New World: Aeternum News

Greetings, Adventurers!

Aeternum has been growing, changing, and adapting ever since the first adventurers washed up on shore after New World's Launch in September 2021. Whether you’re already shipwrecked on the Eternal Isle or interested in taking your first trip, New World now features more game modes, weapons, threats, and Expeditions. That means more ways to carve out your niche across every territory.

Let’s chart a course through some of the biggest changes to New World since launch. Along the way you can also expect quality of life improvements like easier leveling, less bugs, and a decrease in the local bot population. Players who have yet to experience New World can pick up the game for 40% off during the Steam Summer Sale.

[h2]New Expedition Storylines[/h2]
[h3]Tempest’s Heart[/h3]


For players that want more end-game content, get ready to enter the final battle against Isabella. Pursue the Tempest into a corrupted dimension of reality, through the twisted capital city of Myrkgard, then discover the secrets of Isabella’s past as you dive deeper into her corrupted mind. This new Expedition is also the final main story questline. Look forward to future stories as the game continues to grow.

[h3]Barnacles & Black Powder[/h3]


Barnacles & Black Powder is shrouded in mystery, but players can look forward to a unique expedition about pirates when it releases as part of the upcoming Summer Medleyfaire Event update. This update will also give you the ability to play multiple songs through a musical instrument minigame. Watch the June Team Update for a tease of what to expect.

[h3]Mutated Expeditions[/h3]


Mutated Expeditions introduce rewards and replayability to your favorite Expeditions. Mutators augment all enemies. Familiar encounters now require new strategies players may have otherwise never considered in exchange for new bespoke gear and resources. There are 3 types of Mutations:

• Elemental mutations infuse enemies in the Expedition with a specific elemental damage type, increasing their resistance to that damage type, converting a large portion of their damage to that type, and giving them powerful elemental-based abilities.
  
• Promotion mutations grant creatures in the Expedition powerful new abilities.
  
• Curse mutations apply dangerous effects to players, forcing them to work together to overcome the curse’s power. At higher difficulties, Curses become Empowered, creating additional tactical challenges.
  

Each type of Mutation features various modifiers that are randomly selected every single time you enter a Mutated Expedition. This system rotates through a unique combination of Expeditions and Mutations each week, with 10 difficulty levels per Expedition Mutation. Players will be challenged to climb the ladder, with the aim of eventually reaching the max difficulty.

For a deeper dive into Mutated Expeditions, explore our interview with the Development Team.

[h2]New Ways to PvP[/h2]
[h3]3v3 PvP Arenas[/h3]


Win glory, riches, and fame in 3v3 PvP Arena fights. You might even earn a few unique housing items in these “best-of-5” matches. Find the best team weapon combination based on your playstyle to wipe out foes before each 2 minute round ends. A deadly ring of fire will appear when the timer runs low. How will you engage the enemy inside a shrinking battlefield?

Learn more about the mode’s development, including the Announcer, in our behind the scenes interview with the New World Design Team or delve into the sounds of the Arena as part of our conversation with the Audio Team. Players that want to hop into the action must first reach level 20. They can then queue for 3v3 Arenas through the Modes menu, which allows on-demand PvP gameplay from anywhere in Aeternum.

[h3]PvP Rewards Track[/h3]


Do you strive to counter every weapon combination in Arenas? Maybe you prefer to standout in Wars or carry your team against the odds in Outpost Rush. Regardless of your goal, our new PvP Rewards Track encourages players to join all forms of PvP, including open-world activities, for special prizes. Look forward to new gear, weapons, emotes, and more.

Each PvP mode now grants players a new type of XP and a new PvP Currency – Azoth Salt. PvP XP increases your progress on the PvP Rewards track, while Azoth Salt can be exchanged for specific rewards. You’ll also earn a generous Azoth Salt bonus for every 10k Character XP you earn in the open world while flagged (XP earned while in sanctuaries is not included).

Check out our in-depth explanation to get more out of the New World PvP experience.

[h2]New Weapons[/h2]
Players can now use two additional weapons for a total of 13 unique options. Equip both at once or mix and match with your favorites for something fresh. You can also customize each weapon’s distinct skill trees to best suit your playstyle.

