Update 1.9.1 - Sailor's Delight is Now Available!

7:25 AM willsterling23 3 Comments

Update 1.9.1 is now available for download! We are very excited for this update as it includes a lot of good new changes for Salt, as well as new content for you to experience.

World Changes Overview

The distribution of islands and the content that they contain has changed. This is an optional upgrade for current saved games. With the addition of new content and island types throughout development, the distribution of islands and content has been something we want to re-balance. For example, some island types have become rarer than intended, while others too common. Also, it is often the case during play that you run into many islands in a row with very little content of interest then run across a single island with tons of content. All of this combined would occasionally cause unlucky players to play for long periods of time without the chance to experience exciting content. It is for this reason that we wanted to do some re-balancing.

These world changes are not automatically applied to existing saves. You can manually upgrade these saves by pressing the upgrade button next to each existing save file in the "Load" menu. If you have spent time mapping the world, note that this will render your map inaccurate as the placement of islands will change. However, if you have had the Cartographer NPC check your map, the game will offer to automatically populate a portion of your map for you based on how much and accurately you filled out your previous map.

Patch Notes:

Island Distribution
- The chance for each island type to appear has been adjusted.
- How far away from the origin certain island types can appear has also been adjusted.
- Removed the too-vast expanses of ocean that could appear past 50 units away from the origin.

Island Content
Spread out the content among islands so that you are now less likely to encounter many islands in a row without special content.

New Help Interface
Replaced the old help book with a new help interface to make it easier to reference the topic you are looking for. Additionally, added pop-up notifications to direct new players towards particular help sections as they encounter related content.

New NPCs
Added two new friendly characters to find in the world. Each offers a number of new quest and items to obtain.

Other Changes
- Nearby dead enemies will no longer block you from saving the game.
- Changed the way campfires and flags save their positions internally to reduce bloat in the registry.
- Made question mark on merchant interfaces pulse to make it more noticeable.
- Added close button to NPC dialog window
- Fixed a bug where money would be given to the player when an NPC's wares would update due to a quest completion while the wares were visible.
- Fixed money count in player equipment window not always updating properly when selling items.
- Merchant inventories now start out scrolled to the top.
- Increased the chance of named king challengers to appear.
- Slightly improved map performance.
- The whole number portion of the precise sextant's location now matches the normal sextant.

Notes:

For those of you waiting on multiplayer, don't worry. It is under development. This is one of a few smaller updates to be released during the multiplayer development period.

3 comments:

Update 1.9.1 Now On Testing Branch!

8:04 AM willsterling23 1 Comments

Hey everyone!

You can now download and play Update 1.9.1 - Sailor's Delight on the Steam testing branch. If you aren't already on the testing branch and would like to help us test the new update before an official push, you can follow the instructions here:

Steam Testing Branch Instructions

This update comes with a lot of new changes. Let me go over briefly some of what you can expect to see!

Island Distribution Changed

With this update we have changed the distribution of islands in the world. The new system better spreads out content and discoveries so that you'll be less likely to find multiple islands back to back with nothing on them. We've still got some content gated beyond a certain point and things of that nature to keep a sense of progression, but we wanted to decrease the lull a little bit and make it easier to find some of the unique content we've put into the game.

These changes will take effect to any new games you create and are an optional upgrade for previous save games.

New NPCs, Quests, and Items

Along with the new island distribution system, we've also implemented two brand new friendly characters with quests and rewards. These new characters are known as the Sea Fisher and the Sea Scholar. Each NPC will have five quests and as you complete the quests, you'll unlock access to rank 1 through 5 of their vendor gear. Once you hit rank 5, you'll be able to do a repeatable quest for a random loot drop. The random loot drop is guaranteed to be a rare item, but also has a chance to be an epic or even a legendary.

With these new NPC's we've introduced over 50 new weapons, armor, and items into the game to give you lots of new loot to work toward.

New Help Interface

This update also includes a new help interface intended to make it easier for new players to learn the mechanics of the game. The new interface is more intuitive to use and will direct players to a portion of the help journal as they encounter related content in the game.

In addition to all this we've also made some other changes. We've fixed a bug on the merchant window where the inventory would sometimes start out scrolled at the bottom. We've also made the question mark on the merchant interface pulse slightly to better indicate his available quest.

We plan on pushing this update out officially soon but can use your help on the testing branch in the mean time. Thanks for reading and as always we'd love to hear your feedback!

1 comments:

Update 1.9.1 Coming Soon: New World and New NPCs

11:47 AM willsterling23 5 Comments

Hey everyone!

We're really excited to share some information with you regarding our next update and what kind of content you expect in this patch. We are still working on multiplayer and making progress with that, but this is one of the content updates we wanted to push out so you all would have some new stuff to do while waiting on multiplayer.

So let's get down to it. What can you expect from this update?

A New World

First, this update is going to change the way islands in the world spawn. This is similar to our previous cataclysm done a long time ago. We try not to do these types of changes often, since they can mess up your maps and will change where things are found in the world. However, with this update it will only affect new games unless you choose to upgrade your existing world, which there will be an option for in-game.

So why did we choose to change the world again? Mainly for a much better player experience. Over the last couple years we've added more and more content into Salt. However, the spread of that content got a bit off balance. This could cause a frustrating experience, particularly for new players, where one would encounter many islands with nothing on them before finding islands with content. This made Salt feel empty on content, when in reality it was just too difficult to find the content.

With this update we drastically improved this. We have significantly increased the chance for you to find content on islands and spread that content out much more efficiently. This update also changes the island variety so that you'll be more likely to find various island types early on and experience the content they have to offer as well. We've also changed the post 50 unit spread of islands to be normal and no different than other islands. As of right now, once you get past the 50 unit mark, you hit extremely long stretches of ocean before finding more islands. This ended up not being fun and we've gone back to a normal spread of islands.

Overall, we hope that the new changes to the island distribution system will help you find new content and discoveries more frequently and create a better variety of island types as well.

New NPC's and New Items

This update is also going to include two brand new characters that can be found throughout the world. These characters are the Sea Scholar and the Sea Fisher. Each NPC will have five quest steps that unlock various ranks of vendor items you can buy from them. Once you hit rank 5, you'll then be able to do a repeatable quest for a random loot drop. The random loop drop will be a guaranteed rare item, and occasionally an epic or a legendary.

We've added over 50 new items with these NPCs, mostly armor and weapons. These items are unique and won't be found anywhere else. We hope these new quests and NPC's give you more reason to do some of the things you've already been doing in the world, and reward you for investing time into the game.

Other Changes

In this update we've also made some changes to loot and done a little bit of balancing. Tier 1 and Tier 2 pirates now have a better chance to drop armor, keys, and can drop some new additional items such as health potions. We've also some minor adjustments to some weapons and AI damage based on some testing.

Be on the lookout for this update to hit Steam soon. We plan on pushing this update out within the next couple weeks! As always we'd love to hear your feedback.

- Will Sterling (Sound Lead and Game Design)

Salt Development Blog