Merchant of the Skies News

Hello Merchants!

Starting from today, the game price is going up. We are doing this in order to be able to have a final release launch with a discount (we can't increase the price and go on discount right away). If you are on the fence about getting the game at the new price - I can 100% understand this and I think you should wait until final release. Merchant of the Skies might not be worth the increased price at the current step, but I'm 100% sure that it's going to be worth its price on final release.

If you want to take one more sneak peek into what are we working on for the final release, here's our monthly report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efzxsvLmkDA

Thanks to everyone who's supporting us and expect a final release in April 2020! Stay tuned for our weekly updates telling more about planned features and quests.
Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!
Time for a new dev diary post!

We've spent this week on adding more quests and characters, one of them with the following guy below! Meet Yvo, master at the ship workshop, you will definitely meet him in the skies of Fieri archipelago.



Hope you like him, since he is a pretty good guy. But don’t think that he'll be alone out there there, oh no. Yvo joins a cast of other characters that you will meet after the game fully launches :)

We also plan to add a couple of new unique islands, work on them has already started. On a side note: don’t forget to check your book of quests after release, there are going to be a few more pages!

Some well known islands, which you have already visited on your travels are going to obtain new meanings, stories and related quests. You will be surprised to see Mysterious Hands in a different state compared to how you used to seeing them.

[h2]Price increase warning[/h2]
The price of the game is going to increase on March 2nd. It is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). We have to do it this way if we want to run a discount on release. So if you want to become an early adopter at lower game price - you can still do it for a couple of days. Remember the rule of all the merchants? Buy low, sell high!(oh, pls, no, don’t re-sell our game, it’s illegal)

Stay tuned for new development progress info!
Cheers,
Helen.

Hey Merchants!

We are preparing for final release and I wanted to update you on what we are working on.



[h2]Summary[/h2]

Right from the start, when we began working on Merchant of the Skies, we knew that we wanted to focus on the story. The final update is going to have exactly that: a big amount of quests that significantly improves the campaign mode and makes it longer/more enjoyable to play.

As far as the development goes, right now we have 4 new quests (one of them involves Wisemen displayed right there!) and multiple UI/UX adjustments. We still want to add at least 12 more, one more endgame goal (not spoiling it!) and some cool systems like sending and receiving mail + interactive display of characters.

We're also keeping track on UI/UX change requests and will try to accomodate at least some of them. We're pretty much set on what we want to see in the final release, but we're still keeping our eyes open on anything that you might suggest. (Who knows what happens after release?)



[h2]Planned Price Increase[/h2]

The price of the game is also going to increase in March, a month before release. This is done so that we can launch a launch discount due to Steam rules. The final game is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). I still firmly believe in rewarding early access adapters with reduced price and if I ever want to make another early access game, this is going to work the same way. Thanks to everyone who supported us during Early Access. :) You can still do it in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for more news and screenshots before the final release.
Cheers,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!


Happy 2020! To celebrate, we're rolling out the patch one week earlier than planned. This time we are adding 3 new ships, some sandbox settings + some extra QoL improvements and bugfixes.



Changelog
We've added 3 new ships, each can be found in new games in different zones:

• Orembai - Extremely Fast Speed, high fuel consumtpion ships
  
• Fretta - Ship with low fuel consumption and fast speed, good for waiting/idling on the map and fast-forwarding
  
• Atakebune - slow ship with lots of cargo space
  

Sandbox mode settings added, shown before the game starts

• starting ship
  
• starting amount of gold
  
• maintenance multiplier (if you want to make game harder)
  
• prices change at trade posts over time setting
  
• fast-forward does not consume fuel setting
  

Minor changes and adjustments

• fixed a bug when no mid-level shipyards appeared, at least one more shipwright is guaranteed to be found at central zone
  
• fixed a bug when caravan items would not sell properly at bazaar
  
• added crash-backup system: game makes save file backups every 5 minutes (so if your game crashes and save is corrupt - you will get the prompt asking if you want to restore your old save)
  
• 13 new mansion tiles: 6 stair building tiles + 9 planer tiles with small plants
  
• removed exploit that allowed selling/buying same items to level up tradepost
  
• mansion can recharge your ship now
  
• harvest tea / spices thumbnails fixed
  
• unused ships info display fixed (actually shows used ship amount)
  
• main objective panel will show the tutorial steps
  
• tutorial slightly reworked to prepare for "real" campaign, visuals improved improved
  
• UI: increased appearing text speed (in tutorial or building menu)
  
• UI: various typo fixes
  
• UI: gameplay setting screen rework with proper checkboxes
  
• UI/UX: Fixed island scrolling option added in gameplay settings
  
• Gameplay: tradepost prices are no longer fluctuating every month (this messes up caravan routes and is not very intuintive); can still be enabled in sandbox settings
  
• Bugfix: fixed a bug where you could visit islands while towing (and then get back to the same map position)
  
• Mansion builder: Adjusted the width / bounding boxes of some arches and doors, can place them closer to each other now
  

Hope you enjoy the new patch and, as usual, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below.


The next patch is going to be Final Release patch, either in late march or somewhere in April. It will add A LOT of story related content and fully fledged missions/campaign system.

The price is going to increase by 5 EUR/regional equivalent on 15th of February. The idea has always been that we wanted to reward early-access players, hence the game price has been lower at launch. We have to increase it in advance, because Steam does not allow setting a game on discount 30 days after the price increase, and we want to have a launch discount special in addition to a lot of content added. I will make a separate post about this 5 days in advance to warn everyone. I don't think the game will be worth it in February, but I'm 100% that it will be worth its price after campaign update is up. Thanks to your support and you can still grab the game at a lowered price for some time!

Best,
Vladimir

Hey Merchants!

Patch 1.4.0 introduces an important late-game feature: mansion building. We've added it so that you can have more freedom in planning your own habitat and make a part of the world truly your own :)



How it works

• You can find and purchase mansion isle on the map (only in newly-generated games, sorry!)
  
• Mansion building consists of multiple layers. Start with mansion walls / structure, then add details to it gradually. There are exactly 200 different blocks to choose from.
  
• You can expand your mansion island territory for gold
  
• You can store your goods at the mansion. Caravans can unload their goods at the mansion, but they can not take it. This is intended to be used as a final destination for resources used in mansion building.
  

If you need some guidance how to build it, check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfBy7wGheY

There is not a lot of text here, but this addition took us a month of hard work. Hopefully this will enable you to get as creative as you want to. If you manage to build something cool - feel free to share it in screenshots or in our discord channel :)

Some other important changes:
Reduced the neck size of me and Helen in early access intro message
Build interaction icon added for lighthouse / buildings / mansion
Scyte icons on map view won't have empty frames anymore

We're going to take a 2-week break. We could not add your feedback from the last patch, but expect a small patch (regarding it) in January and then a full release somewhere in March. More in another video:
https://youtu.be/pe4qB-zQxPU

Happy holidays and we hope you enjoy the game!