Don't Starve Weight Gain Character Mod

Project Ideas & Discussion
1

This time I’m only posting an idea and have no intention of starting another project at the moment, but I wanted to write it down if anyone thought it was a good idea/if I want to do this as a side project after I’m done with the CK2 mod or the New Vegas mod. I’m a bit surprised that there isn’t a Don’t starve or DST mod for a weight gain based character, since the game has quite a lot of mechanics that would work well with it. I came up with the basic mechanical and thematic outline for a character.

The crux of the character would center around a new meter that tracks the character’s weight (kind of like how Woody used to have the log meter before he got reworked). The meter would range from 0-150. Every 20 weight points (up to 100) would increase the character’s weight tier (0-19 would be normal weight, 20-39 would be well fed, 40-59 would be chubby, 60-79 would be fat, 80-99 would be obese, 100+ would be morbidly obese). Weight is gained when food with higher caloric value is eaten (so think sweets and meats that aren’t fish or monster, etc.). Weight is lost over time (it is lost faster if the character has less than 50 hunger, and much faster if they are starving). Weight is lost slower in winter, and faster in summer. The character would change appearance in a similar manner to Wolfgang.

EDIT 2: After playing with Wakako for a bit, I think I want to revise my character idea a bit due to some overlap of ideas. Since Wakako is already sporty athletic type, I should probably not make/present another weight gain character that was an athlete. She’s still a slacker and dislikes weight gain (but not the extent of Wakako). I think I have the backstory and general theme for the character sorted out, I think it should be a character that had a pretty scheduled and strict upbringing (only healthy foods, constant exercise, focusing on the future etc.) but immediately decided to start taking it easy once they moved out. Over the course of a year or two, she started becoming lazy, irresponsible and only lived in the moment before arriving in the Constant. Her weight meter will start at 15 due to those two years before the game starts (thin, but pretty close to becoming well fed).

Appearance:

How she looks (not finished)

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Here would be her base stats at the normal weight level:
Health: 150 (max: 250)
Stomach: 200 (max: 300)
Sanity: 125 (max: 150, min: 100)

Benefits:
-Eating sweets or meaty crock pot meals will restore additional sanity and health
-Standing completely still, doing nothing will slowly raise sanity and health
-Much more sanity and health gained from sleeping
-Every weight level will increase max health and stomach by 20
-Every weight level after “well fed” will increase damage resistance (up to 80%)
-Every weight level will increase your level of insulation for winter and early spring
-Having the hunger meter filled above 150 will have a positive sanity per minute bonus
-Going down a level of weight will restore 10 sanity
-loves Winter (excuse to sit around home all day), gain 25 max sanity during winter

Drawbacks:
-Every weight level will reduce movement speed (down to 70%)
-Eating vegetable, fish or mushroom based food will damage sanity (fruit is fine)
-Insulation from fat will make summer more difficult
-Torso slot armor will no longer fit after weight level 2, backpacks excluded
-If hunger goes below 50, get a low sanity per minute penalty
-Moving when at “fat” tier or higher will slowly drain sanity
-When going up a weight tier, lose 20 sanity
-When the weight meter is at 125 of higher, very slowly drain health
-Hates spring (has to leave home again), lose 25 max sanity in spring

EDIT: There is a weight gain character mod on the steam workshop named Wakako, here is the link: Steam Workshop::Wakako

16 Likes
2

Idea sounds fine, but why the mushrooms malus? I mean they aren’t vegetables and they’re really useful on DST.

3 Likes
3

Idea sounds rly cool in all honesty, all you would need is the art tho, i would help but idk how sprites on DST work

1 Like
4

Sounds good! I feel like I missed the boat on getting into Don’t Starve, but I would happily watch a Let’s Play of the mod in action. ^^

1 Like
5

It’s kinda complicated. Oh, what am I saying, it’s really complicated. You need to make a small limb for each animation, facial expressions and a lot more of stuff. And that’s only for one character, imagine having to do that once each weight level. Good luck with that.

