2025-06-05.0

- Added the "no scaling" option to the world options. You can now turn off world and NPCs scaling to your level. With this turned off, the world's challenge is going to be based on the distance from the starting location instead. - Added a configurable player boost value to the world settings, allowing you to change how strong players are compared to NPCs. - Added a configurable inherited XP value to world settings that controls the percentage of XP that can be inherited when buying a new ship. If set to 100%, your newly bought ships will have all your talent points available immediately. - Added a tutorial message to the world settings explaining how to edit existing world settings in the future. - Boosted the amount of Repair stat obtained from the Defensive talents. - Boosted the amount of Water Barrel Repair coming from the Support tree. - Reduced the soft cap on the Mortar Damage stat, bringing its damage down a bit from whats on public server right now, but still notably higher than what it was in 03.0. - Useful Debris is now only 1/3rd of its effectiveness unless Commanding Presence: Defense is talented. - Cheat Death's cheese mechanic (where it doesn't apply a debuff to yourself) is now tied to the 31-talent point Commanding Presence: Support. - Commanding Presence: Offense (31 talent point talent in Offense) now also increases all backstab damage dealt by 50%. - Fixed the lighthouse and tower building quests not showing markers on the local map if the town already had a structure. - Made Field Repairs faster. - It's no longer possible to swap ships while you have an active bounty quest. - Fix for controller navigation on the world options when some options are disabled. - Added controller-friendly tooltips to world options.

2025-06-03.0

- Improved Armor's contribution to Toughness and reduced the base hull regeneration. Player ships are now much more durable if their armor is high. - Made it so that small numbers (less than 1% of the ship's health) won't show up on the UI, reducing the numeric clutter. - Made Useful Debris a lot stronger to help tanks do damage: +5% all damage, accuracy, sight, stacking 30 times. - The updated Useful Debris is too strong to apply to NPCs, so NPCs can no longer benefit from it. - NPCs will now do half the damage with their Volleys, but will also have half the cooldown (same DPS, just less spike damage for players to deal with). - NPCs can no longer benefit from Cheat Death. - The marked mortar (red swirly mark one) now always targets the farthest person on the threat list rather than the closest if none of the targets have Taunt. - Bosses will no longer use fog on themselves. - Warden's Protection has been reduced to 10% per stack to match other buffs. - Improved the effectiveness of Bloodthirst heals 3-fold. - The amount of damage toughness absorbs is now scaled by the ship's base hull, and penetration is scaled with the ship's mortar strength. - Grog now burns observers away. - It's no longer possible to hover over units in fog and see their target outline. - Fixed mortar projectile not applying AOE damage properly on a miss. - If a unit has the taunt skill, enemies will now tend to stay closer to that unit. Same if the unit is chained. - If the target is chain shotted, it will now tend to come to a complete stop, unless burning. - Taunt's duration changed to 8 seconds (from 5), and it will now also make enemies stop moving if they are close enough (while taunt is active). - Top deck + buff haste now correctly applies to cannons. - Crew skills now correctly visualize their 3 star tier. - The status bar text will now fade out while the game is paused. - Asking for a commodity by name will now prioritize answering where it's found over querying provinces that match that name. - Made the world config screen show up for worlds hosted with the "open" option as well. - Fixed inability to rebind certain buttons to D-Pad buttons on the controller. - Noticeably reduced the amount of XP needed to level artifact item stats. - Items that level to +7 will now get their stats capped first, and then scaled down (if needed), rather than the other way around. This way if one stat exceeds the limit, others won't be penalized. - Added a steering type option (relative to cam or relative to ship) for controllers. - Reduced the effectiveness of base hull regeneration now that toughness has been bumped up significantly. - New town quest will no longer be given if there are no actual valid town locations, and visible markers for invalidated spots due to land excavation will no longer show up. - Item stats will now be capped first before they get validated, so that items that level up and have stats exceed maximum will no longer bring other stats down. - Tweaked the logic of how Cheat Death is applied and used, making it play better when multiple sources of it are found on the player. - Made it so that small numbers (less than 1% of the ship's health) won't show up on the UI, reducing the numeric clutter. - Increased the cap on Mortar Damage. It's no longer hard capped at +300%, which was reachable very easily.