[h3]Void Gauntlet[/h3]


Players looking for something different should take advantage of this magical damage/support hybrid weapon to support allies and debilitate enemies. The Void Gauntlet is the first weapon to scale on both Intelligence and Focus, which makes it makes it a great match for the Life Staff and other magical weapons. Manipulate Void magic in different ways depending on your skill tree:

• The Annihilation tree focuses on maximizing damage at close-range. It revolves around Void Blade, a summoned blade of corrosive void energy.
  
• The Decay tree offers ranged healing and debuffs. It revolves around Orb of Decay, a dual phase projectile that can debuff enemies and heal allies.
  

A wide arsenal of buffs and debuffs make the Void Gauntlet perfect for players that want to significantly bolster allies at the expense of their enemies in group combat.

[h3]Blunderbuss[/h3]


Prefer guns to physical weapons? The Blunderbuss combines high-mobility with potent short-to-mid range damage. It’s the first weapon to scale on Strength and Intelligence, making it a good companion for bruiser or mage builds.

Adapt either a close range or zoner playstyle based on your chosen weapon mastery tree:

• The Containment tree is all about closing the gap and unloading hot lead into your enemy’s face.
  
• The Chaos tree focuses on keeping your distance and bombarding areas with explosive AoE damage.
  

Players that reach Level 60 and the maximum skill level with this new firearm can seek out Wang Tang Zhi in Ebonscale Reach settlement to start a Legendary Weapon Quest series.

Dive into our Blunderbuss instruction manual for more information on its lore and abilities.

[h2]What else is new?[/h2]

• Easier Leveling: It now takes players less time to level up and improve required Trade Skills.
  
• New onboarding/new player experience: We changed where many of the early quests are grouped, so players don’t have to travel as much to complete each one.
  
• New cross-region transfers: More easily play with your friends in the same region/server.
  
• New housing quests: Assist an idealistic architect with a bold mission to build houses out in the wilds for new furniture and decor rewards.
  
• New enemies: Figure out what the Varangian Knights are plotting through new questlines and points of interest like a giant fortress.
  
• New open world activities: Discover updated points of interest, Rafflebones the loot goblin, new roadside encounters, collectible vista paintings scattered throughout the world, and more.
  
• New Expertise System: There’s a new progression system called Expertise to increase your Gear Score over 500 once you reach level 60. The more powerful the creatures you defeat, the more likely your Expertise will increase, which means better item drops.
  
• New end-game loot system: Each activity (open world named bosses, Expedition bosses, Outpost Rush, Arenas, Corrupted Breaches, etc.) now rewards players with a different type of Gypsum. Gypsum can be crafted into a Gypsum Orb, then ultimately a Gypsum Cast of any weapon, armor, or trinket type. Opening a Gypsum Cast will guarantee an expertise bump and gear of that type.
  
• New quality of life improvements:
  
• Storage is now linked across territories.
  
• Taxes have been reduced.
  
• Fast Travel is now extremely low cost, making it easier to move around the world.
  
• You can queue for Outpost Rush and Arenas from anywhere.
  
• Players now have unlimited Tier 1 ammo.
  
• Only one player in a group is needed at an Expedition door to open it.
  
• Inexpensive Respec lets you try out lots of different builds and weapon paths.
  
• There are now global cooldowns for Trade Skills.
  
• Less cheaters: The Development Team issued 85,237 cheating penalties, which covers bots, cheat programs, and players who attempt to exploit in-game bugs like duping.
  
• Less hackers: The team also penalized 1,160 hackers for attempting to change the game’s files and exploit New World.
  

[h2]What’s Next for New World?[/h2]
The New World Development team has already given the community a glimpse at what’s coming through fall of this year.

• New region: Brimstone Sands Territory
  
• New Expedition: The Ennead
  
• New weapon: Greatsword
  
• New features: Expedition Group Finder
  
• New events: Nightvale Hallow Event and Turkulon 2022 Event
  

Thanks for your support! We’re excited to continue working on the future of Aeternum. All of these changes and the Steam Summer Sale make this the best time to play. We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Two new Twitch events are on the way. Celebrate our final XP Extravaganza Events on Twitch for an Azure Plains Apparel Skin Twitch Drop, and then look forward to hanging out with the New World Community Team at TwitchCon Amsterdam.

