Volcano eruptions

[SinisterOctopus]

The eruptions seem harder than they actually are at first. The trick is to never stop moving. You don't have time to react and dodge rocks, so you just need to be moving away from them constantly. I hope they keep the eruptions, I just think the damage and the frequency needs a bit of work.

[AnteSocial]

 I hope they keep the eruptions, I just think the damage and the frequency needs a bit of work.

 

Agreed. It would be a shame to remove them entirely. A rethink of how frequently it errupts is definitely  needed though.

 

I can take or leave the instakill-ability though. Being hit by a falling volcanic rock would probably do you some real damage IRL so It makes sense to me that it kills you in the game. I just want less of them.

[agentsometime]

Woops! I did not know that. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

 

 

When you get near it, the camera automatically zooms out suuuuuuper far since it's huge, so if you get anywhere close to it you won't miss it. lol

[1v0]

Maybe giving the meteors 1 more sec (or even half sec) of delay before they crash will do the trick .

[Katalina549]

When you get near it, the camera automatically zooms out suuuuuuper far since it's huge, so if you get anywhere close to it you won't miss it. lol

 

I finally found it. First thoughts were "What the heck is going on with my scroll button!"

[CameoAppearance]

Do the meteors in DST always instakill you if you're standing directly under them, or just if your health is low? The wiki doesn't say, googling was unhelpful, I'm not good enough with code to locate that information in the DST files, and I can't remember whether I've personally seen anyone get hit by a meteor while playing. Meteors seem like the best thing to use for a comparison, but it's hard to do that without statistics.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to the rocks ejected by the volcano doing 100+ damage, because you just got hit by a flying boulder bigger than you are, but giving most characters a slim chance of surviving a single hit (like with Charlie's attack) seems a little more fair. There aren't any mobs - in vanilla or RoG, anyway - that can deliver more than 100 damage to the player in a single shot.

[Sivdun]

Do the meteors in DST always instakill you if you're standing directly under them, or just if your health is low?

 

I got hit by smaller one once and survive without armor. It won't kill you, however I don't know if big ones can kill you (those who spawn rocks upon hit)

 

I wouldn't be opposed to the rocks ejected by the volcano doing 100+ damage, because you just got hit by a flying boulder bigger than you are, but giving most characters a slim chance of surviving a single hit (like with Charlie's attack) seems a little more fair. There aren't any mobs - in vanilla or RoG, anyway - that can deliver more than 100 damage to the player in a single shot.

 

True, you can even survive Big Foot stomp. I assume that rock has bigger damage than Beager. 

I think the volcano really needs to have range where the rocks fall so after you locate volcano you can have awareness that you may be too close to threat, also it gives you another reason to explore map and make use of ships.

[Danest]

Maybe create a real, existing volcano, and just base the amount of risk based on closeness to it.  
Maybe the volcano is also the location of the teleporter out of the word.  

[NotStarvnMarvn]

Summer in DS: SW. Run in circles for 3 hours until the season is over. How fun is that? 

[NotStarvnMarvn]

Do the meteors in DST always instakill you if you're standing directly under them, or just if your health is low? The wiki doesn't say, googling was unhelpful, I'm not good enough with code to locate that information in the DST files, and I can't remember whether I've personally seen anyone get hit by a meteor while playing. Meteors seem like the best thing to use for a comparison, but it's hard to do that without statistics.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to the rocks ejected by the volcano doing 100+ damage, because you just got hit by a flying boulder bigger than you are, but giving most characters a slim chance of surviving a single hit (like with Charlie's attack) seems a little more fair. There aren't any mobs - in vanilla or RoG, anyway - that can deliver more than 100 damage to the player in a single shot.

Yeah, I had a brand new football helmet and full health wrecked by a single boulder (and I think it was just the splash!). The football helmet broke, my corpse burned and my chances of liking volcano season crushed (literally).

[CameoAppearance]

Maybe create a real, existing volcano, and just base the amount of risk based on closeness to it.  

Maybe the volcano is also the location of the teleporter out of the word.  

 

There is an actual volcano, apparently (I haven't found it, but other players have). The Wooden Thing has its own setpiece though.