2025-06-01.0

- Death Ward and Cheat Death can now only save other player's lives once per 20 sec (reset by using cleansing blast or walk it off). - Added the level indicator to unit nameplates. - Players will no longer be concussed by non-bosses. - Boss tier mobs are no longer affected by concussion. - AI will now prioritize building extractor workshops for commodities more. - Fixed the inability to join the attacking side in coups. - Made it more obvious when the game is paused. - Engaging in a conversation in singleplayer will now automatically pause the game as well. - Team Survival quests now go to 4-skull as well. - Editing existing world's options now loads the previously set values rather than resetting everything to default every time. - Explored but unclaimed regions will now count as temporary and will no longer persist. - Instance and hunt quests will now always generate on temporary region spots. - Achievement associated with Death Ward will now also trigger on the buff applied by Cheat Death. - Made most First Mate skills stack to 3-4, adding more variety to what can be done with them. - Added a new First Mate skill that applies physical and fire resistance to water barrel heals. - Bloodthirst now has a new additional effect: just like damaging enemies heals you, healing allies now will now also heal you. - Acquired item popup now fades away properly while the game is paused. - Reduced item leveling XP threshold to 75 XP (from 100 XP), and reduced XP items need to improve stats at artifact tier by 25%. - Reduced the XP reduction for defeating enemies weaker than you by half. - Luck modifier was applied to XP rewards twice instead of once. Now it only applies once.

2025-05-31.0

- Added extra ramming colliders to both Xebec and SotL. - Added the /rename command to allow renaming of your player file while in single player. Simply /rename - Increased the allowed limit of guard towers and lighthouses, making it tied to the region's level instead of just the number of towns. - If you happen to sail out of the region while in combat, you now have 10 seconds to turn around before you get zoned out. - You can now fire volleys and mortars into the fog without the skill failing (manual targeting only). - Fixed the item level-up code. You may notice your items will change stats a bit upon logging in as the negative stats get upgraded. - All artifacts can now slowly gain experience, improving their stats until they reach maximum possible, not just leveled up non-artifact items. - Prio self on water barrel will now always use it on yourself, never on others, since that's what you guys want. Shaking my head over here! - Asking for a faction leader by their name in the gossip tab will now always show the closest province where they can be interacted with. - Added the player limit setting to world options. You can revisit singleplayer world options by holding Shift (or left bumper) when clicking Continue. - Added a piracy chance slider to the world configuration. You can revisit singleplayer world options by holding Shift (or left bumper) when clicking Continue. - Fixed erroneous attempts to set the server data that were causing players to disconnect at times. - Fixed the artifact level-up logic where the base stats slowly creep up towards absolute possible maximum. - Setting /uisize is now limited between 720 and 2048 for sanity purposes. - Buying and selling stuff no longer changes the province's influence.

[ 2025-06-05 13:04:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Windward Horizon set sail into Release on May 22, and ive wasted no time responding to feedback, fixing bugs, and polishing core systems. Whether youve been diving, questing, customizing your fleet, or playing with friends, youve likely already seen some of the changes live.

Heres a full breakdown of every patch shipped during May:

May 16 Version 2025-05.16.1

• Quest monetary rewards (and the associated value of quest reward items) is now scaled by the player's power rating, resulting in much higher value rewards at higher levels.
• Added an indicator showing the expected combat power rating.
• Combat power rating now includes the reduced item level based on highest combat stats.
• Fixed P2P (multiplayer via Steam) not working unless the player went on a public server first.
• Made Escape open up the menu.
• Fix for importing docked ships resetting player gold (demo).
• Fishing no longer generates items if the window is closed and re-opened without catching the fish.
• Fixed a bug related to stored ships causing crowns to reset to 0.
• Several other minor fixes.

