Making summer survivable

[Skorp]

Right now its possible to start on spring, autumn or even winter and survive but summer is undoable because if you start to overheat there is nothing you can do (unlike freezing, where you can burn something for temporal heat).

I know that they are various means to survive, the ice cube, the siesta lean-to, but all of them require time and resources which you don't have if you start in summer and you can't get because your health will keep going down, so pure luck is the only way to do it.

 

I suggest various tweaks to summer to make it at least doable:

 

-Buff the cooling effect of shades

 

The character will even mention a need for shade but even with the parasol and the biggest tree you can't slow down the heat.

I think trees should work like a stationary ice cube, in the sense that they pull the temperature down to a certain number, said number would depend on the ambient heat, the size of the tree and the kind of tree.

 

To prevent this from nerfing too much the summer said effect would go away fast when you get away and on very hot days the player may even need a parasol with the shade to just survive, with this change summer would become manageable without being an exact copy of winter.

After the first week or so of summer the heat would be so high that trees are useless alone as coolers.

 

-Make the heat more time sensitive

 

I can understand winter being cold during the night and slightly less cold during the day but in summer the heat should be rising and decreasing more noticeably during a day, with the midday being the hottest part.

This way player can plan their days a little better, working during the morning and afternoon with the night and midday becoming times to stay at the camp or keep on working if they have the resources to do so.

 

Also the siesta lean-to would skip only the dangerous parts of the day, so at the beginning it could be 1/6 of a day at the cost of little hunger and later keep increasing both factors.

 

By mid-late summer the heat is dangerous almost all day.

 

-Making plants take longer to wither

 

The last problem with starting in summer is that many plants wither almost instantly, leaving the player screwed no matter what they do, so perhaps plants should start to wither after a couple of days in summer and having all the plants gone by mid-summer.

This would leave the player with a difficult position but not with a random chance of not having enough materials to survive.

 

 

Keep in mind that these changes would only affect the beginning of summer, I don't want to nerf the heat of make summer easy, I just want to have a fair chance when starting.

[Norman1346]

There is a lot you can do to not over heat.

 

You can make endothermic fire. Fire that cools you down. Available in both single use campfire style, and reusable fire pit style.

 

You can make a thermal stone. previously called heat stone, and put it in the fridge.

 

You can eat ice from mini glaciers and even make an ice cube hat from ice. Just get some before summer and put it in the fridge.

 

Edited this line in: You can also build a siesta lean-to, which let you skip the day when you are over heating.

 

The withering of plants is not a big deal. Keep some Beefalo poop handy. The poop brings the plants back to health and can be used to smother fires. I keep a couple piles around my base in the summer so it is always near at hand.

 

I don't consider myself that good at don't starve. I cannot beat adventure mode for the life of me, but survival mode is just not that challenging even in the new DLC. I have not had a death without resurrection since downloading the DLC.

[Skorp]

There is a lot you can do to not over heat.

 

You can make endothermic fire. Fire that cools you down. Available in both single use campfire style, and reusable fire pit style.

 

You can make a thermal stone. previously called heat stone, and put it in the fridge.

 

You can eat ice from mini glaciers and even make an ice cube hat from ice. Just get some before summer and put it in the fridge.

 

Edited this line in: You can also build a siesta lean-to, which let you skip the day when you are over heating.

 

The withering of plants is not a big deal. Keep some Beefalo poop handy. The poop brings the plants back to health and can be used to smother fires. I keep a couple piles around my base in the summer so it is always near at hand.

 

I don't consider myself that good at don't starve. I cannot beat adventure mode for the life of me, but survival mode is just not that challenging even in the new DLC. I have not had a death without resurrection since downloading the DLC.

The point is that to do that you can't start in summer, you don't have time to to find the resources for the siesta lean-to, you need those sticks and grass now, not for when you can find beefalo and the ice is practically melted by the time you find it (which is luck based again) and all of this on a timer because your health will keep going down no matter what do you do.

To sum it up, I want to make possible to start in summer, not nerf it. Perhaps I'll edit my post to show it clearly.

[Norman1346]

So i just tried this. It is def close to impossible if not impossible. In 8 tries I died on day 1 six times and day 2 two times.

 

Winter is hard too, but it is made easier by the fact you can light stuff with a torch as you run around to stay warm.

 

I have to say this does not bother me too much. I'll just start on fall/spring.

