Late Game Structure Suggestion - The Rollback Machine

[cybers2001]

Alright guys, I already feel like this will be a controversial idea, but hear me out. An idea for a lategame structure, craftable with some sort of rare loot, called a Rollback machine. It would be crafted onto a fixed location, and can be activated, consuming nightmare fuel. I would say it should last up to 2 days with a full tank, but can be refueled. When a player dies while the structure is active, they have a button they can press to trigger a rollback to the point in time when the device was activated. You can deactivate/reactivate to reset the rollback point.

Considering the direction Klei has gone in normalizing high-difficulty boss battles, and trivialized the threat of death, this would be a huge QoL that would officially grant players an ability that has already more-or-less existed for a long time via console commands. Because this is a very late-game structure, it would rarely, if ever, exist in casual pub servers, so any group of players at that point should have some sort of solidarity over the use of this structure.

Thoughts?

[POOH_LY]

I mean, you can already do that with the roll-back option, up to 5 days. I don't think adding another structure that essentially does the same thing would be a great use of their time.

But we might get that in Wanda's skill tree, though. Who knows? That sounds like something fitting for her.

[cybers2001]

7 minutes ago, POOH_LY said:

I mean, you can already do that with the roll-back option, up to 5 days. I don't think adding another structure that essentially does the same thing would be a great use of their time.

Yes but that's exactly my point, to not have to do that. It's higher risk than admin rollback functionality, as you need to anticipate when you need to turn it on, but it also is more elegant of an option as it avoids the hassle of manually trigger save commands and accidental over-rollbacks. It also lets other players that isn't the server admin to enable it.

7 minutes ago, POOH_LY said:

But we might get that in Wanda's skill tree, though. Who knows? That sounds like something fitting for her.

Would be tolerable for Wanda to have it only because she's a strong fighter that also dies easily, but it would be sad that other fighters wouldn't have an option as well.

[grem6]

10 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

avoids the hassle of manually trigger save commands

you can just wait for the start of next day if you think that you'll fail

imo this seems pointless because rollback button exists, you already can enable rollback votes on dedicated servers and hosted servers would most likely just have the admin present

there also are endless pubs which do practically always reach late game and would end up having to deal with this thing's existence, and even on normal pubs you still could get to late game, i've killed warbot on pubs multiple times, and could've been even more if the servers hadn't just crashed before reaching 2nd autumn for bearger or if warbot just wouldn't have required bearger

recovering from mistakes is also already ultra cheap, red gems grow on trees, you get billion nightmare fuel from popping defenseless ickers, can get a life time supply of gold from just clearing ruins once, late game gear doesn't require any thing to repair other than brightshade/void kits, people already make farms for meat, tallbird eggs, bananas, leafy meat, stone fruits etc. all of which can get turned into healing, blue shrooms still grow, glommer still can come and die every night for goop and some characters have own healing e.g. wortox and wanda

Edited August 4, 2025 by grem6

[cybers2001]

2 minutes ago, grem6 said:

imo this seems pointless because rollback button exists, you already can enable rollback votes on dedicated servers and hosted servers would most likely just have the admin present

Buffing telelocator focus is pointless because c_gonext exists

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[grem6]

Just now, cybers2001 said:

Buffing telelocator focus is pointless because c_gonext exists

c_gonext is an admin only console command, rollback is an option in a menu that's available to everyone

then you could also read the rest of my message for why you could even avoid rolling back after failing fights

[cybers2001]

10 minutes ago, grem6 said:

recovering from mistakes is also already ultra cheap, red gems grow on trees, you get billion nightmare fuel from popping defenseless ickers, can get a life time supply of gold from just clearing ruins once, late game gear doesn't require any thing to repair other than brightshade/void kits, people already make farms for meat, tallbird eggs, bananas, leafy meat, stone fruits etc. all of which can get turned into healing, blue shrooms still grow, glommer still can come and die every night for goop and some characters have own healing e.g. wortox and wanda

Borderline apples and oranges. Life giving amulets don't restore lost resources. They don't fix your base if it burns down. They don't reset the warbot's legs if they land in a bad spot. They don't unsink your boat.

