Poll on Boating/Boating Mechanics

[Dunk Mujunk]

Figured i'd gauge the communities feelings on Boating. Please feel free to expand on your choices, there are no wrong answers. Also please suggest any new choices I can add to the poll.

I personally hated Boats at first, but ended up falling in love with them after a while. We are obviously a bit thin on content right now, but I feel like there is a good framework in place to work off of. I generally enjoy the construction and piloting of Boats and the potential for construction of non Boating structures on Boats. I'd like to see this area greatly expanded, along with more content to justify the existence of Boating (I feel that has always been coming anyway).

What does everyone think?

 

[Well-met]

It's fine but I'd wish for more types of boats.

And trying to find the moon island, salts and shoals can be seriously annoying since it's basically all RNG and 90% of the sea is an empty waste of time.

[Charesque]

23 minutes ago, Well-met said:

And trying to find the moon island, salts and shoals can be seriously annoying since it's basically all RNG and 90% of the sea is an empty waste of time.

Moon island can be easily located without even setting sail (on most worlds); but i have to agree, salt and shoals can be a pain to find.
On the bright side -  the boat ride is a rather peaceful experience.

[Mike23Ua]

I went and played Shipwrecked again yesterday to compare DST Boats with Shipwrecked Boats.

The first thing to note about that is that there is The Sea.. and then, there is the DEEP SEA. (The Water is a Different color and has new types of threats the further out at sea you are..) Currently... DST only has the First part of the Sea, The peaceful flat area with a few fishies to fish up.

The DEEP SEA has all the hostile things that want you dead and rough sea ocean waves crashing into your boat.

Surely you guys don’t think they made these boats have a Health Bar for no reason at all right?? More is coming..

And that more will come in Both the addition of new land Biomes & Sea Biomes. 

[Well-met]

33 minutes ago, Charesque said:

Moon island can be easily located without even setting sail (on most worlds); but i have to agree, salt and shoals can be a pain to find.
On the bright side -  the boat ride is a rather peaceful experience.

In 8 different worlds it was always super far away in a random corner. Do you have any trick in mind?

[Charesque]

16 minutes ago, Well-met said:

In 8 different worlds it was always super far away in a random corner. Do you have any trick in mind?

Lunar island is always connected to the mainland by shallow water. If you see big waves - you're on the wrong track. 
Also (in most cases) land branches where the island is connected appear almost as if they were cut off. 

Spoiler

I'll mark them with a red line on a few examples of the early worlds (nothing has changed since then in regards of worldgen):




I think you have a general idea. Once you have enough practice - you'll be able to locate the Lunar island quite easily.

 

[Mike23Ua]

Most people just build themselves a massive bridge of boat platforms and then runs across the ocean over them.

it defeats the entire purpose of needing to gather all the boat kit parts to build a fully functional boat worthy of setting sail. But I get the feeling those Boat Bridges are about to get wrecked soon.. & I can’t wait to see the complaints pour in about it xD

[Owlrust]

I feel like question #3 should have a "I am happy with the current state of boating", or something to that extent; I personally am very satisfied with boating as a whole, and have very little things I dislike about it.

[Orangex]

The worst thing about sailing for me is the sheer number of sea stacks. They make exploring the ocean for fish/malbatross/gnarwail extremely tedious and there are no settings when creating your world to lower their numbers. I know their purpose is to make sailing a bit more dangerous, but in all honestly, they make sailling such a chore that it's difficult to enjoy the new content.

[Frashaw27]

I like it much more then SW sailing since it feels more like sailing and much less like a simple barrier that requires a tool to trend over. The only thing I don't like is how unsingle player friendly the mechanic is. It is difficult to manage this sea vessel to moving properly when you have to manage anchors, sails, and steering all at once.

[Dunk Mujunk]

30 minutes ago, Owlrus98 said:

I feel like question #3 should have a "I am happy with the current state of boating", or something to that extent; I personally am very satisfied with boating as a whole, and have very little things I dislike about it.

