FFXIV - Island Sanctuary Overview & Thoughts 

I feel like the island needs the ability to invite NPCs over to give it some flavor. Maybe even retainers.

On the topic of weird menus and lacking features, a friend of mine found out the hard way that if you capture a new animal and have to release something, anything in mammet care is locked, and you can't unlock it from the Release Window. They had to release the newly captured animal (a rare, in this case) because of that, and nothing in the tutorials suggested that this lock was something to contend with. Some relevant features crossing between windows would be lovely to avoid such issues, on top of the Workshop windows.

It's way more complicated than I was expecting it to be. All the menus turned me off.

4th

I just wish that if you have level in botanist, fishing, and mining gives you extra loot when gathering resources in the island.

I wish you could decorate. Just items made specifically for the island, encouraging you to work for them and place them where you please. I’m not asking for all the in game housing items or even a ton of items, just a good chunk of island-specific stuff you can place wherever. A beach chair in the sand, some flowers in my crop areas, little statues, what have you. Not a super in-depth or overwhelming system, just little things here and there.

I kinda wish the sprint duty button was a toggle like the sprint in PvP.

Having the island unlock at 90 post EW is to keep the number of instances to a controllable level. I would have been surprised to see it any lower than 80.

the biggest thing i was hoping for was having large open plots of lands and we could have the ability to freely move/place, rotate, and decorate any building in any way we wanted in that given building area. Right now every island feels very samey and not very customizable and i think being able to free move building and farm plots around the area and really make it more personalize would be fantastic. Anyone that has ever played Dark Cloud 1 or 2 knows exactly what i mean.

I don't mind the workshop menu. The ones that I do mind are teh farming/animal menus. I have to go line by line, click once to select, click "collect and resume", then click to confirm. Line. By. Line. 20 animals, 20 plants. 120 clicks to get these done. These SERIOUSLY need a "Collect All" button.

Quick tip for the Granaries: It is possible to set them to 7 days and during that time you can switch what to collect at no additional cost. No need to always only send them out for a single day for maximum freedom :)

One time, I spent 27 nets trying to catch a Beachcomb and then it ran away. I laughed it off and at that point I truly realised that nothing on the island made me angry or frustrated, it's nice. Totally agree on the fishing, though. It would be a chill way to spend queue times, maybe earn green cowries for regular fish and blue for rare ones...not too much, of course, as to not make the workshop obsolete.

9:37 building groove is no longer recommended, most of the guides now mention to just not do this

Would be great if we could at least place outside furniture and give the island some real customization. Maybe someone with more technical knowledge could answer this question, but how in the world can SE give every player a large island and everything that goes with it, but it isn't possible to give every player a small, instanced house? It would seem that this large island takes far more data space than a small house would. Does furniture placement take that much data?

imo the biggest improvement the workshop could use is a search function. Not a fan of having to look through 50 different items to find the one I'm looking for.

My biggest want is for the to change gathering. Having to gather 10 nodes one at a time is monotonous especially when so many of them are so spread out. I though they had got away from this kind of system after they changed the open world. It would have been nice if they added another level of tools around level 9 and 10 that would give you the ability to gather more than one of each item. I'm at a point on my island now where the only reason to gather items is the workshop. The whole gathering system to me is just meh.

I really don't like how crops take 48 actual hours. They should be done every other daily reset instead. It almost feels like they are trying to push me to use the mammets instead of doing them myself.

It’s a great start with room for improvement. Really hope they give us more island content in the future.

I would like to see a crossbreeding between crops similar to gardens in housing settlements. Like certain crops that can be used to make rare and extremely valuable products can only be grown this way. Gives me a chance to experiment with my plots. Especially since I only have to wait 48 hours for results.

For the grainary, you can set it up for 7 days, and click the icon daily to change it. No cost required!

I want fishing to have a mini game to it that's similar to XV fishing. and if they add cooking I want that to have a simple mini game too. I love mindlessly hitting rocks and trees but I want more active things to do in there. I love the content tho and can't wait for them to add more to it.

I think it is awesome that you can min-max and play around with the workshop for those who find that interesting. Personally I find it slightly less entertaining than watching paint dry and I wish to god they'd include and super low yield automated setting that just runs off random basic stuff. I mean supposedly this is relaxing side activity for the WoL, yet everything run on cowries. I don't mind checking in on my sanctuary and I do not expect to have everything handed to me, but the current version is just far too much like work for my taste.

