Rollo

If you don't want to play with the changes then I suppose you would be able to turn off the age system in the settings. Like temporal storms. I normally don't like to deal with surface drifters either so I normally turn storms off when I start a world. It wouldn't force you to play it the "one true way" anymore then those do. It's only a suggestion, so I didn't include a lot of details since they would be up for interpretation. I wouldn't want enemies to become a nuisance or overused either, but I suppose they would spawn from rifts so I think it wouldn't be any different from how it works now.

I agree that difficulty scaling like in Skyrim and Oblivion doesn't fit in an open world game. In those games enemies scale with your level, so you get to a point where the only enemies you face are trolls and stuff. Even if you min max, past a certain level it becomes almost impossible to play without mods or adjusting the difficulty slider. I think that what I suggested differs from that, since the "progression" isn't tied to an arbitrary level which increases the same amount from a skill which boosts your health or damage and a skill totally unrelated to combat. My idea was more about introducing new elements as the player progresses. In that sense I don't think it's very cheesable since staying at one or another "age" wouldn't always make things easier, but would just change up the playstyle. Kind of like how you can't mine ore without a pickaxe. If you made one you'd automatically jump to the next age and then drifters would spawn like normal, so you wouldn't be able to exploit the lack of drifters any easier than you could now. Right now, you can't make enemies any stronger than what a player could handle from the start, since they are static. If they are too strong, then you can't begin. Too weak and you ignore them later on. The game already has a "grace period" setting, which is somewhat similar to what I propose, but instead of it being tied to a fixed time, it would be tied to an achievement which makes you stronger. Maybe it wouldn't work as well as I imagine, but in terms of difficulty I figured it would allow adding more monsters and stuff without overwhelming people at the start. Since by the time they start to spawn, you have access to better weapons and stuff. If you didn't want to play with that though, you could just stay in another age and enjoy that playstlye. I get that it might not be for everyone though. I just thought it'd be something fun to talk about. Thanks for the reply.

