Island Reflections

[OgruMogru]

I get that feeling too. I started up the sanctuary on a second character that may want the motorbike mount (Twelve save me) and there's this lovely wild tangle of jungle plants directly opposite the hideaway that gets erased while you're off gathering your first lot of materials and turned into the blank space for building your workshops. And every step of the way is "you should delight in tearing out these trees" (which apparently go to waste because we get zero logs out of it and are then obliged to go cut down even more trees elsewhere).

I was also disappointed to find that "completing" the animal enclosure meant tearing out the thicker of trees that was providing shelter for them and leaving a great empty paddock of nothing.

Ahaha turns out the animals clipping into the locked pasture zone was just them desperately seeking shelter under some sparse leaves. It's stressing me out more than it should though and I think I'm just going to end up turning all my animals loose because I can't stand the little UI actively tracking how unhappy they are. :C

[TheSuperior]

I get that feeling too. I started up the sanctuary on a second character that may want the motorbike mount (Twelve save me) and there's this lovely wild tangle of jungle plants directly opposite the hideaway that gets erased while you're off gathering your first lot of materials and turned into the blank space for building your workshops. And every step of the way is "you should delight in tearing out these trees" (which apparently go to waste because we get zero logs out of it and are then obliged to go cut down even more trees elsewhere).

I was also disappointed to find that "completing" the animal enclosure meant tearing out the thicker of trees that was providing shelter for them and leaving a great empty paddock of nothing.

Huuh? But this is the island of your dreams! You don't want to build stables or any sort of shelter for yourself or animals. It's your dream island, you obviously want buildings for mammets and to go absolute Dead Ends with deforestation and improvements for Tataru's business.

[Feron]

DEVs: "Don't expect Animal Crossing".
Players: "Why isn't this Animal Crossing?"
It's like a skit. I swear.

This is a strawman argument and not a particularly clever one. Most people weren't expecting Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or a replacement for housing. At first, nobody really knew what to expect because the devs were radio silent for so long about hard details (which should have been a big red flag for people). Using "dont get your hopes up" as your big pitch is also a red flag.

When people do mention those games, its in the context of "this is what makes those games fun, and Island Sanctuaries doesn't have that, so what does it have?" with the sad obvious answer quickly materializing as "not much".

Rewards: they offer two hairstyles as rewards and they BOTH have to be ponytails? Like...really?

Thematics: the mammets are obnoxious and unwanted. I feel like I'm running a clone factory. Why exactly do I have to pay them in shells? What do they do with them? Somehow a relaxing paradise turns *very* quickly into an offshore labor camp mass-producing cheap items for sale in Limsa. Just a strange design choice. I guess I have to give the mammets rest days so that I don't have to construct nets in the stairwells.

Does anybody regularly visit other people's islands? Why would you? Theirs will look almost the same as yours because there's very little ability for customization at all. Some of the buildings that have second stories don't...have stairs. They have nonfunctional ladders.

Just a lot of weird design choices, and all I'm left thinking is: I wish they'd just focused whatever effort they spent on this on expanding the functionality of apartments. That would have been so much better for the game and the communities.

[Deveryn]

Just a lot of weird design choices, and all I'm left thinking is: I wish they'd just focused whatever effort they spent on this on expanding the functionality of apartments. That would have been so much better for the game and the communities.

How would they improve the functionality of apartments and how would it be better for communities? The communities seem to be doing fine, with plenty of spaces to do pretty much anything.

Beyond that, it's almost directly opposed to the general gameplay design of FFXIV. Most of the features of this game that fall under this category promote player interaction in some aspect - zone population if nothing else. This removes players from the general world to do a long, storyless grind. And I know they've said they want people to be able to play this game as a solo experience, but things like tribal quests can absolutely do that while providing other benefits as well. There's no charm here, just mindless grinding and a tedious goods market.

This in of itself isn't a problem, and I'm sure there are some people who like this sort of gameplay so by all means enjoy, but development resources are very much a zero sum game. This could have been so many things, but it's Sim Industrial Park. And I do not understand why this was deemed a good way to spend development time.

