Don't Starve!

There's a new update tomorrow they're calling Insanity

There's a video here

And there's this odd little shot embedded in it. I wonder what it means.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/71408_546776562012684_1891133882_n.jpg)

polypusher wrote:

And there's this odd little shot embedded in it. I wonder what it means.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/71408_546776562012684_1891133882_n.jpg)

There are multiple frames within the video that contain the same thing but with different letters. The one I managed to grab had an M in the middle, so there's defintely a message/word there, which I'm sure someone will figure out and post. Hell, it's probably already posted at the official forums if you care enough to go look for it.

Was that the insanity meter above the health and hunger? I seem to recall them talking about putting that in sometime, and wearing things like the top hat and dapper vest help keep you sane.

And what the hell was that berry bush hat? Do we get camouflage now?

That sounds like an anti-gobbler tool, which is good because I despise those things.

Strewth wrote:

Was that the insanity meter above the health and hunger?

Probably called the sanity meter rather than insanity meter, but yeah, that's it. It looks like the icon is a brain, although shrivelled due to the sanity level being low.

Update dropped today, 18mbs. Still no patch notes that I can find.

Patch notes:

New Character: Wes - Do you think Don’t Starve is too easy? Try playing as Wes, the mime! He’s not good at doing anything!

Sanity - The player character loses sanity when he is left alone in the dark, gets close to scary monsters, or does crazy things like eating monster meat or jumping through a wormhole. Sanity can be regained through acts of dapperness, like wearing fancy clothes in the sunshine and eating candy.

Low sanity is not fatal, but strange creatures from another time and place are attracted to madness. There are new, powerful items that can be built from the nightmare fuel that they leave behind when killed.

Save Slots - You can have up to four save games at once now. Your existing save will be imported into the first slot when you start the game for the first time.

Sandbox Mode - This is the game as you all know it. There will eventually be a customization screen before you start a level, but you just get the default generation for now.

Experimental Adventure Mode - When you start a new game, you can choose to play in adventure (story) mode. Currently, there are five levels of difficulty as you progress through the levels. This is an early test, so we have a lot of work to do to make these levels meaningful and fun. We also need to add the story’s ending. This is for experienced DS players who want a taste of the future.

Pathfinding - Monsters and followers can navigate around corners and walls.

Mod Support (steam only)- Modding is now allowed! We’re distributing the the source scripts with the game, so have a look in data/scripts, and see what you can do. There is an example (machine-translated) French language pack included with the game to get you started. See the modding forum for more details.

The old research method using science points seems to have been removed. Now it's all about prototyping items. Once by a machine, then you can build them anywhere you want.

The new sanity mechanic is interesting. I found it annoying at first because it would be constantly drained as the days passed and I couldn't build any of the "dapper" items to boost it up again. But then I found that getting a good nights sleep gives you a good chunk of sanity back, and all you need for that is 9 grass to make a bedroll.

I'm still enjoying the game a lot but gathering twigs, wood and grass is still a drag. If they would cut the harvesting time in half for grass and twigs that would make me very happy. Wood is annoying to harvest, I've started burning forests more and using the charcoal as fuel instead. Only gathering wood when I need to build a specific structure.

Tamren wrote:

The old research method using science points seems to have been removed. Now it's all about prototyping items. Once by a machine, then you can build them anywhere you want.

Yeah, the research system was overhauled a couple updates back. Now you just build a prototype that requires twice the normal amount of resources, then you can build that item anywhere.

The new sanity mechanic is interesting. I found it annoying at first because it would be constantly drained as the days passed and I couldn't build any of the "dapper" items to boost it up again. But then I found that getting a good nights sleep gives you a good chunk of sanity back, and all you need for that is 9 grass to make a bedroll.

I haven't played the new update yet, but I watched someone on Twitch play it the day before it released while one of the devs was in chat talking about it. Besides sleeping, other things that help preserve and/or increase sanity is picking flowers and eating food cooked in a crock pot.

Wood is annoying to harvest, I've started burning forests more and using the charcoal as fuel instead.

Rope has always been (and still is) the best fuel. One rope burns for about half a day and only costs 3 grass to make. And with grass being an easily replenishable resource that you can place wherever you want, you'll never run out of rope.

Does planted grass still need manure? I used to make grass farms but when I learned that I stopped doing it because getting that much manure is a drag.

Also do flowers grow back randomly?

Yes, replanted plants still need to be fertilized with either manure or food that has rotted into a ball of rot.

Picked flowers do not grow back, but you can catch butterflies with the bug net and "plant" them to grow flowers.

I am not happy with what they've done with torches this patch. You can't pick it up out of your hand to light stuff on fire, because when you do, the torch goes out and it gets all dark. So you either need another torch, a secondary light source, or daylight, any of which defeats the purpose of lighting stuff on fire.

Eh? Can't you just right click on stuff with a torch in hand to light them? That's how it worked before, the patch might have broken it.

Doesn't work for me, that's why I've been doing it the way I've been doing it.

I PUNCH TREE!

If you guys are interested, there is a stream of the winter patch for Don't Starve going on right now with Klei entertainment sitting in and answering questions.

http://www.twitch.tv/riptidepow

My game just downloaded 15 megs. Is this the winter patch? I can't find the notes so I'm not sure what was added. They seem to be a tad lazy about that.

Tamren wrote:

My game just downloaded 15 megs. Is this the winter patch? I can't find the notes so I'm not sure what was added. They seem to be a tad lazy about that.

It's all on the official site.

I'm signed up for the email they send out when a patch drops.

Cool thanks. It never seems to be up when I check.

The winter stuff looks cool, but I'm starting to wonder if they are adding too many layers to this cake. You already had the insanity mechanics and now a seasons mechanic on top of that. You can't enable or disable any of this stuff as far as I can tell.

If you've been playing the game for a while, then yeah, a lot has been added over the last few months. Consindering that it's technically still in beta, once they release 1.0 (scheduled for late March), maybe they'll have different options. For example, they could have multiple difficulty levels where the highest has all the mechanics, then the second highest has winter removed, and so on.

MeatMan wrote:

If you've been playing the game for a while, then yeah, a lot has been added over the last few months. Consindering that it's technically still in beta, once they release 1.0 (scheduled for late March), maybe they'll have different options. For example, they could have multiple difficulty levels where the highest has all the mechanics, then the second highest has winter removed, and so on.

This is actually why I haven't bought the game and participated in the beta. I'm really excited for it's eventual release but seeing how the game develops isn't very much fun for me.

They have the beginnings of a story mode which sounds really neat. That would be a great way of ramping up the difficulty without just dropping all of these features on the player at once. I'm sure the obligatory "sandbox" mode will have enable/disable options for every minute details.

I'm noticing winter occurs "every 20 days or so", so I now have no fear of ever seeing it.

How long does winter last for when the season changes?

I'm looking through the patch and the only reference to that I can find is adventure mode where the day/night ratio and season lengths can change between levels.

I'm curious how many people will be getting this game now that it has a TF2 item tie-in.

Come for the hat, stay for the content!

Interesting be sure to check that out

Wonder if those of us who purchased last year are eligible for the TF2 items...

I found a fire rod in a random chest and it scared the crap out of me. it was surrounded by log walls and set everything on fire.