Games almost never last until spring

[enragedcamel]

I have played DST for over a hundred hours now, and I've only had one public game where more than one player (i.e. me) stayed until spring.

 

In fact, in most cases I'm the only person who makes it to winter.

 

I really hate this, because I've already played RoG single-player for a few hundred hours, and have no interest in playing DST by myself. When everyone leaves, I also leave. And there goes several hours of effort. Rinse and repeat.

 

I think there are two reasons for this:

• Default season length is too long. Each day lasts 8 minutes, and Autumn has 20 days, so that's over 2.5 hours. And that's just autumn. Now, I don't know about you guys, but in my experience most people don't play that long in one sitting. In single player this isn't a problem since you can save, quit, and continue later where you left off. But DST is not like that.
• Joining close to or during winter is stupid and pointless. Not only are all resources picked clean (especially flint), but there isn't a way to get established when it's below freezing. So most people don't bother, which makes winter pretty lonely.

As a result of these two aspects, what usually happens on most servers is that the game starts out fairly crowded (which is fun and ideal, and it's the point of multiplayer), but over the course of Autumn people die and/or log out one by one until hardly anyone is left. And then winter arrives and no one new joins! Zzzz... What's the point of setting up an awesome base and stocking up for winter if it will just be me?

 

This is hurting the game in a big way. Most people haven't experienced spring, not to mention summer. Instead they repeat Autumn over and over, which I think will cause the playerbase to burn out and quit playing much more quickly than otherwise. I know it's about to happen to me.

 

I have two suggestions:

• Players who join during winter should start with more items. I'm thinking flint, wood, grass, twigs and some food. These supplies should be enough to last them two days, but no more. During that time, they can get themselves settled, or find the main camp if there is one.
• There should be meaningful things to do for people in late-game once the main base and its supply lines are established. Otherwise most people will not want to join mid or late-stage games since they will feel like there isn't anything left for them to do. I think caves are a big part of this. If I were Klei, I would prioritize them over Through the Ages content. Caves are dangerous, and more importantly, they are vast, which means they provide a ton more exploration opportunities.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Asparagus]

@enragedcamel, I understand your pain (believe me)

 

But you could simply make a starting camp at the portal and put a few resources in ti for new entrees... don't just stockpile in the base, make an investment to furnish a few other areas where new comers would likely wander in... put some appropriate clothing and or non-spoiling/long rotting rate food

 

That is of course, it's not Survival :T (I've like done this a hundred times where I make it easy-er for players to enter but end up getting my heart broken... survival is a tough place to make a base especially if its a dedicated server :T)

[agentfluff]

I used to leave supplies at the portal. But then along comes the clueless player who picks up everything in sight and eventually leaves.

[Zinglon]

Shorter seasons and Drop yer stuff is necessary I think, but most of newly joined players have no idea on game regardless of their spawn time. They even don't explore much and just complain there's no flints at all...

[enragedcamel]

Shorter seasons and Drop yer stuff is necessary I think, but most of newly joined players have no idea on game regardless of their spawn time. They even don't explore much and just complain there's no flints at all...

 

That's the main problem with joining during winter: you can't explore at all without freezing to death. And yeah I used to leave stuff at the portal, but eventually someone comes in and steals everything.

[saltychipmunk]

simple solution really...  join server .  if it is winter or summer , leave . if it is spring or fall, ask how far into the season they are , if at the beginning stay , if near the end  leave.

 

 

but really this game does not at all cater well to a public server environment when a person can log off one day and come back the next only to find out  1 and a half in game years have passed.

[polygone]

Setting up a starter base at the portal and having the mod to make people drop their stuff on server exit go hand-in-hand very well for allowing new players a chance to catch up. Otherwise there ARE world options for shorter seasons, so you could potentially just use that, or even allow it to be a Spring start.

 

The real problem is people jumping into DST without having played DS. They don't understand they shouldn't grab every single thing they see or how to survive outside of Autumn because they've never been given the chance to fail to do so on repeat and learn from their mistakes. Why bother learning how to play when you could get someone else to gather supplies for you? Not to mention people can jump straight into characters like Wolfgang and Wendy who are fairly difficult without prior knowledge of the game considering the context of their abilities. It also means they could be jumping into worlds thinking the average game is SUPPOSED to only last a couple hours, especially when that's all they've seen since the others on a server also leave before that point.

 

The 'best' solution I've found is to find a dedicated group of people to just play a world in, and avoid random new people all together. It has the drawback of no new random strangers who may or may not help or hurt your supplies, but it prevents griefing, allows games to actually last more than one or two seasons, and makes a firebase at spawn far less necessary.

