Current Thoughts on islands

[AshDidit]

4: ...Don't think you can "gather" your precious silver ore or milk in just 5 minutes.

You only get 1 per rare animal and 1-3 per day per granary... I get that is exactly what makes them rare... but it could have just as easily been 'gathered once a day from rare plant' so you know... we could look forward to something a BIT different and have that bit of extra joy of 'look at what I found!' But no they give it to mammets and sheep.

5.Also mate, if you saw that the gathering spots were in the sea with a DOWN ARROW, idk why you thought you couldn't dive. That one's wholly on you.

Literally hunted everywhere for the clams. Never saw the gathering spots OR arrows. The reason I assumed you couldn't go into the water is because when I tried in a few places it had a WALL right where the surf ends and the depths begin. So, no, not wholly on me but yes, partially on me for not knowing you could go further, actually dive, or that if you clicked on the item in the log it would tell you where to get it. (also not a down arrow on map for me, but location would have helped.)

6: ...[sic]You say it's okay to time lock the tools you need to gather more things because it makes sense, yet you don't think it makes sense to learn better restraints and feed as your rank increases. Why? Genuinely I want to know what makes you think one is somehow okay and the other is not.

I feel like you spent a lot of time after #3 just assuming rather than reading. "oh more complaining...skiiiiim"... because NOTHING you wrote there was even close to what I SAID. So here's a better explanation:

The way they did the time lock on tools was SENSIBLE:
rank 1. Need hatchet. Make hatchet.
rank 2. Need building tools. Make building tools.
rank 3. need shovel. make shovel.

meanwhile, over here... in pastureland
rank 1. Catch animal. Need food. Crap food + recipes for 2 better foods but no materials ANYWHERE for better foods.
rank 2. still no produce... animals being fed crap food. No Joy for animals.
rank 3. Still no produce... stll crap food....
rank 4. rank 5... rank 6... still. no. produce. to. make. better. food.
So
Rank 1-6: Need Better food: NOPE.

but not to fear! in 2 days you can harvest TWELVE produce total that you need 2 of to make 1 really good feed to feed 1 animal...
oh but wait...
that'll only feed 6 animals for 1 day...
but you have 10 animals...
which means 4 get to starve on day one?
and then all of them get to starve on day two
while you're waiting for -more- produce to grow?
I mean, sure you can make more of the 'sweet feed' that gives your animals no perk at all... or you can make the less good 'better feed' for 1 item each, but then why even GIVE us the third level recipe at RANK 1 if we can't MAKE IT?

[Naizakane]

rank 1. Catch animal. Need food. Crap food + recipes for 2 better foods but no materials ANYWHERE for better foods.
rank 2. still no produce... animals being fed crap food. No Joy for animals.
rank 3. Still no produce... stll crap food....
rank 4. rank 5... rank 6... still. no. produce. to. make. better. food.
So
Rank 1-6: Need Better food: NOPE.

but not to fear! in 2 days you can harvest TWELVE produce total that you need 2 of to make 1 really good feed to feed 1 animal...
oh but wait...
that'll only feed 6 animals for 1 day...
but you have 10 animals...
which means 4 get to starve on day one?
and then all of them get to starve on day two
while you're waiting for -more- produce to grow?
I mean, sure you can make more of the 'sweet feed' that gives your animals no perk at all... or you can make the less good 'better feed' for 1 item each, but then why even GIVE us the third level recipe at RANK 1 if we can't MAKE IT?

Base feed still improves the animal's mood, just by 1 level. The other two recipes will probably improve their mood more, but I'll find out either today from someone else making a post about it somewhere or myself over the weekend when the crops are grown. Which, by the way, isn't all that long. Two days for these, and I can give them less attention than I'd give the plots at my house? Lightning fast. You'd hate trying to make money off thavnairian onions if you're caps-raging about a two day wait.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Base feed still improves the animal's mood, just by 1 level. The other two recipes will probably improve their mood more, but I'll find out either today from someone else making a post about it somewhere or myself over the weekend when the crops are grown. Which, by the way, isn't all that long. Two days for these, and I can give them less attention than I'd give the plots at my house? Lightning fast. You'd hate trying to make money off thavnairian onions if you're caps-raging about a two day wait.

Your wish is my command lol

Thanks for trying the feed out for me, did you notice their moods increase more than they would have with base feed?

Well with the base food they only had the cloud image and thats where it maxed. With this food they have the sun image so its defo maxed. I fed them whilst on cloud.

Just caught 2 more animals the premium food only increased it from lightning to cloud





LMAO info is in the playguide I only just realised.

[Naizakane]

Thanks for trying the feed out for me, did you notice their moods increase more than they would have with base feed?

[AmpLyra]

12: This one's actually pretty simple imho. It's because they're both right there when you hit island return. Very easy and simple to get to. Also because you can have multiple workshops and granaries, it would be pretty dumb for them to go to only one since you manage all the buildings from them.

