1. New World
  2. News
  3. April Alpha Release Patchnotes

April Alpha Release Patchnotes

Hello Adventurers,

We are excited to share this months Alpha Release Patchnotes with you. Also be sure to check out our article on our new PvP content.



Spotlight
New Weapon: Ice Gauntlet

We've introduced a new magic gauntlet weapon that harnesses the elemental power of Ice. The Ice Gauntlet’s attack scales off of Intelligence. Adventurers will be able to progress through two mastery trees, allowing the player to manipulate Ice magic in different ways:

  • The Ice Tempest weapon mastery tree focuses on damage and area denial
  • The Ice Conjuror weapon mastery tree focuses crowd control, protection, and a deployable Ice Pylon that fights alongside the player, improving their power and efficiency.


Ice Gauntlet Legendary Quest

Players can go on an epic quest for the legendary Ice Gauntlet, Rimelash.
  • Level 60 adventurers can speak to Ranger Heatley in the Great Cleave to begin this quest.
  • Players will venture on a quest to find a mysterious artifact that holds the power of winter in the palm of one’s hand.


Faction Control Points:

To incentivize PvP action and make the influence race more interesting, we’ve added the ability to fight over forts in a territory outside of Wars.

Capturable points have been placed in all territory forts. Players can capture these points by having more members of their faction inside of the point than other factions. Forts that have been captured will remain captured until a different Faction either claims the fort themselves or wins a War for the territory.
  • Players will need to be flagged for PvP to enter any claimed fort.
  • Control Points will be activated 60 minutes after a War or Invasion is completed. The Control Point is deactivated once a War or Invasion is declared.
  • Controlling a fort provides a 5% increase to experience gain and 20% increase to influence within that territory for faction members.


Each fort has a unique global buff that is provided to the controlling faction:
  • First Light: Reduces fast travel weight costs from 5 azoth per 10 weight down to 1 azoth per 10 weight for controlling faction.
  • Monarchs Bluff: Reduces fast travel distance costs from 5 azoth per 100 meters down to 1 azoth per 100 meters for controlling faction.
  • Windsward: Increases volume of items gained when gathering by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Everfall: Reduces trading taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Brightwood: Reduces housing taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Cutlass Keys: Reduces base Azoth cost of fast travel by 50% for controlling faction.
  • Weavers Fen: Increases coin, experience, territory standing and faction token rewards from Faction Missions by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Restless Shore: Increases coins, experience, and faction token rewards from Corrupted Breaches by 5% for the controlling faction.
  • Mourningdale: Increases coin and experience rewards from Expeditions by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Ebonscale Reach: Reduces refining taxes by 5% for controlling faction.
  • Reekwater: Reduces crafting taxes by 5% for controlling faction.


New Expedition: Lazarus Instrumentality

Legatus Fulvius in Reekwater wants to see a local threat neutralized. Adventure into the Lazarus Instrumentality Expedition and combat the behemoth Chardis! Players must venture into this secret site that may hold the key to the origins of the Ancient Guardians to vanquish this monstrous threat.

Lazarus Instrumentality Boss Encounters:
  • Cilla: A creature utilizing both lethal weaponry and destructive magics. Her dual nature will test the worth of those seeking to learn the Ancients’ secrets.
  • Chardis: This colossal Ancient construct stands watch over the Lazarus Well, granting eternal power or swift destruction to those who awaken him.


New Expedition: Dynasty Shipyard
  • The Empress of Ebonscale is building a fleet of warships. The fleet and the Empress must be defeated for the safety of Aeternum and the world.


Dynasty Shipyard Boss Encounters
  • Isabella’s Pets: Joven and Oro obediently wait for Isabella’s command, and their next meal.
  • Zhou Taiying: Elegant, graceful, and brimming with rage, this Empress in exile commands an army loyal beyond death and wields immense corruption energies to exact her vengeance.


