Salt News

Hey everyone!

We've been hard at work at a lot of different areas in Salt recently, particularly multiplayer. However, we do have another content update coming out soon before multiplayer and we wanted to give you an idea of what you can expect from that update!

Here's a look at some of the content coming soon:





One change that we are incredibly excited about is weather! This is something that has been requested for a long time and we are finally happy to have it near completion. Weather is going to dramatically affect the overall atmosphere and aesthetics of the game. Not only will you get lightning, clouds, and rain, but we've also included changes to the fog and lighting based on the weather. This creates a much more dynamic feel to the world of Salt.






Another new change we are very excited about are ship cannons! Now in the world you'll be able to find cannons and cannonballs at pirate camps. You can them place these on your ship and take out pirates from a distance. Plus, once multiplayer is out, you'll be able to shoot other players and feel like a true pirate!






In this update we've also added a new NPC known as The Blacksmith. Upon finding The Blacksmith, he will give you a quest that will reward you with a new pickaxe. With this new pickaxe you'll be able to occasionally mine obsidian ore from various rocks. You can then turn this obsidian in to The Blacksmith for unique rewards. In addition to that, he will also sell salvage tools that will allow you to salvage certain weapons for resources.



We think Update 1.9.6 is going to be a great addition to Salt and we can't wait to get it out! We will give another update soon on when you can expect that update to hit Steam. Also, we just want you to let you know that multiplayer is coming along great. We've got a lot of great functionalities in and working. We will post a blog in the next week or two showcasing what we've got working so far and what's left to go.


As always, we appreciate your support and would love to hear your feedback!

Hey everyone!

You can now download Update 1.9.5 - Birds of Paradise! This a huge update we've been working on for a while and are very excited to finally have it out. Just as a reminder we are still working hard on multiplayer and will be updating you on that progress soon!

Here's a look at what you can expect in Update 1.9.5.





A major change in this update is the introduction of new wildlife. Now when you are exploring islands you will see various birds flying above the trees. Though it's quite a challenge, these birds can be shot down and you can use their feathers to make items and trade for good gear. Overall we feel birds add not only new content but a new sense of atmosphere to the game.




You've been asking for more ocean content for quite some time and we are finally happy to take a step in that direction! Now out in the ocean you can find little glowing rings that indicate sea treasure. Once you have a treasure grabber (you can get one from a new NPC) you'll be able to dig up sunken treasure! There's different tiers of treasure with increasingly rare loot as well.




Now on pirate and natural islands you will be able to find challenge chests! We are really excited about these chests as they give a repeatable challenge with nice loot. Basically the way these work is you have to kill either all the pirates or all the deer on an island for them to unlock. The pirate challenge chests also increase in rarity for higher tiered pirate islands and as such drop better loot.




As a new piece of island content we have added abandoned campsites. You can find various trade-able items, lore books, and even rum! Look for these camps on natural islands.




We've introduced multiple new NPCs in this update including the Sea Treasure Hunter and the Sea Collector. The Sea Treasure Hunter mainly goes along with treasure hunting and the Sea Collector acts as a trading NPC for various items you find in the world.




With this update we wanted to also take a step toward improving combat. To do this, we added a parry mechanic. Now if you time a block at just the right moment you can stun the opponent and get a guaranteed critical hit upon your next attack. Adding just this one new mechanic has really opened up combat as parrying also uses stamina. This means you'll have to decide between attacking, power attacking, blocking, parrying, and dodging for how you want to spend your stamina in battle.




In this update we also added a new death screen as well as in-game options. Now when you die you will be greeted with sad music and a new death screen. You can also now change audio, gameplay, and graphics settings live in the game.



We've also added new music and sounds in this update. We've tried to improve the sound design and give a greater sense of immersion. Now there will be subtle sounds that play when the game transitions from to day to night and also when you discover content on islands.




We've made a ton of additional changes including new lighting, new main menu background, tons of new items, new boats, new waves system, and a lot of bug fixes. You can read the full patch notes below.


As always we'd love to hear your feedback!

• Added birds.
  
• Added sea treasure
  
• Added new content to find on islands.
  
• Added new challenge chests that unlock when you defeat all of a certain type of enemy on an island.
  
• Added new NPCs, quests, and items.
  
• Added some new recipes.
  
• Added new music.
  
• Added new discovery sounds and day/night transition sounds.
  
• Added new boats
  
• Added a new parry mechanic. Blocking at the right time while fighting pirates will open them up for a powerful hit.
  
• Slightly changed the content on the starting island.
  
• Adjusted the stats on some items.
  
• Improved the death screen.
  
• Added in
• game options, which includes some new options such as motion blur and antialiasing.
  
• Updated background in the main menu.
  
