The “point” killed the game. There doesn’t have to be an endless treadmill, and certainly not to the cataclysmic degree New World has it set. Players should be able to identify a particular set of perks, armor class, resistance weights, and weapons, and then achieve that set within a reasonable time-frame. “The grind” should be a matter of then identifying new sets to work towards. Or if they are fine with the one set that’s also fine. An OTP of a particular build should be able to easily be “done” with their character.
I would think in time the game will provide more ‘side’ content, which will offer additional time sinks compared to now, where the content is very narrow/limited. I remember for example they asked if players would prefer mounts to just be added as a simple means of transport, or whether players would like to see an actual skill line attached to it, like raising and improving the mount.
Not sure what they will do, but these things are nice content fillers, offering variety instead of just grinding for gear, and once such content enters the game, the gear grind might lessen some, dunno, we really can not tell at this stage of the game.
I generally agree with the op as in this is a buy to play game, just like ESO, which works with their dlcs or a sub. Obviously ESO now also has a very beefed out cash shop, but it was not always like that. To start the shop was very meh in ESO.
All games have grinds, even GW2, just that GW2 has managed to fun wrap their grinds and it is a horizontal game. Your gear was the same 2 years ago as it is now, it does not outdate, but if you want legendaries, you will grind as well, and anyone saying ‘old games had grinds - it was awful!’ - many of those games are still around and players happily grind along. Runescape, the King of Grind, is still thriving, and heavens… even PWI is still going, even with new players joining, and you haven’t seen BiS gear grinding until you have played PWI…
Doesn’t have stats for active players but knows 90% of players play 1h a day or less… impressive. In my experience a good MMO is one I only play 1 hour or less a day lmao
True, but nobody expected that the time sink involving gear would be moved up so far so fast. The game has been out less than 5 months and they already added the mutators and increased GS to 625. Both things require SUPER long time sinks to what was already a long time sink for most players. I don’t think anyone with half a working brain expected to be fully maxed out in BIS gear in every slot in 4 months, and 95% of players were not. Which is why this change so early after the release was frustrating.
Let me explain this another way. I have been trying to convince several people I know to come and play this game. Before the newest changes with mutators and umbral shards, they were already a little iffy on coming because they felt like they were going to be forever just trying to catch up to where everyone was. Also, the systems were so complex to explain that it made them feel like they would never catch up or even fully understand how this stuff worked. After those changes came out they significantly increased the amount of time needed to be at a good place on your character. By “good place” I don’t mean BIS in all gear slots and 625 GS on all items, I just mean being 60, having decent gathering/refining/crafting, having some money in the bank, and having 600 gear with some 600+ GS stuff so you can enjoy most aspects of the game. For new players coming in, that is a TON to ask of them. Every person I know that was considering joining has already closed the door after the newest changes. They know they would have to put in 5-10 hours days every day just to be able to slightly catch up.
I’ve put in over 500 hours since the launch of the game and I am just now getting to the latter part. How are new players or casual players supposed to maintain when after 4+ months they are already adding crazy amounts of new grind?
Well, l definitely hope to see a bounce of active players. I play on a server that was always near the most populated on the east coast. Been only getting 300-500 players the last few days. People waiting an hour for OPR. Very few players available for runs or for dungeons. Not going to bother logging on until patch is released. This is from someone who actually likes the game, but it’s bleak at the moment.
This I will say is one of the biggest issues that I think they need to figure out. The servers population cap is so low (2000) that if content gets stale it drops below survivability and if a really exciting patch comes out, it could easily surge to queues.
Specific to OPR I assume that they would open it up cross server at some point.
In a few years the game will likely be a great success and a lot of fun.
Right now, it isn’t.
Player numbers don’t matter, until you are on a server with 150 active players and the only way to get an OPR is via dedicated scheduling from the community. I played like this for awhile pre-merge, and now post-merge the server is almost back here again.
Time-Gating is in every MMO, but the extent of the time gating in NW is way, way to heavy. I forget now, but there is something in the ballpark of 36 different time gated cooldowns, many of which don’t even have an active way of tracking them in game. This took the freedom to just play and turned everything in scheduled play dates.
