Salt 2 Now Available On Steam Early Access!


Ahoy mateys!


Salt 2 is now available on Steam Early Access. We've been working on this game for over two and a half years and we are so happy to finally have it out. First, we want to say a big thank you to everyone that has helped us test the game over the last few months and to everyone who supported us during our Kickstarter campaign. We are so excited for the future of Salt 2 and have a lot of good updates planned.


Here's a quick look at just a few planned features on our roadmap which you can also view in-game. Of course a huge part of what we add in the game will be based on your feedback and what you'd like to see.

If you encounter any bugs in the game, you can use the in-game bug reporting tool, or you can report them on the Steam discussion forums.

Also, feel free to hop on over to our Discord and chat with other players, provide suggestions, or ask us questions! Thank you all so much and we look forward to seeing you on the high seas!


Current Planned Features:

- More Ships

- Additional map features

- Talents for skill trees

- Talents for your player when you level up

- Cooperative multiplayer

- Visible player avatar

- More island types, quests, loot, and world bosses

- Underwater content

Dev Update: Beta, Early Access Release Date, and Pirate King Islands

Ahoy mateys!

We've got some good new information to share with you so let's dive in. 


Beta

Today we sent out beta keys to Kickstarter backers. We've been running the alpha for the last month and it has been great. We've fixed a ton of bugs and made a lot of balancing changes based on your feedback. Today we open that pool of testers to even more people and can't wait to see what you think about the game. If you didn't back the game on Kickstarter but still want a chance to play the beta, head on over to our Discord. There will be some occasional giveaways on there from backers with extra keys. 


Release Date

We have also finally set an official early access release date for Salt 2. The game will come out September 20th, 2022. It feels like it's been a long journey to get here and we want to thank you all for your patience. We can't wait to get the game out publicly and see you out on the high seas. When the game launches we'll also discuss some of our planned content and get feedback from the community on what you want to see in the game. 

New Content


Our main focus over the last month has been bug fixes and balancing changes based on feedback during the alpha testing. We've fixed some major bugs and we feel the game is in a much more polished state now. We've also been working on some new content, particularly end game content. Coming soon will be an entire new island type: Pirate King Islands. These islands will contain the most difficult enemies in the game and a pirate fortress for you to overcome. There will also be an end game dungeon on these islands only accessibly in the later world tiers of the game. This dungeon will be filled with challenges but also unique rewards. 

In addition to the end game pirate islands, we're also adding more unique items in the game for you to find, new quests, and more points of interests.



We are so excited to see what the future holds for Salt 2. Thanks for joining us on the journey!

Dev Update: Maps, Guild Quests, Hunger System, and More




Hey everyone!

We have got a ton of new content changes and things to talk about so let's dive right in. 


Alpha Release Update


I know everyone is getting excited and ready to start the alpha testing. We are too and it's almost here! First off, we just want to say thank you to everyone for being so patient. It's really important to us that your first experience with Salt 2, even in the alpha state, is a good one. As such we've been putting a lot of time into getting all the content in we can and making sure everything runs as smooth and polished as possible. This has added more time on development than we originally wanted, but we really just didn't want to rush things and have that affect your first impressions of the game.

That being said, right now it looks we are probably about 3 to 4 weeks from alpha launch. Everything is essentially in and we are finalizing content, fixing some bugs and making some final balancing changes before launch. The game right now is very playable but we want to make sure it feels balanced and fun at all stages and so we are doing some late game testing and things like that before we start the alpha. Over the next few weeks we'll be putting the build on steam and requesting keys. Once that's done, you can expect to start receiving your alpha keys. We'll of course let you know soon the exact date you can expect the keys to arrive.

Maps



We've recently implemented both a mapping system and map items into the game. With the mapping system you'll be able to use your sextant to update your last known position on your map, and if you are on island, you can add that island to your map. When adding an island to map, it automatically knows whether it's large island or not so you don't have to worry about setting its size or getting in the right grid square. Your job as a cartographer will be to update your coordinates using your sextant, add the island to the map, and then you'll be able to add information to the island. This is still a work in progress and we still have some things to add like the ability to fast travel to certain islands like seaport islands through the map. 



