Island Sanctuary suggestions and ideas

[Yshnal]

So far it seems that most people love this new piece of content. Its simplicity makes it attractive and fun to play on those few moments where we all want to relax for a bit.

But while I feel like the majority of people has positive thoughts about it, I'm also sure that we all think that some stuff could be improved, and that it would also be a shame if this was another content that gets abandoned once the next expansion comes. There's a lot of potential here. So I thought, what if we start a thread to post suggestions and ideas (not so much as just raw criticism and opinions about the current content, but things that we would like to see implemented) that we think that would make Island Sanctuary even better for the long run, and last beyond the current expansion?

I'll start with a couple of ideas that I've had while playing in the island:

ISLE SPRINT

Change the skill to a toggle. There's no reason to not have it so when it's an ability that can be activated all the time due to it's low CD, but that gets annoying to use when you want to keep it up for more than 20 seconds. Yes, this is my biggest current gripe, and it should be an easy fix.

WoL TOWN

The island has enough space in the fields to allow for a small town to be built, even with a couple of small farms, and without it getting in the way of the gathering resources. It would be cool if, in the future, we could recruit or accept normal folks looking for a change and that would like to settle on our island. It could be the next project for our island after the current one has ended, where after the WoL has already set up the bases for living there and is self-suficient, we start looking to build our own community. WoL town? I can see it being cool. On top of that, we could recycle our GC squadron to make them the island's official security force.

The gameplay would consist on starting and managing the new town, finding or accepting the new denizens of the isle (each with their own jobs, etc.), solving random issues that could arise, taking care of its economy (built on the current market minigame), etc. Basically the same as now, but with a small twist. It would still be relaxing and not overall complex.

ISLAND RUINS

Imagine that during one of their destruction sprees... I mean... construction sprees, our mammets uncover a cave that was hidden under the rocky terrain. A cave with some ancient ruins for us to explore, be it alone, or with our friends, or even with our squadron (if they're there due to the WoL town idea). More lore, more secrets, more story, more rewards, and especially more fun to be had.

ISLAND HOUSING

Yes, I know that many folks were hoping that this would already be there. And I'm also aware that maybe it was discarded due to the usual "server strain" stuff. But lets keep this suggestion up, with reasonable expectations.

For example, I think that it would be viable to start by allowing a small cottage with the same limits as apartment rooms have, thus not straining the servers more than they already are. Just put a limit to the number of housing rooms/apartments and island cottages that each player can have at the same time, which in turn would not rise the strain on the servers more that what it currently is. Let people choose if they want their small room to be on the housing wards or on the island.

Moreover, this would allow for further expansions in the future, thus enabling expansions to the island cottage so that more items can be added, etc., once there's the capacity to doing so. Housing lite for everyone, and it can be done (I already have a house, but I think that this idea would be nice and even a cool fix for the housing issues).

Those are some small ideas that I had. I'm sure that they can be improved and made better, but I also believe that those would be fun additions to an already fun game mode. Lets post more of those, and lets hope that the thread becomes big enough so that the devs are made aware of the great ideas that the community has to offer. While many of them might not be implemented, perhaps some will.

[Jibs]

Hope they add a teleport function so we can just tele there or friends list tele to someones island like housing.

[Jason_Ashford]

Hope they add a teleport function so we can just tele there or friends list tele to someones island like housing.

they won't because it's an instanced location, like Bozja was.

[Jason_Ashford]

Can we have a Mammet Skywatcher to track the forecast. several of the 'shiny' versions of the various animals on the island only spawn during specific weather phenomena (like yellow coblyns during Fog weather)

[Masekase_Hurricane]

When u get the tool for a node increase the exp for that node to 20xp. Also scrap Islanders cowries and make it all seafarers cowries so we can trade in the items for them. Either that or add some leves that we can trade in the things that we can manually craft for seafarers.
Create an option so that we can have a window open to see what mats we need for upgrades etc.

I really like it but it could do with some tweaks.

[Packetdancer]

they won't because it's an instanced location, like Bozja was.

To add to this, it's an instanced location tied specifically to the player; you cannot visit a friend's island if they are not online and in said island at the time, because it does not otherwise exist.

I admit, I'd been curious how they'd deal with the instancing. Things like inn rooms and GC barracks (and 'waiting room' areas for trials, stuff like the new zones for the MSQ, etc.) can be instanced endlessly because only you are ever present, meaning the 'instance' can take place entirely client-side; no one can visit your inn room or barracks, so they don't need to actually be 'real' in terms of how the server views them.

