Hi, glad to see people enjoying the Before the Wind update! I got a couple bug reports and some feedback and have made some small changes to address these.

• Improvement: Add shell spells to the Moontide Shell Shop for controlling the weather. Useful for sailors hunting those last few fish!
  
• [Maelstrom] Improvement: Lightkeepers at the Lighthouse will now give directions to find the Maelstrom if you have not found it yet.
  
• [Maelstrom] Improvement: More sailor types can be rescued from the Wormkin cages
  
• Bugfix: Fix case where certain loadouts would have a broken visual at a distance

Thanks to everyone for playing and following along with the game! It was really nice to see all the positive comments about 1.6 😊

Hello, it's been a while, but I'm happy to formally release the 1.6.0 update to Sail Forth, which I'm calling Before the Wind! This update contains a wide variety of features and improvements that are focused around both responding to community feedback and better integrating the recently added open world design with the rest of the game.

The key new features are a combined and improved map screen, a new spyglass item, persistent NPC ships which inhabit the world, and an expanded world map + new bosses for the Maelstrom DLC.


The world map has been changed and improved significantly. The old Area Map and World Map items on the Radial Menu have been combined into a single Map which can be zoomed in and out of. You can fast travel when zoomed out in the map, and view nearby islands or points of interest when zoomed in. Map markers can now be viewed and placed regardless of the zoom level.

The map now also displays a global wind field representing the wind direction at that location. I read feedback that some players experienced the wind suddenly changing directions unexpectedly as they traveled, which I discovered the source of and fixed. The wind is now a smooth field across the entire world map which shifts slowly over time and with weather conditions, and there should be no sharp changes in direction. This should make planning a sailing route to a destination a lot easier!

With the new map features and further improvements to the open world which I'll get into below, it also made sense to prevent fast travel to locations until they have been visited at least once. Locations that have not been explored yet are now labeled on the map, and the fog of war visuals have been improved to display exactly where you've explored anywhere in the Deepblue.


The spyglass is a brand new key item which is given to the player during the opening tutorial. Saves that have already completed the opening will simply have the spyglass added to their inventory.

It occupies a conveniently freed up spot on the Radial Menu and can be used to spot distant locations and ships. Spotted locations are marked on the map as an Unrevealed Location. This is a big new way to explore and find locations around you while sailing in the ocean.

Spotting distant ships is a handy way to identify hostile ships before they engage you, so you can decide whether to try to avoid them or attack. Some ships now have special names, which will be displayed if they have one, which brings us to the next feature!


All of the generated enemy and friendly ships are now persistent entities in the world which have their own agendas. Both enemy and friendly ships will sail between locations and can be encountered while out in the Deepblue. This should greatly increase the amount of stuff going on when sailing between locations, as previously these ships could only be encountered within a location.

Entities traveling around the world map in the editor view
The old merchant fleets which sometimes spawned at Shipshape Shop locations have been updated with this system, and now travel between all the different shops. Following them is handy way to discover new areas!

Friendly ships also now better track player reputation, which means that pirating merchant fleets should be a bit more of a dangerous career.

There is also a new entity type, which is a Skull fleet. These are difficult enemies that should be avoided unless you are well armed.


I've also added two new ships to the game. The first is the Swift, a lighter Brigantine rig which is fast but still decently armed. It's a great pick for exploring dangerous areas!

The next is the Proa, a Polynesian-influenced outrigger which is quite nimble and also very lightly armed. Great for quick travel but skilled sailors can also completely out maneuver opponents.


Finally, the Maelstrom DLC has been massively expanded upon, increasing the size of its world map and added 4 new bosses to encounter within it.

The world under the Maelstroms, the Underside, is now its own full map which connects to the above world at each of the Maelstrom locations. These can be sailed between just like in the above world.

There are also 4 new bosses to defeat within the Underside, which are unlocked as the main story is progressed. These bosses drop new powerful upgrades for your fleet and can be fought multiple times.