[h2]TwitchCon Amsterdam[/h2]
We’re thrilled to announce that our Community Team will be at TwitchCon Amsterdam. Join us on July 16-17 in the convention center to talk about New World (and play it!), join an exciting PvP event with fun prizes, and have the chance to take home some merch. We can’t wait to spend more time with the community. Stay tuned for more details!

[h2]Azure Plains Apparel Skin Twitch Drop[/h2]
Beginning on June 23 at 8AM PT (3PM UTC), to celebrate the final XP Extravaganza Events, the Azure Plains Apparel Skin Twitch Drop will become available for Twitch viewers to claim as a Drop on enabled channels streaming New World.



“The Azure Plains Apparel Skin is a blue dream of tomorrow framed in gingham.”

To claim the drop, viewers must watch 4 hours of New World on a Twitch Channel with the drops enabled. If you haven’t done so already, make sure your Twitch account is linked to your Amazon Games and Steam accounts. You can find the steps you need to follow on our Twitch Drops page.

The Azure Plains Apparel Skin will be available as a Twitch Drop until July 13, so make sure to tune into your favorite New World content creator with drops enabled before then! This Drop is available for all content creators to enable in the New World category.

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

Greetings, Adventurers!

The New World XP Extravaganza continues with a double character level XP weekend from June 20 to June 23 at 12AM PST Thursday, through 12AM PST Sunday (7AM Thursday - 7AM Sunday UTC).

[h2]DOUBLE XP WEEKEND: JUNE 23 - 26[/h2]


This bonus experience will stack on top of any rested XP. That means you can earn up to x4 experience until all rested XP is depleted. Players who reach or are currently level 60 will not receive any additional level XP.

Take advantage of these bonuses to experiment with strategies. You might just find a new favorite way to play. Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Aeternum is an ever-evolving world, and as such, we continue our efforts in providing our players with an assortment of ongoing new features, content, and changes. Similar to the activities leading up to our latest major update, we are approaching the release of our next large release and would like to once again invite you all to participate in the next cycle of our Public Test Realm (PTR)!

[h2]PTR[/h2]

The Public Test Realm (PTR) is a limited-availability server-set that will give players an early look at upcoming features. These preview builds are snapshots of upcoming major releases and are not final versions — you may encounter bugs, crashes, missing text, or other issues. Between our internal testing efforts and your reports, we hope to catch and resolve all serious issues before they reach the live servers. However, not every bug or feedback piece will be actioned on before release — some changes need time to be investigated further, and may arrive in a subsequent patch or two. Nonetheless, hundreds of changes have already been made — with more to come — and the full release notes will be shared on release day.

To help with the feedback process, all newly created PTR characters will have the opportunity to instantly level to select level-ranges outfitted with appropriate gear and items.

The PTR will officially open tomorrow, June 23, at 10 AM PDT (5 PM UTC). To maximize world population and encourage group play, there will only be one world available (“US East PTR 1”) for this playtest cycle, with it located within the US East regional datacenter. You may have to change your regional selection from the main menu in order to discover the available test world.

If you encounter a bug, exploit, or have suggestions to improve a feature or piece of content, we’d love to hear your feedback on our PTR sub-forum (you can also utilize our in-game feedback tool). We will do our best to address as much of your feedback as possible before the content update makes its way to our live servers. Your participation will help us to deliver awesome content and updates in the future!

During this iteration of the PTR, we look forward to hearing your playtest feedback regarding the following changes.

[h2]Major Updates[/h2]
[h3]Summer Medleyfaire Event[/h3]
Amidst the tragedy and violence of Aeternum, a Medleyfaire Maestro has declared it's time to party away your woes! Summer Villages have been erected in Brightwood, Everfall, Weaver's Fen, and Monarch's Bluffs. Raise your reputation with the Maestro through quests, catching fish like the famed Aeternum Sturgeon with Maudlinbugs, and more to net special holiday rewards. You can even frame your favorite catches for your home at new Mount-A-Catch stations found in every village! Come let loose and celebrate life on the island of Eternal Life!
[h3]Musical Instruments[/h3]
Musical Instruments are a rhythm-action based trade skill coming to Aeternum that make the world a stage! There are 5 instruments for players to pick up and learn, plus an initial 31 songs to collect and master! You can play solo, or as a group with up to 5 Adventurers. These musical instruments include:

• Guitar
  
• Mandolin
  
• Upright Bass
  
• Drums
  
• Azoth Flute
  

Songs are unlocked by salvaging pages hidden throughout Aeternum. Complete the Summer Medleyfaire quests to earn a special set of pages and starter instruments. Better instruments can be crafted through the Furnishing trade skill. Furnishing can also roll new Music trade skill specific perks.

