We've spent this week on adding more quests and characters, one of them with the following guy below! Meet Yvo, master at the ship workshop, you will definitely meet him in the skies of Fieri archipelago.
Hope you like him, since he is a pretty good guy. But don’t think that he'll be alone out there there, oh no. Yvo joins a cast of other characters that you will meet after the game fully launches :)
We also plan to add a couple of new unique islands, work on them has already started. On a side note: don’t forget to check your book of quests after release, there are going to be a few more pages!
Some well known islands, which you have already visited on your travels are going to obtain new meanings, stories and related quests. You will be surprised to see Mysterious Hands in a different state compared to how you used to seeing them.
Price increase warning
The price of the game is going to increase on March 2nd. It is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). We have to do it this way if we want to run a discount on release. So if you want to become an early adopter at lower game price - you can still do it for a couple of days. Remember the rule of all the merchants? Buy low, sell high!(oh, pls, no, don’t re-sell our game, it’s illegal)
Stay tuned for new development progress info! Cheers, Helen.
Planned Release Dev Diary #1
Hey Merchants!
We are preparing for final release and I wanted to update you on what we are working on.
Summary
Right from the start, when we began working on Merchant of the Skies, we knew that we wanted to focus on the story. The final update is going to have exactly that: a big amount of quests that significantly improves the campaign mode and makes it longer/more enjoyable to play.
As far as the development goes, right now we have 4 new quests (one of them involves Wisemen displayed right there!) and multiple UI/UX adjustments. We still want to add at least 12 more, one more endgame goal (not spoiling it!) and some cool systems like sending and receiving mail + interactive display of characters.
We're also keeping track on UI/UX change requests and will try to accomodate at least some of them. We're pretty much set on what we want to see in the final release, but we're still keeping our eyes open on anything that you might suggest. (Who knows what happens after release?)
Planned Price Increase
The price of the game is also going to increase in March, a month before release. This is done so that we can launch a launch discount due to Steam rules. The final game is going to cost 33% more to what it does now (based on your region). I still firmly believe in rewarding early access adapters with reduced price and if I ever want to make another early access game, this is going to work the same way. Thanks to everyone who supported us during Early Access. :) You can still do it in the next few weeks.
Stay tuned for more news and screenshots before the final release. Cheers, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies - 1.5.0 - New Ships, Quality of Life
Hey Merchants!
1.5.0 patch is live!
Happy 2020! To celebrate, we're rolling out the patch one week earlier than planned. This time we are adding 3 new ships, some sandbox settings + some extra QoL improvements and bugfixes.
Changelog We've added 3 new ships, each can be found in new games in different zones:
Orembai - Extremely Fast Speed, high fuel consumtpion ships
Fretta - Ship with low fuel consumption and fast speed, good for waiting/idling on the map and fast-forwarding
Atakebune - slow ship with lots of cargo space
Sandbox mode settings added, shown before the game starts
starting ship
starting amount of gold
maintenance multiplier (if you want to make game harder)
prices change at trade posts over time setting
fast-forward does not consume fuel setting
Minor changes and adjustments
fixed a bug when no mid-level shipyards appeared, at least one more shipwright is guaranteed to be found at central zone
fixed a bug when caravan items would not sell properly at bazaar
added crash-backup system: game makes save file backups every 5 minutes (so if your game crashes and save is corrupt - you will get the prompt asking if you want to restore your old save)
13 new mansion tiles: 6 stair building tiles + 9 planer tiles with small plants
removed exploit that allowed selling/buying same items to level up tradepost
mansion can recharge your ship now
harvest tea / spices thumbnails fixed
unused ships info display fixed (actually shows used ship amount)
main objective panel will show the tutorial steps
tutorial slightly reworked to prepare for "real" campaign, visuals improved improved
UI: increased appearing text speed (in tutorial or building menu)
UI: various typo fixes
UI: gameplay setting screen rework with proper checkboxes
UI/UX: Fixed island scrolling option added in gameplay settings
Gameplay: tradepost prices are no longer fluctuating every month (this messes up caravan routes and is not very intuintive); can still be enabled in sandbox settings
Bugfix: fixed a bug where you could visit islands while towing (and then get back to the same map position)
Mansion builder: Adjusted the width / bounding boxes of some arches and doors, can place them closer to each other now
Hope you enjoy the new patch and, as usual, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below.