 

Regardless, I always hate this line of thinking. "X already exists, therefore we don't need Y." Doesn't say anything about whether Y might be a more engaging experience, or that maybe X shouldn't exist. It's like bundle wraps and icker preserves. If someone proposed icker preserves as an idea, someone else would say it's unnecessary because bundle wraps exist. Yet here we are with this new alternative that is way more fun and engaging than bundle wraps. Meanwhile, rollback commands are the most anti-don't starve feature that's existed in the game and it pains me.

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[Pet Rock]

I like this idea a lot since I play with rollbacks and feel like it trivializes the game a little too much sometimes. Some sort of middle ground would be great. How would the structure work in multiplayer? Could 1 player die and wipe everyone's progress for the last few days? I know easier ways to grief exist but it is something to consider.

Honestly even just a structure that could restore other destroyed structures in a radius somehow would be enough for me since most of my rollbacks are the result of wildfires or something that destroys a part of my base.

[grem6]

7 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Borderline apples and oranges. Life giving amulets don't restore lost resources. They don't fix your base if it burns down. They don't reset the warbot's legs if they land in a bad spot. They don't unsink your boat.

 

Regardless, I always hate this line of thinking. "X already exists, therefore we don't need Y." Doesn't say anything about whether Y might be a more engaging experience, or that maybe X shouldn't exist. It's like bundle wraps and icker preserves. If someone proposed icker preserves as an idea, someone else would say it's unnecessary because bundle wraps exist. Yet here we are with this new alternative that is way more fun and engaging than bundle wraps.

Your post was about

45 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

When a player dies

45 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

high-difficulty boss battles

, which's why i responded about recovering from them. And again, rollbacks already exist, feel free to use them. I'd understand requesting this sort of change for something competitive or unacceptable, but there isn't really any competition between players in late game and rollbacks are already somewhat accepted. Preserves differ from wraps more than "rollbacks but they look a bit more like a game mechanic and enable anyone on the server to annoy others with them by wasting their time" from "rollbacks".

For warbot legs, the fight's still very much winnable no matter their position. If you really want to you can straight up outheal the supernova.

Edited August 4, 2025 by grem6

[AuRuS]

43 minutes ago, POOH_LY said:

I mean, you can already do that with the roll-back option, up to 5 days. I don't think adding another structure that essentially does the same thing would be a great use of their time.

But we might get that in Wanda's skill tree, though. Who knows? That sounds like something fitting for her.

Since it’s already in the game it should absolutely not be something that consumes any considerate amount of time. 
 

 

that is unless the game is well maintained and coded so.. yeah

[cybers2001]

10 minutes ago, grem6 said:

Your post was about

, which's why i responded about recovering from them. And again, rollbacks already exist, feel free to use them. I'd understand requesting this sort of change for something competitive or unacceptable, but there isn't really any competition between players in late game and rollbacks are already somewhat accepted. Preserves differ from wraps more than "rollbacks but they look a bit more like a game mechanic and enable anyone on the server to annoy others with them by wasting their time" from "rollbacks".

For warbot legs, the fight's still very much winnable no matter their position. If you really want to you can straight up outheal the supernova.

Well, thanks for telling me that rollbacks exist, I guess. Very good contribution.

17 minutes ago, Pet Rock said:

I like this idea a lot since I play with rollbacks and feel like it trivializes the game a little too much sometimes. Some sort of middle ground would be great. How would the structure work in multiplayer? Could 1 player die and wipe everyone's progress for the last few days? I know easier ways to grief exist but it is something to consider.

I’d be curious to know if this is actually a thing that would concern players on pubs. I never play on those, myself, but griefing concerns always come up on these forums but they often end up just being blown out of proportion.  
  
I also considered that maybe it requires all players to be dead at the same time.

6 minutes ago, AuRuS said:

that is unless the game is well maintained and coded so.. yeah

Yeah, I have a feeling this would be way too much work to code into the game at this point

[grem6]

9 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Well, thanks for telling me that rollbacks exist, I guess. Very good contribution.

if you ignore the rest of my message

9 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Yeah, I have a feeling this would be way too much work to code into the game at this point

it wouldn't, you can just use TheNet:SendWorldRollbackRequestToServer() in code or console to make it do a roll back, there's nothing stopping them from just executing that code wherever

10 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

I’d be curious to know if this is actually a thing that would concern players on pubs.

it would, since people are way more likely to grief that way on accident or without ill intention and don't even have to be anywhere near you or your stuff, unlike burning everything with a torch

