Humble Ideas & Suggestions from a Don't Starve Lover by GenHavok

[GenHavok]

Update: Added items not found on my 1st post on Page1

--- Suggestions ----

Using Manure on Farms : When you use manure on a farm plot instead of always making it grow at random one might stay small even when you put in the manure.If you keep feeding it manure you get the chance of making a giant sized version of the crop grow. Its a gamble though because there is only a % chance that it will grow giant sized.

----New Special Enemy types ----

Small Foot - hH is a sasquash that must of not grown to full height because of his lack of berries and honey.He appears during sunset to try to steal honey from any near by source. He only appears in wooded areas since he is shy since he is a Sasquash of small height. However what he lacks in height,he makes up for his large apatite for honey and meat. He is pretty harmless unless you try to shoo him away from honey once he is eating.Then you better run for your life because he will chase you until you are far enough away from the honey he was eating.He will not stop eating the honey until there is none left in the hive or bee box.

Jersey Devil - This crafty guy is not a myth or legend anymore.He is a pain in the butt truly to no end.He has a taste for tall bird eggs and fresh veggies.Despite the myth Jersey Devils are vegetarians but have a liking of eggs.Being a shy creature he will not show himself while your around and will wait for when you are a safe distance away to go after whichever food source for the day he is targeting.He only eats one type of food each day so trying to figure out which one he is after can be tricky.The only time he makes a sound is just before he swoops down on his prey but if you listen carefully enough you can hear the sound of him salivating the further you get away from the food source he is after.

Best way to stop him from eating something you wish to protect is to stay near it,only other way is to set traps around which ever food source he has after. He only needs to feed on the day preceding a full moon so make sure your ready for him.Also unlike what you would think he is not alone.Beware if you manage to corner the Jersey Devil,though shy a Jersey Devil will turn ferocious and attack you at full force to get away until you get far enough away from where ever it is trying to flee to.

Cubacawbra: This crazy looking creature with its razor sharp claws and vampire fangs can look quite unsightly to the eyes.Though it is equipped with a arsenal of natural weapons it seeks only two things, baby tall birds and beefalo.Now a Beefalo can handle its own when its with the herd or alone against it.However if the Cubacawbra keeps attacking the same beefalo every night that Beefalo will slowly but surely get weak to the point its hair falls off.If that weakened Beefalo is attacked a few more times in its malnourished state it will die. Only way to reverse the effect is to feed the Beefalo yourself some nutrient rice fruit and seeds,to put it in a holding pin to protect it,or kill the Cubacawbra to allow the Beefalo to heal on its own.

The other items a Cubacawbra likes (or should I say loves) are baby tall birds and jackelops. Unlike the big size of a Beefalo neither of these can protect themselves quite well so your going to have protect your baby tall birds by either putting them in a holding pin,protect them yourself in any way you can,or kill the Cubacawbra.This keeping your baby tall birds safe until the next time a Cubacawbra spawns. The Cubacawbra makes no nose at all,the only way you will know one is around is if you see it feeding or spot it fleeing or heading toward its prey.Unlike the Jersey devil these spawn during the day or night of a New Moon.If they spawn at night you will know your seeing one from the red glowing eyes they have.

------ New Craft & Gather items -------

from rocks or naturally found in arid areas.

Sun Dry Box - used to dry things,veggies,meats,grass,etc

Smoke Box - used to smoke veggies and or meats for preservation

Cook Book - used to remember the recipes you learn as you discover them.

Holding Pin-made using lumber,grass or rope.Primary use is to keep tamed beefalo from wondering off.However if you do not keep the Beefalo tamed,or they can come under attack they can break out and tamed beefalo will follow the ones that became untamed out to freedom. Achievable if you use stone walls to enclose them,if only we had a gate/door we could use......

Hay- Made by drying grass in the Sun Dry box.This serves two different purposes one to tame beefalo and to keep them feed which keeps them tamed.They need to be feed daily otherwise they will being to become untamed and even hostile toward you.

