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I've been thinking about what makes the gameplay in Don't Starve so challenging and interesting. My favorite mechanic so far is Travel. When I first started playing, I started looking for parts of the world where all the resources you need are in one place. Intersections of Tundra, Forest, and Plains... My favorite world so far has each biome spread far apart, and it about a day to get from the plains to the tundra. There is very little food in the tundra, but the manure makes my farms back at base run nice and smooth. I have plenty of food. I think that Don't Starve needs more unstoppable forces. Winter is an excellent addition, but I have another in mind, physical health. The player starts off skinny, and in the early game, lots of exploration is required. The spectrum looks like this: Fat <-> Skinny <-> Fit. Wilson's activities affect how much food goes towards his weight/fitness, and how much goes towards his hunger bar. If a player has been sedimentary, he will gain weight. If he has been very active, he will gain muscle. If he had a moderately active day, he will lose weight or muscle. Food is used to store fat, and muscles require energy to maintain. Activeness could be determined by: -travelling medium to long distances - running circles around a campfire doesn't count -combat -chopping trees or mining Possible effects of obesity: -he runs slowly. -he becomes an attractive target for predators. Possible effects of fitness: -he runs faster. -he gathers materials faster. -he deals more damage in combat. Even though weight loss and gain is based on the player's activities, the actual event occurs (or is noticed by Wilson) after he finishes eating. It would be hilarious to see Wilson's gut growing, or Wilson becoming beefy in 30-60 seconds. He could even have special event animations... Weight affects how the food bar refills in the following ways: -When Wilson gains fat or muscle, a portion of the food that he eats does not apply to the food bar. Calories are used to store energy in the form of fat, and calories are needed to build muscle. These calories need to come from somewhere... -As Wilson becomes fat, his metabolism slows down. He becomes hungry less quickly. -As Wilson becomes fit, his metabolism speeds up. He becomes hungry more quickly. Anyway, I think these mechanics make gameplay more interesting, and they also give the player more goals (get fit for the summer, get fat for the winter). The mechanics also discourage farming/tree walls. If you get very fat, then you will be slow, weak, and Hounds will attack. You need to travel & exercise to keep fit! Let me know what you think, -Austin

