I want to make a suggestion for a DS rework, and I want to see what the current problems with it are.
Basically everything post full release in how it functions
too tall
1 Like
It’s boring to traverse - the only real threats while sailing are imbued waves and giant krakens, both of which can be countered relatively easily. Tornadoes are nuisance at worst and Atlantean brigs are easily outran by a decent ship build.
The actual islands aren’t better. The variety in Siren Rocks in nice, but at this point, you’re only going to visit them for Athena’s Wisdom or to kill the Omen on. Most islands are far too tall to do anything on (at least in the Far Reaches), so you’re fucked if you wanna hunt Hecate. The only good loot that islands have (minus animal drops/hecate) is reagents, but even those are obtainable through the Fleet System now.
The only reasons you’d go to the Dark Sea now is for the Epicenter, Hecate, Athena’s Wisdom, or Omen. None of those are enjoyable experiences (nor do they challenge you in any way besides getting lucky).
6 Likes
Thanks for the input, so I think what i’ve gotten from this is, the dark sea is just boring to go to, and the rng aspect of islands makes them annoying to explore.
Let me add some more info, as the guy who genuinely loves the Dark Sea and has been there a lot.
Islands
They’re fine and well-made, but the consistency is terrible. In one server, you’ll get seven in a row without even a siren rock spawning in between, and in another server - you’ll see none after 30 minues of sailing. Island spawn must be made consistent.
Siren rocks
No issues here, aside from the general “consistent spawn“ issue, that pretty much every aspect of the Dark Sea has. Siren rocks and sirens themselves are features done well.
Atlantean ships
Alright, a hot topic right here. These ships are very rare, which is good, but when they do appear, you risk getting jumped by three brigs at once, and the reward for sinking them is very low. I think, they should be made common, but you can’t have more than one present at a time, with a meaningful downtime between sinking one and having to deal with another. Plus, increase the supply gain from sinking Atlantean ships.
Ghost ships
Are completely not worth the effort, need to make extra chests spawn on ships that you’ve been led to by a ghost ship, and increase drastically the supply gain on the cargo crates. Also, fix the bug that slows down your ship when you are sailing through a ghost ship, ramming them should still give you benefits, and trying to maneuver around is gimmicky.
Atlanteans
These ones were kinda lobotomised, along with many other npcs, when they fight a Stealth user, so fix the bugs. And, while yall’re at it, buff the weapon drop rates.
Animals
No issues here, again. Both normal Dark Sea and Far Reaches animals are fair. You can cheese them by staying on high ground, but its valid considering how difficult a fair fight would be. The only fix to these is a fix to the boars - their permastun is unfair. Every boar must be nerfed.
Also, buff the drop rates. Please. We want more drip. And add crocodile-made items too.
Water poisoning
Remove it. Just remove it.
Magic-imbued waves, whirlpools, rain and tornadoes
With one exception, waves are kinda fair. Getting chipped constantly is annoying, but the Dark Sea is meant to be hostile. That said, nerf the acid waves. And while you’re at it, make that waves can’t spawn right in front of you, so there wouldn’t be a situation where you can’t do anything to prevent losing a lot of durability to a DoT wave. Also, nerf the wave’s grabbing range, its absurd.
Whirlpools are fine
Magic rain is fine
Tornadoes though… Nerf their spawnrate both in and out of the Dark Sea and revert the effect-applying feature.
Rifts
Annoying and pointless. Random-spawning ones may stay, but the pre-placed ones have to go.
Krakens
These need a proper signal of when they spawn on you. Take the White Eyes, for example. It has a clear sound cue on spawn, it spawns far ahead of your ship, and, most importantly, its not a guaranteed loss of durability that you can’t prevent. Krakens, on the other hand, are thrown right at you with no warning and take away 5k durability at best.
The Omen
I did about 30 Far Reaches runs, and this thing has never appeared once. There was a suggestion made on how to rework the bossfight, I don’t remember by who, though. The idea was to give the Omen a separate island instead of having it spawn wherever with an absurdly low chance.
Sunken forests
Nerf the spawn rate. The sunken forests take up enormous area where nothing can spawn, have almost no loot aside from a small tower of platform in the middle, and merely brushing a tree takes away a lot of durability. Give these forests a reason to be explored.
You want one? Simple. Take the Omen’s suggestion and shove that island in place of the tower in a sunken forest. Do the same for normal Dark Sea’s sunken forests, but replace the Omen with a Giant Kraken while removing their natural spawning.
Volcanoes
No issues aside from inconsistent spawning.
Hecate Essence
This one has been talked to death atp. Make it spawn more often, fix the bugs related to its placement, maybe push it into t2 range - yall know the drill.
The Epicenter
The grind to find this place is tedious and boring, agree, but it is kinda meant to be like that?.. I got nothing to say on this one, we just need to wait for the promised features the Epicenter will harbor.
Conclusion
And that’s all I got, with one honourable mention. I loved the rainless Dark Sea, but the bug has been patched after FR. Give us weather toggle in the settings, I want to continue admiring the views, I loved it.
16 Likes
Thanks for the input! I will take this into consideration while making my DS rework suggestion.
1 Like
Someone has actually bothered to read my full yapping session? Wow, the forums actually did change after two and a half years. I am still bitter about all the people who ignored me back then due to my long writing!
I’m just a little bit hesitant to write something about the island spawning getting changed, I feel like that’s server based and would be pretty difficult to fix/change.
True. But Vetex could make that, when something spawns, its spawn chance gets reduced drastically while chances for everything else rise, so the next thing that spawns will probably be something different
I’m thinking of something pretty radical to fix this ngl, I’m thinking of dark sea regions although I don’t know how people will respond to it. I have a quick screenshot of what it could look like but it’s kind of bad if u wanna see.
Eh, that doesn’t fit. We already got islands with different biomes, let the Dark Sea itself remain an unidentified mess it should be due to its origins
Yea, I like the randomness of what it currently is, or I did before I spent 5 years looking for tartarus tears. It just bugs me that so much is tied to luck.
Fleets are lowkey busted when it comes to about anything, so, when you have it developed properly, you don’t have to grind what you need yourself. This isn’t great, but we’re here discussing the Dark Sea, not the fleets.
Yea, I think I have a solution that could help, although it would take me a bit to type it out. I’m gonna write it all up and then reply to you once I have a draft of it done.
Take your time, and gather more opinions from other people too. As for me - I’m outta here, gotta get some sleep
Nah, just reply to the topic. I’m only one of many who you asked for opinions, I’m not that special
My bad, I just remembered. This wasn’t a suggestion, but rather, a youtube video
I might dm you the draft since I don’t wanna spoil what it is just yet. And I feel like a lot of forumer’s would kind of not be helpful if i send the draft right now.
two words
downright tedious.
The rewards are too minimal, the time investment is too great, the RNG is too random, the DoT hazards are too often and punishing (especially when 90% of the time you can’t avoid them)
I just wish they made it better and fixed the spawn rates, it has such good potential.
1 Like