Sands of Salzaar News

Travelers of the desert:

Travelers of the desert:
This time around we've continued to remedy lag. We came to realize that some art assets weren't fully integrated which in turn led to them taking up unnecessary RAM. This will be resolved with the ver. 1.0.45 update.

What's more, we're adding further support for the mod editor. For this new expert version, we'll be making available most UI menus so that modders can replace or change these out. We'll also provide a feature where you can upgrade simple mods to expert ones and make it easier to create resource packs.


Fixes

●Fixed a progression-halting bug with the Spirit Witch's [Catch Burak] story:

This bug has been present in our localized versions and was caused by section breakers. The issue should be resolved in the new version; yet, this isn't the only place in the game where this has been happening. We'll look over our localized versions again and make changes where needed.

●Fixed an issue on mobile devices:
where the game would appear vertically for some players.

●Fixed two issues with the text.

●Fixed an issue with Anniversary mod Zombie x Squirrel, where you didn't gain EXP as intended.

●Fixed a bug where a test segment would appear when opening up the Class Shop in the Eclipse Hive DLC.

All of the above changes will be updated on all platforms.


[h2]Captives - New Progress[/h2]

We've been working on the new Captives feature as of late, and we've been keeping an eye on your questions and worries. So, we'd like to share our progress and answer some questions in the process, naturally, feel free to leave even more feedback too!

[h2]Captives Gained From Battles[/h2]

[h3] (not representative of the final version)[/h3]


There's a chance to capture NPCs when defeating other tribes in battle, which just so happens to be the main way in which to acquire captives. We'll also consider whether to add more ways in which to acquire captives once the feature's been released, such as attacking traveling NPCs or exchanging captives with other forces. However, be sure to quickly toss any excess captives into the dungeon lest captives might begin escaping should you exceed your captive cap.

Apart from capturing NPCs, we're also planning on perhaps making soldiers capturable. However, that would require adjustments to several UI menus and we'll need time to discuss and think about whether or how we'll make this work.

[h2]What Use Are Captives?[/h2]



Following our last update log, many of you have been asking what captives are used for. They're honestly similar to how they are in many other games: they can be sold for gold to slavers, executed (after which that NPC will be permanently gone from your game), or released. Or, you can even draft them into your own team (with some restrictions, of course).

Soldiers of a higher level and NPCs of a higher status are naturally worth more. You'll also be able to hand over nobility captives when interacting with other factions to meet their demands. Each such you add increases your diplomatic weight and can be used to force them to concede land, pay tribute, or even surrender.

There's plenty of content that can be added to a system like this, however, we only have so much time and energy, so we'll begin by working on the most important parts first and perfect what we have in future iterations. Naturally, we also want to add functionality interfaces so that you, our community, may expand upon what's there, by perhaps adding the ability for captives to break free from jail, or so that you may... do untoward things with those you've captured.

[h2]Can Captives Be Executed? Would That Make the World Empty?[/h2]



A good question indeed. That's something we had plenty of discussions around before we even began developing this feature. To remedy this, we added in our last update the ability to auto-generate NPCs based on events. And we'll be adding a new set of families and NPC generation with the new version too.

As the months tick by, the world will once again bustle with life no matter how many NPCs you execute. However, newly generated NPCs are based on models and might only have access to a few set talents and skill pages, meaning that they'll be inferior to the original NPCs.

We estimate that this will become available for free with the next update.

[h2]Mod Workshop Support[/h2]

The Mod Workshop has been and always will be an integral part of Sands of Salzaar. And so, without further ado, we'll be providing more tools and support. In this version, we'll incorporate most FGUI menus to Expert mods, giving you the ability to edit the design and change assets for almost every menu. We'll also make available configurations for the base game's maps along with another batch of reference content.



The new mod editor will contain a function where you can upgrade simple mods to advanced ones. What's more, you'll be able to quickly make resource packs via a Unity editor from within the settings of advanced mods (you'll need to install any Unity dependencies for this to work).

GUI Location:



But that's not all. During our work to adapt the game for multiple platforms and continued development, we've upgraded the game's Unity version. This has naturally caused changes to the game's Unity action models. While most older mods should still work, some advanced mods that contain actions for new characters might need to upgrade to the 2020.3.48 Unity version and repackage their asset packs.

To simplify this process, we're providing the ability to directly upgrade old advanced mods from within the editor. However, we'd still like to extend our apologies to all you modders out there for any inconvenience caused.