Seasonings : Made out of dried veggies dried in the sun dry box. They help to preserve raw or cooked meat help preserve it or even make something edible.Only certain types of veggies would be able to be sun dried and combined into seasoning.Seasoned cooked food also adds additional + sanity compared to their non seasoned counterpart.

Salt : Pretty much main use would be to preserve raw meat and veggies but unlike seasons cannot be made. Must be mined

----New World Gen Biomes -----

Desert- This would be the location to which you would find a area that has salt flats that you can dig or pick for to get raw salt that can be used for preserving raw or cooked meat and for other uses.

Creatures found here:Scorpions,giant "Spice" worms,"tremors"(which would serve the purpose as baby spice worms),Vultures,and scarab beetles would roam these sands.

Food sources: Various dried veggies and fruits that can grow on flora that can survive these hot sands.

Flora: Various Don't starve versions of real life flora that can grow with a few with a dark demon twist.Some say the flora have eyes in this biome and can talk to each other through the sands.

----Additional Game Mechanics -------

Food Spoilage-.Pretty much simply food should have a decay rate. Depending on the food type,and storage used.Raw meat should spoil faster than cooked meat if not kept in a cold place.Fruits and veggies should spoil at same rate in there raw state. Cooked versions will spoil faster than raw stored. Happy to say in the game now ^_^.

----- New Food Types ----

Jerky- made via smoking meat in a smoke hut or sun drying meat in a sun dry box.The Jerky will last much longer then raw food and cooked versions. Happy to say jerky is in the game now ^_^.

Edited April 23, 2013 by GenHavok

[mobius187]

Being able to hide the menus individually would help for people who have lower resolutions and older machines giving them more view space.Not everyone uses the same hardware.

True, but as with any game there will be minimum hardware requirments, simply by virtue of the features the game will implement. In the long run the menu system will be a small drop in the bucket. Not to mention that players may find issue with having to hide and unhide these features. I'm just not sure it's worth the production effort Klei could spend improving other aspects of the game.

Support 2nd handed upgrade is not intended for only holding torches as I listed examples.

True, you did list more than just torches. However what a shield but more armor? And is there a real need for bolas to be equipped as a support item? IMHO, it just seems like the current one "hand slot" works just fine. But you're free to disagree with me.

Creepy Tall Grass: Non Harvestable Tall grass is what I said in that post......

True, my last statement was covered in your suggestion as you did say the grass couldn't be harvested. However the fact it cannot be harvested or burned seems out of place with the way to world works. I'm not against the idea of "creepy things lurking in the tall grass", as I stated in my story I enjoyed the brief scare I had when I thought something was lurking in my grass patch, however it might confuse new players due to the inconsistent logic.

The only solution that makes sense to me is having grass tufts naturally group together on grassy plain biomes. Furthermore, I support NOT being able to dig-up grass tufts with the shovel. Throw in my belief that beefalo should eat/harvest grass, and well, it should all work out.

Poison Status : I mentioned Poisonous creatures to go along with it......

You did? I must be getting old. What were they again? I can't seem to find them...

Seasons/Climate Zones : In short I am suggesting the whole world would be part of a certain climate zone.As in maybe you generate a Tundra world,Artic World,Tropic world,etc. Or that the world you generate would have different climate zones based on location that would have a changing season.

Well we now know that "Winter is coming", so insomuch as the current world is concerned, it seems like we're in a climate zone that includes at least two seasons. That's not to say that every "world" will be the same, as the Devs did mention that we would travel through portals to other worlds/maps. So maybe there will be different types of climates.

even for a new Lake Biome.

A lake biome? I can't say I've heard this one before. I would like to hear more of your thoughts on this...

Wooden Boomerang: I want a boomerang cuz I want a boomerang They are cool and would be fun to use.

I can't argue with that logic.