I just rotated between potion and firesand for everyday. I can't be bothered to figure out what's optimal to sell. But I also have the motor bike now so I never have to do it again lol

SquareEnix, please hire the Raft developers and build on this Island Sanctuary thing. I want to live there forever outside of raids.

Peoples expectations for this content is in orbit and hilarious. All content has an expiration date, and when they make things evergreen, they dont mean its going to current endgame relevant, just means you can do it at a later point in time with no real hoops to jump through. people wont stop complaining though, I mean they could make it like another game that shall not be named and just make it so all content that is not current expansion is never used again and utterly obsolete, even if you wanted to experience it like it was, youd have level up multiple alts at various levels to even do that, and hope/pray 9-24 other people decided to do the same. while we get that with a couple button presses and a PF.

Capitalism truly does ruin everything. This was supposed to be a simple peaceful island relaxation mode, but they made it complicated with exploitative slave labor on a mammet plantation. The warrior of light shouldn't be running such an unethical enterprise. The workshop is way too complicated and stressful for the premise of this content they laid out over a year ago, it just becomes another cog in the content treadmill/conveyor belt that you gotta spreadsheet for just to wrap your head around the gratuitous data you have to sort through. The workshop interface is too splintered up into separate windows for the information you need, as you mentioned. Very tedious going in and out of those menus to figure out your plans. And hearing you talk about a kitchen makes me think hands-on crafting should replace the workshop outright rather than a workshop overhaul. How about minigame-ify it? Give buffs to friends so they can help you gather extra items? And how about incorporating green cowries in a better way, or retainers? I find it is way too hard to make blue cowries, I have yet to buy a single thing because bulk amounts need to keep being reserved for building upgrades. The granary expeditions also don't net enough materials for how long they take and the cowry cost. It would be better if they just deployed a few mammets out in the island wilds where you can designate an area and see them work, and that could last just a few hours rather than basically an entire day. And adding in fishing is an absolute must. (as an aside, I've been thinking it would be cool if you could even fish in explorer mode dungeons)

Personally, I don't understand the point of island sanctuary. I was hoping it was going to be something like instanced housing. When I found out it wasn't I was hoping we'd at least be able to customize the island and buildings in a way that was unique and that might be better than having a house! Then I find out the customization is almost non-existent and nothing you do is unique. So now I'm wondering "why come back once I have the mount and glam?" Nothing I do on the island has any impact outside of the island. Maybe in another year or 2 this content could be good but it just seems pointless atm.

What a good guide. Just hit level 10 this weekend but still great for new and upcoming adventurers!

Always glad to see your content, Mr.Haps! Heck..even from watching this, it's made me want to try a different routine for my workshop stuffs :3

I would like them to add more models for buildings. Particularly seasonal buildings and such. So during Starlight Celebration, we could rebuild all the buildings in a Starlight theme etc.

Can I have my Blitz-Ball arena yet? :P

Honestly the entire thing feels half baked. The UI and UX is kinda bad, the progression is 100% grind, the customization is next to non-existent, and once you're finished it's just a spreadsheet simulator where you occasionally pick up things. It's a very, very, VERY basic Harvest Moon clone. Score one for the "every feature comes out poor" list I guess.

You know I just came back to ff14. Haven’t played since ultimate bahamut came out back in stormblood. This seems nice but I was wondering if there’s any actual benefit to it.

I honestly can't be bothered atm, anyway, to min/max the agendas. so, the "lazy man's presets" are fine. sure, adds time to getting to goals, but it's simple. beyond that, I've enjoyed the island. some great ideas in these comments.. bonus gathering if you are a doh, a new tool that allows multiples when gathering at 9-10, etc. thx Mr happy xD

The island is everything i wasnt hoping it to be... premade buildings ontop of it with Zero possibilites for customization, a very poor selection of stuff to buy for all those tokens, stupidly boring mounts, and like 5 different animals to catch apart from rares that never spawn?.. The only usefull thing out of it all is the cheap hi-cordial... highly dissapointing.

Hide and seek with friends is great on the island!!

