QOL Request - Infinite Glowcaps

[JazzyGames]

I know the concept of infinite light goes against many of our Don't Starve instincts but considering we now have viable options in singleplayer for providing infinite light, I think it's high time we get a late-game option for lighting up our bases permanently in DST.

The last major change to lighting in DST came in the official release of Salty Dog which dramatically extended the life of spores inside of glowcaps to 60 days. This was a welcome change that made glowcaps much more viable as long-term lighting solutions for players who went the distance and killed Misery Toadstool for the glowcap blueprint. Nevertheless, providing continuous light via glowcaps remains tedious especially for larger bases with dozens of glowcaps placed. Catching enough spores to fuel glowcaps can take several days in a mushroom forest, and farming spores via funcaps takes even longer. It is a heavy investment of time and resources recapturing these spores every 60 days, and I would support a further buff to the longevity of spores.

Currently the only way to keep the glowcaps lit up permanently is to farm festive lights in the Winter's Feast event. I know that many players with long-running worlds will switch to the event in order to fish for lights at the oasis, and it seems like we should have a similar solution available outside of otherwise limited-time events.

My first suggestion would be to simply make spores last indefinitely when stored inside a glowcap. This would still require players to kill an extremely difficult boss, duplicate shroom skins, build the glowcaps, and farm spores to light them. This process, to me, has always seemed sufficient to the reward of infinite light in a small radius. I wouldn't even mind a removal of the glowcap blueprint from the loot stash drops to balance the buffing of glowcap potential and force players to fight Misery Toad.

Another option would be to make the spores somehow refillable. Perhaps feeding a spore with its corresponding mushroom could max out its durability so each spore would need to be fed a mushroom at least once every 60 days. This would provide an upkeep cost that would still require constant farming but on a much less time-consuming scale.

We could also add lamp posts to DST. The blueprint could be dropped by an endgame boss such as Crab King socketed with the pearl, or Misery Toadstool. I would probably not prefer this as we already have a much more elegant light source in the form of glowcaps and mushlights but it would add a nice alternative decor option.

My final suggestion would be to make festive lights available outside of the Winter's Feast event. Aside from mushroom lights these are only useful in tree planters which are not available outside of WF so would not be useful for any purpose other than glowcaps.

Considering the relative inexpensive cost of lamp posts in Don't Starve I do not think that infinite light would be an inherently overpowered addition to DST. Besides, players who manage to kill Misery Toadstool are clearly experienced enough to not consider darkness a massive challenge. Adding an option for infinite light for megabases would be a massively beneficial quality-of-life improvement and minimize the tediousness of upkeep for larger bases. I am fairly confident that a large body of late-game players would welcome this change; I for one would.

Thoughts?

[HeatAndRun]

You guys know winter's feast festive lights inside glowcaps makes them glow indefinitely. My idea is adding items-working similar like festive lights- but as boss loot or something, not seasonal event item.

[Willplaygames]

I am in firm agreement on this. The constant grind of having to go get lightbulbs from the caves, which takes a long time just to transition for those of us with slower computers, is very tedious and time consuming, I can literally blow an in game day just on transitioning in and out. After having a medium sized base filled with glowcaps/festive lights, transitioning to any non-Winter's feast world is a pain. Also, having glowcaps w/ infinite light on boats was so useful, and getting light on the sea is already difficult as it is.

Ultimately I support this because I play on a cooperative server where people play a lot all day long because they are in different time zones, so even if I go through the trouble of filling all my glowcaps w/ spores, they will all be rotted by the time I log on the next irl day if I leave them in for my other base occupants, and I will have to go through the whole process again. Also, following the logic that if we can kill misery repeatedly for all our base builders, then earning infinite light should not be out of reach either.

[JazzyGames]

4 minutes ago, HeatAndRun said:

You guys know winter's feast festive lights inside glowcaps makes them glow indefinitely. My idea is adding items-working similar like festive lights- but as boss loot, not seasonal event item.

Yes it seems reasonable to add them to the loot tables of more challenging bosses. It would also add a replay benefit to fighting the same bosses repeatedly which many such as Crab King, Deerclops, and Antlion do not currently have.

