Differences

If you've last played Alpha 8 and are now getting into Alpha 9, or if you still aren't fully accustomed to it, we hope we can help you by listing a few of the main differences we found and seeing if anything clicks after you read through them.

Any suggestions to improve this article would be greatly appreciated!

So, without further ado, here they are.

* The main difference you will notice, if you played Alpha 8, is in the Stamina/Running system. The Stamina bar is gone now, and attempting to run will only roll or 'dodge' in that direction. It may take a while getting used to it. Stamina is no longer a thing, and the bar has been replaced by something used for battles (the Power Bar, if we got that right) - get consecutive hits without being hit yourself in order to increase it, and you can do a charged attack when it's filled up.
* You can now hold Ctrl (Control) to not walk off a block so easily - however, since it was just implemented this Alpha, it seems to still be a bit buggy and may need to be given some time. Holding Ctrl will, however, always (or most of the time, at least) prevent you from going up blocks.
* Sliding off blocks is now a lot harder, thankfully - previously if you were over the edge of a block you would start to slide down, proceeded by a slip and fall if you didn't react fast enough. Now it seems to have been changed and you can have a steady foothold wherever you are!
* Chests in adventures no longer open up an interface where you can select what you want, but instead explode all their contents out into the ground around them! This is not so great in tall, precarious places (such as an Eyrie) but otherwise can be really helpful with regards to players hogging a chest all to themselves and going AFK - Anyone can open the chest at any time now. If you like to select what things you want from the chest and leave others behind, however, the "exploding items" might not sound so great, but you can always look at the names of the chests to get a hint at what they likely contain. For example, a Lumberjack's chest may include mostly wood, a Bomber's chest probably some gunpowder, a Miner's will likely contain plenty of stone, Beekeeper's will have wax, and so on.
* The camera movement no longer stays in a 'single point' (at least in First Person view) - rather, if you point the view downward and move around, you will notice that the camera seems to go in a circle around your position rather than stay centred. This takes a bit of getting used to, or maybe a lot, depending on each person.
* Lumostones are also added in Alpha 9. They appear to allow for interesting wiring mechanics in the game, such as stepping on a pressure plate to open an otherwise locked door for a limited time and other, more complex, designs.
* The User Interface has also changed. Quests now appear on the bottom-right instead of the left, H is now pressed to bring up Hand Crafting, mailbox messages now show up near the map, among plenty of other things. To check your armour and what items you are currently holding, you need to press P to bring up your Profile - the constant hotbar selection has been done away with (for now, at least, although you can still use the hotbar to pick which items you want to hold). The major change in interface controls may be a bit disorienting for players that were already used to Alpha 8.
* Dual-wielding pickaxes now seems to be as slow as single-wielding them. This might POSSIBLY be a bug, but we aren't sure.
* Iron Chunks no longer show the exact stat differences in their description anymore. However, gear (such as Swords, Armour, Pickaxes, etc.) does show plenty of its statistics.
* Most of the colour names were changed - Root Iron is now Earth Iron, for example, Lime Grass is now Spring Grass, and so on.
* As of the start of Alpha 9, the Gladiators Guild is currently closed, but is planned to be brought back at a later date.
* The City of First Light's layout has changed quite a bit, with most of the traders moving into the Settler Plaza. Additionally, doors now close automatically in the City after a few seconds, so don't be too alarmed of the door closing behind you after you enter a room, and be mindful of doors closing in on your face.
* There are now small cinematics for the first time you leave to visit the City and the first time you arrive at the City.

If you think we missed anything, or said anything wrong, please let us know! And feel free to improve the article yourself, it would be a great help1