Boat Skins are a ripoff.

[Theukon-dos]

Alright so. You've seen the title, you know what I'm on about. But what do I mean when I say that Boat skins are a ripoff? Well, a few things really.

 

To begin, most of you probably noticed that Klei released the first boat skins in today's patch. And this is awesome! Boats are cool, and boat skins are also cool. Buuuut there's a bit of a problem.

Notice anything weird here? See that rectangle on the side? Yeah, apparently Boat skins and plank skins are separate from one another. This, quite frankly, is completely asinine for a variety of reasons. And allow me to explain why.

 

1. It doubles the spool cost of boat skins.

Both the boat skins and the plank skins are full price to weave at 1350 spools. And obviously you can't just craft a boat or a plank. They are always going to be; for all intents and purposes; one and the same. You just can't have a boat without a deck, or a deck without a boat. so, unless you want your high-quality metal boat to have a flimsy wooded plank, then you better hope you have some extra spools saved up.

2. It's inconsistent.

Historically speaking, whenever 2 or more objects are directly tied together, unlocking 1 skin will also unlock skins for any derivatives. For example, Starcaller staff skins inherently come with a mooncaller staff skin. Many spear skins come with modified versions for fire and ice staves. And Grass hat skins also unlock skins for the miner helmet. However, the best example is probably the Telelocator focus. Like the boat, the Focus is technically comprised of 2 seperate structures. The three pylons, along with the focus itself between them. But unlike the boat, you only need 1 skin for both structures. If you have; say; the Hallowed telelocator focus skin. Then you have a hollowed telelocator focus. You don't a Hollowed focus skin and a hollowed Pylon skin. So then why is it that the boat and the plank are separate?

3. It's inconvenient 

As said earlier, one doesn't just craft a plank. The plank itself is crafted as part of the boat. However, because the skin for the plank is completely seperate, the plank will always be the default one when you deploy the boat. If you have both of the Wagstaff skins for the boat/plank respectively. Then deploying the scrap metal boat won't come with an escape exit gang plank. It'll just be a default plank. This isn't as bad as it could be, sense the recipe for the Clean Sweeper was made way cheaper. But it's still pretty annoying to need an entirely separate item just to have a visually coherent boat.

4. Some skins get left out.

Now, 2 skins have actually been added for the boat today. The Scrap Metal boat and the Abandon ship. So why haven't I brought up the latter one yet?

There is no Abandon variant of the plank. Perhaps they're planning to release it later as a separate twitch drop. But until that happens; or if you happen to miss that drop for one reason or another; you're damned to have a mismatching boat because apparently you can't make a plank out of driftwood.

 

 

So ultimately, we have to pay extra spools for a pair of skins to be applied on a single object that may not even have both skins. I am genuinely mystified on what could have led to this being the case. Maybe Klei wanted players to be able to mix and match boat and plank skins? Maybe the coding used for boats is a hot mess? Who knows? But really, these two objects should have just been a single skin. No doubt 'bout it.

[Intrepidpioneer]

Man. I gotta agree, when I saw the new skins I assumed they were together. The consistency of the spear and starcaller are a really good point. I'm curious to hear what the devs think about this.

[Owlrust]

I don't mind them being separate, they're all mostly their own structures so it makes sense that they would each have their own skin; even more so because the skins were separate for each twitch drop...except for the plank

The only skin I feel should be addressed is the plank. The plank is pretty expensive for what it is/does, I didn't even know they counted as their own thing. I would like to suggest that the skin perhaps go from Elegant to Distinguished to make the cost a little more reasonable.

[Theukon-dos]

21 minutes ago, Owlrust said:

I don't mind them being separate, they're all mostly their own structures so it makes sense that they would each have their own skin; even more so because the skins were separate for each twitch drop...except for the plank

The only skin I feel should be addressed is the plank. The plank is pretty expensive for what it is/does, I didn't even know they counted as their own thing. I would like to suggest that the skin perhaps go from Elegant to Distinguished to make the cost a little more reasonable.

No no no. Out of the skins I mentioned, the only one that is separate is the plank.

If you got the radiant Star caller's staff from a twitch drop, you also got the prismatic moon caller's staff. It's only one skin in your inventory, but it effects both items in different ways. Same with the telelocator focus, prestihatitator, grass hat, ect. As far as I know, Boats and planks being seperate skins is the only instance where 2 closely-related items don't share a skin.

[WhackE]

I was planning on making a post about this too, I'm really disappointed they decided, because every other time they've done it, it wasn't like this. 
it especially doesn't make sense since you need to make the boat to even get a plank? Like come on. THAT and the twitch skin doesn't have a custom plank now, because they're "Separate skins"  but only for boats for some reason.

like you mentioned other skins are already combined into multiple
Grass hat skins having shared skins for the miner and rain hats. Most Spear skins can be used for fire and ice staves. and yes the radiant star callers staff. Why are boats and planks the exception?

1 hour ago, Owlrust said:

I don't mind them being separate, they're all mostly their own structures so it makes sense that they would each have their own skin; even more so because the skins were separate for each twitch drop...except for the plank

The only skin I feel should be addressed is the plank. The plank is pretty expensive for what it is/does, I didn't even know they counted as their own thing. I would like to suggest that the skin perhaps go from Elegant to Distinguished to make the cost a little more reasonable.

no.

