Interface and object manipulation

[etherealwtf]

The way objects are manipulated could be improved. Look at how Terraria works with its inventory.

Inventory and object management suggestions

• stack our objects with one button in the chests. Inventory management is already intense in Dont starve, please make it easier.
  
• get the resulting object for each action. When you cut some grass, the object goes into your inventory, but when you cut a tree, you have to grab objects on the floor. Why wont they go in my inventory ? You already have to change your tool to cut a tree, give me a break, grab these items for me.
  
• always stack objects when it's possible. Yes i'm talking to you backpack.
  
• have a half or a third of the inventory where tools gather themselves. When you switch your tools, they should not get the first slot they find. They should go where they are usable with the keys 1,2,3,... An action inventory
  

Map suggestions

• Slightly change the colors to be able to use the key.
  
• Make the roads visible
  
• Change the face of our hero to match our equipment and beard
  
• Let us write on the map with a tool (maybe different layers ?). The map should only be available once you create a papyrus. Writing on the map should require a ressource.
  
• show the scale
  

About the way the actions are performed

• Sometimes, the path finding wont allow the character to do what we want him to do. Even if i try to use the move keys to cancel that order, the character will go on for a few secodns trying to do something that is impossible. I want to be able to cancel the action whenever i want. Even if the path finding is wonderfully coded, i want to be able to cancel my action asap.
  
• Misclicks happen all the time. I want to know which action is performed right now. It should look like a zak mac kraken or indy and the fate of the atlantis : the action currently performed is written somewhere on the screen.
  
• Sometimes (often) actions that we need to perform are a bit repetitive. I'd love to be able to queue 3 actions.
  

Edited November 30, 2012 by etherealwtf

[Excess]

I agree that inventory management needs some tweaks and fixes.

Inventory and object management suggestions

1. stack our objects with one button in the chests. Inventory management is already intense in Dont starve, please make it easier.
   
2. get the resulting object for each action. When you cut some grass, the object goes into your inventory, but when you cut a tree, you have to grab objects on the floor. Why wont they go in my inventory ? You already have to change your tool to cut a tree, give me a break, grab these items for me.
   
3. always stack objects when it's possible. Yes i'm talking to you backpack.
   
4. have a half or a third of the inventory where tools gather themselves. When you switch your tools, they should not get the first slot they find. They should go where they are usable with the keys 1,2,3,... An action inventory
   

1. Haven't played Terraria but isn't it a 2D game? Meaning you either have a chest at your right, or at your left. That's easy to automate. But Don't Starve is a 3Dish game in the sense that you can be surrounded by 10 chests at the time, how would the game know in which chest to put the stuff?
   
2. If it's 1 thing dropping (grass, twigs), you pick it up automatically. If there's several things (trees, rocks) you don't pick up anything. I think it makes sense in the case where you only have 1 empty inventory space but the game doesn't know what you what to pick up. Perhaps you are been chased by Optimus Pine and you need pinecones, but the game filled your only empty inventory space left with logs, making it almost impossible to gather several pinecones as you would have to constantly drop the logs. Or perhaps the night is coming and you need logs to make a big fire, but instead you get pinecones that burn in a flash.
   I think letting the player decide is better.
   
3. Stacking in general is kind of broken. Also, using resources to build stuff too. Sometimes you have a stack of 40 grass and another one of 3 grass. You decide to make rope, and the game decides to use 6 grass from the first stack, leaving you with 2 incomplete stacks, one of 34 and the other of 3. That seems broken.
   When picking up stuff, it should go to the highest stack first (so they get maxed out and then continue with the next one) and when building stuff it should substract from the lower stacks first (so the smaller stacks disappear first)
   
4. The inventory already have hotkeys, [1], [2], [...], [8], [9], [+] and [-] but I do agree that when switching tools, the equipped tool should switch positions too, not go to the first left-most empty space. That's a little annoying.
   

Map suggestions

1. Slightly change the colors to be able to use the key.
   
2. Make the roads visible
   
3. Change the face of our hero to match our equipment and beard
   
4. Let us write on the map with a tool (maybe different layers ?). The map should only be available once you create a papyrus. Writing on the map should require a ressource.
   
5. show the scale
   

1. What key?
   
2. Agreed, since I quit mapping the shores to maintain some shred of mystery, I tend to travel the roads and make my camps along side of it. Having the roads mapped out would be great.
   
