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My Time at Sandrock News

Knives Out Preview, part Ⅰ

Howdy Builders,

We know you've been waiting for an update for a while. A long-awaited new update is coming soon. With this update, builders can expect improved tools/machines, more date activities, and exciting new stories in Sandrock. In addition, you can enjoy the newly added functions of the marriage system such as engagements, wedding ceremonies, etc. Let's take a look at the first part of this update!

[h3]New Stories[/h3]
The story is reaching its climax! Builders, you're needed more than ever, and tons of Sandrock questions and secrets await your discovery in the new update! 



[h3]New workshop helper[/h3]
Remember Portia's Ack? Hired as the helper who has helped many builders in Portia.
Another helper captured from Mole's Cave, Magic Mirror, can assist builders in many aspects. Continue your side quests and hire Mirror to help! As before, the discount rate varies depending on the relationship level.



[h3]More date activities[/h3]
Play/date activities can be a great way to bring couples closer together and build a stronger bond. From romantic fireworks to sand painting activities, there are plenty of fun and creative ways to date develop relationships with NPCs. With this update, more romantic activities are coming, and love is in the air while you spend time with your lover in these places.



New NPC side quests, new story dungeons, and other new content previews will be available around the same time next week. Come and check with us.

P.S. This update is estimated to come in late March/early April.

The Multiplayer survey is here. We look forward to hearing more about your preferences. Take a few minutes so we can learn from you. Your voices help us improve the game.

If you like Sandrock, please leave a comment or review on our Steam page or our Discord community. We'll improve Sandrock with your help.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Howdy all,

[h3]Happy Valentine's Day![/h3]

Thank you, Builders, for being in the Sandrock. Have a good time with your love. If you haven't met it, we hope you find it soon. 

And check out today's Pathea developer by watching the video below:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


As always, leave a review on Steam to let us and other players know your thoughts on Sandrock and help us improve the game further.
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Singleplayer Roadmap Reveals first half of 2023

Howdy Builders, 

Happy Chinese New Year! Cheers to health, happiness, and prosperity in the Year of Rabbit! Check the video below, our Sandrock director and VP's have prepared some new year wishes for you!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Multiplayer open test ends just now, and we'll try to bring you the plan for the next step asap. We are also offering a 20% ​​discount for the Chinese New Year, enjoy!



We have a new tentative roadmap ready for the first half of 2023, which includes two major updates scheduled. Here are some important updates. We will share more dev updates as better features become available in the preview.
As for the multiplayer roadmap, we'll be ready after the Chinese New Year holidays, collect all feedback, and know what needs to be adjusted before we can create a multiplayer roadmap. We will update the main story with each update. And we want to complete Act 3 with the May/June update. These are the main features and content we are trying to add. Each update will have more information introduced and be explained in detail later.



[h3]Late March/Early April[/h3]
-Add the marriage system base version (We will bring more special stories for some important NPC in the future update)
-Add the new dungeon
-Add more side quests
-Add some romance stories to some NPCs (including Fang's part)
-Add romantic information and prompts to NPCs
-Add a new play/date mini-game and a normal mini-game
-Add a mirror helper bot
-Add the NPC visiting relics behaviors
-Unlock the next level of the assembly station

[h3]Late May/Early June[/h3]
-Add romance features to three NPCs (Nia, Logan, and a brand new NPC that has never been to Sandrock.)
-Add more monsters and resources to the new area
-Add three new dungeons
-Add new NPC(s)
-Add some entertainment facilities
-Add the factory and greenhouse to the players' workshop
-Add new mini-game(s) to the game center

We can't build a better Sandrock without your feedback and review. Join the conversation on Discord or leave a review on the Steam store or Community. Thank you for staying with us.

P.s. We'll be out of the office for a week to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Jan 20- 27, GMT+8), and we'll come back and check your messages and comments after we come back.

Happy Chinese New Year!

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Sandrock Director Answers Multiplayer Open Beta Questions From Community

Howdy Builders, Happy Chinese New Year!

We extend our sincerest appreciation for your participation in our open test and for sharing your insightful feedback and questions with us. While the test version still requires further adjustments during future development, we welcome any additional thoughts you may have. If you would like to provide more detailed feedback, please click HERE to take our survey or leave a review on Steam.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Table of Content[/h2]
1. Why is the Multiplayer mode not part of the single-player story?
2. Why not support P to P?
3. What's the future plan/schedule for MP?
4. Will the Multiplayer support players' marriage?
5. Why didn't we experience much story content in the Multiplayer mode during Open Beta?
6. Players want to relax, so why implement a leaderboard?
7. Final notes

[h3]1. Why is the Multiplayer mode not part of the single player story? Why make it a separate world?[/h3]

The development of a Multiplayer mode is a complex task that involves a significant investment of time, resources, and manpower. We began working on the Singleplayer mode in the early stages of Spring 2019, prior to planning and announcing the Multiplayer mode. The decision to create a Multiplayer mode was made after the success of our Kickstarter campaign. As a result, the Singleplayer mode was not designed with Multiplayer functionality in mind from the beginning. Sandrock uses a tool called "Story Editor" to structure its core story including missions and quests, however, incorporating a Multiplayer component into an existing Singleplayer game necessitates a complete overhaul of not just the tools but also the NPCs, story, quests, and combat mechanics to effectively create a new game. This includes considerations such as how to progress single player quests in a multiplayer setting, who can trigger them, how to handle players who are not currently online, and how to handle single characters fighting in CG scenes, among many other complexities at the design level.

