things [with the quests]:
- One is that we have added more story to the quests. The quests now tell more about the island, why people are there, what the history of the island is. We spent quite some time on storytelling. That’s a big deal.
- The second major innovation is that we create quests with long event chains. There’s a staff quest, which you need to interact with the Corrupted Breaches and close them. To get the staff, you now have to go through a long quest chain. We also have long, multi-part quests to find specific legendary items.
These were the major changes we made to the quests.”
David explained to me that there are still lore books in the world, which give experience points when collected. This is intended to incentivize players to discover the documents scattered throughout the open world.
Amazon had to increase difficulty as players learn quickly
Several open questions about already introduced systems were still swirling in my mind. I often read these questions on MeinMMO or in other forums discussing New World.
MeinMMO: A while ago, you published something about the Spriggan, which appears in the arena. Some people are now wondering whether the Spriggan is the only monster type in the arena or if there will be more?
David Verfaillie: “At launch, the Spriggan will be our only arena boss. However, we have a few open-world bosses, like the corrupted commander or the priest. So there are more bosses, but the only arena boss at launch will be the Spriggan. It’s a cool boss fight with multiple phases. It can heal itself and stretch its limbs to reach you. For now, that’s the only boss there, but we will definitely expand on that.”
“The players out there are so much better than us at this game”
MeinMMO: It sounds pretty cool to have a world boss where you can just jump into a fight without all the fuss.
David Verfaillie: “Yes, I think the arena is a lot of fun. It makes you feel almost like a gladiator in the middle of this epic fight. We had a lot of fun fighting the Spriggan and it’s cool to watch the players learn the fight.
You asked what we learned during the alpha. One of the things I learned is that, damn, the players out there are so much better than us at this game. We adjusted the Spriggan so that it seemed very hard for us. And then there was a forum post recently about how a group of 5 max-level players defeated it in 1:30 minutes.
The players learn new tricks, find the best gear, and do some pretty incredible things. So we learn from them and will even make the Spriggan harder to maintain the challenge.”
I was interested in when players would encounter difficult boss opponents like the Spriggan. David explained that this would already be the case from level 20. So, it becomes relatively quick to advance into elite areas. Early in the game, there is already a grizzly bear that is considered one of the tough monsters. To conquer it, a group and cleverness are required. The bear belongs to one of the four enemy families in New World.
Those who want to declare war depend on the governor’s goodwill
Some features of war, meaning the massive battles, are still somewhat nebulous to me. Especially the selection of people for the war left me with a few question marks, and I know that I’m not alone in this.
MeinMMO: We know how the war works: There is a governor who selects 50 players for the PvP battle. Some people have asked how that works in detail. Will the governor always only choose his friends, or can solo players also join the fight without an invitation? Or how does it work?
David Verfaillie: “The way it works is that when war is declared, a war station appears in the town. And anyone who belongs to the corresponding attacking or defending faction can sign up to be either an attacker or a defender. So anyone can sign up who belongs to the appropriate faction.
Then the governor receives the list of all registered players and can select who he wants to help defend. I think governors are interested in maintaining control. Therefore, I think it is in their interest to choose players who they believe can best help in defense or attack. They will often choose people they know or high-level players.
Players who want to join but are not part of that can start their own company and declare war. Anyone can do that. And then they have control over who gets to choose and who goes to war.”
In PvE wars, chance decides who goes into battle
MeinMMO: Now I have to imagine the player who is never chosen saying: “I will now start my own company and then I will attack you!”
David Verfaillie: “That’s pretty much what we hope for. In New World, in an open-world MMO, we want to have that kind of gameplay, and instead of creating many different roles, we give players the tools to determine their own fate. So declare your own war and choose your own team.
The other thing I want to mention is the invasions. I think you have seen them in the game. It’s the PvE version of the war where the Corrupted send their army against the players.
This is an opportunity for everyone to participate. The defending governor can select 10 people for the army, but the remaining 40 players will be randomly chosen from all who sign up. It’s a good way for players to get into the war. It’s somewhat less stressful because it’s against AI. So, it’s an opportunity for everyone to get in, play with siege weapons, and see what it’s like to defend a castle.”
MeinMMO: Let’s say there’s a group of people who have now started their own company. They are still at a low level. Now anyone can declare war. What happens when there’s a company that is already large and has good players declares war on a small company that is not very advanced? How does it work from a balance perspective? Is that even possible?
David Verfaillie: “Currently, there are no restrictions in that regard. So anyone can declare war on anyone. What we have implemented, however, is that when you control an area, you must set a time window, thus a war period. This is the period during which other companies can attack you.