[Maxil20]

Absolutely would love this. As someone who bases for thousands of days, an infinite light source would be a massive change. 

As for upkeep, I absolutely despise any whatsoever. There’s a difference between having 1 glowcap to 100 glowcaps, and having to farm stacks of stacks of a material just to upkeep light needs is something I really don’t want to put up with.

I said it before, but if they really don’t want to go at 100% spoilage reduction (which would be my favorite way to change this, IMO), making klaus drop an extra wrap (gift wrap preferably) with 3-4 festive lights in it when it’s not winters feast would be an okay enough solution. It would still be super slow, but at least you could reliably get them all year.

But yeah, I’m 100% for infinite mushlights and glowcaps. There comes a point where you really don’t want to fish in the oasis to maybe get 50 lights filled : P

Random note, I don’t like the idea of a new random light. I always find mushlights/glowcaps to be the main appeal for its light, and adding another would be unnecessary IMO.

[Willplaygames]

Can I also point out, that even getting lights was a grind in the first place. I did Klaus every change I got on a server that ran about 3000 days, and I had maybe 10 glowcaps filled. I am ok with that because of the return on investment for infinite light

[splorange]

i've always been in support of the idea of infinite lamps, the buff from salty dog was amazing and mushroom lamps last a lot longer now but sadly i don't think it was sufficient and i don't think the buffs have convinced many players to start using them.

with how many infinite light sources there are in the dont starve franchise as a whole, it's really disappointing to me that the mushroom lamps didn't receive this treatment, well they did, but in a temporary seasonal event and i'm sure the devs are 100% aware that this bug exists...

toadstool has underwhelming drops compared to the other bosses, and i think this buff would finally notch him up to the rest, it would be an groundbreaking change to dedicated base builders and standard survivors alike.

so yes, i'm really hoping this idea makes it into the game sooner or later, my most anticipated QoL change for sure

[Duck986]

I agree with adding lamp posts, but only if their recipe will be very expensive and WILL NOT contain lantern in it, because a) it's a source of infinite light, and b) many players are abusing them to refill their lanterns to 100% by building and destroying it

[sokoteur]

I very much like the idea of festive lights as drops outside of the Winter's Feast event - with one possible alteration:

- Non Winter's Feast Lightbulbs could be white/yellow light only? (Keep the festive colors to the event.)

If the Hamlet/Forge lamps were to be added, maybe they could only accept non-festive lights. Lamps feel more Science based, while Mushlights/Glowcaps feel more Magic based, so it could add some separation. (again, that's only an idea if they're added.)

Quick suggestion: Buoys. Maybe as a drop from Crabking? Recipe could be: Festive Light + Anchor + Cutstone + Boards or something similar.

Whatever happens, I am formally signing the Infinite Light petition.

[Kyno]

Perhaps Misery Toadstool or a boss can drop a light material for crafting infinite light source.

[Owlrust]

Hmm I'm partial to this in either direction personally. On one hand I think having a more permanent solution to darkness would be pretty nice, but I also don't like the idea of essentially removing an aspect of DST's challenge either. I guess if this were to be implemented I wouldn't hate for the ability to get infinite light be dependent on drops from a different boss as well, like Klaus for example (as stated by another user above). Alternatively, I (in my own opinion) think this could be a grand opportunity to give another use to Iridescent Gems; perhaps by those being the resource needed to keep these lights on indefinitely in nothing less than a Glowcap; kinda fits if you think about it too, as the gems are created by harnessed moonlight and putting 4 of them in a Glowcap would distribute that energy. I could argue that using Iridescent Gems would be something you would only get very late-game, and you would need to not only fight the Misery toadstool, but scavenge the ruins/dragonfly for yellow gems and go through a late-night event to make multiple gems.

[KlickWitch]

Crafting some kind of light bulb with gems and the full moon would be a cool option. Maybe they'd work as lights in mushlights but also give off auras when not being used for light (sanity aura, heat, cold, beard, ect) so it'd have other uses too.

[sovon9]

May be in mega base it's a pain in the ** for people to check and fill them but in my world there are 4-5 glowcaps and I have stored a lot of light bulb in bundle wrap to fill them. so after 60 days this refill is kind of ok I guess as infinite seems little bit impractical .

