New to DS / Thoughts so far...

[Mofear]

Hello everyone! Recently purchased DS for myself / brother (love the free extra copy sale). After a few unfortunate deaths (reckless fighting to explore content) I created a fresh install (wanted to reset my research) and went for the end game. As a side note this was before the Nov 29-30th hotfix. This is my thoughts on that attempt so far...(may contain spoilers.)

I honestly felt that after 4 hours actual time I had a solid grasp on the gameplay and by my current time (21 hours) played I have essentially beat/explored all the games content. I don't mean that as a complaint as I fully understand this is in beta and even for a release that is plenty of content for a game with a $10-15 price tag. The downside to this is that current game design means reaching the end game is quite literally the end of the game and the fun is sucked out quickly. After reading some of Kevin's threads the future plans seem to quite effectively fix that, but in the mean time...heres a list of my suggestions/comments:

• Meat effigy's are WAY to easy to make. This is probably known since most camps I've seen have 3+ ready and waiting. Without double checking numbers I think its only roughly 5-7 days time to earn the beard hair required. I love the current materials to craft, but perhaps add in something that requires some danger to collect (similar to the red gem for an amulet). I also think there should be a limit of only 1 placed in a world at a time. This isn't even a setback as you could have the other elements ready in a chest so I don't see a problem here.
  
• I killed the tall birds in my game. It sucks now that I know they can't respawn. I'm in favor of changing this fact (and hopefully beefalos as well, not sure if they currently do or not).
  
• Current (tree/chest) walls are dumb. I've played with/without them and am very glad to see the change you made in the hotfix. I also saw there is plans for real walls later (yay). My 2 cents is that a survival game with the ability to collect logs and not make a house/walls makes no sense and is completely unrealistic. If this leads to people turtling in their homes then 1) give them a reason to leave (content only available by traveling away). 2) give them a reason to not stay (a house's walls can't be that strong against everything right? )
  
• Grass/twig farms were silly, but I think the proposed change is the complete opposite way to go. I don't see any need for either other than research points (which likely will change in the future). My suggestion would be to limit the amount of tufts/saplings available in a world (with a fun way to find/collect them) and the rest are only available by exploring to their original locations. The map is covered with them so this should still be balanced.
  
• Not sure if ghosts can be killed. My first deaths included an attempt. If they can't fine, but I think you're passing on an awesome end-game fight opportunity here (perhaps there is a plan in the works?)
  
• LOVE the changes to farms. I planted a farm one time and immediately realized how absurd/ineffective they are. I wanted to make them work. I am curious to play with the new changes to confirm, but the notes look like its much better.
  
• New game +? It's an old and common idea because it works. I saw Kevin state he didn't want you to have to die to earn your exp. I'm at day 77 and can't use other characters without dying first. I don't mind losing everything to unlock them, but then I want it to feel like a reward not a punishment. Let me "choose" to restart after day 100 or whatever. Then I can access new content and not have had to suicide.
  
• New game vs Make a new world. This should be changed. New game should be a new map, this just seems like common sense to me and I was surprised to learn it wasnt. Make a new world should be 0 research. The future addition to profiles will likely fix this and allow the extreme option of resetting experience for those who choose (hardcore mode I'm looking at you!)
  
• Mandrake glitch is silly. Haven't seen it discussed in the known bugs. I am sure the developer(s) know about it and if not PM me for details. Remove this.
  

I've rambled long enough. There is plenty more I could come up with if there is interest, but I feel like I've ragged on the current version of DS enough. This game is amazing and I want it to be obvious I didn't write this up because I don't like it. I also apologize if some of these were already answered/discussed, but the search feature not giving a preview of the threads contents makes it tedious to look all this up (I did some). If I am rehashing old ideas then just ignore it.

Side note to Kevin/Mods/Devs: I saw a hint at future option to Mod this game. As a computer science major with some experience modding other games I am very interested. Any further details about a required programming language to mod? Or if they'll be an official API to work with?

Thanks for taking the time to read all this! Looking forward to the future of Don't Starve!

[Mofear]

Original thought's was this would be more a hello and less of a suggestion post. I just noticed the suggestion section. Feel free to move this forum mod's. Sorry

[Toaster Fu]

If I remember it's coded in a mix of LUA and C++, but I don't code so take it with a grain of salt. And the Devs said if there's going to be modding it would be post-launch of the game.