Over time, there have been adjustments to loot in New World
With the intention of having players to get more stuff they could use, less of what they couldn’t, and to also have a better chance at getting some of the more desirable loot in the pool. Lead Seasons Designer Patrick Smedley and Systems Designer Blake Philley break down the system and how it works in New World.
“Loot Biasing is a system that gives you more loot geared towards on your current character’s equipment. It focuses on two of the biggest pain points for players—Attribute Perks and item type (things like armor weight class of armor and specific weapons),” they begin. They wanted to reduce what they call “bad feeling results”, where you keep getting something cool that isn’t useful, or some weapon you’ve never picked up. After the effort needed to complete things like Mutators of even competitive challenges like Outpost Rush, this kind of reward outcome was a disappointment.
They set out to improve the results and reduce these bad feeling outcomes in a few ways. One, the new system “focuses the odds of certain item types” and in some ways will remove certain things from the loot pool. An example they give is if you have a Great Axe and a War Hammer equipped then the odds become weighted in favor of receiving those weapon types. In PvP, the system assumes you’re decked out in your best, so rewards will be biased in favor of dropping that loot type.
Issues do arise in the system, with named items giving particular trouble, and balance always being a question. Named items and Artifacts are left out of the system at this time, since they are more likely things one pursues and more unique cases. But the rest of the gear is mostly within this more tailored approach.
