Reign of Giants public test: April 6th Update

[V2C]

April 6th Update - 132784 132802

Some bug fixes after the long weekend.
 
Here's what we fixed in today's update:

• Farmplots are now rotated correctly on clients
• Farmplots extinguished by Flingomatic will no longer become unusuable
• Fixed a bug where crops that were extinguished may become duplicated after reloading a world. (Harvesting a duplicated crop results in a crash, and starting a new world is recommended in this case.)
• Fixed a bug with saving and loading files on certain non-Windows machines 

Original Post:

Hi everybody! As you know we've been hard at work on integrating Reign of Giants into Don't Starve Together, and we're just about ready to launch it! The main challenge at this point is that RoG is a whole lotta game and we need your help testing it to make sure we didn't break things as we converted it over to multiplayer.

It's not quite ready for prime-time yet, but if you want to hop in to our testing branch, we'd really appreciate letting us know if anything is crashing, broken, or missing.

Instructions for getting the RoG test version:

• You must already own Don't Starve Together. (Reign of Giants not required.)
• The game must not be running.
• In your Steam client right click on Don’t Starve Together Beta and select “Properties”
• Select the “Betas” tab
• Enter the code “rogtogetherbeta” in the text box and press the “Check Code” button. You should see a confirmation message that the RoG_Together_Beta is now available.
• In the drop-down under menu select to opt into RoG_Together_Beta. You should see a message that you have successfully opted into the RoG_Together_Beta. Press “Close”.

WARNING!
This uses the same save slots as the normal game but the saves aren't compatible. Make sure you create a new save file for your RoG test as the save files won't transfer back to the normal game.
WARNING!

Please keep all bug reports and related conversation in this thread so that all the feedback related to this special testing branch is in one place. Thank you!

Current known issues:

• Bearger, Dragonfly, and Goosemoose (Moosegoose?) are still missing, they'll show up sometime soon though!
• Moggles are missing due to technical challenges with night vision.

Major changes from single-player Reign of Giants to be aware of:

• Fire spreading has been rebuilt to be slower/preventable but still threatening.
• Deerclops shows up all winter long to harass everyone's bases.
• Heat stones have been reworked to more clearly display if they'll help you or not. The graphics change to show if the stone is warmer or colder than the current ambient temperature.
• Updated smallbird lifecycle so they can grow up in the wild.
• Crafting menu has been altered to be more dynamic, so scroll arrows only show when needed. Mouse wheel also works on it!
• Full moon has been retuned to 1 night every 22 days, starting on the 11th day.
• Flingomatic "off" modes has been turned into "emergency" mode.
• The Old Bell and Bigfood are absent from multiplayer due to their extreme destructive potential.
• There are also many small changes and fixes, but keep your eyes peeled for anything weird!
• We will be continuing to address balance and tuning issues for multiplayer, so your feedback is appreciated!

Thanks for your help, everyone! We're excited to get RoG out to you!

Don't forget to post your feedback in this thread. The test branch is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Dedicated server instructions:

If you are running your server through the steam interface: Simply go through the above process with the Don't Starve Together Dedicated Server in the tools list to join the rog_together_beta branch and launch the server.

If you are running from the command line using steamcmd:
Launch steamcmd and run:
 

app_update 343050 -beta rog_together_beta -betapassword rogtogetherbeta validate 

Further information can be found at: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
Thanks @Kzisor!

[DarkXero]

Have you guys discussed ideas to bring the old bell back?

[metal079]

Have you guys discussed ideas to bring the old bell back?

I second this, it would be immensely useful in worlds with friends(for non-griefing purposes)

[oCrapaCreeper]

^^^ I don't see a way the old bell can work at all in DST with all its griefing potential. Ring once in the middle of a camp, goodbye everything. The most logical change would be to make Bigfoot not destroy structures but would detriment most of its use. Probably better to just leave it out, re purpose it entirely, or give Glommer a different use.

[Mickmane]

^^^ I don't see a way the old bell can work at all in DST with all its griefing potential. Ring once in the middle of a camp, goodbye everything. The most logical change would be to make Bigfoot not destroy structures but would detriment most of its use. Probably better to just leave it out, re purpose it entirely, or give Glommer a different use.

