Island Reflections

[Deveryn]

Very much a skit, also reminiscent of the old bike meme

[Rufalus]

Didn't they say this is just the beginning and feedback will be used in the next upgrades?

Yeah. I mean it can only get better as they add some more layers to it, so there's that. I think the first impressions are also quite important though. I can imagine a lot of people quitting in the early phases. I feel like I got punished a bit for playing it casually instead of reading guides because I blew all the currency that the early quests give you on the rewards in the cabin shop, not knowing I would need that same currency to make island progress. That delayed me being able to effectively earn currency myself, then mammets took mandatory days off even though they are mammets. I feel like things need to open up faster so that the first impressions aren't so dire. It's not me wanting all the rewards asap, it's just that the mechanics feel like they're pushing you away before you've seen anything engaging to hook you in.

Also I don't think the rare animal spawns are a very good system. Time and weather requirements are another thing that will push people to guides in order to learn and optimize. I'd prefer them to be full rng so that unexpected things can happen no matter what time I'm playing, making it more interesting to explore the island. Just let me look around and be surprised to discover rare animals or rare items rather than it being a routine thing done on a schedule that you can learn from a spreadsheet.

[xenahawk]

I do like the island sanctuary and the fact that you can basically do as much or little of it as you need to. No personally i feel like the green currency is basically pointless. It would have been a nice balance if the green tokens paid for the stuff in the santuary like the "automation" and even those seed to plant. I know i bulled through leveling my island which felt teadious but honestly i liked doing it and if that isnt your cup of tea you can just grab what you basically plan to use and let the leveling happen passively since work orders, daily missions from the granery, collecting leavings and crops all give nice chunks of xp. I hope since they plan to add to it that that means there will be more options for players to customize the look more this way players dont feel all the islands appear the same

[Raoabolic]

DEVs: "Don't expect Animal Crossing".

Players: "Why isn't this Animal Crossing?"



It's like a skit. I swear.

SE: Don't expect a replacement for housing
SE: Don't expect Animal Crossing

Gee, SE, what should I expect then? At this point I expect nothing and still get a half baked idea. lol

[TheSuperior]

Personalisation really is the key to making this type of content valuable. The editor needs to be powerful enough that you can express your creativity, like housing, and make a unique area that friends have a reason to visit either to relax or get ideas for their own islands.

The most personalized experience I've had is naming all my animals after TWEWY brands. That's it.

I only just hit Rank 5 because this is not fun. I pick at it because I want the rewards but I genuinely do not see how the developers thought something better suited as a mobile game would be fun for... anyone. I know they don't like hateful or harmful comments, but seriously? This is gameplay you'd see as a phone app you pay in microtransactions to speed up production time.

EVONY was more engaging than this. Even the crops in other games older than XIV have a weed system. I genuinely forget to come back to check on my plants for days at a time because there's noting to do but click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

[Boblawblah]

DEVs: "Don't expect Animal Crossing".

Players: "Why isn't this Animal Crossing?"



It's like a skit. I swear.

DEVs: "Expect a casual experience"

DEVs: "here is an extreme grind that will force you to look up guides to get the rewards before the next tier of rewards is released and you're way behind"

Let's not pretend it's exactly what the devs said to expect.

[Deo14]

DEVs: "Don't expect Animal Crossing".

Players: "Why isn't this Animal Crossing?"



It's like a skit. I swear.

DEVs: "Expect a casual experience"

Players: Have to rely on others to reverse engineer weather patterns and then setting alarm which is rarely inside prime hours just to get chance at getting 1 out of 10 weather depended animal (which are also bugged btw), while also having to rely on workshop calculator/make your own excel sheet because game won't simply allow you to open supply and demand window with recipe window simultaneously.

[TheSuperior]

DEVs: "Expect a casual experience"

DEVs: "here is an extreme grind that will force you to look up guides to get the rewards before the next tier of rewards is released and you're way behind"

Let's not pretend it's exactly what the devs said to expect.

I genuinely hate that all PLL's aren't transcripted in post. Yes there's a forum thread after, but it doesn't cover Yoshi P actually spelling everything out. No, reddit doesn't count because they do the exact same thing. They summarize and fans read the summary and then spread rumor as fact because everything else was lost in translation. A power point slide with key elements is one thing, not knowing what Yoshi P is talking about for 10 minutes straight is another.

This happens every untranslated PLL. Screenshot says one thing, reddit translates a summary, hype over something literally never once said blows up.

[Iscah]

DEVs: "Expect a casual experience"

DEVs: "here is an extreme grind that will force you to look up guides to get the rewards before the next tier of rewards is released and you're way behind"

Let's not pretend it's exactly what the devs said to expect.

Devs in marketing phase: "Expect a casual experience relaxing on a tropical island."

Also devs: "Level up your island by understanding this multi-aspected sales-and-marketing spreadsheet to efficiently run your robot factory."

Yeah, no. That's not what they said to expect.

[Skivvy]

Devs in marketing phase: "Expect a casual experience relaxing on a tropical island."

Also devs: "Level up your island by understanding this multi-aspected sales-and-marketing spreadsheet to efficiently run your robot factory."

Yeah, no. That's not what they said to expect.

And don't forget that in order to build the spiffy otter water fountain, you have to either buy it from the MB (it was about 9M for all parts when I checked the other day..) or participate in Expert crafting which is a bit like savage for crafters.

"oOOOh but it's optional!", they'll cry! OK, sure, but for content that has mostly been advertised as solo play, yes, I'm aware of that one interview where they allude to "outside assistance", it seems like a pretty bad decision to then go and link what should have been a nice rank 10 project to the most difficult crafting tier in game. If they were determined to link it to crafting, they could have opted to make it a 3-star recipe or something basic. This would have still been annoying for non-crafters/gatherers, but the pricing would have tanked by now as the materials are not that hard to get.