Well, this was long overdue.
Before anybody starts complaining about me “trying to force these suggestions into the devs’ faces”, I’ll state: I am making this as a way to group up and present the community’s opinions on certain unpleasant game mechanics in one concentrated place. If the devs want to know what the players think, they’ll have a way to get that information without wasting much time, just by reading through these topics.
So, this is where it starts. I’ll list every aspect of the Dark Sea, and you lot will quote it and say what is on your mind about it.
Constant Rain. The Dark Sea is always covered in storm. The rain makes it difficult to see far, drops your framerate and applies Soaked to you, which enables Water Poisoning later on. However, during the latest Optimisation Update, by the rumors, the visibility decrease and framerate drop have been lessened. Is that true?
Large Waves. I’m tired of bringing up this member of the Team Immersion, but this is relevant right now. Large waves generate wherever your camera is pointed, they deal chip damage to your ship and may catch you and sweep away. The last part is problematic. Dark Sea fishers have to constantly reposition or get really lucky with island generation, normal players may get stranded in the sea after trying to get to their bathtub, and fights against the local monsters may get interrupted by a passing wave. Do you people think that is alright?
Acid Waves (and other DoT magic-imbued waves). This one gets a separate mention. Whenever you encounter an acid wave, it will eventually reach you with its misplaced hitbox and cleave 3k durability off of your ship. Especially since waves sometimes spawn right in front of your ship, with no chance to dodge it. I doubt I need to ask the people anything about this one - it is pretty apparent as is.
Whirlpools. The landmines of the sea. You turn away from your wheel for a second and now you’re stuck. However, the game gives you plenty of opportunities to free your ship from the snare - Navigator deckhand, Worn Compass artifact, and just simply rotating your ship to face the wind. These obstacles never actually hinder your Dark Sea run, unless the RNG of generation screws you over particularly badly. And, you’re rarely ever gonna get caught in a Dark Sea whirlpool as a player, so this doesn’t matter here. So, do we even need to touch anything about the whirlpools?
Magic Tornadoes. The main tool for the random generation to hit you with. Their enormous reach will be larger than you expect it to be, and your ship will begin losing 200 durability per second until you turn around and leave the hazard’s vicinity. Not to mention, it isn’t that easy to swiftly turn around a brig on make a just as swift escape. At least this thing doesn’t damage your boat with its sails up. You lot have problems with these too?
The main problem with the tornadoes is, however, their tendency to spawn right on top of your ship when you return from an island. The reason for that is, tornadoes share the large waves’ spawn cone of your camera. When you return to the boat, it will obviously be the object you’ll be looking at, and the tornado checks the nearest available water surface to spawn on, which is the place you docked your boat - close to the island. What can we do about this?
Shadow Tornadoes. The acid waves, but different. You’ll never see these coming, even if you hear their noise clearly. How can we make them more visible?
These three weather events were actually somewhat covered in one of my previous suggestions, but I didn’t touch their Dark Sea variants. So, if there is a missing aspect of large waves/whirlpools/tornadoes you feel like is still an issue, chances are I didn’t bring it up, because I already fixed it.
Magic Rain and Ancient Lightning. The other two magic weather events of the Dark Sea. On a dice roll, you may or may not get smited out of nowhere. Lightning is less threatening, but constant occurence, whereas magic rain is a location, but it has much higher chances of killing you outright. Both’s damage is percentage-based, so defense won’t help you much. However, never ever I’ve been killed specifically due to these two - they were always softeners that decreased my hp, so something else like Water Poisoning or an Atlantean could finish me off. Alone, they aren’t an issue. Or, are they? Choice’s yours!
Speaking of percentage-based damage…
Animals of the Dark Sea. A bit too early to discuss them, since I haven’t even finished with the in-sea issues yet, but why not. Spawnrate, loot drop rate, attacks, stunlocking, damage - what do you think about hunting Dark Sea’s wildlife?
This issue was already covered in my previous suggestion, but why not give it another try. It doesn’t need it, the solution is great as is, but the topic has to be brought up anyway, if we’re making a Dark Sea suggestion.
Stray Cargo and Abandoned Ships. These two structures mainly generate in Insanity 0 area, which I doubt is an intentional feature, and are often accompanied by a ghost ship somewhere in the area, that would sail to them. Before Full Release, finding a cargo crate was a blessing - you would get a huge percent of your durability restored. Now, it is barely worth picking up for how little Supplies it gives you.
Abandoned ships have never been worth visiting. A couple chests and maybe a Dark Sealed once in a while. The only purpose they might serve is to be a risk-free way for the beginners to earn their first few Dark Sealeds, which they can now get from dailies.
This person has made a suggestion that would give the abandoned ships some use. But, what are the other ideas, people? And, what can we do about the lost cargo?
Giant White Eyes. The main resident of the Dark Sea. Any Giant shark can spawn here, but White Eyes tends to dominate the spawn pool. In Full Release, they’ve been given drops, and hunting them became even more worth it. But this isn’t about hunting the sharks. Are Giant White Eyes fine enough to not need any tweaks? I don’t mean “give me ideas to make the fight more interesting”, I only care right now about whether or not it is problematic or annoying.
Atlantean Ships. The menace to any Dark Sea run… if it ever spawns. Some people may claim these are rarer than Omens. Very often you won’t meet a single ship during the run, but sometimes your journey will be flooded with them. Ketches are basically free Supplies, and are great at sustaining your run. Brigs, however, are a run-ender. You can’t reasonably get away from them unless you are fine with skipping lots of structures om your way, you can’t combat them without risking more of your durability than you would get from them, and their spawn is totally random, so you can’t choose not to fight. They spawn already aggroed onto you, and in higher Insanity areas, they’re unbeatable. How can this be settled?
