Sailwind - sailing sim in forever early access.

[spectre]

I searched and found no thread for it. Too niche for the Codex? Well, there is one now.

The game's been in development for quite some time (the 2021 release date is ) by a single developer, which sorta explains the glacial pace of changes.
However, it's made some progress fairly recently, which is why this shit deserves your attention.
Some time ago, sail customization was added in a major update, which means you can try and recreate any historical sail plan. In my experience, this elevated the game
Just recently, the developer has dropped a new build in the beta branch for testing an overhaul of certain mechanics - new container system which finally lets you pack your shit in crates
as well as an overhaul in the nutrition system, introducing food spoilage and ways to prevent it (salting, drying, cooking - the latter was already in the game, but pretty rudimentary).
So far it still needs time in the oven, but it's getting there.

So, what do we got here?
Game looks to be forever in forever early access, but that's to be expected. Single developer, very niche subject. What is important, features are rolling out at their own pace.
Gameplay is simple, you get a boat and sail it across three main archipelagos (distance between the westernmost and easternmost bit of land is 2600 nautical miles).
You take on cargo delivery missions, do your own trading, make money to get more money, buy a bigger ship (6 boats available at the moment), pimp it out to your liking,
learn to navigate by the sun, stars and compass and explore the world.

Game is made in unity, for better or worse. Despite this, the modding scene is quite active, and modders are really able to fill in some of the blanks for the single dev.
From simple QoL, expanded shipyard options, to adding whales and floatsam to add some flavor to the sea voyages.

The graphics are spartan, but the style is actually growing on me, it's actually pretty uniform, though I am hoping the assets get a second pass at some point in time.
What matters are the waves, which are decently modeled, even though stuff like rain effects or the kilwater wake do look dated. Overall, it's able to achieve

Other than some dedicated training sims for modern boats, there's no other game like this. And even then, being able to customize your sail plan is what elevates it.

There are no "violent" activities, no fighting, no cannons to shoot. If that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere (and good luck, the genre looks a bit dead).
That's by design from the developer, so I wouldn't expect any changes here.
If you're looking for a game to make you appreciate "classic" sailing and navigational techniques, that's the one to try.
It's a chill experience, where you're welcome to enjoy the view, do some fishing, sweep the deck, trim the sails, get hammered and go to sleep as the sea underneath rolls by.
You can think of it as a "life at sea" sim, not necessary something to practice on while getting a certificate, but it still demands that you pay attention to the fundamentals.
The simulation is pretty accessible. It can be simplistic at times and in certain aspects (e.g. the ship can take in water, and will eventually sink, but the water "evaporates" on its own after some time),
but if you pick up a sailing technique from a book or video, the game will most likely let you employ it to some effect.
Sail control is handled through winches to adjust the sails, while looking similar Sea of Thieves, it's much more complex.
You get wind shadow, sail unbalance resulting in heeling.
When it comes down to it, you will be manning an up to three-mast ship on your own, so a certain degree of simplification is warranted. A simple sloop-rigged cog is easy,
but a three masted brig is really a handful for one person. The game could really benefit from multiplayer and it's declared to be in the pipeline, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

Weather is simplified (basically, the simulation restarts every time on game load), but good enough. There are storms and tradewinds (prevalent wind with a certain % of variation).
Tide fluctuation isn't in the base game, but there's a mod for it.
Cargo balance affects the way the boat handles. Put in too many crates and it sinks. Run into a storm while overloaded... well, this one depends if you've got them sea legs.
It's all calculated dynamically, so you can re-distribute some of the weight to compensate when a big tide comes in from a certain direction.
Tetris enjoyers will also get their fix. Smaller boats will get strained under 800 lbs of cargo, but bigger ships have proper cargo holds under the deck.

The physics is basically okay, the sails and the boat responds well enough to all the forces. Some liberties were taken for the sake of gameplay,
but the different points of sail will feel distinct. It goes teats up every now and then when mooring or on object collision
To sum up on realism, closest analogue I can think of is Sailwind is like the War Thunder of aviation (albeit in a different medium).
Not 100% realistic, and first and foremost a game. Will probably get better as more features roll in, e.g. sail and hull damage isn't in yet, but it's in the pipeline.

