Apart from Bugfixes and regular Updates which will happen normally, a >Roadmap< is what the Community currently needs.
Why?
Because engaging with the Community is a healthy way to talk to the Playerbase, so everyone knows where Aeternum is heading and what the vision of the developers/management Team is, this opens up the eyes as of why this game currently is what it is and how it is supposed to look like in the future.
In its current state, and one can only assume, it feels like somewhat still of a Beta, specially when you actually look closer at all the Systems currently implemented in the game.
Now keep in mind that NW was originally supposed to be a Sandbox PvP-Full Loot Survival Game, and the Management decided to scrap this idea, to appeal and attract more players, which in exchange did hurt the quality and implemented systems in the game (as of now).
Note, that i do like this game, but pointing out flaws is important for a healthy development of a game.
Now, when in such a hurry to come up with results and having to meet deadlines,
Copy & Paste is the way to go to have somewhat of a playable game.
Some examples:
There is a whole Town Layout copied
There is a dungeon layout which is based of a location in Aeternum
Caves, Wolf Caves, assets, houses and so on, are copy & pasted
Mobs feel repetetive and have a lack of variety, because they were given different names without having a unique appearence in New World to them.
Lack of NPCs
The Combat System is not fleshed out, lack of depth of auto-attack combat
(Chains would give it depth, light attacks into heavy attacks, combinations, combo’s)
Lack of Synergy between Weapons.
There was a System before, where you, if i remember right, had a cooldown of 10 seconds on the Abilities if you switched your Weapon.
So it seems like actual synergy and fluent dynamic combat with 2 Weapons being used, wasnt actually intended in the first place - which changed and we now can dynamically change our playstyle by just switching the weapon, without having a cooldown on our Abilites.
Now most probably they had to change and balance some abilites around this change, because it opened up a whole more depth into the combat system.
What is lacking right now, is an actual foundation in this system, because these ‘fixes’ and adjustments on the combat system were made on-the-go, like you would do when Bug fixing, instead of having something solid in the first place to develop off of.
a ‘vision’ as how weapons synergize with each other is needed, and creating abilities around this idea.
creating abilities without having a synergizing foundation, is just developing random stuff so each weapon has its own playstyle - but there for, no synergy.
Besides the impactful negativ stuff, everyone should have a look at the Artwork of New World which is available in the live game somewhere in the menues.
It opens up the eyes and gives a general perspective of how the game is intended to look like, it really looks astounding.
Also the Sound Design has some very very interesting takes.
Some gathering Nodes give off unique sounds.
When someone is further away and hitting an ore with a pickaxe, you can hear the ringing in the distance.
This also made me realize on how important immersion can be for a game, because this simple yet effective ringing gives us depth and immersion, and i hope for the future of NW, that it greatly improves over time.
A Roadmap and interaction in form of Q&A for the Community is needed
Have a nice weekend