Yesterday I wrote about New World, the upcoming MMO by Amazon, and how character progression will work in the soon-to-be-released title. With character progression also came a little coverage on trade skills and just how New World is enabling more freedom than usually allowed in MMO's. You're not limited to just picking a few professions, you've got the ability to master them all.

　　There are sixteen trade skills in New World. I covered the list yesterday. As a reminder, here they are:

　　Crafting Skills: Weaponsmithing, Armoring, Engineering, Jewelcrafting, Arcana, Cooking and Furnishing

　　Refining Skills: Smelter, Woodworking, Leatherworking, Weaving and Stonecutting

　　Gathering Skills: Logging, Mining, Harvesting and Tracking & Skinning

　　Of course, each of these goes into crafting in one way or another, the refining and gathering skills being used to obtain the components needed for crafting. Still, this new update by Amazon is all about crafting in New World and how it will work.

　　Starting with consumable items, once you're likely to find under the Cooking and Arcana, the piece talks about how efficiency is the name of the game. As a novice, you'll be making food and potions on a 1:1 ratio, so your resources will result in one potion, simple as that. Later on, as you gain experience and levels, your efficiency in using these resources will improve.

　　The resulting bonus could provide a nice boon. It's explained that crafting in bulk, at higher levels, could result in anything up to a 30% bonus. If you're crafting 100 potions and you get up to 30 extra as a bonus, that certainly is a nice reward for your hard work in levelling your skill up. Of course, if you happen to be selling these on, it also exponentially increases your profit margins.

　　Efficiency when it comes to other forms of crafting doesn't exactly work the same way, resulting in different bonuses and perks as you progress through the ranks. Here is when you look at weapons, particularly their gear score and the perks that this brings. As you level up in your weaponsmithing, you'll find that the range made available in gear score is improved and the higher the score, the better the statistics.

　　An example of how this works and how useful it can be was given by Amazon, it saying:

　　Higher skilled Weaponsmiths will be able to craft lower tier weapons that are actually more powerful than a higher tier weapon made by a lower skilled Smith. Once you begin unlocking Steel or higher tier weapons, you will start again at the same low-end range (300-310, 400-410 etc.). As your skills continue to grow, it will rise similarly to the previous weapon tier before it. Eventually, you will be able to craft lower tier weapons, that will rival higher tier ones of less skilled Weaponsmiths. For example: a skilled Weaponsmith can craft an Iron Sword that is slightly more powerful than base Steel Sword, which can be a big help when it comes to gearing your lower-level friends and allies.

　　Outside of weapons and their gear score, you'll find that armour and accessories also have key aspects that are improved by raising your abilities and also by increasing the number of resources you use when crafting. These key aspects are perks and gem slots. Perks, as you could imagine through the name, are bonuses that can do anything from adding a specific type of damage to an item, increasing damage or defence or a number of other elements. Gem slots are self-explanatory: slots you can put gems in.

　　How this works isn't only from your level in the relevant crafting skill but also in the way you craft the item. For example, when crafting an Orichalcum Kite Shield, you can add more orichalcum to increase the chances of a gem socket appearing on the resulting piece of equipment. This seems to apply to all other equipment, including those covered by weaponsmithing.

　　Should you want to increase the chances of a perk, rather than putting in more of the base material, you use a special material called Azoth. The more Azoth you use, the higher the chance of a perk appearing on the piece of equipment. However, should you want a specific perk, there is always the opportunity to use a specific item as a crafting modifier. For example, you can use an item called a Dragonglory Stem to guarantee the addition of a perk that allows your weapon to do burning damage in addition to its regular attack damage.

　　As with any MMO, crafting items here in New World will have the potential to be as powerful as any of the best drops found in the world. Amazon have this to say:

　　Highly skilled crafters can create items that are just as powerful as the items found in Aeternum. Battles will not be won based on whether an item was crafted or dropped from a powerful creature, they’ll be won based on the skill of the players involved and the thought they have put into their respective Attribute and Mastery builds.

　　But this isn't everything. As the title of this piece indicates, another key aspect of crafting is the decoration of your own house. In the development of New World, Amazon wants to ensure there isn't a large barrier to entry when making a player-owned house actually feel like a player-owned home. From the furnishings that are purely cosmetic, to trophies that can have an impact on your ability in battle, decorating your house aims to be very personal.

　　In New World, we want your house to feel like a home. This means being able to decorate and furnish your house. Furnishing works a little bit differently than the other crafting skills. It is important to us to maximize the variety of furniture items that can be crafted, but we don’t want there to be a huge barrier for players who just want to decorate their house. As a result, decoratives can be crafted from a low Furnishing level. In addition, Furnishers can also craft a selection of trophies and storage for houses. House trophies grant passive bonuses for things like combat and crafting, and are explained in depth in our article about Housing. Each house can have a number of storage chests. Adding a Storage Chest to your house increases you storage volume for that house’s Settlement. Recipes for trophies and storage unlock as your progress your furnishing skill. We’re excited to see all the ways you will decorate your home.

　　New World is scheduled to release on the 25th of August. Yesterday I said that the news coming from the game is fairly slow, the very next day some more information is released. Likely a coincidence, but let's hope it's not and if You're listening Amazon Game Studios - we're all interested in learning more.