Leveling system and skills in Don't Starve -- Brandon's thoughts

[I3randonPrice]

I've been thinking about this a few times and I think it would be a cool and nifty addition to the already perfect game.Character Levels and leveling -- Something nifty that I've thought of is a character leveling system. It would be nice to get a somewhat more rewarding feeling when you kill a nasty tree bugger or when you successfully defend your home, and possibly your poor defenseless chester, from an incoming hound attack. So what better way to get that F&$% YEAH feeling than leveling up! =DThe variety of what this could do/upgrade on your character could be incredibly fun and addictive, so I wanted to tell a few of my ideas of what leveling up could do for your character.1. Raise your max HP, Starve meter, Sanity, Strength or defense! Doing this could make it easier to survive those harder enemies and bosses that always pester you when you are trying to create your dream.... camp. Or can raise your HP so that when you "accidentally" bite into monster meat, you won't die and than rage quit.. Or is that just me.. IT'S HAPPENED 5 TIMES!!!!1!1! DX2.Leveling could make it so your knowledge for building and improvising increases, making it so you can advance in creating the bigger and better things! Plus it will always give that sense of anticipation when you're so close to finally learning how to build that dark sword you've always wanted!Another thing that can be added to the leveling aspect could be skills. (and possibly skill points?!) Skills could be included in the leveling system and give you an extra OOMPH to your chances of survival by giving you a few helpful boosts that could end up saving your life!Some of the ideas i've been having would be like: "Become able to wear nightmare equipment without going insane" (or reduces the sanity lost)"Become able to eat any type of food, rotten or not." (that may conflict with the robot guy though)"Recieve more HP and become more full when you eat food" *These are just some survival skills. If they really wanted to add some action skills I would be fine with that. :)These features could be included in the adventure mode game type that I don't think really has anything that makes it stand out, does it? Or you could add it to every mode, your choice! (obviously)You could also make an entirely new mode for all I care! Would be a cool addition!You could also have different "skill trees" for each character so that some skills wont clash with the skill they already come with (noted above).Sooooo yeah, I thought these were a couple good ideas that I have thought of and would love to see in a future update maybe! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please feel free to comment on these ideas, for I read every comment no matter the amount! Also check out my previous post: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/showthread.php?10424-Caves-and-bows-in-Don-t-Starve-Brandon-s-thoughtsSee ya guys later!

[Palpetinus]

The thing is, the game is all about surviving. It would be against the genre if you would have to take unnecessary risks just for some level system.

[MilleniumCount]

These features could be included in the adventure mode game type that I don't think really has anything that makes it stand out, does it? Or you could add it to every mode, your choice! (obviously)

Well, there isn't much to say about the adventure mode, but if it is only half as good as a certain video....-sigh- everything is fine with it.^^This is another way of enjoying the game of course, But I think this is more of a AAA+ Mod stuff. Perhaps in the Modding area there are other members with which you could team up? Edited March 1, 2013 by MilleniumCount

[I3randonPrice]

The thing is, the game is all about surviving. It would be against the genre if you would have to take unnecessary risks just for some level system.

But the thing is you could be rewarded for multiple things and activities instead of just killing monsters, which in turn would indeed make people just want to kill things, I see what you're saying. But you could get exp from making a fire, creating a brand new item, discovering new locations, gathering materials, and also from surviving everyday. Just basic things like that which would sorta motivate you and your character to push on and survive. I just used the monster idea because it was the first thing that came to mind. Thanks for replying!

[kfk]

This idea takes a game that is already struggling with balance issues, and makes the matter (literally) exponentially more complex.

Personally I find it adds a grinding element that I'm not comfortable with (and I like grinding). I don't want to feel compelled to make a fishing rod for 10xp. I want to feel compelled to make a fishing rod because I want fish. I don't want to feel compelled to attack something just for the 'experience' of doing it. If I attack something, it's either because I want what it has and can only get it by force, or to end a threat against me.

And with the changes in the tech tree, I feel the design of the game is going in the other direction anyway, where your power is measured in resources more than anything else.