Island sanctuary doesn't feel right.

[Solarra]

I have to agree that the image in the concept art gave a completely different impression to the reality. Even the buildings look nicer!
I did have fun for a week, but by the time I got it levelled and got the motorcycle and the hair the fun had evaporated. I decided I didn't want the other mounts, breathed a sigh of relief and left.

I could go onto Discord and find out the optimum stuff to manufacture and get everything done with minimal effort but why waste time churning out currency I probably won't even spend?
There's nothing enjoyable about IS (for me that is, if you like it, knock yourself out). I don't like the look of the place now it's developed, the gathering is tedious, feeding the animals and collecting the leavings is really tedious, there's no customisation and having mammets absolutely everywhere makes it feel anything but your island.
The good thing is I can get dyes from the firmament and the game throws so much materia at you that it's basically vendor trash. So unlike WoW's Garrison I don't feel I need to do this content for the rewards.
I can't help feeling sorry that we got a glorified mobile game instead of other content though.

[Illmaeran]

I agree, IS doesn't feel quite right or like it missed the mark by a little bit. I'm one of those people who'll spend stupid numbers of hours grinding crafting materials to make food for my RP venue, so I don't mind grinding in the actual game. However, something about doing it on my island bugs me. I'm not sure if it's the one-node-one-item thing, the 10 node refresh rotation, or what, but I have a really hard time bringing myself to gather the stuff I need to keep the workshop going. I do know that part of my issue with gathering is needing to get certain things to be able to keep the shop doing things on different days of the week to get more than a minuscule return on time. It's at the point where I haven't had the shop doing anything for the past couple of weeks. Another factor is the workshop itself; having to play a business/market analysis simulator to get decent cowrie income is 100% not enjoyable to me. I'd be much more motivated to grind if I could turn the raw materials in for blue cowries at a decent return rate. I'm not fussed about potential time gating via the workshop, it's the market analysis and gather-to-make daily items that's a bummer.

Popping in every day to feed the animals, gather leavings, and water plants has become part of my morning "chore" routine so that's not an issue on my end. It's definitely been great for stockpiling produce and leavings for the time when I get motivated enough to gather regular island materials and restart the workshop. I do want to get all the other mounts, hairstyles, glams, etc eventually but right now the reward isn't worth the time.

[SamSmoot]

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".

That was made clear at the meeting on the beach when she brought her two enforcers to imply what might happen if you fail to keep your production numbers up.

[DPZ2]

What does that have to do with anything I said?

Nightmare comment based on this: What we got was "Tataru's Mammet sweatshop where you have to manage it for her"

You appear to enjoy that phrase a lot, having used it several times in this thread. Did you come up with it yourself? Congratulations. It's catchy as heck. True from one perspective, and yet ... and yet it is not the entirety of the Island.

The rest of my comments were not directed at you. As someone else said It just may not have the rewards you are personally looking for.

[Padudu]

Nightmare comment based on this: What we got was "Tataru's Mammet sweatshop where you have to manage it for her"

You appear to enjoy that phrase a lot, having used it several times in this thread. Did you come up with it yourself? Congratulations. It's catchy as heck. True from one perspective, and yet ... and yet it is not the entirety of the Island.

The rest of my comments were not directed at you. As someone else said It just may not have the rewards you are personally looking for.

I mean, is he wrong? You work around and make the mammet's schedule lmao. You literally are the one scheduling their work hours, giving them rest days you specify, paying them to construct. yes my dude, it is a sweatshop. No matter how many times you want to say "the rewards aren't what you're looking for!!!" it's still true.

Have you just considered like.. people are happy with the rewards so far and they aren't happy with the way island sanctuary functions? It's not just you have to like it or you don't, you know. It's not black and white like your mind seems to think. I like the glam and mount rewards, it doesn't mean that I think island sanctuary is great by any means right now.

[Raven2014]

My problem with the marmet is the aethistic value ... on several levels.

First, it's supposed to be a sanctuary, a natural paradise, a retreat. It would make so much more sense if the development is about building some kind of natural luxury resort focusing on R&R and therapy (kinda camp Bronze lake). Turning an untouched and pristine piece of nature into essentially an industrial hub is just ... wrong. And who the hell would want to take a vacation amid a bunch of workshop and factory!?!? Also every building that were built are built for the mammet. Where is my personal cabin? Where is the place that I can go to supposed ... relax?