Unfortunately, we currently lack the necessary resources and staff to undertake such a task. Starting a new separate Multiplayer team to create an additional free mode from scratch is a more viable option for us. As a result, the Multiplayer mode was developed as a single-player free add-on, with relatively less story and features than the Singleplayer mode but with a lot of new content, features and much more.

Additionally, we wanted to tell the story of Sandrock's past, so we decided to write the Multiplayer story as a background to the current Singleplayer story. However, the scripts are still in the process of being developed. We aim to reveal what happened before Howletts went away and by using an AI setting for the Multiplayer mode, it also helped us re-use some assets from the Singleplayer. Ultimately, the player will experience two plots and find connections between them.


[h3]2. Why not support P to P?[/h3]

The decision to introduce a server was made in order to provide a more stable and reliable connection for players. When players connect to other players, there may be network or internet issues that cannot be resolved in a timely manner, resulting in delays for players. The server allows us to better serve our players by addressing these potential issues. This decision was also influenced by in-depth research of other games that have previously struggled to support P to P. Unfortunately, we are unable to have both, so we had to implement the most efficient and stable connection for our players. Additionally, players may want to engage and meet new people, providing an opportunity to make new friends.

If during the test, you experience any issues with the connection to the server, please leave a comment below and let us know your location. We will work to improve server connections in the future. For those who may have concerns about privacy, we have implemented a data protection agreement in-game, and all data will be kept confidential and used solely for the provision of improving game services.

[h3]3. What's the future plan/schedule for MP[/h3]

We will be wrapping up the public test on the 20th and taking a brief break for the Lunar New Year holiday week. Upon our return, we will review all aspects of the test and make decisions regarding the Early Access content and set a launch date, which may take up to a month or two. At this time, we anticipate launching the Multiplayer Early Access in late spring or early summer. Following that, we will continue to add more content and features to the Multiplayer mode (further details will be provided in an in-depth announcement at a later stage), with the goal of releasing the full version, including both Singleplayer and Multiplayer, later this year.

[h3]4. Will the Multiplayer support marriage between players?[/h3]

We can confirm that we will add a marriage function between the player and NPC. We are also currently considering the possibility of adding a marriage function to the full version, which would allow players to marry other players. However, there may be some awkward issues to consider, such as the limitation of having only a double bed for a couple and the possibility of other players sleeping in the same bed as the couple. Owing to the limitation of having only a double bed in the game, maybe...it's better to ask...before you lay in your friends' couple bed.

[h3]5. Why didn't we experience much story content in the Multiplayer mode during the Open beta? Any plans to add the story to the mode in the future?[/h3]

In our design, the free Multiplayer mode will feature approximately 20 hours of game story, including both main quests and side quests. It is important to note that the primary focus of the Multiplayer is on co-op commerce guild simulation rather than a story-driven experience. While we plan to include additional stories, they will not be as extensive as those in the Singleplayer mode. The Multiplayer mode will not include all the features and functions of the Singleplayer mode, but it will have its own unique features and stories, such as side quests for new NPCs. We will continue to explore new possibilities and add more content as the game progresses. Additionally, Logan will be present in the Multiplayer mode, although his storyline and role will be different from the Singleplayer mode. This can be explained with the "metaverse" universe generated by QI. We hope players will enjoy experiencing his story in both modes.

[h3]6. Players want to relax, so why implementing a leaderboard? Will there be more adjustments or cancellations in the future?[/h3]

The leaderboard feature reflects the game world background and gameplay settings. In the game, Alliances own their commerce organizations, and the Multiplayer leaderboards rank players based on their performance in guilds. We understand that some players may enjoy this feature while others may not. In the future, we plan to make adjustments to allow players to opt-in and participate in the leaderboards. This way, casual players who do not wish to participate in the leaderboards will not have to log in to view them and will still be able to earn certain rewards.

[h3]7. Final notes[/h3]

Upon our return, we will review all aspects of the test and make decisions regarding the Early Access content and set a launch date, which may take up to a month or two. At this time, we anticipate launching the Multiplayer Early Access in late spring or early summer. Following that, we will continue to add more content and features to the Multiplayer mode (further details will be provided in an in-depth announcement later), with the goal of releasing the full version, including both Singleplayer and Multiplayer, later this year.

Lastly, we will be making further adjustments and optimizations based on your feedback, such as the restriction on nicknames. Currently, players can search for friends using nicknames, but we understand that this may be confusing if there are too many players with similar nicknames like "Max" or "Lucy". We will work on optimizing and revising this feature to make it more user-friendly.

