After the launch of Sands of Salzaar's latest major update “Battle of the Black Sun” which brought English localization and a slew of new content, now we are ready to reveal what’s coming up next in the development of Sands of Salzaar.




The current iteration of multiplayer in Sands of Salzaar is just a framework of what is possible, and for the next major update we want to address the issues discovered during this period and further polish the current content.

• New additions to the multiplayer framework and “Battle of the Black Sun” map

This includes refinements for the co-op map, and various multiplayer specific item/gear changes.

• Continuous development of mod tools and expanded support for English language mod tools

There will undoubtedly be increased demands on mod tool features and stability after the English launch and the multiplayer feature, this is something crucial for talented mod makers to unleash their creativity. We are also looking to optimize the support for English mod makers so no matter what language you choose to play in, you could always share the freedom of modding.

• Quest system improvements

We also want to address some of the most emergent pain points like the quest system and further refine quest content.

• Additional mod developer support for multiplayer
  
• More battleground map variations in singleplayer

We are targeting a 1-2 month development time for this update, the features listed above are more urgent, with additional challenges from the multiplayer.


One of the most frequent feedbacks we received is the lack of variety in siege battles, especially during endgame and repeated sieges. More siege command options, and unit pathing are also we are specifically working on to fix and improve.

• Siege battle improvements

The current siege battle design is not interesting enough, the lack of AI challenge makes endgame a bit on the tedious side of things. A revamp to siege battles would significantly increase the quality of battle experience throughout the game.

• A new starting class

I mean, who doesn’t like new playable characters? Although we’d love to keep the details on this in wraps for now. Plus, we are also making improvements to other classes and tuning the overall balance.

• PvP multiplayer map sample.

After the previous additions to the multiplayer framework and Battle of the Black Sun co-op map, we are planning to add a simple competitive multiplayer map as a sample.

• Existing classes optimizations
  
• Existing troop balancing
  
• Troop AI improvements

For this kind of open world game, nuances in character interaction is a very interesting aspect. To achieve what we want from the system, a few major changes must be made, including a redesign of favor/reputation system, more character side stories and more variety in NPC actions.

• Nuanced character relationships

We envision Sands of Salzaar to be leaning towards the RPG side of a game, and we want it to feel like a proper one. The depth, characteristics, and the resulting possibilities in their interactions are what make every playthrough unique and interesting, and we want the players to have the desire to understand the world, the people and their backstories.

• More faction activities

Factions within the story will become more active in their trading, plundering and under table dealings. They will be much smarter when it comes to decisions, which leads to many more uncertainties and possibilities. You might want to change how you approach that certain Sultan a little, or a lot.

• More character side stories
  
• Controller support

This is a very important feature for us, and is something necessary for Sands of Salzaar to expand to other platforms like the Nintendo Switch. It’s relatively simple to support controllers for combat, but a total UI overhaul is necessary for full controller support, so this is something we are doing a bit later into development.


That’s what we have today for the next chapter in the world of Sands of Salzaar. We will also continue to update the game, fixing bugs and adding key features during this stage of development.

We are truly humbled by the tremendous amount of support since our last major release, and all the constructive feedback is incredibly valuable for us to determine what to do next for the game. We hope you like our showings here, and see you in the desert!

Early Access Update 0.8.0.7 for Sands of Salzaar is now live. We are taking measures to resolve some of the deeper gameplay related issues that impact your experience in this update.

You can now unstuck your character with the new feature in game settings. Opening the inventory screen in combat now pauses the game, so you can comfortably use recovery items or rearrange skills.

Further on the quality of life front, you no longer lose durability for the entire party’s items even if only a couple characters entered a dungeon, levitating some of the durability woes. Messages from other factions also no longer interrupt your more urgent actions such as preparing a siege.

We are also looking at solutions to address the following issues in future updates:

• Add new tools to streamline gear repairs.
  
• Fix quest item progress logic so you don't need to reobtain quest items you already have in your inventory.

Last but definitely not the least, expect a glimpse of what’s on the horizon for Sands of Salzaar soon!

For complete update notes, read further down below. In the meantime, check out our known issue list here and hop on our Discord server for more discussion and feedback.




Additions

• Added a button intended to fix various issues causing characters to be stuck on the world map, you can find it in game settings.
  
• Added new icons for some armor and weapons, modified some others.

Adjustments

• Diplomatic events like declaration of war or gesture of peace no longer prompt dialogue boxes that interrupt siege preparation. Players now need to address those events in the Message interface (bottom left in the world map) within a certain amount of time.
  
• Slightly reduced the power of Silver Warrior's skills.
  
• Certain dialogues now properly address characters based on their gender.
  
