discussion A very controversial idea for making the game more accessible

[Mysterious box]

So this probably won't go over well but I think a good way to make dst more accessible would be to add a quickplay mode. A common issue dst faces is that don't starve together is a multiplayer game but it's content is designed like a single player one despite being balanced like a multiplayer one and this is a massive issue for a large amount of players who don't have a consistent friend group who is willing to commit to a single world. By the time your average player gets their base established they've already been playing for half an hour or multiple hours in some cases so they're either ready to throw in the towel or they're going to rush content without taking the proper time to enjoy it. But if they're playing alone and they do get the time to enjoy it they have to deal with the fact that the game isn't balanced around that sort of play. It isn't a big deal for veterans but it really harms the accessibility of the game and it's what lead to the power creep that skill trees introduce with their goal seeming to be giving you instant gratification in order to entice you to commit to a world.

I feel like a quickplay mode would be beneficial in encouraging newer and more casual players to spend more time engaging with content be it surviving harsher seasons, fighting bosses, exploring content they might not usually have time for like pearl and the archives, or just taking a breather to fish and farm. The end goal is to give them a condensed experience that can be enjoyed in a group in afew hours. While I don't have a fully concrete way of how to do this here are some suggestions I would implement for the "quickplay" mode.

 

• Seasons are shorters
• Boss respawn timers are dropped to 25% of of their original length (however seasonal bosses will still only spawn once per season)
• A basic base will already be established on spawn with things like crockpots, fridges, saplings, grass tuffs, berry bushes, and other basic base resources
• Tier 1 science and magic recipes will be fully unlocked on spawn
• Conditions to open the rifts will be loosened

[Frashaw27]

I think this could work, but as an alternate world setting. Sorta of like how light out has a few more individual changes beyond the basic "always night" this quick play option could have individual changes like wagstaff and the inviting hand both always appearing regardless of if you defeared the champ or fuelweaver. Even if I personally wouldn't use it much, it still sounds interesting.

[Juanasdf]

Halving pearl's task by half would be huge.

I'd definitely play on them for a quick boss rush, specially the rifts ones.

Also making rifts always open after enabling them? My main problem with rifts is waiting for stuff to happen (the 15 day spawn, then wait for crystals, then wait for ghestalts, then wait for bosses)

[Mysterious box]

18 minutes ago, Juanasdf said:

Halving pearl's task by half would be huge.

I'd definitely play on them for a quick boss rush, specially the rifts ones.

Also making rifts always open after enabling them? My main problem with rifts is waiting for stuff to happen (the 15 day spawn, then wait for crystals, then wait for ghestalts, then wait for bosses)

I'd be down for it actually my initial idea for lessening the rift conditions was to remove the pre quests for fighting the celestial champion and fuel weaver in a quickplay world but I figured it might be going too far so I just left it more vague but I feel like this would be a great compromise on the celestial front.

[BezKa]

Some of this can be achieved with settings, and we already have commands like c_goboating or something like that, so it's not that far off from implementing into the game. It should have a proper warning when enabling- as in, not intended experience, you should probably play the game normally a few times before trying this.

[Mike23Ua]

From my point of view you have characters with skill trees that are spawning out the spawn gate on Day 1 with Lunar/Shadow perks without ever needing to actually fight the associated Moon/Shadow Bosses.

The issue is that these “abilities” are intended to go hand in hand with “Rift Stuff” so it’s kinda weird that “Rift Stuff” only happens after spending hours doing a long RPG quest to reach that point.

I think Klei probably needs to consider re-structuring the entire game, especially when Skill Trees exist to go alongside that newer content.

But that’s just my personal stance on it.

[Echsrick]

the rushing is true, i was in a server where a group just defeated the moon boss before the first winter even, while the other half just....they just do what they do i guess...and i was out there building a secret base while the speedrunners dit there things

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

Seasons are shorters

So after giving this one some more thought I think for a quickplay mode seasons should probably last 8 days if it were a thing that way your getting about a season an hour greatly increasing the odds of them experiencing most of the seasons per play session. This could also expand to things like the moon cycle by making it so it fully cycles within those 8 days.

 

1 hour ago, BezKa said:

Some of this can be achieved with settings, and we already have commands like c_goboating or something like that, so it's not that far off from implementing into the game. It should have a proper warning when enabling- as in, not intended experience, you should probably play the game normally a few times before trying this.

Agreed since this isn't really intended to replace the default experience just give people a bite sized experience.

[Frashaw27]

Some other changes that I could see being implamented:
-World starts off with the max treeguard chance already from the get go
-Mactusks respawn faster, like 1 day, to compensate for the lack of time
-Spider dens grow a tier every 3 days
-biomes are generally half the size they usually are
-all rng drops get boost SIGNIFCANTLY ex: Goat Horns are 100% and Krampus Sacks are 100% guaranteed from Klaus

-Hound Waves always spawn on days of 4s, consistently

-Winter and Summer hit their peak temps 2 days in from their stats
-The eternal warepig will transfer between his spanw points as soon as the other despawns

[Kwaik]

Most of this is already doable  with game settings 

If anything take a page from OG DS and have a way to start a world with a handful of chest with a chunk of basic resources 

[gaymime]

4 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

.

additionally resources are automatically set to "lots" and the world generated is half-sized so it is not so disorienting to find places and see new biomes. from experience a lot of newbies struggle with world size

 

also spider dens should not grow that fast XD it turns into a big problem really quickly when you get overwhelmed with an unculled tier-three worth of spiders at dusk

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, Kwaik said:

Most of this is already doable  with game settings 

If anything take a page from OG DS and have a way to start a world with a handful of chest with a chunk of basic resources 

All of that is already doable in settings, including three starter chests full of resources.