Another thing that's been on our mind as of late, is the fact that each new update affects our mod community one way or another. Some mods might become unavailable until a fix is released, or even worse, mods where the authors have discontinued update support may become unusable entirely. Plus, every update also comes with its own bugs.

Our plan is that starting our next update with Captives, we'll provide stable access to old versions so that you may choose for yourself whether to use the latest version or an older one. This means that even as we update the game, you'll still be able to use the mods you've grown fond of.

Naturally, we won't have versions available for all the small updates that we make but only for major updates. We'll make sure to keep a branch available of each major patch going forward that should be compatible with most mods created during that time.

That's all for this update! Feel free to join our Discord to get in touch! Our managers will try their best to help you solve any issues you encounter in the game!

Travelers of the desert:

With the last updates, we've been making a range of adjustments to combat performance in the mid to late game, including:

●Restructured the code of our Tournament DLC to resolve progress blocks and some missing rewards;

●Reworked the logic behind combat text numbers to remedy combat lag in the mid to late game;

●Made changes to attack speed, improved attack hitboxes and the feel of attacks to further remedy lag and stutter in combat;

This time around, we've made changes to pathfinding logic and some map areas to remedy lag and stuttering experienced while exploring the map.

We've also further fleshed out the Tournament DLC with new content, and then we want to start a discourse with you, our players, regarding what other plans we have.

What's more, the base game will be available at 50% OFF and the DLCs at 33% OFF between Feb 4 and Feb 18 during the Spring Festival.


[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

Most of our focus for the last while has been on improving mid and late-game performance. However, such changes often require us to make changes to the underlying code and we have to break down and tackle each issue at a time.

Following our changes to improve performance in combat, we'll now be putting our focus on the map, as that is an area regarding which we have received plenty of feedback. These include:

●NPC Generation:

Improving the computing costs used for pathfinding when new parties are generated and optimizing some features to stabilize FPS while exploring the map;

●Map Pathfinding:

We've realized that whenever you use auto-pathfinding to move on the map, the game will lag and the party's movement reset whenever you pass a pathfinding point. To solve this issue, we've improved the cooldown for movement resets and temporarily added motion slowdown to the camera to counteract the visual discrepancy of the movements.

●Party Collision Calculations:

Previously when exploring the map, every party member would be computed as a collision target. This led to plenty of extra calculations being made and could also lead to you getting stuck on certain terrains.

We've reworked this, so that only the party leader is used for such calculations, effectively removing a lot of unnecessary computations and fixing some pathfinding issues.

●Combat Maps:

To further fix such terrain issues, we've also removed and modified obstacles and collision zones on the two following maps:

Redstone Valley: Removed most terrain obstacles.



West Docana Desert: Switched the location and collision zone of the stone pillars that previously blocked the view.



●Siege Pathfinding Optimization:

reworked the pathfinding logic on siege maps.



[h2]New Tournament Content[/h2]

While the Tournament does grant the winner a ton of rewards, you are unlikely to achieve victory in the early to mid-game. To smoothen out the overall experience, we've added two new tournaments with this update: Trials and Showdown.

·Trials: A tournament that can be held in any type of town. Speak to the Arena Keeper to start a round of 3v3 battles. You can take on this tournament as many times as you'd like, with the victor taking home some gold.

·Showdown: A tournament which is held in any town that is not a village every once in a while. While similar to the Tournament itself, this one is fairly frequent, but is smaller in scale and offers less handsome rewards.





Captives Preview
In the current build, once you defeat an enemy army, they will be able to rebuild a large army in just a few days and begin attacking you anew. This has led to overly frequent battles in the late game. Plus,
war has been the only means with which to annihilate your foes once and for all. Tons of repeated battles in a short amount of time have had an overall negative impact on the experience.

To remedy this, we are thinking of adding a mechanic called Captives in a future update, and would like to discuss our inspiration and ideas for this with you all:

·Once you've defeated an enemy army, you capture their hero and may choose to persuade or execute them.

·Once you've defeated an enemy army, you capture their soldiers and you may then choose to sell them for a ransom or force them to join your cause.

·Add a Prison to the town.

·To capture the enemy's leader and force them to cease their hostilities or surrender.

Apart from the aforementioned, we also have other ideas which we're considering. Anyway, it would mean the world to us if you left your valuable feedback in the comment section below!

