Island sanctuary doesn't feel right.

[Jengo_Gonar]

Hello guys!

I just wanted to ask: is it my isle or it is an isle for the mammets?

I didn't see the live letter so, I kind of expected it to be a sanctuary for me to just get there and relax. Instead I get "you, fleshling minion! Go get us stuff so we can work!" Like, nah... no my thing. I rather Administrate those things than having them to administrate what I do.

Also it is rather not convenient to get there: yes I know it is not hard to talk to an npc so they create the instance for me, but couldn't it be just an item to use too?

Tataru promised me a paradise, the mammets just want me to work for them. Well, I guess my island will stay wild until the mammets decide to work by themselves, lol.

Well, that was my ranting.

Good day!

[TomsYoungerBro]

Rank up your island. You will understand later xD

[Liam_Harper]

It's a small factory to produce the currency for the rewards vendor. Nothing more. Once you're fully ranked you never even need to leave the base camp area.

[Jeeqbit]

Once you have a buffer of 100 of each material, all animals and fully upgraded structures, you can just use the Granary to get everything. The mammets make it more casual-friendly because you can pay them to maintain it for you if you can't login every day, or you can do it yourself.

[Oizen]

Well, the Island was advertised as "Your own personal Island for relaxing and easy content"
What we got was "Tataru's Mammet sweatshop where you have to manage it for her"

Not sure if the devs are just that out of touch but Island Sanctuary is the biggest example of this game missing the mark I've seen in a long while.

[AngelCheese77]

Can't AFK on it either. Was working on my island and had to AFK. Came back and it kicked me out to Moraby Drydocks. Lame.

[Avoidy]

I'm convinced that Tataru found an island full of raw materials and just long-conned us into hollowing it out for her.
"Yeah bro it's totally your island, haha. Now get to work."

Here's hoping in the future, we get increased customization and a genuine sense of ... ownership?? Or individuality, maybe? People compared this to animal crossing when it came out, but animal crossing has differently shaped map layouts, interesting npc dialogues, incentives to invite in friends, and a strong customization element. The island has nothing like this. You can have friends over, but they can't even do anything except stand around and watch you work. No group gathering parties. No helping your friends gain exp or materials. No trading native fruits that don't grow elsewhere. None of that. Frankly, I'm not sure why we can even have visitors over in the first place. Everyone's island looks the same, with minor variations. Might as well meet up at an outpost. And it's painful to write this because on paper the island sanctuary was a solid concept with some really nice rewards, but once you hit level cap (took me about 10 days playing pretty casually) you just sorta go back to check on things once a week because it all gets automated, and the journey to level cap isn't exactly engaging or fun; you just click nodes to gather, and then turn them in and wait for stuff to build.

The only thing keeping me returning every day are my sheep. I love my sheep. Be careful if you catch animals for the farm; the tamogatchi/neopets hold is real. I literally log in before work to feed them so I don't forget and have to think about them starving and bleating "we've been abaaaaaaaandoned~~~"

Anyway yeah, I agree. On the whole, it feels like it's missing core elements that could've made it great. Really hoping we get some more functions in 6.3, otherwise I'll just buy my last mount in a couple of days and only return to feed my animals because I'll feel bad if I don't do it personally.

[DPZ2]

Well, the Island was advertised as "Your own personal Island for relaxing and easy content"
What we got was "Tataru's Mammet sweatshop where you have to manage it for her"

Not sure if the devs are just that out of touch but Island Sanctuary is the biggest example of this game missing the mark I've seen in a long while.

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content. Having spent the first six months after starting the game in hotels with 'iffy' Internet, crafting and gathering was a quiet way of spending the evening during the week, with actual 'dungeon instance' gameplay relegated to the weekends. The Island is pretty reminiscent of those days.

One does not have to become a billionaire for the Island to hold interest. I've seen a number of comments about the lack of "content". Content that was rushed through based on Fear of Missing Out, it looks to me.

While you will get kicked out if you go AFK, you can log out on the island and find yourself back there when you log back in. You also get kicked out of dungeons after a certain period of time. An instance is an instance is an instance ...

Plus, it's a pretty nice place to go and watch a sunset on an otherwise off day in-game.

[Iscah]

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content.

The issue isn't speed or difficulty, it's that the end result of the tasks you're working on don't feel satisfying.

We were told to expect a slow-paced setting on a farm. We got a factory and a whole lot of mammets in hi-vis vests and hard hats, occupying every building and ruining the mood, doubly so when they keep talking about how good it is to cut down the trees and how much they hate nature on this wild natural island I would have preferred to keep in its starting state. (Still build stuff of course, but more eco-resort than factory town.)

The farm part itself feels neglected, too. I've said before, the animals should be kept in varied environments that suit them, with shelter and food, not dumped out on an empty field.

[Avoidy]

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content. Having spent the first six months after starting the game in hotels with 'iffy' Internet, crafting and gathering was a quiet way of spending the evening during the week, with actual 'dungeon instance' gameplay relegated to the weekends. The Island is pretty reminiscent of those days.

One does not have to become a billionaire for the Island to hold interest. I've seen a number of comments about the lack of "content". Content that was rushed through based on Fear of Missing Out, it looks to me.

While you will get kicked out if you go AFK, you can log out on the island and find yourself back there when you log back in. You also get kicked out of dungeons after a certain period of time. An instance is an instance is an instance ...

Plus, it's a pretty nice place to go and watch a sunset on an otherwise off day in-game.

I agree that overall the island is a nice environment with some cute options.

However, I see this idea a lot, that anyone who feels like the island is just lacking in things to do, must feel this way because they rushed it. While it's true that some people did rush it, my experience was that I couldn't even enter for the first week because Balmung was too congested. So going into it, for me anyway, there was no fear of missing out. I'd already missed out. Everyone around me had the good stuff already, before I could even enter. So I was free to just do it at my own pace, and I still didn't find it relaxing because the core gameplay loop is to grind for materials in a way that's simply not engaging. You just click nodes. Click nodes, acquire materials, hand it to a bot, and then wait a day for the bot to finish up. Who could fault someone for rushing this, when there's no reason to drag it out? Even animal capturing is basically just "be there at the right time, use your traps/nets, and pray to the luck gods." There's no satisfaction there, no feeling of "I built this and nobody else could build anything exactly like it," imo, and you really need to nail that feeling for most people to be satisfied with a system like this.