New World dismisses the “pay-to-win” accusations from PvP players who are eyeing Rise of the Angry Earth’s item tier increases

Amazon’s Scot Lane, David Verfaillie and Katy Kaszynski are back with a new video New worldit’s 50 Forged in Aeternumand since it’s a question and answer video, there’s a lot to summarize.

Notably, there are no pre-orders for the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion. It will be available in stores on October 3rd and will not be bundled with a season pass. There will be no reboot servers with the expansion as the developers are confident in the current economic situation and do not believe an update is necessary.

PvP equipment was also apparently one of the points of contention with the expansion. For Outpost Rush and Arenas, Amazon is increasing the item level to 675 to accommodate the new level ranges, but there is no OPR-like scaling in war and open-world PvP, so people who buy the expansion will of course have one Gear advantage over people who don’t. This has led to PvP players complaining about “pay-to-win”, but this is admittedly pretty normal for theme park MMOs. There are actually several questions about this; The developers say it’s just a matter of “pay-to-continue” and “pay-to-grow”.

A few more notes about the video:

• Extension PTR instability has been fixed and no longer occurs at startup. (That’s the point of the PTR.)
• Gearing goals include allowing players to gear up faster and more easily, but the developers believe there is still a good “runway” for progression with artifacts.
• Existing invasion portals won’t be transitioning to the Angry Earth theme, but Lane teases, “If we were to do another race in the future, I think that would be an interesting hint, and that’s what we’re talking about.”
• It is very likely that the PTR influence windows for PvP will be transferred to Live. The idea is to bring the players together in prime time.
• Plaster is still used for plaster balls and for equipment during play.
• The status of the territory cannot be reset.
• Lane disputes the idea that PvP players have nothing with the expansion, but promises that there will be more beyond the expansion. Likewise, there are “big plans to improve” both the PvE and PvP experiences, but these are separate from the expansion content.
• The developers are considering reducing the requirements for some high-end crafting materials and possibly increasing node respawns for other desirable mats.
• No one loses storage space as a result of the expansion; Players can still access their First Light save via the banking system, although expansion players can of course also use the new Elysian Wilds save.
• In response to the question of how the developers “stole” First Light Cheevos, Lane diplomatically points out that players can do the new Edengrove stand instead. From a design perspective, almost no one played First Light, so the developers wanted to revive it rather than setting up a new zone somewhere else and exacerbating the problem.
• The developers recommend playing with a drive that reaches at least 2000 MB/s (probably an SSD, not a hard drive).
• Prior to the expansion, players may consider stopping the main story quest at the end of Weaver’s Fen so they can experience the expansion’s new content. Likewise, Brimstone Sands will help upgrade your gear for the new expansion.

Advertising