 

If they give us a couple days of slightly cooler in summer I would not mind that either. Maybe make the grass hat something you don't need to prototype and make the thermal stone a science machine thing instead of an alchemy engine thing.

[Skorp]

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make, I feel like every season should be hard but possible and right now summer is impossible unless you get very lucky and find ice right next to you and even then you are postponing the inevitable death of the next day when the ice runs out.

I guess I could start in any other season but this bothers me very much, I don't know if this is intended by the developers.

[brummbar7]

I'm not interested in seeing them nerf summer just so people can start in it.  I respect that some people have....a compulsion, I guess, to be able to start in any season for some reason, but I don't have the compulsion and I don't think most other players do, and I don't see any reason to nerf every summer for everyone just so those people can do their summer start thing.  Mind you, I'm not against new and different methods to deal with heat, but I am against this general nerfing of summer mechanics.   They can make a "summer plus" preset that starts you with appropriate blueprints and materials.  Leave the rest alone, imo.

[Skorp]

I'm not interested in seeing them nerf summer just so people can start in it.  I respect that some people have....a compulsion, I guess, to be able to start in any season for some reason, but I don't have the compulsion and I don't think most other players do, and I don't see any reason to nerf every summer for everyone just so those people can do their summer start thing.  Mind you, I'm not against new and different methods to deal with heat, but I am against this general nerfing of summer mechanics.   They can make a "summer plus" preset that starts you with appropriate blueprints and materials.  Leave the rest alone, imo.

Not even the first days? I don't think this would change summer that much.

[brummbar7]

Not even the first days? I don't think this would change summer that much.

I may be assuming too much, but that stuff sounded like it would take more coding than Klei probably wants to expend to cater to a (I presume) very small crowd, to do it the way you described.  And I don't want the whole summer being easier.

[Skorp]

I may be assuming too much, but that stuff sounded like it would take more coding than Klei probably wants to expend to cater to a (I presume) very small crowd, to do it the way you described.  And I don't want the whole summer being easier.

I don't think so, I'm not an expert and I could even create a mod to do this. Well, since it looks like I'm alone here I might as well do it.

[UnderwearApp]

Right now its possible to start on spring, autumn or even winter and survive but summer is undoable because if you start to overheat there is nothing you can do (unlike freezing, where you can burn something for temporal heat).

I know that they are various means to survive, the ice cube, the siesta lean-to, but all of them require time and resources which you don't have if you start in summer and you can't get because your health will keep going down, so pure luck is the only way to do it.

 

I suggest various tweaks to summer to make it at least doable:

 

-Buff the cooling effect of shades

 

The character will even mention a need for shade but even with the parasol and the biggest tree you can't slow down the heat.

I think trees should work like a stationary ice cube, in the sense that they pull the temperature down to a certain number, said number would depend on the ambient heat, the size of the tree and the kind of tree.

 

To prevent this from nerfing too much the summer said effect would go away fast when you get away and on very hot days the player may even need a parasol with the shade to just survive, with this change summer would become manageable without being an exact copy of winter.

After the first week or so of summer the heat would be so high that trees are useless alone as coolers.

 

-Make the heat more time sensitive

 

I can understand winter being cold during the night and slightly less cold during the day but in summer the heat should be rising and decreasing more noticeably during a day, with the midday being the hottest part.

This way player can plan their days a little better, working during the morning and afternoon with the night and midday becoming times to stay at the camp or keep on working if they have the resources to do so.

 

Also the siesta lean-to would skip only the dangerous parts of the day, so at the beginning it could be 1/6 of a day at the cost of little hunger and later keep increasing both factors.

 

By mid-late summer the heat is dangerous almost all day.

 

-Making plants take longer to wither

 

The last problem with starting in summer is that many plants wither almost instantly, leaving the player screwed no matter what they do, so perhaps plants should start to wither after a couple of days in summer and having all the plants gone by mid-summer.

This would leave the player with a difficult position but not with a random chance of not having enough materials to survive.

 

 

Keep in mind that these changes would only affect the beginning of summer, I don't want to nerf the heat of make summer easy, I just want to have a fair chance when starting.

Just to point out, summer and winter are already hotter and colder during the day and night respectively, just maybe not to the level you desire.

 

I too am of the argument that summer is fine the way it is, and feel no reason to change it.

[Tumalu]

If you want to start a game in summer, have you tried using default+? You can tweak off the various effects it has other than spawning you with some items.

