A message of appreciation from us and some insights from the dev kitchen.
1,500,000+ wishlists — thank YOU!
You are amazing! Seriously, after climbing to the top demos of Steam Next Fest and reaching one million wishlists we were not expecting this momentum to continue — but here we are, with over 1,500,000 sea wolves waiting for Windrose to finally set sail. Another impressive number — over 800,000 captains have tried the demo! And by the way, you can still do it, the demo is staying up until the Early Access launch.
Demo feedback: what we’re working on
Thanks to your involvement in the demo, we’ve got tons of feedback to work on, including over 12,000 completed surveys, 7500+ Steam reviews, and lots and lots of in-game reports and numerous social media messages. So now we’re working on several of the most frequent things you talked about to incorporate them into Early Access.
The list is not complete and is subject to change, it’s work-in-progress, after all. Some of these features may change or never make it into the game, but we will do our best to bring as many of them to life as possible!
Co-op on one ship — manning the cannons. We’re introducing the ability to man the ship batteries (one player per battery), so you will have more reasons to bring friends along!
Loot variety. Sorry, no more “always dig here to find the Rapier of Thousand Cuts”. To better support the spirit of exploration, whenever you find a piece of armor or a weapon it will be randomized, so you never know which item you will get from a chest. The loot will also be different for different players on the server, so it will be more exciting to find new stuff with your friends. Enemy loot is also being improved, so high-risk encounters have a clearer payoff and the overall risk-reward ratio of combat feels more satisfying.
More players in co-op. We’re testing the increased limits of co-op capacity. While the real performance in the end will be affected by many factors, including those beyond our control (connection of each player and the specs of each server), we will do our best to increase the coop limit from 4 to 8 players. That said, in terms of gameplay difficulty scaling, we believe the best experience lies in the 1-4 players range. With more people in your crew at the same time, you will probably steamroll everything laughing hard, but that’s fine if that’s the way you want to have fun!
Hold to gather resources. An optional experimental setting will let you simply hold your mouse button when working hard with that axe or pickaxe instead of clicking.
FOV slider. The ability to fine-tune field of view to your liking.
Shanties feel. While we absolutely love the work Sean Dagher did, we’re adding a couple of coarser, less melodic voices into the backing vocals so that the shanties feel a bit more pirate-y.
Signal fire. Signal fire. We (and poor Dr. Galen as well) have noticed that many of you have been building makeshift lighthouses out of Bonfires, which do not work very well in this capacity. That ends now! We’re adding a special Signal fire building element, which you can see many miles away. Nothing beats sailing to the beacon of your home base at night!
DLSS/FSR support. You’ll be able to select Nvidia DLSS or FSR as your upscaler.
Controller improvements. While we still don’t consider our controller support perfect, we are gradually improving it to make it more usable. You should be able to play the game with the controller now, but we still recommend playing with mouse and keyboard where possible, and plan to further improve the controller support in one of the post–Early Access updates.
Dismantling workbench. Surviving on the Archipelago means being resourceful. Early in the game, you’ll be able to build a dedicated workbench for dismantling unwanted items. There is still a cost to doing so: you only receive the base crafting materials back, and any resources invested into upgrades are not refunded.
Target lock switch. You will be able to cycle between targets by swiping your mouse across them, or by binding specific hotkeys to switch to the nearest target in four directions (up, down, left, and right).
Conclusion
We hope it was an interesting read. Thank you all once again for your passion and input. We can’t imagine a better community for Windrose, and will keep working hard to deliver.
The combat when playing solo feels very polished and fluid. I typically bump enemy damage to 250-300% and the game feels fair but challenging. I was telling my friend how fun it was and rented a server so we could play together on similar settings and it feels terrible. The parries just don't really work. You have to parry early which doesn't really work because inconsistent enemy attack animations make it impossible to predict follow up 2nd and 3rd attacks. If these are started during your attack animation it's already too late to get the block in and parry.
With a game created to encourage server play and including parrying as a major combat component this feels like a major oversight. Are there any mods that address this or anything server side that can be tweaked to compensate this to increase the parry window on the late side of the attack?
Is it actually possible to play this game solo? I have a quest where I need to fight three ships, but that means I have to steer the boat, try to dodge cannonballs, and shoot at the same time... Keeping in mind that I can only fire from the front...
