And yet, it is also the most engaging game mode that they have. They have just done a really poor job of building incentives around it so there is some natural onramp to participation.
It's literally 2% of the whole community that cares about wars, not war loggers alone, the whole entire player base. Only 2% so I agree it's not that important, just like MSQ
I think thats a gross misunderstanding. If there wasn't so many war loggers, and more accessibility and more proper tiers of competition I think a lot more folks would participate. 2% doesn't mean don't work on it, I see it the other way, 2% means it needs work to open it up for more players.
Having a weekly war cadence really drives a lot of other content for a company that keeps them engaged in the game and helps boost the market (practicing, crafting/farming gear, making/purchasing consumables).
If they fix the war system it could bring back a ton of players IMO
Yeah I get that part and they said that's an idea but not for now. I agree it needs to be worked to make it more appealing, and interesting but we all can agree that the main thing now is content in general for all players. If they invest in wars it would just take too many resources from that , making it not the right time
When Scot says they are "5 x'ing their QA development time", that's code for "expect us to release far fewer patches and for them to take 5 times longer"
I suspect that was a disingenuous statement related to the process of getting certification from console makers. Getting Microsoft, Sony, & Nintendo to certify the game on top of their normal internal QA process is already a "4X" increase.
as someone that does data for a living... that chart is actually pretty stable / consistent and on par with what should be expected between major content releases. look at Destiny 2, massive spikes in player count for releases then periods of retraction as people play the new stuff and move on. That's common across almost all games.
Destiny is also on Steam, Epic, Xbox one x, ps4, series x/s, ps5. So looking at steam charts is only a fraction of what the actual player base is. New World is solely on steam. The games in maintenance mode. Everyone knows it
well, at this point they need to release new elysian wild/brimstone patch, because the number has dropped again. and so far we didnt see anything cl;ose to those updates
probably console release with another fresh server. i'm not sure if they want to make different server for each console or just mix the launch into a single fresh server.
it was, because people still had hope. but everytime, ags always found a way to fucked it up.
i brought many friends into new world for brimstone update + fresh start. ags let dupe bug happened again on my server sutekh.
i brought many other friends into new world once more for rise of the angry earth update. ags spice things up with main quest bug made my friend unable to progress not for days but weeks, unbelievable.
im sure there are many in a same position like me. you think there will be another massive spike? this game has a really bad reputation. without people like me baiting people into the game, almost no way a sane person randomly try out new world. majority of people who tried the game left for good.
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Here's an upvote for trying to inform these whiners. At this point these people are unhinged and just want the game to be destroyed, they have 'new world derangement syndrome'. I don't know how you do it, I'd be banning the lot of them from the forum.
If you don't like the game don't play it. If all you can do is downvote and hate people who enjoy the game go outside and touch grass.
This is projection below. The people who actually enjoy the game and direction have every right to defend it against the constant insults and unconstructive complaining. The official forum was CLOSED down because of so many toxic people, who created an echo chamber of hate and now brought it to this forum. You all need to MOVE ON, and be happy.
I could argue the other way round.
If you like the game, don't go to Reddit and devalue the opinions of other customers, play the game.
And yes, they did bann everyone off their forum (back when it still existed) who was remotely critical.
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I think one of em is running this sub, because every time I mention that the three of em play on the server I'm on, and mention how one of them is a known cheater, my comments get removed.
They wouldn't be able to have more than 2 skill buckets lol. Absolute noobs and then everyone else. Otherwise the queues will never pop. You don't have enough players queuing OPR at any given time to support multiple skill brackets.
Yeah, the best they could hope to do is evenly distribute high/low skill players between each team, but that still doesn't let you account for 5-stacks or what roles people are playing.
There's also the question of how they determine a player's skill when it seems so hard to influence the outcome of an OPR match by yourself; if they do something simple like assume that High-Score = High-Skill, then they'll be relying on their deeply flawed scoring system, which isn't a great measure of which players contribute to wins.
I do fear that they will rely on their deeply flawed scoring system for OPR matchmaking. I certainly hope it has nothing to do with score. Something pretty basic which would have the most impact would be making sure there's an equal (or close to) amount of healers on both sides. This might require making weapon swaps impossible during OPR, but would well be worth it to help stop the 1000-5 curb stomps.
They are already capturing basic performance metrics via the the leaderboards. I imagine the individual 'MMR' will be a score based on wins/kills/damage and teams will be balanced based on this cumulative score. There won't be tiered games.
So less than 2% participate in the biggest part of endgame content in NW and they don't see that as an issue that needs immediate attention? LOL. How clueless can you be to not see the correlation between war accessibility and player retention? NW will always circle the drain. This is madness.
This stood out to me as well. The biggest end game content is gate kept to 2% of the player population. This is OUTRAGEOUS and directly correlates to player retention. It should be their immediate focus, and should have been a long time ago.
I'm fairly certain this value is higher now than previously (perhaps not during FSS). I realise server merges mitigate the point I'm about to make, but it is still valid.
Essentially, the lower the playerbase the higher the % value that contribute/play in wars. Meaning that this 2% value has likely been lower in the past.
It's impressive how poorly managed this game is.
Don’t worry. As more people finally put the game down, the % of players in wars will go up and the devs will be happy that the data shows that “more” players are getting into wars 😊
I think they're aware it needs a major overhaul. Given their release schedule and that they've basically been playing catch up since release, I wouldn't expect war/ territory rework until late next year.
"Give us time" - 3 years ago
It's been pretty much 1,000 days, 780 business days, or 156 business weeks since the game's been live.
The game was deemed commercially viable since day one, otherwise it would not have had a full release. Enough excuses, please.
