How would you change combat as a whole, if you could?

[Owlrust]

I like the all the bosses and enemies in DST and one of the things I feel could be improved though is the combat. Fighting is either a matter of hitting and running away, or needing enough resources to outlast the boss (Crab King and Toadstool are notorious for this).

Making combat more skillful and intuitive would freshen up this game's bosses and encounters drastically. Movement abilities like dashes and dodges (based on character), certain special attacks with certain weapons (slashing for swords, slamming for clubs, thrusting for spears/javelins, etc), miscellaneous/magical abilities (based on character), and much more would make fighting more fun no matter which direction is taken. Overall putting more emphasis on skill instead of only being prepared enough.

What do you guys think? Would a combat rework be a nice addition? Any ideas of your own?

[Gashzer]

Pretty sure Klei took all of their ideas to improve dst combat and just made a new game Rotwood 

Which i'm definitely getting btw 

[user1464576869]

Sort of back and forth on wishing the targeting was removed and hitting was simply based on an atypical aiming, movement and position combo. The "targeting" mechanic is an interesting thing since it's so unique to play with, it does funny things to your movement options in a sort of restrictive way, but I also grow tired of that very thing.
 
I also wish there wasn't an equip slot for hands, but a scrollable equip-marker like Terraria and Minecraft. Making the belt static instead of a completely secondary struggle of puzzle-like disarray towards every interaction.

[. . .]

sprinting, shields + blocking + parrying, bow and arrow with manual aiming for proper ranged weapon, being able to attack while moving, attack action now being able to be bound to a key which forces the attack to happen even without a target, and slight aoe on weapons based on their size and type of attack animation.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

adding more weapons and tools with right click features like the trident or lazy explorer but i think the most important is to have enemies with interesting patterns and mechanics like CC, klaus, FW hamlet's scorpions or sw's dragoons

[Mike23Ua]

I want a boss that is a skeleton- each time you “kill” it it’s bones will collapse to the ground before resurrecting and resembling itself into a new form.

This boss does not have to be “end game levels hard..” I just want something that will RANDOMLY change phases throughout the course of the fight perhaps each form can have its own unique attack/dodge patterns?  

Crazy unique forms like I don’t know maybe a weaker bone version of existing game bosses + New ones like a gigantic Skeleton Crow or whatever..

[ArubaroBeefalo]

25 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I want a boss that is a skeleton- each time you “kill” it it’s bones will collapse to the ground before resurrecting and resembling itself into a new form.

This boss does not have to be “end game levels hard..” I just want something that will RANDOMLY change phases throughout the course of the fight perhaps each form can have its own unique attack/dodge patterns?

i really like this concept

[Mysterious box]

I would redesign ranged combat and how mobs and bosses interact with it personally. In some cases without even attempting a cheese setup some mobs just accept death if you simply stand alittle distance away from them their max aggro range with nothing between you or them they'll just do their battle cries in vain waiting for death

[Hornete]

Nothing, I do not think DST is a combat game and I would personally dislike seeing a focus on changing the core combat of the game when that that is not the focus.

However I would really like to see some more trap-type weapons. I think it's really fun making set-ups and taking out enemies that way, elephant cacti, anenemies and bramble traps are some of the most fun I've had in this game's combat. Trap-type weapons just feel more thematic to the game for me in general.

 

[astroapyr]

I would spice up combat by using the scientific and magical aspect of the game to upgrade existing weapons to have secondary effects like AoE, DPS (like poison or burning), crowd control and/or additional attack speed.

This could be balanced with moderate cooldowns and improvements not higher than 5% of their base stats like damage or attack speed so the game can be more than kiting without becoming a MOBA.

I'm basically describing a lesser form of The Forge, which I'm convinced klei already considered including but thought it was better not to.

Besides all this I wouldn't change much of the DST combat, not with the current roster that already allows you to have different approaches to combat and some items that could use some buffs or changes (like Tail o' Three Cats or Fire Darts to be more enjoyable to use) but at least are available to change how we fight.

[LitulLola]

6 hours ago, Cosheeta said:

Making the belt static instead of a completely secondary struggle of puzzle-like disarray towards every interaction.

Making the belt static would be a huge improvement for console players. As of right now to switch between your walking cane and weapon you have to stop your movement in the middle of kiting to do so which makes it impossible to do efficiently. Or they need to get item equip off our left hand, I really don't care how. But how would switching between weather pain, cane, ice staff etc work with a static system? I'm not versed in game mechanics lol

[Psychic Chicken]

I would change it so pressing the attack button on controller works exactly as the attack key on keyboard, and I would add an option for a force attack button for controller users. That's it, really.

[Cheggf]

I would not change combat, it's perfectly fine how it is right now and changing it would just mess stuff up. Combat can be engaging if the enemies are engaging, such as fighting groups of them or the boss fights like Bee Queen, Klaus, Ancient Fuelweaver, and Toadstool.

[Well-met]

3 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

I would not change combat, it's perfectly fine how it is right now and changing it would just mess stuff up. Combat can be engaging if the enemies are engaging, such as fighting groups of them or the boss fights like Bee Queen, Klaus, Ancient Fuelweaver, and Toadstool.

agreed with this.

I don't know any other game that does it exactly like DS/T so it's plenty unique enough.

 

[Nettalie]

I'd personally just like to see less of a focus on direct combat and more of a focus on setting up traps or dealing with dangerous situations in other ways than either fighting or running away.

