Suggestions Items/Character/Monsters

[John]

I'd like to say thank you, I think the game is great and I more than got my moneys worth when I bought this. But I'm hoping since this is still in beta you might still be open to a few(/sh** load of) ideas.

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An old British Hunter/Explorer character, who can't see very far (old-age and hat) nor wear any other hats (sentimental value) but can use a golden blunderbuss (more later)

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Blunderbuss:

Okay to address this point quickly, the gold blunderbuss would require charcoal, gold, wood and flint. Reloading occurs using the harvest animation for a balanced period of time. The gun is not made of the optimal materials and will thus deteriorate with each shot faster than most tools. It fires wooden stakes to great effect but there is a 1/3 chance of missing.

Smoking Device/Instrument/Pipe:

If sanity is added to the game this would calm the character down but reduce his/her health, child characters are too young to smoke though.

Gentleman's Kettle/ Hot-Beverage Dispenser:

A gentleman scientist knows no better way to calm ones nerves than with a cup of aromatic tea, the tea is made from leafs of a special tree and flower petals. The drinker regains some sanity.

Pointy Deterrent:

Allows players to better establish their base of operations. The pointy deterrent can be attacked at the cost of said attacking "beast's" health.

Operating on the assumption that there are still plans to add a winter season to this game, I would like to suggest a Snow-Beast appear as a tougher enemy, that is all.

Here is also a winter-monster, that would act in a similar manor to the tree-golem, the player plucks a carrot form the snow only to find out it belongs to a grumpy snowman. They melt near fire.

A dwarf sized drake floats/waddles through the forests belching fire to... whatever it feels like, it would devastate bases, and forests. The drake causes other monsters to flee.

The Golden Crown can be crafted using gems, gold and beast-fur. It is a symbol for brainless humanoid allies that you are a leader, and can be used to reduce the rate in which they need lose interest in following you without food.

Could also be used to command monkey and pig together, or increase a unit handicap.

Swamp Cyclops:

A small easy enemy that waits in swamp ponds waiting for silly wonderer's to run by them so that it may ponce.

Other ideas (theses ones have likely been said)

Crows eat dropped meat, red-birds eat planted crops, rabbits eat crop at mid-late stage of development.

Scare-crow: Stops the above^^^ within a balanced radius

Voodoo Mask: You can fuel a fire with your crazy fire-dance

Record Player: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbJlIJF0oeRovQ4LeLYb-3-Y1CY0SQkK2pv1c2vqqDG27DGYMt Would add sanity to a character within a radius.

Ship-wreckage/ floatsome: Allows the player to have access to all grave dropped items through random chance, perhaps there would even be a chance of lore being added through here with diary pages of each character being washed ashore.

[mobius187]

An old British Hunter/Explorer character, who can't see very far (old-age and hat) nor wear any other hats (sentimental value) but can use a golden blunderbuss (more later)

Hmmm. I just checked... and nope, sorry. There isn't a character that matches this description. If this response puzzles you then rest assured its only a spoiler if I say more. If you insist on knowing using the forum search option and search for "character portraits". But be warned... spoilers.

Blunderbuss:

Okay to address this point quickly, the gold blunderbuss would require charcoal, gold, wood and flint. Reloading occurs using the harvest animation for a balanced period of time. The gun is not made of the optimal materials and will thus deteriorate with each shot faster than most tools. It fires wooden stakes to great effect but there is a 1/3 chance of missing.

Ah, my old friend... the blunderbuss. Always more comical in cartoons than in real life, but what an amazing name. In the past I've been torn between this name and the "flintlock rifle". Of course rather than firing wooden stakes I suggested the real deal, a lead ball. My suggestion involved three crafting items: the rifle, the powder horn, and lead balls. Of course we don't have lead in the game, so I opted for more expensive ammunition... gold ore. The fact that you can feed the pig king and get more makes it a reasonable trade-off.