Press the F5 key to initiate a performance. Each one will reward players with trade skill XP and various buffs. Better performances receive stronger buffs and more trade skill XP. Spectators enjoying the show will also receive a buff and can toss a coin to the performers as a tip.

More buffs unlock as your trade skill XP increases. The buffs (in order of progression) are:

• Decidedly Dexterous: Gathering Speed increases by 75% for 30-90 min.
  
• Territorial Triumph: Territory Standing Bonus increases by 10%-30% for 30-90 min.
  
• All Together Now: Group Character XP Sharing Bonus increases by 4%-15% for 30-90 min.
  
• Song in your Step: Reduces Player Encumbrance by 200-1,000 for 30-90 min.
  
• Fortune’s Favor: Gathering Yield increases by 3%-10% for 30-90 min.
  
• Luck’s Labor: Gathering Luck increases by 2% - 5% for 30-90 min.
  

[h3]Barnacles & Black Powder[/h3]

A dark tide rises in Aeternum with the arrival of Admiral Blackpowder and his dastardly crew! Quest givers in the Cutlass Keys settlement and the new docks on the territory’s eastern shore will be looking to offer you loot and renown for defeating the despicable evil within the new Barnacles & Black Powder expedition.

Rumors suggest there might be an even greater power within the Admiral's hold. Not to mention, more than meets the eye... as with most things in Aeternum, of course. Barnacles & Black Powder is an endgame expedition. The entrance can be found at the small docks in south east Cutlass Keys.

[h3]Expedition Mutators[/h3]
Barnacles & Black Powder will be mutated 2 weeks after it releases into the live game. Three new mutations will also join the mutation rotation!

• Icebound:
  A mutation that focuses on Ice elemental effects related to incoming and outgoing damage. It can also apply Slow status effects!
  
• Oppressive:
  A promotion set that includes mana drains and zones of silence, which prevent ability usage for a short period of time.
  
• Frenzied:
  This variant applies Curses to players that dodge. Curses stack and deal damage over time. Max stacks also damage nearby allies.
  

[h3]Expedition Enhancements[/h3]
New quality of life features have been introduced to alleviate some points of friction for our expedition explorers!
[h3]Expedition Group Finder (Same World)[/h3]
Finding a group to run expeditions with while solo isn’t always easy when you need to ask through Chat. So we are excited to release our first version of the Group Finder tool for expeditions! With this feature, you’ll be able to access a specific Group Finder for each expedition (accessed through expedition entrance UI or related expedition map icons), browse listings created by other players, or post your own request. The tool allows players to declare their preferred team role — such as DPS, Tank, or Healer — and recruit based on those roles. You can also set minimum Gear Score and Level, then inspect members to learn their average GS, weapons, and mastery levels.
[h3]Expedition Tuning Orb Removal[/h3]

In this update, we’ve removed Expedition Tuning Orbs and replaced them with daily limits for Normal and Weekly mutated expedition runs to make all expeditions easier to access. This new system features:

• 15 Normal Expedition Runs per player per day or 105 per week, per player.
  
• 25 Mutated Expedition Runs per week.
  

For concerned players, this is how we plan on introducing it after the PTR:

In order to honor the value you’ve put into acquiring existing Tuning Orbs, any orbs in your inventory upon the update will be replaced with caches that give loot appropriate for their expedition. While you won’t get a full run’s worth of coin and drops, the rolls will include boss drops for weapons and armor in addition to opportunities for Expertise bumps.

• For Normal expeditions, caches will reward a roll from the sub-boss and main boss found in that specific expedition, and grant coin equal to 50% the cost previously associated with buying that specific type of orb from the Faction Shop.
  
• For Mutated expeditions, caches will reward 4 boss rolls off the final boss of 4 eligible mutators, and coin equal to 50% the cost previously associated with buying that specific type of orb from the Faction Shop.
  

More details can be found within the release notes.
[h3]Loot Rebalance[/h3]
With the accessibility changes to expeditions, we’ve moved roughly 80% of coin generated from expedition bosses and have instead spread it out to coin drops from elite chests and darkness breaches completion bonuses to help compensate for the reduction. Twice a day, players can loot elite chests in the open world or complete minor and major darkness breaches to earn a bag of coins. Each bag contains 500 coins.

