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Is dst going to have its motif changed?


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36 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

What Differences in Content changes Don’t Starves Ratings to be Above E for Everyone when Compared to Minecraft?

This isn't really a fair comparison in suitable game audience rating, i don't see how bunch of cubes can be "scary" to a person above age of 12 in my opinion, but again, it falls into the persons mindset entirely.

41 minutes ago, minespatch said:

He has to avoid shaking hands due to the fact he can consume their spirit. He is a walking reaper's scythe. It distances him from the cast.

I'm glad you said that, great assumption of who Wortox really is, despite the fact that there are people who think this character was entirely made just to appeal to a certain fandom, which is utterly stupid.

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17 minutes ago, bruhmoment23 said:

i don't see how bunch of cubes can be "scary" to a person above age of 12 in my opinion, but again, it falls into the persons mindset entirely.

There are the walking jumpscares such as Creepers and Enderman but the blocky element does give it a narm filter.:wilson_ecstatic:

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Okay so back when I Actually attempted doing game design EVERY Game was just a bunch of blocks, but back then they were called pixels.

The TL:DR- ANYTHING can be created out of Pixels if you put enough of your time & creativity into it. 

And lol NO I do not think Minecraft gets a free pass because it’s made of a bunch of Blocks- Your Phone Screen & your TV Screen are made of those same colored blocks.

And without going into a whole adult themed conversation lets just say people have created some uhhh “Interesting Adult themed” Sculptures In Minecraft with full on visual detail and everything, but yet the game STILL gets by with a Rated E for Everyone rating.

And While I am aware that user created content is not considered by the ESRB Rating board, It still does not change the fact that type of content more easily exists in Minecraft then it does in DS.

Blood is Blood.. Even if it is just a bunch of block shaped pixels, The DOOM game from my Generation is a testament to that statement.

(How old am I You ask? old enough to remember going to a theater to see Jack Nicholson as the Joker)

Roblox is another perfect example of a game- Generally Rated E for Everyone, but yet you can play in game worlds that are direct carbon copies of Grand Theft Auto (stealing cars, shooting people, robbing banks etc..) 

Just because it’s made to look like Legos it gets a Free-Pass in Rating?

—————————————

I will cut straight to my point: Minecraft is a game made entirely out of blocks, but so was every single game that ran on a SNES or Sega Genesis game System. 

So Unlike you... I don’t see being blocky as a freebie pass on Ratings.

So what EXACTLY pushed DS into the 13+ ESRB Rating?

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This is such an odd time for a thread like this. The motif been shifting for a while now, but Pearl & Crab King's questline + Moon content actually follows the original pretty concisely. Somber and creepy respectively.

Also worth mentioning Crab King doesn't die—but he's not coming back.

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I'm going to go against the grain here by saying that I absolutely love the balance of carefree shenanigans and existential doom-and-gloom Klei has established for the franchise. 

The world is certainly not sunshine and rainbows, but likewise, the world is for sure not a nihilistic graveyard of tragedy and despair. I would personally have a hard time immersing myself in a fictional world that doesn't have an iota of nuance and/or overuses the Lovecraftian themes and faded color palette so much that Don't Starve becomes a parody of itself. 

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"Before my suggestion I'd like to preface that this idea would be a different type of world-gen mode that could be chosen, and not an entire rework that forces other people to adapt to this change. The whole perspective is that the host could choose what type of world they want to play when they start one. One that starts normally, or one that starts with the idea below."

The absolute best way I can describe the macabre feeling that I used to get from the game was mostly tied to how truly lonely and dark I felt on the island, and I can confirm this because of the feelings I had during new content updates like the "Caves" updates which will be relevant in my next point. Honestly, I wish that things only popped up in the constant after a random set of time (IE: Beequeen, Pig King, Sinkholes, Lunar Island, etc do not spawn with world gen, they spawn after a random amount of days.) to give some of that loneliness back, but with new things being added at random (*a tremble shakes the ground rather largely* which signifies that sinkholes have now opened up, and caves traversal is now possible). I think (in my opinion), not counting on everything being there at the start would force players to prepare for any situation and not rely on anything you didn't find, and really give that feeling like you have to survive. The world unveils new things to you that you can use to your advantage if you are willing to explore "that ruins that just seemed to open itself up out of nowhere when I was exploring" after 32 days. So gradual adaption in short, and I feel it would add a sense of mystery of the unknown to things such as this. 

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1 minute ago, Owlrus98 said:

Honestly, I wish that things only popped up in the constant after a random set of time  to give some of that loneliness back,

Yeah, the title of this game somewhat describes the tone. Together means removing the loneliness.