 

Why should players who never encounter griefers be affected by what those griefer potentially do on worlds said players never see?

 

I'm talking about games with friends.

 

This, Willow, Mandrakes,... (I can only assume that Mandrakes are missing because of whoever might do who knows what with it.)

 

Why not make it a Host option? Isn't Don't Starve about letting players play the way they enjoy? What happened to "Your world, your rules."?

 

Dear developers, please don't spread the work of the griefers by affecting people who never even meet them. Bad people will always find ways to annoy other players. Don't do their work for them on worlds that only have nice players.

 

I do greatly enjoy the game, and value all the work you put into it, but the anti-griefer measures do spoil my bad-pople-free games.

[DarkXero]

^^^ I don't see a way the old bell can work at all in DST with all its griefing potential. Ring once in the middle of a camp, goodbye everything. The most logical change would be to make Bigfoot not destroy structures but would detriment most of its use. Probably better to just leave it out, re purpose it entirely, or give Glommer a different use.

 

I will quote myself to bring you another perspective.

 

 

Perhaps the old bell could be reworked.

 

For example, imagine you ring the bell in a desolate place. Nothing happens.

Now, imagine there are certain spots in the world, where instead of having walrus camps, you have big footprints, akin as the ones bigfoot leaves when he stomps the ground.

If you ring the bell within 30 distance of a footprint, bigfoot will come and stomp on the place the bell was ringed.

 

Now, those special footprints can't be made, people can lure giants there to stomp them, you can use the old bell to harvest wood, and if you stay clear of it, a griefer won't smack your base down.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

I really liked my idea, it solves the griefing problem and it brings the stomping functionality of the old bell.

I want people to try to bring more ideas.

 

The next issue would be the availability of the old bell blueprint. I would move the recipe from being blueprint only, to the prestihatitator.

[enragedcamel]

^^^ I don't see a way the old bell can work at all in DST with all its griefing potential. Ring once in the middle of a camp, goodbye everything. The most logical change would be to make Bigfoot not destroy structures but would detriment most of its use. Probably better to just leave it out, re purpose it entirely, or give Glommer a different use.

 

The solution to this is incredibly easy and obvious.

 

Make Old Bell not affect player-crafted structures.

 

Boom. Done. No more griefing with Old Bell.

 

Seriously, I don't understand why people keep bringing it up. This is not a complicated game, balancing stuff is not difficult.

[Zinglon]

I caught a bug that thermal stones can't be cooled in fridge, which already has reported by other player in previous threads.

 

Well it worked fine before but not in latest version I guess.

[Krayola]

^^^ I don't see a way the old bell can work at all in DST with all its griefing potential. Ring once in the middle of a camp, goodbye everything. The most logical change would be to make Bigfoot not destroy structures but would detriment most of its use. Probably better to just leave it out, re purpose it entirely, or give Glommer a different use.

 

 

The solution to this is incredibly easy and obvious.

 

Make Old Bell not affect player-crafted structures.

 

Boom. Done. No more griefing with Old Bell.

 

Seriously, I don't understand why people keep bringing it up. This is not a complicated game, balancing stuff is not difficult.

 

 

No. There is even a simpler solution without any side-effects:

Allow Hosts to toggle the blueprint drop upon server creation.

 

While public servers may opt to disable it, people who play with friends can enable it. I don't like the idea that player-created structures should be immune to it. Because that's like asking for player-created structures to be immune to fire.

[Michi01]

I think the old bell should be an option when creating a new world (and it should be turned off by default).

[SageOfLegend]

Perhaps the old bell could be reworked.   For example, imagine you ring the bell in a desolate place. Nothing happens. Now, imagine there are certain spots in the world, where instead of having walrus camps, you have big footprints, akin as the ones bigfoot leaves when he stomps the ground. If you ring the bell within 30 distance of a footprint, bigfoot will come and stomp on the place the bell was ringed.   Now, those special footprints can't be made, people can lure giants there to stomp them, you can use the old bell to harvest wood, and if you stay clear of it, a griefer won't smack your base down.   Thoughts?

