Hound Wave Rework Ideas

[sudoku]

So now that hound waves are getting some attention and the devs have asked for ideas on how to improve them. Id like to offer my ideas for how to rework the system to be more engaging and dynamic.

Hound waves should remain like they are for the first in game year to get players accustomed to the idea of hound waves and because my proposed changes involve more map management that could possibly be a detriment to early game activites. Then after the first year, every set number of days a new special hound mound should spawn randomly (or it could be spawned in proximity to player structures for easier finding) on the map.

For every one of these special hound mounds, an additional hound(s) is added to the next wave (thered probably have to be some max limit). So instead of the number of hounds arbitrarily going up with the day count the player is encouraged to seek these special mounds out so the hounds dont become too much of a problem (a similar concept to spiders spreading over the map if left unchecked).

Additionally, these spawned mounds could have a chance to be fire or ice variants, or possibly be of a new type(maybe lunar mounds spawning lunar hounds, or poison mounds, tons of possibilities). So if a player really doesnt want a particular hound type, fire for example, they would need to go out and hunt the fire mounds that have spawned.

Also, the timing of when a wave occurs should remain the same, however it would be neat if after every 3-5 or so waves, there is a new type of hound event, which would begin by having a different sound cue and a different player quote. A timer is set and a large quantity of hounds then start to amass at a single location on the map and will begin to attack once the timer ends. If the player enters this location before the timer reaches 0, this triggers a special mini wave based fight where hounds attack the player in this location in waves. After each round the player has a victory quote and is given a small amount of time to reprepare (10-30 secs) and then the next wave begins which would be progressively harder. There would be around 3 waves. Successfully clearing a superwave halts the next normal hound wave, and or mound spawn, by an additional amount of days.

For clarification, the new event wouldnt be like 3 lategame full fledged waves. Each round would be mini version of waves, with maybe a mini boss at the end for round 3. Itd be kind of like if a Varg sent out 2 waves of hounds before attacking you himself. This serves as a way for players to delay future waves. If you ignore the timer and let them come to you it would function as a typical wave of comparable difficulty.

This turns the hound wave system into one that is actually manageable while providing new lategame gameplay activites for players to engage in.

[dish-order man]

The idea sounds like some kind of tower defense game, and I'm not a fan of forcing players to face superwave or anything like that. I'd like to just turn it off.

But the Hound Mound that keeps spawning along with the world progresses is a really cool idea because I like the concept of world upgrades, so I'm going to support this part of the idea.

but this seem more like a mod though IMO.....

[sudoku]

24 minutes ago, dish-order man said:

The idea sounds like some kind of tower defense game, and I'm not a fan of forcing players to face superwave or anything like that. I'd like to just turn it off.

But the Hound Mound that keeps spawning along with the world progresses is a really cool idea because I like the concept of world upgrades, so I'm going to support this part of the idea.

but this seem more like a mod though IMO.....

I mean spiders slowly creep their way across the map if you dont deal with the dens. This would be a similar concept that gives players agency to dealing with hound waves.

Superwaves, wouldnt be like 3 lategame full fledged waves though. Each round would be mini version of waves, with maybe a mini boss at the end for round 3. This serves as a way for players to delay future waves. If you ignore the timer for the superwave and let them come to you it would function as a typical wave. (ill edit the post to make it clearer) I regret calling it a superwave, its more like a mini multiwave event/miniboss encounter.

Ill take the similarity to a mod as a compliment as i try to make suggestions and logic that are feasible in the game engine. Not to mention several mechanics from the last couple updates were inspired by mods and one of the main devs was a literal former modder (hi @zarklord_klei )

 

[SecretPizzaMan]

2 hours ago, sudoku said:

I mean spiders slowly creep their way across the map if you dont deal with the dens. This would be a similar concept that gives players agency to dealing with hound waves.

Superwaves, wouldnt be like 3 lategame full fledged waves though. Each round would be mini version of waves, with maybe a mini boss at the end for round 3. This serves as a way for players to delay future waves. If you ignore the timer for the superwave and let them come to you it would function as a typical wave. (ill edit the post to make it clearer) I regret calling it a superwave, its more like a mini multiwave event/miniboss encounter.

Ill take the similarity to a mod as a compliment as i try to make suggestions and logic that are feasible in the game engine. Not to mention several mechanics from the last couple updates were inspired by mods and one of the main devs was a literal former modder (hi @zarklord_klei )

 

Except the spiders can be ignored and aren't a big nuisance. Hound waves are forced on you, especially now that you can't cheese them. 

I mostly don't like the spawning of the mounds. If they stayed contained in the dragonfly desert and didn't impact hound waves I would celebrate the possibility of hound mound renewability. But this isn't what you are suggesting.

And finally there's the problem that it will be very hard to balance. Too much and it is annoying. Too little and it doesn't matter. But I could be wrong and balancing this is a non issue.

[Well-met]

I think people would just prefer Varglets to be fleshed out as a fully new and interesting hound type and call it a day

[Owlrust]

Personally I'm happy with Varglets for now, but I do agree they could use a design overhaul to look more distinct. I imagine, being a mini version of a Varg, they would look similar to- but not quite the same as a Varg. Like a hound in the process of transforming into a Varg or something.

[MondayNight]

While interesting, OP proposal sounds like a Tower Defense - Battle Arena mini-game with dubious outcome and implications - while in theory may sound fun, probably in practice will add new hurdles, unwelcomed, tedious and cumulative ones on long-run.

[Mike23Ua]

I’d prefer we had more then just hound waves.. some new mob types, maybe a low health mini-boss like Varglet.. anything that breaks apart the “30 hounds just spawned after you”

Maybe Suspicious peepers come as a Wave, maybe Skittersquid, perhaps a wave of grumble bee? 

I feel like there’s a lot of fun to be had with a “Somethings coming to attack you every X amount of days..” type of gameplay mechanic-

Why limit it to just hounds?

Caves has Depth Worms.. Hamlet had Vampire Bats..

This would also open us up to getting resources easier.

Imagine a Slurtle Wave inside caves.. all that free Explosives that just come to you!

I would imagine that if you didn’t want to deal with a particular enemy type that you can turn them off for appearing in waves..

Thats where DST could REALLY use the most work, we can now toggle if Ice & Firehounds spawn in our Hound Waves..

But what we STILL Can’t do is toggle which Hunt Surprises might show up during a Hunt.. I’d like an option to toggle Ewecus off without having to also turn hunt surprises off please?

This is how hound waves or err just attack waves in general should be.

At the very least, Reskin Vampire bat waves into Suspicious Peepers and add it in as a different type of mob that can spawn during the attack wave.

[Cheggf]

How would you communicate all of this to the player? Seems like something that you need to go on the wiki to understand. If there's any sort of "do big fight so random fight stops coming" it should be in a simpler manner like making a shrine out of hound mound parts to spawn a boss or something. "Wait for a random amount of time then when you see a specific character quote figure out that you need to go to a specific part of the map then figure out where to go" is really clunky sounding.

[dubious little]

On 3/12/2022 at 3:39 AM, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

While interesting, OP proposal sounds like a Tower Defense - Battle Arena mini-game with dubious outcome and implications - while in theory may sound fun, probably in practice will add new hurdles, unwelcomed, tedious and cumulative ones on long-run.

dubious outcomes you say >:]