Introducing, "Seafarer", the 9th major release of Wayward on Steam, and the end of limited exploration in the game. You can now sail the seas and explore new worlds and sets of islands. A few stand-out features in this release also include:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwIAok4T9yE
This release was one of those big ones. Adding infinite procedural generation while keeping the world feel smaller and meaningful was no easy task. But it's also one of those things that tons of players were clamoring for. Like some of the other big releases under our belt like beta 2.5 which added multiplayer; a feature I previously said would probably never happen. This was also one of those things design wise I was pretty strongly against initially and thought tech-wise, we would probably never manage to do. Well, I am constantly proven wrong by both what I think players would want most, and what my co-developers are able to pull off. Shout-out to:
We still have lots of iterate on with the concept of island types and seafaring in general. Our plan with this cycle is to focus on a pretty large content patch somewhere in the set of 2.9.x releases, so the releases might be a bit more sparse than normal after a major release. This is because we want to focus on some bigger additional content for Seafarer. Things like temperature, more biome content and other unique island-based features like charting/mapping features. We'll still be providing bug fixes of course.
As with all major releases so far, I'll be doing some streaming tonight as well as over this week at random points. This time I'll be doing it live on the Wayward Steam store page. You can tune in from there, or from the Broadcasts page: https://steamcommunity.com/app/379210/broadcasts/
Check out our Discord for more information and future community news: https://discord.gg/wayward or just add me as a friend on Steam to chat.
Also, like other major releases, Wayward is currently on sale for -20% off for a full week.
Speaking of Steam, as most of you might know, that in the ashes of the recent Steam Summer sale, you might have some extra Steam "points" laying around. I would encourage everybody to give out some rewards to all the community contributors out there for Wayward. Reviews, guides, Workshop mods, screenshots, and more! Show them some love!
Thanks for taking a look at our 7th newsletter. Oh ya, and also happy Wayward anniversary! We have some news to share on beta 2.9 as well as information on how you can help support the project going forward as we approach some really big game-changing milestones for Wayward development.
Steam Broadcast & Live Q&A
As this post goes live, I'll be testing the Steam broadcasting waters so to speak with a live Q&A while playing some Wayward instead of the normal Twitch streaming I do. Tune in now (for the next couple of hours)!
Beta 2.9 Teasers & Information
Traveling
Coming up in beta 2.9, we will see the ability to travel to new sets of islands without losing your current save and world, essentially, leading to infinite world generation and exploration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z13Ep4hKJPo
Ice Cap
Here's a sneak-peek at the new snowy biome. It's one of three themes for new island types. Each island type will feature new content, resources, and many things unique only to that island type. Beta 2.9 will feature arid, ice cap, and coastal island types for starters. We'll be working on more as we go as well.
Arid
Although the desert biome has always been present in every set of islands, it will now be much more fully featured with its own unique resources and cave system. Something worth traveling for!
Usually we have everything we are working on available on our development branch. With this one, we are going to wait a bit before pushing it out for everybody to test and play with as there will likely be some game breaking bugs that we want to iron out first. Stay tuned for that!
Supporting Wayward
Wishlist & Follow
First of all, if you haven't already purchased Wayward, make sure to wishlist it for the future, especially if you are one of those waiting for a non-early access release (or just waiting for a big discount) before taking the plunge. If you already have bought it, make sure to give us a follow so you can keep up with all the news and releases we announce on Steam (like this newsletter).
Tagging
Steam recently added a bunch of new tags in order to label games more accurately. Due to the tumultuous history of the "roguelike" genre, we now have a "traditional roguelike" tag that properly describes games like Wayward. You can help us categorize Wayward (and any other game) with the proper tags by editing them on the store page here:
Here's all the tags that I found (arguably) fit Wayward when looking through them all:
Reviews
If you haven't had a chance to leave us feedback, make sure you write a review on the game. We use review feedback as one of the ways to improve the game and add more to our ever-growing to-do list.
If you’ve already reviewed the game, make sure to upvote any reviews you find helpful as this helps show more useful reviews to those deciding on purchasing the game or not.
