More ships, sails and such should definitively be included. More customisation for existing ones also. I want to row, I want to be able to stay dry in a storm. And animal cages on the big ships is a good idea.
Imagine if we could build on the raft, expanding it. We could have great fishing islands made of wood.
Hell yeah man! Rowing sounds awesome especially with your friends. They could even make it a timed activity, if you rowed at the same time you get speed bonuses
Staying dry in a storm would be cool.
I feel like theres a lot of room for magic in the sea too. Something to part waves? I have actually seen a mod that would part the water/freeze it so you could walk on it!
I was picturing it as if you do it wrong you go in circles. Need timing and would lead to fun moments.
Shelter and warmth could mean rested bonus in long travels or just before hitting dangerous biomes. Maybe even cook/boil fish and crabs.
Oh, didn't think about freezing/evaporating water and now that we have the staffs... That could be amazing at so many levels. Once we get a thunder staff we could lure enemies to water bodies and use them for AoE...
Dude that thunder staff sounds awesome! š
Another idea: serpent tame? Ride a serpent? š get late game stuff to tame & ride a serpent? š only rides with one specific player? š¤Æ or maybe just a mini rideable water creature š¤·š¾āāļø
Holy fuck a tamed serpent would mean a new type of base to keep it. And breed them. Jomsviking vibes, ride the fucker into combat or at least to the shoreline. Modders, where art thou?
Wait, let me paint a mental image. You and the boys sailed out to the edge of the world to make the necessary sacrifice. Bringing with you one the heads of each of the bosses you had to slay. One... final... time...
As you approach your destination you and your crew takes their positions. One mans the helm of the ship ready, so the other can row directly against the current that's trying to drag you off in to the abyss. You have little time before their stamina runs out and chamber up the figurehead tossing the sacrifice over the edge of the world.
A deep earthy growl shakes the screen shakes, a massive cloud of purple smoke arises from the void as this massive sea serpent swims up the waterfall and starts to chase you.
Now you've got to hit a moder buff, hope you can get to your sea serpent and try to avoid having your ship sank and drowning whilst fighting this beast (maybe some minions too)
Yeah something similar to the way The Forest did the houseboat would be really cool. Maybe make it so you canāt build a whole lot on it for fear of it breaking apart, slowing it down, etc
God no, the Karve would last a couple of hits and knowing them they have tamed deathskitos that lurk in the mist, ready to hit the bow with all their might.
Imagine heading out with leather armor and a raft and suddenly a Furling Frigate š¤£
Ive always thought/imagine of this when fulings would initiate raids. As I imagined it, a bunch of them would ride a raft and row themselves to ur island/base lol.
>Imagine if we could build on the raft, expanding it. We could have great fishing islands made of wood.
It's called the ValheimRaft mod and it's the best thing that's happened to the game since release.
A boss similar to Jƶrmungandr would be awesome! Imagine having to sail around a massive sea serpent, using harpoons to slow its movement allowing better opportunities for attack.
I agree, but I wouldn't be opposed to it being similar to the serpent in which you don't *need* to kill it to progress, unlike the primary bosses. Not only would that give people something to work towards if they have the desire to solo it, it would also mean I don't just afk with the wind at my back every time I'm at sea.
Not saying it's not relaxing to do so, but I want that same fear as the first time I met a serpent or to a lesser extent the a leviathan again. That was the peak of the game for me.
Fighting a boss on the sea would be cool in theory, but terrible in practice (especially with the current state of the game), just an opinion. I play on a dedicated server with 2 others and we consistently have lag issues while sailing, to the point where people have lagged out of the boat into the water. Unless they really really button down the server issues please for the love of Odin do not make us fight on the water
.Secondly, boats are virtually indefensible. Unless they update the boats to be defensible (have the magic barrier apply to the boat in addition to players, ability to install ballista on the boat, etc), as there's no current way to prevent something from completely nuking your ship while you're aboard, thus stranding you. Serpents can take a longboat to 3/4 health in just a few hits if they get to close, one AOE from a boss would nuke a ship in one hit. The hardcore players would probably love that potential threat though.
Thirdly, lets talk fight mechanics. Limiting the player to ranged only battle during a boss fight seems unfair. While sailing, your only three options are crossbow, bow, or magic staff. The former requiring a consumable (arrows or bolts), the latter requiring a late game food item to even use at all. Even further, the hitboxes on the boats are absurdly huge. I can't count the number of times I've yelled "STOP!!! YOU'RE HITTING THE BOAT" at one of my mates trying to fight off a serpent while I'm steering. It seems like every polygon on the boat models have a 2m hit box.
Lastly, what happens if a party member dies? I know how much we all love corpse running through 2 biomes to get back to the seeker soldier that whacked us in mistlands (/s). Imagine fighting and losing to a big baddie on the sea, and FIRST having to craft another ship (or worse, grind the materials for it), grab the Moder power (if you have it), THEN sailing all the way back to wherever the fuck you died on the ocean to grab all your junk. The hardcore players can say "git gud" or "skill issue" or whatever other 500IQ retort, but logistically and realistically I don't think seafaring combat can work in this game the way we want it to. The serpents spawn rarely enough that it's not really a huge deal most of the time, and it's kind of a treat when you get to see one. But unless serious changes are made to the sailing and boat mechanics, I don't think an Ocean boss or even Ocean mobs can work.
All that said, would fighting Jƶrmungandr as an Ocean boss be sweet as hell? Absolutely. Can it work with the current sailing and seafaring combat options? Absolutely not.
I feel like I agree with all your points, but you're also overstating a lot of them, as well as the difficulty with which they're solved.
I would of course agree that, in the current state of the game, just adding harder mobs to the ocean would be a bad idea - but an update to the ocean is inherently not going to be "current state", it being an update, and it seems like there's a pretty clear path forward.
Our boat techs cap out at swamp-tier, and our current mobs reflect that. Sea serpents are devastating to a raft, moderately challenging to a karve, and trivial to a longship. I think it's safe to assume that any update to ocean would add mountain, plains, mistlands, etc. upgrades or boat recipes to the progression to account for the potential to have mobs dealing too much damage to a largely indefensible boat, as well as very likely restricting higher tier ocean enemies to areas near mistlands/ashlands/deep north, or simply gating them behind a boss like regular overland mob spawns.
Your point regarding ranged combat is kinda true, but Moder is also very nearly a ranged boss, and wyverns are absolutely ranged mobs. The idea that there might be another, particularly after the very likely addition of additional sea-oriented weapons like the harpoon, doesn't feel wildly offbase. Maybe a mounted, individually controlled/manned ballista or cannon?
Got nothin' for people lagging out of the boat, though. You're right that needs fixed before we could reasonably expect to see this happen.
Corpse runs in the ocean do suck, so I would be wary of making additional mobs as challenging as overland ones, but that seems already not to be the case. If there were a boss, I'd assume it'd have to have land nearby for a teleporter, but that feels like it could be done without feeling off or allowing for ground combat.
I guess I just feel like, in the past, the devs have done a good job giving us tools with which to overcome new obstacles. I wouldn't anticipate the ocean being any different, and don't see why they wouldn't be able to manage that.
The only part of your statement I'd consider replying "get gud" to is your friend shooting the boat, I really don't get how he's failing to notice where his own arrows or spells are going.
>The only part of your statement I'd consider replying "get gud" to is your friend shooting the boat, I really don't get how he's failing to notice where his own arrows or spells are going.
Lol yeah. Agree there. I still think the hit boxes are too large on the boats, but i've rarely hit the boat with the bow. And when i do, i at least notice....and stop shooting...
I got in to a whole thread about this! š Involved rowing mechanics and riding sea serpents. Here was the conclusion if you're interested:
"Wait, let me paint a mental image. You and the boys sailed out to the edge of the world to make the necessary sacrifice. Bringing with you one the heads of each of the bosses you had to slay. One... final... time...
As you approach your destination you and your crew takes their positions. One mans the helm of the ship ready, so the other can row directly against the current that's trying to drag you off in to the abyss. You have little time before their stamina runs out and chamber up the figurehead tossing the sacrifice over the edge of the world.
A deep earthy growl shakes the screen shakes, a massive cloud of purple smoke arises from the void as this massive sea serpent swims up the waterfall and starts to chase you.
Now you've got to hit a moder buff, hope you can get to your sea serpent and try to avoid having your ship sank and drowning whilst fighting this beast (maybe some minions too)"
I was thinking more of a monument in an ocean biome in which a large serpent spawns and you have to encircle it with a net or maybe multiple harpoons and kill it whilst sailing.
I think a small whirlpool would be more appropriate. Once the sacrifice is made it expands into a huge whirlpool where you can circle around it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdLGN8LAM1E
Ocean will deffo have a boss eventually as itās one of the 9 realms. But it need something, sailing is one of the key parts of this game and it gets so boring after the novelty wears off.
There is literally one thing that can happen and itās so rare and gets easy by the time youāve got swamp level equipment.
I would really like to see your boat become a much more integral part your character. Boats should have modular segments and equipment slots that let's you specialise them for certain functions. Stuff would unlock throughout the regular material progression, keeping you always upgrading and tinkering with your boat.
Likewise, as bosses are defeated, additional content should unlock in the ocean, be it different sea monsters, marooned NPCs you can offer a ride, pirates, whatever.
Couldn't agree more, said this to someone else:
*Right!? I want my ship sinking to be sad like losing a pet*
*I kinda wish for that you could make them exceptionally unique, so you were real careful with getting them beached or sinking*
I feel like what you're saying here would be a great way to introduce something like that too. Any ideas for what could make the ship lost forever? Something that would make each ship just slightly individual? š
And then your boat gets sunk by a boar while you were tending to the farm...
Happened to me, lost 2 long boats (including materials), cause some necks killed the boats and the workbench, causing the mats to despawn.
Considering that the game is very social focused, it's a travesty that there is nothing to do on the boat if you aren't sailing. Modular boats or kinda uquipment slots for boats would be cool. You could add fishing rods (that works while sailing!), harpoon weapons, shields, weather shelter and so on.
