New seasons, a more dangerous Constant after two years.

[Pop Guy]

I think that after 2 seasonal cycles (autumn-winter-spring-summer) there should be new, more dangerous seasons.
I have some DST themed ideas:

Season of the Moon: 

Predominant color: Blue.
Global climate: Temperate (as in autumn).
Clock: Long nights (like in winter).
Duration: 11 days (from new moon to full moon).
Effects on the player: Sanity replaced by the Enlightenment.
As we approach the full moon, more and more gestalt manifestations in the world. Hordes of dead dogs every 2 days. Dead penguins spawn if you approach the ocean. All spiders become crystal spiders.
Pigs are permanently petrified and can be pickaxed for moon rock.
During the height of the full moon, a special meteor spawns in the meteor field - it's a new crystal boss. (Below example image taken from Darkest Dungeon - Color of Madness.).

Spoiler

 

If you fail to kill the boss, the dead season begins:

Predominant color: Yellow.
Clock: No day, only dusk and night.
Duration: 11 days (from full moon to new moon).
Effect on the player: Hunger is reduced twice as fast. If sanity drops below 50%, hunger drops three times faster.
During the dead season, vegetables wilt almost instantly.
Plants dry out (as in summer).
Food spoils twice as fast. Wild animals have a 33% chance each day of random death, leaving an infected carcass on the ground. If touched, an infected carcass poisons the player.
Every two days, hordes of poisonous mosquitoes attack the player (dogs do not spawn).
Food left on the ground (or collected from the ground) becomes rancid: if eaten, it poisons the player.
Bees do not produce honey.
Each night there is a 20% chance that a nightmare knight, nightmare bishop or nightmare rook will spawn, which will haunt the player until they are killed.

Summoning a reanimated skeleton to the surface will start a new boss fight with a special reward.

Spoiler

 

(Example)

 

 

[astroapyr]

I like the idea of bringing Enlightment temporarily to the main island and all this would be a HUGE content update, all that chaos would be very entertaining.

Spoiler

Also, that meteor boss screams The Color of Madness DLC form Darkest Dungeon. Please don't spoil. 

 

[ArubaroBeefalo]

36 minutes ago, Pop Guy said:

Effects on the player: Sanity replaced by the Enlightenment

i like this idea a lot and more if it brings the great gestals and other new gestals

[Zeklo]

Not so sure how I feel about a special season leading into another special season, but I'm all for a Lunar Eclipse season to parallel the Solar Eclipse (Aporkalypse) from Hamlet.

[Pop Guy]

7 hours ago, DelroyBM said:

I like the idea of bringing Enlightment temporarily to the main island and all this would be a HUGE content update, all that chaos would be very entertaining.

  Reveal hidden contents

Also, that meteor boss screams The Color of Madness DLC form Darkest Dungeon. Please don't spoil. 

 

I think the new content would certainly require a certain amount of work on Klei's part, but not that big either. Many of the threats I have thought of are elements already present in the game, which require no new art or programming. By role-playing, I know how to "recycle" old material to make it look new to players, saving huge amounts of time and effort. In fact, using a little creativity is enough to offer lots of new content with little effort

Spoiler

I hid the image and specified that it is from Darkest Dungeon - Color of Madness. Open at their own risk now, the meteor is just perfect as a moon themed boss for DST!

 

7 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

i like this idea a lot and more if it brings the great gestals and other new gestals

Of course, it would be great to see new types of gestals or lunar mutations. But I wanted to suggest something that required a relatively "small" effort from Klei, which was largely based on "recycling" elements already present in the game in a different way. Clearly I am extra-favorable to any new content and I adore mutated creatures, I would like new ones.

 

2 hours ago, Zeklo said:

Not so sure how I feel about a special season leading into another special season, but I'm all for a Lunar Eclipse season to parallel the Solar Eclipse (Aporkalypse) from Hamlet.

