Birdcage [Here we go again!]

[_Q_]

Birdcage item is incredybly broken.

Any meat = egg instnatly, that applies to monster meat to, but now you must dry or cook it first.

Its very old exploit, game moved quite far and that thing is still in game. It was stated that egg spam is for players to get eggs for gunpowder, at that time penguins wasn't in game yet, so that was only way to get eggs. Now we can get eggs from penguins after winter or during winter if you want, and yet birdcage egg spam still remains in place.

Birdcage + nearby spider den and you have constant food source, and its quite easy to kill spiders, or just use traps to farm them for tons of monster meat. then you just trade 3 monster meat for eggs and put them into crock pot with one more monster meat for meat balls.

Next thing is that birds eat air, and refresh seeds in the proccess. When you give spoiled seeds to bird in a cage you will get fresh seeds instantly for no reason whatsoever.

I thought Ice Boxes are the thing to store seeds and food and slow spoiling time.

 

 

[Spazmatic]

It still surprises me the birdcage hasn't been changed at all (even the change that the bird inside the cage could die has been removed again). As long as the birdcage will function the same not starving is so damn easy regardless of what season you're in... Sure you could simply not use it but still, this exploit shouldn't be left into the game.

[GuGonce]

I agree that it's quite OP but i really hope they don't bring the hunger in birdcage back, it's way too much micromanagement. I think that the bird could require more meat to produce an egg, i guess 3 would be enough to make spamming only worth if you have a ton of monster meat about to spoil.

Also, the birdcage is not that simple to craft. 6 gold and a seed is easy to get but you need to risk yourself in the swamp to get the papyrus. And it requires the alchemy engine to prototype. New players will probably die before crafting one.

[Snob]

Being honest here, I don't think they're going to change it. I love these balancing threads, but I don't think it'll be enough to convince them to change the mechanics.

[orian34]

perhaps don't eating the seeds to make freshs?

[AlbinoWyvern]

Very op, especially if you live close to a swamp or have some other constant meat supply as you mentioned. They should limit the amount of seeds/meat it can eat a day (1 meat item and 5 seeds, perhaps?)

[spencer320]

What about fruits and vegetables then? Unlimited?

[spencer320]

I was really hoping Klei would have added a feed tube to the side. So you could fill it with seeds and see the amount left like an ice flinger. That made the most sense to me.

[porps]

if you think it's too overpowered you could always just... wait for it... not use it. It's just one of the many many ways in the game to easily obtain food. Big deal.. yes the name of the game is dont starve, but really, thats the easiest part and not just because of birdcages.

 

I assume they reverted the birds starving in cages thing because it just meant people werent bothering to use birdcages at all. The reason for that? why bother messing about with birdcages when food is so easy to come by from other sources which dont require constant micro management or for you to return to your base every couple of days.

 

But like i said - if you think the game is too easy because of birdcages, noone is forcing you to use them.

[Decelexevi]

Overpowered or does it just give you too much? Gunpowder is really only great for taking down the Dragonfly, hence why you'd need the birdcage as literally the only way to acquire that off-season. 15 meat for 15 eggs, 15 nitre, and 15 charcoal is a bit of gathering for a 1-time dose of killing power even if the eggs have a somewhat easy method of acquisition. 

 

My problem with the birdcage is I just end up with so many seeds of so many varieties by day 100 I'm just throwing it all out.

 

Also keep in mind those 15 eggs need to sit in a box and rot for a week before you can even use them for gunpowder.

[Decelexevi]

 Big deal.. yes the name of the game is dont starve, but really, thats the easiest part and not just because of birdcages.

 

Game needs a title change to 'Don't be a hero and try to kill that tentacle when you don't have an effigy and your helmet is at 15% durability you freakin dongle'.

[Amkar]

As per suggestions when eggs were added, monster meat should make a monster bird.

[oCrapaCreeper]

Game needs a title change to 'Don't be a hero and try to kill that tentacle when you don't have an effigy and your helmet is at 15% durability you freakin dongle'.

Done.

[Decelexevi]

I love you.

[brummbar7]

+1 to this.  I think the only reason the starving birds in RoG didn't stick was that Klei didn't want to devote the manpower to making a seed tube graphic for the birdcage - which was EASILY the most logical approach to making bird starving tolerable, versus having to take it with you everywhere.  

Every other OP system got nerfed in RoG, except for birdcages: crock pot food forever, immortal rabbits, and jerky on rack forever.  Even farm food won't last forever in the field unless protected by a flinger.   I definitely agree birdcages should be made to return 1 egg per day.  Should be super-easy to code.

[_Q_]

Don't use hahaha:D

Best advice for a game balance issue.

Won't even bother with this, cause its waste of time.

[porps]

Don't use hahaha:D

Best advice for a game balance issue.