I suppose the best way to get that "lonely" feeling is like a game like Journey which still has that isolating feeling but leading another in a isolated land.

What drew me to DS in the first place was empathy for Wilson being grabbed into a new world and having to work with what the world has given to him. Klei has stated several times that Together is a sequel, so I suppose that's why there's a tonal change... Doesn't explain Hamlet's visual change though.

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Thank yall for posting and discussing. I've been rethinking this and I've come up to this conclusion.

There are 2 main reasons why it feels like dst is changing its motif/straying away from creepiness: optional content and animated trailers' artstyle.

As someone has said dst is a survival-sandbox but unlike Minecraft or Terraria it has more survival than sandbox. For the past 2 years 90% of the content we received was optional which I assume was to balance out the survival with sandbox- the players have more freedom of choice now.

The artstyle of aniamted trailers has obviously changed. Old trailers felt like you were in a dark room watching an old movie on a tv. New trailers feel more like cartoons.

So while dst might not have strayed away from its creepiness as much as I thought, there's no denying that its undergoing some changes

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I think that don't starve togethers theme fits it, it's trying to be less scary because things aren't as scary when you've got buddies. It still has scares and sadness ("I'm so sorry" -Maxwell when examining pipspook) but it has matured from scares only to a wholesome but hard survival game. Also dst introduced being able to see charlie literally kill your person so yeah. 

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Don't Starve Together is automatically less creepy because of the "together" aspect?

(laughs in "almost always plays alone")

20 hours ago, bobdemei said:

Happy pigman go oink oink money money.

Yeah, Hamlet is "happier"...if you don't count the actual gameplay at all! There's a REASON none of my screenshots from that expansion pack are from more than a few days in.  That game is MEAN, to the point where it depresses me to play.  So I guess in that way it's actually the _perfect_ representation of the franchise--cute and cartoony LOOKING on the surface, buuuuut...

I STILL frelling hate the horrorhounds. Their mouths go WAY the freak too far back into their bodies. I.  HATE.  Body horror.  I have to use an effing MOD to get past the actual original, _intended_ graphics.  Don't Starve is getting too cutesy?  I dunno...(And being a mod, it doesn't help grossed/freaked-out people on _console_ at all.)

I'm totally on board with every complaint said here about Woodie's rework, though.  Too cutesy, too easy, takes away all his darker/sadder aspects, the short was too colourful and explained.  NOTHING.  There's one vignette I have pointedly never woven, even though I love vignettes.  And it's the one of Woodie with the treeguard head.  The _art style_ doesn't even match anything else!  (Well, I guess it looks like Wurt's sketch, but she's not an old character who we've been wondering What's the Deal with them for multiple years, so...)

MASSIVE opportunity, _completely_ freaking wasted and we ain't gettin' another one.  We'll NEVER find out what's the deal with Lucy, and fanfic ideas don't count.  He's also gone from annoying to play, to...wtf what even is this SILLY, to play.  All _I_ ever wanted was a less annoying-to-play werebeaver...

...Notorious

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On 4/19/2020 at 5:45 PM, Zeklo said:

This is such an odd time for a thread like this. The motif been shifting for a while now, but Pearl & Crab King's questline + Moon content actually follows the original pretty concisely. Somber and creepy respectively.

I think the thing about pearl is that aside from the questline thing being wholly optional and mostly just for goofing around, the main reason for the thought is that pearl is a dialogue heavy NPC, heckl, you can even trade with them. That doesn't do well for the mood of the constant being a lonely place. Even with others in the game it still feels isolated, npcs are counter to this.  The questline is somber but it's not in an unfeeling world kind of way, it's in a romanticized way. I think this is the perfect time for this thread to exist.

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21 hours ago, Szczuku said:

For the past 2 years 90% of the content we received was optional which I assume was to balance out the survival with sandbox- the players have more freedom of choice now.

Honestly, I never understood the whole "optional content" argument that's been getting brought up a lot lately. The bare minimum is to simply exist. All you need for that is a stable food supply, as well as the knowledge and tools to kill a few bosses. Then you can just sit in your base for all of eternity. Or... you could seek out new challenges and new goals that put you in unnecessary danger.

As a side note, I find it interesting that people complaining about optional content never bring up the ruins. There's absolutely no reason to even enter the caves themselves if mandatory content is the only thing that matters.

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37 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

Honestly, I never understood the whole "optional content" argument that's been getting brought up a lot lately

This was less of a "optional content bad" and more of an observation. They've added a lot of optional content so obviously the ratio between survival-sandbox has changed a bit.

