New World News

Greetings, Adventurers!

Join up to 10 max-level players in a bone-chilling gauntlet of increasingly difficult enemies. This Seasonal Trial requires teamwork to overcome Rune puzzles, slay an Icey Construct, and fell an Ancient Ice Guardian for unique rewards. Here’s an interview going behind the scenes of the Winter Rune Forge, plus a deep dive featuring the Art Team’s process.

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[h2]WINTER RUNE FORGE DESIGN[/h2]
Join Environment Artist Carlos Lopez for a glimpse into how the Art Team brought our latest Seasonal Trial to life.

[h3]SENSE OF SCALE[/h3]

Level Designer Zachary Holm, Lead Artist Brian Patenaude and I brainstormed the layout for this Trial. We were all enthusiastic about the thought of dropping down from the ice floor after an intense fight. I took inspiration from the worlds in Dark Souls and Metroid Prime, specifically their sense of scale. My goal was to immerse players in a grand area while instilling the feeling that you're just a small person walking through these historically significantly structures, each wall complete with its own story. Looking at older Trials, I wanted to make the art unique without contradicting Aeternum's established aesthetic.

[h3]SENSE OF EXPLORATION[/h3]

The initial idea of the chasm was too simplified — You drop through the ice, fight a boss, get the rune and leave. I wanted the chasm to feel like the structure below once had purpose above ground but eventually collapsed and fell, giving the player the ability to partially climb back up or use the dilapidated structure as a path down. Depending on where the player fell, this would add a sense of exploration.

[h3]SENSE OF WONDER[/h3]

The bridge section follows a similar philosophy. What once was a functioning part of a previous civilization now becomes a gameplay element. Players parkour along the fallen bridge thanks to a new path of giant stalactites that have fallen from the ceiling. There’s also a sense of wonder as the player takes in a view of the gigantic cavern and teases of ancient structures. As you venture deeper, these structures slowly reveal that this isn’t a typical cave. The word grand had to play a role in every part of it.

[h3]SENSE OF INTRIGUE[/h3]

I designed two paths at the bottom. The first is clearly locked, yet dangled in front of the player. Hopefully the intrigue of the vast, long destroyed bridge behind those gates makes them say “I want to go there,” despite the other path being the only accessible route forward. This designated path leads down a hall into an ever-expanding Ancient room lined with broken walls on all sides.

[h3]SENSE OF SATISFACTION[/h3]

Honestly, the Design Team’s Rune puzzle placement was a great reason to give the Art Team a bit more love on the upper sections of the map. Typically, we’d focus all of the detail on the ground where players primarily look. Now there’s a chance for players to naturally appreciate their surrounding environment.

The hope is for players to say something like, “finally! I get to see what is on the other side of this locked gate" after finishing that second fight. We want to exceed player expectations with even more interesting and diverse areas filled with memorable boss battles and visual clues teasing Aeternum’s past. Please let us know what you think of the Winter Rune Forge Trial design as we continue to work hard on new areas.

[h2]REWARDS[/h2]

Conquer the Winter Rune Forge for trial-specific rewards like a new Artifact, 6 Named Weapons, 3 Named Armor Sets, and more.

[h3]STANDARD REWARDS[/h3]
Every time you strike down both bosses you’ll earn the following:

• A random weapon or armor piece at their level from the Frostforged set
  
• Sapphire Gypsum
  

[h3]WEEKLY REWARDS[/h3]
Twice per week you’ll get even more rewards for completing this trial, including a chance to uncover the Tempest Fury Artifact. You’re guaranteed to net 1 piece of Named Gear (all upgradable), 150 Dark Matter, and 4 pieces of Frostforged gear upon each of your two completions. Weekly rewards reset at 5 AM local time on Tuesday. For example, if you grab one special cache at 4:58 AM, you’ll be able to earn another at 5:01 AM.