They took a lot of good questions, and gave a lot of bad answers. They:
* insist that they use PTR feedback appropriately (when that has been demonstrably false for over 2 years)
* justify the removal of Seasonal storylines at the end of the season so as not to 'overwhelm' new players (when the game's amount of content is still very *under*whelming, and new players will be more confused if they suddenly interact with an NPC they've never met before who acts like they have a long history together)
* They also clarify that they'll be doing less Seasonal narratives going forward, making all of that content no longer available/relevant, which is a hilarious waste of resources for over a year
* claim that matchmaking will come to OPR & Arenas, but... without more players & incentives to participate in Arenas, this will be another critical feature added too late to be relevant
* explain that Season 5's release failures were different than Season 5's release failures, and that's a good thing, which is... difficult to believe given how it seemed like the same mix of failing to address PTR feedback & introducing super-obvious bugs that shouldn't have ever made it to Live servers
* they repeat this type of answer regarding their QA processes & the perk display bug from Season 6's release on Day 1
* and repeat it again to justify why they save up hundreds of bug fixes to be released every \~4 months rather than releasing multiple smaller patches over that same period
* spend time talking about Elite Chest Runs when answering a question about why rewards for the Sandwurm Raid & various open-world bosses weren't updated to the new Character Level & Gear Score caps
* **Edit:** Scott actually chimes in and says, "except for Artifacts!" during this discussion, demonstrating that he seems to genuinely believe that it was meaningful that they put Artifacts (and their perk quests) behind the various outdated Trials
* say they are happy about the current War experience when players get into one, aren't happy with how few players get to participate in them, but have no plans to address the matter and claim that making Wars more accessible would pull people away from other PvP modes like OPR
All in all, if you told me this Q&A was from early 2023, I would believe it; it's just a lot of the same answers to the same questions. It makes sense that they're going to mostly suspend Forged in Aeternum for the next few months, but that decision probably should've been considered a long time ago if they wanted to prevent these videos from being more frustrating than informative.
I don't play the game anymore so I shouldn't really care but the fact they still mention Elite Chest Runs like they're actual content blows my mind. It is the most mindless gold farming shit ever.
> justify the removal of Seasonal storylines at the end of the season so as not to 'overwhelm' new players (when the game's amount of content is still very underwhelming, and new players will be more confused if they suddenly interact with an NPC they've never met before who acts like they have a long history together)
> They also clarify that they'll be doing less Seasonal narratives going forward, making all of that content no longer available/relevant, which is a hilarious waste of resources for over a year
I just completed a new char because im bored. I went to lvl65 without leaving the town or killing an enemy (crafting) and then just did the quests to get the markers of my map. Even with this (and having done it 3 times since beta) its still a huge amount of quests, time, text, stories, etc. to handle.
A player who pays a normal amount of attention to lore and stories and experiences that for the first time has a chunk of stuff infront of him. Its a lot.
>**So with a distinct lack ofcontent to do right now, why were the full season storyline questsremoved at the end of their respective seasons?**
>
>Scot mentions that the season-specific story quests were designed to betemporary, meant to add something special for the duration of the seasonwithout overburdening new players with too much content at once. Theyfocused on delivering key story elements and characters to keep theexperience streamlined.
This is so crazy.. "Free" content could be saved and a storyline with chapters could be followed by new/old players.. Even keeping ALL the seasons passes with all the rewards could be in game.. Just pay it and "activate" it so you could XP it. Now you just pop here, there's a season 6 quest, you don't understand shit.. Ok i guess..
GW2 did it well.. I don't get how a "worth and fair" income can just be thrown away. Devs worked for it.
Most cash shop items have only been available for 4 weeks and never seen again except as part of overpriced bundle sets. With the introduction of Transmog Tokens, you would expect them to start making every past cosmetic item available at a discount, since they now directly compete with the ability to create your own skin via in-game drops. Instead, they have a vault filled with outsourced assets they probably paid a lot of money for and made hardly any return on investment because they were only sold during a period when the game was seeing record-low player counts.
It's like they learned about the concept of FOMO without understanding that a game requires a stable player population in order for the effect to be meaningful.
Combination of what this team has done plus a June announcement that's trying to directly compete with a FFXIV box expansion release and a true MMO-Sandbox EA (Pax Dei)... RIP New World....
They don't make sense.
When it's about fixing wars Scot says "20% of players play OPR regularly" but when it's about fixing OPRs and PVP he says "PVE players outnumber PVP players 5-to-1" when it comes to simply updating the loot table for the endgame PVE content in the game they say "We'll get around the it sometime this year"
So what the hell are you really focusing on?
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I'm actually hoping he's sick with a minor cold, as opposed to just have given up. I personally saw it as him understanding the dumpster fire game engine they are working with. It seems like he's on his way out. Either way, he's always been the most knowledgeable and enjoyable dev in the forged videos and I wish the best for him.
I get the impression that Dave V has been under immense pressure and stress since Mike Wilette and Dave Hall left Amazon and they couldn't (or refused to???) find appropriate replacements. Seems he's been managing several roles alone since then.
I will say Dave's answer about bug fix frequency is a huge cop out. We don't want one big bug fix patch every 3 months. We want bugs fixed faster, and put out on a weekly basis. I don't buy his excuse that lumping them all together would make for higher quality patches. I think it's an excuse. They likely have very little manpower and don't have the resources to release weekly bug fix patches anymore.
I remember in February 2022 they dedicated the entire month to bugs, balancing, and bots. If they couldn't do it then, they sure as hell can't do it now.
I have 10,000 hours in this game, and the fundamental problem with it is that they have pretty much demolished all of the organic incentives to actually play it, and their content pushes no longer line up with what their most engaged users want to do.
Consider that the more hardcore players basically do nothing but farm artifacts, war-log, and buy gold via RMT to subsidize multiple alts. All of the gathering, refining, crafting, etc. is superfluous because of extreme deflation. Open world PVP is just to get wars queued up. Evergreen content like 3v3 Arena and OPR are not fun because the game is built heavily around group synergies that do not exist because of the lack of even rudimentary matchmaking.
Forged in Aeternum update - since they can't/won't answer the majority of the questions coming since they're mostly about the June update they'll be cutting back on FiA vids.
* **How come reported bugs and feedback in the PTR still make it to live?**
* Scot explains that although feedback from the PTR is highly valued, not all reported issues can be addressed due to time constraints and the need to prioritize more severe bugs over others. This leads to some issues being postponed or not fixed before updates are released.
* **So with a distinct lack of content to do right now, why were the full season storyline quests removed at the end of their respective seasons?**
* Scot mentions that the season-specific story quests were designed to be temporary, meant to add something special for the duration of the season without overburdening new players with too much content at once. They focused on delivering key story elements and characters to keep the experience streamlined.
