Genocide's gameplay suggestions

[genocide]

Hey guys, i've been playing Don't Starve like crazy ever since i bought it just a few days ago (i've already got 15 hours invested), and i've been thinking about a lot of things that (i personally think) will improve the game. Note that i have not read any of the forum posts, so i am sure some of these ideas have come up before, but i hope i have something new to add.

1. Steel/Bronze/Silver metal resources, which should be very rare; possibly dug from graves?
   
2. Metal chests which should be very hard to produce. The idea is to have a chest variant that Krampus will have zero effect on. An alternative would be to have a KEYED chest, of which you would need to use an inventory slot to keep the key in order to unlock/use it.
   
3. NPC's, perhaps with their own bases? These characters should be friendly, but if you steal or harm them, become hostile.
   
4. Boss monsters. Tons of them. Perhaps limit 3 per world, but the 3 that are chosen are done so by a random variable. Let them respawn, but make them EXTREMELY hard.
   
5. Other armor; perhaps heavier armor that is harder to break, but slows you down just a smidgen.
   
6. Let pigs use Armor, and weapons. They're too weak. Having them in your entourage is kind of useless at the moment except for luring them away to murder them.
   
7. Dog cages, for aesthetic reasons.
   
8. Make the mining hats power infinite, but make the resources you need to create the hat far more complex. For example, make the hat require 50 fireflies or something similar. The hat should be far more rare, and useful.
   
9. Flashlight, which requires batteries that you would have to produce using jars, and fireflies.
   
10. Snakes. Perhaps digging up rabbit holes would have a small chance of surfacing a snake, which would drop snakeskin when killed. Snakeskin could be used to forge clothing items.
    
11. Deer, Bears, Cows, and Bigfoot. We need more mythical stuff.
    
12. Fishing in the ocean. Even if you have to produce 'fishing docks' for such a thing to happen. There should be various kinds of fish, and some should drop scales that are used in crafting.
    

I'm sure i'll think of more as time goes on, but i think this is it for now. I hope i've said something new or interesting. Thanks for the incredible game, guys!

Edited December 16, 2012 by genocide

[mobius187]

Steel/Bronze/Silver metal resources, which should be very rare; possibly dug from graves?

New ores have been suggested before, but the key factors here was their usefulness. I for one have supported the idea of including iron ore and coal, which would lead to creating steel. However I'm cautious about these suggestions because if the sole purpose of new ores is just to upgrade existing tools or weapons, well, then that seems boring. I don't need or want the same durability/speed/damage progression found in games like Minecraft.

Metal chests which should be very hard to produce. The idea is to have a chest variant that Krampus will have zero effect on. An alternative would be to have a KEYED chest, of which you would need to use an inventory slot to keep the key in order to unlock/use it.

Heh, well you know the purpose of the Krampus is for anti-hoarding. Veteran players such as myself have amassed huge fortunes in terms of food and resources, and to store them we've crafted dozens of chests. The Krampus is there to level the playing field and reduce players hoarding as much as we used to. As such, preventing the Krampus from looting/destroying chests would break the Dev's "fix".

NPC's, perhaps with their own bases? These characters should be friendly, but if you steal or harm them, become hostile.

Nah. I wouldn't want there to be any other humans and the game is about dealing with isolation. The pig men are really all the companionship we need (plus any new races they add for later in the game).

Boss monsters. Tons of them. Perhaps limit 3 per world, but the 3 that are chosen are done so by a random variable. Let them respawn, but make them EXTREMELY hard.

Well you'll need to be more specific. There will be more powerful creatures to face in the near future.

Other armor; perhaps heavier armor that is harder to break, but slows you down just a smidgen.

Personally I always felt the durability was just fine for the log suit, however wearing it should slow the player down to balance out how easy it is to craft. Then they could always add in animal hides and let the player craft hide armor that would work exactly like the log suit does today. I'm not sure we need uber-armors since they current armors provide reasonable protection without making you feel invincible.

Let pigs use Armor, and weapons. They're too weak. Having them in your entourage is kind of useless at the moment except for luring them away to murder them.

The day this happens they'll turn on us! I'm 50/50 on this idea... although I think giving them the football helmet to wear should give them armor.

Dog cages, for aesthetic reasons.

What is this "Home & Garden"?

How about a suggestion?

Make the mining hats power infinite, but make the resources you need to create the hat far more complex. For example, make the hat require 50 fireflies or something similar. The hat should be far more rare, and useful.

The problem here is that no light source is infinite. Once you create an infinite light source you defeat the #2 enemy in the game, the darkness. Personally I don't want that to happen. If the darkness bothers a player too much then they should play as Wendy... she creates her own fires (light).

Flashlight, which requires batteries that you would have to produce using jars, and fireflies.

Well I would like to believe the game takes place during the Victoria Era, so batteries wouldn't really be all too common (and certainly not the kind we're used to). I used to play Call of Cthulhu 1920s, and they had a hand-cranked electric lantern (i.e. old timey flashlight). Maybe something similar where you need to crank it up (to restore %) and then over time its light dims (% decreases, and extinguishes at 0%). Even so, this would need to be a difficult to construct item.

Snakes. Perhaps digging up rabbit holes would have a small chance of surfacing a snake, which would drop snakeskin when killed. Snakeskin could be used to forge clothing items.

Okay, I'm fine with the method and idea of snakes, but what items would you suggest snakeskin allow you to craft?

Deer, Bears, Cows, and Bigfoot. We need more mythical stuff.

My answers are: Maybe, Yes, No, and Why? Cows have been done to death in Minecraft. In fact, when I drive in teh countryside and I see cows on a farm my subconscious thinks: "Geeze, look at those farmers, couldn't they come up with a more original idea than copying Minecraft?".

As to mythological creatures... I would say I mostly disagree. Why? Because I think the Devs have the perfect opportunity to create 100% original creatures for their game, like they did for the tallbirds. I don't see a point of adding in creatures like dragons, just for the sake of dragons... and so on. When we see these well-known and stereotypical mythic creatures we always know what to expect and that's boring. The same goes for bigfoot or the yeti.

Fishing in the ocean. Even if you have to produce 'fishing docks' for such a thing to happen. There should be various kinds of fish, and some should drop scales that are used in crafting.

Yes, the idea of fishing in the sea and having docks has been discussed before and I wouldn't mind seeing both in the game. Of course the dock idea was connecting to adding in boats more than fishing. I don't think we need fish scales for the same reason why in today's society we have very few "fish scale" items... they're just not that great. However catching new types of fish to eat would be nice.

Keep on making suggestion.

[genocide]

I understand your issue with krampus and chests, but I believe that if you are willing to spend 20 days or so mining for the materials that are neede to create this incredible chest, you should be rewarded with not worrying about krampus ransacking it.

The chest would require material so rare that you would probably only be able to produce one or two per year of in game time, so you would still have to resort to using regular chests as these metal chests aren't very practical.