• Tempest Fury Artifact - Great Axe (10% chance)
  
• Faction Token Bundle (50% chance)
  

[h3]NAMED WEAPONS:[/h3]

• Icecleaver - Warhammer
  
• Frozenpoint - Spear
  
• Snowburst - Musket
  
• Chilled Meteor - Flail
  
• Moon of Healing - Life Staff
  
• Sun of Knowledge - Fire Staff
  

[h3]NAMED ARMOR SETS:[/h3]

• Frostweaver - Light
  
• Freezeframe - Medium
  
• Ice Guardian - Heavy
  

Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Controller support is coming to New World. Choose from two pre-set controller layouts to enhance your New World experience. As part of optimizing New World for controller play, we've introduced the following new features and settings with additional functionality (such as rebinding) coming soon. We also caught up with the Development Team for even more insight into all things controller.

[h2]NEW FEATURES[/h2]
Aim Assist

• Assists with aiming ranged attacks.
  
• Available only on a controller and exclusively against AI enemies (PvP aim assist will be reevaluated for future seasons).
  

Target Friction

• Reduces reticle speed when hovering over a valid target.
  
• Available only on a controller.
  

Enemy Target Lock

• Enables you to lock the camera onto an AI enemy (PvP target lock will be reevaluated for future seasons).
  
• Supported by both controller (move the right stick to switch between multiple targets) and Mouse and Keyboard (Middle Mouse Button and Mouse Wheel Up/Down) input methods.
  

Freeform Movement

• Allows running in all directions, including towards the camera.
  
• Holding Block/Aim will revert to normal strafe navigation.
  
• Activating Target Lock will strafe around the locked target.
  
• Defaulted to "on" only while using a controller input device.
  
• In addition, backwards movement has been sped up in normal strafe navigation.
  

Use Camera Direction for Melee Attacks:

• When off, allows melee attacks and blocking in the direction of your input/character facing instead of camera facing.
  
• Defaults to "off" only with while using a Mouse and Keyboard input devices.
  

Improved Accessibility

• New radial menu for quick access to commonly used functions like emotes, commands, and camping.
  
• New Shift modifiers for quick access to all combat abilities.
  
• UI Help Bars and shortcut buttons provide an improved user experience while navigating the UI with a controller.
  

[h2]DEVELOPER INTERVIEW[/h2]

[h3]GAMEPLAY[/h3]
Adding target lock makes for some great combat gameplay; dodging and circling around is very fluid, and moving between locked targets is easy with a flick of the right stick. We think players are going to enjoy figuring out new ways to approach combat when controller support is launched.

[h3]ACCESSIBILITY[/h3]
Controller provides a greater scope of quick actions via shortcut buttons, shift modifiers (combos), radial menus, etc. that you can’t apply easily with mouse and keyboard. We’ve also added a toggle option for “while holding” buttons, such as Block/Aim.

[h3]DEVELOPMENT PROCESS[/h3]

We started by setting the bar based on games we felt were gold standards for our genres — third person action gameplay, and a complex RPG UI. That’s where a lot of the big changes like a new camera/movement mode and target lock came from. Significant work went into streamlining both gameplay and the UI. New World wasn’t initially designed for controllers.

There was a LOT of work from figuring out how to fit all the functionality onto a gamepad (thus radial menus and shift modifiers), to condensing the UI, adding shortcut buttons to every interface, and so on. With the paper design done, it then came down to building the supporting tech (for new things like haptics tied to audio cues, cursor magnetism, etc.), redesigning and implementing the UI, and finally getting the feel of movement, combat, and menu navigation right. We’re still tuning that last part, along with future updates like button remapping.


Our team has many different types of players, so we went back and forth on how “hardcore” or complex to make controls. Some of the developers have played New World for years on Steam controllers. They hoped to support every range of custom input possible: double-taps, multiple modifiers, gyros and touchpads, multiple button combos, plus everything mixable and nestable (e.g. a two-button modifier on a two-button combo double-tap), some of which is a real nightmare for UI to dynamically display (we like to have the input prompts on-screen). Limited time and resources meant focusing on what the majority of our players prefer, but we’d love to allow that level of customization in the future!

