Windrose Devblog: Ashlands (WIP)

DISCLAIMER: We’re talking about plans, and plans may change. We tend to experiment a lot. If something does not work well for the game, we discard it. Prototyping a great idea can drastically change how it feels once we actually playtest it. Simply put, if something isn’t great, we tend to pivot it into something a lot better. That’s the nature of development, and it applies to the plans described below. In the end, these are general thoughts we’ll continue expanding on as development progresses.

Ahoy, captains! It’s been a while since the Early Access release, thank you for making it incredible!

Now that most of the post-release tasks have been addressed, we’re hard at work on Windrose’s first major content update, currently titled “Ashlands.” While development is still in its early stages, we wanted to share our general plans and give you an idea of what we’re aiming for. As always, the exact scope of the update may change as development progresses.

As for our longer-term plans, those are still taking shape. Truth be told, we don’t have them fully locked in yet. While delivering Early Access, we spared no effort to make and patch the game as well as we could, and it took a real toll on us. As a result, this part had to be pushed aside for a while. Now that the game is live, feedback has poured in, and we are better equipped with your ideas and a clearer understanding of what Windrose could become in the future.

In that sense, Windrose is shaped not only by our own ideas, but also by your feedback and experiences. Our goal is to first deliver Ashlands at the level of quality we expect from ourselves, learn from your impressions, and then build on that foundation with a clearer understanding of what comes next.

Now, let’s discuss Ashlands.

We have always wanted Windrose to be a survival adventure with a strong narrative layer, making the journey through its vast biomes feel meaningful.

In Ashlands, you can expect both the main story and side quests to grow significantly in scope.

This is where new factions enter the fray, and you’ll have to carve your way through their ambitions and schemes to continue your journey. Your hunt for the Obols continues, with the next fragment hidden somewhere among the ruins of a long-forgotten Spanish colony. The Obol’s power has twisted lands already ravaged by volcanic eruptions, making them more dangerous than ever. And let’s just say you’re not the only one searching for the artifact.

As we stated before, we’re working hard to make sure you’ll be able to continue your adventure and keep all the progress you’ve already achieved.

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Buccaneers, refreshed — WIP
Updated costume concepts for the Buccaneer faction. Other factions are getting attention as well.

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New armor on the horizon — WIPA first look at concept work for possible character armor sets. 

We are going to introduce a complete fourth biome: Ashlands. As the name suggests, it suffered from volcanic eruptions long ago, leaving its mark on the settlers who lived here, and on those who came after.

Uncover relics and secrets of the past, preserved under volcanic ash, but be prepared for those who may still guard these treasures. You can expect a variety of new islands with new enemies, items, resources, recipes, points of interest, and, of course, a new challenging boss. Brand-new factions will enter the stage, too, and you’ll be able to expand your collection with new armor and weapon variants.

We want every biome to feel and play differently, so on top of all the new content, we’re also looking into new biome mechanics to experiment with.

We were stunned by the number of amazingly creative builds you showcased, and we’ll happily expand this aspect of the game in Ashlands. We plan to introduce a plethora of new decorations, expand the existing building sets with useful new pieces, and work on a couple of QoL improvements.

Speaking of which, don’t forget to visit our community ideas page to vote for various requests and submit your own: https://windrose.support/ideas

We’re also happy to see that our camp NPCs were well received, so we’ll be looking to expand this system as well.

We feel that our ship gameplay has a lot of room for expansion, and we also have tons of your ideas and requests to draw from. It won’t be possible to tuck everything we’d like into one update, but we’ll surely experiment with and implement a few additions to this part of Windrose.

Here are a few things we’re looking into:

• Enriching and deepening ship gameplay in ways inspired by both your feedback and our own plans

• More ship classes, with at least one being added in Ashlands, plus more faction ship variants

• Giving combat gameplay more care and attention

• AI improvements, such as NPC ships behaving more naturally, sailing in formations, and so on

We are also aware of the popular request to add wind influence on sailing to the game. We’ll definitely be exploring this idea as well, and we originally intended to. But let us be crystal clear: we want it to be fun and simple. Windrose aims to be an adventure, without some of the more hardcore simulation aspects.

And, of course, expect more shanties! We were deeply touched by how well these were received. We don’t want to spoil everything, but your collection will be significantly expanded.

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More ships for the seas — WIPWe're currently working on the Brigantine, Fluyt, and Galleon. While plans may change, we expect at least one of these ships to make its way into Ashlands.

That’s the general direction we’re taking with Ashlands. If you have any questions about the update, let us know in the comments. We’ll do our best to answer them in a future Q&A edition.

As always, we’ll be sharing more details, including an estimated release window, as development progresses. Thank you for your incredible support, and we’ll see you soon on the seas!

Kraken Express