Swords: What can they be made from? Easy they could be made from wood,wood wrapped with leather rope that has monster teeth,even swords made from something I have yet to suggest,bone. There are many different real life versions of wooden swords many which could kill in the hands of a trained person.

Mmmm. Why would someone make a sword from wood or bone? Wouldn't a sword made from these materials be more of a club? Otherwise they would be more of a rapier weapon... and in thise case we already have a piercing weapon, the spear. I just wouldn't want a new weapon just for the sake of having another weapon to craft. Rather I would want a weapon that brought something new to the table.

Shields: That is why I suggested the Character upgrade reward of a 2nd hand being a support hand.A shield is one of the support items I mentioned.

True. However it just sounds like more armor and we already have the football helmet and log suit. And keep in mind that the only reason we have the football helmet is because of the backpack, which uses the torso slot previously assigned to the log suit. This way the Devs allowed players who prefer the backpack to stay defended (with the football helmet). Arbitrarily you can also choose to wear both armors, but the point is it wasn't added just for that purpose.

Fire Picnic ants:(Scout,Worker,Soldier,Queen) We all know about Fire ants,well these are even worse. These ants when their colony grows close to any source of food will send out scouts first,then worker and guard/soldier ants to secure the area and pilage the food until all of the food is gone. This can be very bad if they find a area full of jackelope holes, farms,berry bushes, or even spider nests. On top of that there bites set whatever they bite a few times on fire.This can be problematic if they decide to take a bite out of you. Unlike spiders nests ant colonies can multiply to a extent if they are near a stable source of food,and their colonies will grow if they bring back enough food to them.

So these are normal-sized fire ants that have the ability to set you on fire when they bite you? When a flame/red hound bites the player it can set them on fire which in turn means they can set anything else on fire that's around them (i.e. grass tufts). Also, they sound like a lot more trouble than spiders, in that they're apparently active during the day and target the player's food sources. The fact that doing so also makes them even more dangerous seems even more problematic. Now you do note they attack spiders... so maybe that's good as the spider queen can become a serious menace.

I would suggest that maybe these fire ant colonies be limited to a specific, or set of, biomes. This would allow the player some breathing room should they want to avoid them.

If you see a scout,killing it will be your best bet since if it finds a food source and makes it back to its colony it could mean you having to deal with the worker and guard ants. There is light at the end of the tunnel, they go by scent,not sight,so if you can harvest a picnic ants scent sack you can make a trail away from your camp,or primary food source keeping them at bay until they send out new scouts. Fire Picnic ants are also immune to fire but hate smoke so if you build some fires the smoke from them can keep them at bay.

I get the feeling these ants are larger than normal... otherwise I couldn't see myself hunting one down. That being said, wouldn't the fire ants already know where all the food is in the game long before the player reaches most of it then? Also, even if you kill a scout ant and use its scent sac to lure off the other ants... wouldn't they eventually send out more scout ants and just repeat the issue? I assume to return to your camp you would need to discard the scent sac.

As for smoke, do you have a suggestion for such an item?

Scout Fire Ants: Weak attk,fast speed,primary function is to scout for sources of food leaving a scent trail for workers & guards to follow

What is its behavior? You say it's fast... could it simply outrun you? Would the pan flute or blow dart work on it?

Worker Fire Ants: Avg atk,normal speed.Once the scouts return they go out to gather the food,they are non aggressive but will defend themselves if attacked.

Okay, but will the other worker ants ignore you attack a fellow worker ant? Would they attack you or scatter/flee?

Guard Fire Ants: Strong attk,slow speed. Their sole function is to protect the colony and workers.

How many warrior ants would spawn? Would they all follow the worker ants or only appear if scout/worker ants are attacked? If so, how far would they need to travel... (meaning, how far would scouts search for food, since if they travel too far a player could potentially kill all the ants before warrior ants showed up)? If the warrior ant is slow could hit/run tactics be used on it? Also, how do they aggro? If you run away will they follow you forever or break off their pursuit?