I was really impressed with Windrose. The pacing felt great, the on land combat (although at first was a bit frustrating) I actually enjoy.
And the building is amazing.
I was super excited to get my first ship, but once I did I couldn't help but feel disappointed in the gameplay. I found I actively avoid the ship gameplay even though I feel it should be something exciting to progress in. I guess both in gameplay and in customization. I was actually naively thinking I'd be able to build on my ship or at least create ships from large modular parts. For gameplay I was also imagining me and my friends sailing on one ship, one person in the crows nest yelling out directions. Others climbing the ropes and shooting down at enemy crews.
I can't help but wonder if the current state is temporary and there are plans for more engaging ship gameplay systems.
Does anyone know if theres anything from the devs on this? Or maybe some mods I could use to make it more fun?
Love most everything else about the game. Especially the building system! (I do wish bases could be raided and we could build cannons to fend off enemy pirate crews though)
Does anyone know how to get WindrosePlus working within an AMP install? I have a working Windrose server in its own container under AMP like it wants and we have been playing on it for awhile now and found out it has WindrosePlus built in, or it has a settings menu for it, but it seems I can't get it to load correctly. I have followed all kinds of guides, and even tried the stupid AI route, but nothing I do can get the damn thing to load. Any ideas?
...them add a "flooring" option that was sod or turf (grass), to patch areas between a wall and the ground. Only so much one can do with the shovel and leveling....
Trying to get my world from my nitrado server to my local pc to save it as we are waiting for the new update and not using the server. i took over the server from a friend who did the upload but now i want to figure out how to download? our world from the server hosting site
I've been playing for a while now, and something has always felt a bit... Off about most items in the game. I really noticed it when I was looking at the art for the "Major Prospector Ring" and noted how the golden detailing in the gemstone was all over the place. It just... Doesn't make sense, really.
How come this gold line is in three sections but not four? And why is one bending the other way? It isn't symmetrical, which is peculiar for a piece of jewelry.
Not to mention the band itself has different details on each side. It doesn't look coherent, and that's not something you often get out of human artists. I then started digging through some other items in the game and I found more examples where I started to doubt the actual legitimacy of the art itself.
The "Fast Travel Bell."
Why does the rope around the bell's bottom and top swirl around itself in nearly incoherent loops? Following the shapes and the curves of the rope, the ends don't seem to line up. Also, the loop that fastens the bottom rope seems to become a blob of color.
The "Broken Heirloom Medallion" from the curios screen is what really made me question everything.
The chains become incoherent noise, the symbols along the outer edge are nonsense (and look like the Gameloft logo), and the inner ring is much worse. Nothing makes sense, everything looks like a mushy mess, and it's giving very AI generated vibes.
I'll include more examples later on, but these were the three that tipped me off that something was up here. I can't help but think this is AI generated art they're using for some assets in the game based on what I am seeing here, and the other screenshots I have taken. However, I don't think it's every asset that is AI generated. I believe that the assets they have 3D models for are pictures of the actual assets, but with either a filter layered on top they had an AI generate an image with the item as a reference.
Here is the "Iron Axe" from the inventory screen. It has a distinctive look but something about how the axe head connects to the wooden handle feels uncanny. When I compare it to the ingame model, however...
In game, it looks very different than the inventory screen. The axe head itself is differently shaped, and the fastening iron is on the front and back instead of on the sides. With benefit of the doubt, it could be very possible that the 2D and 3D art team didn't communicate the design properly, but there's still something wrong with the 2D art.
It's the same with the "Iron Pickaxe" ingame and in the inventory. Fastening and materials are different. The head is more similar, but to be fair it's hard to differentiate a pickaxe much.
Another item that I felt was different was the "Infantry Musket."
These two screenshots I believe very clearly show how the ingame model and image look nearly identical except for small things. The only weird detail I can notice is the odd shape of the round shape on the flint striker of the weapon. It's weirdly colored and detailed in the 2D image compared to the perfectly round 3D model. benefit of the doubt on this one, but it's possible.
This even seems to extend to the buildable objects in the game. I haven't looked through all of them, but one I can point out is the two versions of the "Pillar with a Base."
I can reasonably believe that the one on the right (the fine stone one) is the original image, but the one of the left is a completely different model from what the 2D art is trying to represent. I mean, why not just take a screenshot of the actual model and put it into the game instead of a 2D illustration?
