Enshrouded

[unwashed potato!]

does this game suffer from the same boring issue that valheim suffered with, which is that you have your starting area, you're weak, you go against weak enemies in this area, and to progress to stage 2, you need x material, and then when in stage 2, you get a little stronger, fight a little stronger enemies, but you can't progress to stage 3 until you've got x material, and then once you do, you progress to stage 4, get a little stronger, fight alittle stronger enemies, and to progress to stage 5 guess what you need, x material that's found in stage 4. rinse repeat.

and then to build the best base, you can't because the items you need are mixed within stage 2/3/4/5, and by the time you've hit stage 5 and got those cool items, there's nout left to do.

 

[swillsy]

does this game suffer from the same boring issue that valheim suffered with, which is that you have your starting area, you're weak, you go against weak enemies in this area, and to progress to stage 2, you need x material, and then when in stage 2, you get a little stronger, fight a little stronger enemies, but you can't progress to stage 3 until you've got x material, and then once you do, you progress to stage 4, get a little stronger, fight alittle stronger enemies, and to progress to stage 5 guess what you need, x material that's found in stage 4. rinse repeat.

and then to build the best base, you can't because the items you need are mixed within stage 2/3/4/5, and by the time you've hit stage 5 and got those cool items, there's nout left to do.

yes, but it looks prettier - I like it but going to wait for a few more updates till I throw a load of time at it.

 

[Cern]

does this game suffer from the same boring issue that valheim suffered with, which is that you have your starting area, you're weak, you go against weak enemies in this area, and to progress to stage 2, you need x material, and then when in stage 2, you get a little stronger, fight a little stronger enemies, but you can't progress to stage 3 until you've got x material, and then once you do, you progress to stage 4, get a little stronger, fight alittle stronger enemies, and to progress to stage 5 guess what you need, x material that's found in stage 4. rinse repeat.

and then to build the best base, you can't because the items you need are mixed within stage 2/3/4/5, and by the time you've hit stage 5 and got those cool items, there's nout left to do.

Pretty much, yes. Although the progression in Enshrouded isn't quite as locked behind boss fights and long distance travel as in Valheim. Some progression is quest / exploration / puzzle based, but some (such as levelling up your Flame Altar) requires the heads of bosses. Movement around the game world is more rapid than Valheim once you unlock Ancient Spires and gliding. But you still get roadblocked by the deadly shroud areas which you can't get past until you level up your Flame Altar.

I quite liked the game, but there were two big turn offs for me:

One was the art style / graphics. Everything looks so washed out and there's an over-reliance on fog (even in the non shrouded areas) and volumetric effects. I get why this is, the game is called Enshrouded after all. But I think they went too far and they also needed to optimise the engine for it. And it's not optimised. The game has very erratic FPS with huge dips in certain areas, or randomly after a period of play.

The other issue, for me, was gating a lot of content behind jumping puzzles or similar. The early ones aren't hard (just fire the grappling hook at the right time), but later ones are more difficult. It is frustrating if you're not so good at that sort of thing for whatever reason. It kind of jars in what is essentially a survival / exploration game. I don't think progression should have been locked behind this mechanic.

 

[SpiritOfTheAge]

does this game suffer from the same boring issue that valheim suffered with, which is that you have your starting area, you're weak, you go against weak enemies in this area, and to progress to stage 2, you need x material, and then when in stage 2, you get a little stronger, fight a little stronger enemies, but you can't progress to stage 3 until you've got x material, and then once you do, you progress to stage 4, get a little stronger, fight alittle stronger enemies, and to progress to stage 5 guess what you need, x material that's found in stage 4. rinse repeat.

and then to build the best base, you can't because the items you need are mixed within stage 2/3/4/5, and by the time you've hit stage 5 and got those cool items, there's nout left to d

I've not played Valhiem but yes it sounds like it, kind of but I'm having a lot of fun, no boredom here. If you fid that format boring then it's not for you. From me prespctive the game has really captued me and turned me onto a genre I never looked at before and I'm really enjoying it. toatally worth the admission fee.

 

[SpiritOfTheAge]

I've not played Valhiem but yes it sounds like it, kind of but I'm having a lot of fun, no boredom here. If you find that format boring then it's not for you. From my prespctive the game has really captured me and turned me onto a genre I never looked at before and I'm really enjoying it. totally worth the admission fee.

 

[jasoncb]

I've not played Valhiem but yes it sounds like it, kind of but I'm having a lot of fun, no boredom here. If you fid that format boring then it's not for you. From me prespctive the game has really captued me and turned me onto a genre I never looked at before and I'm really enjoying it. toatally worth the admission fee.

 

[unwashed potato!]

