I am having a problem exploring

[Spoonfairy]

I dont know, but it feels like I am having a problem exploring due to some issues.

I dont have any high amount of food on me, but hi Dont Starve ey?

Short days. I have a feeling that I dont really want to build fires everywhere

When I go for exploring I dont want do have a full inventory, I want to find stuff to bring back "home".

But my inventory ends up being next to full with all the tools, fire mats, food, and if I stumble opon a grave or 3 it will be full for sure.

Maybe a picnic sack with just a few slots specialy for food so I can bring home some more stuff?

If it would make you not starving to easy with food around all the time, maybe make them go bad after 5 days, things rot =)

If you got any hint now to explore easyer atm hit me, cant go further then 2 isles before I get homesick

[mobius187]

Well it depends. For example I no longer dig-up graves because that aspect of the game is broken. Until Kevin fixes it so graves never refill/respawn between game sessions I won't touch them... maybe you might want to do the same?

When I travel I usually just take the 3 gold tools, x32 berries or rabbit stew, a torch, a spear, x32 logs/stones. That's all you really need right now (well, so long as you have fire pits unlocked, otherwise you'll need grass).

Also, I create fire pits and leave a few logs beside them as I explore. While I do have a base camp, I'm perfectly fine travelling for long distances without fear of being caught in the dark. Another suggestion is to create a chest at each campsite to store your items... that way it will feel more organized, rather than dropping them on the ground. Since firepits are marked on the map it's easy to find each campsite and where you've temporarily stored your gear.

If food is an issue then hunt rabbits or collect/harvest berry bushes. Hunting rabbits right now is easy with just an axe. You find a rabbit outside its hole, circle around behind it and cut it off from its hole. So long as it's not right next to its rabbit hole it's a simple matter to attack and kill them before they can escape. With berry bush, just find them on the islands, dig them up, and bring them back to your base camp site. From there collect and cook the berries. I have tons of berry "gew"... so much that it's lying on the ground.

Animals really should eat food that's lying on the ground... but they don't. Anyway, I hope this helps.

[Excess]

I like that you have a limited amount of space to carry things. If you had an ideal inventory with everything you needed to survive, it would take more or less 6 days to mark the contours of your islands. 6 days. Then what? There's almost nothing else to explore, no wondering what you could be missing. You know exactly what to expect, how much time you need to get certain things.

Your game is broken. You get bored, and you quit.

With a limited inventory space (which, by the way, ain't that limited) you have to carefully calculate what to bring and what you'll be bringing back. You have to make specific trips (gather wood, explore, tomb raiding, etc) and sometimes you encounter situations you weren't prepare for (a village of werepigs, for example).

I think it's all part of the game, it what makes it fun. Several builds ago one an experienced player would hit a content plateau on day 25 or less. Today, I'm on day 45 and still have tons of stuff to do.

Animals really should eat food that's lying on the ground... but they don't. Anyway, I hope this helps.

This alrady happens, but depends on both the food and the animal. If you leave meat laying around, the spiders/hungry pigs will eat it. If you leave carrots, the bunnies will eat them. If you leave seeds/berries, the crows will eat them. If you leave yourself, the werepigs will eat you

[mobius187]

...it would take more or less 6 days to mark the contours of your islands. 6 days. Then what? There's almost nothing else to explore, no wondering what you could be missing. You know exactly what to expect, how much time you need to get certain things. Your game is broken. You get bored, and you quit...

You know what would be nice? If you had some over-arching goal other than just surviving. For example, building a raft or boat with the goal of escaping from your current island to another, say larger, island. It would be another way to stagger what players encounter and ramp-up threats.

[Thebadvoodoo]

You know what would be nice? If you had some over-arching goal other than just surviving. For example, building a raft or boat with the goal of escaping from your current island to another, say larger, island. It would be another way to stagger what players encounter and ramp-up threats.

I think one of the biggest concerns is that eventually, you do run out of things to do in Don't Starve. it doesn't matter whether it's 5 days or 50. A procedurally generated world's appeal partly comes from replayability, born of the effect that the game is inherently different every time you play it. The issue that Don't Starve runs in to is that in truth, only the start of the game feels truly random - once you've gotten ahold of the initial materials to get yourself set up, it tends to narrow in scope.

I hesitate to compare Don't Starve to Minecraft, but I think it's important to illustrate the differences here. The long lasting appeal of Minecraft does not come from the survival aspect of the game - it comes from user-generated content: People making the game "Theirs". When you tell your friends about minecraft, you don't say "it was awesome I hid in a hole for 7 minutes waiting for the sun to rise, then I killed some pigs and chewed on their meats", you say "I created a giant tower with a roller coaster down it that looks like a stack of dead tauntauns" or whatever. You make minecraft yours.

As it stands, any goal or objective for the game might contradict heavily with the open-ended theme Klei likely wants there - but without a way to truly own the experience, interest for each player might sputter out and die.

[mobius187]

I think one of the biggest concerns is that eventually, you do run out of things to do in Don't Starve. it doesn't matter whether it's 5 days or 50. A procedurally generated world's appeal partly comes from replayability, born of the effect that the game is inherently different every time you play it.

