So what's the general opinion on SW now?

[Lysh]

Sometimes I play vanilla or DST and realize how much I love Shipwrecked. I love how random everything is. I love the weird tiny oddly-formed islands with the random mix of biomes. I love the slot machine and treasure. I don't mind that it takes longer to find Packim or Yaar or the volcano. I've been through a year in my current game and still have a lot of exploration and can't find the second doydoy island or volcano, but my base is awesome and I'm glad there's still so much to do.

There's some definitely still some bugs in the game. And some bugs that are actually nice (the bottle lantern bug for instance...and I miss the apes with the silly ball in the chest). And I gladly would pay five more dollars for five more months of updates. I want more boats and mobs and bosses. I want some sort of connection to the lore. There's still a lot of potential for this kind of Don't Starve and it was kind of a bummer to hear that they were done with it in the dev livestream.

[Hundkerchief]

Maybe we're not in any way entitled to claim more content for this price, however being able to play smoothly on a MOOORE than decent setup should be mandatory, and that's not the case currently.

Releasing a finished product which is still laggy, buggy and unoptimized is far from the level of dedication I would have expected from Klei.

Maybe there was some sort of deadline and they were like "Oh never mind !" and that's a shame, really 

[mitboy]

It should have full integration with RoG word. 

Other than that, I think, there's more than enough content for 5 bucks.

[DeputyDeath]

12 hours ago, Lysh said:

Sometimes I play vanilla or DST and realize how much I love Shipwrecked. I love how random everything is. I love the weird tiny oddly-formed islands with the random mix of biomes. I love the slot machine and treasure. I don't mind that it takes longer to find Packim or Yaar or the volcano. I've been through a year in my current game and still have a lot of exploration and can't find the second doydoy island or volcano, but my base is awesome and I'm glad there's still so much to do.

There's some definitely still some bugs in the game. And some bugs that are actually nice (the bottle lantern bug for instance...and I miss the apes with the silly ball in the chest). And I gladly would pay five more dollars for five more months of updates. I want more boats and mobs and bosses. I want some sort of connection to the lore. There's still a lot of potential for this kind of Don't Starve and it was kind of a bummer to hear that they were done with it in the dev livestream.

Tip for doydoys: generally speaking, they spawn incredibly close together. Often, the closest island to one doydoy in my experience contains the second.

It probably explains why they're no longer together. It was once a single large island, a large storm caused a lot of erosion in the middle, and combined with flooding it turned into two separate islands.

It's also good from a gameplay perspective so you don't waste too much time finding them, but that's not interesting enough so pretend there's actually a backstory to it.

[Atsumame]

Not worth playing for me until they fix the daycount bug, if they ever fix it.

[Shian]

I think the concept was fundamentally flawed--large expanses of nothing and biomes being separated is annoying and tedious in a game like Don't Starve. Base-building, resource finding, exploring isn't nearly as fun. It's a chore because of this "grinding" like aspect of travelling through such a large but empty map. The devs did a good job of realising this. That's why they added waves, spyglasses, messages in bottles, and all the speed boosters like coffee, sleek hat, iron wind to "make up" for the boring sea travel by making you go faster or making it easier to find land.

I am fairly confident many people would disagree with me, but I feel like they found a problem, and tried to make it less of a problem, rather than fixing it. I.e. they thought "sea travel and exploring is tedious right now. Let's make it so the tediousness doesn't last as long" rather than "it's tedious, how do we make it not tedious?" I understand that the alternate solutions like putting more content in the ocean or connecting the islands so each has 2-5 biomes would not only be impractical budget and timing wise but also destroy the very concept of shipwrecked, but that's why I said that it's fundamentally flawed--there was simply no way out of it.

Again I don't think this is public opinion, but I for one do not find SW as fun as ROG or vanilla because of how tedious its key characteristics (sea travel, islands) which differentiates it from the base game are.

 

THAT being said, I definitely got my money's worth and more in playtime, and it opened up a new avenue for endgame ROG thanks to connected worlds that breathed new life into a game I thought I had overplayed. As many people have said treating SW like caves/ruins is a good way to go.

[FloomRide]

One of the most popular criticisms coming from players who don't like the game is how slow and grinding the beginning can be. The pressing need to collect as many grass and twigs as possible, finding rocks and gold, mapping out the world so you know where each biome is in the future, etc.