Along with that, we have introduced a new method to help the player overcome the randomness of Expedition Loot. Materia is a new type of resource , Materia, that can be used to craft your desired drop. There are two ways to obtain this resource. Any named item obtained from an expedition can now be salvaged into Materia of its corresponding expedition type (Amrine Materia, Depths Materia etc.). The player will also receive Materia when defeating the main boss of an expedition.
[h3]Mutator Loot Shift[/h3]
We’ve shifted the difficulty levels at which loot unlocks. The system was originally intended to give players a sense of rewarding progression as they play through the different difficulty levels — which it did accomplish — but the lower levels didn’t feel particularly good due to sparse rewards. We’ve therefore changed what items unlock at which difficulty level, which should result in a wider variety of lower level rewards. No loot has been removed, as specific items have shifted to unlock at different brackets and in certain groups.

We’ve also added another accessory to each mutator. Previously, each mutator dropped 2 of the 3 types of accessory. Now every mutator can drop all available types.
[h3]Instanced Wars[/h3]

Previously while one or more wars were ongoing, server performance could become degraded. This could result in latency spikes for players in the war and surrounding areas of Aeternum. We have rearchitected the underlying technology for wars and are happy to report that wars should no longer pose risk of such a drastic negative performance impact to participants nor the world around them!
[h3]Loot, Perks, and Trade Skills[/h3]
Note that all tuning values on the PTR are still in flux and may change before retail release into the live game. Please experiment, have fun, and send us your feedback!
[h3]Perk Rebalance[/h3]
We have examined the meta and its issues impacting endgame viability. With this update we adjusted over 150 perks to help make them more useful and competitive compared to the best perks in the game. Skill-specific weapon perks are now more powerful, with some receiving substantial rework to be more viable. For example, we buffed the Durability perk and renamed it to “Indestructible” because players will no longer take durability damage when it is equipped.

We also tweaked how perks are calculated in order to provide players with more options for better perk combinations. For example, the trade skill drop chance on earrings now has a very low drop chance on drops to increase the combat focused perks players get from earrings. These perks can still be controlled via crafting using their specific craft mods to make specific items.
[h3]Dual Stat Change[/h3]
In order to improve the quality of crafted and looted items, we’ve made some changes to dual stat attribute combinations. We’ve changed the scaling of the primary stat to scale higher, giving these stats larger impact. We’ve also made a number of changes to the 50 threshold bonuses to encourage more stat splitting across all builds. This is a very experimental change and we are looking for feedback through the PTR to evaluate the balance and impact of these changes before going live.
[h3]Loot Quality[/h3]

The overall quality of drops has been improved based on player/expertise level. That means at level 60, players should earn more Epic and Rare loot than Uncommon loot. The Epic and Legendary loot also have a higher chance of receiving more viable stat combinations (e.g. increased chances for Keen, lower chances for Beast Bane). Perks that roll are all still random for non-named items, but players should see better combinations of perks overall. We’ve also improved the chances that higher Gear Score items can drop from lower level creatures, giving a small chance 600 Gear Score items can come from level 59+.
[h3]Bonus Loot Drops[/h3]
The loot players rolled from Gypsum Casts were not very rewarding, so we improved the likelihood that you’ll roll Epic and Rare loot. We’ve also increased the range at which Expertise can be gained off these rolls.
[h3]Perfect Salvage[/h3]
We heard the feedback, and recognize that salvage became much less interesting at endgame. With this update we made salvaging more rewarding through the introduction of Perfect Salvages. Whenever you salvage an item you will now have a chance to perform a Perfect Salvage. Perfect Salvages can reward players with the following:

• Research materials (such as weapon scraps) that can be used to gain crafting trade skill experience.
  
• Special orbs that can be converted into gypsum casts which bypass the normal daily limit.
  
• Materials to fabricate special items.
  
• Other valuable resources.
  

[h3]Trade Skill Changes[/h3]

Improvements to trade skills are being made to reduce friction and speed up leveling for many Gathering, Refining, and Crafting trade skills:
[h3]Gathering[/h3]

• Reduced Logging XP required to level from 1 to 50 by 15%.
  
