Grimbergoth

but see there is where the issue is , a true mmo has content for all types of players be it solo , small company or even large companies . As much as I don't like mentioning them , take WoW for a example , in its early days there was more complainng about not having enough end game content , but there was content for all players as a MMO should be . This right now is not a MMO its massive company online , yes solo players shouldn't be doing the kracken or powerstones , yet they put a age mechanic in that basically requies you to do a powerstone less the boss fight , that is more anti solo player then anything , the sotd's are not solo player content or whales , yet they are all over the place and in masses . The only content a solo player has currently is the grind and taming or farming , similar for small companies . This doesn't take into count that they use the same blanket ruleset for pvp and pve which is of course geared twards the massive company pvp . It has all the potential to make a great mmo , but unfortunately they would rather hide behind the excuse its early access for every blunder they make , that or do what they have done since the uproar about the fountain change and that is say nothing . In the end its not the games fault if it makes it or not , it those in charge , and they are earning the 11000 or so negative reviews fairly . Every time they start to do something right they screw it up and then focus on cosmetics . Personally I would rather have a game that is fun and enjoyable then 6 different ship ornaments or some armor customizations , or even a peg leg , but we can see where they have the priorities set in the dev stream . well that is if you can believe it as they did tell us they carefully consider changes to the game and how it will impact solo or small groups as well as large companies and then several hours later nerfed the solo players and small companies with a age debuff ….

If you are good at looking at the files they have the numbers set up too high and the respawn rates are up as well . Since they spawn faster then they are removed from the game they are overpopulating until they reach a supposed hardcap . Sotd's according to the stream is 50 per region , I think that is a little low but even so 50 sotd's per grid? this was the same thing that was causing island to be over run with wolves and snakes and now yeti in the polar areas . I have a polar base and I counted 127 yeti surrounding the walls and that is where I stopped counting . you clear a area out and in less then a minute they are already spawning back in . This is also what causes the higher then average amount of alphas , because every spawn there is a chance and if they are spawning every minute then that is 60 chances in a hour on one spawn and how many of each spawns in a given area? I sent them a pick and asked them how many yeti they could count , they said they are looking into it . This is because they want higher rates for the new players but because they do a blanket rate it screws everything else outside of freeports . just as a idea of what im saying this pic was taken about 10 mins after I cleared the area .

load a cannon on the back for that extra boost of speed . In all seriousness though I live in a region full of whales and ill agree they do agro from way to far , there should not need to be more then 1 in a given region but ive seen 4 the other night , and as far as outrunning them , only if you have a strong wind at your back or have no load your hauling . When running from a whale ill run right next to a sotd cause they do less damage , had a whale rip a plank off the schooner a week ago with one hit and when I say a plank I mean the whole rear end of the ship . But I agree there is way to many sot'd per region as well as whales considering every zone from 13-15 and 1-3 has them

your not alone Original poster . I started on day 1 as well , got through the log waits to get in game , l made landfall got some land built a base had it taken while I was asleep , built a new base more inland where I have another claim , again had it stolen , and then yet a third time . I finally moved to a polar region and it was a learning curve to survive , but I have very few people to deal with , then they nerfed the wolves which for me caused the island to be overpopulated with yeti , to the point I stopped counting at 127 surrounding my base ( sent them a pic and they said they knew the issue and was looking into it) because they yeti don't despawn they just keep spawning and no wolves mean nothing to cull them fast enough . then we have about 40 sotd's in the region and 2 nights ago I counted 4 different whales in a single region . Then couple all that with a age debuff I cant solo through and the 2 times now I zone without a ship or half the tames im hauling vanish just makes me not care anymore . If you are lucky enough to talk to one of them you get the same responces of they are looking into it and my favorite "its early release" , that is their blanket cure all for shoddy or lazy patches and glitches . Just like the official anouncment claiming that no administrator account was compromised yet on the steam news page it said they it was in fact hacked . They cant even get the story straight in house much less what they put out to the public and its this "effort" that bothers me the most . Like putting a stream out saying they delay certain fixes and features because they want to make sure it doesn't negatively impact the solo players or smaller companies , yet the same day they did the age debuff which hurt the solo average players , since then they have said nothing and we get "well its early release" . I dopnt know about anyone else , but the game when working right I love , the developers and their excuses and coverups I cant stand and its getting to the point im about to give up on anything associated with wildcard . I dealth with it in ark , then the major letdown that was dark and light and now this . they had thing going in the right direction and then like always screw things up and say its early release .

I live in one of the regons you was talking about and yes whales and sotd's do sit heavy at borders as that is where they are lost and you are right about the 1 and 15 polar regions having mass amounts in them because they are very unpopulated . My region I think I have seen 11 on at one time only because there ws a group looking for whales , the norm is 1-3 of us in the zone at peak times . sotd are everywhere and ive seen as many as 3 whales at once .

this system is designed to "slow" the large companies down . Why do I say this , first they wait this long into the game when most people who have any serious hours in or have been around since launch are past the 90 year mark and thus will be affected . Secondly , only those who are in larger groups whill have the ability to sail around quickly and survive long enough on a powerstone island , Third , they have said they are adding in a second island but they change locations from time to time , so once again if your not there with a big group by the time you sail you sloop there and finaly get to where you need to be after a few hundred one shot deaths , it could be gone to another island . Fourth , the larger companies are the one housing the level 100 players so the % will hurt them more then the little guys who cant even attempt it . this gives them reason to think its a good idea , whats 10 health to a lower level solo player compaired to the 100 health that a level 100 would loose . Problem is that when you have 100 and you only now have 90 means you die that much faster compaired to the powerplayer with 900 still . This all come right after they do a live stream about how they have to consider how things will affect a wide range of players including the small companies and solo players . Then the same day they add a patch that puts the fountain someplace "challenging" for larger groups and almost impossible for the solo player .

