An attempt to break the game cycle

[layangan putus]

The main idea is to introduce more unpredictable obstacles for any experienced boss rushers and share a bit experience about clueless player. Both Ancient Fuelweaver (unseeded: day 6 by Guille) & Celestial Champion (unseeded: day 19 by Walik) should have never been easily encountered as solo in the first autumn which is the ideal season to do everything including finishing shadow/lunar progression due to stable weather. In public servers, usually a solo player defeats either AFW or CC in between spring or summer despite the latency condition which is acceptable. Mad respect to all speedrunners and veterans out there figuring things out and therefore I suggest some experimental ideas to break the cycle of the official DST progression:

 

RUINS

• Increase shark shadow spawn rate & add unique puzzle
• The puzzle is simple: get 3-4 key items from the chests there and put them in specific order to raise the floating bridge that leads to AG
• Players need to search every chests there to find these key items (each chest will be guarded by one damaged clockwork)
• After collecting all key items, players need to find the specific order to put the items (wrong order = spawn a shadow creature)
• Griefers can easily hide these key items to prevent you fighting AG, also potential drop the items into void
• Enjoy the best loot in the game
• The puzzle will force post-shadow rift ornery chests to be dealt with
• Potential mimicreep already disguising itself as these key items

 

MARSH

• Add giant mud crabs & terrain that slows you down
• The idea is to force players doing the interaction with the swamp in order to fix marble statues
• It will be dangerous to just walk and carry the head (movement speed reduce by 85% + 10% = 95%?); maybe need to tweak the movement penalty of carrying heavy objects to 60-70% and increase the penalty of the suggested marsh tiles to 25-35% (10% movement penalty is too low to counter 20% speed boost from a magiluminescence & 25% if you get cane from set piece or lazy explorer from AG)
• It will be harder to collect reeds for birdcage
• Players need beef to carry 9 heavy objects in total (need special interaction between the beef and the terrain)
• Beef will refuse to enter the biome in autumn? thus the marsh biome can be forced to regen inside the mainlands (not touching the edge); this is needed to let players ride beefalo from point A -> marsh -> B without getting blocked by the beef-marsh interaction
• Place a random special marble head at the middle of the marsh using 3x3 grass tiles to avoid the head piece getting drowned when the biome is flooded
• The zone is also guarded by several giant mud crabs
• The special head will force players to fight between T3 Knight/Bishop/Rook to obtain the shadow heart because only one of the shadow pieces has the heart
• A random shadow statue built by players will be possessed in new moon by a special shadow to indicate which shadow piece that needed to be killed last in order to obtain the shadow heart (this will prevent farming shadow heart using the boat method & offer more mini boss variety)
• Need shadow animation after killing T1 shadow piece that indicates absorption if it's not too much trouble (the shadow piece killed will burst into two shadows then absorbed by other two shadows; the second shadow piece killed will just burst into one shadow ball then absorbed by the last one)
• In winter, the marsh biome will freeze - similar like freezing ponds/pengull beds/frostjaw arena but bigger area (the giant mud crabs will hibernate unless provoked)
• In spring, the marsh biome will flood - similar like ocean (shallow) biome (awkward interaction if players or any creature stay on the swamp in between winter & spring, also weird for already built structures on top of the tiles)
• In summer, the marsh biome is similar like the current marsh biome and spawns more mosquitos
• There should be a new enemy that spawns in spring so players have reason to go back here once in a while other than the one time thing (glommer's statue and moonbase are some of the good natural structures)
• This annoying swamp will force players to choose between dealing with it or getting the reeds from monkey tails or lunar reeds
• Intended solution is to wait until proper season to get the special marble head
• Beneficial for: Wortox (teleport while carrying heavy object), Winona (telebrella), Walter (can benefit fighting T3 Shadow Knight?), characters that capable to deal with all marsh threats from far (then simply walk slowly to the center and walk with 95% penalty) & deal high enough damage to melt every T3 shadow pieces
• Problematic for: Wurt especially if all freezing marsh tiles in winter, maybe Wurt needs her unique own foundation to place structures on marsh biome

 

MOONSTONE FOREST

• Moonbase & mandrakes in one island separated from mainland
• Panflute is a strong tool against strong bosses: mainly DF but also BQ and Toad so remove the panflute at glommer's statue & change the recipe to require 10 reeds or more
• Separated moonbase will slow players down in finishing lunar progression
• More reason for players to obtain bootleg getaway especially if the players like to farm moon event
• Intended solution is to explore and find the moonbase or get a mandrake from Klaus if lucky
• Beneficial for: Wilson if somehow he has the material for Iri-Gem, Woodie (faster finding the island & capable figthing DF without panflute), Wortox (easier after map revealed)

 

These suggested complicated tasks never mean to burden the players with more task with extra steps but to give opportunity for players to really consider their options in a meaningful way. I do believe this game has so much potential to reach the new height of mental preparedness against the grim odds of survival. Player should be able to finish shadow/lunar progression without getting hand to outside information - not in handholding way but rather clear hints about what should be done to progress. Pearl's personal quotes are acceptable example in how the game can guide the player to progress something even if then they need to go back to get the material from mainland and keep spending enough time with Pearl and yada yada yada. In contrast with Iri-Gem which as following:

• You have explored the Archive & see a missing Iri-Gem on the pedestal;
• You have explored moonbase & realize something can be put there;
• You have explored ruins & already crafted Star Caller's Staff;
• You happen to try everything & manage to put the staff into the moonbase;
• You need to be there when full moon & protect the moonbase from waves of werepigs and hounds for 60 seconds;
• You survive for 60 seconds & get this new staff with the gem you know is needed for the pedestal;
• You are smart enough to use a Deconstruction Staff to the Moon Caller's Staff;
• Finally you get the gem and activate the Archive power system.

