Howdy, I’m playing the "A New Reign" beta and so far there haven't been any new biomes added which I was really hopeful for. The topside map feels like it is lacking diversity while the caves are varied and awesome. So I got inspired write a list of few ideas I had while playing.
Biome ideas:
A Jungle biome with vines on trees and large leafy plants, hostile plants, and scary bulky cat predators.
A Garden biome with large flowers, fancy trees, statues, and different species of butterfly that is more aggressive and protective of its flowers.
A Damp Forest biome with puddles, rotten logs, moss, player gains dampness in area w/o need for rain necessarily. Player's items become damp and food items rot quicker.
If possible to make work, it would be cool if there were very slight hills to existing biomes just to give contour (not all over, but maybe 1 or 2 in the map). The “A New Reign” trailer shows Charlie climbing the stairs to her throne, and the poster for the game shows Wilson standing on top of a rock, but there is nothing in game to ascend or climb on.
I think it's time to change the impassable water terrain barrier. It was good in the vanilla years ago as a placeholder, but a lot of time has passed. You guys have already developed all the mechanics for a better water system from the Shipwrecked single player.
Game Mechanic ideas:
Additional types of full moon mechanics could be cool (blood moon, new moon, solar eclipse, ect). Maybe have bats invade on a new moon, or a nightmare monster near you come to life even if you’re above the sanity threshold; Maybe more statues have a full moon effect similar to the glommer and will spawn clockwork golems of something. Don’t starve has a lot of eerie stuff and something eerie happening on the total dark of a new moon seems fitting.
The MacTusk isn’t a threat to anyone not seeking them out. I think it would be cool if they were able to range further to hunt players in winter. Maybe allow them to build a basic campfire for their expedition or torches so they can range far enough to encounter and surprise players.
Option to add more of the traps from adventure mode into DST. Maybe add some new traps just for DST. Trap Ideas: A strange patch of light where if a character stands in it for too long there is some trap, like maybe they will fall asleep and it goes dark, damaging and waking them; Grasslands toothy traps in a patch of tallgrass; A suspicious patch of grass that will spawn a weird grasslands monster if picked.
Get Maxwell involved somehow as a protagonist. Like if players are still alive after 1 full game year he could pop in and say something sinister like "It seems you're doing very well here, time to make a few adjustments" and then some game mechanic changes. Maybe the player experiences more sanity loss or Maxwell himself starts hunting you as a large nightmare monster.
Item Ideas:
The new beefalo taming is awesome. Maybe add something for more late game fun like a craftable wooden covered wagon we can hitch him to. It would be an adventure to take something like that out on long trip to the other side of the map. It could serve as a portable minibase with storage and a place to hang a lantern.
Another late game item option for long range trips. A craftable train engine and track in the theme of the clockwork golems. Lay track and conduct it to you favorite distant spots.
Thanks! I know that was a lot and not all good ones, but I hope some of them are worth pondering.