It's just my own view though..

[Yuuko]

Maybe if we got an angler fish boss on the ocean that dropped a lightlure as loot.  The lightlure would be a non-spoiling item which can be used to 100% fuel any light source (lanterns, miner hats, moggles, boat lantern) but could also be put in a glow cap or mushlight as a light source.  Since it does not spoil, BAM infinite light.  Just farm the new boss.

I don't think infinite light that requires you beat toadstool / mistery toadstool / + farm some ocean boss is OP

(and honestly I wouldn't mind if it were easier, but I like the idea of an angler fish)

[ClumsyPenny]

I would love them to be infinite in some way. While managing just a few mushroom lights isn't bad at all and they're definitely worth the maintenance, there's potential for having hundreds of them on the map after enough effort so at that point keeping them fueled is really grindy and not fun. As to why you'd want hundreds of them, it's really just about the feeling of conquering the world, just like getting rid of all the threats on the map, building enomormous bases and such, which to me has always been a big reason why I still play the game after so many hours. Darkness is a minor threat and, even if it's totally possible to die to it if you're not careful even later in the game, death is a very minor setback when resurrecting is cheap and easy if you're prepared for it.

To be clearer though, I like the idea of the mushroom lights and they work for what they're supposed to do. The problem I have with them though is that they give the player something to do in an artificial way, which is just maintaining them. I personally really dislike having to maintain my base or my character more than I already have to, so I always try to minimize the maintenance needed. Hunger, sanity, darkness, hounds, seasonal giants, seasonal effects, etc. are the type of maintenance that is always gonna be part of the game and I have fun coming up with ways to minimize the effort I need to put in dealing with so that I can do more creative stuff in the game without the worry of survival, so I wouldn't like to force more maintenance on myself or the people I play with for an effect that is pretty minor.

I think a big issue with the mushroom lights is that while 60 days (with spores!) sounds like a lot on paper, on the surface world they effectively do something useful for only a small percentage of those 60 days because of how shorts nights are most of the time, with the big exception being winter obviously. This is also an issue with winona's spotlight, since it consumes power always, but that's unrelated right now. So with this kind of perspective, 60 days isn't much at all. For reference, a lantern only lasts 1 day from 100% to 0%, but you don't need it all the time unless you're in the caves, so refueling a lantern happens pretty infrequently (and in the caves you have very easy access to said fuel).

On the other side, I feel like it would be very unfitting for them to be straight up infinite with any fuel or, worse, with only one specific kind of fuel like spores, because that means you have to use specifically glowcaps and not mushlights. When it comes to it, I do like the flavor of mushroom lights, it's totally fitting for the game and, like I mentioned before, not a lot of work if you have a reasonable amount of them. But when it comes to game mechanics, I always love when there's a compromise between casual play and more dedicated play. Changing mechanics in a way that leaves casual players unaffected but gives options for dedicated players is often possible and that's what I would personally strive for here.

Festive lights have already been mentioned in the thread and I personally think simply adding a year-round (real life year) way to obtain them would be the simplest and most elegant solution. A lot of people I know are already fishing crumpled packages from the oasis lake in preparation for next winter's feast, but I never liked the idea of forcing myself to do something I wouldn't enjoy like fishing for the entire summer for a small gain of festive light that I can only use in months.

The way you gain festive lights during winter's feast is more frequent and also immediate, making it more satisfying, but it still requires to wait entire seasons to get more and I have no guarantee I'll be able to play a lot for the only month winter's feast will be active. If I enabled winter's feast in the world settings, I would miss out on the other cool events, since world settings are set in stone. I know mods or console commands can affect those, but people playing on console don't have access to that (not that I play on console, but I think things should be balanced without mods/commands in mind).

Adding them to Klaus' loot stash would be the most fitting, perhaps as an extra gift, but they might need some kind of use outside of mushroom lights. Perhaps Klaus could drop a winter's feast tree blueprint to be able to decorate with them year-round, though festive lights already count as lantern fuel, so if a player isn't interested in them they can easily get rid of them that way, so they wouldn't be intrusive.