 

You know how I got to know about that gem for the first time? I'd been playing long enough around thousands days in this same public server and got lucky enough to meet this WX-78 that used the Moon Caller's Staff for 49 times within several in-game years before I happened to witness that beautiful gem fell to the floor from the deconstruction result and now I know how to get one. There was no Archive at that time so not sure how one would know about the gem existence (surely not me), but I get it that this gem was designed long ago. It is still a beautiful complex design but how about the game guides you more so:

• You have explored the Archive & see a missing Iri-Gem on the pedestal;

(you see a pedestal with three slots; one slot socketed with weird gem, two slots are not yet socketed, you see a weird gem on the floor near the pedestal, you take the gem like a hoarder you are then you *socket the gem* - now comes an idea you can socket this weird gem into the pedestal and it's still missing one more gem to be fully socketed)

• You have explored moonbase & realize something can be put there;

(*take out a pickaxe from the weird looking base*, you equip the pickaxe and happen to see your cursor says "mine" so you mine these statues and get weird rocks.. you notice your character says, "It's broken, maybe I can use these".. you realize there is similarity between moonrock and moonbase (color and name) so you use the moonrock to fix it then you try something else *put a spear into the moonbase* - your character says, "I don't think this is the right one." so now comes an idea to put the right thing into it; I personally thought the thing would release water or something.. it's just a weird base with a hole at the middle, should I expect something?

• You have explored ruins & already crafted Star Caller's Staff;

(some will always bring living logs if they are dark sword enjoyer but some will need to go back the their base to get the living logs from their chest but in the end they will craft this staff)

• You happen to try everything & manage to put the staff into the moonbase;

(I'd really wish there is a sign that blatantly says, "wait for full moon & be prepared!")

• You need to be there when full moon & protect the moonbase from waves of werepigs and hounds for 60 seconds;

(assuming your intuition is right about incoming waves of foes, a player will be surprised to see incoming waves of foes out of nowhere & prolly tank-hit few of the foes & moonbase is now broken so one needs to wait another 20 days (20 days x 8 mins/day = 160 mins); at this point, a player might come up with walls idea)

• You survive for 60 seconds & get this new staff with the gem you are looking for;

(you are prepared now and manage to finish the event, you see this glowing staff & quickly grab the staff.. you notice the gem are same with two gems in Archive but you are not sure how to take the gem apart from the staff)

• You are smart enough to use a Deconstruction Staff to the Moon Caller's Staff;

(try to guess what I did with the green gem I collected from Ruins and DF? I crafted Construction Amulet and created as many Thulecite Suits as I could & deconstruct them all to get more thulecites.. finally I crafted as many Thulecite Crowns and stored them inside chests for future needs so I just didn't think for a second what to use about the Deconstruction Staff except for duplicating thulecites and sometimes just sometimes for a panflute.. I never consider solving puzzles as a routine of surviving this life-or-death situation, hmm?)

• Finally you get the gem and activate the Archive power system.

(finally one would give up completely with the gem at the tip of the staff, even one could think to consume all of the staff charges to obtain the gem.. The worst possible scenario, people like me who would consume the charges only when needed so good luck passing 6 summers (70 days/1 year in-game x 8 mins/day x 6 summer = 3360 mins or 56 hours) and hopefully that guy already prepared life giving amulets for 6 years in-game)

 

The conclusion is players are expected to know things before hand - Otherwise, they will spend a very long time uncovering the map and being clueless all the time trying to figure out many suspicious things like who would know oasis will be filled with water in summer? Even then who would try fishing at oasis in summer? I did try fishing at the lava pond, got nothing but despair. You are thrown to the Constant without any cinematics telling you what's going on - You arrive at the portal and that's it. Nobody is expecting you as "maidenless" and "be the next lord or something" or "uncover the secret of the moon and the shadow" so if this is not important.. sure whatever you can't choose to forget stuff you already know but then what is the expected game cycle if everyone has sufficient knowledges? You can do whatever you want and prepare to suffer from constant dying until you get good? I think it's important to anticipate what players in general would do especially in early game so that's why I suggest those highly experimental ideas to break apart the game cycle to guide players in survival aspect and early exploration because everyone knows what to do the best and where to find something in short time. (just use google/wiki/guide) 

[Well-met]

random night events

[Beetrice]

I like the AG quest a bit. It gives a purpose to the ancient chest, which was only used for an ARG.  The moonstone being on a separate island is also interesting, especially because that island could have some cool applications as a base or an isolated place to set up a farm. I will say that giant mud crabs are a fun idea, but would be much better suited to the MUDDY biome. It would make just walking around for ruins aimlessly more interesting. Maybe they could attack like the bigger Crab King servants?