Salt 2 News

Hey everyone!

In today's dev update we want to talk about some of the final major systems we've been implementing in preparation for the early access launch. In case you missed it in our last dev update, we are currently planning on releasing sometime in May. We are getting the near the end but still have some loose ends we need to tie up and some more polishing to do. Here's a look at what we've implementing and have been working on over the past couple months.



[h2]Dialogue[/h2]



A major system we were still missing was a dialogue system. This is very important not just to be able to talk to various NPCs you find in the world, but also to pick up and turn in quests. We needed a system to handle different quest states, the ability to take items from the player or give the player items, and the ability to chain quests together for guild quests and the main quest. We've got that system now mostly in and working. It still needs some testing and polish but overall it's working well.

Although a large part of the game is going to be about exploring and survival, we really want there to be some fun and quirky NPCs for you to find and talk to including merchants, quest givers, and just general islanders.

[h2]Merchants[/h2]




In addition to the dialogue system, we also knew we needed a merchant system. There's a ton of loot in the game and you probably aren't going to want to keep it all. Merchants can generally be found at Sea Ports and are a great way to sell some of your unwanted gear in exchange for some coin. Merchants also sometimes have quests and unique items that you can't get anywhere else. A large part of the implementation process for things like dialogue and merchants is the UI design. We have to make sure you can see all the information you need at a glance, have the ability to buy back items, and things like that. Merchants are now in the game and working so we're happy to say that's another system implemented and ready to go for launch.

[h2]Cooking and Crafting
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One thing I'm really happy about so far with the game is the amount of items that you can craft. We've added a ton of things for you to do with the materials you find in the world. You can craft hundreds of different armor pieces and weapons, over 80 different ship decoration items, and now we're implementing cooking recipes. Throughout your journey in Salt you'll be able to loot and find various cooking ingredients and use these to make a lot of different recipes including meals and potions. These items will often heal you for some amount, prevent you from starving, and also give you some kind of bonus for a certain amount of time. The more rare the recipe, the better the bonus to your stats. We're currently working on about 50 different meal recipes for you to find and cook and more will be added later.

[h2]Enemy Spawns and Secrets
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Another major area we've been working on is filling our caves and points of interest with enemies and secrets. Once we got the areas visually how we wanted them, we now are going through them and strategically placing certain enemy types and hiding secrets all throughout. This means you may be delving deep into a cave only to discover a locked door with a hidden key or a secret wall. We want exploration to be fun and rewarding and our hand built POIs are a great way for us to do this.


[h2]Coming Up
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One aspect of the game we are still working on and want to get in a better state before release is the quest design. There will be a few different type of quests in the game including town commission quests, side quests, and guild quests. Some of these will be simple tasks that you can pick up for a town board and complete as you go about your normal journey. Other quests will be more specific and involved. We'll have more news on this front soon.



As always thank you all for your support and patience. The game is coming along great and we are so excited for you to get to play it soon! Also, if you are a Kickstarter backer, rewards will be sent out soon. We've got all the physical rewards in and are just checking to make sure everyone has their correct shipping address updated. Once that's complete we'll be sending out physical rewards in the next few months.

Hey everyone!

The Holidays are almost here but we wanted to share with you an update on some of the systems we've been implementing recently and what's to come before early access launch. We also wanted to give you an update on when we think launch might be and what we have left to do. Let's dive in!


[h2]Skeletons[/h2]


To start off with we added a brand new enemy type to the game: Skeletons! Enemy variety is something we'll be expanding on more in future updates, but we wanted there to at least be something other that pirates and wildlife to find in the world. Skeletons often hang around ancient ruins and cave shrines. Through lore books and the main story you'll uncover the reason behind these necromantic beings appearing throughout the isles.

[h2]Crafting Recipes
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A huge amount of work recently has gone into our crafting system. We've been working on adding literally hundreds of crafting recipes, refined materials, and interesting crafting components to make a robust crafting system. In a recent update we talked about how we were adding a ton of weapons and armor as loot drops throughout the world. Well, we've also added crafting recipes for their counter parts. If you recall, weapons will have random talents based on their rarity tier. One of the main benefits of crafting weapons is increasing the odds you'll get the talent roll you want, since you can craft an item multiple times so long as you have the required components.

We also want finding crafting components to be a fun part of the game. While exploring you'll be able to find lore books and NPCs that can help point you in the direction of rare crafting recipes. For example, you may find a book that details how a certain mushroom only grows high up in cave ruins. Or an NPC might mention a certain flower that can only be found on particular islands. Either way, we want you to actually learn the world and where to find the items.

