loopuleasa Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 Me and my gf invited a IRL friend we usually play boardgames with (Terraform Mars and others) to try this game out (he never played games like it, he's a chess dude and a cardgame dude), but was curious to try it and hang out because he kept hearing us talk about it We intentionally challenged ourselves to be "newbie-locked" on a pub (we can only be on the same screen as him, and always travel together) Seeing new players (even through videos on youtube) is super interesting to see from fresh eyes perspective You can only be a new player once after all Findings: - For new players the art style and vibe of the game is quite nice, and it is amplified a lot with good company and friends - Some people mind the cartoon style, some people despise it, he was just neutral about it - Game is mega overloading for a brand new player - The hardest issue he had was actually finding stuff inside his inventory "Where is my torch", "Why is my pickaxe moving in my inventory, I placed it here", unfamiliarity with icons. He hated how his tools don't go on slots 1,2,3,4 etc - He didn't understand well that the 3 slots to the right of inventory is actually the 3 zones where "what you have equipped" resides - At first my friend thought the left side panel (the quickcraft bars) was his inventory and kept clicking on them with no resulsts confused - He likes the skins in the game, and always lighted up when I offered to skin his new item with my sweeper - New players feel like something is wrong with them for being bad at the game, but it is normal the game is very hard at first, and we kept reassuring away his doubts - Once he realized he can search in the craft menu he only used the search function and ignored categories and such - Friend kept clicking to pickup items, never used space - He said "combat is impossible" when he tried F as default attack, but after suggesting to change to ALT for attack, it felt much more natural for him - He was never fast enough to notice night time or make torch - He was MEGA confused why he couldnt attack most of the time, and it took a lot of explaining and practice to say that for many attacks you have to have CTRL (force attack) key pressed. He hated that. - After playing around with us, he learned the importance of armor from us, and how to make meatballs with ice, and how hard everything hits in this game without armor, and how good tents are - He had issues cleaning up his inventory, didn't find it intuitive to pickup an item from inventory and place it on ground - He constantly kept underestimating mobs and fighting in this game, and was always weirded out why we are so scared of things (like frogs and dragonfly). Once he got hit once or twice he kinda understood, but not really. - He was impressed with the depth of stuff in the game, and how things interact, and all the cool flavors - He loved that beefalos pooped a "poop emoji" - He liked the pun humor that klei has all over the game - He burned my loot by mistake, and 3 berry bushes in base when he was freezing, we laughed about it, I cried about it, they laughed harder - We got to deerclops (and I intentionally died to give him the proper pub experience), and he managed to kill deerclops after it was weakened and proceed to die to shadows later. "That fight drained everything from me, god damn" he said as he felt exhausted. Made for a memorable heroic moment, as we were all dead as he finished the fight - He was raised in Canada and said "I never had winters in Canada this bad" - He likes how social the game feels - Was curious to learn more about what this game offers - Of course, the most important part for him was the fact that we spent time together joking around and playing - He had a lot of fun, wants to play it again Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
_mylilsunshine_ Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 15 minutes ago, loopuleasa said: - He was MEGA confused why he couldnt attack most of the time, and it took a lot of explaining and practice to say that for many attacks you have to have CTRL (force attack) key pressed. He hated that. i also hated having to hold ctrl to attack neutral/passive creatures, so i bind it to F instead (both attack and force attack). now i attack everything, including walls, wagstaff's doohickey machine when summoning moon champ, furnitures. etc. it's a different kind of annoying, but at least one i can get used to and doesn't have to twist my fingers for Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804659 Share on other sites More sharing options...
kikia Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 A very meaningful post Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804704 Share on other sites More sharing options...
loopuleasa Posted March 6, 2025 Author Share Posted March 6, 2025 We're playing later today too! Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804708 Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaymime Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 if it makes him feel better you can tell him i have been playing for 5 years and i STILL click to pick things up instead of using space x''D Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804709 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Hollow Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 That's wholesome. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804711 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunset_Liddel Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 24 minutes ago, gaymime said: if it makes him feel better you can tell him i have been playing for 5 years and i STILL click to pick things up instead of using space x''D i thought everyone did that too.. 4 hours ago, loopuleasa said: - He burned my loot by mistake, and 3 berry bushes in base when he was freezing, we laughed about it, I cried about it, they laughed harder i wont lie it sounds funny as hell i wonder who did he pick to main and also how he would react to moose goose Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804719 Share on other sites More sharing options...