Krakens, Giant Krakens and the Omen. The actual menace to any Dark Sea run. Many people have given their complaints about these monsters. You either cheese them with a Range build and waste a lot of time, or you sail closer and get wrecked in seconds (the islandless boatless Omen incident is an exception). They aren’t fun to fight. As for their rewards - you get a lot of meat, which you may use sometimes, and a Kraken Band, which you only need one of. There is little incentive to ever fight Krakens again after obtaining the Band. And don’t point at that one weekly quest - I’m not gonna do that even for 420 points!
The Omen is better in terms of loot, but then its advantages end. You can get the Omen set and a cool Omen Slayer title, as well as one of the best foods in the game - Omen meat. But, the encounter is totally random. You can’t choose to fight the Omen, it just happens. I personally went on more than 30 Dark Sea runs, and never met the monster at all. Others tell tales about multiple spawning back to back. Can something be done about this?
Well, apparently, something can be done. A raid boss should be a raid boss, after all, not something you sit out on a volcano and barrage with projectiles from a kilometer away. Any other ideas?
Sunken Forests. The biggest waste of time imaginable. This zone of complete uselessness spans across an enormous area, and contains very little reward. Props to the devs - its spawn rate was decreased recently by 50%. But, how can we make the forest rewarding to explore?
An idea I had, is to tether the Giant Krakens to only spawn in the center of these forests, thus the player will have free choice of when to combat the beast. This also solves the Krakens’ issue of unpredictability, and opens up ways to make the fight more interesting, as now there is a fixed place for a boss area for them. What are these ways, by the way, guys?
Island Generation. Making the Dark Sea generate randomly gives every run uniqueness. This truly feels like exploring the unknown. But, what if you need a reagent or a catalyst, that only appears in one biome type? How can we lessen the amount of times they player has to gamble, before finally getting what they need?
Rifts. These were removed, and the permanent ones on the borders were given gaps everywhere. As far as I am concerned, they are an issue no longer.
Liquid Starlight and Other Damaging Water Ponds. Landmines of the Dark Sea, but on land this time! You dip a finger in there, and your health starts draining. At least Liquid Starlight is very noticeable, to the point you can’t accidentally step there, and actually rewards you for going in with a quality Burning reagent. Do we just revert the change and make the ponds contain normal water again, or this is salvageable?
Water Poisoning. This one again… This time, I won’t be asking for opinions, as we already went over it two times.
Here. You lot can read.
Atlanteans. These guys are great enemies! Well-made, randomised, and suit the area. They are properly balanced for the level you are supposed to fight them, too. Are there even any issues about Atlanteans themselves? Maybe drop rates?
Atlantean Essence. This, however, is a contagious topic. Stats in exchange for a bunch of vision-impairing effects. Gives minor boost in pvp to those who don’t care about enjoying the game, and isn’t remotely worth using if you actually want to have fun. Should such concept exist? What can be done?
Before, I suggested the Essence item itself to become visual-only, without giving stats when applied, and increase its drop rate significantly. This way, only items found within Dark Sea itself can have the stat version of the modifier. While we’re at it, might as well disable Atlantean-ified Sunkens from appearing when fishing in the Dark Sea. Do you people agree?
Sirens. An occasional encounter in ranges past Insanity 0. The audio cue to locate it, as well as a differently-coloured Sensing aura are great ways to find them. But, then what? Is fighting the Sirens enjoyable? Are their drops, primarily the Bow, worth the trouble? Was lessening the amount of Dark Sealeds in their rocks a good decision by the devs, or not?
Book of Athena. Love me some lore here. This book is a treasury of information, and I am grateful for its existence. But, what about obtaining it by gambling on Siren Rocks? Is it fine or not, people?
Imbued/Gods’ Cooking Pots and Cauldrons. An uncommon find on an island. You can get one to generate anywhere before Insanity 2, and then the Imbued will be replaced by Hestia’s cooking pots and Hermes’s cauldrons. A 1.5x boost to the stats of the product or a 2x - a pretty good deal, but, you only get three uses out of each station. This feature doesn’t contain any issues, right?
Hecate Essence. The pain and suffering embodied. The majority of the playerbase give zero about the devs’ lore reasoning for magic changing to be difficult, they just want to play the game. Switching the combat tools for other three routes is much more effortless than it is for Magic users. It is no wonder that so many people have made suggestions, related to the Essence, to the point I am no longer needed. One who reads this, may you link a few outstanding ones?
The Epicenter. The endgame location of the Dark Sea, but also the beginning of all. Spawns in a random direction out of eight, and resides in the middle of the Insanity 4 zone. The process of finding it may take weeks. But, the location is empty and is said to get content later on, and all you get is just a title and some bragging rights. Is it worth it? To me, its fine, as long as nothing truly important lies among those obsidian mountains.
Dragons. We love them, don’t we? The devs did an amazing job modelling them and planning out their fights. They do really feel like a raid boss.
I’ve already covered the Dragons in a suggestion before, and almost everything Dragons-related too. Have the crowd’s opinions changed about these reptiles over the weeks?
Armour Breaking. Also covered before. Not gathering opinions on this one, we have heard enough about this mechanic anyway.
Read down from this, there are multiple changes to this system and the Repair Kits.
Random Spawning of Dragons. This, however, is something I promised to cover. With how massive the possible drop pool of Dragons is, sometimes you do really need to gather all of your luck to meet that one specific dragon you seek. Can’t this RNG be lessened in any way? How rarely should a Dragon Cliffs island type generate? Should there be a way to boost a certain dragon type’s spawnrate?
In that one suggestion about Dragons, I gave a use to the scales - five of those + a dragon item on a jewelcrafting table would recolour the item. Is this enough? What about Corrupted dragons?
So, this should be it. Hope I didn’t miss anything. Now, your turn, community.