Added "like it all"option to question #3, and a "don't like any of it" option to question #2.

[Sinister_Fang]

I quite enjoy how the boats work in DST. It's a lot more interesting then SW's "normal movement, but with momentum". The only thing I dislike about boating overall, is simply the lack of content. But RoT isn't finished yet, so I'm sure more ocean content is on it's way.

[Mr. Aqua]

I like the concept of boating in DST. It creates a new kind of adventure for the players. It's also pretty calming, just sailing in the moonlight. But that calmness takes part from how little there is in the ocean. There are only a small handful of hostile mobs, two of which are easy to deal with. The introduction of Malbatross is interesting, but it's drops aren't with the trouble. Though, I really like the new fishing style. It's fun to learn and master it.

[Well-met]

and yeah where are the world gen settings for RoT? I feel it's overdue. Or are they just waiting until everything is in?

[meepmoop]

9 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I went and played Shipwrecked again yesterday to compare DST Boats with Shipwrecked Boats.

The first thing to note about that is that there is The Sea.. and then, there is the DEEP SEA. (The Water is a Different color and has new types of threats the further out at sea you are..) Currently... DST only has the First part of the Sea, The peaceful flat area with a few fishies to fish up.

The DEEP SEA has all the hostile things that want you dead and rough sea ocean waves crashing into your boat.

Surely you guys don’t think they made these boats have a Health Bar for no reason at all right?? More is coming..

And that more will come in Both the addition of new land Biomes & Sea Biomes. 

Can you give examples of said threats? you mean like mobs and such? or the waves? what are you thinking exactly?

8 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Most people just build themselves a massive bridge of boat platforms and then runs across the ocean over them.

it defeats the entire purpose of needing to gather all the boat kit parts to build a fully functional boat worthy of setting sail. But I get the feeling those Boat Bridges are about to get wrecked soon.. & I can’t wait to see the complaints pour in about it xD

Yea I agree it feels kinda cheesy and I for one will prefer not having that (so I would NOT be from the side that complains most luckily).

However I do think being able to bridge small gaps of land will still be ok. Maybe make an exclusive building for that (small bridge).

[GetNerfedOn]

I don't see why making massive boat bridges is "cheesy", it's a very intelligent use of resources overall which pays off for the massive amount of time needed to gather and manufacture said materials.

However, what I can find a problem with is that boats do not require anchors to remain in place. Given time, a nerf to this is to implement waves at sea to move said boats such that anchors are required to fix them in place.

[Mike23Ua]

42 minutes ago, meepmoop said:

Can you give examples of said threats? you mean like mobs and such? or the waves? what are you thinking exactly?

Yea I agree it feels kinda cheesy and I for one will prefer not having that (so I would be from the side that complains most luckily).

However I do think being able to bridge small gaps of land will still be ok. Maybe make an exclusive building for that (small bridge).

Well for one.. there’s These guys in Shipwrecked that could probably be added to DST.

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Swordfish

Except if it was up to me I would Change There A.I. The way they were designed in Solo DS was meant to Combat the faster moving single person boats...

So here’s my thought: These should jump up out of the water like a Dolphin attempting to “Stab” the player.

They gave you a Boat with enough room to move around on NOT to Build a damn Water House on top of it & sing Sea Shanties... but to instead Obviously DODGE some type of incoming hostile attacks.  

[meepmoop]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Well for one.. there’s These guys in Shipwrecked that could probably be added to DST.

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Swordfish

Except if it was up to me I would Change There A.I. The way they were designed in Solo DS was meant to Combat the faster moving single person boats...

So here’s my thought: These should jump up out of the water like a Dolphin attempting to “Stab” the player.

They gave you a Boat with enough room to move around on NOT to Build a damn Water House on top of it & sing Sea Shanties... but to instead Obviously DODGE some type of incoming hostile attacks.  

haha you want them because they are the best weapon! I dont blame you this idea could be awesome.

