Mini Roadmap and the year in review
Yearly Stats
To finish off the year on a really weird note, the AGS team have put together some stats on 2023. Of interest, the Sandwurm has only been killed 8,108 times, and by comparison, the Garden of Genesis has been run 1,887,590 times in the same period. Horses are the most popular mount, and Lions the least popular, but this is probably to do with the fact that people haven’t completed their mount quests to unlock Wolves and Lions. Cannon Blast is more popular than Fire Storm, and I have to believe this is purely because it’s the one you get on the quest, so people equip it to see what it does.
The popularity of acquiring different costumes in the Nightveil Hollow event was listed … err … wasn’t that random? It was, however, good to see that YAAAHHHHH! was as difficult as it was meant to be, with only 4,618 players achieving the title of hard difficulty.
Dev Update
In the latest Dev Update, the first part of the 2024 Roadmap was revealed, from now until May next year. The big events are, of course, the much anticipated Cross World Group Finder, as well as a new 10-player Season Trial: The Winter Rune Forge; and, surprisingly, Gamepad, or controller as we call them, support.
Cross World Group Finder
This has been expanded on in previous updates, with only quick reference to the one-click grouping solution, no gear linking, extra rewards for healers and tanks. No details on exactly when we’ll see it but I imagine it’s the next thing coming up.
Winter Rune Forge
The team made a point of saying this was more challenging and very mechanic-heavy than the previous 10-player raid, The Hatchery. They also said the rewards will be much better and the weekly limit lower. I really hope the “mechanics” don’t require the kind of coordination the Sandwurm does, because these 10-player raids can be a great way to provide content variation for a wider audience.
Gamepad support
This one is controversial, with many players concerned about the impact of “lock-on” and tracking by controller-based players, while others are excited to finally be able to have support for their preferred input device. With the action combat of New World being one of the most positively commented-on features, it is fair to worry about whether there will be a balance between controller and mouse/keyboard players.
However, with a huge announcement in May being hinted at, it’s hard not to assume that New World is planning to go cross-platform. Which could be very exciting and inject a whole new range of players.
Regular updates
Everything else seems like the regular rotation of content updates. New Season Pass, new Artifacts, Seasonal Events. There is one new event, Year of the Dragon, which we will hear more about soon. Two of the new artifacts were hinted at, a spinning axe which I’m very excited about, and some gauntlets that will generate stacks of empower for your heavy attacks.
The completion of the MSQ, and the inglorious but essential tasks of performance improvment, combat balance and bug fixing round off the plans for the first part of the year. Can’t wait to see what they’re going to say in May.
From the source:
You can visit a direct link here, or read a copy of the news below:
Greetings, Adventurers!
Happy holidays and season’s greetings to everyone. As we put a bow on 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year and look ahead to what’s next. This year, New World celebrated its second birthday. It has been an amazing journey building this game together with you, thanks to your continued feedback and enthusiasm, but the journey is far from over. There is more we want to improve upon and even more we want to add.
This year we introduced Seasons, a dependable cadence of major content drops, each with new reasons to revisit Aeternum like the seasonal progression system and Reward Track. I especially enjoyed chasing Materia to gear up faster in Season 3, plus the fun banter between Zander and Dog as you meet the Silver Crows. It has been a nice break from the more serious tone of the main story.
We also launched our first paid expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth. The take over of First Light and conversion to Elysian Wilds featured a new chapter in the story of the Eternal Isle, a variety of new enemies, and unique points of interest. The expansion also introduced one of our most highly requested features, mounts. Our mount fidelity, animation, and control all came together to deliver a wonderful mount experience that we will continue to build on in future updates. In addition, Artifacts, the Gear Score increase, and the revamped gear system have all improved and streamlined the end-game experience.
Our latest season, Eternal Frost, just went live. We’re excited for players to experience some of our best stories and quests yet. I personally love the chess quest. Beyond the seasonal narrative, players can finally confront Ser Loth from the Empyrean Forge storyline in the new Glacial Tarn Expedition. There are also new Artifacts that will shake up the meta and give our build theory-crafters hours of fun. Lastly, the Winter Convergence Festival is probably Whisker’s and my favorite event of the year. Based on your feedback, we’ve really pushed the new rewards to be as satisfying as the event.
Live games are always growing and changing. With that we sometimes introduce errors. We’ve done our best to be as responsive and communicative as possible when that does happen. But we know there is more work to do. We want to shift more of our focus toward bug and performance improvements to make New World an even more desirable experience for every type of Adventurer.
Thank you all again for being a part of our community and choosing to spend your time adventuring with us in Aeternum. We’re committed to continuing this journey, listening, and improving the game. Happy Holidays!
Scot Lane, Game Director
2023 YEAR IN REVIEW
Check out some notable stats from this year. Data taken from January 1, 2023 through November 28, 2023.
SEASONS
Total Seasonal Challenges completed: 1,094,841
Total Stamps used: 1,157,468
Total times Mounts fed: 3,329,294
EXPEDITIONS
Deadliest Expedition Boss:
On March 26, 2023, Alluvium Marl, the Caretaker, from Garden of Genesis eliminated 188 players in a single Expedition instance
Overall in 2023, Alluvium Marl, the Caretaker eliminated 3,122,854 players, followed by Commander Marius from Empyrean Forge with 1,223,672 player kills.
Total Expedition runs: 5,887,977
Most popular Expedition:
Garden of Genesis with 1,825,590 runs
MOST CONTESTED SETTLEMENT
Invasions:
Monarch’s Bluffs
Weaver’s Fen
Wars
Restless Shore
Monarch’s Bluffs
NIGHTVEIL HALLOW
Total Costumes awarded in Nightveil Hallow: 631,132
102,500 distinct characters wore at least one of the costumes below during Nightveil Hallow:
Lost Monarch: 164, 216 acquired
Commander Thorpe: 157,446 acquired
Anubian Reaver: 158,159 acquired
Adiana: 151,311 acquired
SUMMER MEDLEYFAIRE
Total number of characters who achieved ‘YAAAHHHH! Guitar’ achievement: 66,833
Total number of players who achieved the ‘Perfect YAAAHHHH!’ title on hard difficulty: 4,618
HATCHERY
Total waves completed: 3,798,595
Total completions: 725,291
Number of Deaths: 842,886
SANDWURM
Most attempts before the Sandwurm was toppled in a single instance: 18
POPULAR HEARTRUNES BASED ON ACTIVATIONS
Detonate: 73,882,691
Grasping Vines: 50,855,513
Cannon Blast: 19.243,684
Fire Storm: 18,044,937
Dark Ascent: 7,812,959
POPULAR SKINS
Stormbound
Voidtouched Armor
Dancing Embers
Verdant Dawn’s Sentinel
Silverswept Guardian
Forge Warden
MOST POPULAR TRADE SKILLS
Cooking
Weaponsmithing
Engineering
Armoring
Arcana
Jewelcrafting
Furnishing
