Salt 2 News

[h2]Lockpicking, Fishing, and Sextant mechanics[/h2]
The placeholder mechanics for lockpicking, reeling in a fish, and taking readings with the sextant have been updated. For lockpicking and fishing, you must complete a simple and quick mini-game to unlock and reel in a fish respectively. Sextants now require you to take a proper reading. Look through the scope and aim it towards the sun during the day, or the moon at night to determine your location. This is a simplified version of using a real sextant, which measures the angle between a celestial body and the horizon.

Complete a small mini-game to pick a lock.

Click at the right time to reel in a hooked fish.

Look through the sextant's scope and aim towards the sun or moon to take a proper reading.


[h2]Exploration Talents[/h2]
When you mark an island on your map, you now gain experience in the exploration skill. A new exploration skill talent tree has been added where you can select some minor benefits as you gain levels in this new skill.

The exploration talent tree can be found in the skills window

[h2]Fishing and Exploration Logs[/h2]
Two new items have been added that you can place on your ship. These are the Fishing Log and Exploration Log, which can be purchased or looted. As you catch more fish and discover more places of interest, these logs will update with extra information about the fish or location that you have discovered.

The fishing and exploration log on your ship.

The fishing log shows details about fish you have discovered.

The exploration log shows details about interesting places that you have discovered.


A new pirate vault dungeon can be discovered on some pirate islands. Find and obtain two key shards from pirates on the island in order to gain entrance.

Inside a pirate vault.

[h2]Changes[/h2]

• Added pirate vault islands that contain some new dungeons.
  
• Made lockpicking more interactive.
  
• Updated the mechanics for using the sextant. Look through the scope and aim towards the sun or moon to take a location reading.
  
• Updated fishing mechanic.
  
• Added Fishing Log Book item that can be placed on your ship. This book allows you to view your fishing discoveries.
  
• Added a new exploration log object that you can place on your ship. As you discover select points of interest, entries with information about them will be added to the log.
  
• Added exploration skill tree. Exploration skill increases as you mark islands on your map.
  
• Updated to the latest Unity engine version.
  
• Dialogue text is now revealed over time. You can click to instantly reveal the text.
  
• Added camera animation when you cast a fishing pole and when a fish bites.
  
• Reduced the prices on some fishing lures.
  
• Ask for confirmation before selling an equipped or hot-keyed item.
  
• Items marked as not allowed to be sold no longer show up when selling to a merchant.
  
• The Guise of Davy Jones fight is now repeatable with the right remembrance item.
  
• Added different tiered versions of the Pendant of the Veil.
  
• Added a legend to map ui.
  
• Adjusted the position of islands near the starting island slightly to improve the flow for new players.
  
• Added a new fishing quest.
  
• Added lens flare to Spyglass visuals.
  
• Added a small visual effect to herb foliage and wood saplings when you loot them.
  
• Added an option to hide the reticle hit indicators.
  
• Added an option to disable the button prompts that are always on the screen.
  
• Added an option to turn off volumetric fog. This setting is automatically off if the game detects that the system does not support volumetric fog.
  
• Added reset buttons for each individual section in the settings interface.
  
• You can now adjust count selection with the mouse scroll wheel
  
• Autosave should now cause less of a stutter.
  
• The Guise of Davy Jones is now more likely to roll rare talents.
  
• Increased the drop rate of fishing hooks and added them to some new merchant tables.
  
• The music in the crusty clam tavern music now respects music volume.
  
• Fixed an issue where going into Graham's house would send you to Oscar's house.
  
• Fixed an issue where some items couldn't be looted.
  
• Reduced UI health bar and name jitter for NPCs on ships.
  
• Fixed some weapons receiving blood decals.
  
• Fixed duplicate effect description on King's pistol.
  
• Fixed Cloak and Dagger talent description to indicate carrying a piercing weapon is required to activate the effect.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Mad King's Shipwreck where your raft could get stuck on the portcullis.
  
• Fixed ship push force being too high.
  
• Fixed the item details window not re-opening immediately after you click the top entry in the merchant window.
  
• Fixed fire tornado graphics not showing up.
  
