"We Don't Need No Education" Challenge!

[CaptainChaotica]

Hey all!  I'm aware that this is probably a very old challenge that lots of people have done...but I thought I'd try it anyway, and see if anyone else wanted to join in.  This is just for funsies; there's no real way to prove that you got to so-and-so day unless you actually record a Let's Play and put it on YouTube.  (And if you do, please let us know!  I'd love to watch it.)  And if you are an oldbie who did this long ago...well, the game has changed a lot since then, right?

Anyway.  The challenge.  It's called "We Don't Need No Education" because you are not allowed to build a science machine (or anything higher).  The idea is simply, see how far you can get without being able to prototype anything!   Specifics:

--MUST HAVE REIGN OF GIANTS ON.  Shipwrecked optional.

--MUST BE SINGLEPLAYER.  In Together, other players will make their own big fancy bases and it'd just be too tempting.

--Cannot turn off or shorten summer/winter.

--Must have all world settings, including caves, at default, so we all start from the same basic playing field.

--Autumn start, unless you feel masochistic.

YOU CAN:

--Pick almost any character

--Use anything you find at dead bodies or set pieces, including the farms by the potato thing, the spear by the box thing, etc.

--Learn from blueprints you might find (for this reason, living near a desert might be a decent idea.)

YOU CANNOT:

--Play as Wickerbottom, for obvious reasons.

This is gonna be fun, considering that you can't even make earmuffs or a small endothermic fire without science, so...get ready!  Get set!  DIE!

...Notorious

[Scoobie101]

3 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Hey all!  I'm aware that this is probably a very old challenge that lots of people have done...but I thought I'd try it anyway, and see if anyone else wanted to join in.  This is just for funsies; there's no real way to prove that you got to so-and-so day unless you actually record a Let's Play and put it on YouTube.  (And if you do, please let us know!  I'd love to watch it.)  And if you are an oldbie who did this long ago...well, the game has changed a lot since then, right?

Anyway.  The challenge.  It's called "We Don't Need No Education" because you are not allowed to build a science machine (or anything higher).  The idea is simply, see how far you can get without being able to prototype anything!   Specifics:

--MUST HAVE REIGN OF GIANTS ON.  Shipwrecked optional.

--MUST BE SINGLEPLAYER.  In Together, other players will make their own big fancy bases and it'd just be too tempting.

--Cannot turn off or shorten summer/winter.

--Must have all world settings, including caves, at default, so we all start from the same basic playing field.

--Autumn start, unless you feel masochistic.

YOU CAN:

--Pick almost any character

--Use anything you find at dead bodies or set pieces, including the farms by the potato thing, the spear by the box thing, etc.

--Learn from blueprints you might find (for this reason, living near a desert might be a decent idea.)

YOU CANNOT:

--Play as Wickerbottom, for obvious reasons.

This is gonna be fun, considering that you can't even make earmuffs or a small endothermic fire without science, so...get ready!  Get set!  DIE!

...Notorious

Welp, that just ruined my entire plan of attack. Back to the drawing board.

EDIT: Can we use Warly in a RoG world? 

[CaptainChaotica]

 Heh heh heh.  Yeah, she starts off with all the science machine recipes already, so it's kiiiind of a cheat to play as her!  But, this challenge does make you play in some interesting (possibly) new ways. For example...

--Since you can't make rope, go ahead and use your grass on traps, grass suits and hats.  Why not, right?

--Without cut stone, what else are you gonna do with all those rocks, so...scatter firepits around!  Eventually, you'll have a nice renewable fire nearby no matter where you are. 

--Living near something that can protect you from hounds just became even more important, with no logsuits or football helmets.

--Exploring is a big deal, as you're not gonna find any useful already-made stuff lying around by dead bodies unless you look.

--You can't make spears either so tentacle spikes.  TENTACLE SPIKES.

--No crockpot!  So no way to make the more filling, sanity-helping and/or healing meals. Stock up on mushrooms and cactus!

--Same for drying racks.

--No birdcage, bee box, chests, umbrella...your "base" will basically be a firepit with "interesting stuff I might learn how to use someday" on the ground nearby.  So try and put it where moleworms or pigs won't eat anything.  And if it rains, you'll have to make do with a parasol.

--No fridge, lightning rod, or fling-o-matic. But hey, the Deerclops has less to stomp...

--No backpack!  Travel light and inventory-manage better than ever.

It's gonna be bloody hard, but it sound _fun_-hard, because it makes you be creative. 

