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Different Approach for PvP Mode - War of the Worlds


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When I told my friend that Don't Starve is going to have multiplayer he replayed:

 

"So there will be characters running around on the screen trying to hit each other with a spear?".

 

Obviously his instant association with multiplayer was player versus player rather than a cooperative game mode. While being rather silly his weird conclusion made me start thinking about pvp in DS. How would it look like? I came up with an idea:

 

 

War of the Worlds Mode

 

2 players start on separate but identical maps(to make the mode more 'competetive' by eliminating some random number generation in favour of one's side). Near their spawns there would be a Sacrificial Altar of the Shadow Beings (or something like that). This structure would work like a Crockpot - you put some items in and 'cook' them. What purpose would it serve? There would be different recipes and each one will bring some result upon the OTHER PLAYER'S WORLD. Example recipe effects:

  • Summoning rain;
  • Summoning rain with thunder;
  • Summoning Frog Rain;
  • Initiating a Hound Wave;
  • Sending in a Krampus (or two... Krampi? Krampuses? ... Whatever!);
  • Summoning a Giant (specific to the current season);
  • Changing the season (probably a high tier recipe);
  • Forcing Full Moon (your opponent uses too many Pigmen? Ooops!  :livid:  );
  • Causing Earthquakes (only in caves);
  • Initiating a Depthworm Wave (only in caves);
  • Casting an eclipse (Lights out for a day);
  • Summoning the Dark Hands trying to put out the fire (only during night);
  • All Spider Nests gain a level;
  • Next time your opponent will go hunting he will encounter a Warg;
  • Target Pig House becomes a Rundown House;
  • For the rest of the day - every attempt to cut down a tree will turn it into a Treeguard;
  • Every Birchnut Tree becomes angry for a day;
  • The Pig King becomes distrustful and summons 4 Guardian Pigs;
  • Cause Beefalo mating season;
  • Turn nearby Flowers into Evil Flowers;

(Ingredients not added ON PURPOSE. Concept needs a lot of testing)

 

An additional feature would be a built into the interface option to observe the other player via a 'Shadow Mirror' icon or by using an additional item that would be exclusive to this mode.

 

Players will end up testing their survival skills while seeking vulnerabilities in the rival's strategy.

 

An importat thing needed to be mentioned - the random events like the natural Giant's spawn (not caused by the other player), Hound attacks ect. should all appear at the same time for each of the sides to enforce the competetive aspect of this mode.

 

With the death of one of the players Shadow Hands will show up and drag the winner to the Shadow Throne as the goal of this mode is prove yourself ot the dark powers ruling the island of Don't Starve.

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Awesome! 

 

 

Although I think that the ingredients should change every time you use one to prevent someone from spamming giants/frog rain and the sacrificial altars equivalent to wet goop would be helping the other player (free food, extra gold from pig king, etc.) 

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Each team has 10-15 days to build a base, when the time has end the war starts :grin:

 

A 'protection' period might be a great idea but it all depends on the materials needed to use the 'Altar'. Cooldowns might also be introduced. It all comes down to testing. Personally I would vote for making as little limitations as possible to allow all sort of 'rush' strategies and putting artifical caps only if the new meta somehow results in a boring gameplay.

 

Thanks for supporting my idea. I appreciate it.

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A 'protection' period might be a great idea but it all depends on the materials needed to use the 'Altar'. Cooldowns might also be introduced. It all comes down to testing. Personally I would vote for making as little limitations as possible to allow all sort of 'rush' strategies and putting artifical caps only if the new meta somehow results in a boring gameplay.

 

Thanks for supporting my idea. I appreciate it.

With Altar do you mean the "Wilson Door"

If not, i am lost.

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Awesome! 

 

 

Although I think that the ingredients should change every time you use one to prevent someone from spamming giants/frog rain and the sacrificial altars equivalent to wet goop would be helping the other player (free food, extra gold from pig king, etc.) 

 

If the ingredient to summon a Deerclop is the Deerclops Eyeball and some other materials then there will be no way of spamming Giants. Each time you send one you would risk getting the same response as the enemy could get the ingredient from your monster.

 

This would force using carefully timed attacks rather than spamming.

