Drowning changes: my solution

[WhackE]

So I just want to start off by saying I am very disappointed personally by these changes, I know the current developers don't care about adding new survival mechanics anymore but actively nerfing them to where they become negligent to gameplay always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I can only imagine it was removed is because sometimes you can miss the boat and drown and I don't disagree that is annoying I've seen it happen to others.
I still think there are ways to fix it that aren't doing this, because on top of nerfing drowning to not matter anymore they added a new extremely cheap item that also removes the stat loss from drowning, you still drop items, but this seems like overkill and is redundant, especially since there's another character that has an item that does a similar thing, Wes, not that many people play him but I would say it removes some of his utility that they tried giving him


Here's what I think they should do instead:

• Drowning in SHALLOW water works how it does now so that if you miss the boat the penalty isn't very big since it seems to only be a problem near land
• DEEP/MEDIUM water is reverted to how it was before, so there's a max Hp penalty for drowning, and I do mean just revert to how it was before
• the new flotation item could reduce the penalty from drowning to be the same as shallow water even when in deep and prevent max Hp loss
   

these are my solutions I hope mostly everyone can agree on them, however I do think the bigger issue would be if Klei could just fix it so you no longer miss boats and drown, but i'm no coder and don't blame them if they cant fix it because it seem very difficult and finicky.

[aidancode]

I unironically think the reason the drowning penalty was changed was because the dev working on From Beyond remembered they had to do crab king and got salty when their boat broke and they lost a bunch of stuff.

 

 

not that I'm complaining too much, Crab King was always really punishing to lose on

[Bumber64]

Yet Wurt never suffered any of this and is overloaded with perks. She doesn't even drop any items, nor take damage, nor mind being wet.

Really, the new item should be more expensive and protect your inventory. Balloon vest should do that but hurt you (popping) and need to be equipped. The penalty is losing your boat (if it actually sank) and being teleported to shore (annoying during CK, lethal washing up on lunar islands without escape). WX can't avoid consequences from being wet.

But the real, unavoidable penalty is interacting with the ocean and boats to begin with.

Edited May 24, 2025 by Bumber64

[00petar00]

Every single change that makes the game easier even for something very minimal like this has to be challenged for some reason.

It is very easy to drown because you are blocked by structures when moving from boat to land or the other way around but even when boat sinks that is a big punishment and players don't need more.

Sailing doesn't have that many positives, I don't see why it needs to be discouraged further.

If losing max HP penalty wasn't in the game for "drowning" when it was added no one would complain because it literally doesn't make sense. I don't think that the player drowns but is washed up ashore because character isn't dead. Dying is a lesser punishment compared to losing max hp because you can use LFG to revive.

[WhackE]

27 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

If losing max HP penalty wasn't in the game for "drowning" when it was added no one would complain because it literally doesn't make sense. I don't think that the player drowns but is washed up ashore because character isn't dead. Dying is a lesser punishment compared to losing max hp because you can use LFG to revive.

so you're saying players should die when drowning instead, because dying is a lesser punishment than losing max Hp and like you said players don't need to be punished more,  I agree.

[ArcAngela]

When I think of difficulty in the ocean I don't think about the max penalty of drowning.

I think it's mainly there as a remnant of Shipwrecked mechanics, when you evaluate for what it is, it's just an added nuisance that comes up more often from accidental jumps than actually losing a boat.

There are mechanics in the ocean meant to leave you stranded like Malbatross and Moon Quay's ability to break your mast, and the boat even has a safety feature to let you drown if you get stranded. These all hint at the fact that the difficulty of the ocean led to the drowning, not that drowning itself is part of the difficulty.

So it makes sense to remove the max health penalty, you add consistency so this penalty is tied exclusively to dying, and consistency between "drowning" in caves and overworld.

With that said, I like the idea that the punishment in deep waters should be higher. It would improve the likeliness of players randomly stumbling into Lunar Island if we broadly reinforce the idea that shallow waters are good and safe. Gives them a natural direction without outright having to look up ways to find it.

[WhackE]

4 hours ago, ArcAngela said:

When I think of difficulty in the ocean I don't think about the max penalty of drowning.

I think it's mainly there as a remnant of Shipwrecked mechanics, when you evaluate for what it is, it's just an added nuisance that comes up more often from accidental jumps than actually losing a boat.

There are mechanics in the ocean meant to leave you stranded like Malbatross and Moon Quay's ability to break your mast, and the boat even has a safety feature to let you drown if you get stranded. These all hint at the fact that the difficulty of the ocean led to the drowning, not that drowning itself is part of the difficulty.

So it makes sense to remove the max health penalty, you add consistency so this penalty is tied exclusively to dying, and consistency between "drowning" in caves and overworld.

With that said, I like the idea that the punishment in deep waters should be higher. It would improve the likeliness of players randomly stumbling into Lunar Island if we broadly reinforce the idea that shallow waters are good and safe. Gives them a natural direction without outright having to look up ways to find it.

If it's such a bad thing for accidental jumps then you would know from reading my suggestion that I agree with you, which is what I tried compromising on. Drowning itself can absolutely be a penalty for unprepared players, walking the plank is clearly made so you dont get stranded, but is also the last option if you have no others. These are the risks and if you know them you can absolutely limit the risk as an experienced player rather than cry that you're rightfully being punished.

Normally I would agree with you about consistency for drowning in caves/overworld, I like consistency too, Unfortunately this is a terrible point because these two things are not comparable in the slightest, The ocean is an out of bounds area designed to be traversed through the unique boating mechanics that the developers intend to accessed, the caves void is just an out of bounds area with nothing. It makes sense that the punishment for caves would be lesser since if it does happen it's out of player control.

Edited May 24, 2025 by WhackE

[WhackE]

You know what I'm gonna go out on a limb here because i've been thinking a bit, more you don't only need to be an experienced player to avoid the max Hp Penalty you just need common sense, it helps being a more experienced player sure, but you are provided with dozens of ways to avoid boat destruction/being stranded. They even added mechanics like being able to temporarily plug leaks by standing on them, put items, and even kelp boat patches, these are things that only benefit the player, there isn't any real downside to them, and I never complained about because these are interesting and fun mechanics that gives players more interaction with boats and a better time ocean at the cost of not being the best solutions available.

You decided to risk not bring enough solutions, like boat patches or more oars, because maybe you wanted to explore the ocean sooner. You do not need to fight bosses like CK with your main boat, still sucks to have it be destroyed but it sounds like that is the players fault,  you should be punished if you aren't using the options available that is part of the risk. So yeah if you somehow get stranded on your boat with no way to return to land, you should be able to return to land at a cost, because that options is better than sitting there waiting to starve to death.

@ArcAngela