Nerfing plant transplanting with enemies

[horatio_svetlana]

the closer plants are standing together:

=> the more shadows are in between => more darkness => more space for spiders (just spawning there?)

=> the easier vermin are able to weaken and spread towards surrounding plants (delaying the berry-respawn-timer? poisoning the berries?

-Crownsend

I say you should just add berry bush mimics. They would look like regular bushes. Then when you go to pick their fruit they chomp down on you. The worst part would be that they eat and replace old bushes so eventually you wouldn't be able to trust any of your bushes. Think of the untold horror this would bring. ^-^

-Cubethulhu

These two had these ides in the Berry farming announcement thread. I think they're on to something.

We have the gobbler which spawns in berry bushes, and when I had a bunch of bushes together two popped up at once one time and I only managed to chase one at a time, leaving my berries exposed. The gobbler introduces a mechanic of spawning something in a plant, if enemies spawned in a similar fashion then it would have an effect.

A single spider spawning from grass when you pick it as often as a gobbler does isn't a huge threat. If you've planted 30 grass tufts very close together, at night you'd have 4 or 5 spiders attacking.

Basically I'm saying enemies spawns increasing the more plants are close together would give the player a small reason not to bring all the resources to one area.

[mobius187]

the closer plants are standing together:

=> the more shadows are in between => more darkness => more space for spiders (just spawning there?)

=> the easier vermin are able to weaken and spread towards surrounding plants (delaying the berry-respawn-timer? poisoning the berries?

Personally I don't think we need a "fear nerf" for resources like grass and/or saplings, when it would be far simpler to extend the respawn timer for the resources to reduce hoarding. Not to mention grouping that many resources together is a serious fire hazard, forcing players to abandon their base camp whenever the hounds bay for fear that a flame hound may appear.

Also, I think berry bushes work just fine now. I worry about harvesting them too quickly, as the Gobbler pops out a few seconds after the action (a good fix) and then berry bushes have two stages of growth... and if I harvest too Soon I risk withering a buch, which means I need to fertilize it.

The only other nerf I would consider for grass and berry bushes is to have creatures that naturally eat them. For example, I've suggested that beefalo should eat grass and tallbirds should eat berries. Not "crazy eating", like the Gobbler, but 2-3 per day. This problem is compunded should you gather all the resources on an island in one place as it means these animals would be more inclined to snack on them.

I say you should just add berry bush mimics. They would look like regular bushes. Then when you go to pick their fruit they chomp down on you. The worst part would be that they eat and replace old bushes so eventually you wouldn't be able to trust any of your bushes. Think of the untold horror this would bring. ^-^

Mmmm, maybe not a mimic. Another player suggested something along the lines of a... troll or gremlin. It steals your berry bush and replants it back where you took it from. Annoying, but not dangerous.

We have the gobbler which spawns in berry bushes, and when I had a bunch of bushes together two popped up at once one time and I only managed to chase one at a time, leaving my berries exposed. The gobbler introduces a mechanic of spawning something in a plant, if enemies spawned in a similar fashion then it would have an effect.

A single spider spawning from grass when you pick it as often as a gobbler does isn't a huge threat. If you've planted 30 grass tufts very close together, at night you'd have 4 or 5 spiders attacking.

Well this only happens if you foolishly harvest too quickly. Also, the berry bush is still a bush, so it leaves somewhere from which the Gobbler can emerge, but in the case of grass... the grass tuft is too small to hide anything. So a spider would need to appear immediately, which means you would only have disturbed one of them. Also... spiders return to their spider nest at night.

Basically I'm saying enemies spawns increasing the more plants are close together would give the player a small reason not to bring all the resources to one area.

The key issue I have with this is... why allow players the ability to replant resources if the end result is to punish them for it? It just doesn't make sense.

[horatio_svetlana]

I guess more enemies attacking a turtled base would mean the game wouldn't get too monotonous even for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtled 300 day survivors.

These spiders would be spiders that don't go back to their nests, but they'd still pop out of grass at night.

[mobius187]

I guess more enemies attacking a turtled base would mean the game wouldn't get too monotonous even for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtled 300 day survivors.

I've actually discussed this in another thread, but it's worth repeating. I see absolutely nothing wrong with what has been termed "turtling" (by the Devs). In fact, I think the focus is too much on player behavior towards building up their base camp and not enough on the reasons why this is bad. It's bad because survivors stay in the camp and no longer take risks, but then why doesn't a game like Minecraft suffer the same issues? That's simple, because there's a sense of adventure when exploring caverns, so players want to go out there and risk their lives. Until those elements are added to Don't Starve turtling will remain an issue, because after you've "done everything" you just want to build up what you have.

Now I agree certain aspects of turtling have exposed exploits that needed to be addressed, like tree/chest walls. The Devs rightly stepped in and fixed these issues as would be expected. In fact, they hinted they might be adding new walls to replace the exploit-walls they had nerfed. I don't know about you, but allowing players to build walls would seem to indicate to me that the Devs don't have a serious issue with building a base camp. I have no illusions however that it will go much farther than that, as unlike Minecraft, Sooner or later the players would need to abandon their base camp to progress in the game, never to return.

These spiders would be spiders that don't go back to their nests, but they'd still pop out of grass at night.

My only suggestions is, if they don't behave like spiders... why not suggest something new? A non-spider monster that hides in the grass? As I posted in another thread I had a spook once when, during the night, I thought I saw the grass collected near my camp moving... but it turned out to be the grass tufts re-spawning. But still, it had me going because it really did look like something was moving around in there.