So I've been soloing around the Forsaken Shore and its fantastic for the most part. Its tense, looming danger all over and the contracts are bountiful (Maybe too bountiful in some cases... I had 9 maps given with 2-4 chests on each in one voyage!) but one part I despise is the 'smart' volcanoes.
The lava rocks are quite fun to weave and dodge on the sea but I've had case after case of my rowboat on the a*s of my ship being sniped from a full map square away and then you're on the island itself, an earthquake and in under 15 seconds the first eruption that 60% of the time is instant death if you can't find any caves.
When I started I kind of expected it to be like 'oh damn that cluster was close' not so blantantly 'well its only shooting at me since all the rocks fall on this point on the island in particular...' and then having to either go find another rowboat or risk my main ship cruising past.
Again this content is fun but its very punishing (which I get and do like an aspect of, it is the 'hardmode' region) but its a bit c**p when its not even pretending to be fair with the targeting.
Forsaken Shore of heat seeking missiles
The earthquakes themselves last 15 seconds easily before triggering the initial smoke from the volcano. That is then followed by another 10-15 seconds before it explodes. The window to get somewhere not terrible to be in is... large enough. Also it's basically instant death 100% of the time if you can't find a cave or get back into your rowboat.
Is the volcano seeking you out kind of annoying? Yes. But understanding that targeting helps. It will not target you in a rowboat. It will target your ship. It will also target you on land. Basically if there's an earthquake you should be either on your way to a cave or on your way to your rowboat. Also some boom mountains can shoot further than others. This varies from island to island so... you'll just have to figure that out on your own. I've yet to find one that shoots further than a block and a half.
Disclaimer: not defending the heat seeking volcano. Just trying to give you some tips to help deal with how crazy they are. I think it should target the player less. I do think however if it did not target the player at all it would be kind of boring and significantly less of a threat. I also think that after a volcano erupts it shouldn't be erupting again when the water around the island literally just stopped boiling. The lack of a cooldown timer is kind of absurd and at times results in the player literally just sitting around for 10-15 minutes at a time because as stated above: the volcano WILL kill you if you're running around on the island sooner or later.
This topic has been discussed a lot though. Some people will say it's fine. Some people will say you suck and you're a noob who can't hack it. Some people will agree. The murdercanoes have been talked about a lot since this came out.
Okay, I agree with both of you in this case. It's actually really annoying with the heat-seeking rocks. However, that enhances the difficulty. The earthquakes are kind of annoying especially if you leave your ship with anchor up and sail up for quick escapes, causes your ship to kind of "sail" away. I think the most annoying in the area is the steam vents popping up right where you are supposed to be digging up a chest. It causes you to not be able to dig in that spot and to awkwardly move around to try and find a good spot continue digging. This region is highly dangerous and definitely increases the difficulty of the game, especially to the point a lot of players now avoid the area altogether. The volcanoes I think go off too often though which is annoying especially when you have to wait for them to chill out about I think 5 minutes is the most I have seen. Which since you can't have multiple quests lined up on your bench makes it inconvenient.
Thank you a lot for the info, I am a bit salty about the whole ordeal but like I said I think its a very good expansion. And like Wolf said they should fix some of the spawning issues with the vents, they will spawn under my chests and wont even render the moved red dirt so I'm just spat into the air and have to wait half a minute for it to stop... And when you're on Flintlock (where I always bloody end up...) it feels like 120 seconds between eruptions! Its just a bit BS to have to do Order of Souls quests there that take 30 minutes for the one captain just because of the islands rapid volcano cooldown.
I do love a challenge which is why I'm there so much (that and a lot of people don't hang out there much) but when it gets to a point I'm having to idle by a set of rocks, alt-tabbing to watch a video for a few minutes as this island erupts longer than its not, it just becomes a lot less fun.
So got on today, was in the rowboat near The Devils Thirst and it started to erupt. 20-40 seconds before a large rock pinned me from space and insta-killed me and my rowboat.
Rare can you please make them AVOID the rowboats? Apparently they don't target them but I got smashed anyone as if I was just walking on the island.