Going back to gameplay itself, the game is pretty much a sandbox. There are quite a few places to visit - four distinct archipelagos (no proper continents and going inland as of yet) and a few uncharted islands.
You can own six ships, three small ones (cog, dhow, kakam), three big ones (junk, sanbuq and brig) and customize them to your heart's content, from minor upgrades
like bigger rudder, to adding and removing the cabins, to changing the number of masts. You can add rigging to support extra jibs, add and remove extra square sails, jibs, gaffs.
(and if all this sounds all greek to me, the game will teach you all about those in practice).
Each major port has a different selection of canvas for you to hang, and it's possible to mix and match European-style sails with all kinds of Asian fins, just takes some running around.

So, why should you care?
Simply put, the magic is there. You fiddle with the winches to set the sail, the boat slowly (or violently, depends on the wind) creaks to life and starts moving away from dry land.
If that doesn't trigger some sort a response in your brain, I formally declare you dead inside.
You can make a short trip within the archipelago, or commit to one or two weeks out at sea with no reference point other than the stars, trying to keep yourself alive between the crashing waves.
That and the ASMR of waves and wind puts you in a contemplative mood.

 

[spectre]

Posting the recent beta notes, if anyone's interested.

The next content update is coming very soon, adding storage crates and expanding the food system. A new beta build is available now for testing the new features.
Storage crates You will now be able to store small items in crates - no more loose items cluttering your boat! Crates will function as an external inventory, allowing you to store any items you could normally put in your player inventory.Crates bought on the market will come sealed, and have to remain sealed and unopened in order to be sold again for the full price. At any time you can break the seal, allowing you to store and withdraw any items freely.
Food spoilage and preservation This update will add some depth and complexity to storing and managing your food supplies, especially for longer voyages. Fresh food such as fish you catch or individual food items bought at food stalls will now spoil over time unless preserved properly. Meat and fish will spoil after about a day, fruits and vegetables can last for several days, bread can last for a week or so.There are several ways to preserve your food, each with its advantages and disadvantages:

• Drying

smaller items such as fruits can be dried simply by cutting them into slices, and leaving them out in the open. For faster drying, you can also place them on the new drying rack, available for purchase at your local furniture store.

• Smoking:

larger foods such as meat and fish can be smoked in a smoker. Similar to cooking, this requires firewood and some time. Cutting your food into slices will reduce the time it takes to smoke it. However, smoking your food takes much more time (and firewood) than regular cooking.

• Salting:

you can also salt your fresh food to massively reduce the time it takes to dry it fully, making it a viable option even for meat and fish. Salting is quick and easy, and does not require any additional tools. However, the salt itself is expensive, and eating salted food will also dehydrate you.

Things to note:

• Food crates purchased in shops or on the market will come preserved - either dried or smoked, so you don't have to worry about your cargo going bad during transport. Because of this, crates of preserved food will now be more expensive, and fresh food sold at shop stalls will be cheaper.
• Smaller pieces of food dry quicker - use the new knife (available for purchase in capital cities) to cut your food into smaller slices).
• Cooking can also slow down the spoiling process - as long as your food remains hot, spoiling will stop.
• Smoking your food will also cook it (but more slowly than the stove).
• Food will not dry when it is inside a crate.
• Food that is partially preserved will spoil more slowly, and you can also combine different methods of preservation to combine the effects, but food has to be either fully dried or fully smoked to completely prevent it from spoiling.
• Salting by itself does not stop spoiling, but only speeds up drying - your food can still spoil if you don't give it enough time to dry before it spoils!