• Fixed an issue where the quest chest as part of the "Pieces of Evil" quest would sometimes not spawn.
  
• Fixed not being able to hear ocean sounds when in a ship's crow's nest.
  
• Fixed some text being long to fit in the dialogue window.
  
• Fixed crusty clam music not stopping when you leave the tavern.
  
• Fixed unspent talent indicator above the Skills tab not taking into account the Marksman, Throwing, and Exploration talent trees.
  
• Fixed issue where resolution setting would display the wrong resolution.
  
• Fixed being able to interact with objects when looking through a spyglass.
  
• Fixed scroll speed in help window too slow.
  
• Fixed some UI issues when using wide resolutions.
  
• Fixed salvaging/destroying items from within the item inspection window not closing the window afterward.
  
• Fixed the wrong merchant spawning on the Blackpowder Bazaar merchant ship sometimes.
  

Our latest update is now available on the Steam beta branch. If you want to opt into the beta branch and help us find bugs before the public release, you can follow the instructions here.

This update includes a lot of new changes including a brand new pirate island with pirate vaults for you to explore, a new exploration skill tree, new fishing mechanics, a new fishing log to keep up with all the fish you've discovered, and other changes.


[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

• Added pirate vault islands that contain some new dungeons.
  
• Updated fishing mechanic.
  
• Added Fishing Log Book item that can be placed on your ship. This book allows you to view your fishing discoveries.
  
• Added exploration skill tree.
  
• Updated to the latest Unity engine version.
  
• Dialogue text is now revealed over time. You can click to instantly reveal the text.
  
• Added camera animation when you cast a fishing pole and when a fish bites.
  
• Reduced the prices on some fishing lures.
  
• The music in the crusty clam tavern music now respects music volume.
  
• Fixed an issue where going into Graham's house would send you to Oscar's house.
  
• Increased the drop rate of fishing hooks and added them to some new merchant tables.
  
• Fixed an issue where some items couldn't be looted.
  
• Reduced UI health bar and name jitter for NPCs on ships.
  
• Fixed some weapons receiving blood decals.
  
• The Guise of Davy Jones is now more likely to roll rare talents.
  
• Autosave should now cause less of a stutter.
  
• Removed duplicate effect description on King's pistol.
  
• Update Cloak and Dagger talent description to indicate carrying a piercing weapon is required to activate the effect.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Mad King's Shipwreck where your raft could get stuck on the portcullis.
  

Ahoy mateys!

We've got another new update we plan on pushing to beta branch probably within the next couple of weeks. Today we wanted to give you an overview of what content you can expect to come in the upcoming patch.


[h2]Exploration Skill Tree[/h2]


In the next patch we're including a brand new skill tree related to exploration. As you discover new islands, you'll earn experience towards your exploration skill, unlocking new talent nodes on your exploration skill tree. These skills will have various effects like increasing your sailing speed, more weight capacity, extra materials when salvaging, and more.


[h2]Pirate Vaults[/h2]


This update will also include a new pirate island with a pirate vault on it. In order to access this vault, you'll have to hunt down vault guards scattered across the island and obtain their key fragments, ultimately crafting these into the final key required to enter the vault. Once inside you'll face a dungeon with puzzles, traps, and enemies before arriving at the treasure.


[h2]POI Variety[/h2]


Another area of focus for this update is improvements to exploration and more variety in points of interests. We've gone through a lot of the common islands you find, like pirate islands, and added more variety to the types of points of interest that can spawn on those islands, including more environmental story telling.


[h2]CO-OP Progress[/h2]


We are very close now and expect the CO-OP update to hopefully be in a public testing stage within the next couple of updates. Mostly we are finalizing syncing boss fights and puzzle logic. That is almost done and then we'll be focused on a few other final fixes before heading to a public testing stage.

• Fixed some particle effects such as breath bubbles in underwater caves not showing up.
  

• Fixed the Pirate Legend achievement not including the throwing skill.
  
• Fixed the Necromancer boss regenerating health between phases.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause your avatar appearance to change. Note that this fix will cause your avatar appearance to reset. You can interact with a mirror in a seaport to change it.
  
• Fixed a bug where your ship would despawn if you died.