Why was drowning nerfed so hard?

[marshyds]

First off there's the max health penalty being removed.

Second, a ridiculously cheap life vest was added (which also makes wes' unique dst item worthless).

I don't get the reasoning for drowning being made so irrelevant, I haven't heard of anyone ever struggling with it, given how you need to completely destroy a boat in the first place (in that case it's better than dying in a fight.)

The life vest could be made much more expensive.

 

[Edible Coal]

13 minutes ago, marshyds said:

First off there's the max health penalty being removed.

Second, a ridiculously cheap life vest was added (which also makes wes' unique dst item worthless).

I don't get the reasoning for drowning being made so irrelevant, I haven't heard of anyone ever struggling with it, given how you need to completely destroy a boat in the first place (in that case it's better than dying in a fight.)

The life vest could be made much more expensive.

 

probably some dev try sailing and drowned

[cybers2001]

The max health loss was always the least annoying part about drowning. Losing items, losing your boat, losing pirate monkey loot, the crab king fight, etc. All worse punishments.  
  
Also it’s painfully lame to fall into the ocean just because you hopped between the boat and land at a funny angle.

[ArcAngela]

I believe they want to unify drowning mechanics between the caves and forest. The max health penalty from drowning mostly comes from the fact that you die when you drown in Shipwrecked, so the penalty remains tied to dying even though you don't die.

I think it's a good change mostly due to drowning already costing you the entire boat. When they initially added this penalty I don't think they expected to see just how much people cram into a boat and how much of it becomes irreplaceable in a player's eyes. Some people would rather sail half the map on their devoted boat than just make a new one and this change probably takes that into account cause losing the boat, gaining a health penalty and getting your Wetness set to 100 which is dangerous in 3/4 seasons, is basically several kicks in the gut.

---

With that said, I think they're being too lenient with nerfing the ocean without actually ADDING new reasons to go sail... From a player's perspective, they weight their options a lot on whether or not they should sail or what can they even find out there. Food immediately becomes a problem and committing to any direction can become a voyage that lasts DAYS.

This is simply unaffordable in the first year of the game and that's precisely where 80% of inexperienced players sit. It's as scary as caves in the sense of "I'll explore this side content when I figure out the overworld to begin with" except unlike caves which reward you instantly with things like Stalagmites giving gems and Light Bulbs leading to the Lantern, the ocean leaves you empty-handed with a slap on your stomach going "prepare to spend a whole season on this". It does not reward exploration, it punishes exploration.

The several days to gain any benefit, the amount of prep-time required for those days + assembling the boat, the fear of losing the entire boat if you mess up. These slowly add up to make the ocean inaccessible or too difficult to navigate, regardless of how much they nerf its' mechanics.

I also think we should flip this around and add max health penalty to "drowning" in the caves since falling out of bounds is much much harder than drowning in the overworld.

Edited May 23, 2025 by ArcAngela
grammar

[marshyds]

1 hour ago, cybers2001 said:

Also it’s painfully lame to fall into the ocean just because you hopped between the boat and land at a funny angle.

i feel like thats more of a fault of boat hopping rather than max health.

1 hour ago, ArcAngela said:

I think it's a good change mostly due to drowning already costing you the entire boat. When they initially added this penalty I don't think they expected to see just how much people cram into a boat and how much of it becomes irreplaceable in a player's eyes. Some people would rather sail half the map on their devoted boat than just make a new one and this change probably takes that into account cause losing the boat, gaining a health penalty and getting your Wetness set to 100 which is dangerous in 3/4 seasons, is basically several kicks in the gut.

Personally, i disagree that the fact that the boat being demolished means that your max health shouldnt be decreased. However i agree with the other notion that in the sense of unifying caves it should instead decrease health (i had forgotten falling into the ave void did that.)

Your points on ocean progression are also valid.

[cropo]

I didn't think a drowning change would happen, or the reaction it got. I read it and thought "It's drowning, who cares?". Surprised it's a much bigger deal to people.

[Radicaljoe]

It's honestly such a nothing thing to lose max hp. Oh no, I have to get 8 rot how difficult and deeply complex of a mechanic! 

Removing the max hp penalty removes some tedium so it's alright with me. I don't think it's game breaking to have removed it. 

Just now, cropo said:

I didn't think a drowning change would happen, or the reaction it got. I read it and thought "It's drowning, who cares?". Surprised it's a much bigger deal to people.

Yeah, it's weird seeing so many people care about it. Like, I figured most people didn't even go on the ocean, and now there's a bunch of people defending a pretty objectively annoying mechanic.

[marshyds]

24 minutes ago, Radicaljoe said:

It's honestly such a nothing thing to lose max hp. Oh no, I have to get 8 rot how difficult and deeply complex of a mechanic! 

Removing the max hp penalty removes some tedium so it's alright with me. I don't think it's game breaking to have removed it. 

Yeah, it's weird seeing so many people care about it. Like, I figured most people didn't even go on the ocean, and now there's a bunch of people defending a pretty objectively annoying mechanic.

Im a fairly big fan of sailing in the ocean so i guess i care more about this.