The Arcane Shop has two new weapons available, the Light Bringer and the Sun Lance. The Sun Lance is the first beam weapon that can be equipped to ships, and is a lot of fun to use.


There are a bunch of bug fixes and smaller improvements as well, too many to enumerate. Some key things to mention though are a fix to Xbox which could cause saves to lose their DLC items, a totally rewritten final boss based on player feedback, and some fixes to a few fish which were not spawning under the conditions they were intended to.


Thank you once again for your continued support and patience, this update would honestly not exist without your support! I want to give special thanks to all the members of the Discord who gave detailed feedback and tested early versions of this update. I'd encourage everyone to join the Discord if you're interested in getting the most up to date news on the game's development, news about beta versions, and eventually future projects beyond Sail Forth!

I'd also say that if you've been lurking and waiting to try the game, now would be a great time to try it out! I think this update puts it in a really good place and it's the closest it's ever been to what I imagined.

Good luck, and Gorbspeed!

Hi everyone, I've been working on a pretty large update to the game which includes quite a bit of stuff, and I think it's about time to make it available in the experimental branch for testing. It still has a ways to go so I expect it to remain in the preview branch for a while longer while I bug fix and finish additional content not yet enabled in this release.

The biggest changes so far are combining the world/local map into 1 radial menu item, the addition of the spyglass, and the world entity system. The map now shows a wind field to help plan your sailing routes better, this will shift over the course of in-game days! The spyglass is obtained during the tutorial and is used to spot distant locations and ships. The entity system allows for fully persistent AI boats that travel around the world in the same way you do, and can be encountered out in the Deepblue or within locations. This completely replaces the old system of simply spawning a few NPCs randomly at each location.

This is compatible with old saves, but as usual your save will not be portable back to the old version of the game (see below for instructions on recovering your original save file).

If you have the game on Steam and would like to opt-in to the beta, you can do so by right-clicking the game in your Library, selecting Properties > Betas, and choosing `public_preview` from the dropdown. You'll see `1.6.0` at the bottom right of the in-game options screen if you're on the beta.

It is very important to note that if you do this your save file will become incompatible with the old version! The game will automatically create a backup of your original save on load, which can be found on Windows at `%appdata%\..\LocalLow\Festive Vector\Sail Forth\boat-game-old.save`

If you want to return to playing the old version before the update is released, replace `boat-game.save` with `boat-game-{previous version}.save` Otherwise you can continue playing your save in the public preview branch until the update is fully released. The previous version should be `1.5.8` if you were playing on an up to date build of the game.

Unlike previous betas I've done, this one is going to be longer, and I expect a lot of changes to be coming into the preview branch as there is still at least one major feature I intend to add. This means things will probably be less stable than usual, so please be ready to experience *bugs*. For instance, the Free Sail mode is likely broken at the moment due to the new entity system, which will of course be fixed but is just a low priority right now in terms of getting the update ready.

If you find a bug you can now report it directly from the game, using the 'Feedback' option found in the pause menu. This is helpful for me as it includes a copy of your save file, the log, and a screenshot which makes it much easier for me to find and fix the bug.

• Area Map and World Map are combined into a single item on the Radial Menu
  
• Map marker can be viewed and placed from the zoomed out world map mode
  
• Map identifies unexplored locations
  
• Unexplored locations cannot be fast traveled to
  
• Map now shows the global wind field in the background
  
• Wind is now a continuous field across the entire world, shifting over time
  
• World Entity system: Enemy and friendly boat NPCs are now persistent entities in the world
  
• NPC boats have their own agenda and travel around the world freely
  
• Players can now encounter these boats out in the Deepblue
  
• Added new Enemy Fleet entity type, lead by a large pirate flagship
  
• Added Croaker Subs as a potential NPC type, which will patrol Autumn Isles and engage pirates/tekk clan
  