Before I finish, I really wanna put emphasis on the fact that darkness is not a threat that should matter (and it doesn't) if you're far enough into the game that you killed several raid bosses. Just like hunger becomes pretty much trivial later on. And that doesn't mean the game is not designed well, it simply means the game rewards players who are skilled, knowledgable and dedicated enough. Lamp posts in Hamlet showed us that it's not that big of a deal to have infinite light in terms of survival, it just makes things convenient and enjoyable, which is why we care so much about it.

Whelp, that was a lot. Hopefully what I said makes sense, thanks for reading <3

[ArubaroBeefalo]

It should let you put fireflies. Atleast in the misery lamp.

[ClumsyPenny]

27 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

It should let you put fireflies. Atleast in the misery lamp.

Simple and straight to the point! I actually like this a lot, it does make more sense than festive lights. Thought I would prefer if it worked with any lamp, I like how both of them look!

1 hour ago, sovon9 said:

May be in mega base it's a pain in the ** for people to check and fill them but in my world there are 4-5 glowcaps and I have stored a lot of light bulb in bundle wrap to fill them. so after 60 days this refill is kind of ok I guess as infinite seems little bit impractical .

If you're using light bulbs, that's 24 days of light assuming the bulbs are 100% fresh and no season messing with the spoilage rate (like winter or summer). Spores can get the lights up to 60 days, but that's tricky since you can't bundle spores wihtout having to catch them again and they spoil very quickly when they're not in the inventory.

[KeshS]

When the average Joe wants to make a QOL thread it gets moved to suggestions, but when a well known streamer does it gets a pass. Some preferential treatment you got there mods. 

I am not mad I am just emphasizing the double standards.

[ShadowDuelist]

I support this and I think the final permanent light should come after defeating misery toad (the lamp itself) and crab king (new type of permanent glowing bulbs, maybe getting 4 each time you kill it)

Sounds absolutely fair that a player or team of players that went all the way to defeat the grindiest enemies of the game, can finally defeat darkness in their bases.

[BeeClops]

In my worlds i always use infinite glowcap and mushlights mod, probably the only server mod i use. I obviously agree with the suggestion

The way i used to refill them before discovering the mod was giving funcaps to all of my pigs, i found that to be decently fast, but still tedious work.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 minute ago, ShadowDuelist said:

I support this and I think the final permanent light should come after defeating misery toad (the lamp itself) and crab king (new type of permanent glowing bulbs, maybe getting 4 each time you kill it)

Sounds absolutely fair that a player or team of players that went all the way to defeat the grindiest enemies of the game, can finally defeat darkness in their bases.

Charged gems. The gems you waste to fight crab king could glow and be used like festive lights so it brings infinity light and different colours but i still prefer fireflies 

[sovon9]

4 hours ago, HobNob said:

Simple and straight to the point! I actually like this a lot, it does make more sense than festive lights. Thought I would prefer if it worked with any lamp, I like how both of them look!

If you're using light bulbs, that's 24 days of light assuming the bulbs are 100% fresh and no season messing with the spoilage rate (like winter or summer). Spores can get the lights up to 60 days, but that's tricky since you can't bundle spores wihtout having to catch them again and they spoil very quickly when they're not in the inventory.

you can face problem getting mushrooms in winter for funcap , considering you are not using cave. So, except winter you have no problem in getting spores. Funcap generates spores quite rapidly, so I don't think it's a huge problem. you can give pigs to wear these caps and get the spores.

[wigfrids hat]

honestly? i would take almost anything if it meant i could have infinite stationary lighting that couldn't be eaten by a mob

[FreyaMaluk]

14 hours ago, Kynoox_ said:

Perhaps Misery Toadstool or a boss can drop a light material for crafting infinite light source.

yes... that would be finally a good drop that makes sense for Misery Toadstool cuz IMO the Napsack is kinda underwhelming for this boss fight

I'm not very into permanent light UNLESS it's there is a real effort involved in it and killing Misery would make it really worth it.

[Pokejerk360]

A good idea and i think i agree with it. In single player you have hamlet lamps which provide infinite light so why cant we have some in dst, i do think it should be a bit hard to obtain though, maybe killing misery toad or enraged klaus but i dont know, my ideas always suck