New World Gets Public Test Realm But Proposed Gearing Changes Rankle Players

Today's entry in "What is New World doing wrong?" also has a bit of something that Amazon Games is doing right, though in a weird way.

The New World Public Test Realm is now live, allowing dedicated players to test out ... the holiday event? That's an odd thing to put on a PTR, but there you can try out the Winter Convergence Festival and check out the winter villages set up in Everfall, Monarch's Bluffs, Weaver’s Fen, and Brightwood, where you can partake of various activities and earn rewards -- which won't carry over into the main game, because it's a test server, of course.

There are also Ice Caves to explore, where players will need to thwart the Winter Warrior's plans to cloak Aeternum in Forever Winter, and various other "side story" quests from Giacomo Altoviti for players to try out.

In non-festival PTR content, there are major changes coming to endgame, including a new resource, Gypsum, which can be converted into an orb, which can be crafted into casts of any item. Crafters who go beyond level 200 will also find different modes of progress for their trade skills, and PvP formulas are also being looked at.

Having a PTR is good, but if the changes it's looking to implement anger players, that's not as good. And that seems to be the case with one part of the new endgame gearing system, as spotted (and harangued) by posters on Reddit. When the full update goes live, "Expertise will govern the highest drops you can get per slot," which means that higher-powered gear will be "leveled down" to your character's Expertise level.

This understandably has some players, who were used to gearing up in a certain way, upset at the changes. I'm no expert when it comes to high-level New World gearing, but the gist of it seems to be that Amazon is trying to force players to progress down a limited number (or one) path, when they were used to having multiple options.

The original post in that Reddit thread from Amazon is probably right, in that power levels might have been a bit too high for low-level characters and needed to be reigned in, and it might be the right way to go in the long run. For a game that's bleeding players as much as this one is, though, angering your base and giving them a reason to set it down can't be a good idea.