Explore. Build. Unite. These are the pillars on which Worlds Adrift is built, but if there was ever a fourth pillar, it would be Survival. You see, as beautiful as the lands of Foundation are, its skies are truly perilous; a hunting ground of mantas and pirates, alike. Worlds Adrift is a PvP game, after all, but at what point does conflict-by-design become ‘griefing’, and what do we propose to do in order to ensure the former doesn’t ultimately result in the latter?
Hands up. And I don’t mean in the at-gunpoint sense (despite this being a piece on PvP!). Rather, ‘hands up’ in that we know and very much acknowledge there’s work to be done. We have only just entered Early Access in what is the very first step of an ongoing journey, and so the game is by no means a fully-finished product. Huge changes will be made to Worlds Adrift, as we continue to listen and react to your feedback in the continued development of this Community-Crafted MMO. And in that vein, it’s come to our attention - whether that’s from Steam reviews, social comments or just general feedback - that the onboarding process requires some attention as far as PvP is concerned.
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. The team are working hard to implement these changes as soon as possible, but in the meantime, we’d strongly suggest visiting the official Worlds Adrift forums, where you can you recruit crews, learn tips and tricks, and chat with the community!
Bossa Co-Founder and Chief-in-Game, Henrique Olifiers, explained what Early Access means to Worlds Adrift in his recent blog post, confirming that we will ‘constantly update and tweak the game following your experience with it,’ and that ‘the next few weeks will be fundamental to set this into motion’. Well, experience you have, and now we’re ready to react. In fact, here’s Henrique again (in person, this time!), reiterating how important we treat your feedback, and how determined we are to get this right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XYkjHeVmDE
So as always, we want to hear from you. If you’ve got any ideas on how we can improve Worlds Adrift, jot them down in the comments below, or if you’d like to join the PvP discussion then get on over to the dedicated forum post here. As we said, this is an ongoing journey, and one on which we hope you’ll join us, to ensure we reach the right destination.
See you in the skies!