Salt Development Blog

With update 1.4 released, I want to let you all know what you can expect for the future. The next three major goals are:

The upgrade to the latest version of Unity will likely come with some performance improvements as well as some small visual changes and fixes. It also just feels good to be running on the latest version of the engine. There are a number of small obstacles to overcome to make the switch, but that work is already underway and is going fairly smoothly so far.

Whether you love or hate the current GUI, it has always been intended to be replaced one day. Now is the time, and I can’t wait to dive into it. Our goal with it is for it to be snappy and easy to use. We also want to keep it out of your way as much as possible when you are running around, but, at the same time, have some depth when necessary. As we progress with it, we’ll release pictures and ask for feedback from players.

The main thing holding us back from controller support currently is the fact that it doesn’t work with our interface. Since we are re-doing the GUI, we can design it from the ground up with controller support in mind. At the same time, we don’t want to handicap those that don’t want to use a controller. You can likely expect some form of hybrid GUI control scheme in which you can still make proper use of the mouse.

Along with these main additions, expect to see some more content added and bugs fixed as usual. I’m very excited to get working on this next update, and I’ll keep you all posted with our progress.

- John Gamble (Lead Developer)

In addition to an overall sense of objective, we wanted to introduce some lore and backstory to the world. The main way this will be implemented in this update is through discussion with npc's and lore books. I am particularly excited about the lore books since they not only hint to the backstory of Salt, but also give you interesting tid bits of information about people and items in the world. This update will include a lot of lore books for you to find in various ways. Eventually we'd like to make a bookshelf that you can place on your ship and store all of the lore books you find! We'll also be adding more and more ways to discover the backstory as the game develops. 

One feature of this next patch that is going to be a lot of fun are inns. With this next update, you'll be able to find inns throughout the world with an innkeeper and beds. You'll be able to discuss things with the innkeeper but we are going to keep most of that secret for now. Be on the lookout for a cozy inn in the next patch! 

Another large feature of this next update is our new resource system. Robert has been working hard on this one and we are real excited to get it implemented. This new system introduces a sense of logic to the items you find in the world. For example, if you are traveling through an area with tons of trees, then you will be much more likely to find wood logs on the ground. If you are traveling in a big open field, you will be more likely to find plants and flowers. This adds a sense of "learning" to the world and gives you an idea of where to look for things. 

We are very excited to push this next update out and we promise it will be out as soon as possible! We are currently finishing up the main story and polishing some of the new content before we push. In the mean time, we would love to hear your feedback and suggestions! 

- Will Sterling (Game Design and Audio)

One aspect I have really loved about the Elder Scrolls games is that you are completely free to ignore the story should you choose to do so. I love being dropped in a vast and mysterious world, where I know nothing and am free to make my own story. This is a feeling we are constantly striving for in Salt. We want you to make your own story and adventure. We want you to be able to tell your friends about something you found wandering the deep ocean, or some crazy boss you came across super far out in the world.

Because we love secrets in Salt, we are going to put in a lot of secrets in the game that will be very rare and very difficult to find. For example, you may find a super rare island extremely far out in the world with a rare boss and an epic weapon drop. You'll go tell your friends about this knowing that in all likelihood, they haven't found it. It is your unique experience. 

Now, of course it's pretty hard to keep secrets hidden from all players. People are really good at finding things in games and that's okay. When you experience some awesome secret content, our goal isn't for you to think that you are the only person in the entire world that has found it, but rather that it is very unique to you and not something common that many people find. We want the experience to be new to you. 

Just to note, we will also have plenty of really fun content that isn't just super rare. We don't want to force you to play hundreds of hours to get to the good stuff. There will always be awesome bosses and weapons that you can find without having to get extremely lucky. 

We've talked a little bit about this before, but I want to go into more detail. The story in Salt will be discoverable. It's not going to be impossible to figure out, and if you seek, you shall find. What we don't want is to hand the player all the aspects of the story. We want you to discover it naturally and on your own. There are couple of ways we'll be doing this. 

One way is through the main quest line. As you progress through the main quest, you'll discover a lot of the story. You'll encounter events, people, and other things that will give you insight into what is going on in the world currently and how it got that way. This will give you a good overview of the main story. 

