New World is getting mounts. This is just one of the big announcements from the recent reveal of the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion coming next month. The team has a new deep dive into even more details on Aeternum’s new fast form of transportation.
The latest Forged in Aeternum is all about mounts. It’s no secret that there has been plenty of community feedback over New World’s lack of mounts or more fast travel options outside using azoth. Well, the expansion will initially add direwolves, lions, and horses, with more types down the line.
There were a number of points of consideration in deciding to add mounts and their impact on the game and the process took a year of development. Senior game designer Andy Manches talks about the year of development starting with his passion for locomotion in games, how the controls and camera are tuned and how adding elements of fidelity can make a gameplay experience just feel better. It’s more than just getting from point A to point B.
When it comes to balance, PVP is naturally a concern. For PvE, it was easier - just don’t let players use mounts to be able “to cheese through all the content”, so there are times when enemies might dismount you, based on certain factors.
For PvP, any hit from a player will dismount you. They even mention a potential strategy with using a bow and arrow to potentially shoot someone and dismount them in a PVP situation.
In making the decision to finally add this requested feature, they know it will change the player experience and enable people to explore further and faster. Dash mechanics and effects on screen contribute to that feeling of speedy travel and refresh the experience.
They considered attaching speed as an element of the mount, meaning you might find a fast horse or a slow horse, but they instead decided to make it a property of the player character via the riding trade skill. There are a few ways to earn XP to train this, but mount quests will be your most important source. Some are special tours to reach checkpoints, others are timed, and you’ll get to explore and sometimes, to race. Earning riding XP, of course.
You will get a chance to customize your mounts using visual only gear, via skins. There are Mount attachment items like shields, which you can apply trade skill-related skins to. Manches says his favorite is the basket of fish. More skins will eventually be added for mounts in the store. Some might be earnable via PvP.
There will also be more mounts, including more elaborate (and armored) mounts from the MTX store, along with dyes for even more options.
See more at New World.
