An Old Idea; Vs. Deerclops

[Mario384]

Back when DST was in early beta and modding first came out, people went nuts with awesome and unique ideas on what could be new in the modding community with the addition of multiplayer.  What rose was this idea based on the book "The Most Dangerous Game", and it was basically one player playing as Mactusk hunting down the other players in a certain timeframe using different traps and tools at his disposal. Later, a new reincarnation was tossed about, called Vs. Deerclops, which was a mash of this idea and TF2's Saxton Hale mod.  For those who don't know what that is, it's a bunch of players fighting one extremely strong player-controlled boss, most of the time Saxton Hale himself, and it was a fight to the finish, no respawns, last one standing wins.

So, ideas were thrown about, and with Toadstool being added recently to the roster of big boys, I started thinking about this concept again.  I want to know what you, the community, would think about such an idea.  Basically, here's what I thought of, not set in stone, but basically:

- All players choose a character, and join the game.

- Once some time has passed for everyone to join, one random player is chosen to be the Deerclops (or one of the other bosses) and the match begins.

- Deerclops is tasked with killing all the players on the map, while the players are tasked with killing him.

- Deerclops has scaled health with the amount of players in the world, more players means more health.

- Deerclops retains his signature ability of freezy attacks, and the other bosses would also retain theirs as well.

- Deerclops would have a special rage ability, which triggers from taking damage and then activated manually.  While raged, he is faster and hits harder, but takes more damage.

- Ghosts would be enabled, and be able to be revived by other players.  No touch stones, however, in order to keep large-scale matches not too long.  Ghosts also have no sanity drain.

- If Deerclops leaves the game, the match automatically ends.  If a player leaves the game, they will return dead in order to prevent foul play.

- Players can hurt the Deerclops, but not each other.

- Players are still tasked with regular survival, while Deerclops is not, being equipped with Night Vision and a lack of hunger and sanity.  This also allows Deerclops to kill players by destroying their structures to keep them weak and more vulnerable, basically setting forth the idea that you can either directly or indirectly kill the other players.

- When Deerclops dies or all other players die, the game ends and the map is reset to start the cycle anew.

- (maybe) An Evolve-like tier system which makes the Deerclops stronger over time.

So, the idea simple, the coding large-scale, this has never seen the light of day until now.  I wanted to bring it back because it seemed extremely unique concept to me and most likely my favorite idea from the old DST mod ideas.  But, before I even tried to do anything, maybe perhaps pull a team together, I wanted to know what you guys thought of it.  I'm looking for feedback on design, saying you'd really like it or hate it, anything as long as you're honest.  Mainly, would you play it if such a thing existed?  I'm excited to hear your feedback, positive or negative.

EDIT: So, due to the mention of perhaps a class-based system where each character has their own special abilities, I did some brainstorming on how'd it work:

Wilson -

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Support - The average class, his beard can ensure meat effigies for his teammates if hidden well, and no downsides.  I'm thinking due to his intelligence, something with that could be added.  Perhaps easy healing items?

Willow -

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Support/Damage - The pyro.  Willow can set the area and the deerclops on fire, basically giving them continuous damage.  Fire could also be used to make traps and steer the deerclops away from lit areas.  Most likely would gain full fire resistance, making her a good pick against the Dragonfly, but in turn the Dragonfly is also fire-resistant.

Wolfgang -

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Tank/Damage- The hard-hitting heavyweight champ.  A fully-belly Wolfgang would be devastating against against a boss, but he needs to get close to do damage, and his large-scale health would let him do so.

Wendy -

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Damage/Summoner- Wendy would require little to support herself, and her main perk would be Abigail.  Abigail would most likely get a buff and be more damaging to the Deerclops than usual.

WX-78 -

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 Tank/Summoner - Not initially strong, but after finding gears WX-78 becomes a nightmare to fight.  Alternatively, let him build clockwork minions and reduce his overpowered stats.

Wickerbottom -

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Support - Wicker's books would be her huge upside.  Knock the Deerclops out with Sleepytime stories, then rip them to shreds with the End is Nigh, or perhaps defend the area with Tentacles instead.

Woodie -

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Support - Woodie's tree-chopping would be great for harvesting under short notice.  He could get logs to set up fortifications quickly against the Deerclops.

Damage - The Werebeaver would need a good rework for this, I think he should be an excellent damage dealer with fast and heavy-hitting attacks, but not able to be hit much without dying.

Wes -

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Support - Balloon animals raise other players' sanity, and can be used like alarms or other unique ideas.  A Wes player would need creativity to get the best use out of him.

Maxwell -

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Support/Damage - Maxwell would be able to use his minions to quickly get items, and his duelists would be buffed to take more punishment from the Deerclops.

Wigifrid -

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Damage/Support/Tank - Cheap helmets and good fighting capabilities, Wigifrid can make sure her team has armor to go fight the Deerclops with.

Webber -

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- Webber would be able to use special spider dens to create player-friendly spiders which seek out and attack the Deerclops.  The webs could also be used to slow Deerclops down, allowing for use in building defense.

 

 

[Pyr0mrcow]

Saxton Hale has always been fun for me, particularly with how much it evolved over time. Depending on which version of the mod is used, there're a lot of different bosses that can appear.

I'd love to see this, especially if it ends up with multiple bosses, so it doesn't get stale too quickly. It's basically a matter of attaching inputs to preexisting actions, eh? All the bosses have unique actions, but I feel like the basic 4 giants are similar enough that implementing the other 3 would be feasible, after implementing one.
Of course, there'd need to be a rotation system...
Dragonfly and Toadstool seem like they would be really fun to play as. They'd probably need extra balancing, but their unique effects seem like they'd have a nice bit of potential.

