Salt Dev Q&A Recap!
Hey everyone!
Thank you to everyone for being so supportive and interested in Salt. We had a lot of really great questions asked during the Dev Q&A session yesterday and enjoyed interacting with you guys. We will likely do this sort of thing once a month or so and give you guys an opportunity to keep updated on whats going on.
Below is a list of the questions and answers given during the session that you can look at, just in case you missed something!
Question from a fellow early access dev: How has having a freely available demo for Salt affected sales?
It's hard to tell since we've always had a demo available, so we don't have any data to really compare too. I think having a demo does hurt your sales to some degree. You lose impulse buyers and such. But we think it's far more important that people test out the game and really decide that it's for them before buying. We want to build trust with our community and we don't want to hide anything. This is the main reason we have a demo!
Are you planning in future updates, add somekind of flag creator with the option for uploading our own png?
We've talked about letting players customize their flags, and we think it's a great idea! It's very likely this will be in the game at some point.
In the future will there be ghost ships that we can obtain that glows blue at night like the moon rock?
All I can say about this is that we've discussed ghost ships, and if there comes a time when ghost ships are added to the game, it will most likely be a secret! ;)
In the future will there be forts?
We definitely plan on letting players settle on islands. Building mechanics will be a part of that, though I can't say how robust they'll be.
Will there ever be any dailies that we can do with live 24 hour clocks?
We don't plan on adding any kind of daily quest. While we do enjoy MMORPGs, Salt is not meant to be like them.
Will we be able to farm crops on our base so that we can have an infinite supply of food?
Farming is definitely a possibility when settling is implemented.
Can we have a waypoint to our base so that we can warp there?
Teleporting is not too likely to happen, as I feel it takes away from the exploration aspect of the game. We'll keep our minds open, though!
Will we ever meet the person that gave us the strange journal at the start of the game?
Who knows if you'll ever meet such a strange person in this strange land? They probably hang out in strange places at strange times. What a strange question!
Will we ever have pets that can help attack enemies & also distract enemies so the enemy attacks pet instead of us?
There will probably not be pets that help you fight. It's a really cool idea, though!
Will there be coconuts & bananas in the game like trees we can bang to get the bananas & coconuts like we do the current fruit?
Yes! I love coconuts, specifically for their consistency. Those palm trees should start bearing fruit soon!
Can we get a crossbow and maybe a way to bait deer with the fruit. Can the black stripe vains on the ground be made to hold gold that we can use the pick axe for? Craft bobbers that glow in the dark?
A crossbow is very likely! We think that would be awesome. Deer bait is a possibility but we haven't looked into yet. Some kind of gold ore might eventually make its way into the game if we find good uses for it. Glow in the dark bobbers are very likely! Maybe it could even help you catch a certain type of fish!
Do you think we could see in the future cooking?
Cooking is definitely happening. There are some pretty nice improvements to crafting in general that we have planned, and cooking will be a part of that.
Are you planing to implement villages or baytowns?
Larger villages are a possibility, but they're not in the works currently.
Climbable masts, with platforms at the top? Ship-mountable weapons?
We will be adding a crows nest to some ships. Ship mountable weapons are a high possibility! Especially cannons and maybe harpoon guns.
Will you ever implement firearms?
Firearms are up in the air but it's a high possibility.
Will you ever include hostile AI ships?
Hostile AI ships are also up in the air, due to the current pathfinding system. Later in development that's something we'll take a look at it.
How much longer do you expect to be in the early access mode?
It's hard to say. As we get more things implemented and get closer to a release state, we'll be able to give a more accurate date and timeframe for release. Currently we have to implement the entire main story, add weather, overhaul the GUI and combat system, add in new island types, npcs, wildlife, etc. And of course multiplayer!
Will there be improved weapon/combat animations, and perhaps improved archery mechanics ala Skyrim(just for example)?
Absolutely! We are going to take a good bit of time to refine combat and make it feel a lot better.
How about going underwater? Dangerous fish/sharks, wrecks, treasure, etc?
Underwater content is something we will likely do to a small degree. As of right now there is no actual underwater. The ocean is really a plane and there is nothing underneath. We would like to make it where you can go slightly underwater to find certain resources and things of that nature. So it is a high possibility but we aren't sure yet if and when it will get implemented.
What is the situation on the implementation of multiplayer?
We will definitely be implementing multiplayer! Currently we are focusing on finishing the single player content, and we've still got a little ways to go on that. Once that's implemented, we'll move on to adding in multiplayer!
What are the plans for weather implementation for the game?
Weather is coming! I'm super excited about getting storms in there. Boat damage may not be added for a while, but when it is you can be sure a rough storm will be rough on your boat. Waves will be based on weather. I'm looking forward to it!
Looking forward to weather. More wildlife is always welcome.
ReplyDeleteI probably would have passed on Salt except for it's demo. It really is the type of game you have to try in order to understand just how amazing it really is.
I like the idea of villages, perhaps you could find quests or more info on the story in such places.
ReplyDeleteSounds like y'all have a lot of great things planned!
The demo is actually what sold the game to me. Exploration games are hit or miss imo, and I needed to make sure I liked the feel of the game before I bought it. After playing the demo I knew it was my kind of game!
Just like the comments above your demo model is the best idea you could of thought of! Without it I would never tried the game due to the graphics (im not a fan of minecraft) but wow it is surprisingly amazing!
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank you for your honesty, finally some Dev's that put product over profit! Something this industry sorely needs! Good luck lads hope "swimmingly"