The next content update is coming very soon, adding storage crates and expanding the food system. Here's a little preview of the upcoming features. Also, a new beta build is available now for testing the new features. More information below. Storage crates
You will now be able to store small items in crates - no more loose items cluttering your boat! Crates will function like an external inventory, allowing you to store any items you could normally put in your player inventory. Crates bought on the market will come sealed, and have to remain sealed and unopened in order to be sold again for the full price. At any time you can break the seal, allowing you to store and withdraw any items freely. Food spoilage and preservation
This update will add some depth and complexity to storing and managing your food supplies, especially for longer voyages. Fresh food such as fish you catch or individual food items bought at food stalls will now spoil over time unless preserved properly. Meat and fish will spoil after about a day, fruits and vegetables can last for several days, bread can last for a week or so. There are several ways to preserve your food, each with its advantages and disadvantages: - Drying: smaller items such as fruits can be dried simply by cutting them into slices, and leaving them out in the open. For faster drying, you can also place them on the new drying rack, available for purchase at your local furniture store. - Smoking: larger foods such as meat and fish can be smoked in a smoker. Similar to cooking, this requires firewood and some time. Cutting your food into slices will reduce the time it takes to smoke it. However, smoking your food takes much more time (and firewood) than regular cooking. - Salting: you can also salt your fresh food to massively reduce the time it takes to dry it fully, making it a viable option even for meat and fish. Salting is quick and easy, and does not require any additional tools. However, the salt itself is expensive, and eating salted food will also dehydrate you. Things to note: - Food crates purchased in shops or on the market will come preserved - either dried or smoked, so you don't have to worry about your cargo going bad during transport. Because of this, crates of preserved food will now be more expensive, and fresh food sold at shop stalls will be cheaper. - Smaller pieces of food dry quicker - use the new knife (available for purchase in capital cities) to cut your food into smaller slices). - Cooking can also slow down the spoiling process - as long as your food remains hot, spoiling will stop. - Smoking your food will also cook it (but more slowly than the stove). - Food will not dry when it is inside a crate. - Food that is partially preserved will spoil more slowly, and you can also combine different methods of preservation to combine the effects, but food has to be either fully dried or fully smoked to completely prevent it from spoiling. - Salting by itself does not stop spoiling, but only speeds up drying - your food can still spoil if you don't give it enough time to dry before it spoils! Nutrition The update also adds an additional nutrition layer to managing your food consumption. To stay healthy, you will need to eat a certain amount of meat or fish and fruits or vegetables. In general, this means you will need some variety in your diet and can no longer rely on one kind of food to keep you fed forever. But don't worry - this requirement should not feel intrusive and in most cases won't be noticeable, especially in the early game. However, when planning for a long journey across the ocean, relying just on your fishing rod will not be enough, and you will need to consider taking some additional provisions with you to ensure you stay healthy. Beta build You can test and share your feedback about the new features by playing the new beta build. Please note that the beta does not contain all the new content coming in this update, and some things are still unfinished. New food items are not available yet, and some food slices are missing textures, etc. Also, balancing of the new nutrition system might not be perfect yet - your feedback here will be very welcome! As usual, your previous save should work in the beta, but it is recommended to back up your save files just in case. Please share your feedback and report bugs in the beta testing thread, or on the Sailwind Discord server in the relevant beta channels.

- added settings for controller button mapping - you can now disable the controller in the settings

- added controller support (currently the controls are not configurable - this will come in the next patch) - fixed various bugs related to sleeping on your boat, such as falling off the boat when waking up - slightly reduced the speed of turning winches - 3D ropes are now enabled by default

- fixed another bug which caused winches to turn slower on higher framerates. Winch turning speed should now be fully framerate-independent. - sheet winches for jibs and square sails should now be affected properly by the wind force on the sail - fixed a bug where your camera would sometimes jump randomly when riding high waves - fixed a bug where one of the uninhabited islands would not load its terrain fully - fixed a bug where the brig's square sail sheets were attached to the top sails instead of the bottom ones (this fix will not apply if have purchased the brig with the bugged sails already) - added an experimental 3D ropes setting. You can enable it to turn the standard flat ropes into full 3D models (currently untextured). Please report any bugs and performance issues.

