Sands of Salzaar News

Sands of Salzaar Early Access Update 0.8.0.5 is now live! In addition to what’s included in the update preview, we added a couple more fixes in this update, you can check out the full patch note below.

And just a reminder that our second modding event is still ongoing, which you can read about here. Feel free to contact us on Discord for any modding related questions as well!



You can find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

If you encounter further problems, please join us on our Discord server and let us know in the bug report channel, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!



[h2]2020-09-30 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.0.5)[/h2]

Additions

• Added a sample humanoid animation set to ModSamples, this includes animation attributes such as how it should react when on a mount, for modding references.
  

Bugfixes

• Difficulty multipliers now scale AI unit strength correctly.
  
• When inspecting other parties in the world, clicking to inspect party members now correctly closes previous windows.
  
• Typing M when customizing map markers no longer closes the window.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when persuading NPCs to defect when the player has a full party.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when displaying messenger dialogue (such as after a weekly faction payout).
  
• A number of item attribute display fixes.
  
• Radiant Staff now properly has an attack visual effect.
  
• Correctly formatted item affix display in English version of the game.
  
• Various UI and text fixes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the shop to only refresh on hosts in multiplayer.
  

Adjustments

• Rebalanced how legacy points are earned. You can now gain 20 legacy from the final boss on difficulty 0.
  
• Some gift items are labeled Special Items.
  
• Added an error tolerance mechanic to the dialogue system. Incorrect game logic IDs now trigger error notifications and UI issues, but will no longer soft lock the game.
  

Hi everyone! We recently launched our second modding event which you can read about here. To better support the modding community and encourage your creativity, in our next update we will be releasing a new set of mod samples which includes reference points on character animation.

The way legacy points are calculated is also getting adjustments in this update, you will be able to gain legacy points when finishing the story mode on difficulty 0.



In addition, we are pushing a small update later today, fixing an issue causing the game to incorrectly launch in Chinese instead of English.

You can find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any further problem, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!



Read the patch notes for this update below:

[h3][h2]2020-09-29 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.0.5)[/h2][/h3]

Preliminary, may include additional changes once the update goes live.

Additions

• Added a sample humanoid animation set to ModSamples, this includes animation attributes such as how it should react when on a mount, for modding references.
  

Bugfixes

• When inspecting other parties in the world, clicking to inspect party members now correctly closes previous windows.
  
• Typing M when customizing map markers no longer closes the window.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when persuading NPCs to defect when the player has a full party.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when displaying messenger dialogue (such as after a weekly faction payout).
  
• A number of item attribute display fixes.
  
• Radiant Staff now properly has an attack visual effect.
  
• Correctly formatted item affix display in English version of the game.
  

Adjustments

• Changed how legacy points are earned. You can now gain 20 legacy from the final boss on difficulty 0.
  
• Some gift items are labeled Special Items.
  

The newest update for Sands of Salzaar is now live! This update introduces a major redesign of the town infiltration mechanic, addresses difficulty option related issues introduced by our last update, and contains a number of main story bugfixes, you can read the patch notes further down below.

You can also find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any issue, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!



[h3]2020-09-28 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.0.4)[/h3]

Additions

• Redesigned town infiltration mechanics. You can now try to sneak in during day time, but with much lower success rate. Your chance of success is tied to your party size, the more people you try to sneak in with, the less likely you'll succeed. A failed infiltration will trigger a small scale skirmish with guards, defeat them to continue your infiltration.
  
• Added 4 new urban battle environments.

Bugfixes

• The Sultan can now properly upgrade the Sawmill.
  
• Pre 0.8.0.3 saves (before we changed the prerequisite for the difficulty select function) now automatically adds 1 difficulty level a shortwhile after loading.
  
• Fixed an issue causing The Nameless's Arcane Portal to be able to access the Ifrit town earlier than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from talking to Husnu after helping the Nasir defeat all other tribes.
  
• Fixed a rare issue preventing players from progressing the main story after defeating all five tribes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain skills to become unlearnable in the Book of Fire quest.
  
• Players can now talk to the Ifrit mother again after interacting with the fruit first.
  
