Late Game challenging events suggestions

[Z0366]

Hi folks,

I have spent roughly 300+ hours in DS and DST. DST is so much more fun, due to the new bosses and challenges. However, the game still gets dull quickly after, say, day 210. I understand that it is partly because I am not a perfectionist who would spend hours constructing a magnificent base in terms of decoration. The sense of "I need to strive to survive" just fades away in the late game where no more threats or challenges are existent. I think the game could be more fun if other threating events can be brought in randomly to constantly chase the players to do more. I have a few ideas:

1. Solar eclipse. The sun is blocked by the moon for a period of time, rendering complete darkness and drop of temperature for several (or more) days.

2.An overflow of shadow energy from the atrium gate: All players experience heavy sanity losses at -30/min, that could not be manageable in any way, more shadow creatures spawn. This could be for a few days or, combined with a quest where players must travel to atrium room and repair the atrium gate with thulecite.

3. The Plague. A spreading disease that  would infect all the players and cause them to  move slower, suffer sanity loss, random overheating or freezing ( due to body temperature), until they destroy the source of the plague ( a lureplant spreading an airborne parasite) .

These are some of my thoughts only, but I am sure that it is not only me who is feeling the game is a little too easy once a functional base starts to operate. What do you guys think?

[Szczuku]

This is not a bad idea but unfortunatelly I can already see how things would go:

1. Complaining. People (mostly "experienced noobs") would get mad that this isn't a new challange in terms of fighting but instead it's just a mechanic meant to slow down the game- just like disease.

2. Some pros already know how to deal with challanges very easy. Do you remember when ancient fuelweaver was added? At first people were like "I'll never kill him" but now we have a lureplant-houndious method. It would be the same with these chalanges. "Just put the star down and you don't need to worry about darkness".

And after all these chalanges aren't the late-game thing players need. More like a new Antlion- you learn how to deal with it and that's it. What I imagine would be a good late game chalange is a new dangerous area to explore. But that will never happen- too much new content and new reign is already finished.

[Z0366]

 

19 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

This is not a bad idea but unfortunatelly I can already see how things would go:

1. Complaining. People (mostly "experienced noobs") would get mad that this isn't a new challange in terms of fighting but instead it's just a mechanic meant to slow down the game- just like disease.

2. Some pros already know how to deal with challanges very easy. Do you remember when ancient fuelweaver was added? At first people were like "I'll never kill him" but now we have a lureplant-houndious method. It would be the same with these chalanges. "Just put the star down and you don't need to worry about darkness".

And after all these chalanges aren't the late-game thing players need. More like a new Antlion- you learn how to deal with it and that's it. What I imagine would be a good late game chalange is a new dangerous area to explore. But that will never happen- too much new content and new reign is already finished.

Which is why inventing new "challenging quests" would be more feasible. I would like these challenges are linked to typical solutions or base buildings so players are forced to overcome them or endure them. To be frank, two experienced players can quickly finish most of the currently meaningful activities in the game in 140 days and gets quite boring. I would think that DST emphasizes on together, so the challenges or new bosses should take experienced players to deal with together. My point is that, if klei does not invent something that keeps the pace of the game up for late game, a portion of players may get bored and leave the community.

[Sinister_Fang]

I think I'd like to see more random events like this. Even if they don't present a challenge, it would at least add a little bit of variety. Right now the only kind of random events we got to spice things up are hounds/depth worms, and frogs (but only in spring).

[csc_unit]

Another way to look at it is that Klei managed to keep you for 300+ hours on their game. Which is really good actually. Some players like you dont bother with caging all the critters of the world or filling chests with 800 spiders glands. 

I used to be like you. I let the game then came back a couple times and each times I found new things to do. Now I always have multiple projects going on. 

[GenomeSquirrel]

1 sounds a lot like winter, and 2 sounds like spring without an umbrella

[Cellby]

I've always thought that this game needs a version of Adventure mode, it would be really fun to play with friends. This game does get really easy after a while, and I actually am surprised people can put thousands of hours into this game. I just wonder what they do to not get bored. 