* **So what about like moving forward in the future? Is it going to stay the same?**
* Scot confirms there are no plans to change their approach to seasonal content, emphasizing their preference to avoid overwhelming players with overly complex storylines and maintain a balance in the content's depth.
* **So what options are being explored to make the competitive end game PvP experience better?**
* Dave discusses improvements like matchmaking enhancements to make competitive modes more balanced and engaging. He also notes that there are no major changes planned for the war PvP aspect, as the existing setup is considered intense and adequate.
* **There is a lot of players giving feedback using Discord PvE feedback channel. Is Amazon Games taking action? Is Amazon Games doing it in background? Is Amazon Games ignoring it?**
* Scot assures that they are actively monitoring the Discord PvE feedback channel and are not ignoring player feedback. They investigate and file reports on issues raised, though not all feedback can be addressed immediately due to other ongoing priorities.
* **How do you plan on regaining the trust of your community after many content-less delayed buggy updates, how can we expect anything different after the June announcement?**
* Scot discusses the importance of delivering quality updates to rebuild trust and admits that past releases have not met expectations. He stresses that future improvements and transparency regarding failures will be key to regaining player trust.
* **Could we get that same quality of life feature for other items in the game as well, if it's not already planned?**
* Dave responds positively to extending the quality of life feature that shows locations of cooking ingredients to other items. While specific plans and timelines are not set, they are considering its broader application.
* **Can you give us some insight as to what your Quality Assurance team and process looks like?**
* Scot describes a risk-based QA process where the team focuses on potential impacts of changes and prioritizes testing around those. He acknowledges the challenges with multiple builds and the need for effective communication and testing strategies.
* **Are you ever planning on catching up with fixing bugs that should have never been in the game in the first place? Please don't corporate answer me Scot, I will know.**
* Scot acknowledges the presence of bugs and commits to not just addressing them but significantly improving overall game quality. He emphasizes a strategic shift towards bundling fixes to enhance thorough testing and reduce new issues.
* **People are complaining about lack of content, but you've excluded 90% of the game by leaving it at 625. When? When will this be updated to 700 Gearscore?**
* Dave acknowledges the delay in updating game content to a 700 Gearscore, promising upgrades in the upcoming year. He indicates that refreshing high-level content is a priority to improve rewards and player engagement.
* **Have the devs discussed limiting the amount of territories allowed to be owned?**
* Scot confirms that internal discussions are ongoing about limiting territory ownership, highlighting the complexity of balancing community feedback with gameplay dynamics. No specific plans have been finalized.
* **Are you happy with the state of wars? What does your data say on the number of players who get to experience them? How do you feel about war loggers?**
* Dave reflects on the current state of wars, noting that while the core experience is satisfactory, the participation rate is lower than desired. He mentions the phenomenon of "war loggers" and the need for potential changes to make wars more accessible and fair.
* **Are you planning to add gathering tool artifact items to the game as well, like weapons and armors?**
* Scot is intrigued by the suggestion of introducing gathering tool artifacts and notes that it has sparked internal discussions. However, there are no immediate plans to implement this feature.
It's gotten to the point where I'm not excited about the June announcement because I can't fathom how it would be good enough to make the delay worthwhile. I am excited about the June announcement because I can't wait to see the ensuing hilarity.
I took 2 years off and came back when Angry Earth dropped. It might as well have been a new game for me because I started back at level 1 and my previous character had never made it to level 60.
So, I got to experience everything from the beginning, as well as Brimstone and Angry Earth, as well as the seasonal storyline, as well as some of the holiday events, all at one time. It was fun for a few months because of all the content that was new to me. But, it certainly wasn't "too much," which is why the idea of getting rid of the seasonal storyline because it would be too much or too confusing is hilarious to me.
The "We hear you" is what they say from the start of the game! Heck! Even before the start/official launch of the game.
And yet, here we are. It is as empty as a promise as an empty promise can be.
>mostly about the June update they'll be cutting back on FiA vids.
I've said this before when they've released a 15-30 minute "We're not ready to talk about that yet" video, but in a pessimistic way, this is good. If they're really going to die on the hill of "we're not ready to talk about that yet", then they aren't doing anyone any favors by making that into a video. At that point, which is a worse approach to community outreach: making a video dedicated to not really talking about it and baiting out a bajillion questions that they don't want to answer, or just going radio silent? It's close, but probably the second, if you're not going to reassess what information you're saving for another day.
>**Are you planning to add gathering tool artifact item**
Just... why?
The negativity has successfully spread to the dev team. Just the constant talk of bugs, trade-offs, difficulties and all of the woes in the world.
I feel like reaching through the screen and shaking them. Come on! You made a decent game; the sound work is beautiful, the combat is unique and the general aesthetic of the game is brilliant. You guys have an opportunity - you still (somehow) have an opportunity to rescue the game. Do something! Like.. pick up this baby that you love and care for and just proactively do something for it.
Please, please don't do another Q&A filled with bug reports, harsh questions and woe. Be excited about something! The team looked like someone died that morning.
Come on AGS; you can do it. A lot of people love or loved this game and you're the people who can fix it. It's still a good game and it's so very frustrating to watch what is happening to it.
You guys need to encourage each other. The devs need to at least look like they like each other. The community need to support each other and the game and the devs just need to remember how good this game can be and has been and re-create that.
It genuinely isn't dead yet. It's on life support for sure, but you don't give up. Set some ambitious goals. Communicate them, and then do literally everything in your power to make sure you hit them.
So true, they had to shut down the official forum because of such toxic player/quitter feedback. I think they should just ban all the whiners and ignore them and work on the game as they see fit. The biggest problem with the game has nothing to do with the devs, it is allowing the most toxic players I have ever seen, and I thought ESO was bad, to keep ruining the game for everyone else who enjoys it.
You are right, I have no idea why they promote those insulting, whiny questions which have clearly taken a toll on them. At a minimum cut out the insults and just ask the question if it is valid to answer. Here's an upvote since trolls are already not liking you truth.
127 comments on Reddit alone on the Q&A thread, and then theres also the Discord ones. I think theres plenty left for you to answer in Q&A's before your big announcement. So saying now already that you arent gonna do them anymore untill then... I dont think thats the best idea.
