A noob's first impression

[cnith]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to say that I'm new to this kind of game and it was kinda cool at first but now it's getting to be a bit of a chore and a pain. I'm not adept at killing spiders, so now that you made even MORE spiders, I'm getting overwhelmed. The one eyed bird things are aggro enough, I hope you guys don't make it "more challenging."

I hate that you accidentally click on the wrong item (ie. trying to pick up a poo and instead you hit the beefalo) they all come kill you and most monsters are faster than you so basically you die. Not cool.

I loved the seeds the way they were because I relied on them for food since the bunny screaming is disturbing. Now I have to do the bunnies. Why do the bunnies scream after getting them from a trap? I already feel crappy for trapping them and then I have to hear them screaming when I kill them? They look dead when you get them out of the trap so why scream? It's really disturbing.

Farming was OK but now you guys made it worse, so now I can't even rely on that for food. My world is a bunch of little islands and I LIKE the world but it's a pain to have to wait days before I can go gather other stuff on the other islands. Maybe we can learn how to build boats? That'd be nice. Hell, if we can make a science machine, why not a boat?! That's simpler, tbh.

As a noob it's hard to research stuff, I'm too busy collecting and dodging to actually get research done. Not to mention the stupid gobbler who keeps spawning on my berry bushes. Now you guys made it so I can't even catch it at the edge, what the heck happened there? You guys want us noobs to starve because now we can't even pick berries because the stupid turkey ate them all and now we can't even kill it? We have no range weapons as noobs.

Since researching is such a pain, I have barely any hope of getting those too. Please make it easier to kill that dang thing or make the range weapons faster to get... like make them regular weapons not research ones... Shoot, wouldn't it be nice if you could throw the dang spear you made? Maybe make one like the traps, a throw-able knife or spear made from flint and twigs. I don't know but thanksgiving would be coming around about every day or so in my world, that's for sure... Yeah, he spawns THAT much and always eats all my berries.

I guess all I'm saying is please don't forget you have noobs to the game. Don't keep pushing us off. I really do like the game concept. I don't mind dying like a hundred times and still not getting to Wendy but I do mind that ithe game is getting harder.

My friend did get to Wendy but finds Abigail annoying in that she spawns right on top of you causing health damage. He also says it's annoying that she's always so dang close to your character. Could she be spaced more, please? Currently she's like an inch away and constantly "kisses" your character, causing damage. Is it possible to make it so she can't damage your character?

He also thinks Wolfgang is overpowered. He's twice as good at everything. I have no hope to getting to that guy but it sounds to me like that'd be the guy I should be playing as a noob. On the other hand, is that what you guys meant? That people should be playing Wolfgang to be safe? Doesn't that mean that then you'd have to keep "increasing" the challenge level and then people like me are screwed? That's not so cool. Especially since someone like me has no chance in hell of getting to that character. Maybe you should have made him the first character for us noobs and then for the people who need the challenge, they can play everyone else.

Or wouldn't it be better if he wasn't so overpowered but rather at similar levels as the other characters? Maybe his special ability could be like swinging boomerangs or something... Or that he can mine/cut/dig twice as fast, meaning his tools break down less than everyone else. He can still have the same as everyone 100 health and 100 hunger but be special for people who want to do the gathering of materials easier.

I know you can change characters at a tent but lord knows where you get one of those... I barely got my chemistry station up before I died from a stupid long legged bird because I PASSED (not collected) an egg. What's up with that? You PASS the egg, not collect it... why do they want to kill you?!

Killing beasts is my complete downfall here. I suck at it. I finally learned to take the hounds to aggro some other mob so they kill it for me but I'm sure you guys will "fix" that... I'm telling you, it's getting worse for us noobs...

Please make it fun again.

[Xuhybrid]

Use spacebar to pick up items.

Who said you have to fight spider nests?

[Tetris]

There are ways around..pretty much all of your problems, so I'll go paragraph by paragraph. I hope it helps some.

Normal spiders are very easy to kite. Wait until they attack you, hit them, they flinch, kill them. For higher tier nests, gather up 3+ pigs and have them attack it, feel free to help out or not. Or get some spider eggs and place them by your camp, and only kill the ones that go outside during the evening if you want to farm a few silk every day.

Before you click the item, read the action you're about to do. It says on the cursor.

many other food sources beyond rabbits and seeds. Beefalo, pigs, birds, fish, spiders, tallbirds, tallbird eggs. I'm past day 30 with a camp full of berry bushes and a beehive and I'm rolling in meat, honey (for health), berries, and seeds.