I started from something similar to the Aporkalypse: in fact the "dead" season can be prevented, just like the Aporkalypse, by killing the meteor. In reality I conceived the two seasons as part of a single one (in fact the two seasons are the lunar cycle and the total duration is 22 days, slightly more than an autumn or a spring).
In my head, the meteor, if not killed in time, "contaminates" the earth and triggers a sort of necrotic pandemic that kills plants, animals, makes food rancid and triggers hordes of poisonous mosquitoes.
It was also an attempt to create something actually different from the seasonal cycles already seen, then obviously it is a flow of ideas without any pretense :]

[Cheggf]

I think this would work a lot better as events rather than seasons. I like the idea of a moon cycle being special after the first year, but replacing the seasons entirely and a lot of these obnoxious effects are a bit much. I think it'd be a lot better if instead of replacing the seasons it just added onto them.

[Mike23Ua]

I don’t really support this idea because it takes forever to get that far into the game- instead what I would like is more weather seasons: But have those be optional.

Like.. I don’t play the game on default settings because it takes way too long to get to and enjoy seasons so some worlds I play with the seasons being shorter or random.

AND ... how would a suggestion like this mix with playing on random seasons/season lengths?

If your supposed to trigger this newer suggestions by reaching calendar year 2 etc... then how do you effectively reach calendar year 2 when your seasons are random?

would Klei change the game so that instead of going through each respective season: Things instead ramp up based entirely upon days survived?

You can’t say have it based on just surviving through the 4 seasons.

Its pretty much roughly equivalent to Pearl having to be changed to be Nocturnal when players play on “Lights Out” Settings.

With all the changes we have (and will probably continue to get) with world Gen & World Gen settings- A suggestion like this has to be accounted for based upon those changes we continue to get.

Random Seasons & Season Lengths is just one example, but NOW there’s a whole slew of new options thanks to the March QoL update.

[Fill-Lips]

So, the Aporkalypse then? Cool, though having them classified as two seperate seasons is a bit overkill, I don't see why it can't be just one seasons with a speciel wheather build up, like how winter doesn't start out with snow till a few days in, and summer not having wildfires till a few days in too, you could have the rotting effect build up over the season so you can ease the players into the harsher season, rather then an instant x2/3 hunger rate right off the bat. It will also allow for a proper transistion, cos I don't understand how failing to kill this moon boss causes the complete opposite to happen.

[Maxposting]

I would rather have the four basic seasons get changed after some time.

Such as spring being flood like season with lots of mud.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 hour ago, __IvoCZE__ said:

I would rather have the four basic seasons get changed after some time.

Such as spring being flood like season with lots of mud.

Why no both? I would like some changes to the base seasons in worlds that survive for long enough but wont hurt to have also new season to breake the 4 season routine

The aporkalypse from hamlet was a kind of good idea (it could be better tho, too many useless things and cheating solutions) and a lunar apocalypse could work so well mixing moon effects with the regular seasons

[TemporarySolutn]

16 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

I think that after 2 seasonal cycles (autumn-winter-spring-summer) there should be new, more dangerous seasons.
I have some DST themed ideas:

Season of the Moon: 

Predominant color: Blue.
Global climate: Temperate (as in autumn).
Clock: Long nights (like in winter).
Duration: 11 days (from new moon to full moon).
Effects on the player: Sanity replaced by the Enlightenment.
As we approach the full moon, more and more gestalt manifestations in the world. Hordes of dead dogs every 2 days. Dead penguins spawn if you approach the ocean. All spiders become crystal spiders.
Pigs are permanently petrified and can be pickaxed for moon rock.
During the height of the full moon, a special meteor spawns in the meteor field - it's a new crystal boss. (Below example image taken from Darkest Dungeon - Color of Madness.).

  Reveal hidden contents

 

If you fail to kill the boss, the dead season begins:

Predominant color: Yellow.
Clock: No day, only dusk and night.
Duration: 11 days (from full moon to new moon).
Effect on the player: Hunger is reduced twice as fast. If sanity drops below 50%, hunger drops three times faster.
During the dead season, vegetables wilt almost instantly.
Plants dry out (as in summer).
Food spoils twice as fast. Wild animals have a 33% chance each day of random death, leaving an infected carcass on the ground. If touched, an infected carcass poisons the player.
Every two days, hordes of poisonous mosquitoes attack the player (dogs do not spawn).
Food left on the ground (or collected from the ground) becomes rancid: if eaten, it poisons the player.
Bees do not produce honey.
Each night there is a 20% chance that a nightmare knight, nightmare bishop or nightmare rook will spawn, which will haunt the player until they are killed.

