Originally posted by Weaver:

I mean play your way (as long as you aren't violating server rules you agreed to), but that is a cheat. Half the game is the fact you have to explore and find things, not just go from point A to B knowing where it all is.

It's a tricky one.

I play solo, and am more than happy to waste my time sailing around discovering new land: I found Haldor, I found all the bosses, and I found crypts that way.

I also play with a team, and our time together is limited to a few evenings a week. We want to play as a team - we don't all want to go off solo exploring, nor do we want to spend the limited time we have (for example) sailing randomly around to find swamps with crypts in them. (Solo exploring wouldn't be quite so bad if we could share maps, but we can't.)

A solution, of course, is for the game to generate maps that whilst not making it too easy, do provide resources in each of the biome instances. I was lucky in my solo game: I found a swamp area with 20 or so crypts - more than enough for everything I needed - I've also been in reasonable sized swamps with nothing in them.

Using the map generator, we found a suitably sized swamp (with plenty of crypts) - we all sailed together, spent time building a base, and then explored - which was much better than the previous session where we spent 3 fairly boring hours sailing and finding nothing. (One person used the map generator to plot a course - the rest of us played "blind".)