 

Frog Rain should be hard to cast and perhaps season specific (excluding its use in summer and winter). I can already imagine people countering it with a fast amassing of Traps, Farms and some portable light sources. Keep in mind that spending your time on gathering resources for the Frog Rain which only results in supplying your opponent with abundance of food might be a decisive factor in this kind of a 'PvP match'. Once you get in a defensive mode after a setback like this then there might be no coming back. 'GG'.

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With Altar do you mean the "Wilson Door"

If not, i am lost.

 

I was reffering to the structure proposed by me in this thread - one of the main feature of this mode.

 

Near their spawns there would be a Sacrificial Altar of the Shadow Beings (or something like that). This structure would work like a Crockpot - you put some items in and 'cook' them. What purpose would it serve? There would be different recipes and each one will bring some result upon the OTHER PLAYER'S WORLD

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I was reffering to the structure proposed by me in this thread - one of the main feature of this mode.

Oh, sorry.

Well, i think that your idea would be a great game mode but still needs some work, little details.

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It's not for the majority of the players, but I think I could warm up to this idea.

 

It would be appealing to the more experianced players but I am sure friends playing Don't Starve with a similar knowledge of the game (not necessarily advanced) might also find it fun and entertaining.

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Oh, sorry.

Well, i think that your idea would be a great game mode but still needs some work, little details.

 

'Little details' that would make or break this game mode. It would take a lot of work (mainly testing) to make all the recipes useful I am sure of that. I don't want to take numbers out of my a** and pretend a wise guy by telling that summoning the Frog Rain would be done by using 25 x Frog Legs, 5 x Monster Meat, Umbrella and 2 x Nightmare Fuel. I am just laying down the general concept.

 

Do you think I should add theoretical (and probably imbalanced) versions of recipes?

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'Little details' that would make or break this game mode. It would take a lot of work (mainly testing) to make all the recipes useful I am sure of that. I don't want to take numbers out of my a** and pretend a wise guy by telling that summoning the Frog Rain would be done by using 25 x Frog Legs, 5 x Monster Meat, Umbrella and 2 x Nightmare Fuel. I am just laying down the general concept.

 

Do you think I should add theoretical (and probably imbalanced) versions of recipes?

Yes, i do.

But you would need a lot of time to have every material, thats not would be a big delay in the game?

I see better the use of mana, or something like that, maybe nightmare fuel, for example.

 

x2 NF: 5 frogs atacks your enemy.

 

x5 NF: 5 Pigs atacks your enemy.

 

x2 NF: 1 Werepig atacks your enemy.

 

I dont know what you will think.

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I can imagine being on Skype with my friend like:

"HAHA FROG RAIN SUCK MY **** LOZER!"

"FREEFOOD YOU NIGERIAN EAT SOME DEERCLOPSE!"

"I DID BECAUSE I GOT ALL THE MEAT YOU RACIST BASTARD!"

In all seriousness though, this would be cool, but a LOT of testing would go into this, I don't think this would have enough time for the due date.

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Here's how I think the recipes should work:

 

Simply, when a player puts a certain "Applicable" resource on the Totem, it is converted into "Energy" after 10 seconds (So that players can grab it if they put it there on accident). This Energy is stored within the Totem, and is a universal currency to cast spells with. Some strong spells may require some items in the player's inventory, just to spice things up.

 

Here's the table of items:

 

-Morsel: 10 Energy

-Frog Legs: 20 Energy

-Meat: 50 Energy

-Small Jerky: 20 Energy

-Jerky: 60 Energy

-Monster Jerky: 5 Energy

-Grass: 1 Energy (-0.1 energy for each consecutive use in 2 days)

-Twigs: 0.5 Energy (Same as above)

-Wood: 0.25 Energy (Same as above)

-Living Logs: 75 Energy

-Koalefant Trunk: 90 Energy

-Honey: 20 Energy (-0.2 energy for each conseuctive use)

