First impressions

[RhaegarT]

After a few hours of gameplay, I thought I'd share my first impressions of the game.

 

What I like:

 

• Slower pace than the previous versions

 

In DS and DSRoG I could easily get to "late game" in just about one season (20 days). By then I'd have a large base, lots of drying racks, several farms, bee boxes, pine forests... basically all I'll ever need to survive except maybe the tooth trap area. However in this game the exploration seems way harder and it'll take very long to reach the "end game".

 

• Smaller "areas"

 

Having many islands separated by water forces you to actually MOVE from one to another, as you can't have everything in "one big base", as you could before, this makes it harder and more "active" to survive.

 

 

 

What I don't like:

 

• The old game is gone

 

I miss the old biomes and areas, rather than "add" to the old game DSSW "replaces" it. While I enjoy the new pattern for solid ground (as stated above), I'd like to see some islands being a little larger, with coastal biome near the water, and an inner area with old biomes.

 

• The ocean gets boring

 

Exploring the ocean gets pretty boring as you can sometimes row for 5-6 minutes (irl) and still find nothing but more water. If the idea is to have some sort of archipielago surrounded by the ocean (with pretty much nothing on it) then I believe this part of the ocean should be a deeper blue, clearly seen on the map, so once the player reaches it he can say "ok, this is the border of the map, nothing useful beyond this point". It'd work kinda like an unofficial end of the world map.

[Annymosa]

Good observations!

 

I found that if you reach endless waters, you're usually at the outer corners of the map, where finding the fog will transport you to the opposite area. Also, the triangles were an interesting mechanic! I have to agree, it would have been nice to have a deeper water colour where there are significantly big areas of nothing, to avoid endless sailing. (I died a couple of times as night fell, with no islands or even lighter waters in sight.)

 

I noticed there are boat "add-ons" like the sail, or the boat lantern. These are great additions, but I can't seem to make them work!(Tried putting the sail on the boat, in the hand slot, in the backpack and in the hat slot. Perhaps I need a bigger boat? Same with the boat torch.)  

 

I agree with your opinion on the pace - it's very different than the others. Getting silk and gold is much more troublesome, and venom is a serious threat. It's now quite difficult to fight spiders post day 6, and everything venomous make me run the other way, simply because anti-venom is a pain to obtain. Also, what's up with the hoards of monkeys? They're a difficult bunch to live with. Very... kleptomaniac.

 

I find that I have doubts about where to settle down on the islands. I figured this DLC rewards a more nomadic lifestyle. Being still becomes a bit boring, and there are fewer survival mechanisms than RoG or even the normal game. Weather isn't a challenge, food is plenty and enemies few.

 

That being said, I love the feel of the new DLC and I'm so so excited to play and follow the development!

Thousand thanks, Klei!

[AnteSocial]

I'm enjoying the slower pace. The fact that there's more pressure to keep moving, or move between camps/islands, makes up for it I feel.

 

As for the long times spent at sea; Again, I like it. It makes finding land all the more rewarding. A couple of times at sea I've had to deal with slowly going mad by the endless rowing and low food supplies.

 

One thing that is irritating me though; The monkeys! First thing I did when I saw my first one was hit 'inspect'.

 

-"These things will be the death of me."

 

...how right you were, Wilson...

 

There are just too damn many of them. Even one "den" seems to spawn one or two too many. One island I found had so many monkeys running around it dropped the frame rate so low I thought my game was about to crash.

 

The other thing about them that bothers me, despite their number, is their aggro (or more accurately - interest). Once you've got more than one following you, you might as well leave the island because you sure can't chop down any trees or bamboo etc. and expect to actually get the profits of your labour without the little buggers making off with them.

 

And then there's the trying-to-get-your-loot-back fun! Attack one monkey and all of a sudden 30 of them are flinging poop at you. Funny at first, but annoying as hell when they follow you for so far/long.

 

 

[OrderedChaos]

These are my impressions after about 2 hours.

