a little let down by game?

[beefcake12]

Hi there,

I've played this game for about 25 hours now, died many times, made it to winter and just froze, and while I like the challenge and idea of the game, I just feel let down by it.  It either seems that i'm:

unprepared for monsters,

don't have a reliable and safe food source,

or its just a juggling act with storing and managing items,

and to to p  it all off i'm frantically clicking to harvest as much as I can every day

 

So the end result is a click fest where I never feel I can just relax and take a breath, cause I gotta get this item or food or kill this creature or get ready for night time.  The only relaxing time of this game would be at night when I get to have fun crafting near my science machine, and figuring how to best use the resources I have and what to do next day, but even that time is limited since I have to unroll bed and rest half the time. 

 

Now don't get me wrong I get that you need to earn your relaxation time, and I get that there is meant to be a harsh survival aspect to the game..  But ...I the sheer punishment is there if you make one wrong decision, the stuid random monsters that spawn out of nowehere, and I can't outrun, nor kill cause I don't know how to "kite" effectively {never knew about the f key for attacking until reading around basic hintsi}.   And how the hell do you make charcoal?? i've burned so many things and about to starve with just a weak farm that will not survive winter??  I don't want hand=-holding i love a bit of discover it for yourself but this I feel this is too far on the other side of discover for yourself.  

 

Now I'm willing to admit i'm wrong since i've only been 25hours of this game,  but overall this game is an exercise in frustration and time-wasting.  I admit its Addicting, but I find it too painful and frantic to really eenjoy and keep coming back.   

And with so much clicking why can't I shift-click to queue u p  orders, like warcraft 3 etc?? so shift click this bush then this tree.  

[MoloMan]

14 hours ago, beefcake12 said:

Hi there,

I've played this game for about 25 hours now, died many times, made it to winter and just froze, and while I like the challenge and idea of the game, I just feel let down by it.  It either seems that i'm:

unprepared for monsters,

don't have a reliable and safe food source,

or its just a juggling act with storing and managing items,

and to to p  it all off i'm frantically clicking to harvest as much as I can every day

 

So the end result is a click fest where I never feel I can just relax and take a breath, cause I gotta get this item or food or kill this creature or get ready for night time.  The only relaxing time of this game would be at night when I get to have fun crafting near my science machine, and figuring how to best use the resources I have and what to do next day, but even that time is limited since I have to unroll bed and rest half the time. 

 

Now don't get me wrong I get that you need to earn your relaxation time, and I get that there is meant to be a harsh survival aspect to the game..  But ...I the sheer punishment is there if you make one wrong decision, the stuid random monsters that spawn out of nowehere, and I can't outrun, nor kill cause I don't know how to "kite" effectively {never knew about the f key for attacking until reading around basic hintsi}.   And how the hell do you make charcoal?? i've burned so many things and about to starve with just a weak farm that will not survive winter??  I don't want hand=-holding i love a bit of discover it for yourself but this I feel this is too far on the other side of discover for yourself.  

 

Now I'm willing to admit i'm wrong since i've only been 25hours of this game,  but overall this game is an exercise in frustration and time-wasting.  I admit its Addicting, but I find it too painful and frantic to really eenjoy and keep coming back.   

And with so much clicking why can't I shift-click to queue u p  orders, like warcraft 3 etc?? so shift click this bush then this tree.  

You can hold down space to harvest and pick up stuff. Burning trees gives you charcoal. The f key is vital to your survival, and I suggest you go practice kiting some koalefants they're really easy to kite and they give you a hunch on how to do it with other creatures.

As for the whole "I don't get satisfaction out of the game because I can't relax" thing, well... that's kind of the whole point of the game, and that's why I love it. It doesn't give you any safe ways of doing anything, and it doesn't give you any time to relax, but that's life isn't it? If I were to survive on a tiny island filled with monsters then it wouldn't exactly be a picnic. You will learn to love the game and there is a lot of great content ahead of you! My advice is - Don't stop! Keep going forward because you'll eventually get past this osbtacle and it will feel so much better than giving up, don't ya think?

And welcome to the forums!

