[suggestion] A package of suggestions: about pirates, Monkey Island, cannon

[dish-order man]

I have experienced the beta these days and found it interesting very much. I love some prefabs whose artistic style is very similar to that of Hamlet. Among them, the hermit crab and the four pillars they live on are my favorite.

Although this update is huge and surprising, there are still some details that I think need to be improved.

 

 

1. the frequency of pirate attacks and the positioning of Monkey Island

 

 

I want to combine these two issues into one because they affect each other. According to my experience, the frequency of pirate attacks in the beta is very high. When I opened a test server, there were 2 pirate waves in 8 days. This is obviously too frequent attacks, and there seems to be no “Start protection”. A friend told me that he met these monkey pirates on his first day at ocean.

After investigating the code, it is found that it is somewhat similar to the mechanism of wildfire. There is a countdown which is a random number [0, 1500s] (480s a day in the game). There is an uncertain probability of pirates after the countdown. However, there is a serious problem in this countdown: it will accelerate when it is close to the monkey queen. There are three areas named inner, mid and outer, and the distances from the queen are 300,600 and 800 respectively. The countdown speed in the inner area is 9 times, the mid area is 3 times and the outer area is 1 time. This will obviously lead to a too frequent pirate attack.

I think the interval of pirate waves should be longer, and there should be a certain number of days to protect them. For example, they will not appear in the first 40 days.

Linked to this problem is the location of Monkey Island. Since each pirate ship will accumulate 5 Curses for players, frequent attacks will make players turn into wonkey very quickly. For those players who do not want to turn into wonkey, they need to find Monkey Island to remove this curse. However, Monkey Island is usually at the edge of the map when the world is generated (personal experience). Players who are not good at navigation will unfortunately maintain wonkey for a long time in the middle or early stage of the game.

So I think there should be a way for players to find the location of Monkey Island 100%.

My suggestion is make the pirate map the same as the hermit's glass bottle. Reading the Pirate Map dropped by the pirate captain for the first time will enable players to directly get the location of Monkey Island.

This provides an opportunity for those players who do not want to become wonkey for a long time and spend tens of days drifting to find Monkey Island to change back to their original character.

 

 

2. time and qualification of Monkey Island’s right of passage

We all know that when a player is in curse, he can trade with the monkey queen to remove 4 curses and obtain a “right of passage”. When the certificate exists, all monkeys on the island will no longer take the initiative to attack the player. The duration is half a day (4min). Each transaction can only refresh the time. But in particular, when the player does not have a curse, the certificate will not be obtained, and the monkey will continue to attack the player.

 

I think this is a very weird setting. Imagine that a player killed the Queen's people. Why does the queen give a pass certificate to the murderer, but ordinary players who have not committed any crimes cannot obtain a pass certificate from the queen? It seems very unreasonable to make things difficult for a normal player, it should be murderer who is to be blamed.

 

My suggestions are:

• All players can obtain this “right_of_passage” by trading
• For players who are cursed, the passage time remains the same(4min).
• For players without curse, the passage time becomes longer and lasts for 2 days. "Monkey Island welcomes others to do business"

 

 

3. the pirate's bandana does not work on rudder

We all know that the three hats have their own functions. The final product polly Roger's hat can help players pick up items by creating a cute parrot. The captain's hat can reduce the collision damage to the boat. As an item used by sailors, the pirate's bandana will accelerate all operations on sails and anchors, that is, raising and lowering sails and raising anchors, but it does not accelerate the operation of rudder. So the direction turning speed of a boat will not be changed by wearing the sailor's hat. I think this is also a function that should be added.

 

 

I think it is the captain, not the sailors, who should control the course of a boat.

Therefore, the captain's hat should have the function of accelerating rudder.

Of course, if it's just for the convenience of writing code, it can be directly added to the sailor's hat. It also conforms to the setting.

 

 

4. there are four raw materials used in the recipe of two items

 

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I have the impression that a friend in this forum once said that "the design of more than 3 raw materials in the recipe is bloated". In fact, I also agree with this point of view. In this update, there are two recipe made with four raw materials. I don't think they should appear in DST, which is very abrupt and strange.

