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DST's Insulation Mechanic


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NOTE: Before calling me wrong about this, please note that this is for Don't Starve Together and NOT Don't Starve: Reign of Giants. Please understand that the insulation mechanics between the two games are completely different, so tests done in the singleplayer game will not apply to Don't Starve Together!

 

So I feel the need to share my understanding of DST's insulation mechanic, maybe some people don't know how it works and may be interested to know, or perhaps someone might just find it interesting, I don't really care, I just want to share my understanding of it.

As far as I am aware, in Don't Starve Together, Insulation works as follows.

From Mid Autumn to Early Spring(World Temperature of 34 or lower), the game only uses Winter insulation values, meaning your insulation values for Summer have no effect at all, and the game ignores them, meaning you overheat at the same rate as if you don't have summer items on at all regardless of wearing them or not this time of the ingame year.

From Mid Spring to Early Autumn(World Temperature of 35 or higher), the game will switch to Summer insulation values as its priority, meaning Winter insulation values no longer apply, and as such, you will always freeze at the rate as if you had no winter gear at all regardless of what you wear, but summer items will delay overheating as intended.

Basically in DST wearing a beefalo hat in summer won't make you overheat faster, and wearing a floral shirt in winter won't make you freeze faster. Instead during those times, those items insulation values are ignored.

The one major exception to this mechanic is beards, beards will penalize your summer insulation regardless of world temperature. However beards will never drop your summer insulation value below 0. This means your beard will still be bad to keep in summer, but not nearly to the extreme of singleplayer Reign of Giants, at worst you'll overheat as if you weren't wearing any summer gear at all.

Also to note, on vanilla world settings, from day 1 to early spring, the game will use Winter insulation values, but will then switch as stated above. This is the one time early autumn uses winter insulation values, at least on vanilla world settings. The reasoning for this is due to the world temperature in a default world setting world always begins at 30 degrees.

As I said at the start of this post, I felt the need to share this information for those who may want to know it, or otherwise might just find it interesting.

EDIT: Updated to include new info I have learned about the mechanic! Hope it's even more accurate now. ;)

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Thanks for the information, I always assumed you'd overheat instantly wearing a puffy west in summer but I guess not. Yesterday I remember overheating a lot in spring due to wearing beefalo hat for domestication but it was probably due to it being the first half of spring and the furnace, salt lick and fire pit being too close to each other. Do you have information on insulation items stacking together? I always wondered how they work in conjuncture with each other like do the insulation values stack or does one get activated after other's effect is nullified or does the higher one completely ignore the smaller one? Also do they have any effect on your thermal stone? Basically would I be better off with just wearing a puffy west or does complementing it with bunny earmuffs, a beard and a thermal stone have any effect?

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If you have two different insulators, one with winter insulation and the other for summer insulation, one would be ignored while the other would function normally, depending on what time of the ingame year it is.

 

Also if I remember correctly, thermal stones have a set timer for how long they keep hot/cold thermals, and clothing does not extend it. (I believe I had a friend test that.)

The timer on thermal stones is dependant on how long they've sat next to a heat/cold source, but IIRC their charge never lasts more then 5 minutes without having the thermals recharged at another heat/cold source.

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So basically running around as Wilson or Webber with a beard all year round wouldn't be so bad, Ive always wondered about this, interesting, thank you.

4 hours ago, SinancoTheBest said:

I always wondered how they work in conjuncture with each other like do the insulation values stack or does one get activated after other's effect is nullified or does the higher one completely ignore the smaller one?

Insulation values of the same type do stack, EG: if you have a lot of winter insulation gear in winter, your internal temperature will drop much slower than if you have just one of those.

The same goes for heat resistant items during summer, like, having a floral vest, an eyebrella and an umbrella should give you a lot more time before overheating than just an eyebrella (although in reality you probably wouldn't need that much protection)

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This is your interpretation of the system, and it's incorrect. Taken directly from the Don't Starve Wikia:

Quote

In the Reign of Giants (RoG) and Shipwrecked (SW) DLCs as well as DST, having a Beard during Summer or Dry Season respectively will make Wilson Overheat faster. Some of his examination quotes are different to reflect the changes in the DLCs.

Since the beard provides insulation against cold, it will also apply to the items that provide insulation.

Anyway, the only reliable piece of information I could gather was that quote from Wikia. The real mechanics needs to be confirmed by a developer. But I have personally tried wearing eyebrella near a burning tree, and it delays overheating in winter.

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On 2/7/2019 at 7:50 AM, ShadowDuelist said:

So basically running around as Wilson or Webber with a beard all year round wouldn't be so bad, Ive always wondered about this, interesting, thank you.