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4 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

This was less of a "optional content bad" and more of an observation. They've added a lot of optional content so obviously the ration between survival-sandbox has changed a bit.

I know. I wasn't directing it at you specifically, but your comment made me want to discuss it. It might be a bit off topic now that I think about it...

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8 hours ago, Sinister_Fang said:

Honestly, I never understood the whole "optional content" argument that's been getting brought up a lot lately. The bare minimum is to simply exist. All you need for that is a stable food supply, as well as the knowledge and tools to kill a few bosses. Then you can just sit in your base for all of eternity. Or... you could seek out new challenges and new goals that put you in unnecessary danger.

As a side note, I find it interesting that people complaining about optional content never bring up the ruins. There's absolutely no reason to even enter the caves themselves if mandatory content is the only thing that matters.

An empirical observation of mine regarding people that complain over-and-over-and-over about:

1) DST is nowadays all-about socializing; 2) DST is too "ez pz"; 3) DST needs a-lot-more combat, more complex combat; 4) DST has too much optional content; 5) DST is not an "uncompromised survival" anymore; 6) DST needs bosses to come for you and your base; 7) DST is boring, nothing to do after you survive 1 in-game-year; etc etc

 

These types of people never say anything about base-building of any kind; not to mention its aesthetic aspect or, dare I say, mega-basing. From experience with 2 of my friends that love fighting/combat games and also played DST - they just throw around a Crockpot-or-2, Alchemy/Shadow Manipulator, to research survival/combat tools and fight mobs. And only that. Then get bored when running out of mobs/bosses to fight, and quit. Survival is integral, but the other macro-part of DST is Sandbox. My impression is such people ignore completely the sandbox-y possibilities. So naturally they get tired quickly if "game doesn't throw a direct challenge" at them, but leaves room for imagination-play.

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I’m the type of player who only builds the bare essentials and then goes on adventure to murder things.

DS Single Player was never about building a massive and pretty base to sit around in all day, there was goals, there was challenges, there was points in the game where once you ventured forward you were thrown into a new chapter with its own sets of new challenges & you could never return to any of your progress from previous chapters..

Some people play DST for the base building party aspect with friends, but almost everyone who played DS Solo plays to play the Totally Uncompromising Wilderness Survival The game was advertised to be.

There should be dedicated game modes custom tailored to each type of players specific play style-

Like for example Minecraft can be the easiest most mind numbingly boring child friendly game on the planet IF you play the game in Peaceful or Creative Mode...

But If you put the game on Survival Mode, set the settings to hard where you can starve to death, and allow the game to “Delete” your world should you happen to Die.. Minecraft suddenly becomes a difficult survival game.

Just because something is an open world sandbox does not equate to peacefully building a nice mega base.. Minecraft’s a Sandbox game, GTA, Ark Survival Evolved, Batman Arkham Knight, State of Decay 2...

You guys get my Point.. 

Thing is- In it’s current State DST is more of a peaceful base building party Simulator.. but if it were to get say dedicated modes where the world and it’s mobs and the settings you choose were to challenge you- it would appeal to those players in particular who WANT and SEEK OUT that type of Challenge-

While at the same time it does not ruin the experience of those playing in “Creative/Peaceful Mode” by making the game any harder for them.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

I’m the type of player who only builds the bare essentials and then goes on adventure to murder things.

DS Single Player was never about building a massive and pretty base to sit around in all day, there was goals, there was challenges, there was points in the game where once you ventured forward you were thrown into a new chapter with its own sets of new challenges & you could never return to any of your progress from previous chapters..

Some people play DST for the base building party aspect with friends, but almost everyone who played DS Solo plays to play the Totally Uncompromising Wilderness Survival The game was advertised to be.

Yes, it was called Adventure Mode where you hop WorldGen after WorldGen with specific configurations, Set Pieces etc to eventually find and "beat" Maxwell to ultimately take his Throne. You had a clear goal, a road with a definitive end, a story. DST doesn't have that, thus it compensated with Raid Bosses and places you yourself chose to venture (out your comfort zone), to explore and loot. To discover and challenge yourself in said process.

 

Again the "uncompromised survival" part was almost instantly out-the-window when you could play with someone else that could mitigate your mistakes (or add a new layer of insanity over with their own failings :encouragement:). Also the fact Endless Mode was introduced.

 

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

There should be dedicated game modes custom tailored to each type of players specific play style-

Like for example Minecraft can be the easiest most mind numbingly boring child friendly game on the planet IF you play the game in Peaceful or Creative Mode...