 

 

I think this is a really elegant solution, I would like to second it (for whatever that's worth). The assets for the footprints are already there. I think it would be neat to encounter a trail of giant footprints ("Whoah! What left these?!") It seems to fit the mystery and wonder of Don't Starve world. I heard something on the Twitch stream about the other giants being relegated to set pieces anyway... Why not include Bigfoot in this? If it can only be summoned in a particular place (along the path of foot prints), griefing shouldn't be an issue and we get to include a very cool feature from RoG. Of course, I'm sure that's something that would have to be added after all the features you are already hard at work on integrating.  But I think this idea is worth keeping in mind.

 

On another unrelated feedback note, I love the new fire spreading mechanic! It creates interesting, interactive gameplay around wildfires rather than a completely uncontrollable destructive disaster. It also seems to help solve the issue of Willow's old fire immunity being too powerful for PVP combat, and perhaps even fixes the multiplayer issues with her insanity fires since she or other players could put out the smoldering to prevent the base destruction from spreading.

 

Well done DST team! Thank you for all your hard work! We're eagerly looking forward to the release of RoG and all the exciting content you have planned for Through the Ages afterward! You guys rock. 

[Clwnbaby]

This, Willow, Mandrakes,... (I can only assume that Mandrakes are missing because of whoever might do who knows what with it.)

 

Mandrakes are out because they caused a crash.  It would appear said crash has not been addressed yet.  That is the only reason they are not in

[SunSunSun]

Player progress still not saved on debian7.

[rasserie]

i keep having retching on console in linux and that causes massive rubber banding. what is retching?

[Vaculity]

Well, I still cant do anything in my friend's server with the farm plot that had been extinguished by Ice Flingomatic that happened before the patch. Is there even any way of dealing with it?

[Johnny5isAlive]

Why should players who never encounter griefers be affected by what those griefer potentially do on worlds said players never see?

 

I'm talking about games with friends.

 

This, Willow, Mandrakes,... (I can only assume that Mandrakes are missing because of whoever might do who knows what with it.)

 

Why not make it a Host option? Isn't Don't Starve about letting players play the way they enjoy? What happened to "Your world, your rules."?

 

Dear developers, please don't spread the work of the griefers by affecting people who never even meet them. Bad people will always find ways to annoy other players. Don't do their work for them on worlds that only have nice players.

 

I do greatly enjoy the game, and value all the work you put into it, but the anti-griefer measures do spoil my bad-pople-free games.

 

Exactly! I feel like the best way for DST to actually become Don't Starve *Together* is to change as little as possible. Some things need to be tweaked a bit just to make it fair such as monsters having more health. But beyond that I really feel like Klei shouldn't try to "balance" content around griefers. 

 

If someone wants to cause damage to a world they will find a way no matter what. There's no reason to make the game less enjoyable for the community just to deter one or two would-be griefers.

 

As for the Old Bell itself I would love to see it in game without being nerfed. And if it does get changed to be set to certain areas that it can be used or that it can't destroy structures then the majority of us are just going to have to make a mod that gets rid of that nerf. 

 

I'm also excitedly awaiting the addition of my precious caves/ruins and I'm also terrified because those Depth Worms are gonna be tough. But of course caves are a very tricky issue, at least in my mind. The IDEAL way for caves to work is if they exist at the same time as the surface. (E.G You can have X person(s) in the ruins, X person(s) in the caves and X person(s) on the surface at the same time.) 

But the easier way of doing it would be that everyone must be in either the caves, ruins, or surface at the same time and where to go is decided by a vote or something. That method isn't preferable but it does keep with the whole "Together" part of the title. 

 

Oh and Klei if you're looking for a way to make the game itself harder I'd suggest making us lose hunger and sanity faster. Maybe set all the characters drains to what Wes has now and just make Wes' even worse? I'd be happy with that honestly, it'd make things a little more interesting.

