Difficulty Choices added to DST good idea bad idea?

[AllFunNGamez]

So I recently watched a few large Twitch Streamers play DST and it was very fun seeing the game hit the top charts on Twitch's front page. However they struggled so bad they gave up on it quite quickly. I was curious some peoples opinions on if Klei were to add Easy, Medium, Hard and Insane difficulty. I know to some this sounds bad and it would change the game play but stand on the side lines for a moment and look in.

A few things to note are not everyone has friends to play with and as someone who basically did exactly that played the game gave up on it right away and then returned to it later to stream in to find people to play with, it can be a bit overwhelming. 

I think a difficulty would make it easier for new people joining the game and in the end make it harder for those who think they have done all they can in DST. Easy mode could have a basic tutorial and perhaps change the starting items to make it easier for them. The difficulty would obviously move up as you went on or perhaps could be a switch of the button before starting a new gen as well.

I really think this would make a world of a difference and I want to know everyone's opinion. I never really heard Klei speak directly on why they never added a ramp for new players to the game but I think at this rate it would bring in a lot of newer faces who are able to play the game and get further than just day 10. Now if Klei's main reasoning behind not doing that is to try to encourage people to play with others in order to get more people to play the game now that is understandable but I still think it would really make a difference. 

I want to add I understand you can change the options and make it easier for yourself but a lot of newer people have no idea how to do this. Now let me know your opinion. 

Also Happy Friday!

I was also thinking after killing the fuel weaver you could move to the next difficulty. For example start in Easy kill fuel weaver move to next difficulty. I know these are just ideas but I think it could make the game better for everyone. 

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS IS JUST AN IDEA I LOVE DST I AM JUST POSTING IDEAS

[Articestone]

I think it is a great idea because most players give up because they have to experience many deaths or check the wiki to learn the game mechanics for the first time. 

It would be helpful if there is an npc in the to advise the players the don'ts and dos in dst. Maybe for them to upgrade the difficulty they have to kill the 4 seasonal bosses with any method? 

[AllFunNGamez]

Exactly I think that would work too. I just love seeing new people play DST and this would help those who are unable to find people to play with in order to get better. 

I think the options are really endless on how they could do it but I think it would be a start to expanding Don't Starve to new players who might have previously felt the game to be too hard for them. 

I think progression unlocks would be something I would personally want for example kill certain bosses like you mentioned to unlock the next difficulty and of course have this as an option to be disabled for those who just want normal DST. 

But progressing to if you are experienced enough you would be in hard mode trying to survive would offer a whole new variation of survival in Don't Starve. 

[Harrowick]

I don't see why not, as long as the server is indicated with an appropriate "difficulty" icon of some sorts. Harder difficulty, harder presets. Might make the game feel more "starving together"-like. 

[NSAiswatchingus]

I think Bloodborne should have different difficulties for people new to the series. Not everyone has a fellow hunter they can ring in to show them the ropes or beat the first few bosses for them. Like,  have the game start with a tutorial on what the controls are, how the stats or weapons work, and even give players some different starting items to make progress a little easier...

SAID NO ONE EVER. 

Good games don't need to be dumbed down.

[Dunk Mujunk]

42 minutes ago, AllFunNGamez said:

Easy mode could have a basic tutorial 

If I remember correctly the tutorial idea was shot down long ago for fear that players would blindly follow the tutorial and not actually learn/discover on their own. I'm pretty sure there is a recent (few months back) post that more or less states this.

 

[Hornete]

I think the world gen settings do a good enough job at making it easier/harder for players, but hey it wouldnt affect me if an Easy mode got added in so why not I guess.

[RatherAzure]

No. Never. Not in a million years.

One of the charms of Don't Starve, to me is its unrelenting difficulty. The mentality of "get better or die" is one of the main fundamental elements of Don't Starve and that should never ever change, and neither should its successor, Don't Starve Together. If your friends are giving up because its too hard, then maybe its just not their game.

If you want an easy mode, refer them to the workshop. There are plenty of mods which reduce the game's difficulty there. Or maybe the world gen settings, where you can straight up remove hound waves or increase berry bushes.

The standard Don't Starve experience should not have a difficulty setting built in.

Edit: And no tutorials either! It is my of my opinion that the game teaches the player through trial and error alone perfectly fine. This game excels at leading the player on by implying events that the player can infer.

Maybe it'll take a world or 5, but the player will remember their choices and mistakes to apply for next time.

[Well-met]

the worldgen settings + Wes do exactly that.