Bugs will always happen, but when you release a patch and for weeks your server can no longer do the previous content (Lag Detected, Roster, Movement bugs) this destroyed servers. Invasions were being lost because we would get Lag Detected and fail, or only be able to fill half the roster (duplication bug). The demoralization that this created was painstaking.
Wars and towns were being handed back and forth every other day because the Lag became so insane nobody could do anything to stop it. You cannot stop attacking forces when they are rubber-banding all over the map between A and C points. Or points were being taken by “invisible” players on the points.
New World in a few years will likely be a MUCH better product than it is today, unfortunately those of us playing today won’t be the ones playing then.
Agreed on the confusion on explaining how it switches from one system to another system. Feels like they are trying different things out to figure out the progression system that works the best.
The catchup concept is interesting because we just went through this:
We just had someone come back who was level 58 when they had to quit. They had about 10k in the bank from running quests and on our server they were able to get fully outfitted in decent GS560-590 equipment from the tradepost for fairly cheaply. That being said, within just a couple of runs of gen/laz we had mostly replaced that from just our runoff.
Why? 4 months is far too long to get BiS for a single loadout in a game that has literally thousands of possible loadouts. The grind in this game should come in the form of trying new loadouts, but each individual loadout should not take very long. If you could get 90% BiS in a loadout in a week, and then 100% in a month, people would play for ages trying new shit over and over and over. Instead you spend a thousand hours to get to 90% BiS in a single loadout and then never try anything else because you’re not spending another thousand fucking hours for a single additional loadout, so once that loadout becomes stale (or gets nerfed) you’re just done with the game.
I’d love to try out the fire staff, or void gauntlet, or tanking, or healing, but I will never try any of that because I still don’t even have a single BiS item for the one loadout I’ve been working towards for 95% of the 1100 hours I’ve played the game.
I’m not disagreeing with your thoughts on this, hell I would even say I agree with what you posted in reply, but like you said that is not what we are working with. The system prior to mutators and umbral shards was already a grind, and since that change it’s a bigger grind on top of the already big grind.
I agree, overall NW has been a massive success for AGS. My 40 bucks went beyond the titles worth and most definitely will garner my attention on the next “BIG” release (expansion). Like other MMO’s and ARPG’s I yo-yo back and fourth, get my enjoyment out of it until its not fun anymore. I have a hefty list of titles I rotate when new content drops, and NW is on that list.
The devs know whats wrong and they are more than likely burnt out on reading the forums, tbh there isnt one nice thing said about AGS on them. If anything will kill this game, it’s the remaining faithful with their frustration and anger who continue to badmouth the title. I want to say we have beat this rug to death, lets all just pour a nice refreshment and give them some love and support with kindness and patience.
Yea but when WoW first came out it was still the most casual mmo to ever be made at the time. And since then every mmo has had to emulate them for any sort of success. When ffxiv 1.0 came out it had its own identity and the wow players hated it because it wasnt wow. So SE made it wow and it became a massive hit but it lost its identity in the process. I just hope this isnt something that happens to NW. I want it to find its identity and keep it.
To me, NW is a modern love letter to older MMO’s. But I think its struggling to really find what it wants to be when it grows up. I also think the combat is COMPLETELY lost on what it wants to be so it ends up being kind of bland when it has the potential to be something that people play for years to master its nuance. But ever combat update just takes one more piece away.
Like why do we have only 1 viable tank and 1 viable healer? Why dont we have any support weapons? Why isnt there any play counter play? Why is it all “lmb” and “ty for the sacred ground”. The nw combat feels like it wants to be something but it doesnt know what so it ends up being nothing.
This point of view has got NW where it is now… If you are going to tell the DEVS “keep on doing anything you want forget the other people they do not matter!” good luck getting that next expansion good luck getting players to come back. Its pretty simple group finder free expeditions exclude mutations and drop usable gear in the open world… Like duh… gear grinding game give everyone a chance at gear… Nope we want you to find a huge company and tax the crap out of everyone and only the HC players get all the bells and whistles and the only community is the one that is made by players who play 20 hours a day… Some of us would love to just log on with our 3 friends and click group finder and run expeditions all night getting gear I can use without paying money without buying orbs without traveling to the expedition… ohh and how about something to do in the open world besides running in circles for hours with 25 people…