Even if max health was tedious, it atleast added more incentive to not let yourself drown.

If max health does have to be removed, it could affect you in other ways. (however how is a mystery to me.)

[GenomeSquirrel]

This is probably a means to have players give the ocean a second chance, instead of adding another carrot, they are taking away a few sticks.

Content like fig trees, treasure chest, pillaging the pirates is content I don't see any players engaging with.

Even me try different means to get strange seeds is making me think how much it boating isn't worth the effort

[dois raios]

I prefer dying than receiving health penalty.

I carry red amulets, but I dont carry boosters...

Nice change imo, if people are bothered, make it so you die if you drown.

[Radicaljoe]

5 minutes ago, marshyds said:

Im a fairly big fan of sailing in the ocean so i guess i care more about this.

Even if max health was tedious, it atleast added more incentive to not let yourself drown.

If max health does have to be removed, it could affect you in other ways. (however how is a mystery to me.)

Yeah but I'm pretty sure the main reason to not let yourself drown is losing your boat. Like, that and losing a couple items if they sink.

[reddocc]

Im glad this was changed. It removes one less item I need for sailing in case something goes wrong, It wouldn't be so annoying if it was something you could craft with materials from the ocean, now the last change we need for ocean exploring is a recipe change for permanent boat repair kits that doesn't use stingers, maybe a recipe with wobsters or cookie cutter shells. This problem is already kinda solved when looting treasure but I would be nice.

[GetNerfedOn]

obligatory "get nerfed on" comment

[lowercase skye]

8 hours ago, marshyds said:

I don't get the reasoning for drowning being made so irrelevant, I haven't heard of anyone ever struggling with it

Exactly, you haven't heard of anyone ever struggling with it: i.e it was a minor annoyance rather than a challenge. Making drowning less punishing isn't removing a challenge that people were struggling with, it's removing an annoyance that people would rarely bump into.

[Mike23Ua]

The most logical explanation is that Klei has made it very clear that there are only two content updates left In the “From Beyond” story Arch, and that they intentionally avoided giving us a 2025 Roadmap to not spoil whatever happens AFTER these updates.

My best guess is that once they’re done with the incredibly boring extremely late game bosses for “end game” players, they’ll go back and smooth out the early and mid-game with fun new content and dangers that are not gate locked behind boss fights.

Stuff like adding new mobs and mob spawners to the currently vastly empty ocean.

And if my guess is correct: Klei wants to encourage low-skilled players to engage with ocean content, & ocean combat more frequently.

Which obviously means= Nerfing it to be less punishing first.

I can give fun ideas too, such as shipwrecked sword fish that attempt to jump out the waters and attempt to spear the player, but after a few dodged attacks, they will angrily smash their noses into the deck of the boat getting stuck for a few seconds while starting a leak.

But before any of that can happen: Losing your health core when you go down with the ship had to be removed.

Besides: They probably plan to add several on sea ways to repair your ship or build a new one, but they more than most likely: Don’t want to add more ways to craft booster shoots.

[lowercase skye]

2 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Stuff like adding new mobs and mob spawners to the currently vastly empty ocean.

There are so many unique things out at sea and with such density that I'm constantly overwhelmed and distracted out there because I've got at least 4 things to do at any given moment.

Edited May 23, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Milordo]

Short answer to ya all

I'm not in for making the game easy. I'm all in for making it harder....but truly harder. Not artificially harder. Big difference.

Drowning is not a challenge. It's a punishment. A bad horrible designed punishment developed undercooked in 2 months without any thoughts or experience in how it would affect in practise. Don't get confused and also play. Play the game. Don't shout out things in the beta feedback about content that you clearly have no experience. Appreciated atleast some people in this post has it.

[HalfEnder776]

Btw uhh... if they want to make boat hopping less annoying they can simply make the fast drowing (that happens when you fall into the ocean without being on a boat that breaks) not do any health damage....

I did this in Island Adventures (the shipwrecked port) since dying would of been annoying...

I have no clue why they completely nerfed it and added an easy to get superior Inflatable Vest....

Edited May 28, 2025 by HalfEnder776

[Wormboi]

On 5/23/2025 at 5:02 AM, cropo said:

I didn't think a drowning change would happen, or the reaction it got. I read it and thought "It's drowning, who cares?". Surprised it's a much bigger deal to people.

You think people like getting something annoying removed

[Hungry French]

On 23.05.2025 at 16:21, marshyds said:

Во-первых, снимается ограничение по максимальному здоровью.

Во-вторых, был добавлен до смешного дешёвый спасательный жилет (который также делает бесполезным уникальный предмет Wes).

Я не понимаю, почему утопление стало таким незначительным событием, я не слышал, чтобы кто-то с этим боролся, учитывая, что в первую очередь нужно полностью уничтожить лодку (в этом случае это лучше, чем умереть в бою.)

Спасательный жилет можно было бы сделать намного дороже.

 

Because this is not a shipwrecked dimension, but a completely different one.  And Klei decided to remove the main danger of the ocean to make the game easier for multiplayer... Horrors lurking in dark waters...