• Reduced Logging XP required to level from 51 to 200 by 20%.
  
• Reduced Fishing XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 50%.
  

[h3]Refining[/h3]

• We are removing tiers from reagents (Tannins, Fluxes, Sandpapers, Weaves, and Solvents). Our goal is to simplify these to a single tier, giving them the potency of T5 reagents to help players progress trade skills more efficiently and reduce the friction of converting reagents. Plus, remove the confusion around what tier of reagent to apply when crafting.
  
• Reduced Leatherworking XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 10%.
  
• Reduced Smelting XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 10%.
  
• Reduced Weaving XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 15%.
  
• Reduced Woodworking XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 15%.
  
• Reduced Stonecutting XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 20%.
  

Crafting

• Improving the trade skill XP on tier 4 and tier 5 crafted items for all skills.
  
• Reduced furnishing XP required to level from 1 to 200 by 20%.
  
• We will reduce the trade skill XP required for Weaponsmithing and Furnishing for levels 1-200 (not yet in this build).
  

[h3]Crafting, Gathering, & Refining Clothing[/h3]
We’ve rebalanced the drop chance and locations of all trade skill clothing to better improve their availability.

Of course, that’s not all! You can review all of the upcoming changes for this patch by checking out the full PTR release notes, shared within the PTR sub-forum.
[h2]PTR Client Access[/h2]
This special preview client will be made available for download through the stand-alone Steam application, “New World Public Test Realm” (which should already be in your Steam library if you own the main game). When the test period is complete and the main New World game is updated with the previewed content, the PTR world will shut down and may be wiped clean. You will continue to see the New World PTR application in your Steam library, but there will not be an active server until the next time we announce a public test
[h2]PTR Backstory Loadouts[/h2]
Upon character creation on the PTR, players will be given multiple caches of special armor and weapons. Each cache has a designation based upon a general build and a main attribute: CON, DEX, INT, FOC, and STR.

To help manage the sudden onset of new items, do not open all provided caches at once, or you’ll risk becoming encumbered! Instead, equip all provided bags and then follow-up with opening each cache deliberately. Any undesired caches can be dropped or deposited into your personal settlement storage.
[h2]PTR FAQ[/h2]
[h3]HOW DO I ACCESS THE NEW PTR?[/h3]
Everyone with a copy of New World will be automatically granted access to the secondary PTR app. The PTR is not compatible with the live game, so you will need to download a separate client (and have the hard drive space required to support it). From there, we will have special worlds available within supported regions. Not all regions will initially be supported. Access is on a first come, first served basis. There may be queues.
[h3]CAN I PLAY WITH OR TRANSFER MY LIVE CHARACTERS TO THE PTR?[/h3]
Unfortunately, no. These are separate ecosystems, so at this time it is not possible. However, to make testing easier, we will occasionally provide our play-testers with special accommodations such as instant levels, special gear, etc.
[h3]CAN I PROVIDE DESIGN FEEDBACK REGARDING WHAT’S INCLUDED ON THE PTR?[/h3]
Preview game builds on the PTR are finished with their core development and are in their final phase of testing and bug fixing. Our main focus at this phase is improving quality, although we will appreciate any feedback you have to share.
[h3]I HAVE A PROBLEM; HOW CAN I CONTACT CUSTOMER SUPPORT?[/h3]
Our policies and Code of Conduct cover the PTR, and in-game moderation will continue to be supported. Unfortunately, due to the temporary and potentially unstable nature of the PTR, general Customer Service assistance through both Live Chat and through the Support Website will not be available.
[h3]I DON’T WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PTR, CAN I REMOVE THE APP FROM MY LIBRARY?[/h3]
Don’t worry, no offense taken. Players can manage visibility of the New World Public Test Realm Steam Library entry. Opening up the game options (right-click > Manage) offers the “Hide Game” function.

Thanks for your support and participation! We'll see you in Aeternum.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Just one line from the Announcer reminds players of triumphs or struggles in the Arena, while a single crowd cheer can bring a smile to your face for reasons you’ll never forget. Each sound tells a different story depending on who you ask. We joined New World Audio Director Jean-Edouard Miclot, Composers Brandon Campbell and Ramin Djawadi, and the Announcer himself, Michael Willette, for more insight into theirs. Let’s explore the instrument, crowd, and voice-over techniques that vastly improve the satisfaction behind every action in Arenas.

