New World devs respond to update 1.1 hidden changes, issue apology to players

Dear New world players, What would you like to say about New World's Update? Amazon Game Studios' MMORPG New World recently received its biggest update to date, bringing with it a host of new features and fixes. One thing players didn't reckon with, however, was that it also made the endgame harder — much harder.

As reported by various players on the game's subreddit, certain servers are leaping forward weeks, or even months, in time. This causes all kinds of issues in-game. Settlement crafting stations will downgrade if taxes are not paid on a weekly basis, scheduled Wars for control of various territories will be missed, player-owned houses can't be issued if the upkeep isn't maintained, and player posted auctions will go unsold.

New World servers affected by the time skipping are reportedly then being taken down for maintenance with little or no warning. They then will come back online, with the in-game clock appearing to have been reset to several hours before the time-traveling took place.

Amazon has started to address the issue. About two dozen servers were taken offline for maintenance over the weekend in an attempt to fix the time skip issue, with Amazon writing in a forum post that the team will update players on when an update will be coming to the rest of the game's servers.

It's just the latest game-breaking issue to come to New World in recent weeks. The game saw its economy taken offline on two separate occasions in the last month in order to combat New World item and New World coin duplication exploits that threatened to destabilize the game's player-driven markets. An earlier invulnerability exploits saw players becoming invincible, which was a major problem considering much of New World's content revolves around PvP.

It was followed by a fresh wave of negative reviews on Steam, dropping it to a " Mixed" rating despite remaining " Mostly Positive" overall.

In response, New World designer Mike " Berserker Mike" Willette said that the " proper context" wasn't delivered on the reasoning behind the update. Willette wrote that the team's goal is to have a "variety of areas" that players can go to for crafting materials and gear. However, Amazon Game Studios also wants players to feel challenged in return.

" Our vision for the end game is multifaceted and includes Outpost Rush and Wars, Invasions and Arenas, 60+ Corrupted breaches, 60+ Elite POIs and named creatures, and Expeditions, with more to come in the future. There will not be one single source for best in slot and our desire is to encourage players to engage with various activities," Willette wrote.

He added that New World's developers are " actively looking into the activities and reward balance." Hope it's possible we could see things adjusted again soon.