[HamBatter]

On 1/9/2017 at 0:20 AM, beefcake12 said:

I have to unroll bed and rest half the time.

Sleeping is a trap, and only needed for HP if you don't have any other alternative to avoid Freezing or Overheating.

 

Try playing characters in this order once you're comfortable with the previous: Wigfrid > Wendy > WX-78 > Wickerbottom

Wigfrid will encourage you to battle to keep HP and Sanity up, and kiting is pretty much optional (but you should still try it) as long as you have Buzzards and Pig King for her cheap helmet. If you don't like Shadow Creatures, keep killing them and they will eventually be "afraid" of you, despawning when they see you.

[beefcake12]

Thanks, and thanks for the welcome Moloman.

On 10/01/2017 at 10:10 AM, MoloMan said:

and it doesn't give you any time to relax, but that's life isn't it?

 

I don't agree with this.  I have time to relax in the evening, and at least one day of the weekend if I choose to do nothing or even with family just relax and chat.

 

I figured out that I can sim p ly go to the ma p  if I want to p ause the game Nand reconsider my moves, but still, it would be nice to have something similar at night where everythign is still...like it is at around 3 or 4am in most areas of my life.

 

ON the good side, the game encourage me to be more active and resourceful, since I live on a farm, I even built a drying rack for jerky.  {Not true, but I did saw some logs and figure out how to do some mechanical things i'd been ignoring}.

 

However...I still don't get what is the pur pose of the game once you've got enough food??  I have several farms, a base with walls and hound tra p , resources for days...but  without giving away too much is there an advanced stage where yoiu can craft some sweet wea p ons / armor and get nice loot, and then use said loot to beat tough monsters??  LIke once you've conquered sandbox is there much more endgame??  Or best to try adventure then?

[MoloMan]

1 hour ago, beefcake12 said:

However...I still don't get what is the pur pose of the game once you've got enough food??  I have several farms, a base with walls and hound tra p , resources for days...but  without giving away too much is there an advanced stage where yoiu can craft some sweet wea p ons / armor and get nice loot, and then use said loot to beat tough monsters??  LIke once you've conquered sandbox is there much more endgame??  Or best to try adventure then?

You can try your luck in the caves if you're feeling up for the task (it's super hard though, especially if you venture into the ruins). Have you defeated all of the bosses yet? Make your own "quests" and try to complete them! That's what's sso funny about sandbox games. You choose your won way of playing and what you're going to do!

I really recommend playing the adventure mode though, it's really fun and the ending is awesome! 

[beefcake12]

Thanks!

[Donke60]

oh if you go in caves bring traps to avoid the damage sponge spiders oh an adventure mode the shorter you stay in the chapters the better but make sure your prepared and don't worry about sustaining the world for long,

[TheKingDedede]

@ImDaMisterL, should this be somewhere else? Maybe? No?

[GentlemanFridge]

Good grief @TheKingDedede, your sending MisterL everywhere. (I want to do that, dangit)

If anything, this game has taught me to never assume that everything will be fine. The only times I sit comfortably are when a houndwave just arrived, and dealt with and the season's giant is dead.  I'll admit, I still make silly mistakes from time to time, even with my 350+ hours of play, and I'm actually still learning. Hell, I've never even reached the Ancient Guardian without cheats. That's my next goal: Ruin the Ruins!

[Donke60]

8 hours ago, WishIHadAFridge said:

Good grief @TheKingDedede, your sending MisterL everywhere. (I want to do that, dangit)

If anything, this game has taught me to never assume that everything will be fine. The only times I sit comfortably are when a houndwave just arrived, and dealt with and the season's giant is dead.  I'll admit, I still make silly mistakes from time to time, even with my 350+ hours of play, and I'm actually still learning. Hell, I've never even reached the Ancient Guardian without cheats. That's my next goal: Ruin the Ruins!

My utimate goal is to beat adventure mode as wes but I'm not doing that till I do everything in sandbox mode as him  

[CatBurger]

On 1/9/2017 at 3:20 AM, beefcake12 said:

and I can't outrun, nor kill cause I don't know how to "kite" effectively 

 

Pretty much everything in this game is outrunnable. dont turn, just walk forwards. also, roads will help you escape quicker. And don't feel inclined to kill things; you can leave things alone.