May 17 Pre-Launch Balance and Improvements

• Ships in provinces that differ too much from the player's current power rating will now be automatically despawned to offer a more appropriate challenge.
• Starter quests will no longer generate quality 0 items. Instead, anything with a quality of 0 will be replaced with dye, sail pattern, or town supplies.
• Reduced the number of guaranteed new province quests. They now require security of 75% or higher, and 2 guaranteed ones are only if the province is size 10 or higher.
• Capped security at 95% in regions below size 5.
• New player province choices will now be based on the highest security rather than influence of that faction so that new players begin in safe regions.
• El Mitrini's quest can now be failed, since it can just be picked up again.
• Reduced the price of the Sloop of War by 20%.

May 18 Version 2025-05-18.1

• Added screen resolution and anti-aliasing options to the menu.
• Province settling quests are now limited by the player's reputation with that faction. The higher the player's reputation, the more regions they can settle.
• Demo is now correctly capped at +3 as the item quality from drops. This can be raised to +4 by gaining XP.
• Fixed left/right trigger icons being backwards.
• Added a star to the primary stat, given the chosen talents as a hint to the player.
• Marked mortars (swirly red things on the water) now bypass one-shot protection.
• Fixed slightly incorrect pricing when buying/selling ships.

May 22 Version 2025-05-22.6

• Fixed docked ships becoming invisible after logging out, with a chance of losing them later if relogged.
• Added a warning about Steam Cloud being disabled. Game needs it on to save properly.
• Fixed the steam migration not happening if you join by clicking on a friend instead of via the server select/singleplayer.
• Made the settle new province quest reveal all valid resources near you on the world map as you explore, not just those near the source province. Still only allows settling near a province of that faction though.
• If a player gets into combat while missing pieces of gear (such as after taking it off to move it to another ship), default gear will be instantly installed.
• Fixed selling ships not actually granting the sale value.
• Added more info to the loading screen to help track down where it gets stuck where some people try to connect. If you get stuck on the loading screen connecting, please submit what you see in the bug reports channel.

May 23 Version 2025-05-23.4

• Changed priority of non-essential sounds to remove them from audio queue. This should help audio work properly in high-pop instances.
• Fixed the Bilander quest not consuming gathered items.
• Added clarification to the starter dialog that the initial choice is for the starting location, not player faction.
• Possible fix for NPCs getting stuck on the world map.
• Galleon quest is no longer shared with others upon entering the province.
• Lani's lockbox fishing quest drop chance now goes up by 10% every time you fish/dive to help players find it faster.
• Players now start as Free Navy rather than Independent, so the FN faction rep buff will be applied properly.
• Starter regions now have base security of 80% instead of 0%, making them a lot more chill.
• Decreased pirate incursion chance by 75%, making all regions safer.
• Increased the number of towns players can settle (towns, not provinces!)
• Starter regions in new worlds will now be large size rather than medium, giving you more space.
• Back-end network packet reduction for ships traveling the world and their pathfinding.
• Lani's quest now gives both fishing and diving skills for those doing it.
• Several story conversations will now automatically trigger follow-ups with the correct NPC without you having to seek them out first.
• Salvage recovery free ship reward no longer requires you to have an empty quest log.

May 24 Version 2025-05-24.0

• The game will now automatically pause when you open inventory, town UI or world map in single player.
• Added a /limit # command that will limit the number of people able to enter your instances. Default limit is now 16, value 2 to 32.
• Added a /uisize # command, where # is a value you want your UI height to be. For example 1080 will force it to 1080p regardless of resolution. '0' to reset.
• Fixed 4-skull kings not spawning in higher tier ships, and instead matching your own.
• Fixed connecting to friend's game via P2P not working until you opened the server list, agreeing to the disclaimer.
• Added a ship sale confirmation dialog to prevent players from accidentally selling ships.
• Combat instance icons will no longer show on the world map if they can't be entered anymore (due to limit being reached).
• Added player count/max indicator to the combat instance tooltips.
• Increased quest reward monetary value for mid to high level players, making quests more lucrative.
• Grog effect particles now get automatically reduced when there are a lot of players to help improve performance.

