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More customization options for sandbox mode


Philo

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I think it would be great to have more settings for the sandbox mode.
For example toggle buttons for all predator types (want to remove rogue males? Just switch them off).
Maybe we could also define stuff like "Maximal tribe size" to add some extra challenge or "Maxium age of animals" so our critters can live longer. Or maybe even some special rules like "Only one male allowed in the pack" or "Tribe can only eat meat".
 

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That's a wonderful idea! I want to have more play modes and that way it would be much easier

Also I would really love to see a "blind genes" mode (that you can activate and desactivate) where you can never see the genes of your nichelings (to make the game more interesting) but you're able to actually see the family tree and change the nichelings' names.

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I'm so glad you suggested this!  I made an account just to post something similar because I really feel it would benefit the game and add even more replayability to it!

The game Don't Starve has a similar 'toggleable' menu that lets you choose between 'off, less, default, and more' for all factors at the start of a new game including:

  • spawn rate of various resources (i.e in Niche this would be berry bushes, trees, fish, bunnies, etc)
  • enemies (balance bears, bearyenas, artic foxes, apes, etc)
  • weather (rain, sun, etc.)
  • other factors (creature lifespan length, number of wanderers, number of rogue males, # of ice tombs generated etc).

This really lets you customize your game play and improves the longevity of the game.  It would allow us to tell more stories, like say you wanted to simulate a drought and have your creatures survive, or do a minimal resources survival run.  It would also let people customize the game for their own play style.  For instance, I don't like the spawn rate of the balance bears. My tribe of 15 has killed over 6 of them, I would definitely choose a lower spawn rate for them if I could.  I don't want to eliminate them, I just don't enjoy being chased constantly.

Also, sometimes I just want to play a relaxing game, and it would be nice to put the game on easy mode with high resources and just chill out and breed nichelings that look cool!

I've attached what the toggle menu from 'Don't Starve' looks like.  It's just picture icons of the various resources/options, with the toggle selection for each.

don't starve menu.jpg

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I like this idea as well. What about giving you the option to unlock a limited amount of genes in the mutation menu at the start of a sandbox save? Not many, and no prehistoric genes, just as a way to get your tribe adapted to the environment you want them to live in a little faster.

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It would be cool for an option to not be able to see the genes, but it can be turned off from Settings. That way you can play a Blind Genetics Challenge and go to the Family Tree without accidentally seeing your creatures. And, when you decide to finish your challenge, you can turn off Blind Genetics and see all of those genes your creatures have been hiding all of this time :)

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Right now, I'm working on making a save with all the genetics unlocked and with lots of food so I can just pop in and chill out and make cool little creatures, I would love so so much to be able to set a food amount and unlock specific genetics (maybe you have to have unlocked them at least once before in something like story mode or the current sandbox?) and just start working on making purple eyed, spotty, poisoned fang creatures with fluffy tails. Creatures made in the custom sandbox probably shouldn't count towards things like trait specific achievements though

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It would be really cool to set this up with modified playmodes and maybe eventually have it as a custom challenges mode where users can submit challenges and the game actually restricts the user. So many times I've started a challenge and forgotten or abandoned it. would be so good to have the game re-inforce them haha

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I would like to add, that seeing a toggleable switch for showing the genes or not would be amazing too! Some of us want the whole "hidden genes challenge" and it's frustrating when you accidentally click on the genes tab. Being able to disable the genes tab would be a lifesaver for such challenges, and really add some depth to the gameplay.

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I was thinking about what I would do if I had this option, as a challenge run:

If I'm in story mode, I'd turn the tutorial off. I don't need it.

If I'm in sandbox, I'd start with 10 creatures and 50 food.

Now, for lifespan: I'd make every animal except prey live a lot longer naturally, and healing effects and damage would be scaled appropriately. For scale, creatures would live for 250-300 days, and their life stages would be scaled up accordingly. That includes pregnancy, it would last for around 10 days. I feel like being able to have babies constantly would be OP. I scaled up life stages partially for roleplaying purposes, especially in story mode so that Adam and/or his children could still be around when you reach Home Island.

Here's the "challenge" part. Damaging factors would be proportionally more dangerous compared to default. This means that generic predators like carnivores are now actually dangerous, hemophilia would be an instant death, not having poison resistance could kill a creature, and starvation and illness could seriously weaken the tribe.

Now, an exception to this would be thorns and cacti. They'd be less dangerous than in default, because I honestly think they're just annoying. As in, it shortens the lifespan of a creature, but isn't as deadly.

To make up for all of this, healing plants would spawn slightly more frequently.

For predator spawning: I would make generic predators like bearyenas spawn more often, as they seem kinda rare with the default settings, but I want killer predators (apes, killer bearyenas, balance bears) to spawn less often. Why? Because I want them to be a rare, exciting threat, and running from multiple balance bears at a time gets annoying very fast. Also, the same goes for carnivorous plants -I want them to be a rare threat, and I think leaving the default spawn rate on would just make them annoying rather than exciting.

For wanderers: I'd make them spawn more, because with the above settings, creatures would be dying frequently, and I feel like not having the extra help would make it too hard. Rogue males, on the other hand, would be much rarer. That way, they don't interfere so much, and they're exciting rather than annoying when they do appear.

Edit, two parts I thought of:

I'd make islands bigger, so that it would take longer to navigate them and thus it would be a bigger challenge. In Story Mode, I'd only turn it up slightly larger, so that Adam and/or his children still have enough time to get home. In Sandbox, I'd turn it up to it's highest setting, just to make it a hard challenge. (Burning Savanna is already huge enough, it would become enormous -that's what I want!)

If you are allowed to edit the stats of animals, then I would scale eyesight, smelling and hearing up, for realism, challenge, and to compensate for huge island size (at least on mountains and the oasis). Also because I'm curious as to how that would affect gameplay.

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It would be cool if there was an option to choose how much food your creatures eat every day. It would be best if this was a toggle-able thing that you can do in-game, that way if you have a bunch of food and you want it to be more of a challenge, you could make it where each Nicheling eats 2 food a day instead of 1. I imagine it to be a little bar that would go 1----2----3----4----5----etc. with a little thing that you can move to whichever number you want, which wold be how much food a creature eats when the day passes.

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On 4/18/2018 at 12:43 PM, Draconiya said:

I like this idea as well. What about giving you the option to unlock a limited amount of genes in the mutation menu at the start of a sandbox save? Not many, and no prehistoric genes, just as a way to get your tribe adapted to the environment you want them to live in a little faster.

why limit the options just make it more sandboxy and let the player unlock everything if they want.

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There should also be a "Randomize" type to suprise yourself on the options. There should also be a spot to give different kinds of disaster types, like "No Droughts", or stuff like that. This is an amazing idea, one I thought about when I first started playing, but completely forgot about when the polls started 🙂

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Yeah! i like the idea! And maybe with the only females or only males if your baby was born the opposite gender of that rule  when the baby gets old enough to be banished its automatically banished.

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I think it would also be great if we could customize the predators and prey, we could change their stats, and we could change their main colors, we could also have the option to create a new creature from an existing one, for example, I choose to create a new creature, use the balance bear as a base, make it black, extend its claws a bit, give it better stats and make it spawn in jungle islands, or I could make a bluebird larger, red and make it able to take away adults!

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I like this, cause everyone will be happier after this! :) People who want an easier game can switch the predators off etc. and people who want more challenge in their gameplay can have it by taking something like "Creatures can only eat meat"

This also helps with the challenges! Great idea! 

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