Who else is finding world navigation tedious?

[J20hawkz]

Personally it's becoming a pain, a chore. I'm finding myself paddling around hopelessly trying to find an island 90% of the time. Islands are too far spread apart and in most cases it's the same type of island/biome. Don't get me wrong it's "ok" but I would prefer a sort of "direction".

I'm suggesting an item we can easily craft which will allow us to find or at last get us in the right direction, a sort of item that radiates when we are getting warmer to an island.

OR

If not an item then some sort of monster (I'm thinking bird) that groups together close to where an island might be. Their behaviour could be that during the day they are out at sea but during the night they fly back to land to sleep etc...

OR

What about wave direction, following the direction of a wave (speed boost) would eventually lead us to land.

What I'm doing right now is literally picking a direction from the starting biome and going in that direction until I find something.

[rezecib]

What I'm doing right now is literally picking a direction from the starting biome and going in that direction until I find something.

 That's your mistake.

 

I think the easiest way to develop a good sense for exploration technique is just to generate a few worlds and reveal the map. See how it's laid out, where islands fall, etc.

 

The basic technique I've developed is to treat the water depths like a topological map. If you see the shallow water bulge out in a direction, there's probably an island in that direction. Same for medium water, but further off. So follow the contour of the shallow water.

 

Another technique is to find the first island out from the starting island using the above method, and then search in an approximate ring around the starting island (still pay attention to water depth changes). This should give you 4-5 islands total to work with, one of which is guaranteed to be IslandParadise, an island with five biomes (beach, jungle, magma, mangrove, meadow).

[grekon]

FAST REPLY

 

Waters are separated by colors into 3 types. I personally call them shallow water, sea water and ocean water.

 

An "Island" is made of 3 layers:

1. The land(which is separated into biomes and is the center of the "island")
2. The shallow water - it surrounds the land
3. The sea water - it surrounds the shallow waters

Thus by seeing the sea water you should be able to deduce whether there is an island further ahead or not based on how its edges curve. That's how you can find islands quickly.

 

Edit: Damn it. Not fast enough to be first

[SirBuizelton]

Staying away from deep ocean has tended to help me in the past! And I have to admit, I typically don't have this problem. Avoid the very edges of the map too, there tends to be nothing but open sea out there.

 

Shallow water generally means there's an island nearby (You probably know this already but just letting you know in case that isn't the case)

 

[Silentdarkness1]

I fully agree with the OP.

 

This played a part in me being unable to have a successful playthrough ever in Shipwrecked. Not the defining factor, but it was there.

[Rellimarual]

I think the islands are a little bit too far apart, but not by a lot. A slight consolidation would make a big difference.

[Flare2V]

I don't mind exploring for the most part but important landmarks such as the Yaarctapus, volcano and slot machine being entirely random (from what I've seen) is such a pain. Give us clues as to where they are, damnit!

[TheDwemerEquation]

I have had no problems finding islands, there is a very clear direction as to where islands are just pay attention to the ocean color. The light greenishblue ocean surrounds islands, midblue ocean surrounds that, and then finally deep blue ocean is the furthest out. Pick a direction and just follow the lighter colored ocean when you find it, if it extends out quite a ways from an island there's probably another island or a shoal out there.

Islands are predictably grouped as well, just explore in a giant ring around your starter island and you'll find several by following the ocean colors.

[JYM]

 follow the contour of the shallow water.

I always use this technique which allow you to find each island in 3-5 day segments. Going in a straight line is big mistake.

[Codsworth]

well I ain't enjoying exploring either, all that tiring journey to find gold and a GOOD island to set up a camp etc, I think they should give some good emphasis on the ocean exploring, cause it's the big deal of the dlc, the water exploring and right now we have practically nothing in the sea, they are quite lifeless, no dangers and basically no fauna

[MrTeHe101]

Gold is my major complaint. a few times it has taken me to day 10-12 to find gold. While traveling is tedious, i am really enjoying making a boat and sailing. Maybe to fix this problem they should make incentives for exploring, or make exploring more rewarding.

[jigggy2000]

They are quite lifeless, no dangers and basically no fauna

 

Just like in real life. Also fauna?? what?? On top of the ocean? There's some there.

 

But if you're talking about under the ocean. Then yeah, plenty of life there.  

 

I know no one wants to make this game realistic but if they want to add stuff to the ocean you would need to go about it the right way.

[Codsworth]

Just like in real life. Also fauna?? what?? On top of the ocean? There's some there.

 

But if you're talking about under the ocean. Then yeah, plenty of life there.  

 

I know no one wants to make this game realistic but if they want to add stuff to the ocean you would need to go about it the right way.

 

nah yeah but ocean DO have life, and right now what you see on DS? ONE lobster in the shallow waters, ONE dogfish wandering around. Don't Starve is an uncompromising game it doesn't have any reason for not giving life to the oceans, add an biome that is the focus of the entire dlc and make it an total desert, with no life, nothing to make it and adventure, seems quite wrong for me.

 

So yes, I think the ocean should have some more fauna, more dangers or "Sea biomes", anything that gives more life to the it, "real life" is not an argument when talking about don't starve, since the game's world is on it's own universe

[jigggy2000]

Nah, I agree. There needs to be more mobs in the ocean.

