Hello Everybody,

With an intense few weeks now behind us, following the launch of the first SAND playtest that saw over 200,000 of you taking your first steps on Sophie, we wanted to give you all an update of how development on SAND is coming along and share some insights into what the team has been working on lately!

But before we get into it, we want to offer a huge thank you to all who participated, reported bugs, made suggestions and shared feedback. We are studying all of your propositions and ideas and adjusting our plans and priorities with them firmly in mind.

It was a great experience for us and we are going to use all of your input to ensure an even better experience for you in SAND next time we invite you all back into the game!

Optimization

First of all, we heard you, we know optimization needs to be addressed and performance improved and we are actively working on optimization to make your experience smoother.

Our optimization process is currently deeply related to general visual improvements. And here's a look at our work-in-progress screen:



Of course, we are working on other optimization methods alongside this, this was just the easiest to show off visually!

Servers and server stability

Secondly, in our pipeline a lot of server communication changes. So as some of you may be aware, our servers were inexplicably shut down, and therefore made the game totally inaccessible in the middle of the NEXT Fest.

This was a huge disappointment for us and of course our players and to prevent similar situations in the future we are planning to change our server provider before the next public playtest.

Requested Features

Prevention of spawn stalking We are planning on introducing trampler spawning spots - a safer space that will be harder to reach for those who are already on the surface.

Inventory management: We're adding more options to allow you to more freely manage your orbital storage including the splitting items during the expedition preparation.

Character deletion: There will be an option to delete characters.

New compartments and trampler customisation: We are planning to add various structural and functional trampler compartments including: stairs and closed turrets.



Also, and obviously most importantly: A Trampler horn is on the way!

Bugfixes

We are working hard to address some of the more prominent or commonly reported bugs and issues, here's a list of some of our key focuses at this time:

• Bugged box in hands has been addressed.
  
• Tramplers will not get stuck in the air on spawn.
  
• The trampler will no longer get stuck on rocks or in the ground.
  
• A lot of character movement improvements.
  

Balance

• All compartments prices will be revised.
  
• Loot balance tweaks are underway.
  
• We are aware of various duping bugs and balance-breaking options, fixing all of them.
  
• Trampler movement and maneuverability balance will be revised. As a part of the new traveling experience we can give you a sneak peek of our new control panel:
  

Anti-cheat

We want your experience to be as enjoyable, fair and honest as possible, so we are actively working on implementation of anti-cheat.

New weapons

Some new weapons are under development right now!

Here is a model of a new shotgun:



What other weapons would you like to see come to the game?

Mines

Sneak peek of the naval mine field - a dangerous new zone on Sophie:

Explosive barrels

A lot of explosions ahead as these explosive barrels will soon arrive in the game as a new tactical feature.

Progression

One of the important points of our game design department is progression, and we have a few interesting features in mind regarding this which we're sure you're going to enjoy!

All we can reveal right now is that we are planning a gradual unlocking of trampler compartments. But we'll have more in-depth details on this stuff a little further down the line...

PvE

The most attentive of you already found some PvE on the Demo, more is of course planned, but we don't want to spoil anything just yet... ;)

And More!

Lots of features are under development to make your travel more interesting including island activities, desert activities, orbit changes, resource re-balance, items, and more!

Obviously, this is all a fraction of everything going on behind the scenes right now, but we wanted to make sure you were all aware that your feedback has been heard, and that we're committed to making SAND the best experience it can be, alongside all you wonderful folk who joined us for the first step of this journey.

Stay tuned for news on when you can next expect to visit Sophie again, and don't hesitate to share any feedback or suggestions in the comments!

Come and join us on our social media pages to keep yourself up to date with all the news and updates for SAND or join the discussion over on Discord now!

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- Hologryph & tinyBuild Games