...Notorious

[Scoobie101]

24 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

 Heh heh heh.  Yeah, she starts off with all the science machine recipes already, so it's kiiiind of a cheat to play as her!  But, this challenge does make you play in some interesting (possibly) new ways. For example...

 

--No crockpot!  So no way to make the more filling, sanity-helping and/or healing meals. Stock up on mushrooms and cactus!

Wait, so, no Warly? Or is he an exception cause he starts with it?

[CaptainChaotica]

Well, I did say Shipwrecked was optional, so, yeah, you can have Warly...

...buuuuttt...you'll be playing him as a landlubber, so none of the Shipwrecked recipes will be available, and he'll get bored quickly. At least, in my experience.  I could not keep that guy alive past even the first hound attack, 'cos plentfiul, easy-to-make meatballs wouldn't even _fill him up_ the right amount.  (Well...a combination of him being hungry all the time and my getting too sick of him to care after a while.  Heh.)

I should've specified:  When I say Shipwrecked is optional, I mean Shipwrecked COMPATIBILITY is optional.  This'll be RoG on the mainland, with any unlocked Shipwrecked characters you may have and perhaps the occasional wildbore house or palm tree thrown in.  You wanna get to the island "paradise"?  Good luck making the Seaworthy without a shadow manipulator or any of the other necessary things that lead up to it!  (If you DO manage to make it in this challenge, I'm impressed.)

Yeah, Warly can use his crockpot, but getting the right ingredients to keep him from being bored might be a problem. Then again, you're gonna be pretty nomadic anyway, so...go for it!  
I mean, Wigfrid is also allowed, and she starts off with awesome weapon and armour that require no prototyping.  BUT, she has a higher hunger drain and all the meat dishes that help health/sanity require either a crockpot or drying racks, which...won't be available.  Win some, lose some!

...Notorious

[Scoobie101]

25 minutes ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Well, I did say Shipwrecked was optional, so, yeah, you can have Warly...

...buuuuttt...you'll be playing him as a landlubber, so none of the Shipwrecked recipes will be available, and he'll get bored quickly. At least, in my experience.  I could not keep that guy alive past even the first hound attack, 'cos plentfiul, easy-to-make meatballs wouldn't even _fill him up_ the right amount.  (Well...a combination of him being hungry all the time and my getting too sick of him to care after a while.  Heh.)

I should've specified:  When I say Shipwrecked is optional, I mean Shipwrecked COMPATIBILITY is optional.  This'll be RoG on the mainland, with any unlocked Shipwrecked characters you may have and perhaps the occasional wildbore house or palm tree thrown in.  You wanna get to the island "paradise"?  Good luck making the Seaworthy without a shadow manipulator or any of the other necessary things that lead up to it!  (If you DO manage to make it in this challenge, I'm impressed.)

Yeah, Warly can use his crockpot, but getting the right ingredients to keep him from being bored might be a problem. Then again, you're gonna be pretty nomadic anyway, so...go for it!  
I mean, Wigfrid is also allowed, and she starts off with awesome weapon and armour that require no prototyping.  BUT, she has a higher hunger drain and all the meat dishes that help health/sanity require either a crockpot or drying racks, which...won't be available.  Win some, lose some!

...Notorious

Warly is really easy to play as in SW once you know the recipes and important things like "Jungle trees drop eggs and bananas" which can be used for bacon and eggs and 3 bananas one stick makes fruit malady. And in a normal RoG world he's meant to be nomadic so doing stuff like breaking tier one spider nests aren't NEARLY as punishable as living in one area for a long time (not really useful in this kinda run though). Easy silk and monster meat, silk can't be used for much, but monster meat makes meatballs, he has super high stats so hunting Koalefants with good kiting means easy meaty stew without taking any damage (but if you mess up, again, high stats to fall back on). Butter muffins are AMAZING and cost just 2 sticks a butterfly and a carrot or mushroom (or any veggie). Fist Full of Jam is NORMALLY pointless, but Warly's buff makes it better than eating just berries, break open bee hives for honey (or kill bees since they have a chance of dropping honey and it makes it renewable) and use the honey for honey ham and honey nuggets since they're similar recipes, but still count as different dishes for Warly. There's so much more too. With the right knowledge, in the right hands, Warly is a GOD. It just takes practice and A LOT of crock pot knowledge.

[Mobbstar]

As interesting as it sounds, it's just another challenge in the wall.

I am feeling better now.

[CaptainChaotica]

Ha ha ha.  Well, it IS in the challenge's name...