May 25 Version 2025-05-25.0

• Cannon projectiles will now harmlessly pass through allies. This should help in crowded instances.
• Added a context menu option to Volley, Mortar, Rampage and Grog skills to always show their radius/firing arc.
• The game will no longer pause on the world map if your ship has a destination set.
• Ship customization screen needs the game to be unpaused for the preview to function properly, so the game will not be pausing while the your customization window is open.
• FPS counter is no longer affected by paused time.
• Fixed UI scaling not persisting after switching regions.
• Whether the game will pause while in the inventory/town screen is now an option in the menu.
• Setting /limit now works while already inside an instance.
• Auto-shrinking windows on 1080p screens now work while the game is paused.
• Made the game show a warning about steam cloud not being enabled.
• Fixed one of Alvana's paths allowing you to skip a step.
• Instance bosses will now always drop loot for players, even if the player is dead or far away.
• Commodities dropped by ships will now always be something that the closest province wants.
• Variety of network back-end tweaks.
• Fixed explosion AOE damage not applying adequate damage.
• Water barrel can now also be right-clicked to show its range.
• Added new defensive type captains and mates.
• Improved the Bilander's layout.
• Fixed the power rating indicator's value and associated power calculations/logic.
• Fixed one path where Alvana's story could get stuck, unable to progress.
• Increased the chance of 3 and 4-skull challenge quests.

May 26 Version 2025-05-26.0

• Fixed a bug that was saving players that join others via Steam's friends list under the wrong name (Guest), making it seem like the progress was not being saved. The game will rename the file for you automatically if it can.
• Fixed the Galleon. Its mortar multiplier and cooldown was incorrect. It was erroneously set to 400% haste while doing 100% damage. It's now correctly set to double haste, half damage, which brings it in line with other ships in the game, rather than an overpowered god with magical unicorn powers.
• Turned off HP and damage scaling of ships outside of instances. This was causing power balance to be completely out of whack in some regions on the server.
• Once a player pings the map, the ping audio from that player will now be muted for 10 seconds, and the name of the player will appear in chat.
• You can no longer swap ships while you have an active bounty quest.
• Ships can no longer sell for more than the amount you've paid for them in the first place.
• Added an in-game way of adding friends via /friends . Both players have to add each other to friends before they get the perks: see each other's sight on the world map, see each other's private instances, and a unique color on the minimap to help them stand out.
• Added a /help command to chat listing available commands and what they do.
• Added /limit and /scaling info to chat upon entering an instance in multiplayer.
• Fixed the "primary stat" indicator not marking the stats properly when the player multi-classed and had more than one primary stat as the result.
• Pirates spawned to attack the player (for quests and such) will now always be of the spec that's vulnerable to the player's current spec to make it more fun.
• The chance for pirate attacks will now fall off more rapidly as the province's security goes up.
• Removed code that was making pirates stronger as the player's item level was going up.
• Fixed the combat power indicator being stuck around 1630.

That wraps up a busy and productive first week of Launch. Thank you to all captains sailing the open seas, and keep that feedback coming more is on the horizon. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-05-31 13:52:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoy, Captains! Here are a few more days of patch notes that wrap up the launch week's progress with many changes based on your feedback! Some of the notable changes include the addition of challenge setting to world creation, allowing you to switch to a challenge scaling more suitable for solo gameplay, a change to cannons so that they harmlessly pass through allies, an in-game friend system for party-style adventures, and much more. In the coming weeks I will continue making changes based on your feedback, focusing on server stability, bug fixes, accessibility and quality of life features.

2025-05-30.0

- Added the world creation options dialog. Currently only two options to start with: world size and difficulty (challenge). - Quests accepted upon entering instances will no longer contribute towards bonus quests of influence gain in the nearby province. - Fixed a case of when an item level-up was borking certain item stats when the player was in full artifact gear. - Added a visible timer to the UI when a conversation with an individual is possible, but is waiting on a timer to expire. - More changes to networking back-end. - World map target ping will now work while the game is paused. - Water barrel's HoT effect should no longer get applied to enemies again. - Added two missing buttons to the Virtual Keyboard.

