Survival Mode/Hardcore Mode

[ven]

For some people, the game is more about survival than it's about grinding. Some only play on early worlds because there's both a sense of urgency and a sense of progression and we struggle to get our first farms and weapons. Others continue playing but often spawn alts and start all over again just for the challenge of it, but it's not the same. Some others decide to hermit because the facilities of village life makes the game unchallenging. Once you've built your brickwall and L5 minehole there's no more challenges for you: if you reached that point it means you'll never starve or need to find seeds again, and animals will never even be able to pierce your armor. You'll have essentially won the PvE part of the game.

The suggestion is that you offer players a new game mode that enhances the challenge of survival. It does mean lots of dev work, but I think it's an opportunity to attract and retain a different kind of player without harming the existing playerbase. It would be an additional feature and wouldn't replace anything.

My idea is that on the char creation screen players are given the option to choose between regular and survival game modes. From then on, different mechanics are applied to their account. What I have in mind is something like this:

. No quests.
. Survival chars are subject to disease mechanics (an old request), which affects stats, LP intake, and others. Chance of acquiring diseases is tied to biome, activity, and untreated wounds.
. True permadeath is active, and LP inheritance would not apply in this game mode.
. These characters would not be able to receive theft and vandalism permissions on other people's claims, hopefully minimizing exploits. Honestly, this idea in particular needs to be improved. Maybe also blocking use of items crafted from non-survival accounts or on non-survival pc claims.
. Aging is a feature and characters grow old, with the according stat increases and penalties.
. Food made by survival accounts decays and loses quality over time.

For this game mode to be more rewarding, the stats of survival chars would be capped at 500/510/530. Alternatively, they could have an increased rate of LP gain.
Survival mode chars could also able to spot unique forageables, not accessible to regular players. And they could also have unique crafting recipes which could only be equipped by other survival accounts and would otherwise poof like w8 hats.

[Teleskop]

im saying NO to multiple servers because low population is the worst thing possible to happen

[Burinn]

im saying NO to multiple servers because low population is the worst thing possible to happen

I agree. Not only that but there is still plenty of end-game player to player interaction to be had after you reach L5 of the underground.

[Ysh]

Impossible to balance on the same server. I do not like.

[Kaios]

im saying NO to multiple servers because low population is the worst thing possible to happen

It's suggested for the same server, not multiple.

Impossible to balance on the same server. I do not like.

I don't think it would be impossible, the suggestion is an exchange of survivability and difficulty. A player gets a higher cap but loses 100% of their stats on death as one example he had given. Difficult to balance maybe but not impossible and I'm not opposed to the idea of allowing players to make the game more difficult for themselves if that's what they want out of it. Increasing stat caps is fairly debatable though.

[Ysh]

Impossible to balance on the same server. I do not like.

I don't think it would be impossible, the suggestion is an exchange of survivability and difficulty. A player gets a higher cap but loses 100% of their stats on death as one example he had given. Difficult to balance maybe but not impossible and I'm not opposed to the idea of allowing players to make the game more difficult for themselves if that's what they want out of it. Increasing stat caps is fairly debatable though.

If the players who have higher caps will be able to interact with players with lower caps, anything that can be a risk activity will not be done on the ''hardcore'' characters. All crafting and safe things will be done on the ''hardcore'' characters to abuse the higher caps. Maybe impossible for balance is too hyperbole (few things become actually impossible), but it is effectively so. Any system which forces players to playing ''fair'' on this system would be draconian and/or a massive mess. And even in the case where you can do it, it becomes effectively separate servers, just within the same game space.

If you want to play a hard game without some benefits over people who do not, I can see this being fine. Not sure why anyone will want this one though. But any sort of give/take with risk/benefit will be gamed as much as possible without question. I think it will be far much trouble than it will be worth.

[StaggerNight]

I dont find this usable or worth the creators time to try to host two different modes of the same game

[ven]

It's on the same server, never said otherwise.

the ''hardcore'' characters to abuse the higher caps.

The survival mode is supposed to be harder. If someone is able to survive long enough to reach the 500 cap they deserve a few advantages.
Instead of a higher cap, exclusive recipes and forageables could be alternative rewards for this game mode.

Not sure why anyone will want this one though.

It's on my first paragraph. Besides, with current limitation on the social aspect of the game, what many of us have been doing is simply quit when they finish a developed hermitage. The passage from PvE to PvP that people expect to happen to keep the game moving isn't interesting to everyone.

But any sort of give/take with risk/benefit will be gamed as much as possible without question. I think it will be far much trouble than it will be worth.

That is true for practically anything meaningful. A game can only be held hostage by its botters and abusers for so long, else all we'll get are bland and perfectly safe updates.

[Ysh]

It's on the same server, never said otherwise.

the ''hardcore'' characters to abuse the higher caps.

The survival mode is supposed to be harder. If someone is able to survive long enough to reach the 500 cap they deserve a few advantages.
Instead of a higher cap, exclusive recipes and forageables could be alternative rewards for this game mode.

Not sure why anyone will want this one though.

It's on my first paragraph. Besides, with current limitation on the social aspect of the game, what many of us have been doing is simply quit when they finish a developed hermitage. The passage from PvE to PvP that people expect to happen to keep the game moving isn't interesting to everyone.

But any sort of give/take with risk/benefit will be gamed as much as possible without question. I think it will be far much trouble than it will be worth.

That is true for practically anything meaningful. A game can only be held hostage by its botters and abusers for so long, else all we'll get are bland and perfectly safe updates.

I am glad you respond to my points out of context and pretend these are good argument.

[StaggerNight]

I am glad you respond to my points out of context and pretend these are good argument.

Ysh you just crack me up XD