 

 

5. Cannon problem

 

In the last two days, I have observed some discussions about the cannon. It is a very cool concept, which is consistent with the theme of naval warfare during the Navigation time. However, there are some practical problems when the cannon entering the game: it is difficult to aim, it needs to be filled each fire, it can not store ammunition, it is difficult to find a suitable target, and so on.

I will make some suggestions on the conceptual design of the cannon, that is, upgrade the original cannon. The cannon in the beta exists as the most basic type, and the blueprint is obtained through trading with the queen. On its basis, the basic cannon can be upgraded through a series of kits. Each upgrade is aiming to solve the problems existing in the basic cannon type, which will improve the user’s experience. The required blueprints of upgraded kits can be dropped through trading with the queen or fighting with certain boss.

I think this is a very good design direction: a series of enhanced cannon are launched to optimize the problems of the basic type, but only one aspect is optimized each time. Therefore, in addition to some advantages of each type of cannon, most features are consistent with the basic type.

The following types of cannon are my free DIYs, which may not have high reference value or look like mod content.

 

 

Cannon has 4 upgrades

multi pipe cannon, the prototype is organ gun

Spoiler

The prototype is the organ gun or sometimes called volley gun, which was very popular in the 16th-17th century. It increases the attack area by combining multiple gun barrels.

The organ gun is upgraded through the "multi barrels kit", so that the barrel of the basic type cannon is divided into several barrels. The arrangement of the barrels in a whole row turns its aiming area into a whole fan-shaped area. This solves the problem that the aiming of the cannon lacks accuracy and is not easy to hit, but it will reduce the damage at the same time. In previous games, there were similar designs. I had an early impression of the S-shaped bullet in the game <Contra>:

 

Ammunition box: it uses fine granular gunpowder different from the original cannon to achieve the goal of canister. The whole cannon body has a powder box which have a scale to indicate the ammunition stock. Each attack consumes all the ammunition in the powder box and the damage is determined by the number of ammunition. It is better to control the damage at around 50. In this way, two rounds can solve 100 hp creatures.

continuous firing machine gun, the prototype is Gatling

Spoiler

The prototype is the Gatling machine gun, which can achieve the effect of fire suppression by long-time shooting at the target area. The picture shows Schwarzenegger holding it in the film < Terminator >.

Upgrade the cannon through "Gatling kit", so that the gun barrel of cannon becomes a round multi barrel like Gatling. Right click to start firing. Right click again to stop firing. When firing, it can continue to attack the target area, and the damage would be settlement every second or half a second. This solves the problem that the cannon can only fire ammunition once at a time, which requires repeated filling ammunition and firing. However, the creature hit by it should have rigid protection, and teammates may also be attacked.

Ammunition box: the Gatling cannon has long strip shaped powder boxes, each of which can provide 10-15s firing time of the Gatling cannon. This Gatling cannon should have the lowest damage because it has the highest attack frequency. I think maybe 34 or 27 would be better.

self-aiming heavy artillery, the prototype is a sniper gun

Spoiler

The prototype is a sniper gun. It was first used by Austro Hungarian Empire during World War I. This high-precision gun placed on the ground is used to target enemy machine gun fire points.

The "sniper gun kit" is used to upgrade the cannon and broaden the pipe diameter of the cannon. It exists to solve the aiming problem of the cannon. The player must right-click to select a target within the range through its sight to shoot. Each attack becomes a single damage, but the damage becomes higher.

Ammunition box: this cannon uses the same method of placing cannonballs as the basic type of cannon. It must be loaded once for each attack, but the cannonball will be larger and cause higher damage.

magic tower type cannon, the prototype is crab king

Spoiler

The “magic core kit” is used to upgrade the cannon to magic cannon. The magic core is the drop of crab king. As it directly inherits the magic ability from the crab king, its ammunition will be made of gems as raw materials, so that the magic cannon can obtain the ability of magic attack. The effect of ammunition depends on the type of gems. The effect of artillery ammunition I have come up with is following:

In general, there are 4 types of cannon upgraded:

 

The organ gun has a unique ammunition box and ammunition. It displays the remaining ammunition in the form of percentage of the Dial gauge. The damage is determined by the ammunition stock. The fan attack consumes all ammunition for each attack.

