New World Season 2 is here, and it brings a wave of thrilling changes to Amazon's popular MMORPG. In this guide, we'll delve into the latest updates, including the Invasion rework, Company Housing, Siege Weapon Buffs, and changes to Outpost Rush (OPR). Season 2 is all about refining the player experience and introducing exciting new features to keep adventurers engaged and entertained. Whether you're a seasoned player or just stepping into the world of Aeternum, this guide will help you navigate the evolving landscape of New World. 

 

• Recent News Update
• New World Future
• Season Pass Quests & Aptitude
• Invasion Rework Soon
• Improved company system & progression
• PTR Improvements
• Animation improvements
• Company Housing
• Siege Weapon Buffs
• OPR changes in S2
• Are new perks in perk rework?
• Expedition Cap, Sandworm Trial
• War Attackers & Defender Limit
• Season 2 Activity Cards
• Furniture Rarity
• Matchmaking in OPR
• Raids & Mutation changes

 

 

Additionally, there are plans to make some changes to siege weapons, improve the scoring system and game modes, and increase the strategic options for tanks in the upcoming OPR refresh. The game developers are committed to refining the game animations gradually over time. While company housing is still a consideration for the long term, it could integrate well with the season lecture. The New World is constantly evolving, and the game developers are working tirelessly to make it better with every update.

 

↖ Recent News Update

A flurry of news and information has been circulating about upcoming content in the past few days. Let's delve right into it. Firstly, some updates that could be more relevant to the upcoming content. The issue with leaderboard rewards is currently being addressed, and notifications and other related matters are temporarily suspended until a full resolution has been reached. 

 

Additionally, the restriction on character creation on servers has been lifted, which is good news for those who have been waiting for this change since the transfers out of fresh start were permitted. This change allows players to have multiple characters on one server, with one designated as their dedicated PvP or war character. This is particularly beneficial for those who wish to transfer characters from other servers to a fresh start or merge characters from different servers. However, trading between characters will still require the assistance of another player.

 

↖ New World Future

Today, let's delve into significant insights regarding the future of the New World. Recently, a developer Q&A session took place on Discord, with numerous noteworthy responses that we are excited to discuss.

 

↖ Season Pass Quests & Aptitude

Regarding the first question from Ragna Forge about whether there will be more story quests for the current or upcoming seasons, the response was that a new storyline would be added in Season 2 with a silver cross. While they don't have more details to share at this time, they have taken feedback from Season 1 into consideration, particularly regarding the desire for a longer story questline. However, there currently needs to be plans to unlock more story quests throughout the season. The focus is on bringing bigger and better storylines with each expansion, but there is a subgroup of the community that primarily cares about single-player quests.

The next question was about whether there will be an aptitude for the season pass that goes beyond level 100. While the team is interested in this idea for future seasons, it will not be implemented in Seasons 1 or 2. Some players like the idea of being rewarded for continuing to use activity cards, even after they have completed their season pass, while others find it frustrating when games introduce a stretch goal that requires grinding excessively for a super special reward. If an aptitude is implemented, the hope is that the reward will be something useful world, such as XP, gold, or faction tokens.

 

↖ Invasion Rework Soon

The game developers have announced that they will be making changes to invasions to enhance the overall experience. These changes will be implemented in season 2, which is sooner than many players expected. The developers are aiming to streamline the invasion experience, reduce downtime, and increase action. The changes include a significant reduction in pre-match time, shorter invasion duration, and shorter earlier waves with increased intensity.

 

While players have been hoping for a bigger overhaul in difficulty and rewards, these changes are seen as a positive start. Previously, players had to endure a long period of waiting at the start of an invasion, which made it less engaging. With the new changes, this downtime has been removed, resulting in a smoother ramp in difficulty.

 

One of the reasons players avoided invasions was the extended periods of inactivity. These changes are expected to make invasions more accessible and engaging for players who were previously deterred by the long wait times. While the developers have not made any promises regarding mutated invasions or better rewards, players are optimistic that these changes will lead to more significant improvements in the future.

 

↖ Improved company system & progression

The question about improving the guild system received an interesting response. The company has several improvements planned for both big and small systems. One of the improvements is the addition of a transaction lock for the treasury, which has been a popular request since the launch. They also plan to increase membership limits, but they need to balance this with the number of regions a single company can hold and work out some backend technical issues before making any changes. The maximum limit is predicted to be around 125 or 150 members in the longer term.

 

In addition, the company wants to create a company progression system that will allow leaders to set goals and track contributions from each member. Quality-of-life items will be released to players by the end of 2023, but larger items will have to wait until after the cross-world activity finder feature is complete around the holidays. The team is working on these improvements, so it may take some time for them to be implemented.

