Is there a safeguard against getting stranded on an island?

[Well-met]

the idea that you must plan a softlock scenario ahead is a bit silly, especially when seafaring is an everyday activity that every newcomer will attempt one way or another, not to mention that drowning randomly removes some of your inventory.

there is 0 reason islands should accept washed up players unless they have proper ressources to build a raft and this thread made me realize that.

 

[ShadowDuelist]

2 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Planning ahead is a viable strategy if you’re going to fight a ferocious raid boss, but just exploring the game world and setting sail in its seas shouldn’t require tons of Pre-Preparation before hand. Disregarding the fact that DSTs ocean is boring and most of it sucks… lets imagine a world where it was full of fun content and islands to go to and explore.

The problem, which I’m surprised no one has brought up yet, is that Over the many years of the game getting content updates and new Resources, is that those resources go heavily under-used for much of anything.

Some of those resources such as Kelp and Seashells just to name two, we’re actual crafting ingredients to build different types of boats in the Shipwrecked DLC.

Not counting the awful Year of DragonBoat update, there is only two sources for boats in DST- Grass Rafts, and Wooden Planks.

Of course you can Hi-Jack NPC boats at Sea like the Moon Quay Pirates.. but that would only be viable If Moon Quay boats sometimes could be found “docked” near a random shore (the monkeys are probably off somewhere burying stollen treasures or they got eaten by a RockJaw and the boat drifted to the nearest shore)

Anyway, my point is that I should be able to make Kelp boats instead of exclusively grass ones, or maybe I can use those message bottles and a few Shellbells to make some sort of makeshift raft?

I mean, yeah a full boat is generally speaking VERY expensive for early game standards, and if it breaks it feels like quite a huge loss. Also, living at the sea is probably still not worth the effort early game, it's more like a secondary fun activity in the late game.
But you can start exploring the ocean early on with just a grass raft and an oar, and a meat effigy at base as backup. All those things require very little preparation, probably a day's work or two. (You can capture many bunnies, lower your sanity and then kill the beardlings for the beard. The rabbit king makes all that easy)

I agree that the ocean is still lacking, even though the new treasure hunts are quite cool and they improved the interactions with the pirate monkeys. I think they are going in the right way about the ocean, but its "not quite there" yet.

What I'm hoping? Less sea stacks, a slow but large boat option to make a moving base at, more islands, more trading and alliances options with the monkeys/pearl, and more ocean life in general.

[Maxil20]

20 minutes ago, Well-met said:

there is 0 reason islands should accept washed up players unless they have proper ressources to build a raft and this thread made me realize that.

Kind of impressed it doesn’t pull a shipwrecked. In Shipwrecked, whenever your boat broke but you had a lifesaving item equipped (life giving amulet or the life vest), you would respawn with enough materials to make a log raft directly next to you. I’m sure it could be done in a way to provide the resources to craft a grass raft and a wooden oar on islands that are not the mainland without being exploitable.

[aidankocherhans]

25 minutes ago, Well-met said:

the idea that you must plan a softlock scenario ahead is a bit silly, especially when seafaring is an everyday activity that every newcomer will attempt one way or another, not to mention that drowning randomly removes some of your inventory.

there is 0 reason islands should accept washed up players unless they have proper ressources to build a raft and this thread made me realize that.

 

The random resource loss is what really counters the "just be prepared" idea. Like technically you could get stranded in the ruins if you run out of light sources, but that's ultimately your fault if you didn't bring enough resources and didn't leave soon enough. But on the ocean, even if you have all the resources needed in an emergency, some of them might just randomly drop, and paired with the rng of where you wash up it's not really fair to argue that's the player's fault.

Even if I can prepare for this problem, I think it's an oversight that needs to be fixed.

[Bumber64]

59 minutes ago, Well-met said:

there is 0 reason islands should accept washed up players unless they have proper ressources to build a raft and this thread made me realize that.

Resources should wash ashore occasionally, like the flotsam generated at sea. Despawns in the same way so it doesn't accumulate. Just grass and driftwood for a raft and oar would be sufficient.