Okay.  So.  Having playtested it, I now realise that winter is not only harder, but absolutely _impossible_ unless one gets really specifically lucky during the autumn.  Summer was just never gonna work at all; shade only cools you down so much.  I pretty much expected this, but thought I'd try it out "pure" first, just to see what it was like.  SO...here's a bit of a tweak to the original rules:

On the first day of winter my true love gave to me you can use the console commands to spawn in a blueprint--not the actual item, but a blueprint--of:

--A thermal stone

--And ONE winter clothing item that requires no further knowledge to make.  These would be:  Rabbit earmuffs, dapper vest, breezy vest, cat cap.  (Tam o' Shanters you can just get whole, but you're required to actually find and kill the walrus if you want one of those.) 

IF you've already learned how to make a razor (or just found one--is there a "boon" with a razor? I'm not sure) so you can get your own beefalo wool, you may spawn in a winter hat, beefalo hat, or puffy vest blueprint.  (If you have learned rope you can spawn in a blueprint for a hibearnation vest, but good luck killing the Bearger in this challenge and he doesn't show up in the very first fall anyway.)

On the first day of summer pool party!  whoo! you can spawn in the blueprints of a thermal stone, if you don't already have it

--An endothermic fire (not firePIT) blueprint, and one of the following:

--Umbrella, fashion melon, Eyebrella, chilled amulet

Note that you still have to get the ingredients for these yourself; but it's not impossible.  If you find the metal potato-thing setpiece, you could possibly grow a watermelon in one of those farms during the spring.  If you somehow take out the Deerclops with such a low level of technology, you can have the eyebrella.  And the chilled amulet requires you to make a science machine so you can make an alchemy engine so you can make a prestihatitator to make it _normally_...but the actual ingredients it requires are blue gems and gold, both of which are "raw" and require no previous refining/crafting to get.

Think carefully, because you only get ONE. The more efficient items have ingredients that are harder to get, while the weaker ones you can make right away, but they're well, weaker.

Last but not least, at the end of the first year, if you make it that far, you are allowed to spawn in the blueprint of one buildable item of your choice.  This means, something you can actually make right now without having to learn another recipe first.  So, if you learned cut stone earlier from a tumbleweed, you may feel free to spawn in a crockpot blueprint, otherwise no.

At the end of the second year, you can spawn in two, etc.  'Cos, come on. By that time you've earned it.

Hopefully with the new tweaks it's now in the hard-but-not-impossible range.

Good luck!

...Notorious

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

Somebody's already done that challenge (sorta) and they've made it even harder for themselves! However, their goal was not to survive as long as possible, but to go through the challenge whilst looking for the pieces to escape to the next world (plus, they played as Wes ):

 

[cmshaw]

Fun challenge! I didn't have too much trouble with winter, but summer is looming and I have NO cooling methods yet. I think I am going to hop worlds via Teleportato and keep searching for boons, since otherwise there are 6 days until summer. (Teleportato does reset the seasons, right? I haven't actually done it that much!) Tantalizingly, one of the blueprints which popped out of a tumbleweed was for the presdihatinator, so I could make chilled amulets...if only I had a top hat. Sadly, I am top hatless in this world.

 

.

[Mobbstar]

15 minutes ago, cmshaw said:

presdihatinator

but wouldn't it be cooler to extend the challenge over magic?

[cmshaw]

17 minutes ago, Mobbstar said:

but wouldn't it be cooler to extend the challenge over magic?

Hmm, good point. I would feel like it was cheating if I got an alchemy engine blueprint, after all!

[CaptainChaotica]

Aww, I'm just glad somebody's actually trying it!  And having fun.   Also, for an alchemy engine, wouldn't you have to first _also_ know how to make cut stone, electrical doodads, and boards?  You still need those ingredients before you can make one, blueprint or not...

I haven't yet tried it with my own tweaked new rules, but I did try it the first way and MAN, did winter kick my butt.  I found Glommer, the Pig King, and beefalo right away, which helped a lot, but I had absolutely no means of warming myself up other than standing by a fire come Day 21. 

And yes, when I say you can't make "technology" I'm also including magic.  Anything that requires you to stand near some kind of structure and click the word "Prototype" to make the first one, you can't have said structure.  : P

This challenge appeals to my style of play because I've always liked things that start off SUPER HARD but, if you hang on, and have a bit of luck, and really try...you can claw your way _one_ inch towards it being bearable. Then one more. Then another, and another, and by the end of the challenge, the easyness has ramped all the way up to...normal play hey WAIT a second...! (laughs)

A couple of great examples are the Apocalypse and Land Rich, Cash Poor challenges for the Sims.  (If you're curious, look them up--although I wouldn't suggest reading all the rules for the Apocalypse Challenge in one sitting, it is SO COMPLICATED.)  Land Rich, Cash Poor is probably the closer one, as you're required to "live off the land" for your food/money, start off with little to no contact with the outside world and whenever you survive a winter, you get to unlock something as a reward.  (Although the messed-up-ness of the world in the Apocalypse Challenge IS also kind of appropriate...)

