Does the Floating Island just not exist at the start of the game?

[Sky Render]

I'm fairly certain I've gone to the Floating Island's exact location on the map, but I'm seeing nothing but open sea. By my triangulation, it should be south-southwest of Lifepod 3, roughly 1100 meters away, while the Aurora should appear to be directly northeast of current location. It's not there, though.

[DeFragged]

It's directly over the Grand Reef and shows up on Scanners, so maybe you can try building one to look for it. I'm fairly certain it exists at all times. Would be a very strange case of Schrodinger's Island if it didn't.

[Sky Render]

My maths were off, it's closer to 1500m away. I just hadn't gone far enough is all. Thank you, though!

[Malidictus]

I don't know if there's some kind of weird trick used to hide the game's two islands or if it's just draw distance being what it is, but they won't actually draw until you're fairly close to them. You can still locate them by the presence of the large, ominous-looking clouds visible from everywhere :)

[NuCkEnFuTs]

Originally posted by Sky Render:

I'm fairly certain I've gone to the Floating Island's exact location on the map, but I'm seeing nothing but open sea. By my triangulation, it should be south-southwest of Lifepod 3, roughly 1100 meters away, while the Aurora should appear to be directly northeast of current location. It's not there, though.

it's hidden by a low cloud.

[jklinders]

The persistent low clouds are a bit of a cheap trick to hide what would otherwise be VERY visible in the actually very small distances involved. Also it wouldn't work, there would be a much larger and conspicuosly static field of fog that is very noticiable.Both islands are more than big enough to be highly and completely visible at the distances involved in the game. Maybe it warps the sense of discovery a bit, but I would prefer that it be rendered a lot more realistcally.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by jklinders:

The persistent low clouds are a bit of a cheap trick to hide what would otherwise be VERY visible in the actually very small distances involved. Also it wouldn't work, there would be a much larger and conspicuosly static field of fog that is very noticiable.Both islands are more than big enough to be highly and completely visible at the distances involved in the game. Maybe it warps the sense of discovery a bit, but I would prefer that it be rendered a lot more realistcally.

I agree. The Aurora is visible from everywhere on the surface and the game eventually guides you to both islands. Best I can figure is the developers are trying to hide just how small the map is by giving you only a single landmark and sea in all directions. I too would like to see the islands rendered properly, though.

[theresejesu]

You can see them. The islands are hidden by fog/mists. They are the two umoving "clouds" - one north, one south. just head for that.

[Fre]

It's fairy easy to spot, thanks to a permanent cloud of mist obscuring it

[Mr.Zombie]

The clouds around them make it easier to spot them IMO.

[DeFragged]

And beyond the permanent cloud, when they don't render, the island is hidden by a 'Predator' style camouflage effect - you can just about see the distortion caused by the islands trying to 'copy' the background and make itself invisible.

Humorously enough, if your camera is between the water lines, you can see the island in the water, but not above it. Something to do with the way they rigged the alphas to hide the island not working with the water is my guess.

[TheTool]

Many of us have asked that they just remove the noobie vision clouds.
All it does is prolong what is accessable from the moment the game starts.
It would be better if the two islands were visible right from the start, to kicj start the players exploration motives.

[PreLife]

Originally posted by TheTool:

Many of us have asked that they just remove the noobie vision clouds.
All it does is prolong what is accessable from the moment the game starts.
It would be better if the two islands were visible right from the start, to kicj start the players exploration motives.

It stops exploration. If a player one that there were islands right from the start, there'd be no incentive to explore any more of the world. Having a huge safehaven with infinite materials and good tech is not good gameplay.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by TheTool:

Many of us have asked that they just remove the noobie vision clouds.
All it does is prolong what is accessable from the moment the game starts.
It would be better if the two islands were visible right from the start, to kicj start the players exploration motives.

Gun to my head, if I had to justify the decision to hide the islands behind clouds, I'd guess that not showing them is done to encourage players to explore the sea bottom, rather than the surface. With two obvious islands, new players getting into the game blind would likely do "the usual survival thing," ship off to land and build their settlements there - the blueprints for most of the main Habitat sections are on the floating island, after all. As the game stands right now, the game doesn't "lead" players to dry land until a few hours in, at which point they should have accepted the fact that the game's intended to take place underwater, rather than clinging onto dry land.

Assuming this is the case... Can we use the "aliens" excuse and put a some kind of cloaking field generator on each island that we can disable? There are already alien portals on both of them, why not a device designed to hide the entire land mass which we can either smash or or click to turn off?

[TheTool]

Well, then the Aurora should be covered by clouds too?
Oh nvm, the radiation keeps noobs away.

[PreLife]

Originally posted by TheTool:

Well, then the Aurora should be covered by clouds too?
Oh nvm, the radiation keeps noobs away.

The aroura is completely different because the first thought the game wants you to have is:
I want to go there.
It's the first big goal for the player, and the game tells you this as soon as you exit the lifepod. And is not a safehaven, either. You need early-mid game tech to access 80% of the interior and it's surrounded by Leviathans. The game demands you to explore in order to reach the aroura, and the clouds around the islands focus the early game and to not overwhelm the player.