That's all for this update! Feel free to join our Discord to get in touch! Our managers will try their best to help you solve any issues you encounter in the game!

[h2]Soldier Gems Fixes[/h2]

After the last update, we received many bugs from players about Soldier Gems not installing even after the conditions were met, this will be fixed in this update.



Other fixes：

1.Fix Saqie gender setting error
2.Fixed an issue where heroes without sorcery qualifications, such as Alaf Jahim, could not equip Fatalis Wizar's Demise.

[h2]Localization Module Support Trailer[/h2]

Sands of Salzaar has always only supported Simplified Chinese and English, and we know that some of the community players have created their own localized mods for players to use, and we are very thankful to these players for their support of the community.

In subsequent updates, we will consider opening up localization-related interfaces, so that players can localize their favorite mods, as well as make it easier to localize the game's content.

In addition to this, we will continue to update the game and gradually optimize the gameplay, as well as lag and flashback issues.

That's all for this update! Feel free to join our Discord to get in touch! Our managers will try their best to help you solve any issues you encounter in the game!

Greetings everyone! As of December 8th, our limited-time discounts have officially kicked off across all platforms, lasting until December 22nd. Notably, the Steam platform offers an unparalleled 60% OFF on the Sands of Salzaar base game – an all-time low!

Today marks the highly anticipated release of our latest DLC, "Land of the Eclipse"! This comprehensive DLC unfolds into three distinct chapters: "Eclipse Hive" introduces an exhilarating Boss challenge system, "Exotic Wayfarer" brings forth captivating character customization, and "Siege and Conquest" elevates the intensity of siege gameplay.

To celebrate the release, the new DLC will be available at a 33% discount. Both "The Tournament" DLC and "The Ember Saga" DLC will also see a new all-time low price with a 50% OFF discount.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2621910/


[h3]"Land of the Eclipse" DLC Highlights:[/h3]

Exotic Wayfarer:

• 48 new captivating character customization options (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, body, and hairstyles).
  Introduces 8 new protagonist models corresponding to the newly added body options.
  
  
• Activating this content rewards you with the "Mirror Bead," an enchanting item for unlimited facial transformations.
  

Eclipse Hive:

• Presents a thrilling Boss challenge mechanism. Discover "Clues" from dungeons in every region, trade them with the "Mastigure Adventurer" for intel, and challenge potent Bosses for legendary gear.
  

Siege and Conquest:

• Reinvents siege battles by replacing the final line of defense with city walls, intensifying the visual spectacle and giving defenders a strategic advantage.
  

If you’re more of a visual learner and find all this somewhat overwhelming, check out this hands-on video in which our friend Baby Boomer Gamer really hit the nail on the head with everything in Land of the Eclipse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUUiHBz086Y&ab_channel=BabyBoomerGamer


[h3]DLC Launch Celebration: Join the Giveaway in our Discord[/h3]

As we celebrate the launch of our DLC and the festive season, we extend a warm invitation to all of you participate in our giveaway event for a chance to acquire one of the ten DLC keys. Dive into our Discord for comprehensive rules: https://discord.gg/xdindie

If you've got insightful tips, tricks, or helpful guides for the game that you think could make a difference for others, we’d love to have you sharing in the #tips-tricks-guides channel as well.

[h3]"Land of the Eclipse" DLC Detailed Overview:[/h3]

Exotic Wayfarer: Gifts from Beyond the Desert

As tribal wars reach a stalemate, exotic merchants seize the opportunity, bringing caravans laden with goods to the Golden Market. They exchange goods for precious resources and introduce unique clothes and jewelry, offering a touch of exotic flair.





Upon entering the game, receive the "Mirror Bead," allowing on-the-fly character reshaping.




Eclipse Hive: Formidable Enemies and Legendary Equipment

In the vast desert, a group of adventurers daily hunts monsters in the fearsome Land of Eclipse. These seasoned individuals challenge formidable enemies for the treasures they guard. With the new DLC, obtain “Eclipse Clues” from exploring dungeons to get a chance to challenge the bosses. High-difficulty dungeons will reward more clues.





After obtaining the clues, go search around the major cities to look for the "Mastigure Adventurer" to submit them. For example, you will find one at the southeast of Frost Valley, in the Zagros Mountains.




