Island Survey, Part I: Summertide Saga

In a continuing vein of thought regarding Junebud's brainstorming last week**, one of the Twitter queries posed was in regard to player thoughts regarding which game islands we did or did not like and why.  My response was that I think all of the the islands have both pros and cons, and that I needed to blog on the topic as Twitter has that nasty character limit that frustrates the hyber-verbose (yours truly).  Although the developers have probably moved on to other issues, I still want to put in my two cents....



Here are my thoughts on the islands of Summertide Saga:

1. Alien Ruins: [Pros] Very challenging, probably the most challenging island in the game of all the worlds.  [Cons]  Once again, the challenge of the island.  As it took me a long time to collect all the explorer tokens and keys, it is a little too difficult to collect daily gold coins here.
2. Ancient Forest: [Pros] Five monster medals to attempt here (Butterflies, Dinos, Rabbits, Skulls, and Trunks), gold coin collection is fun and a little more challenging.  [Cons] Honestly, none that I can think of...this island is one of several that has the perfect balance of things to do in game.
3. Cannon Island:  [Pros]  Who doesn't like shooting through the air constantly?  Coin collection is always fun!  [Cons]  Not a lot to do here once you finish quests and/or gold coin collection.
4. Cozyville:  [Pros]  Delightful place to visit!  The item shops are great for stocking up on game necessities, and finding your coins here is more challenging.  Five monster medals to attempt here, plus (usually) special event monsters (Beasts, Butterflies, Crabs, Hedgehogs, and Weeds).  Not to forget to mention that this is a good place to work on the Excavation medals.  [Cons]  The island is a little too big and wide-open with nothing populating some of the areas.  Would like to see more monster population of the Hedgehogs and Weeds especially.
5. Kraken Island:  [Pros]  Love that this area is actually broken up into three separate islands that are navigated by cannons and/or swimming.  Also good for Excavation, with monster medals limited to only Snails (with the inclusion of special-event monsters).  [Cons]   Could maybe use one more regular monster population to eliminate/minimize player conflicts.  Many come to this island to gain the Snail medals, but it is also the place where many new players complete quests...many new players get frustrated trying to kill snails when higher level members with more powerful weapons are working on their medals.
6. Lightmill Island: [Pros]  Fun little place to start your game playing day, not much here for the higher level player except to collect coins; but this is not a bad thing as this is where new players start.  [Cons]  Many of us miss the "old" Lightmill island design, with the ladders, tower, tire swing, etc.  
7. Mushroom Forest: [Pros]  Once again, a nice balance of challenging game play with three medal opportunities (Bees, Dinos, Weeds).  Also has great design which makes it fun to visit.  Love the inclusion of the method in which to travel to Spooky Island.  Probably the best beach in the game for collecting beach debris for quests.  [Cons]  Would like to see a re-design of the bees so that they are a little larger...these old eyes have a hard time seeing them and just wind up stung more often than not.
8. Nikonos Island: [Pros]  Just love the overall design of this island, and large enough that to find your gold coins you have to do a little bit of exploration.  Three medal opportunities here as well (Beasts, Crabs, and Goats).  [Cons]  Would like to see an increase in the Beast population here, the island has a lot of room for some monster expansion?
9. Rhubarb Island: [Pros]  After Swamp Island, this is my second favorite island.  With a single medal opportunity (Rhubarbs) the island size is perfect for that purpose.  I get enormous joy out of running around and smashing the Ceramic Jars, hard to explain why!  [Cons]  None really to speak of, although someday I would love to see that big Rhubarb in the center become a boss!  Also, I have a hard time remembering that I am killing rhubarbs here, with their current design all I can think about is wanting to eat figs.
10. Rose Island: [Pros]  Awesome design, and I love climbing the vines to get to Ocka.  Another small island with a single medal opportunity (Birds), but works well similarly to Rhubarb Island.  [Cons]  Nothing!  Never change this island, it is perfect just the way it is...
11. Sage Oak Island:  [Pros]  Challenging place that is always fun.  I cringe a little in remembering how hard it was for me to get the Exploration tokens, but that was when I was still new.  [Cons]  Miss the greater diversity of monsters that were here before, although one can still work on medals here (Birds, Crabs, Snails) I miss the trunks and hedgehogs.
12. Swamp Island:  Nothing to say here that I have not said before.
13. The Dunes:  [Pros]  One of the first things that amazed me when this new place opened was the semi-real effect of being in a desert, after running around trying to find tokens I started thinking I saw an oasis in the distance but that it was just my imagination upon arrival.  Am pleased that there is a new medal to earn here, and those snakes are a real challenge to catch!  [Cons]  Even though the same things in design I am impressed with are also part of the cons:  a little to vast without a lot to see/do...but I have faith that these are early days and we will see more out of The Dunes in the future!
14. The Eternal Monument:  [Pros]  This is the place were the crabs get their revenge.  Whereas in all the other islands where crabs are located, their strength is relatively low, but not here!  Other great things to do here is to work on acquiring the Dirty Bomb ability, I am not there yet...but from what I have seen of other players, the effects are pretty neat!  [Cons]  Maybe instead of just crabs I would like to see some tougher versions of some of the other lower strength monsters, such as Snails.
15. The Hidden Tor:  [Pros]  Hands down it is the dual bosses (member only) that makes The Hidden Tor worthwhile, but is a great place to work on the Hedgehog and Trunks medals.  [Cons]  At least one of my gold coins is always suspended high in the air which requires some tricky jumping maneuvers and I often do not complete this acquisition because I get a little frustrated.
16. Treehouse Island:  [Pros]  I love running around this place, up and down platforms, and climbing, climbing, climbing!  Finding your daily coins can be tricky, but makes it all more the fun.  [Cons]  I truly miss the floating platforms, but as they often would stick I can understand why the ramps replaced them.  I think that the population of Beasts and Trunks could be increased a slight bit here as the island is quite large.  Also, due to the member quest for Imagination Devourers and the spawn rate of them on this island, player conflicts have increased.
17. Visitor Island:  [Pros]  I really like this island, but do not find myself spending much time here...even though I could always spend some time working on Alien and Crab medals, I never really linger.  Love the moves you have to make to get to the island with the boss, and killing him is always fun.  [Cons]  Related to why I do not spend much time here, the problem is I really do not know why.  I really need to go deep into my psyche to figure it out!
18. Water Lily Island:  [Pros]  Easiest place to pick up your daily coins, and just too much fun hopping around on the moving lily pads.  [Cons]  Not a whole lot to do here when you finish getting your coins.  Although you could ride lily pads all day to kill the Piranha to work on weapon medals, it would be a nice addition to have a Fish medal as well!

Once again, these are my thoughts and views.  I would love to hear from some of you on your thoughts regarding the islands, what is great about them, and what you might like to see differently.  And stay tuned for reviews of the Islands of Mice & Maniax and Air World!

**This post has been in draft status for over a week, hence the reference to this Twitter discussion was in actuality, now, 2 weeks ago.