I was against portals initially. I play with a friend and as we expanded we would build these cool new places and keep pushing the borders farther out. But as our old places got farther away, then we just stopped going to them, which started to feel unfortunate. It felt like investing into building wasn't worth it anymore because we would just move on and not visiting the old ones.

So we decided to use portals, which felt great. We could now visit our old places easily. We tried to find unique uses for them to give them some reason to come back too. It also renewed our building again as we now knew we would still be visiting them, even when we got farther away.

So I would say, if you are into the creative building aspect of this game, then I would encourage you to use portals. You'll enjoy your creations more when access to them is easy.

So I restarted the game several times, partly because I wanted to test something, partly because I got bored and partly because I screwed it up myself.

But for me the portals have never been a reason for this, they make some things easier, that's true, but they are not a savior.
Portals can be destroyed, do not let ores and metals through, nor are they prevented from sailing, they only reduce the time at sea.

My advice to you would be to try without portals, but possibly to have a portal in your base and the raw materials for 1 portal in your ship to be able to rescue you if necessary.

U know man, whatever keeps you playing. If you want to run everywhere, haul sh1t. then do it. Its what your game is. I agree, I got lazy with portals. and I feel I killed me game. LOL I have a portal that is like 200 M away. hehehe

If you need to run everywhere to keep yourself entertained. Then all good to ya.

Originally posted by 2High2tell:

U know man, whatever keeps you playing. If you want to run everywhere, haul sh1t. then do it. Its what your game is. I agree, I got lazy with portals. and I feel I killed me game. LOL I have a portal that is like 200 M away. hehehe

If you need to run everywhere to keep yourself entertained. Then all good to ya.

The journey is far more important than the destination afterall. You sound jealous.

I would guess you were probably getting bored with that play-through and are using the portals as an excuse to start over.

In your new game try to use portals when you can and see if you feel the same way then.

I find sailing very boring and very slow.

I love portals, and world hopping to transport ores.

I like them. I dont mind sailing around, but oh-boy do i hate running around.

I will happily go and adventure by foot and sea until I find a spot I like and want to build in, then I drop a portal just so I can go between various home bases.

The fact Portals are completely optional makes them fair and balanced.

I am still with OP on the matter, as I have also started a SP world with no Portals, but far more miniature homes to rest in, and more critical thinking is now involved. At day 21 my Running is almost 40, i'm going to never skip leg day again.

Originally posted by zangori:

I use portals for lore playing. Not for traveling. They are totaly broken, true. Yhey should be connected to some magical power at some specific place after some specifix quest and they should require fuel, or gold, or something to use.

Per usage costs sound irritating like refuelling torches is, but portals being tied to a leyline network tied to worldgen is an interesting idea. I'd play that mod.

I find the portals a little cheaty, but I have limited playtime and don't want to spend too much time taking the long way home..
I am thinking to do a next run without portals or the jump server method of moving stuff.

At this time I think the devs did a reasonable balancing with the portals. The stuff they can't carry is generally important so you must actually travel by boat or foot. Just to get to a level where you have a portal network requires a lot of footwork and sailing. By that time having a portal network becomes a QOL factor.

Portals are just a QoL mechanic imo. You have to visit a location, and set up a small outpost, before you can even utilize one, so it's pretty balanced. Resource wise as well. Keeping a constant supply of Fine Wood and Greydwarf eyes is easy enough, Cores can be a bit of an issue at times though with RNG being what it is. At least until you can farm them in the Swamp.

There's a lot of different ways to play though. Instead of using Portals, you can do a semi-nomadic style of run where you setup small bases in each Biome as you come to it. This negates the need for a large base, other than a small one to supply you with vegetables, and removes the need for Portals as well. Simply carry what you NEED with you, and leave the rest as you progress in the game.

The biggest thing for them though is reasonable Corpse Retrieval. Without a Portal, or some other form of fast travel, having to build a boat, sail to your stuff, and then hopefully not die again while grabbing it would become extremely cumbersome. This becomes even more frustrating when your body is on the opposite side of the world from your spawn point, and you have a long voyage ahead of you without that Portal.

Not being able to teleport ores keeps them pretty well-balanced imo at least. You can get all the odds and ends, but without the ore, you're not making very much.

Need my portals brah

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633924339

I use portals for lore playing. Not for traveling. They are totaly broken, true. Yhey should be connected to some magical power at some specific place after some specifix quest and they should require fuel, or gold, or something to use.