 

However, I do agree that the caves would add a lot more content to the game post-winter and add more for veteran players to do on most servers. But a lot of the vets already know how to deal with the caves, new players not so much. Someone new already has to deal with a character who could potentially have difficult traits, worlds where flint is limited, a short time before or instant winter on joining a server, etc. Add in a shiny rock that leads into a cave and you have hundreds of new players not understanding that the caves are dangerous because they can just move to the next server and try again. They don't need to grind resources to face the caves either because they can rely on the people who were on the new server they're joining, same goes for any monster that newbies like to die to.

 

I've even found it difficult to teach my friends one-on-one who haven't played the base game at all already. With the ability to be revived it's hard to teach someone not to die as quickly. Losing a world of progress was a lot stronger force to teach that sort of thing. Not that I have a problem with new people dying now and then, but when people just walk up to and tank droves of enemies or large monsters that they just died to over and over it gets old really quickly.

 

Oh, Winter and Summer really should spawn you with some survival gear for the appropriate seasons. Even a veteran player doesn't stand a chance in a Summer/Winter start where flint is scarce and the nearest base is several days away. And if you're on Wilderness mode you can't even set up a base at a portal since there is none. (Wilderness brings it's own gripes about new players saying they're at "spawn" and not realizing it's a random position... >_>)

[DarkXero]

With the ability to be revived it's hard to teach someone not to die as quickly.

 

I have met a lot of new people that said to me "It's ok that I die, I'm going to revive anyways".

They didn't care about the max health penalty, they thought they were going to die, regardless.

 

I had like three chests full of bone shards.

[polygone]

I have met a lot of new people that said to me "It's ok that I die, I'm going to revive anyways".

They didn't care about the max health penalty, they thought they were going to die, regardless.

 

I had like three chests full of bone shards.

 

Same. Use lureplants, they're just as useful in DST as trash cans as they are in DS. Well, assuming you don't get some idiot new player facechecking each and every eyeball, dying, then returning to burn it down and get upset their stuff isn't still there.

 

[enragedcamel]

Setting up a starter base at the portal and having the mod to make people drop their stuff on server exit go hand-in-hand very well for allowing new players a chance to catch up. Otherwise there ARE world options for shorter seasons, so you could potentially just use that, or even allow it to be a Spring start.

 

The problem is that the vast majority of servers use the default options, and finding that one perfect server that has the settings and mods you want (and nothing else, especially not those retarded anime character mods) is practically impossible. And sorry but I don't feel like forking over $10-20/mo for my own server.

 

Heck, I even have trouble finding servers where the world size is set to Huge, even though there isn't a reason to NOT do it (seriously, why play on a small map when it's a multiplayer game?).

[DarkXero]

Use lureplants

 

As you say, they always get destroyed.

I would like a trash can or something, to convert any non-potatable item into nothingness with ease.

Like the science machine in the research point days.

 

seriously, why play on a small map when it's a multiplayer game?

 

Because people like things like Global Positions, and they want to stick together, instead of roaming a huge meaningless world.

 

Also, that they don't know the Edit World button exists.

[enragedcamel]

Because people like things like Global Positions, and they want to stick together, instead of roaming a huge meaningless world.

 

Huge maps give more resources and more interesting set pieces. They are ideal for multiplayer, especially for servers with more than 8 slots.

[DarkXero]

Huge maps give more resources and more interesting set pieces. They are ideal for multiplayer, especially for servers with more than 8 slots.

 

More resources that an 8 man team won't split up to get.

More interesting set pieces that people won't find because they won't split up to explore.

 

These people wouldn't like bigger worlds, they would like for everything to be more cramped up.

 

Why have 4 huge savannahs with 1 set piece each when you can have 1 huge savannah with 4 set pieces?

[Tumalu]

I don't like sizing up the map too much (DST's default is 2 sizes over DS's default, and feels good) because for the most part, it just makes each individual biome bigger.

 

You don't get 3 huge rocky fields instead of one huge one, you get one rocky field that would take an entire day of walking around to explore instead of one that takes a less silly amount of time. Also, it takes an eternity to walk to different places if the map size is really high; the giant biomes make everything really far away from eachother. IIRC sizes goes 350x350 (ds default) -> 450x450 -> 550x550 (dst default) -> 850x850. 850 is roughly 2.4x as big, but you don't have more diversity, you just have absurdly large biomes.

[FTR]

@enragedcamel

 

I played a lot on public DST servers and I mostly agree with you. There is only few servers in which I was lucky enough to survive all season twice (!) with few people playing (Dedicated-London server people were great!), and that was awesome. But on most servers it is just like you say, game basically ends when winter starts.

 

But I don't think decreasing season lenght would be wise. There would be no point to prepare for certain season if it would be short.

