Would you like an insanity update?

[Garett Skott]

Sanity is one of the things that make DST a unique survival game and while it has many effects, it ultimately comes down to mostly fighting a few shadows once in a while. I'm not here to say this is "bAd gAmE dEsiGN!!1!" - I think it's fine as it is right now - but with the new recent shadow rifts, this could be right time to bring this signature mechanic further. 

Perhaps there could be more types of shadows, multiple stages of insanity, increased interactions with the environment or new post-rifts effects, who knows!

What do you think? Is insanity perfect as it is? Would you like it if it was updated? What would you add?

[Frosty_Mentos]

There's no need for insanity update as it already does it job well to keeping you busy with nightmares if you don't watch over that meter. Fighting big monsters and easily dealing with sanity is just showing that you can deal with that mechanic, it's only there to be trouble when you're in bigger battles as they can pass through other enemies acting as extra attackers. Nightmares might be underwhelming when you get to deal with them but they are really nasty in many other cases. They're also a there to test if you've prepared enough sanity restoring foods or items to be able to ignore any of them.

[Mike23Ua]

This is going to be probably the most bizarre thing you’ve ever heard of… but sure I’ll give it a shot.

Insanity in DS/DST is a pretty cool & unique mechanic, it allows some normally peaceful creatures to get a more sinister looking look and become less than peaceful.. an example would be Bunnymen turning into Beard Overlords.

This mechanic is Unique: because players who Are still Sane, do not see the same thing as a player who is going Insane.

But DS/DST has only a small handful of Insanity Mobs, or mobs that flip from peaceful to hostile based on how sane you are.

I want to bring up a few things that “could” easily be put into these insanity categories- Particularly the mobs that DO have Aggressive sides,

Such as Beefalo when they go into Heat or Bees when they turn red in spring, both of these already have animations to become hostile towards the player, so these of all the games mobs would be perfect candidates for low sanity creatures.

And that’s an area of the game that Klei doesn’t dabble too deep into.

Players who are sane see and experience one thing, while the ones who are insane are experiencing something completely different altogether.

Other mobs that have aggressive behaviors (if attacked or you play as a certain character) include Catcoons, SkitterSquid, & Pigmen.

Theres an untapped market of potential in that aspect of the game alone…

But I want to highlight one of the newer upcoming beta items, a spray that leaves plants “frozen in fear”

The game has an animation when the player is changing clothes at a Wardrobe where shadow hands will wrap themselves around the player, this would be interesting if at 0 sanity the hands could “grab” the player and hold them in place for a couple seconds, making things like running away from bosses or pursuing mobs/shadow creatures harder to do.

I also want to talk about a Shape-Shifting Shadow.. if anyone has ever played Zoo Tycoon the loading screen is a Shadow that transforms & morphs into multiple different zoo animals.

And that just seems like something DST should do, like even the games animated cinematics show shadows being far far more sneaky, slithery and sinister than they are in the game right now (watch the Wanda or Willow animated shorts) these things slither from object shadow to object shadow and can change shapes & sizes.

Yeah dst doesn’t have tree/object shadows YET, but my question is what if actual gameplay became more like Willow & Wanda’s Cinematic? 

Being “Insane” would be down right horrifying then, huh? 

[Swiyss]

I liked what they did with lunacy, it was a nice mechanic.

If they added an "over the threshold" second stage of sanity, it would be a hype update.

[arubaro]

I would love expanding insanity effects but i think that enlightement needs it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more

Has little impact before CC and nothing after it. Atleast when there was only the enlightement crown we needed to sacrifice the armor from the head slot but now we have the BS helmet and his many perks

[Golden Daemon]

I really wish insanity leaned more into being a difficulty meter that turns the game into hardmode through changing creatures and object behavior/traits (same as already existing interactions like rabbits turning into beardlings or obelisks going up or down) rather than just dropping a bunch of mobs onto you that "could" mess you up if you get unlucky but will probably just end up as fuel for your items.

Imagine if bosses or mobs had new moves and abilities accommodated by changed drops based on the player sanity!

Things like allowing for horror hound resurrection around insane players or even increasing tree guard spawn chance based on insanity seem like good examples for something like this (you are more likely to see insane stuff happen when you are insane).

i just want insanity to have more interactions with the world instead of just adding more shadow creatures.

