This game really needs some automation

[228]

Many actions have to be repeated many times when dealing with many items, and currently it requires one mouse click per item. This usually results in boring mouse-clicking for a quite a long time. Many games have implemented a way to deal with lots of items. i believe DST needs this as well, especially since it's multiplayer game where people collect way more stuff than single player would ever do in DS.

I tried to make up a list of actions which need automation, provide examples as well as include possible solution.

a-c apply to 1 and b-c apply to 2.

a) Cooking over fire. Most frequently it applies to cooking monster meat to later turn it into eggs. Imagine that you have to click on fire X times for all X monster meats u got.

b) Feeding something to a bird in birdcage.

c) Giving pigking meats & trinkets for gold.

1. Doing action related to structure. It could be done via holding down space button while also carrying items in hands (outside of inventory) standing next to the structure.

2. Picking items returned by the structure. Here, I suggest to make those structures return items directly to player's inventory instead of dropping them on the ground, because ultimately they all will have to be picked up by the player.

(I know that it can also be improved in many ways, especially through modding, like making some kind of dispenser which automatically does the action related to structure it is placed next to, as well as gather items returned by this structure.)

3. Crafting items which are often needed in large amounts, like ropes, boards, cut stones, gunpowder, tooth traps, walls and so on. Possible solution would be adding "Build All" button next to "Build" one. In this case players will have to be cautious to drop stuff they don't want to be crafted, though I believe it will take way less time than manually clicking "Build" button to craft every single item.

4. Harvesting farmables. I can't come up with simple solution, rather than using lureplant, even though it requires special spacing for farmables, due to relatively unpredictable pattern of eyeplants spawning. So, one idea would be making new item crafted from lureplant, that will somehow harvest stuff within its woking radius without eyeplants (possibly using animation like shadow stage hand coming from the ground).

That's all that came into my mind as of yet, feel free to reply in comments if I forgot something. I hope some of those will be addressed, especially since we have been shown that developers actually read feedback, taking into consideration the fact how quickly they fixed lantern exploit after just single person reporting it comments section.

[. . .]

It's very, very painful & boring cooking 40 monster meat then clicking on the birdcage 40 times... So, I think your idea is good !

[Mr.Tarunio]

This is a good "mod" idea :>.

[JJburner]

1. For a) Well for cooking things theres not much you can do, except in shipwrecked where with fire packim baggims you can instant cook stacks of food! Plus you won't have to cook much food when you can eat raw berries or honey late game!

2. For c) Well over 1000's of days you really don't need much gold, even when playing a gold consumer like wigfrid you really don't need much and using the 100's of frazzled wires in the ruins you can be set on gold for over 1k days easily!

3. Over time many of these tasks aren't necessary late game except mass crafting (which can be held down if you use a controller), since you don't need much gold as I said and eggs aren't that useful since you can use other means of food late game! Such as...

4. For 4) all of it can be automated by in my opinion the best character wicker bottom! If you can plant 40 berry bushes, 40 grass, 40 twigs, or have a reed trap all of them can be auto harvested with a lureplant and grown using 5 applied horticultures for 25 STACKS of each material for the cost of only 5 manure, 5 seeds, 10 papyrus, and total loss of sanity which can be recovered with enough cactus before hand. Eyeplants aren't random as long as you know how to control them and can easily be manipulated into the best farming tool in the game!

Conclusion: Overall I believe many of these can be very frustrating over time to do, but you really won't have to do many of them in the long run except crafting which I 100% agree with you on that I wish there was a better way of automating

[Quyzbuk]

If there is one thing this game does NOT need, it's automation, if you're too lazy to do it yourself, find a mod, a sucker friend, or consult some youtube videos to see how other people take most of the work out of the equation. There are plenty of (creative) ways to speed things up already, and items as well (craft some "The Lazy Forager", it does almost everything you're asking for).