Community Features
Save Games
Ever since beta 2.0 when we first released on Steam, we have had support for Steam Workshop-based saves. You can see everybody's uploads here.
Explore somebody else's world, or upload your own via the in-game export featured in the load game menu:
And choose the "Steam Workshop" option to share your creation or world. It's always fun snooping through other player's giant walls of wooden chests.
Screenshots
Taking a screenshot of your in-game creations is probably the easiest way to create community content for Wayward, not including all the time you spent building those floors and walls…
Here’s a few of my recent favorites from the community.
The largest gathering place for our small community. If you haven’t joined already, make sure to do so here.
Steam Chat
If you are looking to chat with the Wayward community on a much smaller scale and without a separate application, then your best bet is the Wayward Steam chat. Join the chat here.
Feature Voting
If you haven't already checked it out, make sure to visit the feature voting page on our website to vote on upcoming features.
It's looking like the next, next release is going to be dungeons, but it's a bit too early to say for sure. Dungeons are one of those “really big game-changing milestones” I was talking about.
I hope everybody is doing good, well, as good as they can be at the moment. Stay safe!
Stay tuned and thanks for the support over the years!
Beta 2.8.5 Released
We have a bit of an unusual release ready for everybody. A new release that is looking pretty chunky for being a minor update. This is a collection of things we have been improving while working on the next major update. Something like a midway point release. Enjoy! Let us know if you run into any issues.
In other news, we have transitioned the Wayward soundtracks over to the new "Soundtrack" category on Steam. This means you can purchase them independently of the game (they no longer count as DLC).
As for news on the next major release, we have decided to work on seafaring, persistent world travel, and themed biomes/islands (and all the unique content that comes with that). Some of the things that have been continually requested by the playerbase.
We'll have more news on that coming up soon! On with the changelog:
We have a small patch ready to mostly fix up that auto saving issue. We were also able to squeeze in a few other things we were working on. More to come soon!
Let us know about any other issues you spot!
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Beta 2.8.3 Released
Hey all,
Just a smaller release this time around. Even though it's smaller, it still has some great new features packed in. Here's a few important-ish things:
Pass Trough Creatures
You can now pass through weaker or flying creatures by disabling auto attack; however, they may attack you as you pass, leading to some more strategic escapes.
Improved Building Visuals
The contrast was lacking between flooring, walls, and structures. We've boosted this a bit to make your abode a bit nicer looking.
Crafting Efficacy
Introducing crafting efficacy. Starting at 20% crafting skill, you will begin to get a rating on each craft, letting you now how effective you are (using your combination of item and doodad qualities/tiers). The higher this value, the better chance at a higher quality and durability for your craft. You can read more about this in the help menu. The underlying system for this was already in place, it was just invisible to the player.
Auto-save Options
Due to popular demand, you can now set the auto save interval based on turns or time. Auto saving will also no longer stop you in your tracks, disabling movement after, and should be much more painless.
Multiplayer Improvements
The server browser will show all games except for private games. Friends-only games and games running in different versions will now be shown so you can switch versions or shoot over a friend request if you spot a game you want to join.
Additionally, we have fixed an issue with multiplayer games and how player's are identified. You may run into issues with pre-existing multiplayer games because of this. The player data is not lost and we can help you out if you send us over the save and the Steam IDs (or Steam profiles) of the players in the game. We will correct the saves for you. Apologies for the issues!
Oh ya, and Happy New Year!
New
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Technical
Beta 2.8.2 Released
Following the theme of big minor patches, we present beta 2.8.2, another big minor patch. In this release you'll see a lot of fixes and improvements, but also something a lot of people have been waiting for. Better networking!
Hopefully the days are gone where you would need to do some router wizardry to host a Wayward game. We have implemented Steam networking support. This is all automatic, so you shouldn't have to worry about anything besides staying alive in-game.
And how about all that ash that has been building up from the campfires and water stills? Well, now with a bit of effort, you can turn it into ash cement to build walls and flooring. Reduce, reuse, and recycle!
