Island Reflections

[Deo14]

Except it doesn't? That's a player choice to make it revolve around "office work". You can earn cowries without touching the workshop.

Creature Leavings? 12 cowries each. If you average 30 leavings a day, that's 360 cowries per day.

Grown Crops? 4-6 cowries each. If you grow the premium crops, that 580 cowries every 2 days after the seed fees.

Rare materials from the Granary? 25 cowries each or 200 cowries a day after deducting the foraging fees if your Granary is level 3.

At 750 Cowries a day, you'd have the entire Isle Explorer's set in 20 days, a hairstyle in 8 days, a Mandragora mount in 16 days, etc. All at a nice slow leisurely pace without touching a spreadsheet.

It's a much slower way to earn the cowries but it can be done.

Try to defend SE's weird decision how you want, but in the end, workshop was made as main activity on the island and they choose to make it excel simulator.

Workshop incentivizes going on the island and gathering materials in deficit, better craft requires materials from granary, pasture and cropland and so on. In other words, everything on the island is connected and revolves around workshop. Suggesting to ignore the main attraction and get 4-5x less cowries is just absurd.

[Jojoya]

Try to defend SE's weird decision how you want, but in the end, workshop was made as main activity on the island and they choose to make it excel simulator.

Workshop incentivizes going on the island and gathering materials in deficit, better craft requires materials from granary, pasture and cropland and so on. In other words, everything on the island is connected and revolves around workshop. Suggesting to ignore the main attraction and get 4-5x less cowries is just absurd.

Not everyone is out to min/max cowrie efficiency to get the vanity rewards yesterday instead of 2 months from now.

The content is what you make of it. You have the choice to make it relaxing, though that means not getting the vanity rewards as quickly, or stressful to get the rewards sooner.

Personally, I'm happier making it a relaxing experience. Some days I want to play the workshop game, some I don't. if I can make the rest days match the days I'm not in the mood, great. If not, I lose a day of production. Not a big deal because I don't need those rewards yesterday.

You might want to watch Josh Strife Hayes' video about how players have stripped the fun out of games by striving for too much efficiency. When the fun is gone, all you're left with is another job and playing the game ends up pointless.

If you don't enjoy the workshop mini-game, don't play it. That simple. If you don't like any of the other activities on the Island, don't do those either. It's dumb to make yourself miserable over a few virtual pixel vanity rewards that aren't required to play the rest of the game.

I'm so sick of the low capture rates. All I have left are the Paissa, Twinklefleece, and Alligator and I used easily over 120 nets on them collectively without any luck. This is an enormous waste of resources and time at this point.

Then stop trying to capture them. You don't gain any advantage in game play by having them in the Pasture.

[TwistedTea]

If you don't enjoy the workshop mini-game, don't play it. That simple. If you don't like any of the other activities on the Island, don't do those either. It's dumb to make yourself miserable over a few virtual pixel vanity rewards that aren't required to play the rest of the game.

In this context, sure players are partly to blame.

However, the greater responsibility lies with SE and their design choices for what is supposed to be a casual/relaxing experience in SE's own words.

Off-hand examples of questionable design choices:
1. 17k Blue Crowries in one week achievement/title
2. 500k Blue Crowries achievement - this would take about 6 months of earning at least 20k a week

SE could have chosen to design Blue Crowrie income around the passive stuff like the crops/ pasture/granary.

But SE chose to make the greatest source of Blue Crowrie income the workshop.

[Deo14]

Personally, I'm happier making it a relaxing experience. Some days I want to play the workshop game, some I don't. if I can make the rest days match the days I'm not in the mood, great. If not, I lose a day of production. Not a big deal because I don't need those rewards yesterday.

You might want to watch Josh Strife Hayes' video about how players have stripped the fun out of games by striving for too much efficiency. When the fun is gone, all you're left with is another job and playing the game ends up pointless.

If you don't enjoy the workshop mini-game, don't play it. That simple. If you don't like any of the other activities on the Island, don't do those either. It's dumb to make yourself miserable over a few virtual pixel vanity rewards that aren't required to play the rest of the game.

Don't get me wrong, I do like and enjoy IS, however there are undeniably plenty of shortcomings, especially when it comes to replay value, execution of "relaxing experience" and lack of promised customization.

At lower ranks, you get to build and upgrade new buildings, capture animals and so on. On rank 10, you get nothing new (except flight, which imo ruins all immersivity that was left). No mastery system, where you get X and Y for re-leveling, so gathering is worthless even more. In other words, IS "endgame" is much more emptier than lower ranks.

I indeed do watch Josh quite often, but the thing about workshop is that it's simply annoying to work with. I find something with good supply and demand in it's menu -> close menu -> open recipe menu -> find out it's 6 hours, so it won't fit into my schedule -> close menu -> back to supply and demand menu. Repeat 20+ times. Screw these menu shenanigans, I'll just use calculator, even though I like the management simulator.

Good for you that you don't mind that you missed a day in workshop, but game encourages you not to because of Groove. Yep, there's mechanic to make sure you don't relax and makes sure you use all production days. Not really a "relaxed experience", is it?

At last, stop telling people not to do workshop. It's the main thing on the island. Every single activity eventually ends up feeding workshop. Gathering, granary, pasture and cropland, all of this is connected to workshop. Workshop does not revolve around island, whole island revolves around workshop. If you don't like it, you might as well don't do IS as a whole.

to me the biggest MEH is that mountain, it takes like 1/4 of the map maybe? and for what? 2 spots for gathering? its a big waste of space, i hope they will implements tunnels or cave inside it....AND PLEASE LET ME BUILD A COVE FOR THOSE ROBOTS im sick of having them all around me....

IS 2.0: An Island Reborn - turns out it was volcano all along and these shitty mammets burned in lava when it erupted. Now the real relaxing experience comes.