[h3]CHALLENGES[/h3]

There was the matter of transferring the MANY keyboard inputs of a complex MMORPG to a handful of controller buttons (and thus the radial menus, shortcut buttons, shift modifier, etc.). In addition, we had to make changes to the camera and visual cues for controllers to read and play better during combat. That said, we did find these changes actually transfer well back to Mouse and Keyboard.

We will launch with multiple preset button layouts but trying to find the best default was a challenge. Having more player data earlier would have helped drive these decisions. Haptics is considerably different across controller types, too, which we discovered late in the process.


It was a scary moment when we realized New World’s system for generating and controlling haptics — vibration is tied to game audio — would NOT work with DualSense controllers. Luckily, as the deadline loomed and we debated either delaying gamepad support (BOOOO!), or releasing with no haptics for PS5 controllers (also BOOOO!), a scrappy developer managed to find a workaround. Whew. Haptics turned out nicely on all gamepads. For future releases, we’d like to find ways to go even further with some of the more nuanced gamepad systems.

[h3]PVP CONTROLLER BALANCE[/h3]

For the Season 5 controller launch, we will not allow target lock and aim assist in PvP due to balance concerns. This is something we will continue to evaluate and iterate on in future seasons. Please share your feedback in our Discord after you try it out. Thanks for your support and we’ll see you in Aeternum!

Greetings, Adventurers!

Join Lead Seasons Designer Patrick Smedley and Senior Systems Designer Tony Morton for a taste of the changes coming to Cooking and other Trade Skills in Season 5. Look forward to ingredient updates, revamped Cooking progression, Legendary Fish recipe tweaks, the removal of split attribute food, and more. Let’s dive in.

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[h2]SPLIT ATTRIBUTE FOOD[/h2]
From recipes and ingredients to food, buffs, and other items like Dye, Cooking can be complex, especially for players less familiar with the Trade Skill. Let’s start with how we’re simplifying some of the options.

At launch Cooking was front-loaded with an enormous amount of potential combinations for food buffs. We were very much in the discovery phase of understanding how this would impact players throughout their early travels in Aeternum. Now, after millions upon millions of hours played, we have a far better idea of how players structure builds and use consumables.


There are 5 Tiers of food. Almost every Tier offers both split and full attribute options, but most players only use pure attribute food. To simplify things, we’re going to sunset split attribute food in Season 5. This goes for both the consumable food, learned recipes and physical recipes that may be in your inventory.

[h2]INGREDIENTS AND RECIPES[/h2]
The last thing we want is to remove items and wipe them from the player’s inventory. Instead, we’ll swap those ingredients for more desirable options.

Take the Pesto-stuffed Turkey Breast as an example. This Tier 4 food gives players a Strength and Intelligence bonus. When Season 5 goes live, it will be replaced with Clam Chowder, a Tier 4 pure Strength food. In any scenario where an item is being deprecated, we will replace it with the same Tier of item that shares the main attribute. Since the Pesto-stuffed Turkey Breast gave more Strength than Intelligence, we’ve swapped it with a Tier 4 Strength food.


What about recipes? The physical recipes in your inventory will be swapped using that same logic. However, you’ll lose access to any known recipes as they’ll be depreciated.

We will do a pass on our Trade Skill food too. While we enjoy having multiple tiers of Gathering food, the low-level tiers never made a big impact. As a result, they will also be sunset. Any player who is Level 15 in Season 5 can consume Tier 5 Gathering food for a more impactful buff on their Gathering Luck. Any Gathering food or recipes will automatically upgrade to the Tier 5 variant.

[h2]LEGENDARY FISH RECIPES[/h2]

When reviewing all of these items there was a glaring issue that we haven’t been happy with for a long time—many updates and new recipes have rendered Fishing less useful than intended. These changes aim to make Legendary Fish more meaningful.

