Personal Floaters Feedback

[Milordo]

For the few who don't know, in today's patch personal floaters received a total rework to behave more like this --> 

I must say, they're very great and frankly they kinda resolve everything about drowning designs problems. Now I don't know if we're gonna receive still the drowning rework as promised OR this is the "drowning rework". I can only theorize, since Klei is silent about it, but I must be honest, if this is the drowning rework, I'm very happy. Sure it's not the same thing as reworking the core mechanic and feels like a band-aid fix but it's also old survival Don't Starve design to resolve problems through an item, so I'm kinda leaning more on being very positive and supportive about this. 

However it's missing just three changes to make it truly perfect :

• Durability. It doesn't make sense for the type of item and the survival aspect of Don't Starve of being infinite. Thus no incentive also to craft more for reserve. Every time you drown with the floater, it will loose 25% of durability? Maybe 15%? You choose.
• Three possible ideas on the movement from the community =

1) Give the ability to move very slowly in the water. Like, it's there Klei. We're so close to finally having it since 2019, even because as of now, people and me have found problems with the new personal floaters function, where you can't place a boat to save yourself if there are items on the water or worse enemies. Plus every time you move you loose 1% of durability for a certain amount of time, to make it more balanced.

2) If, for some reasons, you don't want to give the player a direct movement control in the water, there is the option of making the player's character float around in some pseudo-random pattern / circle without any input from the player, to give still the chance of placing some boat in a good spot and rescue yourself. Of course this still depletes the personal floater of 1% of durability for a certain amount of time.

3) Similar to the second idea but instead of moving the player at random without their control, the player moves without their control towards land or boats if it detects ones during the road. Like drifting.

• Crafting recipe change for these reasons ---> 
  Spoiler

  Problem = Not respecting a Don't Starve design core and gameplay principles. When you first face new (survival for the most) threats, the game directs and offers you resources and tools to defeat those threats. For example; for winter the game offers you in the first level rabbits, beefaloes, spiders, catcoons and koalefant for clothes, and rocks for thermal stones. This principle also extends to the other levels of the game such as lanterns and miner hats for caves. Ergo, each level will have and must have resources and tools to fight the new dangers presented by the same level. This is literally what Don't Starve teaches you from the start of the game. 

  And sure, some items can be used and shared between levels but a safety base of various tiers of items to ensure you can overcome such difficulties of the level must be present, otherwise it will create a super weird situation where you have to rely on other points of the game and break the rhythm of the gameplay. In fact look at that, it's exactly the situation of boat patches and soon also of personal floaters. Whenever I or others start adventuring to the ocean, we prepare in advance tons of stacks of stingers, especially in a large group of 5-6 players. However if I or we loose them, accidentally burned them or consumed too much due to our mistakes (or drowned too much thanks to the boat net code...........), we are then forced to return akwardly to the main-land and do another long refill of stingers. This shouldn't happen at all. There should be a reasource or a point in the ocean that recharges you with boat patches and boat floaters. Yes, Klei. You gave us kelp patches but frankly with how the ocean is generated and how they're not the solution but a delay for sinking, they don't much.

   

  Possible Solutions:

  • A) You craft them with already existing ocean items. Simple but limiting because there aren't that many, as of now, and also difficult to fit the crafting logic of Klei (mosquito sacks are required for personal floaters due to their elasticity). Still, it's an option.
  • B) New added animals or structures in the ocean to provide these items. A very good example of which I go quite crazy about it and it's very simple.....two new fishes! The puffer fish and the stinger fish! The puffer fish drops a new item (or maybe he himself is required) for crafting personal floaters while the stinger fish simply drops 3 stingers. These fishes also require some minimum of sea fishing rod gear to catch them, to match the game progress of the fishing rod with the game progress of the sea. And these are just two new fishes as possible examples. It could be even new weird structures alla Don't Starve that drops mosquito sacks and stingers? Or other new animals to fight in the ocean? Klei is spoiled for choice with this one.
  • C) Implement literal mosquitoes and bees on ocean biomes. Examples; bees on waterlogged biomes with simply a more feral and damp reskin compared to normal bees(?) and mosquitoes on rough ocean with sea weeds? Or mosquitoes spawning in a new swamp biome for the ocean where you can see reeds and tentacles inside the water of the biome?
  • D) You don't craft them, you can only found them on the level. Tecnicalllyyy it already happens with boat patches inside sunken chests but it's not enough and they're locked behind the pinchin' winch. Unless they can be designed to be findable in great abundance without a big progression wall, this option is not very desirable.

   

   

And that's it. 