• Some NPC boats have custom names, visible in Spyglass view
  
• Added new Spyglass key item
  
• Acquired in tutorial instead of first map fragment
  
• Used from Radial Menu to spot distant locations and ships
  
• Can place map marker directly from Spyglass when looking at a Point of Interest
  
• Will be retroactively added to existing saves that have completed the tutorial
  
• New large class ship: The Swift, a light brigantine rigged ship
  
• Revised final boss battle to hopefully be less tedious and more fun
  
• AI ships will try to tack against the wind to reach their destination faster
  
• Skull ships will use cosmetics to express themselves
  
• (PC Only): Custom sail decals can now be loaded from the game’s save folder
  
• New art assets for birds
  
• Better preview when customizing boat sails and colors
  
• Moontide weapon fx are less blindingly bright
  
• Player reputation is better tracked by civilians and merchant ships, engaging in piracy should have more consequences now
  
• General perf improvements to rendering
  
• Bugfix: Fix some cases where some encounters like the Shell Shop might fail to spawn in the location they are said to be in
  
• Bugfix: Xbox should properly recognize DLC on launch, fixing issue that could result in DLC items being stripped from save file
  
• Bugfix: Final boss should no longer get stuck in first phase
  
• Bugfix: Shell Shop no longer sells first item for free
  
• Bugfix: Potential error in fast travel route planning causing the route to be longer than necessary
  
• Bugfix: Potential error in Moontide rescue animals encounter
  
• Bugfix: The ‘Glubsugnite’ fish now spawns in the biome it is said to spawn in
  
• Bugfix: Moontide intro should occur properly when entering Pine Peaks for the first time
  
• Bugfix: Skull Summoning Circle is properly shown in the map legend
  
• Bugfix: Escorts should not target boats the player is currently boarding
  
• More to come...

• Improvement: New weapon, the Arcane Sun Lance
  
• More to come...

Hello! I'm back from a trip and getting back into work on Sail Forth. This patch fixes a few bugs and also contains some nice quality of life improvements to crew management.

Some of you are apparently racking up hundreds of sailors below deck, and managing this screen plus finding the sailor you want to crew a boat starts to get a bit difficult. This update adds some filtering options to the below deck screen so you can filter to *just* Skull Clan for example.

This also includes a faster way to fill a boat with sailors via the new 'fill crew' option in the crew management screen, which uses the same filtering options to enable quickly crewing a boat with a particular sailor type.

• Improvement: Add a tab to crew inventory screen for filtering sailors by type, helpful when dealing with large numbers of sailors below deck
  
• Improvement: Add “Fill Crew” with type selector option to crew management screen, useful for quickly filling an empty boat with sailors
  
• As a part of this change, “Remove All Crew” was moved to be below the “Crew” section of the screen, to be consistent with it’s behavior in only removing crew members, not the captain
  
• Improvement: Updated visuals when boats are equipped with golden oars
  
• Bugfix: Fix a bug that sometimes resulted in locations having incorrect boundaries after fast travel
  
• Bugfix: Handle fast traveling in the middle of Gregg’s penguin quest
  
• Bugfix: Fixes to ensure achievements are properly unlocked, especially in Epic build

As always thanks to everyone for playing and following along with the game! Barring any important bug fixes, I intend the next update to include some fun new content and mechanics!

Ahoy! This is another small patch which fixes one *big* thing I came across in my own testing, plus a few smaller tweaks and fixes to things I've seen reported.

This does include one new feature, which is that boats can now turn (slowly) in place! This uses the boats oars (and rowing stats) to turn when your speed is set to 0 and you turn the helm. It shouldn't be fast enough to significantly change any tactics but it is quite helpful if you're in a tight spot and want to maneuver your way out of it.

I've historically been kind of against this as it felt like it might be a little too 'arcadey' but I've been convinced that it does make sense and I think the way it's implemented still feels realistic and maintains the weight of the boats. Let me know what you think!