Upon the release of Season 5, Legendary Fish recipes, like Fried Albenaja will become the most potent food in the game. Here’s an example of how their values will change.

[h3]OLD VALUES[/h3]
Tier 5 Dex Food - Fried Albenaja (+40 Dex)

• Duration 40 minutes
  
• Requires Cooking Level 200 and Player Level 60
  

Tier 5 Dex Food - Chili con Armadillo (+40 Dex)

• Duration 60 minutes
  
• Requires Cooking Level 200 and Player Level 60
  

Tier 52 Dex Food - Banana Pudding (+48 Dex)

• Duration 50 minutes
  
• Requires Cooking Level 205 and Player Level 61
  

[h3]NEW VALUES[/h3]
Re-ordered to show intended progression:

Tier 5 Dex Food - Chili con Armadillo (+40 Dex)

• Duration 40 minutes
  
• Requires Cooking Level 150 and Player Level 45
  

Tier 52 Dex Food - Banana Pudding (+44 Dex)

• Duration 40 minutes
  
• Requires Cooking Level 205 and Player Level 61
  

Tier 5 Dex Food - Fried Albenaja (+48 Dex)

• Duration: 40 minutes
  
• Requires: Cooking Level 250 and Player Level 65
  

[h3]FISHING LUCK[/h3]
To further improve the meaningful impact of Legendary Fish, we changed how Luck works in the Fishing Trade Skill. Legendary Fish will be worth the extra effort to catch given upcoming changes. We’re going to do a full pass on Fishing and give the Trade Skill even more love in a future update alongside another Deep Dive.

[h2]COOKING PROGRESSION[/h2]

We also revamped XP generated from Cooking recipes for even more satisfying progression. Recipes, in general, will generate way more XP than they have in the past. Our goal is to maintain an enjoyable leveling journey and motivate players to craft a little of everything for that First Craft Bonus rather than a ton of one thing.

[h3]INSIGHTFUL INGREDIENT DESCRIPTIONS[/h3]
Ingredient descriptions will now detail where items can come from and be found. Instead of a generic description like “Basil leaves, used to add a bright, aromatic note to cuisine,” players will now find more helpful information such as “Cooking Ingredient. A rare item gathered from Herb Plants found in Everfall, Brightwood and Brimstone Sands.”

[h3]RECIPE DROPS[/h3]

Less items means less recipes to find. After reviewing the possible locations of each recipe, we’ve significantly adjusted their drops rates. While it may take a little longer to find some, there are a LOT less to locate meaning duplicates should appear far less frequently.

[h2]FUTURE REWORKS[/h2]
This is only the first Trade Skill rework. We’ve learned a lot since launch and continue to gain a better understanding of what our players craft and where they allocate resources. Expect more major reworks to just about every Trade Skill, with the exception of newer ones like Riding, in future Seasons.

We look forward to your feedback in the Season 5 PTR. As always, we’ll continue to balance and tune as we see how players interact with these systems. Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Learn more about the development of Garden of Genesis through Lead Expedition Designer Darren McKinsey and improve your experience with tips from 3 of your favorite New World content creators: ArsheeTV, TrickTrick, and vXBlackSwanXv. We also compiled key insights like boss stats based on community performance. Let us know what you’d like to see in future analytics articles.

Garden of Genesis was one of our first Expeditions. It helped pave the way for new gameplay mechanics such as defending objectives, exploring optional chambers, and conquering unique boss elements.


[h2]MUTATION GUIDE[/h2]
Whether it’s your first or five-hundredth time entering Garden of Genesis, here are some tips for even more enjoyable runs.

[h3]DPS[/h3]

“This is an Angry Earth Expedition, so weapons like the Fire Staff and anything that deals Slash Damage are preferable,” TrickTrick said. “My recommendation is to have all three DPS players use light loadouts with a combination of Great Swords, Great Axes, and Spears. The Spear is one of the best weapons for Mutations due to its unique utility kit — weakening enemies so they deal less damage (Enfeebling Skewer Perk) while breaking their armor for your team to inflict more damage (Perforate ability).”

