How to not get lost - How to navigate

[GeneralXanos]

It's not a guarantee, so save often, save well.
This is one of the more common "help" posts so I figured we start a thread, maybe get it pinned, to help people with navigation and assaults/maulings by the fishes. Hopefully it will reduce cross-posting and clutter based on the title.

So post here if you have any tips on how to survive trips abroad, and how you navigate with or without compass, etc.

1. If you find a compass in a wreck, and your inventory is full, dump your least valuable item (crabs? coconuts? stones?) to get this. They're worth their weight in gold. All it takes to master navigation by compass is read numbers, and figure out the reverse heading (180 degrees = 0 degrees reverse)
2. You can't find a compass yet, but you want to travel the 7 Seas and see the world? Ignoring the shark/mauling issues, health, etc, you need to be able to track where you're heading, and where you're coming from. A. Using the sun position at various points of the day (sunrise, destination to the right, sunset destination to the left means the island is to the north) can help you roughly estimate where you want to go. B. Use a stick, or other items to make a marker pointing towards your destination on your island, so you can be sure that's where you came from if you make it back. C. As *SOON* as you reach your destination, turn around and mark your origin point with whatever you have at hand. As I often use a raft, I drop my (now useless) paddle and point it at the island I just came from, for easy reference. Sticks, rocks, other junk can do the same thing. D. How do I survive the journey? 1. Inflatible rafts are bouncey-bouncey, like air-castles. Wooden rafts are more stable. 2. Whichever raft you choose to travel to your new island, expect curious/carnivorous aquatic creatures to nudge you. Without a compass, it can be very hard to maintain a heading if you're getting spun about, so all you can really do is try to maintain your heading, crouch helps the center of balance, and look down a little bit. By that I mean keep your island in sight, but also look at your raft, and what direction it's pointing. Once the fish hits it, you'll get a slight bump-up and spun a little bit, so treat it like riding a ball, and use your move keys to keep centered "on top" of the raft, and mouse to keep aimed at your destination. It's not too hard, once you're able to judge the effects a few times. Also, don't forget to keep paddling. As you cross biomes, if you've got a Great White or Marlin giving you a hard time, you're seconds away from loading the next island biome and they go away.

I pasted this into another forum thread, but I figured it merits it's own thread. Feel free to post with tips.

[Skarmo]

My tip:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=389153320
;)

[engl152]

or i have a simpler way (bad grammar time!!!!!!) paddle away fronn the laddar on tha raft.
(i put those words there on purpose)

[polarity]

I place shelters on the side of each island closest to home, and also point the back of them towards my home island, or at least the nearest island on the way back.

If I can find a spare crate, I'll also put that next to the shelter, so I have something to label, to say how many islands over and in what direction the current location is from home.

It's kind of like what I used to do in minecraft, where I'd make a pillar of blocks where my base was going out of sight, put a torch on the side facing it, and then repeat again when that first pillar is going out of sight. If you ever get lost, you only have to find one pillar (shelter+crate), and you've got your route back home.

[ArcBiter]

today must be resurrect 5 year old threads day

[Stellarbone]

I hear its a national holiday. Not sure where it's celebrated tho...

[Cosmo]

I don't know, its old but its still quite relevant :)

Edit:Just out of curiosity as I am not sure, is it possible to loot a new compass if you lose the beginning one?

Oh and for clarification crouching on the raft isn't a thing anymore.

Cosmo and Fred

[terry]

Originally posted by Cosmo:

I don't know, its old but its still quite relevant :)

Edit:Just out of curiosity as I am not sure, is it possible to loot a new compass if you lose the beginning one?

Oh and for clarification crouching on the raft isn't a thing anymore.

Cosmo and Fred

Yes you can loot a new compass.

[Stellarbone]

Yea you can find more, i've found 6 in my current game.

[ArcBiter]

Originally posted by Cosmo:

I don't know, its old but its still quite relevant :)

Edit:Just out of curiosity as I am not sure, is it possible to loot a new compass if you lose the beginning one?