We've also added in map items. If you've played Salt 1, you'll be familiar with these. These maps give you coordinates to certain points of interests. This means you can find a map to places like ancient ruins and use your compass and sextant to navigate there. 

Guild Quests



We talked recently about how we adding commissions quests you can pick up in towns, but we've also recently added in guild quests. At launch there will be two guilds you can join: The Sea Scholar's and The Marauder's Guild. The Sea Scholar's Guild is dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge by gathering artifacts and unlocking new technologies throughout the high seas. The Marauder's Guild is more focused on completing bounties and contracts that come in. These may to be hunt down and kill a pirate captain or to recover a rare artifact. 

Completing these guild quests will earn you a ranking in the guild and unique items such as ships and ship decorations. 

Sound Design



A lot of work recently has been put in to our sound design. We've implemented our ocean and island music. Now certain types of music can play while you are at sea or while you are exploring islands. And certain points of interests have specific music associated with them. In addition to music, we've also added in unique island ambient sounds based on time of day. In Salt 1, you would either have day ambient or night ambient sounds, but in Salt 2 we've also added evening and morning sounds. This means different times of day really have a completely different atmosphere both in terms of audio and in terms of lighting. 

We've also added some voice over greetings to some NPCs to give them more life and personality. While characters aren't fully voiced, you'll get to hear fun like quips and one liners when talking to them. 

Hunger System


The survival mechanics are a big part of Salt 2 and we wanted a hunger system that was fun and not just punishing. We recently implemented a system that uses 5 stages of hunger. If you are completely full, you will get a bonus to your stats. As you start to grow more hungry and your food meter goes down, your stats will also decline. If you get to where you are starving, your stats will severely decrease causing you to die very easily if you take damage. Luckily it isn't too hard to find food. Almost every island has wildlife roaming about and cooking stations to find. You can also always fish or food or visit a chef merchant. Also, eating will not only keep you from starving, but will often give you passive benefits for a certain amount of time. 

Player Levels


We also recently added player levels. Right now you'll be able to level from 1 to 50. As you hit certain levels this will also unlock new world tiers with new difficult enemies and loot. We also plan on adding the ability to increase your stats as you level and that will be going in soon. You currently level up by completing quests and killing enemies or hunting wildlife. 

New Island Types



In addition to pirate islands, natural islands, and desert islands, we also just added in battlemaster islands. These islands have an autumn style color palette and contain pirates more difficult than your typically run of the mill swabbies. You'll also be able to find unique wildlife and points of interest on these islands such as a rare and mysterious caves. 

Lighting and Sunset Changes



We believe every good game deserves an awesome sunset. Recently we spent some time tweaking our lighting to make the transition from day to night look as good as possible. We're pretty happy with how it turned out and we think it adds a lot of atmosphere to the game. We've also added the ability to rest through the night or you can carry a hip lantern and explore in the dark. 

World Bosses



Another new piece of content added recently are world bosses. These are epic bosses that are very difficult but offer unique rewards. Finding them isn't easy and you'll have to often complete mini quests or collect a certain number of rare items in order to access them. We wanted some enemies in the game you could essentially farm for unique items like ship upgrades or certain weapon types and these fulfill that purpose. 

New Wildlife



We've also added in more wildlife to the game. Recently we added foxes and boars. These can be found on specific islands and some of them even drop unique items or can be a reward for completing certain quests. Currently in the game you can find bears, boar, deer, and foxes. We will be adding more soon as well. 

New Points of Interests



As always we are still adding new points of interests for you to discover and explore. We recently added in a dungeon known as The Catacombs. These dungeons are maze-like with secrets hidden throughout and undead crawling every corridor. We also added in some mining caves which are a great place to find ore veins and more rare materials. 



Thank you for reading and again we will have a specific date for the alpha coming soon in the next few weeks! 

Dev Update: Quests, Sneaking, World Tiers, and Release Times





Ahoy mateys! 