[KuroiShichibi]

Woops! I did not know that. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

 

 

Apparently fencing puddles IN with sandbags is the best way to go? That should not be how sandbags work.

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the changes made in the next update!

 

Whuat?

I have to surround the puddles with the sandbags??

That would explain why my base starts to get flooded AGAIN, even though I have it surrounded with 2 lines of sandbags... wth.

Thanks for telling me that, need to start doing that right away.

 

[martinezxerxes]

So I just got passed the volcano season and it sucks for sure but it is very doable.

So after getting through one year I think it will be much smoother sailing from here on because my base is built up for the most part. Except for I am not sure how to deal with the increasing number of hounds since being so nomadic from the get go and having 4 hounds teeth.

So in a nut shell this is what I did. As a disclaimer I am not going to spoil or give game exploits. The first season is when you need to find a base and preferably quickly. My favorite spot to settle is a grassland biome and mangroves(grass, twigs, and logs) the other stuff you have to transplant and use rot or manure to fertilize(seaweed rots really quickly). So pretty much get as much stuff the first season as you can get and get at least a couple boats for travel (cargo boat is amazing for short travel, armor boat is great for long exploration trips carrying minimal stuff). Monsoon season, stuff blows away and there is a little rain.also the chiminea is essential for the wind. Honestly I got a little bored with this season. Once I had made a few chests it wasn't a big deal. I mainly farmed resources for the next season (flood). So get all the bamboo you can get your hands on and get and umbrella and snake skin hat. Flooding season is just annoying, you have to make sure at least your crock pot and fridge (I got by somehow without a fridge)are not affected by the flooding otherwise you are pretty screwed. And lastly the season we all hate, volcano season. So at first you are like, okay I think I can do this and then by day 71 you are rethinking your whole life because the stress is too much. So first order of business get a floral shirt and maybe a summer frest as back up. Make about 6-7 boat repair kits and premake your primary boat you are going to swap into for later, get bioluminesence and a boat lanterns and the resources needed to make at least 4 cloth sails (takes less space in inventory to hold 40 bamboo and 40 grass, then 4 premade cloth sails), the last part was hardest for me, food. I main wigfrid and I think in shipwrecked she is at a huge disadvantage since she can't eat most food, so if my crock pot fails I am dead. You need either a whole lot of premade food or you have to stock up on harpoon guns and hunt as you go for this season since it is unsafe to go back to base from day 68-74 since the lava begins to come back to back. So at its apex(day 73+74) the lava with sinc up to distroyer you, so in other words you won't have time for these next two days to stop for anything. So day 72 I switched into my premade armor boat, eat the last of my food, and got ready to dodge lava. As a tip, stay in the shallow seas during this time so you don't have to dodge the small waves as well.

So that's pretty much it. I feel like from day one you have to prep for the volcano season and so when you finally get through it you are golden... until next season. Which should be easier since you have your base and a good system down by this point. I hope this helped because it can be really discuraging when you get to day 73 and die (that was me, right before I did this run that I won at). So keep at it and I am sure klei is listening to all this and will make changes. I mean they did hear our pleas for shipwrecked to be a add on to DS and not a stand alone, and we got it.

[1v0]

So after playing volcano season a few more times (I'm going to get a lot of hate for this) ... It's not that hard 80 % of the meteors fall a way far from you about 15 % are close to you but not enough to kill you (if you are in water) and 5 % are exactly on you . So even if you don't move most of them wont be a problem ... 

 

Even most of the waves didn't come my way . 

[SinisterOctopus]

It doesn't seem to be clear to some people, and I have a hunch that some of those people haven't actually played the volcano season. And I don't think anyone has really said it here so, the volcano eruptions last several minutes, and then there's a decent sized break before the next eruption. Towards the beginning of the season, I had plenty of time to head back to my base and kill and cook food and replenish my supplies before heading out again to avoid the next eruption wave. The break gets progressively shorter through the season, until about the last couple of days are nonstop eruptions.

 

That being said, I had finally gotten the hang of it, and then I died for the second time to the eruptions. And I've changed my mind again. They are broken. They fall too quickly to be able to actually dodge them, and even just running or sailing away from them has problems because they can drop in front of you as well. When the ash clouds go up, it becomes difficult to see where they are going to land. When its night and the ash clouds go up, it is actually impossible to see where 99% of the meteors are going to land.

