You and your ragtag band wander from island to island on your cobbled-together airship, scouring for lost technology and scavenging for resources. You are constantly trying to improve your ship, keep it fueled, and keep it repaired. Sky predators, storms, and other travelling bands—all of which could be a threat to your ship—will dominate your thoughts. But in the back of your mind, you still ask yourself questions: How did your world become this way? What calamity, a thousand years ago, could have shattered the world into a thousand pieces? Deep down you know that the world was not always this way, and your questions are what drive you onward and upward, towards the endless skyline.

First, Worlds Adrift is set in a persistent, shared multiplayer environment. That means anyone who plays the game will be in the same enormous world. (Due to the increased importance of low latency in a game with physics, however, the current plan is to have separate servers for different geographic regions—we can’t overcome the speed of light, I’m afraid).

Bossa Studios has today released a new update for the PC closed beta of the sandbox MMO Worlds Adrift.

Since launching the closed beta the team has been hard at work fixing bugs, stabilizing the build, enhancing client performance and generally improving the user experience based on community feedback. This update is the first to start adding new content, growing the game toward a future release into early access.

Highlights:

• New parts can now be freely rotated when placing them on ships, making the ship-building experience significantly easier.
• Players can now find and craft more convenient light sources than the torch, freeing their hands for other tools. The hip lamp and the head torch are equipped in your character’s gear slots.
• Players can now interact with Atlas Cores to send a pulse through their ships, instantly repelling other players trying to board them via grappling hooks.
• Atlas Cores and their upgrades now provide additional lift based on the materials used in their construction

You can see the full list of changes, bug fixes and more on the Worlds Adrift blog.

Bossa has also announced they will be introducing “The Blight” to the skies of Worlds Adrift in an upcoming game update. These ravaging insects are attracted by large gatherings of ships and debris, devouring objects, ship parts and even ships themselves.

Secondly, the world will live and breathe. Worlds Adrift will not be an MMORPG as we know them. There are no quest hubs and no NPCs standing around forever, waiting to give you tasks. There are no low-level zones and high-level zones, because there will be no levels. There are no static, choreographed environments and events that replay for every new player.

Instead, there will be creatures that eat and live and die, and trees that grow, and ruins that hold secrets, and wreckage that rusts and rots, all inside a world that doesn’t revolve around you, but that can be permanently affected by your actions. You are a part of the world, and it’s up to you to decide which part that is, and how it relates to all the other parts.

Lastly, the world will behave according to believable physics. Ships are constructed of pieces — each of which can be snapped off if there’s a strong enough impact. Much of the world will also behave like this: creatures, wreckage, loose objects on the ground. And of course there will be plenty of rope physics involved in player movement.

To become a founder, those interested in the Worlds Adrift closed beta can purchase a Founder’s Pack. In addition to a game key and immediate closed beta access, each Founder’s Pack contains several exclusive in-game items, a digital copy of the game's original soundtrack, access to the future test server and in-game currency. Backers can choose between the Wanderer tier for £26.99 / €31.99 / $34.99, Explorer tier for £39.99 / 50.99 / $54.99, and Captain tier for £49.99 / €59.99 / $64.99, each with varying levels of exclusive content. In addition to a game key and immediate closed beta access, each Founder’s Pack contains several exclusive in-game items, a digital copy of the game's original soundtrack, access to the future test server and in-game currency.