Windward Horizon News

2025-07-14.0
- Added optional night time to the game. It can be turned on via world options.
- Added new options to world options: day length. This is only visual, and is separate from the in-game day duration (which is always 6 minutes).
- Unified game's day length and visible day length to match one another. Before they did not.
- Various effects now provide night-time light sources, even if only temporarily (explosions, fireworks, grog, etc)
- Fixed the town UI's player inventory becoming invisible after swapping ships with inventory open.
- Ships won't share sight at night.
- Sight distance is halved at night.
- Added the ability to ask in town gossip for "story" to see if anyone in the world needs to speak with the player.
- If reflections are turned off, they will now still render the skybox to fix water reflections at night.
- Wind particles will no longer be affected by the wind past a certain distance from the player, saving a bit of performance.
- Added more anti-aliasing options, including temporal AA.
- If holding shift while building a tower, only allow the largest possible tower to be built.

[h3]2025-07-04.0[/h3]
- Campaigns and all associated data are now saved on the Steam Cloud.
- Changed the hierarchy of where all of the data associated with campaigns is stored. It's now together, rather than being split between My Documents and AppData.
- Deleting the campaign will now delete all of the associated data: history, ship preview textures, fog of war cache, etc.
- Options are now also saved on the Steam Cloud. This finishes the save functionality conversion, making the game store its data entirely on the cloud and allowing for cloud-based gaming like GeForce Now.
- Traders created at world creation will now spawn with factions of the province they get spawned at.
- Item pickup range is now configurable (Items.txt)
- Added options to turn off reflections and shadows.
- Fixed incorrect scaling of UI on screen resolutions below 1080p, such as that on the Steam Deck.
- Fixed slower than expected virtual cursor movement on the Steam Deck.
- Fixed the virtual cursor being behind popup lists.
- Newer build players can now join instances hosted by older build players (but not vice versa).
- Unified the town UI and player inventory. It's now one window.
- All influence rewards from quests and other actions now affect not just the source province, but also neighbour provinces (to a lesser degree). How far and how much is set by the config file (infSpread value in Province.txt).
- Coups now only require 20% influence by default (coupInfluence value in Province.txt).
- Player tax cut is now 25% by default, up from 20% (playerTaxCut value in Province.txt).
- Fixed blurry fonts on the Steam Deck.
- Resolved another issue with /renaming characters online that was preventing players from rejoining.
- Fixed the tutorial popup on the main menu not reacting to the close button binding on the controller (B).
- Steam friends can no longer have controller input if they are not interactable.
- Skill target will now consume the controller button event, and won't let it fall through to activate other skills anymore.

[h3]2025-06-29.0[/h3]
- You can now edit provinces created by NPCs as if they were your own if you're in single player (or server admin): rename them, manage workshops and modify terrain.
- Added support for localized conversations, and they won't mark the player file as modded.
- Loading the game with a previously set localization that's no longer present will now simply revert back to English.
- Fixed the rebound key notification not fading out.
- It should no longer be necessary to hold Left Shift to update mod settings/world config if you use the edit button instead of Continue on the main menu.
- Players in SotLs should now see greater enemy variety.

[p]June’s been a huge month for Windward Horizon. Since launch, we’ve been updating the game almost daily, introduced modding tools, patched major bugs, added Steam Workshop support, and are laying the groundwork for the upcoming raid content.[/p][p]Here’s everything we rolled out this month:[/p][hr][/hr][h2]Steam Summer Sale - 10% Off[/h2][p]Perfect time to join the crew or gift a copy to a friend[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Steam Workshop Support - Now Live[/h2][p]You can now browse, install, and share your mods directly through the Workshop. From skins, gameplay tweaks to full-blown community localizations. Some community members have already started working on some interesting projects, and I'm eager to see how they turn out![/p][p]New commands like /extract, /newmod, and UI support for mod selection have also been added to make creating and managing mods easier[/p][h3]Full Modding Guide
[/h3][p]Browse Workshop Mods here:
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Patch Notes[/h2][h3]2025-06-27.0[/h3]