EDIT: as @Captain_Rage has put it, a little buff to befriended Gnarwails so they would rescue drowned players with personal floaters towards boats or land would be pretty neat-o!

Edited July 8, 2025 by Milordo

[Captain_Rage]

Wouldn't that make going to sea exactly the same experience as moving on land just simply slower and requiring one additional item? I think it is better to keep the punishment of drowning and distinct differences of the two rather than blurring the lines between walking on land and traversing the ocean.

[Milordo]

18 minutes ago, Captain_Rage said:

Wouldn't that make going to sea exactly the same experience as moving on land just simply slower and requiring one additional item? I think it is better to keep the punishment of drowning and distinct differences of the two rather than blurring the lines between walking on land and traversing the ocean.

No, because we're advocating to move VERYYY slowly, slower than holding a suspicious marble on your back, thus you can't exploit it to traverse the ocean, not only because it's so boring for how much slow you are, but you're gaining quickly wetness, therefore it needs just a shadow creature or a random rockjaw to hit you and reset all your progress. Not to mention you loose your personal floater and loose durability for my suggestion, thus maybe even break it and/or dying for loosing too much hp.              

As @Pet Rock and other people pointed out, this function of moving only serves you to save yourself better, since there are a lot of situations where you can't place your boat good, then maybe for picking up items that are difficult to pick with your boat, like being stuck between a lot of sea stacks (of which I prefer faster by equipping a lazy forager or you can also have Polly Roger's Hat) and maybe for attacking?? But it's very risky with how easily you can drown in a fight with this, so just consider the first two strategies.

I assure you I'm on the same boat with you (ha ha badum tss*) about design and making land and ocean being different in the experience but I proved to you that those concerns do not exist in this current iteration, aka so don't worry  

[Captain_Rage]

Then the player's character might as well float around in some pseudo-random pattern / circle without any influence from the player. That would keep the ocean theme at least while allowing the player to potentially deploy a boat. xd

From what I know there is so little practical benefit in befriending Gnarwails so it would be neat if they nudge players who are overboard towards drifting objects and boats while befriended if the player falls into the water, like reports of dolphins helping people on occasion.

I still oppose giving the player any direct control in the water.

[Edible Coal]

just add durability to floater and allow player to move a bit 

[Milordo]

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

Then the player's character might as well float around in some pseudo-random pattern / circle without any influence from the player. That would keep the ocean theme at least while allowing the player to potentially deploy a boat. xd

True, I wouldn't too opposed from this solution either. Added and edited to the feedback!

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

From what I know there is so little practical benefit in befriending Gnarwails so it would be neat if they nudge players who are overboard towards drifting objects and boats while befriended if the player falls into the water, like reports of dolphins helping people on occasion.

Cool! I like it! It's such a little buff also and doesn't hurt nobody. Added and edited to the feedback!

47 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

just add durability to floater and allow player to move a bit 

And change the crafting recipe

[Cruvimaster]

55 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

just add durability to floater and allow player to move a bit 

I had also suggested the possibility of moving, but I liked the suggestion given below better.

 

As for adding durability, I see it as an artificial difficulty. It's rare for a player to lose a boat (except in Crab King). Most of the time, they repair the boat or put a new one in the water. Therefore, the only nerf that would make sense, in my opinion, would be to let the item have a single use. This would force players to carry more of that item, sacrificing more inventory. Leaving the item as is or losing 25 to 50% durability is practically the same thing, considering the rarity of losing a boat and not having time to put another one.

[Milordo]

1 minute ago, Cruvimaster said:

I had also suggested the possibility of moving, but I liked the suggestion given below better.

 

I thought about it, there is a problem. Enemies/animals/entities and structures. 

I don't get why the majority of the community think only of Crab King for this change. Like I get it why but this (good) change impacts everything and there are tons and tons and tons of situations in the ocean where you drown, instead only of just Crab King. And in those situations you can't place the boat. This solution would only partially fix the problem.  

Therefore I didn't put in the list as an option.

[Cruvimaster]

And I'm not saying I'm in favor of the single-use nerf for this item. I'm just saying that the other possibilities (15%, 20%, 25%, 50%) are difficulties that don't really impact gameplay.

3 minutes ago, Milordo said:

I thought about it, there is a problem. Enemies/animals/entities and structures. 

You brought up a very important point and could result in many exploits eventually. It seems that the simpler solution (player moving slowly) is actually safer in terms of bugs.