The charm is getting away from the other people and having a nice quiet space where I don't have to read someone's dumb advertisement for a venue or gil sales. It's ironic that this strikes a nerve as you're playing a game that removes you from people interaction. It doesn't really go against the gameplay design and it's well in line with the story. You, the only warrior of light on the Source, have earned yourself this opportunity to enjoy some quiet time alone.

The activities are not for everyone, but there are plenty of people who like to do the simple harvesting activities. I happen to be one of them. It's more fun than gathering in the open world as we're not just going in some triangular pattern. I think it's great to be able to hop into a PF or a long queue and have something to do to kill time that I can just drop at a moment's notice.

As for why this was deemed a good use of dev time, I can only imagine there was some feedback somewhere at some point. The idea has been floating around for a while, apparently since before Shadowbringers. Perhaps they finally found the time to do it. It's not like it's taking away from anything else. Some might say another expo zone, but that needs a rest.

[einschwartz]

Does anybody regularly visit other people's islands? Why would you? Theirs will look almost the same as yours because there's very little ability for customization at all.

Starting the island a week later, I initially visited my friends island just to see what it would look like at certain ranks. Other than that, yeah there is no reason to.

The landmarks could be a place to RP. I personally love the tree house and it could be a nice dating spot with my partner.
But then you have the mammets...

[Krotoan]

This is a strawman argument and not a particularly clever one. Most people weren't expecting Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, or a replacement for housing.

...

A more genuine Animal Crossing experience would have been great.

Hi. it was mentioned specifically in both cases.


Is the content perfect or even engaging to most people? Nope.

However the complaints being leveled in many cases are either gripes that it isn't .. well.. animal crossing, or that it's not an entire set of standalone content with engagement for weeks.

Both of which miss the entire point.


There are lots of things to improve and I hope the content gets developed for a while, but when I see people specifically say things like that repeatedly? Yep, gonna say something.

[sagacious]

That's totally unrelated to what I'm saying.

Every time I log out from the lighthouse I come back at the same point. Sorry I didn't add this true finding.

[sagacious]

I get that feeling too. I started up the sanctuary on a second character that may want the motorbike mount (Twelve save me) and there's this lovely wild tangle of jungle plants directly opposite the hideaway that gets erased while you're off gathering your first lot of materials and turned into the blank space for building your workshops. And every step of the way is "you should delight in tearing out these trees" (which apparently go to waste because we get zero logs out of it and are then obliged to go cut down even more trees elsewhere).

I was also disappointed to find that "completing" the animal enclosure meant tearing out the thicker of trees that was providing shelter for them and leaving a great empty paddock of nothing.

I don't see it that way. Aethereal regeneration happens every 11 nodes, so the trees grow back quickly, same goes for animals we catch they are replaced quickly don't over think it have fun, I do. I am there 8hrs a day.

[Iscah]

Every time I log out from the lighthouse I come back at the same point. Sorry I didn't add this true finding.

Then you've somehow found the one seat in the zone that is permanent, because I've had no such luck. Whether I leave my character dozing on the bed, sitting in the hammock chair, sitting outside the windmill gazing at the ocean... every time I log back in she's dropped somewhere randomly on a path, presumably outside the bounds of the replaceable "block" she was situated in.

I don't see it that way. Aethereal regeneration happens every 11 nodes, so the trees grow back quickly, same goes for animals we catch they are replaced quickly don't over think it have fun, I do. I am there 8hrs a day.

It's not a matter of whether the gathered trees regenerate or not. The hideaway is permanently torn down from being thick with trees to a bland open space full of buildings, whether you want it or not.

And if a game sets me the goal of looking after animals, then I expect to be putting them in a place that meets their needs. The pen could so easily have trees, a stable, a pond and a rock pile for the coblyns, but we just dump them all on featureless grass and feed them cabbages.

[Scruit_Bigtime]

DEVs: "Expect a casual experience"

DEVs: "here is an extreme grind that will force you to look up guides to get the rewards before the next tier of rewards is released and you're way behind"

Let's not pretend it's exactly what the devs said to expect.

there's only a grind if your one of those people who wanted to max it within the first week. all the rewards are shown on the vendor from the start (with one exception unlocked at rank 10), there is nothing you need a guide for except the rare animals (which don't offer anything different than regular ones, just aesthetics)