Windrose's new Ashlands biome will expand your pirate escapades "significantly in scope"

Now that the post-launch waters have settled, Kraken Express is steering the ship towards its first big Windrose update. The pirate survival game exploded onto the scene in April in fittingly dramatic fashion - racking up more than two million sales and even briefly outstripping the pace of the mighty Rust on Steam. That's a lot of adventurers ready for their next outing across the water, and the studio promises that our journey to the Windrose Ashlands will see "the main story and side quests grow significantly in scope."

The Windrose developer makes clear up front that work on this next update "is still in its early stages," and longer-term plans beyond that "are still taking shape." However, it emphasizes, "We have always wanted Windrose to be a survival adventure with a strong narrative layer," and with Ashlands that comes in the form of navigating the arrival of new factions in your hunt for the next of the Obols. "Hidden somewhere among the ruins of a long-forgotten Spanish colony, the Obol's power has twisted lands already ravaged by volcanic eruptions, making them more dangerous than ever," it teases, "and let's just say you're not the only one searching for the artifact."

The Ashlands, unsurprisingly, are covered with volcanic ash, which preserves all manner of relics and secrets beneath it. As with other regions, it will comprise multiple islands, playing home to all the usuals: new enemies, items, resources, recipes, and a big boss showdown. "We want every biome to feel and play differently," Kraken notes, "so on top of all the new content, we're also looking into new biome mechanics to experiment with."

Alongside this map expansion, the team believes that the core ship gameplay of Windrose "has a lot of room for expansions," and it's already pulled together a big list of community ideas and requests. While it doesn't expect to get to all of these for the Ashlands update, it is currently investigating "at least one" more ship class (the brigantine, fluyt, and galleon are all in the works right now) along with faction-specific variants. It's cooking up improvements to ship combat, and enhancements to the AI "such as NPC ships behaving more naturally, sailing in formations, and so on."

What about wind? It's obviously a fundamental aspect of real-life sailing, and Kraken Express is "aware" that it's a popular request. "We'll definitely be exploring this idea as well, and we originally intended to. But let us be crystal clear: we want it to be fun and simple. Windrose aims to be an adventure, without some of the more hardcore simulation aspects." There's also the promise of our sea shanty selection being "significantly expanded." The developer thanks players for their enthusiastic response: "We were deeply touched by how well these were received."

Also on the cards for the update is improved base building. Taking notes from the "amazingly creative builds you showcased," Kraken is working on "a plethora of new decorations," functional additions to existing building sets to help address gaps in the current lineup, and some building quality-of-life improvements. "We're also happy to see that our camp NPCs were well received," it concludes, "so we'll be looking to expand this system as well."

This is all still more of a "general direction" for the time being, Kraken Express reiterates, although it's says it's happy to take additional suggestions and questions from the community as it works on the Ashlands. "We'll be sharing more details, including an estimated release window, as development progresses."