So I've played about 10 times now

[hotflungwok]

And I'm not really enjoying it. 

Resources are too random.  I've had games where I didn't find a single piece of gold until after I'd been to 6 or 7 islands.  You don't get that first piece of gold quickly, and you're screwed.  I had one game where there was only enough flint on the starting island to make an axe, I had to chop trees down to make a raft and go to another island just to get enough flint to make a pick so I could come back and mine the two rocks that were there.  Another game where I didn't find a single spider in 12 islands.  Half of the new things you can build require bones, but I've never found more than 2 in a single game, where are they hiding?  I've had games where I never found a single piece of coral. 

Fighting at sea is an exercise in endurance, not skill.  You can't kite, you can only hope that they run out of hit points before you or your boat does.  You can heal, but you can't use a boat repair kit if you're on the boat.  Everything at sea can move and attack twice as fast as you.  If you're on a raft and something attacks you, you're screwed. 

Exploration is ridiculously time consuming.  Between wind, waves, and horribly slow boats, getting to a new island can take a whole day, and that's assuming you're heading in the right direction.  Just circling the one you're on so you can get some seaweed and plant a few poles can take a day.  Combine any of the annoyances, like trying to go somewhere against the wind and waves or not finding an island before sundown, and suddenly you're screwed.

I haven't died to the hounds in forever, but now, they show up every 7 days and trying to fight 4 of them on day 21 at night in the wind and rain is simply impossible.  Every time I think I'm making progress a bunch of things happen together and there's just no way to deal with given the meager resources available at the time.  I don't even want to talk about venom on the first day.  There's way too much that can go wrong and end your game instantly regardless of what you do.

I think I'm going to take a break for a while and see if some of the more idiotic stuff is fixed before I try playing again.

[ThaumicParrot]

56 minutes ago, hotflungwok said:

You can heal, but you can't use a boat repair kit if you're on the boat.

Yes you can, it makes sea battling much easier.

[hotflungwok]

How?  I've tried picking the boat repair kit up and putting over the boat, like you do when you're not on it, but it never gives me the option to repair, just 'Drop'.

[Zillvr]

You can right click the Boat Repair Kit while it's in your inventory.

[Hugeisno1]

You get good runs and bad runs. That's how it goes.

[hotflungwok]

This isn't a matter of good or bad runs, all oft he runs have been this way.  You can't make anything beyond simple tools without gold.  You don't find gold, you lose.  You can't get through hurricane season without coral.  You don't find coral, you lose.  This isn't just once or twice, every game seems to be like this. 

[Ummagumma]

Am I missing something? Im on day 34 almost done with hurricane season and I haven't mined a single coral. What does coral do in hurricane season is what Im wondering.

And i really do think its just bad luck. I've started on an Island I would never have to leave if I didn't want to and then other times I've just been screwed.

[oCrapaCreeper]

Most of my Shipwrecked runs have gone past day 100, the best tip I can give is the boat as much as possible before the hurricane season, you'll easily find rocks, gold, coral etc. That's from my experience, at least.

Hurricane season isn't that bad even without a Chiminea. I hadn't even known the thing existed until about day 90 of my Maxwell world.

 

[Hugeisno1]

4 hours ago, hotflungwok said:

This isn't a matter of good or bad runs, all oft he runs have been this way.  You can't make anything beyond simple tools without gold.  You don't find gold, you lose.  You can't get through hurricane season without coral.  You don't find coral, you lose.  This isn't just once or twice, every game seems to be like this. 

Methinks it's not the game. It's you.

3 hours ago, Ummagumma said:

Am I missing something? Im on day 34 almost done with hurricane season and I haven't mined a single coral. What does coral do in hurricane season is what Im wondering.

And i really do think its just bad luck. I've started on an Island I would never have to leave if I didn't want to and then other times I've just been screwed.

It allows you to build a chiminea, a fireplace immune to water and wind. It's also part of the anti-venom recipe. Those are the two reasons I usually collect coral although there are more uses. Walls armour, etc.

[ossiemaine]

@hotflungwok there's like a million coral reefs in each map, lets not even talk about gold, look for the purple biomes there should be more then enough on each map, as for the hounds they are still the same as in ROG or Vanilla. Let them aggro on bees, snakes, monkeys, tallbirds or other mobs if u cant kite them. For bones just look for treasure maps in the ocean, or some islands will have loads of skulls u can hammer. Sea fighting can be hard, use the dolfins or the stunkrays too fight off the sharks. As for boats, u just need a science machine to make a rowboat and a sail to help you explore a lot faster. Don't give up just addept to the new world and learn the new dangerous. SW is harder but much more fun and don't forget this game is all about giving you a hard time, just keep cool and thrive!

[YumoS]

if you have trouble staying alive in shipwrecked you should first master rog. shipwrecked is just a little bit harder and different than rog.

[YsaNoire]

There's a lot of gold and coral on the map, I'm having a hard time believing someone can find none. 

