feedback Mobbstar's Review on ShipWrecked

[Mobbstar]

So I've played a little bit of Shipwrecked (version "Wilbur vs. Volcano"). Just a little bit. Didn't even get to hail season.

Ambiance

Obviously, this expansion has a more cheerful tone than the base game. Sound effects and music alike reinforce the tropical vibe, all core content is still available, even if visually modified to better fit the mood.

That said, there's clever similiarities to the original art style. Tall waves, for instance, are covered in a light, subtle pattern resembling the waves seen in the base game. The outlines aren't as sketchy and wild, but the shapes of distinct objects suits the original style, prominent features are often exaggerated to produce a cartoon-like scene.

I consider the texture and audio assets as an success.

Mechanics

When it comes to the technical side of gameplay, there's not much to complain. Besides some wonky actions (e.g. not being able to peer on board) and potential minor stategraph/brain issues, everything works well.

The main element of ShipWrecked, the seafaring, is very fun and intuitive to use. Making a boat ride feel like a legitimate method to travel without boring the player nor outweighing going on foot sounds like a small challenge on its own to me, and I am glad with it how it is. That does not mean changes wouldn't be welcome.

One thing I'd like to see improved is world generation, as it currently seems very inflexible and takes a many attempts to produce a valid map. I have looked at some code to confirm this impression.

Strategy

I decided to make this its own paragraph for a reason. There is something about the planning and survival that was nagging on me. Something is off, different from the base game and RoG. When I ran out of inventory space (despite backpack and Packim Chesters), it hit me. Pirate treasure ruins the experience (for me).

If there's one thing Don't Starve is known for, it's the unforgiving kiss of death whenever the player didn't notice a danger, be it because of folly, misjudgement or inexperience. That's literally the motto: "uncompromising survival". The player gets subtle hints and support, showing him or her what else to try. Never does the player feel at a complete dead end, always trying to master the mechanics and learn new recipes. A new item is a risk, something the player has to try out carefully. It could go wrong and destroy itself at best, or it could provide an entirely different approach to some problem.

In Shipwrecked, the plentiful pirate loot contains everything. I already acquired a boat lantern, windbreaker, boat cannon, super spying glass, obsidian gear, poison spear, peg leg and more. There's absolutely no reason to craft anything before the looted object runs out of durability. Items aren't the card you pick and stick to, like they used to be. In Shipwrecked they're an array of objects, from which you take the most appealing and dump the rest.

This is the same reason I dislike classic MMORPGs: you get lots of junk that could have been treasure. Pirate treasure. Those items could have defined various playthroughs as their own stories. Now it's just one heap of blergh, and unless this changes, I won't learn to actually use some of said items. As an example, why would I want to try applying the poison spear when I have a stronger weapon on sea and on land? I'd rather use the obsidian machete to hack my enemies than a wimpy spear with some toxin on it.

 

---

 

Some time later I will probably add a paragraph for the seasons. Feel free to criticise me in the meantime, so long as you stay polite.

[PhelsarusBeel]

Most of the stuff as you said is fine although i got to say some stuff about treasure myself.

I personally actually like the Idea of Treasurehunting the thrill of finding that next message in a bottle and quickly sailing to the X to see what i find always fills me with exitement and it also gives me a bigger reason to explore new locations because of the Treasure even during not so favourable seasons. For example in my last game i spend like 75% of Hurricane season away from my base mostly searching for Wilbur but also searching for every bit of treasure i could get my hands on. So the conecpt of treasurehunting itself is not a bad thing.

The rewards on the other hand could need so tweaking as said. Finding a full set of Thulecitegear before Hurricaneseason is far to powerfull and the same can be said about a lot of other treasures. Although i don't mind them having powerfull stuff in them (mostly because treasures are limited by worldgen) because you may or may not come across the proper bottle for that very good treasure. For example you could find the Obsidian Machete day 3 because of a lucky treasuremap or you could just find a few Goldtools what help you out early on because you can safe some flint.

However what does need change is the quantity over quality of treasure. A lot of times i find chests filled with nothing but what i qualify as junk because i can't use these items early on. Stuff like Gems, Dubloons (rather safe them for when i find the SLotmachine rather then refine them into gold) or just a bunch of Ropes and Electrical Doodads clutter up the inventory faster then i can look. Personally Chests should containt less different types of items but for that more meaningfull ones and in larger quantities. For example the chest that has the full Thulecite Set should instead only offer 1 piece of the set what is choosen randomly so you feel more exited for using that and want to conserve it for a bad situation. Also i think it should not containt late to midgame items as commonly as they do instead maybe offering the possible BLueprint (we got no way to get them in SW atm) or as some people said in other threads Maps that uncover special places on the map (new islands, special setpieces etc.). Basicly Treasure should be a meaningfull addition and not a total gamebreaker because you got lucky with a couple of chests.

Sorry if i did a bit of rambeling here but the mentioning of Treasurehunting just made me start writing without any second doubt.

[Arcita]

I agree with all points. Treasure hunting has some good potential. From what I've heard on the grape vine, apparently the devs initially wanted to make the treasure hunt more of a puzzle type thing where you'd find a clue to solve the location of the next clue, and eventually you'd find a treasure. Not only would this be more interesting, fun, and challenging, it'd help to solve the balance problem. 

And I hope the clues won't be like "go north-east" with a big red X on the map, but more like "matey, I dropped sum'thing on the island of bees" or "in the left eye of the big skull" and you actually have to go out and EXPLORE in order to find the treasure instead of making a beeline to some point on the map. 

[SapphireBullets]

Treasure Hunting's good for encouraging exploration and I do like it so far.

I don't know if riddles would work well for a procedurally generated world, but maybe sometimes you could dig up an X, only to find another treasure map instead of the loot.

Also, treasure in the form of large amounts of basically useful resources would be nice. Sometimes a can of tuna is nicer than a red gem. Maybe the treasures could be weighted more towards Dubloons and Trinkets.

[_Q_]

At least now moving around can be profitable.

Still needs something more happening on this empty sea.