“For clumping the mobs, the Great Axe will be your go-to, thanks to abilities like Gravity Well. The Great Axe can make large fights manageable and easy since the mobs won't be spread all over the place.”

[h3]TANK[/h3]

“For tanks, ideally, you want to go in with heavy gear, plus the Sword and Shield and War Hammer.” TrickTrick said. “Make sure you have a Carnelian in both weapons and pick the abilities that taunt enemies. These two weapons will provide an incredible amount of survivability and utility for the team.”

“Remember to hold your AOE Taunts and use them after you are done pulling or when you are ready to fight. If you use them too early, the taunt might run out before the fight starts, creating unnecessary inconveniences. Taunt too late and your DPS or healers may instead aggro the mob, making encounters even more difficult.”

[h3]HEALER[/h3]

“They should go in a light loadout for extra healing,” TrickTrick said. “Life Staff is your primary healing weapon. If you feel comfortable helping with more than just heals, you can use a Void Gauntlet or Flail. You can also use your off-weapon abilities to provide utility and buffs to your team.”

“A Void Gauntlet with abilities like Oblivion can greatly increase your group’s performance through Damage and Stamina support alongside debuffing enemies. As for Life Staff abilities, Sacred Ground is your main healing ability and Splash is amazing since it has a team cleanse. The third ability is up to you.”

[h3]CONSUMABLES[/h3]

“Blight Tinctures are a must for new players since when you are Blighted you’ll have -50% Less Damage, -75% healing reduction and take damage 1.4% HP over time for 3 minutes,” ArsheeTV said. “Incense will help reduce your chances of becoming Blighted.“

“Recommended Consumables: Angry Earth Coating (+15% damage, use in both weapons), Angry Earth Ward Potions (+10% resistance), Honing Stones (+7% damage), Attribute food, and Dessert Sunrise,” TrickTrick said. “Remember to reapply when they run out.“

[h3]DAMAGE MITIGATION[/h3]

“My gear will always include refreshing and weapon Perks for whatever role I am running,” vXBlackSwanXv said. “Mutations have elemental damage that is very easy to mitigate by either carrying around an Amulet or swapping Gems based on the element type.”

“Enchanted Ward is a must on all 5 pieces of armor to reduce damage taken by every type of attack,” ArsheeTV said. “You must Gem toward the Mutation type. If you want to be successful as a team you’ll need over 35% resistance between M1 to M2 and a combination of Rends and Weakening stacks to avoid one shots.“

“Constitution is your friend,” vXBlackSwanXv said. “Do not go into an Expedition with low Constitution thinking your DPS will be incredible. A dead DPS does no DPS.”

[h3]COURAGE AND COMMUNICATION[/h3]

“Remember, everyone starts somewhere,” vXBlackSwanXv said. “You won't be a pro the first time you run a Mutation. Give yourself some credit for having the courage to run it and don't give up. Communication helps immensely. If you can avoid going into an M3 with a random group, do so until you have the mechanics down.”

[h3]TAKE IT SLOW[/h3]

“The game gives you plenty of time to complete Mutations, so take your time, clear the rooms little by little, and collect every gatherable,” TrickTrick said. “They are very important for your score.”

“The optional side chambers were another first for us,” Darren said. “There is something very special about the idea of a secret chamber. It conjures images of mystery and discovery. This opened up a lot off design questions like whether the rewards would be good enough and if players would even discover how to get into the first optional chamber. That sounds silly in retrospect because almost everyone knows about the chamber now! There’s a sense of satisfaction from crafting these secret rooms and knowing players explore them.”

