Solution to boring PvE.

[BeastNips]

 

 

So far, liking the Rook's idea! Beefalo, not so sure... Spider Warriors, hmm, may be, or perhaps that for Dangling Depth Dwellers once caves are in? Not sure what you're implying about the tentacles, but what I'm thinking is that they could perhaps do 1 - 3 attacks instead of 2 each time, making it more random. For hounds, I certainly agree, since their attack period is pretty small and only Wigfrid or someone with a weapon such as a Tentacle spike could tank a hound without getting hit; and that's only for 1 hound! Tree guards need a shorter attack period, may be they could strike twice as fast as usual?

 

Maybe you're right about the Beefalo, don't want to make things too hard! But what I mean with the tentacles is that when you hit them you get 'covered in slime', which reduces your movement speed for a second or so, meaning you can't escape their attacks. This could be a chance on hit rather than a guarantee. 

 

 

Eh, I don't see what's so bad about kiting, especially if you consider the alternative.  Most fights in Don't Starve won't leave players barely clinging to life afterward if they know what they're doing, and that's fine.  Getting hit more in combat might make it more dangerous, but it just leads to longer boring stretches of gathering materials to make more armor and honey poultices.  It's also reduces the importance of skill, if all you're doing is spending more time obtaining better weapons and armor and then tanking (and there's often better alternatives to that).  At least kiting requires some reflexes and the ability to quickly judge which direction to run so you don't get cornered or flanked.

 

As for the tentacles, if they're impossible to dodge all that means is I'd have to get Chester to tank them for me, which is actually less risky than kiting, faster than kiting against a single tentacle, but slower against groups because I'd have to wait for Chester to heal between fights.  It doesn't really add anything since I already use Chester to tank tentacles sometimes, it just removes the riskier option of kiting.  And if their attack pattern is random 1-3 attacks instead of 2, I'll just always wait for 3 attacks, or wait for the tentacle to fully submerge again.  It's slower and lower risk; it's lower skill; it's what I used to do before I learned to hit, dodge two attacks and then hit again.  Or I could just make Chester tank them for me.

 

What it really comes down to is that kiting isn't a low-risk alternative to the anxious life-and-death scenarios we faced as newbs; it's the high-risk, high-reward alternative to more passive-aggressive ways of fighting things like switching to a log suit and beefalo hat at the first sign of hounds.  I know better than to enter fights without enough preparations to make my survival, by victory or escape, a foregone conclusion.  I kite because it's cheap and expedient, not because it's the safer than pig armies and blow darts.  Heck, I've taken to kiting frogs and spiders instead of making a dozen traps.  Gathering grass takes time.

 

To be honest I don't think we're on the same lines here. Tanking is pretty bad in my eyes too; not as bad as kiting, but still not very fun or challenging. I'm talking about being creative to solve your problems.

 

Regarding tentacles, I don't think you're only option is to use Chester to tank them if you can't escape their attacks (at least a percentage of the time if a slowing effect were added). I think in all my time playing Don't Starve I must have killed 3 or 4 tentacles with my weapon. I generally find tentacles near Merms or Spiders if I'm after their loot, or if there is an inconvenient tentacle I'll use gunpowder (and finish it with a hit or two) or pigs.

 

I think you've got the wrong idea about my feeling toward kiting. For newbies I think kiting is really dangerous, particularly if they don't use the dark arts (macros/commands). But for an experienced player, it boils every mob fight don't to the same thing, more or less. I understand what you mean with all the kiting being more efficient than gathering, but efficient to achieve what? Don't Starve Together doesn't really have a goal, and while I hate to use that tired cliche, it's the journey not the destination. Having to build traps for spiders and collect grass means you need to build a grass farm if you want that to be less hassle; the fact that you can just skip all of that out and just kite spider really annoys me. You say that you find collecting resources boring but it can't be as boring as hitting and running away over and over again; I've had some of my best 'adventures' on a standard resource run. I feel like kiting isn't in the spirit of such a creative and imaginative game. If you want to kill a giant without kiting/tanking, you need to plan ahead and know places you can lead it to. 

 

To sum up: I find reducing every encounter to more or less the same technique is boring. You correctly point out that in terms of efficiency, why wouldn't you use this technique? Kiting is more efficient for an experienced player, not doubt about it. The solution I propose is to remove the ability to do this in a number of the more challenging mob encounters. Spiders shouldn't be the same challenge as spider warriors, but take longer. Little treeguards shouldn't be the same challenge as big treeguards, but take longer. You see what I mean? When you kite, the difference between mob encounters largely becomes time. 

[RalphKastro]

go play Borderlands already.