Queen Fire Ant: Unlike spider Queens there is only 1 Ant Queen per map.Finding her will be very difficult since she can travel underground to any ant colony.Her only function is to spawn fire ants and make new colonies. If you can manage to kill her you can rid the world of ants completely after killing them all off until a new Fire Ant Queen Spawns.

Okay, how many colonies would a map start with (on average)? Feel free to use spider nests for comparison. How often would the ant queen spawn ants that could create a new colony? Can a player attack/destroy a fire ant colony? Would it work like attacking a spider nest? If you kill the ant queen and destroy all the colonies where/how would a new queen spawn? Would a fire ant colony simply appear out of thin air for her to spawn inside and send forth ants to create more colonies?

My overall opinion is this... the ants seem to be daytime spiders mixed with Gobbler. In short, I just don't see enough uniqueness to them. Also, I was hoping new creatures would be more unique rather than a species we're already familiar with (even if they do breath fire... that gives me Fallout 3 flashbacks).

Pig King: The Pig King makes poop whenever he would not give you gold.What would happen is you feed him meat,nothing happens,feed him again,nothing happens,feed him one more time then all a sudden you see him get up,run over to a tree and a huge pile (about size of largest mine able rock) gets left behind from him.

In order to get the manure you would have to use a shovel and start digging the massive manure pile similar how we pick at rocks with the pickaxe.Shoveling would you 2-3 manure per shovel.At the end when you have shoveled all of the large pile sometimes you might find a special item.All of which could be completely random like a hat,a toy, or something.

If you feed berries to any pig man you get manure. As for digging up a special item... I'm just not sure I want anything recovered from the bowels of the pig king.

Beefalo: When they become to agitated or spooked the Beefalo can begin to stampede in any direction to get away from the area they were agitated or spooked at.Things that could agitate them could be if you battle mobs by them for to prolonged a period of time,if they witness you killing too many jackelops,or if you keep cutting down to much tall grass if they are standing around it.

Things that could spook them would be if you do stuff like run around swinging your tool/weapon around them,if a large fire breaks out, when dogs come charging at you while around them when the dogs first appear, or if a larger mob is near them/you when your near them like the Tree Guardian or Spider Queen.

Would there be a reason for this behavior? I mean, other than the need to avoid fire, which makes sense.

[mobius187]

...and to continue...

Using Manure on Farms : When you use manure on a farm plot instead of always making it grow at random one might stay small even when you put in the manure.If you keep feeding it manure you get the chance of making a giant sized version of the crop grow. Its a gamble though because there is only a % chance that it will grow giant sized.

I'm not interested in giant crops, however I would like to see manuer used more towards growing crops rather than just "speed growing" them. That, and watering crops.

Small Foot - hH is a sasquash that must of not grown to full height because of his lack of berries and honey.He appears during sunset to try to steal honey from any near by source. He only appears in wooded areas since he is shy since he is a Sasquash of small height...

Ironically, after my comments about unique creatures, I'm going to contradict myself and suggest that wouldn't a bear make more sense here? Bears would eat honey and berries... they could even fish in ponds. I also previously suggested, and supported, bears living in forest biomes. That being said, your idea sounds interesting. You mentioned they also ate meat. Is this only meat lying on the ground? And while you mentioned they are hostile to players who interrupt them eating honey, what about when they eat meat or berries? Also, wouldn't they "instant eat" all the honey, like a Gobbler instantly eats all berries on a bush (1-2 seconds)?

Also, where would they come from or go once trhey've finished eating? Gobblers disappear into bushes at night, for example.

Jersey Devil - This crafty guy is not a myth or legend anymore.He is a pain in the butt truly to no end.He has a taste for tall bird eggs and fresh veggies.Despite the myth Jersey Devils are vegetarians but have a liking of eggs.Being a shy creature he will not show himself while your around and will wait for when you are a safe distance away to go after whichever food source for the day he is targeting.He only eats one type of food each day so trying to figure out which one he is after can be tricky.The only time he makes a sound is just before he swoops down on his prey but if you listen carefully enough you can hear the sound of him salivating the further you get away from the food source he is after.

