Hello everyone. Fireflies, Caves and more.

[Sanni]

Hello everyone, I suppose this will serve as my introduction. I have been a big fan of Don't starve for an immensely long time, and quite frankly, after buying the DST Mega Pack, I have never been more pleased with this game. Ostensibly, because I can now count the days I endure beyond my friends through the notches on my belt and the girth of my beard-hairs.

 

Several people have already mentioned the problematic nature of caves in the Don't Starve multiplayer. universe, particularly that they are simply not optimization for a full-scale launch. I would simply like to raise the idea of something more...I suppose sinister as a replacement.

 

One of the more subtle notes in the DST experience, that perhaps even closer friends may not realize until the very end is the great scarcity of resources. Imagine my dismay when I learned that fluffy bunnies- would have to stay buried underneath the earth. A shame...

 

I came across an outdated mod several days ago labelled "Wild Growth" or something along those lines, and it reminded of another favourite survival game of mine, Project [Omitted]. This personal favourite, happens to be a zombie sim. (ooooh scary). One of the mods for this game introduced a dynamic environment.

 

As resources such as stone, fireflies, and yes, even bunnies- are simply not sustainable or obtainable in even a single player DST play-through, I would like to bring up a discussion of introducing a form of dynamic progression.

 

Here are several ideas I have had:

 

1) Sporadic events throughout the DST experience triggered through individual survival times. Much like hounds, eye-plants and death, I feel that players should be greeted with challenges and invasion like scenarios throughout their play-through. Perhaps, although a bit insane of an example, a player may find a small group of bunny men crash-landed near their location on day 50. Initial assumption may suggest moon-dwellers. Regardless, it seems the player is forced to verify the expiry date of their Ham Bat.

 

Additional events may include terrestrial changes (although I do acknowledge much of this is fantasy, even coding has time and labour constraints).

 

One of the more mundane changes which I feel need to be realized is some for of Firefly reproduction, as regeneration might be...excessive. In a single player universe, the gross over-population of the specimens allows for a great deal in creativity and flexibility in their use. In a multiplayer server, even a Miners cap could very well be a gross misuse of our favourite insect.

 

Furthermore, in tandem with my discussion of dynamic events earlier, perhaps if we cannot go into caves, and is possible through coding, we can bring them to us. World challenges such as appearances of larger tentacles, or cave spiders may be interesting, and even beneficial.

 

It would encourage, I believe, even friendly competition among players to reach these events first, and perhaps hope a bit that it isn't an enormous tentacle spawning into the world for once.

 

I suppose this concludes the bulk of my though on the matter. Although I am left with one more question, perhaps more to the developers than to the players.

 

Is it possible to create a cave-gateway through some sort of player achievement, if not through world-entrances? What I mean to say... is it possible to have some sort of economic, or at the very least competitive event in the world occurring in a DST universe that allows a single player into a cave (or equivalent) through competition or merit? Thereby encouraging wariness as well as cooperation and factions among players to secure the access to such a zone, even if it is only temporary.

 

I imagine such an even would begin with "I hold the conch, I get to speak."

 

Regardless, my (at this point I suppose it's a rant) contribution is over.

 

-S.

[Pyromailmann]

You know Klei has said they'd put Caves and Adventure mode (Caves might be first, they have to optimize Adventure Mode a bit). It'd be like a group adventure where everybody will go into caves.

[Sanni]

Ah alright, I didn't quite catch where they said that.

 

As far as I was aware, they said it was incredibly problematic and would either not be implemented, or would be implemented in a much baser form, and much farther down the pipeline ?

[Pyromailmann]

Ah alright, I didn't quite catch where they said that.

 

As far as I was aware, they said it was incredibly problematic and would either not be implemented, or would be implemented in a much baser form, and much farther down the pipeline ?

Farther down the pipeline most definitley.

As you can see in this picture, @Diabu, ran a dedicated server in the caves. You can see why they need work. Especially with the lighting.

Source: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/46046-when-will-caves-and-ultimately-giants-be-available-in-together/

[RalphKastro]

Initial assumption may suggest moon-dwellers.

Don't you dare to bring up the moon in these forums...

[Diabu]

Farther down the pipeline most definitley.

As you can see in this picture, @Diabu, ran a dedicated server in the caves. You can see why they need work. Especially with the lighting.

Source: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/46046-when-will-caves-and-ultimately-giants-be-available-in-together/

@Sanni

Yes I'm still working on it. Actually here is where I'm now :

 

The world is now considered as a cave world: no clock UI, earthquake...

Looks like invisible ground tiles are fixed, but cave spider are still invisible.

Weather, Dusk and Daytime are also still present :/

 

This need deep modifications for both Client AND Server side, so hard to release :/

Shortly after, the server crash because of earthquake (Now the bug is fixed, earthquakes are OK, see below)

 

[jangofet]

I agree with the renewable resources part, but most of the mentioned resources will be renewable once caves and RoG content are added. However, fireflies are only renewable in RoG through tumbleweeds (at an extremely low chance at that), I would hope they add a way to get fireflies without using RoG. Perhaps they can spawn rarely from nearby other fireflies.

The only problem I ever had with this game was the lack of resource renewability. I remember before caves, people would make all tools out of gold because gold was renewable, unlike rock or flint at the time.

Now almost all those problems are gone, with the exception of maybe gears and marble. Even that can be solved by mods, though.

 

[Sanni]

@Sanni

Yes I'm still working on it. Actually here is where I'm now :

 

The world is now considered as a cave world: no clock UI, earthquake...

Looks like invisible ground tiles are fixed, but cave spider are still invisible.

Weather, Dusk and Daytime are also still present :/

 

This need deep modifications for both Client AND Server side, so hard to release :/

Shortly after, the server crash because of earthquake (Now the bug is fixed, earthquakes are OK, see below)

 

 

Marvellous!

 

I suspect that the real hurdle to cross(not to diminish your astounding work) would be to find a way to create sub-dimensions or cross-world travel after the fact. Although this could be my own speculation as I am not entirely well versed in how sinkholes work per se, except for the fact that sinkhole spawning is entirely disabled on DST (as far as I know; default spawning commands do not function).

 

Perhaps one of the ways this could be implemented if at all possible would be to create a spawning gateway. similar to the kind players use upon connection to a survival or endless server? Regardless, this may be a bit to early to think of either problem as of yet.

 

I imagine you still have much testing to do before even considering integration into vanilla DST, including ruins, and that blasted spider problem. 

 

Either way, keep up the great work!

 

-S

[Redpine]

What if you can't get out of a cave until you beat a boss or a maze? It would make preparing much more important, and make bringing as many friends on the server as possible with you a good idea.

 

I also like the idea of global or localized events that make parts of the overworld dangerous or unusable until the source of the problem is conquered by the players as a team, such as diving into a cave to kill the core tentacle that's killing all the beefalo.