6

Oh so its not rigged? But actually frame by frame?
If thats the case i respect the artists behind dont starve more than ever now

7

Still still sounds doable, just time consuiming, wich leads me to ask, how do you add this animations to the game? Well guess at that point i should watch a tutorial and confirm it myself

8

Kind of. Every texture gets it’s shape modified to represent an animation. You should probably look them closely.

9

one thought. maybe more weight adds strength/attack damage but she;s like wolfgang and has low attack at low weight.

1 Like
10

@Edgar.1 The reason I wanted to make the mushrooms have a sanity (or worse sanity penalty as the case may be) is two fold.

First is for giving the character personality, I wanted her to have weight issues due to her disdain for the taste of healthier foods. She has/would have a sweet tooth and an appreciation for hearty, savory food. Vegetables tend to be bitter, fish tend to have a flavor that quite a few people dislike, and mushrooms on their own tend to be a bit bitter as well.

Second, is to fit the weight issues personality trait from a mechanical point of view. losing sanity from eating foods that would help her lose weight will nudge the player into eating the foods that would have her gain weight. Having mushrooms along with fish and veggies in cause sanity loss will steer the player into eating sweets and meats for sanity gain and fruits to either keep weight off or to just fill the hunger meter like normal.

@Cj-x4.3 I think if anyone wanted to take this idea up, I could do the art myself (probably). The real hurdle for this, aside from my schedule, is the programming, I don’t know the .lua language at all (or any programming really). I did mess around using the custom character template mod, I quickly did a few versions of the down sprite’s torso. If you want I could show them.

@Silent_Songs Due to the overlap in mechanics, I think the character should try and stand out a bit from Wolfgang, focusing on defense over offense at higher weights (but also with substantial penalties to keep playing at lower weights viable).

11

Well, do we already have the base ideas for the character? Like, name, looks, lines, personality
Oh, right, now that i mention it, the lines are going to take you forever to make, and i’m saying that as someone that is working on a translation mod. I have never made a character mod so i don’t know how to make the lines file. I guess you could try contacting another modder or the devs. Maybe try not to mention it’s for a fetish character.

1 Like
12

There actually was a weight gain character mod in don’t starve for a while. Unfortunately, the creator deleted it. I believe they were sick of making fetish art and removed all of it so no one could find them.

13

food weapons? just a thought.

14

Well, my idea for said character was the trope of a young, washed up/retired athlete character that never improved their dietary habits since high school. Haven’t thought of a name, but it’d probably start with a “W” like most of the other characters. The character has put on weight before and lost it but is struggling to keep it off. My character doesn’t want to gain weight, but isn’t super opposed to it either (So a little apathetic/lazy type of personality). For appearance, I’m I drew a simple dark blue tank top when I was just messing around with the template.

No need to worry about the line file, if I were to really start working on the mod, the custom character template already comes with a copy of Wilson’s lines. With a text editor, I can change the lines to anything I want.

Here, this the rough torso I drew in about ten minutes, I think I got the game’s style down for the simple things at least;
DSTSample

1 Like
15

how would you explain the rabid gain and loss of the weight? just magic of the land?

16

The ham bat’s already a thing

17

Well, honestly the game’s filled with ancient and unknow magic that causes a shitload of whack stuff so I believe that would already be a decent reason behind the weight change. I mean, after all all the characters that end up in the constant had wished for something to happen, and then Maxwell granted their wishes with a big side effect. Being having to survive in that hellhole of a place.

18

Well look at that, you already know how to imitate a drawing style. That is definitely putting you one step closer and above some of the mods that already exist in the game. It will definitely take a lot of your time, but considering you already have the drawing skills you might already be at 1/3 of the whole project.
I guess you could try to ask to someone to help you with the lines, considering how much stuff there’s in that bloody game, but i think it may become too confusional if you have to look at each and every line someone else writes just to see if it checks in with what you had in mind for the character.

2 Likes
19

hmm maybe the character couldn’t decided if they wanted to lose their weight and get back in to be athletics or just be able the deal with the side affects of the weight so they progress between the sizes

20

Take a look at this thread here from a few months ago. Despite the title, they actually got talking about Don’t Starve and the couple of WG mods for it (some of which may still be available). So it certainly can be done.