Why are you gathering on islands, unless they're rocks or something? Make a base camp, surround it with grass, sticks, bees, spiders, bushes, pigs, etc.

Research stuff, just dig up graves whenever you run by one. I always have a shovel on me, it takes like two seconds. Gobblers are stupid, throw a berry on the ground and it'll be so intent on walking up to it you can walk up to it and spear it.

Wolfgang's fine, he's a reward for reaching him, you don't have to use him. Tents are gotten through researching. Once you research, it's unlocked for every character and every map you'll make after that, though they'll be changing the system Soon. Tallbirds attack because you're near their baby. Birds in real life often do the same thing. If you don't stand still you won't get hit, since Tallbirds flash red and pause before lunging.

It has nothing to do with you being a noob but not taking advantage of what you can do instead of what you're currently doing.

[xeezy]

I see no problem with this. People that can't play the game WILL fail and WILL loose because the game is meant to be a survival game and it is MEANT to be hard. Tallbirds want to kill you because you are getting too close to their eggs and they can't trust you, they don't even know who you are. It's so easy to run away from them, and not even talking about killing them here. Wolfgang isn't THAT op really.. I mean, yes he has a great unique ability, but so does Wilson. Kill a few beefalos, survive a few days, get a razor - some trees, boom you have an ability to revive. Meat effigys are so easy to make once you know how to kill beefalos. Tents, killing spiders is really easy, of course don't attack the nest unless it's early on or you're ready to kill some warrior spiders. Wait for morning or when it's getting night-time, kill the ones that come out easily. You can lure out spiders by placing zombie meat outside their nest and only like three will come out I believe.

To be honest, all I see in this thread is "I SUCK AT THIS GAME, GAME TOO HARD, MAKE IT FUN". Sorry, but you need to learn how to adapt to the situation in game and learn how to play with the things in it. There are ways around everything. This game isn't even that hard once you get the hang of it which is after like, a day at most. Researching isn't a pain at all, find a graveyard, get a shovel, dig up the graves and feed the machine the stuff you dig up. It gives around 50-100 research points all depending on what it is. Yes, there is the ghost, but just run away and he'll loose his aggro and dissapear in a few seconds. He's pretty slow, too. So yep. You can also dig up grass tufts that give you 20 research points..

Back on the spider topic; yes it is annoying that you need silk but if you didn't, the game would be even easier, you wouldn't need to face monsters except hounds and maybe the spiders that come to your camp ocassionaly.

This whole thing summed up in one; Suck it up and improve your gaming.

Whenever you die, analyze what you did wrong and why you did and avoid doing so next time you're playing.

@Edit - Sorry for the first non-noob friendly reply, I briefly skimmed through the topic and it sounded like you've played this game for some time (not long but not just started playing) but still suck and that you think the game is too hard.

Edited December 21, 2012 by xeezy

[Moonphos]

Here's a few tips for you, fellow survivor.

You can rotate camera views using Q and E, or Left and Right Arrow Keys. This will help you to pick up things behind objects you don't want to threaten by accident (Like Beefalo, in your case). You can also use Spacebar, as Xuhybrid suggests. to pick up items that you can't click to pick.

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Spider Nests - Don't take on them when they have 2 or 3 bulges. They usually come in packs of 5 (2 bulges) or 8 (3 bulges), and have a new spider take over the dead ones every few seconds (if morning, only when attacking nest).

If you have need for Spider Silk, go near to a Spider's Nest, have a distance between you and the nest to be roughly half-a-screen away (you can just barely see the nest off the side of the screen). When night falls, make a Campfire, and feed logs into the fire several times, until you get a really strong fire.

After this, wait for a spider to approach. Then attack it! With a spear, you can take it out in 3 hits. If you do it this way, you will have better chances of thinning out spiders.

Carry a Torch or two with you. In the event that you get overwhelm despite having them only come one at a time, put on the Torch and hightail out of there.

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Tall Bird - Those one-eye bird things are territorial, and extremely protective of their eggs. They're like the dogs that goes aggressive and barks at you for simply walking pass the gate, whether or not you plan to touch/knock/climb-over/ignore. Even if you go pass the egg without planning to pick up, the Tall Birds will simply be angered at you stepping into its territory boundaries.

Always take a wide berth, from the nest, and from the general area of the Tall Bird... Or don't stop running.

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Farming - It was made harder now because many players stopped playing the game for what it intends to be, and sit down with farms. They do nothing but sit at farm, collect grown fruits, put seeds, and AFK. It was THAT easy to survive. Except for the occasional Hound attacks.

I can tell this will be further tuned, in order for farming not to be the one-ticket-victory answer to every problem in the game.

