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[bQt31]

   I'm surprised no one has made a thread about this early access game. Basically there are 4 non-historical (but easily moddable if you wish) factions; each one has its own philosophy (war/trade/exploration/quests). You start off by generating a random world made of 'sectors'. Each factions start with a few core sectors and the rest is occupied by pirates. You pick a faction (granting bonuses on what they focus and a discount on their favorite ship) then start your journey with a small boat.

Steam description :

   Windward is an action-adventure RPG where you control a ship set in a large randomly generated world full of procedural content that will give you a different experience every time you start a new campaign.
   Designed from the start to be a fully procedural co-op game, you can play it by yourself or invite friends to play with you. Start by generating a procedural world that will be unique to you, then sail forward fighting pirates, trading with towns, doing quests or simply exploring -- it's up to you how you want to play.

Nice features:

• Random loot system (cannons, hull, sail, cannon balls, captain, crew,...) and the usual but great different item qualities
• Skill tree with passive and (fun) active skills (incendiary bomb, ice bomb that when launched in water creates fog,...)
• Reputation system
• Different climates
• Multiplayer mode (I haven't tried it yet though as it is only direct connect for now)

Screenshots: (Warning : Big pictures)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Links:

Steam page
Changelog

Someone is hosting 2 multiplayer games on a dedicated server :

• PVE : 70.117.81.114:5127
• PVP : 70.117.81.114:6127

[jocan2003]

Ohhhhh posting to watch, love pirate game, either space or boat!

[SharpKris]

ptw

[dennislp3]

ptw

[Linenoise]

Aaargh-ing to watch!

[bQt31]

Here is my Corvette, with all my legendary items :
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/40858710401463397/31A2FDAC412E1F8AF6FCEE13E25C18A9F5F98E44/

[dennislp3]

Is this to be purely ship based or will there be any land based actions?

[Sharp]

Got my hopes up looking at this but tbh it doesn't look good. Seems like Sid Meier's Pirates but no boarding, I much prefer Corsairs! or Uncharted Waters

[bQt31]

Is this to be purely ship based or will there be any land based actions?

So far it's 100% 'ship based' and I'm pretty sure it will stay that way.

Got my hopes up looking at this but tbh it doesn't look good. Seems like Sid Meier's Pirates but no boarding, I much prefer Corsairs! or Uncharted Waters

I agree, boarding would be nice. I love the games you mentionned but this one is much more loot-oriented and sandboxy. I think the multiplayer will be very fun if there are enough players.


But what is really promising is that the dev seems to be very experienced and very active (just look at the todo-list). He's also receptive to users feedbacks. (I made him a few suggestions and 2 days later, some of them already are in the game!)

[Sharp]

But what is really promising is that the dev seems to be very experienced and very active (just look at the todo-list). He's also receptive to users feedbacks. (I made him a few suggestions and 2 days later, some of them already are in the game!)

The TODO list I can see says

TODO:
Squash bugs. If you find one, please post on the forum with how to reproduce!
Known issue: Linux + Intel GPU = crappy looking water. Not much I can do here as it’s a fall back due to a Linux Intel driver and/or Unity bug.
Known issue: OSX + Steam Overlay don’t work well together. You get a military green screen instead. Turn off Steam Overlay to play the game.
Add rain that turns on fog of war and reduces FoW revealer range + attack range while active.
Add a way to rename towns… for a price. The bigger the town, the more it costs.

Potential:
Add a… flamethrower! Might be an interesting close-range ability, kind of like Volley. Probably best left for a high-end item-granted ability.
Items that give auras to nearby units: buffs, debuffs.
Random event: city and its nearby guard towers switch faction, forcing you to get it back. Player suggestion of “rogue governor”.
Ability to drop stationary explosives (mines) in combat.
Demo? There have been warnings about doing demos from other indie devs…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY

Not exactly looking more exciting for me. I really would like something like an updated Uncharted Waters, the UW:Online doesn't seem that good.

Also the video linked about demos I actually despise mainly for the way it's picking it's outcomes. If someone is interested in a game then a demo might not make a lot of difference, however if someone isn't interested in a game then a demo can be amazing. I'm not much of a racing fan but playing the demo of Forza made me buy the game (although tbh I don't play it enough to say it was really worth it, but definite sale for developer due to demo), UFC Undisputed not only made me buy the game but made me interested in UFC as well.

That being said I can see why demos might not be a great choice for developers but for consumers it's much better as it's very hard to refund a new game if you don't like it so lack of demo might make people more wary if they want to shell out for a game they may not be sure they will like.

[bQt31]

I meant the changelog :

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

CHANGE LOG

In Development
Ships that sink far away from players will no longer drop loot.

2014-11-18 - Now Live
“Ganker” achievement should now be unlockable.
“Unstoppable” achievement should now be unlockable.
“Unequip” right-click option should now let you unequip flags at sea.
Fixed an issue that would sometimes allow players to edit existing world maps.
Added some extra code (read: hacks) to prevent Unity’s physics going all crazy after collisions in multiplayer. Player ships should now spontaneously combust much less frequently.
AI ships should now get stuck slightly less frequently.
AI ships that explode due to being stuck will no longer drop loot.