What's next?
The next patch is going to be Final Release patch, either in late march or somewhere in April. It will add A LOT of story related content and fully fledged missions/campaign system.
The price is going to increase by 5 EUR/regional equivalent on 15th of February. The idea has always been that we wanted to reward early-access players, hence the game price has been lower at launch. We have to increase it in advance, because Steam does not allow setting a game on discount 30 days after the price increase, and we want to have a launch discount special in addition to a lot of content added. I will make a separate post about this 5 days in advance to warn everyone. I don't think the game will be worth it in February, but I'm 100% that it will be worth its price after campaign update is up. Thanks to your support and you can still grab the game at a lowered price for some time!
Best, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies - 1.4.0 - Mansion Update!
Hey Merchants!
Patch 1.4.0 introduces an important late-game feature: mansion building. We've added it so that you can have more freedom in planning your own habitat and make a part of the world truly your own :)
How it works
You can find and purchase mansion isle on the map (only in newly-generated games, sorry!)
Mansion building consists of multiple layers. Start with mansion walls / structure, then add details to it gradually. There are exactly 200 different blocks to choose from.
You can expand your mansion island territory for gold
You can store your goods at the mansion. Caravans can unload their goods at the mansion, but they can not take it. This is intended to be used as a final destination for resources used in mansion building.
If you need some guidance how to build it, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEfBy7wGheY
There is not a lot of text here, but this addition took us a month of hard work. Hopefully this will enable you to get as creative as you want to. If you manage to build something cool - feel free to share it in screenshots or in our discord channel :)
Some other important changes: Reduced the neck size of me and Helen in early access intro message Build interaction icon added for lighthouse / buildings / mansion Scyte icons on map view won't have empty frames anymore
We're going to take a 2-week break. We could not add your feedback from the last patch, but expect a small patch (regarding it) in January and then a full release somewhere in March. More in another video: https://youtu.be/pe4qB-zQxPU
Happy holidays and we hope you enjoy the game!
Autumn Sale and Steam Award Nomination
Hey Merchants!
To celebrate the autumn sale, we've put Merchant of the Skies on 20% discount.
Since Steam is rolling out the Award Nominations, please consider nominating our game for Labor of Love award. The game is still very much in active development: we've been working on it daily since July and plan to keep it that way until at least March 2020. Getting nominated would mean extra visibility opportunities for us, possibly enabling to work on the game even longer.
In any case, thanks for your support so far and we hope you have happy holidays ahead and do enjoy the winter.
Cheers, Vladimir
1.3.2 Hotfix
Hey Merchants!
I've noticed that 1.3.1 patch on Friday opened up some issues with resource icon and map generation. I've made sure this is addressed today by pushing a small update 1.3.2:
Resource icons are fixed (in some cases, they were not displayed / displayed wrongly)
If you started a new world on Friday/Saturday, you had one island that you could not visit. This is fixed now
Map island clicking issue on some resolutions fixed
Happy playing and let me know if you encounter something else! Best, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies - 1.3.0 - Quality of Life
Hey Merchants!
The 1.3.0 update is here! We did our best to improve the caravan/map navigation experience and enhance gameplay settings.
Here's a video summary of what's new: [previewyoutube="BHMKOvFFT_o;full"]
On a side note, we are looking for more German and Spanish community translators - if you like the game and are interested in helping out with making it available in your language, come join our discord.