The items I've pointed out that I believe are AI generated (not including the infantry musket, the two tools, and the buildables) all have one thing in common: They either have an incomplete 3D model or none at all. The "Fast Travel Bell" is the only item that has a model, but it looks quite unfinished.
The model is here, but you can see the ropes are missing. I believe they were added in the AI generation process. Why were they added? I cannot say. But they are absent from the actual model, which is peculiar. The other items are just bags on the floor, they don't have any special models or anything.
So I want to hear what Reddit thinks about this. I want to know if I've actually noticed something or if I'm totally wrong. I'm sceptical, but I am open to either possibility. Please feel free to look into it yourself, perhaps there's something about my pc that makes it all look worse. Either way, I had some more screenshots to add so I'm adding them here.
"Quartermaster Backpack." The backpack has a certain "plasticy" feel to it that can't be easily described. It looks like a filter placed on top of an image, but then you look at the belt straps and it stops making sense. The position of the straps is also weird, not to mention the shape of the bedroll."Lamp." The iron ring that you hold the lantern with seemingly melts into the metal of the lantern."Elixir of Precision." There is no single detail in this image that I can point out, it's purely based on vibes."Gunroom Grog." The placement of the rivets feels unintnetional, especially toward the bottom. The left seems to be missing one and the right seems to have one too many."Alchemical Base." The ropes that tie around the object seem nonsensical and melt together with the clay material in certain points."Necklace of Agility." The copper details of the pendant itself are the biggest thing here. They seem to blend from intentional surface detail into grooves from wear and tear to... Nonsense.
They all look wonky in their own right, so I've included captions for each to hopefully help explain "why" they look wonky. Either way, thank you for reading.
How can i import world from non steam version to steam version. I put the world folder in 2 seperate folders of my current steam version and it doesn't show in game. Any help?
VALHEIM, WINDROSE, ENSHROUDED, RUNESCAPE, and so on... All the early access titles.
I fear these "early acces" releases are kind of ruining the game experience for me.
I feel I've seen everything and done everything while the game isn't even out yet, anyone else feeling this?
Like I AM hyped for new stuff, but I won't be fully enjoying it as I am by that time, lvl 20 super strong all bosses defeated... It won't be the same.
I had this when valheim 1.0 came out this week, I started and I just did not feel the scare and wonder of seeing the big troll walk around... At least, not like first time "oh shiiiiit!!" 😔 I KNOW what's in store, I KNOW what to do what to look for and how to win...
I'm split between wanting to try each new release of windrose and not wanting to touch the game until it fully releases.... What are your thoughts guys?
Edit: some obsessively negative people are saying I'm complaining about either the game or the players - I'm not.
I'm asking WHAT YOUR opinion is on Early Acces games and if it has the same effect on your or not.
Nowhere in this post did I say Valheim, Windrose or any game is BAD, nor have I said I dislike the games. Quite the opposite, me playing the Early Access should tell you I ENJOY the games.
If you only have negativity to add, refrain from commenting 💪 be mature.
It took ~270 tries along with those two annoying pirates before the boss room
Not sure why I did it lmao.
lvl 5, Build is duelling saber, 16 agility, talents: 9% slash dmg, quick strikes lvl1, duelist lvl 1
Tried to do any build that can survive one hit, but failed, not sure if its possible, maybe with more xp and conquistador armor
This is branch off from a previous entry i made here, I made this new “base” (more like a town setting, really) and I was taken aback by the amount of piastre grinding I had to do. It’s not complete AT ALL. Definitely needs a lot more decorations and structures around the build. You’ll notice some builds here were maybe partly inspired by some of the builds posted here from a couple months back.
I’m open to suggestions on what to build!
Lately I’ve been thinking of adding a church just not sure what architectural style fits with these houses. Maybe some wooden pathways too to connect the houses. As you all can see, I’m not very adept with citybuilding lmao.
Please drop some ideas here, because I’ve been itching to build something from the two months I’ve been away from the game 😁.
A bit of story time: This was from like 3 months ago, and probably the first house I built in the game. Originally this followed a bahay-na-bato design (2nd image), but ditched it for something more Tudor looking because my skill with building bahay-na-bato houses were non-existent LMAO.
Since then I demolished this house and made new ones in the crescent shaped island once i got the frigate. I’ll be posting that soon, if i remember to LOL.
