Update Log 11-20 (Quest Tracking, Combat Adjustment)
The first major update of Sands of Salzaar’s next stage of development is now here. But before that, we have some other news to share with you: Sands of Salzaar won the Best Game Award at the 2020 IndiePlay Awards! We are honored by our players’ support and feedback, and will continue to improve the game during Early Access and beyond.
Back to today’s update! In case you missed it, you can read about our update plan and roadmap for the next few months here.
[h2]New Quest Tracking Feature[/h2]
In the November update, one of our biggest priorities is to address a very frequent feedback: the quests lack direction and are often too vague for their own good. To address this, we added a new quest guidance system. You can now either pinpoint a main quest objective on the map, or follow a compass to find your destination.
For players that wish to immerse themselves in the game world, there is an option for you as well. Tavern hostesses will have rumors for your mysterious quests, and the clues will expand over time, in case you need them for late steps.
[h2]Combat and AI Improvements[/h2]
Another major addition we’ve included in this update is the first of the major changes to the combat system. New battle scenario maps are added for better visual variety in combat. Troop AI behavior in battle has also been adjusted, in particular to cavalry units and ranged units, which will now attempt to fight with melee weapons when necessary, instead of constantly trying to run away, much to the annoyance of players. Finally, there is a major rebalance of troops, especially at the higher tiers.
Some of the combat changes were part of work previously slated for later, but we’ve decided to bring them forward. These are things we are constantly working on, and we’d love to hear your feedback on the changes. In addition, we are focusing on single player mode features at this time, so the multiplayer map expansion previously planned for this update has been moved to a later date.
[h2]Expanded English Mod Support[/h2]
Last but not the least, to further support the English speaking modding scene, we’ve further expanded English tool support by localizing table headers of the reference excel files, and made them easier to access. A couple of untranslated modding tools are also localized. This is another field we are still in active iteration process, so let us know your modding experience as well.
Speaking of mods, some modders in our community are also working on localizing their award winning mods of the second modding event, you can take a look at the winners here.
If you encounter any issue in-game, contact us through [email protected], or join us on Discord!
The full patch notes are as below.
[h3]2020-11-20 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.1.1)[/h3]
New Additions
Back to today’s update! In case you missed it, you can read about our update plan and roadmap for the next few months here.
[h2]New Quest Tracking Feature[/h2]
In the November update, one of our biggest priorities is to address a very frequent feedback: the quests lack direction and are often too vague for their own good. To address this, we added a new quest guidance system. You can now either pinpoint a main quest objective on the map, or follow a compass to find your destination.
For players that wish to immerse themselves in the game world, there is an option for you as well. Tavern hostesses will have rumors for your mysterious quests, and the clues will expand over time, in case you need them for late steps.
[h2]Combat and AI Improvements[/h2]
Another major addition we’ve included in this update is the first of the major changes to the combat system. New battle scenario maps are added for better visual variety in combat. Troop AI behavior in battle has also been adjusted, in particular to cavalry units and ranged units, which will now attempt to fight with melee weapons when necessary, instead of constantly trying to run away, much to the annoyance of players. Finally, there is a major rebalance of troops, especially at the higher tiers.
Some of the combat changes were part of work previously slated for later, but we’ve decided to bring them forward. These are things we are constantly working on, and we’d love to hear your feedback on the changes. In addition, we are focusing on single player mode features at this time, so the multiplayer map expansion previously planned for this update has been moved to a later date.
[h2]Expanded English Mod Support[/h2]
Last but not the least, to further support the English speaking modding scene, we’ve further expanded English tool support by localizing table headers of the reference excel files, and made them easier to access. A couple of untranslated modding tools are also localized. This is another field we are still in active iteration process, so let us know your modding experience as well.
Speaking of mods, some modders in our community are also working on localizing their award winning mods of the second modding event, you can take a look at the winners here.
If you encounter any issue in-game, contact us through [email protected], or join us on Discord!
The full patch notes are as below.
[h3]2020-11-20 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.1.1)[/h3]
New Additions
- Brand new quest guidance system, with map coordinates and compass options.
- You can now ask for rumors at taverns for certain active quests. Options for the rumors will expand and change over time.
- 12 new battleground maps, which will spawn randomly depending on army composition and related environment.
- New combat moveset for sword, dagger, spear and staff.
- New animation set for dragons.
- AI and animation improvements for cavalry units.
- Added English headers for modding resource excel files and rearranged configuration tables.
- Teammate position indicator widget added to multiplayer mod.
- You can now set password for your multiplayer session.
- Added custom item slot feature to the mod editor. You can custom item slot and type name of any number, define slot exclusivity logic like differentiating between one and two handed weapons and more. Refer to GUI and LUA reference mod for more information.
- Added trade GUI reset function to the mod editor.
- Some persistent NPCs (Mysterious Witch and Haberdasher, for example) now show up in the town roster.
- Adjusted ranged unit AI and their movement behavior. Certain ranged troops will also attempt to fight with melee weapons when necessary.
- Removed the time limit of Bazaar.
- Adjusted combat roll animation.
- Updated Beastmaster’s dragon form model.
- Tasha, Threnody and Omar are now automatically assigned “in the wild” status once certain side quests are completed. You no longer need to use Legacy to bring them into the game.
- Significant troop stats and skill revamp. Certain high tier troops have also been redesigned, this include Dakn Elder, Dakn Priestess, Nasir Crossbowman, Nasir Healer and more.
- Adjusted the following skills: Wild Wolf Bite (Beastmaster), Beast Stampede (Beastmaster), Slam (Beastmaster), Lunging Chop (Berserker), Primal Dance (Berserker), Aftershock (Sentinel).
- Cooldown and mana cost adjustment for some skills.
- Most dungeon with chest rewards now change their battleground map accordingly.
- Added missing illustrations for certain quest NPCs.
- The multiplayer lobby now shows all available and in-progress multiplayer sessions. Players will also be returned to the session itself instead of the main menu after finishing or failing a multiplayer game.
- All mod configuration table files are now arranged in two languages, this includes file names and column titles.
- All open source configuration tables can now be found in "Example_ExcelReference" folder under game installation path. Mod developers no longer need to extract them from open source mods.