13: Needless dig at "if" they grow. You know when they'll finish growing. It's literally only 2 days. Anyway, personally I'd rather them not add another button for it, especially since you also use "gather" for your leavings from animals, and the pasture and farm are right next to each other.

14: Everyone loves pointless submenus, am I right? The approach to make them all easily recognizable buttons as soon as you click the modes button is far better. Is it a little cluttered, maybe, but I think it works a lot better especially since really the only two that this matters for are the pasture commands and farm commands. Really the only way I think it could be improved for the farm specifically is to make it context sensitive. Click an empty bed of dirt to select seeds to plant. Click planted seeds that can be watered. I personally don't feel that cull even needs to exist. Let people remove plants early from the farm manager guy instead so then you can just click ready to pick plants and take them. This could also work for pastures too, clicking an animal out of range to be pet/fed beckons them, and when in range, feeding takes priority and then you can pet them.

15: I soooooooorta agree on this however it is this way mostly for lore reasons. Could it be worked around, sure. It's very easy to argue that "Oh they wrote themselves into a corner." They likely did, but as-is, it makes sense. Would it be NICE if it was opened up way earlier? I think so, but story-wise I can't think of a time to fit it in because of how things are structured, especially since it involves two key characters to set it up, Tataru and Merlwyb. We know what Tataru's doing throughout almost the entirety of ARR-Endwalker. There's very little wiggle room to fit in something like Island Sanctuary, lore-wise earlier than it currently is. And Merlwyb definitely did NOT have the time for this pre-Endwalker either. Also needless dig again. At no point was this advertised as a side-hustle. It has always been marketed as content to relax and take your time with. You are contradicting yourself because you said earlier that you recognized they marketed it as fun and relaxing, now you're calling it a "side hustle lie". Get over yourself man. You even say they advertised it as a fun escape in your next post. Where is the consistency?

In conclusion, this "review" was awful. You barely made any points at all and rambled about the same repeated notion that you're impatient or just outright lied to people. Please reconsider what you even came to this content for, because if it's to profit in any way, you're missing the point. Thanks.

[AshDidit]

In conclusion, this "review" was awful. You barely made any points at all and rambled about the same repeated notion that you're impatient or just outright lied to people. Please reconsider what you even came to this content for, because if it's to profit in any way, you're missing the point. Thanks.

Profit how? There's no way to "Profit" from the islands even if that was my 'goal', which it wasn't. Originally it was to enjoy an island sanctuary and build it up. MYSELF. I actually assumed we'd be clearing our own land, clearing our own gardens and pastures, and plots and crafting the things we needed to work the land and build the buildings with -some- automation assistance from mammets, like making furniture for US to use ON the island, not to be sold off to 'limsa markets'. And certainly Not a full blown "Let us do it for you while you pick up sticks and rocks".

You can hate my review as much as you wish, but it's MY review. You didn't have to read it and you didn't have to respond to it. And no, ma'am. It's not blatant lies. Not one thing is a lie. It's entirely MY experience with the place and the notes I took while doing it. And it amounts to... I hate it.

But don't worry, I'll leave it all to you -without- attacking you. Enjoy!

[Masekase_Hurricane]

My "Day One of this new thing", thoughts.

The TL;dr: None of it's good. Counterintuitive, contrary, time-consuming, waste of effort for everyone.

1. (yes, this means there's more than one)
Can we do something about the horrific negativity of the mammets? I get that it's 'lore based' and whatever, but it really puts a DOWNward cast on something that is supposed to be a "FUN" getaway from the world. Why are you making it so that people don't want to do it? Would YOU want to interact daily with a bunch of super negative people?

The incessant 'oh you don't wanna do that', 'oh my back', 'why would you do that?', 'you are inferior' attitudes that you are met with during EVERY SINGLE interaction with any of them really makes me NOT want to continue interacting with them, meaning I don't want to do your 'island' stuff AT ALL because everything you do... involves interacting with an aggressive, negative, rude, condescending or flat out ridiculous creature. There's not one single 'ray of sunshine' in the entire place save for the mammets that DON'T SPEAK AT ALL.

2. Why does it cost 1000 cowries in just one exchange, to clear an area but you have no way to earn that many cowries BACK in a single day, much less earn more? How are we intended to profit at all at this rate? And if this is how you intended it to be, then why are the purchasable items 4-12,000 cowries? That's literally MONTHS to earn enough cowries to even buy the cheapest items on the vendor unless you SLAVE yourself to the island all day every day! NO ONE wants to DO THAT! Even the lowest ranks (currently rank 6) only earn about 150-300 cowries A DAY and then have to spend that AND MORE to 'renovate' (read upgrade), and forget expanding into new areas after the second one. It will cost you 1000 again but you won't HAVE that many nor a way to EARN that many, because you need to expand to build new stuff but after the first round of builds, completing new buildings no longer gives you cowries.