Crafting is going to be a major part of Salt 2 and we are so excited for all the things you'll be able to craft: ship upgrades, weapons, armor, trinkets, meals, fishing lures, tools, and more!

[h2]Skills and Talent Trees
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In the last dev update we detailed how we started adding in skill systems for the various things you do in the game. So if you go mining ore you'll gain skill experience in mining. If you go fishing you'll gain skill experience in fishing and so on. As those skills level up you'll unlock the talents for that particular skill tree.

Over the last month we've spent a lot of time adding unique talents for each tree. As you can imagine this is a lot of work but we're making good progress on it. For example we have talents that do certain damage to certain enemy types and talents that cause bleed effects. It's possible not every skill tree will be in at launch but we will be continuing to work on this and add more as we go.

Currently there are thirteen planned skill trees for Salt 2. We're going to prioritize the ones you will use the most for the time being and update more later as the game progresses.

[h2]Combat Improvements
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We've also recently been making more combat improvements. We added the ability to do a secondary powerful attack with various weapons. We also added in new death animations for certain enemies and new sounds. Now different enemy types have idle sounds and various attack sounds making the combat feel more dynamic. We also added in an effect system. This means certain talents or abilities can cause an effect to occur on an enemy (or yourself for that matter.) For example, the bleed effect talent from the slashing tree uses the effect system.

[h2]Roadmap and Release Times
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We've been developing games now for about seven years and I still think the hardest thing to do is estimate when a game will be ready for release. We're a small team making a fairly large scale game and sometimes things go quicker than you expect, but sometimes things also take a lot longer. At the same time, we don't want to be too ambiguous about when the game will launch and so our goal has been to try to do these dev updates frequently and just let you know what's going on every step of the way.

I know you all are super to eager for the alpha/beta tests to start, and for the full game to release. I can honestly say we are getting very close! It's important that we have all the major systems in the game and have a fun polished experience for you when the game launches. As of right now it looks like we'll likely be able to start alpha/beta testing in March or April and will probably launch closer to May. It's possible some things get implemented quickly and we actually can launch sooner, but I want to be as conservative as possible.

Here's the major things we still need to get done before launch.

- Dialogue System
- Merchants
- Survival Mechanics
- Map
- Finish Quest Implementation
- General expansion of content

Some of these things will go quicker than others and we think we can get these implemented in the next few months. However, we also want to allow time for testing and polishing these systems. So once they are in and we do our first pass, we'll start the alpha tests, fix issues from that, then run the beta test, fix issues, and finally launch.


Thank you everyone so much for your patience and we couldn't do this without your support.

Ahoy fellow sea adventurers!

In today's update I want to focus on some of the major new systems we've been implementing and what's still left to do before the early access launch. Also, if you are a Kickstarter backer and are expecting a physical reward, those will be shipped out soon! We sent messages to Kickstarter backers a couple weeks ago asking you to update your mailing address. So if you pledged in a tier to receive a physical reward, please let us know if your mailing address is the same or has changed and we will get those sent out soon.

Let's dive in!


[h2]Skill System
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With Salt 2 being a procedurally generated world, we want to make sure there is a good bit of depth to content and a "grind" in the good sense. We want you to have different areas you can focus on, invest your time in, and be rewarded for doing so. All the while continuing to explore onward and forward.

One way we are achieving this is through a skill system. As you do various things in the world you will receive experience towards that skill. For example, if you mine some iron ore you'll receive some skills in mining. If you defeat a pirate with a cutlass you'll receive experience towards the slashing skill. Each skill will have its own talent tree. As you level up in the skill, you'll unlock points you can spend on the talent tree until you hit the level cap. Currently each skill cap is being set to level 50 but we may increase this in future updates.

There will be a good variety of skills at early access launch and we may add more later. Getting to max level in every skill will take a while and so this is a good way for you to not only be rewarded for focusing on certain skills, but to give you a constant reward to chase even in an infinite world.

[h2]Quest System
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Another system we've implemented recently is our quest system. There will be a variety of quests in Salt 2 including a main story, side quests, and tasks you can pick up in towns. The main story quest will likely come after early access launch but we want there to be a good variety of side quests and commissions you can do to make money and earn loot. We've built a quest journal system so you can track your quests and a quest indicator on the main screen to let you know what your current objective is and how far along you are in the quest line. We'll have more information later on what types of quests you can get but you can expect things like hunting quests, bounty hunts, fishing commissions, and more.

