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VS Amazon's New World

Cheers to you all,

this discussion is about what distinguishes AoC from New World (NW) and how to capitalize on the fact that both these promising newcomers to the genre release in a relatively narrow time frame.

Here's my view on it (obviously much in favor of AoC):

First of all, AoC is, as the name suggests, about creation. NW on the other hand is about destruction: the very first text on their main page asks what you will do in "a land hell-bent on your destruction" and the whole trailer is about "Fighting the World".

Second, AoC is created by a team of MMO enthusiasts who started the whole thing in order to make a game they always wished for. NW was instead initiated by a billion dollar company founded by a man selling books because of their good storability properties instead of his love for books - the game's development is therefore likely based on strategic considerations rather than passion.

For these (and other) reasons the two games speak to very different audiences. NW might have more polished graphics, due to higher funding, maybe a great action combat system due to their whole focus on combat. AoC on the other hand has the whole node systems, where only one out of four nodes is combat based, the economics will most likely be more complex and I'd suppose that because of the passion aspect the community will be way more involved and the role playing community will likely be more present.

I'd suggest to deliberately focus on the audience that tend towards AoC, who may even be repulsed by the sheer brutality with which NW boasts, and give players the opportunity to indulge in trading, shop keeping, farming and whatsoever. Of course a good combat system is important and might be a dealbreaker for some, hence it should not be neglected (and it obviously isn't ;)). But I also think that it will pay off even better to focus on the core systems that differentiate AoC from NW - and these are mainly creation based.

I'm looking forward to your opinions on this!


PS: There's some more reasons I prefer AoC over NW, like NW's guilds being called "companies" as if the games title wouldn't remind you enough of Huxley's Brave New World; but these points are probably off topic here.
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Comments

  • unknownsystemerrorunknownsystemerror Member, Phoenix Initiative, Royalty, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    edited June 2020
    New World is called Ashes Lite around these parts. As soon as they get done ripping off Steven's ideas come back and let us know how your comparisons work out. The whole mantra of "New World will be better because it has unlimited money" has been proven to be false. Take a look at Amazon Game Studios track record so far. First game aborted before birth (Breakaway), second came out missing a chromosome and is strangling itself with it's own umbilical cord (Crucible), and New World? It will have money showered on it because it is B2P and there is literally nothing new to play if it hits that end of August release date (iffy). There are several people in the Ashes community playing in the New World alpha and they have been very forthcoming that the game is going to fail and why, NDA or no. Expect people to play it for a couple months, reach "endgame", realize there is nothing to do but stand around posing in cosmetics and repeating the same content over and over and over. It will take it the rest of 2020 to die, but in 2021 start looking for Death of a Game series guy to make one about AGS's trifecta of shit year in 2020 around the middle of 2021.
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  • AtamaAtama Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    Stuff like this is why I think NW will die quickly.

    https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-18-player-killing-created-a-toxic-environment-in-amazon-mmo-new-world-so-now-the-developer-has-added-battles-by-appointment

    They backpedaled and had to fundamentally change the way PvP worked in their game because they were SHOCKED! SHOCKED! when unrestricted open world PvP led to toxic behavior. Um... Yeah. Of course it will. This is the kind of thing you’d only see from a company clueless about online gaming culture and history. They have a really high budget and grand ideas but are out of their depth. I anticipate a juicy disaster after the sheen rubs off of this one.
     
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  • grisugrisu Member
    New World had some very interesting mob behavior, overall it didn't strike me as a game I am all too interested in, but I got reinvited for a testing round just a few days ago so I will take a look at its progress for sure.
    I can be a life fulfilling dream. - Zekece
    I can be a life devouring nightmare. - Grisu#1819
  • FloweringmindFloweringmind Member, Settler, Kickstarter
    There is something really boring about New World once you get past the first major town.
  • RyufuRyufu Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    New World looks like a Age of Conan survival game, which already turned me off. Also, I think you will find the game to be heavy on griefing and trolling so it won't be a game that will have much shelf life. People will go there, troll for a month and then pick up a new game.

    AoC is long lived with a focus on developing relationships and building up the world together. I think the parts people will see the most fun conflict in will be from guild created conflicts and also the political structure from the node systems that create a lot of interesting drama. I say interesting, because even if you have a failed political coup d'état or even a successful siege on a city, it won't feel like a personal attack on you and more like a story plot development. That is all my perspective anyway.
  • New world is a promising game.