• Opening item and skill interface during battle in non-multiplayer modes now pauses the game.
  
• Removed reward selection dialogue from prestige levelups.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue causing messenger quests to sometimes display incorrect locations.
  
• Ifrit Archer can can now be upgraded to Ifrit Flamespitter.
  
• Fixed a geometry issue in Umbra Cliffs.
  
• Fixed an item description display issue caused by item customization interface in multiplayer.
  
• The legacy shop now properly displays all items under non 16:9 resolutions.
  
• Modded custom factions that do not have a designated color no longer cause all cities to lose their faction color.
  
• Battles that only require certain characters no longer incorrectly deduct item durability from all party members.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain quests to not update their quest item obtain progress.
  
• On difficulty level 1 and higher, troop upgrade tree now displays the correct troop level required for the upgrade.

After a brief break, we are back with another Early Access update for Sands of Salzaar! In this update we are continuing to address bugs and make adjustments to game systems. Quicksave now functions like what you would expect, and AI units will no longer rob caravans from the factions they should not temper with.

You can read the full patch note below. Read our known issue list here for information and workaround on other emergent issues we are still working on. Join our Discord server for more discussion and direct bug report as well!




Bugfixes

• Sultan's Arcane Portal can no longer teleport to Ifrit Domain directly.
  
• Bandits now spawn in smaller areas in Save the Nobles quests.
  
• Players will no longer receive Lesser Demons after joining the Ifrit.
  
• If the player turns on the Akhal's back after promising them to defeat the Dakn, they can now complete the quest to vanquish the Dakn later. Added new dialogue to both faction leaders to reflect the change.
  
• Bandits no longer spawn in the unpathable wharf near Agadir North Outpost.
  
• Fixed some legacy points cap related issues.
  
• Various translation and UI fixes.
  
• Summoning skills that have increased max HP effects no longer cause summoned units to spawn without full HP (e.g. Bounty Hunter's "Most Wanted" and subsequent upgrades).
  
  
  
  
• Slightly reduced stats of bounty hunters summoned by "Most Wanted".
  
• Improved Rations talent now properly reduce food cost.
  
  
  
  
• Fixed various asset visual issues in the character creator.

Adjustments

• "Robber" class characters no longer plunder caravans from factions that have a good standing (10 or more reputation) with their own.
  
• Opening the map in non multiplayer modes will now pause the game.
  
• Quick save (F5) now saves the game to a dedicated normal save slot, instead of overwriting the autosave.

Sands of Salzaar Early Access Update 0.8.0.5 is now live! In addition to what’s included in the update preview, we added a couple more fixes in this update, you can check out the full patch note below.

And just a reminder that our second modding event is still ongoing, which you can read about here. Feel free to contact us on Discord for any modding related questions as well!



You can find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

If you encounter further problems, please join us on our Discord server and let us know in the bug report channel, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!




Additions

• Added a sample humanoid animation set to ModSamples, this includes animation attributes such as how it should react when on a mount, for modding references.

Bugfixes

• Difficulty multipliers now scale AI unit strength correctly.
  
• When inspecting other parties in the world, clicking to inspect party members now correctly closes previous windows.
  
• Typing M when customizing map markers no longer closes the window.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when persuading NPCs to defect when the player has a full party.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when displaying messenger dialogue (such as after a weekly faction payout).
  
• A number of item attribute display fixes.
  
• Radiant Staff now properly has an attack visual effect.
  
• Correctly formatted item affix display in English version of the game.
  
• Various UI and text fixes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the shop to only refresh on hosts in multiplayer.

Adjustments

• Rebalanced how legacy points are earned. You can now gain 20 legacy from the final boss on difficulty 0.
  
• Some gift items are labeled Special Items.
  
• Added an error tolerance mechanic to the dialogue system. Incorrect game logic IDs now trigger error notifications and UI issues, but will no longer soft lock the game.

Hi everyone! We recently launched our second modding event which you can read about here. To better support the modding community and encourage your creativity, in our next update we will be releasing a new set of mod samples which includes reference points on character animation.

The way legacy points are calculated is also getting adjustments in this update, you will be able to gain legacy points when finishing the story mode on difficulty 0.



In addition, we are pushing a small update later today, fixing an issue causing the game to incorrectly launch in Chinese instead of English.

You can find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any further problem, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!



Read the patch notes for this update below:


Preliminary, may include additional changes once the update goes live.

Additions

• Added a sample humanoid animation set to ModSamples, this includes animation attributes such as how it should react when on a mount, for modding references.

Bugfixes

• When inspecting other parties in the world, clicking to inspect party members now correctly closes previous windows.
  