We've got a lot to cover in today's dev update so I'm going to jump right in. 


Release Times


We're finally nearing release time and have almost got everything we need done. We'll talk a bit today about what we've been working on recently and what's left. In short, the main content we still need to implement is the map system and survival mechanics. Once that's done, it's time to do some testing on our end, then jump into the alpha/beta tests. 

So here's our current timeline for that. We plan on starting alpha testing early June, beta testing in July, and Early Access release in August. So if you've hit the right tier on Kickstarter you'll get your keys in early June for alpha, and early July for beta. Once the alpha starts it will continue almost all the way to release. So effectively you'll get about a two month head start in playtime and beta will get a little over a month. 

I know this is a couple months delay past our original goal of May. We'll basically have the game ready in May, but we really want to allow proper time for the alpha and beta tests which will help us get the game in a better state for launch. Plus we don't want to release right in the middle of the Steam Summer Sale which is typically late June/early July. 

We really appreciate all your patience and this should be the last delay. We'll also start sending out physical Kickstarter rewards this summer ahead of launch. 

Quest Design




A big area we've been focusing on over the last month or so is quest design. Although a main quest won't be in at early access launch, we will have commissions and side quests. Commissions are very simple quests you can pick up at notice boards in Seaports. These quests are categorized by crafting writs, hunting commissions, expeditions, and fishing commissions. These draw from a random pool of quests and can be repeated. They are a great way to earn money and rewards while going about your normal adventure. 

The next level of quests are side quests. These are a bit more specific in terms of where you'll go and what you'll do. These quests are picked up from NPCs, involve more dialogue and story than commission quests, and often give unique rewards you can't get elsewhere. There are currently over 100 commission quests in the game and there will be a good base of side quests for you to do as well at launch.

Sneaking



We recently adding the ability for you to crouch and sneak. Attacks while sneaking not only give a guaranteed critical hit, but the attack does double what a normal critical hit would. This means if you're patient and wait for the right opportunities, you can potentially take down a lot of pirates in a camp or cave without them ever knowing you were there. It is fairly difficult though as the pesky pirates often stick together, but sometimes one will wander off on his own. 

World Tiers



A huge part of Salt 2 is focused on character progression. We've added a ton of loot in the game and we wanted a way for you to continue to find new and better loot the more you play. With that in mind we've added a world tier system. Essentially you'll have an overall player level that you'll be able to level up from basic things like killing enemies and completing quests. As you hit certain levels it will unlock a new world tier. This means a chance for new enemy spawns, new loot drops, new merchants, and other content. So as you continue to level up you'll start seeing more new content and have a chance at overall better drops. 

New Island Types and POIs




Recently we've started finalizing our island design. As of right there are three types of islands you can explore and we'll be adding more later. There are natural islands, pirate islands, and desert islands. Each island has its own unique set of points of interests that can spawn. Some new points of interests we've added are things like ancient towers and mining caves. Ancient towers are basically jumping puzzles with a nice reward at the top and mining caves are a great way to find some are minerals. 

New Items



We've also been adding a lot of new items including a sextant for navigation and some lore items. Like in Salt 1, you'll be able to use the sextant to get your actual coordinates in the world. This in combination with the compass and maps to island coordinates create a sense of direction in an otherwise infinite world. We also added some items that can drop specifically to give lore information. This means if you inspect items, you can often find extra information that will allow you to piece together some of the world history and lore. 

Performance Improvements


Another thing we've spent a lot of time on recently is improving the game's performance. While we still have a ways to go in this regard, we've definitely made some strides in getting the game to run better and not have to make too many visual sacrifices. Once the alpha and beta tests start, we'll be looking for feedback in this area to better give us an idea of how Salt 2 is running on a wider array of machines and we'll continue to make improvements from there. 


Again, thank you all so much for your patience. We're working as hard and fast as we can to get the game out so you can play it. What's most important to us is that your first experience with the game is a great one and so we want to spend that extra time adding all the content we can, fixing bugs, and polishing the overall state of the game. 