• Fix a major bug that caused locations with DLC content in them to have incorrect boundaries when the DLC is not installed
  
• Boats can now turn (very slowly) in place by using oars
  
• Make torpedo waves a bit smaller
  
• Photo hunt encounters are now properly marked as complete across the map when all giant creatures have been photographed

As always thanks to everyone for playing and following along with the game!

Greetings! This is a small bug fix patch to smooth out a few issues I've come across and seen reported.

• Fixed some cases where the map would sometimes freeze or display islands incorrectly
  
• Fixed a bug where the Angler Emporium liberation battle would sometimes fail to register as complete
  
• Fix an error that could occur when talking to Picklepea again after completing the Frogghammer battle
  
• Fix an edge case where meeting the Moontide for the first time at Barnacle Base would result in a broken game state
  
• Fix Shell Shop requiring the shop to be re-opened for each purchase
  
• Potentially fix an edge case where the final boss would not progress to the next phase after taking damage
  
• Add some checks to re-unlock key achievements when appropriate, if they were somehow missed previously
  
• Fix some cases in late game where a cinematic teleporting the player to a new location might behave strangely
  
• Add a backup save file, updated on each launch of the game called “boat-game-backup.save”

As always thanks to everyone for playing and following along with the game!

Ahoy! This update features a revision to the Skull Summoning Circle encounter, along with numerous bug fixes. The game has now been downloaded several million times(!) on Epic due to the free week which as you can imagine has resulted in many new issues being found!

• Revised the design of the Skull Summoning Circle: Waves are now triggered one at a time, and there are torches surrounding each Skull which are destroyed as each wave is defeated. The state is saved for each location, so you can return whenever you like to continue the challenge.
  
• Fix cases where enemy waves would spawn at the wrong time during Skull Clan summoning encounter
  
• Captains of ships should no longer go down with the ship, despite the popular saying. This should make assigning a crew member as Captain essentially a way to keep them alive forever, as long as you are diligent about picking them back up out of the sea!
  
• Add "Active DLC" list to main menu to make it more clear if you've installed it successfully.
  
• Fix cases where boat physics could become bugged, causing them to ‘drift’ far more than intended
  
• Fix cases where Bonnibel and Kerblapp would not show up to collect your Bibble Bait Penguins
  
• Fix Shell Shop taking all your pearls instead of the advertised amount
  
• Fix Lightkeeper conclusion event triggering again if talked to immediately after
  
• Priscilla and Nausicaa correctly hint at which locations you are missing a Deadrock from
  
• Fix a missing Lightkeeper dialog string
  
• Fix local map not opening to correct screen the first time
  
• Fix a positioning error on a cosmetic slot on the Sakana
  
• Add ‘secret’ fps uncap option in the options file (not exposed to UI yet)

I saw a few people in feedback mentioning wanting uncapped FPS. I haven't had time to add it to the UI yet but if you dig up the options save file (next to the save file), you'll find the entry "EnableFrameLimit" in the XML which you can set to false.

Both save files can be found here on Windows, the options file is called boat-game.options.

As always thanks to everyone for playing and following along with the game!

Hey everyone! With the influx of new players from Epic in conjunction with the new updates there have been *a bunch* of new feedback and bug reports so I’m doing everything I can to address things as quickly as possible. These early patches are intended to address the issues with the biggest impact and other items will be looked at soon after.

This patch actually contains two new versions, detailed below.

• Fix potential soft lock in Croaker recruitment arc when searching for Teknowreckage
  
• Fix intermittent errors when aiming cannons
  
• Fixes to crew boarding logic, fixes some cases where boarding sequence would fail to complete

• Fix cases where the achievement for catching all fish was unlocked early on game load
  
• Fix Aurora Lantern cosmetic displaying as a different lantern when equipped

Thanks to everyone for playing and providing positive feedback about the game, it’s incredibly motivating! If you’ve submitted feedback in-game and haven’t seen it addressed here, don’t worry, I’ve definitely seen it and am working on it!