- removed a test NPC in Gold Rock City

More Taverns - added taverns in Fort Aestrin, Eastwind, Siren Song, Mount Malefic, Happy Bay, and Oasis NPC Ships - added three more NPC ships in each region - fixed various bugs related to NPC ships, including their pathfinding and physics. In general, you should now see NPC ships much more often in each region, and they should no longer randomly sink, get stuck, or disappear. Other Changes - fixed a bug where the speed of turning winches and steering wheels would change depending on your framerate. You might notice winches and wheels turning faster now, as intended. - added a slight camera motion smoothing effect when stepping on and off steps, stairs, etc, to make the movement feel more natural - increased the speed of diving/resurfacing when using the jump/crouch keys - you can now fold and unfold maps with right click Mod Support - (experimental/untested) SaveablePrefabs will now store an instanceId variable. It is an int which can be used to uniquely identify a specific instance of a SaveablePrefab between saves. Due to technical limitations, this variable is currently reassigned randomly to each instance whenever the game is saved, but persists when loading.

- items left on your other ships should not disappear anymore when you move away from the ship - fixed a bug where the head bob and footstep sounds would continue playing after activating a winch or a steering wheel - the player should now properly collide with objects above (roofs, etc) when jumping up

New Features - added taverns in Dragon Cliffs, New Port, Crab Beach, and Sage Hills - in each tavern you can now find an NPC who can share gossip about recent trade activity on the island in exchange for a drink - NPCs will now turn their head to look at you when you approach them - the sprint thirst bar will now only show up after you sprint for at least one second, instead of immediately Bug Fixes - lanterns hanging on the outside of your ship should now be much less likely to fall off or disappear randomly - possibly fixed some cases where hanging items such as shelves would become detached whenever you visit a shipyard - fixed a visual bug with the boat spray particles in thick fog

Taverns Taverns have been added to Gold Rock City, Neverdin and Al'Nilem (other regions will get their taverns soon!). Look for the building with a green flag to find the local tavern. They are open 24 hours, and offer food and drinks. You can also sleep in a tavern for a small fee to pass time quickly until the next morning and replenish all your needs. Other Changes - sleeping on your boat while anchored will now pass time quicker, similar to sleeping on a boat moored at a dock - entering and exiting boats should feel much smoother now, and you should be less likely to experience various bugs related to falling through the docks, glitching through the boat, falling down to the bottom of the sea, etc - added the run/walk toggle keybinding setting - holding the jump key while swimming will now move you up towards the surface, while holding the crouch key will do the opposite - slightly adjusted the amount of air control when jumping/falling - fixed the candle crate collision bug

A new beta build 0.25.b1 is now live! You can switch to the beta build in the Sailwind settings on Steam (right click Sailwind -> Properties -> Betas). The main new feature is a big change to the player embarking/disembarking and swimming systems, with the aim to fix all the bugs related to falling out of boats randomly, glitching through docks when embarking or disembarking, falling to the bottom of the ocean suddenly, etc. All these issues should now be gone, and entering/exiting boats should now feel much smoother in general. Of course this also means a high possibility of various new bugs, so I would like to test this new system in the beta channel to make sure everything works fine. Please report any cases of glitching through boats/docks/water, and as usual, expect and be ready gamebreaking bugs (back up your saves!). Some other minor changes: - holding the jump key while swimming will now move you up towards the surface, while holding the crouch key will do the opposite - added the run/walk toggle keybinding setting - slightly adjusted the amount of air control - fixed the candle crate collision The best place to share your feedback is on the Sailwind Community Discord in the beta channels, or in the comments section of this post. Thank you!