They're not wrong at all, and this flaw is especially present in Shipwrecked. To elaborate, the first island you spawn on is completely random (except that it never spawns with gold rocks), and can either set you off very well or very poorly, hindering exploration if the latter is true. The early-game rafts craftable without a science machine are a bit too slow for the amount of exploration normally done in a Don't Starve world, especially with the vast expanses of ocean housing absolutely nothing, making large-scale early-game exploration nearly impossible if you don't find gold.

Speaking of gold, I've often found that finding it determines the outcome of a world. You want to get a science machine as fast as possible, but finding gold is often completely random in Shipwrecked, and in a game where exploration is ever more time-consuming, it may be weeks before you find a suitable rock biome with enough gold for an alchemy engine.

Walani solves this problem a bit, with her fast surfboards allowing the player to explore easily early on, but her faster hunger drain is crippling once you find an island suitable for a base. When I was playing as her, I often found myself delaying exploration by sea even after crafting advanced boats because I was starving and the only sure source of food I had found was at my base. Her other abilities are nothing special, at least when compared to the top-tier Wickerbottom and WX-78.

Warly has some interesting design, I like his character and all,  but his upsides often don't make up for his downsides, at least not to the extent of the base game and RoG characters.

[Mildcream]

It's a buggy and slightly content starved mess, but i won't complain as it's a steal at 5 bucks.

[FreyaMaluk]

On 4/4/2016 at 7:33 PM, FloomRide said:

One of the most popular criticisms coming from players who don't like the game is how slow and grinding the beginning can be. The pressing need to collect as many grass and twigs as possible, finding rocks and gold, mapping out the world so you know where each biome is in the future, etc.

They're not wrong at all, and this flaw is especially present in Shipwrecked. To elaborate, the first island you spawn on is completely random (except that it never spawns with gold rocks), and can either set you off very well or very poorly, hindering exploration if the latter is true. The early-game rafts craftable without a science machine are a bit too slow for the amount of exploration normally done in a Don't Starve world, especially with the vast expanses of ocean housing absolutely nothing, making large-scale early-game exploration nearly impossible if you don't find gold.

Speaking of gold, I've often found that finding it determines the outcome of a world. You want to get a science machine as fast as possible, but finding gold is often completely random in Shipwrecked, and in a game where exploration is ever more time-consuming, it may be weeks before you find a suitable rock biome with enough gold for an alchemy engine.

Walani solves this problem a bit, with her fast surfboards allowing the player to explore easily early on, but her faster hunger drain is crippling once you find an island suitable for a base. When I was playing as her, I often found myself delaying exploration by sea even after crafting advanced boats because I was starving and the only sure source of food I had found was at my base. Her other abilities are nothing special, at least when compared to the top-tier Wickerbottom and WX-78.

Warly has some interesting design, I like his character and all,  but his upsides often don't make up for his downsides, at least not to the extent of the base game and RoG characters.

Well about finding gold, I do thing that it is rather easy to find gold noways. The later updates guaranty gold in closer proximity to the starting island. I believe the problem relies on how people begin exploration in SW. People head to deep and medium waters far too soon. What the game is expecting from you is to cover all surrounding islands first. For that you don't need a faster boat IMO. A bamboo raft will do the job. If you follow the shallow waters and the seaweed you'll find gold even on the very first day if you are fast enough. 

[voyager156]

Well, for me this is a great add-on. To tell te truth - I like it better than Vanilla/RoG. I just love this whole concept! I even like sailing (which many people find tedious).

The main things that are missing for me now, are:
- more creatures at sea
- fixing bugs, that are still there (especially this one - when every item you make is wet)
- a Warly buff
- Walani surfboard (small) buff

But still, what I wrote above don't make this game bad for me. Overall it's amazing expirence that I will play & play again I only regret, that Klei didn't listend to many people, who suggested fundraiser for more content to be added...

[DeputyDeath]

On 06/04/2016 at 11:49 AM, voyager156 said:

Well, for me this is a great add-on. To tell te truth - I like it better than Vanilla/RoG. I just love this whole concept! I even like sailing (which many people find tedious).

The main things that are missing for me now, are:
- more creatures at sea
- fixing bugs, that are still there (especially this one - when every item you make is wet)
- a Warly buff
- Walani surfboard (small) buff

But still, what I wrote above don't make this game bad for me. Overall it's amazing expirence that I will play & play again I only regret, that Klei didn't listend to many people, who suggested fundraiser for more content to be added...

