Sands of Salzaar News

Hey travellers,

As we are approaching the end of English beta test, it's finally time to announce that the 1.0 version of Sands of Salzaar will be launched on Steam in mid-December out of Early Access soon!



We can't thank you all enough to provide us with all those valuable suggestions and feedback during the journey of Early Access. All of your advice and bug reports have inspired us to keep optimizing the gaming experience.

Now without further ado, let's check the version spotlights out which we can't wait to share with you.

[h3]New Game Mode & Difficulty Option[/h3]
Brand-New Sandbox Mode
In this new game mode, you are free to explore the great desert at your own pace without engaging in set plot choices except that you still need to face the inevitable challenge of the Ifrit Ghoul invasion.



Three Different Difficulty Levels Available
- Normal: Recommended for newbies. With such difficulty setting, you could enjoy the main story and exploration more without struggling with your life.

- Hard: Recommended for experienced travellers. AI factions will be smarter, and travellers will face more challenges, such as higher damage in battles, limited times to dodge roll, etc. And more skills are needed to recruit NPCs.

- Epic: Recommended for hardcore travellers. AI factions will become extremely difficult to deal with, and they will recruit top-tier soldiers, deploy teams and launch attacks dynamically. You will face great difficulty in the journey.

[h3]New Quest[/h3]
Add five random quests related to travellers' titles and merits. In these quests, NPCs may invite you to join a tribe; or your superiors may assign you to capture specific towns, or ask you to persuade a rival tribe's sultan to surrender; or even incite you to want to overthrow them, etc.

[h3]Boss, Monster & Dungeon[/h3]
- Adjustment on the skills and value of some bosses,and increase the challenge of boss fights with more strategy required.

- Add plenty of new Mobs that will get stronger as the traveller's strength increases.

- Adjustment on the loot rewards of dungeons: We have improved the diversity of equipment loot drops, and increased the drop rate of some senior gears.

[h3]Classes, Heroes & Troops[/h3]
All playable characters’ skills reworked
In past versions, our players often report that the skills of different professions are not distinctive enough.

To make their skills more distinguishable, we have reworked all classes, for example, the new Swordsman is positioned as a master swordsman equipped with a newly-designed set of magnificent swordsmanship. The remade Sultan becomes more like an inventor specializing in technology research, capable of creating unique ancient machinery to arm himself.



All heroes reworked
- Modify all heroes' skills: Each hero will cast unique skills, and fight in a more distinguishable way.

- Redesign the growth curve of upgrading heroes: Each hero has a specific growth curve in "Spirit", "Stamina", "Strength", and "Agility".

- Command Skills: add exclusive command skills for each hero, allowing them to strengthen specific units, and the effects increase when the favorability grows in the Favor system.

- New voices and dialogues lines for all initial tribe leaders.

All arms units remade
The basic properties, attack types, armor types, talents of all troops have been reworked in order to show more clearly the characteristics and upgrade paths of different arms units.

Legendary Elite Troop
Each tribe now owns its unique "Legendary Elite Troop". Besides, some epic creatures among neutral factions and monsters might also meet the qualifications for "Legendary Elite Troop", such as dragons. "Legendary Elite Troop" will have the most powerful abilities, but will also have difficult recruitment conditions and upper limit of units.

Skill pages redesigned
We have redesigned 36 skill pages with different styles consisting of exclusive skills. Each profession or hero has at least 3 skill pages to build your unique fighting style.

Also note that the skill pages are not at your free disposal, which means you need to find out the right fighting style to build up an elite troop. We also have enriched the skill descriptions, hoping to help you train your teams more strategically!



[h3]New Gameplay[/h3]
Brawling in Tavern
"Not good at persuasion? Just answer with your fist!"A fresh gameplay mode - Brawling in Tavern will hit the desert. Travellers can learn simple brawl skills, and fight with strong wrestlers in small taverns. Sometimes your friends might lend you a helping hand.



Tournament
All tribes will regularly hold “Tournament” where you will encounter masters of tribes with some professional fighters by defeating whom you will get generous rewards.

Heroic Statue Challenge Adjusted
With heroic statues established in each area, Heroic Statue Challenge will open 1~3 times every 10 days regularly. Travellers will obtain powerful equipment after winning the challenge. The strength of the "heroic statue" is greatly enhanced and will continue to be enhanced when you level up.

Troop Crystal System
Players can utilize magical jewels to give arms units unique abilities. That is to say, arms units can also be buffed with equipment. Not anymore fixed ability values and skills. These magical jewels can be obtained from various high-level dungeon maps and purchased from jewel merchants.



Tribal Title System
Travellers can be rewarded in the tribe for their merits, obtaining noble titles and fiefdoms as well as leading their troops with their granted titles to fight in the desert!



NPC Favor System
Each NPC now has unique personalities. With random events happening all the time, their different characteristics will lead to distinguished results, which will further affect relationships between NPCs.

NPCs in the protagonist team will also be initiating different events according to their own personalities and will dynamically change their relationships. The player-character can provide advice to NPC fellows and their behaviors might change accordingly.