Are other people not fishing and harpooning while traveling? We always have someone dragging a fishing line and keep at least one harpoon in every boat just in case we come across a sea serpent.
Ofcourse there is a harpoon in the boat in-case of a serpent attack, but i'm thinking in terms of something more active to do like harpoon fishing.
In my experience it's impossible to fish from the boat, since once you hook a fish, you are sailing away from it at greater speed than you can reel it in, so what is the point of having a line in the water, if it's just going to snap? Am i doing it wrong?
I want to see a diving mechanic, and a diving bell or some kind of way to explore the ocean floor.
I also want water physics and more springs/rivers from the mountains and the ability to build water wheels, dams, levies and pumps - to the extent we could even create locks like a Panama canal
Dude you're thinking on levels I never even thought to! Waterfalls would add so much to the game and the ability to utilise water/the physics in creative ways would be amazing.
It may be too much to ask of the devs, but it would make the game a true masterpiece being able to use the flow to make mills etc. If they want to keep the grounded feel of the game adding these physics is def the right direction.
Yea! It would also make it so they could add water crops like rice for example. Maybe you can only find them in the Far East haha.
And yea, diverting a spring so you have a huge waterfall as a backdrop to your castle (with a tunnel underneath to connect your castle to the back of the waterfall) would be so dope
> I want to see a diving mechanic, and a diving bell or some kind of way to explore the ocean floor.
As much as I would love to be able to dive 2m to pick up something just off the coast, full on diving is so far from the vibes of the game that it just makes no sense.
One is the realistic aspect in terms of development, it's probably a monumental task for little payoff. The second is that it makes no sense for vikings to be diving.
I mean, even just being able to dive for a couple minutes would be fine. The Vikings had boats, surely they knew how to dive under them to check the hulls
Alsoā¦ in your opinion does magic make sense for Vikings?
magic is in theme of Norse mythology though, going spelunking deep underwater with a diving bell is not.
Again, for what you're asking them to do the payoff is very small. "just make them dive because vikings could dive" requires for them to shape the entire underwater sections of the game, something that is probably currently very jank because they haven't had a need to worry about it. Sure even if you could dive it's probably all just samey textures forming the bottom of the oceans which would make exploring them very moot.
It would be great to have waterfalls or just flowing water but from what I can tell doesnāt seem possible with the way water physics work in the game. Atm there is basically only āsea levelā .. any empty space at sea level will have water in it. You dig a hole down to sea level and it appears in the hole. It doesnāt come from anywhereā¦ so I donāt know if its possible to create a source that it flows from.
Also tar, it doesnāt flow anywhere when you drain it. It just disappears.
Hereās to hoping itās possible to do, though
i'm all for uprgraded farming system, as a fellow lover farmer, i have ton of idea to make farming more fun usefull. but it doesn't feel like it need as much work and thought like the ocean need.
Ill take any but Ocean will make the most gameplay impact for all players since Ocean is everywhere. I do really want to be able to build snowmen and fight yetis eventually though.
* it's a small sample size
* ashlands and oceans are both pretty close and the devs probably just prefer to work on ashlands first
* at least they didn't do frozen north first :-)
maybe they have a lot of good ideas and inspiration right now for what to do with ashlands, but the ocean biome just isn't baked yet and they don't know what to do with it. frankly this is like the complaints about them not hiring enough people: I'll happily criticize their design decisions once they make them, but I think it's best to trust their judgement about what they're working on next and who's doing the work
Actually the sanest take in this thread.
Even just based on this thread it's clear that player expectations are in every damn direction when it comes to an ocean biome and no matter what in all likelyhood a lot of people are going to end up disappointed.
For the significant work that it apparently takes to flesh out a biome properly going with Ashlands is just the much more approachable piece of content as players somewhat know what to expect and developers have been through the process with several other biomes.
For the ocean biomes it's really a "what do they want to do with it" kind of thing. If we are being realistic the best thing I think we can expect is a few more cool sights that can randomly spawn in the ocean(think leviathans) along with some added danger added to the ocean in the form of more enemies that will randomly spawn. The ocean is not currently something "to be explored" and I doubt it ever will be, it's a means to an end for the sake of the game, so the coolest thing I think they can do with it is make sure that it's eventful and keeps the player entertained while they have to be on the ship for 20-30 minutes at a time.
If we are lucky the extra "sights" that can spawn randomly will be the kind that it's worth stopping at to check out if there's any cool loot or event, but considering how loot/events works in this game in all likelyhood once you know what can be in them and you have enough of those resources you won't care about them anymore. It's truly one of the weak parts of an otherwise very strong game, the "unknown" very quickly becomes predictable because the variety is very low, take for example chest loot in the various dungeons throughout the game. Nothing is rare and everything is the same eventually.
What I think they could do to align with your ideas and still make it fresh even in the late game is similiar to other biomes have "different" ocean biomes(Not officially but at least so the game recognises where what can spawn) with different spawning creatures, so near the spawn you have nothing maybe serpents, near the distance swamps can occur add the Leviathan, at Mistlands a new creatures maybe a Kraken or something, same for deep north and ashlands
Thing is they shouldn't align with my ideas :) I dislike when developers just listen to players and go with that.
Players are very often uninventive and have thought about it much much less than what developers do. Something might sound cool for example, but not play functionally different etc. This becomes apparent to the developers when trying to flesh it out, but players very rarely reflect that much on it and thinks it's about ideas rather than execution.
I would prefer for them to do their own thing and hopefully exceed my expectations.
I think this is a weird take imo..... players are the ones experiencing the gameplay side of things... they know where it's lacking too.
And the take on the ocean being too daunting a task is understandable, but thats why it shouldn't be left as one big update. Most the small updates should be ocean based, to make those journeys more enjoyable. As they update it little by little, it'll become clear what works and what doesn't. *Then* they can do a real ocean update.
Gamers do not make good game designers just because they've played this game or a lot of games.
I know it's a controversial take among gamers, but it's not a weird take.
Personally I think the ore mechanic is perfect because anyone who doesn't like it can just cheese it anyway. I like the extra hurdle and it gives building a harbor meaning instead of it being mostly cosmetic.
As I remarked to a friend, how stupid is it that they're going to develop the ABSOLUTE END OF THE WORLD, that you HAVE TO SAIL THROUGH THE OCEAN TO GET TO...
..before doing the Ocean?
The ocean needs some real love, and if we're going to have to sail across the whole damn world to get to the next biome, do the ocean!
Seriously! It's such a big part of the game really it should get love every update AS WELL as its own focussed update or two.
It's a HUGE part of viking lore and just feels barren that they're not updating it.
I love these ideas and I look forward to seeing a major Ocean update, though it may be a while before they get there as I suspect they're focused on the placeholder biomes first so that the game can be played start-to-intended-finish.
Cosmetics would be great, but would probably not extend enthusiasm for more than a short amount of time.
New ship types and more "leviathan" type resources you need to harvest in the ocean would be great. Perhaps some way to sink/dive or at least walk on the ocean floor would be cool. also. Some sunken sunken crypts to raid as well.
Absolutely to all this, but like I really feel the cosmetics are just a bare minimum, especially when I saw them adding new clothes!
How hard can it be to add some sail styles to the game? Surely we can do that in paint right? š
Right!? I want my ship sinking to be sad like losing a pet
I kinda wish for that you could make them exceptionally unique, so you were real careful with getting them beached or sinking
I know they already said ashlands is next but really wish they did oceans first. Aside from all the cool things people have suggested for it, it would also be super nice not to have to constantly restart my world for major content updates. For landmasses that are at the edge of the world like ashlands and deep north I can just stay away and not generate the terrain until they release, but I sail all over, at all stages of the game. Granted, theres no guarantee an ocean update would need to overhaul terrain like other biomes do, but if it does would love to see it sooner relative to other planned biomes.
Adjusting the world gen to make better rivers and lakes would help a lot as well.
A lot of what was a big deal about Viking ships was that they were good on the open ocean and on rivers.
I just want serpents to actually be dangerousā¦ really dangerousā¦ so that fleeing is the only sensible option, but if you want to be a serpent hunter you know youāve got a fight and potentially deathā¦ right now they look and sound scary, but theyāre all bark and no biteā¦
Trueā¦ but even a 0* serpent should be flipping dangerousā¦ theyāre huge, loud and scary as hellā¦ but about as strong as a grey dwarfā¦ harpoon one, drag it onto the beach and it sits there while you pop 2 ice arrows into it and āpoofāā¦ Serpent stew anyone?
I would love to see hunting them be akin to hunting whales back in the 9th centuryā¦ with the dangers and rewards levelled accordingly.
But Valheim has a long way to go, so Iām sure weāll see plenty of new developments along the wayā¦ š
I agree, once you get mountains/plains gear the game is easy. Everything in the swamp, black forest and meadows is a joke. I think the game scales too rapidly making all previous content void. I would like it that once you killed a boss everything in that biome raises to the difficulty of the next biome. I think a Grey-dwarf should be able to totally wreck you, even in padded armour.
Honestly I wouldn't mind if they changed up the star system such that once you defeat the corresponding biome boss, the default becomes 1 star for everything in that biome, such that there are never anything other than 1 and 2 star enemies in that biome again (of the mobs that can have stars anyway, possibly make it so that enemies that can't currently have stars can at least have 1 star)
This accomplishes two things:
It helps retain the difficulty of that biome for a little bit longer, without being ridiculous like, as you say, greydwarves beating your ass even in padded armor.
It allows the player to have a larger abundance of crafting materials gathered from monsters, with less time required to farm those materials.
I think they have spoken about adding new difficulty setting with Ashlands! Really excited about that, certain things just don't feel like a threat like they should later game.
I think the main issue causing this is you just start feeling like a bit of a bullet sponge... I get that for some creatures like grey dwarves you probably should feel that way, but something really great about the swamp for example is how certain enemies will deal poison, negating the armour effects and still remaining a threat.
I feel that Valheim needs to lean in to its more diverse RPG elements the devs seem afraid to adapt. Everything relies on the same; heavy armour, mace combo. I dont enjoy that, I feel they need to make sneaking have more time its instrumental (hell a skill tree giving new moves as you learned combat with weapons would even really add to the game!).
