Saleblazers cover
Saleblazers screenshot
Genre: Simulator, Adventure, Indie

Saleblazers

9/26 Steam Next Fest Preparation Patch

Hello shopkeepers!

We've got a rather large patch for you all today, bringing several new features into the mix.

Customer Needs & Wallet Size



Customer patience is now impacted by several needs:

  1. Comfort
  2. Hunger
  3. Thirst
  4. Bladder
  5. Fun

If any of these dip too low, they'll start eating into the customer's patience. Make sure you put sufficient amounts of trash cans, toilets, chairs, food and drink in your shop! Needs are only in a basic state for now; we'll be refining how needs work over the next few months.

You'll also be able to see each customer's wallet size when you hover over them. Customers can't spend beyond this amount. Maybe it's time to invest in some ATMs...

PVP Invasions




PVP invasions are here, but are largely untested. Take your entire lobby to invade another server! Upon arrival, your team will target a single player on the other server. The invasion ends either when all of your lobby dies, the target dies, or one of your teammates strays too far from the target player.

To start an invasion, talk to the the mysterious traveler underneath the radio tower in the Steam Survival Fest map.

We've also made a lot of changes to shopkeeping to make progression feel much more satisfying in preparation for NPC employees. Let us know how it feels over at https://discord.gg/Saleblazers!

Outposts & Nighttime Enemy Spawns



We've added cowboy outposts throughout the Steam Survival Fest map as well as more variation and deadliness to enemy spawns at night.

Inventory Upgrades




We weren't going to implement this in the playtest build, but it's been a very popular request. You can now upgrade your inventory slots at each of the NPC shops on the Steam Survival Fest island.

Changelog



Changes


- Added outposts to the Steam Survival Fest map
- Added PVP Invasions
- Added a mysterious traveler to the Steam Survival Fest map
- Added customer needs to the game (hunger, thirst, comfort, bladder)
- Added inventory upgrades as a purchasable item in NPC shops
- Added a customer wallet mechanic to the game
- Increased amount of stone in bamboo zone
- Changed group spawning to be based on shop reputation instead of shop level
- Added more Bellcoat spawns to the game
- Rebalanced night spawning to be more immersive and deadly
- Thrown items will now be placed in its exact rotation instead of snapping upright
- Customers spawn much less frequently
- Nerfed fishing game loot rate
- Increased single bamboo tree's HP by 2x
- Added Wood Chest and Copper Chest items
- Added SFX/VFX when running through grass
- Changed Recycling Machine to unlock after Charcoal Kiln instead of the Trash Can
- Increased cost of recipes in Recycling Machine
- Reduced cost of Recycling Machine in the Research Table
- Slightly increased customer flow from reputation
- Added new stairs to the Research Table
- Added stone building pieces
- Added Bush Seed item to plant new bushes
- Increased Leather drop rate from Boar entities
- Added Dehydrated attribute
- Added Starving attribute
- Adjusted cooking time for various recipes
- Added Refined Bamboo Statue
- Added SFX that plays when dialogue text runs
- Removed death chat message for NPC deaths because they spammed the chat
- Changed customers to spawn between 8AM to 10PM
- Added Bellstalker SFX
- Added Bellcoat SFX
- Adjusted crafting cost on Charcoal Kiln, Quick Sale Registers, and Sawmill
- Changed customer logic so that customers can re-enter the same shop multiple times until they run out of patience or money
- Added a cooldown before a customer can re-enter a shop
- Increased the fog at night
- Increased night enemy spawns
- Added large gun animations
- Fixed plant
- Balanced shopkeeping bartering minigame
- Added a lot of new wallpapers
- Added a Gulper entity
- Added a Bird entity
- Decreased crafting times for common craftable novelties
- Increased the size of Trash Bag interactables because it was too hard to poick them up
- Fixed weird blends when jumping while moving around
- Added a loading screen instead of just having a black screen
- Added a container filter button in preparation for NPC employees
- Customers now sit on chairs guaranteed if their comfort drops below 25%
- Added beds to valid customer interactables
- Added Apple Juice item
- Customers now open doors if they are near them
- Customers now wear clothes they buy
- Customers now consume items they buy
- Added Wooden Fish Display item
- Changed police spawning system to spawn sooner and in waves based on subsequent crimes instead of continuously
- Improved user experience for lockpicking minigame by making it more obvious which direction the pins would move when starting
- Greatly increased the accuracy of guns
- Nerfed Bamboo Club damage from 3->2
- Added Bamboo Storage Box item
- Adjusted terrain textures in Steam Survival Fest map to give better variation
- Stamina now drains properly when jumping, removing the jump spam infinite stamina exploit
- Added Sewing Machine to the Research Table that allows you to craft clothes
- Added new hit/destroy SFX for various items
- Added new consume SFX
- Added notification to the shop UI to let the player know when they have unspent Shop Policy points after leveling up
- Added fog of war to personal skill tree and Shop Policy screen
- Consolidated Shop Policy upgrades into one tree
- Increased durability of Cash Register items
- Increased load distance for trees to give a better view of the landscape with less pop-in
- Improved strafing blends to have less pop in

