Encouraging new players away from the base

[twobluefishes]

I was reading the "Keeping inexperienced players useful" thread over in DST General Discussion. And I started typing a reply before realizing nearly everything was actually directed at the game design and not so much other players. So, I like playing with other people, even completely new players on public servers, but it's not always great, so here are my thoughts and ideas.

 

 

In cooperative survival games, letting inexperienced players die actually ups my personal survival. Shadow monsters are only bothersome when fighting a giant at the same time, so ghosts don't concern me. And if an inexperienced player is dead they can't chow through the raw food in the ice box or loot stacks of important items like pigskins. This isn't something I do purposefully, but if I feel like my own character is in a risky position, I will let nature take it's course... 

 

I've asked people to do things before to help large bases, like put up drying racks or cut trees or make themselves an umbrella/thermal stone because they are complaining of wetness/heat. But micromanaging other players isn't something I enjoy doing and I've never managed to shift people away from the base once they are there, and why would they? More resources and food always magically appear in the base and they don't have any of the map explored so they could find resources themselves. I don't blame new players for this at all, I blame the game and us players who build massive bases.

 

 

1. I would love to see new players warned that starting on summer/winter may be a guaranteed death and time spent as a ghost till someone is capable of reviving them.

 

Yes, the best part of Don't Starve is trial and error. With failure harshly punished. But the solo game let's you practice dealing with hunger, darkness, health, etc before throwing overheating and freezing at you. I think it's a pretty big disservice to not even give people what Maxwell does in the wintery adventure worlds.

 

 

2. It is very difficult to give detailed explanations to other players in trouble. Often I'm in trouble too and can't stop to type multiple instructions so they aren't truncated by the chat system. So how about this?

 

The game already knows what people died from. When they are floating around as a ghost I'd love to have a hint shown to them. Like telling them about umbrellas if they died to overheating, or armor if they died fighting a monster. Or instead of random hints, let them explore their crafting options with things that could have helped highlighted. Not every person is willing to leave a game and read a website, this game shouldn't make that a requirement to becoming useful.

 

I'm not asking for a system that says "do this to avoid dying to this cause" more like "an umbrella can be a useful tool in avoiding overheating".

 

 

3. A big appeal of cooperation with experienced players is building excellent bases. We pick a good spot and move resources closer and everything is good while we are together. But I think this is terrible design for new players who join later. They will join a world with "cooperative survival" and make the reasonable request for the location of the camp.

 

I think that us players should try making mini camps in addition to a large one in the future. It stops everything from being given to the new player at once and might encourage them to explore a bit.

 

Unfortunately, the base game doesn't make long term unprotected structures easy to keep around between summer wildfires and players with hammers. I've had very little experience with people intentionally destroying things but I know it's a big problem.

 

 

4. The solo game has a progression of materials available to the player. Flint, twigs, grass, and petals are picked up first, followed by logs and rock and so on. In DST this stuff gets picked over fast leaving starting areas stripped. And players who join later have no idea what the relative rarity of resources is, everything is scarce. I wouldn't want easy starting areas to endlessly respawn flint or trees or new saplings, but I do think it could be a good idea to let players who just started have some of those resources phased just to them. Maybe as a world customization option so that if people don't like it they could turn it off.

 

Maybe the player should start in a tiny world with a few saplings, flint, and other basic stuff but no gold or food and no other biomes. When people are done looting their tiny island prison, that's when they click Jury rigged portal and actually go to the server selection, or straight to the server if selection happened earlier.

[Luponius]

1 - Yes!

 

2 - YES!  Would be great to have that passive aggressive way the game has with us players to teach us things about the game.  "Shielding yourself from direct sunlight can hinder your attempts at being burnt like a crisp".  And the like.

 

3 - If you're really dedicated to introducing new players to the game, I feel what I do is more fitting.  I play as a nomad usually and I simply pull players close to me and guide them through the basics.  One bloke at a time.  It's an engaging experience for both of us, as I proceed to blow their minds with a survival crash course!  But I honestly don't think this is a design issue, it's player related.

 

4 - Oh YES.  The amount of times I had to waste my first night on the spawn because I had no luck finding grass/twigs in the last two slices of dusk makes this addition worth while.  At the same time, introducing new players to what's what is a good plus.  But mainly for me.
 

[lmaranatha]

Some new player ( but i think he know he doing ) searching the bigger base and destroy it with hammer. He ruin everything. When he died he haunt everything and make the base burn. I Suggest Klei make a Vote kick or Ban Server for these people in dedicated server.

 

These Player need to be punished

[Luponius]

Some new player ( but i think he know he doing ) searching the bigger base and destroy it with hammer. He ruin everything. When he died he haunt everything and make the base burn. I Suggest Klei make a Vote kick or Ban Server for these people in dedicated server.

 

These Player need to be punished

 

Doesn't matter how many changes to a game you make, griefers will grief.  The server you play on shouldbe well enough moderated for that player to be kicked/banned and the server rolled back to a snapshot before any damage was done.