[h2]Loot Variations
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Salt 2 isn't just focused on crafting, exploration, and survival. It's also about the loot. As big fans of looter games we wanted to make sure that loot has a ton of variation. This is also very important in an infinite game like Salt. We don't want you to feel like you've found and looted all the weapons in the first 10 hours of play.



Here's the way loot variation will work. Each weapon or piece of armor will have one of five rarities: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. There will also be different stats for each piece of gear. So for example a cutlass might have a bonus to strength, agility, constitution, dexterity, or a combination. In addition to that variety, the rarity of the item will determine how many tiers of talents it can roll on. A common weapon only has one tier of talents but a legendary will have five tiers. Each tier will have two talent choices. These talents are chosen randomly from a pool of talents. This means there can be hundreds of combinations of each piece of gear when you factor in the stats and talent variations.



This allows for a Diablo-like system where you are looking for a specific roll. For example you might be looking for an Epic Cutlass with a bonus to dexterity/strength, and with the life steal talent or other specific talents. As you explore the world, defeat enemies, and loot gear from chests, these items will randomly drop and you might just get that god roll you were looking for.

In addition to looting items, you'll also be able to find crafting recipes for gear and that will give you a little bit more control over what type of gear you want. So for example, if you have a crafting recipe for a rare cutlass and you have enough components, you can craft multiple of those, each one with a random roll thereby increasing your chance to find that perfect roll.

We still want unique weapons in the game as well though. So sometimes a boss might drop a weapon specific to him that has a specific set of unique talents and stats. But overall we want you to have a large variety of weapons and armor to hunt for while you explore the world.

[h2]New Points of Interests
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We are also constantly adding new points of interests as well. Recently we've started adding in sea ports, shipwrecks, and loot caves. Sea ports will be the main hub for merchants and quests in the game. When you find a port you'll be able to pick up quests from the local town board, buy and sell items from merchants, and talk to the local villagers. We are so excited for you to get to explore all the various places in the game. We're working hard to continue to add a good variation of caves, ancient ruins, pirate camps, and more to the game so you'll have a good variety of content even in an infinite world.


[h2]What's Next?
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In case you missed it, we have pushed our original release schedule back to early next year. It's really important to us that the game is in a polished state and has a good bit of content at early access launch, and so we're taking the extra time needed to do that. We've still got some major systems to implement such as a dialogue system, fast travel mechanic, quests, and a few other things. If you have pledged on Kickstarter and are wondering when the alpha/beta tests are going to start, I'd say our best estimate right now is January or February 2022. We will likely run 1-2 weeks of an alpha test, spend a couple weeks fixing bugs and making changes from that test, and then we'll run a beta test and do the same for it. Then we'll be releasing shortly after that once we get everything balanced and polished.


Thank you so much everyone for your patience and we can't wait to release Salt 2 and see you out on the sea!

Ahoy Mateys!

We've got another dev update for you and wanted to let you know what we've been working on over the past month. In case you missed it in the last update, we have moved the Early Access release date for Salt 2 from October of this year to February of 2022. We realize delays are never fun but we really want the game to be in a polished state, even at early access release. This delay is only a few months but gives us time to finish adding in the systems we want and to run the alpha/beta tests. As of right now, the plan is to do an alpha test probably in December and a beta test in January. If you pledged on Kickstarter, we will also be sending out physical rewards in the next few months.

Thank you all so much for your patience. Let's dive into what we've been working on recently!


[h2]New Wildlife
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We recently implemented a new dangerous form of wildlife, the bear. These bears can often be found hiding out in animal dens awaiting any would-be treasure hunters. Bears are quick and dangerous, and you'll have to be on your toes to take one out. However, they often guard nice loot and can be worth the battle.

[h2]The Raft
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Salt just wouldn't be Salt without the raft. If you've played Salt 1, this raft will feel like a pretty good upgrade. We wanted the raft to not only be a good starter boat, but also a nice way to ferry from a large ship to an island if you want. Along with this we've started implementing new ship and ocean sounds to really create an immersive and satisfying experience sailing the sea. We'll have more ships coming soon.