-Nitre: 30 Energy

-Stone: 20 Energy

-Gold: 30 Energy

-Flint: 25 Energy

-Red and Blue gems: 100 Energy

-Purple Gems: 250 Energy

-Green, Orange, Yellow gems: 1000 Energy

-Thulecite: 650 Energy

-Thulecite Fragment: 100 Energy

-Gears: 100 Energy

-Volt Goat Horn: 95 Energy

-Marble: 150 Energy

-Spider Eggs: 350 Energy

-Spiderhat: 600 Energy

-Nightmare Fuel: 250 Energy

-Butter: 225 Energy

-Any Giant Reward: 500 Energy

-Light Bulb: 40 Energy

-Any 4 Things: +200 energy, and unlock a new spell unique to the Thing used

-Pine Cone: 0.25 energy (Drains by -0.5 for each consecutive use)

-Birch Seed: 0.50 energy (Same limits as Pine Cone)

-Ice: 35 Energy

-Tallbird Egg: 35 Energy

-Hatching Tallbird Egg: A clone of your character pops out of the alter, hovering over the player if they move away from it. The clone scolds you for trying to kill the Smallbird, and slaps you across the face for 5 damage before leaving. The slap cannot bring the player's health below 1.

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Here's how I think the recipes should work:

 

Simply, when a player puts a certain "Applicable" resource on the Totem, it is converted into "Energy" after 10 seconds (So that players can grab it if they put it there on accident). This Energy is stored within the Totem, and is a universal currency to cast spells with. Some strong spells may require some items in the player's inventory, just to spice things up.

 

Here's the table of items:

 

-Morsel: 10 Energy

-Frog Legs: 20 Energy

-Meat: 50 Energy

-Small Jerky: 20 Energy

-Jerky: 60 Energy

-Monster Jerky: 5 Energy

-Grass: 1 Energy (-0.1 energy for each consecutive use in 2 days)

-Twigs: 0.5 Energy (Same as above)

-Wood: 0.25 Energy (Same as above)

-Living Logs: 75 Energy

-Koalefant Trunk: 90 Energy

-Honey: 20 Energy (-0.2 energy for each conseuctive use)

-Nitre: 30 Energy

-Stone: 20 Energy

-Gold: 30 Energy

-Flint: 25 Energy

-Red and Blue gems: 100 Energy

-Purple Gems: 250 Energy

-Green, Orange, Yellow gems: 1000 Energy

-Thulecite: 650 Energy

-Thulecite Fragment: 100 Energy

-Gears: 100 Energy

-Volt Goat Horn: 95 Energy

-Marble: 150 Energy

-Spider Eggs: 350 Energy

-Spiderhat: 600 Energy

-Nightmare Fuel: 250 Energy

-Butter: 225 Energy

-Any Giant Reward: 500 Energy

-Light Bulb: 40 Energy

-Any 4 Things: +200 energy, and unlock a new spell unique to the Thing used

-Pine Cone: 0.25 energy (Drains by -0.5 for each consecutive use)

-Birch Seed: 0.50 energy (Same limits as Pine Cone)

-Ice: 35 Energy

-Tallbird Egg: 35 Energy

-Hatching Tallbird Egg: A clone of your character pops out of the alter, hovering over the player if they move away from it. The clone scolds you for trying to kill the Smallbird, and slaps you across the face for 5 damage before leaving. The slap cannot bring the player's health below 1.

 

Wow! You looked at the concept from a different angle. Nice one. Putting the single currency for all of the 'spells' make the whole thing less 'micromanagy'. I like the ease of using recipes that it allows but I am kind of worried that it would lead directly to creating a meta based on having the most efficient 'resource factory' - some kind of energy farm that would be MUCH better than every other way. On the other hand having specific 'spells' might allow to counter a single-cheesy method of getting energy. There are so many aspects that you just can't predict without intensive testing.

 

Thanks for the detailed response. Let's keep on brainstorming  :livid: I am really curious to see other points of view and takes on this concept.

This is a good idea.

 

I do want to see co-op being tested first, so we can see ways to prevent exploits in pvp first though.

 

That's a fair point to make. I agree.

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Even though I greatly dislike pvp, this idea does not seem like the regular sort of player vs player competition warfare. If you gotta use mind over brawn to defeat another player then that's a fantastic idea and I applaud you. I sense lots of exploits in this but I am sure that it could be dealt with in the future.

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