Embersong Alpha 0.4.0 — The Equipment & Content Expansion Update

0.4.0 is a major content, equipment and progression-integration update. More than 20 mods/dependencies were added or accepted through the expansion passes, while the equipment system was heavily rebuilt so the new content actually fits Embersong instead of simply being dumped into the pack. The project’s external-first T1–T14 equipment direction remains the authority.

Highlights

• 20+ new content/mod integrations
  • Expanded armor and weapon variety
  • More fantasy enemies, bosses and encounters
  • Additional magic/content integrations
  • More building, decoration and utility content
  • Expanded Create/storage/support ecosystem
  • Dependency and compatibility cleanup across the enlarged mod list
• Major equipment curation overhaul
  • Large-scale reassignment and cleanup of armor and weapon tiers
  • New modded equipment integrated into the Embersong T1–T14 progression
  • Removed/avoided progression bypasses where equipment could skip intended tiers
  • Improved class identity and sidegrade distribution across the equipment pool
  • Continued the external-equipment direction rather than relying on unfinished custom T1–T14 sets. Earlier expansion work had already moved hundreds of external items under Embersong management, and 0.4.0 continues that direction.
• Socket progression completely revised
  • T1–T3 weapons: 0 sockets
  • T4–T5 weapons: 1 socket
  • T6–T10 weapons: 2 sockets
  • T11–T14 weapons: 3 sockets
  • Armor socket progression now scales consistently through the higher tiers
  • T10–T11 armor reaches one socket per piece
  • T12–T14 continue scaling toward the high-end 5/6/7-socket full-set structure
• Apotheosis gem integration improved
  • Socket counts now reflect the actual item state
  • Installed gems can display their bonuses directly on equipment
  • Removed the old misleading/static socket display behavior
  • Added defensive handling so gem-tooltip integration cannot crash Creative inventory or JEI again
  • Creative search, item hovering and JEI were runtime-tested successfully in the final build
• Ascension Forge / equipment progression improvements
  • Expanded Ascension support across curated equipment
  • Restored missing upgrade paths for equipment that previously became progression dead-ends
  • Improved JEI synchronization for Ascension recipes
  • Pyromancer and other managed armor lines now follow the intended upgrade framework
  • Preserved the existing scalable Ascension Forge UI and interaction model established during earlier Armory work.
• Special weapon rebalance
  • Rebalanced Soulpyre and Watcher Claymore so their stats properly reflect their tier and attack speed
  • Watcher no longer sits at absurd damage compared with neighboring weapons
  • Simply Swords special weapons retain their unique abilities while fitting Embersong progression
  • Kesestern compatibility improved, including Apotheosis reforging support
  • Continued support for Embersong weapons such as Kesestern and Serpent’s Fang rather than leaving them without progression paths
• Equipment consistency fixes
  • Corrected socket rules across multiple armor tiers
  • Fixed cases where an item visually claimed to have sockets that could not actually be used
  • Improved consistency between armor, swords and special weapons
  • Continued cleanup of gear generated by external systems so extreme/random stat rolls do not define normal Embersong progression
• Stability fixes
  • Fixed the Creative inventory/search crash introduced during the new gem-tooltip work
  • Fixed multiple NeoForge 1.21.1 tooltip/API compatibility issues discovered during testing
  • Restored stock Immersive Armors behavior after identifying the real upstream initialization issue
  • Final test reached the world and successfully exercised Creative search, JEI and the new Armory build
• Release packaging cleanup
  • Embersong Core and Embersong Armory remain separate CurseForge projects
  • Removed duplicate embedded/public custom-mod authority problems
  • Release manifest now references the correct public Core and Armory files
  • This follows the project’s established rule that public packs must not contain duplicate Core/Armory copies.

Compatibility / Saves

No world reset, player reset, inventory wipe or progression reset is required.

Existing worlds and player data are intended to carry forward normally.

Embersong Alpha 0.4.0 is primarily about expanding the actual content of the pack while making the equipment ecosystem behave like one coherent progression system instead of a collection of unrelated mods.

This is the version I’d put on CurseForge. It actually communicates that 0.4.0 is a major update, not just “we changed sockets.”