So, I played the preview of New World for a few hours and discovered some things I really want to see implemented in AOC.
1. The sound design
The sound design is one of the most impressive features New World has to offer. I would even say it has the best sound design I have heard in any game in a long time.
It sounds "full", "clear", and simply realistic.
You hear every pickaxe blow from other players on a stone and every tree that is cut down. It's just incredible.
2. The feeling of impact / heavy combat
Another point that I like very much are the fights. And with that I don't mean directly the fighting system itself, but how the individual attacks feel.
They are "heavy", but not slow. You feel the "impact" of each of your attacks.
I think the impression is given by the following design elements:
-> Your character emits a short scream each time he attacks. If he suffers damage, he groans and makes you aware that he is in pain.
-> Each hit is confirmed with a short, rather dark sound. The pitch changes slightly with each attack, so that no monotony is created.
-> If an attack is successful, a red hit marker is displayed on the Crosshair.
3. Adaptive UI
It's a small thing, but I love it. As an example I made two screenshots:
No weapon drawn. The UI is reduced to a minimum, so I can enjoy the world to the fullest.

Only as soon as I draw my weapon, the skill bar is displayed.

As I said, it's a small feature, but it increases the immersion immensely. Especially for people like me, who like to get lost in the beautiful world, it's nice not having to look at the full UI all the time.
And that's it! Sure, New World (Preview) has some other features that I like, but these were the 3 most important ones for me.