- reverted to the previous control scheme where holding the run button (shift) will make you sprint, allowing for three different movement speeds (walking, running, sprinting) - sprinting will now consume a significant amount of your water bar - you can now also sprint while swimming, but this will consume even more water, as well as food - pressing Caps Lock will now toggle between running and walking mode (the option to rebind this key will be added soon) - jumping will no longer force you into running mode - added back some amount of movement control while in the air/jumping - slightly increased swim speed - slightly reduced the head bob effect when walking - fixed a bug where the player would strafe slightly off-center when walking on the brig

New Features - Lanterns can now be refilled with fresh candles or lamp oil (depending on lantern type), which can be purchased in most ports. - Added new mail delivery missions. All ports will now always have a mail mission to each other connected port. Player Movement Changes - You no longer need to hold the run button (default: shift) to sprint. Instead, the run button will now toggle between running and walking mode. The new running mode is slower than the old sprint speed, but faster than the old default running speed. - running will now consume your food and water bars at a slightly higher rate - swimming will now consume your food and water bars at a much higher rate - jumping while swimming will no longer give you a speed boost - you can no longer stop or start moving while in the air/jumping - added a head bob effect when walking and running. It can be turned off in the settings. Other - added some hint messages to help with loading and unloading cargo using the recently added cargo transport system

- improved the bow splash effect on all boats, making it more consistent and realistic - added a new water spray effect when crashing into waves - fixed a bug where fishing rods and chip logs would get duplicated sometimes

Update 0.23 is now live! This is a relatively small update focusing on various quality-of-life improvements and fixing several major gameplay related bugs. Below is a detailed breakdown of all the important changes and new features introduced in this patch. Cargo cart service - A dock worker with a cargo cart is now available for hire in most ports, allowing for faster loading and unloading of cargo for a small fee. The cart service functions like an additional inventory, only accessible at the port, making it easier to transport cargo between your boat and the local dock. It should be especially helpful when loading and unloading large amounts of cargo. - You can also use the cargo transport service to store cargo safely at the port for an extended period of time. You will be charged a daily fee for each item, up to the total value of the item. Autosaves - The game will now automatically save your progress every 15 minutes by default. You can customize the autosave interval in the settings menu, or disable it completely. - Each save slot will now also automatically store up to 5 previous saves. The save backups can be selected and loaded by hovering over the appropriate save slot in the main menu. Better recovery - Recovery will now bring you to the last port you visited. This now includes all ports, not just the capital cities. - Fixed various bugs associated with recovery, including items disappearing from your inventory, boats not mooring correctly, etc. - The recovery process should be faster and a bit smoother now. Better sinking - Recovering your boat after sinking will now also recover all furniture and items on the boat. Some percentage of cargo (crates, barrels, etc) will be randomly lost. The percentage of cargo lost increases with distance from the recovery port. - Increased the amount of water a boat needs to take in before it sinks. - There is now a hull creaking sound which gets increasingly louder as your boat gets closer to sinking. Better docking - You can now push your boat off a dock, from inside the boat. - Boats should now be much less likely to be pushed and stuck against the pier by a side wind. - Improved collision detection of boats with docks, especially around the bow and stern. Issues with boats glitching into docks should now happen less often. - Items left on your other boats should no longer become scattered randomly when you come back to the boat later, and their mooring lines should no longer become slack. Other - Some slight changes to the physics related to drag, mostly aimed at alleviating some of the tacking issues with the big ships. - You can now change the color of already installed sails in the shipyard (currently for free, this will probably be changed in a later patch). - Streetlights in towns will now turn off during the day. - Fixed a bug where crates of mushrooms would not save/load correctly. - Fixed item collision bugs with oranges and the small junk ship model. - Other minor bug fixes.

- possibly fixed the bugs where items on boats would randomly move or disappear on save/load - added a setting for the autosave interval in the settings menu (including the option to disable it completely)

- fixed a bug where items on your boat would not save/load in some cases - fixed various issues with lanterns and lantern hooks. Please report any further bugs with lanterns, hooks, and other attachable items such as shelves or paintings.