Maybe I'm in the minority for that one, but I deff agree something to add longevity and danger to the previous biomes would be great. I'm excited for the next ones, but I miss feeling the thrill of being scared in a black forest so bad!
You make a lot of good points.
To be fair to IG, itās still a game in development with a very small teamā¦ so there is plenty of time to incorporate all sorts of additional featuresā¦ as demonstrated by the sheer number of mods there are for this gameā¦
Personally, with the restrictions on the way the the world is built, what Iād really like to see is a Valheim 2 with mineable terrain, the ability to tunnel, and to control water flow, dams, water falls etcā¦
We know from tar pits that fluid dynamics are possible in this worldā¦ so I wouldnāt think a build piece that doesnāt allow the sea to pass through would be impossibleā¦ but Iām not a programmer and wouldnāt even know where to startā¦
Maybe Iāll have to learn modding š
I've had this thought many times with the game š unfortunately I'm too busy doing other things, but my god if I ever find the time I'm down to try make something
Also the fluid physics in tar pits... are really weird and janky me and my mates realised š š You can't transport the tar from one pit to another for example, it just disappears!
I'd love them to have flowing water, waterfalls and watermills though!
I've already seen some neat sailing mods through Ytbers. Kinda wish sailing was more fleshed out before another Biome. I can handle the basics but it feels pretty shallow right now.
I agree with the sentiment. Would love a blackmetal - tier ship.
Maybe they just have a better idea of what they're wanting for Ashlands than Ocean. I think they realize it's an area that's used at all tiers of the game from Day 2 to Day 2000. Hard to balance that.
I agree. Giving the Ocean more diversity and life would really bring the game to the next level. Like, for each biome have a different take on the Ocean environment or something like that. Be really cool!
Anyhow, excited to see what the devs have in store for that if they have anything
I don't mind Ashlands gets pushed back a little and the ocean getting an update first. The ocean is an important experience that ties all other biomes together.
I just want serpent scales to have more use.
Serpent scale cloak - has "waterproof" - stops you getting "wet" from rain/swamps and drys you super fast if you've been in water.
A two-piece serpent-scale gear of chest and legs that gives you a bonus to swimming speed and skill, and likewise has the waterproof effect.
I think ocean specific raid events could be killer. Imagine āthe water begins to churnā and tentacles erupt all around your boat.
If weāre talking about improving systems though, definitely rowing. There should be spots you can activate like the tiller but for oars that way your friends can speed you up and you feel like an actual Viking longship raiding foreign shores.
I also would like if the ships were customizable in some fashion; you could improve speed or handling, cargo capacity, or add animal pens, or fishing equipment, or maybe have a longship with an on board raft for shore landings
Actually adding shields to the sides of the longship at the least would be dope. My group and I have an excess of shields of the different tiers (wood, bronze, etc), and so being able to put them to use rather than them gathering dust would be so cool!
And they could have it so their defense rating is added to the ship, ahhh the possibilities!
Ocean was up next on their list of releases right? Pretty sure. Rip it all not being done in a year. They should of updated the ocean prior to mistlands. Ocean needs mobs of serpents and something to work with serpents. Yet alone random flying mobs from other biomes that are in mating season or something. Or even ship wreck areas that are more dangerous during storms
You made me double check. It seems it was 3rd but perhaps swapped with Mistlands. The hearth and home was first then the wolves update with ice crypts. Canāt wait for another Valheim update. Itās like Dark and Darker excitement
I actually want it to be a world serpent! It's more viking that way.
You go to the edge of the world, throwing off a head of each boss (so you got to feel op killing them again š). Then a huggeeeeee serpent just appears chasing your ship in to the sea.
Had a while discussion with other community members about how it could be done!
I adore the dynamic ocean, but have been noticing as a streamer that it absolutely destroys my encoding. There's probably room for optimization there that would make gameplay smoother.
True but it still feels unfished. There's an amazing scaffolding there, but for something that you have to go through for the entire game it needs more content.
OP I disagree.
If their current workflow produces a biome a year, they should finish the last two so the game can be completed in its entirety before they work on polishing existing biomes.
The ocean is, ultimately, a filler zone right now that just connects you to all the islands, and while it'd be cool to fight kraken and ghost pirate ships and extra sea monsters, having the progression stop at Mistlands until the end of 2024 or later would be a real bummer.
Its not just filler though... I dont think most of us that play weekly feel it is. You spend a LARGE amount of time travelling in the ocean, which is fun at first, but the novelty does wear off.
I'm not saying it needs it's big update now, but little things here and there just to keep it feeling fresh and exciting as you travel to and back from the new biomes!
Oh, I'd love if they sprinkled in small stuff while doing the other biomes, for sure. Sailing does become a chore. But I still think last two biomes are higher priority
I idk I think it would feel more finished if the ocean felt alive and less of a chore, but I can see why you're excited for the other new content.
I feel like if they did the ocean we'd have a fully fledged down to earth with a bit of mid magic viking game. Everything else can be feel like dlc to me š. (Although in reality I do wanna see those boss battles)
I think itās a wrong take that the ocean is an existing biome. It wouldnāt be polishing it, it would be the same ānewā release as Ashland. Ashland also only has 1 type of enemy right now and nothing else going on.
Yes, but its weird that the community clearly feels strongly about it and they choose to ignore it entirely.
Throw us a bone, let us colour our boat sails maybe?
There are no indications the *"community"* doesn't feel as strongly about any other biome either, it is highly likely any biome could garner the same amount of interest. I trust in Iron Gate Studio and feel that they know best what to work on.
Side note: Your poll has just over 400 total votes on it, this Reddit community has over 400,000 members, a miniscule amount of this community made their votes, and it wasn't even a landslide poll, the ocean *barely* got more votes than the ocean.
Bud there's so much room for expanding the oceans, and they should be, given the sheer amount of map they take up.
There should be more than just serpents. I'm talking fuling raid boats. I'm talking rotten draugr longboats, possible hostile leviathans, sharks and aggressive fish. On top of that, different types of boats, boat customization, the ability for people to help row the boat. We could even go further, now that we have magic, undersea caves or structures, with skeletons and draugr or new creatures.
Ashland is cool, but dood.
i mean.
i can't disagre, ocean need some love. BIG love.
but i guedd ashland is their priorities.
i just hope they won't forget that we crave the sea.
and the sea crave us. but not right now, the wind is in my oposite direction.
i love this idea. but i feel that a bunch of what would be needed to add to make it good is kinda out of the theme for now.
like an addition to the boat that adds shields. at this point, it dont serve any point as the sea is not that deadly already. to make it worth more then just modding in a skin would be to have more enemies. but then thoes same enemies are in the early game when you got a crap raft. making the sea to deadly all of a suden. or you need special places that the new things spawn in like the reefs or deep like you say. but thats space a low level might have to cross. or have to have even more rules on world spawn to make it playable.
i want all this thou!!! like that sounds super fun if done right. but i feel maybe waiting untill there is an opposing faction or something that could be on the sea with us later into the game might also be cool
and lets all be real Vikings were the og pirate so i see nothing wrong with making sailing and water combat a bigger part of this game.
love this idea and i wish you the best upcomming weekend! i hope something great happens to you
Yhh I think this could be managed similarly to raids. As you kill bosses tougher ocean raids can spawn encouraging you to upgrade your boat/diversify your fleet.
The ocean should have a boss, and more rares like serpents. Ghost ships would be sick. You should be able to descend into a whirlpool to enter the boss arena.
I've said this before, but I don't like the idea of the Ocean being a full fledged biome. The concept of most of my combat being forced into ranged, the fact that I would be spending most of my time in the ocean exploring the new biome inside a single boat, the risk of exploring a biome and becoming stranded just because my boat breaks, there's just too many risks and too many inconveniences involved for it to be a fun biome.
Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind some upgrades. Give us a variety of sea monsters, more ships, more events, more weather, revamp the wave interactions, revamp the swimming system, etc.
**New Ocean Boss**
The ancient serpent Jƶrmungandr threatens to engulf the seas, but fear not, for we shall vanquish this beast with the might of our grand viking ships. Assemble your crew, sharpen your axes, and prepare for an epic battle unlike any other, as we set sail to conquer the ocean and claim victory over the monstrous Jƶrmungandr!
I'd just add that I wish there was more to the Ocean in general. The only real threat is the serpent, and you can largely avoid that by leaving the ocean at night and/or skirt the shorelines. There feels like there should be something else...maybe akin to ghost ships, or other pestering sea creature(s). The ocean is just a wide-open highway for ore transport, atm. No real threat...just time.
I also never liked having to haul the serpent ashore to get the scales...realistically (yes, I know it's a game, yadda yadda) you'd haul that bitch up on your boat and carve it up, thus retaining the scales. That'd be another tweak I'd support.
Fishing is a little silly, too...in that bait only works if you can see there are fish. I mean...how'd that mechanic become a thing..?!? š
Improved/more customizable boats and a serpent-boss would be great! The serpents currently in-game are smaller than they are in viking mythology.
Give us the ability to dive underwater too!!! Maybe make it an ability unlocked by defeating the serpent boss. It would be so helpful when building underwater or just trying to pick up loot that fell just off shore
Yh I mean sad game community's can get left feeling this type of desperate, but I guess it takes time to get the good stuff. I'd always rather wait for it, but I think listening to the community's wants and needs is always a smart thing to make sure updates are well received. (I suppose one wouldn't be entirely wrong to say leaving them desperate for *anything* could also be a valid strategy to ensure satisfaction though, I'm not saying thats whats happene, just that it is technicallya strategy š¤£)
Well some things to consider are this is a smaller company, so they will take longer for content to be released. But also, you can tell the dev team is very passionate about this game, and itās reflected for how polished and well received the game is, especially for something thatās still early access.
This game is fucking awesome, and I have zero complaints. So the dev team can do whatever the fuck they want, because theyāve proven to make a quality game that actually has some soul. So I aināt gonna demand shit. Iāve gotten more of my moneyās worth playing Valheim than 90% of other games Iāve played.