• Some NPCs now spawn with nearby light sources, making them a little easier to spot.
  
• Some NPCs now have slightly happier expressions.
  
• Increased the amount of weight of all items by a factor of 10 and changed the functionality of weight to match the new bloated values. This means that an item that used to have a weight of 0.2 will now have a weight of 2.
  
• Re
• balanced lighting and visuals.
  
• Increased base stamina and stamina regeneration speed.
  
• Re
• textured various items to be more cohesive with the world's visuals.
  
• Implemented some new NPC greeting sounds.
  
• Changed the clothes of various NPCs to be more unique.
  
• Recipes that craft multiple of the same item (such as arrows) will now indicate so by a number in the bottom right of its icon in the crafting window.
  
• Reduced the amount of memory the game uses during play.
  
• Added boat sounds to the White Narwhal.
  
• Extended the sound of the Plunderer's Ring and increased its distance slightly.
  
• Trees are now less likely to spawn around the stone with the skull.
  
• Adjusted the contents of the starting island.
  
• The crafting window recipe scroll area now defaults to the top when the crafting window is opened.
  
• Increased sail speed bonus of the windy sail slightly when sailing in the direction of the wind.
  
• Upgraded Unity version.
  
• The UI for the player chest inventory now reflects the maximum number of items it can contain.
  
• Change the appearance of the cursor.
  
• Added sounds that mark the transition between day and night.
  
• Changed some of the default gamepad controls.
  
• Added DirectX11 support.
  
• Fixed an issue where the quest journal wasn't updating when you got the cleansed skull.
  
• Fixed an issue where you were unable to loot an immaculate deer hide from scent lured deer.
  
• Fixed some typos.
  
• Fixed an issue where night time ambience sounds were missing from some islands.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused islands to occasionally not fully spawn.
  
• Fixed a bug where an island would occasionally generate its contents in different places upon returning.
  
• Fixed NPC dialogue options to no longer clip through the bottom of their rectangles.
  
• Items that use the short sword model no longer cast a shadow.
  
• Fixed the reported food value in your character window not taking into account special foods.
  
• Fixed boats being stuck in the air after coming back from far away.
  
• Fixed bug with the white deer set bonus.
  
• Fixed loading screen appearing quickly without a center image when starting the game in an area with no islands.
  
• Slowed down the deer death animation.
  
  

Hey everyone!

Update 1.9.5 is now available on the testing branch! Please consider opting into the testing branch and helping us find any last minute issues before we push to the official branch. If you're not already on the testing branch and would like to be, follow the instructions below:

How to Access Testing Branch


We are very excited about this update as it introduces a lot of new content and general improvements to the game. With this update we've added birds to islands, new challenge chests, sea treasure, new NPCs and quests, new sounds and music, and a lot more.

Here's a list of the current patch notes:





CHANGES

- Added birds.
- Added sea treasure
- Added new content to find on islands.
- Added new challenge chests that unlock when you defeat all of a certain type of enemy on an island.
- Added new NPCs, quests, and items.
- Added some new recipes.
- Added new music.
- Added new discovery sounds and day/night transition sounds.
- Added new boats
- Added a new parry mechanic. Blocking at the right time while fighting pirates will open them up for a powerful hit.
- Slightly changed the content on the starting island.
- Adjusted the stats on some items.
- Improved the death screen.
- Added in-game options, which includes some new options such as motion blur and antialiasing.
- Updated background in the main menu.
- Some NPCs now spawn with nearby light sources, making them a little easier to spot.
- Some NPCs now have slightly happier expressions.
- Increased the amount of weight of all items by a factor of 10 and changed the functionality of weight to match the new bloated values. This means that an item that used to have a weight of 0.2 will now have a weight of 2.
- Re-balanced lighting and visuals.
- Increased base stamina and stamina regeneration speed.
- Re-textured various items to be more cohesive with the world's visuals.
- Implemented some new NPC greeting sounds.
- Changed the clothes of various NPCs to be more unique.
- Recipes that craft multiple of the same item (such as arrows) will now indicate so by a number in the bottom right of its icon in the crafting window.
- Reduced the amount of memory the game uses during play.
- Added boat sounds to the White Narwhal.
- Extended the sound of the Plunderer's Ring and increased its distance slightly.
- Trees are now less likely to spawn around the stone with the skull.
- Adjusted the contents of the starting island.
- The crafting window recipe scroll area now defaults to the top when the crafting window is opened.
- Increased sail speed bonus of the windy sail slightly when sailing in the direction of the wind.
- Upgraded Unity version.
- The UI for the player chest inventory now reflects the maximum number of items it can contain.
- Change the appearance of the cursor.
- Added sounds that mark the transition between day and night.
- Changed some of the default gamepad controls.
- Added DirectX11 support.


