Want some "late-game" threat ?

[Sideview]

Through the forum, I had see a lot of people complaining about "DS is too easy", "After ~100 days it becomes hard to die", "More late-game content pls", etc...

 

So, I had an idea. Now we've got the 4 seasons, but, DS world isn't the real world, is it ? Why it should have only 4 seasons ? What about a 5th "season" ? What about a NIGHTMARE season ?

 

It can't be part of RoG, I know it, but it could be a part of the next DLC (we all want more DLCs, don't we ?).

 

EDIT : Ideas reorganized, added some, removed some... That's a full rework of the thread.

 

So :

 

Nightmare season :

 

- During the nightmare season, night and dusk are predominating. Not like winter's nights, but more like if you had set both long night and long dusk settings. Season lenght / condition of end have to be determined.

 

- Nights have their sanity drain doubled.

 

- World have a dark grey filter (as if you were about to go insane).

 

- Temperature vary a lot. You can go from an extremely cold day to an extremely hot one in a really short time (can be day to day ; when the temperature is set for a day it can't change until the next day).

 

- Rabbits, pigmen and bunnymen are in their nightmare form (beardlings, werepigs and beardlords) no matter your sanity level.

 

- Chance for a "Nightmare giant" to spawn. Shouldn't be Charlie nor "Shadow Wilson". It've to be a different entity (feel free to suggest what kind of monster it could be).

 

- The nightmare season could come every ~100 days. In a different way, it could come after a fullmoon, randomly (but not in the first DS year). If so, this fullmoon will have something special (I'll explain that "special" thing later).

 

- During the nightmare season, every source of light have is radius halfed. The only way to get a full light radius is to use a Night Light or a Shadow Torch (Gonna explain it after).

 

- Hounds are replaced by Shadow Hounds, and Wargs by... yes Shadow Wargs, didn't find a better name yet. They're considered as Nightmare creatures : that means that you're the only one able to see it, and to fight it. They're immune to toothtraps. They'll drop Nightmare Fuel instead of Monster Meat upon their death.

 

Bloodmoon :

 

The Bloodmoon is one of the key features of the Nightmare season, as it starts and finish it.

 

- During a Bloodmoon, you can see the world as if it was Fullmoon, but with a red filter instead of the regular white one.

 

- At the beginning of each Bloodmoon, your CURRENT sanity will be drained by 50%.

 

- *Not so tiny feature* : Chester is cursed during a Bloodmoon, and will be transformed into a Bloody Chester. The Bloody Chester is no longer your friendly walking pumpkin chest : his colour turn to dark red, his horns grows into a more demonish version, sharp teeth grows in his mouth maw, and every items you'd stored in him will be dropped on the ground. The Bloody Chester is hostile to the player, and will start attacking him if :

 

1° You don't have the Eyebone on you : BC will attack you if you get too close to him.

2° You have the Eyebone in your inventory : BC will hunt you as long as you have the Eyebone.

 

Somehow, the BC is still attracted by the Eyebone, but will "gobble" it (BC don't want to be your pet). If you'd store the Eyebone in a chest, he will find and destroy it, in order to be able to gobble the Eyebone. You'll actually have to kill chester to recover the Eyebone, and after one day, Chester will come back to normal. If you didn't kill him, he will be wandering around the map (a BC marker will be added upon his transformation), he won't come back to his normal state until you kill him.

Bloody Chester drops his Eyebone, and Bloody Chester Horns that are required to build the MADCHINE.

 

MAD SCIENCE !

 

In order to unlock the Mad Science crafting panel, you'll have to build a Madchine.

 

Some items you can craft through it :

- The Night Light is moved to the Mad Science panel.

- Shadow Torches : crafted from 2 nightmare fuels and 2 twigs. It have a tiny sanity drain (2/min), don't provide any light in regular season, but can replace regular torches during the Nightmare season.

- Twisted Eyeglass : counters some effects of insanity. You'll see the world as if you had max sanity (no darker screen, beardlings, beardlords and werepig turn back to normal) ,and will no longer be attacked by shadow creatures, but it drains 10 sanity per min (so it wont be so easy to get your sanity back), and last for only 4 mins (half a DS day). It can be considered as a reversed Shadow Amulet.

- There's more to come.

 

 

That's all for now, feel free to post your thoughts about it.

 

 

 

PS : English is not my native language, sorry if there's some misspelling, mistakes...

[InaneDugong]

Hmmm. 

 

1) No Charlie - ever. This is a bloody Golden Rule; can we get used to it? Let's not ruin the one MYSTERY that keeps us going woolalaa.

2) Love the idea of Nightmare Hounds. They sound like lots of fun. Well, kinda. I mean, it'd wash out the crawling terrors though since we'd get really used to their abilities. I'd be cool with Hounds that look like they're on fire but with nightmare stuffs coming off of them (like dem Pokimonz, entei or rapidash or whatever the... Please don't berate me).

3) A 5th Season is a neat idea, only, uh:

 

Lots of people have discussed the issue with DS's difficulty after 150 days and, at the moment, it is somewhat difficult - but it's also not. The player gets spammed by Hounds in increments forcing them to camp whenever the increments are spawned. This style of play encourages only a select few strategies and disregard the rest. DS doesn't need super powers to throw at the player, it needs consistent difficulties for the player to overcome (i.e. something continuous). So, consider this.