Best way to stop him from eating something you wish to protect is to stay near it,only other way is to set traps around which ever food source he has after. He only needs to feed on the day preceding a full moon so make sure your ready for him.Also unlike what you would think he is not alone.Beware if you manage to corner the Jersey Devil,though shy a Jersey Devil will turn ferocious and attack you at full force to get away until you get far enough away from where ever it is trying to flee to.

Hmmm. Sounds like a cross between the Krampus and Gobbler. Does it spawn from nowhere and despawn after a day passes? You mentioned it eats bird eggs, okay, but what if they're inside a chest? Will it eat eggs inside a chest? Also, what about nests? Will it fight with a tallbird over the egg in their nest? As for vegetables... will it target those in chests? Will it target those grown/unharvested in crop fields? Considering how many different types of vegetables (and fruits) there are in the game I find it hard to believe the player could guess which one it wants beforehand. Also, if there's only one couldn't you defeat it by placing your food in a chest and then guarding it until the day passes (even if there is more than one)?

Also, what about the pan flute or sleep dart? Will those work on it? What do you get if you kill one?

Cubacawbra: This crazy looking creature with its razor sharp claws and vampire fangs can look quite unsightly to the eyes.

Hmmm. Sounds like a chupacabra.

Though it is equipped with a arsenal of natural weapons it seeks only two things, baby tall birds and beefalo.Now a Beefalo can handle its own when its with the herd or alone against it.However if the Cubacawbra keeps attacking the same beefalo every night that Beefalo will slowly but surely get weak to the point its hair falls off.If that weakened Beefalo is attacked a few more times in its malnourished state it will die.

Okay, I get the smallbird angle. But... it just kills beefalo? You mentioned a beefalo could kill it... wouldn't that end its ability to keep feeding on the beefalo? Or do they attack in packs?

Only way to reverse the effect is to feed the Beefalo yourself some nutrient rice fruit and seeds,to put it in a holding pin to protect it,or kill the Cubacawbra to allow the Beefalo to heal on its own.

Um ...why? I mean, I have nothing against the beefalo, but I see no reason to go out of my way to save them. Also, if these creatures are the natural predator of the beefalo then it should work out fine on its own. If we meddled wouldn't we either cause the beefalo population to grow too large by killing the predator that keeps their population in check (pending baby beefalo spawning and having them grow into adults, of course)? And if we are meant to meddle and don't, wouldn't that mean these creatures would eventually wipe-out the beefalo?

Also, right now beefalo scatter over time, but I'm hoping beefalo AI will eventually keep them together as a herd. In which case attacking one beefalo would always cause the others to attack it. Maybe if it attacked them at night...?

The other items a Cubacawbra likes (or should I say loves) are baby tall birds and jackelops. Unlike the big size of a Beefalo neither of these can protect themselves quite well so your going to have protect your baby tall birds by either putting them in a holding pin,protect them yourself in any way you can,or kill the Cubacawbra.This keeping your baby tall birds safe until the next time a Cubacawbra spawns. The Cubacawbra makes no nose at all,the only way you will know one is around is if you see it feeding or spot it fleeing or heading toward its prey.Unlike the Jersey devil these spawn during the day or night of a New Moon.If they spawn at night you will know your seeing one from the red glowing eyes they have.

So is there only one that spawns? Also, I don't know if we need to craft pens just to protect smallbirds. I mean, eventually we will have the ability to build walls and we can build traps right now. How hard would it be to kill one of these creatures? How much damage does it deal? How fast is it? Does it drop anything when it dies?

Sun Dry Box - used to dry things,veggies,meats,grass,etc

Smoke Box - used to smoke veggies and or meats for preservation

Okay. I'll assume this is so they can be preserved. I'll only argue the practicality of "smoked vegetables". Also, instead of crafting a device for smoking meats, why not simply add salt into the game and allow players to turn regular meat into salted meat in order to preserve it?

