Early game boating is (genuinely) one of the best things to happen to this game!

[lowercase skye]

Just wanted to say how much I love this update and the grass raft so so much! I am not exaggerating. The whole update knocks it out of the park, but the grass raft especially has already changed my gameplay so much and I think it's going to be super impactful even for people who don't tend to engage with the ocean much.

For people who love the ocean, the grass raft finally lets you shove off from land within like, SECONDS of leaving the portal, only needing to chop a tree for an oar and harvest a bunch of grass/twigs. It's even better than the early boat crafting was during that one beta where it was scienceless, both in theming and mechanics. But just like that beta, it means you can start your game out getting food like fish meat and figs and barnacles, getting wood from Pearl's place, mining your first gold at the lunar island, and using glass cutters as your first real weapon. The ocean can truly be treated like an alternate start now, and I love it so much.

Meanwhile for people who are still learning (or even apprehensive to) boating, the grass raft makes going out there more accessible, either for small things like kelp as early Wurt food, grabbing those pesky close-to-land bottles, checking shallow water for the lunar island or waterlogged biomes, or even just crossing a small gap between two bits of land. It's no secret that a lot of long-term players are pretty stubborn about the ocean, and I think the cost going down from 8 boards to 8 grass is going to help people be more willing to pop out there and see what's up, even if they normally wouldn't put in the effort.

The grass raft also has the unique property of a constant health drain but the inability to form leaks. This makes bumps into sea stacks and such more forgiving, and Gnarwail encounters way less punishing for someone still figuring out how boats work (especially poor Webber). I think this tradeoff of being unsustainable for the long term (you're not going to be building your crock pots and such on a boat that's constantly about to sink) but way less punishing in the short term is great. You'll still want to upgrade to a regular boat later on (or steal one from some pirates) for the longevity and more permanent structures, but you'll be way more prepared for handling such a thing since you've gotten experience with the content out there in a no-leaks scenario.

All in all I think the grass raft is an absolutely incredible addition that I think is gonna help push players out to at least the shallower waters that they wouldn't normally be willing to put in the effort, and is helping to really make the ocean feel like an alternate start for those who already love to go there, like the Downpour from Binding of Isaac. Thank you Klei this is the best!!

[Primalflower]

Yes, yes, so much yes!! I absolutely adore the early game boating experience, it's probably some of the most thrilling and enjoyable stuff i've had from the game in a while. It feels super super super good to instantly shove off and collect a bottle or two + your first few driftwoods on like, day 3, instantly getting the jump on sunken treasures, and ocean exploration in general.

I had an incredibly fun (and unplanned, honestly quite terrifying) experience of spending a lot of time on a grass raft early on, and only barely making it pearl's island before the grass raft was rendered kaput. I thought I was stranded at first, but I ended up being wholly capable of making a full boat from the logs available on pearls island, and how I already had the small amount of resources necessary for a science machine. It was so so so so much fun!! I'm honestly so glad that klei shelved the scienceless wooden boats for this.

[flamboyant wolf]

just want to note that now scienceless CC actually seems like something possible.

not sure if it is, but at least now there's a chance? it's definitely gonna be hard though. 

[extremyt]

I agree.

[Antynomity]

They probably got the grass raft idea after making the normal one scienceless, and decided to keep the idea for the first 'setting the stage update', I absolutely adore Shipwrecked and I'm so happy we are slowly getting to a point where we have a entirely new and fun boating experience in DST, still hoping for some sort of volcano in the future.

[lionking102]

Now what we desperately need is some ocean content, so I mean content in the ocean, not on islands. We have good tools now and early game boating so it would be great if the ocean wasn't empty and there is also some early game stuff there. 

I would love sea plants and sea animals. 

[Capybara007]

im pretty sure that the grass boat not getting any leaks is just a bug though

[Maxposting]

6 hours ago, Capybara007 said:

im pretty sure that the grass boat not getting any leaks is just a bug though

I doubt, it is quite literally leaking already.

[Capybara007]

38 minutes ago, __IvoCZE__ said:

I doubt, it is quite literally leaking already.

from a logical perspective a grass boat shouldnt resist ramming into rocks

[HumanBean150]

7 hours ago, Capybara007 said:

from a logical perspective a grass boat shouldnt resist ramming into rocks

from a logical perspective, the boat has holes all over it and should therefore sink immediately.

it's also made exclusively of 8 pieces of grass and 2 twigs, and should therefore probably be unable to support the weight of any survivors.

so a nerf to the grass boat so that no survivors can use it would be great, from a "logical perspective".