Insulation values of the same type do stack, EG: if you have a lot of winter insulation gear in winter, your internal temperature will drop much slower than if you have just one of those.

The same goes for heat resistant items during summer, like, having a floral vest, an eyebrella and an umbrella should give you a lot more time before overheating than just an eyebrella (although in reality you probably wouldn't need that much protection)

Indeed. Wearing multiple winter/summer items during the time their insulation is in effect will stack the insulation values.

I believe the highest possible insulation values for winter and summer insulations in DST are...

480 for winter(Beefalo Hat + Puffy Vest or Hibearnation Vest - all these items have 240 winter insulation, afaik in DST there are no hand slot winter insulators.)

600 for summer(Eyebrella + Floral Shirt + Umbrella = Eyebrella and Floral Shirt have 240 summer insulation, the umbrella has 120 summer insulation.)

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22 hours ago, JackE-J said:

...

Since the beard provides insulation against cold, it will also apply to the items that provide insulation.

...

Beard is special, because it's not an equipment. Beard's insulation is always calculated, however, items' insulation could be ignored depending on the temperature.

For example, wearing a Beefalo Hat and a Floral Shirt and keeping Wilson's full beard give you:

Summer Insulation during warm days (world temperature gets above 35): 0 (Beefalo Hat) + 240 (Floral Shirt) - 135 (Beard) = 105

Winter Insulation during cold times (world temperature gets below 35): 240 (Beefalo Hat) + 0 (Floral Shirt) + 135 (Beard) = 375

Also, world temperature is not affected by heat source such as burning trees or campfire, which means Floral Shirt would not prevent you from heating up next to a camp fire in winter.

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9 hours ago, PuffinBy said:

Beard is special, because it's not an equipment. Beard's insulation is always calculated, however, items' insulation could be ignored depending on the temperature.

For example, wearing a Beefalo Hat and a Floral Shirt and keeping Wilson's full beard give you:

Summer Insulation during warm days (world temperature gets above 35): 0 (Beefalo Hat) + 240 (Floral Shirt) - 135 (Beard) = 105

Winter Insulation during cold times (world temperature gets below 35): 240 (Beefalo Hat) + 0 (Floral Shirt) + 135 (Beard) = 375

Also, world temperature is not affected by heat source such as burning trees or campfire, which means Floral Shirt would not prevent you from heating up next to a camp fire in winter.

That may be the case in the singleplayer game, but I just wanted to point out I noticed alot of DST's insulation mechanic from using the scaled furnace, sometimes my eyebrella would actually delay the scaled furnace's heat, some other times it wouldn't and I'd overheat really quick as if I didn't have it on at all.

That was basically how I got my understanding of DST's insulation mechanics, and I do believe they apply to the beards aswell, woodie has a constant 45 winter insulation in DST due to his beard(This is ONLY in DST, not singleplayer), yet it does not make him overheat any faster then anyone else.

So yeah in singleplayer ROG your values would apply, but in DST the summer insulation value would still be 240, as the beard is ignored.

On 2/8/2019 at 5:25 AM, JackE-J said:

This is your interpretation of the system, and it's incorrect. Taken directly from the Don't Starve Wikia:

Since the beard provides insulation against cold, it will also apply to the items that provide insulation.

Anyway, the only reliable piece of information I could gather was that quote from Wikia. The real mechanics needs to be confirmed by a developer. But I have personally tried wearing eyebrella near a burning tree, and it delays overheating in winter.

Hate to break it to you, but the wiki isn't always correct. The wiki actually gets ALOT of stuff wrong.

It may get it correct for the singleplayer game, but it is not correct at all for DST.

Please actually test things ingame rather then just quoting the wiki all the time, before you go calling me wrong.

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On 2/6/2019 at 11:25 AM, Terra M Welch said:

Also to note, on vanilla world settings, from day 1 to early spring, the game will use Winter insulation values, but will then switch as stated above. This is the one time early autumn uses winter insulation values, at least on vanilla world settings.

When you say "vanilla world settings", do you mean when the world is set up with Autumn and Winter as the only seasons, eliminating RoG basically?

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1 hour ago, Bluegeist said:

When you say "vanilla world settings", do you mean when the world is set up with Autumn and Winter as the only seasons, eliminating RoG basically?

No I mean all world settings set to default.

Autumn day 1 is weird in the sense it's world temperature starts at like 30, whereas the first day of autumn after a summer is like around 62 in temperature.

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7 hours ago, Terra M Welch said:

That may be the case in the singleplayer game

I actually tested all I said above in DST. And beard does lower your summer insulation.

So, this applies to you, too.:wilson_love:

 

7 hours ago, Terra M Welch said:

Please actually test things ingame, before you go calling me wrong.