[h3]PROTECT THE SAPLING[/h3]

“The development of objectives for players to defend required a lot of balancing and technology exploration,“ Darren said. ”Getting it to work was a challenge. We were up against launch deadlines but felt defending an objective was a good pace breaker, plus a natural fit for the environment. One of the biggest obstacles was getting enemies to balance their attacks between players and objectives. Do they always attack the sapling? Do they peel off the sapling easily?“

“Make sure the group saves their CC (crowd control) abilities to use on the big mobs before they get to the sapling,” TrickTrick said. “Interrupted or taunted mobs will stop attacking it. Keep the fight away from the sapling at all times.”

[h2]ALLUVIUM MARL, THE CARETAKER[/h2]

“We put a lot of love into Alluvium Marl, the Caretaker,” Darren said. “He was sort of this sad figure to us, an Angry Earth caring for a lost garden which was infiltrated by the Blight. His intro animation and voice over calls this out and the atmosphere of the knee-deep water is amazing.”

“The boss designer really pushed the boundaries of our tech with the cage gameplay—opening up the option for players to go all in. The Caretaker is still a favorite. This player choice really pushes the fun factor. I love watching groups make that choice, especially when success comes down to a tense, last second slash.”

[h3]SPLIT YOUR TEAM[/h3]
“Split your team in two once the Caretaker enters the nature barrier phase at around 60 to 70% health,” TrickTrick said. “The tank should be the only one inside the barrier since they can break his Stamina bar with heavy attacks alone.”

“After the tank has stopped the group wipe, mobs will spawn outside of the barrier,” TrickTrick said. “It's the DPS and healer's job to take care of them. If they don't, the team will be overwhelmed once the barrier comes down.”

[h3]FAVORITE STRATEGY[/h3]
“See if you can defeat Marl before the barrier goes down, but I don’t recommend it for beginners,” TrickTrick said. “If you don't have enough damage, the Caretaker will take care of you.”

“Back in 2021, this boss had 171 player kills (34 wipes) in one Expedition instance, so don’t take it personally if the Caretaker gets the best of you,” ArsheeTV said.

[h2]THE BLIGHTED GREENSKEEPER[/h2]

“The Blighted Greenskeeper is an early example of our team designing harder, instanced content,” Darren said. “We knew that thematically we wanted an Angry Earth boss who had been Blighted and corrupted from her purpose, but how we'd express that through gameplay was less certain. We investigated a number of gameplay elements and really liked the poison angle.”

“Early on in experimentation we also found her boulder drop ability to be really fun, although it presented unique challenges like what to do if she threw a boulder on herself. Pairing that attack with her Blight Bomb wipe ability culminated in a fun encounter that brought out the best of instanced content and New World combat.”

[h3]GUIDE[/h3]
“Go into this boss battle with a solid tank,” said vXBlackSwanXv. “And never, I repeat NEVER stand next to your tank. The Greenskeeper has several mechanics that will wipe everyone but the tank, so best to stay behind this boss. Watch out for:

• The Slam: The Greenskeeper will extend herself and slam the ground, dealing massive amounts of damage. This will almost always hit the tank, so don’t stand next to them.
  
• Poison Tether: The Greenskeeper will tether onto a player at random and give you a few seconds before dropping a massive poison puddle AOE below the tethered player’s feet. Hug the wall quickly, farthest away from the Greenskeeper and your team as the poison puddle will make it very challenging to damage the boss.
  
• Poison Breath: The Greenskeeper will extend herself again, but instead do a scream infused with poison breath as an AOE damage in front of her. Stay behind the boss and you won't have any issues dodging this.
  
• Underground Attack: The Greenskeeper will retreat underground and pop up in random locations. Immediately group up and hold block. She will not hurt you as long as you hold it!
  
• Boulder Drop: This usually targets the farthest player from the boss. Don’t hug the wall when these land because your team will rely on these boulders to dodge her "ultimate" charged attack. Give yourself several feet from the wall to allow ample space for protection."
  

