Greetings, Adventurers!
We are excited to launch Group Finder from the PTR to Live! In this dev blog, we will share why the feature was delayed, and what our development plans are for the future especially after hearing player feedback.
You can learn more about using the Group Finder with step by step instructions and FAQ on our website here: Introducing the Group Finder - News | New World - Open World MMO PC Game
Why the delays?
We worked hard to make the original intended date but new scale testing combined with playtesting feedback revealed some feature quality issues we didn’t want to ship. A beneficial side effect is that the tests we created can equally be applied to other features that have similar communication patterns, improving our ability to find scale issues early going forward. Delays aren’t ever a goal, we take them only when we have exhausted opportunities to achieve quality. Thanks for your understanding and continued feedback against that quality bar.
What’s next?
Thanks to our internal and PTR testing, we have important player feedback on where to go next with Group Finder. The delays allowed us to fix critical bugs, and we will continue to make improvements on upcoming patches and releases. We received a couple of points of feedback that echo our internal sentiment, primarily that while v1.0 is an welcome addition to New World, it would be even better if it were a consolidated screen that rolled up all group lobbies into a single menu with filtering and sorting enabled. We are planning to roll out a v1.1 in a future release to make quick improvements there, and eventually release a v2.0 which will allow players to post and find groups for much more than Expeditions — more details to come!
In the meantime, thanks for playing, testing, and sharing your thoughts with us. As you incorporate Group Finder v1.0 into your expedition runs, please continue to let us know how it could be improved using the in-game Feedback tool or official New World Forums.
See you in Aeternum!