The rifle would allow one-shot kills at range, those are two powerful PROs. The CONs would be that it required 3 item slots (rifle, horn, ammo/ore) and took several seconds to reload... as you had to combine the powder horn with the rifle, and then combine the ammo/ore with the rifle... which was followed by a final loading animation. All of this meant that in combat with multiple enemies the rifle was mostly useless as you would be eaten alive by the time you reloaded it.

As a side note, the gunpowder horn required new resources to be added in order to craft it... but the same resources could be used to craft other combustable chemicals...

Smoking Device/Instrument/Pipe:

If sanity is added to the game this would calm the character down but reduce his/her health, child characters are too young to smoke though.

True... but I doubt it would be added. Smoking in games is often considered a faux pas.

Gentleman's Kettle/ Hot-Beverage Dispenser:

A gentleman scientist knows no better way to calm ones nerves than with a cup of aromatic tea, the tea is made from leafs of a special tree and flower petals. The drinker regains some sanity.

Ah yes, tea. This has been suggested before and for the sake of restoring sanity. To add this to the game I suggested we add a new tea bush and allow players to harvest tea leaves from it. From there we would need to craft a teacup and combine the two through the almighty power that is the crock pot. I know, strange, but it's the existing food combiner/creator... so why not use it? After it's done you get a cup of tea. When you drink it you gain a small amount of Health, Hunger (satiated), and a good chunk of Sanity back.

Pointy Deterrent:

Allows players to better establish their base of operations. The pointy deterrent can be attacked at the cost of said attacking "beast's" health.

By this I assume you mean a wall of wooden spikes/skewers. It would make sense, so long as it can become damage and destroyed. Also if the player passes through it they should also be hurt.

Operating on the assumption that there are still plans to add a winter season to this game, I would like to suggest a Snow-Beast appear as a tougher enemy, that is all.

Yes, Winter is coming. A creature that only appears during Winter is fine, however you'll need to give us more details. Where/when does it appear? How much tougher is it? How much damage does it deal? How does it interact with other creatures? How does it react to fire? What happens when we kill it? What would we get?

Here is also a winter-monster, that would act in a similar manor to the tree-golem, the player plucks a carrot form the snow only to find out it belongs to a grumpy snowman. They melt near fire.

The key issue I see here is that I believe during Winter there won't be any carrots. In fact, a lot of food resources will be scarce or missing until Spring returns. Also... golems are a common monster idea, even if the whole carrot-nose connection is kinda funny. I'm hopeful the game will include more unique monsters that haven't been used in other games. I mean, have you seen the tallbird? What is that thing?

A dwarf sized drake floats/waddles through the forests belching fire to... whatever it feels like, it would devastate bases, and forests. The drake causes other monsters to flee.

As above, drakes have been done before so I would like something... new. As for fire... we have the flame hound already and he does an excellent job of terrorizing base camps without destroying the entire world's biome balance. Sorry, but I think I'll pass on this one.

The Golden Crown can be crafted using gems, gold and beast-fur. It is a symbol for brainless humanoid allies that you are a leader, and can be used to reduce the rate in which they need lose interest in following you without food.

Hmmm. A crown has been suggested before, basically a copy of the one worn by the pig king. It would allow players to command pig men that are outside the "radius" of a pig king, which is fairly simple when you consider you can construct pig houses or lure pig men away with meat. The general idea is, as you stated, the pig men would follow you... however when night came they would still run off home to hide from the darkness (aka the Grue).

It also has no effect on werepigs.

Could also be used to command monkey and pig together, or increase a unit handicap.

Mmmm... no. Sorry. When munkies are added I want then to be the eternal enemies of the pig men and vice versa. That way you have to choose between either helping one side or the other, depending on whose help you need most. Of course I also support that these alliances aren't long term and you can switch sides by simply not having any followers from either camp.

Swamp Cyclops:

A small easy enemy that waits in swamp ponds waiting for silly wonderer's to run by them so that it may ponce.

We have one of these already... it's call a frog. Don't piss him off.

But seriously, I wouldn't mind a creature like this... but as with the first beast you mentioned you need to flesh out more of its details. There "where" is done, as you say it's in the swamp biome, but you have to tell us some more.