loopuleasa Posted March 6, 2025 Author Share Posted March 6, 2025 5 minutes ago, Sunset_Liddel said: i thought everyone did that too.. i wont lie it sounds funny as hell i wonder who did he pick to main and also how he would react to moose goose Willow I was a bad father, I should've raised him better half the trees we ran through are now charcoal Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804721 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xu XiuHong Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 Your IRL friend is lucky. He has such a good friend, very patiently helping him adapt this game and find its fun. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804730 Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamboyant wolf Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 5 hours ago, _mylilsunshine_ said: i also hated having to hold ctrl to attack neutral/passive creatures, so i bind it to F instead (both attack and force attack). now i attack everything, including walls, wagstaff's doohickey machine when summoning moon champ, furnitures. etc. it's a different kind of annoying, but at least one i can get used to and doesn't have to twist my fingers for I use a mod that makes it so I can only force attack walls and such with mouse. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804731 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunset_Liddel Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 1 hour ago, loopuleasa said: Willow I was a bad father, I should've raised him better half the trees we ran through are now charcoal a fellow willow player how nice Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804732 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Safety Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 5 hours ago, loopuleasa said: - He burned my loot by mistake, and 3 berry bushes in base when he was freezing, we laughed about it, I cried about it, they laughed harder This reminds me of one of my earliest memories from being a new DST player. My friends and I were in base during our first autumn, and somehow the base caught fire (campfire too close to structures, lightning, rare late autumn fire hound, something like that), and so we all started panicking and running around, and soon realized there was nothing we could do. Over half of the base ended up burning and we were so defeated that I set fire to the other half and we all watched it burn. New player moments are so precious lol Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804734 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evelo Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 5 hours ago, loopuleasa said: Once he realized he can search in the craft menu he only used the search function and ignored categories and such My friend is this way. it's so aggravating to me but whatever works. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804737 Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaxckLl Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 3 hours ago, gaymime said: if it makes him feel better you can tell him i have been playing for 5 years and i STILL click to pick things up instead of using space x''D Can't use Space, might accidentally pick up flowers! Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804758 Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceShiki Posted March 6, 2025 Share Posted March 6, 2025 10 hours ago, _mylilsunshine_ said: i also hated having to hold ctrl to attack neutral/passive creatures, so i bind it to F instead (both attack and force attack). now i attack everything, including walls, wagstaff's doohickey machine when summoning moon champ, furnitures. etc. it's a different kind of annoying, but at least one i can get used to and doesn't have to twist my fingers for I do the same. It can be annoying at times to suddenly go after a butterfly while kiting a boss, but it's way more convenient than needing to use Ctrl + F for most stuff I wanna kill. 11 hours ago, loopuleasa said: Once he realized he can search in the craft menu he only used the search function and ignored categories and such Oh, I do this too. I loved the addition of the search bar. I remember being so lost with trying to find the right categories for the items I wanted to craft before they reworked that side menu. So once the searchbar was added, I completely ignored all categories and started just using search... It's a real blessing to have that. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804830 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi. Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 I remember when I was a new player I hated the inventory, I found it very clunky. I eventually got used to it tho. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804857 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrusst Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 With my new players I stepped away for five minutes and saw they made fencing swords when they saw there was a spear upgrade. I didn't know anything about this because I didn't bother to think about it. I really wish that slow attacking thing had some desirable combat property because its an easily discovered thing that's supposed to be an injoke, but its actively harmful to all but the most flint starved beginner, as when they started losing head on fights with stunlockable with an axe enemies I heard screaming. A third of the range bonus of a whip, or some other small but barely noticable upgrade like a small damage boost to make up for the slow attack speed would be nice. After all, the alchemy machine has the hambat and the morning star already, so its not like a small spear upgrade that trades speed/overall dps for kiting and per hit damage bonuses would be that imbalanced. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804862 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DegenerateFurry Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 This kind of supports what I was saying in my poll thread about the game being too hard to learn for new players. It sounds like, without your guidance, your friend would've had a much harder time figuring everything out, and it's not his fault because the game just doesn't give you enough information to learn any way other than tedious trial-and-error or having someone tell you. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804867 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrusst Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 I would adore a scrap book rework where you got a little info on the discovery popup instead of it just being like an annoying web banner all the time. That and like, if stats are in the scrap book, they should be below the flavor text in the crafting ui. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804868 Share on other sites More sharing options...
readkey Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 1 hour ago, DegenerateFurry said: This kind of supports what I was saying in my poll thread about the game being too hard to learn for new players. It sounds like, without your guidance, your friend would've had a much harder time figuring everything out, and it's not his fault because the game just doesn't give you enough information to learn any way other than tedious trial-and-error or having someone tell you. Initially that’s the point of Don’t Starve. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804901 Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaymime Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 1 minute ago, readkey said: Initially that’s the point of Don’t Starve. it might be the point but it also turns away a lot of potential new players before they ever get a chance Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804902 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrusst Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 Another thing that could probably help newbies a lot is just to make it easier to filter the crafting menu to just the important items for the current crafting station. (With the next crafting station, and vital self defense items at that tier taking precedence.) I feel like once you are at the prestihatitator your probably going to figure out to seek the next crafting station to progress system, but the prestihatitator specifically is a soft timed thing because ideally you have it down day 4 because if you wait till spring you will be stuck in a rat race for a while missing 2/3rds the tech tree. (Since a lot of my newbies will violently offended if you try and make them do something that seems permanent and damaging to something that seems to be a renewable resource.... Then two of them quit after repeat summoning the rabbit king while the survivors decided to remove the risk of rabbit burrows being near the base, but that's a whole different story.) Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804906 Share on other sites More sharing options...
_mylilsunshine_ Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 i feel like the definition and expectation of newbie is not universal. there's a difference between someone who's new to DST, and someone who's new/casual to gaming. if i have the knowledge of playing sandbox and competitive games that i have right now, i can jump in DST blind just fine. but if i were an elderly boomer getting into gaming to keep in touch with my nieces and nephews, DST might put me in a nursing home. it's hard to identify your demography and accomodate everyone. if the game is too easy and/or casual-friendly, hardcore players (sweats) will look down on the game. if it's too punishing and/or too steep of a learning curve, casual players will look away at it. a great video on this topic Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804917 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassielu Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 About two years ago, I invited a friend of mine to try this game for the first time. He got lost in a forest and couldn't find way back to base. I had to instruct him in voice to craft a compass and go pick him up. Similar things happened several times later, so I had to make a Ocuvigil on the base. I still don't understand how he did it... Playing this game for a long time will indeed have a big generation gap with new players. Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804921 Share on other sites More sharing options...
linabagel Posted March 7, 2025 Share Posted March 7, 2025 Best mod: Friend Link to comment https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/164679-played-with-a-completely-new-player-an-irl-friend-and-here-are-the-results/#findComment-1804945 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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