Simply put - It's reduced efficiency was to cope with many, many players who abused it for what its not intended to.

Food - If you need to forage for food, make several torches, wait until night falls (complete darkness), then go to the nearest Rabbit-Infested grassland. With luck, they'll all be sleeping on the surface. Just kill them for morsels. If you can't handle the sound, turn off your speakers or lower your volumn while you do your deed.

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Research - An easy way to do this is make Shovels, find for Saplings/Grass/BerryBush, and dig them out. You will have the roots (tuffs, they're called), which can be researched for 20 points per item.

My tip for you is to make a research station, get as many of those tuffs as you can, and just feed it to the machine. In fact, feed until you can research things that you want and need, then just suicide. It was what I did after 3 games, figuring out what I really need to do to succeed at this.

My suggestion is research - Rope (Refine), Board (Refine), Log Suit (Fight), Spear (Fight) and Football Helmet (Dress)

Rope: You need this to make Log Suit, which is body armor..

Log Suit: Body Armor.

Football Helmet: Body Armor.

Spear: Second best weapon.

Board: You don't really need this but... If you make this and feed it into a Campfire, it will burn for about half the clock (entire night and a little of the day)

You can kill Pigmen for Pig Skin to make Football Helmet. To kill Pigman easily, feed ONE with Monster Meat, lead him far from other pigman, then hold "CTRL" to force-attack him to death. Repeat until you get Pig Skin. You can also get Edible Meat with this method.

Edited December 21, 2012 by Moonphos

[Captain Potato]

Sorry to hear that... For me the priority for new players should be unlocking all items by research.

Collect enough berries and carrots on your first 3 days then locate a rocky area to find enough gold for an alcemy and science machine.

Find a graveyard and dig out all the goodies and feed them to the machines.Stay clear of any danger u r not used to.

Keep restarting until u get the essential items

After that try and get some protection like the football helmet. If you are still scared wait till you have a meat effigy before doing risky things

[Raveneye]

What all these guys suggested is good advice, and I'll add a little more:

1.) When you are around a bunch of critters you don't want to attack, un-equip your tool/weapon, then go clicking around for stuff you want without fear of hitting anything.

2.) Second, you can move with the "wasd" key format, if you don't want to click all the time.

3.) Lastly, range weapons aren't that great, all of them require feathers and stingers, which means you need to attack something to make them in the first place (bees for stingers, spiders for silk if you want definite bird catches), which, by the sounds of it, isn't your forte.

[Lagoe]

*Wall of text*

But yeah, what you said is correct, he's being closed minded about what he does. He's trying only a few methods which arn't working for him.

I'm a noob, I've played for less than a week. I'm almost up to Wendy and have an alchemy engine and all science machine level research. I've played 23 in game days overall, counting previous adventures. This isn't a game where you are meant to be able to farm endlessly as a noob, ok it's day 5 and I can never starve. Stupid. Do you really care about killing bunnies in a computer game? Really? That's your problem if you don't wanna eat them. Wolfgang is OP and should be OP. The liberarian is just UP. But if we look at this, Wendy and Wolfgang > Willson and Willow. It should be like that.

Be creative, don't expect things that once worked or never have to always work.

[ButtercupSaiyan]

He also thinks Wolfgang is overpowered. He's twice as good at everything. I have no hope to getting to that guy but it sounds to me like that'd be the guy I should be playing as a noob. On the other hand, is that what you guys meant? That people should be playing Wolfgang to be safe? Doesn't that mean that then you'd have to keep "increasing" the challenge level and then people like me are screwed? That's not so cool. Especially since someone like me has no chance in hell of getting to that character. Maybe you should have made him the first character for us noobs and then for the people who need the challenge, they can play everyone else.

You already start off as one of the best characters by default: Wilson. Start researching razors and chests and working towards Meat Effigies.

[cnith]

I don't fight the nests, they come chewing at ME. I tend to leave mobs alone or try to but yeah, they come chewing.

The space bar thing doesn't work for attacking for some reason. I'm told it's supposed to but it doesn't. It does help for picking up items but if I have a shovel it messes things up too, lol. Lesson learned, don't equip anything but a spear when gathering.

[zaxvax]

If you use new map generator then you can try to build your base between bridges. God bless Z shaped briges, hounds and spiders just staying there stuck and waiting until you come to kill them. Downside is that bees stuck there too, which is annoying thing.

Space bar is tricky for fighting, can make you dead in no time. Fighting serious enemies I preffer WASD for movement and mouse click for attack.

