A Few Suggestions for consideration.

[FlareUKCS]

Loving the game, but I do have some suggestions I think may add to the game.

 

1 - Consider making Wolves and Bears spawn a day or two after you start your new world, so when you are looking for reeds for your baskets you dont need to run from wolves or bears , especially when you dont have food to spare to keep running.

2 - Maybe give the player 10 reeds when starting a new world, this will help teach players how to make their inventory, and reduce the tedium of collecting reeds each new start, or be penalised if there is no reeds easily obtained on day 1, at least the player will get 3 slots to get started.

3 - Allow players to craft a sturdy handle from boards for tools as a slight boost to durability as a option, its a bit odd you will still use sticks to make new tools even when you can make metal tools.

4 - A new mob type, to give players the creeps at night just for some fun, basically a darker skinned drifter with prominent glowing eyes with a odd behaviour of being attracted to player made windows, the mob will behave as a typical drifter if the player is in attack range but otherwise loiters around windows looking inside... creepy methinks

Good work on the game devs.

[LadyWYT]

3 minutes ago, FlareUKCS said:

1 - Consider making Wolves and Bears spawn a day or two after you start your new world, so when you are looking for reeds for your baskets you dont need to run from wolves or bears , especially when you dont have food to spare to keep running.

Or just set animals to neutral behavior in the world settings when starting a game. Once you're established enough to feel confident dealing with aggressive animals, you can turn their aggression back on via console command. You'll also know where they spawn that way too, so you don't end up settling down next to a bear or pack of wolves.

5 minutes ago, FlareUKCS said:

2 - Maybe give the player 10 reeds when starting a new world, this will help teach players how to make their inventory, and reduce the tedium of collecting reeds each new start, or be penalised if there is no reeds easily obtained on day 1, at least the player will get 3 slots to get started.

I would say add a different crafting option for handbaskets, like one made out of willow switches, birch bark, or something similar. That way if you don't have ready access to reeds, you probably have access to some other kind of plant that you can make into a basket, unless you picked a polar start.

If you just give the player the materials up front, it takes away from the survival challenge, but I suppose an alternative option would be to enable a "cheat box" option on world creation, similar to how you can choose to spawn with a chest of food and starting tools in Minecraft.

13 minutes ago, FlareUKCS said:

3 - Allow players to craft a sturdy handle from boards for tools as a slight boost to durability as a option, its a bit odd you will still use sticks to make new tools even when you can make metal tools.

Unless there's a way to make multiple handles in one go, I don't see this being a very fun mechanic. Most of the tools need some kind of handle, and a lot of tools you will be making fairly frequently. Having to spend extra time refining a handle every time you need to make a tool is likely to be very tedious.

16 minutes ago, FlareUKCS said:

4 - A new mob type, to give players the creeps at night just for some fun, basically a darker skinned drifter with prominent glowing eyes with a odd behaviour of being attracted to player made windows, the mob will behave as a typical drifter if the player is in attack range but otherwise loiters around windows looking inside... creepy methinks

There's actually a new drifter-type mob coming in the next update! Except it does not have glowing eyes(that I'm aware of), as canonically drifters and their like don't seem to have faces at all. Glowing eyes seem to be relegated to the automatons, and I can say from experience that it's quite creepy to venture into a cave and find something staring back at you.

[FlareUKCS]

The idea with the handles is as an option, not as a replacement to the sticks, like how you can use bones to make bone handled knife and axe.

I know you can change animal behaviour as a setting and console command but it feels 'cheaty' to use that when you want to play the game as close to dev intended as possible (I use a few mods so its not so pure vanilla in my case), a day or two grace shouldn't hurt the survival experience too much and may cut down on the complaints about wolves and bears (probably not but hey )

The idea of giving 10 reeds is both teach the newer player how beneficial reeds are, and cut down of the early game tedium of cutting 64 reeds for a full initial inventory and a chest, its not going to break the survival aspect.

I seen the concept art for the new mob, and it looks awesome and cant wait to deal with that but I thought a odd creepy drifter would be interesting, and make the usual mob glitching at the door all night long antics a little more varied, currently the drifters aint a danger unless you elect to go out and face them they are more annoying to be honest. Good point on the lack of a face though, didn't think it was a canon thing the drifters had such a *koff* blank expression

[Bumber]

Giving a new player reeds does nothing to teach them how to get more. It also doesn't stop them from discovering the rope recipe before the basket and wasting them all. (Especially since you need more than 1 ingredient in each slot, which isn't done in that other block game.)

There's basically no way you're going to get a hand basket without checking the handbook or wiki, in which case you can just be told the importance of a basket and how to get it.

Edited July 14 by Bumber

[dakko]

On 7/13/2024 at 10:31 AM, FlareUKCS said:

3 - Allow players to craft a sturdy handle from boards for tools as a slight boost to durability as a option, its a bit odd you will still use sticks to make new tools even when you can make metal tools.

I like that suggestion. Something I'd not thought of until you mentioned it.

As for the reeds, players used to start off with some bread (x8?) and a torch or a knife (I can't remember). I really disliked it when it was taken away but quickly found that it was no big deal. If there is to be some extra goodies given at start, let it be a configuration option when starting a new world. The more timid new players (like myself) would probably appreciate an option like that.

Btw, the 'tedium of needing 64 reeds' at the start is player imposed. There is nothing requiring all handbaskets + a reed basket on Day 1.