Captain's Log - May 2025 Recap & Post-Launch Blues

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

Here’s 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 <name>. 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/