Compromise between pretty "easy" social and true survival game-play

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

So, with the recent update on NMS coming out and introducing different game-play modes, I thought about whether this could be the kind of thing that could be in DST as a compromise for those who want the game to be more of an optional social club and those who would rather prefer if the game were focused on real tough survival with "everything is out to kill you" being more fleshed out.

You might think that "tune some game settings and there you go", could easily do and dust this, but the truth is you can't and it's for two reasons:

1) Newbies don't get much support from the game itself later on. The game's difficulty is very much constant, instead of local to each player based on their day count or something along the lines. It plays out to be going between somewhat easy to quite unbearable for newcomers and stays nearly constant in terms of difficulty for those already in the game from the beginning and doesn't prove to be much of a challenge a lot of the time for many. For true survival, as mentioned earlier, having difficulty local to each player, but if you're near players of higher day count, you could encounter things that are more often seen mid or late game (e.g. Deerclops spawning or Bearger spawning, so newbies wouldn't straight off the bat have to deal with them when they have nothing on them and none else of higher day count is there to help or be someone who should really be prepared for it, even if they might not be), with more of the recently added content and possibly older content (e.g. Dragonfly, Gmoose, Spider Queens perhaps etc.) being part of consequential or timed events and some more variation in many more things, so something like seasons variations like suggested by @Lumina and expanded a little by me. Here's a suggestion I made ages ago in improving the experience for newcomers, which sadly didn't get much attention, even though it's quite important.

2) The tuning of settings doesn't change the way mobs spawn or add in/change any existing behaviors. I'm not even sure you can tweak toadstool or bee queen in any way, but setting Dragonfly to lots isn't going to suddenly give you a challenge of her coming over to you during Summer at some point. This means integrating something along the lines of this, if I have not linked this in enough posts already.

Does this mean that devs might need to support different game modes as separate entities? It might feel that way, although not explicitly... I mean all of the code used in all modes could be used by any game-play mode, just that the game would ask what parts of code it should follow based on the game mode that has been selected.

Perhaps this could be integrated into the whole server game-play intentions, where you have the Social, Cooperative, Competitive and Madness, with the main candidates of variation in this case being social and cooperative, I guess, but again, up for debate.

There could also be a creative mode perhaps, so anyone being able to spawn or at least craft anything they want like being in godmode state, if people want to simply avoid survival and work on creative things without having to constantly enable godmode for themselves and other players upon entering the server.

I would like to hear the thoughts of this from the rest of the forum, because I really don't want to have the game completely deviate to something like club penguin instead of being a true survival experience with everything being out to kill you in a sense. A compromise like this could keep us all happy if devs are willing to put in just a little bit more effort. I mean, some mechanical variation wouldn't be too difficult to implement, would it?

[Donke60]

For once I agree with you. I must be going nuts this is a good idea though I'll post my suggestion later

[Donke60]

I don't think I could support a full creative mode because I feel like that would spoil some of the fun of finding something new while doing an actual run because I big thing that alot of people like is finding out new things and how things work so maybe a scieno mode or something
that you can trigger if you have already seen them once that way you can experiment with things you have seen but it wouldn't ruin your first enconter with mobs.

I personally think that having a mode where you can simulate stages of the adventure mode for practice would be a really good idea so that you don't have to look for the door and hope that you started off with the easy chapters first it would make adventure mode praticting much less tedious.

I know that Kiel was opposed to this when they were making Don't starve but we need some sort of tutorial  DST because I think I've had enough of having people doing nothing it games literally nothing or hearing how a noobie destroyed a whole base because of his own incompentece. I'm not askinbg for much just something to guide them through the basic mob behavoirs and mechnics of the game. It was fine in don't starve because the only thing you could harm when you made a mistake was yourself. But DST encorgages cooperation and newbies tend to stay near groups so that they have a less chance to get hurt but they still need to contribute and learn the game and just be organic basket cases

[Rily]

This game may be aggressive with new players because the concept of the game is not compatible with a multiplayer like this, works well when you and your veterans or experienced friends play together, but the game gives all the facilities to play with strangers, and that should not be the point.

Don't starve have a lack of information about how to play it and this is a counterback as a multiplayer, even the game itself recommends to play alone if you are new, is a nice detail, but maybe some kind of tutorial, just a little one, could save some time lost in the game wiki, the game is quite mysterious for those who don't even come to this forum, maybe if the description of tools and structures were less cryptic everyone could make better use of them, but that could rip off some Don't starve personality

However I never saw Don't starve as a game for everyone, it stills a survival game that doesn't reward people who don't follow the rules, punish the mistakes and where everything have a price, I don't think that DS is becoming casual, right now with this beta the game is more flexible, fun, varied and polished than never, but not easier, I think that we know too much about it and how it can surprise the player, that's why we feel it so easy compared to the original. 
We are all noobs once, right?

