For all adventurers seeking a new challenge in New World, there is good news: Starting March 28th, players at level 60+ can enter the new Expedition Empyrean Forge in the Great Cleave. Until then, anyone who wants to test the latest content in advance can try out the Season 1 - Fellowship & Fire content, including Empyrean Forge, on the PTR. Here are the key details about the new Expedition:
LORE
The Empyrean Forge was once the primary location where the Ancients built their constructs and war machines. Centuries later, the wizard Myrddin ventured into the labyrinthine depths to study the techniques of Ancient engineering. His experiments opened a gateway to other worlds, through which elemental beings and magic flowed. These energies merged with the Empyrean Forge, giving birth to bizarre creatures born in the fires of the primordial world and shaped by the Azoth of the Ancients.
DESIGN
Level designer Pride St. Clair explains that there were two main focuses when designing the Empyrean Forge: communication between players and unique environmental obstacles and interactions. "We wanted players to coordinate and exchange information in new ways. We wanted a puzzle with two parts - the cipher and the lock - but something that hadn't been done in New World before. We also didn't want to force players to constantly run back and forth between the solution and the lock. The other obstacle was giving the puzzle a random solution so that players couldn't just memorize it and breeze through future runs."
RANDOM PUZZLES
St. Clair goes on to explain that the random element led them to the idea of two combination locks, one with the solution and the other that needs to be solved. Since the puzzle requires two parties to effectively communicate, the entire puzzle resets if a player steps off the pressure plate of the solution lock. Additionally, the team chose symbols that could be easily conveyed, such as circle, square, and triangle, as well as a vague symbol referred to as "D" internally.
DANGERS
The team worked on many ways to harm players through crushing, cutting, burning, shooting, and melting, but ultimately focused on two main dangers: the crushing pistons and the lava.
LAVA
The lava was an obvious necessity, but the team was torn on whether it should be instantly lethal or not. Ultimately, they decided that all lava is lethal to maintain consistency throughout the expedition. Making the lava crossable, even if only for a short time, would have required setting up escape ladders for each section and could have needlessly complicated the flow of the expedition.
PISTONS
The team wanted the pistons to feel "industrial" and represent obstacles that hadn't been seen before. The pistons move rhythmically up and down, which pairs well with the industrial-techno soundscapes created by the sound team.
So, we can look forward to a deeper dive into the sounds and music of the Empyrean Forge in an upcoming article. What do you think about the new expedition? Let us know in the forums. Thanks for your support! We'll see you in Aeternum.