A new beta build 0.23.b1 is now live and available for public testing. You can switch to the beta build in the Sailwind settings on Steam (right click Sailwind -> Properties -> Betas). The aim of this beta is to test several major bug fixes and technical changes which affect some of the core systems of the game, including the save and load system. As such, there is a higher than usual possibility of your saves not working/becoming corrupted when used in this beta version. It is recommended to back up your save files before you play! Main changes: Autosaves - The game will now automatically save your progress every 5 minutes (the save interval will be customizable in a later patch). Each slot will now also automatically store up to 5 previous saves. Better recovery - Recovery will now bring you to the last port you visited. This includes all ports, not just the capital cities. Fixed various bugs associated with recovery, including items disappearing from your inventory, boats not mooring correctly, etc. Better sinking - Increased the amount of water a boat needs to take in before it sinks. - There is now a hull creaking sound which gets increasingly louder as your boat gets closer to sinking. - Recovering your boat after sinking will now also recover all cargo, furniture and items on the boat. Better docking - You can now push your boat off a dock, from inside the boat. - Boats should now be much less likely to be pushed and stuck against the pier by a side wind. - Improved collision detection of boats with docks, especially around the bow and stern. Issues with boats glitching into docks should now happen less often. - Items left on your other boats should no longer become scattered randomly when you come back to the boat later, and their mooring lines should no longer become slack. Other - Some slight changes to the physics related to drag, mostly aimed at alleviating some of the tacking issues with the big ships. - You can now change the color of already installed sails in the shipyard (currently for free, this will probably be changed in a later patch). Please share your feedback and report any bugs you find in the dedicated 0.23 Beta Thread, or on the Sailwind Community Discord in the beta channels. Thank you!

- fixed a bug that prevented missions to the new islands from spawning in some cases. If you still don't see any missions in the capital cities, try waiting 4-6 days for the economy to settle a bit, and the missions should appear eventually. - fixed a graphical glitch in Fort Aestrin

Update 0.22 is finally here! Discover the new mini-region of the Fire Fish Lagoon, with new goods, items, and more. New Features - a new archipelago - the Fire Fish Lagoon - has been added, along with some new trade goods, items, and new weather effects. It also includes a shipyard with a new sail type available. You can find missions heading to the new archipelago in all capital cities. - you can now customize the sail colors in shipyards. Each shipyard has a unique set of different colors available. - more realistic mooring lines. Mooring ropes now have a fixed, adjustable length. After tying a rope to a dock mooring, you can now grab the tied rope with right-click, and then gradually pull or release it manually (scroll wheel by default). Gameplay Changes - reduced baseline drag on all boats. This should make all boats slightly faster in most conditions. - increased rudder drag. Rudder drag increases with the angle of the rudder, meaning that the farther you turn the steering wheel, the more it will slow down the boat. - sails will now be pushed by wind with a small amount of force even when fully furled - improved boat wake and foam effects. Water should now react to the movement of your boat in a more realistic way. - you can now drink liquids directly from barrels - your selected currency is now saved between sessions - jumping now cancels crouching - entering a shipyard will now untie all mooring ropes on your ship - increased the value of logs and sculptures - reduced the value of iron - increased the weight of gems Bug Fixes - slight performance improvements in Fort Aestrin, and possibly on some other islands - fixed a sail collision bug with the sanbuq's default sails - fixed a bug where a sudden hissing sound would randomly play sometimes - other various minor bug fixes Please note: This is a huge, complex update, with many changes to various different game systems that haven't been fully beta-tested. Bugs, including game-breaking ones, are quite possible. Your old saves should work, but it's always a good idea to make backups! The economy and missions on the new islands might not work optimally yet, especially if you continue from an older save. If you see any abnormalities, waiting a few days for the markets to settle might help. Please also share your experiences and feedback on the Discord server or the Steam forum.