[h3]FAVORITE TACTIC
[/h3]“Go all in with everyone around the Mutated version and bet who will die first,” said ArsheeTV. “Since the boss is fairly easy to iframe/dodge, I like to make it more difficult than it needs to be for an even more thrilling experience.“

[h2]ASK FOR HELP[/h2]

“Garden of Genesis has one of the best healing weapons in the game, the Lifewell Channeler, and remains a fast and fun Expedition,” vXBlackSwanXv said. “Go in with friends or recruit individuals to help you the first time.“

“If you choose to not share that it is your first time, it’ll typically lead to disrespect from other players because many assume you already know everything about the Expedition,” said ArsheeTV. “Feel free to join streams like mine (shameless plugin) and ask questions. We’re more than happy to help!“

[h3]FEATURED GUESTS[/h3]
Make sure to follow each content creator for more guides, tips, and other original New World content:

• ArsheeTV
• TrickTrick
• vXBlackSwanXv

“My enjoyment throughout development reflects the Expedition’s popularity,” Darren said. “We hope players continue to enjoy it.” Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

This article was updated on March 22: Season of the Guardian will release on Tuesday, April 2. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to resolve issues based on PTR feedback and work together towards even more enjoyable experiences in Aeternum. You can also look forward to the full release notes at the end of next week.

Experience fresh narratives, more quest variety, and a few new surprises as you put an end to Isabella’s campaign of corruption. The final main story quest (MSQ) update will release alongside Season of the Guardian on March 12. Join Senior Narrative Designer Lula Lucent for insight into their development process, philosophy, and more.

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[h2]MAIN STORY QUEST INTERVIEW[/h2]
[h3]WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CHANGE IN THE FINAL MSQ UPDATE?[/h3]

The Angry Earth are my favorite part of New World. Because of their mysteriousness I always wonder how they perceive and experience life. The addition of Phaeris as a new NPC is probably my favorite change. Her appearance is brief, but impactful. We see how she struggles with being different within the Angry Earth Hivemind, balancing her nature with the expectations of the collective. Similarly, the very narrow peek into the mindsets of the Blighted is super interesting, and creates even more mystery.

[h3]WALK US THROUGH YOUR PROCESS TO REVISE THE ENTIRE MSQ.[/h3]

Well, this is a request crying out for an overly-lengthy response. But I can summarize since my design philosophy is strongly wrapped up in what is needed to revise something like the MSQ ending. We knew where our penultimate story arc was happening, Ebonscale Reach. We knew where the absolute ending would be, Shattered Mountain. I worked backwards from our current assets and locations, and sought to give them life and meaning alongside cool new things to do there!

Once that narrative skeleton was approved by our supporting teams, I fleshed it out one piece at a time by asking myself, which NPCs were involved in each quest, what resources did I need to request from others, and how could I turn all the chaotic madness in my head into the artful guise of order? One of those questions remains unanswered to this very day...

[h3]WHAT’S YOUR GOAL OR PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE REVISIONS?[/h3]

Take the best elements we already have, repurpose and lean into them. For instance, Isabella clearly sees herself as the savior of humanity. In her own mind, she is the hero of the story (not the player). I made sure to create moments to showcase her in a commanding position. Not the least of which was making the story arc in Shattered Mountain all about preparing an attack on Myrkgard itself. It simply had to be where the climax to our narrative took place. So that gave me a goal to focus on and build towards through each new quest.

[h3]HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE ORIGINAL NEW WORLD STORY AND CHANGES WHEN MAKING UPDATES?[/h3]

Remembering what makes certain locations and characters awesome is one of the best ways. Adiana played a far more direct role in the old MSQ, but that no longer made sense with the changes in MSQ 2.2 — to say nothing of her godhood arc in Brimstone Sands and Elysian Wilds. That meant the avenue of using the Angry Earth directly as allies in the fight against Isabella wouldn’t work, so logical story changes needed to made. Hence Adiana’s current emotional state and the addition of Phaeris in 2.3.