Crows eat dropped meat, red-birds eat planted crops, rabbits eat crop at mid-late stage of development.

In order: Nah, seeds unless they add rotted meat; 100% yes, as I've suggested this too; again 100% yes as this has been another suggestion I've made/supported.

Scare-crow: Stops the above^^^ within a balanced radius

It appears this is in the game, but unreleased (sneaky players examined the game code) and yes, it should have an effective radius shown only when placing it for the first time.

Voodoo Mask: You can fuel a fire with your crazy fire-dance

Mask? Sure, why not. Fuel fire for free while only wearing it? Sorry, no. How about if they add in weather than wearing the mask increases the chance it will rain? Why rain? Rain has two suggested purposes, putting out fires and watering crops. The second suggestion relies on crops being nerfed so they require waer to grow at different stages... and yes, I'm suggesting crops take longer to grow.

Record Player: https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbJlIJF0oeRovQ4LeLYb-3-Y1CY0SQkK2pv1c2vqqDG27DGYMt Would add sanity to a character within a radius.

I'm sure you meant to say "gramaphone", but sure, why not? How about it slowly estores sanity to listen to it, but the noise attracts monsters if played at night? Also, can the player craft it... or does he find it? What about the record discs/tubes?

Lastly, another option is replace the record player/gramaphone with a music box. A simpler solution that wouldn't need us to worry about records. Obviously I suggest it have the same drawback if played at night.

Ship-wreckage/ floatsome: Allows the player to have access to all grave dropped items through random chance, perhaps there would even be a chance of lore being added through here with diary pages of each character being washed ashore.

Well for this to happen we would first need some reliable biome on which said items could be washed ashore...hmmm... but what? I know! They should add a beach biome! Problem solved.

Edited December 16, 2012 by mobius187

[John]

Thank you for the reply. I'll skip the points that have obviously been addressed/dismissed by you.

Your first point did indeed confuse me, my first paragraph was a poorly worded suggestion, I did notice that the link was broken though. Unless you was, perhaps, trying to polity say "nah".

I was suggesting that there be an elderly military character, based off the old British military outfits used in India+Africa, and further define his role by giving him a sentimental hat he couldn't take off and a gun. As a name perhaps "Wellington" sub-heading "Former Military Extraordinaire". As a broader suggestion I would have simply implied an elderly pre-modern fighter-explorer, for instance a "conquistador" or something along those lines.

My sketch was this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qdLfzDng88g/UM1D462gx-I/AAAAAAAABWE/WE4Crsgq5HA/s1600/IMAG0310.jpg

Reference Image: https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8011/7490056362_e755c36986_m.jpg

But I'd completely forgot the possible use of the Pig-King to provide gold to shoot, I'd love to see a black-powder/steam weapon of some description maybe make it into the game, to act as a bazooka that's not to be wasted in case of tanks. But I agree with your points that sounds like it would work well.

The Pointy deterrent was also a broken link, I was thinking something along the lines of a WWII hedgehog tank block, for instance...

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UQ2Hdz4zG6k/UM1Dw3OEMdI/AAAAAAAABV8/e4USW6kkqfc/s1600/IMAG0309.jpg

Details wise I meant for it as a possible barrier, so passing through this would be impossible unless it was destroyed, beasts would only attack it as a last resort, but this might have issues with the late-game since all this “looks-like” it would only cost wood and rope.

As for the “winter-beast” I imagine they could either be the daylight enemy the game lacks during the summer days (in certain areas). During the nights they bury themselves in the snow and come morning the re-emerge, they'll hang out in all the places meat is abundant. For simplicities sake it would drop “monster meat”, fur, and perhaps horn (that could be used to store gunpowder, and stop players from getting the blunderbuss before winter).