I've not played Valhiem but yes it sounds like it, kind of but I'm having a lot of fun, no boredom here. If you fid that format boring then it's not for you. From me prespctive the game has really captued me and turned me onto a genre I never looked at before and I'm really enjoying it. toatally worth the admission fee.

My issue with that format is more the base building part of it. Because let's say your starting area, you want to build a nice base, you've got thatch roof and wood panels only as an option so you spend a while trying to build something nice. Once you can get to stage 2, now you can use wood logs, and a proper wooden roof, so you now start a new base and spend ages collecting wood and building this great big new fancy place that looks amazing. But now you can reach stage 3 which give stone base building. So now you build another new Base made of stone with stone walls and big entrance and nice walkway etc etc. Loads of time is spent on just base building and collecting resources. But now you can reach stage 4, and this gives metal, which allows for even bigger taller amazing bases with gates and strong defense etc etc, so you start again, but now you're in stage 5, and this gives diamond and obsidion for some cool gothic looking base with windows and glass castle style look. So once again you start again, and you realise you should have not wasted so many hours building the previous cool bases, but instead should have collected the abolsute minimum, made the ugliest but quick base to progress so you don't waste time at state 1, then stage 2, then stage 3,so you can rush to the last stage to get the best materials for the best Base.

but once you build the base, you realise you're at the end game, there's nothing to do with it but use it as storage, storage for what because there's nothing left in the game. And there's no threats, your base is never going to be attacked by ai or some pvp moments. It's this fancy strong back with big walls guarding it for nothing.

 

[Cern]

My issue with that format is more the base building part of it. Because let's say your starting area, you want to build a nice base, you've got thatch roof and wood panels only as an option so you spend a while trying to build something nice. Once you can get to stage 2, now you can use wood logs, and a proper wooden roof, so you now start a new base and spend ages collecting wood and building this great big new fancy place that looks amazing. But now you can reach stage 3 which give stone base building. So now you build another new Base made of stone with stone walls and big entrance and nice walkway etc etc. Loads of time is spent on just base building and collecting resources. But now you can reach stage 4, and this gives metal, which allows for even bigger taller amazing bases with gates and strong defense etc etc, so you start again, but now you're in stage 5, and this gives diamond and obsidion for some cool gothic looking base with windows and glass castle style look. So once again you start again, and you realise you should have not wasted so many hours building the previous cool bases, but instead should have collected the abolsute minimum, made the ugliest but quick base to progress so you don't waste time at state 1, then stage 2, then stage 3,so you can rush to the last stage to get the best materials for the best Base.

but once you build the base, you realise you're at the end game, there's nothing to do with it but use it as storage, storage for what because there's nothing left in the game. And there's no threats, your base is never going to be attacked by ai or some pvp moments. It's this fancy strong back with big walls guarding it for nothing.

Yep, that's about the sum of it.

What I did in Enshrouded was build my starter base on the spot recommended by the tutorial, with a view to moving it later. But I never did, for all the reasons you described. So I just have this giant hall, still in the starter zone, crammed with storage and all the forges and workbenches etc. I use additional altars purely as fast travel points.

Although I can now go almost anywhere and build a new base, I can't be bothered because I find building complicated structures frustrating (although I admire anyone with the patience and skills to do so, it's amazing what some people can create).

Same happened to me in Valheim. Same happened in V Rising. It's definitely a flaw of the genre. That said, Valheim has the potential for monster raids against your base and V Rising has the option of PvP. Enshrouded currently doesn't, but perhaps they'll look at these things later.

 

[unwashed potato!]

Yep, that's about the sum of it.

What I did in Enshrouded was build my starter base on the spot recommended by the tutorial, with a view to moving it later. But I never did, for all the reasons you described. So I just have this giant hall, still in the starter zone, crammed with storage and all the forges and workbenches etc. I use additional altars purely as fast travel points.

Although I can now go almost anywhere and build a new base, I can't be bothered because I find building complicated structures frustrating (although I admire anyone with the patience and skills to do so, it's amazing what some people can create).

Same happened to me in Valheim. Same happened in V Rising. It's definitely a flaw of the genre. That said, Valheim has the potential for monster raids against your base and V Rising has the option of PvP. Enshrouded currently doesn't, but perhaps they'll look at these things later.

Have you played subnautica? That is the only game I can think of that goes base building bang on. As you advance you add to your existing Base, and it all matched. You didn't go from tacky thatch roof Base to cool stone base, but instead went from just windowless sleek structures, to adding on the side a walk way, and then adding an observatory, or a research room etc etc. It meant you never felt your old base was not redundant, and because of the way the game was designed, iteant you could feel to build mini bases or outposts near certain areas, but still that your main base was needed. Plus the end game was brilliant. An open world game that sends your off the world to clearly say "you are done!"