Learning lessons is the point of the game. You make mistake and you pay for it with your life. Learn from it and don't repeat. If something goes wrong try different approach. Can't fight nests? Then stay away from them or make someone else fight for you.

[cnith]

Wall of idiotic text.

Nothing of what you said was useful nor intelligent. I have worked up to 25 days but my world is islands and bridges. It's a neat little world but it takes a while to get to resources. I don't like the bunny screams, that's my prerogative. I find it disturbing. If they just squeaked, probably wouldn't be an issue. But tbh, who cares if you don't agree? I sure don't.

I have explored the islands so clearly I'm not "holed up" in a base camp farming. I barely have any farms.

As for Wolfgang, why SHOULD he be OP at the fourth character. If he's meant as a "reward" as the other post-er suggested, then he should be LAST on the character list.

Creative is staying away from mobs, that I've survived at one point til that long is being creative. I play as the second girl,the fire one... Willow? I dont know, whatever her name is. All I know is she's got creepy eyes, lol.

My point is that you cannot make this game incredibly hard so that gamers like you are happy. How are they supposed to attract new "blood" if the game is meant for old timers like yourself? And by this I mean, people used to this kind of genre of gaming.

[cnith]

JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW: My worlds do not have a graveyard so before you all think I'm stupid for not digging up graves, that's not the case. I don't really have many graves. Maybe I just got a sucky world, who knows... but my point is...if there's me who got this kind of world, chances are, another noob will too.

For those of you who were actually HELPFUL... Thank you so much! I'll try the berries trick and all that. I very much appreciate your help!! (some I already knew but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate you guys trying to help)

[zaxvax]

JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW: My worlds do not have a graveyard so before you all think I'm stupid for not digging up graves, that's not the case. I don't really have many graves. Maybe I just got a sucky world, who knows... but my point is...if there's me who got this kind of world, chances are, another noob will too.

Very bad luck. I guess you need to stick to digging everything you see to feed your science machine. It will take much longer to unlock everything. Maybe 2 ingame days or even 3.

[zaxvax]

Ok just made a quick test with a new start.

Day 1: Made a shovel and spent all day digging everything on the starting island.

Night 1: Made 2 torches and explored around to find rocks (gold and stone for science machine). Also smashed a few slepping creatures to make toasted wabbit for dinner.

Day 2: More digging and also collected stone and gold I found earlier.

Night 2: Now I have a science machine and a camp fire. Roots to feed the machine: Grass - 52, B. Bushes - 7, Saplings - 38.

Fed them all to the science machine.

Day 3: Now I have 1940 research points. Learned how to make a rope and created 10 rope to feed science machine again.

2180 research points. Finished my breakfast and learned everything possible, including useless farms and silly hats. 410 Research points left.

[Critter79]

They aren't really bunnies... they are jackalopes (they have little antlers). And rabbits scream in real life, which is immensely creepy to hear.

I hard reset my game to see if all this noob coddling was necessary, and it's really not. I have died a few times now. Base farms are kinda sucking but I already have a lot of research done and even if I die that carries over. And each time it gets easier.

I take out little nests of spiders in any area I want to call home or gather / hunt. They only come out 2 at a time, then 1 by the time I kill those and then I can destroy the nest completely.

As a new player, doing that and then researching the fishing pole (some twigs and 2 silk) would be good if you don't like killing jackalopes. Avoid ponds near tentacles obviously, but you can get 9 fish from one pond w/ one pole and they heal and feed you pretty good.

[xandru8]

OMG PEPEL`S for christ sake can`t you all simplify the text ? i mean its awesome that you can expres yourselvs in such a ritch manner but my attention spam is ver limited like almoust the rest of the world and when it comes to reading is even worse lol

[Moonphos]

Unfortunately, the current Early-Game mode doesn't really simplify/tell enough what to do, and Devs have tried spoon-feeding before during the earlier build.

That actually turned players away - Survive 5 days, done! Build this, done! Kill that, done! Nothing else for you to do, quit!

I hope they can come out with some form of assistance for players who are still new to this genre (sandbox-survival), but yet not compromise the level of difficulty. It's a thin line between both sides. Veteran players (especially minecraft/terraria players) can easily understand the needs after the first death, or even during the first game, but Newbies will take some time to realise the path to success.

[Diezen]

OMG PEPEL`S for christ sake can`t you all simplify the text ? i mean its awesome that you can expres yourselvs in such a ritch manner but my attention spam is ver limited like almoust the rest of the world and when it comes to reading is even worse lol

Wow you seem quite educated... But seriously, these people are giving really good advice. Most of it I've found out myself experimenting with the game, that's the fun part about this game, everything is unknown till you figure things out