How about a survival mode ?

[NomadCF]

I mean a being able to set the difficultly higher (making it harder). As it sits now, the game is just way to forgiving. I'm on my 3rd play (the 1st two where short lived from a swamp tentacle, and the second my Character refused to eat anything (I found this to still be case from time to time. But simply moving the Character to a different spot fixes this). And each of the first two to play throughs only lasted about ten days. But here on my 3rd play through, I'm up to 115 days and see no reason to continue playing. My Character became 100% green (being completely self sufficient at day 20). And if that wasn't bad enough, I never had to go through the "tech" tree, as I found no need too.

I found zero reason for the fallowing items.

1. Armor

2. spear

3. farm land/plots

4. alchemy machine (and everything it can research)

5. effigy (I can see the reason...kinda. But never built one... seems kinda like a cheat. The idea is to make it on 1 life)

6. hats

7. hair from anything

8. razor ?

9. the tent (at least for now)

10. pig houses

With the exception of the fire pit and net. All the other tech, Is useless. There is no need for armor as there is no reason really you should be in harms way. The example of collecting silk. It could be dangerous if you went it alone. But if you take even just one pig you can collect OR kill any nest with out any risk.

Safe way to collect silk

1. Befriend a pig
   
2. run to attack the nest, but you'll need to have come lead time on the pig
   
3. attack the nest 1 time to draw out the (4) spiders.
   
4. Run toward your pig
   
5. now continue to circle around the pig, the pig will kill all the spiders 1 at a time
   
6. do this twice and the nest is empty.
   

Or take for example that massive tree demon. I find no reason for anyone not to be able to kill him and or even have him chase you.

Avoid Tree demon

1. again let the pigs do all the work, get a pif friend.
   
2. run and chop at a tree 1 time, the pigs will continue to do all the work and chop down the surrounding trees.
   
3. If the tree demon does show up, it won't go after you as you didn't provoke him the pigs did !
   
4. 
   

Kill Tree demon

1. Build a fire
   
2. Run around the fire, force the tree demon to pass though it. It'll take time (about 5 flare ups! and the demon is dead)
   
3. 
   

Dealing with Werepigs (or anything chasing really) is simpler yet. Just find a "sharp" corner or wall of tree and run around it. The path finding in the games lacks anything more then basic fire and forget straight line running approach. This also leads to how you can have your own pig army (work force) with out the need to houses for them .

Free never leaving pig army (work force)

1. Befriend any pigs you want
   
2. lead them back to your your island. Once It's time for them to "go home" they'll simply try to run straight towards home. Getting stuck at the bottom of your island. Always ready and waiting for you with out the need for houses.
   
3. 
   

Here's my complete break down of how to be green.

1. Limit using anything that can get used up and not replaced with out needing other tools OR in other words try not using anything that requires stone OR flint. (duh)
   
2. Don't hunt, hunting wears down your tools. Trapping uses only things that can be replaced freely! Trapping can also be done at night while you do nothing or something else. It also can have 100% success rate.
   
3. Don't use wood for getting though the night unless you have too. Try using fire flies, you don't even have to catch them to use them. Simply find the spot they'll light up and stand there (don't move!). For base fires use grass, twigs, poop, etc
   
4. If you have to collect wood, use pigs! you can clear large sections of trees using only 1% of you axe.
   
5. When collecting and attacking spider nets (using the above method), don't use any tools. Use the Ctrl key and attack it with your bare hands (why waste the 1%).
   
6. Don't build pig houses, just lead them to your island.
   
7. Use pig poop instead of trying to make you way over to buffalo. Not only can you make use it's closer to you. But you can force them to make as much as you want !
   
8. If you need a fire try a touch, since it uses the grass and twigs is free.
   
9. Move plants (Grass, bushes, etc.) to you only after collecting the goods off of them 1st.
   
10. Farms are a waste for your every day needs. If you got the extra land go for it. but trapping is way more plentiful.
    
11. 
    

Ways to improve the game economy.

1. Everything has a self life. Fresh Meat,fruit,etc should spoil. Cooked should last longer ? maybe add in a dried foods type. They last longer but heal less ?
   
2. Trees should out right die, and regrow else where. this would stop wall building.
   
3. Pigs trying to "get home". should be able to swim OR jump off the cliff. This is the simplest fix for the line of sight way pointing.
   
4. Rabbits should limited, but reproduce over time. Take the number of rabbit holes the level starts with. That your max for the whole game. Every 2 rabbits, genereates a 3 rabbit up the to max ever X time. And they should "grow"/spread out from the arounds that haven't been hunted.
   
5. Werepigs should loss interest in the current target, if they are stuck. This will fix the issue of them chasing birds, and then getting stuck at the edge of the island.
   
6. Fire flies, should either roam after let go OR die after X time. This would fix the infinite light source.
   
7. 
   

While writing this I came up with an accuse (mean a use) for the effigy...Teleporter! Why run all the way back to my base, when I can just off myself and WHAM. I'm magically back in my base !

[wilsonismyboss]

This sounds insanely boring.