• Typing M when customizing map markers no longer closes the window.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when persuading NPCs to defect when the player has a full party.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the game to soft lock when displaying messenger dialogue (such as after a weekly faction payout).
  
• A number of item attribute display fixes.
  
• Radiant Staff now properly has an attack visual effect.
  
• Correctly formatted item affix display in English version of the game.

Adjustments

• Changed how legacy points are earned. You can now gain 20 legacy from the final boss on difficulty 0.
  
• Some gift items are labeled Special Items.

The newest update for Sands of Salzaar is now live! This update introduces a major redesign of the town infiltration mechanic, addresses difficulty option related issues introduced by our last update, and contains a number of main story bugfixes, you can read the patch notes further down below.

You can also find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any issue, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!




Additions

• Redesigned town infiltration mechanics. You can now try to sneak in during day time, but with much lower success rate. Your chance of success is tied to your party size, the more people you try to sneak in with, the less likely you'll succeed. A failed infiltration will trigger a small scale skirmish with guards, defeat them to continue your infiltration.
  
• Added 4 new urban battle environments.

Bugfixes

• The Sultan can now properly upgrade the Sawmill.
  
• Pre 0.8.0.3 saves (before we changed the prerequisite for the difficulty select function) now automatically adds 1 difficulty level a shortwhile after loading.
  
• Fixed an issue causing The Nameless's Arcane Portal to be able to access the Ifrit town earlier than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from talking to Husnu after helping the Nasir defeat all other tribes.
  
• Fixed a rare issue preventing players from progressing the main story after defeating all five tribes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain skills to become unlearnable in the Book of Fire quest.
  
• Players can now talk to the Ifrit mother again after interacting with the fruit first.
  
• The Ifrit towns now have more building variety other than Caster Watchtowers.

Adjustments

• (Multiplayer) Improved bare handed attack speed and adjusted attack range.
  
• (Multiplayer) Improved attack speed for sword, knife, spear, hammer and boardsword weapons. Adjusted their attack range and added new visual effect.
  
• (Multiplayer) Improved attack speed for bow and sub weapons.
  
• You can now pay the Sultan of a tribe that has you wanted to call off the contract without needing to talk to the leader.
  
• Chaka of Limestone Village now has a specialty gift item.

We are releasing another update soon, this update addresses difficulty option related issues introduced by our last update, and a number of main story bugfixes, you can read the patch notes below.

You can also find a list of known major issues and potential workarounds here.

As always, if you encounter any issue, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!




Preliminary, may include additional changes once the update goes live.

Bugfixes

• The Sultan can now properly upgrade the Sawmill.
  
• Pre 0.8.0.3 saves (before we changed the prerequisite for the difficulty select function) now automatically adds 1 difficulty level a shortwhile after loading.
  
• Fixed an issue causing The Nameless's Arcane Portal to be able to access the Ifrit town earlier than intended.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing players from talking to Husnu after helping the Nasir defeat all other tribes.
  
• Fixed a rare issue preventing players from progressing the main story after defeating all five tribes.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain skills to become unlearnable in the Book of Fire quest.
  
• Players can now talk to the Ifrit mother again after interacting with the fruit first.
  
• The Ifrit towns now have more building variety other than Caster Watchtowers.

Adjustments

• Pressing F5 (default quick save hotkey) now automatically saves the game to the autosave slot without having to click the save game dialogue.
  
• Improved bare handed attack speed and adjusted attack range.
  
• Improved attack speed for sword, knife, spear, hammer and boardsword weapons. Adjusted their attack range.

Dear desert travelers,

Since the launch of the English localization edition, we’ve been receiving lots of attention, kind support, and feedback from our players worldwide, among which we notice that many of you are asking about the English mod support.

Currently, the English Mod Editor is still under testing but fully open to our modders. Our devs are working on fine-tuning English modding tools and updating the mod developer manual. In the meantime, we hope to encourage our players to take a shot at creating some English mods, which will help the devs better troubleshoot potential modding problems as well as bring new energy to our global modding community.



During the first Sands of Salzaar Modding Event in May, our incredible modders fully unleashed their power of creativity and imagination, developing a variety of inspiring mods. This time, we decided to open the second Special Modding Event to players worldwide, encouraging our English players to get started on mod development as well. Here are the general event rules:

• The Modding Event is open from Sept. 26th to Oct. 18th to players worldwide.
  
• All Event mods need to be uploaded to Steam Workshop.
  
• For English mods, modders need to tag their Event mods with “[Mod Event]” at the beginning of their mod names, e.g. “[Mod Event] Medieval map”.
  
