QoL Naval: Any comments and suggestions about naval mobility and how to improve it in DST

[Harrowick]

There's nothing more cozy to me than being huddled up with friends, sailing the treacherous waters in a co-op boat setting. Though I do wish we had more variety, and maybe some natural "boats", like @Hornete's Lilypad and Iceberg ideas. 

[minespatch]

I think removing some sensitivity from the boats when reaching land would be duly appreciated. I can understand crashing rocks, but on sandy beaches???

[FreyaMaluk]

3 hours ago, Owlrus98 said:

I skipped a heartbeat when I saw QoL in the title and "Hot" for the comments. Needless to say I'm disappointed that it wasn't actually the update.

Back on OP's topic, I like the boats but I certainly think they could be expanded upon in future updates.

I'm so sorry.. didn't intended by any means to get that "official update" impression. Just wanted a title that encapsulates pretty well the theme of the gen discussion.

also referring boats specifically, do you have concrete suggestion as what would you like to see?

2 hours ago, Lumberlocke said:

Though I do wish we had more variety, and maybe some natural "boats", like @Hornete's Lilypad and Iceberg ideas. 

do you mind referring to a link or something about those Lilypads and things?

2 hours ago, Lumberlocke said:

There's nothing more cozy to me than being huddled up with friends, sailing the treacherous waters in a co-op boat setting. Though I do wish we had more variety, -.....

for sure, variety is indeed needed. If we had one fast boat we could simply complete task faster and when it's relax fishing time we can take the together boat... Just rn we just got one and it feels really clunky.

[Hornete]

4 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

do you mind referring to a link or something about those Lilypads and things?

hiya! I made these suggestions, the ice sheet one quite a bit ago, and the lilypads recently 
 

 

and I made a quick rough experimental mod adding the Lily Pads from Hamlet to the game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2171674990

I'm absolutely addicted and obsessed with the idea of boat varieties and natural boats. Bigger and smaller boats would be cool, but having unique boat and boat-like platforms like ice sheets and lily pads would be super great.

 

Spoiler

also wow I just realised I posted that ice sheet idea in the GENERAL subforum not the suggestions subforum, I disgust myself

 

[FreyaMaluk]

13 minutes ago, Hornete said:

hiya! I made these suggestions, the ice sheet one quite a bit ago, and the lilypads recently

  Reveal hidden contents

also wow I just realised I posted that ice sheet idea in the GENERAL subforum not the suggestions subforum, I disgust myself

 

oh.. those are nice ideas... I particularly like the Lilypads.

14 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I'm absolutely addicted and obsessed with the idea of boat varieties and natural boats. Bigger and smaller boats would be cool, but having unique boat and boat-like platforms like ice sheets and lily pads would be super great.

For sure. I think the general sense I'm getting is precisely that... More boat variety. I think a bigger together boat might be nice too... like having a central piece in case you want to base in the water... but also smaller quicker boats for some time sensitive tasks

[Owlrust]

41 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

do you have concrete suggestion as what would you like to see?

I wouldn't hate something like a tether line attached to a post that lets you move around in the water by yourself; would be pretty useful for gathering things like salt.

[Nettalie]

My experience with boats ranges from "This is a cool idea" and "This is not too bad" 
to "Why bother making them" and "Bridges are just simpler to do".

Either I sort of enjoy going out on the sea with a boat when I know what exactly I am looking for and thinking about the potential in boats or I look at how boating content is right now with having to explore a sea in a lengthy process and ask myself what the point in making an actual boat is when one mistake is potentially gonna be fatal anyways.

The boats are slow, doing most things on them is cumbersome unless you have like 3 people, in which case it is already really cluttered, the space most of the time can barely fit all the structures you might need on a boat and then to top it of, most things you find out on the ocean are mediocre at best (both food (except for barnacles maybe? I don't know I'm already fine enough using one of the other tons of food sources) and resources).

There is definitely huge potential here for improvement with different things to find on sea and improving the boating experience itself, but I feel like unless there are major boat tweaks headed our way that boating will just be yet another mechanic that only a handful of players are gonna use as intended. I mean when basic tasks such as picking up resources you find is tedious and can take several minutes it's no wonder people are torn on the entire boating mechanic of return of them.
And even when things get streamlined a tiny bit there's always some catch to it that almost defeats the purpose of it, like with the mast lights which allow you to save on space not having to place down a firepit, but then are less efficient than a firepit in both fuel and range, don't allow you to heat yourself up and can be a pain to use when you have no idea when exactly the fuel is gonna run out.

Of course that is without mentioning things that even further discourage sea exploration, which thus discourage actually using boats as intended even further. But I won't get into that here since this post is already about as long as a novel.

[WoodieMain45684]

I feel like that the boats themselves are fine, but that the ocean that they are placed in isn't exactly build for them. If the entirety of DST was spent on the ocean, and there were more incremental upgrades to speed than just sails, then it would be perfect.