New System: Achievements
  • Achievements are a way of keeping track of and rewarding various player actions.
  • As players perform these actions enough times, the related achievement is completed automatically.
  • With the April release, there are over 400 achievements in the game, with more to follow.
  • Players can examine all the achievements at any time by clicking on the new Achievements tab in the Character screen.
  • While all achievements are listed (including for brand-new players), some are temporarily hidden behind a hint.
  • The UI also has a summary of how far the player has come in completing different achievements and a display listing all completed achievements.
  • When any achievement is 75% complete, a player will receive a UI alert the achievement is nearing completion.
  • When an achievement reaches 100% completion, players will get a UI alert celebrating their completed achievement.
  • Achievements are completed at the account level, but progress towards completion is tied to individual characters. As such, progress is not shared between characters: Each character can try to complete each achievement, but only one actually will. Once an achievement is completed, it is completed for all characters.
  • Please note: Many of these achievements have lower requirements in this release than they are intended to for the game's launch; this is to make them easier to complete during Alpha testing.
General
  • Added voice-over lip sync to quest-givers in the Main Story Quest.


PvP Faction Missions
We've introduced a new style of PvP missions which require players to complete missions in contested areas where their Faction’s opponents will be competing to accomplish their own objectives.
  • PvP Faction Mission rewards are now tuned to more accurately reflect the risk level and time investment required to complete each specific mission.
  • Each faction now has their own mission types to better immerse players with their chosen faction.


PvE Faction Missions
  • PvE missions are now multi-step across all territories (except for Shattered Mountain, Great Cleave, and Edengrove) and are designed to give players a curated tour to locations that fit their selected mission type.


Territory Control Incentives
We added a number of benefits for all members of a faction that controls a territory as well as some additional rewards for the controlling company.
  • Any two settlements controlled by the same faction will have their settlement storages linked. Players can transfer items from a storage linked to their current location for a coin fee.
  • Added a resource cart to each town that provides members of the controlling faction with small amounts of ore, hide, wood, fibers, food, or oil as well as small amounts of refining reagents such as tannin or sand paper.
  • When territory taxes are delinquent, all company and faction bonuses are disabled.
  • The existing benefits for settlement control still apply as well. They are:
  • Faction Bonuses: 10% increased gathering volume in controlled territory, +50 Luck in controlled territory
  • Company Bonuses: 70% fast travel discount to controlled territory, 30% reduced taxes in controlled territory, 20% reduced house purchase cost in controlled territory


Progression Updates
Updated Milestone Rewards
We added some new rewards for leveling and updated the levels at which some current rewards unlock. The presentation of these Milestone Rewards has also been updated for clarity.
  • Players can access milestone rewards from the “View Leveling Rewards” button on the attributes screen.
  • Added Tier 2 and Tier 3 Azoth Staves that unlock through main story quests at levels 30 and 40 respectively.
  • A Tier 1 Azoth Staff can close Corruption Breaches up to Level 25.
  • A Tier 2 Azoth Staff can close Corruption Breaches up to Level 35.
  • A Tier 3 Azoth Staff can close Corruption Breaches up to Level 65.
  • Players now unlock different tiers of their camps at levels 5/15/25/40/55 for Tier 1/2/3/4/5 through specific quests in the world.
  • Fourth Consumable Slot now unlocks at level 25 instead of 45.
  • A player’s first house is now unlocked at level 15, second house at level 35, and third house at level 55 down from 20/40/60 previously.


Loot & Gear

  • Removed named shields from the Faction Shop and replaced them with faction-specific shields.
  • Faction Ice Gauntlets are now available in the Faction Shop.
  • We are continuing to add more visual variety to our armor sets:
  • Updated visuals to all weights of Tier 5 armors. High-level Corrupted, Lost, and Angry Earth enemies all have a chance to drop armors with themed styles.
  • Elite Corrupted creatures in Elite points of interest have updated armor styles to drop.
  • Added named items to new Expeditions. Each Expedition has a variety of exclusive random drops, and each boss in the Expedition has their own selection of special items they drop.
  • Increased the minimum Gear Score that can drop from creatures of a particular level, which should slightly increase the likelihood of players getting more desirable Gear Scores on their drops as they level their character and fight tougher enemies.
  • Added a unique set of Outpost Rush-specific named armor and weapons that appear as rare drops from the Outpost Rush reward chests.


