Should DST be harder? If so, in what aspects? If not, why?

[Lumine04]

I always find myself wanting more challenge or fear for and in some aspects of this game. For me, its sanity. As it stands, most people including me pay no mind to sanity as we do not care about going insane (its just extra nightmare fuel) cause we only have to fight the occasional shadow creature and sit through a mild headache. I would love to go into detail, but I want to here what you all think should be harder, if anything.

 

 

[Cheggf]

Whether or not the game itself gets harder I think there should be some more optional higher difficulty things. The new bosses they've been adding are doing that for combat, perhaps they could add new difficult to explore biomes for less combat oriented difficulty? Maybe a rainforest island that fluctuates between hot and wet with various dangers inside.

E: Or they could follow the precedent set by the enlightenment mechanic. While in this rainforest the wetness meter is replaced with a different looking one to try to signify that this wetness won't cool you down since it's so humid and stuffy. Might even make you hotter, or be more detrimental than normal wetness (anecdotally I don't mind being wet too much but humidity is unbearable). If it was normal wetness and normal heat at the same time it'd basically just be normal wetness or normal heat since they counteract each other.

[Lumine04]

10 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Whether or not the game itself gets harder I think there should be some more optional higher difficulty things. The new bosses they've been adding are doing that for combat, perhaps they could add new difficult to explore biomes for less combat oriented difficulty? Maybe a rainforest island that fluctuates between hot and wet with various dangers inside.

They should take notes from hamlet and put them in DST. I would love to explore temples full of traps, or super wet jungles that passivly add wetness even if its not raining plus hostile vegetation. Just some examples.

[Mike23Ua]

On the mobile version of Dont Starve/Shipwrecked there are world Gen settings that let you choose to play the game in more ways-

These settings include choosing if hunger can kill you or not.

Choosing if you can freeze to death in Winter (this allows noobs to experience and get familiar with the Winter content without the added stress of freezing)

you can ALSO choose to spawn into the world with reduced and damaged health core. (To obviously make things harder..)

Therefore I can say with absolute certainty that if enough time and love was put into world Gen toggles they could make the game as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

You’d be able to choose things like Does eating food items heal you? Yes/No/Random

How Fast Hunger/Sanity Drains.

Klei recently released a patch that lets players turn OFF Red/Blue Hounds during a Hound Wave but keep hound waves toggled on for players who still want to experience running from hounds, but don’t want to have their bases burned down by red ones.

The difficulty settings your all wanting are & always have been right in front of your face.

Sure maybe it’s not as in-depth as I’d like…

I’d like to be able to choose how fast Nightmare Creatures can Move, How Many Spawn, And if set to a particular setting: if those creatures have smarter A.I and targeting..

A simple change to how NIGHTMARE HANDS try to steal Campfire light allowing them to move about or change directions or even attempt to dodge the player standing on them would provide more challenge then just standing on the hand and running it away with a light in hand.

You can choose to toggle hunt surprises to happen more often/less often/ none at all so then why can’t I choose how often I encounter a hostile mob? (Plucking tumbleweeds has a small chance to spawn hostile mobs spider, bee, mosquito, frog..) this is a feature ALREADY in the game but it happens at such a low percentage that it’s never a real threat: Being able to adjust how often these kind of hostile encounters happen 0-100% would increase players odds of running into them.

Sure this is all stuff players on PC can make with mods and I’m pretty sure lots of cool mods have even been made- but if Klei wants to offer console players this kind of similar experience they can do so through world Gen toggles/settings if only they would give these settings the real potential they’re capable of.

[Lumine04]

5 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

On the mobile version of Dont Starve/Shipwrecked there are world Gen settings that let you choose to play the game in more ways-

These settings include choosing if hunger can kill you or not.

Choosing if you can freeze to death in Winter (this allows noobs to experience and get familiar with the Winter content without the added stress of freezing)

you can ALSO choose to spawn into the world with reduced and damaged health core. (To obviously make things harder..)

Therefore I can say with absolute certainty that if enough time and love was put into world Gen toggles they could make the game as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

You’d be able to choose things like Does eating food items heal you? Yes/No/Random

How Fast Hunger/Sanity Drains.

Klei recently released a patch that lets players turn OFF Red/Blue Hounds during a Hound Wave but keep hound waves toggled on for players who still want to experience running from hounds, but don’t want to have their bases burned down by red ones.

The difficulty settings your all wanting are & always have been right in front of your face.

