New World: How PvP and PvE coexist in Amazon’s new MMO

One of the greatest challenges developers face with an MMO is balancing PvE and PvP. For Amazon’s upcoming game New World, PvP isn’t necessarily a requirement; however, the game is designed for both PvE and PvP to coexist and complement each other.

“Our goal is for players to receive equal rewards for the same time invested with similar risk,” the developer said in a blog post earlier this year.

New World will have multiple opportunities for players to engage in PvP combat. Some activities, like Wars and Outpost Rush, are scheduled or instanced, while others will take place in the open world itself.

When running around the open world, you’ll be safe from other players. That is, unless you flag yourself for PvP. New World encourages players to do so through territory forts.

Each regions fort in New World serves as a PvP control point that provides territory and global rewards for the faction that controls it. In order for you to lay claim to a territory, you must flag yourself for PvP. Then, you simply must have more players inside the control point than any other faction. The world map will display the status of each fort, including which ones are being contested (along with region-wide message alerts when a fort is being contested.

So while you’re definitely not forced to participate in this sort of open world PvP, the rewards may encourage you to engage in control points. Faction Control Points provide buffs such as a 5% increase to experience gain and 20% increase to influence gain within that territory. Additionally, each fort has a unique global buff for the faction in control, such as decreased taxes or traveling costs for fast travel.

New World‘s other PvP modes are a bit more direct for those who enjoy the thrill of all-out war. Outpost Rush is an endgame 20v20 battle where each team must gather resources, build up their outposts, capture objectives and defeat enemy players.

And then there are Wars in which factions will vie for control of individual Territories across Aeternum. In order to begin a War on another Faction’s Territory, that Territory must be weakened to the point where it is vulnerable. This can be done through completing Faction Missions. From there, it’s a multistep process that culminates in a 50v50 war. Naturally, controlling a Territory will provide the Faction with all sorts of benefits and buffs.

Again, none of this PvP is mandatory or required. You can go about your business and play New World solely for the PvE experience, and still get some powerful rewards. However, it’s clear you’ll be missing out on some very beneficial buffs. In that sense, PvP isn’t mandatory in New World, but it is certainly encouraged through the benefits it could provide.