Hey guys, just a quick announcement to let you know that the upcoming patch 0.22 is now almost ready. The expected time of arrival is mid-November. In the meantime, here are some more preview screenshots of the new features: New buildings:
New custom sails:
Custom sail colors (each shipyard will have different colors to choose from):
There is also a beta version of the new patch available to play now. It doesn't include all the new features yet, but you can test out some of the physics changes, including rudder drag and improved mooring ropes. To play the beta, you just need to select it in the game options on Steam: Steam Library > Right-click Sailwind > Properties > Betas. In the drop-down menu, select "beta - beta testing". Then it's just a matter of letting it update. Be sure to back up your saves.

It has been a while since the last update, and many people might be wondering about the development status of the next one. As always, the most up-to-date news and updates are regularly posted on the Sailwind Discord server. For those who missed the recent posts there, here is a quick summary along with preview screenshots.
The next patch will be a big one, featuring a new archipelago with several islands. This will not be an entirely new region - think of it more like an expansion of the current Emerald Archipelago. The new islands will feature some new unique architecture, as well as new trade goods, other items, and custom sails.


Some new weather effects are also planned.

The update is expected to be ready sometime around September/October 2023. Before the full update is released, there are plans for an open beta test for the upcoming patch. The new islands will not be available yet, but the beta will feature several improvements mostly related to weather and boat physics (including manually adjustable mooring ropes - no more infinite springs!). Player feedback will be very welcome and useful to get the fine tuning of the new changes just right. More details about the beta will be coming soon!

Major New Features - Big Ship Customization: you can now customize the sails, masts, stays and more, on all the big ships. Many new large sails are available at the shipyards - Wind Shadow: Sails will now cast a "wind shadow" on other sails, meaning that a sail will not be able to catch any wind if there is another sail in front of it, blocking the wind. The strength of the shadow effect depends on the area of the sail as well as distance between the sails. Other New Features - multiple square sails on one mast will now be automatically linked together, so that you can turn them all with only one set of sheet winches - the sail area of each sail is now displayed in the shipyard - the shipyard camera can now be moved by holding right mouse button - several other shipyard UI improvements - added a "high precision physics" setting (on by default) which should improve the stability of item physics, especially when stacking several crates on top of each other - crates and barrels will now make a sound when dropped Balance Changes - changed the way sail area is calculated to be more consistent with the real size of the sail - sail prices are now automatically calculated based on their size and type - increased the price of hull cleaning and the shipyard fee - shipyard fee will now be charged only once per visit to the shipyard Bug fixes - item crates will now display a hint text about taking items with right mouse button when looked at - fixed many collision-related bugs when installing sails in the shipyard - furling/unfurling a sail should now fix any visual cloth glitches - the cog should no longer have any extra unused winches - many other minor bug fixes, and performance and stability improvements

A new beta testing build is now available. You can play the beta if you want to test the upcoming features before they are officially released. Please note that the beta version might be less stable and more buggy than the regular version. You can use your existing save files in the beta version, however it is recommended to back them up just to be safe. You can find your save files in C:\Users\(username)\AppData\LocalLow\Raw Lion Workshop\Sailwind New features to test: - sanbuq customization: You can now customize the sails, masts and other custom elements on the sanbuq (the large Al'Ankh ship). Several new large sails are also available at the Gold Rock City shipyard. More sails and other customization options will be added later. - wind shadow: Sails will now cast a "wind shadow" on other sails, meaning that a sail will not be able to catch any wind if there is another sail in front of it, blocking the wind. The strength of the shadow effect depends on the area of the sail as well as distance between the sails. If you would like to share your feedback about the new features, the best place to do this is on the official Sailwind discord server, in the #beta-general channel. Bugs can be reported in the #beta-bug-reports channel. Thank you!