    Kekw
    Where there is light, there is shadow. I am the shadow without the light. The shadow of nothingness. The VoidShadow
  • JamationJamation Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I plan on playing New World, probably until AoC (unless it truly turns into something truly drop dead disgusting), but I am concerned at the amount of directional changes they've made. It makes me less confident in them. And I agree with the concept that having a lot of money and a recognizable company name behind it doesn't mean much. I can't speak for how the development team for New World's been, but when I used to work for Amazon...let's just say I don't feel the same sort of faith others might when I hear the company is involved in something.
  • Gonna be honest here, New World isn't looking good. It not being PvP friendly turned me off. Not to mention the only form of PvP is siege modes and that is a complete mess. A company with one person in it can legit be chosen as the vanguard instead of a company that tries their ass off to better the community and get good at the game. It just hands bad players easy wins and punishes hardcore players. That game will die <1 month after release.
  • It's always simple mmorpg with Open PvP>mmorpg without Open PvP. That's all. AoC will Rock!
  • sylsyl Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    edited June 2020
    New World is an unfinished game, from experience. If they release it on their current release date, the game will die down pretty quickly (except for the *die hard* players out there).

    Can't really go into the nitty gritty details because of NDA, you'd have to see for yourself.
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    Come take a look at ashesofcreation.wiki!
  • morbesmorbes Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I played the alpha of new world and came to the conclusion I wasn't buying it. There wasn't much substance to the game for it to hold long time playing. I foresee it as another quick cash grab flash in the pan type of game that everyone will forget in a couple weeks.
  • SaphyGamingSaphyGaming Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    New World have no chance....
  • SaphyGamingSaphyGaming Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    New World have no chance....
  • AtamaAtama Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    You can say that again.
     
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  • RokoRoko Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I love that new world is attempting to copy a few of ashes' mechanics, and is going to release them earlier, allowing the intrepid team to see somewhat useful feedback without having to take the hit themselves
    2PXdm1m
  • VarkunVarkun Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    This may be counter to what many here believe but I would like to see New World succeed. If it is a success I can see nothing but good things for the development of MMO's, as it would provide incentive to create such games if they can turn a profit. Because lets be honest too many failed MMO's will eventually lead to the death of the genre.

    After doing my own research into New World I came to the conclusion it was not the game for me, while the crafting looked interesting, the lack of different races, no true end game and the fact there already seemed to be a heavy armour meta before the game has even launched.

    But I wish them well none the less.
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    Close your eyes spread your arms and always trust your cape.
  • SeloSelo Member
    I played the "old" alpha like 2 years ago and it was bad.
    And now i have played the new Alpha, and its so damn boring, you spend 99% of the time running from point A to point B
    Affiliate Code:
    0dbea148-8cb8-4711-ba90-eb0864e93b5f
  • sunfrogsunfrog Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    On the bright side, NW will test out some of Steven's ideas for free and he'll be able to see if they work or not.
    On the other hand, AoC won't be out for 2 more years so if NW is a success AoC will seem like old ideas by then and lose some of it's originality. This lack of standing out from the crowd will hurt it. People are already complaining that it seems generic.
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  • VatoVato Member
    (New here) I canceled my Pre-Purchase of NW today and my search of a new world has (lol pun was not intended) led me here.

    I stumbled upon it (NW) by accident and was initially excited, as i searched for as much info on the game as i could find i came across a video by Neckrage, whom ive never heard of but he was an Alpha tester for NW, he painted a very disappointing picture for NW, everything i can find on it suggests hes correct.

    So ill be looking around.. /wave
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  • DrEpochDrEpoch Member, Phoenix Initiative
    edited June 2020
    New world while similar. The faction system is stupid beyond repair. It's a one sided lob fest l, with 800 player servers, with zero to little player choice. It won't be a living breathing world.

    I played for 2 hours, their open action combat is a required taste, especially for PvP and won't be playing it. Idk what the heck they're going for.

  • DrEpochDrEpoch Member, Phoenix Initiative
    Selo wrote: »
    I played the "old" alpha like 2 years ago and it was bad.
    And now i have played the new Alpha, and its so damn boring, you spend 99% of the time running from point A to point B

    What this man said. If they had transportation it wouldn't be so bad.
  • Atama wrote: »
    Stuff like this is why I think NW will die quickly.

    https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-01-18-player-killing-created-a-toxic-environment-in-amazon-mmo-new-world-so-now-the-developer-has-added-battles-by-appointment

    They backpedaled and had to fundamentally change the way PvP worked in their game because they were SHOCKED! SHOCKED! when unrestricted open world PvP led to toxic behavior. Um... Yeah. Of course it will. This is the kind of thing you’d only see from a company clueless about online gaming culture and history. They have a really high budget and grand ideas but are out of their depth. I anticipate a juicy disaster after the sheen rubs off of this one.

