Quests

There are a variety of quests available to players in Windward.

Summary
All towns located in regions where the players have driven out pirates will offer tasks for players to perform in exchange for gold, resources and sometimes even items. All players will want to start by performing a few of these first in order to earn some capital for trading, but even high diplomacy players will want to use quests as a supplemental form of income when focusing on trading later. If Port Alpha has a supply of a resource that Port Bravo demands, check to see if there are any quests that take you along the same route; this will help maximize your profits for minimal effort.

Quest may have one or more of the following bonuses attached to them:
 * Timed - "Complete this commission in under 90 seconds." (Self explanatory)
 * Trader - "Trade a commodity prior to completing this commission." (Trade any one good or goods before completing the target quest for credit)
 * Delayed - "Take longer than 10 minutes to complete this commission." (self explanatory)
 * Efficient - "Complete another commission or trade in the destination town." (simply complete another quest ending at the target colony along with this one)
 * Priority - "Complete this commission before doing anything else." (Complete the quest before doing nearly any action, aside from sailing)
 * Profit - "Earn at least 30% commission via trading before completing this commission." (You must make 30% total profit in gold from trading goods between colonies to receive credit)
 * Pacifist
 * Sightseeing - "Take a detour to complete another commission first." (Simply complete another quest before completing this one for credit)
 * Stealthy - "Avoid being spotted by enemy ships along the way." (Get to the designated target without any ships being within roughly half of a screen's distance from you)
 * Aggressive - "Defeat an enemy along the way." (simply kill an enemy ship while en route to the target destination)
 * Salvage - "Salvage something interesting from a shipwreck along the way." (Accomplishing this requires the player have the Diving suit in their Captains Tools. Then, using the associated tooltip, salvage any sort of "equipable" item from one of the static shipwrecks on the map. Note that each shipwreck has a 10-minute cooldown timer before they can be salvaged from again.)

Construction Quests
In addition to common "go there, do this" tasks, there are also consignments that prompt you to construct structures or even establish a new town entirely. Construction quests can be great for giving you both sight of the area around them as well as defending the region from nearby enemies.

The quests that offer these buildings require them to be built within coverage of the town that issued them. It's possible to erect these structures elsewhere, but doing so won't grant you the quest's reward. The structure will still be built, however -- so building them in remote areas or checkpoints is still a good idea, even if you won't get the promised rewards.

"Establish a New Town" type quests direct you to a specific spot on the map to deploy and set up a new town. A dialog box will indicate the available resources there. You will be asked to name the town, after which the town will be built with a size 1. It can then be interacted with like any other town and will also grow like any other town as you attend to its needs. Note that this quest can be completed in any region, not just the one you are in. It's often a good idea to bring some colonists with you when heading to the next pirate-controlled region, as having a town to call your own from the start will give you a solid leg up. If you can't find a good place for a town and aren't ready to adventure forward, try going into a Questing / Trading instance and placing it there (top-left of your screen, Instance button).

Combat Quests
These quests involve combat against a pirate ship or a pirate captain. Captains are easily identified by having "Captain" in front of their name - they also sport heavily upgraded equipment and are tough nuts to crack. One recommended strategy involves kiting pirates into gun towers and other obstacles to weaken them first. Regular pirate ships are far easier to deal with.

Upon accepting the quest, a pirate vessel will spawn a short distance away from the town you took the quest from. Sinking the targeted vessel will net you experience, resources, and gold.

Other quests have you disable and then escort a far larger pirate ship back to base to face justice. Simply attack the targeted vessel and get its health down low enough for it to submit, at which point it will become your follower that you have to escort back to the original town where you've obtained the quest. The quest will complete when the pirate ship reaches the port. The pirate ship will remain friendly and will attack its former comrades when they appear.

Transport / Ferry Quests
These quests require you to transport civilians, taking up 1 (one) cargo hold slot, to another designated colony. Upon arrival to the target colony, you will be awarded credit.

Capture Quests
Capture quests require you to capture a colony that is not owned by your faction. It may be unowned, or owned by an enemy faction. Simply sail close to the target colony and stay inside the light blue circle, which appears once close enough to the colony, to slowly capture the colony.

NOTE: If any allied AI ships capture the target city before you do, the quest will fail. You must capture the colony yourself to receive credit.