[Spino43]

15 minutes ago, HumanBean150 said:

from a logical perspective, the boat has holes all over it and should therefore sink immediately.

it's also made exclusively of 8 pieces of grass and 2 twigs, and should therefore probably be unable to support the weight of any survivors.

so I would love to see a nerf to the grass boat so that no survivors can use it would be great, from a "logical perspective".

You can make a backpack with 4 grass, 4 twigs that can hold 160 logs, or 320 rocks, cannot be destroyed by literal meteors.

So yeah, a boat with that recipe is okay xD.

[Primalflower]

14 hours ago, Capybara007 said:

im pretty sure that the grass boat not getting any leaks is just a bug though

I don't think so. Where leaks would happen, the grass raft still sustains damage. Just no leak. Its neat, not necessarily really powerful, but it affords the grass raft a few niche little uses after you've already at a point where wooden boats are feasible.

Its theorycrafting, but I think I would like to see someone try their hand at a 2-player crab king 9 purple gem strategy in which one player attacks and the other spends most of their time repairing the damage sustained from geysers with a few stacks of grass.

15 hours ago, lionking102 said:

it would be great if the ocean wasn't empty and there is also some early game stuff there. 

I would love sea plants and sea animals. 

The way the ocean is designed is so that ocean life and content spawns around you, rather than existing in sectioned off biomes. I don't know if something has been tuned, but I've been seeing an awful lot more gnarwails and such out there as off the moon quay update.

The early game stuff on the ocean is rather simple, its pearl and her bottles, because they're relevant throughout the entire game !! Its easy to chain together sunken treasures as they spawn across the ocean, which give you plenty of time to find another bottle that leads to another treasure. This is something that you can do incredibly, incredibly early, and all the while making great use out of the various sources of food out there, like barnacles, shoals, and the entire waterlogged biomes(!!) in their entirety, and this isn't even touching the stuff that you can poke around with early on on the moon island, which I would consider ocean content perfectly well.

The content in the ocean is designed in a way that is unique to land content, and as such it can be easy to dismiss the ocean as empty. But rest assured if you actually do stuff out there & sort of just paddle/sail around as opposed to staying in one spot, you're sure to find a lot of good stuff out there, much of which is relevant in the early game as much as it is outside of it. I really do, love it a lot.

[PetulantPansy]

So is the crab king fight a cake walk now? If the boat can't take damage (outside normal wear/tear), you just have to dodge the freeze spells and that's it right? 

[Capybara007]

I insist the grass boat will take tamage from leaks and ck when the beta ends

[Primalflower]

9 hours ago, PetulantPansy said:

So is the crab king fight a cake walk now? If the boat can't take damage (outside normal wear/tear), you just have to dodge the freeze spells and that's it right? 

You misunderstand me. There arent leaks, but the boat still takes an appropriate amount of damage where a leak would have happened. So the geyser attack would do like, 1/3 of the grass boats health, but no actual leaks.

1 hour ago, Capybara007 said:

I insist the grass boat will take tamage from leaks and ck when the beta ends

It already does 

[HowlVoid]

I've been asking for a small raft for so long and we finally got it! 

I'm so happy too!

[Maxil20]

I think the boat is a great change! Combined with the buff to oars, it makes early sailing much less expensive and far less punishing to lose a boat. I definitely feel it’s an excellent stepping stone for people who are new to boats and want to practice with them.

In addition, the boat is exceptional for harvesting salt. Cookie cutters can still attack your boat, but they cannot cause leaks and you take only ~10 damage on your boat if they successfully bite into the boat. Combined with the decreased size, it makes navigating around broken salt stacks much easier.

[Pumking7]

Fun facts about the grass boat: 

You can use cut grass to repair the boat for about 13 boat health, which you can use 16 pieces of cut grass to repair it's health to full.

The grass boat will drop 6 cut grass when breaking, allowing you to build a new grass boat for only 2 cut grass and 2 twigs, the price of a torch.

So I try to use both of these to my advantage, if I have a firepit on my grass boat or are trying to use it to farm salt/intentionally ram into seastacks I can use the cut grass to repair it, however if I just want to explore keep moving across the ocean I might ram my dying boat into a seastack, hop on another grass boat and collect the 6 cut grass to keep rowing on.

[PetulantPansy]

10 hours ago, Primalflower said:

You misunderstand me. There arent leaks, but the boat still takes an appropriate amount of damage where a leak would have happened. So the geyser attack would do like, 1/3 of the grass boats health, but no actual leaks.

Good thing they fixed it in the latest beta hotfix

[Primalflower]

8 minutes ago, PetulantPansy said:

Good thing they fixed it in the latest beta hotfix

a cookie cutter's attack went from 198 to 166. so ~33 hp.

a crab king 9purple gem geyser attack went from 200 to 50. But this one felt variable. ~150hp, but maybe less with some luck.