 

4) Yeah, more lightning strikes, more frog rain, more weather hazards, these over saturate elements of the game that are already brutal. Sure, the player will die more often, but it won't necessarily be fun. 

5) More spawning of Queens, Wargs, and Treeguards wouldn't hurt given the player can avoid them. More environmental threats is a good thing so long as they aren't skewed towards ridiculous threats like More Giants~

6) Blood Moon is probably your coolest and most innovative suggestion yet. I like it. I like it a lot.

 

Yeah, you get the picture. Nice ideas. Keep reconsidering them and reposting.

[WillPwn4Food]

I've made a suggestion that seems relatable to this thread: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/34706-creatures-from-the-caves-that-hunt-you/

 

 

I know we're at the tail end of our updates here so the chances of this being implemented are zero to none, especially considering Klei said no additions to the caves for this DLC, but what do you all think about a mob that comes out of the caves and hunts you (similar to MacTusk Hunting Party but not seasonal)?

 

Most players on this forum point out that for the most part caves and ruins aren't worth the risk. However, what if a certain underground mob would build themselves a base (nothing fancier than the equivalent of a few hound mounds) once a year or so and come above ground to hunt you down. Then, you would have to eventually venture underground to find their base (spawners) and destroy it, thus temporarily ending the frequent visits from these hunters until the game spawns another base for them down there.

 

This idea would give us all a necessary reason to venture down into the caves on a somewhat consistent basis, as well as work against turtling since you'd eventually have to leave the defenses of your base

[Krac]

I like the idea, but some things must be tunned, like the no advice in temperature changes and climate one, but more radical fluctuations (refected in the thermometer and rain machine). Also liked the idea of a nightmare giant, but not Charlie, maybe some shadow hands or a changeling that adopts other giants aspects. 

 

Also it would be cool if that season bring changes to biomes, making savanas into swamps, forests into rock ones and so on. Some shadow hands could be add to reshape them with the corresponding resources (taking rocks and planting pines, creating new spelunk holes, spawning hives). Not all biomes may change, but it would refresh old worlds nevertheless

[InaneDugong]

Honestly, if you know what you're doing and aren't playing Wes, caves level 2 isn't even that hard. An abundance of food and light, just got to kite like a mofo. 

[Sideview]

Thanks for your replies.

 

@InaneDugong : I see your point and I'll consider it. I'm accordingly going to edit my post.

 

@WillPwn4Food : Yup, this could be a nice addition. I will take some time to read the full thread.

 

@Krac : After review, I agree that some things have to be tweaked/tunned. Some (if not all) of these ideas were added before a full reflexion. Changes to biomes may be hard to implement, but it's a cool idea so I'll keep it in mind.

 

 

I'm definitely going to update this topic in the next few hours, and as long as it get constructive replies.

[brummbar7]

- MAD SCIENCE !

YEP!

 

As for the rest, it seems a bit too much.  Random tempature variations will probably just force people to turtle a lot with all their gear.

 

Doubled night sanity drain when almost the entire clock is night and evening is probably too much.  Pick one.

 

How long is this "season"?  If it's only 5 days it might be doable similar to what you describe.  If it's like a regular one, too much.  The ideal would probably be that it start very short - just a few days - but gets longer and longer the farther the game goes on.

 

But I support the general concept of a nightmare season.  Even if it makes the ruins a bit less of their own thing.

[Sideview]

YEP!

 

As for the rest, it seems a bit too much.  Random tempature variations will probably just force people to turtle a lot with all their gear.

 

Doubled night sanity drain when almost the entire clock is night and evening is probably too much.  Pick one.

 

How long is this "season"?  If it's only 5 days it might be doable similar to what you describe.  If it's like a regular one, too much.  The ideal would probably be that it start very short - just a few days - but gets longer and longer the farther the game goes on.

 

But I support the general concept of a nightmare season.  Even if it makes the ruins a bit less of their own thing.

 

Whoops, forgot to write the season lenght... I was thinking about 12 days (one fullmoon cycle), but I love your "longer and longer" idea.

...

And yet another idea : I was thinking about the turtling "problem", and, at the same time about @WillPwn4Food suggestion.

 

What if, in order to see the Nightmare season stop, you had to defeat its "giant" ?

What if "it" doesn't die like other giants, but instead just vanish like a crawling horror ?

What if it comes and hunts you every X days as long as you don't find its lair and destroy it ?

Its lair could be located in caves :

- If you have one or more caves opened/explored, one lair will be generated in each cave (you won't have to destroy them all, destroying one will "erase" the others, just to make it a bit more "simple" to find)

- If you hadn't open/explore one yet, the lair will be generated with the first cave you will explore.

- If you don't have caves enabled, I see two options : the lair is generated above ground, or you just have to kill the monster. What is better ?

 

To keep the "longer and longer" thing, the lair/giant could spawn later and later the farther the game goes.

 

This way, the nightmare season will act as a sort of adventure mode scenario, but in the survival world.

[Rici]

summer is already a nighmare....

[WillPwn4Food]

I have a detailed thread about a new mob here: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/35020-solution-to-lack-of-incentive-in-caves-raiders/

 

I think it would make a great addition to the next DLC

[The Letter W]

I can't say I have anything to contribute but I do say I like this idea!