 

Maybe you'd like to try a run with Walani? She is good at early game exploration. You can leave the home island immediately and hop islands quickly until you've found what you want. This is how much I explored before hurricane season came. I settled on day 20, my pockets contained a stack of gold, 2 stacks of rocks and generally everything you'd need to set up camp including pigskins, bones, coral, reeds, the fishbone, charcoal etc. 

http://steamcommunity.com/id/ysanoire/screenshot/320123098200314443

[hotflungwok]

9 hours ago, Ummagumma said:

Am I missing something? Im on day 34 almost done with hurricane season and I haven't mined a single coral. What does coral do in hurricane season is what Im wondering.

So what do you use for light at night during hurricanes?  Do you just waste tons of fuel keeping a fire going?

3 hours ago, YumoS said:

if you have trouble staying alive in shipwrecked you should first master rog. shipwrecked is just a little bit harder and different than rog.

Multiple 600+ day games in RoG.  I think I'm good.

[hotflungwok]

5 hours ago, ossiemaine said:

@hotflungwok there's like a million coral reefs in each map, lets not even talk about gold, look for the purple biomes there should be more then enough on each map,

Saying this doesn't magically make them appear.  The last game I played I explored 8 islands and didn't find a single piece of gold, so when the storm blew in on day 10 I got to watch my pile of stuff slide into the ocean cuz I couldnt build chests.

[Hugeisno1]

43 minutes ago, hotflungwok said:

So what do you use for light at night during hurricanes?  Do you just waste tons of fuel keeping a fire going?

Multiple 600+ day games in RoG.  I think I'm good.

From the way you're moaning it seems quite otherwise. 

36 minutes ago, hotflungwok said:

Saying this doesn't magically make them appear.  The last game I played I explored 8 islands and didn't find a single piece of gold, so when the storm blew in on day 10 I got to watch my pile of stuff slide into the ocean cuz I couldnt build chests.

So you didn't work out an alternative storage method?

I'd like to say it again. It's not the game. It's you.

[hotflungwok]

14 minutes ago, Hugeisno1 said:

So you didn't work out an alternative storage method?

Like what?

[eusouopapao]

one trick to turn the odds on your side is to rush the best boat and sail, best ones you can get turn odds in your favor pretty fast.

Most of these items are made of pretty common items.

Don't ever go in slow, if you do the chance of you find anything is pretty low

[Hugeisno1]

3 hours ago, hotflungwok said:

Like what?

Thatchpacks

[hotflungwok]

1 hour ago, Hugeisno1 said:

Thatchpacks

Yeah, that might have worked.  I dont remember how many palm leaves I had, those require 4 each, and only give you 4 spaces.  I would have needed 12-16 palm leaves very quickly.

1 hour ago, eusouopapao said:

one trick to turn the odds on your side is to rush the best boat and sail, best ones you can get turn odds in your favor pretty fast.

Rush how?  If you dont find any gold, you aren't rushing squat. 

[eusouopapao]

47 minutes ago, hotflungwok said:

 

Rush how?  If you dont find any gold, you aren't rushing squat. 

 

in 20 days you can't find one gold? 

I must say even with my worst of luck that never happen to me

[Luponius]

Yeah only a couple of islands are gold less.  My primary challenge is finding an island devoid of monkeys.  Those damn things are seriously the death of me.  I pray for hound attacks just to get a few of them killed.

My suggestion to you, hotflung is something along these lines:

1. Collect twigs, grass, flint, rocks, food (don't bother with anything else besides these at first)
2. If Gold Vein found make a pickaxe with flint and mine it down, it should give you some flint back
3. If have resources for Machete make one and immediately get a bamboo raft (quicker than the log raft, helps)
4. Else (if 3 failed) get an axe and build a standard log raft (attempt an upgrade asap)
5. EXPLORATION - Keep jumping island to island (quick look around) for gold, after a dozen attempts it appears to be most common to find gold on a neighbouring island, not as common on your spawned island.
6. Science Machine -> Backpack, Row Boat
7. Material Gathering -> Snakeskin, Coral, Sea shells, Seaweed.  Keep your twigs, grass, flint and rocks at 40 each.  Avoid keeping less in case of emergency and don't waste your time collecting more.
8. Food -> Hand to mouth is how I play,  I can't handle anything other than a nomadic gameplay nowadays since I've played Don't Starve too much and see no fun in rebuilding massive structures and wasting my time maintaining them.  If you want and happen upon Gears, build an icebox and a crockpot to go along with it.  As for where to camp, personally anything works unless there are monkeys.  I don't trust those damn things, can't leave a tool in the open or use traps to catch spideys, they'll take everything
   
   Trawl Net - Build it, and near the shore equip it and run over shoals, mussels, jellyfish and anything you can find.  Once full just open 'er up and shift-click everything to your inventory (it's single use only so you'll have to keep rebuilding these)
   
   Meadow Islands - Sweet Potato galore,  you can get about 60 sweet potatoes from here, use it!
9. Items/Apparell -> I stuck with a Snakeskin hat for hurricane season, an armored boat and a backpack.  Had an island where I setup an icebox and crockpot just in case **** hits the fan and slowly collected materials for anti venom just in case (don't want to be dying on it and trying to rush to make it).

There shouldn't be any reason why you can't make it through to these 9 steps, unless you happen upon some very rare freakish one off generation that nobody seems to have reported yet.