 

Giving free stuff.. That's nice idea but I think that's not how this problem should be solved. I think players should take care of new people that join. Adding direction signs, some boxes with thermal stones and some basic resources. On top of them small area around spawn (really small) should be protected from any grief, including placement of spider dens etc. Or maybe devs should add something like basic kit dispenser. You would put items there and each player can use it only once to get certain amount of items.

 

One last thing @enragedcamel. If you want we can play together and I promise you, I will stay with you entire season. Basically playing with friends instead of public servers is much better.

[Flare2V]

If you decrease season length people will complain they don't have enough time to prepare, and vice versa. Guessing the best way to handle this is to play with your friends in either case.

[polygone]

The problem is that the vast majority of servers use the default options, and finding that one perfect server that has the settings and mods you want (and nothing else, especially not those retarded anime character mods) is practically impossible. And sorry but I don't feel like forking over $10-20/mo for my own server.

 

Heck, I even have trouble finding servers where the world size is set to Huge, even though there isn't a reason to NOT do it (seriously, why play on a small map when it's a multiplayer game?).

It's only 10-20$ for a dedicated server. So don't run a dedicated server, problem solved. Just host when your friends are online and set it to public if wanted. When everyone is tired, log out and it saves it. I will say that searching for specific mods is hell though, they should really add some kind of search functionality to find servers with specific mods you want. Also a huge map takes a long time to explore, and with six-eight people it's hardly needed. For the most part a default map is fine unless it's a game where everybody has their own territory/some kind of PvP thing.

 

As you say, they always get destroyed.

I would like a trash can or something, to convert any non-potatable item into nothingness with ease.

Like the science machine in the research point days.

Because people like things like Global Positions, and they want to stick together, instead of roaming a huge meaningless world.

Also, that they don't know the Edit World button exists.

They don't always get destroyed. Only when you get newbies who don't know any better or someone coming on to intentionally grief. Even then, having it around with a chance at working is better than just leaving the lureplants to rot in a chest somewhere collecting dust.

[DarkXero]

@polygone, of course, I have a stash of lureplants and a lureplant away from the base.

But still, never underestimate other people: they will find a way.

[polygone]

Oh of course. Having all your lureplants out in one area near a public base is just asking for them to get burned down lmao. But keeping one or two around in different places around the map are really useful for trash cans. One particular spot I've taken to is putting them at the far end of swamps, a little away from the border. Even if someone chose to explore the entire border of the map it'd be difficult for them to find it considering the dangers of a swamp. If someone wanted reeds or spikes they'd just take it from the front end. Not much other reason to be in a swamp other than exploration, and then just running the borders usually suffices for most people. Just don't forget the way there or you could end up getting whacked by a tentacle yourself.

[Bahlsen]

Let's hope this will change from tomorrow (floodgates) even if I doubt. The only positive aspect about that is that if I want to play on a brand new world I just have to look which servers are approaching winter, and when everybody left which occurs at day 24~25 in general, I connect to them, and die to reset...

[Johnnyprofane]

Oh of course. Having all your lureplants out in one area near a public base is just asking for them to get burned down lmao. But keeping one or two around in different places around the map are really useful for trash cans. One particular spot I've taken to is putting them at the far end of swamps, a little away from the border. Even if someone chose to explore the entire border of the map it'd be difficult for them to find it considering the dangers of a swamp. If someone wanted reeds or spikes they'd just take it from the front end. Not much other reason to be in a swamp other than exploration, and then just running the borders usually suffices for most people. Just don't forget the way there or you could end up getting whacked by a tentacle yourself.

That's brilliant. If I had a gold star I would give it to you. Or a star-caller's staff.

[RalphKastro]

There should be meaningful things to do for people in late-game once the main base and its supply lines are established.

Yes. 

[ADaks]

I only ever play with friends/family. I hate dealing with random people but I love the game.

 

Idk, try to get an established group going to play with so you don't have to deal with weenies and griefers.

 

That's my style but it might not be yours. Worth a shot, though?

[Pathboy]

I had this same experience and frequently would find myself at the end of winter with 1 or 2 other people.  I was playing DST like it was 'hard' mode, and found that I did best when I went WAY, WAY, away from the portal so the newbies and the griefers couldn't find my base.  Thus, I was able to survive.  But I was alone and DST basically turned into DS! (I even managed to find tactics to deal with the sanity problem of many ghosts!).

 

I came to the conclusion that I may be playing the game wrong.  My new tactic is one of 'caretaker'.  Setting up a basic base, setting up 2 or 3 food sources, and most importantly….making about 6 or so winter hats!  This base should be close to portal, and I plant a trail of birchnut trees to lead to base (to help new arrivals).   I succeed about 1 out of 3 times but have managed to get a group of 12 (with most newbies) surviving through winter.  Tips?  Instead of leaving basic supplies in chest, craft a lot of pickaxes and axes and leave in a pile by the base.  

 

I like your suggestions though!

 

GL!