2025-05-28.0

- Added a "prio self" option to the water barrel for those using auto-targeting with it (but why would you!) - Fixed a case of where the server can get locked up after a player disconnects. - Changed many instances of time polling to be unaffected by game pause state, which should address some oddities, like two music tracks playing at once at times. - Added 'listen ' and 'close' commands to the stand-alone server. The 'close' option stops listening for incoming connections and removes the server from the public list, but doesn't shut it down. - Tweaked who controls traders on the world map to reduce the number of packets. - Added a way to explode yourself so you can respawn, in cases you get stuck (type /die in chat) - SotL now has the ramming damage multiplier of 1.5 (was 1.0). - SotL now is now slightly faster. - Heal-over-time effect of specializing in Support is now 25% (was 10%). - Failing Rowdy's quest after certain conversation choices will no longer block progression. - Grog's periodic damage was not correct, both in tooltips and on the actual applied buff. - Grog's damage over time effect can no longer inflict backstab type damage. - Water barrel's healing amount was not visualized correctly, and its heal-over-time effect was only healing half the intended amount. I reduced its HoT's duration down to 4 (from 8), keeping the healed amount the same. - Added a /get command that you can use to check your profile states, such as story flags. For example "/get romSonya" would check her romance status.

2025-05-26.0

- Fixed a bug that was saving players that join others via Steam's friends list under the wrong name (Guest), making it seem like the progress was not being saved. The game will rename the file for you automatically if it can. - Fixed the Galleon. Its mortar multiplier and cooldown was incorrect. It was erroneously set to 400% haste while doing 100% damage. It's now correctly set to double haste, half damage, which brings it in line with other ships in the game, rather than an overpowered god with magical unicorn powers. - Turned off HP and damage scaling of ships outside of instances. This was causing power balance to be completely out of whack in some regions on the server. - Once a player pings the map, the ping audio from that player will now be muted for 10 seconds, and the name of the player will appear in chat. - You can no longer swap ships while you have an active bounty quest. - Ships can no longer sell for more than the amount you've paid for them in the first place. - Added an in-game way of adding friends via /friends . Both players have to add each other to friends before they get the perks: see each other's sight on the world map, see each other's private instances, and a unique color on the minimap to help them stand out. - Added a /help command to chat listing available commands and what they do. - Added /limit and /scaling info to chat upon entering an instance in multiplayer. - Fixed the "primary stat" indicator not marking the stats properly when the player multi-classed and had more than one primary stat as the result. - Pirates spawned to attack the player (for quests and such) will now always be of the spec that's vulnerable to the player's current spec to make it more fun. - The chance for pirate attacks will now fall off more rapidly as the province's security goes up. - Removed code that was making pirates stronger as the player's item level was going up. - Fixed the combat power indicator being stuck around 1630.

2025-05-25.0

- Cannon projectiles will now harmlessly pass through allies. This should help in crowded instances. - Added a context menu option to Volley, Mortar, Rampage and Grog skills to always show their radius/firing arc. - The game will no longer pause on the world map if your ship has a destination set. - Ship customization screen needs the game to be unpaused for the preview to function properly, so the game will not be pausing while the your customization window is open. - FPS counter is no longer affected by paused time. - Fixed UI scaling not persisting after switching regions. - Whether the game will pause while in the inventory/town screen is now an option in the menu. - Setting /limit now works while already inside an instance. - Auto-shrinking windows on 1080p screens now work while the game is paused. - Made the game show a warning about steam cloud not being enabled. - Fixed one of Alvana's paths allowing you to skip a step. - Instance bosses will now always drop loot for players, even if the player is dead or far away. - Commodities dropped by ships will now always be something that the closest province wants. - Variety of network back-end tweaks. - Fixed explosion AOE damage not applying adequate damage. - Water barrel can now also be right-clicked to show its range. - Added new defensive type captains and mates. - Improved the Bilander's layout. - Fixed the power rating indicator's value and associated power calculations/logic. - Fixed one path where Alvana's story could get stuck, unable to progress. - Increased the chance of 3 and 4-skull challenge quests. -Aren

[ 2025-05-30 06:50:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Composed by Finn MK, it is available on all major music platforms. Featuring 20 tracks, including bonus exclusive ones! Take the Windward journey with you everywhere you go! [previewyoutube=2n386ceMBLs;full][/previewyoutube] [hr][/hr]