Yeah, I prefer it to RoG too. More happens in Shipwrecked, which makes it more fun. The only thing that ever happened in RoG was the spawning of hounds and giants. 

RoG played a lot like Minecraft once you became fairly competent, in that to get any real challenge out of the game you had to force yourself into dangerous situations. I've always found that to be a dumb concept because if I was to make a world as Wes instead of Wolfgang for the challenge, I'd find it illogical and would stop playing fairly quickly. I shouldn't have to purposely make myself worse-off for the game to be enjoyable. It's similar to how Bethesda release their games as blank slates for modding because they're pretty crap when vanilla. The developer should be the one inconveniencing themselves to make the game more fun, not the players.

But Shipwrecked doesn't make me do this. I always seem to have something to do, and almost always seem to be fighting with (or running away from) something that wants my head on a stick. Which, in my mind at least, makes it a better game overall.

I guess I'm annoyed that Shipwrecked wasn't further expanded because of this. It seems like a perfect game for me; it combines the challenge and survival aspect of the base game with the tropical setting of AC 4/Far Cry 3 and something to keep me busy at all times.

But hey, what ya gonna do? 

[AnonymousKoala]

9 hours ago, DeputyDeath said:

Yeah, I prefer it to RoG too. More happens in Shipwrecked, which makes it more fun. The only thing that ever happened in RoG was the spawning of hounds and giants. 

RoG played a lot like Minecraft once you became fairly competent, in that to get any real challenge out of the game you had to force yourself into dangerous situations. I've always found that to be a dumb concept because if I was to make a world as Wes instead of Wolfgang for the challenge, I'd find it illogical and would stop playing fairly quickly. I shouldn't have to purposely make myself worse-off for the game to be enjoyable. It's similar to how Bethesda release their games as blank slates for modding because they're pretty crap when vanilla. The developer should be the one inconveniencing themselves to make the game more fun, not the players.

But Shipwrecked doesn't make me do this. I always seem to have something to do, and almost always seem to be fighting with (or running away from) something that wants my head on a stick. Which, in my mind at least, makes it a better game overall.

I guess I'm annoyed that Shipwrecked wasn't further expanded because of this. It seems like a perfect game for me; it combines the challenge and survival aspect of the base game with the tropical setting of AC 4/Far Cry 3 and something to keep me busy at all times.

But hey, what ya gonna do? 

Exactly. This sums up my feelings perfectly.

SW is better in so many ways, but the lack of content and it being a simple add-on make it just...ugh. 

I wish we got Standalone SW now. 

[PhelsarusBeel]

5 minutes ago, AnonymousKoala said:

Exactly. This sums up my feelings perfectly.

SW is better in so many ways, but the lack of content a it being a simple add-on make ist...ugh. 

I wish we got Standalone SW now. 

This is actually something I was wondering ever since "Release the Quacken". How would a standalone SW look like?

Cause here is the thing if they had the same plans for the Standalone then tbh it woukd have failed hard because of the massive lack of content (we also don't know if the Original cast was supposed to be playable or just Wilson and the Trashteam).

Personally I think SW benefited from being an Add-On rather then a Standalone thing but again the massive lack of content is baaicly the Problem currently.

[AnonymousKoala]

Just now, Mr.P said:

This is actually something I was wondering ever since "Release the Quacken". How would a standalone SW look like?

Cause here is the thing if they had the same plans for the Standalone then tbh it woukd have failed hard because of the massive lack of content (we also don't know if the Original cast was supposed to be playable or just Wilson and the Trashteam).

Personally I think SW benefited from being an Add-On rather then a Standalone thing but again the massive lack of content is baaicly the Problem currently.

If it would have this much content standalone would be an outright steal. But atm what pissess me off the most is that it cant decide if it wants to be an add-on like caves, or its own world. As an add-on its not focused enough but it works the best like this. As its own world, it has so little content compared to even vanilla.

[voyager156]

12 hours ago, DeputyDeath said:

I guess I'm annoyed that Shipwrecked wasn't further expanded because of this. It seems like a perfect game for me;

Yeah, I feel exactly the same :-/

[Urfable]

I think the game is either great or meh for people. I haven't faced too many bugs (close to none actually) and the ones that i do come across are usually fixed within the next patch or so.

