NORTHWIND Team
– What is the future of Northwind?
The future of Northwind will generally proceed as it has over the past three years. We still aim to release new content, bug fixes, and optimizations as time goes on. Currently, we expect to have more time and hands-on-deck after Fred graduates from university in Spring 2023. Until then, we will continue to do the usual holiday updates and sprinkle in new content where we can, such as the new guild items.
This FAQ is written by me, Terabyl, but here is a message from Fred regarding his thoughts on the state of the game’s development:
NORTHWIND | Message from Fred
Here is my message:
NORTHWIND | Message from Mason
Thanks to the fine members of the Turtle Patrol for submitting questions for the FAQ! 
– Who is on the Northwind development team?
The team consists of the following:
Full Time:
- Voile (Fred) – Programming
- Terabyl (Mason) – Game Design, Programming, Environment, Writing
- Spartan_N85 (Klay) – Modeling, Programming
- BDLazarus – Moderation, Community Management
Contracted / Part Time:
- L1611 (Rodrigo) – Programming
- TyberiusCorvus – Environment, Modeling
- CinnamonSaint – Modeling
- Maria_dreyev – Clothing Design
- N_hq – Modeling
- Yoloman20140 – Sound Design
Development I (Major Content)
– What is the status of ships?
Ships are indefinitely delayed. We still have our assets and plans for them, but we believe that our original plan for implementation was not deeply thought out and would have left many gaps for development as well as gameplay involving the feature. It is a massive task which will interface with most aspects of the game, and will change how the game is played for every player. We still want to create it, but it will take time and resources that we would rather put towards other features, bug fixes, and general improvements.
– What is the status of natives?
Natives will eventually be opened up to the general playerbase again. The main factor in the role being disabled for new players is a lack of content which would set the role apart from colonists. Ever since we released the native role this has been a concern, and we do not want new players to experience a hardcore, yet watered down version of the colonist experience as their sole perspective of the game. Some of my prerequisites for the role to be reopened are bug fixes and balancing, completion of the tribes feature (not well planned out currently), likely a playtime limit, and more gameplay goals similar to colonist contracts. This is not currently a priority.
– What is the status of new islands or remakes?
These are a priority and are still being worked on. Progress is mostly delayed by the lack of the house moving feature implementation by Fred. I don’t plan to compromise by deleting the houses or letting them be buried in terrain (or whatever other thing could get islands released sooner.) Therefore, we will still be waiting to release the remade islands until this feature is complete. When it is complete, expect Stonemore to be done first, with new Redwood forests, a unique building style, and new towns & NPCs. After this will be Ellesmere and then Albany. Sometime in this timeline we will also release a new series of expansion areas on Rupert, centered on treasure hunting and NPC combat.
Development II (Minor Content / Questions)
– Will ___ item be obtainable?
Yes. Eventually every item that is in the game (except the shoulder cape) will be obtainable. This question is usually directed at exotic weapons such as the Tanegashima and Katana. I have plans to make these obtainable by unique methods not currently in the game, and they will remain in their current state until those features are ready. They are not currently a priority.
– Where have the teasers gone?
Much of the content we’ve worked on lately is not conducive to being in a teaser. This is partially because content that is being added will likely be in the live game within a week of implementation. However, some content such as islands may be in the distant future and we do not want to mislead people to believe that they would be coming soon, or in the exact state of the teaser. I often consider posting teasers, but the above reasons dissuade me from doing so. That being said, I will probably post a teaser of the Stonemore remake with the new building style once more progress is made.
– Will there be another pound wipe?
There is no plan for another full-scale pound wipe. There will likely be small-scale infrequent wipes affecting players with large amounts of duped pounds. We will continue to explore methods of limiting the transfer of duped pounds and keeping pound inflation low in case such a situation arises.
– Will the anti-cheat be upgraded?
Significant upgrades to the existing anti-cheat are not currently planned. This is in part due to Fred’s absence, as he knows more about client-server communication and replication than I do, and because he created the existing systems. I have considered making tweaks to some of the allowances that allow moving constantly at sprint speed as an example, but it is a bit complicated, and entirely depends on the exploiter not just having infinite stamina anyways (another challenge itself.) However, Roblox supposedly will be improving upon this in the future, and Fred would likely be open to some upgrades when he dedicates more time to the game.
– Will the game be more optimized?
Yes. It’s hard to nail down a timeframe or exact information on this because often the most significant causes of performance loss are unknown to us. When we find an area of the game that can be optimized, we try to do so. A frequent example is model polygon counts, with candles being reduced somewhat recently from over 2,000 polygons to a few hundred.
– Will house building be expanded for bigger houses again?
No. Such large houses were typically an eyesore on the map, and allowed for unfair and unfun gameplay advantages through creating massive fortresses and the like.
– Will new house building props such as those on Beauval be added for players?
It is very unlikely that this will ever happen. It would require an overhaul of the building UI, and probably of placement as well. There are simply too many props and their use is very specific for the outcome of premade houses.
– What is the situation with houses on Rupert, particularly PvP-focused houses?
No-build zones will be expanded to cover more of the island. This will allow players to still create houses on the island, including PvP houses, while also allowing players to avoid them if they choose. The goal is to introduce these changes with the house moving feature, but it may occur before then.
– Will farming get contracts?
Yes. This is a priority and is actively being worked on. The main concern I have about a farming guild is that the contracts could be easily abused by just acquiring produce and other food products from a store cheaply to be turned in. Also, most farming products do not take much effort and would likely not reward much reputation/pounds. As a result, contracts will likely not be as simple as turning in some carrots or something.
– Will there be more Den/Criminal contracts?
Yes. It is not currently a priority because the new contract ideas rely on new features and activities that are only conceptual at the moment.
– Will there be new animals?
Setting up new animals is a bit of a task which has not been tackled since the beaver was added shortly after the alpha launch. We have several ideas for animals we would like to add, but it is not a priority right now. I think it is fair to say that eventually we will add more animals to the game.
Community & Moderation
– How frequently are ban appeals read?
Appeals are read daily. If an appeal is not acted on swiftly, it is likely because it is awaiting more information or inquiry from a member of the moderation team. I do not handle moderation outside of working with the anti-cheat and some resulting infractions. I did create the new appeals forms which have been a significant improvement over the previous Google Forms implementation, appeals used to be read once every couple months, and now are read daily.
– Will events such as DripCon return?
They will most likely continue to occur. It is somewhat time consuming for staff to set up and proctor the event, and isn’t always fun for staff as a result of trolling, exploiting, and other nefarious behavior.
– Will dev streams return?
No. That was Fred’s thing, and I don’t think he would want to continue it.
– Will the Northwind subreddit return?
No. After releasing update 16, and gaining more players, the subreddit became too difficult to moderate for what it was. This was exacerbated by the significant drop in the quality of posts around this time, with most posts being simple questions asked repetitively. Discord benefits the kind of communication the vast majority of users tried to use the subreddit for, and is easier to moderate. We intend to make use of the Discord forums feature as soon as it is made available to our server.