Update 1.9.2 Preview

8:47 AM willsterling23 0 Comments

island sunrise with scimitar

Today we wanted to give you a guys a brief preview of some of the content you can expect in the next update. We are still working hard on multiplayer implementation, and that is coming along well. As we've stated before, we want to release smaller content updates during the process of multiplayer and this will be another one of those updates.

Here are some things you can expect in the next patch:


Sea Hunter

salt sea hunter npc inventory

In our most recent update, we added in two new NPCs known as the Sea Scholar and the Sea Fisher. With this update, we'll be adding in another new NPC known as the Sea Hunter. Like the other characters, he will feature five quests that allow you to rank up and unlock new vendor gear. After completing his ranked quests, you will then be able to do a repeatable quest for a random drop of rare gear. 


NPC Graves

Salt npc and pirate graves

This update will also include new content you can discover throughout the world known as NPC Graves. These will be the tombstones of old pirates, captains, and other various characters. With most of the graves you will be able to read a small bit about the character and how they died. Occasionally these grave sites with contain buried treasure in the form of a bronze, silver, gold, or a ceremonial lockbox. You will need keys to open these lockboxes and they will obtain unique and rare loot. 


Island Music


Although music primarily only occurs at sea, we are about to introduce new music for large natural islands. In Salt, we've always made a conscious choice not to bombard the player with music every step of the way. We wanted the natural ambience and atmosphere of the world to immerse the player and we felt that too much music could take away from that. After some recent discussion though, we've decided to add in some occasional music that can play on large natural islands. On these islands you often have some downtime since they are fairly large and don't contain pirates. We thought music might fit these nicely and so you can expect some new unique music for both day and night exploration on these islands.


We are very excited for the next update and can't wait for you to go after some of the new content we've been working on! As always, we would love to hear your feedback.

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Dev Update: Recent and Upcoming Changes

8:43 AM willsterling23 1 Comments

sunset behind island

It's been a fun few weeks at Lavaboots recently. We've made a lot of new changes to the game and we're still chugging along multiplayer implementation and making some great progress in that regard. As you probably know we recently released Update 1.9.1 which added a lot of new content including new characters with quests and items, and some major changes to the island distribution system. If you haven't read up on that update yet, you can do so here.

Today I want talk about some additional changes we've pushed recently since the 1.9.1 update, and some things coming up in the future.


New Map Items

salt map item in inventory

One of my favorite changes we've made recently is the introduction of new map items. You can now find maps in the world that give you coordinates to a certain island type or place. These maps can be found on various NPC's as well as in chests. One of the big reasons we made a change to the island distribution system in patch 1.9.1, was to help players find more varied islands. This is a further step in that direction. This also adds a fun sense of objective and discovery to the world. 


Tier 2 Island Visual Changes

tier 2 pirate island

Another change we've made recently is further changing the visuals of tier 2 pirate islands. We wanted to make them easier to spot and to differentiate them more from other pirate islands. The islands now have a more orange look to them, both in the grass and the ground texture. 


New Item Highlighting

salt inventory item highlighting

Another small but important change we've made is new item highlighting in your inventory. Now, when you pick up a new item, it will be highlighted in your inventory indicating which item is new. This helps players more in the beginning and adds a degree of intuitiveness to the game. 


Misc Changes


In this recent update we've also made some minor changes such as bug fixes and increasing the size of the item description window. We had some issues where, unless you right clicked an item, you couldn't see its full description and effects. We've also made some lighting changes to the merchants, inns, and hunting shacks to be less intense, particularly with merchants during the day. 


Upcoming Changes


We have some fun new ideas planned for our next update, which we'll be talking about in more detail in the coming weeks. In short, this update will include another new character known as the Sea Hunter, NPC graves, and new music. The Sea Hunter will be much like the recent Sea Scholar and Sea Fisher. He will have a set of quests that allow you to rank up, purchasing new items. Once you hit max rank, you'll be able to do a repeatable quest for nice loot drops. 

In addition to the Sea Hunter we will be adding in NPC graves that can be found throughout the world. Most tombstones you find will have a tombstone text on it, indicating how the person died, and there will possibly be a lockbox buried with them. You will have a chance at finding bronze, gold, silver, and ceremonial lockboxes with unique loot inside them. 

In the next update we also plan on adding in new island music. Our goal is to include a few new songs that can occur on large natural islands during the day and night. These will be unobtrusive and only occur occasionally, but will hopefully add to the experience of exploration when on the large natural islands. 


Thanks for reading and as always we'd love to hear your feedback!









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