[AllFunNGamez]

31 minutes ago, Dunk Mujunk said:

If I remember correctly the tutorial idea was shot down long ago for fear that players would blindly follow the tutorial and not actually learn/discover on their own. I'm pretty sure there is a recent (few months back) post that more or less states this.

 

Ah ok. I had no idea they removed that feature from Don't Starve Together. I never remembered a tutorial being in DST ever.

I also think you guys are forgetting when you first load the game nobody messes with the world gen settings. Most people are clueless on how to even load into a game of Don't Starve Together. They are not going to know removing hounds from the game could make it easier for them. That is why I am simply mentioning the settings to help do it for them. I am not asking for the game to be dumb down just easier setup at the beginning of the game choices. 

29 minutes ago, RatherAzure said:

No. Never. Not in a million years.

One of the charms of Don't Starve, to me is its unrelenting difficulty. The mentality of "get better or die" is one of the main fundamental elements of Don't Starve and that should never ever change, and neither should its successor, Don't Starve Together. If your friends are giving up because its too hard, then maybe its just not their game.

If you want an easy mode, refer them to the workshop. There are plenty of mods which reduce the game's difficulty there. Or maybe the world gen settings, where you can straight up remove hound waves or increase berry bushes.

The standard Don't Starve experience should not have a difficulty setting built in.

Edit: And no tutorials either! It is my of my opinion that the game teaches the player through trial and error alone perfectly fine. This game excels at leading the player on by implying events that the player can infer.

Maybe it'll take a world or 5, but the player will remember their choices and mistakes to apply for next time.

I am not sure if new players are going to know how to go to the steam workshop and all of that I think we are not thinking like new players and instead thinking of what we know. You have to imagine yourself opening DST for the very first time you have no clue what to do. You are not going to know changing options or going to the workshop is going to get you anywhere. 

[Hornete]

Just now, AllFunNGamez said:

Ah ok. I had no idea they removed that feature from Don't Starve Together. I never remembered a tutorial being in DST ever.

It wasnt ever in DST. Let me clarify.

If my memory serves me correct, way way back when they were first developing DS in 2012/2013, they tried out adding quests/objectives to the game (Not a tutorial, but sort of similar?) I suppose they were basic things like "Gather 2 grass and 2 twigs", "Craft a torch" and what not. They ended up finding that players would almost always only do the objectives and never actually explore other parts of the game and do stuff their own way.

This is what I remember the story being, if I missed any details or got anything wrong I'd like someone to correct me, thanks

[GenomeSquirrel]

most of the games difficultly is from constantly ambushing players, lethal darkness, spiders, yellow spiders, hounds, pigmen betray you, catcoons betray you, winter, beefalo betray you, giant monster comes from no where to destroy everything and everyone.

It will never be new player friendly, it’s designed to punish players for things they couldn’t have expected.

[AllFunNGamez]

36 minutes ago, NSAiswatchingus said:

I think Bloodborne should have different difficulties for people new to the series. Not everyone has a fellow hunter they can ring in to show them the ropes or beat the first few bosses for them. Like,  have the game start with a tutorial on what the controls are, how the stats or weapons work, and even give players some different starting items to make progress a little easier...

SAID NO ONE EVER. 

Good games don't need to be dumbed down.

I agree good games do not need to be dumbed down. But they also need to grow and I feel like in order for DST to welcome those new players would it really make you hate DST if they gave an option for EASY mode for new players? Generally speaking every time I have played a game that offered easy mode I only chose that for the beginning and knew I eventually had to try the harder difficulty after. Also I think that having the game get harder as it goes on gives a whole new light to DST as well. 

[RatherAzure]

4 minutes ago, AllFunNGamez said:

I am not sure if new players are going to know how to go to the steam workshop and all of that I think we are not thinking like new players and instead thinking of what we know. You have to imagine yourself opening DST for the very first time you have no clue what to do. You are not going to know changing options or going to the workshop is going to get you anywhere. 

I trust that new players will know to how maneuver a workshop. It's a steam game after all. The workshop is the place for game mods.

I think you need more faith in the mental capacity of new players. They've decided to pick up a new game with the intent to learn a new game and that includes its settings.

[AllFunNGamez]

1 minute ago, RatherAzure said:

I trust that new players will know to how maneuver a workshop. It's a steam game after all. The workshop is the place for game mods.

I think you need more faith in the mental capacity of new players. They've decided to pick up a new game with the intent to learn a new game and that includes its settings.

