One of the more… interesting design decisions made by woodpunk survival sandbox Last Oasis was the burn mechanic, which effectively forced players to keep moving across the Earth or face hot sun destruction. This was, as one might expect, a pretty polarizing decision – after all, building up from nothing and establishing a full base is one of the primary hooks of this sub-genre.
Developer Donkey Crew is finally coming around to the idea that a lack of permanence was sort of antithetical to survivalbox gameplay, announcing in its latest dev post that it’s doing away with the burn mechanic entirely with the launch of Season Five.
“Season Five is – very intentionally – a much more static experience. You will have a permanent main base from which you go on adventures with your crew on Walkers, and eventually have to return to it,” the post elaborates. “With this approach, the Burn does very little to aid this experience – quite the opposite, we believe it would mostly just be frustrating.”
Even though the burn is going away, the devs believe that Season Five’s zone changes and how it’s linked to character progression will still encourage the game’s hallmark nomadic travel aesthetic. That said, some oases may need to be deleted in the interest of population balance, but the post promises there would be plenty of warning beforehand.
