The next content update is coming very soon, adding storage crates and expanding the food system. Here's a little preview of the upcoming features.
Also, a new beta build is available now for testing the new features. More information below.
Storage crates
You will now be able to store small items in crates - no more loose items cluttering your boat! Crates will function like an external inventory, allowing you to store any items you could normally put in your player inventory.
Crates bought on the market will come sealed, and have to remain sealed and unopened in order to be sold again for the full price. At any time you can break the seal, allowing you to store and withdraw any items freely.
Food spoilage and preservation
This update will add some depth and complexity to storing and managing your food supplies, especially for longer voyages. Fresh food such as fish you catch or individual food items bought at food stalls will now spoil over time unless preserved properly. Meat and fish will spoil after about a day, fruits and vegetables can last for several days, bread can last for a week or so.
There are several ways to preserve your food, each with its advantages and disadvantages:
- Drying: smaller items such as fruits can be dried simply by cutting them into slices, and leaving them out in the open. For faster drying, you can also place them on the new drying rack, available for purchase at your local furniture store.
- Smoking: larger foods such as meat and fish can be smoked in a smoker. Similar to cooking, this requires firewood and some time. Cutting your food into slices will reduce the time it takes to smoke it. However, smoking your food takes much more time (and firewood) than regular cooking.
- Salting: you can also salt your fresh food to massively reduce the time it takes to dry it fully, making it a viable option even for meat and fish. Salting is quick and easy, and does not require any additional tools. However, the salt itself is expensive, and eating salted food will also dehydrate you.
Things to note:
- Food crates purchased in shops or on the market will come preserved - either dried or smoked, so you don't have to worry about your cargo going bad during transport. Because of this, crates of preserved food will now be more expensive, and fresh food sold at shop stalls will be cheaper.
- Smaller pieces of food dry quicker - use the new knife (available for purchase in capital cities) to cut your food into smaller slices).
- Cooking can also slow down the spoiling process - as long as your food remains hot, spoiling will stop.
- Smoking your food will also cook it (but more slowly than the stove).
- Food will not dry when it is inside a crate.
- Food that is partially preserved will spoil more slowly, and you can also combine different methods of preservation to combine the effects, but food has to be either fully dried or fully smoked to completely prevent it from spoiling.
- Salting by itself does not stop spoiling, but only speeds up drying - your food can still spoil if you don't give it enough time to dry before it spoils!
Nutrition
The update also adds an additional nutrition layer to managing your food consumption. To stay healthy, you will need to eat a certain amount of meat or fish and fruits or vegetables. In general, this means you will need some variety in your diet and can no longer rely on one kind of food to keep you fed forever.
But don't worry - this requirement should not feel intrusive and in most cases won't be noticeable, especially in the early game. However, when planning for a long journey across the ocean, relying just on your fishing rod will not be enough, and you will need to consider taking some additional provisions with you to ensure you stay healthy.
Beta build
You can test and share your feedback about the new features by playing the new beta build. Please note that the beta does not contain all the new content coming in this update, and some things are still unfinished. New food items are not available yet, and some food slices are missing textures, etc. Also, balancing of the new nutrition system might not be perfect yet - your feedback here will be very welcome!
As usual, your previous save should work in the beta, but it is recommended to back up your save files just in case.
Please share your feedback and report bugs in the beta testing thread, or on the Sailwind Discord server in the relevant beta channels.