We've currently pushed our next update to the testing branch to squash out any last minute bugs, and we'll be pushing to the default branch for everyone to experience really soon. This update features brand new humanoid models, a new structure to find throughout the word, and other changes. You can read more in depth details here: 

Update Information

This update will act as a sort of "in-between" patch before our next major update. Our next major patch will feature a brand new island type with a ton of content to experience. I can't go into the details just quite yet, but it will feature new enemies, bosses, a slew of new items, resources, quests, and secrets. We are very excited about it and will give more details soon! 

With all that said, let's move on to player suggestions and future content. 

With Salt, we have an overall vision for the game in mind. This includes the type of game we want it to be, what aspects we want to focus on, and what kind of content will be in the game. Since Salt is a huge game with a near infinite amount of possibilities, we have to pick and choose what content to focus on and what we have to leave on the drawing board. With limited manpower and time, we can only focus on so much. This is where your feedback comes in. 

We get a lot of feedback for Salt, both good and bad, but almost always helpful. You guys have always been very open about what you love and what you don't love, which helps us to steer the course of development in the right direction, within the vision of the game. This is one of the huge perks of doing Early Access. Having your feedback with every update in development helps us to ensure we are guiding the game in the right direction. 

I want to now go over some of the content we plan on working on as the game develops. Before I do this, you may want to read this blog post, which answers a lot of common player questions about the game and the future of development. 

A few months back we implemented the first portion of the main story. In the upcoming months, we will be working on implementing the next portion which in and of itself includes a lot of content. I won't go into too many details so as not to spoil anything, but as the story gets implemented so will a new expansion of content such as island types, enemies, items, and things of that nature. As always, the main story is completely optional but there if you want to experience it. 

Weather is probably one of our most requested features and it will be coming soon! I'm personally very excited about weather as it will add a sense of dynamics to the game that isn't there currently. As we implement weather we will also be adding in clouds and stars which will breathe new life aesthetically to the world. 

We realized recently that our current armor and weapons stats are in desperate need of rebalancing. Since we've thrown new items in every month or so, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture and for things to get off balance. We will be rebuilding from the ground up the armor and weapons statistics as well as adding new statistics. We plan on adding stats such as dexterity, agility, strength, defense, and things of that nature that will allow you to really tailor your gear to your playstyle, and even see overall damage and dps. I love this aspect of games because it encourages you to try out different armor sets to suit your own unique needs. 

We get a lot of suggestions for more ocean content, and rightly so. This is something we are still brainstorming and coming up with ideas for, but we will definitely be expanding upon it. Let us know your ideas for what kind of content you'd like to see in the deep sea! 

By and large the most requested feature is multiplayer, which will definitely be happening. Multiplayer will be a very fun aspect of Salt, but also optional. We've had a lot of questions concerning whether or not multiplayer will be required and the answer to that is no. Multiplayer will be more of a cooperative mode that you can play with your friends. We don't have all the design details worked out yet, but we will let you know as soon as we start working on this. 

As always, we would love to continue to hear your feedback on what type of content you'd like to see in Salt as the game develops! 

This week has been very fun and productive. I mentioned in a previous post that we are going to add a bit of “close content” along with new models and the updated rendering pipeline in a smaller patch, which will be pushed before the larger main patch.

The new models and rendering pipeline are currently on the testing branch, and this week we got most of the content related to the new close-content structure implemented, which should be on the testing branch next week.

One of my favorite things to do in development is come up with ways to add depth to a game. What I mean by this is: things to do, get, or achieve that are a little bit below the surface of what you see. A pirate that drops a weapon, some gold, and maybe the tree fruit that he was about to eat. There is nothing surprising or deep about that. 

But what if you learned from reading a lore book that a certain pirate owns a powerful armor that protects him from explosive damage. Your cogs begin to turn and you decide to stock up on some bombs before you visit your next pirate island. When you get there, you see the pirate that you read about. You throw some bombs, but are intentional about not killing him with them. You then flee and hide out in the shadows. In the mean time, the pirate realizes that there is real danger of face-explosion by your raining bombs of doom. This is when he decides to run to wherever he has hidden his special armor and put it on. But this was your plan all along. You swoop in with your mighty axe and end to the pirate. The once-hidden armor is yours!

This is an example of below-the-surface content in games. Obtaining that special armor required the player to pay attention, and do some critical thinking. I want Salt to be full of things like this. You can expect some depth in both the new close and far content that is upcoming in the next two patches. (Note that the above example is not in the game).

- John Gamble (Lead Developer)

Our primary goal for the next major update is to add a new island type in the far oceans. This new island will include a new friendly npc, a new enemy, quests, items, and secrets. It will also serve to give the first of many future reasons to travel into the far oceans.

In addition to the new island type, we will be adding a new type of structure that can be found throughout the world. Along with this, of course, will come new items.

We are also upgrading the way rendering of the world works behind-the-scenes. From our testing so far, this has provided a graphical performance increase.

You can expect the new models, pipeline, and likely the new close content to be released in a smaller patch before the next major one. We are looking super forward to getting these updates out to you guys!

- John Gamble (Lead Developer)