Thanks for reading and don't forget to join our Discord if you'd like to ask us questions or make suggestions. 

Dev Update: Dialogue, Merchants, Cooking, and More!


Hey everyone!

In today's dev update we want to talk about some of the final major systems we've been implementing in preparation for the early access launch. In case you missed it in our last dev update, we are currently planning on releasing sometime in May. We are getting the near the end but still have some loose ends we need to tie up and some more polishing to do. Here's a look at what we've implementing and have been working on over the past couple months. 


Dialogue



A major system we were still missing was a dialogue system. This is very important not just to be able to talk to various NPCs you find in the world, but also to pick up and turn in quests. We needed a system to handle different quest states, the ability to take items from the player or give the player items, and the ability to chain quests together for guild quests and the main quest. We've got that system now mostly in and working. It still needs some testing and polish but overall it's working well. 

Although a large part of the game is going to be about exploring and survival, we really want there to be some fun and quirky NPCs for you to find and talk to including merchants, quest givers, and just general islanders. 

Merchants




In addition to the dialogue system, we also knew we needed a merchant system. There's a ton of loot in the game and you probably aren't going to want to keep it all. Merchants can generally be found at Sea Ports and are a great way to sell some of your unwanted gear in exchange for some coin. Merchants also sometimes have quests and unique items that you can't get anywhere else.  A large part of the implementation process for things like dialogue and merchants is the UI design. We have to make sure you can see all the information you need at a glance, have the ability to buy back items, and things like that. Merchants are now in the game and working so we're happy to say that's another system implemented and ready to go for launch. 

Cooking and Crafting



One thing I'm really happy about so far with the game is the amount of items that you can craft. We've added a ton of things for you to do with the materials you find in the world. You can craft hundreds of different armor pieces and weapons, over 80 different ship decoration items, and now we're implementing cooking recipes. Throughout your journey in Salt you'll be able to loot and find various cooking ingredients and use these to make a lot of different recipes including meals and potions. These items will often heal you for some amount, prevent you from starving, and also give you some kind of bonus for a certain amount of time. The more rare the recipe, the better the bonus to your stats. We're currently working on about 50 different meal recipes for you to find and cook and more will be added later. 

Enemy Spawns and Secrets



Another major area we've been working on is filling our caves and points of interest with enemies and secrets. Once we got the areas visually how we wanted them, we now are going through them and strategically placing certain enemy types and hiding secrets all throughout. This means you may be delving deep into a cave only to discover a locked door with a hidden key or a secret wall. We want exploration to be fun and rewarding and our hand built POIs are a great way for us to do this. 


Coming Up


One aspect of the game we are still working on and want to get in a better state before release is the quest design. There will be a few different type of quests in the game including town commission quests, side quests, and guild quests. Some of these will be simple tasks that you can pick up for a town board and complete as you go about your normal journey. Other quests will be more specific and involved. We'll have more news on this front soon. 



As always thank you all for your support and patience. The game is coming along great and we are so excited for you to get to play it soon! Also, if you are a Kickstarter backer, rewards will be sent out soon. We've got all the physical rewards in and are just checking to make sure everyone has their correct shipping address updated. Once that's complete we'll be sending out physical rewards in the next few months. 

Dev Update: Skeletons, Crafting Recipes, Talent Trees, and Roadmap

Hey everyone! 

The Holidays are almost here but we wanted to share with you an update on some of the systems we've been implementing recently and what's to come before early access launch. We also wanted to give you an update on when we think launch might be and what we have left to do. Let's dive in! 


Skeletons



To start off with we added a brand new enemy type to the game: Skeletons! Enemy variety is something we'll be expanding on more in future updates, but we wanted there to at least be something other that pirates and wildlife to find in the world. Skeletons often hang around ancient ruins and cave shrines. Through lore books and the main story you'll uncover the reason behind these necromantic beings appearing throughout the isles. 

