A simpler challenge

[Grumpy]

I recently tried the 40 day challenge.  I made it to day 4.  I found that the long night setting really made surviving difficult.  But there was one flaw with the challenge...

 

Too many people make the mistake of adding more monsters to up the difficulty.  More monster equals more hard, right?  Not really.  You see, if the sheer number of hostile monsters is in fact overwhelming you then yes, it does make for a difficult game.  But most of the time increasing the mob counts just means you have to watch your step and pick your battles.  Often times you can let the mobs battle themseves and just swoop in for the free food.  If the number of monsters is not overwhelming you then more monsters equals more food.  More food equals less starving.  Simple as that.

 

I replayed the 40 day challenge but with the normal day/night cycle.  It was easy because there was food everywhere free for the taking.  All I had to do was stroll through the savannah each day picking up rabbit morsels left by the tall birds.

 

But the long night setting was in fact difficult.  Some strategies have to change.  Bee boxes presumably won't produce as much honey though I never got to test that theory.  Traps go for days without catching any rabbits.  All tool usage has to be compressed into the short daytime until further light sources are made.

 

So, I just tried an experiment.  I took the standard default world and only changed it to long night.  It was tough!  I was near death numerous times.  Some from sanity and some from hunger.  When Winter came I was certain I wouldn't survive as I had no food production set up.  I made it to day 30 and died trying to run through the killer bee field as darkness fell after getting some gears from the clockworks.  Then I froze running back to camp because I never had enough resources to set up some supplies by the touch stone.

 

The lesson learned is that less monsters and less daytime equals a harder game.  More monsters makes an easier game.  Kind of like how the late game is too easy because the hounds keep delivering meat to your doorstep every few days.  I know there are much better players than me but this was far more challenging than the games with every mob set to more or lots.  The only downside is that I'm not sure I'd actually say I had fun.  Exploring in darkness with a torch isn't enjoyable.  But at least it made you plan where you needed to be when the sun came up so you could get to work immediately.

 

 

TLDR;

 

So here's my challenge.  Play a game with less mobs and less daylight.  Take the default game, change day length to long night.  Set spiders, beefalo, and rabbits to less.  Leave berries and carrots at default or less.  Try to survive through two Winters and/or establish yourself as invincible.  That's it!

[Ortorin]

Challenge accepted. (once I figure out the problem with gears not dropping in my game.)

[TrueMisfit]

This sounds similar to the lights out challenge...

[d2r]

What is the 40 day challenge?

[Grumpy]

What is the 40 day challenge?

 

The 40 Day Challenge thread

 

I haven't played lights out but I believe it's all darkness, right?  This challenge still has daylight and dusk so some conventional strategy still applies.

 

The main purpose of this idea is to highlight that LESS monsters makes a tougher experience, that is if you're more interested in the survival aspect of the game rather than the combat aspect.  Less monsters = less food and resources.  Less daytime is just harder in and of itself.  Combine the two for challenge that's much more difficult than a default game but still surmountable.