Gear Perks

  • Added a variety of new perk items to drop tables to accommodate the addition of new perks.
  • Added and updated all perks. There are now 150 different perks across all item types.
  • Introduced new perks who's power scales dynamically off of an item's gear score.
  • Old perks will continue functioning, except when it has been deliberately removed. Removed perks are indicated as such.
  • Added 6 Mastery Ability Perks per weapon, one perk for each ability in the mastery tree. These perks modify the base functionality of one of the weapon’s abilities.
  • All weapons, armor, and jewelry now have 8 possible perk types that can be applied.
  • Bags and Tools have 6 possible perk types that can be applied.
  • Some perks now feature internal cooldowns, such as the Infuse Mana Perk.
  • Lightweight Perk has been removed, as it conflicted with the new armor weight mechanics introduced in the March release.
  • The old Mana infusion perk has been removed.
  • Perk items now grant one bonus (as the bonuses no longer have levels).
  • The exceptions here are Attribute Items (which will be updated in the future) and Weapon Charms, which have a chance to grant 1 of 2 perks when used.


Crafting & Gathering

  • Expeditions now include Expedition-exclusive resources in their drop tables. Regular Expedition mobs drop one resource type, while bosses drop a different resource.
  • These resources are used to craft replicas of the non-named Expedition-exclusive equipment, enabling crafters to create powerful items with guaranteed perk outcomes. However, the Gear Score on these items still rolls, so it’s possible to get items that vary in power.
  • These resources can be traded between players on the Trading Post.
  • Jewelcrafting recipes now require Jewelcrafting components, which enables the same Gear Score range to be crafted onto trinkets that was previously only enjoyed by other crafted equipment.
  • Components are things like Chains for amulets, Bands for rings, and Hooks for earrings.
  • These components are crafted first, and then combined with a gemstone to create the trinket.
  • Added Carnelian gems to ore veins and corresponding gemcutting recipes so the Stonecutting station. Carnelian gems aren’t used in Jewelcrafting yet, but can be socketed onto items for a bonus effect.
  • In weapons they turn on Taunt (which puts players on top of the threat list to enemy AI) to a select set of abilities. (Reap, Final Stand, Shield Bash, Shockwave, Vault Kick, Riposte, Berserk)
  • In armor they reduce the amount of threat a player applies.
  • Saltpeter has replaced Fire Motes as an ingredient for Gunpowder.
  • Saltpeter can be found in many caves throughout Aeternum.
  • Arrows and Cartridges now stack to 500, up from 250.


Combat

  • Ranged attacks can now be fired through non-enemy players, now ranged players only need to worry about hitting the enemy, not firing around their allies.


Enemy AI (ongoing)

We’ve continued to tune and refine our existing AI combat experience. This release, we’ve updated an additional set of enemy AI.

New Mechanic: Large Enemy Staggers

  • Allows players to knock certain large characters into a long, highly punishable reaction by fully depleting their Stamina.
  • Enemies take stamina damage similar to how players trigger block breaks on shielded enemies, using charged heavy attacks and hard hitting abilities to whittle down the character’s stamina bar.


Attribute Threshold Bonuses

Attribute Threshold Bonuses give a persistent bonus to players for maintaining certain point values in each attribute. Bonuses are awarded every 50 points invested in a single attribute (e.g., at 50, 100, 150 points invested). Each threshold will have a combat bonus and a non-combat bonus.

Strength

  • 50: +15% damage to melee weapon light attacks, +10% mining speed
  • 100: +20% damage to melee weapon heavy attacks, +20 encumbrance
  • 150: +50% stamina damage from melee weapon light and heavy attacks, -10% decrease in weight of mined items
  • 200: +20% damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies, +10% mining speed
  • 250: Stamina regeneration continues while performing light and heavy attacks with melee weapons, +10% yield increase when mining
  • 300: Light and heavy attacks with melee weapons gain Grit, 25% chance to fully mine an ore node with a single swing


Dexterity

  • 50: +10% chance to critical hit, +10 skinning speed
  • 100: +5% piercing damage, +20% haste for 3 seconds after skinning
  • 150: Dodging cost 10 less stamina, -10% decrease in weight of skinned items
  • 200: +20% bonus backstab and headshot damage, +10% skinning speed
  • 250: +30% bonus critical hit damage on stunned, slowed, or rooted enemies, +10% yield increase when skinning
  • 300: Ammo has +15% chance of being returned, guaranteed critical hit after a dodge roll