    The culture and mentality around open world PVP in 2020 is actually different from what it was in 2006 and onwards. The problem we face today is that there's no group mentality on ganking low level players or people in general, if a high level player kills you over and over again with clear malice and ill-intent people won't start ganking him in turn. Most will even laugh at you or treat you like you're bad.

    Here's a great example: There's an infamous case of a very toxic PK'er in Vanilla wow who would haunt Menethil harbor and PK people for hours on end. The reason he got away with it was because he was clever about it and never corpse camped for very long, he'd kill you once or twice and you could be on your way. He'd only target you if you targeted him and would avoid groups of players if he wasn't confident he could kill one of you and slip.

    The mentality now?

    "Guys! Let's get our ENTIRE GUILD of 100 players and kill every player we find until they quit the game! It's so funny to see these losers quit get gud scrub lmfao! xD"

    They weren't shocked about the toxic behavior, they were shocked about how no one would do anything to combat it and in fact JOINED in on that behavior. As for how they changed PVP, it's not a great change but that's also subject to be changed. Most likely, they will settle for a system where companies can openly declare war on each other and said guilds will be able to attack one another openly but not other players. That combined with the siege system is also good, the siege system requires 50 on both side (which is pretty massive) and allows the defenders to simply wait out the attackers, it's 100% better then Albion Online's crappy 15v15 arena battles for land.
  • sunfrogsunfrog Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    Fooshyy wrote: »
    Selo wrote: »
    I played the "old" alpha like 2 years ago and it was bad.
    And now i have played the new Alpha, and its so damn boring, you spend 99% of the time running from point A to point B

    What this man said. If they had transportation it wouldn't be so bad.

    From what I read this morning you can fast travel back to your home if you have one. They call it Recall.
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  • "New world" mmorpg without dungeons and raids (͡ ͡° ͜ つ ͡͡°)
  • NodoffNodoff Member, Phoenix Initiative, Royalty, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    I really don't know why people keep comparing the two. NW is more like Conan Exiles, except they stripped the building aspects, then added factions and taxes.

    It really isn't anything like AoC.
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  • JamationJamation Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Nodoff wrote: »
    I really don't know why people keep comparing the two. NW is more like Conan Exiles, except they stripped the building aspects, then added factions and taxes.

    It really isn't anything like AoC.

    I think the original idea/the way it used to be described (before more solid details came out and people actually started testing it) made the two sound more similar in nature. Now however...yeah they aren't very similar anymore.
  • Valento92Valento92 Member
    edited August 2020
    It's time to reignite discussions now that the game has a public preview. Many points made in this thread are still very much valid.

    Being developed by an Amazon studios isn't enough to make up for quality, the game doesn't *feel* as smooth as I hoped it would, the animations have an after-cast delay that feels squishy, AI hits you in a very weird speed and you feel weak against wolves (lol?). I can't stress enough how movement/combat animation fluidity is important, the connection between hitting an opponent and feeling it had an effect depicted by an animation, etc. We'll be doing that A LOT so it got to be really smooth. Although it's not perfect due to being kinda floaty, Guild Wars 2 is by far very superior when it comes to fluidity and I hope AOC is inspired by that game and tweak combat fluidity in that direction, just less floaty and more weighty.

    The ranged combat... holy f* it feels so awful to use a Fire Staff, the aiming with that tiny reticle and the ground-targeting? I was so frustrated that I only felt "in control" by using a sword and a shield. That's just a blatant big NO for me, period. The combat "passives" and the amount of skills are ridiculously limited leading to a shallow combat overall. They talk about adding more weapons but I can't see anywhere talking about combat depth and I can't accept depth = more weapon swaps. I just can't. That combat is flawed in many aspects and the ranged aiming has been a nail in the coffin for me, particularly.

    I won't even go as far as questing goes because I felt lost without a proper presentation of how I should proceed. If AOC doesn't have quest icons and such I feel that it should be presented to me beforehand so I know what to expect. I felt so all over the place with their tutorial, and it took me so long to discover where to get a staff in the first place. I'm a mage for god's sake let me use a stick and shoot fireballs lol. I like that the quest icons were not in the map (avoid cluttering icons on the mini-map) but these things should have a toggle or be sufficiently visible in-game.