• We will select some best mods among the entries and offer their modders special prizes, including one First Prize worth $1100, two Second Prize worth $740 each, three Third Prize worth $370 each, and 10 Participation Prize worth $70 each.

To help English modders understand how to use the Mod Editor, the devs have prepared a full documentation of English mod development in the official wiki and will keep updating the manual with instructional videos in the future. If you encounter any problems when creating English mods, please join us on our Discord and our team will be there ready to answer any questions and help solve your modding issues.

There are already hundreds of mods available in Steam Workshop, featuring custom maps, new characters, themes, perks and more. To provide English players with a more diverse gaming experience, some of our modders have uploaded their localized mods to Workshop. If you wanna subscribe to these mods, go to the Workshop in-game and select “English Localized Mods” in the drop-down menu at the upper-left corner of the screen to browse the list.



Please note that these mods may contain some untranslated parts and bugs, but the modders in our community are willing to listen to your feedback and optimize their work. There will be more translated mods coming in the future. If you want to see your favorite mod or a particular type of mods to be localized, leave your comments below or in our Discord!

Hi everyone! Since Sands of Salzaar’s latest content update that brought the game to English players, we have been receiving countless great feedback and kind words. Everyone on the dev team is thrilled to deliver the game to a new audience, and we thank you for all the support!

We are actively going through all the feedback and bug reports to address the issues as soon as possible with daily updates. Yesterday we released patch 0.8.0.2 to fix some urgent issues like ultrawide users not being able to start a new game and missing final boss model. Today we will be releasing another update, you can read the patch notes below.

As always, if you encounter any issue, please join us on our Discord server and let us know, this is the fastest way to get feedback directly to us, so we highly encourage you to do so!




Bugfixes

• A small number of players may encounter issues when playing the in-game cinematics, causing crashes at game start or the ending cinematic. We've re-encoded the cinematics and added a detection mechanism. If you encounter this issue, please try again, the game will automatically detect the previous error and offer a skip option to avoid this.
  
• You can now properly select higher difficulty after completing the main story once.
  
• Non-host players can properly spawn enemies after interacting with certain mechanics in multiplayer.
  
• Made an attempt to address AI enemy units moving out of bounds in battle, causing players to not be able to defeat them.
  
• Certain abilities now properly break invisibility after use.
  
• Fixed an issue causing repaired items to still show as broken.
  
• Random quests that require defeating certain heroes can now be properly completed.
  
• Some open world map collision fixes.
  
• Various translation and text fixes.
  
• You can now talk to the female Ifrit to skip being stuck in the wrong map for the quest "Rivers and Goddesses".
  
• Fixed a map collision issue around the Jade Stone chest in one of the Ifrit camps.
  
• Fixed an issue causing players to trigger the battle with Olum twice if clicked too quickly.
  
• Fixed an issue causing certain swappable abilities to not function properly when changing maps in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed some UI issues caused by certain buffs in multiplayer.
  
• You can now properly continue the conversation if you choose to keep Ox's secret in Jihan's quest.
  
• The quest log will now correctly reset after Beastmaster/Shaman completes the story quest of Husnu.

Adjustments

• Added a ritual marking to the entrance of Knight-Errant's main story dungeon.
  
• Deserters now spawn in smaller areas for deserter hunt quests.
  
• Added items scattered on the map for "Rivers and Goddesses" level.
  
• Dyed Shawl and Mastigure Knight Emblem now have a durability of 50.
  
• Geometry and collision fixes for multiplayer map B.
  
• Reduced cast time for Swordcraft: Arc Swing, Aftershock, Archery: Barrage, Archery: Cloudpierce, Archery: Icy Barrage, Archery: Fireblast, Archery: Firehail and Archery: Icehail.
  
• Adjusted attack range for Duress, Swordcraft: Arc Swing, Aftershock and Ancient Machina: Boomerang.
  
• Redesigned Swordcraft: Flash.
  
• Increased attack speed for these weapons in multiplayer: Fireball Wand, Frost Wand, Radiant Wand, Ultimate Staff, Ultimate Wand, Death Wand and Bone Staff.
  
• Reduced cast time for these skills in multiplayer: Bubble Trouble and Earth's Refuge.

Optimizations

• Pressing the map hotkey in battle now closes the map.
  
• Added a more distinctive indicator for the player character in battle maps.

Since the Early Access launch, we have been constantly adding new features, new content and all kinds of fixes to Sands of Salzaar to improve the player experience. Today, the newest chapter in the desert saga begins!


The Battle of the Black Sun Update launches on Steam at 9am PST, September 22nd, bringing the highly anticipated English localization to the game, along with a wide range of new content, optimizations, and a best-ever discount of 40% until Oct. 6!