Gatling has a unique ammunition box and ammunition, and displays the remaining ammunition in the form of percentage of the Dial gauge. Gatling's continuous firing time is determined by the ammunition stock, and each damage value is fixed.

The sniper gun does not have a unique ammunition box, but has its own ammunition. The use method is the same as the basic type of cannon. Only the aiming system is added, and the damage target is changed to a single target.

The magic tower has no unique ammunition box, but has its own ammunition. It is used in the same way as the basic type of cannon, and only increases the additional effect of ammunition.

 

Finally, let me say something else. I always think that the world upgrade and equipment upgrade iteration is a very cool design concept. Several sets of sails have made some attempts.

I think the cannon is a very good experiment to implement this design concept. The shortcomings of the basic cannon are very obvious, so we can avoid these problems by specialization in some aspects. Its design concept is like a Zerg Swarm. The newly born larvae have no division of labor. Later, in order to cope with their work, they evolved (or specialized) into a variety with great advantages in some aspects. This can be called a "technology tree".

Welcome to discuss

[Hornete]

I thought the frequency of pirate raids are good where they are now personally, I feel I don't encounter them enough actually. I would be a bit saddened to see them lessened and blocked off from the first 40 days, especially when currently they're the best indicator of where the island is as they only happen in radii around the queen.

I wouldn't mind the raids themselves being less powerful though, a few of my friends ARE having quite a lot of trouble trying to handle the Prime Mate(who did get buffed from 34 damage to 51 damage due to the battle paddle itself being damaged) and the large amount of powder monkies. I do not personally mind the strength of the raids currently however.

[dish-order man]

5 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I thought the frequency of pirate raids are good where they are now personally, I feel I don't encounter them enough actually. I would be a bit saddened to see them lessened and blocked off from the first 40 days, especially when currently they're the best indicator of where the island is as they only happen in radii around the queen.

I wouldn't mind the raids themselves being less powerful though, a few of my friends ARE having quite a lot of trouble trying to handle the Prime Mate(who did get buffed from 34 damage to 51 damage due to the battle paddle itself being damaged) and the large amount of powder monkies. I do not personally mind the strength of the raids currently however.

actually, a friend of mine met two waves of pirate in a day when battle with crab king because it is very close to the queen

he become very angry at that time

 

 

EDIT:

and this is the 800 range look like in the game. almost 25% area of the whole world.  the map is 425X425. we all think it is too large

[Hornete]

Just now, dish-order man said:

actually, a friend of mine met two waves of pirate in a day when battle with crab king because it is very close to the queen

Maybe a minimum cooldown period before another raid would be helpful.

[Just-guy]

2 minutes ago, Hornete said:

I wouldn't mind the raids themselves being less powerful though, a few of my friends ARE having quite a lot of trouble trying to handle the Prime Mate(who did get buffed from 34 damage to 51 damage due to the battle paddle itself being damaged) and the large amount of powder monkies. I do not personally mind the strength of the raids currently however.

What if, like Hound Waves, it increases the amount of Powmonkeys on a Pirate Boat the more days are in a world.

[dzzydzzy]

11 minutes ago, Just-guy said:

What if, like Hound Waves, it increases the amount of Powmonkeys on a Pirate Boat the more days are in a world.

I like that idea, right now its tricky to handle the whole crew if you're playing solo and inexperienced. My first time i actually had other people on the boat with me and between the two of us we were able to make quick work of the monks, but due to the limitation of boat size, it's actually quite difficult to kite especially once you're dealing with em 4 at a time.