Would the players be pre-equipped? Any buildings or supplies at start? Food? Sanity/healing items?
Could give different starting supplies based on which character is chosen. Willow with Scalemail and a fire staff(s?), Max with shadow equips and a bunch of warrior shadow supplies...ect.
That would give people an actual reason to pick different people, rather than just Wigfrid and Wolfgang. Though...if multiple bosses are actually implemented, maybe the chosen boss/player should be displayed while everyone is still in character select.

 

I feel like I may have over-complicated that a bit.

[Mario384]

1 hour ago, Pyr0mrcow said:

Saxton Hale has always been fun for me, particularly with how much it evolved over time. Depending on which version of the mod is used, there're a lot of different bosses that can appear.

I'd love to see this, especially if it ends up with multiple bosses, so it doesn't get stale too quickly. It's basically a matter of attaching inputs to preexisting actions, eh? All the bosses have unique actions, but I feel like the basic 4 giants are similar enough that implementing the other 3 would be feasible, after implementing one.
Of course, there'd need to be a rotation system...
Dragonfly and Toadstool seem like they would be really fun to play as. They'd probably need extra balancing, but their unique effects seem like they'd have a nice bit of potential.

Would the players be pre-equipped? Any buildings or supplies at start? Food? Sanity/healing items?
Could give different starting supplies based on which character is chosen. Willow with Scalemail and a fire staff(s?), Max with shadow equips and a bunch of warrior shadow supplies...ect.
That would give people an actual reason to pick different people, rather than just Wigfrid and Wolfgang. Though...if multiple bosses are actually implemented, maybe the chosen boss/player should be displayed while everyone is still in character select.

 

I feel like I may have over-complicated that a bit.

No need to worry for complication, this is already a kinda insane idea!

- Adding all the bosses as playable is already feasible, I've personally done it before.  One thing I don't know how to do, however, is add a visual indicator for ability cooldowns and such.

- Things I also don't know how to do would be the rotation, player selection, player being forced to be a certain boss, allowing players to attack deerclops but not let them hurt each other, and resetting the world along with killing players who leave and rejoin.

- I think it would be a good idea to have the characters spawn with their own items, and I believe it should be feasible somehow to use modded characters as well.

Overall, I think the suggestion about the starting inventory is really good, in order to get a mix of different characters.

[ImDaMisterL]

All my yes to this! I was always a fan of this kind of gamemode.

[Rily]

Something like "Don't evolve"?, maybe if the boss player starts as a tiny or weak version of the boss who must eat or grind to get bigger and stronger, I like the idea of a 4 vs 1 (or more), sounds good in paper but maybe it requires some improvements, I would like a better combat system too, I mean, the combat system in Don't starve works pretty well, you fight with a pretty simple AI and is satisfactory, but in PVP is a bit flawed, DS combat system is not designed for that, the players must hit constantly and dodging requires go back and return.

When I play PVP the player who got better items, armor or uses a stronger character have the best chances to win, the don't starve PVP works because the strategy factor, not because the combat.

Back to the giants: to fight a boss in Don't starve you must learn how and when they can attack, and even in that way those fights could be hard, imagine a deerclopes who can dodge and predict the player movement or intentions, pretty unfair, a 1vs4 arena mod may require several tweaks to the bosses, their stats, their attacks and maybe buffs for the regular players

[Pyr0mrcow]

If Deerclops's attacks take the same length of time to complete, they'd be sort of dodgable, at least. The basic attacks for most of the rest are single target; presumably, special attacks would be one of the things with a cooldown. That means that the boss could hold its special attack and wait for the right moment, but...that gives them something to work with strategy-wise, which is good.

I wonder if players would use walls often if boss damage to them were decreased and the hitboxes for said bosses were increased in size.

That's an interesting idea with the boss progressing, thouuuugh...I feel like that would either come way after the rest is done, or as a separate mod.
Come to think of it, a Deerclops player mod could be really interesting if it's balanced correctly. With a growth system...size for players is editable...
*continues musing to self about something that might happen in the distant future*

[Arlesienne]

Me wants this to be a thing. Really. I will be your toadie.

[Scoobie101]

10 hours ago, Pyr0mrcow said:

Could give different starting supplies based on which character is chosen. Willow with Scalemail and a fire staff(s?), Max with shadow equips and a bunch of warrior shadow supplies...ect.
That would give people an actual reason to pick different people, rather than just Wigfrid and Wolfgang. Though...if multiple bosses are actually implemented, maybe the chosen boss/player should be displayed while everyone is still in character select.

A class system based on character would be SWEET for this kind of thing. Black Mage Wicker Skin Confirmed?

[MoloMan]

Yes to all of this.

This sounds like ALOT of fun. I would love different kinds of gamemodes in dst, and this one's pure epicness! And tweakng the characters with different abilities also sounds like alot of fun, (a Woodie player like myself would want to give the werebeaver some love wink wink)

 

This made me think of a buncha different gamemodes that would be really cool. Like Don't Turn where the game starts off normal but after a while, one player turns into a zombie and has to kill the other players turning them into more zombies, and the winner is the las one standing, or maybe he has to craft some kind of cool item to make himself immune idk. Kinda like zombie survivial in gmod.

[Mario384]

3 hours ago, Scoobie101 said:

A class system based on character would be SWEET for this kind of thing. Black Mage Wicker Skin Confirmed?

I think a class system would be a pretty interesting twist, like Willow catching the boss on fire, Wolfgang being a tank, Woodie given extreme log-harvesting abilties and werebeaver made a glass cannon, and other such things.  It'd be an interesting twist for sure!