Island Reflections

[sagacious]

They literally put a spreadsheet (the stock popularity thing) in the game itself as a core part of how you're supposed to run your island industry.

When I gripe about spreadsheets I don't mean consulting them outside of the game.

Soooo you want us to have no idea how to make good profits using the in game spreadsheets? We have to go outside the game to satisfy you?

[Iscah]

Soooo you want us to have no idea how to make good profits using the in game spreadsheets? We have to go outside the game to satisfy you?

I never said any of that.

I simply object at a base level that my "relaxing tropical island" revolves around something better associated with office work.

[sagacious]

I never said any of that.

I simply object at a base level that my "relaxing tropical island" revolves around something better associated with office work.

Don't you understand that the relaxing starts at level 10 when you've cultivated, pasteurized, and tamed the island first. As a warrior of light you should expect no less.

[ameliaw]

Don't you understand that the relaxing starts at level 10 when you've cultivated, pasteurized, and tamed the island first. As a warrior of light you should expect no less.

To be frank, saying that as what I'd expect if I were the warrior of light, I'd expect the ungrateful asses from the Eorzea Alliance to give me a nice place for saving them over and over, without work involved. This is a gift from Tataru, but she could give us a house building kit at least, since she expects us to do all this work anyway

[sagacious]

To be frank, saying that as what I'd expect if I were the warrior of light, I'd expect the ungrateful asses from the Eorzea Alliance to give me a nice place for saving them over and over, without work involved. This is a gift from Tataru, but she could give us a house building kit at least, since she expects us to do all this work anyway

But didn't you see the scions all bored as f? Wanting action and wanting to go do something? Did you think us warriors of light immune to these impulses? tataru knows us and knows this is what we would like to do. We, warriors of light, love hard work to achieve great ends. We've carried rocks, wood, water, animals, and protected the many with ease and love. I love what the people have done. Give me a whole island of my own to tame.

[Jojoya]

I never said any of that.

I simply object at a base level that my "relaxing tropical island" revolves around something better associated with office work.

Except it doesn't? That's a player choice to make it revolve around "office work". You can earn cowries without touching the workshop.

Creature Leavings? 12 cowries each. If you average 30 leavings a day, that's 360 cowries per day.

Grown Crops? 4-6 cowries each. If you grow the premium crops, that 580 cowries every 2 days after the seed fees.

Rare materials from the Granary? 25 cowries each or 200 cowries a day after deducting the foraging fees if your Granary is level 3.

At 750 Cowries a day, you'd have the entire Isle Explorer's set in 20 days, a hairstyle in 8 days, a Mandragora mount in 16 days, etc. All at a nice slow leisurely pace without touching a spreadsheet.

It's a much slower way to earn the cowries but it can be done.

[Iscah]

It's a much slower way to earn the cowries but it can be done.

I know, and that my point.

The fact that doing farming activities is a slower route than managing the spreadsheet indicates that the spreadsheet is the intended and expected way of approaching the content, and if you don't want to engage with it then you have to settle for a slower way of earning cowries.

Also, even if you don't want to engage with it, your entire island is still structured around it. You can leave the workshops idle but they're still there clanking away and being the core feature of your hideaway.

[Krotoan]

The fact that doing farming activities is a slower route than managing the spreadsheet indicates that the spreadsheet is the intended and expected way of approaching the content, and if you don't want to engage with it then you have to settle for a slower way of earning cowries.
.

Players optimizing the fun out of something does not mean that is the intended or expected way to approach it. If so then every mechanic skip ever is the "intended" way to do that encounter because it's the fastest way.

It's fine you don't like it. It's fine if LOTS of people don't like it or don't want to engage with it or wish something else was made instead of it.

What I'm tired of is people acting like the island failed to be something it was never meant to be or that it's locked behind a rigorous and grueling grind.


I haven't read one guide. I have no idea what time the "special" animals spawn. I don't know what the optimal product cycle is or even what exactly "groove" does. I did however discover for myself the basics of drops, groove and setting automation for the week so i can pop in for a couple minutes a day to click some stuff and rack up some currency.

I may not be the first with the expensive mount, but I'll have it eventually. I'll also eventually have every single other reward there with a few minutes "invested" every day or maybe 30 minutes a week popping in to click my auto-farmed stacks through. The system literally churns time into blue cowries. Everything waits if you ignore it too. The animals drop to baseline mood and the plants just stop growing. If you wished you could just send out your gatherers for an entire week and then next week exclusively produce the "expensive" recipe that used the rare from those gatherings and make back enough to do it all over again and you'd still accrue materials in excess that you could mill for more cowries than you spent.

Come back to it later.


There's no reason to have it all NOW. There's no reason you need it FIRST. If you choose to put stock in those values you need to be ready to invest unusually.

[Iscah]

What I'm tired of is people acting like the island failed to be something it was never meant to be or that it's locked behind a rigorous and grueling grind.

The thing is, "managing a factory" feels like it is a thing that the island was never meant to be.

On the one level, sure, they put it in there so it is what the content is. But it feels so much at odds with how the content was advertised (slow life, farming) that it feels like it must be the end product of some sort of feature creep where they started out trying to invent a crafting system for non-crafters and ended up far away from their intended big-picture concept, then never took a critical eye over it to make sure it lined up with the original vision.

It's not that it's a grind, but the story in which they've encased the grind doesn't fit the setting.

[Deveryn]

The thing is, "managing a factory" feels like it is a thing that the island was never meant to be.

On the one level, sure, they put it in there so it is what the content is. But it feels so much at odds with how the content was advertised (slow life, farming) that it feels like it must be the end product of some sort of feature creep where they started out trying to invent a crafting system for non-crafters and ended up far away from their intended big-picture concept, then never took a critical eye over it to make sure it lined up with the original vision.

It's not that it's a grind, but the story in which they've encased the grind doesn't fit the setting.

It's not at all at odds with how things were advertised. They even talked about placing multiple buildings. The hint was right there. You're free to do whatever whenever. The mammets are there to do the work for you in building up the area. They can take care of your animals and crops, so you don't have to check it everyday. Without the "factory" there's no real purpose to the island. The story they put together fits well enough, imo. Who better to introduce all this than Tataru?