• [p]Added Steam Workshop / modding support.[/p]
• [p]Made the /extract command extract the actual game's files rather than the current data (which may include modded values).[/p]
• [p]Added a new /newmod command that creates a blank mod without any data.[/p]
• [p]The game now makes a backup of the player's save file before mods are enabled.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the grog's projectile barrel not having the proper color, the way the explosive barrel projectile did.[/p]
• [p]Choosing a different language now enables the legible text option by default.[/p]
• [p]Language selection is now correctly persistent when re-launching the game.[/p]
• [p]Added a way to replace entire config nodes, not just append to them.[/p]
• [p]Increased the movement speed of the virtual cursor when the controller stick's direction is maxed out.[/p]
• [p]The ship config file can now specify a default (starting) ship rather it being hard-coded to be the sloop.[/p]
• [p]Changed how and when the world config gets reset/updated to make it work better with mods.[/p]
• [p]Mods that include textures are now marked as having game assets, and mods only tie to the player if they modify the relevant configuration or alter conversation files. Mods with assets or textures don't force the player to be marked as modded.[/p]
• [p]Fixed player showing up under their old name in chat after choosing a new character on a public server.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the mod manager not calculating the mod hashes correctly.[/p]
• [p]The starting location is now more randomized and is no longer in the middle of the world.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-19.0[/h3]

• [p]Added an /extract command to extract all of the game's config, conversation, and localization data into a brand-new mod. Use this to see how the game works. Change anything you want, or use it as a guide for your mods. Guide coming soon (next week).[/p]
• [p]Non-artifact items will now gain XP twice as quickly.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the message of the day not showing up upon joining the server.[/p]
• [p]Added a mod selection dialog window that shows up if you have mods available.[/p]
• [p]Skills that apply buffs can now be used even if the buff is already active (which will refresh its duration and/or increase the number of stacks)[/p]

[h3]2025-06-17.0[/h3]

• [p]Added the option to replace the handwritten-looking fancy font with a clear, legible one.[/p]
• [p]Added a way to set the message-of-the-day with the /motd command available to server admins.[/p]
• [p]Slightly improved SotL and Frigate's base turning rate.[/p]
• [p]Added a more obvious way of editing existing campaign settings.[/p]
• [p]Some more tweaks to /rename to make it work better.[/p]
• [p]Your ship will now automatically anchor while fishing, diving, in a conversation, or interacting with a town.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-16.0[/h3]

• [p]Fixed ship type not being tied to the region's position properly in co-op type instances with level scaling disabled.[/p]
• [p]Removed bosses from co-op missions on lower-tier difficulties in Solo mode.[/p]
• [p]Added a slider to world options that controls the speed at which provinces will grow their population, letting you raise it up to 10x the base speed.[/p]
• [p]Boss-tier NPCs will no longer have the ability to repair themselves out of combat.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a bug in the networking code that was causing oddities and was potentially the cause of the strange tower issues. (Server admins should update their server executable.)[/p]
• [p]Made the /rename command work in multiplayer as well.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-14.0[/h3]

• [p]The SotL unlock story is now in.[/p]
• [p]Provinces under a trade embargo may now offer a quest to lift it.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-13.0[/h3]

• [p]If the player is awarded loot with full inventory, it will now drop in the ocean next to the player's ship.[/p]
• [p]Projectiles that explode near the ship can now be reflected by Giant Net as well.[/p]
• [p]Instances will no longer show up for anyone until the owner has finished creating the region.[/p]
• [p]Instances will no longer show up for anyone not on the same version as the host.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the shipyard price not reflecting the ship's actual cost properly.[/p]
• [p]Cleaned up the Alvana/Rowdy/Silvano story flags, simplifying them. If your progress is stuck, use /resetAlvana to restart it.[/p]
• [p]Fixed one option in Alvana's story (be better than your father) that was causing the story to reset to a much earlier state.[/p]
• [p]All ships will now be removed at the end of the Coups.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-10.1[/h3]

• [p]Fixed a long-standing bug that was messing up world map pathfinding and many other things (which was just the most obvious symptom of the bug).[/p]
• [p]Greatly improved the performance of the world map.[/p]
• [p]Stratospheric clouds will now properly fade out in foggy conditions.[/p]
• [p]You can now turn off the error sound on use for your skills by right-clicking any skill.[/p]
• [p]The server's admin can now rename provinces and towns at will.[/p]
• [p]Dropped the quick-leave timer from 60 sec to 20.[/p]
• [p]Items gifted to other players and then passed back to the owner will now restore their vendor price value.[/p]
• [p]Using the /rename command no longer creates a different profile and will now keep your reputation, unlocks, and story progress.[/p]
• [p]Another fix for AI fog usage.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-08.2[/h3]