- fixed a bug where the tutorial hints would not show up - fixed a bug where the inventory UI would sometimes show up sideways while the game was loading - the Gold Rock dock collision should now be slightly more reliable

- fixed a bug causing the shipyard UI to not display properly

Major 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. Other New Features - improved lighting effects with ambient occlusion and lantern shadows (optional, can be toggled in the settings menu) - the port mission UI now has separate tabs for local and world missions - crates of tobacco can now be bought and sold as a trade good on the market - improved the tutorial hints to be more helpful - various small UI improvements Balance Changes - local missions can now have up to 5 goods (6 for capital cities), but the amount is limited by your reputation (max 3 goods at the lowest level) - world missions can have up to 12 goods - when starting a new game, the moon phase will now be approaching full moon, to ensure the first several nights are bright Bug Fixes - improved the stability of the boat physics, possibly reducing the frequency of random glitches and crashes - fixed some bugs causing the tutorial hints to show incorrect information in some situations - various other minor bug fixes

The beta version of the upcoming economy update (0.20.b1) is now available on the beta channel. 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

* sometime in October 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.

Balance Changes - 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

New Features - 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

After a long delay and months of beta testing, the ship customization update is finally ready for an official release. This does not mean the new system is bug-free, but it is now mostly stable and fully functional. This update comes with dozens of new sails and various other custom options such as bowsprits and cabins, but more sails and other options will be gradually added over time. Customization for the big ships is also coming sometime in the near future. 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

Hi! 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.

- added a lighthouse in Oasis - 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

New Features - 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

- fixed a bug preventing the player from entering the boat when docked in Chronos - 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

- fixed a bug where the water color would not change correctly according to the region you're in

New Features - added a new island. Missions from the capital cities are available at the highest reputation level - improved sail physics - sails will now apply a rotating force on the boat in a realistic way - the player's weight now affects the boat's center of mass - added the ability to rotate held cargo and furniture horizontally by scrolling while holding Q - added the option to customize your key bindings in the settings menu - there is now a short delay before you can pick up furniture and cargo. Press the sprint key to override the delay and pick up the item instantly - added the chronometer - a navigation instrument which is a cheaper alternative to the chronocompass for determining your longitude - a navigation manual is now available for purchase in the capital cities - new paintings are available for purchase (thanks to Necktie) - new shelves for item storage are now available for purchase at the furniture vendors in the capital cities - lights in towns are now visible from a greater distance - added lights in Al'Ankh Academy - missions to Oasis are now available - missions from Gold Rock City to Happy Bay are now available - goat cheese crates are now available for purchase in Gold Rock City Balance Changes - rebalanced the handling of all boats due to the new sail physics. In general, expect more heeling in strong winds - adjusted gold reward for missions - added a gold bonus for heavy cargo, reduced the reward for long distance high value missions - the purchase price of trade goods will now always be slightly higher than their sell price at a particular location - increased the price of the chronocompass - you will now be unable to fall asleep when you are close to passing out from thirst or starvation - the transition of raw to cooked food is now quicker, which should make it more obvious when the food is fully cooked - winds should now change a bit more often in Al'Ankh and Emerald Archipelago - prevailing winds should now be slightly less prevailing - reduced the frequency of storms - reduced the retail discount from reputation (from 50% to 25% at max reputation) - increased the reputation required to reach the highest reputation level (from 32 000 to 60 0000) - slightly reduced the force of wind pushing boats Bug Fixes - brooms should now work on all boats - fixed the spyglass glare - held items will now only affect a boat's mass if the player is also on the boat - winches and steering wheels that are being used cannot be deactivated while in third person camera anymore - you can no longer click on a bed while holding an item - small items will now only display a red outline when you actually try to drop them in an invalid location - fixed a bug where items taken out of crates would not save and load correctly - fixed the Emerald Archipelago compass appearing upside down in the inventory - the cog's wind vane should now point in the correct direction - other changes and bugfixes