Crafting Recipes



A huge amount of work recently has gone into our crafting system. We've been working on adding literally hundreds of crafting recipes, refined materials, and interesting crafting components to make a robust crafting system. In a recent update we talked about how we were adding a ton of weapons and armor as loot drops throughout the world. Well, we've also added crafting recipes for their counter parts. If you recall, weapons will have random talents based on their rarity tier. One of the main benefits of crafting weapons is increasing the odds you'll get the talent roll you want, since you can craft an item multiple times so long as you have the required components. 

We also want finding crafting components to be a fun part of the game. While exploring you'll be able to find lore books and NPCs that can help point you in the direction of rare crafting recipes. For example, you may find a book that details how a certain mushroom only grows high up in cave ruins. Or an NPC might mention a certain flower that can only be found on particular islands. Either way, we want you to actually learn the world and where to find the items. 

Crafting is going to be a major part of Salt 2 and we are so excited for all the things you'll be able to craft: ship upgrades, weapons, armor, trinkets, meals, fishing lures, tools, and more! 

Skills and Talent Trees



In the last dev update we detailed how we started adding in skill systems for the various things you do in the game. So if you go mining ore you'll gain skill experience in mining. If you go fishing you'll gain skill experience in fishing and so on. As those skills level up you'll unlock the talents for that particular skill tree. 

Over the last month we've spent a lot of time adding unique talents for each tree. As you can  imagine this is a lot of work but we're making good progress on it. For example we have talents that do certain damage to certain enemy types and talents that cause bleed effects. It's possible not every skill tree will be in at launch but we will be continuing to work on this and add more as we go. 

Currently there are thirteen planned skill trees for Salt 2. We're going to prioritize the ones you will use the most for the time being and update more later as the game progresses. 

Combat Improvements



We've also recently been making more combat improvements. We added the ability to do a secondary powerful attack with various weapons. We also added in new death animations for certain enemies and new sounds. Now different enemy types have idle sounds and various attack sounds making the combat feel more dynamic. We also added in an effect system. This means certain talents or abilities can cause an effect to occur on an enemy (or yourself for that matter.) For example, the bleed effect talent from the slashing tree uses the effect system. 

Roadmap and Release Times


We've been developing games now for about seven years and I still think the hardest thing to do is estimate when a game will be ready for release. We're a small team making a fairly large scale game and sometimes things go quicker than you expect, but sometimes things also take a lot longer. At the same time, we don't want to be too ambiguous about when the game will launch and so our goal has been to try to do these dev updates frequently and just let you know what's going on every step of the way. 

I know you all are super to eager for the alpha/beta tests to start, and for the full game to release. I can honestly say we are getting very close! It's important that we have all the major systems in the game and have a fun polished experience for you when the game launches. As of right now it looks like we'll likely be able to start alpha/beta testing in March or April and will probably launch closer to May. It's possible some things get implemented quickly and we actually can launch sooner, but I want to be as conservative as possible. 

Here's the major things we still need to get done before launch.  

- Dialogue System
- Merchants
- Survival Mechanics
- Map
- Finish Quest Implementation
- General expansion of content

Some of these things will go quicker than others and we think we can get these implemented in the next few months. However, we also want to allow time for testing and polishing these systems. So once they are in and we do our first pass, we'll start the alpha tests, fix issues from that, then run the beta test, fix issues, and finally launch. 


Thank you everyone so much for your patience and we couldn't do this without your support. 

Dev Update: Skill System, Quests, Loot Variations, and More



Ahoy fellow sea adventurers! 

In today's update I want to focus on some of the major new systems we've been implementing and what's still left to do before the early access launch. Also, if you are a Kickstarter backer and are expecting a physical reward, those will be shipped out soon! We sent messages to Kickstarter backers a couple weeks ago asking you to update your mailing address. So if you pledged in a tier to receive a physical reward, please let us know if your mailing address is the same or has changed and we will get those sent out soon. 

Let's dive in! 


Skill System


With Salt 2 being a procedurally generated world, we want to make sure there is a good bit of depth to content and a "grind" in the good sense. We want you to have different areas you can focus on, invest your time in, and be rewarded for doing so. All the while continuing to explore onward and forward. 