[h2]New Loot System
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Loot is a huge part of Salt. Treasure can be found all over the world whether it's deep in a pirate cave or nestled in some ancient ruins. We recently start adding more loot to item containers in the world and systems to handle containers that might be empty. In Salt 2, there will be a weight system so you'll have to be particular about what you want to loot. Sometimes it might be worth looting some junk items just to dismantle them into crafting components or to sell them, but sometimes you may want to save some space for that new epic pirate sword you found. We've also added a save system that remembers what you've looted in what container. So if you open a container and don't loot it or only partially loot it, those items will still be in there should you return later.

[h2]Enemy AI and Weapon Damage
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We've also been adding new systems to improve enemy AI and how they behave to make it more polished and fun. In addition to that we've added systems for varying weapon damage based on the items rarity. We want weapons to be powerful but not too predictable. This means not every hit will always be the exact same damage. It will take into account not only the item's stats, but also the enemies armor. The more powerful a weapon is though, the greater its chance of dealing more damage and its damage range increases.

[h2]Lore and Secrets
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Not only are we making hundreds of points of interest for you to explore, but we are hiding all kinds of secrets throughout them. We've recently added a new breakable rock that will reveal secret areas in caves. You'll have to learn what these look like and be on the lookout for them while exploring. We've also been adding lots of new lore books that give more information to the world history and background lore of Salt.


Overall things are moving along great with Salt 2's development and we are getting very close to an early access release. Our main focus right is to finish adding in a few systems that still need to be implemented, expand the general content of the game a bit, and then polish/test before launch.

As always thanks for reading!

Hello everyone!

We've got another dev update for you and just wanted to let you know what we've been working on over the past month, as well as new information regarding release times for alpha/beta tests, and when the game will potentially launch. Let's dive in.


[h2]Item Talents
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One feature we are really excited about in Salt 2 is weapon and armor talents. When you craft or loot a piece of gear it will have a certain number of talents that can be unlocked based on the item's rarity. The talents are randomly picked from a pool of talents and so items can come in a lot of different combinations. We took some inspiration from games like Diablo 3 and Destiny to design this system and we think it will work really well within the gameplay loop. While exploring you'll constantly be delving into a massive caves in search of loot or leveling up your crafting skill to make high level gear. We want this process to have a lot of replayability and this will allow you to hunt for certain talents. For example you may be on the lookout for an epic scimitar with a unique high level talent on it. This system also still allows us to make unique weapons with unique talents that can drop from bosses or as quest rewards.

[h2]Crafting System
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A major gameplay feature in Salt 2 will be crafting. We've been working a lot on the crafting UI, item weight system, item rarities, talents, and all that goes into crafting items. Although you'll find a lot of loot and gold while exploring, we want crafting to be very rewarding in and of itself. If you choose spend time crafting items and leveling up your crafting skills, you'll be able to make some high level unique items and a lot of gold doing so.

[h2]Lore Books
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We recently implemented a lot of new lore and journals into the game, as well as a book you hold in your hand to read them. We wanted the journals to feel authentic and having it in the main UI just didn't feel as good as holding a book in your hand. In Salt you'll be able to find a lot of different journals that add some life and background to the world. You may discover a fisherman's journal at a fishing hut, or a pirate's log deep in a pirate cave. We've written hundreds of books and are excited for you to explore the lore of the world and uncover funny and interesting stories.




[h2]New Points of Interests and Visuals
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As always we're constantly working on adding new areas to explore. We recently started working on fishing huts that can spawn on the outskirts of island. We're also adding some fun challenges to caves like locked cellars, hidden passages behind breakable boulders, secret levers that open gates to pirate treasure, and more. In addition to that we've been adding some new foliage like flowers, sand grass, and other models to make the islands more varied in the way they look.

[h2]Release Time Update
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Our original Early Access release goal for Salt 2 was October 2021 (this year.) We're making great progress on development and are getting close to where we want to be for release, but we want to make sure we don't rush it and take time to run alpha/beta tests, fix bugs, and polish up the game before launch. We are only two developers and are working as hard as we can but we really want to make sure the first impressions for Salt 2 are as good as possible.

As of right now we plan on delaying the Early Access launch of the game till January or February of 2022. This is only a delay of a few months but will allow us to get the game in a great state, test it, and really spend some time ironing out the kinks before launch. We know delays are never fun news but we want to make sure Salt 2 is a great experience and not riddled with bugs and issues on launch. This means we will likely run an alpha test around October or November, and a beta test in December if all goes according to plan.

Thanks so much for everyone's support and understanding. We've seen so many cases where games come out too early and the first impressions really suffer as a result. We want to make sure that doesn't happen.

As always thank you all for reading and feel free to reach out to us on Discord anytime if you have any questions.