11 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

I also considered that maybe it requires all players to be dead at the same time.

it would be awkward to ask everyone to die if base burns down, at that point just do a rollback vote to get it done quicker

[Jakepeng99]

1 hour ago, cybers2001 said:

Alright guys, I already feel like this will be a controversial idea, but hear me out. An idea for a lategame structure, craftable with some sort of rare loot, called a Rollback machine. It would be crafted onto a fixed location, and can be activated, consuming nightmare fuel. I would say it should last up to 2 days with a full tank, but can be refueled. When a player dies while the structure is active, they have a button they can press to trigger a rollback to the point in time when the device was activated. You can deactivate/reactivate to reset the rollback point.

Considering the direction Klei has gone in normalizing high-difficulty boss battles, and trivialized the threat of death, this would be a huge QoL that would officially grant players an ability that has already more-or-less existed for a long time via console commands. Because this is a very late-game structure, it would rarely, if ever, exist in casual pub servers, so any group of players at that point should have some sort of solidarity over the use of this structure.

Thoughts?

Why use this when we can just rollback? Its not locked to consle commands its very easy and accessible to do.

Some noob could join your server and ruin it. 

But the idea is there but not worth.

[POOH_LY]

24 minutes ago, AuRuS said:

Since it’s already in the game it should absolutely not be something that consumes any considerate amount of time. 

Agreed. I mean, I don't mind a better roll-back button, but if I have to choose between new content or a better roll-back button, then prefer new content.

[Cruvimaster]

There could be a structure with the same function as the Touch Stone, but created by the player to place in the boss arena. Creating the structure would be expensive, but using it would be cheap (one "soul" (Nightmare Fuel) to reactivate it).

I would put a structure like this in Scion and AFW.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Cruvimaster

[cybers2001]

33 minutes ago, grem6 said:

if you ignore the rest of my message

You also ignored the part where I said that rollbacks as they exist today is very anti-Don't Starve. It's a terrible mechanic that trains dependency on it and was only meant to be used to counter griefing.

33 minutes ago, grem6 said:

it wouldn't, you can just use TheNet:SendWorldRollbackRequestToServer() in code or console to make it do a roll back, there's nothing stopping them from just executing that code wherever

Not really. That command only works in tandem with the built-in backup system that exists in the game. Probably the easiest way to do it with minimal code would be to have the structure force-trigger a save, and then have the game remember which save it was, and ensure it also persists until the structure is deactivated. Not sure if that would complicate the built-in backup/rollback system, though, as players could just toggle on/off a bunch to essentially wipe the history.

33 minutes ago, grem6 said:

it would, since people are way more likely to grief that way on accident or without ill intention and don't even have to be anywhere near you or your stuff, unlike burning everything with a torch

it would be awkward to ask everyone to die if base burns down, at that point just do a rollback vote to get it done quicker

Not really? Within the parameters I've established, you'd have to very much know what you're doing to trigger it, but if you do set it up, then it would be easy to trigger.

21 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Why use this when we can just rollback? Its not locked to consle commands its very easy and accessible to do.

Because that's bad gameplay and encourages noobish behavior

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[grem6]

5 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

You also ignored the part where I said that rollbacks as they exist today is very anti-Don't Starve and a terrible mechanic that trains dependency on it. It was only meant to be used to counter griefing.

i guess because you didn't say that

if you don't like them so much, why ask for another thing that does them? just to have the same thing but more intended looking?

5 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Not really. That command only works in tandem with the built-in backup system that exists in the game. Probably the easiest way to do it with minimal code would be to have the structure force-trigger a save, and then have the game remember which save it was, and ensure it also persists until the structure is deactivated. Not sure if that would complicate the built-in backup/rollback system, though, as players could just toggle on/off a bunch to essentially wipe the history.

what even is the point of avoiding using a system that already exists, given that the idea already implies reusing it? again, that line of code would work everywhere

7 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Not really? Within the parameters I've established, you'd have to very much know what you're doing to trigger it, but if you do set it up, then it would be easy to trigger.

what i meant was that people might actually have a reason to use it other than malice and that they might not think about harming others with it, unlike griefing by burning someone's base down which can't have any reason beyond malice, someone could be new and click on it, not realising that they'd waste progress of others, or someone could think that their situation was worth a rollback while others might not think that, resulting in wasted time + a conflict

[cybers2001]

35 minutes ago, grem6 said:

i guess because you didn't say that

Guess you know better than me, huh? Oh wait:

1 hour ago, cybers2001 said:

Meanwhile, rollback commands are the most anti-don't starve feature that's existed in the game and it pains me.

