Suggestion to Improve Aporkalypse

[Tumalu]

There is three main problems with Aporkalypse that come to mind immediately.

• How is an unspoiled player POSSIBLY supposed to have any idea they have to stop the aporkalypse in some ruin, unless they happened to find the clock beforehand? Someone who doesn't use the forum/wiki and didn't stumble onto the clock earlier would be doomed. It's completely unintuitive; everything we know from playing previous Don't Starve editions tells us we should just endure it until it's over, and nothing in the world really suggests otherwise but the hidden doomsday clock itself.
• If you DO know about the doomsday clock, then you can just stop the aporkalypse from -ever occurring- based on what people have told me. Since you HAVE to stop it eventually, you may as well stop it before it even starts. At that point, it's just a newbie murder trap, because other players won't even let it start.
• Heralds spawn SO frequently, that there is no point to trying to kill them even if you're well capable of it; you'll have yet another on your hands before you're even done, plus a swarm of summoned enemies, like several terrorbeaks that will never go away. When combined with the daily bat swarms, doing anything but running from heralds quickly becomes a death sentence no matter how prepared you are.

Deadly heralds is thematically appropriate, but combined with the other problems... Spoiled players will never let it start. Unspoiled players will never know to even try to stop it, and probably die rather quickly. However, I think it's not too hard to tweak it into something more workable.

• First, limit herald spawning. No more than one per couple days? Perhaps allow it to warp to your location every now and then to harass you in exchange, but this way killing them (not a simple feat) would at least allow you some breathing room.
• Make it so killing heralds drops an item whose examine hints at what you're supposed to do, or at least trigger a dialogue line implying that killing them is not enough to end this nightmare. There is currently no way or reason for players to know without spoilers they're supposed to stop the aporkalypse themselves, and the series itself has taught us to just endure through bad events; there needs to be a hint, somewhere. Even if it's just a message when the day changes of characters saying "I need to find a way to end this!", telling the player this is a puzzle they must solve, similar to how they announce dusk beginning.
• Make it so the aporkalypse cannot be ended before it even begins. This also requires circumventing "sitting at the clock right before it starts to immediately stop it." Making it occur early though, that's fine~ There should be a world gen setting to make it sooner/later as well.

I think the simplest way to cover point 2 and 3, as well as give more of a purpose for the aporkalypse existing for players who know how it works, is to require a drop from the Herald to get the clock out of doomsday mode. A sort of key to insert in the clock and "unlock" it. Now experienced players have an impending boss fight instead of an event to perpetually avoid, and new players see after killing a herald that it dropped an item whose examination heavily implies they've gotta use it somewhere if they want the nightmare to end. Unspoiled players are given the key hint they need, and spoiled players are given a reason for the aporkalypse to exist.

[Computer-7]

I agree with this a lot its kinda sad how everything that has been added to hamlet is something you just have to avoid first roc now this

[Tumalu]

Roc is kinda good! The first kidnapping is really important because you get gems (smelter and sprinkler are important) and the scepter, but is a risk/reward scenario because if you go before you clear a path in the ruins to the palace and fountain islands, you could end up trapped away from your base with a dangerous dungeon to go through to get back. 

Plus, the Roc is useful to destroy a bunch of trees for you, even if he's a little tricky to use that way. And he's pretty easy to avoid, since you just walk into pig town or a jungle to make him leave.

But the aporkalypse, oof. I see streamers get really excited and then they're like... wait, but all these monsters are impossible after a few days, all I can do is run. And then they go, wait what, this is just a "hit the button and it's over" thing, and they get really disappointed.

[Konerak]

I really like the idea that killing the Herald grants you an item which gives you a hint. Maybe it can put the aporkalypse "on hold" for a day as well, so you atleast have a chance to gather some items, and go exploring for the calendar. 

 

That way, you could even consider not showing the route to the calendar before the aporkalypse: you need to kill the herald first for the path to show or open. No "waiting at the clock at midnight". 

[metallichydra]

I wish they'd made Aporkalypse an actual season instead of this "event"

[Mooagain]

I heard someone say that it would be cool for the pigs to talk to each other. Maybe Klei could use this as a way to tell the player what to do about the aporkalypse?

[digitfish]

With my own complaints about the Aporkalypse, I've read several posts on it now and this is the only post I 100% agree with.

The first is the biggest issue to me. Yes, I know that Don't Starve has a lot of solutions that most people only find out in the wiki/forums, but usually there's still hints. I don't have a wiki amount of memory in my mind, usually I rely on those hints to remind me of how to solve things, but there's just nothing on the Aporklypse. And worse, it appears like a season--how is anyone supposed to know it's not? Volcanic Season ends, and it causes major damage but the first few times I encountered it I lived like a nomad and then just spent some time 'chilling' in the actual Volcano.

I already spoiled myself about the clock, but if I didn't, going to the ruins for an answer would not have been the first thing, or even the tenth thing to come to mind. After dying a couple times, I might decide to stock up on food. Pile up monster jerky since I'm crazy all the time anyway, maybe buy that Belt of Hunger in that shop even if I go broke so I can go a season without having to get food. Eventually I'll manage hiding/running for the entire duration of an entire season and THEN realize I can't wait it out, and then I'll die trying to kill some heralds maybe, or do something with the iron hulks because they seem tied to the Aporkalypse to me. And then--okay, and then maybe I'll go into the ruins. And then I'll learn that I could have avoided all that in the first place, and the Aporkalypse actually provides zero risk if you just plan a long road trip every so often.

And my other biggest complaint is also addressed in your last point. Having the Aporklaypse be a non-issue if you don't choose it (for no rewards, who would?) just feels wrong. Maybe make it so that several rooms leading to the clock is sealed off when the Aporklaypse isn't happening. Sure, you can still make most of the trip before it happens and skip most of it, but you'll still have to go through several rooms and maybe something guarding it too, I don't know. I don't want it too hard either, I'm not even good at the game, but no challenge at all if I just know what to do feels wrong.

tl;dr More hints, some balance, more rewards for those that choose to experience it and more risks for those that want to end it.

[hyiltiz]

On 12/9/2018 at 5:15 AM, Konerak said:

I really like the idea that killing the Herald grants you an item which gives you a hint. Maybe it can put the aporkalypse "on hold" for a day as well, so you atleast have a chance to gather some items, and go exploring for the calendar. 

 

That way, you could even consider not showing the route to the calendar before the aporkalypse: you need to kill the herald first for the path to show or open. No "waiting at the clock at midnight". 

I really hope Herald death pauses Apork for a day and drops a key that hints the existence of a puzzle. Then we use the good old

Divining Rod

to locate the calendar.