 

Also... one hit kill? Really?

[SinisterOctopus]

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the thermal stones are basically useless? I got one to blue at an endothermic fire, and then the stone actually warmed up while next to the fire...

[UberBonisseur]

i agree that this volcanic season needs to be reworked. The constant dodging is not fun and even worst is the destruction of resources.

 

As i said in another topic (http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/59927-volcanic-eruption-suggestion-and-constructive-criticism/), would be nice if instead of so many eruptions we had to deal with volcanic ash instead, that would affect our health and/or sanity or something like that.

 

So, something like this ?

 

 

 

 

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the thermal stones are basically useless? I got one to blue at an endothermic fire, and then the stone actually warmed up while next to the fire...

 

I thought the same thing aswell, even when staying next to Endopit at night with two stones in a chest, they never got beyond the "blue" stage (and it took a while). They seem to heat up faster than they can cool down

[AnteSocial]

I decided to bite the bullet and continue with my day 61 game and brave my first volcano season. Talk about trial by fire! Anyway...

 

I crafted myself an Armored Boat (figured it'd be the boat out of the bunch to survive a hit), stocked up on Spear Guns for hunting Dogfish, Jerky, Fireflies and Bioluminescence for my Lantern, Boat Repair Kits and Thatched Sails. Grabbed my Summer Frest, Dumbrella (lucky find) and some Grass and Nitre for some Endothermic fires and headed off to my Summer camp on a near by (but not too near) island from where my main base is.

 

My plan being, stay in my boat, circling the outer reaches of the shallows surrounding my chosen island whilst the rocks/lava were falling, and only go on land to cool down and sleep in the Siesta Lean-to and Tent I'd made on day 50-something. All the island had on it was a small amount of grass, a couple of Palm trees, and most importantly, a Touch Stone. So if an eruption caught me out, it wouldn't do much damage to resouces. And if I died, wouldn't be teleported to the Touch Stone on my base's island.

 

After sleeping for the first 3 days or so after my first "That doesn't sound good" warning and thinking I was getting away with possibly sleeping through the eruptions (ha!), I awoke to a cload of ash and had just enough time to run to my boat and see it get smashed by the very first arriving rock/meteor!

 

"Oh **** " - I said to myself as I realised I might not have enough resources to actually make another boat to get off the island. Fortunately, a quick check of the crafting tab between eruptions confirmed I had exactly enough Bamboo, and 1 more vine than I needed to make a raft. For some reason, I decided to wait until after the eruptions had stopped completely before I'd make it though.

 

I spent the next what seemed like 7 - 10 days running laps around the very edge of the island (why did I pick such a small island?! It was literally only 2 and a half screens across, and a single sceen North to South), mostly overheating, and stopping to eat and cool down between eruptions. My structures were long gone.

 

Was all good though until there was no time between one eruption ending and the next one starting. Just as I thought I'd gotten used to the endless running and dodging, I noticed I was going to start starving soon. So, like an idiot, in the middle of falling rocks/lava, fires and overheating, I thought I'd try to quickly eat a piece of (now stale) jerky, just to hold off the health-drain of starvation for a few more minutes.

 

And that's when it hit me.

 

 

Resurrected. Escaped the shadow of an impending second death as the animation from the Touch Stone finished up, and almost cried as i saw what appeared to be my backpack and most of my items, burning...

 

 

 

Then the eruptions stopped. Fantastic timing! Like it's work was finally done or something. As if it'd only intended going on as long as I was staying alive. As I started to think I'd made it, the stark reality of my belongings being torched hit me. I have no resources to craft a boat. Not on me. Not on the island. Everything is gone. I'm stranded.

 

So that's the tale of my first Summer in SW and how it left me on a lifeless spit of land with no hope of leaving and nothing but some rocks, a lot of scorch marks, plenty of ash, and the silk from my destoyed Tent and lean-to.

 

TL;DR - Summer is harsh.

[jigggy2000]

I'm not a fan of the meteor insta death either. It basically comes down to luck if one hits you or not. there's no warning at all. Got killed by one and was like, WHAT!? are u kidding me?? how was I supposed to avoid that?? I also think there needs to be a bit more warning on where they land.

