would you be interested in a base-building contest for dst?

[wigfrids hat]

so i had this thought and i would like to get the community's opinion; would it be a good idea to host a (pc only)contest where participants spend one in-game year trying to build the best base possible and having the community vote on which they like best with the winner receiving a steam gift card?

 

the idea is to knock most of the 'surviving' aspect down in favor of seeing how creative people could be with a very limited time-frame. there would be no nighttime(downtime), giants and hounds would be turned off and participants would receive a small care package to make sure they survive easily the first few nights while gathering resources. when the year is up screencaps would be taken and posted(without the player names attached) so that anyone who did not participate could vote on the best one over the span of i suppose a week?

 

please let me know how you feel and what suggestions you have that could improve things!

[Hornete]

Like, hosted by klei or the community?

[Maxposting]

2 minutes ago, Hornete said:

Like, hosted by klei or the community?

Propably by community

[Szczuku]

Nah. Dst may be survival-sandbox but it's quite lacking in tools to aid player's creativity. Most megabases look pretty much the same. Some sort of geometrical pattern dedicated to either one of these: storage, kitchen or area with firepits. And don't forget road turf and statues everywhere.

[wigfrids hat]

17 minutes ago, Hornete said:

Like, hosted by klei or the community?

hosted by me x''D i'd run the server and pay the prize(it is my idea afterall so it makes sense i would pony up)

[GenomeSquirrel]

I play games to relax, competition takes effort, I voted no.

 

[noeticmoose]

16 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

Nah. Dst may be survival-sandbox but it's quite lacking in tools to aid player's creativity. Most megabases look pretty much the same. Some sort of geometrical pattern dedicated to either one of these: storage, kitchen or area with firepits. And don't forget road turf and statues everywhere.

I host a creative server and have seen some pretty amazing builds just using in-game assets [some borrowed from events like the Gorge and the Forge].  Sure, they're less functional and more form, but they're still cool to see.  Ironically I'm not the most creative person so I'd probably never win a competition, but I'd love to see something like what OP mentioned, even if it's just a one time thing.

[Mencken]

Not a bad idea, we should have more of these.  

I was thinking of another contest.   3-4 teams of 2 people that are given 10 days to construct a boat.

They all leave from the same spot and have to circumnavigate the world, first one back wins.   Host could keep track with geo positioning.

 

[MondayNight]

+1 from me for this idea. And you should post those base designs here on the forums. Make a special thread for this lil project you got (no matter the form it runs with - be it time frames of 1 in-game-year long, 1 season, 10 days etc). Perhaps you could do multiple contests over time, even if the "prizes" would be just a common goal to bring people together.

[NSAiswatchingus]

5 hours ago, Szczuku said:

Most megabases look pretty much the same. Some sort of geometrical pattern dedicated to either one of these: storage, kitchen or area with firepits. And don't forget road turf and statues everywhere.

You know what they say, you either die before day 70 or live long enough to copy Glermz or Kynoox.

[thegreatJash]

I'm not the competitive type really. Still would be cool to see other people's base designs. I'm more of the chillax type of guy.

[Ryde]

20 pounds is a lot of money for a base.

Although the idea of hosting it live is difficult to arrange and manage. I'd be more in favour of someone capturing a take of their base and showing it off. Nominated videos enter the tournament, and the community starts voting.

I'd join show off my little hut which lacketh a certain tropical fruit. Even if it is far from me winning, it will be fun to participate.

[wigfrids hat]

the purpose of hosting a server is so that everyone plays with the same settings and of course screencaps would be used and posted on the forum so that people could vote ^^

 

i dunno, both as staff and as a regular member on other sites of many different hobbies it's been very clear that non-prize contests get little to no participants even when they are generally agreed to be worthwhile contests to enter, also it would be fun to see more people posting in the outfit thread and new kit would help with that ^^

 

as for bases being more uniform? that is why the game would be set to beginner mode with helpful mods. i have already started a private server(well, second, the first wasn't easy enough) for my husband who is _very_ bad at videogames but enjoys playing them and i have been tweaking and modifying things so that even an absolute novice could theoretically survive an in-game year. i wanted to make sure it was doable before i started a contest and i am to winter already and have not died even once(i'm not very good myself). right now an alchemy engine, two fridges, a fire, a drying rack and a crockpot is all you need to play comfortably and frankly the second  fridge is because there is just too much meat haha

 

assuredly when i say creative i don't necessarily mean comfortably functional

[Misuto]

The reddit executed this plan 3 years ago with really luke warm participation. 

