Game Development: Magnifying Cook

[qoonpooka]

Can the magnifying glass be used to combat ants while the sun is up?

Also: start fires with no stamina drain (but at the cost of a LOT of time)?

Not sure what part of the world you're in, but around here, there's enough sun to do it in a few minutes with just what's laying around. Maybe if it were Sweden in the winter, it'd take a lot of time....

a) yeah, Sweden's incident solar radiance (ISR) is much lower than most of the world, but also: balancing it against rubbing sticks together which takes time, costs stamina, and the two sticks as well as being unreliable. For that to remain relevant, mag-glass should have some kind of downside against it.

[Jalpha]

Yea, like you could only use it for firelighting and roasting ants for an hour when the sun is high on Tuesdays.

[MagicManICT]

balancing it against rubbing sticks together which takes time, costs stamina, and the two sticks as well as being unreliable. For that to remain relevant, mag-glass should have some kind of downside against it.

Not sure why there's a need for balance beyond the obvious: they only work in sunlight. And anyone can already get flint and steel if they want to hit the market, or advance their metalwork (and bother with producing steel). Not to mention it does take several minutes to heat proper tinder up enough to burn... compare to flint and steel... near instant fire.

[Dakkan]

Not sure why there's a need for balance

[Comberry]

The Knarr drift is too much. Overnight it almost got out of my claim. It was right near the shore, it drifted almost as much as its own length.

Reconsider this implementation please.
Perhaps make it so that if it is near a dock it doesn't drift? Or make a new buildable that prevents drifting.

[Reyajh]

...The problem with this kind of thing is that it sounds fun in theory, but in practice it will be unfun and feel like bullshit. On paper, being able to get stuck sounds thrilling. In practice, for cave-ins it just means I'll be mining safe tiles only on affected layers, and a lot of player would instead just create alts for safe mining instead, and for non-cave-in events (like entering an entrance and being unable to head back through it) it just means that the game can just arbitrarily decide to fuck you over and ruin weeks or months of effort put into a character without it properly being your own fault.

1) You and a lot of players will be just 'playing it safe'...And that is why the rewards should be relative... 2) You went into a cave doh. Did you not think that your precious toon should be in peril somehow? Why is that? For what reason is it should he be so immune to peril of life and limb??? How is the game arbitrarily deciding to fuck you over? You went (Deep mind you) into the depths of the cavernous chasms, lol... I just don't get this argument and why I don't play most pansy games out there... Sorry. If your weeks or months of precious effort into your precious toon are that priceless to you tell me this... What game will you play that they will guarantee his or her perpetual existence??? lol Again sorry but I just don't get this argument... And still imho it was your fault... You entered the dungeon/cave... And for what reason???

Death, and any serious repercussions similar to it, should be entirely the fault of the player, preferably as a combination of a bad decision (e.g. aggroing an animal you can't beat in combat, either consciously or by not keeping your distance) followed by failure at a challenge (e.g. failing to run away or defeat the animal). I can have peace with serious negative repercussions if I made a mistake and the game gave me a fighting chance to not die. If either (or worse, both!) is not present, it feels like the game is just screwing me over; it would probably ruin my day and make me not feel like creating a new character. (In my case I would just take a long break, but most people would just quit permanently at that point.)

Yes, and they should probably play another game imo. Sorry again, but I don't get your argument. Why should it entirely be the fault of the player? I'll just say it right here, to me... Boring. As far as a fighting chance to not die that is what I was alluding to with possibilities of survival with proper foresight and preps and the chance provided by the game if even small, of escape for the even lucky few who make it out...

In addition, history has shown that players are extremely averse to risks that carry serious repercussions. If something is too dangerous for your character, people will just use alts and bots to do it for them instead. Even if there's motivations to do it on mains, people will just not do it (see pre-Hafen swimming as example). It will not lead to the gameplay you hope for.

Plain and simply because it has not been done right. I have seen circular arguments like this since the days of 'Dark and Light' and 'Mourning's' inception. Go look them up if need be... The fact is, there is a large community of players who are just hungering for this to be done right. Actually it is one of the main reasons I have stayed with HnH so long, among others... There has been at least one good idea that I know of on how to get permadeath right and when done right, it will lead to the gameplay many hope for...