[h2]Audio Development[/h2]
The team’s vision for Arenas was to capture the atmosphere of a blood sport through strong audio reinforcement. Their unlikely inspiration — live sporting events.

They laid microphones on the field to capture the ohhhs, noooos, and other reactions of about 20,000 people. These sounds became one of the main audio feedback mechanics when someone dies in the Arena. After cleaning up all of the sounds from the music, PA announcements, and occasional swear words, a second trip to the stadium featuring nearly 50,000 fans laid the groundwork for every Arena crowd celebration.



Design choices like the position of the announcer also influenced their creative direction.

"We didn’t want to recreate a stereotype from fighting or FPS games because that voice was never diegetic and wouldn’t fit our soundscape," Jean-Edouard said. "We needed the announcer to physically be in the Arena with the players, which meant we also needed to have the music feel like it was part of the space too."

Each track had to sound like the music could be played in the Arena itself. The mode subsequently features percussion, a lot of brass, including trumpets, and some unusual options like war horns and custom plucked string instruments.

Once the team nailed their foundation, their action fanfare approach was easy. They composed one basic idea piece, then changed the speed or percussion to derive individual tracks.

"We wanted the music to be exciting and dramatic but also authentic to what and where the music is being played in the game," the composers said. "We even experimented with some shouts and male vocals that ultimately didn’t work."

After two months of trial and error, the following audio made it into Arenas:

• 85 crowd samples
  
• 86 Announcer samples per language across 8 languages
  
• 7 minutes of Arena music
  

Workflows, pipelines, and tools became more efficient throughout development, but the creative process always takes the most time.

When asked how do you know when you’ve struck the perfect balance between intended audio and player impact, Jean-Edouard said, “I really wish we knew how to reproduce that process but we don’t really have any recipe yet. We often stop working on a task because we’re out of time. We’ve had a few sounds that some players loved, while others hated. This is a process we still need to learn with our players. We’ll make more informed decisions in the future as we continue to try new sounds in the PTR."

[h2]Audio Design[/h2]
According to Jean-Edouard, the best audio design comes from finding the most familiar and least predictable sound. That rule should apply to all of your favorite sound moments in any game or movie. For Arenas, the team was lucky to have recorded the interior crowd of a live sporting event. It gave them a different perspective when the player dies, then goes in the spectator box. Familiar sounds like weapons, screams, and the music become unexpectedly distant. It also gives players a breath of fresh air until they’re thrown back in the pit for a shot at revenge.



Creative constraints and simplicity help the Audio Team compose audio that feels fresh, yet faithful to New World’s original motifs.

"We’re working on a very large game so we like to limit our choices to one simple idea," Jean-Edouard said. "If a sound gets too complicated, its function isn’t clear enough, it gets blurred in the wash of the soundscape, and it cannot lead to a strong emotional response. The best sounds are also the simplest ones. It takes courage to only choose the one that you found instead of layering it over mediocre ideas that will attempt to cover the weaknesses of your other choices."

This simplicity starts with initial design documents that barely have any notes about sound. The Audio Team tries to leave as many options available as possible by listening to sounds randomly, then asking themselves, what if we used this one in a certain way in the game?

"We found that it generally leads to more interesting results than if we tried to start with a blank page of paper and writing down our own ideas," Jean-Edouard said. "We sometimes use sound that has nothing to do with what we see on screen. My favorite fire sound is from a water recording. There’s often no logic to sound design. It’s all digested by your gut and emotions. By the time you start thinking about it, it’s already long gone."

[h2]The Announcer[/h2]
Jean-Edouard wanted someone with a superhuman kind of voice who could shout louder than anybody else to voice the Announcer. Michael was an easy choice because of their work together on Killer Instinct.



There was some back and forth on the Announcer’s personality, until Michael did an Immortan Joe impression. They described the Mad Max inspired character as primal energy and cynical with a caustic sense of humor. He’s delighted by the deaths of players and loves to energize the crowd’s bloodlust.

About 85 to 90% of the Announcer’s dialogue is scripted. "As you read things out loud sometimes they don’t sound as cool or "hit" like they were intended when written," Michael said. The dozen improvised lines that make up the rest of his dialogue felt natural so the team kept them as random variations for when someone dies. There are also a couple of Easter eggs waiting for the community to discover.

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