SW feels like a solo game and in a sense it feels manageable. For me, the RoG world was always a little big and too much (it's fun for DST though!). SW really made the world seem less lonely(?) or vast but still fun and challenging with the new kinds of seasons and monsters. I love the feel and look of SW and i thoroughly enjoy it (a lot more than RoG or Vanilla).

I love the game but I'm not the type to follow anything closely so i wasn't sure what they were planning to implement and ended up didn't. With that said, i do think that there needs to be a bit more. Sometimes traveling on water for like a minute straight without encountering anything is pretty boring. Some biomes aren't interesting and is the same as the last (set pieces/ special islands are my favorite thing and i wish there was more). New characters are really lackluster for me, the only one i slightly enjoy playing as is Wilbur.

I'm sure they're not completely done with fixing up the game. And for what it's worth, they could've been testing out this partnership with Capy? It's easy to tell someone what to do or how to do things better but making a game isn't easy and I'm sure they tried to put out something nice for us in the short amount of time that they gave themselves. And even in that regard, since this is a collab, perhaps the push for the game to come out this fast was agreed upon by Both companies. Business is a pain in the back side especially when you're working with someone else.

I would've payed a lot more for SW especially if there was even more content but i don't regret buying it at all. If they charged another 5 bucks to put more content in the game, I'd do it.

TLDR: Love the game but do wish there was slightly more to it. Keep in mind, Klei isn't the only one making all the decisions.

[DeputyDeath]

7 minutes ago, Urfable said:

I think the game is either great or meh for people. I haven't faced too many bugs (close to none actually) and the ones that i do come across are usually fixed within the next patch or so.

SW feels like a solo game and in a sense it feels manageable. For me, the RoG world was always a little big and too much (it's fun for DST though!). SW really made the world seem less lonely(?) or vast but still fun and challenging with the new kinds of seasons and monsters. I love the feel and look of SW and i thoroughly enjoy it (a lot more than RoG or Vanilla).

I love the game but I'm not the type to follow anything closely so i wasn't sure what they were planning to implement and ended up didn't. With that said, i do think that there needs to be a bit more. Sometimes traveling on water for like a minute straight without encountering anything is pretty boring. Some biomes aren't interesting and is the same as the last (set pieces/ special islands are my favorite thing and i wish there was more). New characters are really lackluster for me, the only one i slightly enjoy playing as is Wilbur.

I'm sure they're not completely done with fixing up the game. And for what it's worth, they could've been testing out this partnership with Capy? It's easy to tell someone what to do or how to do things better but making a game isn't easy and I'm sure they tried to put out something nice for us in the short amount of time that they gave themselves. And even in that regard, since this is a collab, perhaps the push for the game to come out this fast was agreed upon by Both companies. Business is a pain in the back side especially when you're working with someone else.

I would've payed a lot more for SW especially if there was even more content but i don't regret buying it at all. If they charged another 5 bucks to put more content in the game, I'd do it.

TLDR: Love the game but do wish there was slightly more to it. Keep in mind, Klei isn't the only one making all the decisions.

You're one of the few people that seem to understand that Klei and Capy are businesses that want to make profit. It's not feasible for them to make a massive game and sell it for just £4. 

The gaming industry isn't massively profitable, or at least it's hard for it to be. Everyone has they're own profitable little tactics though; Rockstar take the route of spending enormous amounts of money developing their games(most games in the top 10 budget lists are made by Rockstar), and just pray that it pays off rather than be a repeat of LA Noire; Bethesda release half-finished games and constantly lie about the finished product when talking about it; EA leech every penny possible out of their customers, and rip people off for all they're worth with crappy new releases; Valve rely on 'elitism' in their games, so that people pay loads of money for a weapon skin or hat but can justify it because the game itself is fairly cheap/free, and the cosmetics aren't NECESSARY. 

But Klei don't do any of these things. Aside from the base game, there were only 2 DLCs for DS before Shipwrecked came out; one being the soundtrack. Not only that, but RoG is an incredibly functional and diverse expansion that only costs £4 to buy. Same goes for Shipwrecked; generally speaking, it's a very cool experience and I haven't spent a better £4 since I first bought RoG.

Klei just seem to make great games (the others seem to be highly rated too) at low prices. That's an admirable business model, and I think we need to appreciate as a community that they couldn't develop Shipwrecked much further without sacrificing Klei's reputation or financial stability. 

