John and Rob have been continuously working on the upcoming cartography update. If you don't know much about that yet, we are essentially designing an in game chart/map that you can use to mark locations of islands and information about those islands. We are making good progress on this and can't wait for you guys to try it out! 

This week John has been focusing primarily on the design aspect, creating icons and the look of the map. I have to say it is currently looking really nice and will fit well with the rest of Salt's UI theme. Rob has been working on map functionality features, such as map zooming and things of that nature. We want to make the map smooth and fun to use and so we are spending time polishing it's look and functionality. 

This week I have been primarily focusing on design work for the main story. One of the upcoming updates we'll be working on soon will be implementing the remainder of the main quest line. Our goal with the main quest is to give you a sense of linear direction in otherwise open game, and give you some information on the backstory of the world as well. When we implement the remainder of the main story, we'll also be adding in a quest journal to help you more easily keep up with the tasks you've been given. 

Since Salt doesn't feature any voice acting, I've been spending a good bit of time re working old dialogue and writing new dialogue that is more concise and easier to digest. My goal is to find the balance between not having to read a wall of text, but getting a sense of personality and depth to what is going on. This can be a challenge but we've got some ideas and I think the new dialogue achieves this fairly well. 

As always please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments. We love hearing your feedback! 

- Will Sterling (Game Design and Sound Lead)

The cartography update is underway. This week, I want to discuss a little bit of what to expect with regards to the new mapping functionality coming in the next major update.

Marking Your Map

The core of the map functionality is actually very simple. Initially the map will be blank. It is up to you to mark the map however you see fit. In addition to marking where islands are in the world, there will be a number of other map mark icons available to you that you can place on top of the islands. For instance, if an island contained pirates, you can mark it with a pirate icon.

Sharing Your Map

Many players enjoy making their own maps of the Salt world, and they have been doing so on paper or third party apps. This system intends to take the same philosophy of hand-drawn maps and provide an in-game system to accomplish the same goal.

There are many players who prefer to reference maps that other people have made, and on the flip side, there are players who get a lot of enjoyment out of making maps with the intent to share with other people. We will make it fairly easy to transfer map data by having each game’s map data stored in a single file, which players can exchange.

Another thing to note is that the map data itself will be stored in a commonly used plain text format called JSON. This means that third party apps and websites will be able to easily read map data.

Map Customization

In addition to icons in the map, we plan to add the ability to make custom notes tied to islands as well. This is something that ties in heavily with the Player Journal, which is something that is planned for a future update. Being so, the custom note functionality of the map will be released along with the Player Journal update instead of this one.

We will continue to keep you updated with the progress and features of the map update as development continues.

- John Gamble (Lead Developer)

You've probably already gotten your hands on the update, but if not, be sure and download the latest patch to get the brand new boat models and to experience the starry night sky. With this update we also added some other additions such as updated icon resolutions, new tree models, new lore books, and more. You can read the announcement and patch notes here: 

1.6.1 Patch Notes and Announcement

We also want to say thank you to everyone who ops into the testing branch and helps us knock out bugs before patch releases. The feedback we get from you all is extremely valuable and makes our updates much smoother. 

Our next update will feature an in-game mapping system that will allow you to chart your adventure. This week we've been working on some systems in preparation for this upcoming update. We are very excited about finally allowing you to chart your world in-game and some of the possibilities that come along with that. We'll be sharing more info related to this as we get closer to the patch release so keep an eye out. 

Thanks again for your feedback and we hope you all are enjoying the new boats and stars! 

- Will Sterling (Game Design and Sound Lead)