Hey captains!

Gameplay Changes:

• Lower deck items now get a 10% bonus to their stats for being placed in the correct slots.
• Completing quests for the same faction in a province now yields a stacking buff to reputation and influence for that faction. Doing a quest for any other faction resets this stacking bonus.
• AI will now establish new provinces on their own if the player doesn't establish anything new for 40 in-game days (equals to 4 hours IRL).
• Spawned NPCs in encounters will now be of randomized type rather than always using the player's ship type.
• NPCs will no longer go to +7 item tier if the player is level 30. The player's average item level has to be high for this to happen.
• The Sloop is now 20% faster to help newer players get around faster.
• The middle mouse button now orders nearby NPCs to go investigate the clicked target on the map. Shift+Click does the same.
• NPC ships ordered to investigate some target will no longer forget their order the first chance they get.
• A player dying will add a marker to the minimap for a short period of time.
• Boss-tier ships dropping loot will ping the minimap where the item has dropped.
• Pirates will now occasionally raid provinces.
• Other volley's projectiles will no longer lose their ability to damage enemies if one of the volley's projectiles happens to hit an ally along the path.
• Duplicate identical commodities in provinces now increase production: 50% for 2, 75% for 3, 87.5% for 4 or more.
• Reduced bloodthirst's effect down to 15% of damage dealt (was 25%).
• All interdicting pirates were set to be defensive spec'd. Now, they will be a random spec.
• Targeted skills can now be bound to the same controller button as the default cancel action (B by default), and the two won't conflict with each other's actions
• NPCs were apparently always level 1, and no one has ever noticed. This was causing them to have debuffs related to having too many talent points, and their gear was scaled down to be capped at +2, making high-level NPCs significantly weaker than they should have been.
• Added the ability for NPC talent specializations to specify which ship types should be excluded when choosing this spec. For example, Xebec should not be used by support ships.
• Changed how NPCs adjust their talents and item tier to favor adjustment of talent points first, resulting in item tier going up less.

Controller Support

• Added full gamepad controller support to the game, and the game is now 100% playable with a controller. By default, it supports the XBOX 360 style layout, with the appropriate glyphs. The game switches controls on the fly as you use them, so you can play with the keyboard and mouse, then pick up your controller and continue playing, and the game will seamlessly switch and change the UI/keybinds to match. All controller and keyboard key binds are separate, so you don't need to worry about one conflicting with the other as you play. This was a long task that took over a week on its own.
• Diving and fishing minigames now support controller-based input.
• Added a virtual keyboard to the game that shows up whenever an input field is selected with controller input. This completes the Steam's requirements for 100% controller compatibility.
• Controller input now uses the right stick to choose where to fire with manually targeted skills.
  
  
• The right thumbstick will now pan scroll views instead of moving the camera while any UI is open.
• Enter town button now has higher priority than skill keys, making it take precedence while in town.
• Holding the (A) button on the controller now acts as the quick sell/buy/transfer the same way CTRL+Clicking does.
• Changed the left stick click to activate the virtual cursor instead of the Start button.
• The conversation window no longer needs the controller mouse to be active while using the controller.
  

UI & Quality of Life

• Diving and fishing windows will now start paused the first time (when they show a tutorial window).
• Added a "new big hit" indicator. You will notice as you score bigger crits, they will show up as bigger numbers and will stay on the screen longer.
• Town's tax label now shows the appropriate final tax for the mage (commodity, gear and ship markups are now included).
• The regional control indicator will no longer show # of remaining reinforcements if the counters aren't being used yet (prior to the 10-minute mark).
• Conversation window text animation can now be turned off in options.
• The buy/sell quantity slider value now begins at 1 rather than 0.
• Added a tutorial explaining the basics of regional control.
• Made the recent level fix for NPCs backward-compatible with older worlds.
• Added 10 basic emojis.

Fixes & Technical

• Fixed an issue that was preventing faction leaders from entering provinces.
• Fixed inability to interact with faction leader ships.
• Settling a province skill is not the same one as settling a town, fixing the bug allowing many towns to be placed using the province settlement quest.
• Fixed a bug causing +6 items to get horrible stats when leveling up to +7.
• Ripped out the old way of creating player data since it was causing all kinds of issues, and I was tired of trying to get them to work. This will cause older worlds to have odd issues, so it's not recommended to keep playing on those created before April 1st.
• Fixed an issue where combat indicators were listing incorrect sides, such as those involving faction leaders (they should never take sides).
• Explicitly specified ship types will spawn as exactly that ship type (fixed Basher's quest).
• Entering a world with mods now marks the player's profile as having been modded (if the player accepts). Profiles that have been marked as modded cannot be used in worlds that haven't been modded.
• Fixed the inconsistent behaviour of the fast-forward state.

Ahoy, Captains!