Even with the overview of the story revealed through the main quest, we want you to be able to delve deeper. To do this, you'll have to find certain lore books, items, and other things in the world to figure out a large portion of the mythology in Salt. For example, you may hear about a certain person in the main quest line and learn a little bit about them, but if you want to you'll be able to find lore books and possibly items from that person in the world that reveal more about their life, who they were, and things of that nature. 

We'll be taking a lot of inspiration from Dark Souls in this aspect. We want you to feel like there is depth to the world. That mysterious ring you found? It's not just random. There's a reason it's there. That epic weapon you obtained? Someone had it before you. But what happened to them and why is the weapon so powerful? These are questions we want you to ask and we want you to search for. 

In Salt, there will be both the ability to create your own story and the ability to discover the mythology of the world. We believe this will add a lot of depth but maintain that element of freedom that is so important in open world games. I'm extremely excited to start implementing the main story and you'll see the first portion of that in the next update!

- Will Sterling (Audio and Game Design)

"Chock it full of secrets and bosses."

We have designed the initial part of the main quest that will be implemented, and have begun laying the required additional groundwork to facilitate the needed mechanics. Basically, we need things like an improved ability to talk to NPCs, conditional loot (such as loot that only appears when you are on a certain part of a quest), and a system to keep up with quest progress.

With the last major update, we changed some of the underlying island generation structure to make elements that spawn on islands more independent of each other. This opened up the possibility for the game to quickly-enough search an area of the ocean and find the locations of things without generating entire islands. This means that we could add in an NPC which could give you directions to something in the world, and we are doing exactly that.

Progress on this is coming along well. I have written a system that successfully produces the location of an islands that contains what I ask it for, such as a merchant.

To facilitate both the new quest elements and the NPC directions, a dialogue system was needed. I have designed and implemented a new dialogue system that you can use to talk with NPCs. I have also nearly finished implementing the GUI to go along with it.

It might be interesting to note here a design decision that we have made in regards to dialogue. We never want to force your character to say anything specific. In Salt, you play as yourself. Because of this, no dialogue options will contain direct quotes from you. Instead, you will select from a list of actions. For example, an action option may say "Ask about merchants" instead of "Where is the nearest merchant?" This is a subtle (but satisfying to me) way to have players feel more like they are their character, and thus feel more immersed in the world.

Lore is something some people love, and some people care nothing about. Personally, I am a mixture of both, and it largely depends on the style of game that I'm playing. In the Myst series, for instance, I was ecstatic every time I found a new journal to read. It made the world feel so much more alive and meaningful. In other games -- World of Warcraft for instance -- I'm a story skipper. I click through the quest text and just go straight for the next objective.

Whatever the case may be with you and Salt, more lore books are coming in! They will be very small stories that add little tidbits of depth to the world. Some will be small journals of unimportant pirates while others will hint more at the larger story of the world. The new books will be obtainable in a number of different ways, and there will be multiple volumes of some, so you will need to collect them all to get the full story.

Will has been doing tons of writing, so we have a good number of the new lore books completed.

One thing that we would love to add in the future is a way to store and display all of your books in your home or ship. Bookcases would make a nice addition to a captain's cabin. The bookcase won't be in this upcoming update most likely, but you can look for it to come in a later one.

Robert, who has always been bothered by the fact that logs can spawn on an empty island, has been working on ways to improve visual cues in regards to the location and presence of resources. This includes changes such as having certain flowers only spawn in fields or mushrooms only spawning in dark wooded areas. And of course the amount of wood being tied to the amount of trees on an island. I'm personally very excited about this because it adds another element of player progress through learning and intuition. Additionally, the realism will improve immersion.

As crappy as they are, I have come find the pirates with their bad textures and goofy faces very endearing. They are, sadly, a placeholder for an improved model that we can better work with. We have contracted a professional 3D artist to create an updated version of them for us. They will likely be slightly different yet reminiscent of the current ones in their shape and demeanor. The updated models are currently in the early stages of development, so I can't say for sure how long until they are in.

We are looking forward to getting these updates finished up and in your hands! As usual, we will push these changes to the Steam testing branch to work out the kinks before we officially release the update, so you can look for these additions to pop up there first within the next few weeks.

- John Gamble (Lead Developer)