i hope if a new fs does get added that it in some way synergizes with sand
pocket sand style
I swear this guy can’t go one week without changing the AU’s lore
yknow maybe it would be pretty neat to see a fs based around disorienting your enemy, dont know how it could work but it sounds cool to me (and by disorient i mean not just by like moving around frantically but also like hindering vision)
maybe it could also synergize with magics that also obscure vision (wink sand wink)
Exploration is certainly one purpose of wilderness islands, but when you strip them down to their core function in AO’s gameplay loop, they’re simply plots of land for repeatable content. Wilderness islands don’t actually need secret areas, ruins, or cool side zones to serve their purpose. They could just be open spaces with grass and sand, and the only thing missing would be the fancy set dressing.
Take Dark Sea islands, for example. They’re wilderness islands stripped of any personality—just random patches of land with procedurally generated content. They don’t even have names. You could swap out most wilderness islands with a Dark Sea island, and as long as you can still complete treasure charts, kill NPCs, gather resources, loot treasure, claim the island for infamy, and build, the island’s appearance wouldn’t really matter. It’s just visual decoration.
Some might call this cynical, but it’s simply how wilderness islands function. If you remove what makes them visually interesting, they’re essentially just places for repeatable tasks. It’s up to the builders to add secret areas and points of interest that give each island personality and a reason to stand out beyond their basic function in AO.
I wasn’t trying to criticize exploration in my initial response, but rather highlight the core function of wilderness islands and why they can feel generic. The look and feel of an island create the initial sense of exploration, but once you’ve seen everything, that feeling fades. On the other hand, repeatable content like treasure charts, fighting NPCs, gathering resources, looting, claiming islands for infamy, and building depend on wilderness islands much more than exploration does. That’s why I focused on those features—exploration isn’t the boring part; it’s the repetitive tasks that feel generic and fail to make islands stand out.
To me, this is a deep topic, and I could go on about it, but simply put, exploration is good. It’s a bit bare-bones and could be better, but overall, it’s great. Even if it’s a one-time experience and the feeling fades, it still helps make wilderness islands stand out—just not enough, in my opinion. What I think would really improve them are custom armor sets and loot for each island, puzzles, mysteries, lore, environmental storytelling, ancient languages, mini-bosses, unique NPCs, questlines, minigames, and more. Features like these would make the islands feel more unique and engaging, compared to the current experience of walking around, checking off tasks, and admiring the visuals.
In my opinion, wilderness islands need more interaction, but adding too much content would conflict with their core purpose—claiming, building, looting, and resource gathering.
Honestly, my solution would be more islands—some for claiming and resource gathering, and others purely for exploration and content. This way, islands with more content won’t be claimed by clans and can offer more for exploration, while claimable islands can still be interesting but mainly serve as areas for clans to build on. Right now the current trajectory when I asked Vet is any island not story related and is a wilderness island will be claimable, which just makes me worried wilderness islands won’t reach their full exploration potential because builders have to worry about leaving space for building, while also making islands interesting, but not too interesting where it conflicts with their core purpose.
7 Likes
Since clan members can build extended shorelines for islands I wouldn’t worry too much about leaving space for building. As someone excited for making builds, I’d much rather have fully-decorated islands that are rich with things to look at everywhere you go, over an island that’s easy to find spots to place walls on.
Exploration is extremely valuable to me when it comes to islands. I love secrets, lore, just standing around in the pretty environments. Would be a shame if those aspects had to get cut down for clans’ sake.
I especially want to see more lore and environmental storytelling on islands, like you said. Unique NPCs would be great too. I’m not sure any wilderness islands even have NPCs you can talk to that aren’t criminal shipwrights or quest-givers.
2 Likes
So here’s what then, we get more town islands.
Surely it’s more fun to claim one of those anyway.
none of the town islands are really claimable though
Yet
None of the town islands yet
They’ve all been too well-protected, we just need one that isn’t.
Time to banana republic a town island fr…
Never realized evander was literal fodder 
I mean he likely gets stronger with multiple people fighting him like the other bosses do, but yeah he’ll probably be easy to learn once he’s out
I mean…He’s Bronze Sea miniboss.
finally, an npc berserkers can fight!
Mountainbreaker and bro cant even break a ship
What would you guys think about the stats for evander’s armor?
I infer that it might be def-size, because it is fitting that we get the opposite of cernyx armor, and also by the looks of that one attack being massive
I feel like AP/Size would make sense