New World – Quest Design Update

When you take a sandbox MMORPG and turn it into a theme park experience, quests go from an afterthought to one of the game’s main attractions. As such, we get this development update for Amazon’s upcoming age of exploration MMORPG New World that outlines some recent changes to that game’s quest design.

Have a look:

Quests are the backbone of New World’s narrative experience. Through them, you will explore the world, gain experience, acquire critical items, upgrade your gear, and progress your character. Armed with your feedback, we have been consistently making improvements to our questing system and will continue to make changes as we head toward launch and beyond.

OUR VISION:

We have four key pillars that drive our vision for quests:

GIVE PLAYERS IDENTITY AND PURPOSE

We want players to understand their role within the cataclysmic events unfolding across Aeternum, while learning how to navigate New World’s core systems and empowering them to experiment and discover which skills, activities, and gear best fit their playstyle.

IMMERSE PLAYERS IN AETERNUM

The Main Story Questline (MSQ) guides players through each of the island’s regions and offers opportunities to explore the lore of Aeternum through uncovering ancient secrets, learning about the enemy groups that occupy the land, and meeting powerful friends and enemies as you learn that not all is as it seems on the surface of this new and mystical world.

PROVIDE CONSISTENT ACTIVITIES FOR PLAYERS

From the moment a new player first washes up on the shore through their journey to level 60 and endgame content, players should always have an active objective to complete in a series of ongoing story-driven quests as they strive to make their mark on Aeternum.

HIGHLIGHT SPECIAL MOMENTS AND CELEBRATE PROGRESSION

Taking players to distinct areas and points of interest across the land, adding climactic moments to unique quests anchored in lore, and unlocking both important items and the secrets of Aeternum are all key to designing and updating the MSQ.

RECENT CHANGES:

Here’s some of the changes we’ve added to improve the quest experience in the March alpha update:

QUEST VARIETY AND NEW OBJECTIVES

Many zones have had their quests restructured for narrative flow. Additionally, in many instances we’ve replaced generic looting objectives with new interactable items tailored to a specific quest. This should help increase quest variety, along with creating unique experiences within both the MSQ and many side-quests found throughout Aeternum.

IMPROVED STARTING EXPERIENCE

The starting experience and early MSQ through to the acquisition of Azoth Staff, a crucial weapon in the fight against corruption, has had many tweaks and alterations to improve progression flow.

ADDED VOICE-OVER AND IMPROVED DIALOGUE

All existing quests have had their dialogue updated to improve NPC characterization and enhance quest directives. We also added English voice-over for the MSQ and starting beaches to help bring the many characters players encounter to life. Localized voice-over is in progress.

INTRODUCED NEW CHARACTERS, REGIONS, AND ENEMIES

Introduced significant narrative questlines with unique objectives in the new Ebonscale Reach and Reekwater regions, where the players will need to complete late game story quests to vanquish powerful enemies, such as the Siren Queen and the Empress.

ADDED QUESTS FOR UNIQUE WEAPONS AND ARMOR

We’ve added new quests starting at level 40 that will guide players on a journey to craft and obtain rare armor sets and legendary weapons.

LOOKING FORWARD:

In future updates, we will continue to build out the MSQ by adding narrative-driven climatic events through level 60. These will introduce new enemies, unique objectives to continue to improve quest variety, and new stories for the players to experience on their quest to learn the secrets of Aeternum. As we continue development and improvements, we’ll keep you updated on our social channels and website.