I think everything you said is fair and constructive. But god have I found Island Sanctuary to be a huge disappointment. Cos more than anything, once that 'new feature sheen' wears off, its honestly reeeeally dull. It has the base of something interesting but needs A LOT of work to be future proofed and evergreen.

What is the point of island sanctuary - well, it's basically whatever animal crossing is but for ffxiv. Yeh grown ass men play it 🙄

God, super agree about the point about it being locked to level 90 - I think it makes very little sense for what it is. I have so many friends who I think would enjoy it, and could even help them get more invested in the game, who aren't level 90 yet.

FF14 cares a lot about lore. I don’t think they’ll make sanctuaries available prior to WoL deserving it. It is essentially a gift for saving the world.

Honestly, if we could get crafting and gathering exp from this, it would be so damn good

Still think island sanctuary being its own 'cut off' content was a mistake. Every time I gather 'ONE' item, I just sit there thinking that I'm an omnigatherer... I could do this 500x faster if I could use my gathering jobs. The glams and motorbike are nice, but that's about it, flying was a disappointment

Soo we can capture monsters... When we get our monster fighting pit

I would love to see the mammots you send out to scavenge

raise animals? we dont really rais them, do we? or is there a meaning to the word im not aware?

We lost a eureka/Bozja for this nonsense.

It’s quite a, large but rather empty area, overall. 😅 The final design of the constructed building is a tad poor, but serviceable. It lack in diversity however. But it’s a great basis for something fantastic! Give it 4 years and it might be much much nicer. 😁 Thank you MrHappy! 👍

I was hoping for some sort of instanced housing. Therefore, I was disappointed to see it was nothing like that. - I was looking forward to the minions' interaction between themselves and us, but I am not impressed: just the same phrases being said and they don't acknowledge your presence. At least the dogs and cats I was hoping would behave like normal domestic dogs, but nope. They don't do anything impressive. - The first time I sent my mammets on an expedition, I went to look for them on the island, but was disappointed to find out they are nowhere to be seen. - I was hoping I could at least use the outdoor furnishings, since I have a lot of those from events but live in an apartment. But nope. No furniture allowed. - And last, but not least, I was hoping to plant seeds in the same way as the housing ones and that I could use them, like flowers to put in pots, vegetables and fruits to use and plant/give thavnairian onion to my chocobo. Even the ones to change colors. Tl:dr, It may not seem like it because of my comments, but I actually liked the island. I just feel very disappointed.

Another note @MrHappy1227, I'm visually impaired and am constantly infuriated that they added a "dark/light" theme option in the game settings but then have these menus that are mandatory light mode only. Such as Island Sanctuary, Squadrons, Acheivements in the more recent update to that menus, etc. It would be nice if that "Dark/Light" theme option was actually global and actually made all the menus the same mode instead of having some menus that think their special enoug hto ignore my choice as a customer.

People seem to be forgetting it’s going to be updated every other patch. That means expanded levels, new rewards, probably new items to gather and things to craft, and they WANT our feedback for how to improve it. I know for one they’re already aware of the idea to add visiting NPCs (only aware! Whether they do it or not, who knows). There’s already an island glamour system baked in, in the future they could easily add new looks for our hideaway, but at this point it all requires TELLING them. Honestly I think it would be best if they set up a specific feedback form instead of relying on the forum. As a solo player who likes to do monotonous brain-dead stuff to relax, my suggestions are: improve ALL menus, increase the number of gatherable items at nodes as you level up, make the rare creatures a little more desirable (give me a pink goobbue that drops rare mats, for instance), make rare creatures easier to catch based on level (we’ve got enough RNG to deal with everywhere else), and a slightly more customizable hideaway. Oh, and actual fishing! I don’t mind if it’s a mini game or not, just let a fishercat fish!

another thing they need to change is the crop system, every crop takes 2 days to grow, we need different ones that take less, or more, AND at the same time, give us fertilizer, so we can either INCREASE the number of crops we gather, or make the crop grow faster, i think this is a MUST to have at some point

Tataru: "We want to show those filthy poors (probably her thought process) that they can make their own island with nothing, so no taking your super advanced gathering tools" Also Tataru: "Here are some slaves, go to town"

Well, the good thing is ... that they basically could add anything for Island Sanctuaries in next patches. Weekly quests, decorations, cooking mini-game with some bonuses for gathering more than 1 item, fishing, more rare animals with different conditions, throwing parties for celebrations etc... for now I am content. Was expecting bit more, but I am okay with it

I was curious if there was any benefit to have a pasture filled with "rare" animals. If it's only for the sake of collection, I'm not really interested and keep my regular fluffy herd of sheeps.

