New World: Aeternum News

New World devs say to "expect to see more Expeditions and Mutators in the future"

Earlier this month, New World developer Amazon Games pushed a whole bunch of changes to the MMORPG's public testing realm (PTR) for fans to test-drive ahead of the next major patch. Among a bunch of balance changes and updates, there's a significant new feature coming that'll shake up endgame combat called Expedition Mutators - and it sounds like this is something the devs want to introduce even more of in the future.

"We love variety!" world experience lead Mike Willette tells us. "There are a ton of different MMOs, roguelikes, and action-adventure games that inspired our first steps in developing Mutators. We wanted ways to challenge players and give them awesome rewards. We developed layers of challenges through the many afflictions, family types, and abilities offered in the game. Each one needs to be dealt with differently, requires better gear and teamwork, and gives better rewards!"

For context, Expedition Mutators are essentially modifiers that add some variety by "augmenting 'normal' and 'named' enemies found within Expeditions, changing the way encounters play out and what strategies players should consider before battle", as Amazon initially explained. Unique combinations of Expeditions and Mutations rotate each week, and players battle their way up a ladder of difficulty, up to the top encounters which should be "extremely difficult".

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New World patch fixes slow and disease PvP bugs, removes some WIP quests

A new update has come to New World which addresses a few key bugs and other hiccups that have been popping up in the fantasy MMORPG of late. While the patch - titled Update 1.2.2, if you're fancy - takes aim at a variety of different issues, some key changes fans might be excited to hear about include a fix for bugs that were hampering players' movement in PvP and stopping them from shaking off a pesky debuff.

New World's latest patch notes include a fix that tackles "an issue causing permanent disease and slow being applied in PvP". The slowing bug - or something very similar, at least - in particular seems to have been popping up in bug reports for a while, with the issue reportedly preventing players from moving properly following PvP encounters, with permanent slow and root-like effects kicking in.

The latter, meanwhile, appears to have potentially popped up following the game's 1.2.1. patch, with a note that "the 'disease' debuff may stack infinitely" appearing in Amazon Games' roundup of some known issues last month. Good news is these should now both be banished from Aeternum and explorers are free to roam at normal speeds (and free from lengthy disease) once again. Huzzah.

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New World Update 1.2.2

Downtime will begin at 11pm PT (7am UTC) on January 11.

Greetings Adventurers!
This week’s update includes a few fixes for recent issues that popped up, alongside some combat adjustments and fixes. Our development team is continually working on improving the New World experience, and they thank you all for your patience and reports that you continue to make on the official forums.

General Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue where players couldn’t gain more than 3 levels of Aptitude when crafting large quantities of items at once.
Disabled a short series of work-in-progress quests which were missing some aspects, most notably the rewards. These quests are being disabled for the time being, and they'll be re-enabled at a later date. Players who have completed the quests in their current state can keep the XP and gold earned, but progress will be reset so you can complete the quests again for the proper rewards when they're re-enabled. The quests affected are:
Edge of the World
Call Beyond the Void
Stirs the Awakened
The Cursed Blade
Sensou no Ko
Fixed an issue where players were able to jump-cancel the bow firing recovery. There is now a .33 second delay from when an arrow is released before a jump can be triggered.
Fixed an issue causing permanent disease and slow being applied in PvP.
Fixed an issue to players sliding when animation cancelling Void Blade heavy attacks.
Fixed an issue where the wrong mob could spawn for “Guardian of the Light”.
Fixed an issue causing The Surgeon, Pit Lord Daehi, Baines, and Mordici The Mortician to not drop battle trophy materials.

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

New World's Winter Convergence is so popular it's been extended two weeks

The New World Winter Convergence end date has been pushed back because the MMO's first holiday festival has proved too dang popular. The Winter event has now been extended two weeks to January 25, so players have until the end of the month to get those presents.

The Winter Convergence is New World's first proper event since it launched a few months ago, and it began on December 16. Apart from covering Aeternum with snow, the festival has added new quests, activities, items, weapons, and the mysterious yeti known as the Winter Wanderer - who's either a benevolent Santa or a terrible warrior.

Originally the Winter Convergence was due to end next Tuesday, January 11, but in a recent community update developer Amazon Game Studios says it's extending this two weeks - so the event won't conclude until January 25, "due to the fantastic turnout" the team has seen from the festival. Furthermore, from January 21 to 25 all of the event's giveaway items will be available to grab.

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New World is getting 'Expedition Mutators' to shake up endgame combat

It's a new year, which means new things are coming to New World. The team at Amazon Games has re-opened the MMORPG's Public Testing Realm (PTR) to give players a window to playtest a bunch of new features and content before they head to live servers. Among the offerings is a new feature called 'Expedition Mutators', which is designed to add some fresh spice and variety to endgame combat.

"Mutators change the familiar by augmenting 'normal' and 'named' enemies found within Expeditions, changing the way encounters play out and what strategies players should consider before battle," the devs explain in a blog post. It's not just combat conditions that'll get a shake-up, though - rewards will also change, with "new bespoke gear and resources" to nab.

The way this system will work is by rotating through a "unique combination of Expeditions and Mutations each week", and there'll be ten difficulty levels per Expedition Mutation. The idea is to work your way up the ladder in pursuit of the maximum difficulty level, with higher difficulties designed to be "extremely difficult" - and therefore laden with the best loot.

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