[CoolRanch]

I'd just say it's beta tbh. What you see now isn't all there is going to be to it. That and people play different ways. I don't normally hire pigs for example. My last game the map was just one giant island, but seemed smaller than most. I also had beefalo just a couple screens away from where I first spawned.

[Wasserstern]

I agree, the game is way too easy at the moment.

One BIG issue is the bunny hunting right now, if you find a place with many bunnyholes you can live there forever just living with the meat they drop.

But still, its in beta. Hope they improve it, I want this game to be a challenge.

[LadyD]

The difficulty curve is always being adjusted, worked on and addressed.

[dbrn]

I agree, the game is way too easy at the moment.

One BIG issue is the bunny hunting right now, if you find a place with many bunnyholes you can live there forever just living with the meat they drop.

But still, its in beta. Hope they improve it, I want this game to be a challenge.

I was able to pick up to 15 morsels in a day, it was impossible for me to starve. Rather than making bunnies spawn less (idea that i also find interesting) food should go rotten, even if cooked. Rotten food can be used for other purposes maybe: attract animals and such.

[mobius187]

I was able to pick up to 15 morsels in a day, it was impossible for me to starve. Rather than making bunnies spawn less (idea that i also find interesting) food should go rotten, even if cooked. Rotten food can be used for other purposes maybe: attract animals and such.

I believe Kevin brought up a similar idea, about food rotting, but there is a debate over what impact this would have in terms of the stack and player invesntory. For example, if you pick-up a meat morsel one day, and 9 more another day you would have a stack of 10 meat morself. But the oldest piece would rot first... so what happens? Would it become a new stack called "rotted meat morsel"? What if your inventory was full? Ect...

I believe this issue though was already addressed in Project Zomboid, which has rotting food. As I recall the rotted food stayed within the player's stack, hidden among the unrotted food of the same type. Then as the player sorted or ate his way through the stack he would encounter the rotted food item.

I'm all for this, so long as there's a way to preserve meat (i.e. salting/smoking). And then balance that by not making it possible to cook it and lower its overall effectiveness towards reducing hunger. So you can either catch/cook/eat meat within a few days and suffer not issues with rotting food, or try to preserve/store it at the cost of reducing its effectiveness.

Another idea... an ice box. Of course this would require us to have access to a winter/cold biome or island where we could collect (pick axe or shovel) a chunk of ice, and then transport it back to the ice box. Then the moment the ice is taken from its cold environment it gradually starts melting, so the ice box would only be effective until the ice melts (say 3-4 days) and need a replacement ice block. In this way meat could be stored without fear or rotting... or maybe a much more reduced rate of rot.

I do like the idea of giving rotten meat a purpose, so it's not just wasted though. Now all we need is a creature that hungers for meat (well, other than spiders). Enter the Sabretooth Tiger!

[dbrn]

Salt! What a great idea, we should give a use to the sea around us!

[Wasserstern]

I believe Kevin brought up a similar idea, about food rotting, but there is a debate over what impact this would have in terms of the stack and player invesntory. For example, if you pick-up a meat morsel one day, and 9 more another day you would have a stack of 10 meat morself. But the oldest piece would rot first... so what happens? Would it become a new stack called "rotted meat morsel"? What if your inventory was full? Ect...

I believe this issue though was already addressed in Project Zomboid, which has rotting food. As I recall the rotted food stayed within the player's stack, hidden among the unrotted food of the same type. Then as the player sorted or ate his way through the stack he would encounter the rotted food item.

I'm all for this, so long as there's a way to preserve meat (i.e. salting/smoking). And then balance that by not making it possible to cook it and lower its overall effectiveness towards reducing hunger. So you can either catch/cook/eat meat within a few days and suffer not issues with rotting food, or try to preserve/store it at the cost of reducing its effectiveness.

Another idea... an ice box. Of course this would require us to have access to a winter/cold biome or island where we could collect (pick axe or shovel) a chunk of ice, and then transport it back to the ice box. Then the moment the ice is taken from its cold environment it gradually starts melting, so the ice box would only be effective until the ice melts (say 3-4 days) and need a replacement ice block. In this way meat could be stored without fear or rotting... or maybe a much more reduced rate of rot.

I do like the idea of giving rotten meat a purpose, so it's not just wasted though. Now all we need is a creature that hungers for meat (well, other than spiders). Enter the Sabretooth Tiger!

Your ideas are pretty nice!

Always cool to see someone that plays Project Zomboid by the way

[deskp]

Surviving alone isnt that hard when you know what to do, the challenge comes when you want to do other things aswell as survive.

[mobius187]

Your ideas are pretty nice!

Always cool to see someone that plays Project Zomboid by the way

Well, I wouldn't say I play Project Zomboid... so much as I've watched lots of Let's Play Project Zomboid videos on YouTube.

I found it to be a fascinating game and I'm interested to see how it progresses. There are certainly some features of PZ that I would like to see in Don't Starve. Of course not everything in PZ is compatible.

Edited November 17, 2012 by mobius187

[Nickdy]

You are sort of missing the point of the game, for now, since there isn't anything in the endgame that requires you to really take any risks, you need to implement your own challenges and set goals for yourself like kill a tentacle, build a tophat, or build a featherhat and different terrible disasters that may happen more and more often later in the game.