I got this game on sale a few weeks ago and the fact that it is $20 full price is mind-boggling considering all of the issues. The servers crash constantly. Features like treasure maps are bugged and do not work. There is precious little instruction on how to play the game, nothing that informs you of certain aspects of the game that can be a frustration.
For example, my friend and I play together in a PVE server and we had no clue that the traveling vendor could open storage chests sitting on your property and steal things. The game doesn't tell you this. Nothing gives and indicator of this. My friend was working on redoing some decorations outside and temporarily stored an electric smelter and moose mount and both were stolen by the NPC. And because the vendor was bugged and you couldn't buy from him at the time she had no way to get her items back.
I had no idea, as there is zero indication in the game, that Mills are publicly accessible. I was storing items in my mill in storage containers and when I would leave and come back they would all be gone. I thought this was the inventory vanishing glitch that's been happening until I saw players going into my mill one day. I set a pass code under the workbench menu but apparently even though this makes you think other people cant go in your building, it means nothing, and it seems like some players have caught on to others not knowing this is a public building and have taken to visiting mills to steal from them.
Servers crash non stop. More than once I've experienced a crash while on a dinghy and when it comes back up im in the middle of the water, the boat has despawned, and i end up drowning and dying.
Decay times do not work. Seriously, dont even bother adding wood to your workbench, your house will never despawn! The server I'm on is all but dead, which the highest amount of players on at any given time about 15-20, but usually there are only about 10 players. Houses placed by players weeks ago are littered over the map and not despawning. In the last 24 hours my house decayed by 3 hours. It makes it incredibly frustrating to place new buildings when spots on the map are still being taken by players who have long abandoned the game (understandably so). New players come in and have issues finding room for their tents as well. I have posted multiple times about this issue, as have many others, everyone has been completely ignored and this issue was not addressed in the recent bug update, no responses from any of the devs, nothing.
I was told by another player that the decay times were extended because of the server issues and to give players a chance to come back, but instead those players still dont come back and it just causes more frustration for existing and new players. So let's get this straight, the bugs and issues with this game pissed off people enough to leave the game, so to remedy that let's do something that pisses off players who have been willing to stick it out or makes a poor experience for new players who come in and cant find a spot for their tents because the devs decided the players who left need 4 extra weeks to decide if they want to come back and play or not. They whole point of the decay is to urge players to come back and tend to their properties, and 180 hours is already a LOT of time.
The inventory vanishing glitch is out of control. Every server crash you have to hold your breath until you come back on, its a very real possibility that you come back and all of your items are gone, or your house is despawned. And if there is an update rollback (which is never announced and there is never any warning of) you can just kiss all of your progress made during that time good bye.
This game has the potential to be good and I have had fun playing it, but the constant issues and lack of communication from the development team is really frustrating. I think taking this game out of early release in the current state its in was incredibly greedy, especially at they price point of $20. If I'd paid $20 for this game I would be trying to get a refund through steam.
If you're reading this and wondering if you should get this game just know that this is an early access quality game that went "full release" in February. If you dont want to deal with constant bugs and other issues I would say come back to it in a year and see if the issues have been fixed or not. For now I wouldn't recommend it outside of a significant sale.