[Jakepeng99]

10 hours ago, Milordo said:

Give the ability to move very slowly in the water. Like, it's there Klei. We're so close to finally having it since 2019, even because as of now, people and me have found problems with the new personal floaters function, where you can't place a boat to save yourself if there are items on the water or worse enemies. Plus every time you move you loose 1% of durability for a certain amount of time, to make it more balanced. If, for some reasons, you don't want to give the player a direct movement control in the water, there is the option of making the player's character float around in some pseudo-random pattern / circle without any input from the player, to give still the chance of placing some boat in a good spot and rescue yourself. Of course this still depletes the personal floater of 1% of durability for a certain amount of time.

Maybe moving will also attract sharks. I heard this can happen in real life if your on something like a surf board, as the shark will think your a seal.

 

Dsts sharks at least are aggressive anyway.

[Milordo]

48 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Maybe moving will also attract sharks. I heard this can happen in real life if your on something like a surf board, as the shark will think your a seal.

 

Dsts sharks at least are aggressive anyway.

I guess. But you know.....you know the real deal? 

Spoiler

We're so close for finally giving our girl Wurt more interactions/mechanics/perks/abilities for the ocean, she deserves it damn it. So close. Activate your watch, because when personal floaters are done, you will see me again for Wurt the next weeks. The next weeks......

 

[Jakepeng99]

4 hours ago, Milordo said:

I guess. But you know.....you know the real deal? 

  Hide contents

We're so close for finally giving our girl Wurt more interactions/mechanics/perks/abilities for the ocean, she deserves it damn it. So close. Activate your watch, because when personal floaters are done, you will see me again for Wurt the next weeks. The next weeks......

 

Maybe , her skilltrees should have done that

Edited July 5, 2025 by Jakepeng99

[Milordo]

15 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Maybe , her skilltrees should have done that

Bleah. No skilltrees in my house. This is base kit.

[viblym]

16 hours ago, Milordo said:

Durability. It doesn't make sense for the type of item and the survival aspect of Don't Starve of being infinite. Thus no incentive also to craft more for reserve. Every time you drown with the floater, it will loose 25% of durability? Maybe 15%? You choose.

I don't know why you'd need  to be incentivized to craft more to have in reserve, needing to craft more than one of an item just for the sake of having more than one of the item is kind of silly. There are other items that don't have durability so slapping a durability cost on an item just for the sake of it is also silly. 

[Edible Coal]

2 hours ago, viblym said:

I don't know why you'd need  to be incentivized to craft more to have in reserve, needing to craft more than one of an item just for the sake of having more than one of the item is kind of silly. There are other items that don't have durability so slapping a durability cost on an item just for the sake of it is also silly. 

this is literally a life amulet but on the sea

[Radicaljoe]

2 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

this is literally a life amulet but on the sea

Is it though? Like, most times you'd use this are either a dumb reason that pushes you into the water. Or your boat sinks, which I think dying would be far less punishing than your boat going down and losing all the stuff it was upgraded with.

I'd say more qol than a powerful item.

[Jakepeng99]

9 hours ago, Milordo said:

Bleah. No skilltrees in my house. This is base kit.

I mean instead of her thousands of overkill combat skills.

[ShadowDuelist]

It’s pretty cheap to make, so I’d say it should be treated as a life amulet and be single-use only—breaking after you’re either rescued or let go.

Movement speed while paddling in it should probably be as slow as when carrying marble pieces, or even slower. Each time a character falls into the ocean, they swim to shore; they’re not magically teleported there. So technically, you could explore the ocean by paddling around in your floater, moving from island to island—but who in their right mind would do that at such a slow speed, especially when a grass raft and wooden oar are still better options?

Most characters would lose sanity, get attacked by nightmares, or freeze to death before even reaching land.

As for some character-specific synergies:

- Mighty Wolfgang should probably be as slow as everyone else. I don’t see a reason to make him a super swimmer and bypass boating—he’s already a better sailor as is.

- WX-78 will most likely lose HP at an alarming rate, so not a great thing for them to stay IN the water.

- Woodie should be able to turn into the Goose while on the floater. He can already eat idols while floating, but nothing happens, and there’s no known reason why he shouldn’t be able to transform while wet. Turning into the Moose or Beaver should insta-drown him—though the Beaver form shouldn’t lose HP when “drowning,” since beavers are excellent swimmers.

- Wurt should probably be able to move faster than other characters, but not quite at boating speed.

- Wortox should be able to map-hop out of the floater if he has enough souls for the trip.

- Wanda and Winona, both of whom rely on specific items… well I’m not sure whether they should be able to teleport out of the water or not. If they can, then arguably any other character using a Telelocator Staff should be able to as well.

Also, befriended Gnarwails pushing you to shore faster sounds like a lovely idea.