 

Things I like

 

• Separating islands with the ocean encourages staying on the move, kind of forces you to really commit when you go exploring and I tend to spend more nights away from my home base than in regular DS.
• Theme, music, setting is all great. It has a much more cheerful vibe than the base game.
• Sailing mechanics are fun, and there is a lot of potential for interesting mechanics there.
• Tide mechanic is fun (although I'm not sure how much impact it will have once you learn to camp inland)

 

Things I don't like

 

• Feels a little bit empty at the moment (obviously this will disappear as time goes on)
• Too many of the items are just re-skins with no real functional change.
• Feels way too easy. I made it to day 15 just dicking around and not really being overly cautious about anything. Most mobs I found were easy to fight, the ocean poses little to no threat as long as you keep an eye on your boat durability, and food was always plentiful for me. Game doesn't feel like it's trying very hard to kill me.

 

Overall I'm really enjoying it, but those negatives would be my suggestions of things that could be improved. My biggest criticism is that I would approach new things expecting to find a reason to be terrified of them in the future, but there wasn't really anything threatening (mobs, weather, random events etc)

[Danest]

Looks interesting... the more content, biomes, critters, etc, the better.  

The tides were a nice surprise... well, a dangerous one, for my poor fire.
I always like encountering a new animal/monster and wondering about it -- the monkeys, for instance... are they non-hostile?  What's they're gimmick?  Fun finding out, as I did.
But the monkeys are probably either too numerous, or chase too far.  I found it hard to catch/kill them, couldn't get away.  So many.  Interesting challenge dealing with them, perhaps with some tinkering.
During some long periods of sailing, I found myself wondering... what's _under_ the water?  I haven't played long, so for all I know there *is* an underwater.  But a game like this would thrive off of the wonder of some atlantean wonderland of ruins and undersea terrain and critters, much like the caves on land.  

My biggest feeling, however, is that I'm wishing all of this had simply been integrated directly into the regular game on the single map as additional biomes -- build a boat, go sailing, find a tropical island with monkeys, all on the same map with the base game/reign of giants.  More biomes, the better.  Limiting them as separate worlds sort of hurts both -- more repetition, more likelihood of one island being more or less like the last.  But with more biomes and creatures, more variety, more reason to just explore. 

 

[alexeiwc3gosu]

Its actually quite harder to build a base now, u can go exploring on a raft right away, but you cant keep up doing it for long, cuz eventually you will run out of resources, and when a boss comes by and beat the last pieces out of you, you are Dead.

Like this one time when i was out of wood just standing on the beach chopping down palm trees, when all of a sudden 3 treeants arise and start bombarding whole area. I managed to burn them down with the remaining wood i had but couldnt recover the sanity loss.

This brings a new challenge, its awesome !

[Lumina]

First impression for me :

 

Poison is a death sentence early game. If you can't manage to obtain anti venom, you will lose health, and lose health, and... Maybe have an easier alternative to anti-venom costing like a lot of sanity ?

 

There is maybe too many snake in the jungle trees, you will quickly have a lot of them bothering you. Idea of hostile creature in tree is good, however.

 

I like the new marsh area and the strange bubling creature like a frog.

 

Dind't obtain it for the moment, but i like the system for the mussel. Look like an alternative farm system.

 

 

Long travels are a little boring. Since you can see debris of your ship, maybe you can find things in the ocean. Like things that emerge briefly and sink again. It will make travels more "actives". You could find planks or log, sometimes treasures, coconut, etc.

[Arkathorn]

What I don't like:

 

• The old game is gone

 

I miss the old biomes and areas, rather than "add" to the old game DSSW "replaces" it.

I've released a mod that allows mid-game travel between the tropics and the normal world. Find it here. (RoG travel is not currently possible though)

[Eisu]

Things I don't like

• Too many of the items are just re-skins with no real functional change.

 

Could you please name a few examples? I haven't played as much so there are items/mobs I haven't seen yet.

[Neosss19]

I've released a mod that allows mid-game travel between the tropics and the normal world. Find it here. (RoG travel is not currently possible though)

 

Klei should take note of your Mod It is the ideal complement is missing on this DLC, the old Don't Starve.

 

[Arkathorn]

Klei should take note of your Mod It is the ideal complement is missing on this DLC, the old Don't Starve.

They plan on implementing a way to return to Survival Mode in the future, they've said as much. Shipwrecked is in early access, so there is still much more content to come. They've also said that they will eventually make it compatible with RoG, but this will likely take quite a while (The DLCs work by overwriting old files, so they would overwrite each other currently).