Won't even bother with this, cause its waste of time.

 

it's not an issue.

[_Q_]

it's not an issue.

 

It is, but like almost everyone is fine with it.

It elimantes the need for other food sources, and monster meat is always around the corner.

[Pluc]

+1 to this.  I think the only reason the starving birds in RoG didn't stick was that Klei didn't want to devote the manpower to making a seed tube graphic for the birdcage - which was EASILY the most logical approach to making bird starving tolerable, versus having to take it with you everywhere.  

Every other OP system got nerfed in RoG, except for birdcages: crock pot food forever, immortal rabbits, and jerky on rack forever.  Even farm food won't last forever in the field unless protected by a flinger.   I definitely agree birdcages should be made to return 1 egg per day.  Should be super-easy to code.

 

Bee boxes didn't get nerfed either. I guess it should start spoiling once full, no ?

[porps]

It is, but like almost everyone is fine with it.

It elimantes the need for other food sources, and monster meat is always around the corner.

 

You could say the same thing of ice, (3ice+1 monster meat) or of bee boxes (you can easily live entirely off honey unless you're playing as wigfried). Food just isnt really a problem in general except for when you're a complete beginner perhaps.

[_Q_]

You could say the same thing of ice, (3ice+1 monster meat) or of bee boxes (you can easily live entirely off honey unless you're playing as wigfried). Food just isnt really a problem in general except for when you're a complete beginner perhaps.

Not even then. At some point game changed to gather bigger audience around it.

There was idea of queen bee posted by Kevin and many others.

The same with clothes durability, they added it and then rage on forums started so they lowered numbers on crafting materials you need to make clothes, but it was not good and rage contiuned so they added sewing kit. After adding it they should change crafting cost on some clothes again, but that never happened, and now its not even worth to use sewing kit.

Balance on things in this game is questionable.

And I could go on like this whole day, but it would be great waste of time on my side, no need to explain things to people that are not interested in the subject.

 

Many choices made during development of this game are simply LAME.

[XirmiX]

Birdcage probably wasn't changed because not many people use it, therefor not many tell about bugs that might happen to it or it being OP or the other way round.

[Doctor H. Derp]

As per suggestions when eggs were added, monster meat should make a monster bird.

 

That's what I wanted way back in the day. Monster birds when you were low on sanity and for monster meat to have monstrous effects on the "Innocent" creatures that ate from them.

[brummbar7]

Bee boxes didn't get nerfed either. I guess it should start spoiling once full, no ?

Good point.  I've never really used bee boxes that intensely, I just make a couple to keep me in honey ham.  Although I think Klei  somewhat felt they at least gave it a nod by making bees hostile in spring.  Not that big a deal, but it was something. 

[Doctor H. Derp]

The same with clothes durability, they added it and then rage on forums started so they lowered numbers on crafting materials you need to make clothes, but it was not good and rage contiuned so they added sewing kit. After adding it they should change crafting cost on some clothes again, but that never happened, and now its not even worth to use sewing kit.

Balance on things in this game is questionable.

 

I was one of the main pushers against durability being added to clothes.

 

Why? Because I thought, and still largely feel, that being called to constantly farm gear is a tedious chore. Once I knew that the Tam o'Shanter was going to inevitably break, and with no means to repair it back then, what else was I supposed to do other than farm Mac'Tusk hoping to get a few replacements before summer(autumn) rolled back in? It was arguably the best hat you could get in the game at that time.

 

Also I thought it was taking the game in the wrong direction. If Klei makes you have to constantly tangle with old content to get your standard issue winter survival gear each season, that means they can't make the next or subsequent winters that much harder because then you start running into unfair deaths if the chill factor quadruples, or sanity drains triple the amount during a winter's night, or some new very difficult winter monster appears that saps the heat right out of you.

 

I wanted the gear to be permanent so that Klei could make winter more about challenge and new threats as opposed to maintenance of what you already had. Gotta farm me that winter koalaphant! Gotta farm me that Mac'Tusk.

 

Honestly though, I think Klei struck a good balance with the sewing kit. It's true, it doesn't make much sense to use a sewing kit on, say, a top hat, but for a Tam o'Shanter? An Eyebrella? Yeah it does.

 

How badly do you really want to farm monsters to get a replacement for the gear that's about to break?

I'd rather explore the ruins, encounter new monsters, do something more exciting, move on to more difficult content instead of just wrangling with the same old thing time and time again.

 

Y'know, looking back, maybe I got the false sense of progression in the game. Maybe it's not that you're supposed to graduate from grass suits to log suits, spears to ham bats, or from old content to new, but that there should be a reason to use all the items given a specific situation. It's just that I never saw that situation in which I'd rather use a grass suit or a spear when I had clearly better options at hand.