[AnimangaGirl]

Is there any mod to take out the volcano eruption? Or can I just delete the files? where are they? Really I'm desperate. I don't want this ****. Is ruining my game.

[KuroiShichibi]

Is there any mod to take out the volcano eruption? Or can I just delete the files? where are they? Really I'm desperate. I don't want this ****. Is ruining my game.

 

That is the "problem" with early access games.

A lot of it is still unbalanced and we, the testers - if you will -, have to deal with a lot of this '****' in the beginning.

I do know how frustrating it is, though, especially when you are already pissed about your own fault, if you die because you were too risky or whatnot and then comes something that is game breaking and ruins it for you.

 

Best thing is, either create a new start, so you won't ruin your current one and wait for them to adjust that season or just hope for the best and give it a try like I did XD.

Though, I have to say that I am discussing with myself, if I should continue my current save game of 135 days.. the first wave of rocks is already falling down ...

[AnimangaGirl]

That is the "problem" with early access games.

A lot of it is still unbalanced and we, the testers - if you will -, have to deal with a lot of this '****' in the beginning.

I do know how frustrating it is, though, especially when you are already pissed about your own fault, if you die because you were too risky or whatnot and then comes something that is game breaking and ruins it for you.

 

Best thing is, either create a new start, so you won't ruin your current one and wait for them to adjust that season or just hope for the best and give it a try like I did XD.

Though, I have to say that I am discussing with myself, if I should continue my current save game of 135 days.. the first wave of rocks is already falling down ...

 

I started a new save. Is was really frustrating being in that save. I was on day 76. Is was all day and night and sleeping didn't stopped either. The smoke also makes the visibility really difficult.

 

I also notice that the thermal stone gets harm to fast and doesn't cool off like before. The only thing is was good for the heat was the watermelon hat. I never got harm up with the hat dressed.

 

I also notice that put the thermal stone close to the endothermic fire doesn't cool the thermal stone the only way to cool it was put it in the fridge.

[brummbar7]

Ya, volcanoes need a rework.   Campfires are immune to the boulders, but everything else is not, near as I can tell.  So there's only a couple ways to stay cool enough to last the constant rain at the end.   But it's just way to much of a stressor.  It's hard on the eyes, no fun to play as you're basically just stuck running around and dodging, and it's insta-kill if you get hit.  Food isn't hard if you're on land, because enough birds are constantly getting toasted into morsels that you can survive off them.  The dodging of the meteors on land is very possible, even at double rate, but it requires undivided concentration and if hounds arrive it's basically down to luck as to whether you're going to avoid getting hit by a meteor while constantly running from the hounds. 

 

If it were just one double-rate shower at the end of the season, or even a couple but spaced out at the normal every other day or so to allow the player to return to base and replenish, get a new thermal stone, that'd be doable.  But it's really very fun-killing right now.  Something needs to be lessened - reduce hits from instakill, reduce rate during continuous days, maintain spacing between days even at double rate, or make the enothermic campfire immune to meteors.  Any one of these things I think would make it doable enough.   But the way it is now, I'd rather deal with the combustion mechanic from RoG.  

[KuroiShichibi]

I started a new save. Is was really frustrating being in that save. I was on day 76. Is was all day and night and sleeping didn't stopped either. The smoke also makes the visibility really difficult.

 

I also notice that the thermal stone gets harm to fast and doesn't cool off like before. The only thing is was good for the heat was the watermelon hat. I never got harm up with the hat dressed.

 

I also notice that put the thermal stone close to the endothermic fire doesn't cool the thermal stone the only way to cool it was put it in the fridge.

 

Yeah, I am thinking of starting a new save right now, too.

Currently I am running around and I tried the "sea strategy"... well until the hound-sharks came and even killed Abigail and forced me onto land.

I'm running out of grass for the endothermic fire, i.e. will be overheating soon.

My floral shirt is about to poof, too - so maybe that means I am super close to the end of that horrible season x_X, but I just don't know.... you WANT to play SW, but then you realize you are stuck in that shitty season and it crushes your play lust instantly.

 

Lucky that you have a fridge, I still wasn't able to find the "Gear People" as I love to call them XDDD, i.e. the Chess Monsters.