 

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7 minutes ago, PuffinBy said:

I actually tested all I said above in DST. And beard does lower your summer insulation.

So, this applies to you, too.

 

 

Are you absolutely positivly certain you tested this in Don't Starve Together and not Don't Starve: Reign of Giants?

If you read the note in the OP, you'd find they have very different insulation mechanics.

Keep in mind woodie has a constant unremovable 45 winter insulation, yet as far as I've seen he doesn't overheat any faster in summer then others.

Also heres some test gifs, just to show the insulation priority.(Note that gfycat speeds up gifs slightly, but it shows the point nonetheless)

Note that without any insulation protection at all, temperature raises/lowers at a rate of 1 point per second.

For these tests, I have used Not Enough Items to set the season, and Combined Status is used to show both my character's temperature and the world temperature.

The first test, Beefalo Hat in winter, while standing next to an endothermic fire.

Result: The rate at which I cooled off was slowed the moment I put on the beefalo hat.

The second test, Beefalo Hat in summer, while standing next to an endothermic fire.

Result: The rate at which I cooled was NOT slowed upon equipping the beefalo hat.

The third test, Eyebrella in Winter next to a scaled furnace.

Result: Temperature's rate ot rising was not delayed by the eyebrella, heat insulation was ignored.

And lastly, the fourth test, Eyebrella in Summer while next to a Scaled Furnace.

Result: Eyebrella delays the heat as intended, even while next to the furnace.

So for those telling me that insulators aren't ignored depending on the world temperature in DST, you're either playing the wrong game or are full of bullcrud.

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@PuffinBy So I must state that you are partially correct for the beard, allow me to quote a friend.

my friend had dug into the info regarding the beard a bit further, this is their information on it.

Quote

ugh, oh boy possible wall of text warning as i try and poorly explain this.
i did some personal testing in DST on how the game handles Wilson's beard insulation and i found this: in summer if you have no summer clothing equipped the beard is completely ignored. in summer if you have an umbrella equipped (120 summer insulation), and a fully grown beard as Wilson (135 winter insulation), the umbrella was completely ignored and the game acted as if i had 0 insulation. with a straw hat (60 summer insulation), and umbrella (120 summer insulation), with Wilson's fully grown beard, the game acted as if i had only the straw hat equipped, i shaved the beard and how fast i was heating up slowed down significantly. i can only assume DST subtracts the winter insulation wilson/woodie/webber's beard gives, from your total summer insulation number unless the result would be negative, then it just acts as if you have 0. tested with a beefalo hat and umbrella in summer aswell, the beefalo hat insulation was ignored, so for some reason it's JUST the beard that behaves this way.
yup okay that's long wtf

 

 

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We're actually talking about the same thing... I didn't say you're wrong at all.

First, Summer insulation and winter insulation is two different things.(They don't add or cancel each other's affect)

Summer Insulation only works when world temperature is above 35. Winter insulation only works in winter.  Which means beefalo hat(that have winter insulation but not winter insulation) will not work in summer. Eyebrella won't work in winter.

Second, beard is special because it lowers your summer insulation and increase your Winter insulation.

Third, insulation has a minimum value of 30, that's why Woodie will not overheat faster than other characters *when no item is equiped*. Because Summer insulation can't go any lower. However he does overheat faster than others when, let's say, holding an umbrella.

 

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Well I updated the OP last night nonetheless, my understanding of the mechanics now should be more accurate, I've included some bold text for more specific stuff.

So if anyone missed the updated OP feel free to give it a read. Hopefully I've done a better job making the info accurate.

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1 hour ago, Cytryn7 said:

What about Woodie? His beard also gives him some cold resistance and he can't shave it

Exactly my thought, this would mean that woodie at all times during summer will always have less heat insulation, and there is nothing you can do about it.

This is indeed another bad thing for woodie, since his permanent cold resistance is too low to be useful either.

I'd definately trade the beard resistance to buff werebeaver resistances: if you desperately need to run around naked in winter,  currently the beaver has a decent insulation and its an okay-ish option if you dont mind the shadows. I'd add even further resistances and scrap the beard thing.

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Woodie has a permenant -45 insulation due to his beard yes, meaning for example wearing an eyebrella means he only has 195 insulation in summer instead of 240.

However if woodie isn't wearing any summer gear at all his summer insulation is still 0, meaning he still overheats as fast as anyone else in summer when not wearing any insulators.

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16 hours ago, Karmattack said:

Don't Starve Together has Reign of Giants baked into it, so I don't see where there would be a difference. 

Summer is Reign of Giants content, basically. The base DLC-less game doesn't have it. 

You'd be amazed how much Klei changed DST to make it more noob-friendly compared to RoG

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