Amazon's not announced plans for new mergers, but there are servers out there that are lucky to get 100 players in at the same time, which just isn't workable in an MMO. All the hard-won gains, the settlements players spent days trying to take over, the investment in those settlements after they were taken over-it all ends up being erased.ĭespite this, there are still calls for more server mergers. Speaking of server mergers, while they are necessary when server populations get too small, it's hard to please everybody, or indeed anybody, when you're merging two dynamic worlds with factions fighting over territory. Here's the screen I was greeted with after my server was consumed by a different one. It might be quieter now-though server mergers mean this isn't as noticeable in-game-but there are still thousands of players just having a good time.
#NEW WORLD EXPANSION UPDATE#
Given that actual new features have failed to do this, it seems unlikely that an update focused on polish, balance and bug fixes will have more luck, but at least it's an update the existing playerbase seems to be looking forward to, whatever it ends up doing for the MMO's fortunes.Īnd for everyone worried about its future, there are plenty of posts on the official and Steam forums, as well as the subreddit, where people are just getting on with things, playing the game and uploading clips of epic 100+ PvP brawls in the open world. There's also some optimism, though, and a belief that the February update might fix things and bring people back. If it's not yet dead, they fear, it's still dying. Steam reviews continue to be mixed, tens of thousands of players aren't returning with the passing of each month, and worries about the population decline is a common thread on various forums. MMO players never truly experience happiness (or is that just me?). Small updates on February 2 and 10 provided general and endgame fixes, as well as tweaks for the void gauntlet, ice gauntlet and rapier.Changes include more flexibility when it comes to weapon swapping, letting you swap during reactions, dodges, traversal and when you're munching on consumables. Amazon has paused feature development to instead focus on improvements to the live game, tweaking existing systems and squashing bugs. A new PTR went live on February 2 to test the upcoming February update.
Expedition Mutators and Umbral Shards were added on January 25.Every month, tens of thousands stop playing, and there haven't been any noticeable spikes around update launches, suggesting that they aren't tempting people back. Unfortunately, Amazon's efforts do not seem to be keeping people around. But even with this being the case, New World has seen a steep decline, going from a peak of nearly a million concurrent players in September to around 30,000 now. They never do! Launches, including expansions, are always when the most people are playing. It's easy to read too much into player numbers, and it's almost a rite of passage now for online games to be slapped with the 'Dead Game' label just because it's not managed to maintain its launch population. Being a trader just isn't very engaging now.Įconomy changes aside, New World does seem like it's in a better position than it was when I finished my review in October, but that hasn't been reflected in the player population. It's certainly streamlined, but at the cost of dynamism. It's reasonable to assume this would have changed as more players hit the level cap, but rather than waiting for that Amazon just ditched local economies entirely, making one unified trading post.
New World does seem like it's in a better position now than it was when I finished my review in October, but that hasn't been reflected in the player population. But this also meant that settlements in higher level areas had comparatively empty trading posts. This encouraged people to invest in settlements that had easy access to the raw resources they required for their business or crafting ventures.
#NEW WORLD EXPANSION FULL#
Plenty of boars around? The trading post would be full of pork. Loads of hemp nearby? You'd see it by the truckloads when shopping. Initially, every settlement had its own economy, with their trading posts filled with things you could get in the region. The death of local economies has been a less fortunate-though Amazon would argue essential-change. Naturally, many players complained about Amazon not adding brand new dungeons or fixing bugs they found especially egregious, but I think the team had its priorities right. As well as the aforementioned Umbral Shards and Expedition Mutators, they also introduced a new weapon type, new rewards, and a new group of enemies. January's update, like the winter update before it, aimed to give New World some much-needed variety.
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