Salt News

Update 1.9.6 - Storms of the Sea is finally here! This update includes a lot of great new changes such as weather and storms, a new NPC, and a lot more. Let's dive into some of the content you can expect to find in this update.




One of the biggest changes in this update is the introduction of weather! Now throughout the world of Salt you can experience cloudy days, rain, and storms. Weather really adds a nice sense of dynamics to the world and helps it feel more alive. Along with the weather we've included some new related items we think you'll find fun as well.




Throughout the world you will now be able to find a new NPC known as The Blacksmith. He offers various new loot for you to get as well as a new item known as salvage tools. These materials allow you to salvage some of your excess weapons for resources!




Also in this update is the inclusion of ship cannons! Around various pirate villages you can now find cannons and cannonballs. These are useful for placing your ship and blasting pirates from afar! We also anticipate these to be quite fun once multiplayer is implemented.




Another fun introduction in this update is the player avatar. Now in the UI you can see what your character looks like with various clothing on. Equipping chest armor will affect the look of your outfit and you can also equip various hats for visuals as well.




This update includes a lot of other changes such as jungle challenge chests, bug fixes, and general game balance changes. Here is a full of list of the patch notes:

• Added weather and associated content.
  
• Added a window where you can see your character's appearance in the inventory UI.
  
• Added a new NPC to be found on islands.
  
• Added cannons that you can find and place on your ships.
  
• Adjusted the stats on some items.
  
• Implemented jungle island challenge chests
  
• Adjusted the number of pirates that spawn on some islands.
  
• Fixed a bug where some fish were not able to be caught when they were supposed to.
  
• A single stat (concealment) now affects how well and far away enemies can see you.
  
• The stealth stat affects how well an enemy can hear you.
  
• Torches now reduce your concealment.
  
• What journal you can find in a particular hunting shacks and abandoned camp sites will now be consistent for all players on a given world seed.
  
• How many enemies remain on an island is now saved when you quit the game and come back.
  
• Fixed moonrock not glowing properly.
  
• Many enemies now leave footprints. This can be adjusted in the options.
  
• Arrows now inherit your velocity.
  
• Pirates no longer collide with each other, keeping them from stacking, but allowing them to occupy the same position sometimes.
  
• Weight now reduces your sprint speed by 1 m/s for every 5 weight.
  
• Fixed trees spawning inside some abandoned camp sites.
  
• Removed extra hitbox from player that caused double-hits in some instances
  
• Changed the visual effects of bomb explosions.
  
• Added graphical options presets in the options interface.
  
• Fixed item placement button back to A on gamepad (was Y).
  
• Inventory now opens upon button press on gamepad, rather than release.
  
• Fixed cultists empowering their staves multiple times, giving them a huge damage bonus for a time.
  
• Corpses of night-only creatures will no longer despawn at daybreak.
  
• Fixed particle effects looping when destroying one of the portals in the Draegan fight.
  
• Summoning Draegan now consumes one of the items, at random, required to summon him.
  

Ahoy!

You can now download Update 1.9.6 on the Steam testing branch. If you aren't opted into the testing branch and would like to help us find any last minute bugs before pushing to the official branch, here are instructions on how to join.


This update contains a lot of new changes including weather, a new NPC known as The Blacksmith, jungle island challenge chests, ship cannons, and many other changes! We are very excited about this update and can't wait for you all to try it.




- Added weather and associated content.
- Added a window where you can see your character's appearance in the inventory UI.
- Added a new NPC to be found on islands.
- Added cannons that you can find and place on your ships.
- Adjusted the stats on some items.
- Implemented jungle island challenge chests
- Adjusted the number of pirates that spawn on some islands.
- Fixed a bug where some fish were not able to be caught when they were supposed to.
- A single stat (concealment) now affects how well and far away enemies can see you.
- The stealth stat affects how well an enemy can hear you.
- Torches now reduce your concealment.
- What journal you can find in a particular hunting shacks and abandoned camp sites will now be consistent for all players on a given world seed.
- How many enemies remain on an island is now saved when you quit the game and come back.
- Fixed moonrock not glowing properly.
- Many enemies now leave footprints.
- You can now occasionally find cannons to take at pirate villages.
- Arrows now inherit your velocity.
- Pirates no longer collide with each other, keeping them from stacking, but allowing them to occupy the same position sometimes.
- Weight now reduces your sprint speed by 1 m/s per 5 weight.
- Fixed trees spawning inside some abandoned camp sites.
- Removed extra hitbox from player that caused double-hits in some instances
- Changed the visual effects of bomb explosions.

Ahoy!

You can now download Update 1.9.6 on the Steam testing branch. If you aren't opted into the testing branch and would like to help us find any last minute bugs before pushing to the official branch, here are instructions on how to join.


This update contains a lot of new changes including weather, a new NPC known as The Blacksmith, jungle island challenge chests, ship cannons, and many other changes! We are very excited about this update and can't wait for you all to try it.




