Suggestion to boost "together" part of don't starve

[oxymoron86]

Bulletins board

1. Descriptions:

Allow players to build a new structure called "Bulletins board". This structure should be available with no research tier or at most science machine research tier. The new structure allow any players to create new tasks and pin it on board. Any other players could view the board and check on the available task, assign themselves to it and start working on the task. Details of how the task is implemented, how it is created, the limitations, rewards,... is up to the developers to work out.

 

2. Expected outcome:

Players will have a clear goal to work towards when at base. Promote cooperation, due to having clear assignment of who will prepare what. Mid-late game the board could switch on to more boss raid tasks and less on resources for surviving tasks. Proper boss fighting require preparations that often times is much easier to be done by a highly experience player soloing boss due to the amount of communication needed across the players (inexperience player will need guidance on how to prepare), the bulletins board with its task can help with this issue.

TL;DR: a quest board players can build and create quests for other players to pick up and help out around the base, clearly identifying everybody roles, help raiding boss / surviving

[ZombieDupe]

This sounds like putting a bandaid on a gaping hole of a problem, which has to do with lack of player awareness of what has already been complete and what still needs doing for progression if they do know what to do and new players being unable to learn the game usually without guidance or looking stuff up. I wouldn't take this approach at all, it would make the game more of a task-driven one, rather than a survival one with progression seamlessly mending in so the player has a much clearer understanding of goals, progress and how to aim to get there intuitively.

[oxymoron86]

When I join a long running server, after finding the base, I find it difficult to know whats going on, what still missing or needed. Often time because the original base creators is not online, I am playing with a bunch of new people like me. Sure I can open every chests and walk around the whole base to check what is missing, but often time it is such a hassle. Did we kill crab king? How bout pearl quest? Whats going on in the ruins? Wheres the island? If players utilizes the board it will act also as a history logs of what have been accomplished so me as a new player on the server can pick up what is left off, I can decide what my goal for this session is to help out the progression of the server. Am I a good player? Hell no, but a little bit of guidance here and there would help. The board can show me what the progression look like so I can be a better player. Expecting players to be good enough to know everything is a bit unreasonable, no?

Beside, the main use of the board is not even a history log. It is to create tasks that everyone can chip in and worth together, eg: boss raiding can be nicer if the board have info about what to prepare and such.

Refusing to provide help to the new and inexperienced players wanting to learn the game will be the death of the community.

Maybe I played oxygen not included too much, idk 

[ZombieDupe]

You can technically already do all that with signs, but people don't do it, clearly, if that's any indication of how much the board will be used in the first place. A better approach would be to indicate to all coming players of what has been accomplished if they know the game, like for example reading a map. Currently, you can also do that, but I have found some lag issues with the server itself when reading a map, so leaving some around is just asking for random lag spikes out of nowhere. And it's still an effort for people to get out of their way to craft one, many people don't even want to disclose anything to newcoming players because potential lack of skill will impede and destroy a lot that's been done, you don't want 10 newbies at a time, sitting at camp eating meatballs and being AFK the entire time.

If you want something done about that, that's a deeper design issue that would need major reassessment of the game-loop on the deverloper side in relation to player behavior and interaction as well as indicating to the player what to do and how seamlessly through the game itself (one example being showing keyboard hotkey controls of given actions when hovering over a given item in inventory/crafting menu section, the former is something that's done for controllers, but not on mouse and keyboard, strangely enough). As it currently stands, even if you want new players to learn and play the game together and have fun, there is no incentive for you to want to keep them around, because they will be a chore and a nuisance until they get better at the game. I do not see this board solving any of that, given we have tools to mimic that (maps and signs), and they are not used for it.

[Nightmaretribe]

I like the idea honestly it sounds like something that could be useful instead of having a workaround

[BonesJrOfficial]

Would be really cool to be able to place incomplete structures. That way they'd be placed where you want them, and people could visualize what needs to get done.