Having played the closed beta for New world (No NDA) there are a few things I think we can clearly say they did is a great way and a few things that I can only hope Pantheon avoids.
New worlds system of everyone having harvesting works out great. I am glad Pantheon is leaning in this direction and after seeing the mechanics in New World I now think New Worlds stats dictating how well you harvest make way more sense than Pantheons harvesting expertise idea. A simple and fairly logical system. With Pantheon pushing their side grade stat idea where wizards may want high STR, this harvesting system works even better as you can literally gear up for harvesting certain things. Only change I would make to the stats giving you harvesting bonuses would be to place them on a gradiant instead of an instant unlock of the bonuses at 50 point intervals. I hope Pantheon considers this path instead of the harvesting specialty.
While their harvesting is great, New Worlds crafting system leaves a lot to be desired. Everything I have heard about Pantheon crafting makes me think you have dodged this landmine.
New world is big on the fast paced combat, blocking and dodging telegraphed attacks is something I never expect to see in Pantheon, but there is something to be said about blocking with your staff when being focused in a group. Instantly burn through your stamina, but cutting the damage in half for a chain of 3 attacks coming your way. It is very satisfying and I realized this idea has existed in virtually every table top game as well. Dodging, defensive stances, raising the shield, whatever the game ends up calling it we see the simple idea of using your action to defend. Tons of MMOs have an auto attack toggle, few have a defense focused mode every player would have access too. While it never clicked with ESO, new world made me think something like a defense focused mode would be very interesting to have people take. The glass cannon can do their best to defend sacrificing their ability to cast, move, attack, all in an attempt to survive. I don't know if it is a right fit for pantheon, but I can say new world makes it fun.
New world had very limiting climbing, but the one thing they did really well is jumping over objects. As you run and leap over the log or fence or whatever you sometimes trigger a simple animation of tapping off the object that would be just barely too high to jump over. Small simple animations like this really make the game feel ideal when traversing the world. It is the little things that make the world feel realistic. In Pantheon we will be having short races jumping
Counter to the above in new world you can instantly equip weapons to attack with them. They had nice animations for the weapon drawing and stowing. In new world where PVP is important, players don't need to look like a threat with their weapon out to be a threat. I think there should be a big difference from a guy running around with a musket in hand and one with a musket on their back. I feel like they missed this opportunity.
The New World cash shop is another example of things to avoid. It starts out fairly nice with dyes, player housing, and emotes, then quickly takes a dark turn into item skins. You have this world, with a crowd of people, some wearing plate, some medium armor, some light, various looks to everyone and their weapons. There is a clear theme while everyone looks different they all have things in common because they are new adventurers with similar opportunities. A few may have full sets of the same armor. A few may even have dyed armor to look cool... Then you have a half dozen people with the exact same gaudy outfit, a half dozen psycho solar clowns running through your city with various cool looking but clearly imaginary weapons. I know this point is an entire thread, but please don't try to thread that needle.
I would expect this to be moved to off-topic.
I got into the New World alpha last year, and while it's not a bad game, it is such a departure from the traditional MMORPG that it doesn't seem worthwhile to me make comparisons with Pantheon, or even WoW, ESO, or GW2 (even though it probably has more in common with GW2 design-wise than any other game at the moment). It seems to be firmly situated in the action/survival genre. The RPG elements are very light, but not an afterthought (there are meaningful progression choices to be made). The game has challenging content, but I don't expect Amazon will support it very well after release. I'm certain after the initial rush it will become primarily a PvP game.
I'll still try it after reviews, but Pantheon is, I think, still our best chance at a return to the traditional MMORPG with challenging content and meaningful interactions.
Jobeson said: Every MMORPG can be compared to the rest.
New World is not an MMORPG, so this statement doesn't make any sense.
I don't see how Amazon's future support has anything to do with mmo mechanics
Of course you don't.
I love to bring up Eves faction system
That's great. EVE is not my cup of tea, but it is a great game and an amazing example of what MMORPGs are capable of as a genre.