I've been playing this game for about 2 years or so now and have been collecting my thoughts and suggestions since then. I don't normally use forums, so I apologize if my post is too long or my suggestions have already been discussed. My favorite part of this game so far is the early game when you start off and have to make flint tools, hunt animals, avoid wolves, and so on. I really enjoy how each part of the game's progression has a 'feel' to it. Like how the early game makes you feel like a caveman, the middle part like some sort of yeoman or craftsman, and the late game like an inventor or industrialist. Each level of progression slowly opens up more gameplay features and I think the feeling it gives you is the strongest aspect of this game. Everything is a struggle and that makes achievements feel more significant. If I had any complaint to make about the game, it would be that it doesn't lean into the 'feeling' of progression enough, which leads me to the main part of my suggestion. The game should separate and recognize progression into 'ages'. It might seem like an odd suggestion at first, but I believe it would help to keep gameplay interesting, make the difficulty scale better in late and early game, and fit very well with the lore (from what I understand of it). This would be done with some sort of value which tracks both the 'age' of the player and the biome or general area. This could then be used to scale the experience of the player and change the gameplay loop depending on where in the ladder of progression the player is. It would also allow for the development of a much deeper experience for those who prefer a certain level of progression and create new challenges to the player as they progress, while not disincentivizing any playstyle in particular. Each age would change certain parameters about the player and the world in order to better fit the feel and tools available to the player in that age. I think it would best be done in such a way where both the player and the various areas in the world have their own age value, which would allow a single player to leave his base behind and start fresh in the same world, but also allow for players in multiplayer worlds to play in different ages too. The age value could be affected by various things which add up and when over a certain value, would move the player or area up the next age. This could reset on death or go down in other ways. The age value might increase depending on what armor the player is wearing, what tools they have, by creating certain objects, using certain blocks, etc. The world value might increase by what blocks and production buildings are nearby, the amount of tamed animals, etc. The player age and the area age would normally be similar if not the same, but once could always wander off to explore less tame areas, which would allow for more dramatic age effects without locking out any resources. As an example for how the gameplay loop might change depending of the age, I might suggest that the player's age would give certain thematic bonuses and malusses, like classes and that the world react differently to players from different ages For instance; stone age- (player age effects) health, speed, and weather resistance buff (to reflect the harsh conditions making the player tougher) surface drifters ignore the player temporal stability disabled (area age effects) animals provide more loot, but are more aggressive and stronger (to reflect the untamed wilds) some more savage animals might only be found in more primitive areas no surface drifters or rifts spawn middle age- (player) farming loot and tamed animal loot buff temporal stability enabled copper tools, armor, etc. (area) normal animal behavior drifters and rifts begin to spawn copper anvils, windmills, farms, tamed animals, etc. industrial age- (player) coal/mining buff health malus (to reflect the harmful fumes and stuff, but outweighed by new armors) bonus to monster/vessel loot steel tools, armor, etc. (area) farming and tamed animal loot malus (to reflect pollution) wild animals are scarce and more timid stronger more varied monsters start to spawn temporal storms enabled cementation furnace, etc. Thematically the changes to the world each age brings ties into the idea that the strange and unknowable forces which brought an end to the previous civilization becomes more tangible as you repeat the mistakes of the past due to ignorance and greed, driving you closer and closer to the inevitable. In the early game the main focus would be man vs nature. Animals would be your main threat and food source. Drifters would not spawn in stone age areas, temporal stability would be disabled and all monsters would be invisible to stone age players. This era would kind of represent the idea of the player being too innocent and ignorant about the horrors of the past for them to affect the world. In the mid game the focus would be more free form and sits in between the extreme of a totally primitive world and one driven by industry. The player would be tainted enough by what he has found to start to see and be affected by the monsters from the rust world. In the late game the focus would be more on exploration and monster combat. The player would through their actions have started to repeat the mistakes of the past. Awakening forces beyond comprehension. At this stage temporal storms would be enabled. Threats from monsters would increase, but so too would the ability to defend against them. With these changes, difficulty would be much easier to scale, since you know what tools and armor and so on the player would have access to at each era. This is normally a big problem in sandbox games, since it's so hard to predict how powerful the player will be at any given moment. Monsters could be made more powerful and it would not interrupt the player in the early game. Instead of new tools simply making previous challenges to the game trivial or scaling enemies so that you never feel as though you truly progress, the player would instead simply face new challenges without removing the feeling of progress. It may also offer an interesting dynamic to multiplayer worlds, allowing for slightly more specialization than classes alone. As far as practicality goes, there are many ways to implement this to give the player as much freedom as possible. I suggest that the 'area age' be tied to the type of or amount of buildings in that area, like windmills and anvils, things you need to progress. It could also be affected by certain building blocks as well, but maybe that should be optional. If they are destroyed then the area age would slowly regress. Like wise the player age could increase through holding and using items, like a copper pickaxe. This could be reset to zero on death so that even a late game player could return to where he died somewhat safely and would return to whatever age when he equips his items. I also have a quick suggestion about the new item which, when powered by a temporal gear, prevents rifts from spawning. I like that you don't have to put down light sources everywhere in order to prevent drifters from spawning, since I feel it can ruin the look of builds, but I think there might be a better solution yet. Having a machine which projects a circle of protection wastes a lot of space. why not keep the machine, but have it so that instead of a circle, you connect a wire to it which protects everything inside of it? The amount of fuel it needs could be determined by the area it protects. you could put it in your basement and then dig a tunnel around your walls, putting the wire there, which then prevents spawning to everything inside and above itself. That way you could hide the machine for building purposes, but also retain the freedom to protect an area of any shape. This also has the added bonus of allowing the game to have an immersive means of determining where the player's base is. This could be used for monster attacks, boss fights or anything like that. It could be cheesed I'm sure, but so can anything and I really believe that a system like that could offer the best of both worlds in terms of aesthetics and practicality. I hope that all made sense. The main idea of this suggestion is to make each stage of gameplay more interesting to play, instead of just speedrunning through it to the end game each time. I also think it would introduce monsters and stuff in a more natural way so that the player is kept on his toes without being overwhelming. At the end of the day this is just an idea I came up with, so it may not fit with the vision the devs have for the future of the game. It's all in good fun. Thank you for your patience and thank you for reading.