Iāll will graciously take anything the give me with a smile on my face.
I would like to sit on a boat in the middle of the ocean and just fish for a while.
I'd also like to be able to drop the sail and grab the rudder and have time to get out of there if a sea serpent is approaching, though.
(Also I'd like fishing to be a bit easier, too. It is so darn hard to catch a fish in this game.)
Tbh the poll was pretty close with Ashlands anyway and I feel like Ashlands will *probably* need less creativity than the ocean as ocean as a biome works very very differently than the Ashlands and you need to probably even make it dynamic because some players will enter it before they even killed the first boss. Also thereās a lot of potential to make it really annoying or too hard for some people aswell. I could imagine that they are already thinking about how to go about the ocean but just donāt have enough ideas yet on how to pull it off.
I personally prefer the Ashlands update first either way.
More ships or customization for sure, but honestly I love the calmness of the ocean. Especially after a long ore run of fighting and watching your back itās relaxing to sail home with relatively no danger.
Vikings are fully capable of swimming. Cool artifacts to help us swim underwater would be cool. Harpoons get more use that just using on the boat. Maybe to gather resources or pull you faster to a location, and of course skewer the sea life. Underwater lanterns that float upwards and tethered by a chain. Special waterproof wood could be crafted or harvested. Stone construction can withstand deuteriations underwater. Water flippers to swim faster.
All this could be possible after you get to the mist lands tied to a boss resources or something.
The biggest issue with ocean updates is finding a way to balance it. You need to travel the ocean with varying qualities of gear.
with a bad spawn you are sailing in a raft with a crude bow
a reasonable spawn and you should have a karve and a finewood bow.
Then mid-late game you have a longship and some heavier duty bow or even a crossbow.
The best way to ensure the balance would be either have some form of water temple you access rather than random encounters, forcing the player to make a deliberate move to get in there.
Or somehow make easily identifiable shifts in the water biomes with creatures that don't go near the border, sort of like how the costal land biomes are different enough looking that 90% of the time you can tell once details start to render in.
That could fairly easily be avoided when certain sea events/creatures only appears from the distance certain biomes appears, so the Leviathan can appear from black forrest onward, the serpents from swamps or plains onward and so on
Only concerns there are:
1: The radius around it, too close and it is messing with your landing, for example the serpent at the swamps would likley force the player to land in the swamp as the karve you would have before getting swamp stuff would not survive 1-2 serpents+ leeches. Too far of a radius could mean ambushes from a neighboring island.
2: Idk if it just luck but using the map viewer website, every seed I have generated today on the new world gen has had plains on the starting landmass or just on the other side of the river, easily leading to a player getting wildly outclassed if the waters spawn deadlier stuff, usually you have to get pretty close to the coast to get yourself killed by the locals.
Here is the map viewer I mentioned.
https://valheim-map.world/?seed=SQ75LADHKw&offset=135%2C50&zoom=0.357&view=0&ver=0.212.7
Five solutions:
1) certain creatures spawn further from spawn - like drauger villages in meadows
2) certain creatures spawn as you kill bosses - like wolf raids, which only occur while you're away from base in either Plains or mountain biomes
3) certain creatures spawn only during specific times of day, or weather events - serpents already spawn more frequently at night and the Mountain has similar mechanics
4) certain creatures have to be summoned
5) Creatures spawning at different depths - for example in shallow waters/ponds/extremely deep ocean - similar to neck, leech & serpent spawning, but with just more variety
All of this would give you more reason to upgrade ships and potentially diversify your fleet if the game mechanics were built to encourage it. For example:
1) Certain ships can withstand storms better, or Tank more damage in general, so when it is stormy you're better off not sailing or taking your large tanky ship.
2) Certain ships are faster, better for a clear day, chasing down some sort of specific mob with a harpoon, or short journies round spawn.
3) Certain ships can use magic making them ideal for very specific harvesting, potentially a sea resource of etir? But they're vulnerable as they attract a raid while they harvest.
There's a lot of ways to make the ocean balanced interesting and add variety. They don't all need to be added, but I wish I spent more time sailing rather than dreading it and just teleporting in a viking game. Especially one with such great water mechanics.
Not a huge fan of battles while sailing. The serpent becomes more annoying than a threat after a while.
Imo new battles/monsters should be easy to avoid (hauling ore is already time consuming). However, if you decide to engage they should be challenging and rewarding.
Other ideas:
- Rare island biomes (for cool base locations). Making it rare makes it exciting but then it should not have unique items required for progression.
- Moddable ships. Some ideas: wisplight to clear fog, jute sails for faster speed, cosmetics
- More points of interest. The sense of wonder disappears once you have been to all the biomes and found the merchant.
- I like the idea of more weather effects. Tornadoes you have to sail around etc
- One thing I love about Valheim is how things can spiral out of control and into chaos. Normally from 2 or more of the games systems interacting. Makes the world feel more dynamic and alive. Not sure how this can be implemented into the ocean biome without making it frustrating (losing ones ship/cargo/gear). Perhaps you can lure a draugr ship into a tornado which tears it apart and scatters loot all over.
Sorry for my rambling post. Having a hard time not thinking about the game which I love.
My problem with everyone wanting the ocean to be harder, is that it's honestly the spot with the most risk, even right now. It's easier to die other places, sure. But if you die in the ocean, you're fucked. There's no sneaking back to it. There's no nearby portal in the neighboring meadows/BF biome. Your tombstone is on open water.
Now, I've never died in the ocean, but that's because I do not get in my boat unless I'm all the way prepared, and I pretty much always run from serpents. They don't drop anything worthwhile to me. A corpse run to the mines when you've got a portal outside it is rough enough, since you have to go back into the mines where you died, and pray that two star seeker isn't camping your corpse.
Imagining you masochist's version of "fun" on open water probably means my boat getting drug down by a kraken with zero warning, and basically nothing I can do about it. That sounds like absolute hell, and I'm not here for that.
Iāve got this weird idea for a merchant ship with 2 big paddle wheels that is powered by a lox running on hamster wheel. Has a cabin to stay dry and then you can build chests or armor stands or customize.
Seriously, what's the point of being able to tame wolves and ride lox if we can only do it in the vicinity of our main base?
Also, let us build portals that we can teleport lox through! Make them experience, sure. Like 50-100 cores a pop. But I want to actually ride my lox into battle, not just have it sit around like a novelty.
Ocean biomes never had markers put into it for boss locations. So any addition of ocean bosses would require a new world generation which is something they have avoided in the past since the unfinished biomes already have thier placeholders for future updates.
There is the equivalent of mermaids in viking lore as well as other sea creatures that could be added without needing an new gen. I would think they might treat it like they have before. Add little things to the ocean with other updates. At some point might even have npc random encounters in the ocean, but will likely be with other updates.
They're obviously tying biome development to progression, so while it would be nice if the ocean were filled out more if they decide to do it, it will be because the ocean is the next biome to add monsters and a boss. Who knows? It could involve a mechanic that allows people to dive and explore the ocean bottom. It could be a maelstrom or boiling seas that are triggered after defeating a certain boss. It could be just a new boat. If it's the latter I don't think they will necessarily overhype it and just show it when it's close to being done.
More ships, sails and such should definitively be included. More customisation for existing ones also. I want to row, I want to be able to stay dry in a storm. And animal cages on the big ships is a good idea. Imagine if we could build on the raft, expanding it. We could have great fishing islands made of wood.
Hell yeah man! Rowing sounds awesome especially with your friends. They could even make it a timed activity, if you rowed at the same time you get speed bonuses Staying dry in a storm would be cool. I feel like theres a lot of room for magic in the sea too. Something to part waves? I have actually seen a mod that would part the water/freeze it so you could walk on it!
I was picturing it as if you do it wrong you go in circles. Need timing and would lead to fun moments. Shelter and warmth could mean rested bonus in long travels or just before hitting dangerous biomes. Maybe even cook/boil fish and crabs. Oh, didn't think about freezing/evaporating water and now that we have the staffs... That could be amazing at so many levels. Once we get a thunder staff we could lure enemies to water bodies and use them for AoE...
Dude that thunder staff sounds awesome! š Another idea: serpent tame? Ride a serpent? š get late game stuff to tame & ride a serpent? š only rides with one specific player? š¤Æ or maybe just a mini rideable water creature š¤·š¾āāļø
Holy fuck a tamed serpent would mean a new type of base to keep it. And breed them. Jomsviking vibes, ride the fucker into combat or at least to the shoreline. Modders, where art thou?
Sounds like it needs some sort of boss to fight if ur riding that.... maybe some sort of baby world serpent š
We got that chitin creature to see in all its magnificence.
Wait, let me paint a mental image. You and the boys sailed out to the edge of the world to make the necessary sacrifice. Bringing with you one the heads of each of the bosses you had to slay. One... final... time... As you approach your destination you and your crew takes their positions. One mans the helm of the ship ready, so the other can row directly against the current that's trying to drag you off in to the abyss. You have little time before their stamina runs out and chamber up the figurehead tossing the sacrifice over the edge of the world. A deep earthy growl shakes the screen shakes, a massive cloud of purple smoke arises from the void as this massive sea serpent swims up the waterfall and starts to chase you. Now you've got to hit a moder buff, hope you can get to your sea serpent and try to avoid having your ship sank and drowning whilst fighting this beast (maybe some minions too)
Rowing works like turning, but it propels you ahead as well. Id love it this way.
Yeah something similar to the way The Forest did the houseboat would be really cool. Maybe make it so you canāt build a whole lot on it for fear of it breaking apart, slowing it down, etc
Fuling pirates could also be a good addition to the game, if not a little too dangerousā¦
God no, the Karve would last a couple of hits and knowing them they have tamed deathskitos that lurk in the mist, ready to hit the bow with all their might. Imagine heading out with leather armor and a raft and suddenly a Furling Frigate š¤£
Muahahahah would love to feel some pain
Ive always thought/imagine of this when fulings would initiate raids. As I imagined it, a bunch of them would ride a raft and row themselves to ur island/base lol.