Once I make it that far, the rest of the game is just a pleasant sequence of surprises or events, and I just take it as it comes, you can't fully predict everything in the game, and sometimes you'll just die because... you do.  You sound like someone who probably enjoys games like these but might take a bit of time to adjust, I'm sorta like that too.  Try the above again when you get a chance, if you're still willing to play, and write back on your discoveries.

To conclude, procedural generation wise, I see no reason why spawn rates should be increased / changed from default, as far as I can tell all maps I played were doable.  I died a few times at the start because I was being a muppet

[K5dV]

7 hours ago, hotflungwok said:

 Do you just waste tons of fuel keeping a fire going?

Build a torch. Equip the torch. Unequip the torch. Re-equip the torch after 4 seconds. Eat green caps to restore lost sanity. Repeat. 

[Hugeisno1]

7 hours ago, hotflungwok said:

Yeah, that might have worked.  I dont remember how many palm leaves I had, those require 4 each, and only give you 4 spaces.  I would have needed 12-16 palm leaves very quickly.

Rush how?  If you dont find any gold, you aren't rushing squat. 

There's Wikkerbottom too.

[AnonymousKoala]

12 hours ago, hotflungwok said:

So what do you use for light at night during hurricanes?  Do you just waste tons of fuel keeping a fire going?

Multiple 600+ day games in RoG.  I think I'm good.

He used the Chiminea.

Which is also why you need to sail right after you get your basic stuff(basic tools and a boat) and look for things of value. Find corals before winter, DO NOT stop until that(unless you somehow get the obsidian fire pit which is so powerful that even the wind crumbles to its might) happens, and then make a chiminea.

As for gold, again, sailing until you find that resource. PS: Anti Venoms. Make 'em. 

[ossiemaine]

6 hours ago, Luponius said:

Yeah only a couple of islands are gold less.  My primary challenge is finding an island devoid of monkeys.  Those damn things are seriously the death of me.  I pray for hound attacks just to get a few of them killed.

My suggestion to you, hotflung is something along these lines:

1. Collect twigs, grass, flint, rocks, food (don't bother with anything else besides these at first)
2. If Gold Vein found make a pickaxe with flint and mine it down, it should give you some flint back
3. If have resources for Machete make one and immediately get a bamboo raft (quicker than the log raft, helps)
4. Else (if 3 failed) get an axe and build a standard log raft (attempt an upgrade asap)
5. EXPLORATION - Keep jumping island to island (quick look around) for gold, after a dozen attempts it appears to be most common to find gold on a neighbouring island, not as common on your spawned island.
6. Science Machine -> Backpack, Row Boat
7. Material Gathering -> Snakeskin, Coral, Sea shells, Seaweed.  Keep your twigs, grass, flint and rocks at 40 each.  Avoid keeping less in case of emergency and don't waste your time collecting more.
8. Food -> Hand to mouth is how I play,  I can't handle anything other than a nomadic gameplay nowadays since I've played Don't Starve too much and see no fun in rebuilding massive structures and wasting my time maintaining them.  If you want and happen upon Gears, build an icebox and a crockpot to go along with it.  As for where to camp, personally anything works unless there are monkeys.  I don't trust those damn things, can't leave a tool in the open or use traps to catch spideys, they'll take everything
   
   Trawl Net - Build it, and near the shore equip it and run over shoals, mussels, jellyfish and anything you can find.  Once full just open 'er up and shift-click everything to your inventory (it's single use only so you'll have to keep rebuilding these)
   
   Meadow Islands - Sweet Potato galore,  you can get about 60 sweet potatoes from here, use it!
9. Items/Apparell -> I stuck with a Snakeskin hat for hurricane season, an armored boat and a backpack.  Had an island where I setup an icebox and crockpot just in case **** hits the fan and slowly collected materials for anti venom just in case (don't want to be dying on it and trying to rush to make it).

There shouldn't be any reason why you can't make it through to these 9 steps, unless you happen upon some very rare freakish one off generation that nobody seems to have reported yet.

Once I make it that far, the rest of the game is just a pleasant sequence of surprises or events, and I just take it as it comes, you can't fully predict everything in the game, and sometimes you'll just die because... you do.  You sound like someone who probably enjoys games like these but might take a bit of time to adjust, I'm sorta like that too.  Try the above again when you get a chance, if you're still willing to play, and write back on your discoveries.

To conclude, procedural generation wise, I see no reason why spawn rates should be increased / changed from default, as far as I can tell all maps I played were doable.  I died a few times at the start because I was being a muppet

Monkeys ain't that bad, i got a wilbur playthrough but it's kinda the same with the other characters. The left wing of my islands hold loads of monkeys and loads of snakes. Every evening theres a war going down there. So many loot especially snakeskin bananas morsels and manure. I closed the area off with a wall so they stay there. If i don't want to fight hounds i just go there and let them kill some monkeys for me and they die in the process. Although the monkeys don't pick up stuff from willbur except food and hats. And if i need tons of manure i just boomerang 1 monkey from the other side of the wall. You'll get so much poop thrown at your face.