New Beginnings

New Beginnings adds port and boat selection or randomization to Sailwind's new-game menu. Choose both, randomize either one, or roll the dice on both. You can also adjust your starting money, reputation and equipment before setting sail.

Install

Mod managers

Install New Beginnings through r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager, then launch Sailwind through your manager. Dependencies are installed automatically.

Manual installation

Install BepInEx 5 in your Sailwind game folder, following its installation instructions.
Download and extract the New Beginnings ZIP. Copy its BepInEx/plugins/NewBeginnings folder into BepInEx/plugins in your Sailwind folder.
Launch Sailwind normally.

How it works

Choose a port and boat, or randomize one or both, then press Continue to start a new game. Turn on Random Port or Random Boat to change its options and open the exclusion menu. In the exclusion menu, uncheck entries to leave them out of random starts, then click Done to save changes.

The starting options menu allows you to adjust your money, reputation, and equipment. The money menu allows you to multiply your starting cash, with overrides to set a specific amount of each currency as well. For reputation, you can select your starting region reputation level, or set specific levels for each region. Items that fit are packed into crates near your spawn instead of being place directly on the ground.

Spoiler: a manually selected location

Chronos is never randomly picked and must be manually chosen.

Starting supplies and mooring

With standard supplies enabled, your starting port determines the regional supplies, which are packed into crates on the ground nearby when they fit. Larger supplies are placed beside them. If Sailwind Difficulty is installed, its selected difficulty determines those standard supplies.

Filled boxes and barrels use their normal contents. Box of wall hooks contains 12 hooks for hanging items on walls, while Box of fishing hooks contains 20 fishing hooks.

When your selected boat is already at its original berth in the starting port and that berth can be verified, New Beginnings leaves the boat and its moorings in place. You receive ownership normally, with your player and supplies placed near that dock. This also applies to mod boats whose original berth can be verified.

Boats that need to be moved receive up to 3 metres of extra mooring line, and large boats start 1 metre farther out from the dock to give them more space. HMS Leopard gets 3 metres of extra distance and up to 5 metres of extra line to allow for its size. If an existing berth cannot be verified, New Beginnings uses its usual starting placement.

Every starting boat receives one hull repair about eight seconds after it is ready, including boats kept at their original berth, to clear any startup damage.

Configuration

The new-game menu saves choices, exclusions and starting options in BepInEx/config/com.skeptic043.sailwind.newbeginnings.cfg.

Once startup finishes, including mooring setup and the one-time hull repair, New Beginnings no longer moves the player, boat or supplies or changes their state, and can be safely uninstalled.

Compatibility and limitations

Large starting loadouts can take longer to place. Small ports may not have enough clear ground for all your crates and barrels, so supplies may fail to appear. Reduce your selection or choose a larger port if this happens.

For the starting options menu, automatic mod equipment detection looks for small tools that can go into crates. It can find items from untested mods, but cannot guarantee automatic inclusion of every mod item. Please open an issue if you run into any problems with mod items. Equipment in the following mods is tested working and compatible:

Port and boat selection has been tested with Scrambled Seas: NANDbrew Edition, Sailwind Difficulty, and SaveSlotsPlus. The following mods that add boats have also been tested with port and boat selection:

Every port has been tested with at least one large boat, but this does not mean every hull fits every port, particularly HMS Leopard. Large ships can take a moment to settle, and some ports don't have enough room for them. Use Island Exclusions to leave cramped ports out of random starts, exclude particular boats, or disable the Large size pool.

Ports with limited room for large ship spawns include (but are not limited to):

Sage Hills
Mirage Mountain
Aestra Abbey
Old Ankh Town

HMS Leopard is especially large and can struggle at ports that work for other large ships. She has grounded at Neverdin on spawn in my testing and may be difficult to free there. She also ships without default sails. Because of this, on a new start with an unfitted Leopard, New Beginnings adds one stock medium lateen to its central main mast.

Known issues

HMS Leopard's starter sail can briefly flash fully deployed when unfurling, then return to its actual reefing position.
Large starting loadouts can cause the game to hitch and take longer to place. Small ports may not have enough clear ground for all your crates and barrels, so supplies may fail to appear. Try fewer items or a larger port if this happens.

AI Use

AI was used to write code for this project. The original concept, design direction, testing, debugging, and release decisions are my own. If you prefer not to use mods developed with AI assistance, I understand and respect that choice.

Issues and links

Report an issue with your mod version and BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

Source code · Release notes · MIT License · Support on Ko-fi · skeptic043