The menu nightmares just feel like "FFXIV as usual", much as I wish it were otherwise. So much of the UI, man...

I enjoy it mostly, but I think they should have gone quite out of their way to specify the purpose of building more than one workshop when you start. I didn't even know there was a benefit to building a 2nd or third until a week had gone by. Other than that, it feels like a bit too much of a grind early on until you start earning passive exp from everything

I think it's fine content for what it is. I'm at the point of automating everything and doing my daily workshops. I feel like people had too high expectation from it and complain too much. I also know people who took it way too seriously at the start. Do it, don't do it. It's whatever. Sometimes I just go to my island to sit and queue for conflict or join PFs.

I've already gotten the bike, a hairstyle and the mandragora and I'm tired. Might just casually earn cowries until they add new rewards.

I for one wouldn't mind seeing extra weather effects added in the sanctuary isle like heatwaves and snowing as examples.

The only unlocks I think they ever really lower the requirements for is glamour which was originally at level 50 and is now at 15

Yeah the workshop interface is the reason why I haven't even looked at the extra information. I just use the stated value and it works out well enough. I got enough cowries to get the 17k achievement without ever touching it, so I see no reason to bother.

I think that... once I had my booty shorts (the ones from the last quest), I was pretty much done... until the next update, I suppose.

I would call this a lite version of farming life sims. And I also didn't spend the first few days just doing the island.

IS was my least favorite part of the patch, just here to help the channel with engagement. :)

All animals buggy f ff14

You can already fish. I want my mammets to do that nonsense. This island is for me to set up and relax on.

@MrHappy1227 My dude... I just discovered something relating to one of the QoL adjustments you want.... on PC... if you Right Click the + icon on the work shop.... It brings up the option to set by demand... and lets you pick your item off the demand menu.... Was this covered and I just missed it???????????

I definitely agree with how this felt like a beta, however I started feeling that way almost from the word go once the content went live. I would not be surprised if the next island has a lot more to offer.

Freakin' Alligator wont get in the net! I love it tho, I hope its expands out the animals we can catch and more stuff we can craft. This is honestly why I love crafting in the first place, unlocking more items that we can use to create more stuff.

Glamour is an example of them lowering the entire level

They need to give me an option to turn off the Mammots!

You can see the craft time and such in the thumbnail of the items.

If you send your granary out for 7 days you can still change the location each day. The number of days out is just how many it will do before you need to pay again.

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I think this content is horribly designed. I got to rank 10 in 5 days whole I was like 3-4 Quests behind waiting for timegated systems to generate enough cowries. So it's 4 days of gameplay then it's literally just not playing and waiting not doing anything.

For anyone having trouble catching the rare animals (twinklefleece) :P Try using ninja invisability skill from behind at max catch distance.

I think the entire game mode was a missed opportunity. Would've been so great if it was a self contained diadem where you could level crafters and gatherers. As it is now I don't even touch it anymore after level 5 cos it's so brain meltingly boring

peep the horror

Where are the shop seeds

How do you fly on the island?

they definitely should add rare material and animals that only spawn if you go into another person's island. no matter how solo you are, have a friend or FC mate you can visit, even if is an objective. unless they have a way to randomly make player's island spawns different from another, then visiting a certain time and weather to a friend's island would work

Lol i got my friend all exited to come back to the game and , then i realized you have to finish endwalker.. thus died that idea. Locking content behind msq might make sense when you talk about raids and dungeuns, but to lock something like island sanctuary makes no sense, just make it a sub only feature and leave it at that.

It needs more to do there, but Island Sanctuary has a lot of potential. I want more systems for getting cowries than just the workshop. I want mini games like frisbee golf and beach horse shoes. A fishing mini game that works more like FFXV. Water mounts, like inner tubes and paraboarding. Hula competitions. I want to invite NPC friends like Aymeric over for a beach day. Toy boat batteship with Merlwyb. Over the years it could become really special and we would reminisce about how bare bones it was on release.

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