Sailaway 1 -> Sailaway II

[richard]

The recent launch of Sailaway II has not become the joyful experience that it should have been.

Keeping Sailaway 1 next to Sailaway II would mean I'd have to set up a second server because there are different infrastructures behind them. I therefor planned to upgrade everyone with Sailaway 1 to Sailaway II Pro.

But then I talked to a few people in the game who said they wouldn't mind paying for an upgrade and other people around me suggested to transfer everyone to Sailaway II Basic. That was of course not an option, because it would mean I'd have to take away boats from people.

The compromise that I came up with was that everyone would own Sailaway II Basic, but keep the boats they had and be able to sail them in the updated environment with the improvements and new features. At the time it seemed like a good solution.

But I realize now that this was a wrong decision and I apologize for that.

If I had known in advance how horrible some of you would react, I would never have decided to transfer everyone to Sailaway II Basic and would have sticked with upgrading to a Sailaway Pro license. Or more likely, I never would have spend the time and energy to create Sailaway II at all.

About 200 people have upgraded from Basic to Pro. That's about 4000 euro before the infamous dutch taxes for more than a year's full time work and for upholding a server to keep everyone's boats sailing.

The reality is that Sailaway barely brings in enough money as it is. And with these negative reviews the sales are diminishing even further. In the not so far future this will mean that I have to stop spending time on making updates and adding new features because I too have to eat. And if we extrapolate a little further, the sales will ultimately drop below the monthly cost of server rent and maintenance. At this point in time Sailaway will cease to exist.

On behalf of the continuity of Sailaway and for the people who are enjoying the simulation every day, I will create a 4th license type for the Sailaway 1 owners. They will keep the ability to add boats, keep the ability to upload textures and keep the ability to start or join a team.

Since this is unfair towards the sailors who have already paid 19 euros for these functions and the 2 new boat types, I will send each of them a free Steam voucher for a Sailaway II Basic license to give to a friend.

And in order to keep Sailaway going, improve it and build it out to a continuous sailing platform for people from all over the world who share a common passion, I call on all of you. Give it a bit of support. Stop with the negativity. Remove or adjust your reviews. Enjoy sailing and tell your friends about Sailaway. Because more sailors = more fun = more future.