They want what you have

[Flambo]

TL;DR: Add more elements to the game that come to the player and interfere, but unlike hounds in that they're related to what the player is doing, and not simply occuring on a timer.

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After playing Don't Starve relentlessly for a couple of days, I've noticed that the game doesn't seem to mind much if I just sit in one place and gather the same resources over and over. The experience is less like scavenging or surviving, and more like moving into a new apartment: after a day or two spent figuring out the convenient places to find food and other necessities, my life settles into a state of predictable stability.

Should the gameplay of Don't Starve really be about predictability and stability?

From browsing the forums, I see that the devs have tried to deal with this, at least where berry farms are concerned. But what about everything else? Most every resource is infinitely renewable, and therefore friendly to hoarding/turtling/lazing about.

How about, instead of trying to painstakingly balance the renewability of resources against a skilled player's ability to hoard, make it so there are things in the world that are also roaming about, trying to survive? The hounds are a great step in this direction: they're not really dangerous, but they clue the player in on the fact that other, worse things will be coming for their hoardings.

Here are some illustrative examples of what I mean:

-Have a lot of gold? Goblins show up to steal it/kill you.

-Have a nice fire with some farm plots? Sasquatch evicts you and makes the place his home.

-Been cooking a lot of meat lately? Carnivores migrate into the nearby woods, drawn by the smell.

It could even be made so that beefalo will exhaust their supply of food and invade your farm, or that pigmen will eventually be overcome with jealousy over your food and demand a share.

The point of all this is to present the player with situations that they have to react to, rather than having the player lounge around day after day, without a sense of direction.

Anyways, enjoying the game immensely. I wouldn't call it perfect, but it's surely been well worth my $11.99. Thanks!

[horatio_svetlana]

Excellent suggestion. Like how in a strategy game you have to juggle; troop production, resource gathering, warfare.

It's adding elements that cause imbalance that works.

[Arcadias]

Some good ideas there

Also remember, the game is still in Beta, the current and upcoming updates are all about mid-game stuff.

They'll be adding plenty of stuff to scare you/make you come out of your little base