Oh and for clarification crouching on the raft isn't a thing anymore.

Cosmo and Fred

Do you mean crouching in a raft isn't possible anymore or the OP's advice about crouching doesn't center the raft's balance anymore?

And yes, so many compasses. Compasses for days.

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by ArcBiter:

Originally posted by Cosmo:

I don't know, its old but its still quite relevant :)

Edit:Just out of curiosity as I am not sure, is it possible to loot a new compass if you lose the beginning one?

Oh and for clarification crouching on the raft isn't a thing anymore.

Cosmo and Fred

Do you mean crouching in a raft isn't possible anymore or the OP's advice about crouching doesn't center the raft's balance anymore?

And yes, so many compasses. Compasses for days.

You cant crouch in the dinghy anymore while paddling like in the old days as you are 'fixed' to it now lol :)

Cosmo and Fred

[iheartmyocd]

Just a point of interest - coconuts only grow on the NE side of trees, so worst case scenario you can figure out which island is the NE one, and determine the other cardinal directions by counting visible islands in a circle. Bit of a pain, but good info to have if you don't have a compass at all.

[GeneralXanos]

Originally posted by iheartmyocd:

Just a point of interest - coconuts only grow on the NE side of trees, so worst case scenario you can figure out which island is the NE one, and determine the other cardinal directions by counting visible islands in a circle. Bit of a pain, but good info to have if you don't have a compass at all.

Yep, the gang's all here for the reunion. iheart, are you accusing 15 year old seeding trees of having moss? The whole moss growth to find your way out of forests isn't really true, it depends on shading throughout daylight. Coconuts grow regardless of the sun, coconut trees convert sunlight into energy from fronds, aka "foliage". Where the sunlight hits palm fronds has near-to-zero difference where seedlings form. To claim that coconuts grown *around the world* only pop on the northeast side is ridiculous. East of where? North of where? You do realize that the planet turns every day, so what's east is west in 12 hours or so?

We need more compasses, I expect.

[ArcBiter]

Originally posted by GeneralXanos:

We need more compasses, I expect.

There's lots of compasses out there. Compasses for days.

[iheartmyocd]

Originally posted by GeneralXanos:

Originally posted by iheartmyocd:

Just a point of interest - coconuts only grow on the NE side of trees, so worst case scenario you can figure out which island is the NE one, and determine the other cardinal directions by counting visible islands in a circle. Bit of a pain, but good info to have if you don't have a compass at all.

Yep, the gang's all here for the reunion. iheart, are you accusing 15 year old seeding trees of having moss? The whole moss growth to find your way out of forests isn't really true, it depends on shading throughout daylight. Coconuts grow regardless of the sun, coconut trees convert sunlight into energy from fronds, aka "foliage". Where the sunlight hits palm fronds has near-to-zero difference where seedlings form. To claim that coconuts grown *around the world* only pop on the northeast side is ridiculous. East of where? North of where? You do realize that the planet turns every day, so what's east is west in 12 hours or so?

We need more compasses, I expect.

Hahaha. No, I was just pointing out that in the game, if you have no compass (and I have never not had an abundance of them) that you can find a tree with a coconut on it, and that coconut will be growing on the NE side of that tree. In what way is that offensive?

"You do realize that the planet turns every day, so what's east is west in 12 hours or so?"

You do realize that the game map is a 5x5 grid where N is the top left corner, so having a natural indicator of NE available on every island everywhere is actually a plus?

[80 GRIT]

I look at my compass then I look at the clouds at this heading then i follow the cloud formation then im there, and dont have to stop to look at my compass twice,simple.( coconuts only grow on the northeast side that was funny never laugh so hard) Lets stop at every island, look at the coconut to make sure where going the right way. Just to funny, had snot coming out of my nose.LOL By the way look in the storage on the rubber raft when you first start in. Wow a compass. OCD im just kidding with ya. OCD is right all the coconuts are facing NE but your wrong about where north is it`s in the upper right not left.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1963958270