Reminder I'm running a Gleam Giveaway

To celebrate this milestone, I'm giving away 5 Steam game keys. Winners will be chosen after June 5th.
[hr][/hr] Build your ship, expand the economy, fend off pirates, and enjoy a 10% discount until May 29. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-05-27 12:07:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

The game has launched, and many of you have questions youre eager to ask! Captain Aren sets sail for a Reddit AMA tomorrow, and you dont want to miss it! Join us there! Where: Reddit's r/pcgaming When: 27 May 2025 | 11 AM EST / 8 AM PDT See you there tomorrow! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon

[ 2025-05-26 18:49:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

As you might know, Windward Horizon is out now, and we're celebrating with a Giveaway! To mark the launch of Windward Horizon, we're giving away 5 game keys! All you need to do is enter the giveaway before June 5 for a chance to win. Enter here: https://Windward.short.gy/WinHgiveaway Good luck, captains!

[ 2025-05-25 15:41:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hella hectic two days. I've been online answering questions from those that were playing on the public server, dowsing fires wherever I could, fixing bugs and issues players have ran into... one thing I haven't been really doing is sleeping properly. But who needs that, right? Here are the patch notes from the last 48 hours:

2025-05-24

- The game will now automatically pause when you open your inventory, town UI or world map in single player. - Added a /limit # command that will limit the number of people able to enter your instances. Default limit is now 16, value 2 to 32. - Added a ship sale confirmation dialog to prevent players from accidentally selling ships. - Combat instance icons will no longer show on the world map if they can't be entered anymore (due to limit being reached). - Added player count/max indicator to the combat instance tooltips. - Increased quest reward monetary value for mid to high level players, making quests more lucrative. - Grog effect particles now get automatically reduced when there are a lot of players to help improve performance. - Added a /uisize # command, where # is a value you want your UI height to be. For example 1080 will force it to 1080p regardless of resolution. '0' to reset. - Fixed 4-skull kings not spawning in higher tier ships, and instead matching your own. - Fixed connecting to friend's game via P2P not working until you opened the server list, agreeing to the disclaimer.

2025-05-23

- Players now start as Free Navy rather than Independent, so the FN faction rep buff will be applied properly. - Starter regions now have base security of 80% instead of 0%, making them a lot more chill. - Decreased pirate incursion chance by 75%, making all regions safer. - Changed priority of non-essential sounds to remove them from audio queue. This should help audio work properly in high-pop instances. - Fixed the Bilander quest not consuming gathered items. - Added clarification to the starter dialog that the initial choice is for the starting location, not player faction. - Possible fix for NPCs getting stuck on the world map. - Galleon quest is no longer shared with others upon entering the province. - Lani's lockbox fishing quest drop chance now goes up by 10% every time you fish/dive to help players find it faster. - Increased the number of towns players can settle (towns, not provinces!) - Starter regions in new worlds will now be large size rather than medium, giving you more space. - Back-end network packet reduction for ships traveling the world and their pathfinding. - Lani's quest now gives both fishing and diving skills for those doing it. - Several story conversations will now automatically trigger follow-ups with the correct NPC without you having to seek them out first. - Salvage recovery free ship reward no longer requires you to have an empty quest log.

2025-05-22

- Fixed docked ships becoming invisible after logging out, with a chance of losing them later if relogged. - Added a warning about Steam Cloud being disabled. Game needs it on to save properly. - Fixed the steam migration not happening if you join by clicking on a friend instead of via the server select/singleplayer. - Made the settle new province quest reveal all valid resources near you on the world map as you explore, not just those near the source province. Still only allows settling near a province of that faction though. - If a player gets into combat while missing pieces of gear (such as after taking it off to move it to another ship), default gear will be instantly installed. - Fixed selling ships not actually granting the sale value. - Added more info to the loading screen to help track down where it gets stuck where some people try to connect. If you get stuck on the loading screen connecting, please submit what you see in the bug reports channel.

