[BETA] Help us Improve Our Capture The Flag Mod!

[JayLil07]

Hello there!

We are the creators of a new capture the flag themed mod we are currently working on. We've finished making the skeleton of our mod and would like your feedback to make it fun and balanced. On February 6 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST, we'll be on a dedicated server called "[AGURA] Capture the Flag (BETA)" playing the mod with you guys! The server is currently open, but we won't be playing with you guys. We will, however, check from time to time to see how it's going. We're open to any suggestions written in the comments here or on our mod page (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2371836250) about a name, crafting, balancing, etc. We do have a few ideas ourselves and would also like your opinion with that as well.

Here is a quick video about the basics of our mod:

 

 

Here's a short list of the features that are covered in the video:

• The game plays on a custom map (we might add more in the future)
• Players spawn on a lobby island where they don't take damage
• There are two teams, differentiated by their own hue, players and mobs in the same team cannot attack each other
• Each team has their own piggyback (flag) that they cannot pick up, but they can pick up the enemy's piggyback
• Two pillars at each base spawn spiders, one every ten seconds and one spider warrior every fourth spider spawned
• Team bases have two buffed up bishops protecting the piggyback
• All crafting tabs have been replaced with custom gold-based recipes
• When a player dies, they respawn at their base after 15 seconds, their battle items can only be picked up by teammates
• All characters start with 12 gold in their inventory (no custom items), all loot is replaced with gold

 

We know that there is a lot to balance in the game, also there are many ideas that we would like to try, if you have any ideas that you would like to see in this mod let us know. Here are some of the general balancing and fixes that we have planned:

• Forced fights at night through the use of light
• Instant crockpot dishes
• Can't haunt piggybacks
• Crafting balancing
• New items (open for suggestions)

 

We want to make characters unique in this mod while keeping their essence from Don't Starve Together, here's a short list of ideas that we consider would achieve that goal, let us know what you think and your own ideas:

• Wilson will become a well-rounded character
• Willow can use Bernie in combat
• Wolfgang's speed buff gets reduced
• Wendy can place her sister somewhere on the map
• WX-72 can strike himself with lightning
• Wickerbottom will have a custom book to heal teammates around her
• Woodie can transform into his weremoose form for a short period of time
• Wes will have low health but hit harder
• Maxwell can use his shadows in combat
• Wigfrid stays the same
• Webber takes less damage from spiders
• Winona can build catapults
• Warly can make spices
• Wortox will be banned (or max souls will be reduced, cannot soul-hop)
• Wormwood can use his custom crafting recipes
• Wurt can create merm guards
• Walter can craft his slingshot and bullets

 

We hope you come and help us test! Please give us any suggestions for how you'd like the see this mod grow.

 

Thank you!

JayLil07, fibonacci618 & Ali

Edited January 31, 2021 by JayLil07

[SuperMeatGoy]

This looks badass, i will be sure to join

[Leonardo Cox]

Looks very interesting, I don't get to play much but I'll be sure to spread this around to some friends.

[darionco]

Hey guys!

We are connecting now, come play with us and give us feedback!

[Wumpus the 19th]

I though it was another day

damn.

are you doing this any other days?

[JayLil07]

Hey guys!

Thanks for playing with us! It was lots of fun and we got some really useful information from it. If you missed it or want to play again, we'll be playing on a dedicated server next week!

Same place  - [AGURA] Capture the Flag (BETA)

Same time - Saturday, February 13, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM EST

We'll make a new post similar to this one shortly. We hope you come and play!

Edited February 8, 2021 by JayLil07

[Von Nix]

I really like this idea, but I could leave my personal takes:

-Flag Concept: I think that the piggy back should be replaced with the marble statues of some type, if that is too slow, maybe make it so you move faster near team members to encourage team pushes instead of just sneaking around while everyone is distracted.

-Map Design: I think it would be a fun idea if the islands were not directly connected to each other and players could build a series of boat bridges. This would allow players to come up with a great flank, while also allowing players to burn down bridges if their team is venerable. To stop players from sailing around the entire map, a small 1 turf river could surround the map, or the edge of the world, so it is not wide enough for players to sail/build around.
I guess while also on the concept of map design, maybe make the route less direct, as well as having the spawn room in-between the flag and the front lines. This way players have the chance to catch up to the other team if their flag is stolen.