3. I like it, specially the beard thing.
   
4. Agreed on all counts. The map should be a craftable thing that required paper, and I would love to leave notes on it.
   
5. Not sure what use could knowing the scale be?
   

About the way the actions are performed

1. Sometimes, the path finding wont allow the character to do what we want him to do. Even if i try to use the move keys to cancel that order, the character will go on for a few secodns trying to do something that is impossible. I want to be able to cancel the action whenever i want. Even if the path finding is wonderfully coded, i want to be able to cancel my action asap.
   
2. Misclicks happen all the time. I want to know which action is performed right now. It should look like a zak mac kraken or indy and the fate of the atlantis : the action currently performed is written somewhere on the screen.
   
3. Sometimes (often) actions that we need to perform are a bit repetitive. I'd love to be able to queue 3 actions.
   

1. There is no pathfinding currently. It moves straight towards where you clicked. The objects in the game seem to have an elliptical hit-box around, that's why it slooooowly slides to the side when stuck. We need pathfinding Kevin, stop procrastinating it or at least a cancel order.
   
2. I'm not sure it would look very nice but I understand the need to know what action is going to take place before hand. Although hitting a beefalo by accident when collecting manure is great fun
   
3. Queuing actions (+cancel order) would improve this game a lot.
   

[etherealwtf]

I am happy you like my suggestions knowing you are an experienced player.

• About Terraria's way to deal with chest : when you open a chest there are 3 buttons, take all, stack and another one that i forgot. If i click stack all the items that are both in my inventory and in the chest, will stack in the chest. That's pretty usefull. In terraria you can have like 9 chest around you. It's doesnt matter since the stack button is related to a given chest.
  
• About the map and the key, i think it's a translation error, my english also needs some improvement . I just want the map to be more clear and have different colors to make easier to know which biome is on an island.
  
• About the scale, it helps to manage your schedule for the next day : if i know i will spend half of the day walking to reach my goal, it's easier to manage my time.
  

Edited December 1, 2012 by etherealwtf

[Excess]

1. About Terraria's way to deal with chest : when you open a chest there are 3 buttons, take all, stack and another one that i forgot. If i click stack all the items that are both in my inventory and in the chest, will stack in the chest. That's pretty usefull. In terraria you can have like 9 chest around you. It's doesnt matter since the stack button is related to a given chest.
   
2. About the map and the key, i think it's a translation error, my english also needs some improvement . I just want the map to be more clear and have different colors to make easier to know which biome is on an island.
   
3. About the scale, it helps to manage your schedule for the next day : if i know i will spend half of the day walking to reach my goal, it's easier to manage my time.
   

1. Oh, I see, I misunderstood what you meant as I wasn't aware of that functionality. Now I know what you mean. Doesn't it get messy if you have several things that are both in your inventory as in the chest? I mean, what if you only want to put the grass in? Do you do it manually?
   
2. This is a common suggestion, because although the biomes are already differentiated in the maps by texture, it may take a while to adapt to it. Color would unconciously feed you brain with the info needed, instead of having to consciously look at the texture. I myself look at the item markers to see which biome is what faster. Ponds = swamp, berrys = field, etc.
   
3. Ohhhh I see, that WOULD be useful, once you figure out how long you can run in a day.
   

I am happy you like my suggestions knowing you are an experienced player.

Well thank you very much. Every suggestion is useful though, no matter how much you've played the game. Once you've played the game a lot you get accustomed to how things work and may not realize that something may feel different for newcomers. So thank YOU for such a well organized and comprehensive suggestion list. Keep 'em coming!

[Dom-Sithe]

Wow, you've never played Terraria? Heck, I'd gift it to ya on steam if you wanted...

I would highly recommend it! It's a much more action oriented then survivaly oriented game, but has a very similar structure to DS.

To elaborate on the chests though, in addition to the buttons you could also right click on anything in the chest to add it to your next inventory slot, or right click on something in your inventory to add it to the next available slot in the chest. Just like DS, you only enter the chest interface if you click on it though, so you if you have 4 chests nearby, you know which one you are dealing with as you actively clicked it.

[etherealwtf]

I strongly encourage developers to take a look at terraria. You also have to farm a lot and they created good mechanics to ease inventory management. Objects are auto acquired and i think it would be good for dont starve too.

[etherealwtf]

I think that the cancel order works better now.