But hey devs, you should really consider add more information about the game INSIDE the game, nothing is as immersive to keep you in the game like quitting the game to visit a wiki, at least tell us more about the updates, I was trembling for 5 days when those blind deers came to my base, wondering if they would be dangerous X), I think the first time is fun but I butchered all and I feel guilty now

[TheTraditionalGentleman]

On 11/29/2016 at 1:59 PM, EuedeAdodooedoe said:

So, with the recent update on NMS coming out and introducing different game-play modes, I thought about whether this could be the kind of thing that could be in DST as a compromise for those who want the game to be more of an optional social club and those who would rather prefer if the game were focused on real tough survival with "everything is out to kill you" being more fleshed out.

You might think that "tune some game settings and there you go", could easily do and dust this, but the truth is you can't and it's for two reasons:

1) Newbies don't get much support from the game itself later on. The game's difficulty is very much constant, instead of local to each player based on their day count or something along the lines. It plays out to be going between somewhat easy to quite unbearable for newcomers and stays nearly constant in terms of difficulty for those already in the game from the beginning and doesn't prove to be much of a challenge a lot of the time for many. For true survival, as mentioned earlier, having difficulty local to each player, but if you're near players of higher day count, you could encounter things that are more often seen mid or late game (e.g. Deerclops spawning or Bearger spawning, so newbies wouldn't straight off the bat have to deal with them when they have nothing on them and none else of higher day count is there to help or be someone who should really be prepared for it, even if they might not be), with more of the recently added content and possibly older content (e.g. Dragonfly, Gmoose, Spider Queens perhaps etc.) being part of consequential or timed events and some more variation in many more things, so something like seasons variations like suggested by @Lumina and expanded a little by me. Here's a suggestion I made ages ago in improving the experience for newcomers, which sadly didn't get much attention, even though it's quite important.

2) The tuning of settings doesn't change the way mobs spawn or add in/change any existing behaviors. I'm not even sure you can tweak toadstool or bee queen in any way, but setting Dragonfly to lots isn't going to suddenly give you a challenge of her coming over to you during Summer at some point. This means integrating something along the lines of this, if I have not linked this in enough posts already.

Does this mean that devs might need to support different game modes as separate entities? It might feel that way, although not explicitly... I mean all of the code used in all modes could be used by any game-play mode, just that the game would ask what parts of code it should follow based on the game mode that has been selected.

Perhaps this could be integrated into the whole server game-play intentions, where you have the Social, Cooperative, Competitive and Madness, with the main candidates of variation in this case being social and cooperative, I guess, but again, up for debate.

There could also be a creative mode perhaps, so anyone being able to spawn or at least craft anything they want like being in godmode state, if people want to simply avoid survival and work on creative things without having to constantly enable godmode for themselves and other players upon entering the server.

I would like to hear the thoughts of this from the rest of the forum, because I really don't want to have the game completely deviate to something like club penguin instead of being a true survival experience with everything being out to kill you in a sense. A compromise like this could keep us all happy if devs are willing to put in just a little bit more effort. I mean, some mechanical variation wouldn't be too difficult to implement, would it?

I'm not trying to discredit your post at all, but have you by chance tried any other survival games? I can see where you're coming from, but if DST is proving too easy for you, maybe you try something else to scratch that "Hardcore survival" itch? I personally recommend either The Long Dark, which is a great challenge, or Darkwood, if you're more into horror. 

Not saying that more challenge isn't accepted, as I know late game can get somewhat slow, but that's kind of the nature of the beast with these types of games (from what I've noticed anyway). If it helps any (and if you're thinking the games too easy I'm sure you've tried this already) I've found that making winter longer and the other seasons shorter makes for an interesting challenge. It makes one feel like a squirrel, frantically stashing away enough food before the big freeze  

 

As far as the devs "putting in just a little more effort" I'd just be sure to clarify the difference between them putting effort into the game (as the frequent updates show obvious proof of) and them working on things that you specifically want. I mean, there are some things that I'd like changed too, but I don't think the devs aren't putting in effort just because I'm not getting the old werebeaver back.

Anyway, if you're looking for a game that is challenging in every way, in a very hostile environment, with plenty of things that will kill you, again, I emphasize these bad boys:

 

Personally, I'm enjoying TLD, DW, and DST, but that's just me.

[Donke60]

3 hours ago, TheTraditionalGentleman said:

Anyway, if you're looking for a game that is challenging in every way, in a very hostile environment, with plenty of things that will kill you, again, I emphasize these bad boys:

 

Personally, I'm enjoying TLD, DW, and DST, but that's just me.

I'd also recommend Death Road to Canda FTL darkest dungeon Voleer the Viking if you like Ghost'n' goblins Enter The Gungeon and Splunky the HD remake as it has better graphics and tighter controls with some character"skin" unlockables Eternal Darkness if you jsut wanna feel spooky with its sanity effects Thats all I can name right now I bet if you gave me more time I could go deeper.

Like Rogue Legacy of if you want old school stuff NES titles are pretty good