Map/Buildings:
Added two new biomes
Two new resource-producing islands added: spice / tea islands
Two new buildable buildings added: spice / tea gatherer
Windmill now also produces dyes out of spices
Replaced sawmill sprite
Replaced ship workshop sprite
Non-central island biomes with shipwrights are guaranteed to have houses now
EXPERIMENTAL: basic resource island are biome-independent now (can occur in red / lightblue / yellow biomes more frequently)
Caravan System Improvements:
Caravan ship will stay at the tradepost _until_ it sells all its items
Caravans can now sell items at bazaars (all sorts of items, price is reduced but the chance to sell them is at 100%)
Can click on any caravan ships on the map (in any mode) to adjust its routes
Hotkey to add a new caravan point
Improved gamepad controls on caravan route creation (island selection now focuses the map properly + b button now cancels island selection)
Can pick caravan island targets from price panel
Can pick caravan island targets from quicknav panel
Can add caravan right from the map if you have spare unused ships in caravan office. See "new caravan" button on the bottom menu
Changes & Balancing:
Letter delivery quests will attempt to pick the same biome
Reduced storm event hitbox on the map
Reduced letter quest exp reward from 120 to 60
Remapped fast-forward button gamepad hotkey on the map to LB + RB (to be held at the same time)
Other QoL changes:
Quicknav panel added on the map: find important islands quickly
Visit island button increased by 1.5x times. Is now static (stays under the island)
Week summary panel remade
By request, has clickable pause button on the bottom right menu
Mouse pan to scroll the island view (just hold the left mouse button and try moving your mouse around)
Can now hold spacebar to keep focusing on your ship, rather than pressing it once (you can also go back to ship by pressing Q key)
Esc/ gamepad B button closes setting window
Can now sort price panel by clicking on the resources
Distance value added to price panel, can sort islands by distance left
Can click on caravan panel cities to navigate to them (if caravan is selected - the caravan places a point there; otherwise your ship navigates there if you do it in the navigation view)
Message above the island on map window when storage is full (every new day)
Message above the island on map window when new stock arrives to trading post (every new day)
Made the warning message a bit more explicit in a specific case: when you buy a new ship and _have_ to sell the old one if your caravan office is full
Map camera will focus on the ship when you tow it back
Improved island selection with mouse a bit (island info will not disappear in some edge cases)
City name written at the bottom panel in the island view
Added "focus on the ship" button on minimap (and the tooltip for it)
Island info panel (in the map view) changes:
Now shows the amount of ships stationed in caravan office
Now shows the bank debt/investment
Lighthouse shows its upgrade costs if not yet fully completed
Shows resources produced by buildings
Shows building upgrade costs on your own island (can be turned off in settings)
Shows fuel price of recharge posts
Additional Graphic Setting:
capped frame rate removal
disable custom mouse cursor
Additional Game Settings:
disable weekly summary
skip docking animations
mouse wheel sensitivity
island scrolling speed
disable showing building upgrade costs in island info panel
Island resoruce gain effects are actually going to be displayed above map islands (and not move with a camera like before)
Reduced red biome inn y coordinate by 1 (so that captain does not look afloat when visiting it)
Adjusted red biome trade guild waypoints (so that captain can't walk beyond the island)
If you rapidly press "E" when the map loads, you are no longer taken to giant island
Fixed leaves particle spawn points in house sprite
That seems to be it for now. I know there are other QoL things left to do, but hopefully this patch will make your experience playing the game better. Keep reporting stuff / let us know your suggestions, we are happy to read them. Hope you enjoy the patch.
Best, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies Patch 1.2.2 - map hotfixes
Hey Merchants,
Thank you for the feedback about the latest patch! In this small update, I wanted to address some issues:
map scrolling improvement: the map also scrolls when you positiong the cursor on the side of the screen (even outside of the map itself; used to work only inside the actual map)
caravan view bugfix: white line (as in ship movement) won't be drawn when you click on the map during caravan route plotting
caravan line fix: some navigation lines were not being drawn properly on the map
smoother map closing animation @ caravan office (keeps the maps-x position so it closes less awkwardly)
Stay tuned for a much more substantial UI/UX update in November. As usual, if you like the game, please consider leaving a Steam review :)
Cheers, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies Patch 1.2.1 - map usability update
Hey Merchants! Thanks to your feedback, we were able to identify critical map related things that need improvement.