2014-11-17
Guard Tower achievement should now be unlockable.
Raised the drop rate of all items.
Raised the drop rate of customization items.
Added progress indicators to some achievements that needed them.
Added icons for all achievements.
Added a new achievement: ship customization.
Added a new achievement: combat repairs.
Fixed a pair of null ref errors that crept into the previous update.
Added a subtle Bloom effect to 100% graphics quality.
Towns will now sell wood, stone and black powder (existing towns must grow first).
Floating loot revealed by the Spyglass should now have proper icons.
Lantern is no longer a cargo slot item (will affect future drops, not existing items).
Specialists should now properly go up to Legendary (orange) quality.
Changing graphics quality should no longer mess up the minimap.
World creation stage should once again show initial faction information.

2014-11-16
Added a summary screen that will show inflicted / repaired damage, kills, deaths, etc when pirates get driven out and when a PvP match ends.
Added 27 Steam achievements. Only Windows currently supports the Steam integration (and thus achievements). OSX and Linux integration will come later. In addition, the achievements are currently missing graphics. This too will be rectified in a future update.

2014-11-14
AI ships will now be synchronized by the channel’s host as well, matching where AI logic happens. This should reduce ships jumping in MP.
The game should no longer freeze the first time you generate a new world.
Added an option to turn off the new camera panning.
Raised the town name character limit from 12 to 20 characters.

2014-11-13
The game will now pause in single player while the menu is open.
Added a grappling hook that will automatically pull in nearby loot onto your ship.
The camera will now pan around a little with the mouse / right thumbstick, letting you look around.
Added a spyglass that is able to identify floating loot items and increases sight range.
Added a spymaster specialist that gives you sight from all structures, regardless of faction.
It should no longer be possible to enter towns from too far away by clicking on them.

2014-11-11
Quest items will now be lost when your ship sinks.
You can no longer give quest items to other players.
Added even more checks to make sure that player saves don’t run into a situation where one overwrites another.
Added an option to turn off specular highlights on water for video streaming and video recording, since it greatly improves overall quality when video compression is used.
Couple of minor bug fixes.

2014-11-10
Improved the controller support to make a lot more sense. Left thumbstick for steering, triggers to accelerate/reverse, right thumbstick for aiming, left bumper for anchor, right bumper to use the active skill (just like clicking on a target).
Added support for quests containing multiple stages.
Added rare drop items that can start semi-random multi-stage quest chains with a good reward at the end. The reward’s quality depends on how many steps it took to get to the end.

2014-11-09
Helpful hints will now appear throughout your gameplay and will teach the basics of the game in a contextual manner based on what you’re doing.

2014-11-08
Added a marginally better controller support. It’s still very awkward, unfortunately. I can’t figure out a decent way to control the game using a 360 controller.
Removed the map generator that was creating islands shaped like “C” which were causing some regions to be unpassable. Your existing regions using this generator may look odd with towns on islands in the middle of the ocean.

2014-11-06
When playing multiplayer, AI will now be controlled by the player with the lowest ping.
Changed how damage gets applied. There can now be 3 settings: host (lowest ping player), source (whoever is causing the damage), and target (whoever is being damaged -- this was the previous default setting). I’ll be trying them out to see which one works best.
Added some extra code to ensure that player characters get saved.
Explosive ammunition now ignores the first 5 defense. Corrosive is still better with 15.

2014-11-05
Mortar explosions should now affect buildings, and will do more damage.
You can now remove the faction that started in the bottom left corner when editing your world.
Swapped out the hand-written Pristina font with another one that supports Cyrillic characters.
Added a difficulty slider to world creation.
Added a slider that controls combat damage scaling to world creation.
Mortar explosions are no longer affected by Defense.
Added a Language selection drop-down list to the first screen.
Made Defiance a lot more potent. It now raises hull by up to 300%.

2014-11-04
Added a new item: mortar. Rare drop in higher challenge areas it’s the improved version of explosive ammo coating that also grants a new AoE skill.
Fixed an issue with the “zone ID -1” when creating new worlds.
Turns out Siege Towers had the same stats as regular guard towers. Ahem. Oops?
Scaled damage down at higher challenge levels gradually. The effect will now be that at lower challenge levels, combat is as fast as in the previous update, but at higher challenge levels the damage scales down, giving you more time to react and adjust your tactics. This felt necessary because damage is already naturally higher at higher challenge levels.

2014-11-03
Starting regions can no longer be contested/captured.
You can now draw your own world maps.
Fixed the game not loading the modded localization file on start and the language drop-down list not working properly.
A random seed will now be picked at start when creating a new world.

2014-11-01
Improved store itemization. You can now find higher quality items in higher challenge regions in large towns.

About demos, well... I agree with you, the video is all about sales, not consumer happiness. However I remember when I was younger playing a lot of demos and not even thinking about buying the game because I had enough fun playing this way or I realized I just didn't like the game.