 

Some of the features, such as the transaction log and member limit increase, would be useful to have early on, while others, such as the company progression system, are more long-term and exciting to look forward to. The company progression system could also be interesting for tracking PvP activity, such as territory purchase pushes. However, given that there will be an overhaul to the territory system, these pushes may look different by the time the company progression system is released. Overall, there are exciting improvements planned for the company system and progression, and many players are looking forward to their implementation.

 

↖ PTR Improvements

Improvements to PTR (Public Test Realm) are in the works, but a sandbox mode has yet to be planned. Players do have access to a system of backstories that provide predefined templates to facilitate quick testing on the PTR. However, the current implementation could be clearer and more intuitive, and the team is working to improve the process. They recently updated what they provide and how they organize it based on feedback, and they will continue to iterate.

 

While they offer simplified versions of the backstory analysis that start with full gear and items, they welcome suggestions for specific items that players feel are missing or other minor features to support testing. However, New World is intended to be something other than a UGC (user-generated content) focused game, so a sandbox mode is unlikely to be implemented. In the future, they may offer a character copy service to duplicate a player's character on the PTR for testing, but this currently needs to be a priority.

 

↖ Animation improvements

Are you considering updating the animations of other weapons to enhance their fluidity, similar to how you improved the bow's animation? Our team is constantly vigilant for any issues with animations and the blending between different animation states to enhance the navigation and combat experience. Currently, we do not have any specific updates to share, but we are committed to refining the animations gradually over time.

The spear, in particular, may feel clunky to some players at this point, and we acknowledge that. Furthermore, as we revamp weapons in the future, we will prioritize creating animations that are smaller, more fluid, and more responsive, as we did with the recent changes to the fire staff. Therefore, musket users can also anticipate similar improvements in the future.

 

↖ Company Housing

Calabar and Crayon have raised the topic of company housing as a potential strategy for companies. They have expressed interest in the idea and believe that it would be best combined with a company progression system. While this is currently in the distant future, it could integrate well with the season lecture. Although this falls under the long-term category on their list, it is still a consideration. Additionally, Xiaomi Moon inquired about the possibility of implementing chat and emojis in ads. While they also love these features, it is a long-term plan that is currently on the backlog.

 

↖ Siege Weapon Buffs

Flintlock raised a concern about the viability of offensive and defensive siege weapons, which have been outdated for over a year. However, there is good news as the developers plan to make some changes to siege weapons in the upcoming season 2 of the OPR refresh. These changes will focus on buffing siege weapons, especially the independent ones in the center, with the aim of creating more strategic options for players.

 

The developers are keen to see how these changes play out in OPR and will decide whether to make further adjustments or bring them into wars. Although OPR and wars are fundamentally different game modes, the developers view OPR as a testing ground for potential changes in wars.

 

As a language model, We cannot express any personal opinions or desires, but it's understandable that players would like to see siege weapons play a bigger role in wars, and it remains to be seen how effective these changes will be in achieving that.

 

↖ OPR changes in S2

There are planned updates for opioids and game modes in Season 2, as requested by Tranquility. The focus of these updates will be on improving the scoring system and game modes. There may be changes to turret balance and the addition of a barrier to the Baroness event, which could increase strategic options for tanks.

 

However, there currently needs to be planning to discuss a second OPR map or a new game mode. It is known that a new arena map is already in development, and once cross-play is implemented, there may be further discussion of a new OPR map. These updates have been mentioned in another developer's insight, but no further information is available at this time.

 

↖ Are new perks in perk rework?

Will there be new products introduced in the upcoming perk rework, or will only old ones be changed? Are there any other major changes to general gearing in the works? It's been announced that there will be a gear score increase soon, which implies that there will be some major changes to gearing. However, the main goal of the season 3 perk rebalance is to bring up perks that still need to be in contention in their perk buckets to make them viable options. This will involve adding value to the more obscure perks, such as power break, and potentially reworking existing perks to make them more competitive.

 

It's important to focus on reworking existing perks rather than adding new ones to the game, which can dilute the pool and make it harder to roll effective perks. The upcoming gear disruption will require players to regear, and while some may hope to upgrade their current gear, they will likely need to obtain new gear with the new perks.

 

This is a healthy approach for the long-term sustainability of the game, as it ensures that new players can compete on an equal footing with established players who have had the opportunity to accumulate large amounts of New World gold and gear over time. While some may dislike the concept of having to replace their gear, it ultimately leads to a more dynamic and engaging game experience.

 

↖ Expedition Cap, Sandworm Trial

The Sandworm Trial has been a topic of discussion in the last Q&A as well as a recent Discord Q&A. There were bonus questions posted along with the video that were not mentioned at the time. One of the questions asked if the 25 expedition cap could be removed, which the player felt limited their ability to enjoy the content. The developers agreed in spirit, stating that they don't want to limit players' ability to enjoy future content.