If you couldn't visit someone else's island sanctuary, they could do the same thing (and thus there'd be no 'due to heavy server load, you could not enter your island' errors). But the fact that they do let you visit means the island needs to be available on the server, so that you and the other person have a shared view of reality and can see each other moving around, etc.

Having it only allow you to visit islands which are already instanced -- e.g., where the island owner is online and on the island at that moment -- is an interesting way to try to artificially limit how many are in use at once. People can't just hop down a list previewing everyone's island at random (causing a lot of instances to be allocated and deallocated), etc.

It's actually rather an elegant solution, albeit one that may delay instance-related issues more than it actually really solves them.

But the teleportation system -- as noted -- does not allow you to teleport into "dynamically" instanced areas, and if they wanted to add aetherytes to the island they'd almost certainly have to rewrite a whooooole bunch of things under the hood. Including the actual "is there an instance already or do we need to create one" code that's associated with the NPCs that take you into Eureka, Bozja, or your island.

(Side note: this is also probably why you can't put a miniature aetheryte inside your house and thus teleport directly to the interior as opposed to teleporting to the yard. The wards are continuous instances -- they always exist, just like open world zones, and thus the teleportation system can target them. The interior of a house is -- like Eureka, Bozja, or your island -- spun up as an instance when needed, and subject to the same load considerations that the others are; so far as I can tell, the door to a house functions basically the same as the NPC that takes you to your island sanctuary. Hence why sometimes, if the housing servers are under heavy load, you can be prevented from entering a house or apartment/private chamber unless someone is already inside the thing you're trying to enter, thus meaning there already is an instance to join.)

[Yshnal]

Snip

This is actually accurate. In fact, when housing was first released you could go to duties inside the houses and even log out there, and you weren't put out in the yard once you came back. That change was made later on, and it was most likely related to the need to free server resources to add more wards. It's something to keep in mind when making these suggestions, because as much as it sucks (and even if it could be actually improved), it is what it is right now.

[Ranaku]

I mean i wish we would get any personal house at all tbh, heck it can be a already designed house and we can only choose a slight change in style or something. But seven hells i don't want some mammets setting up a shop right beside my bed in an open "hut". Can't be really that hard to give us just a simple pre designed house people can call their own with the island...but hey maybe in the future...we can have hope at least...

[Dustytome]

1. I want to gather more than 1 target item at a time. Make the secondary currency allow for tool upgrades. Ex, Rank 2: +1 item per node. Rank 3: +2 bonus item (rng bonus. ) Rank 4: +2 item per node. etc... bounce back and forth a few ranks so we can get 3-4 items per node guaranteed and then bonus amounts that we have a chance at per node (similar to gathering crystals).

2. Crop yield needs to match the plants shown. I was displeased at 10 plants shown yielding 5 items. If you want double the seeds per crop, so be it, but I want things to match up.

3. The mammets feel overpriced. Maybe that feeling will change later, but my coin supply is dry. It's all gone toward island upgrades. Making full use of the mammets thus far costs 200 coins to feed a full pen of critters per day + 100 coins for crops per day + 100 coins to both granaries per day.

[edit to add in a few more]

4. An option in the supply & demand to hide items we do not have rare materials for (crops, granary-only retrievals and animal leavings). It's a pain hopping between all the windows to find out it requires an item you can't just go out and readily gather.

5. Mammet costumes (ex: jungle leaf costumes, dwarf costumes, lawn gnome costumes, golem costumes, etc...). They're part of the island for good I'd imagine so let's spruce them up so it doesn't look like there's constantly a construction crew running around.

[Ranaku]

1. I want to gather more than 1 target item at a time. Make the secondary currency allow for tool upgrades. Ex, Rank 2: +1 item per node. Rank 3: +2 bonus item (rng bonus. ) Rank 4: +2 item per node. etc... bounce back and forth a few ranks so we can get 3-4 items per node guaranteed and then bonus amounts that we have a chance at per node (similar to gathering crystals).

2. Crop yield needs to match the plants shown. I was displeased at 10 plants shown yielding 5 items. If you want double the seeds per crop, so be it, but I want things to match up.

3. The mammets feel overpriced. Maybe that feeling will change later, but my coin supply is dry. It's all gone toward island upgrades. Making full use of the mammets thus far costs 200 coins to feed a full pen of critters per day + 100 coins for crops per day + 100 coins to both granaries per day.

I mean to be fair i am making over 2k cowries each day from my workshops and you get 2k each week for free through the challenge log. So i don't think it is really that overpriced.