- unpurchased boats should now always be moored correctly at their home ports

- fixed a bug causing the game to get stuck when loading - you should now be much less likely to wake up from boat impact when moored at a dock - fixed a bug where the fishing rod would rotate strangely when a fish is hooked - the mission map should now correctly display all routes

New Features - telescopes are now available for purchase in the capital cities - you will now wake up if your boat hits something, runs aground or takes on water - picking up cargo or furniture will now keep its current position and rotation, rather than snapping it to the center of the screen - you can now rotate held cargo in other directions by moving your mouse while holding the Q or E keys - swimming now drains your hunger and thirst - the mission log now displays the weight of the mission cargo - there are now missions available between Oasis and Happy Bay Balance Changes - reduced the wind change rate in Aestrin slightly - swimming is now slower - adjusted the weight of some cargo items - reduced the amount of fishing hooks in crates from 40 to 20 - waves should now change direction and magnitude more slowly Bug Fixes - fixed a bug causing items in shops to respawn almost instantly - fixed a bug where trade winds were not being calculated correctly, especially in the Al'Ankh region - fixed some cases where boat weight was not being calculated correctly - you can no longer pour liquids from mission cargo barrels - fixed a bug where you could reel in the entire fishing line instantly - fixed a bug where the mission map would not display some routes correctly for Oasis missions - added clothes to some previously naked NPCs - other minor bugfixes and UI improvements

- small items will now snap to tables, crates and barrels when held, allowing you to place them more precisely - fixed a bug where items placed on a stove would sometimes change the boat's center of mass to shift too much - crosshair opacity setting should now load correctly - fixed a bug where right clicking a bed would cause you to leave the bed instantly

- fixed a bug causing boats to heel or flip randomly - items should no longer fall through the ground when dropped

- fixed the bug where hanging lanterns on your boat would affect its center of mass excessively - temporarily removed the early access disclaimer when loading or starting a new game

New features - item placement will now affect the center of mass of your boat - you can now crouch using the left ctrl key Balance changes - reduced the mission reward for valuable cargo such as gold and gems - increased the reputation required to reach the higher reputation levels - slightly reduced drag on the large ships - increased the turning rate of the brig - increased the strength of wind pushing boats - slightly reduced the volume of the wind sound - adjusted the moon visuals to more accurately reflect the distance between the sun and the moon Bug fixes - fixed a bug where a slightly overcooked food would give zero energy when eaten - you can no longer push boats when they get too far away from you - significantly reduced the size of the save files - using the broom on your boat should no longer cause significant frame rate drop - barrels should no longer randomly freeze in place when dropped - tuna will now display its name when looked at - fixed the collision of the rocks at Al'Ankh Academy - other various minor fixes

New Features - added a new item for measuring boat speeds; you can buy it in the capital cities - you can now manually pull sails towards you by clicking on the yard of the sail - added a field of view (FOV) slider in the settings menu - added a visual hint indicating the no go zone when trying to sail upwind; this is intended to help new players and will only appear at the beginning of a new game - added control hints when using winches - added a more visible flag to the starting boat in Al'Ankh - added ladders to the large Aestrin ship - the first person camera and the third person camera now rotate independently Balance changes - adjusted the speeds and handling of all boats; in general, boat movement should be faster, smoother and more consistent in most situations - the square sails and the jib on the large Aestrin ship now have a much larger angle of rotation - the large Aestrin ship now turns slower - pushing boats is now much less powerful when the player is in the water; pushing while standing on land or on a dock remains unchanged - adjusted the sound of waves to make it more immersive - reduced the volume of the wind sound slightly - increased the respawn time of items in shops Bug fixes - fixed a bug causing significant unintended drag on boats in some situations - fixed a hint incorrectly telling you to adjust the sail even when it was adjusted correctly - the moon will now properly obscure the stars behind it - the starting Aestrin boat should now collide with docks properly - you can't enter a hammock from outside the boat anymore