As for the “Swamp-Cyclops” I imagine that in its current form it might hop, that it would by nature feed on frogs, that it wouldn't need a day/night cycle, and that it would flee when it had low health to go jump back into its pond. It would drop the giant frogs legs that it hops around on...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kf-4Ndeygz0/UM1DMwxRCYI/AAAAAAAABVU/hY3oD69WlSE/s1600/IMAG0304.jpg

Perhaps it could even act as the “Gobbler” does by jumping out of the swamp water and eating all the small frogs it can find, only attacking when attacked. Perhaps this could even be an ally that can be fed Frogs legs.

[mobius187]

I was suggesting that there be an elderly military character, based off the old British military outfits used in India+Africa, and further define his role by giving him a sentimental hat he couldn't take off and a gun. As a name perhaps "Wellington" sub-heading "Former Military Extraordinaire". As a broader suggestion I would have simply implied an elderly pre-modern fighter-explorer, for instance a "conquistador" or something along those lines.

Rather than a character... why not clothing items? I know I've suggested in the past that we need to be able to craft a pith helmet for safari hunting fun. As to why it seemed like I was nay-saying your character design... well... not to be a party pooper, but some industrious players managed to unlock about a dozen previously unseen character portraits and none of them match your character's description. Of course the Devs could always add new characters to the game, so who am I to say?

But I'd completely forgot the possible use of the Pig-King to provide gold to shoot, I'd love to see a black-powder/steam weapon of some description maybe make it into the game, to act as a bazooka that's not to be wasted in case of tanks. But I agree with your points that sounds like it would work well.

Another restriction I came to recently was to prevent players from crafting/loading/carrying several rifles/blunderbuss', was to limit it like the backpack. Simply, you can only carry the rifle in your hand slot or cursor... it cannot be placed in your inventory or backpack.

The Pointy deterrent was also a broken link, I was thinking something along the lines of a WWII hedgehog tank block, for instance... Details wise I meant for it as a possible barrier, so passing through this would be impossible unless it was destroyed, beasts would only attack it as a last resort, but this might have issues with the late-game since all this “looks-like” it would only cost wood and rope.

Well right now pathfinding is an issue for creatures in the game, so walls of any sort are being witheld. However, once this isue is resolved I'm sure that your barricades might be useful. I would suggest that since walls are already going to be in the game, why not have it that your barricade doesn't block pathfinding but just causes injury to any creature or player occupying its space. In this way a player could build walls around their camp and then surround their walls with your barricade... then enemies that attack the walls would enter the barricade's zone and become hurt. Then either they destroy the wall and head inside the camp or their die on the barricade's wooden spikes. Either way, they get injured. What do you think?

As for the “winter-beast” I imagine they could either be the daylight enemy the game lacks during the summer days (in certain areas). During the nights they bury themselves in the snow and come morning the re-emerge, they'll hang out in all the places meat is abundant. For simplicities sake it would drop “monster meat”, fur, and perhaps horn (that could be used to store gunpowder, and stop players from getting the blunderbuss before winter).

Sure, that sounds reasonable. Also I liked how you linked the horn drop to the gunpowder horn crafting requirements.

So, now we have the horn itself, but what about the gunpowder? The crafting formula for the gunpowder horn would probably be:

Horn + Charcoal + Saltpeter + Sulfur

And we already have charcoal in the game.

As for the “Swamp-Cyclops” I imagine that in its current form it might hop, that it would by nature feed on frogs, that it wouldn't need a day/night cycle, and that it would flee when it had low health to go jump back into its pond. It would drop the giant frogs legs that it hops around on...Perhaps it could even act as the “Gobbler” does by jumping out of the swamp water and eating all the small frogs it can find, only attacking when attacked. Perhaps this could even be an ally that can be fed Frogs legs.

Hmmm. My initial concern is the swamp cyclops appears to be a giant frog. Well, at least it doesn't steal items from your inventory. That being said... I'm just not sure how unique the creature is right now. Another forum member suggested that when the player was fishing at a pond that instead of pulling up a fish that there was a small chance they could pull up a monster. How about your creature function that way? It gets pulled out of the lake... the player has only a fishing pole equipped... and it attacks them. Just a thought.

[Guest Dandytard]

Love every single monster you created mate, Great drawing skills.