This holiday season you can also stay cool with a new feature that warns you when attempting to sleep with a lit torch/candle, a long requested feature for the "Warn on Dangerous Actions" option.
Some other related changes to resting/sleeping include:
These are just a few examples of what's in store for this release. On another note, happy early holidays! Hope you get a game or two in!
New
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Modding
Technical
Beta 2.8.1 Released
Luckily, in the last major release, we didn't have many major issues to sort out, allowing us to focus on adding more content and smoothing out some important areas of the game for this release.
We focused on performance for sure, but we made sure to improve on plenty of lacking areas as well including fishing, reinforcing, and other UI/UX improvements. I encourage you to check all the new things out!
While this is a sizable release, we still have more to work on in the 2.8.x series of patches. There's still a few more things to smooth out. Continue to give us feedback on the game! Make sure to check out our Discord if you haven't yet, or shoot me a friend request on Steam
New
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Modding
Technical
Community Custom Map Stream
Hey all,
Last week, I missed the normal release stream due to a pretty bad cold. I'm mostly healed up now and ready to do some release celebrations!
The stream will be a bit different this time. We'll be working on a custom map, hopefully with some helpful hands of anybody that wants to join in. If you just want to hang out for the giveaways, that's cool too! Yes, we will be doing the normal game giveaways during the stream.
Wayward is still on sale for a bit, so snag it for cheap while you can. Stay tuned for more updates this weekend on beta 2.8.1.
Wayward Beta 2.8 “Odds & Ends” Released
Sorry about that wait! The next major Wayward update is finally upon us! To help celebrate the release, Wayward is -25% off for the next 7 days.
This release we focused on many improvements and a new unlockable system for added replayability. There's not really a theme here to speak of, hence the naming of "odds & ends". Some of the stand-out additions include:
The preview video shows a few more notable features:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTLohN_Opz8
Our plan with the upcoming 2.8.x series of patches is to continue to improve these small and large areas of the game, smoothing everything out to make way for something big with 2.9. We aren't entirely sure what we want to focus on quite yet, but there's a few things on our short list based on what players voted for on the new feature voting page. Make sure you vote on what you would like to see in the game next!
We're in it for the long haul, and not in Valve's Artifact version of "the long haul". Thanks for sticking around!
So, what’s the status on beta 2.8? We have been working on it, although admittedly a bit slower than normal. According to our FAQ statement on releases, we should have dropped a new major release around this time. Unfortunately, some of the things we planned on (redesigned crafting) have proved to take much longer than anticipated. So, instead of making this major take even longer, we switched tracks and instead focused on other areas. This delay has been compounded a bit due to the birth of my daughter. I’m having a lot less free time than normal as you would expect. Wayward is a part-time endeavor for all of us, so the timing of major releases can be a bit variable.
That being said, we are still making changes and additions on a day to day basis, and our work is always available for review and play via the development branch. We are now up to 141 changes, improvements, additions, and fixes. If that’s something you are interested in, make sure to check out the details on how to play it by checking out the Changing Betas/Branches for Wayward guide.
I would expect us to take another 1-2 months to get beta 2.8 released and tested. Thank you all for the testing you have done so far, and to the few that were affected, RIP those save games in that last major bug. Apologies!
On to the new reveals for beta 2.8:
Milestone Modifiers
We have replaced all previous meta-progression from milestones with a brand new system. Previously, milestones would provide bonus items and stats when starting new games. While some liked this, many wanted the game to remain the same difficulty when starting. Enter milestone modifiers! With each milestone you unlock, you can tailor your game with unique scenarios and bonuses. This of course is now optional instead of bonuses being forced on subsequent playthroughs. It also adds a little bit more reason for grinding out those tough milestones.
Colored Lighting
You’ll find a few new sources of colored lighting in 2.8, including a quite unique creature.
Sandstone and Rock Ground
A perfect accompaniment to the mountain ranges in the game, providing more visual appeal and resources.
If you missed the last reveals we did on beta 2.8, make sure to check them out on the Happy (Late) Wayward Day! post.
