5 changes New World needs to add to survive

New World is approaching a critical point in the game’s history. With players walking away from the game every day, here are five changes the Amazon Games MMO needs to add to survive long-term.

New World, since its September 2021 release, has maintained an impressive amount of players. However, due to the game’s continued bugs and exploits, many players have decided enough is enough.

The dev team is incredibly passionate about their product and aims to save it, as they’ve shown with aggressive patching and some exciting additions coming in November of 2021. But, have they done enough to keep the majority of players around?

For now, I believe they have. But, if this thing is going to survive the long haul and compete as a top MMO, I believe there are more changes New World needs to make in order to survive.

#1: Fast travel overhaul

Have you ever gotten on New World to play for a decent three to five-hour stretch, and found yourself paying several hundred Azoth to fast travel around or spending an hour of that time running through the wilderness of Aeternum? Well, I know I have.

Getting around is much harder than it needs to be and has some core issues that seem fairly fixable. Let’s start with Azoth.

• Read More: Best New World weapons ranked tier list for PvE & PvP

Why is there one magical currency (if you can call it that) which is used in both crafting and fast travel? Why not break that up into two separate things or, better yet, just remove Azoth cost for fast travel in general? I’d even be fine to pay gold if it meant I could keep my Azoth for crafting. This has been confusing since I began playing.

The second major overhaul either needs to come in the form of adding mounts to the game or giving players more checkpoints in the wild to fast travel to. Allow players to earn rep with all of the NPCs in Cutlass Keys through quests, with unlockable perks like fast travel checkpoints. Or, maybe tie that in with Territory Standing somehow.

Whatever the exact solution, it’s clear that players need to be able to get around more quickly and with less cost to them. If Amazon Games can accomplish this, there’s not a player out there that would be disgruntled, unless you really just love auto-running.

#2: Increased quest diversity

If I had one Azoth for every time I’ve seen Hunt, Assassinate, Procure, or Purge pop up at my Faction Board, I still wouldn’t be able to fast travel as much as I’d like.

All jokes aside, whether it’s Faction quests or the main storyline, grinding through levels in New World feels way too repetitive in the game’s current state. It’s a constant game of either killing so many enemies, finding items in chests, or slaying wildlife. A little bit of creativity here could go a long way.

The community even came up with some ideas in this department, detailing a “Trade Runs” type of quest. This could be used by both PvE and PvP players, gives the opportunity to meaningfully explore, and allows crafting to have more of a purpose in the storyline. It doesn’t even have to be this complicated, just give us something else to do besides the same old stuff!

This is one of the things that really makes New World feel like a glorified beta and contributes to leveling feeling like a grind by about level 30.

#3: More PvP opportunities, especially at lower levels

I can’t tell you how many times I flagged for PvP at lower levels, just go get one-shot by a level 60 just on their merry way. Part of me knew it would happen each time, but I just wanted to play something PvP at lower levels so badly that I just went for it.

And while high-level players out there will inevitably say, “Us too!” at this, at least there are some things available at levels 50-60. For those, even with tons of hours in the game, there’s virtually nothing to do against other players outside of dueling.

• Read More: New World’s hilarious casino meta is taking over the endgame

Devs have claimed that big additions are coming to PvP, so part of me is hopeful that this wish will come true. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that this will still only benefit players at the end-game.

If devs want to make territories like First Light more exciting as the game goes on, some sort of level-capped PvP could be just the trick. And then, everyone has had some practice by the time the wars roll around.

#4: End-game expansions with both PvP and PvE components

Those in the game’s endgame have been begging for more content, and justifiably so. After about the fourth war and seventh replayed Expedition, New World’s late-game can start to feel a bit stale.

Expansions could do wonders for this and could come in all shapes and sizes. Something as small as adding sliders to increase difficulty and payout of Expeditions to something as large as a new island restricted only for level-capped players. This is a fairly open-ended change request.

I think the biggest thing is that something needs to feel vastly different about playing New World its highest level, rather than just feeling a bit like the same game. Players need to feel like the stakes are raised, the fights are more epic, and only having the best gear and teamwork can yield success. Right now, it does not feel like that is the case.

A solid foundation is in place as the baseline of the game is very fun, now it’s time to add the fancy stucco siding and the upstairs bonus room to take this thing to the next level.

#5: Additional weapons and added Mastery Trees long-term

This last one is something that I actually don’t find to be a huge issue for the short-term, but do think this will need to be addressed down the line.

Starting with simply the number of weapons, 11 should end up closer to 15 or 20 when it’s all said and done. Daggers, flails, throwing stars, kunai, other elemental staffs, and even hand-to-hand could fit well in New World. Adding more and more weapons in each Attribute would players a chance to really experiment within each.

It also seems odd that only one weapon uses Focus. Does anyone else want a Focus using Bard that makes music as a weapon? … Just me?

• Read More: New World Prime Gaming rewards: How to claim loot for Amazon Prime members

After there were about 15-20 weapons, expanding each’s Mastery Tree from two to three would be a great way to expand builds on each weapon. Trees could have more perks to keep late-game levelers happy and could have additional trees to increase diversity in builds.

This is something that will help New World continue to feel like a new game over time and reward players who can be clever in finding hidden builds. But, just as before, a solid foundation already exists, it just needs to be built on a bit more.