Summoning a reanimated skeleton to the surface will start a new boss fight with a special reward.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

(Example)

 

I sorta like the idea but the dead season shouldn't be like "kill boss or suffer" imo

 

[CaptainChaotica]

Hmmm...this seems to be too many things at once, to me.  Like, faster hunger drain (why? what's the story reason for that?  for ALL characters?!) AND hardly any food, and the food that does exist spoils instantly _and_ has a chance to poison you?  How 'bout...less food but normal hunger drain, or faster hunger drain but normal food. 
And less chance of poisoning, 'cos in Shipwrecked, at least, that is a PAIN IN THE BUTT and if it keeps happening _again_ so soon after you cured it...after a bit I personally would just be like "I don't care anymore.  Just kill me."

(Groot A Totally Normal Tree watches on as Wendy joins her twin in ghosthood.  Yes, I DO happen to already have a screenshot from my own playing of death by specifically poison in specifically Shipwrecked, on deck and ready to go.  It's how I roll.)

i.  hate.  the poison mechanic. so much.

Maybe WAY less frequent mosquitoes, or they're only that frequent if you already live near a swamp, or they show up often but are usually just normal ones...?

I don't know how one is supposed to keep alive at all if you're super-hungry AND there's less food.  Adding poison/rot on top of that is just adding a kick in the face to insult to injury.  And how the heck is somebody as picky as Warly supposed to stay alive, if he's lucky to get ANYthing before it rots or withers?

(Also, as someone who almost always plays alone and usually CAN'T solo bosses because I'm not _interested_ enough in combat to WANT to get  better at it, the idea of a "punishment season" for not killing a boss in time sounds horribly unfair. Not everybody plays with friends and/or is good at fighting.  I tend to just wait out bad seasons until they end, and, if possible, spawn the seasonal boss in the middle of nowhere and leave them.  Since that does work most of the time, wouldn't it be kind of a breaking of the game's internal rules to make a boss that MUST be killed, and could you blame people for being shocked by that?  Top 10 Anime Betrayals...)

And also, I (and some other people) do random seasons. So when you say "two years", do you mean 140 days no matter what, or however long it takes for all four seasons (bearing in mind that sometimes one or even two in a row can be skipped entirely!) to happen twice?  And would the newer seasons ALSO be randomised?  Oh, my god, 40 days of Dead OR Moon season.  (HORDES of dogs EVERY FREAKING TWO DAYS ARE YOU _HIGH_?!)  
If both of these weren't _very definitely_ turn-off-able in the settings, I would stop playing forever.

So basically:  This needs some HEAVY tweaking before it's ready for prime time.

Also this seems to be an attempt (whether consciously or not) to railroad people into certain playstyles, and I just _can't_ be about that in a sandbox game.

...Notorious

[Cr4zyFl4mes]

I like ideas about both seasons. I wouldn't force it on everybody though. Some people just want to chill and base-build. I'd support it if either

1) they were optional (or optionally avoided) or
2) they were very rare. Like if the new moon hits the last day/first day of the year or something like that.

[Axe_]

This is probably a good place where mods can pick up: where klei isn't really focused right now. Klei is more focused in the exploration/wonder aspect of DST, which is fine, offers a lot more things to do and goals to achieve.

[SaphironX]

22 hours ago, Pop Guy said:

I think that after 2 seasonal cycles (autumn-winter-spring-summer) there should be new, more dangerous seasons.
I have some DST themed ideas:

Season of the Moon: 

Predominant color: Blue.
Global climate: Temperate (as in autumn).
Clock: Long nights (like in winter).
Duration: 11 days (from new moon to full moon).
Effects on the player: Sanity replaced by the Enlightenment.
As we approach the full moon, more and more gestalt manifestations in the world. Hordes of dead dogs every 2 days. Dead penguins spawn if you approach the ocean. All spiders become crystal spiders.
Pigs are permanently petrified and can be pickaxed for moon rock.
During the height of the full moon, a special meteor spawns in the meteor field - it's a new crystal boss. (Below example image taken from Darkest Dungeon - Color of Madness.).