[leo920101]

dealing with these monkeys feels kind of like dealing with wild fire, which will eventually catch you off guard and beat you for good.

as reeds and cactus will now regenerate, wild fire seems less of a threat, but pirate still do irreversible damage to you water base, what they tear down can not be rebuild at the same place, cause the boat has already moved, everything won't match up.

until it get nerfed, let's call them "wild fire of the sea" and turn them off in the worldgen menu.

[Snugrugbug]

5 hours ago, dish-order man said:

4. there are four raw materials used in the recipe of two items

 

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I have the impression that a friend in this forum once said that "the design of more than 3 raw materials in the recipe is bloated". In fact, I also agree with this point of view. In this update, there are two recipe made with four raw materials. I don't think they should appear in DST, which is very abrupt and strange.

I think this is actually one of the reasons for the crafting UI rework, so they could make recipes with 4 raw materials without making the item icons go off the crafting UI.

[Hornete]

ok there absolutely needs to be a cooldown minimum period.
me and my friend go through a grueling raid, and then less than a day later another raid happens and we are in no position to fight.

I also just learned they destroy chests, sob.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

33 minutes ago, Hornete said:

ok there absolutely needs to be a cooldown minimum period.
me and my friend go through a grueling raid, and then less than a day later another raid happens and we are in no position to fight.

I also just learned they destroy chests, sob.

i got a raid and while i was picking the loot and organizing the mess of the boat, another raid came which resulted on me died and my krampus sack despawning with the 1st raid boat xD

mental note, dont bring bone armor to the sea anymore

[lakhnish]

We should also be able to keep their boats if we beat all the pirates.

The boats will despawn if it's far enough away and delete anything that was left on the boat. @ArubaroBeefalolost their Krampus Sack that way.

I think the Prime Mate also attacks a bit too quickly given the battle oar buff.

I don't really want to half to carry around Panflutes/Ice Staves to effectively deal with the raids.

7 hours ago, dish-order man said:

and this is the 800 range look like in the game. almost 25% area of the whole world.  the map is 425X425. we all think it is too large

Damn, that's way too big.  I don't look forward to a raid happening during PCK, it's already bad as is :<

[Hornete]

13 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

i got a raid and while i was picking the loot and organizing the mess of the boat, another raid came which resulted on me died and my krampus sack despawning with the 1st raid boat xD

Me and my friend as ghosts 'depawned' on the pirate boat which happened in front of our eyes, and because the game doesnt really know what to do, it spawned us at our last saves and put us at the florid postern, lol.

Currently quite literally anything on the boat is stolen when it despawns, I've heard of people getting grass gators when digging up the stash and what probably happened is the gator was somehow on the raid boat when it despawned.

could also get a tier 3 shadow knight on a despawning pirate boat theoretically and come across it again when you dig up a stash, now wouldn't that be a funny prank to pull on someone.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

2 hours ago, Hornete said:

also just learned they destroy chests, sob.

not only regular and scaled chests but also sunken chest even if they are attached to the pinch winch :_ glad my krampus sack disappeared with the abbandoned monkey boat (i didnt got it in the X mark, maybe cuz i read the map before loosing it(?)) so i had the excuse to rollback and save the sunked chest for decoration xD

[dish-order man]

14 hours ago, Hornete said:

Me and my friend as ghosts 'depawned' on the pirate boat which happened in front of our eyes, and because the game doesnt really know what to do, it spawned us at our last saves and put us at the florid postern, lol.

that is a really bad bug. My friends also went through this process and their ghosts were moved to the gate location.

I don't seem to see a similar thread in the bug tracker? Worth reporting

 

Edit: this is the video that a player ghost been removed and along with some important items like eyebone, etc.

[IceTime]

I agree with you that players are looking for new islands. I hope it is more convenient to find the island. For example, the first treasure site is fixed on Monkey Island

As for the second point, I think this new island is the headquarters of pirates. When you land on their territory, it will naturally trigger a battle, kill the monkeys on the island, and then exchange a pass with the monkey queen. This reflects the evil of pirates. The pirates in movies and novels are all like this, full of evil

I think the fourth and fifth proposals are very interesting and very good