Fixes


- Fixed customers dropping trash when they stop moving regardless if there is a trash can nearby
- Fixed floor tiles not saving type when building them off of other tiles
- Fixed issue where UI for eating was stuck on customers
- Fixed NRE with popup UI which could cause issues
- Fixed unlocked recipes persisting between characters in the current session
- Fixed shift click inventory not working sometimes
- Fixed Bellcoat animations not playing sometimes
- Fixed NRE with chat
- Fixed preplaced objects that were moved not being visible for late join clients
- Fixed clients being unable to see explosions
- Fixed plants not saving needs sometimes
- Fixed plants not being able to be watered
- Resolved issue where clients could not place items spawned into inventories before they join
- Fixed customers not dropping items when losing patience not in line
- Optimized how AI query for nearby items
- Fixed save file blocking start game when in offline mode
- Fixed customers dropping their purchased items when a register reaches 0 HP from bartering
- Fixed customers being unable to place items directly from a container
- Fixed new hairs not showing
- Fixed wallpapers not saving
- Fixed clients not losing stamina sometimes
- Quicksale register now displays the sale in the chat
- Fixed Boar swimming animations
- Fixed the style and scroll speed for player inventory UI
- Fixed environment query system NREs
- Fixed all sales logging as Excellent Sales when they weren't
- Fixed projectile retaining transform on client
- Fixed customers not walking after failing to persuade them to enter the shop
- Fixed customers not reporting crimes sometimes
- Fixed ping waypoint not showing player name or distance
- Fixed an issue where customers don't leave the plot at 0 patience
- Fixed several NREs with Bellcoat entities
- Heavily optimized the game by having some items be "fake" until you interact with them which improves FPS and chunk loading times
- Fixed seed component creating an extra pooled instance of the plant
- Fixed NRE in plants
- Fixed item durability resetting to full when the player loads a save
- Fixed plant needs sometimes not loading properly
- Fixed issue where some items wouldn't load in from the save file
- Fixed client being unable to spawn if there are no chunks to load
- Fixed issue where clients couldn't use the repair hammer
- Fixed network sync issues with weapon manager
- Fixed skill tree NRE that caused a disconnect
- Fixed issue where if a client picks up an item removed from a host death box and blocks, the host also blocks
- Fixed some chunk loading issues
- Fixed issue where shop floors were generating as generic type floor instead of shop floor, preventing customers from entering
- Fixed players becoming invincible if loading happens at the right time
- Fixed bug where death boxes weren't visible
- Fixed consume sound looping when the player switches weapons
- Fixed clients not being able to move when they place a stacked item
- Fixed disconnect that could occur if multiple clients interacted with a Cash Register at the same time
- Fixed an issue where normal skill trees can load incorrectly due to a data mismatch
- Fixed an out of order issue for bullet components
- Fixed crafting stations that require fuel not being synced properly
- Fixed police AI circling the player during the fine dialogue
- Fixed Quick Sale Register sometimes not working for clients
- Fixed police customization not randomizing their clothes/skin
- Fixed loud stinger that played when a crime was added to the bounty
- Fixed crimes being added to the bounty when in a downed state
- Fixed NRE when bartering
- Removed unnecessary networked variables from containers for optimization reasons
- Fixed client being unable to parry bullets
- Improved bullet netcode
- Fixed Research Tree unlocking subsequent items when they shouldn't sometimes
- Fixed NPC shops sometimes not being visible for clients
- Fixed customers being unable to move if open close sign is looted
- Fixed NRE in weapon melee code
- Fixed NRE in movement code
- Fixed recipes not unlocking for clients on join
- Fixed inventory UI not playing sounds sometimes
- Fixed some placed items not saving sometimes
- Fixed some transform spawn issues for pooled items
- Fixed skill nodes not highlighting if unlocked
- Fixed issue where shop skill nodes weren't equipped on load
- Fixed NREs with the world map
- Fixed NRE when loading a chunk
- Fixed future save files from failing to save some items
- Fixed Trash Bag items falling through the world when thrown
- Fixed chunks unloading when client leaves a chunk with other players on it
- Fixed issue where players could bypass crafting checks by swapping an invalid item with a new input
- Fixed NREs for AI
- Fixed unlocked nodes in Research Table always displaying $0
- Fixed camera teleport and player mesh interpolation when respawning
- Fixed several black screen issues

