The state of Don't Starve.

[_Q_]

This is all my personal opinion so don't kill me and make good discussion with counter arguments. Let's start this with world. Current worlds have tons of all resources. Tons of twigs, berries, carrots, grass, trees, stone. I wake up in a world and I can wonder weeks living on berries, carrots and seeds, I can gather tons of food and other resources, there is to much resources, I don't have to worry about running out of grass or twigs, to make torches, I don't have to worry about food. Its like paradise, full of everything you will ever need. Let's see what are the minimum requirements to survive:-find around 8 gold, some twigs, grass, stone and flint-explore for few nights with torches and find beefalos and/or pig village-build fire pit, research machines, get spear armor and helmet-start killing pigs, beefalos for meat and wool skinsThat's all, you will be well fed, beefalos/pigs will protect you from hounds and hounds alone can be distracted by meat you drop on the ground, you can sleep some nights in straw roll to get back some sanity, but after the current hotfix its not even needed. Lets look at boss monsters:Spider Queen can be ignored and will settle to lvl1 spider nest after some time. Killing them is optional.Treeguards are reward for cutting large amount of trees, you can ignore them, or like most monsters use them to clear swamps or kill some beefalos/pig.Pigs respawn to often, as a result of this you can survive for ages using their meat, pighouses are to cheap, as a result of this you can build pig army very fast, and kill everything, but like I said earlier killing anything beside pigs and beefalos is optional. Beefalos are easy to kill, and drop tons of meat.Structures and items: You need: -Logsuit-Football Helmet -Spear-Fire pit -2 research machines-Crock pot -Ice box Rest of the structures and items is optional, and you can live without them for ages. Once you have your base near pigs or beefalos you are immortal, you can go and explore the world but again its optional. World of Don't Starve is like paradise, you are the King using the world. You can't starve in this world, you can't die cause world alone will protect you. I don't mention Krampus cause you will never meet him. After 10 to 15 days whole game is over, cause nothing will change. I know that winter is coming to this game, but I am not sure if it will change anything.

Edited February 14, 2013 by _Q_

[Avelarius]

I think they are tuning down to not scare the non hardcore players as they need all feedback. Hardcore players will complain, curse, cry but will not leave xD

[Palpetinus]

I have to disagree on something strongly. You don't need beefalo or pigs, you can compensate the food with honey.Besides that, i have to agree with that. It needs to be harder mid- and lategame.

[_Q_]

I have to disagree on something strongly. You don't need beefalo or pigs, you can compensate the food with honey.Besides that, i have to agree with that. It needs to be harder mid- and lategame.

Yes current maps are honey paradise, but I skipped that cause if you want honey you must kill some spiders, and you don't need to that in order to survive. You can live on meat only.

[Palpetinus]

Yes current maps are honey paradise, but I skipped that cause if you want honey you must kill some spiders, and you don't need to that in order to survive. You can live on meat only.

Well, killing lvl 1 spider dens early seems easier than killing beefalo and pigs to me.

[_Q_]

Well, killing lvl 1 spider dens early seems easier than killing beefalo and pigs to me.

Pigs are easy to kill just hit one that is further away form its friends and you free meal in few seconds.

[Palpetinus]

Pigs are easy to kill just hit one that is further away form its friends and you free meal in few seconds.

The same counts for lvl 1 spider dens :DEDIT: Well, i kinda think it depends on your playstyle. If you like turtling, then beeboxes would be a better option. If you travel around, pigs will be better. Edited February 14, 2013 by Palpetinus

[Alrom]

Well how was your experience with this game in the first time you played?Did you looked up on the wiki or discovered everything by yourself?When I played this game blind I had tons of fun discovering stuff and was always dying on days 5, 8 or 15.But at some point I just started being more cautelous and learning the metagame.Also, when the story mode is finished I really hope that you will be eventually running around an entire day to find a single bush of berries, grass or twigs and swamps with a tentacle for every four steps you do.But I like to analyse a game by hours of entertainment/priceand experience/priceAnd don't starve is certainly almost on the top of my list

[GamingGorman]

I think they are tuning down to not scare the non hardcore players as they need all feedback. Hardcore players will complain, curse, cry but will not leave xD

And this is the problem, trying to make everyone happy will leave no one happy.You pick a crowd, you please that crowd, everyone else will either leave or join that crowd.

[_Q_]

Everything is easy, and I don't understand why spider warriors don't leave their nest at night, there are only regular spiders and you can kill them all night when you set up some campfire near the nest.

[Snob]

I agree, the world is too generous.I understand that in future updates, many things will be tweaked. The only problem lies through the fact that gathering resources is very easy; the (current) amount of resources available is overly abundant.

[w00tyd00d]

Well I think you're focusing a lot on the state of the sandbox mode in it's current state. But that's exactly it, it's sandbox mode, which makes it so you don't necessarily have any goals and you can do whatever you want in order to survive. For that mode, all of your arguments are absolutely valid. I'll be interested to see how that difficulty shapes up over time, especially when they implement the sandbox configuration they were talking about.

Now, let's talk about adventure mode. The mode where you have to find the different pieces of the portal so you can build it and advance to the next world. This means that building a big, extravagant base and having anything you don't "need" would be somewhat silly because you lose everything in that world when you advance to the next (you can still take your inventory minus chester; a very rogue-like feature I'm glad they put in.) This also means that you as the player are forced to explore the lands around to try and locate the missing pieces and their dimensional-vortex platform. This could shape up to be a very interesting mechanic, due to the fact the devs could do something as tricky as sticking a part to the portal in the middle of a giant field of tier 3 spider nests that turn in to spider queens when you pick it up. Things like that could easily up the difficulty of the adventure mode, and THAT'S what I think is most important. The sandbox difficulty should be whatever you make of it, where the adventure mode should be a challenge to beat.