AI Rebellion System
When the relationships between the city lord and its tribal leaders start off a bit rocky, a rebellion might be triggered by the city lord to form a new tribe.

[h3]Gear, Resource & Specialty[/h3]
Additional attributes for gears
Add a large number of new attribute entries to equipment, which can potentially buff your gears and weapons with new skills or special effects. A Rare attribute entry can also make your gears more valuable to trade - merchants will be eager to buy your Rare equipment with tons of Utar!

Adjustment on players' economic growth curve
We have reduced the pace of access to resources, and adjusted the acquisition difficulty of Utar, Jade, and other resources. Town earnings and high-level troop recruitment costs have also been adjusted. Besides, some extra resources will be used in some new systems, such as salary and tournament systems, etc.

Rework Trading System
We have rearranged the distribution of product types and quantities in each area for trading.



A lot more voyaging merchants and NPCs
They will sell all kinds of animals, skills, mounts, or brawling skills.



[h3]Legacy Skills[/h3]
New assistant legacy & special legacy skills such as healing, summoning, and armor.

Removal of some old legacy skills such as "Sword Slam", "Guardian Mastery" and "Charge"

[h3]Talent System[/h3]
Rework a number of Talents: Rearrange and adjust their functions and values.

[h3]New Buildings[/h3]
New building - Medical Stations
Add Medical Stations in all major cities where you can spend resources to heal troops, or you can disband your team in exchange for some resources.

New Tribal Landmark
Add landmarks to some special towns.

[h3]Visual Art Optimizations[/h3]
- Remake the illustrations and models of professions

- New heroes' models: New stand-ups for the initial rulers of the major tribes.

- New tavern hostess models: [Sumayah] and [Basha]



- New icons for special tribal building: More than 40 new building icons designed based on tribal characteristics.

- Adjustment on the map and landscape: refine the sandbox map and landscape of major main cities.



[h3]UI[/h3]
- Adjustment on the team interface

- Modify the skill bar interface

- Adjustment on the inventory interface

- Modify the legacy page

- Adjustment on garrison management interface

- Adjustment on the interface of tribe main city

[h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
- Fix the bug of abnormal Talent reset

- Fix lagging issues

- Fix the bug of the random quests guide

- Fix the bug of being unable to appoint city ruler

- Fix the bug of equipment effects not being triggered

- Fix the bug where all NPCs would lose equipment durability when the main character entered specific battles and exploration dungeons

- Fix the bug that the main character's skills unable to be deleted from the skill bar

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If you would like to know more fresh details about our full launch, join us on Discord or contact us through [email protected].



Stay tuned and see you soon in the Great Desert!

Dear desert travelers,

How was your day in the desert today? Since last time we announced there would be a beta test before the full release, many of you have been looking forward to the completion of our English localization for this test. We are now excited to tell you that our English localization is in progress! Come to enroll yourself to the test!

With the last beta test before the full launch, travelers can experience not only all the redesigned skills and arm systems, but also the new content we mentioned in the previous roadmap. The detailed patch notes of new add-ins and adjustments can be found below.



We will be offering a bunch of players opportunities to test the beta version of the localized game through Discord. On the Discord server, you will have a chance to get involved in the playtest by signing up for the questionnaire FROM 20th TO 27th of October! Also, you are welcome to report the in-game issues encountered or give any of your suggestions for Sands of Salzaar.



The full release is attached much importance by our dev team. During a lot of discussions, we decided to have the final beta test before the release, as we announced in the previous worklogs. It does take some time for the test to invite players then give the feedback. Even though it may not follow the schedule, we still want to commit to the final optimizations and adjustments to the content before the full release.

During these months, our dev team endeavors to bring a fresh Sands of Salzaar with more vibrant content to you guys.

- Brand New Experience on Interface
We have optimized a large number of in-game interfaces, interactions and the models of tribal soldiers. Also, all maps in the game have also been refurbished, in which more details need travelers to explore!



- Rework All Characters’ Skills
In order to show the speciality of each character, we remade and optimized all skills for them. In addition, we have also added the exclusive command skills for each hero. With the increase in the favor, the command skills will also be able to strengthen specific units.



- More real on the Tribe Treatment

Becoming a sultan does not only reward your soldiers titles and fiefs, you can also dispatch troops to fight in the desert. In addition, the relationship between you and your soldiers is more flexible than before, in which case, travelers are likely to meet different events.

This time, by considering the new favor system, travelers may trigger a rebellion from the leader in the land! If you are not getting along well with these leaders, it is possible for them to leave the land, and form a new clan!

In this test, we will still pay attention to the feedback and suggestions of each traveler, and make the final update based on these before the full release.

Thanks for your patience on the content! Stay tuned and see you in the full launch!

G’day, our desert travellers!

We've kept receiving a great quantity of feedback and suggestions from y'all in the community! As always, we hope to reveal more of our plans as early as possible along with our current missions. In this announcement, hope you enjoy more info for our in-dev new contents that are upcoming with the full release.

At this point in time, the team will commit to the functional test regarding our current build, following with the bug fixes and gameplay refining based on testing feedback, and will prepare for the English localization process in the meantime. Once the localized version is ready for you to experience, we will open the English beta test and you are welcome to join our Discord, leaving any thoughts or comments there and receiving more fresh news about the development and beta test!