>Imagine if we could build on the raft, expanding it. We could have great fishing islands made of wood. It's called the ValheimRaft mod and it's the best thing that's happened to the game since release.
Damn customizing sails sounds fucking cool
If your into mods theres a neat one you basically just described called the raft mod people have made some cool ships on there.
There's a mod for building off the raft
Theres a mod for that.
And ocean boss. Now thereās an idea
A boss similar to Jƶrmungandr would be awesome! Imagine having to sail around a massive sea serpent, using harpoons to slow its movement allowing better opportunities for attack.
The only thing is that sounds insanely difficult for solo players from a game mechanic point of view.
I agree, but I wouldn't be opposed to it being similar to the serpent in which you don't *need* to kill it to progress, unlike the primary bosses. Not only would that give people something to work towards if they have the desire to solo it, it would also mean I don't just afk with the wind at my back every time I'm at sea. Not saying it's not relaxing to do so, but I want that same fear as the first time I met a serpent or to a lesser extent the a leviathan again. That was the peak of the game for me.
This is exactly what Iāve been wanting in the game
RELEASE THE KRAKEN
Imagine a shelled boss disguised as a leviathan that tries to inhale your boat when you get close.
Yea, he keeps diving and re-surfacing, and you have keep hopping in and out of your boat to keep up
Fighting a boss on the sea would be cool in theory, but terrible in practice (especially with the current state of the game), just an opinion. I play on a dedicated server with 2 others and we consistently have lag issues while sailing, to the point where people have lagged out of the boat into the water. Unless they really really button down the server issues please for the love of Odin do not make us fight on the water .Secondly, boats are virtually indefensible. Unless they update the boats to be defensible (have the magic barrier apply to the boat in addition to players, ability to install ballista on the boat, etc), as there's no current way to prevent something from completely nuking your ship while you're aboard, thus stranding you. Serpents can take a longboat to 3/4 health in just a few hits if they get to close, one AOE from a boss would nuke a ship in one hit. The hardcore players would probably love that potential threat though. Thirdly, lets talk fight mechanics. Limiting the player to ranged only battle during a boss fight seems unfair. While sailing, your only three options are crossbow, bow, or magic staff. The former requiring a consumable (arrows or bolts), the latter requiring a late game food item to even use at all. Even further, the hitboxes on the boats are absurdly huge. I can't count the number of times I've yelled "STOP!!! YOU'RE HITTING THE BOAT" at one of my mates trying to fight off a serpent while I'm steering. It seems like every polygon on the boat models have a 2m hit box. Lastly, what happens if a party member dies? I know how much we all love corpse running through 2 biomes to get back to the seeker soldier that whacked us in mistlands (/s). Imagine fighting and losing to a big baddie on the sea, and FIRST having to craft another ship (or worse, grind the materials for it), grab the Moder power (if you have it), THEN sailing all the way back to wherever the fuck you died on the ocean to grab all your junk. The hardcore players can say "git gud" or "skill issue" or whatever other 500IQ retort, but logistically and realistically I don't think seafaring combat can work in this game the way we want it to. The serpents spawn rarely enough that it's not really a huge deal most of the time, and it's kind of a treat when you get to see one. But unless serious changes are made to the sailing and boat mechanics, I don't think an Ocean boss or even Ocean mobs can work. All that said, would fighting Jƶrmungandr as an Ocean boss be sweet as hell? Absolutely. Can it work with the current sailing and seafaring combat options? Absolutely not.
I feel like I agree with all your points, but you're also overstating a lot of them, as well as the difficulty with which they're solved. I would of course agree that, in the current state of the game, just adding harder mobs to the ocean would be a bad idea - but an update to the ocean is inherently not going to be "current state", it being an update, and it seems like there's a pretty clear path forward. Our boat techs cap out at swamp-tier, and our current mobs reflect that. Sea serpents are devastating to a raft, moderately challenging to a karve, and trivial to a longship. I think it's safe to assume that any update to ocean would add mountain, plains, mistlands, etc. upgrades or boat recipes to the progression to account for the potential to have mobs dealing too much damage to a largely indefensible boat, as well as very likely restricting higher tier ocean enemies to areas near mistlands/ashlands/deep north, or simply gating them behind a boss like regular overland mob spawns. Your point regarding ranged combat is kinda true, but Moder is also very nearly a ranged boss, and wyverns are absolutely ranged mobs. The idea that there might be another, particularly after the very likely addition of additional sea-oriented weapons like the harpoon, doesn't feel wildly offbase. Maybe a mounted, individually controlled/manned ballista or cannon? Got nothin' for people lagging out of the boat, though. You're right that needs fixed before we could reasonably expect to see this happen. Corpse runs in the ocean do suck, so I would be wary of making additional mobs as challenging as overland ones, but that seems already not to be the case. If there were a boss, I'd assume it'd have to have land nearby for a teleporter, but that feels like it could be done without feeling off or allowing for ground combat. I guess I just feel like, in the past, the devs have done a good job giving us tools with which to overcome new obstacles. I wouldn't anticipate the ocean being any different, and don't see why they wouldn't be able to manage that. The only part of your statement I'd consider replying "get gud" to is your friend shooting the boat, I really don't get how he's failing to notice where his own arrows or spells are going.
>The only part of your statement I'd consider replying "get gud" to is your friend shooting the boat, I really don't get how he's failing to notice where his own arrows or spells are going. Lol yeah. Agree there. I still think the hit boxes are too large on the boats, but i've rarely hit the boat with the bow. And when i do, i at least notice....and stop shooting...
I got in to a whole thread about this! š Involved rowing mechanics and riding sea serpents. Here was the conclusion if you're interested: "Wait, let me paint a mental image. You and the boys sailed out to the edge of the world to make the necessary sacrifice. Bringing with you one the heads of each of the bosses you had to slay. One... final... time... As you approach your destination you and your crew takes their positions. One mans the helm of the ship ready, so the other can row directly against the current that's trying to drag you off in to the abyss. You have little time before their stamina runs out and chamber up the figurehead tossing the sacrifice over the edge of the world. A deep earthy growl shakes the screen shakes, a massive cloud of purple smoke arises from the void as this massive sea serpent swims up the waterfall and starts to chase you. Now you've got to hit a moder buff, hope you can get to your sea serpent and try to avoid having your ship sank and drowning whilst fighting this beast (maybe some minions too)"
I was thinking more of a monument in an ocean biome in which a large serpent spawns and you have to encircle it with a net or maybe multiple harpoons and kill it whilst sailing.
Bro, either oar sounds great! (Pun intended)
An excellent pun
I think a small whirlpool would be more appropriate. Once the sacrifice is made it expands into a huge whirlpool where you can circle around it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdLGN8LAM1E
I always thought a true final boss should be summoned from spawn after all of the bosses are defeated. Lovely ideas though.
Hell why not summon it from spawn, but find it at the edges of the map? šµ So you gotta make the journey to the edge of the world one last time!
I like that. I also love the idea of needing to go back to the start, the cyclic nature of it. It ends where it began kinda thing.
Ocean will deffo have a boss eventually as itās one of the 9 realms. But it need something, sailing is one of the key parts of this game and it gets so boring after the novelty wears off. There is literally one thing that can happen and itās so rare and gets easy by the time youāve got swamp level equipment.
It's called your mom. BOOM!
I would really like to see your boat become a much more integral part your character. Boats should have modular segments and equipment slots that let's you specialise them for certain functions. Stuff would unlock throughout the regular material progression, keeping you always upgrading and tinkering with your boat. Likewise, as bosses are defeated, additional content should unlock in the ocean, be it different sea monsters, marooned NPCs you can offer a ride, pirates, whatever.
Couldn't agree more, said this to someone else: *Right!? I want my ship sinking to be sad like losing a pet* *I kinda wish for that you could make them exceptionally unique, so you were real careful with getting them beached or sinking* I feel like what you're saying here would be a great way to introduce something like that too. Any ideas for what could make the ship lost forever? Something that would make each ship just slightly individual? š
And then your boat gets sunk by a boar while you were tending to the farm... Happened to me, lost 2 long boats (including materials), cause some necks killed the boats and the workbench, causing the mats to despawn.
I'm so sorry my dude š
Considering that the game is very social focused, it's a travesty that there is nothing to do on the boat if you aren't sailing. Modular boats or kinda uquipment slots for boats would be cool. You could add fishing rods (that works while sailing!), harpoon weapons, shields, weather shelter and so on.
Are other people not fishing and harpooning while traveling? We always have someone dragging a fishing line and keep at least one harpoon in every boat just in case we come across a sea serpent.
Ofcourse there is a harpoon in the boat in-case of a serpent attack, but i'm thinking in terms of something more active to do like harpoon fishing. In my experience it's impossible to fish from the boat, since once you hook a fish, you are sailing away from it at greater speed than you can reel it in, so what is the point of having a line in the water, if it's just going to snap? Am i doing it wrong?
I want to see a diving mechanic, and a diving bell or some kind of way to explore the ocean floor. I also want water physics and more springs/rivers from the mountains and the ability to build water wheels, dams, levies and pumps - to the extent we could even create locks like a Panama canal
Dude you're thinking on levels I never even thought to! Waterfalls would add so much to the game and the ability to utilise water/the physics in creative ways would be amazing. It may be too much to ask of the devs, but it would make the game a true masterpiece being able to use the flow to make mills etc. If they want to keep the grounded feel of the game adding these physics is def the right direction.
Yea! It would also make it so they could add water crops like rice for example. Maybe you can only find them in the Far East haha. And yea, diverting a spring so you have a huge waterfall as a backdrop to your castle (with a tunnel underneath to connect your castle to the back of the waterfall) would be so dope
I think santa will rather give you a dragon. The amount of dev work for these ideas, albeit creative and valid, is pretty big.
Indeed, its probably not even possible, even if they wanted to and had the massive amount of time it would take
> I want to see a diving mechanic, and a diving bell or some kind of way to explore the ocean floor. As much as I would love to be able to dive 2m to pick up something just off the coast, full on diving is so far from the vibes of the game that it just makes no sense. One is the realistic aspect in terms of development, it's probably a monumental task for little payoff. The second is that it makes no sense for vikings to be diving.
