I actually starved! (Gormans feed back thread)

[GamingGorman]

I play as Wes, only as Wes and will always only ever play as Wes as he gives the biggest challenge. I made a sandbox world with normal seasons and food set to less. I didn't make it to winter, I starved to death. And I couldn't be happier about it!I get tired of chasing the devs across multiple threads and engaging in arguments with people everywhere so ill keep this thread updated with my game play experiences and observations. Hopefully Klei eye balls it once in awhile. I'm an experienced beta tester across many games and a table top game designer with an eye for balance. As of the time this post was written I haven't made it to winter but I have a few early observations.*Sand box Mode* the customization options along with choosing your character is the end all be all to please both the hardcore and casual crowd. It has literally added difficulty levels behind the scenes, but it exists in a way that stays true to the game. I being hardcore can play Wes and choose the less food options and this makes me very happy.*Sanity* Even playing as Wes who has 150 sanity as opposed to 200 I never once found sanity dropping below 80 even with wormhole use. Eating to stay alive (which I failed at) kept it up on its own, when it didn't a few picked flowers did away with it. But ill reserve true judgement until I survive further in.*The player power nerf+ Wes) Overall the player attack power nerf is a VERY VERY good thing, you can no longer abuse pigs or beefalo. However I think Wes needs a slight slight buff It takes 2 spear hits to kill a rabbit with him, which makes trapping them somewhat useless as they wake up and run away after the first hit.*Jumping spiders in level 1 nests* Not sure if a bug of feature, if its a bug make it a feature! its a good thing in my opinion.*Ponds in grasslands* Not sure if a bug or a feature, again, if its a bug, make it a feature, its a good thing.*Roads* I haven't found any roads in my sandbox worlds, possible bug?

[Shin]

The jumping spiders in level 1 nests are not a bug They are a feature.The ponds, too.

[Kevin]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

[n00biito]

I wish we didn't have to unlock the options in sandbox mode or at least have more options available from the get go. I'm really happy we got them though. This will encourage players like me to experiment more instead of playing it safe all the time because the penalty for failure is too great.

[Tomily]

What's the problem with hitting twice the rabbits? It's not hard.When Wes came out I had no problem hitting rabbits twice with an axe (the first time I got surprised though). I know: "that's you". But here is the tip.

Just go to the exactly opposite direction to the rabbit with his hole as reference. Click the rabbit, and put the cursor right in front of your character (Wes). Right after the first hit, click again. Free morsel.

The roads are in the map still. They just don't appear too much like before.About the sanity, I still think that is pretty avoidable, but just if you watch it. Since it doesn't go up during the day, and it starts to going down at dusk (that happens to be longer), eventually you will go insane. Not too early, but if you don't pick flower nor eat meat, it's certain.

[GamingGorman]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

I'm not nearly as wary of the sanity meter boost as I was when watching the stream last night, it looks like the potential is there, though I am playing Wes and his is lower then normal so I cant be sure. I need to play through my first winter and see where things go. It will probably require some tweaking in any case, maybe scale its decrease rate based on number of days or something.And yea Tomily I can kill the rabbits now, I just need to click them, I cant hit the space bar fast enough which is how I used to attack. Just a small adjustment on my part, Wes's attack power is probably fine.

[Avarice]

I've spammed this across multiple threads.Sanity needs to scale over time like hound attacks and the early/late game issues will be solved.

[Wyvern]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

Sanity is presently only a threat if you don't understand how it works. It goes steadily down during the first summer, which is going to catch a newbie off-guard, but all it really means is that you have to sleep every few nights. Grass is quite possibly the single most plentiful resource in the game, and you lose next to no food if you let yourself get hungry before using the bedroll, so it isn't a big deal. Once you have a Top Hat it becomes a total non-issue for the rest of the season. And it's actually less of a threat in winter than early summer because the winter hat gives you just enough sanity to offset the majority of the loss from darkness.

[buster2Xk]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

Have you considered making sanity decrease more easily over time? Stranded in the wilderness for a long time will make you crazy.

[Freckles]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve?

There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

I went insane before (or maybe it was early on during) my first winter. I don't think I would have survived even if I hadn't, but the hallucinations becoming hostile is what ultimately did me in. The problem was, once I was insane, there was nothing I could do to un it. I had some rabbits, but they turned into beardlings, so they didn't help. And because it was winter and I was ill prepared, I had no more crops. I got lucky and my tamed pig turned were and I was able to attack it (couldn't attack a wild pig, they were in their houses), but the meat that yielded wasn't enough and the chaos of being attacked by two hallucinations was more than little WX could handle

I guess I didn't really know what all to expect as I kept myself very much in the dark about the update. I enjoy the surprises and because I do Let's Plays my reaction to things unexpected are fun

I do think the update made things more difficult, but I don't think it's insurmountable, even for a noob like me that has only owned the game for 2 weeks

TL;DR: Winter is tough, I went nutso and died.

[Kittiko]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

I posted this in another thread but I started a new adventure game and went completely insane (0 sanity) in 6 days. I know WHY it happened, the map generated was mostly swamp and there was just no getting away from all the tentacles (which lowers your sanity whenever you're near one). I made a garland but it did not restore sanity (At least not that I noticed, the arrow thingie didn't go up at all). I ended up kiting and stuffing my face with as much food as I could until the crazy went away.

[Moonkis]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

I don't want to be mean or bring down your style, but a mechanic where you chose or not to do it to attain certain benefits for a temporary more dangerous situation is cool and all, but Sanity does not fit within this.I now that it's hard to balance things, but to me it just comes of as an quick way to fix it when you are trying to solve the problem of people not going insane by dressing it up in a pretty gown and say; "Hey isn't it awesome being insane!".If we are supposed to choose when we are going to go insane, why didn't you just design a portal that took you to the shadow world and then you could go back.One of the reasons why it's so easy to not go insane is that ( and hunger & health suffers this as well ) the resources you get in the beginning for countering insanity ( hunger and/or health ) is that they never go away, you NEVER need to find another source seing as it's persistent throughout the game, be it Garlands or Top Hats.

