Every character has a drinking problem...


Should Klei remove the sanity meter?  

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  1. 1. Should Klei remove the sanity meter?



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So, today, I'm going to talk about bars. Not the alcoholic ones, mind you. Stuff like the sanity bar. I don't like the sanity bar. I think it would have been better for Don't Starve if the Sanity bar wasn't shown, because then it makes the game much more intimidating. You don't know -exactly- where your sanity is, and I know too many players that just never go insane because they keep their eyes on the sanity meter at all times.

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So, today, I'm going to talk about bars. Not the alcoholic ones, mind you. Stuff like the sanity bar. I don't like the sanity bar. I think it would have been better for Don't Starve if the Sanity bar wasn't shown, because then it makes the game much more intimidating. You don't know -exactly- where your sanity is, and I know too many players that just never go insane because they keep their eyes on the sanity meter at all times.

I couldn't agree more.
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There are too issues with this with the game as it currently stands:1) Sanity wouldn't be a significant threat even if the bar was hidden. The simple act of eating decent cooked food for nutrition is usually enough to keep your sanity above 90 at all times. A lot of people probably wouldn't know that sanity even existed if the bar wasn't there.2) Sanity is an esoteric enough mechanic that newer players wouldn't understand what was happening or how to fix it if they didn't have a clear indication of what was making it go up or down. That goes double when you consider #1 : they might go 10 characters without ever going insane and then suddenly start messing with wormholes and make wrong assumptions about what was killing them.The fact that varying levels of sanity already have a clear visual impact on the world is a promising basis for ditching the meter, but quite a few other things would have to be changed for it to actually be a viable option.

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Well, i sort of kind of agree. With that logic, you shouldn't know what your health or hunger is either. But, with the current system, it seems like Freezing and Naughtiness would be meters as well..So, i'm on the fence about that.

Well not really, consistency can be selective. Consider the Health and Hunger bar more than necessary for survival, if one of them hit 0 you will die, also their purpose is not the same as the sanity mechanics.The sanity bar however doesn't inflict death directly, and there is a LOT more visual ques ( that makes sense and doesn't ruin the mystique of the mechanic ) so you have SOME knowledge of where it is.That is why the Sanity meter could work as invisible without being, with lack of a better word, stupid, Hunger and Health bar can't.
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Well not really, consistency can be selective. Consider the Health and Hunger bar more than necessary for survival, if one of them hit 0 you will die, also their purpose is not the same as the sanity mechanics.The sanity bar however doesn't inflict death directly, and there is a LOT more visual ques ( that makes sense and doesn't ruin the mystique of the mechanic ) so you have SOME knowledge of where it is.That is why the Sanity meter could work as invisible without being, with lack of a better word, stupid, Hunger and Health bar can't.

I don't think I could have said it better myself. Insanity has tons of visual queues and I almost never look at the bar as it is anyway. I just think "man... everything's looking so... juicy" and I find me some flowers or something.Hunger could be argued either way and I don't feel strongly about it. Health I think would be difficult to do without the bar.Hide the insanity bar plz? :)
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Well, i sort of kind of agree. With that logic, you shouldn't know what your health or hunger is either. But, with the current system, it seems like Freezing and Naughtiness would be meters as well..So, i'm on the fence about that.

My take on it is, well, if your health is low in real life, you'd tell, because you'd be cut up and scratched or bleeding. Same with hunger, your stomach would rumble and you'd grab something out of the fridge. But mental health is so much more selective in terms of self-awareness.
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_Q_ that's stupid, why would anyone like an challenging survival game? Don't Starve should be more of something like The Sims 3 but with monsters, oh and Nuclear Weapons!

We should buff all characters, like 999 HP/Hunger/SanityI was about to look into the files to hide sanity meter anyway.
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Who wants to place bets that all the casuals will be posting for nerfs 5 minutes after the update?Someone should start a thread the day before advising everyone to adapt to the changes before posting and complaining about them.I picture droves of people gathering supplies to build a base and then freezing to death because they didn't prepare for it.On topic: Insanity is so loaded with visual cues it really doesn't need a bar, as I said earlier I'd like the hunger bar removed too, but don't care either way really. I love how the devs made the thermometer for winter an item instead of a bar though, they probably saw these discussions.

Edited by Avarice
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Who wants to place bets that all the casuals will be posting for nerfs 5 minutes after the update?Someone should start a thread the day before advising everyone to adapt to the changes before posting and complaining about them.I picture droves of people gathering supplies to build a base and then freezing to death because they didn't prepare for it.

I'll take you up on this.
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Who wants to place bets that all the casuals will be posting for nerfs 5 minutes after the update?Someone should start a thread the day before advising everyone to adapt to the changes before posting and complaining about them.I picture droves of people gathering supplies to build a base and then freezing to death because they didn't prepare for it.

It wont be that fast this time, cause they all must play 30 days before winter, and that's very long time to get everything ready.
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That's true Q, forgot about that...but I wouldn't put it past them to start complaining before they even experienced it. I do hope you are right though, the insanity update hotfix and chatter prior made me so mad I still haven't recovered.

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Can we just leave the Sanity meter?Let's just focus on Winter. We bully Klei into bad choices too often. Anyway, how would a non-wiki player know that Sanity was going on, let alone how to fix it?Also, there are reasons to go insane- Nightmare Fuel- Beard Hair, Beardlings.I would however probably play with a mod which removed the meter, just to experience it.

Edited by ArcticFox789
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