I understand the game is working with pick-and-choose realism, but it doesn’t make sense for rocks to not respawn. There’s a point to resource limitations in a survival game, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable for us to find ~5 rocks respawning every few days, or after a large storm. Hell, it could be every seven days, like the animals. If a boar can fully mature in 7 days, I think a few rocks can wash ashore.
The same goes for Ficus trees. It would make the game way too easy if palm trees respawned, but 3-5 Ficus trees (10-20 wood sticks) respawning every several days would really improve the game. That’s a few hours of real time that you’d have to sit on the island just to get a handful of wood logs, so it wouldn’t be practical to camp on one island indefinitely. You’d still have to harvest resources from other islands for base/raft building, but the respawning rocks/trees would be perfect for weapon & tool upkeep.
Resources seem skewed in regards to relative abundance and use. For example, after 100 in-game days, I have 80+ leather that are just taking up space because they serve little-to-no purpose. They build up faster than you can use them, since you get 8 rawhide from killing the giant hog and two boar that respawn every seven days and are present on nearly every island you visit. There are currently five crafting recipes that require leather, and you won’t be using them frequently. I’d like to see some leather gear/armor implemented so I can free up those containers.
On the opposite side of things, I burn through fibrous leaves so quickly that I have to make island runs for them, despite having ~80 respawn on my island every 2 days. 80 fibrous leaves makes 20 lashings, and lashings are used in the majority of recipes. That issue could be resolved by decreasing the recipes that require lashings (some could be replaced with leather), or reduce the lashing costs (some crafting recipes require multiple lashings).
Rocks should never respawn but they should be more abundant. Growing trees and crops should be at least semi realistic so you shouldn’t be able to harvest a tree every few days or weeks.
I think the easiest thing to do regarding the lashings is to make it possible to construct them from more sources. You should be able to use palm tree fibers (some palms have fiber around the base that regrows every month) or coconut husk fibers, palm fronds, cloth, and leather to make cord or rope. I don’t understand why you can only make lashings from the juvenile palms and nothing else given the dozens of plants that are on each island, and the fact that coconut cord is a real world thing. Add a drop spindle or cord making apparatus and you’re all set.
I think a general small resource pile in addition to larger piles for fronds, wood, stone would be worth considering, and leather piles for the larger pieces is a good idea.
I have a few suggestions/thoughts on this subject as well:
Palms grow from sapling to small tree (one log) to medium tree to large tree (three logs)
5(?) game days per stage; so a total of 15 days from sapling to maturity
Large trees spawn saplings; if all trees are cut from an island, no saplings will respawn unless a storm washes up a coconut (see section on storms below)
Make coconuts plantable|
Ficus trees respawn after 5(?) game days
Renewable sources of stone and clay
Perhaps use the storm mechanic below to wash up a small handful of stones on shore
Could also add stone deposits underwater and have storms spawn new stone/clay nodes; the logic could be that storms/giant waves shift the sand and uncover new deposits
Have storms wash up small amounts of random resources on shore
Cloth, planks, corrugated, palm fronds, sticks, barrels, tires, etc.
Change Fibrous Leaves to Plant Fibers and make more sources
The currently non-harvestable plants and bushes
Coconuts and palm fronds (fronds can be chopped down to fibers, similar to the log into sticks mechanic)