Greetings All, I humbly present you my first mod project, currently in development, called "Better Hunting". I already have a prototype working . I would very much appreciate any feedback, ideas and criticism on anything, I´d love to hear what the community thinks and wishes. On this post I will place a summary, but the full design document with all the number crunching is on the following google spreadsheet: Thanks in advance! I hope you like the ideas. -- brain Better Hunting - Design Phase What this mod does: When you investigate a Suspicious Dirt Pile, you will track and find other creatures, not just the Koalefant. Currently, 17 different new encounters are planned. Objectives: Add variety without making the game easier or harder. Add amusing behaviors / interactions on most of the new creatures. Most encounters should be killable by a single player. Some encounters could be easily dealt in a group Preserve as much as possible the original Koalefant function as Meat and Breezy Vest source. Use as much as possible of the original game graphics / animations. RoG and DST compatibility Sources of Variety: New encounters / creatures / animals / enemies in unusual sizes, with different stats, in strange places, with different behaviors. A large number of them in spawn table will make any single one quite rare, thus maintaining replayability value. Certain types of mobs will spawn in biomes where you don´t see them usually, and things might interact in unusual ways. Season-sensitivity when possible and applicable will make hunting experience different along the game year. Some encounters will drop items that are not food. Some encounters will drop rare and sought-after items, with very low chance. Details (light spoilers) Naming, size and prefab choice (light spoilers) First, the basic Koalefant spawn chance was established. All other creatures will spawn only when a Koalefant is not chosen. Since Winter Koalefant is the only source of the Breezy Vest, a decision was made to establish that Koalefants prefer cold-weather. Thus, on Winter 66% of all tracks will be Koalefant tracks, 0% on summer, 33% on the other seasons. Each mob on the spawn table received a relative weight. The remaining spawn probability for that season is split between mobs with a simple weighted average. Each mob was then evaluated to be removed from the table on a specific season, if it fits their style. Weights were tweaked to make Summer the best hunting season for loot / bosses. Winter will be the Koalefant hunting season. Food is more varied on Spring. Prime bosses hunting season in Summer provides a tradeoff for the player to decide: risk the heat? Some encounters were made to to be very rare and unusual. (of course assuming the player didn´t read all these spoilers) Combat balancing (light spoilers) In Excel I plotted the hunger replenishment value of eating cooked meat or making meatballs with all the meats dropped by all mobs in all encounters. Honey nuggets was assumed the recipe used for honey, bacon and eggs for eggs . Butterfly wings was ignored. Trunks were ignored because I assume they will be used to craft items. Afterwards I compared the new creatures drops averaged over their spawning probability along the year to reach the average food-creating capacity that the animal tracks mechanics provide. Some food drops were then increased to provide a less unbalanced food experience. In comparison with the vanilla model, Better Hunting will provide 30% less hunger replenishment if you eat cooked food. If using a crockpot for meatballs, the loss is 20% in average. During winter, just 8% less food. The less food drops balances out the other item drops. This effect is because some encounters won´t provide food or will provide less food than the usual 100% Koalefant 8-meat + trunk all the time. One encounter has vegetarian drops, so meat-only characters experience a very slight advantage. The less-food effect won´t happen on the first season of the game by default, because encounters that don´t drop food will be disabled in the first season. (configurable) Game Start / Difficulty Balancing (light spoilers) Koalefant Goliath Frog Queen Bee Aged Beefalo Orphan Smallbirds (1-8) Really Fat Gobbler Distracted Krampus Emperor Pengull Elite Clockwork Knight Elite Clockwork Bishop Walrus Scout Abandoned Mosling Mother Catcoon Angry Goat Varg Infant Deerclops Teen Moose Baby Bearger Item Balancing ( HEAVY SPOILERS ) High-sought encounters are: Walrus Scout, Distracted Krampus, the 2 clockwork bosses that drop one Ancient item, the 3 mini-giants with chance to drop giant items. Average probability of finding one such encounter is 23,8% On summer is: 48,4% On winter: 12,7% Chance of getting a Krampus Sack: 2,38% or 1 in every 42 animals tracked Chance of getting a Walrus Tusk 2,06% or 1 in every 48 animals tracked Chance of getting a specific Ancient Item 0,7% or 1 in every 134 animals tracked. And you have to kill the mini-bosses. And don´t share the loot (DST) Chance of getting any Ancient Item 7,5% or 1 in every 13 animals tracked. But you have to kill it and loot it. If you get help it is only 1 drop for all friends Food supply from tracks will be reduced by 26,8% overall Food supply from tracks will be reduced by 8,1% on Winter Food supply from tracks will be reduced by 55,5% on Summer Current Issues Scaling up the creatures produces slighty poorer graphic quality. No artist to produce mod icon.

This is my version of Wendy

Wolfgang is Soviet. His english is broken, and if you have him examine a Hammer he'll say "Needs a sickle."

I'm in a plains biome and don't have any source of food other than beefalo, I'm almost out of carrots so I will need to kill some Soon. I will die if I just whack him with a spear infront of his friends. I am playing as Wilson, so Abigail can't help me (I've heard she's a good beefalo hunter) Is there an easier way of killing them

The spear is a extremely well crafted weapon, but there is one problem that confused me: you can't throw it. In the next update, 3 days, if you can please squeeze the idea in if you guys like it. -HolyMan504

Bug Submission Please choose a category [Gameplay] Platform Steam Version Number - Issue title Before you change to full screen mode. Steps to reproduce Press play on steam and i have to make it full screen for the mouse to be centered so where the mouse is; is where it clicks. Describe your issue That is the video of it because it is not easy to explain : ) if you can put a comment in the comments telling me what it is it would be greatly appreciated.

