How Could the Shallow, swell, deep and hazourdous oceans be improved? (Or ocean in general)

[Jakepeng99]

The reason i focused on these specifically is because i believe that these biomes are the weakest part of the ocean, since they cover the most. Firstly, what do they contain?

Shallow ocean: Contains fish, kelp (yes kelp only spawns here) , and skittersquids (rare)

Swell Ocean: Contains fish, seastacks,  gnarwhales (rare), sharks (rare), and skittersquids (rare)

Deep Ocean: Same as swell ocean but more seastack and different fish.

The swell ocean and deep ocean have barnacle and sea bass mini biomes aswell.

Hazourdous Ocean: Wood debris, dandylion fish.

 

Besides fish, finding any mob in these biomes is rare since they all rarely spawn. There is little plant life, little anything. They feel so empty and cover like 90% of the ocean. Sure the waterlogged exists and it is great, but it only covers a very small amount of the ocean. These mentioned ocean types need major improvements. This often makes traveling the ocean so uneventful. Only point A and B matters, in this roadtrip the journey does not mattwr.

The hazourdous ocean was mentioned because it is missed potential. They could have proper shipwrecks and be actually dangerous instead of a tiny ignorable biome. More rockjaws can spawn in them.

 

My Possible improvements:

▪Make these biomes function like a mini ecosystem to make them feel alive. For example, add a mob in the shallows that can eat kelp (like the scrapped sea otter). 

▪new mobs that commonly spawn. Every single ocean mob rarely spawns and it makes the ocean feel empty.

▪new dangerous mobs. It is just sharks.

-If these mobs utilised the boat mechanics just like sharks and cookie cutters, that would be cool, but anything will be ok.

▪ benifits to exploring. Add more foragables in the ocean that can not be transplanted. (Like the sea slime from uncompromising mode, or the sea roots from the heaps of foods mod (rareish food that heals 20hp when cooked)

▪Ballphins. They will add alot of life and really fit the dst ocean's vibe.

 

 

What ways do you think these biomes can be improved?

[-Variant]

Well, we could start by actually putting a hazard in the Hazardous ocean. 

You know. Where one would expect hazards to be.

The first, most obvious, and maybe dullest answer would be trudging up one of the unused creatures. Namely, I'd like Puffer to be put here. Yes, I am biased.

Otherwise, they could honestly just have a fun scenario where that unused Shadow shows up. It's still got dialogue left in-game. Something for spooks, and fun.

Spoiler

 

[zhangsheng]

I think the spoils of war must be enticing enough to make people more adventurous, such as the coffee from the volcano in the shipwreck. Of course, this is just an example. When setting up ecology, we must make exploration more valuable, rather than simply filling the landscape.

For example, oil can be extracted using new technology made from the teeth of a kelp eating animal in the sea. This connects new technology with the ecosystem, rather than simply adding a meaningless dish and landscape.

[gamehun20]

9 minutes ago, -Variant said:

Namely, I'd like Puffer

And maybe we could get world edge fog or the claw thing

[Ardcrumb]

My biggest issue with the ocean in dst is that if you don't have to, it's worse in arguably every way than the mainland. 

When walking, there's plants, rocks, trees, points of interests?

On the ocean, 90% of it is empty or has sea stacks, the waterlogged biome js what the ocean *should* be, imagine sailing through a collapsed ancient city, making sure not to sail under collapsing stone archways, there are so many avenues for ocean biomes that other games just don't have, and I think making singular setpieces in the middle of the ocean is a lazy way of doing it, sailing itself should be worth it, not just the destination.

[Jakepeng99]

1 hour ago, -Variant said:

Well, we could start by actually putting a hazard in the Hazardous ocean. 

You know. Where one would expect hazards to be.

The first, most obvious, and maybe dullest answer would be trudging up one of the unused creatures. Namely, I'd like Puffer to be put here. Yes, I am biased.

Otherwise, they could honestly just have a fun scenario where that unused Shadow shows up. It's still got dialogue left in-game. Something for spooks, and fun.

I always wanted the bombfish from terraria for some reason it would be a risky thing to fish up also please delete or fix this image it is lagging my ddvice so bad their is a massive delay for me typing this. i think something is wrong with the image compression.

[gamehun20]

24 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

i think something is wrong with the image compression.

Variant might be exporting gifs at a high resolution 

[Ohan]

Giant kelp stalk biome in the shallows. 
 

one big kelp stalk that functions like the untargetable giant fig trees, respawns normal kelp around it once a year.

inhabited by the unimplemented Otters. Giving them something causes them to dive down and give u random loot from a pool that includes the unimplemented sea urchin, gold(?), rocks, anenemy, etc. 

perhaps the loot depends on what u give them. 

Maybe Otters can be killed for otter fur which can be used in a recipe with raincoat to give it 240 cold insulation. 

[Jakepeng99]

Hazourdous ocean could also have swordfish if they ever felt like adding them.

 

They could be reworked and be used as living swords. They could slide on your boat and dash at you, but can be caught by traps.