As the precious "Intel" surfaces with the traces hidden in concealed clues, accumulating ten clues allows us to obtain the location details of the Boss from the Mastigure Adventurer.



Subsequently, at the same location, delivering the "Intel" to the Mastigure Adventurer enables an immediate Boss challenge. Remember to exercise caution with these formidable creatures, significantly more powerful than past foes. Unlike before, in the Land of Eclipse, we can battle the Bosses with a certain number of troops.



After defeating the Boss, be sure not to forget to pick up your loot on the ground. Once you've collected the loot, you can return to the entrance of the Land of Eclipse, where a flag inserted into the ground will appear. Clicking on the flag allows you to exit the Land of Eclipse.

In the Eclipse Hive, there are a total of 36 legendary equipment pieces to acquire, with 24 regional Bosses available for challenges.


Siege and Conquest: The Final Barrier to Defend Territories

Advancements in engineering lead to the construction of city walls, providing towns with a significant advantage against incoming foes. Now, archers can unabashedly hide behind these walls, unleashing arrows upon adversaries. Towns everywhere will boast city walls to defend against incoming threats!



City walls provide stationed units with additional attack range and damage resistance. Moreover, once the first and second defense lines are breached, the gates will close, preventing enemies from directly entering the stronghold.





As previously announced, we've crafted wall models for the six major factions and the Fire Demon faction. Engage in siege battles in the game to fully experience this aspect.

Known Issues

From previous tests, most issues have been resolved, with two exceptions to be fixed in the update soon after the DLC release:

• The Redstone Valley dungeon, "Giant Lava Cave" does not drop Eclipse Clues.
  
• In some cases, effects that increase attack speed become negative.
  

Feel free to join our official Discord for discussions and assistance. Experienced players share insights, and the "Feedback" channel provides one-on-one communication for issue resolution.

Thank you for your continued support, and we hope you thoroughly enjoy the new content in the “Land of the Eclipse” DLC!

Travelers of the desert:

We've fixed some of the bugs we told you about last week with the [Tournament] and [Child Rearing] in this update we just launched. We've also made some tentative improvements that'll hopefully reduce lag in the mid and late-game, and we've upgraded the mod editor.
This update hits PC and mobile at the same time, so be sure to update your client.

[h2][Combat Improvements][/h2]

We continuously receive frequent feedback regarding lag in the mid and late-game, and it's something we've always needed to improve. We've seen that the most frequent lag occurs just as both sides' forces clash, and part of this is due to the combat text.

We've therefore made some changes to the underlying logic regarding this, which should alleviate some lag during late-game battles. Naturally, fully fixing this lag isn't something we can do with just one or two changes, and we'll be going at it from other directions too (such as AI pathfinding, etc.) once we've solved the issue with the combat text, to attempt to resolve this issue from multiple directions.



And apart from this, we've taken the chance to make a few other changes too:
We've changed how critical hits are shown to make the visual prompts more intuitive, and we've differentiated magical and physical crits by giving them different colors.

We've also made changes to the attack speed and damage radius of all weapons. Attack speed now not only affects the cooldown of basic attacks, but also the animation speed along with both the fore and backswings. We've also changed the hitbox from its previous prismatic shape into a more intuitive conical shape.

[h2][Tournament Bug Fixes][/h2]

Following the last round of changes, a few stubborn bugs still remained, which we've fixed this time around:

1. Fixed an issue where you couldn't participate in the Tournament again in the same town.

2. Fixed an issue where you would receive tournament rewards even if your team participated without you.

3. The game would suddenly freeze and the file become corrupt after a certain number of days had passed. We've now added protective measures to prevent this, which will automatically reset the Tournament DLC when this error occurs.

We've also fixed an issue a localization issue with the [Child Rearing] DLC that led to a code error. The bug would lead to a key quest progressing into the wrong quest branch, meaning that the quest couldn't be completed.

Furthermore, we've redrawn all icons for special [Ember Workshop] gear and quest items.

Previous Version



New Version



We've also made the following fixes and changes in the new update:

1. Improved the underlying logic behind damage calculations.

2. Fixed a bug where the Might, Agility, Essence and Wisdom of skills weren't included in the final calculation.

3. Fixed a bug that would invalidate strategy order configurations.

4. Divided up the difficulty further, allowing for individual dynamic changes to level caps.

5. Added an attribute affix that increases Might, Agility, Essence and Wisdom by a certain percentage.

6. Adjusted the Block attribute affix, added Block and Counter Block, Empower Block and Weaken Block.

7.Added objects/areas which are only traversable from one side in battle.