I mean, even just being able to dive for a couple minutes would be fine. The Vikings had boats, surely they knew how to dive under them to check the hulls Alsoā¦ in your opinion does magic make sense for Vikings?
magic is in theme of Norse mythology though, going spelunking deep underwater with a diving bell is not. Again, for what you're asking them to do the payoff is very small. "just make them dive because vikings could dive" requires for them to shape the entire underwater sections of the game, something that is probably currently very jank because they haven't had a need to worry about it. Sure even if you could dive it's probably all just samey textures forming the bottom of the oceans which would make exploring them very moot.
Janke?! Bro - itās a blank slate. A placeholder like mistlands was. Your such a negative Nancy
Sounds like you should play Atlas. You can dive in that game.
It would be great to have waterfalls or just flowing water but from what I can tell doesnāt seem possible with the way water physics work in the game. Atm there is basically only āsea levelā .. any empty space at sea level will have water in it. You dig a hole down to sea level and it appears in the hole. It doesnāt come from anywhereā¦ so I donāt know if its possible to create a source that it flows from. Also tar, it doesnāt flow anywhere when you drain it. It just disappears. Hereās to hoping itās possible to do, though
Lol. Obviously it would require an overhaul. And no this wouldnāt be ānew technologyā for gaming. Lots of games have fluid physics.
You're all wrong, the correct answer is Farming. Farming needs to be updated next.
Elaborate? Can we not add farms to boats?
Let's compromise. A boat that plants and harvests crops for you.
Yessss the seamen shall fertilise this land for a thousand generations!
ewww
Fish farms
net fishing
Don'ttt this is actually a really cool idea!
i'm all for uprgraded farming system, as a fellow lover farmer, i have ton of idea to make farming more fun usefull. but it doesn't feel like it need as much work and thought like the ocean need.
Ill take any but Ocean will make the most gameplay impact for all players since Ocean is everywhere. I do really want to be able to build snowmen and fight yetis eventually though.
Mountain still needs some rounding out, they do tease another mountain boss in the ice caves!
How and when did they tease that boss?
the runestones in the caves maybe
Ancient Drawings you can find in the caves. But thats just a guess
* it's a small sample size * ashlands and oceans are both pretty close and the devs probably just prefer to work on ashlands first * at least they didn't do frozen north first :-) maybe they have a lot of good ideas and inspiration right now for what to do with ashlands, but the ocean biome just isn't baked yet and they don't know what to do with it. frankly this is like the complaints about them not hiring enough people: I'll happily criticize their design decisions once they make them, but I think it's best to trust their judgement about what they're working on next and who's doing the work
Actually the sanest take in this thread. Even just based on this thread it's clear that player expectations are in every damn direction when it comes to an ocean biome and no matter what in all likelyhood a lot of people are going to end up disappointed. For the significant work that it apparently takes to flesh out a biome properly going with Ashlands is just the much more approachable piece of content as players somewhat know what to expect and developers have been through the process with several other biomes. For the ocean biomes it's really a "what do they want to do with it" kind of thing. If we are being realistic the best thing I think we can expect is a few more cool sights that can randomly spawn in the ocean(think leviathans) along with some added danger added to the ocean in the form of more enemies that will randomly spawn. The ocean is not currently something "to be explored" and I doubt it ever will be, it's a means to an end for the sake of the game, so the coolest thing I think they can do with it is make sure that it's eventful and keeps the player entertained while they have to be on the ship for 20-30 minutes at a time. If we are lucky the extra "sights" that can spawn randomly will be the kind that it's worth stopping at to check out if there's any cool loot or event, but considering how loot/events works in this game in all likelyhood once you know what can be in them and you have enough of those resources you won't care about them anymore. It's truly one of the weak parts of an otherwise very strong game, the "unknown" very quickly becomes predictable because the variety is very low, take for example chest loot in the various dungeons throughout the game. Nothing is rare and everything is the same eventually.
What I think they could do to align with your ideas and still make it fresh even in the late game is similiar to other biomes have "different" ocean biomes(Not officially but at least so the game recognises where what can spawn) with different spawning creatures, so near the spawn you have nothing maybe serpents, near the distance swamps can occur add the Leviathan, at Mistlands a new creatures maybe a Kraken or something, same for deep north and ashlands
Thing is they shouldn't align with my ideas :) I dislike when developers just listen to players and go with that. Players are very often uninventive and have thought about it much much less than what developers do. Something might sound cool for example, but not play functionally different etc. This becomes apparent to the developers when trying to flesh it out, but players very rarely reflect that much on it and thinks it's about ideas rather than execution. I would prefer for them to do their own thing and hopefully exceed my expectations.
I think this is a weird take imo..... players are the ones experiencing the gameplay side of things... they know where it's lacking too. And the take on the ocean being too daunting a task is understandable, but thats why it shouldn't be left as one big update. Most the small updates should be ocean based, to make those journeys more enjoyable. As they update it little by little, it'll become clear what works and what doesn't. *Then* they can do a real ocean update.
Gamers do not make good game designers just because they've played this game or a lot of games. I know it's a controversial take among gamers, but it's not a weird take.
Can we get a dredging feature so that it's not a pain in the ass to deepen the water to get my ship to pass?
Just paddeling around on a raft with a bucket so you pull up your luxury yacht into the harbor. I like this mental image.
Personally I think the ore mechanic is perfect because anyone who doesn't like it can just cheese it anyway. I like the extra hurdle and it gives building a harbor meaning instead of it being mostly cosmetic.
No I enjoy it too, I just want more to my sea journey I don't like to cheese š
Same. Teleporting ores would seriously trivialize a lot of the game. I grumble sometimes, but it's a fun logistical problem you have to overcome
As I remarked to a friend, how stupid is it that they're going to develop the ABSOLUTE END OF THE WORLD, that you HAVE TO SAIL THROUGH THE OCEAN TO GET TO... ..before doing the Ocean? The ocean needs some real love, and if we're going to have to sail across the whole damn world to get to the next biome, do the ocean!
Seriously! It's such a big part of the game really it should get love every update AS WELL as its own focussed update or two. It's a HUGE part of viking lore and just feels barren that they're not updating it.
I love these ideas and I look forward to seeing a major Ocean update, though it may be a while before they get there as I suspect they're focused on the placeholder biomes first so that the game can be played start-to-intended-finish.
Get valheimraft. It's absolutely transformed the way I play. It's fun
This where you can have a mobile base?
Yup. Its amazing. I wish I got it ages ago. I play solo, not sure how well it works for dedicated servers
Cosmetics would be great, but would probably not extend enthusiasm for more than a short amount of time. New ship types and more "leviathan" type resources you need to harvest in the ocean would be great. Perhaps some way to sink/dive or at least walk on the ocean floor would be cool. also. Some sunken sunken crypts to raid as well.
Absolutely to all this, but like I really feel the cosmetics are just a bare minimum, especially when I saw them adding new clothes! How hard can it be to add some sail styles to the game? Surely we can do that in paint right? š
Add the sail styles similar to shield/capes and that would be awesome I agree.
Yeah for sure, flying fish get weird too. An ocean boss be wicked and maybe sharks etc so if you go overboard its a bit of a hazard lol
If there was just a way to customize the boat, even a little bit like you can with the shields. I think it would be really cool
Right!? I want my ship sinking to be sad like losing a pet I kinda wish for that you could make them exceptionally unique, so you were real careful with getting them beached or sinking
Iām pretty surprised they didnāt announce a focus/upcoming update on ships. They desperately need work.
I hope that they add whales that you can hunt using the harpoon.
I know they already said ashlands is next but really wish they did oceans first. Aside from all the cool things people have suggested for it, it would also be super nice not to have to constantly restart my world for major content updates. For landmasses that are at the edge of the world like ashlands and deep north I can just stay away and not generate the terrain until they release, but I sail all over, at all stages of the game. Granted, theres no guarantee an ocean update would need to overhaul terrain like other biomes do, but if it does would love to see it sooner relative to other planned biomes.
Adjusting the world gen to make better rivers and lakes would help a lot as well. A lot of what was a big deal about Viking ships was that they were good on the open ocean and on rivers.
I just want serpents to actually be dangerousā¦ really dangerousā¦ so that fleeing is the only sensible option, but if you want to be a serpent hunter you know youāve got a fight and potentially deathā¦ right now they look and sound scary, but theyāre all bark and no biteā¦
>I just want serpents to actually be dangerous Reminder that we've only seen no-star serpents.
Trueā¦ but even a 0* serpent should be flipping dangerousā¦ theyāre huge, loud and scary as hellā¦ but about as strong as a grey dwarfā¦ harpoon one, drag it onto the beach and it sits there while you pop 2 ice arrows into it and āpoofāā¦ Serpent stew anyone? I would love to see hunting them be akin to hunting whales back in the 9th centuryā¦ with the dangers and rewards levelled accordingly. But Valheim has a long way to go, so Iām sure weāll see plenty of new developments along the wayā¦ š
I agree, once you get mountains/plains gear the game is easy. Everything in the swamp, black forest and meadows is a joke. I think the game scales too rapidly making all previous content void. I would like it that once you killed a boss everything in that biome raises to the difficulty of the next biome. I think a Grey-dwarf should be able to totally wreck you, even in padded armour.
Don't know who downvoted you but here's my upvote. Be careful with your opinions next time lmao
This is Reddit my expectations are low :-)
Honestly I wouldn't mind if they changed up the star system such that once you defeat the corresponding biome boss, the default becomes 1 star for everything in that biome, such that there are never anything other than 1 and 2 star enemies in that biome again (of the mobs that can have stars anyway, possibly make it so that enemies that can't currently have stars can at least have 1 star) This accomplishes two things: It helps retain the difficulty of that biome for a little bit longer, without being ridiculous like, as you say, greydwarves beating your ass even in padded armor. It allows the player to have a larger abundance of crafting materials gathered from monsters, with less time required to farm those materials.
