The new update “Heart of Madness” for New World was recently released and brought a lot of new content. Creative Director David Verfaillie answered our questions and also revealed that complaining won’t do much good.
What does the update bring? With Heart of Madness, New World receives its biggest update yet. Many general improvements await you, but the update also includes a new weapon, the “Thunder Rifle”.
However, the highlight is the new dungeon “Heart of the Storm Winds”. The expedition is aimed at endgame players and also concludes the story surrounding the antagonist Isabella, whom you must defeat in the final fight of the dungeon. For some players, it is even the best update New World has ever received.
The highlights of the new update are, besides the dungeon:
- The new weapon “Thunder Rifle”, which targets mid-range to close range and scales with Intelligence.
- Some quality-of-life improvements and adjustments.
- New loot for endgame.
MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch has already played the patch and tells you whether a return to the MMORPG is worth it. You will also learn more details about the dungeon itself and the new weapon in the article.
What kind of interview is this? In the lead-up to this major update, we had the chance to ask David Verfaillie, Creative Director at Amazon Games Studio, some questions about “Heart of Madness”.
It also turns out that some criticism of the studio is apparently completely unfounded and that your personal opinion about the balancing usually doesn’t make a difference at all.
“We really tried to focus on the story”
MeinMMO: The new patch brings a new expedition with “Heart of the Storm Winds”. What do you think are the strengths of this dungeon and what are the differences to those you brought to the game before?
David Verfaillie: With “Heart of the Storm Winds,” we really tried to focus on the story. The expedition conveys its narrative primarily through the environment itself. This allows us to dive deep into Isabella’s thoughts. Additionally, you will meet more NPCs in the expedition and encounter more dialogues than in the previous dungeons.
At the end of the expedition, there is a really cool, illustrated cutscene that summarizes Isabella’s entire story and gives a glimpse of what may come next.
MeinMMO: Which mechanics or fights in the new expedition do you find particularly successful?
David Verfaillie: My favorite fight is the last one, against Isabella herself. Players will see and fight her several times during the expedition, but it is only in the final battle that she takes on her ultimate form. She looks simply amazing with her wings and has some spectacular attacks. This also underscores the true power of corruption.
As for the mechanics, I love that we incorporated the towers into the defense against the Void Destroyers. This is a really fun part of the dungeon that loosens up the otherwise monotonous gameplay.
“The real challenge comes when we mutate the dungeon”
MeinMMO: How difficult is the new dungeon in direct comparison to the previous expeditions?
David Verfaillie: Our goal was to keep the difficulty of the expedition roughly the same level as that of the other endgame dungeons. We want as many players as possible to be able to actually play the new expedition.
The real challenge comes when we mutate the expedition. In the testing phase, the base expedition was a bit harder than we actually wanted. In the final release, we adjusted that in some areas.
MeinMMO: In your roadmap, you have already provided a glimpse into the future of New World. Can you tell me when the “Heart of the Storm Winds” dungeon, or one of the older ones, will get the mutations you announced in January?
David Verfaillie: In general, we wait about one to two weeks before we mutate a brand new expedition. We want to give players the chance to enjoy and better familiarize themselves with the normal dungeon.
Yes, we still plan to mutate lower-level expeditions and bring them into the endgame, just as we did with the “Dynasty’s Shipworth”. Next, we will mutate “The Depths”. We have just begun working on it, so it will take a few months before it is released.
“It was unfair that they had to build or buy ammunition”
MeinMMO: You decided to make ammunition for ranged weapons optional. What was the reason for this change? Are you afraid that this might cause some engineers to lose a source of income?
David Verfaillie: There are essentially two main reasons for this change:
- A) The requirement for ranged players to have to use ammunition led to dissatisfaction among them. This was primarily due to the fact that they needed to buy or craft ammunition and constantly manage their inventory.
- B) It was unfair that they had to build or buy ammunition while other weapons did not have this issue. While we understand that it might slightly affect engineers’ income, many engineers use ranged weapons themselves. They will also benefit from the changes and can still craft better ammunition to utilize its bonuses.
MeinMMO: Currently, there is a discussion about whether wars for territories should be fought in 40v40 or 50v50. What led to the idea of reducing the number of participants?
David Verfaillie: The goal of this change was primarily the gameplay of the wars themselves. We felt it could lead to less “Zerg” tactics and provide better opportunities for strategies and smaller skirmishes. We ourselves had more fun with the smaller number of players.
However, we have received feedback from hardcore players who likely represent a large portion of the war participants. They said they would rather not lose 20 participants in the war than potentially improve the overall gameplay for the remaining 80.
So we have paused this change for now, until we find further ways to allow more people to participate in wars if they wish.
“Personal opinions normally do not influence our balancing decisions”
MeinMMO: There is always criticism from the forum or reddit that you focus too much on personal opinions when it comes to balancing decisions. For example, there were some changes to the axe. How exactly does the balancing process work in New World? Can you give us some insights?
David Verfaillie: Balancing in New World is driven by the meta. When we see that large groups of players are using specific builds, we take a closer look. We calculate the build and check the details in the backend to ensure that nothing is overpowering.
If we find something we don’t like, we make some adjustments, as we did with the “Cursed Gloves”.
Personal opinions normally do not influence our balancing decisions. Unless they show us a bug or something we hadn’t considered.
What do you think about the new update? Are you as excited about the Heart of Madness as a large part of the fans, or do you see it differently? What do you think about David Verfaillie’s statements? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments here on MeinMMO.
