The New World team gets into the process of creating meaningful progression systems and rewards in the latest Forged in Aeternum episode.
Chatting about progression this week are New World’s Phil Bolus and Senior Systems Designer Tony Morton. Bolus says that “our vision for how we perceive rewards in the game is that players should be making measurable progression every time they play the game”. So the systems and rewards that feel compelling to continue trying to meet new goals even after you've done the activity, like an Expedition, 20 times or 100 times.
One of the things that Morton comments on are the opportunities and different reward tracks that give more control over to the player to decide how they want to play their game. This means things like more control in players’ hands, as in crafting progression. This becomes a balancing challenge for the devs, because you give players more control over how they progress and earn rewards.
If the balance isn't there, some people will rush through all the content and it won't last, but if you make it too hard and there's too big an obstacle, some people will be really unhappy that you're slowing them down too much.
An example given was for crafting, the idea that giving players more control, but making more items bind on pickup in order to make sure that one crafter doesn't just churn out so many items for progression and make the Trading Post the most viable way to play. All of this while still preserving the ability for someone to be self-sufficient and craft themselves the things they need while also still supporting the player driven economy.
Another example given is how this year, they changed the spring Rabbit's Revenge event to make sure that everyone could get the event items just for killing a certain number of rabbits, taking away the RNG part from last year’s first event. Bolus comments on these changes being in line with their “equitable time” philosophy. That things should feel like you're making meaningful progress for your efforts.
These reward tracks are designed to start rewarding special items every five levels with a dedicated drop, and once you get above level 20 you'll find more prestige items and named items to strive for.
With New World’s transition to a seasonal model with a Season Pass, having those pass goals and rewards are a big part of this equation going forward.