  Reveal hidden contents

 

If you fail to kill the boss, the dead season begins:

Predominant color: Yellow.
Clock: No day, only dusk and night.
Duration: 11 days (from full moon to new moon).
Effect on the player: Hunger is reduced twice as fast. If sanity drops below 50%, hunger drops three times faster.
During the dead season, vegetables wilt almost instantly.
Plants dry out (as in summer).
Food spoils twice as fast. Wild animals have a 33% chance each day of random death, leaving an infected carcass on the ground. If touched, an infected carcass poisons the player.
Every two days, hordes of poisonous mosquitoes attack the player (dogs do not spawn).
Food left on the ground (or collected from the ground) becomes rancid: if eaten, it poisons the player.
Bees do not produce honey.
Each night there is a 20% chance that a nightmare knight, nightmare bishop or nightmare rook will spawn, which will haunt the player until they are killed.

Summoning a reanimated skeleton to the surface will start a new boss fight with a special reward.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

(Example)

 

 

I mean I’d enjoy something like this, but maybe a bit less extreme.

Dead season would drive off 75% of the player base in an instant. Maybe less with the poison and quicker spoilage.

And hordes of dead dogs every tow days would be less challenging and more of a hassle. Like would that be fun? It would be all you have time for. 

How about actual zombies, slow, easy to evade, but a persistent threat. And the world needs the potential to return to normal too.

[CaptainChaotica]

How 'bout...the new boss is like the head zombie/undead creature of your choice, and instead of giving you a special reward, killing it UNDOES THE DEATH AURA ON THE WORLD, aka makes things go back to normal!  And then I guess it'd become whatever regular season it was going to be before Moon/Dead one came along.  Since "normal" COULD be winter or summer, you'd still have to be prepared...  (Well, _I_ would, anyway.  With my randomised seasons it's not at all guaranteed that the season that starts on Day 140 would be autumn.)

I still think it'd be more workable with ONE of the punishing new/altered mechanics in, not both at once.  Higher hunger drain (THAT sounds annoying...but I guess I can put up with it for only 10 days or less) _or_ things that lie around are likely to get you sick.  Also the cure should be easy to make, since we're probably gonna need a LOT of it.  Also, with the crops wilting immediately--is this rot season, or summer?   By that I mean:  Is the weather humid, or dry--you can't have both effects at once. I think only one should happen that fast, really.  Aka either the meat OR the veggies should go away quickly.  Not both.  (And even then, say bye-bye to all the Wigfrids, Wurts and probably Warlies...)

And cut down the attacks of hounds AND mosquitoes so they don't happen every two days.  That'd just be annoying.  I have a field of tooth traps, and I actually _don't_ mind resetting 'em, but that's under the NORMAL hound schedule!  : P  (I'd also be remaking my stupid sign every two days...)

(this picture is now way out of date, but you get the idea.)

...Notorious

[ArubaroBeefalo]

am i the only one who likes SW poison and his shell armors to deal with it?

[Notecja]

2 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

am i the only one who likes SW poison and his shell armors to deal with it?

I played Woodie. Every time I actually ignored poison and never ever created any cure... And my shell armour was usually forgotten. 

Beaver was almost magical thing to clear all snakes, spiders and other stuff. 

[Lukmendes]

Content like this would be better being player-controlled since there's so much, like say you beat a boss in Lunar Island and it can cause such changes on the world after you gather items, or even using that Mysterious Energy, forcing something that could change the game so much all of a sudden could be really annoying.

[Pop Guy]

On 3/14/2021 at 8:00 PM, CaptainChaotica said:

[...]

...Notorious

Obviously Klei would also have to insert an antidote, something that requires oceanic ingredients to be created (thus giving a further stimulus to explore the ocean).
Example:

 +  +  >  > 

Also in the game there are tools to greatly reduce the loss of hunger. Just use them carefully.
Rancid food is in any case edible, the dead season seems to me a demanding season that requires a lot of preparation; but there are 2 seasonal cycles before, it seems feasible to me.

On 3/14/2021 at 11:38 PM, SaphironX said:

I mean I’d enjoy something like this, but maybe a bit less extreme.