[h3]ARE THERE SELF-IMPOSED RESTRICTIONS OR GUIDELINES YOU FOLLOW?[/h3]

This will sound silly, but just some basic things: don’t use cliches in dialogue, be conscious of overusing certain words, and don’t make the same type of quest two quests running. Essentially, I often remind myself to create a variety of content for players. NPCs and gameplay should both have plenty of depth.

[h3]WHAT’S THE GREATEST CHALLENGE IN UPDATING THE MSQ? HOW DID YOUR TEAM OVERCOME IT?[/h3]

Time is not infinite.

I joke, but it’s true. Pragmatism is really important to pair with ambition. As climactic as the ending to our story is, it was (wait for it) once an even more ambitious design document. Eventually, we had to scope. That might sound like a small defeat, but I never think of it that way.

Part of my process is to scope early, during the stage when we only have ideas and words scrawled on the page/whiteboard/brain-matter. This is the least disruptive time to change course. We work hard to ensure what our final design document looks like is attainable. The second part that keeps me optimistic — content ideas cut today are ideas we can use in the future. No good idea is ever wasted. Eventually we will find the right time and the right place to do it justice, and give players something very cool indeed.

[h3]TELL US A FUN STORY FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MSQ UPDATE.[/h3]

Keep what I said about pragmatism earlier in mind for this one. When we were creating a specific boss fight in Ebonscale Reach, there was an open question on its setting. There were a lot of primo ideas, but unfortunately our top pick turned out to be impractical and didn’t quite fit the motivations of a certain fan-favorite character.

I came up with a workable alternative after discovering an amazing unused art asset. Fast-forward to the next week and the environment artist blew me away by making an entire new POI to house the fight! That was not my initial more humble request, but his ambition paid off in a way that made the western shore near the Imperial Palace super memorable.

[h3]WHAT’S SOMETHING YOU LEARNED DURING THE MSQ UPDATE THAT YOU WISH YOU KNEW WHEN YOU FIRST STARTED WORKING ON NEW WORLD?[/h3]

I would have liked to have had a more intuitive understanding of the scale and composition between Ebonscale Reach and Shattered Mountain. I was familiar from playing the game of course, but looking through the lens of creating new content really makes it clear how different they are. Ebonscale Reach is broad with a lot of verticality, and end-to-end is second in size only to Brimstone Sands. Shattered Mountain is very dense, which creates its own challenges.

The routing of new quests in Ebonscale Reach had to take into account traveling longer distances occasionally, whereas Shattered Mountain needed routing that was not completely linear. As far as the latter is concerned, our solution to route the player through the western side and then come in from the eastern side was an idea I would have valued realizing from the very start of design.

[h3]WHAT’S SOMETHING YOUR TEAM MUST CONSIDER WHEN WORKING ON THE MSQ THAT THE AVERAGE PLAYER MIGHT NOT REALIZE OR THINK ABOUT?[/h3]

Oh! I have a very New World reason for answering that question, which might not apply well to other games. World Trains. The first chest run I went on was the most exciting thing I’ve ever experienced in an MMO. I’m a big fan of Imp and Myrk, so our team took a very considered approach in preserving that gameplay while trying to eke out just the right areas to let solo players experience those locations if they haven’t before. Both zones, Ebonscale Reach and Shattered Mountain, have their own unique challenges when it comes to zone flow as I mentioned before. I think we’ve managed to find the best route for the MSQ, but I’m definitely curious how everyone who regularly runs Imp, Myrk, and elsewhere feels.

[h3]WHAT CAN PLAYERS LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OF NEW WORLD’S STORY?[/h3]

I have the best book to tell you to read for our inspiration! It’s actually written by [REDACTED] and called [NARRATIVE DIRECTOR INFO-BLOCK ACTIVATED]. Not bad, huh? So I think players are going to enjoy the unique perspective of that kind of gameplay, plus sneaking around underground areas and mausoleums is always fun even when it’s not Halloween.

Thanks for your support! We look forward to hearing your feedback on the main story quest updates and will see you in Aeternum.