As for kiting, its very simple. All you have to do is learn how many hits you can get in before having to back away from an attack (do not turn, walk in a single direction). For example, the Deerclops can be hit twice before he begins his attack, at which point move back. Once the attack is finished, go in, hit twice, move away, and repeat. All enemies have different attack periods and fighting strategies; some are also able to killed without moving away. I hope you give the game more chances and improve! Good luck

[Bunions]

On 1/9/2017 at 3:20 AM, beefcake12 said:

Hi there,

I've played this game for about 25 hours now, died many times, made it to winter and just froze, and while I like the challenge and idea of the game, I just feel let down by it.  It either seems that i'm:

unprepared for monsters,

don't have a reliable and safe food source,

or its just a juggling act with storing and managing items,

and to to p  it all off i'm frantically clicking to harvest as much as I can every day

 

So the end result is a click fest where I never feel I can just relax and take a breath, cause I gotta get this item or food or kill this creature or get ready for night time.  The only relaxing time of this game would be at night when I get to have fun crafting near my science machine, and figuring how to best use the resources I have and what to do next day, but even that time is limited since I have to unroll bed and rest half the time. 

 

Now don't get me wrong I get that you need to earn your relaxation time, and I get that there is meant to be a harsh survival aspect to the game..  But ...I the sheer punishment is there if you make one wrong decision, the stuid random monsters that spawn out of nowehere, and I can't outrun, nor kill cause I don't know how to "kite" effectively {never knew about the f key for attacking until reading around basic hintsi}.   And how the hell do you make charcoal?? i've burned so many things and about to starve with just a weak farm that will not survive winter??  I don't want hand=-holding i love a bit of discover it for yourself but this I feel this is too far on the other side of discover for yourself.  

 

Now I'm willing to admit i'm wrong since i've only been 25hours of this game,  but overall this game is an exercise in frustration and time-wasting.  I admit its Addicting, but I find it too painful and frantic to really eenjoy and keep coming back.   

And with so much clicking why can't I shift-click to queue u p  orders, like warcraft 3 etc?? so shift click this bush then this tree.  

No offense but the reason you feel pressured and like you don't have time to relax is because you play a bit sub optimally in terms of efficiency. Your post expanding on your activities further illuminates that fact. Now you can get a lot of info here or on Reddit as to the most effective strategies, but that also sort of robs you in the end of the thrill of discovery. 

 

Mainly I think playing more and developing skills and strategies to cope will help your overall enjoyment.

Perhaps playing alongside a slightly more experienced player as well. 

 

Keep at it, as the fun has just begun, I promise.

 

 

[minespatch]

The best way I have fun with the game is write down what trouble I'm having and then looking online on how to fix my problems in game so I can learn better. There's always new stuff to learn when playing the game.

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

Yes, manual labour is a grind here. Why can't we simply select an area/length of walls that we want to place and our character queuing to do it? Or any other laborious queues? What about the lazy forager, if it was simply refuelable with nm fuel like the magilluminessence it would be an excellent late-game item for getting rid of picking a whole bunch of things up, so you could be chopping down trees while the amulet stuffs the loot in your pockets.

Thr relaxation part I can kind of agree with. Game feels a bit like it's rushing you, even though you might be spending hours trying to survive multiple times. The perma-death and learning from your mistakes is an intention and it's a pretty decent one at that. Aside from the single player adventure mode, SW and DST don't really have a proper object, at the very least not yet (for DST, SW looks like it's not got anything progressive going for it) and even then, the way it's been fleshed out, only a wiki or forum reader could find out about it (I'm speaking of the shadow clockworks and the shadow skeletons in DST ofc).

I don't understand why devs keep creating content that is oriented a lot around sandboxing without any real objectives or comprehensive progression without the use of wiki or forum. They must have a good grasp around game design and game progression, right? So why all of this sandbox shenanigans that don't lead anywhere? Sure, it is a sandbox game, however you can only go so far with those; you'll never really feel accomplished with just sandboxing all the time (at least I don't, that's why I keep playing and then quitting for a while...) so if you simply have the option to sandbox in the game, that hasn't even technically got an ending or proper goal or whatever, then what are you really doing?

