Would you say Hamlet is more town management sim?

[Izzy248]

Im just getting back into DS after a LONG time. What I remember is that each Expansion came with its own theme. From what Ive been seeing on the wikia, it looks like the big thing for Hamlet is being able to manage your own town? Do you actually manage your own town in Hamlet? Or do you improve upon existing one, or maybe just visit established Pig Towns. How does Hamlet set itself off from the other DLCs, and would you say its particularly more challening?

[Szczuku]

The Dlc is meant to be harder than previous ones. For example seasons are shorter which means you have less time to prepare.

And yes, you do manage a town. At some point of the playthrough you'll be able to build your own pig houses and collect taxes etc

[me real life]

On 2/12/2020 at 1:30 PM, Izzy248 said:

Do you actually manage your own town in Hamlet? Or do you improve upon existing one, or maybe just visit established Pig Towns.

You can do any of those, though you are required to visit an existing town at least once to get started on your own. You can get an item called the Key to the City by doing a sort of... informal quest, I'd call it, for the Pig Queen, and that item allows you to build almost any structure that you find in natural pig cities.

On 2/12/2020 at 1:30 PM, Izzy248 said:

How does Hamlet set itself off from the other DLCs, and would you say its particularly more challening?

The interior system is an obvious answer here (you can go inside caves, houses, and ruins that you explore like classic Zelda dungeons), but something that I'd say sets Hamlet apart from other worlds is that most everything is unfamiliar. RoG builds off of the base game so there's lots familiar there, and a lot of SW's content is DS/RoG's but slightly modified (you find spiders to get silk, you mine boulders to get gold, you pick berry bushes for food, etc), but almost everything in Hamlet is so different from what you're used to, especially in the early game. You want silk? If you aren't willing to pay up for some, you'll have to go sneak around the spidermonkeys and chop down their webbed trees. You want gold? Again, pay up or you're stuck flipping stones and panning in puddles. You want berries? Either you steal them and have the guards hounding you, or you buy the bushes and set up a farm yourself. And since so many things revolve around Oincs, the pig currency, you're going to have to play by the pigs' rules just to get the items you're used to.

This is also, in my opinion, a big part of what makes Hamlet more challenging than what came before. You can't rely 100% on your regular DS knowledge in order to survive, because not all the mechanics you're used to are here, and lots of items are recontextualized and made significantly more valuable because of it. The seasons are shorter too, which also adds the challenge of managing your time properly, but that's easy enough to get used to imo.

[Machine Reaper]

On 12/02/2020 at 11:30 PM, Izzy248 said:

How does Hamlet set itself off from the other DLCs, and would you say its particularly more challening?

if you can muster for Summer and Dry Seasons in RoG and SW respectively then this DLC is not hard to play, it has annoying stuff in at times but its also too much rewarding as well.

its currently the most modern Single Player DS experience currently so you will enjoy it. think of Adventure Mode in sandbox.

also don't forget to take your key and coin to other DLC Worlds for further profiting.

[Izzy248]

On 2/12/2020 at 5:05 PM, Szczuku said:

The Dlc is meant to be harder than previous ones. For example seasons are shorter which means you have less time to prepare.

And yes, you do manage a town. At some point of the playthrough you'll be able to build your own pig houses and collect taxes etc

Ah okay. Thanks for the response lol. That is a bit scary that seasons are shorter, especially if Im going into it blind and as far as I know this has new seasons, but at the same time sounds fun lo.

14 hours ago, Sunset Skye said:

You can do any of those, though you are required to visit an existing town at least once to get started on your own. You can get an item called the Key to the City by doing a sort of... informal quest, I'd call it, for the Pig Queen, and that item allows you to build almost any structure that you find in natural pig cities.

The interior system is an obvious answer here (you can go inside caves, houses, and ruins that you explore like classic Zelda dungeons), but something that I'd say sets Hamlet apart from other worlds is that most everything is unfamiliar. RoG builds off of the base game so there's lots familiar there, and a lot of SW's content is DS/RoG's but slightly modified (you find spiders to get silk, you mine boulders to get gold, you pick berry bushes for food, etc), but almost everything in Hamlet is so different from what you're used to, especially in the early game. You want silk? If you aren't willing to pay up for some, you'll have to go sneak around the spidermonkeys and chop down their webbed trees. You want gold? Again, pay up or you're stuck flipping stones and panning in puddles. You want berries? Either you steal them and have the guards hounding you, or you buy the bushes and set up a farm yourself. And since so many things revolve around Oincs, the pig currency, you're going to have to play by the pigs' rules just to get the items you're used to.