[Ryusuta]

I think it would be interesting to have items/foods/weapons that function differently based on how sane you are.

[Cheggf]

No, sanity should not be changed. The shadows make fighting things much more dangerous, especially when multiple spawn, and even if you aren't fighting anything they still slow you down a lot when you're doing whatever else it is you're doing. I recently started playing the Uncompromising Mode mod, and that adds some new dangers to insanity. I personally think that those new dangers are very fun, but should stay as part of that mod and not become part of the base experience (unlike some other changes the mod makes).

[Mike23Ua]

49 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

No, sanity should not be changed. The shadows make fighting things much more dangerous, especially when multiple spawn, and even if you aren't fighting anything they still slow you down a lot when you're doing whatever else it is you're doing. I recently started playing the Uncompromising Mode mod, and that adds some new dangers to insanity. I personally think that those new dangers are very fun, but should stay as part of that mod and not become part of the base experience (unlike some other changes the mod makes).

Eh.. you say insanity shouldn’t be changed, meanwhile I’m playing a hilarious little RogueLite where my character has Dementia & sees & hears stuff that isn’t really even there.

DSTs insanity mobs ARE there though, and fighting them usually rewards you good loot to stay alive better with.

(Which is why some forum members say turning shadow monsters to lots more often is a buff to getting NMF, rather than a hard mode challenge)

But what if Insanity actually screwed with the player like it does in Rogue Legacy? What if we saw & heard things that weren’t actually there? What if insanity made us attack a rock or stationary tree thinking it’s a monster out to kill us?

sanity mechanics in DST have been mostly unchanged since their original inception, but what if we flip the script? What if we ask for something new? Something you’d probably find in a Dont Starve 2…

If I knew anything about game coding I’d make the player see hostile sea monsters, that end up just being SeaStacks they smash their rafts into LOL…

But because the mobs we see while at low sanity are REAL and provide us with useful resources when killed, cranking insanity up to 11 just gives players who are good at killing them more NMF.

RogueLegacy is a charming little game I’m glad I decided to buy while it was on sale, and once I get a feel for it I’m totally buying it’s more expensive sequel RogueLegacy 2..

Never in my life have I laughed as hard at trying to Dodge trap hazards & mobs that aren’t even there only to smack a chair or candlestick once I dare get close enough to it.

I feel like a lot of what made DS well uhh DS, has been sucked out of the franchise with DST.

Its hard to explain that but well Wagstaff in the original DS is a good example- if you picked him he had funny downside of bad eyesight, and when it comes to DST I feel like Klei would “destroy” that downside by giving him easy to craft magnifying glasses or something if he were ever made a playable character in DST.

Insanity in this game should be just as Over-The-Top as it is in RogueLegacy.

I wouldn’t mind fighting a Firehound only to later return to a sane status & realize I wasted weapon durability beating up a Boulder.

Of course not everyone is going to share my opinion, but I’m trying to express how it COULD be changed if it were to ever be over-hauled.

[Cheggf]

Sanity is already one of the most common causes of death, it doesn't need to be any harder. If there were more insanity dangers they'd have to be opt-in, such as them being part of Wanda's downside due to her backstory. They shouldn't just be some universal danger. 

[Mike23Ua]

33 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

Sanity is already one of the most common causes of death, it doesn't need to be any harder. If there were more insanity dangers they'd have to be opt-in, such as them being part of Wanda's downside due to her backstory. They shouldn't just be some universal danger. 

Or.. maybe they should? Even Minecraft is about to get an Actual Hardcore Mode soon, and ALOT of people are hyped about it, heck i have the preview build installed ready to beta test it myself.

Klei has to see & acknowledge that right?

I mean when they added the 40% reduced damage taken World toggle setting, players had to literally BEG for a 40% Increased damage toggle.

Klei has to be paying attention to this right?

It shouldn’t be something you opt into by only playing as Wanda.

Perhaps it’s time DST got its own Hardcore Mode? (not to be confused or affiliated with the Uncomp Mod.)

[gamehun20]

1 minute ago, Mike23Ua said:

Perhaps it’s time DST got its own Hardcore Mode?