• The Ifrit towns now have more building variety other than Caster Watchtowers.

Adjustments

• (Multiplayer) Improved bare handed attack speed and adjusted attack range.
  
• (Multiplayer) Improved attack speed for sword, knife, spear, hammer and boardsword weapons. Adjusted their attack range and added new visual effect.
  
• (Multiplayer) Improved attack speed for bow and sub weapons.
  
• You can now pay the Sultan of a tribe that has you wanted to call off the contract without needing to talk to the leader.
  
• Chaka of Limestone Village now has a specialty gift item.

We are releasing another update soon, this update addresses difficulty option related issues introduced by our last update, and a number of main story bugfixes, you can read the patch notes below.

You can also find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any issue, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!



[h3]2020-09-27 Codename: Battle of the Black Sun (0.8.0.4)[/h3]

Preliminary, may include additional changes once the update goes live.

Bugfixes

• The Sultan can now properly upgrade the Sawmill.
  
• Pre 0.8.0.3 saves (before we changed the prerequisite for the difficulty select function) now automatically adds 1 difficulty level a shortwhile after loading.
  
• Fixed an issue causing The Nameless's Arcane Portal to be able to access the Ifrit town earlier than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from talking to Husnu after helping the Nasir defeat all other tribes.
  
• Fixed a rare issue preventing players from progressing the main story after defeating all five tribes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain skills to become unlearnable in the Book of Fire quest.
  
• Players can now talk to the Ifrit mother again after interacting with the fruit first.
  
• The Ifrit towns now have more building variety other than Caster Watchtowers.

Adjustments

• Pressing F5 (default quick save hotkey) now automatically saves the game to the autosave slot without having to click the save game dialogue.
  
• Improved bare handed attack speed and adjusted attack range.
  
• Improved attack speed for sword, knife, spear, hammer and boardsword weapons. Adjusted their attack range.

Dear desert travelers,

Since the launch of the English localization edition, we’ve been receiving lots of attention, kind support, and feedback from our players worldwide, among which we notice that many of you are asking about the English mod support.

Currently, the English Mod Editor is still under testing but fully open to our modders. Our devs are working on fine-tuning English modding tools and updating the mod developer manual. In the meantime, we hope to encourage our players to take a shot at creating some English mods, which will help the devs better troubleshoot potential modding problems as well as bring new energy to our global modding community.



[h2]Special Modding Event #2[/h2]
During the first Sands of Salzaar Modding Event in May, our incredible modders fully unleashed their power of creativity and imagination, developing a variety of inspiring mods. This time, we decided to open the second Special Modding Event to players worldwide, encouraging our English players to get started on mod development as well. Here are the general event rules:

• The Modding Event is open from Sept. 26th to Oct. 18th to players worldwide.
  
• All Event mods need to be uploaded to Steam Workshop.
  
• For English mods, modders need to tag their Event mods with “[Mod Event]” at the beginning of their mod names, e.g. “[Mod Event] Medieval map”.
  
• We will select some best mods among the entries and offer their modders special prizes, including one First Prize worth $1100, two Second Prize worth $740 each, three Third Prize worth $370 each, and 10 Participation Prize worth $70 each.
  

To help English modders understand how to use the Mod Editor, the devs have prepared a full documentation of English mod development in the official wiki and will keep updating the manual with instructional videos in the future. If you encounter any problems when creating English mods, please join us on our Discord and our team will be there ready to answer any questions and help solve your modding issues.

[h2]Pick Localized Mods in Workshop [/h2]
There are already hundreds of mods available in Steam Workshop, featuring custom maps, new characters, themes, perks and more. To provide English players with a more diverse gaming experience, some of our modders have uploaded their localized mods to Workshop. If you wanna subscribe to these mods, go to the Workshop in-game and select “English Localized Mods” in the drop-down menu at the upper-left corner of the screen to browse the list.



Please note that these mods may contain some untranslated parts and bugs, but the modders in our community are willing to listen to your feedback and optimize their work. There will be more translated mods coming in the future. If you want to see your favorite mod or a particular type of mods to be localized, leave your comments below or in our Discord!