I also forgot to mention the Hutch, Chester, and Glommer skins which not only have skins for their multiples forms, but also their key items. Starsky, Glommers flower, and the Eyebone.

[Mike23Ua]

Maybe I want a classic wooden plank on my boat and I like the look of the boat skin, but would hate for the plank to also be the same color?

[X-lem]

ya this is really odd that they’re separate…

What happens if you just have one of the skins? For example just the plank skin? How do you even apply that when you build the boat?

[Theukon-dos]

Just now, X-lem said:

ya this is really odd that they’re separate…

What happens if you just have one of the skins? For example just the plank skin? How do you even apply that when you build the boat?

you don't. It also doesn't apply when you build the boat if you own it. Plank skins need the Clean Sweeper to use at all.

[X-lem]

Just now, Theukon-dos said:

you don't. It also doesn't apply when you build the boat if you own it. Plank skins need the Clean Sweeper to use at all.

Wut… ya that’s dumb

[GelatinousCube]

Plank skins cost the full 1350 instead of that lower 450 amount? Thats criminal...

[Szczuku]

Yeah that's dumb.

Either treat boats and planks as one entity or give them the 'Wilson and his beard' treatment, where plank skins cost like 50 spools 

[ALCRD]

1350 for a plank skin .. wtf

[Duck986]

That's what being sold to Tencent does to mf.

[Antynomity]

6 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Maybe I want a classic wooden plank on my boat and I like the look of the boat skin, but would hate for the plank to also be the same color?

It would still be possible.

[. . .]

what were they thinking...? this is absurd lmao

[HowlVoid]

So wait... They were trying to scam me??

Feels bad man. 

[Echsrick]

this realy seems just wrong, i mean, there part of another thing, litteraly connected even, so how is the honestly forgetable plank, a seperate item?

[PeterA]

19 hours ago, Theukon-dos said:

Maybe Klei wanted players to be able to mix and match boat and plank skins?

That was my original justification for keeping it as a separate item. More customization is generally better for the players. Back when we started the skins system, character skins were going to be single pieces clothing, but we pushed for splitting things up so we could let the players mix and match clothing and head skins. I'm glad we did, we've seen so many great combinations of outfits. That said, the plank skins implementation fell short, and the Elegant rarity didn't make sense. 

Next week I'm going to look at changing this around. The tentative plan is

• remove the Emergency Exit item
• refund the full Elegant Spool value to people who own the Emergency Exit item
• include the plank art directly in the boat skin art, and apply the plank skin automatically when crafting a boat

In retrospect, I simply didn't give the plank skin enough thought and consideration. I definitely appreciate the feedback!

16 hours ago, Duck986 said:

That's what being sold to Tencent does to mf.

lol no, that's what happens when Peter doesn't get enough sleep. 
 

19 hours ago, Theukon-dos said:

There is no Abandon variant of the plank. Perhaps they're planning to release it later as a separate twitch drop. But until that happens; or if you happen to miss that drop for one reason or another; you're damned to have a mismatching boat because apparently you can't make a plank out of driftwood.

We were planning on making the nautical plank next week and making it an ensemble bonus item for owning the rest of the nautical collection, but now with the plan to merge the plank back in to the boat, we'll just include that automatically.

[WhackE]

23 minutes ago, PeterA said:

 

• remove the Emergency Exit item
• refund the full Elegant Spool value to people who own the Emergency Exit item
• include the plank art directly in the boat skin art, and apply the plank skin automatically when crafting a boat

We were planning on making the nautical plank next week and making it an ensemble bonus item for owning the rest of the nautical collection, but now with the plan to merge the plank back in to the boat, we'll just include that automatically.

[Primalflower]

38 minutes ago, PeterA said:

• remove the Emergency Exit item
• refund the full Elegant Spool value to people who own the Emergency Exit item
• include the plank art directly in the boat skin art, and apply the plank skin automatically when crafting a boat

i hope that this would still mean we could sweep the plank for the respective skin? I'm not a fan of the regular plank on the ghoulish boat.

[WhackE]

1 minute ago, Primalflower said:

i hope that this would still mean we could sweep the plank for the respective skin? I'm not a fan of the regular plank on the ghoulish boat.

yes, it's implied. They're just combining the plank and boat now so you get both but can still sweep them separately. 

[finn from human]

8 minutes ago, Primalflower said:

I'm not a fan of the regular plank on the ghoulish boat.

At the end of the post you quoted it's stated they'll be making a plank for the abandoned ship >:3

[IceTime]

I agree with your first point very much. I also have these two pieces of skin through knitting, but I regret it very much and plan to roll back

[Dr. Safety]

1 hour ago, PeterA said:

Back when we started the skins system, character skins were going to be single pieces clothing, but we pushed for splitting things up so we could let the players mix and match clothing

In that case...

Eh? Eh? Peter, ol' buddy ol' pal?

[-Variant]

1 hour ago, PeterA said:

but we pushed for splitting things up so we could let the players mix and match clothing and head skins.

I don't mean to hijack this thread or be greedy but I do wonder if this same thought process could be applied to hand skins, like in this thread I had made during the beta!
It's something I've been personally dying to have in the vanilla experience!

Recently the other night with the help of a friend I had also managed to figure out a simple way to make it a reality via some commands, the possibility and option is there! I'd just like for the option to be available to everyone! :}