March Patch Highlights

Combat & Gameplay Changes

• Sticky tar from original Windward is now in WH, called "Sticky Grog chance", a newly added stat found on mortars (and in the future: certain upcoming ship).
• Attacking traders now presents an ever-increasing challenge with higher and higher stakes (up to 10 traders). As you defeat more traders, they will start bringing in allies.
• Attacking traders that aren't rivals of your current faction will incur an increased reputation loss.
• Fishing and diving no longer awards skill XP on use. Instead, a greater amount is awarded on completion. In case of fishing, higher tier catch awards more skill XP. In case of diving, the more loot you bring back, the more skill XP you'll earn.
• Players can now choose a set of faction buffs from a faction other than their own, provided they've unlocked it (which is generally done by joining said faction first). As an example, you can now choose to sail under the Exchange pennant, while keeping a Sojourn faction buff. The buff applied this way scales normally with your actual faction's rank.
• Added the ability to finance pirate raids by bribing pirates that try to ambush you. This lets you trigger a pirate raid at the province of your choice. Without players participating in its defense there is a good chance that the province will be plundered, its goods and prosperity wiped out, and its active governor deposed.
• Traders will now join ocean battles to fight against or alongside the player.
• Sight Buoy skill has been buffed. It now gives greater sight than before, and also offers the same buffs/debuffs as being near a dock to all ships near one of the buoys.
• Proximity mines are now correctly limited to 5 per player. Having the proximity mine skill now also prevents that ship from triggering nearby hostile mines.
• Improved targeting checks for manual aiming. Volley is now usable in more situations (such as targeting land or firing it over small hills).
• Mortar projectiles now have properly colored fires.
• Added a way to reach 50 talent points. They currently come from various sources.
• Items will now generate with a random amount of experience, between 0 and 75% needed to level up.
• NPCs will now drop random commodities, not just random items.
• There are now stats that can allow mortars to launch more than one projectile at a time.
• Skill XP is now saved on the player rather than items, meaning you won't need to re-level skill XP after upgrading items. Also means that skill XP is now shared across all your ships.

Economy & Trading

• Players can now designate one of the provinces they've established as their home province. Home province generates passive income based on tax, collected from all transactions that happen within it. Home provinces store up to 14 days worth of taxes, and the player has to visit it to collect the funds.
• Provincial influence pressure is now scaled by the number of provinces that the faction controls. The more that faction controls, the less overall pressure their provinces contribute.
• Province settling is now only possible near the province that gave the quest, or near another province of the same faction.
• Traders will now bring influence from the province they acquired the goods instead of their home province.
• Town supplies are now on a flexible timer (per town). You can't spam them anymore to grow towns/provinces. You can drop them off for 100% every 10 minutes (per town), scaling linearly based on the time since the last drop-off.

Governance & Faction Control

• Assigning a governor no longer instantly flips the province to that governor's faction. Instead it gives a significant boost to that governor's influence, allowing that governor to take control of the province easier (similar to winning a coup for that faction). Assigned governors also override the province's exerted pressure, changing it from the province's controlling faction to that of the governor's.
• Players can now install a governor of their choice at their home province. Governors installed this way can only be deposed via a successful coup or a pirate raid. You can only select governors that you have Rank 3 or higher reputation with.
• Coup quests are no longer offered unless the faction offering them has at least 50% pressure in that region.

UI & Quality of Life Improvements

• Added rudimentary controller support for ship movement. Will add rebind-able axes at a later date. Not a prio since it can be done via Steam.
• Items with reduced stats (such as high level items slotted by low level players) will now show their actual effective stats instead of their full stats. Holding Shift before opening up the tooltip will show their full stats.
• Added a visible fast forward time toggle to the world map right next to the Pause button.
• You can now use the gossip page in towns to search for a specific item skill or buff by its name, such as "death ward".
• Made Treasure Hunting a lot more lucrative, especially at higher skill tiers.
• Added two different indicators that become visible when sailing into the wind.
• Massive rework of various UI elements to make them more intuitive, informative, and overall better.
• Added extensive contextual tutorial windows that show up when something occurs and teach the player all the important basics. The tutorials are saved with full history and can be navigated and revisited at any point.
• All province and town names in quest descriptions are now clickable and ping the target.
• Ship's accuracy now affects sight range (past 100%), allowing sniper builds to have an even longer range than before.
• Removed the UI scaling feature on 1080p displays. Instead, player and town inventory windows will shrink in size if both are opened at the same time.
• When selling an item to town via CTRL+Click, the correct tab will be automatically opened, for convenience.
• Items in towns will now always be sorted by item type and quality.

Bug Fixes & Performance

• Fixed NPC traders not bringing their influence into regions.
• Fixed the issue where certain quests would block conversations from others (example: Sonya's quest blocking delivery quest turn-ins).
• Fixed traders not visibly selling their inventory and sailing back and forth.
• Fixed inability to join teams properly on ocean maps.
• Fixed ship item generation which was completely backwards: stronger tier ships were spawning with stronger tier items instead of weaker, leading to oddly strong opponents at times.
• Fixed the bug where your ships would duplicate and/or be lost to the void sometimes.
• Performance improvements that will be noticeable in prolonged combat instances.