I love the idea of these games, valheim was fun for what it was and I'm sure enshrouded is also fun, but they just are missing having any point of base building other than for "that looks cool" and when you remove base building, the game is incredibly quick in comparison and rather empty. Being raided every x days would be nice, but even then just you standing in a base vs an army feels stupid. I think what these fames need is something like what medieval dynasty did, where you recruit and have workers in your Base out collecting materials, food etc. And then as you reach new areas and learn new buildings, you can add this to your existing base rather than essentially need to start all over again.

 

[Cern]

Have you played subnautica? That is the only game I can think of that goes base building bang on. As you advance you add to your existing Base, and it all matched. You didn't go from tacky thatch roof Base to cool stone base, but instead went from just windowless sleek structures, to adding on the side a walk way, and then adding an observatory, or a research room etc etc. It meant you never felt your old base was not redundant, and because of the way the game was designed, iteant you could feel to build mini bases or outposts near certain areas, but still that your main base was needed. Plus the end game was brilliant. An open world game that sends your off the world to clearly say "you are done!"

I love the idea of these games, valheim was fun for what it was and I'm sure enshrouded is also fun, but they just are missing having any point of base building other than for "that looks cool" and when you remove base building, the game is incredibly quick in comparison and rather empty. Being raided every x days would be nice, but even then just you standing in a base vs an army feels stupid. I think what these fames need is something like what medieval dynasty did, where you recruit and have workers in your Base out collecting materials, food etc. And then as you reach new areas and learn new buildings, you can add this to your existing base rather than essentially need to start all over again.

I played Subnautica when originally released as Early Access. Enjoyed it but found the submarine gave me horrible motion sickness, so stopped playing. They probably put in a bunch of accessibility features now, so I should try again.

I'd love to see a game with more purpose to the base building too.

I had hoped the NPCs in Enshrouded would act more as villagers / workers. But they just stand there like total lemons in your base repeating the same dialogue over and over, they don't perform actions or move around. They serve no purpose other than as an unlock mechanism and essentially add absolutely nothing to the game beyond that. And you kind of need to have them there to gain new recipes etc. Valheim and V Rising are better in this regard as you don't have to have spammy or uninteresting NPCs cluttering your base, stuff just unlocks from events and discoveries.

I think Enshrouded have painted themselves into a bit of a corner with their story being about a handful of survivors. But then it rather begs the question of what the point of all that huge base building is when there's so few people in the world left to populate it. But same is true of Valheim. It's how the genre is.

 

[unwashed potato!]

. It's how the genre is

Yep unfortunately that is the case. And it's difficult to "unsee" that this is essentially the genre and not much else and it's something that molls the fun once I realise this is all it will ever be.

Imagine valheim without the base building. What is left to do? Fight 5 bosses? I don't remember any other thing to do in the world but collect resources to build a base to craft the item to beat the boss, rinse repeat.

I played Subnautica when originally released as Early Access. Enjoyed it but found the submarine gave me horrible motion sickness, so stopped playing. They probably put in a bunch of accessibility features now, so I should try again

I played on both PC and then xbox with TV, but this was about 3/4 years ago, so the game had been out a long time and I'm unsure what has changed for the game since early access, other than it being complete. I didn't notice any motion sickness, and the motion was in my gut as I pooped my pants when going to the deepest depths of the ocean and hearing a laviathan.

 

[Cern]

Imagine valheim without the base building. What is left to do? Fight 5 bosses? I don't remember any other thing to do in the world but collect resources to build a base to craft the item to beat the boss, rinse repeat.

Yeah, I think the best part of Valheim are those early parts where you are huddled in some wreck of a shack, trying to keep a fire going and survive the cold night. And then putting your first base together and achieving a degree of comfort. And then building your first boat and setting out across the sea. All genuinely exciting.

But after that it's mostly downhill into being a mining / lumberjack / resource transport simulator

Unless of course you really enjoy the base building aspect, in which case there's still lots to do. But ... and it's a big but. In Valheim, many of the impressive buildings you'll see people showing off on YouTube etc are built using mods that allow for infinite resources and the ability to 'fly' while constructing. If you want to make these structures without mods it's a real slog and can be really tricky.

Enshrouded added a nice feature where you can have scaffolding to help with building upwards. But it's still pretty clunky. And there's still the gathering and tech unlock slog if you want to build anything complicated or on a large scale.

 

[BowdonUK]

I've just been playing this game.

Only early in the game but even with a dedicated server the game can become unstable, so far not to valheim levels.

What is it with these indie games and very flakey network coding? It comes across like an after thought.

Hoping it doesn't spoil the game.