Friday Dev Update: A Changing Static World

The Salt world is occasionally changing. Much of the things you see in the world are the same every time you quit the game and come back, or each time anyone starts a new world with the same seed as you. This is covered is better detail in one of my previous blog posts, On the Shared Randomness of Salt. However, as development progresses, you will notice small changes in the world.

These small changes happen when we add or remove things from the generation algorithms. For example, if we add a new item that merchants can carry, it is possible that some of the previous merchants will be carrying that new item in place of something they used to carry. The same can go for the loot in chests. Your friend may find different contents in the same chest as you if they opened it after an update where we modified its loot table.

These changes are not limited to loot tables. Anything from the positions of objects on an island to the type of island that spawns in a certain location. You will see some of the largest world impacts when we add new island types. This addition would cause some of the current islands to forever become the new type of island. However, we always make an effort to implement new things in such a way as to make the smallest possible impact on what you have already explored and are familiar with.

So, if you download a new patch and notice something in the world is not the same as before, you can read between the lines a little and know that the sneaky developers likely slid in something new there.


- John Gamble (Lead Developer)