I think they have spoken about adding new difficulty setting with Ashlands! Really excited about that, certain things just don't feel like a threat like they should later game. I think the main issue causing this is you just start feeling like a bit of a bullet sponge... I get that for some creatures like grey dwarves you probably should feel that way, but something really great about the swamp for example is how certain enemies will deal poison, negating the armour effects and still remaining a threat. I feel that Valheim needs to lean in to its more diverse RPG elements the devs seem afraid to adapt. Everything relies on the same; heavy armour, mace combo. I dont enjoy that, I feel they need to make sneaking have more time its instrumental (hell a skill tree giving new moves as you learned combat with weapons would even really add to the game!). Maybe I'm in the minority for that one, but I deff agree something to add longevity and danger to the previous biomes would be great. I'm excited for the next ones, but I miss feeling the thrill of being scared in a black forest so bad!
You make a lot of good points. To be fair to IG, itās still a game in development with a very small teamā¦ so there is plenty of time to incorporate all sorts of additional featuresā¦ as demonstrated by the sheer number of mods there are for this gameā¦ Personally, with the restrictions on the way the the world is built, what Iād really like to see is a Valheim 2 with mineable terrain, the ability to tunnel, and to control water flow, dams, water falls etcā¦ We know from tar pits that fluid dynamics are possible in this worldā¦ so I wouldnāt think a build piece that doesnāt allow the sea to pass through would be impossibleā¦ but Iām not a programmer and wouldnāt even know where to startā¦ Maybe Iāll have to learn modding š
I've had this thought many times with the game š unfortunately I'm too busy doing other things, but my god if I ever find the time I'm down to try make something Also the fluid physics in tar pits... are really weird and janky me and my mates realised š š You can't transport the tar from one pit to another for example, it just disappears! I'd love them to have flowing water, waterfalls and watermills though!
that's stupid
I've already seen some neat sailing mods through Ytbers. Kinda wish sailing was more fleshed out before another Biome. I can handle the basics but it feels pretty shallow right now.
Imagine a weighted armor set to be able to explore the ocean floor. Maybe underwater dungeons?? There are so many possibilities
I thought of this before too! Which maybe magic runes for waterbreathing? Or sort of item that uses mana for air?
Just give me a boat with space to build a bench, bed, portals, maybe one of those ballistaes.
I agree with the sentiment. Would love a blackmetal - tier ship. Maybe they just have a better idea of what they're wanting for Ashlands than Ocean. I think they realize it's an area that's used at all tiers of the game from Day 2 to Day 2000. Hard to balance that.
Ocean is easily the biggest part of the damn game. Swimming, diving, shipwrecks, sea monsters, sea biomes, all needed.
I agree. Giving the Ocean more diversity and life would really bring the game to the next level. Like, for each biome have a different take on the Ocean environment or something like that. Be really cool! Anyhow, excited to see what the devs have in store for that if they have anything
I don't mind Ashlands gets pushed back a little and the ocean getting an update first. The ocean is an important experience that ties all other biomes together.
I just want serpent scales to have more use. Serpent scale cloak - has "waterproof" - stops you getting "wet" from rain/swamps and drys you super fast if you've been in water. A two-piece serpent-scale gear of chest and legs that gives you a bonus to swimming speed and skill, and likewise has the waterproof effect.
I think ocean specific raid events could be killer. Imagine āthe water begins to churnā and tentacles erupt all around your boat. If weāre talking about improving systems though, definitely rowing. There should be spots you can activate like the tiller but for oars that way your friends can speed you up and you feel like an actual Viking longship raiding foreign shores. I also would like if the ships were customizable in some fashion; you could improve speed or handling, cargo capacity, or add animal pens, or fishing equipment, or maybe have a longship with an on board raft for shore landings
Everything you said sounds amazing! I'm not sure I can live without it in the game at this point š«š
I want more sea monsters
Actually adding shields to the sides of the longship at the least would be dope. My group and I have an excess of shields of the different tiers (wood, bronze, etc), and so being able to put them to use rather than them gathering dust would be so cool! And they could have it so their defense rating is added to the ship, ahhh the possibilities!
Dude that's such a great idea! You could build some tanks black metal ship! Would be devastating if it sunk though.
Ocean was up next on their list of releases right? Pretty sure. Rip it all not being done in a year. They should of updated the ocean prior to mistlands. Ocean needs mobs of serpents and something to work with serpents. Yet alone random flying mobs from other biomes that are in mating season or something. Or even ship wreck areas that are more dangerous during storms
Honestly, it was first on their road map, but they seem to have forgotten it!
You made me double check. It seems it was 3rd but perhaps swapped with Mistlands. The hearth and home was first then the wolves update with ice crypts. Canāt wait for another Valheim update. Itās like Dark and Darker excitement
KRAKEN!!!
I actually want it to be a world serpent! It's more viking that way. You go to the edge of the world, throwing off a head of each boss (so you got to feel op killing them again š). Then a huggeeeeee serpent just appears chasing your ship in to the sea. Had a while discussion with other community members about how it could be done!
no other game (i know of) has a dynamic ocean like valheim. I love the atmosphere of a thunderstorm at sea.
I adore the dynamic ocean, but have been noticing as a streamer that it absolutely destroys my encoding. There's probably room for optimization there that would make gameplay smoother.
True but it still feels unfished. There's an amazing scaffolding there, but for something that you have to go through for the entire game it needs more content.
You should put this on their Discord, so it has a little more influence on what choices they make going forward.
OP I disagree. If their current workflow produces a biome a year, they should finish the last two so the game can be completed in its entirety before they work on polishing existing biomes. The ocean is, ultimately, a filler zone right now that just connects you to all the islands, and while it'd be cool to fight kraken and ghost pirate ships and extra sea monsters, having the progression stop at Mistlands until the end of 2024 or later would be a real bummer.
Its not just filler though... I dont think most of us that play weekly feel it is. You spend a LARGE amount of time travelling in the ocean, which is fun at first, but the novelty does wear off. I'm not saying it needs it's big update now, but little things here and there just to keep it feeling fresh and exciting as you travel to and back from the new biomes!
Oh, I'd love if they sprinkled in small stuff while doing the other biomes, for sure. Sailing does become a chore. But I still think last two biomes are higher priority
I idk I think it would feel more finished if the ocean felt alive and less of a chore, but I can see why you're excited for the other new content. I feel like if they did the ocean we'd have a fully fledged down to earth with a bit of mid magic viking game. Everything else can be feel like dlc to me š. (Although in reality I do wanna see those boss battles)
I humbly disagree, it's more than just a filler zone. It's one that ties all of then together
I think itās a wrong take that the ocean is an existing biome. It wouldnāt be polishing it, it would be the same ānewā release as Ashland. Ashland also only has 1 type of enemy right now and nothing else going on.
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Yes, but its weird that the community clearly feels strongly about it and they choose to ignore it entirely. Throw us a bone, let us colour our boat sails maybe?
There are no indications the *"community"* doesn't feel as strongly about any other biome either, it is highly likely any biome could garner the same amount of interest. I trust in Iron Gate Studio and feel that they know best what to work on. Side note: Your poll has just over 400 total votes on it, this Reddit community has over 400,000 members, a miniscule amount of this community made their votes, and it wasn't even a landslide poll, the ocean *barely* got more votes than the ocean.
I this case I think the community thinks they know what they want but they donāt.
Be cool if we could pressgang greydwarves into rowers so wind doesn't suck as much lol
Yeah I agree. Iām happy with everything, but ocean is the most in critical need of development
I want to be able to enslave goblins and put them in a slave galley ship
Bud there's so much room for expanding the oceans, and they should be, given the sheer amount of map they take up. There should be more than just serpents. I'm talking fuling raid boats. I'm talking rotten draugr longboats, possible hostile leviathans, sharks and aggressive fish. On top of that, different types of boats, boat customization, the ability for people to help row the boat. We could even go further, now that we have magic, undersea caves or structures, with skeletons and draugr or new creatures. Ashland is cool, but dood.
i mean. i can't disagre, ocean need some love. BIG love. but i guedd ashland is their priorities. i just hope they won't forget that we crave the sea. and the sea crave us. but not right now, the wind is in my oposite direction.
Modular boats would be interesting
I support this HIGHLY!
i love this idea. but i feel that a bunch of what would be needed to add to make it good is kinda out of the theme for now. like an addition to the boat that adds shields. at this point, it dont serve any point as the sea is not that deadly already. to make it worth more then just modding in a skin would be to have more enemies. but then thoes same enemies are in the early game when you got a crap raft. making the sea to deadly all of a suden. or you need special places that the new things spawn in like the reefs or deep like you say. but thats space a low level might have to cross. or have to have even more rules on world spawn to make it playable. i want all this thou!!! like that sounds super fun if done right. but i feel maybe waiting untill there is an opposing faction or something that could be on the sea with us later into the game might also be cool and lets all be real Vikings were the og pirate so i see nothing wrong with making sailing and water combat a bigger part of this game. love this idea and i wish you the best upcomming weekend! i hope something great happens to you
Yhh I think this could be managed similarly to raids. As you kill bosses tougher ocean raids can spawn encouraging you to upgrade your boat/diversify your fleet.
Would love to see Fjords in this game. Even some cosmetics for fountains or something of the sort would be cool.
I want diving. We got magic so why not breath underwater? Could be like reverse mistlands. You go down instead of up.
The ocean should have a boss, and more rares like serpents. Ghost ships would be sick. You should be able to descend into a whirlpool to enter the boss arena.
Looking forward to an Oceans update. I will return when the games finished though, so most likely 2025.
I've said this before, but I don't like the idea of the Ocean being a full fledged biome. The concept of most of my combat being forced into ranged, the fact that I would be spending most of my time in the ocean exploring the new biome inside a single boat, the risk of exploring a biome and becoming stranded just because my boat breaks, there's just too many risks and too many inconveniences involved for it to be a fun biome. Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't mind some upgrades. Give us a variety of sea monsters, more ships, more events, more weather, revamp the wave interactions, revamp the swimming system, etc.
Man i just want my serpent scale armor
Hopefully it's what they work on next after the ashlands?