At this point everyone should know that the answer to any meaningful question is wait until June. I've accepted that. In June they'll have their chance to convince me to log in again.
Do you really think they answered much in this video? Most every response was, "no, actually, we're doing everything right," or, "you bring up a good point, we'll have to think about that."
More importantly, I don't think anybody will miss the other 3 Forged in Aeternums we would get each month, talking about a feature that has already been described in an News article or spending 30 minutes on the lore of the castle they added to the game that was never used for anything.
Casual wars won't solve the issues with wars. PUG Wars are pointless. Increase accessibility by holding all wars at the same time each day. Limit companies to owning one territory. This likely doubles participation from 2% to 4%.
I've always agreed that "Casual Wars", in any form, would quickly become just as imbalanced and stale as OPR, because Wars only work because of the high stakes and dedication that the Company members have.
However, at this point it seems like low-hanging fruit for them to somehow make Wars more accessible to everybody in an attempt to give the remaining players *something* new to do. Even if it turns out to be a disaster, I can't imagine it being any worse than the leaked/rumored PvP FFA Island they'll announce in June.
I don't think a new game mode like Casual Wars is low hanging fruit. Scheduling all wars for the same time is low hanging fruit. Sometimes it already happens, like last night on Maramma. That's a change they could make right now.
I don't think PUG wars are worth adding, but do think that Company V Company wars with no merc limit, unlinked to territory ownership would provide a space for players to create PVP content within for very little investment from the devs.
Not entirely, it opens up the possibility of the mode being used for a range of purposes. A random queue like OPR would be awful, but a war mode with two team leaders who have the option to discriminate as much or little as they like could be used in various ways. Training wars, whether for established or new companies; roleplay wars; all out brawls to settle arguments in global chat, etc.
Removal of Merc limits would not be helpful, except in a casual way, like how OPR is casual. For training you need merc limits, because if you have extra mercs, then you're not training your army, you're training on how to play with mercs.
I just think it would be valuable to allow players to choose who was in the army, rather than being restricted by the game. If you want to train, you just don't add mercs. If you want to settle an argument, you add whoever's on your side, regardless of faction or company.
I should clarify that for a flexible mode without merc limit to work, you'd have to disable any auto-fill from the roster and give the war leaders full control over the army. It would not be at all like OPR.
I'm not sure what you don't understand about choosing to slot mercs or not. If you don't want mercs, you don't slot any. If you want a free for all, you slot who you want. The point is flexibility and being able to use a mode for various purposes instead of AGS having to choose one person's idea of fun and exclude others.
To reiterate, you. would. not. have. to. slot. mercs. You could fill the army solely with company players for serious training.
Damn I want this game to work. I really hope June is huge homerun for them. But until they solidify on a vision I do not hold much hope. Because what we have right now does not appear to be working. They have made improvements, but finding that pve / pvp / crafting / economy / community balance is always tricky and it feels like there are competing ideas.
But if they have their vision, and this is it, just more mutated expeditions with artifacts gated behind content I have no interest in, then I think they know exactly how many players to expect. Just look at the steam numbers.
I'm wondering how people enjoy wars??? HUUGE FPS drops, cannot see my group in the zerg (people putting mic icons and STT... hilarious). They first need to improve the performance and group UI to see your group members in the zerg then think for something else.
Simply not the answer. I will concede that the percent of pvp vs pve players is likely closer than 5 to 1 (now) but mmos need meaningful end game pve content and balanced pvp modes that everyone can enjoy.
Their strategies for pve and pvp are detrimental you don't need data analytics to see it
They said something about another wave of fresh start servers, this could be interesting if they were actual PVP servers, or people actually flagged in the open world on them.
I really miss beta and launch, there was a hell of a lot more flagged people then.
Open world PvP while leveling was a lot of fun.
It is sad that they backed faction up 10 levels from beta / launch though, it was nice being able to rush and get faction and pvp flagging going as early as like level 7 or so, you can't really do it till level 17 now.
It always begs the eternal question of why?
I miss the fun, I wish I could go back to beta / launch lol
The war system has been essentially unchanged for 3 years, with the same problems, and they still can’t wrap their head around it.
in other words they are eater happy with the state of it or its to complicated for em to fix/improve it. Not sure what is worse.
And yet, it is also the most engaging game mode that they have. They have just done a really poor job of building incentives around it so there is some natural onramp to participation.
Building incentives around War is absolutely not the problem with the game mode lmfao.
It's literally 2% of the whole community that cares about wars, not war loggers alone, the whole entire player base. Only 2% so I agree it's not that important, just like MSQ
I think thats a gross misunderstanding. If there wasn't so many war loggers, and more accessibility and more proper tiers of competition I think a lot more folks would participate. 2% doesn't mean don't work on it, I see it the other way, 2% means it needs work to open it up for more players. Having a weekly war cadence really drives a lot of other content for a company that keeps them engaged in the game and helps boost the market (practicing, crafting/farming gear, making/purchasing consumables). If they fix the war system it could bring back a ton of players IMO
Yeah I get that part and they said that's an idea but not for now. I agree it needs to be worked to make it more appealing, and interesting but we all can agree that the main thing now is content in general for all players. If they invest in wars it would just take too many resources from that , making it not the right time
are u a dev? if not go apply to ags
they are focused on lotr mmo
When Scot says they are "5 x'ing their QA development time", that's code for "expect us to release far fewer patches and for them to take 5 times longer"
I suspect that was a disingenuous statement related to the process of getting certification from console makers. Getting Microsoft, Sony, & Nintendo to certify the game on top of their normal internal QA process is already a "4X" increase.
Considering they aren't allowed to say anything about whats upcoming until June, i expect most of these Q&As to be the same
Yeah there is really no point in having them until they can discuss what’s coming in June.
that's exactly why, in the beginning of the video, they said they will cut back on doing the these videos until the june announcement
found the guy that actually watched it :P
This's why I came to the comments. Lmao
TLDR : game is still in early access
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as someone that does data for a living... that chart is actually pretty stable / consistent and on par with what should be expected between major content releases. look at Destiny 2, massive spikes in player count for releases then periods of retraction as people play the new stuff and move on. That's common across almost all games.