 

It of course ignited the typical console v PC debate. The mods v no mods debate. The "it's easy to cheat so how do we know if you did it legit" debate. Among others.

 

Essentially, for this to work, you'd have to require unedited video footage of all participating players. This then greatly lowers the possibility of people to join because they have to not only be interested in doing a base building competition but also be able and willing to record their play through in its entirety. That is, of course, if you require people to play on a specific hosted server. It also adds a huge burden on the judges because they would be forced to actually watch all those hours of footage to be certain that all rules were followed at all times.

 

Quick Edit: I forgot to mention the downsides of forcing people to play on a specific hosted world. DST has a global community, this would greatly restrict participation to a more localized region around the server because people far away would be at a huge disadvantage with having to overcome lag, thus requiring more time spent on armor and healing as opposed to being able to kite as they typically would. 

 

If players can play on their own game, then even with an unedited video, there is no way to tell that game files have not been edited. Such as an increased drop rate on rare items that would greatly help in base building (double ruins gems from dragonfly or krampus sack for instance). This is the exact same problem facing the small speedrunning community in DS/T right now in fact. This was even addressed by the developers of Don't Starve who further confirmed that there really is no way to verify that a run is "fair." Peter even alludes to the fact that a hosted server has fewer avenues of cheating, but still some ways.

[wigfrids hat]

......i think you might be more serious than i am. i don't expect participants to do much or any fighting. survival isn't the purpose of the game and there would be mods anyway(i would literally be providing care packages with food and tools in it) so game-play purity doesn't mean anything, as for the voting i am not assigning a committee to judge things, the players will take a screencap, send it in and it will be posted here publicly for any old rando on the forums to vote for(well, barring maybe accounts made after the voting stared)

 

this is just for fun and it is only twenty dollars. i just want to see people being creative with their bases and i would be willing to pay that to see it happen, as for participants they would be joining for the joy of creation since for the time spent you could make more money doing most anything else

 

the purpose of a shared server is just so everyone starts and ends at the same time(more or less, i mean if you come in later or finish early that is your call)

[Misuto]

I'm not saying don't do it if you'd have fun trying. I was just showing you my experience having done this same thing 3 years ago and the experience I had. It started as a fun idea, but tons of people accused advanced players of being cheaters simply because they had done "way too much." 

8 minutes ago, gaymime said:

i don't expect participants to do much or any fighting

I think you are discounting the decorative options that certain bosses afford the player and the advantage that certain items give. Think about a base with glow caps vs the same base without them. Also, Don't Starve is inherently a combat heavy survival sandbox, the game frequently sends dogs to attack you randomly even. 

 

8 minutes ago, gaymime said:

game-play purity

I'm not talking about game play purity nor do I care about it.

I'm talking about others who complain about it or attempt to discredit the posted bases as being cheated. It just lead to a really toxic results day when I ignored the signs in the announcement topic weeks before. 

 

I hope your turns out better if you do it. That's all I meant. 

[wigfrids hat]

by your measure there is 0 reasons to hold a competition. it won't be fun for anyone involved and it will be stressful and all players must be treated like liars and cheaters by virtue of wanting to participate and those who are not playing will gather together with pitchforks and hounds to attack the whole thing.

 

i know you likely don't feel that you've said anything like this but the dour and down way you are putting things gives little credit to people just wanting to participate for themselves and about the same for people who aren't playing at all. frankly there is nothing i can do to stop someone who is so bent on cheating that they'd risk their reputation on the forums AND in the servers(especially with several people able to just stop on by and catch them cheating), all restrictions will end up doing is making it more toxic for everyone else playing by tightening a leash around their necks. if someone has 500 stonefruit trees or 6 eyebrellas or hasn't cut a single tree but somehow has a wooden monument to cheeseburgers or a reverse google-search shows the same screencap listed as being around for a year then they will be kicked out and publicly exposed as a cheat but if someone who has posted a dozen amazing set-ups in the screenshot showcase makes something amazing i am certainly not going to tolerate harassment

 

as for boss loot? dude, it is better noone has to worry about deerclopse ruining their day than it is to have one person get special loot because they were able to stomp her for it. consider it a limited-palette format. some things won't be accessible and that is ok because this isn't a perma structure and there isn't much time to work on it anyway. there are no points for suffering

[CameoAppearance]

I don't have the patience to build fancy bases myself but I'd probably enjoy seeing the entries.