This doesn't mean, however, there can't be a difficulty curve. Adventure mode, like any other game, should start out somewhat easy and get progressively harder. Kind of like the difficulty of how Don't Starve is right now, and then each world will add more challenges to overcome. I feel like the people who say that the game is too easy right now sort of forget that the game we're playing will only be a small portion of what the real game will offer as far as difficulty, and the people who say it's too hard forget that it is supposed to be a hard game in the end, but that doesn't mean you can't start out somewhat easy. Once they implement the customization for the sandbox mode, that will allow the newer players to toggle some of the harder things off while they learn, and then once they get a bit more familiar with the game they have to option to re-toggle to default. Little things like this can really help the game AND it's community because you're not sacrificing anything to appeal to one side.

I have the utmost faith in Klei that by the time the game is released in March, people will be very pleased with the end result. And just remember people: We CAN have our cake and eat it, too.

Edited February 14, 2013 by w00tyd00d

[_Q_]

This game needs to be more dynamic, world should work against you, and try to kill you. You pick many berries, berry bushes should catch a plague and don't give fruits for some time. Spiders can see your fire at night and they come and try to kill you. Wrepigs should do the same, they can see the fire, they can hear you. World should be scary place that want you dead, not some sort of holiday resort.

[_Q_]

Well I think you're focusing a lot on the state of the sandbox mode in it's current state. But that's exactly it, it's sandbox mode, which makes it so you don't necessarily have any goals and you can do whatever you want in order to survive. For that mode, all of your arguments are absolutely valid. I'll be interested to see how that difficulty shapes up over time, especially when they implement the sandbox configuration they were talking about.

Now, let's talk about adventure mode. The mode where you have to find the different pieces of the portal so you can build it and advance to the next world. This means that building a big, extravagant base and having anything you don't "need" would be somewhat silly because you lose everything in that world when you advance to the next (you can still take your inventory minus chester; a very rogue-like feature I'm glad they put in.) This also means that you as the player are forced to explore the lands around to try and locate the missing pieces and their dimensional-vortex platform. This could shape up to be a very interesting mechanic, due to the fact the devs could do something as tricky as sticking a part to the portal in the middle of a giant field of tier 3 spider nests that turn in to spider queens when you pick it up. Things like that could easily up the difficulty of the adventure mode, and THAT'S what I think is most important. The sandbox difficulty should be whatever you make of it, where the adventure mode should be a challenge to beat.

This doesn't mean, however, there can't be a difficulty curve. Adventure mode, like any other game, should start out somewhat easy and get progressively harder. Kind of like the difficulty of how Don't Starve is right now, and then each world will add more challenges to overcome. I feel like the people who say that the game is too easy right now sort of forget that the game we're playing will only be a small portion of what the real game will offer as far as difficulty, and the people who say it's too hard forget that it is supposed to be a hard game in the end, but that doesn't mean you can't start out somewhat easy. Once they implement the customization for the sandbox mode, that will allow the newer players to toggle some of the harder things off while they learn, and then once they get a bit more familiar with the game they have to option to re-toggle to default. Little things like this can really help the game AND it's community because you're not sacrificing anything to appeal to one side.

I have the utmost faith in Klei that by the time the game is released in March, people will be very pleased with the end result. And just remember people: We CAN have our cake and eat it, too.

In adventure mode first world is, and should be easy, but you can take like full inventory, backpack and research to the next world, and that makes the next world easier.

[CrispyJelly]

This game needs to be more dynamic, world should work against you, and try to kill you.

I think the pigs are getting smarter. They have farms now, and are in greater numbers and communities. Who knows what they will be doing by the next update? Gossip about you and carry spears once you start killing them? I actually find the pigs scarier than spiders right now.

[_Q_]

I think the pigs are getting smarter. They have farms now, and are in greater numbers and communities. Who knows what they will be doing by the next update? Gossip about you and carry spears once you start killing them? I actually find the pigs scarier than spiders right now.

Hehehe. And the current number of pigs just allow you to sit there and live forever.

[Dyshonest]

Populations of gamers are like most populations, they follow a normal distribution. This means that on a spectrum from very casual gamers to very hardcore gamers, the largest portion of gamers will fall somewhere in between the two extremes. This trend of having the majority of a given population lying in the middle of the extreme points, when graphed out, creates a bell curve. Any company trying to sell a product (should be all companies because money is the reason you start a company) will naturally try to make the product accessible to the largest number of possible buyers. In most normal populations (including gamers) the largest percent of people lies in the middle of two extremes. So just because those of us who have poured tons of hours into this game may feel that it is too easy, we are the outliers and not necessarily part of the majority that play this game. This can be hard to believe because in a forum community, like in the news, the problems get more publicity than the non-problems. People who feel the game is great aren't as likely to come onto the forums as are people who have a bone to pick with the game so it appears as though there is a larger portion of people upset with the game than is actually the case. TLR Just because the game doesn't cater to the more experienced players as far as difficulty is concerned does not mean that the game doesn't still cater/appeal to the majority of players.

[Avelarius]

And this is the problem, trying to make everyone happy will leave no one happy.You pick a crowd, you please that crowd, everyone else will either leave or join that crowd.

Frak the crowd. Frak both crowds. The crowd don't know what the crowd want. You try pleasing the crowd and the crowd will lose interest and leave you alone.

[Gigahappytown]

I just build de bees o3o

[501105]

For some part yes, but there is such a thing as making the game too difficult or unforgiving. I for one would dislike if the game becomes so difficult that reaching day 5 or such would be a monumental task, it would completely kill of the fun for me.