Sailwind
Economy update beta available now
The full patch notes for the update will be available on full release. For now, here are the main new features:
- New economy system: you can now buy and sell trade goods directly at the Sailwind office. The prices and availability will change over time based on a simulated supply and demand system. You will also have access to some information about the prices of goods on other islands, allowing more planning and predictability with trading.
- Currencies: each region now uses its own regional currency, and there is also a universal "gold" currency (at the moment only used for purchasing ships). You can exchange currencies at the Sailwind office in capital cities and several other islands. The exchange rate will vary over time, and your transactions will affect it as well. (if you load a previous save, your "old" gold will be converted automatically, with some amount split evenly between the three regional currencies, and new gold for larger amounts)
- Missions: missions are now integrated with the new economy system, using the market prices of goods to determine mission rewards and destinations. In general, you can expect more variety, such as some rare very high reward missions. Also, trans-oceaninc missions will now generally pay significantly less money. The goal with the new mission system is to encourage the player to gradually transition to trade for making most of their money.
Beta testing and feedback
The new economy is a complicated, dynamic system, which still requires some balancing and fine tuning. Major game-breaking bugs are also possible. The goal of this beta release is to gather some feedback to allow for better balancing and bug fixing before the full official release of the update. If you'd like to help out with testing, here are the most important points to focus on:
- trading: does it feel fair, interesting and realistic? Can you make a reasonable amount of profit through trading skillfully? Is it too hard, or too easy?
- missions: especially when starting a new game, are the mission rewards good? Is there enough variety? Any abnormal behavior, such as no/very few missions availalbe?
The best place to share your feedback is the #beta-general channel on the Sailwind Community Discord:
https://discord.gg/u4C8RQG6X9
Economy update coming soon*
Hi guys, it's been a while since the last news post here. Just wanted to let everyone know that work on Sailwind continues as usual, and the next big update is expected to be ready sometime next month. It will include a major revamp of the economy system - the goal is to make buying and selling trade goods on the market the main way to make money in the game, encouraging the player to plan their routes more carefully and with more variety. The new system will include real time price changes based on local supply and demand, a new UI for tracking prices across different ports, and even local currencies.
I invite you to check out the Sailwind Community Discord, where you will always find the most recent development news and discussions.
Also, I've updated the development roadmap to include some information about the planned transition out of early access and into full release.
Update 0.19.1 Patch Notes
- smoking tobacco now has a bigger effect on your sleep, depending on the type of tobacco
- increased the time it takes for one piece of tobacco to burn out completely
- slightly adjusted the shrouds on the kakam to make more room for square sails
Bug Fixes
- the pipe smoke now correctly follows the direction of the wind on a moving boat
- fixed a bug where some junk and gaff sails would turn randomly as if unaffected by wind, or would not turn at all in some cases
- removed the floating winches on the kakam
- fixed several bugs with winches visible even when no sails are attached to them
- removed the floating forestays on the NPC kakam
Update 0.19 Patch Notes
- added pipes and tobacco for smoking; they're available for purchase in the capital cities and several other towns
- more customization options available for the kakam
- sails and other custom parts now add weight to your boat
- junk and gaff sails now reef in the opposite direction (except Al'Ankh gaffs)
- the big ships can now be cleaned in shipyards for a fee
Balance Changes
- entering a shipyard no longer costs gold; you will now be charged the shipyard fee when confirming an order in the shipyard instead
- reduced the frequency and intensity of the water splash effect in calm water to make it slightly more realistic
- increased the range of the mouse sensitivity setting; this means you will most likely need to reduce your mouse sensitivity to match the previous setting
Bug Fixes
- you can now place maps on tables
- your food, water and energy should no longer decrease while in a shipyard
- fixed a bug where disabling control hints in the settings would hide item prices in shops
- your current alcohol level should now save correctly
- various other minor bug fixes
Update 0.18 Patch Notes
New Features
- ship customization is now available for all starter boats: you can install custom sails, change the masts, cabins, bowsprits and other custom elements. Boats can be customized in shipyards in the capital cities (Gold Rock City, Dragon Cliffs, Fort Aestrin). Dock your boat in the shipyard area marked by yellow flags, and speak to the shipyard master to enter the ship customization menu.
- sleeping on your boat while it is moored will now skip time much faster, and you will continue sleeping even when not tired
- added a new painting for purchase on Chronos
- you can now disable the tutorial hints in the settings menu
Bug Fixes
- improved the stability and smoothness of boat physics; boats should no longer shake in an unnatural way
- fixed a bug where square sails would sometimes not follow the wind properly when their sheets were loosened
- many various minor bug fixes
Sail Customization update coming soon
It has been quite some time since the last update. This post is here for those of you who were worried about the recent lack of news, to let you know that development is still very much active and ongoing. The next update will the biggest and most technically complex one yet, which is why it's taking a lot longer than previous ones.
This update will let you fully customize the sail plan on the three starting boats, allowing you to choose all kinds of different sail shapes and sizes, and install them in any configuration you can think of, as long as they fit on the mast and don't collide with each other.
You will also be able to do some customization of the masts, cabins, bowsprits, etc. This will also be available only on the starter boats - customization for the bigger boats will come later.
The good news is, the update is now almost done, and an optimistic estimated release date would be in a week, maybe two weeks from now.
In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the upcoming features, you can try the beta branch, where partial sail customization is currently available for testing. As you'd expect, the beta branch contains quite a lot of bugs and a general lack of polish (even more so than the regular "early access" version).
If you're not already on our Discord server, please feel free to join us here:
https://discord.gg/u4C8RQG6X9
You'll always find the latest development updates there, and it's the best place to discuss and provide feedback about the upcoming features.
Update 0.17.1 Patch Notes
- fixed a visual bug with the dhow's sail sheet attachment
- fixed a bug where the sail flapping sound would not play properly on some boats
- fixed a bug where the purchasable Al'Ankh chair would not load properly
- the chairs and tables in Sage Hills are no longer sunk underground
- the Aestrin chronometer should now have the correct rotation in the inventory
Update 0.17 Patch Notes
- added rainbows
- clicking the yard of a sail now pushes it away from the player, instead of pulling towards the player
- the small cargo crate now has a proper texture
- the big bottle sold in Al'Nilem now has a unique model
- various minor visual improvements with the fog and clouds
Balance Changes
- reduced drag on all boats
- increased the wind change rate in all regions
Bug Fixes
- increased the clipping distance of the camera, fixing the bug where distant islands would disappear when looked at directly
- jumping should now always work correctly
- falling through docks when disembarking should happen less often now
- fixed the gap in the terrain at the base of the Gold Rock mountain
- fixed a bug where the chip log would not work correctly after being purchased until the game was restarted
- fixed a bug where you could drink from bottles by bringing them close to the camera
- you can now place small items on crates of firewood and fishing hooks
- the collider of the sculptures crate is now the correct size
- various other minor bugfixes
Update 0.16.2 Patch Notes
- the supplies shop in Chronos now has a vendor
- various small adjustments to boat physics and handling
- increased the strength of wind pushing boats
- the maps for sale in Fort Aestrin should no longer be upside down in the shop
- fixed small grey cubes visible on the top of the junk's sails