New Map Generator Affecting Turtling Strategies

[uhmdown]

So I've created a new map with the new alogirthm (after the queen update hotfix), and I'm surprised at how much it has changed the game:

1. I haven't been able to find a Pig King.

This is actually a good thing if you ask me.

I didn't like that the Pig King provided you with infinite Gold because it gave the player easy access to the luxury items (golden tools, bird cage, and even research points). I also stopped caring about flint, (despite it being a finite resource).

With the pig king being much harder to find, flint is desirable once again (until you find him, of course).

2. You have to work harder in order to achieve turtling bliss, which raises the stakes of dying.

The map algorithm seems to place the biomes farther apart, and so its harder to find a sweet spot from which you can turtle. What I've found is that travelling has become so dangerous with all these spider nests, and I run out of backpack space that I am forced to plonk down my base fairly early in the game. This also forces me to be more strategic about where to start my first base, and work harder to make it self-sufficient.

Prior to the new algorithm, finding a nice turtling spot was easy because all the different biomes were generally bunched relatively close together, and getting to them was easy. Not anymore...

Finding pigs or beefalos is harder

On my map, all the best pig houses are generated at least 1-2 islands away and fairly close to spider nests. This makes acquiring their dung much riskier.

I haven't even been able to find the beefalos yet.

All this adds to the challenge of turtling efficiently. I will probably have to create a second base closer to the pigs if I want better access to dung. But in order to do that, I will have to take down some spider nests (which I am dreading already now, thx to the queens and the jumping spiders).

Spider nests everywhere make travel much more risky

Spider nests are pretty much everywhere in the map I generated. This, coupled with spider nests being that much more dangerous has made travelling a very risky activity. This forces me to make tactical and strategic decisions much more often.

Its perfect, really. My turtling hasn't been discouraged, but I have to make many more strategic decisions on how to get there.

In conclusion, the update has made turtling much more enjoyable for me, while at the same time being much harder to actually achieve.

Interestingly, most of the enjoyment stems from the fact that (on my map, at least) higher-end items require more travel and risk-taking due to the abundance of spider nests and their threat level. They're not just some random monster encounter anymore; they're the number one reason why travelling is so risky now, and hence exciting.

My only issue might be that spiders are the only monsters to fill that role.

How has the new map generator affected your playing strategy?