What Are We Working on

About the current dev progress, most of the forward-looking contents will be taken into consideration. Let’s check what are en route for you:

More Balanced and Abundant Arms System

Leading troops to fight with your party has always been an important entertainment activity in the desert, which is deeply influenced by the Arms System. Thinking of this, the full launch version of the Arms System will be more balanced and enriched. We decide to add the attributes for each arms unit, and create a brand new gem system.



NPC - Favor System

This time we will set each NPC an initial character disc. Under the action of random events, different character discs will lead to distinguished results, which will further affect the relationship between NPCs in the game. Travellers need to understand the relationship between NPCs to better allocate the combination of your fellows.



In the future, we also plan to connect NPCs with the Arms System mentioned above to give travellers more strategic choices.

Explore More on Boxing in Tavern

“Dissatisfied? Then FIGHT SOLO!” will be a new slogan for the desert travellers!

As has been said last time, we adopted the idea that travellers would also like to enjoy the gameplay of solo, providing a fresh gameplay mode - boxing in tavern. The tavern fight will be triggered based on the favor level between the traveller yourself and the NPCs. To win the solo challenge requires certain actions operated by players, in which case, determined by using lightweight build skills and controlling the timing of the move. Although the battle design will not be too hardcore or detailed, it will definitely provide travellers with a leisure time in the gap between busy quests.




Please expect and explore more fun in the mysterious desert, and stay tuned for more new content in the future!

G’day, our desert travelers!

We've received plenty of feedback and suggestions from y'all in the community since the kickoff of the early access. Thanks a lot for your brilliant ideas that provided our team and Sands of Salzaar with inspiration and couraged us to update in the past period. And now, we embark on a new journey towards a highly awaited full release with your valuable feedback.

[Early stage of Early Acess version]

Please check the roadmap below with abundant contents:



[h3]Enjoy the better visual experience[/h3]
As we are always seeking an artistic and practical user interface, many efforts have been devoted in UI optimization. In the full launch, we will provide a brand new user interface experience, helping your adventure to be more efficient, along with the reworked world map with higher graphic quality.

[The team interface in optimization]

[h3]Get ready to fight in the tavern[/h3]
Gameplays always attract the most attention of all the travelers, and we have always been working on adding fresh gameplay content in each major update to enrich the desert adventure. For the full release version, the devs are currently developing the new gameplay ‘Boxing in Tavern’. You can imagine how exciting it will be to make trouble in the tavern and infuriate the tavernkeeper! Wish you good luck to escape from the messy tavern.

["Boxing in Tavern" gamplay preview]

[h3]Win the favor of NPCs[/h3]
According to players' feedback from our community, we found that our desert travelers showed great passion for a richer social networks in-game. Therefore, for the next update, lots of fun will come with a deeper connection between you and NPCs, helping you win their admiration and trust. In the optimized favor system, various events will be triggered randomly, impacting the relationships between travelers and NPCs. Moreover, different NPC will bring different benefits to your force, which means more strategies are required in force recruiting. Make your choices and show you wisdom to build up an elite army!

[New random events in development]

[Newly optimized inventory preview]

Please stay tuned to our updated news, which will reveal more details around the full release, and certainly, the closed beta test is scheduled as well. Your precious feedback is expected for the game optimization, and we hope you enjoy the journey in Sands of Salzaar!

As always, you are welcome to report the in-game issues encountered or give any of your suggestions for Sands of Salzaar, join us on Discord or contact us through [email protected].



Thanks for your patience on the content update and full release. See you in the launch version!

Hi desert travellers!

We are releasing a bug fix patch following our April update. We located bugs by collecting feedback from the gaming community, and we appreciate your support just as always.



We resolved a list of bugs promptly with the help of you guys, such as fixing the issue of Herbalist quest in the Cotta Town, adding the original price of the product and the information of the specialty in the updated interfaces for players who enjoy running a business a lot, and more.



For more details, please read the patch note below. As usual, join our Discord or send us an email to [email protected] if you have further issues or feedback!



[h3]2021-4-23 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.3.2)[/h3]

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the error where player was unable to complete the quest after handing in 5000 Utar to Ghodja;
  
• Fixed Ghodja’s route back home in the night time;
  
• Revised the text of the pop-up window after failing to persuade the fisherman in Agadir;
  
• Fixed the bug where the cost was unable to be viewed in the Item Details;
  
• Fixed the bug where the information of the specialty was unable to be viewed in the new Trading interface;
  
• Fixed the bug where a few certain models failed to act on the map. (e.g.: The quest of Gulzar, etc.);
  
• Fixed the visual bug of a few certain items in the inventory;
  
• Fixed the anomaly of using items after sorting in the inventory;
  
• Fixed the bug where players were unable to combat with Shaitan again once failed, along with the bug of quest navigation;
  

Adjustments

• Optimized the sorting function in the new inventory interface, players now could start sorting by one click on the sorting button, instead of by keep scrolling the window;
  
• Optimized the function of dragging items in the inventory, players now no longer need to drag by pressing and holding the button.