The main thing that bothers me about DS: NO SWORD! Why don't they have a sword? That is one of the main tools/weapons in any adventure/survival game. Like: Minecraft ,Terraria, ect. That is all I could think of at the moment, but you get the point. -HolyMan504

In a game about survival, where night without light source means certain death, why would you be picky about fuel for your camp fire? Handle of your half-used pick, bird trap, trusty log suit, hats - anything, that has flammable materials in it, should go into fire if the need comes.

There should be a flink-lock pistol using: 2 flint 4 stone and 1 board This would come in handy with hunting birds,spiders,bees,rabb... dee... the rabbit like things... -HolyMan504

Bug Submission Please choose a category [Gameplay] Platform Steam Chrome Version Number - Issue title Traps not functioning on birds Steps to reproduce Place trap and bait with seeds Describe your issue :confused:Since the latest update any traps I bait with seeds no longer catch birds. Now when I bait the traps with seed, the birds simply land, eat the seeds and leave. I have not caught a single bird since the latest update. This is really frustrating as I rely on birds for a food source when doing primary exploration of the map.

When the game started it was a wilderness explorer and survival game. It still is now but with the crock pot, the turbo farm, transplantable items, bee boxes and the recent addition of the Krampus the developers seem to be pushing more towards the farmer survival style. I myself do prefer this style, but I think it could use more challenge. As a farmer there are very little things that can threaten you when you have settled, the exception are hounds but those can be easily dealt with. Perhaps the developers should add in storms or some other kind of crop destroying thing, such as squirrels to add more challenge to that aspect of the game. However that's just my opinion, what do you think? P.S. Please try to use family-friendly language in this thread.

Hello! First I love the game! I think a few new cool features in don't starve would first be adding a bow, quiver, and arrows. then the second thing i think would be cool would be deer. it would be awsome if they could be more available than turkey's but less than rabits. and another cool one would be co-op up to 2 or maby even 4 people. if you think this is cool please try and add one of them please! Thanks!

What do hound tooths do

To have the option between hunting and gathering, I don't know how many times I've been gathering poop from Beefalos and accidentally hit it only to have it gnaw my face off. So maybe a switch from aggressive to non- aggressive.

Wildlife I'd like to see: Bears - large omnivores with big claws that can run much faster than you might think. Bears should hit hard and raid your camp for food. We may not have gorillas, but a 400 ton bear can do whatever they want! Especially raid bee hives! Wild Boars/pigs - Pigmen might fill this nitch eventually. Boars are large and incredibly destructive on an environment. Also omnivores, they eat roots, they own offspring (really), and the males have sharp tusks. Lots of meat, but the destruction of resources would be a reason to kill them or keep their numbers down. Mountain Lions/Pumas/Cougars(all different names for the same critter) - the temperate zone equivalent of leopards. They shouldn't look to bother you, but should be almost certain death to fight. Also, they would compete for beefalos (sp?) and large meaty animals. Don't ever tick them off. Sphinx - wanders around coughing up riddles. Gives out tips or goodies for getting the right answer; just don't get the wrong answer. ##Pets## Hawk - dive bombs monsters in a fight, giving you a small bonus. He won't be killing any for you, but he will speed things up, especially with large monsters. Cat - Adds bonuses for using magical spells (we are getting those eventually, right?) Weasel - Slinky and makes you stealthier. Creatures won't see you as easily. Owl - Big eyes glare at enemies, making them think twice before attacking you. Lower lvl aggroing enemies are less likely to attack you with the owl staring at them like that. Possibly limited to night time use only. Eagle - daytime version of owl, if owls are only usable nocturnally. Eagle sees what you're trying to do there. Fox - basically a walking animal trap for rabbits and other animals that can be caught with a trap. Fox will catch these animals and bring you morsels if you travel with him. He's not strong enough to back you up in a fight. Deer/mules/something you can ride: Mount that helps speed up map travel. Unicorn - is translucent and sparkly. Stands near your garden and makes things grow faster. Skips and frolics when following you. Also fertilizes it with rainbows. Some awesome large mythical monster - equiv of a pigman and will defend you in combat. Jackal-ope - Makes you lucky in random things (crops grown, stuff found, etc.).