 

 

Ya, volcanoes need a rework.   Campfires are immune to the boulders, but everything else is not, near as I can tell.  So there's only a couple ways to stay cool enough to last the constant rain at the end.   But it's just way to much of a stressor.  It's hard on the eyes, no fun to play as you're basically just stuck running around and dodging, and it's insta-kill if you get hit.  Food isn't hard if you're on land, because enough birds are constantly getting toasted into morsels that you can survive off them.  The dodging of the meteors on land is very possible, even at double rate, but it requires undivided concentration and if hounds arrive it's basically down to luck as to whether you're going to avoid getting hit by a meteor while constantly running from the hounds. 

 

If it were just one double-rate shower at the end of the season, or even a couple but spaced out at the normal every other day or so to allow the player to return to base and replenish, get a new thermal stone, that'd be doable.  But it's really very fun-killing right now.  Something needs to be lessened - reduce hits from instakill, reduce rate during continuous days, maintain spacing between days even at double rate, or make the enothermic campfire immune to meteors.  Any one of these things I think would make it doable enough.   But the way it is now, I'd rather deal with the combustion mechanic from RoG.  

 

 

Yes, the thermal stone is very broken and without a fridge you are only able getting it to a blue stage and that only lasts for a second, if at all.

As you said, it is a huge stressor and not fun for the eyes - though, I have to disagree that it is doable to survive most likely at the end of the season, especially when hounds come into the picture OR the shark-hounds.

If it hits night time, it is very hard to see with all the ash in the air - on land or out at sea - then also having to navigate around to not getting eaten by whatever hound (shark or not).

As said above: I have a lot of fun playing, but right now, I am debating with myself, if I should start a new save or try to stumble through the last, hopefully, days of Volcano Season 2.

It just takes the fun away, once you notice: "Ohh yeah.. right ... I'm stuck in Volcano Season still... <_<.."

 

 

I tried the "staying in one place tactic" from 1v0, but it didn't work out for me... I had to evade a TON of waves, as they were heading towards me most of the time and the same thing happened to me with the rocks on land .

[brummbar7]

I have to disagree that it is doable to survive most likely at the end of the season, especially when hounds come into the picture OR the shark-hounds.

 

Well, I only said that because other people have apparently made it through the season.  I quit that save after awhile because I was sure it was a bug, came here to report it, and found out it's apparently the intent.    Haven't managed to drag myself back in and try again yet.

Personally after I saw the waves it caused, I decided not to go the boat route.  At least on land the effect is localized.  Plus you get free bird morsels. 

 

Overall it's a good idea.  There were SO many complaints about combustion in RoG, I think it was a good idea for them to search for a different summer threat.  But as it stands I'd trade combustion, which is manageable.   Volcanoes are apparently entirely unmanageable right now. 

 

Even a sacrifice at the volcano won't be enough because it's easily something people won't find by the first season.  IF there is a buildable shrine, that MIGHT do the trick, as long as the requirements aren't too rare.   But really if they just toned it down a bit by making it not continuous the last few days, but still doubling the frequency when it does happen, that should be enough. 

 

It depends though, in this my longest world, I've only found one gear in a treasure chest, and if I didn't have that fridge there's no way I could get my thermal stone cold enough to last through the eruption without overheating.  If they bumped up the effectiveness of endo-firepits, so they can freeze the stone (though I haven't tried doing two endopits side-by-side yet) that might also be a suitable fridge replacement.  but I'm wondering if clockworks are meant to be as rare as they seem, or if I've just been unlucky.   Making the endo-campfire immune to meteors would also make it surviveable I think.

 

Now if I'd known in the past things would be like this I'd probably have pushed harder to get a melon ready (takes to long to set up when already in summer), or more gold for ice hats (probably slows you too much to  dodge the meteors, at least on land) or an ice amulet (no ice hounds though, so only source treasure chests?), but when you realize mid-season how badly you need those things, most of which depend on gold, and you didn't collect enough, it's rough. 

My next thought now that I know this is an intended mechanic and not a bug, is to take a stack of the ice I meticulously saved and see if that can push me through the last bit of the volcano storm when my thermal stone runs out.   But it's just really, really un-fun as it exists now, when combined with the rarity of most of the other materials to counter it.