Sure maybe it’s not as in-depth as I’d like…

I’d like to be able to choose how fast Nightmare Creatures can Move, How Many Spawn, And if set to a particular setting: if those creatures have smarter A.I and targeting..

A simple change to how NIGHTMARE HANDS try to steal Campfire light allowing them to move about or change directions or even attempt to dodge the player standing on them would provide more challenge then just standing on the hand and running it away with a light in hand.

You can choose to toggle hunt surprises to happen more often/less often/ none at all so then why can’t I choose how often I encounter a hostile mob? (Plucking tumbleweeds has a small chance to spawn hostile mobs spider, bee, mosquito, frog..) this is a feature ALREADY in the game but it happens at such a low percentage that it’s never a real threat: Being able to adjust how often these kind of hostile encounters happen 0-100% would increase players odds of running into them.

Sure this is all stuff players on PC can make with mods and I’m pretty sure lots of cool mods have even been made- but if Klei wants to offer console players this kind of similar experience they can do so through world Gen toggles/settings if only they would give these settings the real potential they’re capable of.

These are nifty settings that can and are used to tailor a world to your needs. I for one use these to put resources on more when I play with a full server. But these are toggles, not features. See although a good example, Im curious as to what aspects in the game need to be harder but I see what your getting at. 

Currently in DST, I never feel in danger and its a feeling I would love to experience.

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, Lumine04 said:

Currently in DST, I never feel in danger and its a feeling I would love to experience.

Build a boat, fully upgrade it and go sailing.. Do it on XBOX so you can’t zoom your map in or out, then when you encounter a RockJaw or smash into something you couldn’t see- let me know if you feel in danger then.

[Lumine04]

10 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Build a boat, fully upgrade it and go sailing.. Do it on XBOX so you can’t zoom your map in or out, then when you encounter a RockJaw or smash into something you couldn’t see- let me know if you feel in danger then.

Im insulted that you believe I have not played this game at its fullest, but then again...I cant really prove that (I play PS4).

Also been there done that, but I have a friend who plays Winona, and she always makes sure to pack some trusty tape on sailing expeditions so problem easily solved.

[Mysterious box]

I just feel like rather than a overall difficulty increase the world should be more proactive and alive.

[Lumine04]

Just now, Mysterious box said:

I just feel like rather than a overall difficulty increase the world should be more proactive and alive.

Alive in what way, cause I completely believe this too. The world feels dead sometimes, which admittedly might be its goal. However it could benefit from some mainland lush zones like in Hamlet.

[Mysterious box]

1 minute ago, Lumine04 said:

Alive in what way, cause I completely believe this too. The world feels dead sometimes, which admittedly might be its goal. However it could benefit from some mainland lush zones like in Hamlet.

For example I feel we should have more creatures both hostile and friendly that travel the land not even just to mess players.

[Mike23Ua]

7 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

For example I feel we should have more creatures both hostile and friendly that travel the land not even just to mess players.

To add to this, Klei’s animated shorts are highly misleading.. 

you can not catch Skittersquid while fishing, and they are peaceful unless you attack them first..

the trailer makes them look more exciting and fun then they actually are.

[Spino43]

10 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

To add to this, Klei’s animated shorts are highly misleading..

always have been.

[planetearth]

I wish the survival aspect was harder. But the game's since moved away from that. Like for example, as much as I love Reap What You Sow and it's a fun exciting mechanic, I wish you couldn't grow during winter. Winter's big gimmick was that food is scarce.

DST is fun with friends but I will stick to Don't Starve expansions for challenges I enjoy.

[SinancoTheBest]

6 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

To add to this, Klei’s animated shorts are highly misleading.. 

you can not catch Skittersquid while fishing, and they are peaceful unless you attack them first..

the trailer makes them look more exciting and fun then they actually are.

The exact situation depicted in the thumbnail can indeed happen actually, you can fish skittersquids. If you are fishing, caught a fish on your net but a skitteraquid comes along and eats the fish you're reeling in, now you'll be reeling in the skittersquid and as soon as you catch the squid on the boat it'll be aggressive and attack you.

[FourthLess]

7 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

you can ALSO choose to spawn into the world with reduced and damaged health core. (To obviously make things harder..)

That's not true btw, in mobile version all this setting does is reduces damage you take. New settings are there only to make the game easier. 

[Mike23Ua]

I just think being able to do things like disable all normal bees and replace them with the red hostile variants and increase the range at which the player can cause them to spawn- would go great lengths in increasing difficulty should the player choose to want to increase the difficulty.