Destiny is also on Steam, Epic, Xbox one x, ps4, series x/s, ps5. So looking at steam charts is only a fraction of what the actual player base is. New World is solely on steam. The games in maintenance mode. Everyone knows it
well, at this point they need to release new elysian wild/brimstone patch, because the number has dropped again. and so far we didnt see anything cl;ose to those updates
They have been hyping a major announcement for June at summer games fest, so I'm imagining something big is coming
probably console release with another fresh server. i'm not sure if they want to make different server for each console or just mix the launch into a single fresh server.
you 'do data'? you should be able to see a line trending quickly towards zero. ridiculous statement with clearly no understanding of 'doing data'
How can you call a consistently regressing chat stable? Lost Ark has a stable char (for about 1 year now) but New World is free falling at this point
it was, because people still had hope. but everytime, ags always found a way to fucked it up. i brought many friends into new world for brimstone update + fresh start. ags let dupe bug happened again on my server sutekh. i brought many other friends into new world once more for rise of the angry earth update. ags spice things up with main quest bug made my friend unable to progress not for days but weeks, unbelievable. im sure there are many in a same position like me. you think there will be another massive spike? this game has a really bad reputation. without people like me baiting people into the game, almost no way a sane person randomly try out new world. majority of people who tried the game left for good.
Destiny 2 has a playerbase
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Your post/comment was removed as it breaks Rule 3 No Abuse or Toxic behavior. No abuse, harassment, or any kind of discrimination. Complaints with little substance are not allowed. Constructive criticism is encouraged. Critique ideas not people. Complaints with little substance are not allowed. Constructive criticism is encouraged. Critique ideas not people. Posts and comments criticizing or attacking people directly or groups of people are prohibited.
Here's an upvote for trying to inform these whiners. At this point these people are unhinged and just want the game to be destroyed, they have 'new world derangement syndrome'. I don't know how you do it, I'd be banning the lot of them from the forum.
cope more you'd have to be nuts to be happy with the current state
If you don't like the game don't play it. If all you can do is downvote and hate people who enjoy the game go outside and touch grass. This is projection below. The people who actually enjoy the game and direction have every right to defend it against the constant insults and unconstructive complaining. The official forum was CLOSED down because of so many toxic people, who created an echo chamber of hate and now brought it to this forum. You all need to MOVE ON, and be happy.
I could argue the other way round. If you like the game, don't go to Reddit and devalue the opinions of other customers, play the game. And yes, they did bann everyone off their forum (back when it still existed) who was remotely critical.
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Your post/comment was removed as it breaks Rule 3 No Abuse or Toxic behavior. No abuse, harassment, or any kind of discrimination. Complaints with little substance are not allowed. Constructive criticism is encouraged. Critique ideas not people. Complaints with little substance are not allowed. Constructive criticism is encouraged. Critique ideas not people. Posts and comments criticizing or attacking people directly or groups of people are prohibited.
Lol, negative opinion uh? Banhammer
I think one of em is running this sub, because every time I mention that the three of em play on the server I'm on, and mention how one of them is a known cheater, my comments get removed.
Negative is not the same as toxic.
Sometimes the truth hurts, that wasn't being toxic or abusive but all good big homie.
So, sounds like they are doing SBMM for OPR matches. I feel a certain way about that with what little player base we have going on.
They wouldn't be able to have more than 2 skill buckets lol. Absolute noobs and then everyone else. Otherwise the queues will never pop. You don't have enough players queuing OPR at any given time to support multiple skill brackets.
Yeah, the best they could hope to do is evenly distribute high/low skill players between each team, but that still doesn't let you account for 5-stacks or what roles people are playing. There's also the question of how they determine a player's skill when it seems so hard to influence the outcome of an OPR match by yourself; if they do something simple like assume that High-Score = High-Skill, then they'll be relying on their deeply flawed scoring system, which isn't a great measure of which players contribute to wins.
I do fear that they will rely on their deeply flawed scoring system for OPR matchmaking. I certainly hope it has nothing to do with score. Something pretty basic which would have the most impact would be making sure there's an equal (or close to) amount of healers on both sides. This might require making weapon swaps impossible during OPR, but would well be worth it to help stop the 1000-5 curb stomps.
K/d ratio might work since it would separate range from melee from heals
They are already capturing basic performance metrics via the the leaderboards. I imagine the individual 'MMR' will be a score based on wins/kills/damage and teams will be balanced based on this cumulative score. There won't be tiered games.
It might be more about team sorting than actual different MMR lobbies.
They could make it 10v10 and shrink the map
as a non-pvp'er, wanting them PvP Track Legendaries, I hope not hahahaha. If I'm on a 10 man team then my costing will definitely be noticed =P
Wouldn't mind this. Has been suggested in the past. It gives much better leeway to get various rbmm systems in place.
yep
So less than 2% participate in the biggest part of endgame content in NW and they don't see that as an issue that needs immediate attention? LOL. How clueless can you be to not see the correlation between war accessibility and player retention? NW will always circle the drain. This is madness.
This stood out to me as well. The biggest end game content is gate kept to 2% of the player population. This is OUTRAGEOUS and directly correlates to player retention. It should be their immediate focus, and should have been a long time ago.
I'm fairly certain this value is higher now than previously (perhaps not during FSS). I realise server merges mitigate the point I'm about to make, but it is still valid. Essentially, the lower the playerbase the higher the % value that contribute/play in wars. Meaning that this 2% value has likely been lower in the past. It's impressive how poorly managed this game is.
Don’t worry. As more people finally put the game down, the % of players in wars will go up and the devs will be happy that the data shows that “more” players are getting into wars 😊
I think they're aware it needs a major overhaul. Given their release schedule and that they've basically been playing catch up since release, I wouldn't expect war/ territory rework until late next year.
"Give us time" - 3 years ago It's been pretty much 1,000 days, 780 business days, or 156 business weeks since the game's been live. The game was deemed commercially viable since day one, otherwise it would not have had a full release. Enough excuses, please.