Regular ds is hardcore mode you know the game where if you don't have a revive option you lose everything instead of waiting around as a ghost till the timer counts to 0 and regens the world

[arubaro]

20 minutes ago, gamehun20 said:

Regular ds is hardcore mode you know the game where if you don't have a revive option you lose everything instead of waiting around as a ghost till the timer counts to 0 and regens the world

And that is already added in dst. Dst since months has hardcore mode 

[ADM]

Does anyone remember that one random update where they made it so we couldn’t attack other players shadows unless we were insane ourself ? I liked that a lot for the day or two it was here and wished it would come back.

Anyway I would sure like more dangers out of insanity / lunacy especially if they’d be post rifts. We have so much control on it bc of BQ / Enlightened Crowns or the Bone Helm that I'd want a round two where we’re at risk again even with these.

[Y0sH]

I think a too much sanity penalty should be added to the game. For example, if you stay at max sanity for too long you start to very slowly gain enlightenment then lesser gestalts start to hit you and cause drowsiness and additional enlightenment until you're at about 50 or so enlightenment on top of full sanity and Greater gestalts begin to hit and damage you until you can lower your sanity.

[The Starver]

5 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

i have the preview build installed ready to beta test it myself.

Wait. Is it really in beta already?!

[Ryusuta]

6 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Sanity is already one of the most common causes of death, it doesn't need to be any harder. If there were more insanity dangers they'd have to be opt-in, such as them being part of Wanda's downside due to her backstory. They shouldn't just be some universal danger. 

Wait, it is? I would have figured darkness and weather-related issues would be the top causes of death.

[Ridley]

I just want to be able to turn off the color drain and insanity whispers.

[Maxil20]

6 hours ago, ADM said:

Does anyone remember that one random update where they made it so we couldn’t attack other players shadows unless we were insane ourself ? I liked that a lot for the day or two it was here and wished it would come back.

I never really liked that, personally. Even if the threshold for another player to hit the shadows was much higher (being below 50% sanity was sufficient to hit the shadows from another player), it still felt very cumbersome if you wanted to help someone out by either using the nightmare amulet or having to do sanity management, which is especially compounded by items that need high sanity and give strong sanity regen, like the the enlightened crown. I think it was neat lorewise, but gameplay wise it felt super clunky.

Regarding insanity, I don’t really have much to say about it. Lategame you have more than ample means to keep your sanity up, so if they wanted to do some changes I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but I also don’t have much to suggest on what they should change at the moment.

[Cheggf]

6 hours ago, Ryusuta said:

Wait, it is? I would have figured darkness and weather-related issues would be the top causes of death.

I don't know what the #1 cause of death is, but from what I've seen on Klei servers most of the time when someone dies it's to hunger, sanity, or darkness. Weather and certain things like tentacles are also up there, but not to the extent that hunger, sanity, and darkness are. Usually if it becomes a season that's dangerous most people leave, the few that stay just kind of AFK at base where the firepit keeps them safe, and people don't like joining during dangerous seasons, so there's not nearly as many opportunities for people to die to dangerous weather. Also, most people who die to Spring's weather die due to the insanity it causes, but that's still insanity killing them. 

[Uedo]

I'd support a sanity update - i'd like it if it were an overflow mechanic, if you stay too long past full sanity you transition to a harder form of insane post-shadow rift. 

[arubaro]

7 hours ago, Ryusuta said:

Wait, it is? I would have figured darkness and weather-related issues would be the top causes of death.

Noobs have a super hard time dealing with terrorbeaks and they didn't learn to recover sanity

[Ryusuta]

11 hours ago, Cheggf said:

I don't know what the #1 cause of death is, but from what I've seen on Klei servers most of the time when someone dies it's to hunger, sanity, or darkness. Weather and certain things like tentacles are also up there, but not to the extent that hunger, sanity, and darkness are. Usually if it becomes a season that's dangerous most people leave, the few that stay just kind of AFK at base where the firepit keeps them safe, and people don't like joining during dangerous seasons, so there's not nearly as many opportunities for people to die to dangerous weather. Also, most people who die to Spring's weather die due to the insanity it causes, but that's still insanity killing them. 

Huh. TIL!