FIXES

- Fixed an issue where the quest journal wasn't updating when you got the cleansed skull.
- Fixed an issue where you were unable to loot an immaculate deer hide from scent lured deer.
- Fixed some typos.
- Fixed an issue where night time ambience sounds were missing from some islands.
- Fixed a bug that caused islands to occasionally not fully spawn.
- Fixed a bug where an island would occasionally generate its contents in different places upon returning.
- Fixed NPC dialogue options to no longer clip through the bottom of their rectangles.
- Items that use the short sword model no longer cast a shadow.
- Fixed the reported food value in your character window not taking into account special foods.
- Fixed boats being stuck in the air after coming back from far away.
- Fixed bug with the white deer set bonus.
- Fixed loading screen appearing quickly without a center image when starting the game in an area with no islands.
- Slowed down the deer death animation.

Ahoy mateys!

Today we wanted to give you a look at the next patch coming out, Update 1.9.5 - Treasures in the Sea. This is a pretty big update as far as content goes and we're still working hard on getting everything implemented and polished. We are also still working on multiplayer implementation and are making some great progress with that.

Let's dive into some of the content coming in the next update!




You've been requesting more content at sea for quite some time, and so we've started implementing some new ocean content we are calling Sea Treasure. Sea Treasure will spawn randomly out in the ocean and you'll have to find it and pull it up via a boat upgrade item known as the Treasure Grabber. In order to get the treasure though, you'll have to rank up with a new NPC known as the Sea Treasure Hunter. He'll require special coins that can only be found in Sea Treasure to rank up with him. As you rank you up, he'll get give you better treasure hunting items to find more rare treasure. And of course, the rarer the treasure, the harder it'll be to find. We are working on some neat puzzle mechanics for finding rare, epic, and legendary sea treasure.




With this update we are adding a new discoverable place on natural islands: abandoned campsites. These campsites will contain various resources, quest items, lore books, and finally, rum! What's a pirate game without rum anyways?




Many of the items you find at abandoned campsites will be collectible quest items that you can turn in to a new NPC known as the Sea Collector. He will mainly be a trade NPC that will have very unique and rare items, some of which are quest items leading to legendary weapons that he will give you in exchange for the collectibles you find throughout the world.




In this next update we are increasing the deep ocean wave sizes and adding a chance for rare, huge waves. This new wave system will make navigating the deep waters a lot more fun and challenging!




We've also made some subtle changes to the main menu, adding a randomly generated island in the background, some new graphical effects, and the ability to slightly move the camera, giving it a more immersive feel.




In addition to lots of new items, weapons, quests, and lore, we've also made performance improvements, made some changes to NPC's such as giving them the ability to turn towards you when talking, and a bunch of audio changes such as new greeting sounds and sound effect improvements. We've also re-textured various weapons in the game to improve their look.



Overall this update is coming along well and we expect it to be out soon! As always, we'd love to hear your feedback!

Introducing Update 1.9.4 - Songs of the Seas. This update includes a new NPC, musical instruments, Steam achievements, new quests, items, bug fixes, and more! Let's go over some of the content you can expect in this update.



Hanging out at the Inn you'll be able to find a new NPC known as The Composer. This NPC features an entirely new quest line that will allow you to unlock and earn musical instruments that you can play throughout your journey. These instruments also give you buffs in addition to a nice melody for your adventure! With the new Composer NPC you can also earn new gear. And we may have added some secrets as well...




We have now added Steam Achievements for Salt! We are very excited about this and we tried to design some fun and challenging achievements for you to work toward.




With this update we've also added a slew of audio changes and improvements. One such change is new boat sounds. Now when you are sailing in your big ship you can hear creaks, sail flaps, and things of that nature. We've also added new footstep sounds, and a new save sound.

• Added steam achievements.
  
• Added a new NPC known as The Composer.
  
• Added new musical instrument items.
  
• Added new quests and item rewards.
  
• Added music for the first time you use the raft.
  
• Added new loading screens.
  
• Added new secrets.
  
• Added new boat sounds.
  
• Added new footstep sounds and increased the variety of sounds that can play.
  
• Added a new save sound.
  
• Fixed white deer set bonus not applying properly.
  
• Updated short sword model.
  
• Fixed a bug that would have you receive multiple "Blood Jungle" items when completing the quest.
  
• The Sea Scholar will no longer charge gold for books you have sold to him.
  
• Fixed an error that would cause sound to sometimes not work properly after a death.
  

We know many of you are awaiting the Multiplayer update, and we want to thank you for your continued patience. It is a large undertaking, but it will definitely be worth the time investment. More and more progress is made daily. We do not yet have an ETA on its completion.