[Riu Samson]

The only way this should be done is professionally.

- First of all, any contest involving prize money must have Klei's approval.

- Every contender must stream their game session on twitch from the moment they opened the game until the end of the challenge, no voice or face cam required.(I believe a Twitch free user can save his past streams up to 14 days).

- The contest should have a 2-3 days time limit with a start day preset, so everyone can find the time they need to stream (70 in game days equal to approximately 10 h of stream)

- The rules regarding the game presets (such as: no giants, hound waves, etc.) should be posted on forum. The benefit of streaming the contest is that everyone can play on local and have no lag, and we can all see if everyone followed the preset rules and if any cheats were used.

- Watching and verifying dozens of 10h streams is almost impossible, so a way around this, in my opinion, is to only check the designated winner's stream, and see if everything is okay.

About the rules of the base building, in my opinion, either go with a default world (maybe only with disease turned off) and see how people overcome obstacles while they build their base, either a "nothing" world, with freecrafting command turned on and a more limited time.

 

[MondayNight]

6 hours ago, Misuto said:

The reddit executed this plan 3 years ago with really luke warm participation. 

 

It of course ignited the typical console v PC debate. The mods v no mods debate. The "it's easy to cheat so how do we know if you did it legit" debate. Among others.

 

Essentially, for this to work, you'd have to require unedited video footage of all participating players. This then greatly lowers the possibility of people to join because they have to not only be interested in doing a base building competition but also be able and willing to record their play through in its entirety. That is, of course, if you require people to play on a specific hosted server. It also adds a huge burden on the judges because they would be forced to actually watch all those hours of footage to be certain that all rules were followed at all times.

 

Quick Edit: I forgot to mention the downsides of forcing people to play on a specific hosted world. DST has a global community, this would greatly restrict participation to a more localized region around the server because people far away would be at a huge disadvantage with having to overcome lag, thus requiring more time spent on armor and healing as opposed to being able to kite as they typically would. 

 

If players can play on their own game, then even with an unedited video, there is no way to tell that game files have not been edited. Such as an increased drop rate on rare items that would greatly help in base building (double ruins gems from dragonfly or krampus sack for instance). This is the exact same problem facing the small speedrunning community in DS/T right now in fact. This was even addressed by the developers of Don't Starve who further confirmed that there really is no way to verify that a run is "fair." Peter even alludes to the fact that a hosted server has fewer avenues of cheating, but still some ways.

You're taking this way too serious. OP mentioned already would be a modded server (aesthetic mods I presume) set on only-day, only-autumn, no giants, no hound waves - aka no distractions, no fighting, and probably creative mode enabled. It's something done for fun mostly, pure creativity. And mentioning 1 in-game year means a lot of leeway. Perhaps in multiple sessions.

And I believe you delude yourself with the concept of "speed run" applied in DST context: because WorldGen is pure RNG - sometimes you get DF desert beside Spawn Gate, sometimes way on the other side of map with no clear indication of neither (for a DF run par example). Thus no clear setup, fair for all attempting theoretical contenders.

Also you do realize that Reddit isn't some very-popular social network where most people go, right?!

[wigfrids hat]

8 minutes ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

You're taking this way too serious. OP mentioned already would be a modded server (aesthetic mods I presume) set on only-day, only-autumn, no giants, no hound waves - aka no distractions, no fighting, and probably creative mode enabled.

you are pretty close to my intent, the only place you were off was all-autumn. other than possibly turning off summer(or setting it to the shortest possible setting) i was going to let the seasons pass for people who have a preference on colour saturation though if single-season-only was popular that might be an option too

 

let me tweak the poll a little bit

[CameoAppearance]

2 hours ago, gaymime said:

other than possibly turning off summer(or setting it to the shortest possible setting) i was going to let the seasons pass for people who have a preference on colour saturation though if single-season-only was popular that might be an option too

Turning off wildfires would probably be sufficient to keep the base from burning down. There's still withering, but if you feed a giant stack of flower petals or whatever to a werepig you'll have all the fertiliser you need for your garden anyway.

[Well-met]

who gets to use geometric placement the best!!