- Added weather and associated content.
- Added a window where you can see your character's appearance in the inventory UI.
- Added a new NPC to be found on islands.
- Added cannons that you can find and place on your ships.
- Adjusted the stats on some items.
- Implemented jungle island challenge chests
- Adjusted the number of pirates that spawn on some islands.
- Fixed a bug where some fish were not able to be caught when they were supposed to.
- A single stat (concealment) now affects how well and far away enemies can see you.
- The stealth stat affects how well an enemy can hear you.
- Torches now reduce your concealment.
- What journal you can find in a particular hunting shacks and abandoned camp sites will now be consistent for all players on a given world seed.
- How many enemies remain on an island is now saved when you quit the game and come back.
- Fixed moonrock not glowing properly.
- Many enemies now leave footprints.
- You can now occasionally find cannons to take at pirate villages.
- Arrows now inherit your velocity.
- Pirates no longer collide with each other, keeping them from stacking, but allowing them to occupy the same position sometimes.
- Weight now reduces your sprint speed by 1 m/s per 5 weight.
- Fixed trees spawning inside some abandoned camp sites.
- Removed extra hitbox from player that caused double-hits in some instances
- Changed the visual effects of bomb explosions.

Hey everyone!

Today we wanted to give you an update on what's been going on with multiplayer and what we still have left to do. We are closer than ever to getting the multiplayer update finished and we are so excited. Recently we've been doing some internal testing and it really adds a new feel to the game. There's just something fun about exploring islands and taking on pirates with your friends.

At any rate, let's dive in! Here's a look at what's been done so far.




One of the biggest tasks was getting the core multiplayer engine working correctly. We needed systems to be able to sync and handle everything in the game for multiple players, handle saving, etc. With a game like Salt, there are a lot of items and things in the game that has to be taken into account. So it was very important we got a nice system in for handling these sorts of things. And not just getting the system in, but getting it working in the most efficient way possible.




While there are still some things left to sync up, we've got most everything working. At this point, the majority of enemies, boats, resources, animations, day/night cycle, loot, and armor visuals sync up. Getting this done was a huge step forward as we wanted to make sure players could see the same things in the world. This means if you see a rock in a certain place, then it needed to be there for the other player as well. This also goes for enemies.

And speaking of enemies, we've also got enemy aggro working, though we are still making some tweaks to it. As it is currently, an enemy will change their target if they are taking enough damage from someone else.




Another system we've got in and working is the ability to join your friends on Steam. So when you are in the game, your friends will show up as an icon on the screen and you will be able to click that and join their game. We've also added in a text based chat box so that you can chat with other people in the world!




Another major feature we just wrapped up is the ability to inspect and trade with other players. Now, you'll be able to interact with another player and see what gear they have on. In addition to that, you'll be able to initiate a trade with them and trade various items. This can be a particularly useful way to speed up progression when playing together or help encourage different playstyles. So if you're going for a more stealth based light armor character and you come across a big piece of heavy armor, you might want to consider giving them to your friend to help them out!





While we've got the vast majority of major features in and implemented, we've still got some other areas we need to finish up. Here's a list of some things we still need to do:

Full support for three or more players. (We've got this basically in and working but it needs to be ironed out and expanded)
Enemy power scaling (We will be adjusting enemy stats based on how many players are in the proximity)
Syncing boss battles
Syncing player-placed ship content
Syncing handheld item visuals
Server options (enable/disable pvp, etc.)
Wave and point emotes
Final testing and bug fixes


Overall, multiplayer is coming along great! We are getting very close and can't wait for the community to be able to play together. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback and thanks for reading!

Hey everyone!

Today we wanted to give you an update on what's been going on with multiplayer and what we still have left to do. We are closer than ever to getting the multiplayer update finished and we are so excited. Recently we've been doing some internal testing and it really adds a new feel to the game. There's just something fun about exploring islands and taking on pirates with your friends.

At any rate, let's dive in! Here's a look at what's been done so far.




One of the biggest tasks was getting the core multiplayer engine working correctly. We needed systems to be able to sync and handle everything in the game for multiple players, handle saving, etc. With a game like Salt, there are a lot of items and things in the game that has to be taken into account. So it was very important we got a nice system in for handling these sorts of things. And not just getting the system in, but getting it working in the most efficient way possible.




While there are still some things left to sync up, we've got most everything working. At this point, the majority of enemies, boats, resources, animations, day/night cycle, loot, and armor visuals sync up. Getting this done was a huge step forward as we wanted to make sure players could see the same things in the world. This means if you see a rock in a certain place, then it needed to be there for the other player as well. This also goes for enemies.

And speaking of enemies, we've also got enemy aggro working, though we are still making some tweaks to it. As it is currently, an enemy will change their target if they are taking enough damage from someone else.




Another system we've got in and working is the ability to join your friends on Steam. So when you are in the game, your friends will show up as an icon on the screen and you will be able to click that and join their game. We've also added in a text based chat box so that you can chat with other people in the world!




Another major feature we just wrapped up is the ability to inspect and trade with other players. Now, you'll be able to interact with another player and see what gear they have on. In addition to that, you'll be able to initiate a trade with them and trade various items. This can be a particularly useful way to speed up progression when playing together or help encourage different playstyles. So if you're going for a more stealth based light armor character and you come across a big piece of heavy armor, you might want to consider giving them to your friend to help them out!





While we've got the vast majority of major features in and implemented, we've still got some other areas we need to finish up. Here's a list of some things we still need to do:

Full support for three or more players. (We've got this basically in and working but it needs to be ironed out and expanded)
Enemy power scaling (We will be adjusting enemy stats based on how many players are in the proximity)
Syncing boss battles
Syncing player-placed ship content
Syncing handheld item visuals
Server options (enable/disable pvp, etc.)
Wave and point emotes
Final testing and bug fixes


Overall, multiplayer is coming along great! We are getting very close and can't wait for the community to be able to play together. As always, we'd love to hear your feedback and thanks for reading!