Nutrition The update also adds an additional nutrition layer to managing your food consumption. To stay healthy, you will need to eat a certain amount of meat or fish and fruits or vegetables. In general, this means you will need some variety in your diet and can no longer rely on one kind of food to keep you fed forever.
But don't worry - this requirement should not feel intrusive and in most cases won't be noticeable, especially in the early game. However, when planning for a long journey across the ocean, relying just on your fishing rod will not be enough, and you will need to consider taking some additional provisions with you to ensure you stay healthy.

 

[sebas]

I really need to make a game about watching paint dry.

 

[Aemar]

I really need to make a game about watching paint dry.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I recently started to learn how to sail and I was thinking that it would be neat to have a game for "dry practice". I‘m wondering the simulation is deep enough for that purpose? I will take a closer look.

 

[spectre]

I recently started to learn how to sail and I was thinking that it would be neat to have a game for "dry practice". I‘m wondering the simulation is deep enough for that purpose? I will take a closer look.

A lot of people playing this said they were inspired to try the real thing and the game taught them some basic what's what.
And people who actually sail say it's a decent ersatz. Captures the feeling of the real thing, even though it's a bit too lenient at times.

I don't really have any sailing experience to compare. Practical result is that a wiki page about sail plans used to read like Greek to me. Still does, but some words start looking familiar.

For navigational purposes, it's a mixed bag, cause while the game lets you use all the historical techniques like triangulation, looking up the north star, quadrant, dead reckoning and clock for latitude,
(the game also features a chronocompass which measures longitude and latitude, which isn't a real thing. but the compass, quadrant and solar compass behave decently.
If anything, the instruments arent perfectly accurate, so it's expected that you eyeball things), so you get some appreciation for those, as well as people who used those historically to travel.
The world itself unfortunately doesn't represent Earth (the stars are completely different) and you need mods to get stuff like tides or dead zones.

Sailwind is basically ~18 century, so for your particular purpose something like eSail might be better cause it focuses on modern sailboats, tools and actual procedures.
OTOH, not much of a game in there.

 

[luj1]

Interesting stuff

 

[spectre]

Ok, so the checque bounced. Time to write about some cons. I think I mentioned the game can be janky. Plenty of bugs, as expected from a solo dev, some has been around for some time. Nothing really gamebreaking, but some annoyances.

You got the usual brain farts from the physics engine when stuff collides weirdly and produces an over the top result (mostly happens with mooring lines), sails unfurling weirdly, 3D ropes being weird after tweaking the sail plan, finding yourself in the water after waking up.

Biggest one for me is clipping through harbor quays. After some time I learned how not to fall off (too much) when moving cargo. This seems to depend on the region. The assets that were developed first seem to suffer from overdesign, crampedness and invisible barriers. I have some hope for them getting a second pass, but won’t be holding my breath.

Fair’s fair, some modders do a good job fixing some of the more obnoxious stuff, if you dig around. Also, the discord is pretty active, plenty of decent people who will point you in the right direction unless you insist on being a dick.

The economy is simple, but in its simplicity there is surprising depth. Basically, each island produces something (some faster, some slower) and usually wants it delivered somewhere. The rules are straightforward – the longer the route, the better the pay-off, but you will get railroaded into certain trade routes. Prices change dynamically based on transactions, so profitability can change. Each of the three archipelagos uses a different currency with variable exchange rates.

In practice, you struggle in the beginning until you get a starting capital going for trading. After that, it’s capitalism, baby. Money makes more money. Especially big ships will act as money printers as running costs are negligible (basically – food and lighting) and cargo capacity stops being a limiting factor. Biggest money sink is probably getting the navigation instruments and pimping out your boat. The latter can eat up quite a lot of money, especially if you want to experiment with different mast arrangements.

That said, it’s a sanbox with no endgame. You’re done when you feel you’re done, but if you happen to get hooked on the basic sailing, there’s always something to try.

Made some screenshots. The game doesn't look like much when it comes to graphical fidelity, the models aren't hi res and the textures are rather simple. In fact, it can be pretty janky at times and ground geometry can be particularly awful. However, the sum is much greater than its parts (it reminds me of Long Dark in that respect). It can look surprisingly good and achieve a very atmospheric result with just a simple play of light and shadow. Also, runs butter smooth on my rig, so there's that.