Cook Book - used to remember the recipes you learn as you discover them.

We have this one already, it's called the Don't Starve Wiki.

Holding Pin-made using lumber,grass or rope.Primary use is to keep tamed beefalo from wondering off.However if you do not keep the Beefalo tamed,or they can come under attack they can break out and tamed beefalo will follow the ones that became untamed out to freedom.

I hate it when things wonder off... I'm like "Hey! Pay attention!".

The idea seems okay, but I think that when the Devs add walls to the game this will serve the same purpose. Also, is there a purpose to keeping tamed beefalo versus untamed ones?

Hay- Made by drying grass in the Sun Dry box.This serves two different purposes one to tame beefalo and to keep them feed which keeps them tamed.They need to be feed daily otherwise they will being to become untamed and even hostile toward you.

Okay, but wouldn't the need to feed them daily chain you to less than 1-day's travel from your base camp? If you go further than you'll come back to find your beefalo are all gone. Maybe have it that you create hay and drop it in the pen area... and they eat any hay on the ground. So if you have several stacks of hay you can leave them for the beefalo and go exploring eithout serious fear of returning to find them gone.

Desert- This would be the location to which you would find a area that has salt flats that you can dig or pick for to get raw salt that can be used for preserving raw or cooked meat and for other uses.

Yup. In an older suggestion thread (and above too) I also suggested salt as a means to preserve meats. Drying was suggested for fish, but I prefer not to create too many solutions to the same issue, so better to just salt them too. The key purpose for salting meat was to preserve it against rot, which would be especially useful for dealing with winter. The downside, you need salt and salted meats restored less Hunger (tasted worse).

Creatures found here:Scorpions,giant "Spice" worms,"tremors"(which would serve the purpose as baby spice worms),Vultures,and scarab beetles would roam these sands.

Scorpions... okay. But I don't care much for the others. I mean, Dune and Tremors had their worms, maybe we could have something else... less sand worm-like? Also flying mobs are hard to pull off with them attacking you from a stationary point (i.e. Dingbats from Final Fantasy). What would the scarab beetle be for?

Another player suggested lizards that hide under small rocks, like rabbits hide in holes. And just like how you can dig-up a rabbit hole with a shovel, you could use a pick axe to force out a lizard hiding under it.

Food sources: Various dried veggies and fruits that can grow on flora that can survive these hot sands.

Mmmm. The best suggestion I saw was in the same thread I mentioned above, and that involved dragon fruit that grow on cacti.

Flora: Various Don't starve versions of real life flora that can grow with a few with a dark demon twist.Some say the flora have eyes in this biome and can talk to each other through the sands.

Sure. Why not?

Food Spoilage-.Pretty much simply food should have a decay rate. Depending on the food type,and storage used.Raw meat should spoil faster than cooked meat if not kept in a cold place.

Ah rot. I'll support its inclusion in the game. Sounds like we'll need an ice box...

Fruits and veggies should spoil at same rate in there raw state. Cooked versions will spoil faster than raw stored.

Okay.

Salt or seasoning will help preserve the raw meat decreasing its decay rate.

I would hope they decreased it significantly, as one goal would be to eat salted meats during winter when food sources would be scarce.

Seasonings would be made out of dried veggies dried in the sun dry box which would also help preserve the meat.Only certain types of veggies would be able to be sun dried and combined into seasoning.

What about salt...? And wouldn't the point of drying fruit be to preserve it rather than turning it into seasonings?

Seasoned cooked food also helps to keep the sanity level down a bit.

I'm sure you meant to say it restores Sanity. That's reasonable... everyone loves great tasting food.

Jerky- made via smoking meat in a smoke hut or sun drying meat in a sun dry box.The Jerky will last much longer then raw food and cooked versions.

Wouldn't this be the same as salting the meats?