I suppose one solution, as it were, would be to place a limit on content per build (i.e. some resources or monsters/beasts or special locations not appearing in every world). Sort of like a random number generator, but for game content. But of course that's not a real solution in the long run.

The issue that Don't Starve runs in to is that in truth, only the start of the game feels truly random - once you've gotten ahold of the initial materials to get yourself set up, it tends to narrow in scope.

I hesitate to compare Don't Starve to Minecraft, but I think it's important to illustrate the differences here. The long lasting appeal of Minecraft does not come from the survival aspect of the game - it comes from user-generated content: People making the game "Theirs". When you tell your friends about minecraft, you don't say "it was awesome I hid in a hole for 7 minutes waiting for the sun to rise, then I killed some pigs and chewed on their meats", you say "I created a giant tower with a roller coaster down it that looks like a stack of dead tauntauns" or whatever. You make minecraft yours.

As it stands, any goal or objective for the game might contradict heavily with the open-ended theme Klei likely wants there - but without a way to truly own the experience, interest for each player might sputter out and die.

Well I've been playing Minecraft ever since it was first released in only Creative mode and ran in a browser, so I'm familiar with the game's ups and downs. I agree that user-defined goals were what spurred me on most of the time. I would design huge towers, elaborate tunnel systems, and minecart transportation systems using redstone. Being able to not only build, but creatively build (i.e. with redstone) made the game interesting in that it always had me thinking "Is there a better way I could do this?", and like lego blocks, I kept rebuilding and improving my home.

There's another indie game that comes to ind, Project Zomboid. In it players not only fight and survive, but are able to use resources to build objects. You can create barricades, walls, doors, floors, stairs in an effort to create your perfect shelter. I'm not sure if that's the answer here, to almost mimic Robinson Crusoe in his goals to carve out and flourish on an island. I mean he really did pimp out his island home...

Another aspect of Minecraft that I enjoyed, if you could really call it "enjoyment" was the risk vs reward system. Delving deep into underground caverns in search of rare ores and always spinning around at every little noise thinking the Creeper was sneaking up on you. In Don't Starve the only time I felt like that is at night (only for the first few, not after...) and in the swamps, worrying about those tentacles.

Edited November 6, 2012 by mobius187

[Thebadvoodoo]

I've been following project Zomboid for some time now, and am still hopeful that the final product is really excellent despite a lot of the noise on the forums about delays and whatnot. I think there's definitely a lot of inspiration to be taken from some of the concepts there, as it does share a lot of similarities: scavenging for food and materials, taking care not to venture out when it's dangerous, etc. I'll admit, I didn't get too far in Project Zomboid due to it's buggy state and absolutely relentless difficulty, but I think it might be plagued (lol punz) with the same problem - no reason to keep playing after a certain point.

One of the things that I really enjoy about project zomboid though was the random encounters. You'd run in to different people constantly, and it'd freshen the gameplay each time as you encountered a different set of people than your last playthrough.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Thebadvoodoo

[mobius187]

I've been following project Zomboid for some time now, and am still hopeful that the final product is really excellent despite a lot of the noise on the forums about delays and whatnot. I think there's definitely a lot of inspiration to be taken from some of the concepts there, as it does share a lot of similarities: scavenging for food and materials, taking care not to venture out when it's dangerous, etc. I'll admit, I didn't get too far in Project Zomboid due to it's buggy state and absolutely relentless difficulty, but I think it might be plagued (lol punz) with the same problem - no reason to keep playing after a certain point.

I personally haven't played Project Zomboid, but it was on my radar for some time now and a few months ago I watched a Let's Play series that used a fairly recent build (i.e. included mobile trash bins, but with fire still "disabled"). I know there were some minor issues with building stairs (i.e. compass direction). Right now Don't Starve doesn't suffer from this because all placeable objects on face one direction, but the moment you include walls and such they'll need a means to rotate them prior to placement.

I agree, after watching the series there didn't seem to be anything beyond a certain stage in the game. However player mods were introduced to spice things up, a facet that's also included in Minecraft. Don't Starve might benefit from user-created content as well, especially if players could create custom maps, objectives/quests (i.e. plot), and so on. For a perfect example of what players can bring to a game like Minecraft check out any Let's Play for a custom map called "Herobrine's Mansion". Simply amazing creativity.

One of the things that I really enjoy about project zomboid though was the random encounters. You'd run in to different people constantly, and it'd freshen the gameplay each time as you encountered a different set of people than your last playthrough.

Maybe you've seen a more recent build, but the NPC survivors in the Let's Play series I watched were kinda... stupid.

However the whole idea of unexpected encounters makes them interesting. Like in Don't Starve when you discover your first tall bird or pig man village. A pity that initial wonderment doesn't last as each secret is uncovered. Some random events would be a nice change of pace in Don't Starve.

[jma0322]

I haven't had any issues exploring. Build as many fires as you want, it doesn't hurt anything. Make 2 or 3 day trips away from home and check out what's out there!