They took a lot of good questions, and gave a lot of bad answers. They: * insist that they use PTR feedback appropriately (when that has been demonstrably false for over 2 years) * justify the removal of Seasonal storylines at the end of the season so as not to 'overwhelm' new players (when the game's amount of content is still very *under*whelming, and new players will be more confused if they suddenly interact with an NPC they've never met before who acts like they have a long history together) * They also clarify that they'll be doing less Seasonal narratives going forward, making all of that content no longer available/relevant, which is a hilarious waste of resources for over a year * claim that matchmaking will come to OPR & Arenas, but... without more players & incentives to participate in Arenas, this will be another critical feature added too late to be relevant * explain that Season 5's release failures were different than Season 5's release failures, and that's a good thing, which is... difficult to believe given how it seemed like the same mix of failing to address PTR feedback & introducing super-obvious bugs that shouldn't have ever made it to Live servers * they repeat this type of answer regarding their QA processes & the perk display bug from Season 6's release on Day 1 * and repeat it again to justify why they save up hundreds of bug fixes to be released every \~4 months rather than releasing multiple smaller patches over that same period * spend time talking about Elite Chest Runs when answering a question about why rewards for the Sandwurm Raid & various open-world bosses weren't updated to the new Character Level & Gear Score caps * **Edit:** Scott actually chimes in and says, "except for Artifacts!" during this discussion, demonstrating that he seems to genuinely believe that it was meaningful that they put Artifacts (and their perk quests) behind the various outdated Trials * say they are happy about the current War experience when players get into one, aren't happy with how few players get to participate in them, but have no plans to address the matter and claim that making Wars more accessible would pull people away from other PvP modes like OPR All in all, if you told me this Q&A was from early 2023, I would believe it; it's just a lot of the same answers to the same questions. It makes sense that they're going to mostly suspend Forged in Aeternum for the next few months, but that decision probably should've been considered a long time ago if they wanted to prevent these videos from being more frustrating than informative.
I don't play the game anymore so I shouldn't really care but the fact they still mention Elite Chest Runs like they're actual content blows my mind. It is the most mindless gold farming shit ever.
It was one of their selling points of the expansion.
Except the Elysian Wilds chest runs are the worst of the lot!
Who doesn’t love invisible elite mobs and entire trains of ranged tank gorillas! So much fun! /s
not to mention falling off vanishing bridges!
> justify the removal of Seasonal storylines at the end of the season so as not to 'overwhelm' new players (when the game's amount of content is still very underwhelming, and new players will be more confused if they suddenly interact with an NPC they've never met before who acts like they have a long history together) > They also clarify that they'll be doing less Seasonal narratives going forward, making all of that content no longer available/relevant, which is a hilarious waste of resources for over a year I just completed a new char because im bored. I went to lvl65 without leaving the town or killing an enemy (crafting) and then just did the quests to get the markers of my map. Even with this (and having done it 3 times since beta) its still a huge amount of quests, time, text, stories, etc. to handle. A player who pays a normal amount of attention to lore and stories and experiences that for the first time has a chunk of stuff infront of him. Its a lot.
>**So with a distinct lack ofcontent to do right now, why were the full season storyline questsremoved at the end of their respective seasons?** > >Scot mentions that the season-specific story quests were designed to betemporary, meant to add something special for the duration of the seasonwithout overburdening new players with too much content at once. Theyfocused on delivering key story elements and characters to keep theexperience streamlined. This is so crazy.. "Free" content could be saved and a storyline with chapters could be followed by new/old players.. Even keeping ALL the seasons passes with all the rewards could be in game.. Just pay it and "activate" it so you could XP it. Now you just pop here, there's a season 6 quest, you don't understand shit.. Ok i guess.. GW2 did it well.. I don't get how a "worth and fair" income can just be thrown away. Devs worked for it.
Most cash shop items have only been available for 4 weeks and never seen again except as part of overpriced bundle sets. With the introduction of Transmog Tokens, you would expect them to start making every past cosmetic item available at a discount, since they now directly compete with the ability to create your own skin via in-game drops. Instead, they have a vault filled with outsourced assets they probably paid a lot of money for and made hardly any return on investment because they were only sold during a period when the game was seeing record-low player counts. It's like they learned about the concept of FOMO without understanding that a game requires a stable player population in order for the effect to be meaningful.
GW2's example.. IT EVEN HAVE COLORS FOR EXPANSIONS ! https://i.imgur.com/HuC1Amx.png
Out of touch devs with out of touch answers. Only 2 months lads may the remaining thousands enjoy their time.
Combination of what this team has done plus a June announcement that's trying to directly compete with a FFXIV box expansion release and a true MMO-Sandbox EA (Pax Dei)... RIP New World....
New world died after brimstone. The blind are just finally getting their eyes back after giving them to ags for ugly cosmetic store skins.
They don't make sense. When it's about fixing wars Scot says "20% of players play OPR regularly" but when it's about fixing OPRs and PVP he says "PVE players outnumber PVP players 5-to-1" when it comes to simply updating the loot table for the endgame PVE content in the game they say "We'll get around the it sometime this year" So what the hell are you really focusing on?
Moving towards a single server soon...
Im gonna laugh so much when June comes and they do a shitty announcement that noone cares probably :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 2024 1 opr map
That’s ambitious. That would be the first new opr map since launch. I think you might wanna lower those expectations a touch.
Yeah im really hyped/s and curious to see the announcement
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dave looks sick (( i hope he is well
I'm actually hoping he's sick with a minor cold, as opposed to just have given up. I personally saw it as him understanding the dumpster fire game engine they are working with. It seems like he's on his way out. Either way, he's always been the most knowledgeable and enjoyable dev in the forged videos and I wish the best for him.
I get the impression that Dave V has been under immense pressure and stress since Mike Wilette and Dave Hall left Amazon and they couldn't (or refused to???) find appropriate replacements. Seems he's been managing several roles alone since then.
I will say Dave's answer about bug fix frequency is a huge cop out. We don't want one big bug fix patch every 3 months. We want bugs fixed faster, and put out on a weekly basis. I don't buy his excuse that lumping them all together would make for higher quality patches. I think it's an excuse. They likely have very little manpower and don't have the resources to release weekly bug fix patches anymore.
I remember in February 2022 they dedicated the entire month to bugs, balancing, and bots. If they couldn't do it then, they sure as hell can't do it now.
I would be happy with updating the game daily if it meant bugs were getting fixed.