9/2: Final Stability Patch!

We've had various networking and LOD issues that popped up today. Apologies for any inconvenience caused. Happy gaming!

Have a great labor day weekend.

9/2: DC Hotfix

Another hotfix is out that'll fix some DC issues. Sorry about this! We've recently reworked some systems for optimization reasons.

9/2: Networking Hotfix

We've fixed the issue where clients weren't able to connect properly. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

9/1: Autosaving (experimental) and Bugfixes

Hello shopkeepers!

This patch we've added autosaving. This should help reduce the number of times people lose their save data. Let us know how it works over at https://discord.gg/Saleblazers.

Changes


- Added autosaving (experimental) along with an autosaving
- Fixed strafe blending so it looks better when spamming left/right
- Changed customer traffic to be heavy from 8AM to 8PM instead of 5AM to 10PM
- Slightly decreased elderly and tourist patience drain rates

Fixes


- Fixed jump blends when spam sprint jumping
- Fixed NRE when equipping a fishing rod
- Fixed save system NRE
- Optimized trees greatly
- Fixed customization component NRE
- Fixed client getting stuck in black screen after respawning sometimes
- Fixed issue where some items would not be networked sometimes
- Fixed issue where items were missing from NPC shops for clients
- Fixed issue where clients couldn't see items from other chunks if the host grabbed them
- Fixed exploit where you could infinitely craft from the player crafting menu
- Fixed issue where shop policies were not loading as equipped properly
- Fixed issue where shop reputation was not being synced to clients

8/31: Shopkeeping Balance and Save System + Performance Fixes

Hello, shopkeepers!

We're here with quite a few shopkeeping balance changes and some important fixes. As always, please message us on https://discord.gg/Saleblazers for any and all feedback.

Changes


- Regular/mediocre sales give 25% patience back and excellent/perfect sales give 50% patience back to the customer
- Sitting down at benches returns 25% energy
- Only if any needs are low does patience tick down now
- Customers won't pick up items they dislike but will reduce their standards when their patience runs low
- Scythe no longer causes customers to be afraid when swung
- Increased cowboy enemy count during night attacks
- Added Gulper creature
- Updated attacks to be more reliable when hitting small items
- Removed the ability for items to attack floors
- Increased price of Bamboo Club from 3 -> 10
- Decreased self damage of Quick Sale Register from 5 -> 2
- Increased drop rate of wood logs from trees from 4 -> 6
- Increased shop performance modifier on sales in general
- Reduced axe damage modifier on bushes
- Increased damage dealt by falling trees from 20 -> 25
- Decreased probability of each customer generating trash

Fixes


- Fixed severe framerate drops due to excessive log file printing
- Fixed issue where music didn't end on death
- Fixed police not updating last seen location, making it seem like they're running away when they're looking for the player
- Fixed police not starting fine dialogue sometimes
- Optimized salvage meshes
- Fixed issue where if a client joins a game that's been loaded from a save file, shop XP would no longer update properly
- Fixed issue where clients could receive a black screen upon joining
- Fixed UI toggles sometimes displaying as on when they weren't on
- Fixed NRE in world stream manager that would cause disconnects
- Fixed issue where item wasn't properly socketing to the hand when swapping to the same item
- Fixed issue where equipped shop policy nodes weren't loading as equipped
- Fixed issue where plant needs weren't saving
- Player inventory will no longer be replaced by the inventory state of an old save file when loading in with a character

8/30: Save System, Networking, and Customer Fixes

Changes


- Added swimming animations for Boar
- Changed attack timing for Large Pole attack moveset to better match visuals
- Adjusted ambient occlusion effect to better ground characters, props, and buildings
- Changed Research Table UI to be fullscreen to better match UX expectations of locked movement
- Fixed Bamboo Chair floating
- Added cannon reload animation
- Added more items to the Research Table
- Changed Bellstalker combat music to better match the gameplay
- Added icon for Guard Helmet and College Jacket