I never touched the steam workshop or mods until a year after playing DST. I am not saying people will not know about the workshop but you should not have to use mods in order to make the game more welcoming to you.

[RatherAzure]

4 minutes ago, AllFunNGamez said:

I never touched the steam workshop or mods until a year after playing DST. I am not saying people will not know about the workshop but you should not have to use mods in order to make the game more welcoming to you.

That's wrong. Some games are just hard. Plain and simple.

There exists mods for Dark Souls which reduce its difficulty but people rarely touch them because in doing so would go against the game's entire design philosophy. But if you absolutely must, they still exist.

[Mysterious box]

1 minute ago, RatherAzure said:

I trust that new players will know to how maneuver a workshop. It's a steam game after all. The workshop is the place for game mods.

I think you need more faith in the mental capacity of new players. They've decided to pick up a new game with the intent to learn a new game and that includes its settings.

The thing is not everyone plays on pc and the game doesn't teach core aspects most people just look to the wiki/YouTube, expect others to take care them, or quit. Experimentation isn't as welcomed as you might think in dst.

[AllFunNGamez]

1 minute ago, RatherAzure said:

That's wrong. Some games are just hard. Plain and simple.

There exists mods for Dark Souls which reduce its difficulty but people rarely touch them because in doing so would go against the game's entire design philosophy. But if you absolutely must, they still exist.

This game is not Dark Souls.

[Axe_]

You're right!

Spoiler

Base is too easy and we need a hard mode! XD

 

[AllFunNGamez]

3 minutes ago, RatherAzure said:

That's wrong. Some games are just hard. Plain and simple.

There exists mods for Dark Souls which reduce its difficulty but people rarely touch them because in doing so would go against the game's entire design philosophy. But if you absolutely must, they still exist.

Not everyone trusts the Workshop not everyone plays on PC not everyone knows what to do on Steam. This does not make them dumb or clueless it means they are not familiar with the territory. So instead of making them search elsewhere for guides on how to play the game it would keep them in the game trying to improve. If you have to walk around a store to find what you are looking for the store is not doing the right job at showing you what you need. You should not have to go out of the store in order to find what you were looking for. Its really simple. I also respect your passion for DST I really do but I think you have to take a step back and look at how new players feel when playing DST and that is something that a lot of us players who have many of hours in the game forget. 

[Scrimbles]

Bad idea, the game was deaigned to be an "Uncompromising Wilderness Survival" experience, the entire game is wrapped around that idea.

Settings that change the difficulty would split the online playerbase and would compromise on the games vision.

[RatherAzure]

11 minutes ago, AllFunNGamez said:

I really do but I think you have to take a step back and look at how new players feel when playing DST and that is something that a lot of us players who have many of hours in the game forget. 

Strangely enough, I think I do have a grasp on how new players feel when playing DST. I've been spending more of my time in new players' streams. The first guy managed to get all the way down to a science machine before dying to a fire because it hadn't occured to him that fire spreads from tree to tree. He went and isolated the fire next time.

The game is very well designed. And I mean very. It's written in a way to guide the player, subtly towards a self assigned goal.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

it is already in the world gen config and i guess klei will eventually fix it to work better+ add return of them stuff

no need to waste resources in game setting that only people that dont like this kind of games will use

28 minutes ago, AllFunNGamez said:

I also think you guys are forgetting when you first load the game nobody messes with the world gen settings

maybe because we enjoined the default difficulty, isnt that hard to find those settings when they are in big tabs with drawns of almost every mob and mechanic

 

edit: there is stardew valley and animal crossing (i dont want to sound rude or despise these games i enjoy them too) for people who want decorate with less dangers aswell that there is other kind of games for people who want more fighting mechanics or more realistic graphics

dont starve is a niche game that mixes a lot of things but isnt one in particular

also people should learn to dont surrent at the first game over, this is killing most games

[Philip.]

[AllFunNGamez]

3 minutes ago, RatherAzure said:

Strangely enough, I think I do have a grasp on how new players fee when playing DST. I've been spending more of my time in new players' streams. The first guy managed to get all the way down to a science machine before dying to a fire because it hadn't occured to him that fire spreads from tree to tree. He went and isolated the fire next time.

The game is very well designed. And I mean very. It's written in a way to guide the player, subtly towards a self assigned goal.

Yeah that is why DST is so great I was just thinking of possibly a way to help those who might not have the patience. But I understand that the game is meant for those who are willing to take the time to improve and get better and not give up so early. It just sucks seeing them avoid the game all together after because of a few lost lives.