 

I admittedly haven't tested this (lazy, I know) so I'm not sure if you can actually make an endothermic firepit immediately or whatnot this way.

[Everdeemz]

Also some stuff shoudlnt burn.. like crockpots... that is just silly..

Also some stuff shoudlnt burn.. like crockpots... that is just silly..

[Tumalu]

The base of the crockpot is made of wood, but I get what you mean.

[Shin]

Sorry but I have to disagree. Summer is really good to survive. It should be even harder.

[Skorp]

I think nobody understood me, I don't want to make summer easier, I want to make it progressively harder. All of the things I suggested would only work in the firsts days.

Or at least make the endothermic fire a tier 0 item.

[userr3]

So i just tried this. It is def close to impossible if not impossible. In 8 tries I died on day 1 six times and day 2 two times.

Winter is hard too, but it is made easier by the fact you can light stuff with a torch as you run around to stay warm.

I have to say this does not bother me too much. I'll just start on fall/spring.

If they give us a couple days of slightly cooler in summer I would not mind that either. Maybe make the grass hat something you don't need to prototype and make the thermal stone a science machine thing instead of an alchemy engine thing.

I started in spring with WX and was half life after 3 days, due to rainfall... On day six I managed to get full rain protection and I had about 20hp left. I had a world with short seasons, but I managed to build a little base with one ice flingomatic with carried me through summer... Also ice box and a thermal stone helped... It is not that hard... I even survived an attack of the dragon fly by leading it away from my base.

Everythings possible just dont give up

[Skorp]

I started in spring with WX and was half life after 3 days, due to rainfall... On day six I managed to get full rain protection and I had about 20hp left. I had a world with short seasons, but I managed to build a little base with one ice flingomatic with carried me through summer... Also ice box and a thermal stone helped... It is not that hard... I even survived an attack of the dragon fly by leading it away from my base.

Everythings possible just dont give up

I think he means starting on summer, which I found is possible but very luck-based.

[Norman1346]

I started in spring with WX and was half life after 3 days, due to rainfall... On day six I managed to get full rain protection and I had about 20hp left. I had a world with short seasons, but I managed to build a little base with one ice flingomatic with carried me through summer... Also ice box and a thermal stone helped... It is not that hard... I even survived an attack of the dragon fly by leading it away from my base.

Everythings possible just dont give up

 

Way to not pay attention. I was indeed talking about starting in summer, where you overheat after one hour on the 1st day. I have never died permanently when starting in the spring.

[pwhampton]

I survived starting in summer, with Wendy and no default plus. Ice is now considered a luxury for me. Use a supply of rot (from catcoons) to help keep your base from combusting on you. For cooling off, get a farm up and farm for watermelons (you will need to force grow with manure or you will just get grass.)

[Skorp]

I survived starting in summer, with Wendy and no default plus. Ice is now considered a luxury for me. Use a supply of rot (from catcoons) to help keep your base from combusting on you. For cooling off, get a farm up and farm for watermelons (you will need to force grow with manure or you will just get grass.)

How? How did you manage to survive one day without overheating?

[pwhampton]

A lucky spawn and quick movement. I wrote quite a bit on my post, Unfortunently the forums refuse to let me copy-paste so I cannot give you the link. but it is called "I survived a summer only world! ...So far."

[Skorp]

I see, now I want to try the only summer world. But my point is that to survive the first days you only need luck, I would like to have the beginning of summer less lethal and keep increasing the difficulty with time so players can at least have a fair chance.

[Ixmore]

how about being able to make the straw hat right off the bat

[Norman1346]

how about being able to make the straw hat right off the bat

 

You have to make a science machine before you can make a straw hat. You are already overheating by the time you can make a straw hat on day 1. The hat does nothing for you once you are already taking damage.

 

The way I found which requires much luck is science machine, endo fire. then making the straw hat at night and garbing some blue mushrooms, which you have to note the location of during the day because finding them with a torch is almost impossible.

[Ixmore]

You have to make a science machine before you can make a straw hat. You are already overheating by the time you can make a straw hat on day 1. The hat does nothing for you once you are already taking damage.

 

The way I found which requires much luck is science machine, endo fire. then making the straw hat at night and garbing some blue mushrooms, which you have to note the location of during the day because finding them with a torch is almost impossible.

 

perhaps you misinterpreted me. What I was saying that we should be able to make the straw hat without the science machine.