Fixes


- Fixed various police AI issues
- Fixed issue where customers didn't browse containers until they dropped 3 bags of trash
- Fixed issue where player inventories weren't saving properly when quitting / alt + f4'ing
- Reworked needs system to use floats instead of complicated health class to reduce memory footprint
- Fixed Boar swimming too high up
- Fixed various items duplicating in Steam Survival Fest map
- Fixed NPC shops being invisible for clients sometimes
- Fixed issue where networked objects weren't added/removed when enabled/disabled sometimes
- Fixed NRE with crime system
- Fixed issue where removing items from player inventory didn't update the crafting UI
- Fixed issue where networked world cells weren't syncing
- Fixed clients losing items when they craft an item that cost more than one type of resource

8/29: Stability Fixes

Hello, shopkeepers!

Hope you're having a great Monday. This patch includes a few minor fixes that should improve your gameplay experience. More fixes / features coming soon! Check us out on https://discord.gg/Saleblazers for more up to date info.

Changes


- Added punch hit SFX
- Added new fishing rod SFX
- Updated sword SFX
- Added Fish Display with price attribute bonus to fish items inside it
- Added new axe hit and swing SFX
- Added medium pole swing SFX
- Added new medium box swing SFX
- Added new large box swing SFX
- Replaced tree falling SFX
- Replaced knife swing SFX
- Removed redundant hit damage audio SFX so they don't stack
- Updated Research Tree table to remove nodes that are supposed to be locked and added more nodes that should be unlocked

Fixes


- Fixed some deep holes in the Steam Survival Fest map where players could get stuck in
- Fixed Trash Bag dropping in groups of 3 by customers
- Fixed disconnect that occurred when applying fire attribute on items
- Fixed disconnect that occurred when clients used Quick Sale Register
- Fixed issue where some users were launched in the air by trees by making large trees have more accurate colliders
- Fixed NPCs, including customers, aggroing on players when they were fighting hostile enemies
- Fixed customers reporting crimes against enemy and animal factions

8/26: Trash Can Functionality + Hotfix Patch

Hello, shopkeepers!

We've got a big bugfix patch for you all today. This should fix many game breaking issues that have plagued the game for months.

Trash Can Functionality




We added a new Trash Can mechanic. Customers will put trash items in Trash Can containers instead of leaving it all over your shop floor.

There will be more incremental shopkeeping features to be added in the coming weeks such as NPC employees that can mop floors, empty trash bins, barter, restock, and gather resources!

It was a last minute change sparked by my conversation with JinxD3LV on https://discord.gg/Saleblazers, so please let me know if it's buggy.

Have a nice weekend!

- Michael

Changes


- Customers now insert Trash Bag items into nearby Trash Can containers if they see them nearby
- Destroying a crop plot now drops all items planted in the plot
- Improved Reserach Table English node descriptions
- Farm crop plots can now be dismantled using the pick up button
- Added a temp questline to the Steam Survival Fest map
- NPCs will will no longer report crimes of their own team against hostile factions

Fixes


- Fixed rare NRE with display conatiners
- Fixed clients not contributing to the shop manager's reputation level
- Fixed customers not moving after calling the police
- Shop sign properly closes when a player dies now
- Optimized audio memory usage
- Fixed issue where console didn't render over the ESC menu
- Fixed throw trail bug
- Fixed attribute UI showing up when it shouldn't on non pickup-able items
- Fixed nav mesh cut on Stone Rock being inaccurate
- Fixed issue where Police enemies spawned in unarmed after the first batch
- Fixed various networking code issues
- Optimized save code
- Fixed shop progress not saving/loading occasionally for real this time
- Fixed issue where clients could essentially merge two save files together if they joined lobbies in the right order
- Fixed rare NRE in character customization code
- Fixed Bamboo Roof materials
- Fixed scenario where customers stole items if they weren't first in line in a cash register and the cash register was picked up
- Fixed extreme framerate issue when opening/closing shop policy page
- Optimized item code

Launch issue has been resolved

Hello, shopkeepers!



Last night, we uploaded a build of the game that didn't launch. If you saw this error when attempting to launch Saleblazers Playtest, this has now been resolved. Apologies for any inconveniences!