But If you put the game on Survival Mode, set the settings to hard where you can starve to death, and allow the game to “Delete” your world should you happen to Die.. Minecraft suddenly becomes a difficult survival game.

Just because something is an open world sandbox does not equate to peacefully building a nice mega base.. Minecraft’s a Sandbox game, GTA, Ark Survival Evolved, Batman Arkham Knight, State of Decay 2...

You guys get my Point.. 

Thing is- In it’s current State DST is more of a peaceful base building party Simulator.. but if it were to get say dedicated modes where the world and it’s mobs and the settings you choose were to challenge you- it would appeal to those players in particular who WANT and SEEK OUT that type of Challenge-

While at the same time it does not ruin the experience of those playing in “Creative/Peaceful Mode” by making the game any harder for them.

These points - survival, starving, dying in various circumstances - are valid even to this day in DST: visit Survival Vanilla Pubs to see how exactly bulk of player-base fairs at the game. Plus most dangers come from cumulative threats, not singular elements: try a Frog Rain in middle of night at Spring's start when you are insane, freezing, and on top of that, well-into 2-digits days world, a dog attack also pops with around 10-12 mutts. Bonus points: a random player runs in your camp at that precise time with a Varg on their tracks - and almost insane so yeey even more Shadow monsters you have to juggle aside your own.

Sure, careful planning for all foreseeable bumps on your "casual" survival road is best approach to such scenarios, with designs in place to get you out of respective proverbial pickle(s). Yet point stands: game is far from "a peaceful base building party Simulator", more so if playing with people of various skill and knowledge levels. And then you can always tweak your World settings for diverse desired outcomes. And/or use mods (if not on pesky virgin consoles but tackling it all on Chad PCs as one should, heh).

 

 

Still, yes as well: KLei should add more mandatory Survival-front elements in future - like complex weather patterns with RNG triggers, variations on the 4 Seasons, some new wave-based mobs and such, possible more Seasonal bosses (on the sea as well, akin the 4 classic Constant ones) etc. "Through the Ages" concept comes to mind, perhaps over time, with Aporkalypse-triggers or via player-induced event akin 1st take-down of a FW-type boss (possibly related to "Moon") that bring difficulty up a notch ("levels up" Survival hurdle with 1 further step: making mobs smarter/higher-and-more-complex AIs, bringing about mentioned RNG-based weather/season variations, stronger mandatory bosses a.s.o.).

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To add my comment, the game is still the same, I changed with the ages though, if you put to think well, the game is still dark and will still be dark, it has it's little bright and wholesome things but, you know, the game has a lot of dark, sad and tragic aspects.

First of all from the recent updates, alongside with the Return of Them, you should think about the water mechanics, not specially the water, but the void, like, actually it's kinda unsettling, not only that but currently the Pipspook are dead children that cannot go to afterlife because they have to find their toys, not only that, the only character who can help them is Wendy, and only her.

Gorge presents a lot of tragedy and darkness, with the plague of Mermification, which affects everyone, the merm merchants used to be goats but got mermified, they show to remember what they are though, the whole Gorge feels quite hopeless and dark, Beefalos are at their last moment, hopeless Swamp Pig which calls for help but Goats ignore them, those Pigs doesn't even show an act of hostility, and most of the characters mentions they're way calmer than regular Pigs, even with Webber, they show no agression to him, the Elder is slowly mermifying and he's unsure what will happen to their kind.

 

19 hours ago, CaptainChaotica said:

Don't Starve Together is automatically less creepy because of the "together" aspect?

Specially this too!

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Just because Don't Starve had a few edgy trailers doesn't mean the game ever fit them. 

YEAH, this was edgy. 2013 stuff right?

Alright this is how the game played:

This also fits with how often I see this sorta group of forumers saying the game used to be hard. NO it didn't, it was a lot easier before it's been updated so much. While I hate to side with the idea of anti-walkthrough elitism, the only reason this game seems to get easier is because NOW you know every inch of it, through playing or the internet..

Then you act like devs need to listen to the community, believe it or not, most of the community doesn't give a hoot about the forums in the first place! The community doesn't only consist of your group of friends.

STOP WHINING 

`All I could say is that MAYBE the menus in DST have gotten more fisher-pricey over time. (but complaining like this could backfire because it sends the message that there is nothing better to complain about)

Spoiler

don't starve had really good advertising that made the game look extremely cool, adventure mode, awesome trailers. if you want to see the direction the game was going in, watch this if you havent already:

youtube.com/watch?v=0P3kFXWK07o

that wouldnt translate into cool gameplay btw, its just ads

 

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