This us one of the starter boats - the cog in different stages of its life cycle. It starts off with a cabin and a square sail + jib combo (not pictured).
It was a bit of a challenge for the noob-me at that time, so I replaced them with a lateen sail, and had a brief stint with a small square sail on the bowsprit, then went with three triangles,
as I've gotten my sea legs, I settled for the versatile square + genoa + gaff sail combo. I also removed the cabin because it was heavy and I wanted more visibility.

Managed to cross the ocean in this thing, and it was quite the rite of passage. I hilariously underestimated the amount of provisions needed and had to ration pretty tightly
and arrived half-dead from dehydration. Didn't help that I decided to practice navigation on the go and got a bit lost along the way.
Suffice to say, when I actually saw a speck of land on the horizon, it made me realize what a celebration it is to finally cry out Land Ho! after weeks out at sea.

The game has plenty of nice touches, as you travel between archipelagos the water tint will change, as well as the species of fish you will be finding on your hook.

 

[spectre]

Not to make a false advertisement (the check still bounces), your typical pov will usually look like this. Vegetation is fugly, but has a certain charm to it.

Notice the dial on the right of the wheel, it's the chip log which is used to measure speed in knots. The operation is analog, you drop the end into the water like a fishing rod and get a readout.
Or not. It's based on in-game physics, so if the waves are big enough to throw it around, it might reel itself back in.

There are all kinds of ports. From small island sanctuaries to bustling regional capitals. Each island cluster has a distinct theme, there's Mediterranean Europe, Arabia and Orient.
Some AI traffic happens between the islands (not on the Ocean as of yet, but it's a big place), sometimes they get stranded on sandbars (pictured, bottom right), another time they annoyingly take up harbor space.
All in all, each location has a distinct feel, and sometimes finding the right approach can be challenging, if the wind decides to be unhelpful.

 

[spectre]

Final batch, to showcase the game's main appeal, the shipyard.
Below are the three biggest hulls available, all lined up in one place - the Sanbuq, Junk and Brig.
The Sanbuq started with an Arabian-themed rigging with dual lateen sails, and the junk used to be a proper oriental vessel with a big cabin in the center making it look like a floating home.
Here's what it looks like with all the cabins removed (easier access for cargo) and western sails. If it feels like you can easily turn the junk into a viking longboat lookalike, you totally can.
Just remove the foremast and mizzen mast, leaving just the main with the largest wide square sail you can find.

I don't have many pictures of oriental sails because I'm... just not a fan, but there's a decent selection in-game, including fin sails, gaffs and the squares which look like window blinds.
Basically, each shipyard has a selection with a few unique picks. Basic jibs and gaffs are generally available, so it's possible to make something functional no matter where you are,
but if you want to really optimise, be ready to make a round-trip to pick the best stuff. One port has excellent gaffs, while another has great jibs, for example.

You're free to make something utterly ridiculous, or deliberately unbalanced (which in this context means - it'll make the boat heel, or tilt to a side).
Or recreate an actual design used in history, the last two are my attempt to rig the brig to resemble a dutch fluyt.

I reckon the important part here is does any of this even matter in game. And the answer is - most assuredly so.
Different sail plans will show their strengths and weaknesses which become apparent at different points of sail (i.e. how is the boat positioned relative to the wind)
as well as what kind of performance you can get out of them. This means different speeds (of course, you are ultimately at the mercy of the elements. No wind means you're not going anywhere),
but also maneuverability, visibility and workload required. A simple rigging will have all the controls in one place, accessible from the helm, with minimal running around,
whereas a fully rigged brig can feature an absurd number of winches and halyards (I've seen around 70), taking 15 real time minutes to get all set up. This is where
all the simplifications begin to make sense, as you wouldn't be able to operate such a vessel with just a pair of hands. It's still quite challenging.

Okay, did enough shilling for the day, image spam ends now.