Our second major Early Access Update for Seafarer: The Ship Sim has officially set sail on the default branch. Thank you to everyone who has already tried out the new features during the Open Beta and left feedback! 🫶
The Rescue Update expands the world of Seafarer with search and rescue gameplay and adds two dedicated rescue vessels to your fleet for this purpose.
Before we dive in, check out our release trailer:
With this update, the Tide Guard – Seafarer’s coastguard faction – expands with search and rescue gameplay. Distress calls can come in at any moment, tasking you with locating shipwrecked survivors, assisting people overboard, and transporting them safely back to port.
To aid with search and rescue missions, the Rescue Update adds two dedicated rescue vessels. Salvation serves as the primary search and rescue vessel of the Tide Guard. As one of the most modern and capable coastguard ships in the world of Seafarer, she is built for coordinated emergency response.
Salvation is prepped for the rescue, especially with her daughter boat Grace on board.
Working alongside Salvation is her daughter boat, Grace – a fast and highly maneuverable rescue craft designed to safely approach people in the water. Whether navigating debris fields or reaching survivors in rough conditions, she allows you to get closer, faster – and with greater precision.
Grace is equipped with a rescue net to recover individuals who have fallen into the water.
Search and rescue missions are a core responsibility of the coastguard. And when a distress call comes in, every second matters. Head to the scene of the accident, locate survivors in the water, and act quickly before the sea claims its victims.
Use lifebuoys to stabilize people in the water, or deploy Grace’s rescue net to recover shipwrecked survivors safely and efficiently.
Out there, hesitation can mean the difference between rescue and tragedy – so be ready to respond fast.
The Rescue Update expands Seafarer with additional mission types and a broader range of dynamic events at sea. You may be tasked with transporting fragile or unusual cargo between ports.
Rescue situations can now occur dynamically during your voyages. While navigating the open waters, you might suddenly come across shipwrecked survivors in need of immediate assistance. Every vessel is equipped with lifebuoys, ensuring you’re always prepared to respond when the unexpected happens.
This update introduces the first iteration of our vessel editor, giving you more control over your fleet’s identity. Rename your vessels, add predefined logos, and adjust colors for most ships to create a look that truly represents your company on the water.
Windshield wipers, previously introduced on select vessels, are now also available on Nordic Duchess, Big Trip, and Bulk Willy.
In addition, bow thruster mechanics have been added to Lancer, Nordic Duchess, Big Trip, and Willy, enhancing precision during docking, harbor maneuvers, and other low-speed operations where control matters most.
Alongside the new gameplay features, this update includes numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, balance adjustments, and quality-of-life improvements to further refine the Seafarer experience.
You’ll find the full list of changes in the patch notes below.
Rescue Gameplay
Vessel Editor
Name
Logo
Color
Fleet Update
Player Ship: Grace
Player Ship: Salvation
New Missions
Rescue
Practice course: Rescue
Undercover
Pilot service
Event mission: Rescue shipwrecked
Event mission: Delivery
Thrusters
for ships Lancer, Nordic Duchess, BigTrip, Willy
Note: only functionality / visuals will be done at a later stage
Wipers
for ships Nordic Duchess, BigTrip, Willy
Fixes and improvements
Bug Fixes & Stability
Improved scanning of castaways (addressed beta feedback)
Improved physics for Archer and Rigid
Fixed multiple crashes and softlocks, including issues in menus and interaction states
Resolved cases where players could get stuck in UI screens
Fixed problems with input handling and key bindings being incorrectly marked as invalid
Corrected several character and object interaction issues
Addressed various spawn, loading, and state transition bugs
Gameplay & Systems
Improvements to crew assignment and behavior
Adjustments and fixes to ship and vehicle systems
Resolved issues with key mapping
Fixed problems with water, terrain, and environmental visuals
More stable system behavior during interactions and menu changes in the fleet menu
Improved various sound effects accross the game
Visual improvements
Improved menu navigation and responsiveness
Fixed display issues in multiple in-game menus
More consistent behavior for hotkeys and shortcuts
Various localization fixes in across all given languages
Reworked Salavation and Grace appearance
Technical Improvements
The game now looks significantly better when using Medium graphics settings. We’ve improved visual quality while maintaining performance balance.
Internal system clean-ups to help prevent future issues
Performance Optimization
Memory & VRAM Optimization
Significantly reduced VRAM usage
This results in noticeably lower memory pressure and improved frame rates.
Reduced texture sizes where possible
General texture and material optimizations (including landscape materials – ongoing improvements)
→ Lower overall RAM and VRAM requirements
→ Improved performance on GPUs with 8 GB VRAM or less
→ Better scalability on mid-range hardware
New single-sample anti-tiling for ship surfaces
→ Improved visual quality
→ Minimal performance cost compared to traditional anti-tiling methods
Rendering & GPU Performance
Optimized shadow updates
Sun and moon movement is now quantized, reducing unnecessary shadow recalculations.
→ More stable GPU performance and reduced shadow rebuild cost.
Crane render targets now created only when needed
→ Lower VRAM spikes
→ Reduced rendering overhead
Optimized wind physics in particle effects
→ Lower CPU/GPU cost in VFX-heavy scenes
Smarter splash effect activation
Based on camera angle, distance and movement
→ Reduced unnecessary particle simulation
Chimney smoke optimization
Multiple smoke emitters now reuse simulation data where possible
→ Significantly lower simulation and rendering cost
Removed unnecessary splash occluder meshes
→ Lower Custom Depth cost
→ Improved highlight/outline stability
→ Slight performance gain
Animation & NPC Improvements
General NPC animation performance improvements
→ Lower CPU animation cost and more stable performance
Rescue NPC mesh optimization (Master Pose setup)
Attached meshes now inherit animation from a single rig
→ Reduced animation overhead
Platform-Specific Improvements
Fixed AMD-related issues during firefighting and thunderstorm scenarios
→ Improved stability and performance on AMD hardware
Asset & Scene Optimization
Optimized Chemical Plant areas
Ongoing optimization of NPVs
Major foliage optimization:
Reduced polygon counts
Reduced material complexity
Disabled shadows for small foliage
Known Issues
Vessels (player ships and NPVs) generate splashing wave effects when they are re-centered on screen after being offscreen.
The rescue area displayed on the minimap does not accurately reflect the slightly larger actual rescue area size.
In rare cases, rescued castaways may become stuck in their animation states.
The warning vests of some castaways are currently clipping through their regular clothing.
It is currently not possible to complete certain "Inspection" missions that need to inspect "Fire Hose Boxes"
In case you missed it, we just had a release livestream for Early Access Update #2, the Rescue Update, hosted by GametechUK. Check it out!
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We’re excited to see your rescue operations in action and hear your thoughts as we continue shaping Seafarer throughout Early Access. In the following weeks, we will reveal more of our plans for the near future, stay tuned!
Thank you once again for being part of our voyage.
See you on the horizon,
Your Seafarer Team 🚣