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

1 hour ago, Quyzbuk said:

If there is one thing this game does NOT need, it's automation, if you're too lazy to do it yourself, find a mod, a sucker friend, or consult some youtube videos to see how other people take most of the work out of the equation. There are plenty of (creative) ways to speed things up already, and items as well (craft some "The Lazy Forager", it does almost everything you're asking for).

You're missing the point. It gets grindingly time-consuming and completely boring to do menial tasks that through the change in game mechanics could easily be made fun to let you focus on different things, and there are a lot of things to keep your focus on in late game, like getting more of various resources, cooking up ****, drying up ****, harvesting ****, crafting **** and of course beating (around...) the boshes .-.

It's because of the lack of automation that I'm stuck doing menial, boring tasks in the game, whilst I could be doing something more fun, like a boss fight or fighting a bunch of normal deadly mobs (a lot of spiders to clear in one place can be quite fun, if you ask me) or running around like sanik...

Most of the points mentioned in this topic CANNOT be taken out of the equation because of the way the game functions.

[Footman Crouch]

Well, i figure maybe we can craft some sort of lawn mower or stick-picker in the late game to harvest stuff, or have Maxwell's minion ability to harvest resources? Just sayin' 

[RayramAB]

Maybe a lawnmower to harvest grass like this one: 

 

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

5 hours ago, RayramAB said:

Maybe a lawnmower to harvest grass like this one: 

 

Best design, tbh!

Aaand the components to build it should drop from the green surface shadow skeleton

We could call it "Bone Mower", cause it would mow your grass with bones or something.

Edit: a drawback for this mossy bone machinery could be that it has a 1% or perhaps a 0.1% chance of making a grass tuft diseased after cutting it. Remember this would only cut grass quicker, not really slot it in your inventory. It would as a result be an alternative to the gekko farm.

As for proper automation... I honestly think the Lazy Forager needs to be possible to be refueled via nightmare fuel, and to my knowledge a large portion of the forum would agree. If not picking up stacks and picking up items quicker or instantly as they fall under the forager's radius, at least let us refuel it, Klei!

[HamBatter]

9 hours ago, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

...whilst I could be doing something more fun, like a boss fight or fighting a bunch of normal deadly mobs (a lot of spiders to clear in one place can be quite fun, if you ask me) or running around like sanik...

Most of the points mentioned in this topic CANNOT be taken out of the equation because of the way the game functions.

Isn't enjoying new content with less interruption the reason they broke spoilage/inventory balance with Bundling Wraps?

[fimmatek]

39 minutes ago, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

As for proper automation... I honestly think the Lazy Forager needs to be possible to be refueled via nightmare fuel, and to my knowledge a large portion of the forum would agree. If not picking up stacks and picking up items quicker or instantly as they fall under the forager's radius, at least let us refuel it, Klei!

I fully agree with this! I don't think anyone would use it regularly (I mean every day), but in the cases when we use them we'd really need more durability. I was collecting rocks after the Bearger crashed down a whole petrified forest, used up two of these amulets but the half of it is still on the ground...

I believe this could be a feature. If I remember correctly, the same happened with the yellow amulet too, right?

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

2 minutes ago, HamBatter said:

Isn't enjoying new content with less interruption the reason they broke spoilage/inventory balance with Bundling Wraps?

Do you speak of it like it's a bad thing? The bundling wraps can't exactly be used always and everywhere. They are balanced in a way that you don't have thousands of them and you can only always store something very specific. For instance, they're not useful for keeping your own inventory items that you use on a regular bases, since you'll be plowing through grass very quickly with this and the items drop on the ground, plus the fact that the unwrapping takes a decently long animation, which in tense situations would make bundling wraps real bad.

And no, things still spoil a lot, since you want to easily be able to check in and check out from eating something and the grass being taken away each time (or the rope) means that ice boxes are still hella useful.

[Mineirinho]

12 hours ago, SuperDavid said:

It's very, very painful & boring cooking 40 monster meat then clicking on the birdcage 40 times... So, I think your idea is good !

I have a Mod that to all this things with just one SHIFT+Left Click

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=609051112

[Rellimarual]

Or turn Chester into something like Fire Packim? Maybe by putting those dragonfly eggs inside him? 

