So here we are, April 10th 2020.
Amazon game studios upcoming MMORPG, titledNew World, has been delayed.
I'm sure if you're here you know all aboutthe game and so I won't bore you with that, you can check out one of the 5 million videoscurrently up about the project if you need a refresher.
The dates that are relevant to this is ofcourse we are currenty a third of the way through april and the game was set for betatesting in april with a release of late May so a month and a half away basically.
The game has now officially been pushed toAugust 25th release as it currently stands.
So what is today's video going to be aboutthen? There's a dev blog that came out around thesame time as the announcement called Invasions, so I'm going to go over the details of thatand then I want to talk about just generally how I feel about the delay, the announcementandthe current state of the game.
So let's get started on that dev blog first.
Today's dev blog is titled Invasions.
As always, I'll give you the facts first, what they say and then go over my opinion on the systems at the end.
Basic details here for an overview of thesystem without the wordy explanation is basically you have AI enemies, called forces of corruptiongrowing in power within player owned territory, once it reaches a certain level, it wwillattack the fort.
During the battle, if you successfully defendthe fort then the army is repelled.
If you lose, the territory suffers in certainways such as losing upgrades to crafting stations, fort gates or fort turrets.
The higher level of the territory the moreitems get downgraded.
Post battle the corruption retreats to replenishtheir force and the fort resets, resotring any structure that was destroyed in the battle.
Invasions occur roughly every 4 days.
How to participate in an invasion? The day before the invasion , players signup for the event at the town board in the settlement.
The governor of the territory selects 10 heroesto join the battle and the remaining 40 slots are randomly selected from players who signedup, you must be level 50 or above to take part in this.
The preperation phase.
When the invasion starts, if you have beenchosen to participate, you will be automatically teleported to the fort with your team matesand given 50 battle tokens.
For a period you can use the tokens at thearmory to buy stuff to help out, powerful ammunition, potions, mines, powder kegs, turretammunition.
You also earn tokens during the battle fromdoing things like killing enemies, healing players aand repairing structures.
The Invasion.
The battle commences after the preperationperiod ends.
Enemies start to emerge out the corruptedportals, this is the first of eight waves of enemies.
There are different kinds of creatures inthe waves that act differently.
Grunts pose little threat but in swarms aredangerous, they focus on structure damage.
If they can't reach a structure they willattack players.
After a period of time they go into a frenzywhich increases damage and speed while also burning themselves out.
They recommend killing grunts fast.
Raiders are shock troops, they are skilledtough and well equipped.
These focus on attacking players but willattack structures if no players are in range.
Snipers prioritise targets on the rampartsand are effective at supressing turrets.
They are evasive, dodging players and duckingto avoid attacks.
Bombers run around with bombs on their back, surprise surprise.
They run at structures and blow up, dealinglarge damage to them.
Recommended to take them down with range asthey explode on death.
Brutes are huge hulking beasts that smashstructures.
They will occassionally attack players whoattack them but are mostly focused on destroying defenses.
Brutes are tough and require multiple playersto defeat.
Bosses can vary.
Some are focused on destroying structures, other on players.
Some apply buffs to the enemy army or debuffsto the defending players.
The corrupted forces focus on destroying gatesfirst then destroying the fort Claim.
During the battle, the players have to useall tools to defend, turrets, traps, support and droppers.
Note here that only the company that ownsthe fort can build defense structures for the fort before the invasion commences.
Info on defense structures.
Turrets are turrets.
Ballista, repeater, explosives, just basicallyshooting stuff at the enemies.
Droppers are highly effective against meleeunits but nothing at range, fire dropper pours molten liquid on enemies below, good for defendinggates.
Support structures give buffs to players ordebuffs enemies.
Horn of resilience gives defensive buff tonearby teammates.
When buff is active on players it gives reduceddamage and heal over time.
Traps are deployable defenses that you canplace in the battlefield, can obtain them from the armory.
Throughout the battle players can keep aneye on the details of the battle by looking at the information at the top of the screen.
This includes specific player objectives, invasion time remaining, current wave of attack and total waves.
The endingPlayers win the invasion by protecting the fort claim until the time limit is reached.
The invasion is lost if the claim is destroyedwithin the timer.
Win or lose, the players who participatedare given xp, in game currency and loot.
Then you leave the instance and go back tothe open world.
Territory gets downgraded if you lose.
Loot is dependant on how well you did, IEwhich wave you reached.
Okay that's it.
So what do I think about this system in generalbefore we move onto the overall game, the delay etc.
Well if you know me you already know whatI'm about to say most likely.
The system doesn't sound terrible, it justdoesn't really fit the idea of an open world game that they keep saying the game is andalso the fact it's basically a random assortment of any person who presses to sign up , regardlessof skill level, regardless of affiliation, regardless of their ability to listen.
.
.
Itbasically contributes to the exact issue I've had with almost every system they've put inthis game recently.
It all just devalues the aspect of actuallyowning land.
I understand that everyone living in a communitycontributes to building the settlement but there is nothing here about a restrictionto joining based on your contribution to the settlement.
I just don't understand how this is a systemthat makes sense to anyone.
So we have sieges which are 50v50 instancedand that is RNG who gets to actually participate in the siege based on who wins the bid onoffense, they then get to pick whoever they want in their army, so that's one system thatis based on RNG which shouldn't be, then you have a system that directly impacts your territoriesability to progress and it is gated behind RNG of assuming 40 players who you know nothingabout, who you can't guarantee will be useful, communicate or have even the drive to helpyour hard work not get devalued and rolled back? It just doesn't sound like a good system sadto say, as with most systems they have proposed it has more issues than it does merits.
This doesn't even take into account most ofthe drawbacks to this.