[SethR]

Just briefly re: the Old Bell -- it's not _just_ the destruction that it causes that's an issue: it's orientation and direction of movement was based on the player's camera in single player. With multiple cameras around, that gets a little hairy. We're looking into solutions for both aspects, but it's not a top priority at the moment.

[Pomf]

I've come across a bug during summer, even though my grass and berry farms had an active fling-o-matic in their area, they didn't regrow at all during the whole summer

 

Also an suggestion: Add bunny puff to tumble weed item pool to allow building bunny houses without using console commands

 

And is there a list of known issues with using the manage server tab to reroll the world? I've run across a couple

[NaotoShirogane]

I was hit by lightning 4 times in a row (over the course of 3 minutes) with the eyebrella equipped. Is that supposed to happen?

[Clwnbaby]

I was hit by lightning 4 times in a row (over the course of 3 minutes) with the eyebrella equipped. Is that supposed to happen?

 

NO!  I have this problem too, getting struck 2-5 times in a very short period of time, but yes the eyebrella SHOULD protect you but fails.  Please fix

[Dragon Wolf Leo]

The temperature effects of crock pot foods, such as ice cream cooling you down and hot chili heating you up, are not working.

[Maris]

Let's talk about genders in your code.

 

First of all I found mistype ("MAKE" = "MALE") :

 

Next, I found that code supports only 3 (4) genders. MALE, FEMALE, ROBOT and DEFAULT. But why?

There could be NEUTRAL and PLURAL:

Even more! There could be ANY name of the gender. Look at the code of AddModCharacter function:

But look at this code:

Looks like there are only 3 genders and "Default". I think, that's not right. I should be like this:

function GetGenderStrings(charactername)	for gender,array in pairs(CHARACTER_GENDERS) do		if table.contains(array, charactername) then			return gender		end	end	return "DEFAULT"end

​Also look here. Same thing:

It should be somthing like this:

		if not theDead.ghostenabled then			message = message.."."		else			local gender = GetGenderStrings(theDead.prefab)			if STRINGS.UI.HUD["DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_2_"..gender] then				message = message..STRINGS.UI.HUD["DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_2_"..gender]			else				message = message..STRINGS.UI.HUD.DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_2_DEFAULT			end		end	else		local gender = GetGenderStrings(theDead.prefab)		if STRINGS.UI.HUD["GHOST_DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_"..gender] then			message = theDead:GetDisplayName().." "..STRINGS.UI.HUD["GHOST_DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_"..gender]		else			message = theDead:GetDisplayName().." "..STRINGS.UI.HUD.GHOST_DEATH_ANNOUNCEMENT_DEFAULT		end	end

​ Of course there are other places, where function GetGenderStrings is used. But I think it is right to support all genders in all that places. Don't you think so? 

 

And one more thing. As you know, modders use old construction for initialize their mod characters:

table.insert(GLOBAL.CHARACTER_GENDERS.FEMALE, "endia")AddModCharacter("endia") 

But what function AddModCharacter does after this? It will add one more gender "NEUTRAL" to the character. It's not right. So we need to make it little bit better:

Thanks for reading my comments. I hope you will make it better.

[V2C]

Thanks guys.  All very good feedback!  Obviously we haven't been able to address all the issues at once, so we do appreciate you reminding us of stuff we missed that you guys feel are important.

[cezarica]

NO!  I have this problem too, getting struck 2-5 times in a very short period of time, but yes the eyebrella SHOULD protect you but fails.  Please fix

Same goes with Rain Coat. been stuck like 2-3 times while using it and it should insulate the player against lightning strikes and the electric shocks of a charged Volt Goat according to the wiki.

 

Don't know if it's normal behavior or not, but shouldn't a Ice Flingomatic protect the farm plots products to wilt from the heat apart the fire hazard?

[Mushu]

Fireflies can't still be catched during the day.

 

Also.

 

I found a bug with Birchnut treeguard.

It spawn, spawned few birchnutter. But after like 5 sec, while the tree got (smaller?), the treeguard despawned.

And after that, you wasnt able to attack the birchnutter.

 

I don't know how you could recreate the problem.