Amazon dumped a ton of New World info last night, so let’s dig in.
First, the studio released its “rollout plan” and FAQ for the fresh start world launches next week. It is a slightly staggered launch, and it’s not entirely chunked by region. So for example, if you’re on the US East coast, you’ll see a US-East server launching at noon EDT (Medea), 1 p.m. (Myrddin), 2 p.m. (Devourer), and 3 p.m. (Amarah). These servers will be tagged for visibility.
Either way, it’s going to be crowded: “We have queue mitigations in place but you should plan to experience queues on your Fresh Start World,” the company admits. “Servers may become locked between waves due to world capacity and queues but we will monitor worlds closely, especially during and right after the rollout phase to ensure that players can join a world in their preferred region.” In case you were wondering, Amazon has noted it’s not planning to open new regions or offer PvP or RP worlds “at this time,” so no surprises here.
Players are already voicing concerns about name reservation and insufficient servers; Amazon has apparently already reassured everyone that more servers in all regions are on standby (but haven’t been announced yet).
Each round in the rollout plan has additional servers in all listed regions on standby in case worlds get full fast. These standby worlds are not included in the official plans because they may not need to be opened and we don’t want you planning for a world that mat not open.
— Katy (@dev_katyk) October 27, 2022
Second, Amazon has reiterated that it’s not planning on allowing existing characters to transfer to these worlds this week (just “at a later time”), nor can players move fresh start characters elsewhere (yet). The company also clarifies that it will never merge fresh start worlds into legacy worlds (only into other fresh start worlds, presumably). The new third character slot will be added with the patch, usable on all servers, though of course you’re still limited to one per world.
Naturally, Amazon is planning on promoting the heck out of what could wind up being an effective relaunch of the game; it’s plotted out a Return to Aeternum marketing campaign headlined by selected streamers in teams racing through challenges and content in the game as viewers rack up Twitch drops. We don’t generally cover these sorts of influencer promotions, but you can read up and decide whether the freebies are worth it for you.
Players planning on living in the game rather than just being looky-loos for fresh start will also want to take a peek at the current PTR, where the patch in testing right now includes a new mutator expedition, the promised trade skill tweaks, guild updates, and more.
Finally, yesterday the company posted a fluffier video all about audio creation in Brimstone Sands.