I imagine John who contributes the most outof everyone to a settlement and never gets randomly picked to defend and loses the craftingstations he pushed to be built over and over again isn't going to be happy about the facthe has literally zero say in if the progress is kept or lost.
It honestly feels like there is absolutelyno coherent incentive to own land or contribute to the betterment of it in this game sinceit is all just some ridiculous anti competitive system steering it.
The game mode might be fun but just like the50v50 sieges, a system that most people will not get to participate in, at least not ina meaningful way or consistently with current iteration.
It honestly confuses me how anyone thinksthese systems when you think them through, all added together make sense.
Oh that settlement over there is level 6 andwe're stuck at level 3, they are way better than us so I'm gonna go move over there nowand use their stuff because I can just do that.
Why are they level 6 and we're stuck at level3? Oh they just got lucky and didn't get 40 terriblepeople in their invasion.
.
.
.
Cool, good system then I guess.
So that's the invasion system in my opinion.
How about the delay? Well if you've followed my content on newworld you know I'm obviously a big proponent of the game being in a bad spot, I've beensaying this game needs a delay since december and being repeatedly told I'm a liar and thegame is probably amazing because it's amazon and amazon can't make a bad product they haveunlimited money.
.
.
Which I won't get into but that's absolutely just factually incorrectas a premise as a quick aside.
Anyone who has read the alpha forum leaks, read the journalists articles who had exclusive access and who just read the developer blogsknew this game was not ready for release, it's common sense.
Also before I move off this point, the journalistswho covered this game had every single industry incentive to talk neutral or positive onlyabout the game and some still talked about it being lifeless, boring, generic etc.
By this I mean amazon actually all expensespaid them to fly out and try the game, gave them exclusive rights to break the NDA therest of us have, gave them this exclusive scoop to show footage, gets clicks and generaterevenue from their exerpience etc.
So if you have any idea how this industryworks with publications and game studios, you would know it's a huge deal for anyoneto be saying it isn't fun.
Unfortuantely if you have the opinion thatthe game sounds disjointed and broken people will call you a hater and dislike the videobecause if you're not just blindly hyping something despite warning signs you're beingnegative.
The game absolutely needs this delay, the game had the spine removed not even a year agoin a game that was developed ground up for a literal polar opposite game design.
August sounds too soon most likely and I wouldn'tbe surprised to see either another delay or as I predicted before, a very poor launchwith bad reviews and a very sharp decline in playerbase once the novelty wears off andpeople realise what the game actually is currently.
As for the reasons of the delay.
I didn't even want to mention this becausepeople get bent out of shape or take it the worst way possible but fuck it let's do it.
Blaming covid as the sole reason for the delayis opportunistic, disengenuous and convenient in my opinion.
Now this isn't me downplaying the situationor saying it didn't effect them at all, don't jump to that conclusion.
Anyone who is on my discord knows how seriousI've taken this situation, I've been talking about it for months, warning people how badit was going to be and I myself am literally classified as extreme risk of serious illnessdue to covid and my previous health complications.
I know this is a huge deal, I know this hasalready affected everyone at their studio, their families, their way of life and it hasmost people in the world and will continue to impact most of us more than we expect formonths or years to come.
It's really, really serious.
However, this game was never, ever going torelease in May, regardless of if covid existed or not.
I've been saying it for months, this gamewas not ready and would need to be delayed, this is just better optics to say, covid causedthe delay rather than the truth of the game just isn't good enough to launch yet.
It's obvious this is the case and no one wantsto publicly say it because it makes you look terrible for saying it since it's such a serioussituation.
I do know this will have played a minor factorbut to say it is 100% the cause is not a statement rooted in reality.
The world is in a seriously bad position withthis and the last thing we should be bothered about is a video game releasing on time soit really makes no difference to me, I wanted the game to be delayed before this was evenaround.
I think this statement will get me some shit, more so than it probably should in the way it is intended in my brain but I think atleast someone needs to go on record of saying this.
I hope they are all safe and that the world gets back to normal as soon as possible as I do for every single one ofyou.
I'm really glad they delayed the game regardlessof the listed reason, as I said, I've been saying for months, very vocally and at thecost of many dislikes that this game is absolutely not ready for launch and the fact they havesince delayed it pretty much vindicated what I said in my mind.
I just hope they expand testers, drop thefucking NDA please for the love of god and let people actually help you make this gamebetter.
If these are the systems you've come up withand think they are a good idea, please just listen to people that want to see the gamesucceed because these systems do not make sense.
Maybe it's just me but I honestly think thisgame's systems sound terrible, almost every single system.
The game currently has lifeless pve accordingto journalists and alpha players, the end game is currently 50v50 sieges that are rngparticipation, invasions that are rng participation and both of these devalue the actual reasonto own territory and therefor the end game doesn't have any actual reason to participate.
I truly implore the developers, remove thenda, give everyone who pre-ordered access to the game and let them try it.
3 months extra isn't going to make the gamesuddenly amazing and hiding the state of the game behind an NDA this close to launch isactually ridiculous.
If you're terrified of people cancelling preorders due to the state of the game and media coverage, you absolutely need to bite thebullet and just let us help you to see on a large scale, over a few months what makessense and what doesn't.
All I want is games in this genre to successand push us towards a brighter future of mmorpgs instead of this toxic wasteland of carboncopy games we currently have, where everything is a variation of the current successful games.
Please AGS, Scot Lane, let the community seewhat you've come up with and talk about it openly, let us communicate with you what worksover the course of months while everyone is couped up with time on their hands and stopwith the bullshit optics face saving with this NDA, it is going to have to release publiclyeventually, we will eventually see the flaws, might as well let us in now andopen discussion so we can fix the flaws before it launches.
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