Language Used - XML, C++ (Proprietary scripting)
Tools used - Lumberyard (Azoth Engine), Visual Studio
Role - AI Combat Designer at Amazon Games
Release - Oct 2024

https://www.newworld.com/en-us/news/articles/the-hive-of-the-gorgons-raid-deep-dive

The Hive of Gorgons is the first ever raid activity setup in New World Aeternum which unlike traditional expeditions can host up to 10 players in a given instance. In this raid, the players have to stop an army of Hercynes (same from the Rise of the Angry Earth DLC, along with some new additions) and also experience 3 epic boss battles. This raid is designed such that all participating players must coordinate well and set responsibilities for each other while fighting all the enemies of this raid. 










For this raid, I reworked the combat priorities of the existing Hercynes (Boar, Corvid and Reindeer) to make them feel more aggressive. The reworks include:
1. Upgraded health and damage - To support combat against 10 players, all creatures in this raid have higher amount of health and deal a lot of damage. 
2. High Priority Combat - This makes the raid variants of AI characters focus more on attacking when compared to the open world variants. They prefer to do less taunting and more attacking, and have a good chance to perform their signature abilities often. Pairing the basic Hercynes with their Alphas makes a group fight more challenging.
3. Buffs and Effects - Certain elite characters will have special buffs or effects (armored, explosive, etc.) that will add an extra layer of difficulty while fighting them.

On top of this, I also worked on setting up a new Hercyne creature for this raid.
Hercyne Wolf:









The Hercyne Wolf is a humanoid creature that's half human and half wolfr formed by the power of the Angry Earth. They behave like wolves and do a lot of slashing type damage to players. Their melee fighting style includes various combination of swipes. Their signature ability is to bite players.

Alpha Wolf - The Alpha Hercyne can activate a Bloody Frenzy mode by feasting on a player. During this mode, the alpha can perform special attacks against the players and deal a lot of bleeding effect.