Second, why mamet? If they wanted an industrial hub from the start, there are so many other meaningful option. What about the refugee from form Garmeland? Seem to be the perfect choice to introduce and integrate them into Eozean society. Or any kind of humanoid population would make the things more vibrant than the mamet. And before anyone say "but it's supposed to be your personal sanctuary retreat so that's why no other human!". See reason #1 above, that idea is already dead and buried thanks to the workshop concept.


Like ... I'm ok with the content amount, I'm actually happy with the reward. It's just the aesthetic and thematic execution seem to be all on the wrong notes. This piece of content seem to be something that was envisioned by a therapist or environmentalist but the design is handed to an oil CEO.

[Jojoya]

That is reading one heck of a lot into concept art, thus proving my point. Thank you.

Have you just considered like.. people are happy with the rewards so far and they aren't happy with the way island sanctuary functions? It's not just you have to like it or you don't, you know. It's not black and white like your mind seems to think. I like the glam and mount rewards, it doesn't mean that I think island sanctuary is great by any means right now.

I think most players, at least NA and EU, agree the Island ends up missing the mark on presentation mostly thanks to the mammets but also due to the very limited customization. I had asked back when it was first released what the JP player base thinks of the mammets and one of the regular posters who also visits the JP forums said they seemed to enjoy them.

Could it be much better? Of course. Is it still possible to enjoy what it is? Yes.

[Oizen]

That is reading one heck of a lot into concept art, thus proving my point. Thank you.

I should have realized the horse in the concept art was a metaphorical horse.

[Padudu]

That is reading one heck of a lot into concept art, thus proving my point. Thank you.


I think most players, at least NA and EU, agree the Island ends up missing the mark on presentation mostly thanks to the mammets but also due to the very limited customization. I had asked back when it was first released what the JP player base thinks of the mammets and one of the regular posters who also visits the JP forums said they seemed to enjoy them.

Could it be much better? Of course. Is it still possible to enjoy what it is? Yes.

I mean yeah? I don't get what your point is. If you enjoy it, good for you. I'll only slightly judge you, but hey, judgements are small from lalafells by default (or maybe it's normal for you?). I don't really care about the mammets, they're whatever IMO. My main problem is that the content that is there is bare bones and once you max you're literally just talking to the mammets once a day and then leaving said island. If the bar for island sanctuary being good content is "I can get crafting materia from it", I think it just speaks for itself lol

[Iscah]

That is reading one heck of a lot into concept art, thus proving my point. Thank you.

I'm not reading anywhere near as much into it as that, but it really is not giving the vibe of what we got.

That image tells me "this content will be about you and your minions on a farm". The farm is the whole focus of the image and so implied to be the focus of the content, as we were told to expect from the start.

Instead the farm is a few tiny rows shoved in a corner, not the wide-open field in the image, and the overall vibe is completely different. The farm isn't the focus, it's a waypoint in the process of feeding all our gathering efforts into a mammet factory crafting arbitrary goods that nobody actually gets to use.

Also, while reading "custom feeders" into it seems a stretch, it does seem a bizarre thing that our animals get no food unless we feed them by hand. Why are there no feeding troughs we can pre-load for them? And why always vegetables! We should be feeding rocks to the coblyns and fish to the alligator.

(And yeah, where's my horse mount? Why aren't we getting that from here instead of the motorbike?)


I wasn't expecting furniture placement, by the way. Those scarecrows are seen out in the fields around La Noscea often enough to not read anything into it.


Edit to add: I also think it's not simply an image to be dismissed as "concept art", at least in the usual meaning of it being a rough idea in the early stages of brainstorming. This is a completed, detailed image that they used to advertise forthcoming content – something they were already working on and wanting us to be excited about. If they're going to use an image in that way, then you expect it to be evoking the core aspects of the content, which were also the talking points getting brought up in those presentations: slow life, free-roaming minions on your personal farm. Not the farm you are building to keep the mammets happy.

Like ... I'm ok with the content amount, I'm actually happy with the reward. It's just the aesthetic and thematic execution seem to be all on the wrong notes. This piece of content seem to be something that was envisioned by a therapist or environmentalist but the design is handed to an oil CEO.

That is the best summary of the vibe I get from it, yeah. There's way too much "muahaha destroy all the nature!" vibe from those mammets (and indeed our own dialogue choices when we get them) and it grates on me every time.

And yeah, there's no part of the hideaway that's actually for us, besides one scrappy bed behind a screen in a corner.

Also the "mammets not humans" thing only works if they actually are mindless robots who carry out assigned tasks for you, not magical entities that show distinct personalities, doubly so when a lot of those personalities seem unwilling to work without human-like motivation of payment and recreational facilities.