[GamingGorman]

Played adventure mode for a bit, by day three I had 43 carrots 0-0Anyway I went back to sandbox mode as Wes with food set to less and seasons set to short both.Made it to winter but didn't survive it, my fault mostly. A few new observations.Despite the spider dens creating more warrior spiders then intended they haven't been an issue for me. Fire, rabbit traps and or pigs all do them in and any stragglers get the shank. I have also been using bees and skeeters to my advantage for the first time.The boomerang takes two hits to kill birds, not a problem in itself as the damage as fine, but it really puts a drain on its durability.Sanity has a bit more impact in the winter, but was still non threatening.A few times my rabbit and bird traps didn't contain a rabbit or bird, despite playing the captured animation.

[Left2Starve]

Sanity is a tough thing to balance. I'm watching closely for feedback. I don't want people going insane before their first winter, really, so maybe it's just a very long curve? There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

All I ask is that the Top Hat and the other hats that restore sanity has some kind of limitation of use. This and getting crazy faster as you survive more and more days.

[Avelarius]

There are soon going to be more reasons for you to purposefully go insane. We'll probably give you a mechanism by which to do this easily.

Easier than eating raw meat? Its so quick and no drawbacks, same as the wormholes. But I guess mushrooms gotta have an use.

[Avarice]

Stuff

If his plan is to eat some magic mushrooms and go insane it fits just fine.

[Moonkis]

If his plan is to eat some magic mushrooms and go insane it fits just fine.

Don't know if this is a serious answer or not, but if it it I'll better answer!If you are supposed to get insane by say eating mushrooms then no, their is no point in having a meter, seeing as it only clutters the HUD on-screen with no more purpose of being an boolean.If the world ISN'T a threat and we can choose to go insane or not go insane then the whole sanity mechanics as intended have gone to waist.

[Avarice]

More Stuff

I agree with what you are saying in terms of game mechanics, but in terms of realism, eating psychedelic mushrooms would make you go temporarily insane. That's all my response was referring too. I'm sure you have seen my other posts on how insanity should scale over time like hound attacks, make it less of a threat to new players and ever increasingly a threat the longer you play. Eating a mushroom imo should be the only way to turn insanity on/off, of course if it was done the way I wanted you would never want to do this late game because you would be doing your best to keep from going crazy anyway and have a hard time becoming sane again.Early game however, a shroom would be nice way of experimenting with it.Edit: As far as the meter goes, I'd rather it not be there anyway, there is already plenty of visual clues as to how insane you are anyway.

[Moonkis]

I agree with what you are saying in terms of game mechanics, but in terms of realism, eating psychedelic mushrooms would make you go temporarily insane. That's all my response was referring too. I'm sure you have seen my other posts on how insanity should scale over time like hound attacks, make it less of a threat to new players and ever increasingly a threat the longer you play. Eating a mushroom imo should be the only way to turn insanity on/off, of course if it was done the way I wanted you would never want to do this late game because you would be doing your best to keep from going crazy anyway and have a hard time becoming sane again.Early game however, a shroom would be nice way of experimenting with it.Edit: As far as the meter goes, I'd rather it not be there anyway, there is already plenty of visual clues as to how insane you are anyway.

I can get behind that idea, Mushroom is essentially an instant way to get down the rabbit-hole ( or out ).

[GamingGorman]

Sandbox, normal seasons, less food, played as Wes.Made it to winter, died from my own carelessness when taking down a level 3 spider nest.Not to beat the dead horse but sanity needs work, I now know this for sure, winter, fighting worm holes, it was never an issue. You eat to live and crock pot foods feed you the best so sanity stays up naturally, never used anything dapper. It fell to 60 once, slept once and it was all fixed.Cooked carrots are a bit OP, they do more then a few crock pot foods, 4 carrots make ratatouille, but a single cooked carrot is more effective.Fertilizer with turbo farms is a bit broken, insta making veggies with 2 or three fertilizer and a seed.I still think the boomerang with Wes is under powered, two hits to kill a bird really drains its durability.Maybe its just my luck, but hound teeth never dropped for me once.

[K-Dawg]

Going purposely insane? Sounds like Wilson is a mad scientist idd

Edited March 2, 2013 by K-Dawg

[RedDeBlu]

Not to beat the dead horse but sanity needs work, I now know this for sure, winter, fighting worm holes, it was never an issue. You eat to live and crock pot foods feed you the best so sanity stays up naturally, never used anything dapper. It fell to 60 once, slept once and it was all fixed.

Wasn't the only real change to sanity like, not regaining it during the day? And vegetables don't restore as much. Aka didn't they make sanity harder and now, its become a non issue?! (Though I totally agree.)

[Scottiths]

Personally, I think the only sanity restoration should come from the bedroll or the tent. It would put more pressure on the food in addition to making the player have to sleep every so often. As of now I don't even bother unlocking the bedroll because I just pick flowers if I start getting low sanity. The tent is relatively expensive to make and bedrolls can only be used at night so this might cause some people to be insane and run from hallucinations till they can get to sleep

[RedDeBlu]

I kinda actually like that idea, It may sound harsh but I think It's very in tune with the game concept.Besides, bedrolls aren't very hard to make anyway, so why not?

[GamingGorman]

Wasn't the only real change to sanity like, not regaining it during the day? And vegetables don't restore as much. Aka didn't they make sanity harder and now, its become a non issue?! (Though I totally agree.)

No they doubled the sanity meter for every character.