[Poll] On Exploration

[GetNerfedOn]

Next on my list of questions: How, when and why do you guys explore?

Also, a non-poll question which has always bothered me: why is traveling along the edge of the world usually recommended?

As always, answer the poll freely and of your own will, and do discuss in the comments!

[minespatch]

I enjoy exploring new lands out of curiosity. I take things easily.

[Yuuko]

When I played DS and first played DST I always followed the worlds edge to explore, but DST maps are so big that doing this can be time prohibitive if you wanna get some stuff done in first autumn.  Now I follow roads mostly, but I'll still try to catch edges of biomes when I'm uncertain if they map to another biome or if the lunar island is beyond them.

Unless I'm rushing the ruins, I try to have every biome and key point of interest revealed in the first autumn with sights on the lunar island.

[CaptainChaotica]

I always thought the "explore the edge of the world" thing was related to the "always do all the edge pieces first" in a jigsaw puzzle thing--and for similar reasons:  Define the overall shape first, THEN fill in the details.

And yes, I do follow the coast sometimes especially when starting out...but veer off anytime I see something interesting.  I look for (to begin with) good base locations, useful biomes, where is the Pig King and Glommer, where are beefalo, and where's the desert.  Stuff like that.  I tend to pick my base location the way I pick my starting city's location in Civilization--where's an area that will give me multiple TYPES of resources close by? Like, not just food, but also building materials, for example.

I also just explore for fun--getting that black off the map and filling it in with actual-information goodness is weirdly satisfying.  It's the reason I tend to make my worlds Huge nowadays...so I can't just see everything real easy off the bat. 

...Notorious

[Flip Face]

Wormhole too.

There was a time when I avoided them, but the chances of you finding useful biomes are greater.

[Mike23Ua]

The more I play Solo DS, the more I feel like DST is an Incomplete game.

let me explain- Solo DS has two additional DLC expansions, those DLCs have their own unique biomes, mobs, atmosphere and playable characters, in addition to THAT you can enable certain DLC features into your vanilla experience.. so like if I want to play as Walani in the Hamlet expansion I can do that.

In addition to that: Solo Don’t Starve also has a 5 chapter story mode with challenging gameplay and unique obstacles such as having Rocks or Obsidian Pillars block off pathway progression.

Things DST could use to really spice up its gameplay.. whenever people can run across the entire map without having to find paths around.. the game feels too trivial.

In Solo DS you couldn’t pass a narrow path cluttered with rocks without first building a Pickaxe and mining them out of the way, or you couldn’t pass a Obsidian pillar without finding a way to overcome them.

Same with Hamlet- you can’t enter the Toxic Biome without proper protection from it... 

Things DST should have.. but does not.

you can Argue that now that boat platforms exists.. blocked pathways can’t exist- But that’s simply not true, instead of Obsidian pillars preventing progress between a narrow bridge of land- they can simply have those pillars block off entire Islands and serve the same function.

 

The TL:DR- Klei needs to break DSTs Meta, look at all the amazing stuff you’ve done in singleplayer DS and then find ways to repurpose that content into a Multiplayer environment.

I want a Hamlet style (Toxic) Biome please. 
 

Exploration in an open world survival game needs more biomes, more challenges, more unique mobs.

[BezKa]

My start always looks the same- get to the nearest edge of land and outline it. I know all the biomes, get all important stuff (like gears) get tons of tracks for exploring and find beefalos for a hat. Before winter, I have picked a base location and start settling. This techniqe fails me only in poorly generated maps- one was so messy I had to settle down on first day of winter and chose a forest that ended up being swarmed with spiders. 

[thegreatJash]

Usually to find good base location. I like to megabyte, and you have to find an area that isn't limiting to expansion of your base.

[Sweaper]

In pubs, never. I use command to reveal the terrain to cut the time I would otherwise be wasting, specially since I don't find exploring that fun when everyday/hours it's a new world all over again.

[TheGoldenDonut_]

Just like to know where everything is.

[wigfrids hat]

i spend a day or two just running all over until i find the world's edge then i make my base about a full day's travel away from that and then go over all of the blacked out parts until the edge is full then i work the other way filling out the black and making bases a day's walk from the last until i get a third in then i make a stable large base with things i have been storing in chests at my other bases and then i go back to wild wandering to find set-pieces, resource clusters and touchstones. i play a world until my map is cleared then i start over so i don't really have a need to do anything else

[Mike23Ua]

3 hours ago, Sweaper said:

In pubs, never. I use command to reveal the terrain to cut the time I would otherwise be wasting, specially since I don't find exploring that fun when everyday/hours it's a new world all over again.

Honestly I think I just grew accustomed to exploration because of single player don’t starve, we’ll wait let me rephrase that- Single Player Dont Starve’s Adventures Mode.. Where instead of building a mega base and hanging out doing nothing, your on a constant quest against whatever penalty the map has applied to it to locate all the parts to build the doorway into the next chapter.