[Evelo]

I make sure to always build a chest on the 3 islands and fill them with a boat, campfire materials, and an oar just in case.

I've never needed to use it but I've always been paranoid.

[Bumber64]

1 hour ago, Evelo said:

I make sure to always build a chest on the 3 islands and fill them with a boat, campfire materials, and an oar just in case.

I've never needed to use it but I've always been paranoid.

I think the wash ashore algorithm prioritizes campfires near the shore. (I don't remember the radius.)

If you're planning ahead, you can probably just prevent yourself from washing up on islands to begin with.

[arubaro]

9 hours ago, ShadowDuelist said:

Like arubaro said, if you know your gameplay will involve a lot of sailing, the first time you visit new islands you should leave there the very basics to return home.

Also an overlooked strategy is to craft a meat effigy at whatever place you call home. Worst case scenario, you end up stranded somewhere with no way out, you die and revive instantly at your base.

Mear effigies are so under rated... they are cheap and really useful

3 hours ago, aidankocherhans said:

The random resource loss is what really counters the "just be prepared" idea. Like technically you could get stranded in the ruins if you run out of light sources, but that's ultimately your fault if you didn't bring enough resources and didn't leave soon enough. But on the ocean, even if you have all the resources needed in an emergency, some of them might just randomly drop, and paired with the rng of where you wash up it's not really fair to argue that's the player's fault.

Even if I can prepare for this problem, I think it's an oversight that needs to be fixed.

What fix? Just leave something in the islands to come back or, as shadow said, expend few boards and beard hair to make sure you can come back base in any situation 

[aidankocherhans]

10 minutes ago, arubaro said:

What fix? Just leave something in the islands to come back or, as shadow said

Do you think it's intentional game design that you have a small chance to get completely stuck on an island?

 

11 minutes ago, arubaro said:

expend few boards and beard hair to make sure you can come back base in any situation 

What if I want to go sailing early on, before it's easy to get beard hair?

Y'all are still ignoring the fact that boats sinking is clearly not intended to kill you directly.

 

Does anyone know if it's possible to wash up on an island you haven't visited?

[SapoLover]

You are making the discussion longer than it should. It happened, next time you'll know how to avoid it, DST is that kind of game.

[arubaro]

18 minutes ago, aidankocherhans said:

Do you think it's intentional game design that you have a small chance to get completely stuck on an island?

 

What if I want to go sailing early on, before it's easy to get beard hair?

Y'all are still ignoring the fact that boats sinking is clearly not intended to kill you directly.

 

Does anyone know if it's possible to wash up on an island you haven't visited?

If you sink in early is because you are going yolo.

Takes less time to craft a meat effigy than preparing a proper sea expedition.

If you decide to go sailing in early without the effigie backup and sink means that you neither were prepared for sailing.

is hard to sink in early since you wont get high speed, if you have some boards and patches you shouldn't sink

I can only see 2 scenarios were you sink in early: rowing mindless towards barnacles and getting a pirate raid. Hitting barnacles while rowing or with slow regular sails should be hardly punished and pirate raids only happens in 1/4 of the map and you can gather few marble to make an armor in case you wanna be sure of not dying against them

[aidankocherhans]

8 minutes ago, SapoLover said:

You are making the discussion longer than it should. It happened, next time you'll know how to avoid it, DST is that kind of game.

I'm talking about a game design issue, not a specific problem I had

7 minutes ago, arubaro said:

If you sink in early is because you are going yolo.

Takes less time to craft a meat effigy than preparing a proper sea expedition.

If you decide to go sailing in early without the effigie backup and sink means that you neither were prepared for sailing.

is hard to sink in early since you wont get high speed, if you have some boards and patches you shouldn't sink

I can only see 2 scenarios were you sink in early: rowing mindless towards barnacles and getting a pirate raid. Hitting barnacles while rowing or with slow regular sails should be hardly punished and pirate raids only happens in 1/4 of the map and you can gather few marble to make an armor in case you wanna be sure of not dying against them

You're straight-up ignoring most of my points. You're taking about how to account for a flaw in the game, I'm talking about how it shouldn't be in the game in the first place.