This is also, in my opinion, a big part of what makes Hamlet more challenging than what came before. You can't rely 100% on your regular DS knowledge in order to survive, because not all the mechanics you're used to are here, and lots of items are recontextualized and made significantly more valuable because of it. The seasons are shorter too, which also adds the challenge of managing your time properly, but that's easy enough to get used to imo.

Wow. Holy crap wow. Thanks for all that lol. Much appreciated. And seriously?? I thought it was a little harrowing, to be honest, that its actually harder. I mean, DS itself isnt really hard after you get used to it (Its just the bosses Im not a fan of going up against although sometimes its a must). But to think that it also resets your DS knowledge to absolute zero?! Thats insane. But at the same time, kind of relieving because it almost makes the game kind of sound like a DS 2.0, or a DS spinoff, rather than an expansion to it. I never would have figured it completely rewrites the structure of the game itself. If thats the case, I wonder what what remains of the core survival mechanics. Like I imagine you still get logs, rocks, twigs, and grass the same. But is that about it? The rest you pretty much have to find a Pig Town ASAP and get you some Oincs to start building up your foundation?

2 hours ago, Machine Reaper said:

if you can muster for Summer and Dry Seasons in RoG and SW respectively then this DLC is not hard to play, it has annoying stuff in at times but its also too much rewarding as well.

its currently the most modern Single Player DS experience currently so you will enjoy it. think of Adventure Mode in sandbox.

also don't forget to take your key and coin to other DLC Worlds for further profiting.

Yeah, the only real pain Ive ever experienced in DS is facing the bosses lol. If thats the case this should be fun. And thats also great to hear about the experience.

Also thanks for  the tip lol,

[Machine Reaper]

1 hour ago, Izzy248 said:

Yeah, the only real pain Ive ever experienced in DS is facing the bosses lol.

this DLC's Bosses don't come after you except for one, all other need to be found in the world by yourself only if you want to.

the one boss that does come after you is an Hot Air Balloon by the name of Ancient Herald, all he does is summon a bunch of frogs around you and ghost and nightmares sometimes and his only attack is banging on the ground which sets everything on fire around him except for you, which means he can't harm you much directly (a log suit will be enough to tank this guy to death) he only appears in Aporkalypse which is a season that triggers after day 60 but you can find a clock that controls when this season takes place, you can control the clock manually and trigger it when ever you want.

that's all there is, oh also there is a an Ironman suit as well but it only has a durability of 3 minutes so its basically god mode for 3 minutes.

[Izzy248]

13 hours ago, Machine Reaper said:

this DLC's Bosses don't come after you except for one, all other need to be found in the world by yourself only if you want to.

the one boss that does come after you is an Hot Air Balloon by the name of Ancient Herald, all he does is summon a bunch of frogs around you and ghost and nightmares sometimes and his only attack is banging on the ground which sets everything on fire around him except for you, which means he can't harm you much directly (a log suit will be enough to tank this guy to death) he only appears in Aporkalypse which is a season that triggers after day 60 but you can find a clock that controls when this season takes place, you can control the clock manually and trigger it when ever you want.

that's all there is, oh also there is a an Ironman suit as well but it only has a durability of 3 minutes so its basically god mode for 3 minutes.

I mean well. The bosses arent really that much a pain in that they are aggressive, because eventually you know when they are coming and if you dont want to fight them you can guarantee they spawn away from your camp. But its just fighting them is usually a huge drag. It can either take forever to do, or use up a lot of resources (especially if you made an area specifically for fighting them lol). And they do usually have drops that I want for my playthrough for one reason or another.

[Machine Reaper]

37 minutes ago, Izzy248 said:

I mean well. The bosses arent really that much a pain in that they are aggressive, because eventually you know when they are coming and if you dont want to fight them you can guarantee they spawn away from your camp. But its just fighting them is usually a huge drag. It can either take forever to do, or use up a lot of resources (especially if you made an area specifically for fighting them lol). And they do usually have drops that I want for my playthrough for one reason or another.

You only have to worry about one coming after you after day 60 (even then he will take about 3 days to spawn) and you can also prevent that by just finding the clock and turning it back.

[metallichydra]

On 14/2/2020 at 5:34 PM, Izzy248 said:

I wonder what what remains of the core survival mechanics. Like I imagine you still get logs, rocks, twigs, and grass the same. But is that about it? The rest you pretty much have to find a Pig Town ASAP and get you some Oincs to start building up your foundation?

you don't even get grass like you use to

 

most of the worlds I play on now, I dont ever go to the pig towns. it makes it harder, but its still kinda different from normal dont starve. just sad so many items (like ice) is pig-town dependent.