You never settle down, you never mega base- You rush to find those machine parts before Winter Settles in and your dead.

Your probably thinking “but winters not challenging” you would be correct.. but only in DST, In DS Solo the odds are always stacked against you, the biome you need may be blocked and guarded by pig warriors, or the gold you need to build a science machine may be tucked neatly away and not so easy to locate depending on the world generation and whatever chapter modifier is applied at the time determines how quickly you rush to gather the portal parts.

 

And that’s the difference between a DS Solo player who plays DST, and Someone who has only ever played DST and knows only how to build mega bases and sit by campfires telling camp stories and has never heard of a 5 chapter campaign mode.

DS Solo players are used to the constant non-stop quest for adventure to find the portal parts as quickly as possible, Meanwhile DST players are used to having no portal parts to quest and have to collect.

[Well-met]

without fresh worlds and random generations, I don't think I would still be playing DST.

I don't think I would enjoy the game either if the map was fully revealed on start.

[Sweaper]

15 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

 

You at least can easily find grass and twigs (+ any other basic resource really) while starting with a basic gear in adventure mode in a winter start chapter. In DST it's either luck or Willow. No matter what season it is, if I get a torch (+ cave for summer) I'm pretty much all set to survive.

Skipping exploration in pubs just let me skip 1h+ of boring walking the roads/edge and I don't have the patience anymore to waste 1h every time I hop on a pub server before I can have some fun, specially considering I won't be playing on a server for much longer than an hour.

[Yuuko]

37 minutes ago, Sweaper said:

You at least can easily find grass and twigs (+ any other basic resource really) while starting with a basic gear in adventure mode in a winter start chapter. In DST it's either luck or Willow. No matter what season it is, if I get a torch (+ cave for summer) I'm pretty much all set to survive.

Skipping exploration in pubs just let me skip 1h+ of boring walking the roads/edge and I don't have the patience anymore to waste 1h every time I hop on a pub server before I can have some fun, specially considering I won't be playing on a server for much longer than an hour.

What do you mean skip exploration in pubs?  There is a client command that reveals the map without requiring admin?

[Sweaper]

32 minutes ago, Shosuko said:

What do you mean skip exploration in pubs?  There is a client command that reveals the map without requiring admin?

Yeah, I don't think Klei would change it if posted here so here it goes, just be sure you are safe before using it because your camera will scan the entire map and you won't be able to see your character for half a minute. Entering/leaving caves resets the map to what you truly explored in the server. It won't show the things in the map, just the terrain, but that's already a pretty big help to guess where useful things are, specially for if there are triple mactusk biome, flint searching, bunny villages, island for Woodie and ruins. Some people like to explore where things are by themselves, specially ruins, so use it when you feel like cheating and don't care.

Quote

local _x,_y,_z = ConsoleCommandPlayer().Transform:GetWorldPosition(); local size, step, x, z; size = 800; step = 40; x,z = -size,-size;
local function tp() if x <= size + step then if z <= size + step then z = z + step else x = x + step; z = -size; end else return true end end;
local function dotp() ConsoleCommandPlayer().Physics:Teleport(x,0,z) if not tp() then TheWorld:DoTaskInTime( 0.033, dotp ) else ConsoleCommandPlayer().Physics:Teleport(_x,_y,_z) end end dotp()

Another less useful command that works as a client is one that let you have "fake" night vision.

Quote

ThePlayer.components.playervision:ForceNightVision(true)

Change from true to false to disable it. It's not worth using it except for ruins without moggles or with hot thermal stones. You still need light source to keep Charlie away.

Those are the only useful/cheaty commands I found that works without being admin.

[Pikapikap]

2 hours ago, Sweaper said:

Yeah, I don't thing Klei would change it if posted here so here it goes, just be sure you are safe before using it because your camera will scan the entire map and you won't be able to see your character for half a minute. Entering/leaving caves resets the map to what you truly explored in the server. It won't show the things in the map, just the terrain, but that's already a pretty big help to guess where useful things are, specially for if there are triple mactusk biome, flint searching, bunny villages, island for Woodie and ruins. Some people like to explore where things are by themselves, specially ruins, so use it when you feel like cheating and don't care.

Another less useful command that works as a client is one that let you have "fake" night vision.

Change from true to false to disable it. It's not worth using it except for ruins without moggles or with hot thermal stones. You still need light source to keep Charlie away

Those are the only useful/cheaty commands I found that works without being admin

@PeterA@JoeW@ScottHansenThese commands have been around for a while. Maybe klei should fix or disable these.  Thank you sir 

 

 

[franco116]

When i got a base pre-spring i like explore arround the mapa in a boat