Intelligence

  • 50: +10% damage to light and heavy magic attacks, +10% harvest speed
  • 100: +20% critical hit damage, 5% chance to gain 1 azoth when harvesting
  • 150: +20% to elemental damage, -10% decrease in weight of harvested items
  • 200: +10 mana after a dodge, +10% harvest speed
  • 250: +30% duration to damage of time spells, +10% yield increase when harvesting
  • 300: +30% damage on first hit on full health target, -10% reduction in Azoth travel cost


Focus

  • 50: +10% mana regeneration rate, +10% fishing line tension
  • 100: +20 to mana pool, +10% yield increase when salvaging
  • 150: +20% healing output, -10% decrease in weight of fishing items
  • 200: +20% duration on casted buffs, +10% fishing line tension
  • 250: +30 mana on any self or group kill, +10% increase to caught fish size
  • 300: When mana hits zero gain 200% mana regen for 10s (60s cooldown), 10% cooldown reduction for Inn fast travel


Constitution

  • 50: All health consumables +20% stronger, +10% logging speed
  • 100: Increase max health by 10% of physical armor, 10% reduction on durability loss for tools
  • 150: 20% reduction to crit damage taken, 10% decrease in weight of logging items
  • 200: +20% increase to armor, +10% logging speed
  • 250: 80% damage reduction when full health, +10% yield increase when logging
  • 300: +30% duration of stun, slow, and root spells, 25% chance to chop down a tree in a single swing


Balance

Hatchet
Light attacks
  • Added a 4th hit to light attack chain.
  • Decreased light attack damage for first three hatchet attacks by 5%
  • Desperate Refresh passive ability: Reduced cooldown reduction (CDR) per hit from 20% to 5%. Previously while at low health, players could reduce their cooldowns completely in 5 hits, resulting in the ability being too powerful.
  • Accumulated Power: Increased duration of status effect from 2-3 seconds, and added functionality to have it be consumed on the next attack. This will incentivize either getting to the 4th attack in a chain or transitioning to a heavy from the 3rd attack.
  • Relentless Fury: Increased duration of the status effect from 2-3 seconds, but added functionality to have it be consumed after 4 attacks. This will incentivize the player to transition into light attacks from the heavy.
  • Refreshing Throws: 10% CDR reduced to 5% CDR when hitting an enemy with an active debuff.


Musket

  • Standard attack damage increased by 15%.
  • Shooter's Stance attack damage increased by 5%.
  • Powder Burn attack damage increased by 10%.
  • Power Shot attack damage increased by 15%.
  • Stopping Power attack damage increased by 10%.
  • Marksman: CDR reduced from 35% to 25% for 3 successful hits on the same target while in Shooter's Stance.


Fire Staff
Fireball
  • Updated this skill so that only the base hit will reduce cooldown.
  • CDR was reduced from 10% to 7%.


Bow
  • Closing In: This upgrade will now only apply CDR on initial hit, not over the duration of the status effect.


War Hammer
  • Acceleration upgrade: CDR against debuffed targets reduced from 10% to 7%.


UX/UI

Secure Player-to-Player Trading
  • Player-to-player trading allows players to initiate a secure, synchronous trade of coin and up to 5 items at once with another player.
  • To trade with another player, use the Social Actions menu through chat or the Social Menu. Players must be within 2m of the other player in order to trade.
  • There is a lock-in step and a confirm step as a counter-measure to trade sniping.


Inventory Updates
  • Players can now lock their favorite items, which will add a little padlock icon to them meaning they can’t be salvaged until they are unlocked. Now you can salvage your crafting batches in comfort and security!
  • Players can now see their average Gear Score in the stat area at the bottom of the screen.


UI Visual Updates
  • Updated quests on the map to improve and consolidate UI elements for players.
  • Added the following sorting categories for quest objectives: closest, easiest, territory, and type of objective.
  • Camera depth of field: We made an update to the foreground elements (like the character) when applying depth of field effects to blur the background. Now, the outlines of the characters on inventory and NPC conversation screens are crisp and sharp.
  • Visual update pass for Expeditions UI is complete, including a celebration banner on defeating the final boss. Some elements such as the Map tooltips are still incoming in future releases.
  • UI updates for Outpost Rush are complete.
  • Added visual updates to level milestone banners and the level rewards accessed through the Attributes screen.


As always, please stayed tuned to NewWorld.com and follow us @PlayNewWorld for all the latest news and information.