The Sandworm Elite Trial will have limited weekly bonus rewards, but players can continue to run it without limits on daily rewards. However, there are currently no plans to adjust mutation caps, as only a small minority of the player base currently hits the cap. The developers will consider changes when they make their next larger change to the mutation system.

 

Regarding the request to add checkers, chess, or any minigame into bars and pubs, the developers believe that one of the things that make New World special is the large variety of things players can do. While they are not actively pursuing minigames in New World, they would love to see more activity in taverns and give them more purpose.

 

Overall, the developers are focused on providing a diverse range of activities for players to enjoy in New World while also considering feedback from the community on how to improve the game.

 

↖ War Attackers & Defender Limit

Are you satisfied with the current limit on mercenaries for attackers and defenders in wars? While some argue that companies can buy territories with just 25 mercenaries, overall, we are happy with the system. Defenders have certain inherent advantages, so attackers need more flexibility to balance things out.

 

We also appreciate the concept of hiring mercenaries, as it allows players to live out their hired gun fantasies. This system should also allow smaller companies to participate in wars, gain territory, and then build their companies to defend it. We do acknowledge the potential impact of changes on smaller population worlds, so we have no immediate plans to alter the values, but we are keeping a close eye on it.

 

↖ Season 2 Activity Cards

Regarding the previous set of questions, some of them were new to me, while others had become outdated, so I omitted those. However, a few caught our interest, particularly one suggestion for adding more activities to the season pass activity cards for increased flexibility.

We're aiming to include a variety of activities, so if you have any ideas, please share them with us. As things stand, you should be able to complete the pass during the season through solo play, a mix of passive season XP, completing activity cards, and the journey. We're continuously monitoring the data to ensure we're on track, and it's looking promising to reach level 100 in due time.

 

On a related note, we received feedback that the amount of flame core obtained from the Imperium Forge needs to be higher. We agree with this sentiment, and we're currently reviewing the flame core drop rate in the forge to address this issue.

 

↖ Furniture Rarity

We have received feedback from Zenroth stating that it currently requires more work for players to identify rare pieces of furniture. Despite possessing rare furniture, players may need to realize it due to the item's standard green colour in their inventory. We have internally discussed the issue and are committed to enhancing the user experience. Unfortunately, we cannot provide a specific timeline for implementing these changes, even for players who acquire coveted items such as a goldfish, golden seal, or schematic. 

 

We aim to make obtaining rare furniture an exciting moment, and we want to ensure that all players, including those who may need to be more knowledgeable, can recognize the value of their acquisitions. Interestingly, we have already made an attempt to improve the rarity indicators for these items in the past but were only partially successful. Our goal is to create a system that genuinely reflects the rarity of the furniture items from the start of the game. Previously, all of these items were grey and lacked any unique features.

 

↖ Matchmaking in OPR

The New World team is working on several updates to Outpost Rush (OPR) matchmaking, including team sorting and group balancing algorithms. The top priority is to implement cross-world OPR to increase the player pool and reduce queue times. In the next season, there will be updates to various elements of OPR, such as adjusting scoring and making the baroness fight more interesting. While matchmaking and roll queueing are long-term goals, there are no immediate plans or timelines for their implementation. One challenge is the current player base size, which would need to grow significantly to support these features.

 

Regarding weapon build variety, while there are no plans for another active ability on weapons, New World has introduced hard-run gems that add a fourth ability to builds. The team plans to continue introducing new options to increase build variety over time. However, players can also increase build variety for themselves by experimenting with unusual builds that may still be effective. New World makes it easy to mix and match different weapons to create unique combinations, which can lead to increased variety compared to other MMOs that often establish a meta with only a few frequently used abilities.

 

↖ Raids & Mutation changes

During a recent discussion, Tilesif asked whether the 20-man world boss would be instanced, to which Nips confirmed that it would be. Jake then inquired about plans to decrease the number of mutation bringers from m10 to m1 to m4 while maintaining the overall difficulty level and making it easier for players to progress. Let's respond that this topic is actively being discussed, but no specific details can be shared at this time.

 

Despite this, this issue has been talked about repeatedly for a while, and there may be some unresolved factors or dissatisfaction with the current plans, causing a delay in implementation. Initially slated for an early release this year, the fact that it wasn't included with the Season 1 Ford release suggests that the developers needed to be more content with the product at the time.

 

Conclusion:

New World Season 2 promises an array of exciting changes and improvements. As the game continues to evolve, the development team is dedicated to refining the player experience. Stay tuned for more updates on the roadmap, and enjoy the ever-expanding world of New World!