1.0.40 Temporary fixes

Through immediate feedback from our community of players we've discovered some issues in version 1.0.40 that we've made temporary fixes for

1. Auto-battle can not be carried out
2. Unlimited duration of invincibility buffs
3. Cannot learn NPC skills

[h2][Editor Update][/h2]

We've updated the mod editor to make it easier for mod creators to use it. This includes improving the UI and adding a few commands, along with three viewers: Icon Viewer, Portrait Viewer, and Model Viewer. Hopefully these changes will be of some help to you all!



Within the Icon Viewer you'll be able to find all icons currently available in the game. Considering that some icons are readily used, we've also added a batch of new ones.



Within the Portrait Viewer you'll be able to find all portraits and avatars currently available in the came. These are marked with a corresponding portrait ID, so that you can more easily change out default portraits.



Within the Model Viewer you'll be able to find all character models currently available in the game. You can also directly drag weapons in the object category to the right to see their animations and special effects.

[h2][New DLC Info][/h2]

We revealed a preview of the new DLCs we're working on last week, and we've naturally received feedback regarding this. We'll just say it: the DLC is coming on Dec 8, just as there are discounts running on the various platforms.

[h3]Exotic Wayfarer[/h3]



The Exotic Wayfarer DLC will include outfits inspired by a variety of cultures, along with uniquely colored hairstyles. This DLC will also come with an item granting one free character customization (cannot be used to change gender), enabling you to change your appearance without first talking to the dresser.

[h3]Siege and Conquest[/h3]

Following our DLC reveal, plenty of you were worried that soldiers getting stuck in walls would become an even greater problem than before. And that's indeed one of the issues we encountered during development. We tried to fix this in a variety of ways, including changing the display size of models for broader paths, and modifying collision body sizes and map boundaries.



We ended up using the aforementioned in part, and put most of our focus on modifying AI pathfinding. The pathfinding guideline we've added for siege battles should prevent this issue to some extent. Plus, this change will improve the issues of soldiers getting stuck in walls for the base game too.



We have created a set of city walls and gates with unique designs that differ for all regions (Ifrit Domain, Redstone Valley, Crying Rock, Twinluna Valley, Zagros Mountains, Umbra Cliffs, West Docana Desert). Have a look at our early design drafts!

As for which designs will prevail and how they'll look in the game when released, well, you'll just have to find that out later!

[h3]The Eclipse Hive[/h3]

We mentioned in the preview that you could gather Eclipse [Clues] from the various regions and exchange these with the Mastigure Adventurer (usually found near the main city of the region's main faction) for [Boss Intel] in order to directly challenge that boss.



We've created 24 bosses for The Eclipse Hive, with each region apart from the Ifrit Domain containing 3 powerful entities and 1 super entity. Each of these has different mechanics from ordinary bosses.

As an example, the Twinluna Valley's super boss will in phase two pit you against a clone of yourself (with your skills, gear and attributes, but naturally with more skills due to being an AI).



Or when faced with the Dune Band trio, you must defeat all of them within quick succession of one another or they'll simply resurrect to no end.



Upon defeating a boss in the Land of the Eclipse, their loot will drop as a chest upon the ground. Be sure to leave the area only AFTER you pick up your loot. There's a confirmation box for leaving, though, so there's that.



For the 24 bosses in the 6 regions, we've created 36 pieces of legendary gear all featuring gear skills. Each boss has a 100% chance of dropping a unique piece of gear of a set gear slot, while each super boss has a 100% chance of dropping 1 out of 3 pieces (accessory, armor or weapon).



These new pieces of gear aren't just powerful stat sticks, rather, they all have their own quirky effects and mechanics that may be either good or bad. But when used properly, a seemingly bad effect may well be a great one.

[h2]New DLC Release Date & Discounts[/h2]

The new DLCs are estimated to hit the stores on Dec 7, 10:00 PST. The Sands of Salzaar base game will be available at a discount for 2 weeks (Dec 7 to 21).
The PC discount will be our biggest ever at 60% off for the base game, and 50% off for both The Ember Saga and Tournament DLCs.

That's all for this update! Feel free to join our Discord to get in touch! Our managers will try their best to help you solve any issues you encounter in the game!