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

3 minutes ago, Rellimarual said:

Or turn Chester into something like Fire Packim? Maybe by putting those dragonfly eggs inside him? 

Why not just being able to put a stack of food inside the Scaled Furnace and letting it cook up like in Packim Bagims? Seriously, this is what many other people suggested and I'm inclined to agree! I mean, it's a furnace, for heaven's sake!

[RobertoRezende]

4 hours ago, Mineirinho said:

I have a Mod that to all this things with just one SHIFT+Left Click

I am using this mod too. It is really useful and automates a lot of things like: cooking, planting seeds, pinecones and marble, harvesting grass, twigs and farms, collecting items....

[Tykvesh]

5 hours ago, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

Why not just being able to put a stack of food inside the Scaled Furnace and letting it cook up like in Packim Bagims? Seriously, this is what many other people suggested and I'm inclined to agree! I mean, it's a furnace, for heaven's sake!

Hey, yesterday I thought about it too :^)

Then I stole Packim's ability to cook, modified and added it to scaled furnace.

[HamBatter]

7 hours ago, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

Do you speak of it like it's a bad thing?...

And no, things still spoil a lot, since you want to easily be able to check in and check out from eating something and the grass being taken away each time (or the rope) means that ice boxes are still hella useful.

No; I'm just echoing a sentiment.

Just saying you can do something like take out 8-10 B&E so it enables you to do those menial tasks all at once.

[. . .]

9 hours ago, Mineirinho said:

I have a Mod that to all this things with just one SHIFT+Left Click

Huh, neat.

[voyager156]

On 4.03.2017 at 1:55 AM, Quyzbuk said:

If there is one thing this game does NOT need, it's automation,

My thoughts exactly

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

1 hour ago, voyager156 said:

My thoughts exactly

Why?

[Mencken]

I think automation defeats the whole purpose of the game.   1,000 wood?   One mouse click.    Might as well migrate the world to our modern times.    The beauty of scarcity and the effort required to assemble materials is that it reinforces discipline, planning and strategic thinking.  If you have near instant provision it alters the game dynamic to such a degree that objectives are accomplished far more quickly, what then?

I don't want a preview of the world or a mod which simplifies a task or one that makes an item last forever.   Exploring the world is part of the joy of discovery, not knowing what is around every corner makes it more mysterious and compelling.   As it is already even a large world seems small when you have a walking stick.   

I've witnessed games in which skilled players kill every giant multiple times in 200 days and can command any resource they desire in short order.   Whats to do after that?   

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

On 11/03/2017 at 4:35 AM, Mencken said:

I think automation defeats the whole purpose of the game.   1,000 wood?   One mouse click.    Might as well migrate the world to our modern times.    The beauty of scarcity and the effort required to assemble materials is that it reinforces discipline, planning and strategic thinking.  If you have near instant provision it alters the game dynamic to such a degree that objectives are accomplished far more quickly, what then?

I don't want a preview of the world or a mod which simplifies a task or one that makes an item last forever.   Exploring the world is part of the joy of discovery, not knowing what is around every corner makes it more mysterious and compelling.   As it is already even a large world seems small when you have a walking stick.   

I've witnessed games in which skilled players kill every giant multiple times in 200 days and can command any resource they desire in short order.   Whats to do after that?   

Here's the thing... Grinding is never really fun. Period.

And to sustain yourself well and achieve good adventures in this game, you must grind, else you'll be almost guaranteed to die. Players won't act so stupidly once they know the game mechanics and once you know the game mechanics you realize you must grind, else you'll be left to "oh I need this" and "oh, I now need that" every 5 minutes, doing a cycle that amounts to nothing but a perpetual survival that will be just as boring as grinding for an abundance in the long run.

Adventure is what's really fun about this game, imho, and the grinding keeps the little amount of it that exists the game away from us. Giving us danger, whilst giving us automation so that we can enjoy adventure more into the game is optimal for a game like this.