Voyage to Ashlands: Ship Customization, pt.1
Ahoy, captains!As you may have noticed, we just revealed the release window for our next update, Ashlands, in the trailer that premiered during the Triple-i Initiative. If you missed it, you can watch it below:And while we’re sure you have plenty of questions (especially about that last part) all in good time! From here on out, we want to regularly share more about what’s coming in Ashlands. This is our first major update, and after reading through your feedback and ideas, doing a lot of prototyping and experimenting, and figuring out what works best, the overall scope of the update is now more or less defined. And while we’re still working on many of its features, we already have plenty we can share with you.So, it’s high time we started revealing them, and talking a little about the thinking behind our decisions. As always, your feedback, comments, and opinions are more than welcome, so let us know what you think.Our first stop: ships. More specifically, ship customization. Naval gameplay has consistently been one of the most discussed — and most requested — parts of Windrose, so we wanted to give you more ways to make your ship truly your own.Making the ship your ownBut first, a little about our approach to ships.As you’ve probably noticed, ship customization was still in its infancy when Windrose launched into Early Access. We always intended to expand it, but once we started working on that expansion, we ran into a few problems with the current implementation.At the moment, faction-specific versions of ships are available for two of our factions: the Brethren of the Coast and Blackbeard’s Crew. On paper, this gives each faction a distinct identity. In practice, however, the system turned out to be much more restrictive than we wanted:For one, the room for customization was limited. Faction-specific hulls and sails already accounted for a large part of the visual variation available to each ship, leaving less room for you to make the vessel your own.There were also conflicts between customization options. Some exterior elements were as well tied to specific faction variants, so changing the overall look of your ship often meant switching to a different faction version altogether.And, of course, Windrose has far more than two factions. Each has its own visual identity and character, but creating a separate version of every ship for every faction would mean multiplying the number of hulls, visual variants, balance cases, and combinations we need to develop and support. The further we expanded the system, the harder it would become to maintain, while still giving you surprisingly little actual freedom.Simply put, the system was too restrictive and too cumbersome to expand properly. So, with your feedback in mind, we decided to rework it from the ground up. Our new direction is to move away from predefined faction ships and make ship customization broader and more flexible, both visually and mechanically. In practice, this means several major changes to how ship customization works: We’re moving away from predefined faction-specific ship variants. Instead of choosing between a stock ship and separate Brethren of the Coast or Blackbeard’s Crew versions, you’ll simply choose the ship class you want and customize it from there. If you build a Ketch, for example, you’ll have access to the full pool of customization options available for the Ketch — there will no longer be separate faction versions of that ship.Exterior customization will become broader and more flexible. Some of the visual options that were previously tied to faction-specific ships will become part of a wider customization system, alongside new elements we’re planning to add. The idea is to give you more freedom to mix and match different visual elements instead of locking them into predefined combinations.Interior customization is getting a major expansion as well. You’ll be able to customize the ship’s hold with functional and decorative elements, turning it into a space that can support the way you want to play rather than simply remaining an empty part of the vessel. That’s the part we’ll be focusing on in today’s article.We’re also working on new gameplay systems tied to the ship itself. This includes, for example, exploring ways to make the crew feel more involved in your ship setup and naval gameplay, as well as expanding the ways you can use your cannons and interact with other ship systems. These ideas still need a little more time in the oven before we’re ready to share more, so we’ll get into the details once they’re further along.As mentioned above, one consequence of this new direction is that the existing faction-specific ship variants will be removed. We know that immediately raises questions about what happens to the ships you already own, so we’ll explain the migration process separately once those details are finalized. But don’t worry, you won’t lose your progress. Any resources from dismantled ships will be fully refunded.For today, though, we’re heading below deck.At sea, your ship is your homeOne thing we’ve heard from you consistently is that you want more ways to make your ship truly your own.So while the broader customization rework extends to the entire vessel, today we want to focus on one part of it in particular: the ship’s hold. We want to bring some of the functionality of your land base aboard your vessel, especially for players who enjoy spending more time at sea. After all, when you’re crossing the Archipelago, your ship is your base of operations. Your shelter. Your home away from home.That means being able to install certain useful structures below deck, such as a workbench and a cooking fire. That’s the list for now, but if there are other facilities you’d like to see aboard your ship, let us know in the comments.We’re also looking into allowing additional storage containers aboard ships alongside the regular cargo hold. They wouldn’t necessarily work exactly like your ship inventory — for example, you might not be able to access them remotely through the Flagship tab — but they could give you considerably more room to store and transport supplies.Over time, the system may expand further with additional crafting and utility options. And, of course, not everything has to serve a practical purpose. We also want to give you decorative options, so the space below deck can feel less like an empty compartment you occasionally walk through and more like a part of the ship that actually belongs to you.Some of the modules you install may also affect the ship itself, giving you another way to shape it around what you want to do. You might prepare your vessel for an expedition into the new biome, devote more space to cargo for a profitable trading run, or outfit it to better support you before picking a fight with your rivals at sea. The choice is yours.There is, however, one important limitation: unlike on land, where you can build freely, ships will have a limited number of designated building spots.That’s a deliberate decision.Ships are among the most technically complex entities in Windrose, bringing together dozens of interconnected gameplay and visual systems. They’re also demanding from a performance and optimization standpoint. Adding a fully free-form building system on top of all that could have a significant impact on performance, and that’s not a compromise we’re willing to make. We also want to preserve the look and feel of a proper sailing vessel, while keeping movement through its already fairly tight spaces clear and comfortable for players and crew alike. We’ll still do our best to give you as much freedom to customize your ship as we reasonably can, and we’ve heard your requests for more options loud and clear. But for now, fully free-form building aboard ships isn’t something we’re planning to pursue.Ultimately, we want your vessel to become more than something that simply gets you from one island to another. For those who enjoy spending time at sea, it should increasingly become a place to prepare, organize, craft, store supplies, and shape around the kind of journey you’re planning. We pour a lot of heart and soul into our ships. They play a huge role in the fantasy of Windrose, and we want this part of the game to feel as meaningful to you as it does to us. And if naval gameplay simply isn’t your cup of tea, that’s fine too. You’ll still be able to use ships much as you do now, or set them up in a way that supports the parts of the game you enjoy most.As always, it’s your ship, your journey through the Archipelago, and your way of playing. Our job is to give you more choices, and make those choices worthwhile.Thanks for reading!This dev snippet is part of our ongoing effort to bring you up to speed on what’s coming in Ashlands, our next major update. Expect to hear more from us soon, and in the meantime, let us know what you think in the comments.And there’s still plenty of cargo in the hold we haven’t shown you yet — so stay tuned! With plenty more still in the hold, — Kraken Express
Auto-posted from the developer's official Steam announcement.