There should be a lot less sea stacks (for more enjoyable exploration)

[abrocator]

The Ocean has some flaws, but I think you really nailed it when it comes to how peaceful and relaxing sailing the Ocean can be.

However, sea stacks—specifically how they are everywhere—makes exploration much less enjoyable.

You can’t go a decent speed with sails at night since you will just get holes in your boat. You often can’t even go a decent speed at at day because you have to micromanage navigation and sails/anchors.

And if you get holes in your boat you have to have made a decent stack of patches/tree jam before setting out. Then if you run out, exploration becomes much more dangerous. Preparing for Ocean exploration already takes a lot of preparation since the Ocean itself is not very self-sufficient.

And if you have a lot of patches you become suspectible to Wavy Jones, which you have to have a high sanity percentage in order to avoid. And if you have a full leisurely-explore-the-ocean rig—sails, anchor—then you have to worry about that even more.

I think exploration could be made much more enjoyable if sea stacks were removed from a lot of areas of the Ocean. That way you don’t have to be so vigilant while sailing through the Ocean while no other danger is around.

The Ocean already kind of demands exploration, given that you need to sail at random in order to find Pearl, the Moon archipelago, and Moon Quay. And that in itself is fine for my leisurely playstyle as long as much Ocean exploration is as nice and comfortable as sailing through explored waters on a winter day with my mini-base boat.

[ShadowbirdRH]

Dangers and preparedness are practically what Don't Starve is all about. You mentioned tree jam, so you already know that you can patch your boat in a way that Wavy Jones can't sabotage. There are also bumpers you can equip your boat with to help endure collisions. If you want less sea stacks, you can just go nuts and mow them down, repairing your boat as you go, and in future worlds turning them down in world generation, but it's also worth noting that sea weeds need sea stacks if you're going to go planting them somewhere, so you might want to consider keeping some sea stacks intact.

[abrocator]

Quote

Dangers and preparedness are practically what Don't Starve is all about.

I gave specific reasons and arguments as to why I think having sea stacks everywhere is not great for gameplay. A generic “this game is about dangers and preparedness” statement does not rebut those arguments.

As you note I already know how to deal with them. But they’re not fun.

[ShadowbirdRH]

Then the pertinent part of my post is that you can turn them off in world gen settings.

[Moongo]

you could just

[SuperDonuts]

I disagree with the suggestion.
 

Navigating during night is and shall remain dangerous. But if you really want to do so, there are additional preparation you can do: the bumper kits will protect your boat, the moggles will help you to see the whole screen.

[Frosty_Mentos]

You can just lower them in settings or smash through them carefully to make way. They aren't an issue unless when sailing really fast and they were created to be fields of speed bumpers.