[Danest]

I'd be curious to know why they didn't just add all this directly into the world map of the regular game -- just more biomes, critters, etc.  I used to wonder about sailing back in the normal world.  

[Lumina]

I'd be curious to know why they didn't just add all this directly into the world map of the regular game -- just more biomes, critters, etc.  I used to wonder about sailing back in the normal world.  

 

Because they didn't known if Shipwrecked would be a DLC (like now) or a stand-alone. And a stand-alone should work without the base game. Add it to the main game should require work, because of the different weather and all.

[Arkathorn]

I'd be curious to know why they didn't just add all this directly into the world map of the regular game -- just more biomes, critters, etc.  I used to wonder about sailing back in the normal world.  

The tropics are a completely different environment to the Island of Survival Mode. It just wouldn't fit.

[RhaegarT]

The tropics are a completely different environment to the Island of Survival Mode. It just wouldn't fit.

 

While I agree with the basis, I still believe it would be possible to coexist. Personally I prefer this "archipielago" setting, but the idea of one central "continental" area surrounded by rowable water seems perfectly feasible. Perhaps they can make it available through custom worlds (just like you can make a world with terrain branches and stuff in the current DS and DSRoG).

 

I'm not sure of the optimal way to do it, but some interaction between the "old" and "new" DS worlds would be most enjoyable ^_^

[ProfMembrane]

My first impressions:

Bad:

I really wish that some of the things weren't reskinned or the exact same, sometimes it feels like a mod rather than a new game.  Like the boars, the odd fact that the enemies are still just normal hounds, and the fact that, despite the fact you can make cloth from bamboo, you still need silk to arbitrarily keep spiders in the game.

Poison is far too hard to cure for how much of a death sentence it is

it is a bit unclear as to what is just walkable terrain covered in water, and what is shallow boatable water.

I was a little dissapointed there weren't more new survival items or tools.

 

Good: Like the archipeligo, i think it lends itself well to a survival game.  Nice new music if a little repetitive.  I enjoy the boat and boat mod system, I only wish there was even more too it.

I enjoy the fact it's harder (and less desirable) to transition to a sedentary farming lifestyle from a moving hunter/gatherer one, which I felt hurt the original's survival focus.

 

The unforgivable: The speed increase item isn't two coconut halves banged together.

[Arkathorn]

I'm not sure of the optimal way to do it, but some interaction between the "old" and "new" DS worlds would be most enjoyable ^_^

 

See above:

I've released a mod that allows mid-game travel between the tropics and the normal world. Find it here. (RoG travel is not currently possible though)

[Spazmatic]

First impressions after 4 hours of playing ~

 

The good:

 

- Krampus is wearing a floral shirt!

 

- The actual new creatures and items are interesting

- Sailing and exploring the new world is exciting (for now)

- The music, new sound effects and new examine lines are awesome and punny

 

 

The bad:

 

- Lots of reskins of old DS creatures (I personally expected those but still)

- Too easy to survive (for now)

- Almost all islands so far felt really similar (this of course might change over time)

 

 

Pretty much what others have said before me.. Except for the Krampus part.

 

[Cryfor]

 

YARRCTOPUS!

 

 

I enjoy the game a great deal so far - will report back with my thoughts when I played more than 3-4 hours

[OrderedChaos]

Could you please name a few examples? I haven't played as much so there are items/mobs I haven't seen yet.

 

Pigs > Boars

Birch Tree > Palm Tree

Rabbits > Crabs

Frogs > Mudskipper fish (dunno the name)

Monkeys are the same as underground monkeys afaik

Hounds are the exact same (not even a reskin?)

Haunted Tree > Regular Jungle Tree

Blowdart > Eye dart (?)

Carrots > Sweet potatoes

 

 

Actually there aren't as many as I originally thought, but in each of those cases I think there is an interesting opportunity to tweak the behaviour more than the very slight changes between these things.

 

Again this is all incredibly early access so I'm not passing judgement, just making observations.

[AnteSocial]

First impressions after 4 hours of playing ~

 

The good:

 

- Krampus is wearing a floral shirt!

 

tropical krampus.png

 

OMG that's amazing! I'm off to do naughty things so I see that for myself.