Edited July 5, 2025 by ShadowDuelist

[Milordo]

9 hours ago, viblym said:

I don't know why you'd need  to be incentivized to craft more to have in reserve, needing to craft more than one of an item just for the sake of having more than one of the item is kind of silly. There are other items that don't have durability so slapping a durability cost on an item just for the sake of it is also silly. 

It's not a need, it's don't starve base game design 101. The "need to craft more" I wrote was just a plus, not the sole reason, it was an example when you want to prepare yourself better by farming a lot of items (a cool always present gameplay dichotomy, rush or prepare yourself better). A simple survival item like that, not made with thulecite moon high tecnology or whatever, but made with just rope and a mosquito sack (soon hoping to be changed) should not be infinite at random. The item is infinite also because before it had a completely different use, in fact when you drowned before it exploded. It's clearly an oversight of Klei. Finally, do you ever asked yourself and think deeply why some items are infinite? Why the walking cane is infinite? Why the cookbook and his version of the garden are infinite? But axe, food, healing, pickaxe, thulecite clubs, amuletes, ecc.... are not? 

Game design.

Hope I expressed myself better and explained clearer for you.

[Tranoze]

16 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Maybe moving will also attract sharks. 

extra more shark when low hp - aka bleeding.

[Milordo]

8 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

this is literally a life amulet but on the sea

Yeah I guess

6 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

Is it though? Like, most times you'd use this are either a dumb reason that pushes you into the water. Or your boat sinks, which I think dying would be far less punishing than your boat going down and losing all the stuff it was upgraded with.

I'd say more qol than a powerful item.

You said it yourself. Losing your boat AND being drowned at random because the game decided so it's MORE frustating and punishing than death. It is a powerful item and a good qol item

1 hour ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I mean instead of her thousands of overkill combat skills.

Ye.

49 minutes ago, ShadowDuelist said:

--snip--

A lot of applauses 👏

Agreed on everything. I'll say it, the Woodie one seems just another oversight. I can bet this floater thing, it's all new in the coding, therefore a lot of things will not work or work strangely.

Edited July 5, 2025 by Milordo

[Edible Coal]

52 minutes ago, Milordo said:

 

Agreed on everything. I'll say it, the Woodie one seems just another oversight. I can bet this floater thing, it's all new in the coding, therefore a lot of things will not work or work strangely.

cant wait to see floating moose

[viblym]

15 hours ago, Edible Coal said:

this is literally a life amulet but on the sea

except drowning isn't death and it doesn't even particularly advantage you. Unless you have another boat in your inventory or you get lucky enough to be near something to jump onto, you're a sitting duck unless someone else saves you. Otherwise you'd just wash up on shore, loose an item or two, and be wet. I wouldn't put it anywhere on par with a full revive.

7 hours ago, Milordo said:

It's not a need, it's don't starve base game design 101. The "need to craft more" I wrote was just a plus, not the sole reason, it was an example when you want to prepare yourself better by farming a lot of items (a cool always present gameplay dichotomy, rush or prepare yourself better). A simple survival item like that, not made with thulecite moon high tecnology or whatever, but made with just rope and a mosquito sack (soon hoping to be changed) should not be infinite at random. The item is infinite also because before it had a completely different use, in fact when you drowned before it exploded. It's clearly an oversight of Klei. Finally, do you ever asked yourself and think deeply why some items are infinite? Why the walking cane is infinite? Why the cookbook and his version of the garden are infinite? But axe, food, healing, pickaxe, thulecite clubs, amuletes, ecc.... are not? 

Game design.

Hope I expressed myself better and explained clearer for you.

Yeah I still don't get it, for the same reason a walking cane doesn't have durability the floater doesn't either. I'm not saying it would be a problem if it had durability, just that it feels kind of shallow to say it Needs durability just because durability is a mechanic elsewhere. It's not that big of a deal either way.

[Milordo]

19 minutes ago, viblym said:

Yeah I still don't get it, for the same reason a walking cane doesn't have durability the floater doesn't either. I'm not saying it would be a problem if it had durability, just that it feels kind of shallow to say it Needs durability just because durability is a mechanic elsewhere. It's not that big of a deal either way.

That's the difference between players and developers. I tried to explain it, @ShadowDuelist too. In case you can help me understand what you don't get it, otherwise it's fine. Just bare in mind this important thing, the point it's not because "durability is just durability and exist everywhere", this is a shallow point. 

[Veyred]

12 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I mean instead of her thousands of overkill combat skills.

I'm willing to sacrifice wurts dissarming immunity and the wetness regen & armor skills for swimming.

whos with me?

 

also related to topic but the floater seems a bit useless if you cant even craft a new boat while on it, and the wetness gain also feels rather slow, like i died from overheating while on it.