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Unlivable Islands: Fresh water doesn't exist (and message to the devs)

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First off, great job stabilizing the servers; Game looks beautiful and is running well, so thanks.

I'm enjoying the game, but there is a glaring problem, extremely few sources of fresh water. I know we can dig for waterspouts to top off, but it is tedious and never lasts long. In addition, we can't use water spouts to irrigate crops (or fill waterskins?) making creating a home impossible if you don't snatch up a freshwater source, which by now there probably aren't many free ones thanks to mega companies. Rain collecting could be an answer if it ever rained. I've played for 29 hours now (granted a significant portion was battling the rough start of the game) and I've seen it rain once. I imagine the goal was to get people to focus on island hopping, and making water a valued resource fought over in PvP, but as it stands on a PvE server, the fresh water situation makes the grandiose map irrelevant since most of the islands are unlivable, shrinking viable play space to a fraction of what it looks like.

I really like the game, and building my first ship with a friend was an amazing feeling, but now that we've gotten over that first hurdle, we're basically hitting a wall. I know the devs are up to their eyeballs in salt water (heh) from trying to get the servers working and assisting players with struggles (good job stepping up after the initial fiasco), but when you get around to making in-game changes, I'd really like to see this on the list, at least for PvE servers.

I don't like pointing out problems without proposed solutions, so if any devs are reading this, I came up with a few vague ideas below.

  • Water purification system (must be in sunlight | byproduct is salt | must be emptied regularly)
  • 'paint' additional water sources on islands, particularly large ones that lack fresh water entirely
  • Craftable wells (game implies a water table with the waterspouts as is, so why not tap into it with a well) that provide large amounts of water that drain/replenish over time
  • Some kind of animal/plant that produces/purifies water (there are already dragons in the game so why not something mystical like that)
  • 'Bear Grylls it' by purifying pirate 'liquid waste'
  • If there actually is fresh water on most islands and folks are as blind as bats, craftable water diviners to help us find it
  • Increase the frequency of rain
  • NPC ports that sell barrels of fresh water for some kind of vaguely rare resource (fish meat *lol* | snake scales cause they can be dangerous)
  • Cut into some of the massive mountains and make caves with underground lakes

If other players are experiencing something similar please leave a comment to let the devs know its not an isolated thought. If I'm totally off-base and missing something, please let me know! And to any devs actually reading this post, keep calm and sail on, you're doing good and thanks for your hard work.

 

Founding member of the East India Trading Co. ~Hydras Den

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One way we've noticed is you can use a shovel to do the same quick time event you would do with your hands, but it yields a lot more. I've suceeded twice in the quick time event, and it yielded 400 water units and 10 potatoes.

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On 12/24/2018 at 5:41 PM, Erianx said:

One way we've noticed is you can use a shovel to do the same quick time event you would do with your hands, but it yields a lot more. I've succeeded twice in the quick time event, and it yielded 400 water units and 10 potatoes.

@Erianx Can you use that surplus to fill a water Barrel? I'm not having luck doing that or finding a reliable source that describes the How to...

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Lack of fresh sources of water is what made me turn around and go back to a Freeport and just harvest resources until I find a Company to hang with.

Desalination might be a little advanced for the theme, but given the systems it'd be a good addition. Gotta wonder what the wildlife are drinking.

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Its not the prettiest but you can build a large grid of water reservoirs, pipe them all together and add a tap. Then when it does rain it will at least last a long time. You can also attach irrigation to them.

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2 hours ago, Maric said:

Its not the prettiest but you can build a large grid of water reservoirs, pipe them all together and add a tap. Then when it does rain it will at least last a long time. You can also attach irrigation to them.

Need a place to build first...

All available land has been claimed by the handful of people that were able to get in and play the first couple days while the rest of us kept getting the fail to connect error.

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True enough, though since op was suggesting craftable wells I assumed they had land. 

 

Land rush is crazy. Hopefully they fix it soon.

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yeah also not super fond of the land rush something really needs to be addressed with the way people can place flags

Idea number 1 You only get one flag (has to be planted) then have a skill tree that allows you to add a couple more points.  also shrink the size a little.

Had a second idea but then realized it wouldn't work because people would just work around it by placing a foundation or something stupid

O.o had another though Idea 2 only 1 flag allowed per tribe per island.  I kinda like that one more.

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The Shovel gives you 10x the water vs digging with your hands. This means if you succeed 3 times you get a spout with 600 water that lasts a very long time or until all players leave the area. The ground water replenishes long before the water spouts will go away. You can have 4+ water spouts by your base or farming area. Supplement this by putting down a lot of barrels and fill jars by dragging them into a barrel that contains water. Jars do not leak like waterskins do. You can also fill a bucket from the barrel and use it to irrigate crops. It rains A LOT in the grids my company currently spends most of our time in.

I do agree, more freshwater would be convenient, but a short time making a bunch of barrels will leave have you set forever. If you want to move you can use a bucket to empty all the barrels and pick them all up and transport them somewhere else.

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12 hours ago, Vhena said:

@Erianx Can you use that surplus to fill a water Barrel? I'm not having luck doing that or finding a reliable source that describes the How to...

We have not been able to do so. We've done what many people have mentioned above of having water reservoirs collect rain water. The plants we have tested do not use a large amount of water, and rain barrels suffice to keep my company with plenty of water. We stored them all on our roof, but don't forget that people can use and drink out of them even if they aren't in your company.

Edited by Erianx
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