 

35 minutes ago, grem6 said:

if you don't like them so much, why ask for another thing that does them? just to have the same thing but more intended looking?

Because Klei insists that new arena bosses and things that fall from the sky and one-shot you and ever-present mobs that lurk around that can one-shot you are cool and that's the direction the game is going in from now on. Don't Starve has at its core been a game where you should survive with knowledge and preparation. A structure that you have to consciously opt in to utilizing for a limited time window follows this style. A "wups guess I died hehe c_rollback()" does not.

35 minutes ago, grem6 said:

what i meant was that people might actually have a reason to use it other than malice and that they might not think about harming others with it, unlike griefing by burning someone's base down which can't have any reason beyond malice, someone could be new and click on it, not realising that they'd waste progress of others, or someone could think that their situation was worth a rollback while others might not think that, resulting in wasted time + a conflict

Then I guess either:

A) they die within a day and minimal loss occurs or

B) it runs out of fuel and nothing happens

Why even bring up ignorance as a valid constraint when the game is well beyond the point where doing anything without the wiki is mostly futile, anyway?
Also, it's extremely easy to burn a base down for reasons beyond malice. All you have to do is use a star caller staff a little too close to some chests. You can even do it someplace relatively safe, then suddenly a bird drops a seed next to it or a tumbleweed rolls by. In fact, star callers are super griefable. Klei pls remove.

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[grem6]

54 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Guess you know better than me, huh? Oh wait:

You edited that message after i already started writing a reply.

54 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Because Klei insists that new arena bosses and things that fall from the sky and one-shot you and ever-present mobs that lurk around that can one-shot you are cool and that's the direction the game is going in from now on. Don't Starve has at its core been a game where you should survive with knowledge and preparation. A structure that you have to consciously opt in to utilizing for a limited time window follows this style. A "wups guess I died hehe c_rollback()" does not.

You also opt into using rollbacks. Plenty of people choose to play without them. There's also basically nothing that oneshots you unless you don't use armor.

54 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Then I guess either:

A) they die within a day and minimal loss occurs or

B) it runs out of fuel and nothing happens

Why even bring up ignorance as a valid constraint when the game is well beyond the point where doing anything without the wiki is mostly futile, anyway?
Also, it's extremely easy to burn a base down for reasons beyond malice. All you have to do is use a star caller staff a little too close to some chests. You can even do it someplace relatively safe, then suddenly a bird drops a seed next to it or a tumbleweed rolls by. In fact, star callers are super griefable. Klei pls remove.

There's a difference between getting to base, taking a star caller without asking, casting a star somewhere, having something start smoldering, having something start burning after that and proceeding to not do anything at all, not even tell to others or take a watering can and extinguish or just turn on a flingo... and dying to a brightshade near portal and then clicking on the button for becoming alive again. Wasting 15 mins of everyone's time is still annoying given high probability of it happening multiple times. Rebuilding a chest would very likely require less than 15 mins and only require 1 player to do something with that.

 

 

Anyway, my main point is that it would be annoying if 1 player could just do a multiple days rollback. People get annoyed even by less than a day long rollbacks even when there's a better reason than just dying. It'd need to require a vote for the rollback, and at that point it's just literally rollback but supposedly consuming nightmare fuel (which you get billions of from ickers).

Edited August 4, 2025 by grem6

[cybers2001]

32 minutes ago, grem6 said:

You also opt into using rollbacks. Plenty of people choose to play without them.

Welp, you can opt into using my structure, too, then? 

32 minutes ago, grem6 said:

There's also basically nothing that oneshots you unless you don't use armor.

We playing the same game? You run through the total darkness of the caves with armor? Do you just carry a lantern everywhere and leave your backpack at home or what? It doesn't matter, anyway. The idea is mostly for situations where you know you're walking into danger and want some added safeguards. There's been a significant uptick in things that just pop in and kill you added within the past year.