[GelatinousCube]

I want Pigman raids badly. They rush into your base and eat everything they can, food in fridges, chests (that isn't wrapped) and iceboxes, drying meats on racks, any meals left in crockpots and berry bushes maybe even beeboxes with honey. 

They don't destroy any structures (not fences/walls) or attack other mobs unless the mobs (killer bees) attack them first. 

I don't want them smashing my base including fences but them stealing any food they can get and fighting you if you initiate combat. Could be the warrior type pigs that spawn from the totems.

Like hounds you'd hear oinking for a bit before the raid.

Would be super fun and encourage you to be more careful with your food. Walls/fences would be more useful too to keep them out of areas of your base.

[LiamAshvinn001]

MORE. SEASONAL. HAZARDS. 

[Mike23Ua]

I set Nightmare creatures to more-

And turned ON Year of the Carrat..

No your Eyes are not Deceiving you that is Indeed a Carrat that was in a Beefalos fur that once the frog rain killed the Beefalo the Carrat jumped off and begin eating all the frog legs and meat, what would have otherwise been a free meat factory- was ruined by a simple little Carrat stuffing his chops.

The game HAS these things already- now I’m just waiting for someone at Klei to realize what all the game is already doing- and cranking that up to 11.

I play on Xbox- So no mods are used here.

[lakhnish]

12 hours ago, Lumine04 said:

I always find myself wanting more challenge or fear for and in some aspects of this game.

If you want difficulty, do challenge runs, whether it be rushing the ruins, trying to rush a blank cookbook (surprisingly stressful), or rushing all the bosses.

These types of challenges have kept me occupied for almost 2 years now. 

Instead of adding difficulty, what I think the game truly needs is what we're actual going to get, content that adds to the story/lore of the game, inadvertently adding to the survival/adventure run of the game. 

[GelatinousCube]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

 

No your Eyes are not Deceiving you that is Indeed a Carrat that was in a Beefalos fur that once the frog rain killed the Beefalo the Carrat jumped off and begin eating all the frog legs and meat, what would have otherwise been a free meat factory- was ruined by a simple little Carrat stuffing his chops.

Are you sure that's what happened? Don't Carrats only eat veggies/seeds?

Aren't the bats munching the meat?

EDIT: Never mind I watched again more closely and it is the carrat! Didn't realise they eat meat! What an absolute cheeky little ****er!

 

[Nettalie]

I personally enjoy the game in general having a more chilled out baseline difficulty. However I can't deny that a lot of the game tends to get stale over time once all the general threats are known to the player, so I occasionally go for a challenge run, either through mods [which sadly aren't an option for console players], world settings or other self emposed stipulations/conditions.

Challenge runs in general are a nice way of spicing things up if you seek a bit of spice, though I also totally get if that kind of thing isn't your cup of tea and you prefer the game itself present some sort of challenging content in some way.
The game currently doesn't provide much in that sense besides raid bosses, the ruins or living only on the ocean [dear god], which is a bummer in my opinion.

As others said, some sort of hamlet like design with players seeking out difficulty on their own accord in some kind of biome for instance would really work well in my opinion. It's one of the few aspects of hamlet I wholeheartedly enjoy and would love to see influence content in dst. Now, that kind of thing can also go too far with the biome literally becomig inhabitable for building, but so long as it is possible without being too punishing I think it would work absolutely fine.

 

[Keller Max]

3 hours ago, LiamAshvinn001 said:

MORE. SEASONAL. HAZARDS. 

But not as destructive as wildfires

[Mysterious box]

The constant just feels too safe and tame sure you can seek out danger but it feels like people could rather easily tame the constant if they made a effort and didn't needlessly throw themselves into danger. I'm not saying it throw hell at you every 5 seconds but a world that apparently trying to kill you shouldn't be so polite.

[Mike23Ua]

2 hours ago, GelatinousCube said:

Are you sure that's what happened? Don't Carrats only eat veggies/seeds?

Nevermind I watched again more closely and it is the carrat! Didn't realise they eat meat! What an absolute cheeky little ****er!

 

Yeah it blew my mind when I saw it happening, he has a cute little animation while scarfing it down & everything, I NEVER experienced this during the actual Year of the Carrat event, and I probably played the game the most during that time.. I have no idea how I missed this during that time but it makes sense that something named “Rat” would run around eating all your food.