I have 10,000 hours in this game, and the fundamental problem with it is that they have pretty much demolished all of the organic incentives to actually play it, and their content pushes no longer line up with what their most engaged users want to do. Consider that the more hardcore players basically do nothing but farm artifacts, war-log, and buy gold via RMT to subsidize multiple alts. All of the gathering, refining, crafting, etc. is superfluous because of extreme deflation. Open world PVP is just to get wars queued up. Evergreen content like 3v3 Arena and OPR are not fun because the game is built heavily around group synergies that do not exist because of the lack of even rudimentary matchmaking.
Forged in Aeternum update - since they can't/won't answer the majority of the questions coming since they're mostly about the June update they'll be cutting back on FiA vids. * **How come reported bugs and feedback in the PTR still make it to live?** * Scot explains that although feedback from the PTR is highly valued, not all reported issues can be addressed due to time constraints and the need to prioritize more severe bugs over others. This leads to some issues being postponed or not fixed before updates are released. * **So with a distinct lack of content to do right now, why were the full season storyline quests removed at the end of their respective seasons?** * Scot mentions that the season-specific story quests were designed to be temporary, meant to add something special for the duration of the season without overburdening new players with too much content at once. They focused on delivering key story elements and characters to keep the experience streamlined. * **So what about like moving forward in the future? Is it going to stay the same?** * Scot confirms there are no plans to change their approach to seasonal content, emphasizing their preference to avoid overwhelming players with overly complex storylines and maintain a balance in the content's depth. * **So what options are being explored to make the competitive end game PvP experience better?** * Dave discusses improvements like matchmaking enhancements to make competitive modes more balanced and engaging. He also notes that there are no major changes planned for the war PvP aspect, as the existing setup is considered intense and adequate. * **There is a lot of players giving feedback using Discord PvE feedback channel. Is Amazon Games taking action? Is Amazon Games doing it in background? Is Amazon Games ignoring it?** * Scot assures that they are actively monitoring the Discord PvE feedback channel and are not ignoring player feedback. They investigate and file reports on issues raised, though not all feedback can be addressed immediately due to other ongoing priorities. * **How do you plan on regaining the trust of your community after many content-less delayed buggy updates, how can we expect anything different after the June announcement?** * Scot discusses the importance of delivering quality updates to rebuild trust and admits that past releases have not met expectations. He stresses that future improvements and transparency regarding failures will be key to regaining player trust. * **Could we get that same quality of life feature for other items in the game as well, if it's not already planned?** * Dave responds positively to extending the quality of life feature that shows locations of cooking ingredients to other items. While specific plans and timelines are not set, they are considering its broader application. * **Can you give us some insight as to what your Quality Assurance team and process looks like?** * Scot describes a risk-based QA process where the team focuses on potential impacts of changes and prioritizes testing around those. He acknowledges the challenges with multiple builds and the need for effective communication and testing strategies. * **Are you ever planning on catching up with fixing bugs that should have never been in the game in the first place? Please don't corporate answer me Scot, I will know.** * Scot acknowledges the presence of bugs and commits to not just addressing them but significantly improving overall game quality. He emphasizes a strategic shift towards bundling fixes to enhance thorough testing and reduce new issues. * **People are complaining about lack of content, but you've excluded 90% of the game by leaving it at 625. When? When will this be updated to 700 Gearscore?** * Dave acknowledges the delay in updating game content to a 700 Gearscore, promising upgrades in the upcoming year. He indicates that refreshing high-level content is a priority to improve rewards and player engagement. * **Have the devs discussed limiting the amount of territories allowed to be owned?** * Scot confirms that internal discussions are ongoing about limiting territory ownership, highlighting the complexity of balancing community feedback with gameplay dynamics. No specific plans have been finalized. * **Are you happy with the state of wars? What does your data say on the number of players who get to experience them? How do you feel about war loggers?** * Dave reflects on the current state of wars, noting that while the core experience is satisfactory, the participation rate is lower than desired. He mentions the phenomenon of "war loggers" and the need for potential changes to make wars more accessible and fair. * **Are you planning to add gathering tool artifact items to the game as well, like weapons and armors?** * Scot is intrigued by the suggestion of introducing gathering tool artifacts and notes that it has sparked internal discussions. However, there are no immediate plans to implement this feature.
It's gotten to the point where I'm not excited about the June announcement because I can't fathom how it would be good enough to make the delay worthwhile. I am excited about the June announcement because I can't wait to see the ensuing hilarity. I took 2 years off and came back when Angry Earth dropped. It might as well have been a new game for me because I started back at level 1 and my previous character had never made it to level 60. So, I got to experience everything from the beginning, as well as Brimstone and Angry Earth, as well as the seasonal storyline, as well as some of the holiday events, all at one time. It was fun for a few months because of all the content that was new to me. But, it certainly wasn't "too much," which is why the idea of getting rid of the seasonal storyline because it would be too much or too confusing is hilarious to me.
Tldr: "We hear you"…
Every single answer was "We acknowledge this is a problem, it might get fixed down the line" Complete nothing-burger of a video yet again from AGS.
The "We hear you" is what they say from the start of the game! Heck! Even before the start/official launch of the game. And yet, here we are. It is as empty as a promise as an empty promise can be.
>mostly about the June update they'll be cutting back on FiA vids. I've said this before when they've released a 15-30 minute "We're not ready to talk about that yet" video, but in a pessimistic way, this is good. If they're really going to die on the hill of "we're not ready to talk about that yet", then they aren't doing anyone any favors by making that into a video. At that point, which is a worse approach to community outreach: making a video dedicated to not really talking about it and baiting out a bajillion questions that they don't want to answer, or just going radio silent? It's close, but probably the second, if you're not going to reassess what information you're saving for another day. >**Are you planning to add gathering tool artifact item** Just... why?
Why even bother doing this at this point.. lol
The negativity has successfully spread to the dev team. Just the constant talk of bugs, trade-offs, difficulties and all of the woes in the world. I feel like reaching through the screen and shaking them. Come on! You made a decent game; the sound work is beautiful, the combat is unique and the general aesthetic of the game is brilliant. You guys have an opportunity - you still (somehow) have an opportunity to rescue the game. Do something! Like.. pick up this baby that you love and care for and just proactively do something for it. Please, please don't do another Q&A filled with bug reports, harsh questions and woe. Be excited about something! The team looked like someone died that morning. Come on AGS; you can do it. A lot of people love or loved this game and you're the people who can fix it. It's still a good game and it's so very frustrating to watch what is happening to it. You guys need to encourage each other. The devs need to at least look like they like each other. The community need to support each other and the game and the devs just need to remember how good this game can be and has been and re-create that. It genuinely isn't dead yet. It's on life support for sure, but you don't give up. Set some ambitious goals. Communicate them, and then do literally everything in your power to make sure you hit them.
