If you ever read our patch notes, you will usually see things like "Added new items," rather than listing the specific items we added. We do this for a couple reasons. One is that we don't want to spoil everything by listing it in the patch notes. It's a lot more exciting to come across a new epic weapon on your own that you didn't even know existed. The other reason is to allow the community to interact and discover these new items. 

I remember when I was in junior high I was heavily into a game called Driver 2. I loved driving around the city and exploring that game, looking for new cars and secrets. I had a friend in school that played the game as well and we would always talk about what we found. I remember one day coming to school and he told me about this secret mini cooper hidden underground out in the middle of a field. I was so excited! I had no idea such a thing even existed. I couldn't wait to get home and go find it on my own. 

This sort of excitement and discovery through others is a very organic and natural way to find new items and secrets in a game. We want you to hear about secrets and things of that nature from other players, then get excited and go search for it on your own! However, to do this, we needed a way to give you a sense of direction. That's where seeds come in. 

In Salt, you will likely early on find a sextant. This tool allows you to find the coordinates for your current position. If you are on the same world seed as another player, those coordinates will line up. This means when you find something cool, you can get the coordinates and share it with your friends! We needed to do this primarily because the world is huge and procedurally generated. It wouldn't do you much good to tell your friend what you found if they had no way of finding it themselves. While not everything in the game is static in its location and so can change, most major things you find are and their location can be shared with seeds. 

We haven't implemented in-game maps yet, but that is something we are very much looking forward to doing. Our main goal with this is to make it easier to use the seed and coordinate system to chart things you find. This will allow you to better find your way back to places you've discovered and get access to that information to share with others. Also, because you can create your own custom seeded world, you can potentially chart a world that no one has ever seen before. Then, after you've got a huge chunk of the world charted out, you can go share that map with players allowing them to search and find all the things you've discovered. 

Obviously one of the biggest aspects of community interaction will be multiplayer. As we get further along in development and begin implementation of multiplayer, we will be keeping in mind content that still encourages sharing your findings with others. Let me give you an example. 

Image you are sailing way out north, say past the 100 mark. You find this really rare island with an extremely tough world boss. There's no way you are taking this big cheese down on your own. So you write down the coordinates and you send your friends a message in a bottle, "Meet me at x/y coordinates. Bring your biggest swords, your mightiest axes, and your gumption." Then you wait on four or five or your friends to meet you there so you can all slay the beast. Or maybe instead you go and meet them where they are, and all of you hop on a huge ship and sail back to the island, singing shanties along the way. 

In either case, this is the sort of community interaction we want. While we in no way want you to be dependent on other players to enjoy the game, we do want you to be rewarded for interacting with others and be encouraged to do so. 

In addition to these in game implementations, we also strive to keep our subreddit and steam forums alive and well. These are great places to go to get updates about the game, give your suggestions and feedback, and discuss your findings with others. If you aren't a part of these communities, we definitely encourage you to hop in there and join the discussion! 

- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)

It’s sometimes hard for me to choose between a gamepad and a keyboard. While controllers are generally more comfortable and have all of their buttons within a finger’s reach, a keyboard boasts a huge array of keys that can be customized to one’s liking, and a mouse provides speed and precision that controllers haven’t yet achieved. Our fans will be having to make that decision soon, because in the next update planned for Salt we’ll finally be adding full controller support. With this exciting addition coming up, I thought I’d talk about our philosophy on controllers, and a tiny bit of my history with them.

I grew up playing games on both consoles and PCs, so I was always fairly adept at using either control scheme. When Dark Souls released for PC, I went out and bought an Xbox 360 gamepad for 40 bucks out of desperation (seriously, Dark Souls keyboard controls were terrible!), and it turned out to be a way better purchase than I had expected. I’ve used that controller with so many games since then. There was one game that really surprised me and inspired John and I to add controller support to Salt––one that I thought would never even be playable with a controller––Final Fantasy XIV.

If you’re not familiar, FFXIV is a massively multiplayer game like World of Warcraft with a similar control scheme: targeting individual enemies, loads of hotbars filling the screen with countless abilities you would have to use at any given time, and tons of inventory management. When I found out you could use a gamepad, I had to try it just for the heck of it! What I found was that the developers of that game had put in a lot of time and effort into getting such a complex interface working with a controller, and working well. The only thing I found you were restricted from doing with a controller alone was chatting with other players. Everything else was fairly easy to accomplish after a little bit of learning.

After seeing what could be done with a controller’s limited number of buttons on such a complicated interface, we knew it would be possible to have awesome controller support for Salt. As we build our new UI for patch 1.5, we’re keeping both controllers and keyboards in mind. What does that mean for die-hard keyboard and mouse users? Nothing! We’re still making an interface that’s quick, intuitive, and easy-to-use for every one of you who like to play with that control scheme, and we don’t plan on making any compromises on that front. Instead we’ll stretch the gamepad’s capabilities as far as we need to make it a smooth and rewarding experience.

Can you tell I’m excited about controller support?

- Robert Gamble (Game Design, Coding, Environmental Design)

What’s Wrong with the Current One?

Making the Current Functionality Better

Totally New Features

First and foremost, lore books. I love lore books. They provide a great way to give insight into the world that the player would never have known otherwise. I also like them because they act as a sort of "payoff" for taking the time to read through the book. In Salt, we really wanted lore books to not only be fun little stories for you to read, but to also give you some insight into the backstory of the game. As you read certain books, you will begin to make connections between what you are reading on the page and what is taking place in your world. 

When you discover a piece of backstory, one of two things will happen. You will either realize you are reading about something that's already happened to you (past insight) or you will be reading about something that could happen to you (future revelation). Both of these aspects add an element of intrigue to the world. If you read about something that you've already experienced, it gives you some insight into the meaning and purpose behind that event. This adds a tremendous amount of depth to your experience that you did not have beforehand. However, if you read about something that hasn't happened to you, it gives you something to look for, encouraging you to explore and delve deeper into the lore. 

Though Salt is full of weapons, armor, and various items, we want to ensure that these things have meaning behind them. This is particularly important when it comes to rare items and weapons. For example, have you come across the skeleton key yet? There is a reason that key exists. It has a story in and of itself, but it will be up to you to discover the true meaning of its existence. In addition to this, we also want things to connect. As you read lore books, talk to npc's, and discover the story behind the world, we want you to make connections between these things. In the end, you will be able to tie together a large portion of the lore and have a nice cohesive picture of what the backstory looks like. 

All that said, lore is not something we want to force upon you. You will be able to enjoy Salt completely ignoring the lore if you please. We are working hard to make the gameplay fun and give you plenty to do. However, for those who want to delve deeper, leave no rock unturned. 

- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)