It was quite nice to learn that people play the game with a challenge or limitation they set for themselves or use some mods to make the game have more mechanics. There should be a more obvious solution though...at the current state it's not one of those games majority of people will put a lot of time into. Haven't played my main world in months, only in other newbie friend's worlds where they sort of are the "challenge" sandbagging me down...but it's still easily waaaay more fun than being in my main server. We have a lot of laughs. This game is optimally enjoyed when playing with a whole bunch of other people but sadly most of the people I introduce to the game also get bored of it pretty easily after a certain amount of time.

I stopped playing this game long ago but The Forge brought me back. And I returned with a new love for this game. The hype died after getting an established base down; I just check these forums at least once every few days to check on when the next big event is coming out. Though I don't play the game anymore as of late, I love the art direction and writing and the character of it all. Really interested to see what direction they are going to take the game in – I hope they are doing the right steps to execute the untapped potential well.

 

Character rebalancing when?

[MondayNight]

First of, yes, some scaled-up difficulty should occur after your first Ruins reset/Fuelweaver take-down (maybe as option at World generation).

 

As for proposed ideas:

1. I've played on a Winter-And-Night-Only server; at beginning is fun, trying hard to survive (even better if with friends/others), muster materials for research, getting better equipment. Yet after you do so (roughly 8-10 days later depending on land-and-resources generation) the dark and cold just become minor annoyances. Sure, if not well prepared cumulative dangers can do you it. But mostly is just annoyance;

2. Perma-insanity if not going again to Atrium and "appease the Gate"? Not very challenging after you already discovered (and looted/killed everything) down there. Would be just another choir (one could use in nf-farming) I suppose;

3. Saw how sapling-and-grass diseases are generally perceived atm? Annoyances, again (don't recall anyone posting "Why, I absolutely love the disease mechanic in DST, briliant!" around forums) - even more so as one can gloss over their foreshadowing signs very easy and then there isn't any curative measure. Roaming map while being hampered yourself by disease in search of proposed lureplant-like illness source is akin to running in sandstorm from hounds without goggles if dangers occur (and dangers do occur most of times). Don't know, to me seems very RNG-ish. However could be fun if implemented correctlyl.

 

Yet I rather much have better-and-organised enemies after such a scaled-up difficulty event than anything else: warrior pigs could amount small wars on players (small groups of warrior pigs spawned in player vicinity), Hound and Depths Worm attacks become more randomized and without any prior warnings, Shadow crevasses began to appear at night over the world and more creatures become shadow-possessed akin to monkeys, Charlie becomes a more active, ominous presence in various ways, etc.

[Mencken]

I like 1 and 3.   Not to be a member of the grammar police but I can't help it, say "extant" instead of "challenges are existent".

 

I'd like to see much larger worlds if possible with areas that have absolutely nothing (like an Antarctic) that take 3-5 days to cross and require a lot of planning but getting across has significant rewards.   In lieu of a larger world you could just have a snowy area that really slows you down like in the oasis in summertime.    A few more types of biomes would be interesting, maybe a dense jungle with "rivers", a desert with sand dunes, a frozen tundra, a volcanic area, etc. etc.   Variation is what keeps a game compelling and while this one has a lot of it there is so much more that can be added.

 

Oh, just had another thought..don't know if it is programmable but what about enabling certain creatures with A.I. so they learn from us and became more dangerous over time?   Maybe have a monkey king with followers that hunts humans, spiders that plan raids on bases, and so on.

[Nino123]

5 hours ago, Mencken said:

 Maybe have a monkey king with followers that hunts humans, spiders that plan raids on bases, and so on.

Maybe during the chinese year of the monkey.

[minespatch]

20 hours ago, Nino123 said:

Maybe during the chinese year of the monkey.

Splumonkey?

[Nino123]

Isn't Wilbur?

[Z0366]

I am glad to have so many responses. Thank you all for your response and new idea. I am sure (I hope ;)) that Klei is also giving it a thought. To be honest I do not qualify my suggestions as "sophisticated and splendid" in any way. What I am crying out here is a new, or advanced mechanism to add more flavor to the game, so that it becomes more meaningful to stick around with friends in this world. Making the game harder on current mechanism does not make it more fun, the difficulty only slows the time for the player to reach a saturation state (a good base basically), but once the players have done so, there is literally not much left to do. Thank you all for the reply again.

[voyager156]

On 5.03.2018 at 9:08 PM, Z0366 said:

1. Solar eclipse. The sun is blocked by the moon for a period of time, rendering complete darkness and drop of temperature for several (or more) days.

Personally I really like this one.