Hell maybe even something that plays around with mob aggro/detection where you could draw advantages from staying hidden or preventing groups of mobs to aggro at you for taking out a single member.

[ALCRD]

I would make the attacks instant and being able to move while attacking also add special moves.

Something like melee combat in Stardew Valley minus the busted hitboxes and minus the OP food healing (that is way more OP than food healing in DST)

Don't know how that would work with bosses they would need more types attacks and even apply debuffs to be challenging tho but it doesn't matter there is no chance for such a thing anyways cause the game would literally had to be build ground up with that system in mind.

[Canis]

I disagree with the idea that intricate combat has no place in a game like DST, because interesting and complex combat mechanics make a fight feel more blood-pumping and action-packed than the rest of gameplay, as it arguably should be. With Don't Starve's origins, fighting was meant to be a last resort sure, but that's just not the game we play nowadays.

That being said, I have a few ideas floating around.

Dodging.
Kiting in DST feels repetitive, as it just devolves to "Hit X times, back up, repeat". If most mobs moved forward when they attack however, this would force players to use something else. That's where a new dodge mechanic would come in. Essentially, you could tap a key to move to the side, gaining I-Frames, at the cost of a cooldown period where your character catches their breath. (half a second dodge, 1 second CD). Certain characters would have different animations when dodging. Wilson, Wendy, Wicker, Walter, etc would throw themselves on the ground, while more physically apt characters like Wolfgang, Winona, and Wigfrid would stay on their feet, looking more like a graceful duck, but not to the point of a professional fighter.

What this does is essentially give everyone the teleport-kite ability that Wanda and Wortox have. Im debating with myself on if I'd want characters to suffer 2x damage vulnerability on their cooldown period, to de-incentivize spamming it. This would open up the ability for mobs to have more intricate attacks that require precise timing to face head-on. Sentient mobs could even try to fake an attack to bait you to dodge.

Weapon Type
Very simple. Some may argue that this is not needed at all, but I view it as a way to force variety into the meta. In short, there are three damage types: Slashing, Piercing, Bludgeoning (Yes, I play D&D.)

Most mobs will have a 50% damage resistance to one, take 150% damage from one, and take normal damage from one. Let's take Deerclops for example. They're big and meaty, so a bludgeoning weapon wouldn't be as effective. Piercing however would thrive with such a big target. As another example, a Clockwork Knight. Piercing and Slashing will barely scratch it, but it's metal would easily dent underneath a hammer. This is also an example for how special mobs could be resistant to two types instead of just one.

You may ask again "why do we need this?". Again, to force variety. The idea of "forcing" anything sounds rough, but people enjoy new things to look at. Lets take a look at possible weapons for Early Game alone.

Slashing: Axe, Machete
Piercing: Pickaxe, Spear
Bludgeoning: Hammer, Mallet

The first item in the order deals 26.67 damage and suffers increased durability use when used to hit things.
The second item in the order still has 26.67 base damage. However, if used against a creature that's vulnerable to it's damage type, it is multiplied by 150%, dealing 40.005 damage per hit.

I could go on about how elemental or shadow damage can be their own types, but im guessing only 20% of you have actually read this far regardless, so I'll cut myself off here.

[Guille6785]

my stance is that I don't think combat needs a rework (besides some bug fixes here and there kleiplsfixinconsistentattackspeedkthxbye), although I'm not opposed to change as long as it isn't counterproductive and actually makes the game more fun

minor encounters like pigs/spiders/bees/etc aren't supposed to be complex, they're just a short interaction with the world in order to get resources (the same way you chop a tree for logs or pick a sapling for twigs); I don't think these kinds of fights need to be any more complicated than that because most people don't want gathering silk to turn into some kind of minigame

when it comes to bosses, while I do think a couple bosses could benefits from slight improvements to be more fun, that is a problem with the bosses themselves and not the combat system; some bosses like fuelweaver/celestial champion/klaus do have a wide variety of attacks and a lot of depth to their fights which proves that the combat system can reward skillful play without being overwhelmingly complex, sometimes less is more

also parrying/rolling/crouching/dodging/dashing/etcetcetc are all arguably easier than kiting so frankly I don't get the desire for them, none of these would make combat more skillful nor add more depth, it would just replace hitting direction keys with hitting a button and absolutely nothing is improved

[Spep]

Boss reworks, so bee queen can be a bit less agonizing, toadstool actually is worth anything, and crab king can stop being the worst.

Maybe some more unique weapons like the weather pain but with a less agonizing recipe to build bosses around, more options for players means more options for enemy design.

 

Please god i dont want to kill any more moose goose free me from this hell

[h2mk]

give wickerbottom a mana bar where she uses her staff to attack

[minespatch]

Add a parrying system. 

[hhh2]

don't souls together.

[Warpspeed10]

More directional attacks that rely on positioning to dodge. The Scorpions from The Forge were great.

[extremyt]

Combat is fine as it is. I'd just fix the inconsistent attack speed and rework some of the bosses (Bee Queen, Crabking and Toadstool are not fun thank you).

[DVGMedia]

Game doesn't really need too much in combat
would like more interactable weapons though
rather than them just being more or less damage.
The forge already gave a example of how weapons can be adjusted.

And if the gorge changed how we do farming

Why not let a little bit of the forge inspire combat?