Dead season would drive off 75% of the player base in an instant. Maybe less with the poison and quicker spoilage.

And hordes of dead dogs every tow days would be less challenging and more of a hassle. Like would that be fun? It would be all you have time for. 

How about actual zombies, slow, easy to evade, but a persistent threat. And the world needs the potential to return to normal too.

I started with the idea of offering a demanding challenge to the most experienced players, so I inserted a series of threats with grueling frequency (one of the few things that can quickly put even a veteran in crisis). It is one of the golden rules of Dungeon and Dragons if you want to put a group of high-level players in difficulty: you don't have to give they a break, ever. Otherwise they will always find a way to regroup, rest and quickly destroy any threat you put against them.

Spoiler

 

On 3/14/2021 at 9:14 PM, Cr4zyFl4mes said:

I like ideas about both seasons. I wouldn't force it on everybody though. Some people just want to chill and base-build. I'd support it if either

1) they were optional (or optionally avoided) or
2) they were very rare. Like if the new moon hits the last day/first day of the year or something like that.

You can make the new seasons momentarily deactivated in the generation of the world, or delay their arrival after 3 - 4 - 5 - etc. seasonal cycles. No problem with customizing the world!

On 3/14/2021 at 10:06 PM, WoodieMain45684 said:

This is probably a good place where mods can pick up: where klei isn't really focused right now. Klei is more focused in the exploration/wonder aspect of DST, which is fine, offers a lot more things to do and goals to achieve.

Personally, I quite appreciate ocean exploration. I find it very pleasant to customize my boat and travel, even slowly, across the ocean. I think the game offers a lot of exploration for a novice. Klei has added a lot of content over the past year. But the challenge has, objectively, lessened. Resurrecting is very easy, multiple players can produce a huge glut of resources in no time, and many of the game's threats have been made totally optional. I would like a return to a more ruthless dimension, without compromising the experience of new players. The most demanding seasons that start after a certain period of time seem to me the best solution, capable of satisfying all types of users.

On 3/15/2021 at 2:43 AM, CaptainChaotica said:

I still think it'd be more workable with ONE of the punishing new/altered mechanics in, not both at once.  Higher hunger drain (THAT sounds annoying...but I guess I can put up with it for only 10 days or less) _or_ things that lie around are likely to get you sick.  Also the cure should be easy to make, since we're probably gonna need a LOT of it.  Also, with the crops wilting immediately--is this rot season, or summer?   By that I mean:  Is the weather humid, or dry--you can't have both effects at once. I think only one should happen that fast, really.  Aka either the meat OR the veggies should go away quickly.  Not both.  (And even then, say bye-bye to all the Wigfrids, Wurts and probably Warlies...)

In my mind the dead season was supposed to be something that did "justice" to the game title = starve you.
Here the player's hunger drops faster, the food becomes rancid, the animals do not come out of their burrows and the wild ones die, hordes of poisonous insects that poison you (reducing hunger BUT deteriorating health and sanity, what to choose between the two things?) As to why this hurts, imagine that the meteor has spread a disease similar to that of Gnaw, a kind of necrotic pandemic that contaminates the same soil, and drives hordes of ravenous insects mad...

[Articestone]

Maybe we can make it optional like maybe this a limited no. Of moon metors dropping in the mosiac biome after a year and for more moon rock metors drop, you need to mine all the limited moonrock metor to trigger the event that will happen after the next full moon,maybe mining all the moon rock trigger the rage of the boss. I understand it might be difficult to find every single one of the moonrock metor so it could be one of the craftables from the moon altar 

[Dextops]

i like the idea of the dead season i would dumb it down to not be as bad but its a cool idea because a lot of the bosses can just be avoided removing the difficulty to new players which ruins the whole point and the other season idea would be an amazing idea and i would love to see a mod of this implemented into the game

[Warpspeed10]

Have The Gnaw come visit the Constant after the first few years! The sky is hungry!

[minespatch]

8 minutes ago, Warpspeed10 said:

Have The Gnaw come visit the Constant after the first few years! The sky is hungry!

Quick time event?

[Notecja]

Actually devs kinda used some parts of these ideas?