[Urfable]

1 minute ago, DeputyDeath said:

You're one of the few people that seem to understand that Klei and Capy are businesses that want to make profit. It's not feasible for them to make a massive game and sell it for just £4. 

The gaming industry isn't massively profitable, or at least it's hard for it to be. Everyone has they're own profitable little tactics though; Rockstar take the route of spending enormous amounts of money developing their games(most games in the top 10 budget lists are made by Rockstar), and just pray that it pays off rather than be a repeat of LA Noire; Bethesda release half-finished games and constantly lie about the finished product when talking about it; EA leech every penny possible out of their customers, and rip people off for all they're worth with crappy new releases; Valve rely on 'elitism' in their games, so that people pay loads of money for a weapon skin or hat but can justify it because the game itself is fairly cheap/free, and the cosmetics aren't NECESSARY. 

But Klei don't do any of these things. Aside from the base game, there were only 2 DLCs for DS before Shipwrecked came out; one being the soundtrack. Not only that, but RoG is an incredibly functional and diverse expansion that only costs £4 to buy. Same goes for Shipwrecked; generally speaking, it's a very cool experience and I haven't spent a better £4 since I first bought RoG.

Klei just seem to make great games (the others seem to be highly rated too) at low prices. That's an admirable business model, and I think we need to appreciate as a community that they couldn't develop Shipwrecked much further without sacrificing Klei's reputation or financial stability. 

I suppose i understand because I'd like to be in the business. I actually really like the way Klei handles community suggestions and things like that. They seem very involved and enjoy doing what they do, which is something i admire very much. When i initially decided to buy the DLC, i honestly didn't expect it to be that cheap. I guess that goes back to the point of me being willing to pay way more. But a lot of people, to me, seem entitled. It's easy to expect a lot and hard to be realistic i guess.

[DeputyDeath]

1 hour ago, Urfable said:

I suppose i understand because I'd like to be in the business. I actually really like the way Klei handles community suggestions and things like that. They seem very involved and enjoy doing what they do, which is something i admire very much. When i initially decided to buy the DLC, i honestly didn't expect it to be that cheap. I guess that goes back to the point of me being willing to pay way more. But a lot of people, to me, seem entitled. It's easy to expect a lot and hard to be realistic i guess.

A lot of the gaming community feels entitled to everything. It's even more insulting that some people will pirate a game and then complain about it. Or pirate it at all, really.

It's likely because much of the gaming community is made up of middle class teenagers who have had a lot handed to them on a plate. Which is perfectly natural, but it makes a lot of them feel as if they deserve everything from a company.

I myself am a white, middle(ish) class sixteen year-old. I have had everything handed to me on a plate up to now too, but it's something that I'm fairly ashamed of and not, as other people see it, something I can take comfort and sanctuary in under any circumstance.

I really wish our generation weren't given a horribly sugar-coated image of the world, where everyone is special and you can easily make a living doing what you love. That's what leads to people feeling entitled, and subsequently fail to understand the intentions of a business. 

Damn this topic got deep.

[Urfable]

1 hour ago, DeputyDeath said:

A lot of the gaming community feels entitled to everything. It's even more insulting that some people will pirate a game and then complain about it. Or pirate it at all, really.

It's likely because much of the gaming community is made up of middle class teenagers who have had a lot handed to them on a plate. Which is perfectly natural, but it makes a lot of them feel as if they deserve everything from a company.

I myself am a white, middle(ish) class sixteen year-old. I have had everything handed to me on a plate up to now too, but it's something that I'm fairly ashamed of and not, as other people see it, something I can take comfort and sanctuary in under any circumstance.

I really wish our generation weren't given a horribly sugar-coated image of the world, where everyone is special and you can easily make a living doing what you love. That's what leads to people feeling entitled, and subsequently fail to understand the intentions of a business. 

Damn this topic got deep.

I'm going to be 22 by the end of this year, most of the people i know don't take things for granted and feel entitled but age doesn't dictate those thoughts or behavior. I think it's just how well they understand things. You can look at any profession and think "that seems easy, why don't they do more for a cheaper price?!" but that's just not how things work. I appreciate things because i understand that it's hard to do something really well and it's even harder to try and be involved with a community that is always demanding and complaining. I just think people rarely stop and pay someone a compliment, even though it goes a long way.

Deep topic on a game forum, oh my