    Questing feels very repetitive BUT I think it's because it's very early so I understand this part. Gathering is awesome in my honest opinion, had a lot of fun and the music feels so nice to go around harvesting, loved the notifications when I level anything (weapon mastery, crafting abilities, gathering abilities). Having the gathering nodes in a red color to depict that I need more level is a good point for me. If AOC goes for some similar lock (which I think is totally healthy for progression purposes) and doesn't show gatherable node names, a simple message of "It looks like you need more expertise in order to gather this herb/plant" would be quite cool to inform we need more level.

    I like the idea of "maturing" weapons though it's just a way to level other classes if you think about it. I liked the sense of discovery, New World is very beautiful. The only big issue is AI moving as if it was a 2007 MMO. /shrugs

    All in all I'll probably pass this one. Not worth it. Ranged aiming ruined it for me plus you can't jump (????).
    "Magic is not a tool, little one. It is a river that unites us in its current."

    I heard a bird ♫
  • mrwafflesmrwaffles Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    This is going to sound superficial but bear with me. Watching NW dev discussion where they are filming in their "studio" I get the corporate vibe. I've worked in places like this and people are just butts in seats. The top dogs in business drive the decision and it stifles creativity. They want code faster and faster and muzzle their talented staff.

    IS is the complete opposite. They are always talking about their new staff. Maybe because there aren't as many as Amazon Games or maybe they value them as creators and not just employees.

    The entire vibe of each company looks and feels different. The best saying I ever was told was by a boss I still respect and talk to 10 years later (he didn't make this up):
    "Take care of the people that are helping you build your dream."

    I think we can all agree that Bezos is not this kind of person. If he's ever played a single MMO to end game I'd be very surprised.
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  • I like the base game. The graphics are good, the engine runs fairly well, the action combat works, the gathering system seems decent, etc...

    However, I guarantee you they will mess up the design decisions just like every other mmorpg in the last decade because they will try to appeal to all audiences to get as much short-term revenue as possible for their stockholders. They will sell out their original vision of the game in order to try to appease two opposing groups of people: carebears and pvpers. The result will be bad design decisions that lead to a watered-down shell of a game and a quickly declining population once everyone finishes leveling and realizes that there is really no risk/reward and no point to doing anything in the game at all. This is why I have hope for AoC, because I have hope that Steven won't sell-out his vision for the game for short-term profits.
  • Note that i havent checked the game for the last 3 Month.
    TLDR: The game is a hotpot of bad game design meant to attract as many people as possible to milk the community for as much money as possible.
    Avoid at all costs.



    Friend of mine played it a lot during the last Alpha test.
    I watched him play and have to say they screwed it up badly.
    Both of us canceld our preorder.

    There is this dev stream from amazon where the creative director is announcing the changes to the pvp system with the Marketing direktor(?).
    You can see it on the face of the Creative director that the game changes were not his plan but the directive from the Bord.

    Amazon makes the game to make money.
    You can see it in every system they changed.

    Just to give you some idea.
    The endgame is castle sieges for the controll of a town.
    Its 50 vs 50 so guilds will fights other guilds.
    Now the problem is that there another type.
    The invasion were NPCs storm your castle.
    Again its 50 defenders vs Monster hord.
    If you loose the invasion then your castle defenses loose some of their levels.
    They downgrade.

    Problem is that while in the PVP Siege the Defending guild can controll who joins the defender, thats not the case for the invasion.
    During the Monster siege only 10 people from the ruling guild have set slots.
    The other 40 slots are random.
    So if i wanted to siege your castle, i would join the PVE invasion as Defender and sabotage you by simple beeing afk or worse i jump into a siege enginge and then go afk.
    You loose your defense level and i will siege you afterwards with a lot higher success chance.

    AGS announced this so that Random people could still be part of the endgame.
    When confronted with the possible abuse, i heard that they called it part of the design.


    Apart from that the game is full of genereic quests like kill 10 wolfs and return. Over and over and over again.
    There is no real story to follow.

    Another bad design is the crafting system.
    To craft higher level stuff you need a special ressource.
    Example.
    You can craft level 1 wood into a level 1 plank.
    To craft the level 2 Plank you need a level 2 wood, level 1 Plank and a special ressource.
    That special ressource is found at every Level grind spot in Chests were random loot is in it.
    You can not dedicated farm it. It all depens on RNG.
    That you find pretty much all your gear in the wild as Drops is another thing thats terrible game design.

    The game is full of that. Terrible decisions made to please the masses and make a quick buck.

    There is also the rumor that New world is just the testing ground to see what attracks costumers for the Lord of the Rings MMO.

    Also AGS has allready published several games if i remember right. None of them were any good.





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