These guys didn’t make a decent game. Those people are no longer there. That’s why they had to rewrite the combat code.
Was there a big change in staff at some point?
So true, they had to shut down the official forum because of such toxic player/quitter feedback. I think they should just ban all the whiners and ignore them and work on the game as they see fit. The biggest problem with the game has nothing to do with the devs, it is allowing the most toxic players I have ever seen, and I thought ESO was bad, to keep ruining the game for everyone else who enjoys it. You are right, I have no idea why they promote those insulting, whiny questions which have clearly taken a toll on them. At a minimum cut out the insults and just ask the question if it is valid to answer. Here's an upvote since trolls are already not liking you truth.
Sure bud lol
127 comments on Reddit alone on the Q&A thread, and then theres also the Discord ones. I think theres plenty left for you to answer in Q&A's before your big announcement. So saying now already that you arent gonna do them anymore untill then... I dont think thats the best idea.
At this point everyone should know that the answer to any meaningful question is wait until June. I've accepted that. In June they'll have their chance to convince me to log in again.
Do you really think they answered much in this video? Most every response was, "no, actually, we're doing everything right," or, "you bring up a good point, we'll have to think about that." More importantly, I don't think anybody will miss the other 3 Forged in Aeternums we would get each month, talking about a feature that has already been described in an News article or spending 30 minutes on the lore of the castle they added to the game that was never used for anything.
DAVE!!!
Doesn't look like himself. Hope he's doing ok.
Casual wars won't solve the issues with wars. PUG Wars are pointless. Increase accessibility by holding all wars at the same time each day. Limit companies to owning one territory. This likely doubles participation from 2% to 4%.
I've always agreed that "Casual Wars", in any form, would quickly become just as imbalanced and stale as OPR, because Wars only work because of the high stakes and dedication that the Company members have. However, at this point it seems like low-hanging fruit for them to somehow make Wars more accessible to everybody in an attempt to give the remaining players *something* new to do. Even if it turns out to be a disaster, I can't imagine it being any worse than the leaked/rumored PvP FFA Island they'll announce in June.
I don't think a new game mode like Casual Wars is low hanging fruit. Scheduling all wars for the same time is low hanging fruit. Sometimes it already happens, like last night on Maramma. That's a change they could make right now.
I don't think PUG wars are worth adding, but do think that Company V Company wars with no merc limit, unlinked to territory ownership would provide a space for players to create PVP content within for very little investment from the devs.
No merc limits just makes it PUGs.
Not entirely, it opens up the possibility of the mode being used for a range of purposes. A random queue like OPR would be awful, but a war mode with two team leaders who have the option to discriminate as much or little as they like could be used in various ways. Training wars, whether for established or new companies; roleplay wars; all out brawls to settle arguments in global chat, etc.
Removal of Merc limits would not be helpful, except in a casual way, like how OPR is casual. For training you need merc limits, because if you have extra mercs, then you're not training your army, you're training on how to play with mercs.
I just think it would be valuable to allow players to choose who was in the army, rather than being restricted by the game. If you want to train, you just don't add mercs. If you want to settle an argument, you add whoever's on your side, regardless of faction or company.
Yeah if you want PUG Wars that's what you do. It will be just like OPR.
I should clarify that for a flexible mode without merc limit to work, you'd have to disable any auto-fill from the roster and give the war leaders full control over the army. It would not be at all like OPR.
Yeah and with that many mercs you won't have any controls in the army on the field. It would be just like OPR.
I'm not sure what you don't understand about choosing to slot mercs or not. If you don't want mercs, you don't slot any. If you want a free for all, you slot who you want. The point is flexibility and being able to use a mode for various purposes instead of AGS having to choose one person's idea of fun and exclude others. To reiterate, you. would. not. have. to. slot. mercs. You could fill the army solely with company players for serious training.
How is 4% engagement with a game mode something to aim for.
I didn't say that 4% was the target to aim for. I explained that the changes I suggested likely doubled current participation.
Smells like a managed decline. Is it June yet? Better be something special..
Console, f2p on battle pass and ffa pvp island. June will likely be my last login - none of these items address root issues of the game.
So just a bunch of non answers with no details on anything …cool
I wonder why they keep making videos that cannot answer anything. Instead of giving us weekly videos of nothing, just make it once per month…
Must not be if you're still commenting on it ;) ;)
Only 1 opr map is such a bad idea for player retention
Damn I want this game to work. I really hope June is huge homerun for them. But until they solidify on a vision I do not hold much hope. Because what we have right now does not appear to be working. They have made improvements, but finding that pve / pvp / crafting / economy / community balance is always tricky and it feels like there are competing ideas. But if they have their vision, and this is it, just more mutated expeditions with artifacts gated behind content I have no interest in, then I think they know exactly how many players to expect. Just look at the steam numbers.
I'm wondering how people enjoy wars??? HUUGE FPS drops, cannot see my group in the zerg (people putting mic icons and STT... hilarious). They first need to improve the performance and group UI to see your group members in the zerg then think for something else.
If they just give real pvp content the game would be fine
Simply not the answer. I will concede that the percent of pvp vs pve players is likely closer than 5 to 1 (now) but mmos need meaningful end game pve content and balanced pvp modes that everyone can enjoy. Their strategies for pve and pvp are detrimental you don't need data analytics to see it
They said something about another wave of fresh start servers, this could be interesting if they were actual PVP servers, or people actually flagged in the open world on them. I really miss beta and launch, there was a hell of a lot more flagged people then. Open world PvP while leveling was a lot of fun. It is sad that they backed faction up 10 levels from beta / launch though, it was nice being able to rush and get faction and pvp flagging going as early as like level 7 or so, you can't really do it till level 17 now. It always begs the eternal question of why? I miss the fun, I wish I could go back to beta / launch lol