We’re back with our second major Early Access Update – and you can jump in right now to test it!
The Rescue Update introduces search and rescue gameplay, two dedicated rescue vessels, and a range of new missions, events, and improvements. From pulling castaways out of the water to customizing your vessel’s appearance, this update expands life at sea in meaningful new ways.
The update is now available for testing on the public_beta branch. If everything goes smoothly, the full release on the default branch is planned for February 19.
Before we dive into the details, enjoy our small announcement teaser:
This update expands the Tide Guard, the coastguard faction of Seafarer, with two new vessels and search and rescue gameplay. Whether it’s a distress call nearby or a shipwrecked survivor spotted on the horizon, it’s your job to respond and bring everyone home safely.
Salvation is a dedicated rescue vessel designed for deployment during emergencies at sea. As one of the largest and most modern coast guard ships in the world of Seafarer, she serves as the primary vessel for search and rescue missions. Recover survivors from the water, provide initial care on board, and transport them safely to the nearest port.
Grace is Salvation’s daughter boat and is designed for speed and precision. Smaller and more maneuverable, she excels at close-range rescue operations, allowing you to approach people in the water where larger ships cannot safely operate.
Together, Salvation and Grace form the backbone of Seafarer’s new rescue gameplay, giving you the tools to respond effectively when distress calls come in.
Search and rescue missions are an essential part of coastguard duties. These missions task you with responding quickly to emergencies at sea: head to the scene of the accident, locate and rescue people from the water, provide emergency rations and warm blankets, and safely transport everyone to the nearest port.
And finally, there’s a use for all those lifebuoys on board. 🛟
The Rescue Update not only adds new mission types to the game, but also expands the range of random events you may encounter at sea. Occasionally, you’ll be asked to transport fragile or unusual cargo between ports. Rescue situations can now also appear as random events during your travels at sea. Every ship is equipped with lifebuoys, allowing you to assist shipwrecked people you encounter unexpectedly on your journeys.
This update includes a first iteration of our vessel editor. Feel free to change your vessels’ names and add predefined logos to make your ships truly your own and give your fleet a unique identity on the water. Additionally, you can adjust the colors for most vessels!
With one of our previous updates, we introduced windshield wipers for some vessels. These are now also available on Nordic Duchess, Big Trip, and Bulk Willy.
We’ve also heard your feedback regarding bow thrusters. With this update, thruster mechanics have been added to Lancer, Nordic Duchess, Big Trip and Willy, improving control during docking, harbor navigation, and other low-speed maneuvers.
Alongside the new content, this update includes a wide range of bug fixes, tweaks, and quality-of-life improvements to ensure smoother sailing.
Learn more in the patch notes below!
Open Steam and go to your Library
Right-click on Seafarer: The Ship Sim
Click Properties
Select the Betas tab
Choose 'public_beta' from the dropdown list
Patch #2 – Version 0.2.0.1508 (Steam)
Rescue Gameplay
Vessel Editor
Name
Logo
Color
Fleet Update
Rescue ship Salvation
Daughter boat Grace
New Missions
Rescue
Practice course: Rescue
Undercover
Pilot service
Event mission: Rescue shipwrecked
Event mission: Delivery
Thrusters
For Lancer, Nordic Duchess, Big Trip and Willy
Note: only functionality / visuals will be done at a later stage
Wipers
for Nordic Duchess, Big Trip, and Bulk Willy
Fixes and improvements
Bug Fixes & Stability
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
Reduced polycount of Herbert
Ongoing optimization of NPVs
Major foliage optimization:
Reduced polygon counts
Reduced material complexity
Disabled shadows for small foliage
Known Issues
If a castaway is drowning the mission does not fail, but can't get completed and needs to get restarted.
The second part of the delivery event mission is not displayed correctly for the players
It is currently not possible to complete the event mission "Rescue shipwrecked" due to some logic errors
Some NPVs generate splashing waves at random intervals
Sometimes in the mission "Free Tugs" the NPV does not snap into position
Occasionally the HUD displays are not updating correctly (rudder/throttle) - only visually
During Rescue gameplay the game crashes if the player does not manage to rescue all people in time
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We’re excited to see how you handle rescue operations and hear your feedback as we continue shaping Seafarer together.
Thank you once again for being part of our voyage.
See you on the horizon,
Your Seafarer Team 🚣