Here are some changes that I've pushed today:
Use arrow keys to scroll map (but not move ship); ship movement kept as wasd if this is what you want instead of mouse
Fixed infinite mode objective display in main menu
Pan map by holding left mouse button
No longer need to have full crew inside to demolish building
Camera no longer focuses on ship when you leftclick and ship starts moving (you can still press space to focus on it)
Ship route is shown on the map to make it possible to see where the ship is moving
Arrow points out where your ship is on the map if you scroll the camera too far
spyglass now expands view range as intended
German language translation fixed (bread is produced from flour (Mehl), not from Wheat as described before)
Added missing flour line
As usual, keep the feedback coming :) Thank you!
Best, Vladimir
Merchant of the Skies - 1.2.0 - Huge map update!
Hey Merchants!
The huge 1.2 update is finally here! New combined campaign mode, much bigger map and module rework are all included in the base version of the game!
Here's a short video of me talking about it awkwardly while trying to play the game on a new map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQXLc14jcC4
In case you are more into reading, here's the full changelog below!
Bigger Map:
map is now at least 2x bigger; infinite (sandbox) mode allows to create 7 times bigger map than before
map has random events/resource collection points appearing. There are 4 different occurable events now, we might add for more if you like them
New game mode, "Campaign": > Combines all previous game modes into one map - we've heard you, you want it all together. The new map size allowed for it so it's our pleasure to add the combined "Campaign" mode that brings building a lighthouse, feeding the fish god, getting rich and supplying the inns together.
New biome, codename "Red":
Different architecture and background (update screenshots btw)
Different quests from "normal" guild, takes mostly tier-2 resources
Can only get advanced ships there now
Has no refueling posts, harder to reach / travel through from the start
New production chain and island type
Wheat island added, can be encountered in red biome
Two new buildings: wheat farm that gathers wheat, windmill that processes wheat into flour
Bread is baked in the ovens from the flour (rather than straight from the wheat now)
Module system rework: Based on your feedback, we understood that module system was not feasible with modules breaking and simply taking too much money / travels to re-install. We're addressing this today.
Modules are no longer removed after they break
Rather, you need to fix them by collecting scrap in the map view
Six new ship modules added
For now, modules do not disappear after they've reached zero durability. We've also added some modules to interact with map events.
Ships
2 new ships added (faster, lower costs; perfect for small-scale caravans)
Starter island has a shipwright now (with the two new ships)
Ship rebalancing: increased amount of modules; increased prices; reduced fuel capacities. At the current stage it felt like you can buy the biggest ship and forget about refueling altogether, we wanted to change that. You will still be way better off with larger ships, but you'll still need to refuel now and then.
Just to add some ships more suitable for caravans due to their lower expenses. Carrying goods between islands (especially due to larger distances) should feel better now.
QoL
Added game goal page in quest log
current quests for this island are now shown in island info panel
Objective indicator points towards the current quest target on the map
Island info scrolling works with middle mouse button even when map is not hovered over it
House sprite reworked (will be prettier now)
Y(gamepad) / T(keyboard) button should properly close the bottom right travel menu
Moved island name to quick navigation panel from ship panel (to open space for more modules)
Space button / RT gamepad button will return focus on your ship in now-bigger map window
Add scrollable functionality at price comparison table (and make clicking on an island actually go there)
Improved Island info scrolling on map view
Bugfix: Fixed captain visual effect (not visiting some islands properly)
Spanish language added
Thanks to Okazo, we've managed to add Spanish translation into the game. Thanks to our amazing community for maintaining other languages and making sure its possible to play Merchant of the Skies in 6 different languages!
Save compatibility saved, although I have no idea why would you want to play on older map :) As usual, thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions with us. Every comment gives us a chance to improve the game.
To celebrate this patch, we're putting the game on 20% sale. We sincerely hope that you enjoy the new patch and we're even more excited for things to come next. Thanks for playing the game and supporting us all this time.
