Island Sanctuary feels intentionally slow and inefficient.

[FlatLined]

The biggest misconception about island sanctuary is a notion that it's supposed to be a sandbox farming simulator when in reality it isn't. Once your stuff is all upgraded and production scheduled there's literally nothing to do. The island is empty just like the gameplay. In stardew valley there's lots of content outside of timegated farming; while your crops are set up you can go mining, talk to villagers, explore new areas, go fishing, do quests etc. And on your island in this game once production is set up you just... log off. And no, going around a small island in circles collecting the same stuff that respawns in like minutes is not engaging gameplay. There's no skill expression or thought involved on game's part to actually be invested or interested about this reject of a mindless diadem 2.0 grind. It's just something that exists so you could log in every day to schedule your production and water crops or else you'll be missing out. Once I get my glamour out of this predatory excuse of "content" I'm dipping immediately.

This sums it up so perfectly. Its like you read my mind.

[Sesera]

I don't get why you're using casuals as a defense of time gates. If anything, the fact that this game is catered to casuals should mean time gates are more harmful.

Timmy A and Timmy B are casual and they can only play 1h per day but every 30 days they can play as long as they want.
Tedd A and Tedd B play 10h per day.

Timmy A and Tedd A live in a timeline with gatekeeping and Timmy B and Tedd B in one without.

SE introduce a new outfit that you get for actively play the game for 30h.

Timeline A:

Only 1h per day will count.

Timmy A and Tedd A will get the outfit after 30 days despite Tedd A had played for 300h and Timmy for 30h

Timeline B

Tedd B after 3 days has unlocked the outfit meanwhile Timmy B won't get it for another 27 days.


I'm sorry but no timegate clearly favor casuals.

[KuroMaboroshi]

This issue is a mostly psychological one and depends strongly on the player. If you are the type of player who enjoy grinding as an activity by itself, all is well. If you are the type who likes to optimise, then it's not very enjoyable. Island sanctuary operates on a single pace with no consideration for the speed at which the player wants to take it.

The timegating is also of a type we have rarely seen before in XIV. Usually it's "you've done all you can this week/day", come back another time, and that's it. The timegating is "hard" in content like the Doman Enclave, the Ishgard Restoration or Custom Deliveries. By comparison, Island Sanctuary has "soft" timegates where you are forced to wait for certain things to complete, but you could still keep doing the content on the side, it's just horribly inefficient to not wait. To some people, this works just fine, to others it is a nagging annoyance since they want to be as efficient as possible, especially if they otherwise enjoy the content. They'd like to keep going and feel like the game artificially holds them back.

Neither side is wrong here, cause both want different things out of this new content.

[Super_Smiley]

Can we get daily activities, where we have to catch certain animals. Introduce tools for fishing, so you can catch rare giant large fish. Build something for your farm, so animals are protected by the rain and their mood goes up. Certain animals you keep can accompany you in the wild, during this time they can fight other wild life. If you win, you can take it back to the farm with you or collect rare material it was holding. If you lose the mood of your animal will go down greatly and can no longer bring it along. Windmill can help with crops, making the time for them to grow faster. Some NPCs will require help in gathering rare materials but are scared to go into the wild, so you have to collect alone. Similar to nodes, these nodes will have like a little minigame attached to it. If you win, the reward will net you a lot of currency and if you lose you'll get some average materials for trying.

These are just some of the ideas I wish Island Sanctuary had. I would love more content to this Island. Especially as a daily activity.

[GinTsuruga]

I'd blame comprehension but the "marketing" of Island Sanctuary have been pretty clear and simple.

[sagacious]

I am really enjoying it...after so long playing it is nice to just go and escape with my minions!

I have the time to play but I am enjoying the pace. I am quite high rank but mainly because I love clicking the shiny plants and trees...it reminds me of collecting the Nothing's in Blue dragon.

Not so bothered it is slow I am liking the peace and quiet and also the underwater is so beautiful <3

I am still figuring things out but so far it does not need to be rushed. I also like it not being part of the main game.

you say your quite high ranked? What is your rank?

[SturmChurro]

Just gather some materials...let your workshops do the rest...come back after a week and level up like 3 or 4 levels at once and get tons of cowries. That way doesn't take more than like 2 hours of prep, lol. Ofc if you want everything the fastest way possible yes then it is a grindfest but that is your personal choice duh. It's not like you get better pve gear from it or any other advantage besides glamour and mounts.

Did you say glamour and mounts? And two hairstyles? I have to get back on this game..

[Rolder50]

My general expectation is that people will enjoy it for a bit until the new car smell wears off and people hit the big time gate / grind walls. At that point, if it's an efficient means of gaining materia or something else people will do it out of a sense of obligation, if not then people will get the cosmetics they want and leave it. Lord knows I don't expect SE to produce any sizable content additions for it, considering they never have for other side content they have added into the game prior...

[Restonance]

So you don't like, stardew valley, terraria, minecraft, rune factory, etc.

So I take it you've never played Terraria?

[LaylaTsarra]

And what would all of this be..?



Like yeah, it's "optional" but it's not removed from the rest of the game. I was simply asking because I wondered if maybe the shop expanded as you ranked up. Shame on me though for not taking the live letter's word for it 100%.

I don't see this at the Island vendors yet. I suspect the rewards unlock based on your level like with beast tribes. Significant number of rewards which aren't rng based from what i can see and simply tied to grinding the content.