- waves within local regions and near islands should now be smaller - islands should not get flooded during storms anymore - getting out of bed in the large junk ship will no longer cause you to fall into the water - the large junk ship should now properly move while you're sleeping - fixed a bug where collecting fish from the fishing rod inside your boat would cause the fish to fly off into space - barrels and other items falling out of your boat randomly might happen less often now - water inside your boat will now make a sound - improved some clipping issues when hanging maps on walls - the most expensive bed will now load properly (this will not fix saves from previous versions - you'll need to buy a new bed) - fixed some occasional wind and waves sound glitches - fixed some minor glitches with flags and ropes on some ships

New features - boats will now be pushed by wind slightly even with the sails furled - you can now lock the steering wheel in place with right click - you can now release winches quickly by holding left shift - some food is now included in your boat when starting a new game - added an option for inverted mouse control - compasses in the inventory now appear larger - north direction is now marked more clearly on the Aestrin compass - chronocompasses are now held slightly closer to the camera to make them easier to read - you can now push the large Aestrin ship - the large Aestrin ship now has flags on the masts Balance changes - major adjustments to wind and waves; generally, wind speed and wave height will now be more varied, and waves in storms will be higher - prevailing winds should be more consistent now - waves near islands and within regions should generally be smaller now - increased the cost of boat recovery - increased rate of water intake when heeled over too far - increased the price of most paintings - reduced the screen grain effect when hungry or thirsty Bug fixes - you can no longer sell mission cargo to vendors - wind from a previously saved game should now load correctly - sunk boats will now properly go underwater - fixed sell price for some trade goods - fixed some tables and chairs in Happy Bay - gold crates now have the correct collider - various improvements to boat and item physics and overall stability

- moored boats should no longer randomly spawn on land or on docks (this won't fix the location of previously misplaced boats) - pausing the game should no longer cause boat physics glitches - various other random physics bugs should now happen less often - boats are now slightly less stable and easier to capsize - wind sound is now louder in strong winds

- added dynamic hints to help with getting the boat moving which will show up when starting a new game, or whenever you press F1 - boats should now be more stable and much less likely to capsize - food prices have been reduced - food crates now contain less items per crate and are cheaper - the hunger bar now depletes slower - cargo delivery time limits now depend on the value of the cargo; missions for common cargo should now give you more time - a map of the local region is now included as one of your starting items - added a list of keyboard controls to the settings menu - improved boat physics when moored (less chance of random violent collisions with docks) - you can no longer buy empty bottles for 0 gold - the anchor should now work properly on the big ship in Aestrin - items should randomly fall through the world less often now - the purchasable world map no longer glows in the dark - fixed a bug preventing the player from entering the port building in Oasis

Please note that as an Early Access release, you can expect bugs, crashes and all kinds of other issues, especially for the first few days. Your help with testing and finding the bugs is very appreciated! You can share any issues you find, or any suggestions you might have, on the Sailwind Community Discord, or on the Steam Community Hub. See you on the high seas!

Good news, the game build has been approved, and the release date is now confirmed to be Oct 18, 2021. I was hoping to release the game as soon as the build was approved, but it seems Oct 18 is the earliest possible release date. Apologies for the delay.

The Sailwind Community Discord server is now up. Join for discussion, announcements and more: https://discord.gg/u4C8RQG6X9

Hi, I have some news about the release of Sailwind, which was originally planned for 15 Oct - there will be a small delay due to to technical reasons. If everything goes well, the delay shouldn't take more than a few days. I'll keep you updated in case of any further delays. Thank you for your patience. If you're curious what exactly happened, here's the story - I was convinced the final game build was correctly submitted and approved for release, but yesterday I noticed that in fact it wasn't even submitted for review yet. Not sure how I could've missed that, I'd like to blame the Steam dev site for not displaying the information correctly, but realistically it's probably just my oversight. In any case, the review process should only take one or two more days, and the game will be released as soon as the build is approved. There is a possibility of further delays if the build fails the review though, so let's hope that doesn't happen! Stay tuned for further announcements. Again, thanks for your patience and understanding.