New Windrose update fixes your holey roofs with more building pieces, and its performance foundations are now much sturdier

Windrose has been out in open waters for just over a couple of weeks now, and developer Kraken Express has already charted a course towards its next big update. With new biome Ashlands on the distant horizon, it's time for the studio to swab the decks, board up those leaks, and ensure the piratey survival game is shipshape and ready for the journey ahead. Today's patch does just that, with major networking and performance fixes, as well as the addition of new building pieces, being the main highlights.

The fastest way to push me away from a game is poor performance. If I'm teleporting around a laggy server, or my PC is threatening to take off like Artemis II because it's quite literally all systems go, I'm probably going to quit out and steer clear. Fortunately, Windrose, for the most part, has been excellent. There is, however, always room for improvement, especially while it's still developing its sea legs.

If you've been having issues playing online with friends, then you'll want to give Windrose's new Force Relay Connection setting a go. This essentially circumvents the standard P2P loop the game uses for networking, and links you up instead via Kraken Express' relay servers. You'll take a hit to your ping, but it's worth it if you and homies can lock in a stable connection.

On the general performance side of things, there's some big improvements that I'm happy to see. An issue that resulted in rocketing CPU usage on idle servers and clients has been remedied, while your SSD isn't going to be cranked quite as hard while playing. Elsewhere, FrameGen stuttering will no longer occur when closing the inventory or map, and your GPU's video memory won't spike up when opening certain UI windows anymore. With these fixes in place, your PC shouldn't make a break for the moon any time soon.

Today's update has some cracking little building changes and additions. These won't only help you plug up those pesky gaps in the roof of your abode, but you'll be able to do so for fewer resources. Kraken Express has added "around 40 missing wall triangle pieces for various roof angles," alongside three triangular floor pieces, so now you should be able to find the perfect fit. Additionally, the studio has trimmed the crafting costs of "a wide range of building pieces across all building sets," while buffing the drop rate of Hardwood by ~20% - everyone liked that.

This latest Windrose patch might not be the bumper content drop you may be after, but it's an incredibly solid update that'll only help cement its foundations for the long term. Kraken Express says Ashlands will take "at least six months to deliver," and focusing on stability for now will give the new biome the best possible chance of a seamless launch.