I don't see how early effigies are that easy, and the time preparing one could be spent preparing a boat, which also takes time. Because again, for the last time: DROWNING IS NOT SUPPOSED TO KILL. It doesn't matter if I have a skill issue by sinking my boat, the game's design is not intended to kill me for that.

[Archswifter]

The best method I found let me leave the island with zero resources and go back to base without even needing a boat.

[Mike23Ua]

Yes it is 100% possible to wash up on areas you haven’t explored yet, I’ve sometimes intentionally used this method to find Pearl, Lunar or Moon Quay, it’s easy to intentionally sink a boat since they’re not fire-proof.

Which reminds me… the Deck Illuminator and the Firepump BOTH still suck for the jobs they’re intended to perform.

TL:DR- Never ever EVER go boating during Summer, your boat is not fireproof.

[SapoLover]

3 hours ago, aidankocherhans said:

I'm talking about a game design issue, not a specific problem I had

I said DST is that kind of game. It is part of DST's design. error = death = losing the world, next time you will do better (or rollback and pretend it never happened). You didn't die and are wondering the "what if", but the people that did would think "hmm, I should have packed an extra raft" or "hmm, next time will avoid (the thing that broke their boat)". DST is a game that teaches the hard way.

[Bumber64]

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

I said DST is that kind of game. It is part of DST's design. error = death = losing the world

People forgetting multiplayer and endless exist.

The thing you prepared can just not be there due to other players. (Not even maliciously. Just wildfires, etc.) Likewise, it's not about losing the world, just a dumb mechanic that forces you to wait around doing nothing until you die. (Murphy's law says the other players will be offline when that happens, or you end up waiting longer than it takes to die anyway.)

Also, Shipwrecked had a mechanic for this, so the "uncompromising" thing doesn't even float to begin with.

[aidankocherhans]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Which reminds me… the Deck Illuminator and the Firepump BOTH still suck for the jobs they’re intended to perform.

The fire pump isn't reliable? That sucks... A luxury fan would cover the whole boat though, right?

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

It is part of DST's design.

I don't think this specific thing is part of dst's design 

 

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Yes it is 100% possible to wash up on areas you haven’t explored yet, I’ve sometimes intentionally used this method to find Pearl, Lunar or Moon Quay, it’s easy to intentionally sink a boat since they’re not fire-proof.

This invalidates some of the arguments about preparation, you can't prep an island you haven't found 

It seems that the only truly reliable way to prevent this problem is to always wear a backpack on a boat, which I think is a ridiculous requirement. You'd have to wear a backpack while fighting, even if your headslot needs to go to light/insulation/wetness protection. And boating should be a great time to use other chest items. You're on a moving base, you don't need portable storage.

[SapoLover]

17 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

People forgetting multiplayer and endless exist.

It's an issue that can be prevented on your end, also people not wanting to revive you should be a red flag for you to leave the server, imo. And I believe endless allows you to revive at the starting portal.

I won't continue, this topic doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

[Bumber64]

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

It's an issue that can be prevented on your end

18 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

The thing you prepared can just not be there due to other players. (Not even maliciously. Just wildfires, etc.)

Not in Don't Starve Together.

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

people not wanting to revive you should be a red flag for you to leave the server, imo.

18 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

Murphy's law says the other players will be offline when that happens, or you end up waiting longer than it takes to die anyway.

(Emphasis added. Obviously player ghosts don't die?) I never mentioned others needing to revive you, as it's not unique to this type of death.

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

And I believe endless allows you to revive at the starting portal.

18 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

Likewise, it's not about losing the world, just a dumb mechanic that forces you to wait around doing nothing until you die.

Therefore there was never any danger.

1 hour ago, SapoLover said:

I won't continue, this topic doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

If you can't be bothered to properly read the stuff you reply to, then that's for the best.