Dev Blog #30 - Patch Preview and Community Highlights

[p]Hello Voyagers! It’s been a month from our last announcement date and we’ve got a date for our next patch update. We’ve been listening closely to your feedback and focused this patch on improving core systems, adding accessibility, and making sailing solo easier![/p][p][/p][h2]Mark your Calendars for November 4th![/h2][p]Mark your calendars in 2 weeks for November 4th, as we will hit our second Early Access roadmap point with a major update to controller support, improvements to sailing, inventory, building, skimming, encumbrance and item weight and WAY MORE! These were all taken from the reviews and feedback from our players who’ve played our Early Access so far. [/p][p]There are a lot of changes in this patch – we’ll release full patch notes closer to the launch of the patch, but here is a sneak peek at some of the biggest items![/p][p][/p][h3]🎮 Controller Support[/h3][h3][/h3]

• [p]Full Xbox controller support added[/p]
• [p]In-game UI now displays correct controller glyphs[/p]
• [p]Improved control sensitivity, input tweaks & toggles[/p]

• [p]Better motion smoothing and camera settings[/p]

• [p]Toggle sprint (for mobility accessibility) [/p][p][/p]

[h3]🛶 New Solo Boat[/h3]

• [p]The highly requested, single-station boat will be fully pilotable with keyboard or controller[/p]
• [p]Designed for shorter expeditions and solo players[/p]
• [p]Includes new in-game helper tooltips and UI improvements[/p]

[p][/p][h3]📦 Inventory & Crafting Upgrades[/h3]

• [p]Name your storage containers [/p]
• [p]Sort items by type with one-click sorting[/p]
• [p]Early unlock for crafting from storage [/p]
• [p]New hotkeys for "store like items" [/p][p][/p]

[h3]🧩 Ruins & Puzzle Revamp[/h3]

• [p]Reduced construct fights to one per biome[/p]
• [p]Replaced extras with traversal and object puzzles[/p]
• [p]Introduced interactive ruins puzzles for exploration lovers[/p]
• [p]Collected Monoliths now track on the map [/p][p][/p]

[h3]⚔️ Combat Feel Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Reduced animation lockouts = more fluid combat[/p]
• [p]Enemies now feature a stagger bar. Stun them to deal more damage [/p]

[p]We also showcased some of these in a dev stream recently, which you can check out here! [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]Community Highlights[/h2][p] In case you missed our dev stream last Thursday, we had our Producer, Steph, Design Director, Christina and Marketing Lead, Cheery chat about what’s coming next on our patch! There’s sneak previews of our new solo player boat, inventory upgrades (storage naming, item sorting) and earlier access to craft from storage.[/p][p][/p][p]We also added new Twitch Emotes of our Stalker fish, and Spirits for our Twitch channel by Luke, our Senior Engineer and StarberryVi! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]🖼️ Community Showcase: [/h2][p]We love seeing all of your amazing screenshots in game and showcased our favorites from our #player-creations channel on our Discord! [/p][p]Davence:[/p][h2][/h2][p]Hanatachibana: [/p][p]SenshiHira:
[/p][p]Mary:[/p][p] [/p][p]All the amazing cozy taverns, mountaintop sanctuaries and turtle shrines! It's awesome seeing everyone's creative spirit hotels, sky-high towers, and incredible use of decors. [/p][p][/p][p]We’re still continuing to see you all share your builds and creations with us on Twitch and in our Discord. We hope the ones we shared will be good inspiration for any future builds! [/p][p][/p][h2]📊 Creator Program & Community Stats[/h2][p]Here’s how your support continues to blow us away:[/p]

• [p]845,000+ unique viewers on Twitch [/p]
• [p]638,000+ views on YouTube[/p]
• [p]Over 2,000 streamers have played the game live![/p]
• [p]Twitch drops returning in December (they will be watch time-based)[/p]

[p]If you’re interested in joining our Creator Program, we’ll be relaunching in December to onboard new members. Stay tuned![/p][p][/p][h2]❄️ What’s Next? Big End of Year Content Update [/h2][p][/p][p]Heading into December, we will also have a big updates for Spirit Companions and for customizing and progressing the Boat![/p][p][/p][h3]🔧 What We’re Exploring - Boat Customization:[/h3][p][/p]

• [p]Socket-based upgrades like pontoons, helms, figureheads[/p]
• [p]Freely place decor and limited utility stations on boats[/p]
• [p]Speed boosts, cannons, and maybe even teleportation (TBD)[/p]
• [p]Maintaining balance: no floating houses across the ocean [/p]
• [p]This is experimental and won’t launch in November, but it’s a key part of our year-end update roadmap. We’ll share more as development progresses![/p]

[p] Very early sneak peek![/p][p][/p][h3] 🔎 What We’re Exploring - Spirit Companion Classes[/h3]

• [p]Each Spirit Companion will level up with you as you fight, explore, gather and more![/p]
• [p]Spirit Companions will have a tree of traits and bonuses that you can unlock as you level them up[/p]

[p]We’ll share more updates about these once they are further in development.[/p][p][/p][p]Stay tuned and see you in the next one![/p][p]- Cheery & Steph from the Treehouse Team[/p][p] [/p]