Sure, you have presets, although those too are set up quite rubbishly, especially for multiplayer, and custom presets aren't bring tried out by players, god knows for what reason (for multiplayer, the difference in skill makes it more understandable).

Remember when you had caves only option in the game? Yeah, I tried that, liked it, gave feedback, some things I suggested were added and after that, soon the mode was removed completely.

Lets just hope that Klei pays a lot more attention to detail in FIXING and TWEAKING everything once ANR is relatively finished.

[The Curator]

There was a caves only option. Was just thinking the other day of how interesting that would be.

 

 

Amusing though seeing people criticize too much clicking, when MMOs and Survival games are all about meaningless, joyless, without reward repetition. Don't Starve has art, writing, character, storyboard, unique mechanics, satisfying real-time results to actions and is possibly the only game on the planet that emphasizes players trying to not die as a central theme of survival. Normally, survival games are just; there's no plot, you have no starting items, you have a hunger bar.

That is technically what the survival genre is, and usually it is just an excuse for amateur developers to make games with zero content, dynamic gameplay or innovation, and still get popular. Minecraft. The game where you literally just mine; and craft in an empty world filled with fat pixels.

 

And if you can't handle dying, do not play. Rule number one of enjoying the game. Death will happen when you are unprepared, death will happen because you do not know, death will happen because spider warriors jump across the map with mile wide hitboxes because of inherent online latency.

[Jade Wolfe]

I got annoyed at the game too but I found this website that has amazing guides and it really got me back in the game. You can also find information on just about anything in Don't Starve from clothing to monsters.

Tip: Don't attack monsters before you have really settled down and have at least a log suit and a spear and if you find any pig heads hammer them to get pig skin free and make a football helmet. Wait until about day 30 or when you have finished your first winter if you're more comfortable with not having to worry about being cold.

For charcoal: Get a torch (or willow's lighter if you're playing with her) and light trees on fire. THE FIRE SPREADS SO TRY TO NOT BURN A WHOLE FOREST DOWN!!

 

Also small things I learnt the hard way (maybe you already know them):

- Don't chop too much wood in a forest filled with trees; a terrifying Treeguard will appear and destroy you

- Make a lightning rod AS SOON AS POSSIBLE for your farm because it WILL get destroyed by lightning and you lose everything.

- If you see a random chest or a weird structure DO NOT mess with it until you go check out the website for it below so you are prepared and can identify the trap

- If you make a berry farm and are annoyed at gobblers, make tooth traps around your farm it works perfectly

Websites List: (These are all on the same website but show separate things) 

Base camp guide: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Base_Camp_Guide#Base_Camp_Set-up_Guide

Surviving your first month: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Surviving_the_first_month

How to have a self-sustaining base: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Self-sustaining_Settlement_Guide

Hound guide: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Hound_Wave_Survival_Guide

Winter guide: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Winter_Guide#Tactics_.28During_Winter.29

Farming guide: http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Farming

Crockpot guides:

http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Guides/Crock_Pot_Dishes

http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Crock_Pot

https://bluehexagons.github.io/foodguide/html/index.htm (on a different website but the most useful for crockpot)

Set piece (for the warning on random chests and structures): http://dontstarve.wikia.com/wiki/Set_Piece

 

You can find out anything on that website just search what you want to know they have it

ex: Search: Deerclops

It has all the info on deer clops including how to beat it

 

This website has helped me a lot I got from barely getting to day 5 to getting to day 50 easily and even day 100 which is a lot for me.

The website tells you stuff you can do so you don't get bored of the game and now I'm hooked on it.

 

Hope this helps.

PS you don't have to follow the website exactly (it isn't always right because we all have different worlds) it just really helps for an overall idea on how to get farther in the game because in one they say "Don't get berry bushes for your farm" so I didn't and I starved then I made a new world and added berry bushes to my farm and now I have too much food.