Following a series of successful playtests and a high-traffic server slam, developer Hologryph and publisher tinyBuild have officially brought SAND: Raiders of Sophie to Steam Early Access. Players can jump into the desert planet of Sophie now, with a 21% discount currently available for a limited time.
Updates Following the Server Slam
The transition to Early Access brings a wave of refinements based on data gathered during the recent server slam. The team has focused on both aesthetic and functional improvements to stabilize the experience. Notably, the activation time for large artifacts has been tripled, moving from 2 seconds to 6 seconds, which should meaningfully impact how players interact with these objectives.
Performance and visual fidelity have also seen updates. Beyond these graphical tweaks, the developers have addressed a long list of technical issues that were reported during the testing phases. Key fixes include:
- UI and Interaction: Tooltips now remain visible during camera movement, and the crew widget context menu properly closes after a member leaves an expedition.
- Gameplay Stability: Several issues involving party management were resolved, including a fix for lobby desyncs occurring when captains rebuild the Trampler, and a correction for 'Ready' status indicators failing to update.
- Combat and Movement: The team fixed a bug that allowed players to bypass autocannon fire rate limits by spamming mouse buttons and ensured that autocannon recoil is correctly applied in Outlaw Control Mode.
- Visual Bugs: Character models no longer default to a T-pose upon death, and ghouls will now consistently appear with their intended clothing.
What’s Next for the Surface?
With the game now live in Early Access, Hologryph is shifting its focus toward community feedback to shape the development roadmap. The team intends to spend the coming days monitoring bug reports and feature requests, with plans to share more details on the game's future trajectory in the next few weeks.