That said, there are alternative ways to do it. As others have noted in this thread, offering a conscious decision to enter an area that will kill you changes everything. The game 'For The King' handles Dungeons in a similar way; normally, combat in that game is a single fight only and gives you the opportunity to flee (though in a very disadvantageous manner - each of your three characters has to escape separately and you're pretty fucked if you get stuck in battle with one character). However, when you stumble upon a dungeon, you get the opportunity to enter it, with the warning that you cannot flee and must finish the entire dungeon before returning to the overworld. If you choose to enter, you get several fights in a row (plus sometimes other events, mostly dangers) which poses great risk, but at the end of the dungeon you get significant rewards (including some meta-currency used outside of the current run to unlock game elements). Dungeons are probably the single biggest cause of death in For The King, but it's fair because you know what you were getting into.

Exactly what is different about this and entering a cave on a lower level for which no one here has said perhaps there shouldn't be a warning; tho I personally could care less...It's a cave, and the dangers already get more intense the deeper you go, wow. lol.

Another way is to reward returning successfully or punish it in a less harsh way such as by requiring a deposit which is lost if you do not return. During my travels in H&H I've stumbled upon caves while having loot in my boat before. At times I delved too deep into the caves and either actually got lost or just got so far in that it would take a long time to go back. At those times, I had a choice - either walk back and preserve the loot in my boat (plus the boat itself of course), or hearth home and give up on my loot (and have to rebuild my boat)? There is certainly a risk of going into caves if you are not carrying everything in your inventory.

With all that said, however, one other gameplay thing needs to be pointed out: Walking back to cave entrances, or backtracking in caves in general, is extremely dull and boring. The first time you pass through it is interesting because you're seeing if there's anything of interest in the cave. On your way back, however, you just see the exact same things you've already seen before. You're basically just waiting for your character to finish getting back to where you were. As it is now, walking back is unfun and a waste of time. Taking risks is fun, but just adding arbitrary delays if unfun. Please don't force us to walk all the way back each time unless it actually becomes fun in some way; otherwise, all it will do is discourage exploration.

In the last paragraph I couldn't agree more. That can be handled easily too. I'll just leave it there.

[shubla]

The Knarr drift is too much. Overnight it almost got out of my claim. It was right near the shore, it drifted almost as much as its own length.

Reconsider this implementation please.
Perhaps make it so that if it is near a dock it doesn't drift? Or make a new buildable that prevents drifting.

I agree that knarrs which are moored to dock should not drift far away.

[Amanda44]

The Knarr drift is too much. Overnight it almost got out of my claim. It was right near the shore, it drifted almost as much as its own length.

Reconsider this implementation please.
Perhaps make it so that if it is near a dock it doesn't drift? Or make a new buildable that prevents drifting.

I agree that knarrs which are moored to dock should not drift far away.

I think the same tbh, I have two knarrs moored to the dock and one had worked it's way to the other side completely and pushed the other one on to the shore! I was able to move it by using the teleport to home option but I feel it shouldn't have happened in the first place and is hardly realistic! It looked ridiculous!

More importantly ... ppl are getting them stuck and as in Comberrys case they are drifting off of claims. Maybe just lessen the drift if moored to a dock.

[fallout]

My knarr has been stuck since patch went live.
Jorb response

[MagicManICT]

I agree that knarrs which are moored to dock should not drift far away.

moored to a dock.

Reasonable ask, I think. Just turn the dock into a hitching post for boats of any kind. (Then again, hitching posts don't prevent animals from wandering.)

For a couple of the examples here... just expand the claim a level, though I can understand if it's the village claim over the docks as you might not be able to expand it enough. That might mean the docks or village banner need looked at for sizes.

While this is a fun idea, I'm not sure it's ideal to prevent some of the exploits certain people are were using to create vaults. IMO, certain exploits just need to be nuked and characters/accounts deleted. (Got to get those already buff ancestors, too.)