New Beginner Player onboarding Experience!

Community Spotlight

On the Horizon

Ahoy, Captains! A new update has arrived, bringing expanded province mechanics, faction customization options, and various quality-of-life improvements. Read on for the full details!

Province & Governance Updates

• Players can now designate one of the provinces they've established as their home province. Home provinces generate passive income based on tax collected from all transactions within them. They store up to 14 days worth of taxes, which players must visit to collect.
• Players can now install a governor of their choice at their home province. Governors placed this way can only be deposed through a successful coup or a pirate raid. You can only select governors with whom you have Rank 3 or higher reputation.
• Added the ability to finance pirate raids by bribing pirates that attempt to ambush you. This allows players to trigger a pirate raid at a province of their choice. Without player intervention, the province could be plundered, losing goods, prosperity, and its active governor.

Faction & Economy Changes

• Players can now choose faction buffs from a faction other than their own, provided they have unlocked them (typically by joining that faction first). For example, you can now sail under the Exchange pennant while keeping a Sojourn faction buff. Buffs applied this way scale normally with your actual faction rank.
• Ships can now be sold anywhere and are no longer limited by a provinces available funds.
• Ships put into storage will now only value their items at 1/4th of their vendor price when selling the ship as a whole.

Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Improvements

• Properly fixed the missing "leave" button while dead in an instance.
• Losing a Team Deathmatch should no longer cause players to keep spawning in pirate-controlled towns.
• Fixed a town creation quest bug introduced in the last update.
• Sped up the enter town animation and made the button appear almost instantly.
• Fixed the inability to switch ships with active quests. Previously, this only applied to buying new ships but not swapping ships.
• Quest town markers will no longer appear at all if the province cannot be settled in that location.

Ahoy, Captains!

Steam Next Fest & Trailer

• We've sailed past 22,500 wishlists, up 7,000 in the past two weeks.
• Over 10,000 players claimed the demo
• Over 1,100 unique players connected to the demo server for online play.
• Over 1,200 daily active users over the past seven days.
• Steam reports an average of over 1,600 daily players during the event.

Demo Week Patch Highlights

Gameplay Improvements & Fixes

• Volley can now be aimed manually like mortars (right-click to disable auto-targeting) and always does full damage if it hits.
• Accuracy and range mechanics were reworked, making sniper-like Offense builds more viable and removing the 150-yard range cap.
• Summoned ally damage, healing, and kills now count towards their summoners stats.

UI & Quality of Life Updates

• New range and firing arc indicators for abilities and enemy ships.
• A UI scaling option was added for 1080p displays to fit more information on the screen.
• CTRL+Click on ships to auto-attack on sight, bypassing the conversation dialog.

World & Rewards Adjustments

• Diving spots generate floating loot periodically, similar to Windward 1.
• Mini-game rewards improved, and "dud" pickups now grant XP.
• Provinces now have visible control regions that exert influence on nearby areas, affecting reputation gains. Check with /pressure in chat to see the impact.

Community Spotlight

On the Horizon

This Monday, join your friends in exploring the world of Windward Horizon, a solo dev project and a sequel to fan-favorite Windward! The Demo will be live exclusively during Steam Next Fest!

Explore a Vast, Open World

Solo and Co-op are available from the get-go!

Your Ship, Your Rules!

Your Actions Shape the World

Play the Demo During Steam Next Fest!

It's almost time for another playtest! If you own the original Windward, you can try Windward Horizon's latest beta this Friday, July 5th at 10 AM EST! Join us to experience the multitude of changes since the May's playtest, including new storylines, rewards, an unlockable faction and ship, new larger procedurally generated worlds, and a many other changes added based on the players' feedback. You can find instructions on how to join the playtest here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/326410/view/4230650600729975641

Anyone that owns the original Windward game and doesn't mind running into a few bugs along the way can try the early preview build of Windward Horizon for free this Friday, May 17th, starting at 10 AM EST. To opt-in, follow these simple steps on Friday: 1. Right-click Windward in your game library, and go to Properties.
2. Under Betas tab there is a Beta Participation option. Simply choose the "horizon" branch to opt in.
3. Launch Windward like normal and have fun!* Note: this special branch will only become available once the event begins at 10 AM on May 17th, and although the game's release will feature Linux/OSX builds, this preview will only be available for Windows. The event will end on early morning of May 20th. Since this early build of the game doesn't have a tutorial, a handy new player guide can be found here. You are also welcome to stop by the Tasharen Community discord server to discuss your experience! See you there! -Aren P.S. I will be looking to expand my closed tester team after the event ends. At the very least, I'd like to add two people to it: a Linux gamer as well as an experienced modder. You can apply by messaging me directly in discord.