We have also released the original soundtrack for our game, available below:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1416310/Sands_of_Salzaar_Soundtrack/

You can join the discussion of Sands of Salzaar by following us on Twitter, and hang out with like-minded players in our official Discord server.


Sands of Salzaar is now officially out in English! Over 500 thousand words worth of content have been fully translated into English for players from all over the world to enjoy!

Main Story
The main story of Sands of Salzaar receives significant additions in this update, with 60 thousand words of new content that further progresses and fleshes out the story. The secrets behind Ilayda and The Ifrit will be there for you to discover...

The five factions now have more significant roles to play. New battle additions also further tie up the gameplay element with the narrative.

The Ifrit’s Domain
Ifrit Void Master returns to his crusade against humanity with his eight henchmen and ten fortresses. The barrier imposed by the River Goddess eons ago has been broken, revealing the Ifrit Domain and connecting it to the desert.

Will you continue to uphold your guard for humanity, or will you create a new world order with The Ifrit?


New Side Quests
Side quests involving Olum and Book of Fire are added. New mysteries are also unearthed alongside The Ifrit’s conspiracies, waiting for the most steely-eyed adventurers to discover and challenge. Beware, your choice might make them unnecessarily complicated…

In this update, we also introduced multiplayer for the first time to Sands of Salzaar. We provided an official campaign called “Battle of the Black Sun” as a demonstration.


In Battle of the Black Sun, you can play alongside up to 3 other players (4 total), select from 10 characters with 5 different archetypes to begin an adventure. Gain levels and skill points by completing combat challenges, learn increasingly powerful skills, loot and purchase gear with different powers, explore the world and unearth mysteries with your friends.

The Multiplayer Arena feature is highly experimental, the current iteration is meant to be an example for MOD developers, showcasing the possibilities. There will be some issues including crashes and instabilities. We will be constantly monitoring how this feature performs, making changes and adding new content to fully flesh out this experience.

This feature is also fully MOD compatible. MOD creators can design their own characters, skills, items and level designs, upload them to the Steam Workshop to share them with the community.


Our commitment to the modding community also expands to the global audience with the English update. The in-game MOD editor is fully translated, and we have localized our full MOD development documentation which you can check out here.

The ability to create multi-language MODs is also added in this update, this feature is currently still under development, we will continue to improve the tools for modders around the world to fully unleash their creative muscle.

A number of popular MODs have been translated into English, so you will be able to enhance your experience from the get go.


For a detailed rundown of additions and changes in this update, read out full release note below:

New Additions:

• Sands of Salzaar is now in English!
  
• Added an experimental Multiplayer Arena mode, with an official multiplayer map: Battle of the Black Sun, which supports a maximum of 4 players.
  
• In this official co-op map, there are 10 characters with 5 archetypes, 88 learnable skills, and 100+ items in the shop. We will keep optimizing the map and add new content to the mode.
  
• Added new storylines worth about 60k words, which replaces the original storyline (you can still use the old saves to play old storylines).
  
• Several main story boss fights and some small-scale systems.
  
• Several sidequests that may spawn as the main storylines unfold.
  
• Added a new side quest related to Book of Fire, with a new skill page and boss fight.
  
• New map: Ifrit Domain, and new Ifrit faction which will be revealed as you continue your main story progression.
  
• Added several new random quests.
  
• Several new heroes have been added to factions, starting as their Sultans.
  
• Secondary outposts have been redesigned, they can now station troops, can be occupied, and can build a limited amount of buildings.
  
• Strategic AI logic has been rewritten. Now AI factions will spontaneously form army groups for offensives and can intelligently select targets to lay siege upon.
  
• Redesigned underlying logic of diplomatic strategies. Al factions can now form alliances and build relationships.
  
• Added a series of staff weapons that scatter around the desert map.
  
• Added some new character models and illustrations.

Gameplay Adjustments:

• A balance pass on soldier recruitment fees.
  
• Some specialties can no longer be given as gifts.
  
• Rebalanced loot from certain monsters and dungeons.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where specialties could not respawn in some traveling merchants’ inventories.
  
• Fixed an issue where Bounty Hunters are not able to complete their main storyline dungeon.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevents Sultan from upgrading the Jade Mine.
  
• Fixed an issue where NPC could not obtain mounts.

This update is a very important one for Sands of Salzaar as it opens up the game to a brand new audience. We hope you enjoy our additions and features, and thank you very much for the continuous support.

We would also like to shoutout our passionate beta testers on our official Discord server who helped us polish and improve the update in the past several weeks: Thank you, from the deepest of our hearts.

That’s all from us today, we’ll see you in the desert!