New World is hitting the homestretch, and while the vast public isn't able to play just yet, the team is still holding its NDA alpha ahead of launch. Today's notes give a glimpse into some of the last tweaks and additions the Amazon team is throwing into New World ahead of launch, including two new PvE Faction Mission types.
The patch notes, which are the second part of June's ongoing alpha, sees two new mission types hit New World: Assassinate and Elite. Assassinate missions are, well...assassination missions. You'll find a high-level target and kill them. Case closed. Elite missions, according to Amazon, see players challenging some of the strongest enemies in New World.
"Elite missions send players to take on Aeternum's most dangerous villains and their minions. These missions are higher difficulty with a higher reward. It's recommended that you bring a friend."
War Declarations have also been updated to give those companies who are most active in the wars raging in Aeternum in the influence race. This means companies who are more active than others will have a higher chance of being selected as Vanguard. Additionally, if a territory is in a conflict state, Faction companies will no longer be able to declare war, though those with at least 10% of the influence contributed required to throw a region into a conflict state itself will still be elligible.
However, the team does have something in place if no company contributed at least 10% of the influence, and it's simply that every company will be elligible to declare war then.
PVP also is seeing some changes, with Amazon reducing gear durability loss on death, as well as increased XP for player kills. It also seems New World is walking back some of the XP tweaks it made with the last update, but reducing the XP needed to level after level 7 by 20% (if you'll remember, it was originally increased by 40% earlier this month). The team has also doubled the XP gained from repeatable Expedition quests as well as tweaked the XP gain from the different crafting professions.
You can check out the full Alpha notes on the official website. Recently, Ed was able to talk to New World's dev team about magic and how it operates in Aeternum in a recent interview.