[ 2025-05-24 19:27:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

The long-awaited sequel to Windward has just been released! [previewyoutube=jNiiXrY0Flo;full][/previewyoutube] A big heartfelt thank you to all the backers, chatters, playtesters, and feedback you've provided thus far. You can now grab Windward Horizon with a limited-time release discount.

Buy now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/ [hr][/hr] If you played the Demo, here's what gets carried over to the full version:

• Your ship, docked ships, and vault all carry over in full,
• Your reputation carries over if you've earned at least 1000 rep in any faction,
• Carried-over reputation is capped at 2500,
• No story, unlocks, or achievements carry over. You can choose different options this time if you like.

The demo remains live, so it's easier to bring your friends over and sail together! The Horizon is waiting for you, Captain! See you in the game!

[ 2025-05-22 14:16:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Great tidings ahead! 10 years after the original Windward, its sequel -- Windward Horizon -- is nearly here!
https://youtu.be/jNiiXrY0Flo The demo will stay live on Steam so that you can share with your friends and get a taste of the full Windward Horizon experience with:

• Full Multiplayer access
• Access to all Captain Skills
• No time limit
• 3/10 ships, 13/50 talent point cap, 100k crowns limit
• Beginner set of stories
• Progress carries over to the full game

Play the Demo for free NOW! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-05-21 17:05:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Set sail. Customize your ship. Explore a living, procedural world.

[previewyoutube=i5LC8UBUyuM;full][/previewyoutube] Get a taste of the full Windward Horizon experience with:

• Full Multiplayer access.
• Full world map.
• Access to all Captain Skills.
• Full controller support
• 3 ships, 12 talent point cap, 100k crowns limit.
• Progress will carry over to the full game.

Explore, trade, fish, fight, and quest solo or with friends! Play the Demo for free NOW! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-05-15 15:02:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Set sail. Customize your ship. Explore a living, procedural world.

[previewyoutube=i5LC8UBUyuM;full][/previewyoutube] Get a taste of the full Windward Horizon experience with:

• Full Multiplayer access.
• Full world map.
• Access to all Captain Skills.
• Full controller support
• 3 ships, 12 talent point cap, 100k crowns limit.
• Progress will carry over to the full game.

Explore, trade, fish, fight, quest by yourself or with friends! Play the Demo for free when it launches, May 15. Wishlist now and be ready to raise the anchor. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-05-09 17:20:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm happy to share a big update with you all:

Windward Horizon is now completely free of AI-generated content.

In the early stages of development, I used AI-generated portraits as temporary stand-ins to help speed things along. They were never meant to be permanent, but they gave me something to work with while focusing on building the rest of the game. Thanks to your feedback and honest conversations, I made the call to fully remove all AI-generated artwork from the game. Every character portrait has now been replaced with hand-painted illustrations, created by a professional artist I personally commissioned for the project. Daniel Rivaldi, before and after:

El Mitrini before and after:

Rafael before and after:

Rowdy before and after:

This new artwork gives Windward Horizon a much stronger identity and feels more in line with the world Ive been building. Thank you to everyone who spoke up and shared their thoughts. Your feedback continues to help me shape the game into something better. I appreciate the support more than I can say. Look forward to what I have planned on the Horizon (hehe). See you on the seas, Aren https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-04-29 01:09:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey captains!

I've got a hefty set of updates from the first half of April, bringing sweeping improvements to controller support, meaningful AI behaviors, better NPC scaling, and some nice quality-of-life changes across the board. Whether you're diving for treasure or defending your faction's provinces, these changes aim to enhance your experience and push the game toward even more polish and replayability. Heres everything thats changed over the past two weeks:

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.

Thats it for the first half of April! Thanks, as always, for your support and feedback. The community shapes every fix, tweak, and new feature. Keep sharing your experiences, suggestions, and screenshots with us, and well keep sailing forward. More exciting changes are on the horizon. See you on the seas, Aren https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-04-15 11:34:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoy, Captains!

March was packed with improvements, bug fixes, and new features to enhance your naval adventures. Below is a full breakdown of all the changes, organized by category. Lets dive into whats been happening!

