Spawning Circle

[BeastNips]

New players can't survive in groups. Yes, there are exceptions, but most of the newer players I see- who have a good enough grasp of the basic system to survivie the first 10-20 days or so - can't survive past the first winter.

 

The solution, as many have said in various "The game is too hard!" topics, is to go solo initially. And all that comes with that. This is not obvious at all; why would you in a multiplayer game? I think the game should push you to do this more.

 

Spawn Circle

Basically, I'm not a fan of the portal; I don't think player should start in the same place. Is this possible to change this already? Yeah, kinda. Change the settings and this can happen (with some drawbacks that I don't enjoy).

 

I suggest that the default setting should be that players spawn within a certain radius from the portal (which is just an invisible point indicating the centre of the map).

 

What this does, is force players to engage in the solo experience in the early stages of the game. Your goal is to find other people, so going solo becomes passive to that; going solo is your only option for a while. This greatly increases the chance of players getting through the first summer, and getting the right ingredients to make a stable food supply/stockpile for winter.

 

The radius would be far enough that players won't find each other immediately, but it wouldn't take too long.

 

A downside is that this would require changes to the worldgen meaning each player would start in a 'friendly biome'. Another downside is that this may discourage players as they wouldn't get their 'together' experience immediately.

[rezecib]

@BeastNips, I don't expect this will have the effect you think it will. I'd predict this would just add an extra stage where the new players would all try to find each other, wasting more of their precious early game time only to restore the state that they currently start in. The reason I think that's what'll happen is because generally a new player enters and says "where's base?"-- their first thought is to meet up, even if it's highly unlikely that there is a base yet (first 5 days).

 

Edit: That being said, I agree that there should be some mechanic that encourages them to separate out early on. I can't think of anything I'd be happy with, though...

[DarkXero]

The mechanic that encourages new players to separate is DEATH.

[rezecib]

The mechanic that encourages new players to separate is DEATH.

I agree that it definitely does encourage separation, but it comes at too much of a delay, so many new players don't get that separating is the solution to their problems. Perhaps we need something like the introductory Maxwell, which guided people to collect stuff before nightfall.

 

Maybe... The portal looks like it's got some living parts (the hand, the eye), maybe it could say "Another hungry survivor? You'd better split up unless you want to starve!". Sounds kind of cheesy, though, but maybe a variant on it could work.

[DarkXero]

but it comes at too much of a delay

 

What comes after too much of a delay are the surprises you get in the ruins and in adventure mode, that make you die and restart all over.

 

You get in the world, you all clump up, you die if you suck. If you keep repeating the same and keep dying and keep insisting on the same, thinking the outcome will change, you are insane.

 

Perhaps the better, simpler, approach, instead of teaching new people what to do, it's to make players who know what they are doing to leave them alone to die. Let new people get their ass kicked by the game.

[avilmask]

Wilderness mode for the president!