I love the setup of the story that you get shipwrecked on the isle of Siptah and try to discover it’s secrets. I love the map. But beyond that, it seems the whole purpose of the map is to grind for summoning better thralls.
From a story perspective, the Isle makes no sense in that respect. In the Exiled Lands the end goal is to escape the lands by removing your bracelet. Nothing has been presented to allow you to escape the island. The lore you learn from the vaults tells you a story of what happened to the elder races that lived there and you get a sense of the sad state of their degenerate descendants. But beyond that, if the Isle is nothing but a thrall generator, that is very lacking. I feel there is much more than can be done in terms of story here. There is no end-game here. Once you build your base and get your thralls, what else is there? Nothing.
The Tower just screams that it has to be the focal point for something bigger in the story that hasn’t been developed yet. A dungeon perhaps.
But for now, there is not much to hold my interest. The gameplay is kind of boring. There needs to be something else that is more engaging that makes sense in terms of story.
I agree that lore-wise Siptah is very underdeveloped, even by the relatively sparse standards of the genre in general and CE in particular.
I suspect more will be coming, and this is one of those where it IS fair to say “it’s early access” (unlike the breaking bugs, broken server browser etc).
Maybe the endgame is just unreleased. I know this is a boring explanation, but Siptah is in Early Access. In this particular case, it’s not even an unlikely explanation for this lack of endgame content.
Indeed. This is still the “Is it stable/does it work” phase where they introduce systems and mechanics. First comes that, which we are already seeing, then comes balance, then comes content, and finally re-balancing based on data and feedback of said content. Standard development cycle. Release isn’t until Spring so expect a long haul.
No maybe about it. The endgame is unreleased. It even says so in black and white right there in the journal. Look at the last entry. It says something like “Explore the tower. (This content will be unavailable until after the full launch.)” I’m sure there will be more than just the tower though. There’s at least one location on the map that to my knowledge is unreachable, plus there’s all the nooks and crannies that have all but a flashing neon sign reading “dungeon goes here”.
As far as the story and lore is concerned, I have to agree with the @Shinrin . It does a good job of telling the story of what happened to the island to make it the way it is, but it’s missing that link back to you. How does it fit into what you are doing? How is what happened on the island in the past motivating you now?
So far the only motivational factor remotely connected that I’ve found is one of the castaways mentioning that you’ve got that look in your eye of someone who doesn’t want to leave because you want the island’s secrets. Um, ok, but so far those secrets are just that some people went crazy and a hermit locked himself in a storm making tower that ancient hermits built. Where is my motivation to stay on the island? Or leave for that matter.
Compare that to the Exiled Lands. Giants once ruled the area, the Lemurians showed up as refugees, conflict ensued, the Giants set off the sandstorm and everything fell to ruin. That explains the setting. The giants made the bracelets to keep their human slaves in line. That explains the origin of your bracelet. The bracelet will kill you if you cross the boundary. Reason to remove it. Thoth Amon discovered the bracelets and used them to control people to find more artifacts. Explains why you’re wearing it in the first place. You need to learn more about the bracelet and find objects connected with it in order to remove it. Motivation to explore.
See it doesn’t actually matter whether you choose to remove the bracelet and leave the Exiled Lands or not. You are connected to the land and the lore through it, making it a driving force beyond mere survival. Siptah currently lacks that connection in it’s lore.