Update 1.6.1 on Testing Branch!

7:48 AM willsterling23 3 Comments


Hey everyone!

Our latest patch, Update 1.6.1 is now available on the Steam testing branch. We will be fixing last minute bugs you find and pushing to the public branch next week. This update brings a lot of content we've been looking forward to. If you want to hop in the testing branch, you can find instructions on how to do so here:

How To Access Steam Testing Branch


What's New


With this update we've added brand new boat models, which are a huge improvement over the previous ones. Some of these new models replace existing ones, but we've also added in color variations that can be obtained in new ways.



In addition to the new boats, we have also added in stars! Stars really add a sense of scale to the world and make night time sailing and exploring much more enjoyable.



This update also includes a bunch of other changes such as new sailing and boss music, brand new lore books, new dynamic wind features, and a lot of other fixes and changes.

For a full list of the patch notes, click below:

Update 1.6.1 Patch Notes


 If you aren't on the testing branch then you can look forward to this update some time next week. Also, we have already begun work our next update, which will feature a cartography system and a way for you to chart your world! Stay tuned for more news on that.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback!

Cheers,
Will Sterling (Sound Lead and Game Design)

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Friday Dev Update: Music, Stars, and Boats

7:46 AM willsterling23 3 Comments


Hello everyone!


We hope you’ve had a great week. This week at Lavaboots has been fruitful and we’ve got a lot of good stuff coming up! Today I want to give you a brief overview of what we’ve been working on and a little insight into what’s been going on at Lavaboots Studios.


New Music


This week I’ve been mainly focused on creating music for the new Jungle Queen boss. The Jungle Queen is a jungle island exclusive boss, similar to the Spider Queen but a good bit tougher. She’s currently in need of some boss music and so I’ve been putting most of my time into that endeavor. I’m a huge fan of boss music in games and I like to make them somewhat themed based on the enemy type. My goal with this music was to keep it in a similar vein as the Spider Queen but with more ethnic instruments and jungle themed sounds.


You can listen to the new Jungle Queen music here:

Starry Night


This week Robert has been working on a night sky, which means stars! We are very excited for stars and it’s something that will make night time gameplay a lot more enjoyable. Here’s a sneak peek at an early prototype of the starry night:




New Boats


John has been working on readying the new boats for testing branch, as well as designing some new ways to get boat variations. As you may have read before, some of the boats have color variations and we are adding some new and fun ways to obtain those in the game.





All this to say we’ve got some pretty cool stuff coming up! The next thing releasing very soon is the new boat models. I’ve been testing them out this week and I have to say, they are awesome. We think you guys are really going to like them so be on the lookout for those to hit the testing branch soon! After that we'll be starting on cartography.

Thanks for reading!



- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)

3 comments:

Friday Dev Update: Jungles, Ships, and Maps, Oh My!

7:48 AM willsterling23 1 Comments



Hello fellow seafarers!

We hope you all are enjoying the recent jungle island update. If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure to log in Steam or the patcher and download it! This recent update features a ton of new content. (You can read the patch notes here: Update 1.6 Patch Notes)
In this update we've added two new npc’s: The Fisherman and The Huntsman. Both of these new fellas have a set of new quests and items to trade for. We also added in tigers and poachers which are exclusive to jungle islands, as well as some new bosses and goodies. Remember that these jungles only start spawning around 50 units out, so you’ll need to armor up and head into the deep seas to find them. If you still are having trouble finding them, remember you can ask the innkeeper for directions (for a price of course.)

New Ships



I think we need more sails. 

Now that the jungle update is pushed and complete, we are working on rigging up the new ship models to replace the old ships. John talked about this a few weeks ago in a blog post, but in case you missed it, here’s the gist of it.

We are replacing some of the older boat models with new, much improved models. On the current replacement list is the Maiden, Pardon Pusher, and Abandoned Ship. The raft and regular sailboat will stay the same. In addition to replacing these boats, we’ve also got some new color variations that we will add in soon, including new ways to obtain these new ships.

If you haven’t seen what the new models look like, you can view some screenshots of them here:
We think they look pretty awesome and are very excited for you to sail and decorate them!
In order for the new ships to be implemented, some work must be done. First on the list was creating a way to recover all of your ship upgrades/customizations from your old ship and replace them on your new ship. Since the models vary in size, the locations of your upgrades would have been all askew, and so we had to rig up a system to do this. John finished this up recently and this feature is actually available now, but will be primarily useful once the new ships are implemented.


Gotta love an x ray of a boat. 

Right now we are in the process of rigging up the new ships with colliders and making sure their physics are correct. This will ensure they float correctly and things of that nature. Once that is done, we will test them and release them for you to sail yourselves!

Cartography


Once the new boat models are in, we will begin work on our upcoming cartography update. This is something that has long been missing in Salt, and we are very excited to finally begin implementation of this. We are still in the process of laying the design foundation for the update and figuring out exactly how it’s going to work, but the general idea is to allow you to create your own charts in game, adding information about the islands you visit and so forth.

We would love your feedback and ideas about this upcoming patch and we’ll be keeping you up to date as we progress along it.


Thanks for reading and as always, we would love to hear your feedback on any of the current content in the game or upcoming content. Cheers!

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