• [p]Halved the amount of XP needed to level up higher-tier non-artifact items.[/p]
• [p]Opening a UI window while in port will no longer anchor you if there is an active conflict in the region.[/p]
• [p]While trying to settle a province, the world map will now show actual resource icons rather than just (?) marks.[/p]
• [p]The navigation dialog now has the option to remain in the region, and will also always show your home province as one of the choices.[/p]
• [p]Added separate icons for different lumber types.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the 'Establish New Province' quest failing upon establishing a province if the limit is set to 1 province.[/p]
• [p]Added a way to voluntarily reset your own stories for romance-able characters, in case you want to try different choices: /resetSonya, /resetAlvana, and /resetLani.[/p]
• [p]Reduced story progression wait timers down to 10 minutes at most.[/p]
• [p]Fixed the dye mixer not working with the click-and-move approach to moving items (it only worked with drag and drop).[/p]
• [p]Tweaked Alvana's conversation a bit to make it more obvious that you're making the wrong choice and screwing up her romance.[/p]
• [p]Reduced the amount of wrecks you need to salvage to get freebie late-game ships.[/p]
• [p]Limited AI to use fog only once every 30 seconds, regardless of cooldowns.[/p]
• [p]The game will now back up player ship saves every 30 minutes. Just in case.[/p]
• [p]Battle progress timer should not advance while the game is paused.[/p]
• [p]Reduced the snare effect on crit from offense spec talents.[/p]
• [p]Added accuracy to being hit for basic Useful Debris.[/p]

[hr][/hr][h2]🎵 Original Soundtrack Now Available[/h2][p]The Windward Horizon Original Soundtrack is now live on Steam! Over an hour of music from the game, ranging from calm exploration tracks to high-tension naval battles.[/p][p]Composed by Finn MK, it is available on all major music platforms.[/p][p]Featuring 20 tracks, including bonus exclusive ones! Take the Windward journey with you everywhere you go![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][hr][/hr][h2]What’s Next? - A storm is brewing.[/h2][p]The first major raid content is well underway.
Expect new high-tier encounters, unique loot, and instanced combat challenges[/p][p]For now, prepare your best gear.[/p]

[h3]2025-06-27.0[/h3]
- Added Steam Workshop / modding support.
- Made the /extract command extract actual game's files rather than the current data (which may include modded values).
- Added a new /newmod command that creates a blank mod without any data.
- The game now makes a backup of the player's save file before mods are enabled.
- Fixed the grog's projectile barrel not having the proper color the way explosive barrel projectile did.
- Choosing a different language now enables the legible text option by default.
- Language selection is now correctly persistent when re-launching the game.
- Added a way to replace entire config nodes, not just append to them.
- Increased the movement speed of the virutal cursor when the controller stick's direction is maxed out.
- The ship config file can now specify a default (starting) ship rather it being hard-coded to be the sloop.
- Changed how and when the world config gets reset/updated in order to make it work better with mods.
- Mods that include textures are now marked as having game assets, and mods only tie to player if they modify the relevant configuration or alter conversation files. Mods with assets or textures don't force the player to be marked as modded.
- Fixed player showing up under their old name in chat after choosing a new character on a public server.
- Fixed the mod manager not calculating the mod hashes correctly.
- The starting location is now more randomized, and is no longer in the middle of the world.

[h3]2025-06-19.0[/h3]
- Added an /extract command to extract all of the game's config, conversation and localization data into a brand-new mod. Use this to see how the game works. Change anything you want, or use it as a guide for your own mods. Guide coming soon (next week).
- Non-artifact items will now gain XP twice as quickly.
- Fixed the message of the day not showing up upon joining the server.
- Added a mod selection dialog window that shows up if you have mods available.
- Skills that apply buffs can now be used even if the buff is already active (which will refresh its duration and/or increase the number of stacks)

[h3]2025-06-17.0[/h3]
- Added the option to replace the handwritten-looking fancy font with a clear, legible one.
- Added a way to set message-of-the-day with the /motd command available to server admins.
- Slightly improved SotL and Frigate's base turning rate.
- Added a more obvious way of editing existing campaign settings.
- Some more tweaks to /rename to make it work better.
- Your ship will now automatically anchor while fishing, diving, in a conversation or interacting with a town.

[h2]🌴 Summer Sale Ahoy! Windward Horizon 10% Off Until July 10[/h2][p]Windward Horizon is part of the Steam Summer Sale![/p][p]From now through July 10, the game is available at 10% off. [/p][p]If you’ve been waiting to jump in or want to bring a friend aboard, now’s the time to set sail.[/p][p]⛵ Get it here
[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]🎵 Original Soundtrack Now Available[/h2][p]The Windward Horizon Original Soundtrack is now live on Steam!
Over an hour of music from the game, ranging from calm exploration tracks to high-tension naval battles. [/p][p]Composed by Finn MK, it is available on all major music platforms. [/p][p]Featuring 20 tracks, including bonus exclusive ones! Take the Windward journey with you everywhere you go! [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][hr][/hr][h2]⚔️ A Storm is brewing...[/h2][p][/p][p]More to come soon... Can you guess what's on the horizon?[/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]Thank you all for your support thus far.[/p]