I hate to agree but V15 was all about large company balances imo . Reason behind me saying this is the small 2 -5 man or even solo players cant last very long on a powerstone island in order to not suffer from the age debuff . Its like saying , ohh your not part of a large enough company , go play somewhere else . Also they did not think things through like they said they do in the stream . I remember them saying the reason some changes they make are long coming because they don't want a domino effect , yet they did just that the same day they stream about not doing it . The gates and door traping people because of a change made , take away the wolves or nerf them seems like a good chance unless its the only thing that keeps yetis down on numbers . Im on a polar island and I had 127 yetis surrounding my base , if I go outside at any spot I have a instant pack of 2-10 yeti on me . Reason is simple the wolves are not spawning and thus dieing and causing alphas to spawn to cull the yeti . Yes a alpha wolf is much easier to handle then a 27 yeti in a pack , and as they day has gone on they just keep spawning . I tried to cull some with a killbox and they stacked up inside it faster then I could manage (ever see a 4x4 killbox with 8 yeti stuffed into it , its actualy kinda funny .

I haven't seen anything yet that damages stone as far as on normal claimable islands , so my advice is stone structures and as they have said high enough that the wilds cant hit you through the walls or floors . Edit : as a side note , just because you are inside doesn't mean that the rare occasion of a wild mob cant spawn inside . my company and half our base inside was wiped out today by a 221 alpha yeti spawning inside of the stone structure .

If you have the stones for it and not looking to live under taxes and want land of your own , try the tundras . They are not carebear islands where the worst thing you meet is a lion , they have yeti , wolves , sometimes vultures , but they also have large amount of resources of specific types that are not found in other regions . They do also lack some of the basic resources so I would say find one close to a freeport so you can ship in fiber easy enough . But the hardest part to living in a tundra is the cold itself will kill you without fur armor and/or higher fort .

you got one of the nice tundras , vultures instead of yetis … but yes you need a lot of fort , with hide armor would take about 80 fort and even then weather effects and nights outside can be deadly , with fur though its not as bad . This is why land in tundras are available , plus we have a monsterous whale in our region . but like anything else you learn to adapt and you will be ok , I do advise making friends with one oft he big trade companies to get regular or large shipments of things you need for the more unique resources the tundra has . Makes life and survival a lot easier .

had 2 wolves a bear and a yeti spawn inside mine so far , its a more common issue then people think .

We have just a couple island on our region but im on the big island and share it with 3 other companies , 2 I have never seen or spoken to , the third is a outpost for a large trade compant and there is lots of open lands between us . Ever think of tundra life ? its harsh and tough but its also quiet and easy to get you some land . Advice if you choose this rout , high fort and fur armor , learn to outrun yeti and watch for wolves . It may sound hard but its not , you may die a lot in the beginning but once you get the hang of it the biggest problem is no fiber , no salts , no sugars , and no plants that your not growing . This is why its easy to get land here , it takes work and is not a "easy mode" island where you have everything there and only have to worry about dodging wolves or snake or whatever .

I just looked back at the 9.2 patch notes and "Reduced deepwater aggressive creature frequency and targetting range." im guessing the whales are not considered "deepwater" , if they are then I would hate to see the agro range they used to have , cause there isn't a day that goes by I haven't had a run in with one . Although I can say it makes for a spectacular sight from a raft when you first see the targeter if you turn to put the wind fully at your back you can stay ahead of it . But watching it start to break water and spray is cool as hell .

I have a stuck raft due to this as well , I tried to drop the sail to 10% to turn it against the wind to turn around and it kept moving forward faster then it turned and thus ended up butting itself flat on a rockface , now it will not turn at all . The change was so new players could use rafts without taking hours on end to get to a island because of wind and I understand that , but they should add a way to turn a raft other then by sail . All other ships you can simply lower the sails and turn the ship at a slow pace using the rudder . Where im based I expect to loose rafts so mine isn't a big deal but I can see how this has caused stuck rafts , at least it wasn't another whale that claimed this one , lol .

im on b15 and I have encountered them frequently . On a raft you can in fact see them coming when they agro , only because there is little to block the green health bar that lights up at a huge range away . I think this is the major issues with them is that they have almost a quarter map agro range . they will also swim into shallow water , never seen them come completely onto land but as close as a raft can get . they are not limited to size when it comes to how far they can move and something that big shouldn't be able to go into water that they cant even swim in . Before anyone says that real whales get beached , one they usually die soon after and are stuck there , two they cant swim in a creek depth of water either . So there is a very real mechanic issue to them , they should not be allowed to move in water that even the largest of ships can seeing as their size alone is larger then any ships we have , and their aggression range seems to be in contrast to their size and as such is much much larger then even a SoD's . On a simple raft they will agro from a huge range much less anything larger .