 

Not too sure about ocean biomes though. Ud have to get pretty dang creative in not coming up with something that just seems silly compared to ah yeah, I can see how that could work. Ocean biomes sound hard to come up with anything for.

[J20hawkz]

Awesome advise guys thanks, I'll be paying more attention when out on the sea.

As for it being lifeless, I can't disagree. The basic concept is there but it needs more. Anyone ever played The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker? You were practically at sea most of the time. What made that enticing was the thrill of taking on other cannon firing ships or monsters that attacked out of the blue ().

Hunting for treasure should be a main focus of this DLC. Taking the idea from Wind Waker, attach a sort of crane on your boat to pull up treasure at sea. More treasure maps would be awesome.

It's early access and knowing Klei more is yet to come. So any thoughts?

[Aalda11]

Islands aren't that hard to find but I agree sea exploration is not as exciting as land exploration in DS vanilla. On dry land there's always something to collect, do or fight, the sea is a lot less populated with assets. I'm sure they'll add more features as the game develops though.

[grekon]

Honestly I think they should separate the map into 4 smaller pieces. Each one of them would have one of the special assets. Volcano, Yarrtopus, Wooden Thing(surrounded by the knights, especially when the gears were rare before the update) and doublon machine maybe(What about the legendary Dodo?).

 

Each one of these parts of the world would also have the mobs special to the asset. For example Yarrtopus quarter would be full of pirates, Volcano could have some sentient fire enemies and the wooden thing would have chess set pieces.

 

The quarters should be randomized so that we still have to explore most of the map, and each asset also should be randomly generated within that quarter.

[UberBonisseur]

I'm suggesting an item we can easily craft which will allow us to find or at last get us in the right direction, a sort of item that radiates when we are getting warmer to an island.

 

To be honest, that's exactly what the spyglass is for, but both the bottle and pig skin in the recipe makes it very expensive to craft. The pig skin should be replaced by a cheaper material like wood, so only the bottle would be the rare ingredient

[MoloMan]

To be honest, that's exactly what the spyglass is for, but both the bottle and pig skin in the recipe makes it very expensive to craft. The pig skin should be replaced by a cheaper material like wood, so only the bottle would be the rare ingredient

 

Bottle is really easy to make now thanks to the sand so it's only the pig skin problem now...

[Lacost]

To be honest, that's exactly what the spyglass is for, but both the bottle and pig skin in the recipe makes it very expensive to craft. The pig skin should be replaced by a cheaper material like wood, so only the bottle would be the rare ingredient

 

Uhm ok, if you think 3 sand and refining them into empty bottles is rare. Bottles used to be rare and I think this was by far better. Now you just craft them yourself making them super easy to gather.

 

 

For the map:

 

Yes, most of you already mentioned how to find islands and the system is not tedious or broken at all. You can easily tell where the next land is from a very far distance.

 

I think the render distance is by far more broken than the islands itself. Since there are such huge distances between your usable lands most of it will stay outside of the render distance and won't be simulated. I know this is an engine or performance issue but this is partly destroying the game.

 

Like those mussel sticks. I once planted them in the middle of nowhere and after 2 seasons I hit back and wanted to collect them only to realise not a single mussel has grown on it.

 

Or the classical Tier 1 spider nests you can find everywhere on your newly discovered islands after day 100. They only start to grow inside your render distance.

[Lacost]

sorry, double post

[Codsworth]

I think the render distance is by far more broken than the islands itself. Since there are such huge distances between your usable lands most of it will stay outside of the render distance and won't be simulated. I know this is an engine or performance issue but this is partly destroying the game.

 

Like those mussel sticks. I once planted them in the middle of nowhere and after 2 seasons I hit back and wanted to collect them only to realise not a single mussel has grown on it.

 

Or the classical Tier 1 spider nests you can find everywhere on your newly discovered islands after day 100. They only start to grow inside your render distance.

 

but there is the other hand, if it wasn't like that meteors of the volcan could basically destroy the entire world, or the hurricanes too, monkeys would probally pickup all the mandrakes and even the volcano staff if you're unlucky, AND some weakers computers would have probally lag problems (it could be configurable though)

[HeilerderWelten]

To be honest, that's exactly what the spyglass is for, but both the bottle and pig skin in the recipe makes it very expensive to craft. The pig skin should be replaced by a cheaper material like wood, so only the bottle would be the rare ingredient

 

Bottles aren´t rare you can craft it with 3 sand an skin is also not rare,

just give a pig 4 monster meat, kill the werepig and gather 2 meat and one skin.

[J20hawkz]

Ok maybe then I've been unlucky because on two worlds I've not seen much except beach biomes. I haven't seen a single Oxen either. Someone posted above and I thought it was a great idea. The way I see it is Don't Starve is a brilliant game you travel the map and come across something of importance in each biome almost every time. So with Shipwrecked the same should apply but obviously each biome is separated by water BUT as we travel there should be something of importance either resource wise or monster wise.

The ships customisation is awesome, what would be even better is if we could fight against other monsters/ships at sea to make traveling that way fun and not something we "have to do" to get from A to B.

I've read about hurricanes and meteors and issues people are having with those. I myself need to keep trying things until I find these seasons manageable so I won't comment on that until I've tried everything.

[Thieverpedia]

A Spyglass distance buff would really come in handy right about now...