Hello and welcome to the Maelstrom update! This adds support for the Maelstrom DLC in addition to a host of new features, content and fixes to the base game. The biggest new feature is the addition of the ship cosmetic system, which allows you to equip special cosmetic items to specific slots on your boat to further customize its appearance.

Cosmetic System
- Add cosmetic slots to all boats
- Boat helms are now cosmetic items
- Boat flags are now cosmetic items
- Add cosmetic items to Shipshape Shop and loot tables

World Map
- Improve the UX of the combined local and world map
- Can zoom into local map or out to world map
- Can pan freely in local map without restrictions
- Better rendering in local map of nearby locations
- Can fast travel back to the location you’re currently in

New Encounter
- Skull Clan Summoning Circle: For those seeking additional challenge. Look for a big skull atop a rock surrounded by torches!

New Items
- Add several new types of flags to equip in boat cosmetic slots
- Add several boat helms to equip in boat cosmetic slots
- Add many other cosmetic items such as lanterns and figureheads

New Timepiece Key Item
- Allows fast forwarding to sunset or sunrise and seeing the current time
- Talk to the Lightkeepers after doing some of their quests

Misc Features/Fixes
- Toot and Goose can now be retrieved in the end-game from their camping spot
- Perf improvements to inventory screen with many items
- Ship outfit screen has better camera movement for viewing current slot
- Fix boat repairs being getting stuck if fast travel is triggered mid repair
- Items acquired from Shell Shop show proper prices at other shops
- The Manage Docked Boats screen now shows stats of the selected boat
- Fix boats sometimes showing up in the wrong section of the sell boats screen
- Fix case where Marga might not spawn after getting the Harpoon until player fast traveled
- Fire arbalest variants are now linked to the correct visuals
- Fix a case where dialog would fail to progress when rescuing some Moontiders from the Tekk Clan
- Fix a case where capturing a Tekk Clan ship could result in some broken crew members on your ship which would then cause all sorts of other issues like getting stuck on the fishing screen
- Fix another case where an already sinking sailor could be picked up and then get into a broken state
- Increased hit box for Tekk Clan Tower panels
- Weather properly returns to normal after destroying Tekk Clan Towers
- Fix case where boats could get stuck repairing when fast traveling mid repair
- Fix case where boat physics could get broken if the oar shove off sequence was interrupted
- Fix potential soft lock in Lightkeeper Recruitment arc where players could end up unable to deliver the Spectral Oil to Bello
- Fix missing string when asking Lightkeepers for directions
- Fix missing strings for Tekk Speedboat name and description
- Fix a rare case where turning in an old photo to Snapps could result in a soft lock
- Fix some cases where teleporting the player boat to safety could mistakenly put the boat inside an island


New Items
- Add Maelstrom-themed cosmetic items
- Add Maelstrom-themed weapons
- Add Maelstrom-themed loot and pearls

New Sailable Boat
- Added the Wormkin Warship, a giant hollowed-out worm carcass with lateen sails

New Enemies
- Lesser Worms: small 1-shot enemies that try to collide with your ship
- Greater Worms: large monsters that circle your ship and attempt to ram it
- Wormkin Ships: powerful warships crewed by worm-infested sailors
- Wormkin Towers: cannon-equipped towers used by the Wormkin

New Biome
- The Underworld: A dangerous new area beneath the Maelstrom and home to the Wormkin. It seems to be in a constant state of change, reshaping itself daily.

New Encounters
- The Maelstrom: A large whirlpool that transports the player to and from the Underworld, found in several locations throughout the world
- Arcane Lightkeeper: A mysterious NPC who is willing to sell ancient items in exchange for valuable loot found in the Underworld
- Wormkin Nest: These glowing nest pods contain valuable items, but disturb them at your own risk
- Wormkin Fort: The Wormkin often take lost sailors captive, and hold them in cages here