What we really need is an ability to raise or lower mob and boss health and damage.

Something only mods currently do.

I enjoy being able to for example play a zombie game and set the amount of damage they do on a “Per zombie type setting”

Imagine being able to toggle only Depthworms so that they instantly kill you, without that also making all other mobs the same.

[grm9]

4 hours ago, Frashaw27 said:

-World starts off with the max treeguard chance already from the get go

ever green tree guard chance always stays same, only birch nut tree guard chance changes

[Evelo]

Oh, here I thought this was going to be a topic about accessibility. Guess not.

[gaymime]

40 minutes ago, Evelo said:

Oh, here I thought this was going to be a topic about accessibility. Guess not.

you know, i am pretty sure suggesting everyone be allowed to play on equel footing would be too controversial

[Mysterious box]

47 minutes ago, Evelo said:

Oh, here I thought this was going to be a topic about accessibility. Guess not.

I mean it is just probably not the kind you were thinking of.

 

8 minutes ago, gaymime said:

you know, i am pretty sure suggesting everyone be allowed to play on equel footing would be too controversial

Due to the nature of dst I'm not really sure how that'd work beyond implementing a god mode character which would likely cause issues in a multiplayer setting.

[grm9]

6 hours ago, Kwaik said:

If anything take a page from OG DS and have a way to start a world with a handful of chest with a chunk of basic resources 

that's a thing already, forest -> world generation -> spawn area -> plus

[gaymime]

1 hour ago, Mysterious box said:

I mean it is just probably not the kind you were thinking of.

 

Due to the nature of dst I'm not really sure how that'd work beyond implementing a god mode character which would likely cause issues in a multiplayer setting.

a lot of it would be stuff there are already mods for; geo-placement, colour-blind highlighting, making things like health and season day counters visible at all times, push notifications in the chat bar. klei has already done a lot so far(unique sounds for pick ups and settings to change how much damage you take from things, and turning off stuff like weather damage) to help disabled and novice players so it is within their ability and would over-all help players who need the help but are not savvy/able to download mods.

 

gonna be legit i revel in all the accessibility stuff, after my last surgery i had some really funky problems with my auditory comprehension and having push notifications to tell me when a hound attack started got really useful really fast; i am positive people who have hearing issues could benefit from being able to not play the game with such a disadvantage

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

a lot of it would be stuff there are already mods for; geo-placement, colour-blind highlighting, making things like health and season day counters visible at all times, push notifications in the chat bar. klei has already done a lot so far(unique sounds for pick ups and settings to change how much damage you take from things, and turning off stuff like weather damage) to help disabled and novice players so it is within their ability and would over-all help players who need the help but are not savvy/able to download mods.

 

gonna be legit i revel in all the accessibility stuff, after my last surgery i had some really funky problems with my auditory comprehension and having push notifications to tell me when a hound attack started got really useful really fast; i am positive people who have hearing issues could benefit from being able to not play the game with such a disadvantage

How would any of these be controversial though? I'd be shocked to find a single person who disagrees with these changes. 

 

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

settings to change how much damage you take from things, and turning off stuff like weather damage

Aren't these ones already in the settings? 

[gaymime]

14 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

How would any of these be controversial though? I'd be shocked to find a single person who disagrees with these changes. 

 

Aren't these ones already in the settings? 

yes, that is why i said these are things klei has already done

[Mysterious box]

5 minutes ago, gaymime said:

yes, that is why i said these are things klei has already done

my bad misread

[Mike23Ua]

7 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

Due to the nature of dst I'm not really sure how that'd work beyond implementing a god mode character which would likely cause issues in a multiplayer setting.

Oh.. you mean Wanda?  

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Oh.. you mean Wanda?  

I don't get it.

[SapoLover]

Make it free. That will make it infinitely accessible.

[Mike23Ua]

Wanda is God Mode..? Anyway, I think one of the biggest issues is & I'm going to sound like a broken record repeating this, is that- In a game full of options we really do need a whole heck of a lot more options.

What this means, for anyone who doesn’t keep up with any of the billions of posts I’ve made over the years is that there is currently in the settings a toggle to choose to take 40% Less, Default, or 40% More Damage from all Sources of Damage.

This is Klei taking the Lazy Route out- plain and simple…

Maybe I want to make bosses deal more damage, but have less health, without ALSO having to take more Damage from the games Weather Effects or my Starvation, or the other Random mob (like a Varglet in a hound wave) that may spawn WHILE I’m fighting that boss?

And no, we shouldn’t need mods to do that!

Furthermore- the “Late Game” Lunar Rifts & Shadow Rifts wouldn’t have to be so “Late Game” if the player could Increase or Decrease the Difficulty behind them.

for example: If you could individually pick what mobs can or can not spawn from a Lunar Rift- You can toggle on Grazzers & Brightshades, while leaving toggled off anything more Difficult than that like Armored Bearger or Undead Varg.

People tend to “think” I’m joking or just being annoying when I repeatedly say that the game would greatly benefit from having more options, or they say that “game already has too many options”

My answer to that, is Maybe I want to take 40% more damage from Winter & Summer weather, without getting randomly Oneshotted by a RockJaw while out on a boating trip?