In Andrew’s hands-on with Worlds Adrift published Monday, he expressed some serious concerns over the title’s approach to PvP. Even as a hardened sandbox PvP player, he found that the early game is overwhelmingly set up in favor of medium-tier players who are free to grief newbies all day long – and do. Worse, he worried that it would turn traditional MMORPG players off from the game, and that it might not be fixable thanks to the physics system that underpins the entire experience.
The good news is that Bossa Studios has been listening to concerns like Andrew’s and is promising to do something about it. The studio notes that the game is in early access and that the PvP system will see a big revisit.
“While mid-level PvP (i.e once you’ve managed to progress past the initial Biome) is working well, it’s apparent that some players are struggling to reach this point, due to a minority of more advanced players returning to the beginner’s zone for, let’s say, some ‘easy pickings’. This pretty much exemplifies the difference between PvP and griefing; one is a fair fight between two similarly levelled players. The other, a completely unbalanced slaughter, whereby one player has little to no chance of defending themselves. And so, we’re looking to improve this onboarding experience in a number of ways to ensure players have the best introduction to the world possible, and a better chance of progressing past the first zone.”
In the meantime, the devs have requested a feedback pile-on to point them in the right direction.