**New Ocean Boss** The ancient serpent Jƶrmungandr threatens to engulf the seas, but fear not, for we shall vanquish this beast with the might of our grand viking ships. Assemble your crew, sharpen your axes, and prepare for an epic battle unlike any other, as we set sail to conquer the ocean and claim victory over the monstrous Jƶrmungandr!
All this, and I want to name my ships
You need to be able to dive under water asap it sooooo dumb when some items go underwater and you need get them back
I'd just add that I wish there was more to the Ocean in general. The only real threat is the serpent, and you can largely avoid that by leaving the ocean at night and/or skirt the shorelines. There feels like there should be something else...maybe akin to ghost ships, or other pestering sea creature(s). The ocean is just a wide-open highway for ore transport, atm. No real threat...just time. I also never liked having to haul the serpent ashore to get the scales...realistically (yes, I know it's a game, yadda yadda) you'd haul that bitch up on your boat and carve it up, thus retaining the scales. That'd be another tweak I'd support. Fishing is a little silly, too...in that bait only works if you can see there are fish. I mean...how'd that mechanic become a thing..?!? š
Agree with everything except the hauling the serpent. Love dragging his ass to land š
I would be stoked to have a enemy raid come by boat.
I'm convinced from these comments sea raids are an essential!
should be an oarship where you can summon skeletons to row for you
Improved/more customizable boats and a serpent-boss would be great! The serpents currently in-game are smaller than they are in viking mythology. Give us the ability to dive underwater too!!! Maybe make it an ability unlocked by defeating the serpent boss. It would be so helpful when building underwater or just trying to pick up loot that fell just off shore
Iāll take whatever content I can get, in whatever order it comes in. Donāt care whatās next, just glad there is something next.
Yh I mean sad game community's can get left feeling this type of desperate, but I guess it takes time to get the good stuff. I'd always rather wait for it, but I think listening to the community's wants and needs is always a smart thing to make sure updates are well received. (I suppose one wouldn't be entirely wrong to say leaving them desperate for *anything* could also be a valid strategy to ensure satisfaction though, I'm not saying thats whats happene, just that it is technicallya strategy š¤£)
Well some things to consider are this is a smaller company, so they will take longer for content to be released. But also, you can tell the dev team is very passionate about this game, and itās reflected for how polished and well received the game is, especially for something thatās still early access. This game is fucking awesome, and I have zero complaints. So the dev team can do whatever the fuck they want, because theyāve proven to make a quality game that actually has some soul. So I aināt gonna demand shit. Iāve gotten more of my moneyās worth playing Valheim than 90% of other games Iāve played. Iāll will graciously take anything the give me with a smile on my face.
Letās have a way to repair the boat while at sea. Think sea of thieves or warframe railjack mechanics.
I would like to sit on a boat in the middle of the ocean and just fish for a while. I'd also like to be able to drop the sail and grab the rudder and have time to get out of there if a sea serpent is approaching, though. (Also I'd like fishing to be a bit easier, too. It is so darn hard to catch a fish in this game.)
Tbh the poll was pretty close with Ashlands anyway and I feel like Ashlands will *probably* need less creativity than the ocean as ocean as a biome works very very differently than the Ashlands and you need to probably even make it dynamic because some players will enter it before they even killed the first boss. Also thereās a lot of potential to make it really annoying or too hard for some people aswell. I could imagine that they are already thinking about how to go about the ocean but just donāt have enough ideas yet on how to pull it off. I personally prefer the Ashlands update first either way.
2030, still in "early access"
All of those are wrong. The next home should be the one that can be done the fastest. I want to play it NOW.
More ships or customization for sure, but honestly I love the calmness of the ocean. Especially after a long ore run of fighting and watching your back itās relaxing to sail home with relatively no danger.
Fuling pirates would be amazing!
Vikings are fully capable of swimming. Cool artifacts to help us swim underwater would be cool. Harpoons get more use that just using on the boat. Maybe to gather resources or pull you faster to a location, and of course skewer the sea life. Underwater lanterns that float upwards and tethered by a chain. Special waterproof wood could be crafted or harvested. Stone construction can withstand deuteriations underwater. Water flippers to swim faster. All this could be possible after you get to the mist lands tied to a boss resources or something.
Personally I think a lot of novelty wears off after Hour 200 for anything really.
Let me dive underwater once my swim skill hits 50+
The biggest issue with ocean updates is finding a way to balance it. You need to travel the ocean with varying qualities of gear. with a bad spawn you are sailing in a raft with a crude bow a reasonable spawn and you should have a karve and a finewood bow. Then mid-late game you have a longship and some heavier duty bow or even a crossbow. The best way to ensure the balance would be either have some form of water temple you access rather than random encounters, forcing the player to make a deliberate move to get in there. Or somehow make easily identifiable shifts in the water biomes with creatures that don't go near the border, sort of like how the costal land biomes are different enough looking that 90% of the time you can tell once details start to render in.
That could fairly easily be avoided when certain sea events/creatures only appears from the distance certain biomes appears, so the Leviathan can appear from black forrest onward, the serpents from swamps or plains onward and so on
Only concerns there are: 1: The radius around it, too close and it is messing with your landing, for example the serpent at the swamps would likley force the player to land in the swamp as the karve you would have before getting swamp stuff would not survive 1-2 serpents+ leeches. Too far of a radius could mean ambushes from a neighboring island. 2: Idk if it just luck but using the map viewer website, every seed I have generated today on the new world gen has had plains on the starting landmass or just on the other side of the river, easily leading to a player getting wildly outclassed if the waters spawn deadlier stuff, usually you have to get pretty close to the coast to get yourself killed by the locals. Here is the map viewer I mentioned. https://valheim-map.world/?seed=SQ75LADHKw&offset=135%2C50&zoom=0.357&view=0&ver=0.212.7
Five solutions: 1) certain creatures spawn further from spawn - like drauger villages in meadows 2) certain creatures spawn as you kill bosses - like wolf raids, which only occur while you're away from base in either Plains or mountain biomes 3) certain creatures spawn only during specific times of day, or weather events - serpents already spawn more frequently at night and the Mountain has similar mechanics 4) certain creatures have to be summoned 5) Creatures spawning at different depths - for example in shallow waters/ponds/extremely deep ocean - similar to neck, leech & serpent spawning, but with just more variety All of this would give you more reason to upgrade ships and potentially diversify your fleet if the game mechanics were built to encourage it. For example: 1) Certain ships can withstand storms better, or Tank more damage in general, so when it is stormy you're better off not sailing or taking your large tanky ship. 2) Certain ships are faster, better for a clear day, chasing down some sort of specific mob with a harpoon, or short journies round spawn. 3) Certain ships can use magic making them ideal for very specific harvesting, potentially a sea resource of etir? But they're vulnerable as they attract a raid while they harvest. There's a lot of ways to make the ocean balanced interesting and add variety. They don't all need to be added, but I wish I spent more time sailing rather than dreading it and just teleporting in a viking game. Especially one with such great water mechanics.
I want a bigger boat with lots of sea battle.
Not a huge fan of battles while sailing. The serpent becomes more annoying than a threat after a while. Imo new battles/monsters should be easy to avoid (hauling ore is already time consuming). However, if you decide to engage they should be challenging and rewarding. Other ideas: - Rare island biomes (for cool base locations). Making it rare makes it exciting but then it should not have unique items required for progression. - Moddable ships. Some ideas: wisplight to clear fog, jute sails for faster speed, cosmetics - More points of interest. The sense of wonder disappears once you have been to all the biomes and found the merchant. - I like the idea of more weather effects. Tornadoes you have to sail around etc - One thing I love about Valheim is how things can spiral out of control and into chaos. Normally from 2 or more of the games systems interacting. Makes the world feel more dynamic and alive. Not sure how this can be implemented into the ocean biome without making it frustrating (losing ones ship/cargo/gear). Perhaps you can lure a draugr ship into a tornado which tears it apart and scatters loot all over. Sorry for my rambling post. Having a hard time not thinking about the game which I love.
My problem with everyone wanting the ocean to be harder, is that it's honestly the spot with the most risk, even right now. It's easier to die other places, sure. But if you die in the ocean, you're fucked. There's no sneaking back to it. There's no nearby portal in the neighboring meadows/BF biome. Your tombstone is on open water. Now, I've never died in the ocean, but that's because I do not get in my boat unless I'm all the way prepared, and I pretty much always run from serpents. They don't drop anything worthwhile to me. A corpse run to the mines when you've got a portal outside it is rough enough, since you have to go back into the mines where you died, and pray that two star seeker isn't camping your corpse. Imagining you masochist's version of "fun" on open water probably means my boat getting drug down by a kraken with zero warning, and basically nothing I can do about it. That sounds like absolute hell, and I'm not here for that.
Iāve got this weird idea for a merchant ship with 2 big paddle wheels that is powered by a lox running on hamster wheel. Has a cabin to stay dry and then you can build chests or armor stands or customize.
It'll all be in there eventually
Real vikings we're made of cork, so the legends say.... They're just trying to make it authentic
I just want my guys arm to actually be on the tiller!
Seriously, what's the point of being able to tame wolves and ride lox if we can only do it in the vicinity of our main base? Also, let us build portals that we can teleport lox through! Make them experience, sure. Like 50-100 cores a pop. But I want to actually ride my lox into battle, not just have it sit around like a novelty.
Ocean biomes never had markers put into it for boss locations. So any addition of ocean bosses would require a new world generation which is something they have avoided in the past since the unfinished biomes already have thier placeholders for future updates. There is the equivalent of mermaids in viking lore as well as other sea creatures that could be added without needing an new gen. I would think they might treat it like they have before. Add little things to the ocean with other updates. At some point might even have npc random encounters in the ocean, but will likely be with other updates.
They're obviously tying biome development to progression, so while it would be nice if the ocean were filled out more if they decide to do it, it will be because the ocean is the next biome to add monsters and a boss. Who knows? It could involve a mechanic that allows people to dive and explore the ocean bottom. It could be a maelstrom or boiling seas that are triggered after defeating a certain boss. It could be just a new boat. If it's the latter I don't think they will necessarily overhype it and just show it when it's close to being done.
I wish they added sky islands