The reason for this is that we do not want offline raiding, which exists in other games, and we want it to be a fair fight. So a time is set and that’s it. If you are a defending company controlling multiple areas, you may only set one time window.
This means that the more you spread out, the fewer people from your own circle of friends you can use for each war if you are being attacked in multiple places at the same time. We wanted to mimic real wars where: The more you spread out, the more borders you have to defend and the more dangerous it becomes for you.
And as we have experienced in history, if you try to grow too big too quickly, you usually fall apart again.”
Achieving the perfect balance at launch won’t happen
- PvE wars, PvP massive battles, boss arenas.
- Building economy and cities. Gaining land.
- A comprehensive progression system with weapons as classes, attributes, consumables that grant buffs.
- Open world with hidden lore and “Points of Interest”.
New World contains a lot now. I began to wonder how players should learn all of this. Turns out, the progress of your character is closely tied to the design of your equipment.
MeinMMO: We talked about progress, and I remember that you wanted to introduce players slowly to new features. What does that look like?
David Verfaillie: “It starts very early in the game. The gearing and progression part of MMOs is such an essential part of the games. It’s one of the things that players love so much. They see the steady progress of their characters. Therefore, our gear progression starts very early and includes many different elements.
One of the more important elements is what we call “perks.” These are random attributes that can be rolled for the equipment, and you can have up to three of them. Low-level armor will have no perks or only one perk, while later in the game, players get the opportunity to receive more and stronger perks. But we introduce the system to players early on. The perks are a way to specialize and enhance your gear.
Another system that we use and that is quite new is socketing gemstones in weapons and armor. When you have equipment with sockets, you can pull it out and mine gemstones. And there’s a crafting tree for gemstones with skills that allow you to refine the stones and add them to your equipment.
This allows you to make weapons and armor even stronger by adding various attribute bonuses. This starts quite early in the game. You can also craft gemstones at a low level, and they will level up just like the weapons do.”
MeinMMO: It sounds like a paradise for people who like to experiment with their builds, but also like a balancing hell considering all the various mechanics and elements of the game. With different weapons, with gemstones, with bonuses from consumables, and so on. How can you maintain balance there?
David Verfaillie: “It’s extremely difficult to keep this game balanced correctly. As you said, there are tons of flexible components in the system. We have the armor, we have weapon mastery, we have all the consumables like food and potions, and it’s a system without classes. This means players can choose their own combinations, and the possibilities are nearly endless. So it’s very challenging to keep balance within the game.
What we’ve done is let the alpha run for about 18 weeks now. We receive new data every week and continuously adjust it to the desired balance. I wish I could promise that we’ll achieve perfect balance at launch, but that won’t happen. It will be good, and the gameplay will be fun, but I think we’ll always be committed to continually adjusting it.”
MeinMMO: Finally, a question that might induce a chuckle. Do you remember an exploit from the alpha that was really surprising and funny?
David Verfaillie: “Okay, this might not be super funny, but it’s one of those things nobody expected. In our game, you can send money to other players. So if you have a friend who just started and you want to give him some gold, you can do that. One of the players discovered an exploit. If you sent someone a negative amount of gold, the number overflowed, and they received 800 billion or so.
Fortunately, we raised the alarm immediately when this happened, but during the alpha, there were still some people who were very wealthy for a while.”
MeinMMO: That would have been madness for the economy. Thank you for the interview and your time. We’ll see each other again at the latest in the beta.
David Verfaillie: “It was a pleasure talking to you, Leya.”
Note: The interview has been slightly shortened. Parts of the conversation have been allocated to a MeinMMO news article about the beta launch. You can read about the goals of New World’s beta there:
New World: Beta start date is known – here’s how to participateBeta start date is known
At the PC Gaming Show, the date for the closed beta was announced. To mark the occasion, MeinMMO conducted the interview with David Verfaillie.
When does the beta start? On Thursday, July 23.
Who can participate? On the official New World website, you can register for the beta. Pre-order customers of New World will automatically take part in the closed beta.
The launch will be bumpy, but New World has great potential
New World has been a new open-world MMO from the West for a long time. A large influx of players is to be expected. Experienced MMO players know that there will be technical problems. Server capacities often reach their limits.
In addition, New World is expected to be huge in its systems. Balancing PvE and PvP, the many random possibilities in the equipment, the nearly endless options for developing weapons as classes – this will still be unbalanced at the beginning.
However, this is where the great potential of New World lies. Especially players who love to tinker with their build and create their perfect equipment will have a lot of joy here. Because the MMO invites you to experiment – just like to discover the open world. There is no other game I’m more excited about in 2020 than New World.
Leya Jankowski
Brand Manager | Part of the editorial team