March Patch Highlights

Throughout the month, I've been refining the game with community-driven improvements and fixes. Heres a breakdown of the biggest updates:

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!

I've been re-doing the tutorials to have better conveyance of the game's mechanics and overall make it easier for players to digest the knowledge from them. Below are a few examples:

Community Spotlight

A huge shoutout to the players who have gone above and beyond in helping others and keeping the community engaged! This month, we want to recognize: Sapholin (Sir Pencil), Edwyndham, and Captain Jack for their constant support in Steam and Discord discussions and answering community questions. LimDood for sharing detailed mini-guides that help new captains navigate the games mechanics. Your contributions make the Windward Horizon community a better place, and I appreciate everything you do!

On the Horizon

As we move forward, the plan is to continue and fine-tune gameplay, replace the AI portraits, and build towards 1.0 Release. If you have feedback or suggestions, be sure to join the discussions on Steam or our Discord server! Thank you for sailing with us! More updates are coming soon, and please wishlist the game if you haven't, as it helps a lot! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-04-01 18:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

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.

[ 2025-03-19 16:09:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ahoy, Captains!

February was an exciting month for Windward Horizon, with Steam Next Fest, new patch updates, and an amazing community stepping up to help fellow sailors. Lets dive into whats been happening!

Steam Next Fest & Trailer

Windward Horizon made waves during Steam Next Fest, bringing in thousands of new captains eager to set sail. Some key highlights from the event:

• 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.

A huge thank you to everyone who played, shared feedback, and contributed to discussions! If you missed it, here are a few screenshots from one of the battles we fought during the demo:
[url=https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44983012/5dadaa8ef11f25c5a41ac366cf9d94d8b3322fed.jpg]

Demo Week Patch Highlights

Throughout the month, I've been refining the game with community-driven improvements and fixes. Heres a breakdown of the biggest updates:

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

A huge shoutout to the players who have gone above and beyond in helping others and keeping the community engaged! This month, we want to recognize: Sapholin (Sir Pencil), Edwyndham, and Captain Jack for their constant support in Steam and Discord discussions and answering community questions. LimDood for sharing detailed mini-guides that help new captains navigate the games mechanics. Your contributions make the Windward Horizon community a better place, and I appreciate everything you do!

On the Horizon

As we move forward, the plan is to continue and fine-tune gameplay, add more content (like player factions!), and build towards 1.0 Release. If you have feedback or suggestions, be sure to join the discussions on Steam or our Discord server! Thank you for sailing with us! More updates coming soon, and please wishlist the game if you haven't as it helps a lot! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/

[ 2025-03-04 19:53:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

Youll begin as a young, unaffiliated captain in a vast procedurally generated world, where no two adventures will be the same, and you're free to do whatever your heart desires! Trade, quest, fish, fight, or simply sail, theres no wrong way to play. [previewyoutube=i5LC8UBUyuM;full]https://youtu.be/i5LC8UBUyuM?si=lpEBTAXMi-xWlQpp[/previewyoutube]

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

Navigating uncharted waters is almost always better with a friend by your side! Explore the map, trade in the provinces, heal your allies in battles (or when they accidentally ram their ship into the shore), fight off dreaded pirates, or split up and chart your courses.

Your Ship, Your Rules!

As you gain experience, unlock talents across Defense, Offense, or Support trees, or mix and match to create a perfect ship for your unique playstyle. Speaking about 'Perfect Ships', the Demo will feature three ships, each of them fully customizable. From the crew to the sail colors. Find or purchase new options as you travel the world to truly make the ship your own.

Your Actions Shape the World

Supplying resources to towns can help them grow, and backing faction leaders can change the balance of power. Want to capture a province without firing a shot? Use diplomacy and trade to turn the tide.

Play the Demo During Steam Next Fest!

The free demo will be live only during the Steam Next Fest week of February 24th, so don't miss out! Wishlist now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2665460/Windward_Horizon/ - Aren

[ 2025-02-21 18:35:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

[ 2024-07-01 16:45:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

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.

[ 2024-05-13 20:38:14 CET ] [ Original post ]