Very good, very enjoyable game, but as it stands, I can't recommend this game.
Devs are committed to churning out update after update of new content, which only comes after increasingly unplayable content.

I adopted this game early, because I believed that it had great bones and could easily polish the early game. Since then, the devs have made little to no changes to the early-to-mid game, and seemingly refuse to add any QoL in that gameplay loop.

They seem fit to just let players enjoy a 20-hour silver grind, a 20-hour copper grind, and a 20-hour iron grind, just to access core content. (these are the numbers if you CAN teleport ore/ingots, God help you if you can't), not to mention that players can get soft-locked behind not finding enough Burial Chambers on their starting island, and this has been the case since launch.

Mistlands is so absolutely and thoroughly punishing that all of my friends refuse to play anymore.

If you're not going to make Gjalls despawn, at least make the ticks they spawn despawn so that any place with a Gjall doesn't become a waking nightmare. For lore reasons this also makes sense because otherwise the mistlands would be FLOODED with ticks when you get there.

Raids are a nightmare, you can and SHOULD turn this setting off, because it's frankly unplayable with them on.

The way to get around all these things is to play against advised settings, make multiple worlds, and just generally, not actually play the game the way it was intended. And the playerbase has been making excuses since launch of "oh they'll eventually patch that out" and they never do, and have not made any efforts to do so.
I wouldn't mind if the devs were just slow, but they're clearly fast and flexible, they just don't want to do anything that isn't new content.
Just hire someone else to do the things you don't want to do, please. I know you have the money for it at this point.
and if you don't launch a kickstarter or something, God knows you have the popularity!

As it stands, the direction of this game is such that I can no longer recommend it.



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Edit, because I know someone will ask "What QoL changes would you recommend?"

1) add any kind of friendly NPC or automation. Palworld has you beat hands-down in this regard. AND DO NOT LOCK IT BEHIND NEW CONTENT. ADD IT TO THE EARLY GAME. (Merchants are neutral, not friendly)
2) Fix recommended settings (teleport ingots, fewer raids, less stat loss and faster stat growth after level 30...etc)
3) double food duration. I'm not joking, in a game where you're expected to grind for hours, grinding food becomes just as long of an issue. This step is not necessary if you do step #1, though.
4) Reduce enemy detection and add better lines of sight. Shouldn't have to say this, but a deathsquito shouldn't be able to see you from 1000 yards away just because you weren't crouched.
5) Less structure damage, or allow NPCs from step 1 to repair buildings.