One way we are achieving this is through a skill system. As you do various things in the world you will receive experience towards that skill. For example, if you mine some iron ore you'll receive some skills in mining. If you defeat a pirate with a cutlass you'll receive experience towards the slashing skill. Each skill will have its own talent tree. As you level up in the skill, you'll unlock points you can spend on the talent tree until you hit the level cap. Currently each skill cap is being set to level 50 but we may increase this in future updates. 

There will be a good variety of skills at early access launch and we may add more later. Getting to max level in every skill will take a while and so this is a good way for you to not only be rewarded for focusing on certain skills, but to give you a constant reward to chase even in an infinite world. 

Quest System



Another system we've implemented recently is our quest system. There will be a variety of quests in Salt 2 including a main story, side quests, and tasks you can pick up in towns. The main story quest will likely come after early access launch but we want there to be a good variety of side quests and commissions you can do to make money and earn loot. We've built a quest journal system so you can track your quests and a quest indicator on the main screen to let you know what your current objective is and how far along you are in the quest line. We'll have more information later on what types of quests you can get but you can expect things like hunting quests, bounty hunts, fishing commissions, and more. 

Loot Variations



Salt 2 isn't just focused on crafting, exploration, and survival. It's also about the loot. As big fans of looter games we wanted to make sure that loot has a ton of variation. This is also very important in an infinite game like Salt. We don't want you to feel like you've found and looted all the weapons in the first 10 hours of play. 




Here's the way loot variation will work. Each weapon or piece of armor will have one of five rarities: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. There will also be different stats for each piece of gear. So for example a cutlass might have a bonus to strength, agility, constitution, dexterity, or a combination. In addition to that variety, the rarity of the item will determine how many tiers of talents it can roll on. A common weapon only has one tier of talents but a legendary will have five tiers. Each tier will have two talent choices. These talents are chosen randomly from a pool of talents. This means there can be hundreds of combinations of each piece of gear when you factor in the stats and talent variations. 




This allows for a Diablo-like system where you are looking for a specific roll. For example you might be looking for an Epic Cutlass with a bonus to dexterity/strength, and with the life steal talent or other specific talents. As you explore the world, defeat enemies, and loot gear from chests, these items will randomly drop and you might just get that god roll you were looking for. 

In addition to looting items, you'll also be able to find crafting recipes for gear and that will give you a little bit more control over what type of gear you want. So for example, if you have a crafting recipe for a rare cutlass and you have enough components, you can craft multiple of those, each one with a random roll thereby increasing your chance to find that perfect roll. 

We still want unique weapons in the game as well though. So sometimes a boss might drop a weapon specific to him that has a specific set of unique talents and stats. But overall we want you to have a large variety of weapons and armor to hunt for while you explore the world. 

New Points of Interests


We are also constantly adding new points of interests as well. Recently we've started adding in sea ports, shipwrecks, and loot caves. Sea ports will be the main hub for merchants and quests in the game. When you find a port you'll be able to pick up quests from the local town board, buy and sell items from merchants, and talk to the local villagers. We are so excited for you to get to explore all the various places in the game. We're working hard to continue to add a good variation of caves, ancient ruins, pirate camps, and more to the game so you'll have a good variety of content even in an infinite world. 


What's Next?

In case you missed it, we have pushed our original release schedule back to early next year. It's really important to us that the game is in a polished state and has a good bit of content at early access launch, and so we're taking the extra time needed to do that. We've still got some major systems to implement such as a dialogue system, fast travel mechanic, quests, and a few other things. If you have pledged on Kickstarter and are wondering when the alpha/beta tests are going to start, I'd say our best estimate right now is January or February 2022. We will likely run 1-2 weeks of an alpha test, spend a couple weeks fixing bugs and making changes from that test, and then we'll run a beta test and do the same for it. Then we'll be releasing shortly after that once we get everything balanced and polished. 


Thank you so much everyone for your patience and we can't wait to release Salt 2 and see you out on the sea! 
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