Again, we really value all your feedback and suggestions, and the Multiplayer Co-op Open Test is still available until 12 AM Jan 20th PT | 3 AM Jan 20th ET | 9 AM Jan 20th CET. If you haven't tried it, we hope you can try it out while you have time, don't forget to fill in the Survey or leave a review on Steam, so we can learn more about your experiences.



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Hotfix patch on Jan 17

Happy Chinese New Year 2023,

How's your multiplayer testing so far? While we're trying with multiplayer, we're ready for another hotfix for singleplayer and multiplayer that will bring you a better gaming experience.
We are also working on the Multiplayer FAQ and Singleplayer Roadmap for the first half of 2023, which we plan to release before the Chinese New Year holidays.

Find the changelist below:
[h3]Singleplayer[/h3]
Added:
  • Added the "skip" option to Logan's hideout and Mole's cave after five times failure
  • Restored the placement functionality on the wooden bookshelf, which was not implemented due to a bug in the previous patch, and items can now be placed
Adjusted & Optimized:
  • Adjusted the time limit for completing the quest Who's the Muscliest of Them All, in case not completing it due to time constraints
  • Adjust the max fps to 60 in the default graphics settings
Fixed:
  • Fixed the achievement system not counting correctly after certain situations such as "Waste Not Want Not", "Pro Gamer" and so on.
  • Fixed an issue where some items could not be refined, such as the Blender, Feather Duster, etc.
  • Fixed an issue where dungeon cutscenes would cause errors
  • Fixed the issue where the special effects of stars would be seen in the cutscenes replay of Logan's Hideout
  • Fixed an issue that resulted in the "Pet Detective" mission cutscene not working properly
  • Fixed a pathfinding error caused by Justice riding a horse during the Winter Solstice
  • Fixed several issues with bedroom doors in Alvio's house
  • Fixed a display issue when learning furniture recipes. After unlocking new furniture, you need to view it in the coloring UI
  • Fixed an issue where some props were not visible in museum exhibits
  • Fixed the abnormal damage of Bomble-dum
  • Fixed a freeze issue during the Chase of Memories event during the Day of Memories
  • Fixed an issue where the Balloon Treasure Chest in the Valley of Whisper was hard to hit
  • Fixed an issue where a stranger NPC wouldn't leave the stage after the quest Player sees their own funeral
  • Fixed a camera issue when holding the Amiral figurine
  • Fixed default house porch height to reduce overlap with mod doors
  • Fixed an issue where some festivals and competitions did not have shops
  • Fixed an issue where the Running of Yakmel and Day of the Bright Sun festivals did not generate festival badges
  • Fixed an issue where two Mort photos were swapped
  • Fixed an issue where Arvio was keeping unresponsive after Musa's arrival
  • Fixed an issue that caused Pen and Burgess to behave abnormally after the quest The Protector's Weakness
  • Fixed some text issues
  • Fixed some audio issues
  • Fixed an issue that a blue anomaly object appearing in the Encyclopedia - Grand Mesa
  • Fixed an issue where cooking station queues could not be added if not full
  • Fixed some hidden errors that could appear during gameplay
  • Fixed some issues related to the mount's effect “Does not get tired easily”
  • Attempts to fix some issues result in missing bushes (if this happens again please report to us)


[h3]Multiplayer[/h3]
Optimized & Adjusted
  • Deleted some of the words from the blocklist.
  • Adjusted the difficulty of Baffles Corp Ruins.
  • Optimized the notification when Co-op Workshop reaches the maximum level and cannot be expanded anymore.
  • Optimized the target items in commissions. Especially Casual Wristband now will not be the target item of a commission.
  • Optimized the target monsters in Co-op Hunting Commissions, now the target monsters will change according to players'' mission progress.
  • Increased the stability of building and upgrading projects in the Commerce Guild.


Fixed
  • Fixed an issue that the raised Yakmels were taken as the target monsters in Co-op Hunting Commissions.
  • Fixed an issue that players got stuck when they tried to upgrade the Co-op Commission Board with its interface opening.
  • Fixed an issue that players defeated by monsters when interacting with others got stuck after being helped up.
  • Fixed an issue that the name of Commerce Guild didn't show in the manual.
  • Fixed an issue that players would get stuck when using Basic Planting Toolkit.
  • Fixed an issue that players would get stuck when watering plants.
  • Fixed an issue that the icon of plants which showed a shortage of water didn't get cleaned timely.
  • Fixed an issue that the plants were not in shortage of water, but still with the icon that showed a shortage of water on them.
  • Fixed the planting abnormalities on the land where plants have been reaped before.
  • Fixed an issue that the relic cannot be restored even with all relic pieces collected.
  • Fixed an issue that the player's name disappeared after talking to an NPC.
  • Fixed an issue that the pictures in the Team Up interface weren't in the correct location.
  • Fixed an issue that the HP stealing effect of Bronze Daggers didn't work.
  • Fixed some text mistakes.


Don't forget to let us know about your thoughts on the Steam store and help us improve the game further.

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