-Game Mechanics: I really like the gold system, and I defiantly think it can be expanded on- I think it would be a good idea if players could spend their gold for defensive structures such as extra wasp/spider nests, and maybe some more friendly clockworks. Maybe players should start with less of them so they are more concerned about being defenseless than instantly rushing in to get the flag. I also think to counter this, a beefalo mount could be purchased for a very hefty price to prevent the game from entering a stalemate phase. Maybe have some recipes require lucky gold, which is only given out after 15 minutes to prevent teams from progressing too fast. I have not played it myself, but I would be willing to help beta test to get an idea of how everything is balanced.

I hope my criticism and ideas help, and I am looking forward to seeing progress on this in the future.

[darionco]

@Laptop_Optic
Thank you for your feedback, it is very helpful!

We would encourage you to play the mod and see how things work, when we started working on the mod we quickly realized that klei was kind enough to leave almost everything open for modding so we think that very few things need to stay the same way as in the base game. I am mentioning this because we've made some serious changes to how the game works and are planning to do even more. For example, when you pick up the piggyback, it slows you down more than usual to an amount we specified, it also prevents you from equipping weapons or armour and in the last update it makes you go insane instantly and restores your sanity when dropped. We like to think of this mod as a new game mode and as such we are willing to edit many if not all stats and mechanics in the game.

 

Regarding your feedback:

- Flag Concept: this one is something we are experimenting with but instead of thinking of an already existing object in the game, think about the effects that you would like to see when you pick up the flag.

- Map Design: We like the general ideas you presented here, but we can see a few issues with the current mechanics, for example, the spiders spawn and fight for you, when they die, they drop gold. If you can't cross the river to kill enemy spiders you wouldn't be able to get gold to build a boat. We think that these are not show stoppers but a little more thought needs to go into it. If you want to try building a map for the game we would love some help.

- Game mechanics: Building defensive structures is something we want to do, but had thought of giving that option to certain characters to encourage building a team structure rather than just picking a character randomly. The stalemate phase is something we are very aware of and have been trying to fix, as the game is right now, there is a point where you definitely can run into a stalemate. Yet again, if you'd like to be more actively involved in making this decisions let us know.

 

Thank you for your feedback, you should come play with us tomorrow!

Edited February 12, 2021 by darionco

[Von Nix]

@darionco I guess I should expand on the feedback you've provided.

For the flag I think that there should be buffs/defuffs for the followers/individual stealing it. some stats for the flag holder could be:
-Lowered Movement Speed 
-Lowered Attack
+Defense
+Infinite Light Source 

While for the team members around them would get:
+Movement Speed
+Attack
+Small HP Regen

I think that this would encourage teamplay since it will be a lot harder to sneak off with the flag while glowing, slow, and lowered attack. With a team, your light could help defend from darkness as well as your buffs could help your team members defend you and help push back to base.

I forgot that the spiders were friendly to your team, to be honest, I think that they should be a neutral mod that is more of a source of revenue than defense since they are weak and plentiful- especially if you're considering adding better defense options. This way players can have less risk getting attacked when farming money, it would suck to get a stack of gold just to be killed on enemy turf and have it stolen away. I think players should only enter enemy territory to push them back instead of grinding resources. Just now I got the idea of having resource farms, and resources (grass, twigs, logs, stone, plants, ect) could be traded in for gold so players can forage for gold instead of fighting (might be a broken idea considering wickerbottom's books, but just a random thought)

While I do agree that some characters should have special defense options, there should be a general thing for everyone (Houndious Shootious. clockwork respawns, anenemies/toothtraps) Nothing too extreme- but still some small money sinks if no one wants to play support.

I do understand that this is still a work in progress, just spitballing what I see would be balanced and fun- even if it doesn't actually turn out that way.

If you wanna reach out to me you can find me on discord as Laptop the Hyper#2319. You'll have a better chance reaching out to me since I rarely use the fourms, and am always on discord. I also like hanging around on https://discord.com/invite/dontstarve (Don't starve discord server) if you want to discuss it in public.