But yea sea mobs in shipwrecked are designed more for the type of boats there. I think DST sea mobs need their own style of fighting (like cookie cutters)

your idea about using the boat room to dodge hostile attacks is really good!

It maybe can be implemented in a giant-fight? like quaken swinging his limbs at the boat or tangling them like in fantasy movies? I think the mechenics of sea fight need to be a bit different then in shipwrecked.

what do you think Mike?

[Mike23Ua]

There’s also this mob..

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Jellyfish

Which was PASSIVE until you attacked them in the Shipwrecked DLC, however... for anyone who has played Ark Survival Evolved YOU KNOW BETTER!! (Or At least I hope you do anyway..) 

While I think they only acted as a Passive Food Source In Shipwrecked, In Ark Survival Evolved they move in pacts and will group up to surround & shock the player..

This could work Against the player.. or if playing as WX78 it could work FOR Them.

Imagine portions of the boat being hit with a cone surge of electricity and you’d have to move out of the way to avoid taking the damage over time from it.

I put together some really ugly pictures to demonstrate.. Poor Winona.. No Wonder her Hair always looks like it’s Standing on Top her head!

[Yuuko]

10 hours ago, Orangex said:

The worst thing about sailing for me is the sheer number of sea stacks. They make exploring the ocean for fish/malbatross/gnarwail extremely tedious and there are no settings when creating your world to lower their numbers. I know their purpose is to make sailing a bit more dangerous, but in all honestly, they make sailling such a chore that it's difficult to enjoy the new content.

Maxwell can help clear these pretty quick.  With 4 pickaxe crew they can clear the stacks about as quick as you sail into them with 1 sail.  Quite efficient I think.

[Tryak]

All I think they need to add is more boat specific content. For example, different types of boat, bridges, docks, more sails, floating base stuff like in shipwrecked, ect. This plus sea world gen settings would make it a lot more enjoyable.

Also as for bridges I think a recipe could be something like 4 boards, 2 rope and 4 stingers. I think they should just embrace the idea of bridges as people already use boats as bridges anyway, and making them just a little harder to get and actually having an item for it instead of using boats would be nice.

Also waves could be added in the darker parts of the sea so that boat bridges don't work, and the boats themselves should get reskinned because they ugly as heck

[Dunk Mujunk]

I'm hoping thats the direction they plan to go. I'd imagine its pretty much a given that plenty more content will be added to the water in the future, allowing boating and all related crafts to expand. I'd love Sea basing to become viable and relevant whether that's through new foundation type crafts or just construction on boats as it is now. Of course there are some who seem to take an insane amount of personal offense to the thought of basing on the water, which I don't understand, but to each their own I suppose.

Also, i wouldn't mind a boat reskin, but I don't see boats getting away from their circle shape. They dont actually rotate, all the equipment onboard stays in the same orientation which would be weird if you elongated the boat, but I suppose that could change.

I'd also love bridges, i think it would be a great addition, especially as I take great enjoyment from the construction of infrastructure in a world. 

[Minitte]

I would like to see boat shaped boats or square shaped boats one day

[Mike23Ua]

No one else is going to say it? Fine I will.. the current Boat Cookies being a flat rounded out surface that floats on water just seems better repurposed as an at sea Ice Sheet you can float on.

(Do remember when these boats first came out that they pretty much crumbled just even slightly bumping into land)

So all the hard work and programming is Already there...

As for Boats themselves I enjoy that they’re harder to use then Shipwreckeds simplistic Water Shoes.. but the largest problem is the boat is very Single player unfriendly.

(And people seem to forget that despite the game being called Don’t Starve TOGETHER there still actually IS An Option to play Alone in an Offline World.)

When Walani is added to the game I will probably just play as Her and use her Surfboard over the Boat Cookies.

[Superwolfkid]

I honestly would like to see some planting box or something become a thing on boats soon, I really want to see someone build a base out at sea that there able to stay out  and survive without having to go back to the mainland, hopefully that could be done in the in the future if that was possible.