-----------------------------

I feel like the reason why DST boats have such a large rejection (even if not the majority) is because:

1) SW boats existed at some point in time, if they never existed, something like this would be more acceptable. Players are used to the quick, direct control of the boat, not to mention it's time consuming to navigate around things like salt stacks just to pick up one more piece of salt. (and gnarwails typically aren't that helpful for retrieving them)

2) The boats are designed for long voyages to many different places (because of the speed, ability to farm food from it, storage) while the world that they are present in is simply too small to really have any long lasting voyages.

3) Weak loot from voyaging with them compared to ruins rushing or possibly even just scavenging.

-------------------------------

So fixes to these issues are from easiest to hardest:

1) Buff Ocean loot of all kinds, this includes materials obtained from lunar island. The easiest buff would be simply increasing damage, durability, amount of chops, health and hunger restored, damage reduction, etc. Other more extreme cases may require reworking of items, like the strident trident. (Solution to issue 3)

2) Increase speed of pre-mast spam boating (this means with paddles, basically), make impacts with objects more forgiving, and make it easier to retrieve water items without having to go out of your way to build a lazy forager. (Solution to issue 1)

3) Increase map size and add more POIs on the ocean. (Solution to issue 2, and also probably the hardest to implement, as it will probably require adding new content as opposed to tuning or adding new function to existing content.)

[Sinister_Fang]

I quite enjoy the sailing in DST vs SW. It feels more closer to actual sailing rather then just walking with momentum. My only real issue isn't with boats themselves, but a lot of the content at sea feels like a "one and done" kinda deal. So once you get what you need, you don't have much of a reason to sail around anymore.

[Scrimbles]

I don't think the boats are the problem, its the lack of content in the water.

 

It feels like you're taking forever to sail around an empty ocean, because it's an empty ocean :l

[FreyaMaluk]

6 minutes ago, Ogrecakes said:

I don't think the boats are the problem, its the lack of content in the water.

 

It feels like you're taking forever to sail around an empty ocean, because it's an empty ocean :l

True.. but tbh I think it's probs a bit of both..

[Tom_P_Moleman]

4 hours ago, Viktor234 said:

The current boats are lacking speeeeeEED!!!

Then you obviously don't know 'the best pirate' yet. 

 

[Notecja]

Boating is fine. The only things I need are: boat hook for grabbing things from sea (right now picking stuff from sea is quite uncomfortable and this is real-life solution to that), more things around sea and maybe some sea-themed decor stuff and pier.

[Cheggf]

The boats aren't the problem, the ocean is. There's almost nothing to do out there and the little content that there is to do offers almost no rewards. Boating is by far the most time and resource extensive activity in the game but gives basically nothing.

[FreyaMaluk]

46 minutes ago, Tom_P_Moleman said:

Then you obviously don't know 'the best pirate' yet. 

 

This is clearly a meme not really a boat you'll use for normal sailing

[Stonetribe]

What if you could use the sea fishing rod to real in most things that float in the ocean, making tasks like collecting mined salt much less of a hassle?

[FreyaMaluk]

9 hours ago, Stonetribe said:

What if you could use the sea fishing rod to real in most things that float in the ocean, making tasks like collecting mined salt much less of a hassle?

That sounds pretty good. Dunno how difficult it's gonna be to code it but at least they don't even need a new item. 

Also a trawl net might be nice too to collect many items at the same time. 

[wigfrids hat]

i am enjoying sailing around(of course i am doing so aimlessly and skirting land) and i am really happy with what i have experienced so far though i do very much agree that it would be brilliant to fracture the land up to larger islands(5-7 of them so they are worth getting off the boat and exploring for  while and for encouraging people to make multiple bases(productive padding, haha). i am using a mod on one of my games that does this and it has been a joy to see what sorts of islands i will bump into while i slowly collect up bottle messages and practice my paddling X''D

[WoodieMain45684]

Idea: Currents

Basically these are "Sea Roads". Once a boat is pushed into one, it will glide through it without much manual input from the driver of the boat, and at a decent speed. These usually lead between POIs and fish can be seen travelling through it.

SW had waves that allowed you to travel at a faster or slower speed depending on how you use them, something like currents would be fitting for the tendencies of the cookie boats.

It could look something like what I have shown below: (Apologies for the poor arrows, but I hope it gets the idea across)

Spoiler

 

[. . .]

the boats are great, but the ocean is very empty.

[TheGoldenDonut_]

7 hours ago, zee_dragon said:

I think they're fine. A bit slow but I like em'

The apostrophe goes before the e, not after the m, you silly little sausage.

[ZTheNecromancer]

16 minutes ago, TheGoldenDonut_ said:

The apostrophe goes before the e, not after the m, you silly little sausage.

Alright, I'll try not to make that mistake next time.

Spoiler

Why am I a little sausage to you?

 

[GetNerfedOn]

if you like i could expand this into a poll of my own covering more areas of concern

with your consent ofcz

[FreyaMaluk]

1 hour ago, GetNerfedOn said:

if you like i could expand this into a poll of my own covering more areas of concern

with your consent ofcz

Ofc. Go right ahead.. I think you have some good pointers from the discussion here. 

[Memetan]

I really want to craft this things In DST maybe with Mosquito Sack and other stuff, because boats are to easy to crash. Or add diferent tipes of boats with diferent stats.