I don't know about everyone ELSE in the game, but for me, I don't want ANOTHER FULL TIME JOB in a video game. You represented the Islands as a 'FUN GETAWAY' from the MAIN hustle and bustle... but it's not. It's a trick, it's a trap and I do NOT appreciate how this has been handled AT ALL.

<continued in replies>

You can make at least 1000 cowries per day if you have 3 workshops. Chain your recipes and build up your groove

I am on technically. the morning of 'day 3' and while I didn't plant crops immediately, I DID plant them around mid-day on day one, and still none of them have blossomed, and you need that produce to make better feed.
It's been well over 24 hours, almost 36 hours at this point. It's a bit ridiculous for a thing that is supposed to be 'part time once or twice a day for a 'little' while to run.

If you put it all together, each little thing becomes a massive time sink despite what "Amplyra" has to say in rebuttal.
One of my friends is loving the entire thing and is already rank 8. I've no idea how she managed it but she's beginning to see the things I have pointed out here and is growing frustrated as well.

Treat the island like a 'zen garden' and let it slowly unfold and you may have better luck.
Try to rush anything? you'll just be sitting there with nothing to do but pick up sticks and rocks waiting for time gates to expire.

I will also edit to say, after figuring out the best put efforts of workshops, you -can- earn about 1k cowries a day.
Of course, you'll spend most of them too, on various buildings and such, so your profit to spend margin is STILL horrible if you're not letting daaays go by between building new things.

The crops take 48 hours which is very fast compared to normal gardening.

I am on technically. the morning of 'day 3' and while I didn't plant crops immediately, I DID plant them around mid-day on day one, and still none of them have blossomed, and you need that produce to make better feed.
It's been well over 24 hours, almost 36 hours at this point. It's a bit ridiculous for a thing that is supposed to be 'part time once or twice a day for a 'little' while to run.

If you put it all together, each little thing becomes a massive time sink despite what "Amplyra" has to say in rebuttal.
One of my friends is loving the entire thing and is already rank 8. I've no idea how she managed it but she's beginning to see the things I have pointed out here and is growing frustrated as well.

Treat the island like a 'zen garden' and let it slowly unfold and you may have better luck.
Try to rush anything? you'll just be sitting there with nothing to do but pick up sticks and rocks waiting for time gates to expire.

I will also edit to say, after figuring out the best put efforts of workshops, you -can- earn about 1k cowries a day.
Of course, you'll spend most of them too, on various buildings and such, so your profit to spend margin is STILL horrible if you're not letting daaays go by between building new things.

So what's your chains look like to get 1k per day with 2 workshops? Also I think your exaggerating quite a bit, I've upgraded everything I can and Rank 6 atm with 2.600 cowries to spare. At this rate I should have close to 8 - 10k by the end of the week. So 1-1.5 weeks for the dearest item seems quite reasonable to me.

[AshDidit]

You don't even need 3 workshops. I have 2 and made a bit over 1k after bonuses kicked in. So I will go back and edit that.

[AshDidit]

The crops take 48 hours which is very fast compared to normal gardening.

Not when you have 10 animals to feed over 2 days (20 total feeds needed) but you only get 12 form the first two plots and need either 1 each for the better feed, or 2 each for the really good feed).

As it sits right now, I have 4 rare animals, to get the -better- rare leavings, I need to feed them the best feed (that I currently still can't make).
That will require 8 produce of the 12 I get every 2 days.
see the problem yet?

So what's your chains look like to get 1k per day with 2 workshops? Also I think your exaggerating quite a bit, I've upgraded everything I can and Rank 6 atm with 2.600 cowries to spare. At this rate I should have close to 8 - 10k by the end of the week. So 1-1.5 weeks for the dearest item seems quite reasonable to me.

I didn't do the 8 hour ones. I strung the high-payout 4 hours and 6 hours together to get bonuses on everything after the first item of the day.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Not when you have 10 animals to feed over 2 days (20 total feeds needed) but you only get 12 form the first two plots and need either 1 each for the better feed, or 2 each for the really good feed).

As it sits right now, I have 4 rare animals, to get the -better- rare leavings, I need to feed them the best feed (that I currently still can't make).
That will require 8 produce of the 12 I get every 2 days.
see the problem yet?




I didn't do the 8 hour ones. I strung the high-payout 4 hours and 6 hours together to get bonuses on everything after the first item of the day.

You dont get 12 from the first 2 plots at all. Each plot gives 25 vegetables which is enough to make 30 servings of premium. Which means it will last you 3 days and crops take 2 days to grow so you are always ahead.



Actually it's more than 30 servings (36?) as I didnt have enough seeds for the last one so I had to put in pumpkin