Anyway.  Back to THIS game, yes, the seasons change when you jump worlds. I can't guarantee they'll jump to your liking, but I just had Wilson jump to world 2 in early fall, and when Willow got there, magically holding all of Wilson's inventory, it was the beginning of _spring_. 

I put in the allowance of popping in a couple weather-dealing blueprints because unless you're really lucky with boons/tumbleweeds, you're gonna kind of be in trouble.   Especially with summer. So, if you still don't find anything, cmshaw, feel free to spawn in the blueprints for an endothermic fire, a thermal stone, and ONE heat-moderating clothing item or accessory.  It's totally allowed now, 'cos I didn't want this challenge to nearly _always_ wipe out the player after only one season; that takes away the unpredictability. 

Edit:  Also what are those hand icons?  I know it's obviously a mod, but...?

...Notorious

[cmshaw]

Heh, I've been looking for ways to put off "tackle the ruins" which is next on my Don't Starve skill list. This is fun, and makes me think a lot about what I do and don't really need day to day!

The hand icons are part of the Pocket Editiion for iOS interface: the grabbing hand is the equivalent to the PC spacebar and the punching hand is the f attack key. Which means, I'm sad in this instance to say, I don't have a console into which I can enter the commands to spawn anything! Pocket Edition is no mods, no console. I hopped into a spring-start world so if I can't get anything cooling or activate the next teleportato in 20 days, I may break down and drop a science machine long enough to prototype an endothermic fire.

You can get cut stone and boards from the pigs -- that's how I got that ice box. I did get lucky in finding the ice box blueprints and two backpacks and in having both of my walrus hunts result in a Tam o'Shanter. I got a Deerclops, too, although now I feel kind of weird going, "well, I'm gonna carry around this eyeball in my backpack just in case."

[CaptainChaotica]

Heheh.  Yeah, I only broke down and put in the console command exception rule because I died like crazy my first winter.  Like, I lived on a plain FULL of rabbit holes, and I couldn't get to even _them_ before I started taking cold damage. No found winter clothing, no found winter clothing/thermal stone blueprints.  (Although I did learn cut stone from a tumbleweed--go me?)  I also never got a backpack or Chester, which meant a lot of just plopping stuff down on the ground next to my main firepit.  : P  Fortunately, there weren't pigs, spiders or moleworms close enough to notice, so nothing got eaten.

Endo fire is kinda necessary...once you get too hot in summer, you need something to physically _suck_ heat out of you; just standing under a tree or whatever will only slow the becoming-too-hot in the first place. And then, not by much.  If it didn't require a science machine to make the challenge could be a lot more straightforward.  (But I can see why...it's not like you would just automatically know "Duh, of COURSE that's how you make a magical physics-breaking anti-fire!  Who _doesn't_ know that?")

I'm kinda sad about losing that world--it had a pretty cool setup in some ways.  Beefalo and a farmable spider nest to the east, Pig King/huge birch forest/pig village/Glommer to the south, HUGE rock field to the southeast... But yeah, I like challenges that make you think, and play differently...rather than the "You MUST be Super-MLG to even go near this one or you'll die instantly" kind.

I know this one isn't new--there's a video on YouTube of a guy beating freaking _Adventure Mode_ without ever prototyping anything and as Wes, but unfortunately the video is in super-speed with no commentary.  But hey.  _I_ haven't done this one yet, so why not? 

(Oh and I haven't tackled the ruins yet either.  : P)

...Notorious

[cmshaw]

Uh-oh, I think I may have accidentally cheated -- I found a miner's hat and went caving when summer started, hoping to stave off the worst of it, but I seem to have triggered that season-flip bug again. It's winter in this cave! And it's warm enough at the beginning of winter that I didn't notice until I'd been down here several days.

[CaptainChaotica]

Whoah!  That's weird.  Well, I'd say it doesn't really count as cheating if it's something you did by accident?  And it's not your fault the game has a little bug in the code there.

(I've seen the seasons go all weird when I put them on "Random", but I haven't done caves enough to notice it there.  Interestingly, it's only in singleplayer...random seasons in Together works just fine.)

...Notorious