32 minutes ago, grem6 said:

There's a difference between getting to base, taking a star caller without asking, casting a star somewhere, having something start smoldering, having something start burning after that and proceeding to not do anything at all, not even tell to others or take a watering can and extinguish or just turn on a flingo... and dying to a brightshade near portal and then clicking on the button for becoming alive again. Wasting 15 mins of everyone's time is still annoying given high probability of it happening multiple times. Rebuilding a chest would very likely require less than 15 mins and only require 1 player to do something with that.

 

 

Anyway, my main point is that it would be annoying if 1 player could just do a multiple days rollback. People get annoyed even by less than a day long rollbacks even when there's a better reason than just dying. It'd need to require a vote for the rollback, and at that point it's just literally rollback but supposedly consuming nightmare fuel (which you get billions of from ickers).

You also completely missed my suggestion further up that requires everyone on the server to be dead to trigger the rollback. Or, if the rollback device existed on a separate system than the daily backups, you could rollback the rollback. There's so many options that can be explored. But I'm glad Klei doesn't seriously worry about griefing-paranoia nothingburgers anymore, and realizes they are mostly from people who only want to dump on ideas instead of offering compelling solutions.

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[grem6]

1 minute ago, cybers2001 said:

Welp, you can opt into using my structure, too, then? 

what's the point of adding it at that point?

1 minute ago, cybers2001 said:

We playing the same game? You run through the total darkness of the caves with armor? Do you just carry a lantern everywhere and leave your backpack at home or what? It doesn't matter, anyway. The idea is mostly for situations where you know you're walking into danger and want some added safeguards. There's been a significant uptick in things that just pop in and kill you added within the past year.

you can equip armor when you see something coming at you, in case of ickers you just see/hear them and walk back since i assume that's what you mean, i don't know why would you necessarily leave backpack if you're using it if you can just use head armor, or even hand armor since shield of terror is a thing

3 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

You also completely missed my suggestion further up that requires everyone on the server to be dead to trigger the rollback.

no, i responded to it

2 hours ago, grem6 said:

it would be awkward to ask everyone to die if base burns down, at that point just do a rollback vote to get it done quicker

4 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Or, if the rollback device existed on a separate system than the daily backups, you could rollback the rollback. But I'm glad Klei doesn't seriously worry about griefing-paranoia nothingburgers anymore, and realizes they are mostly from people who only want to dump on ideas instead of offering compelling solutions.

i'm genuinely concerned about my experience getting ruined by random rollbacks from people making that thing and undoing whatever i do so this sort of bad faith attempt to disregard the critique just hurts to see, rolling back the rb would still be a big annoyance for everyone with not very good hardware due to needing to go through a loading screen + rb vote + another loading screen

[cybers2001]

Quote

i'm genuinely concerned about my experience getting ruined by random rollbacks from people making that thing and undoing whatever i do so this sort of bad faith attempt to disregard the critique just hurts to see

You say this, but then you also say:

Quote

no, i responded to it

When you clearly still don't seem to indicate you've read at all what I said.

How is a player going to grief you by activating the device if it only works when both the griefer and you are dead at the same time?

Edited August 4, 2025 by cybers2001

[grem6]

8 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

You say this, but then you also say:

When you clearly still don't seem to indicate you've read at all what I said.

How is a player going to grief you by activating the device if it only works when both the griefer and you are dead at the same time?

I did read, the concern was with the assumption it'd work as originally described, if only 1 player's dead. If all players need to be dead then whatever, probably wouldn't mind it since it'd most likely basically never get used.

Or maybe a griefer could figure out a loop for spamming rollbacks and softlocking the entire server by getting people killed right after the rollback happens and doing a rollback again, infinitely, who knows. Although that would, admittedly, be very unlikely.

Edited August 4, 2025 by grem6

[cybers2001]

2 minutes ago, grem6 said:

I did read, the concern was with the assumption it'd work as originally described, if only 1 player's dead. If all players need to be dead then whatever, probably wouldn't mind it since it'd most likely basically never get used.

Or maybe a griefer could figure out a loop for spamming rollbacks and softlocking the entire server by getting people killed right after the rollback happens and doing a rollback again, infinitely, who knows.

You don't see how it's exceedingly frustrating to have a conversation this way?

[Well-met]

I fear for the direction this game is going