Should Content be spread throughout the seasons/years or all be available at the start?

[Frashaw27]

Again, Another simple question, but one that is more philosophical and time sensitive then the last one. Mo matter who/what you are, no matter what your karma, interests, or value might be, the march of time consumes all. Through this reason, we must have a understanding of how we budget out time, and what it relates to the topic is that distributing content through out the seasons is a question of how much time a player show need to wait to access the content they want. 

For one side of the argument we have All Content should be available from the start, so I can pick and choose what content I want to interact with. If one player wants to go to the lunar island and use the glass cutters to destroy the nightmare chess pieces? They can from the start! Does a player want to raid the ruins for end game gear before the first snowflake falls? They can do that! It allows players to have the game they want, to go at their own pace and make it as difficult or easy as they want. The problem with this model is that there is no real sense of progression in the game. Sure, you have the tiers of equipment relative to the others in their type, but that's only goes so far when the equipment strength and availability is all over the place. The best example is that the Ham bat is a item that can be made relatively easy and quickly and is used even in endgame bosses due to it's infinite durability. Compare that to the Marble armor which takes a material that is slowly gathered over time, takes a lot resources (even with the recent buff, it is still a little costly to use for the time invested farming it) to craft, and is rarely used outside of forced tanking/normal tanking to where it bare gets used out side of the initial few bosses. This lack of progression is bad since it means that the players can never be truly forced/pushed to use the higher tier weapons and armor since all can technically be slain with the base equipment. There is also the problem of content running out. Once you dry out the initial, yet expansive well of content, there is nothing else to keep you going to the next year. There is never a incentive to living pass a year or any amount of time after that since all of the content would be tailored to the start. Basically, while it allows for content by anyone at anytime with the appropriate skills, it also gets rid of that slow and steady progression systems in some other games, while allowing them to make it so that a player can do everything within the first year, thus not having any incentive to go past a year with certain play styles.

The other side of the argument is Content should be spread out through out the years, to reward player that survive that long with new stuff to do. This method easily allows for a better sense of progression since by the end of the first year the devs can assume that they a) have a reliable and sustainable food source b) they know how to handle hound attacks c) They have the basic research needed to survive a year in battle, using this knowledge, they can make scenarios by making content around that a mechanic they can expect within those parameters/expectations. This also allows for incentives to last more then a year since there will be more stuff to interact with. The problem is that you need to wait to interact with that new content. Imagine having to essentially wait for hours and hours just to reach the new content. What would be infuriating since the reason is that you decided to play that play being put on hold since you only get it after you hit your time goal. Another question is when to stop. A common question but one that we need to seriously consider. Sure if you pack the first two with content, you would get mediocre years proceeding, but all of the content being strung about just makes the player wait longer to reach the content they would rather want to be playing. The whole in short, this method seems to make the game more balanced and content that makes the game more challenging, nut there still the issue with that huge initial time at the beginning where you are most likely to just go through the same stuff they have done before and survive til you get the privilege of doing that content.

Thanks for voting and hope you have a good (insert relative time here) and a good enough time debating.

[Mike23Ua]

I don’t feel like they should add anything that makes the starting area any harder on beginning players.. they still have a hard enough time staying alive & learning the game as it is, so making that harder may just turn them away completely.

Its the exact same reason Lunar Island is tucked away off the map in the ocean somewhere, a place you have to be experienced enough to get to, rather then just throwing those Shattered Spiders with their AoE attacks on the Beginner Islands.. they made sure that they didn’t interfere with Newbie players.

I would like to see harder difficulty modes, or personal modification toggles.. but I don’t feel they should overhaul the starting area, instead we need new islands like the lunar islands.

[Frashaw27]

10 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

You misinterpreted the entirety of my post. I was talking about if content should be accessable from the start or after a certin amount of time and the benefits and downsides of both designs, not the starting area amount of content. It's about when content should available to someone not just how much sh^t we can cram into the starting area.

[Brubs]

There are so many topics to discuss in this thread.

I'll start by saying that i would like Klei to add special events ONLY available after many years have passed. Maybe a biome morphing into a new one with new mobs or a secret cave emerging from a random location in the ocean.

This would personally solve one of my biggest concern: people regenerating worlds just because they feel like (endless mode)

[Szczuku]

I've wanted progression in the game for a long time.

Imo some minor things should be locked behind a time door. For example Pigman AI becoming smarter after 1 in-game year.

But some major content should be locked behind accomplishements-wall. For example after exploring the ruins, discovering Lunar Islands, killing Fw some major things that'd constantly affect the player would be unlocked. Like tougher Shadow Creatures or a new mob/weather effects. That way the people would be able to unlock this content as fast as they'd like.

Terraria is a great example of well-made progression. Multiple stages of progression all triggered by player's action. I've never seen anyone complain that they can't have all the content from the start.

This community (and devs to an extent) need to finally get out of our comfort zone and try experimenting with the game's developement.

[Minitte]

Me playing with friends only last between 10 to 40 days before we take an extended break. We like to focus on one or two boss per world/run.

[Harrowick]

New content starting in the 2nd year would probably be the best for all players, gives you a year to prepare while still leaving the first year for the newcomers to learn. Anything beyond 2nd year would be hard locked behind privately hosted solo worlds/closed sessions since public servers don't usually last a full year, let alone past autumn.

I think adding new content for the 2nd year would give players incentive to actually stick around in public servers rather than leaving once a year has gone by out of boredom.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

The poll dont toally fits with what i think.

I think that klei should add more fauna and flora in old biomes and also add more biomes. This can affect the starting point but also some can be added in island, easy island, difficult island, etc.

Also stuff can be added with seasonal theme like klaus or the fishes.

Summer has a lack of things to do. High risk to set everithing on fire (which i think this mechanic is good and fair) but has low reward (antlion and the scorch fish are the most interesting things to do if you have done pearls quests)

The second autumn is just a building and material gathering season. The only different between the 1st autumn and the rest are bearger which is a tree choper and that is it.

For me winter is perfect. You have plenty of stuff to do; mctusk, long nights to do the moon event of fight beequeen as wendy, klaus, deerclops, ice, caves wet so fighting cave bosses are the best idea (my winters are always: beating klaus and then toadstool).

Spring is not bad, you have plenty of mooose goose to farm (i love how klei changes this boss from DS) and, if you have farms, is the best time to gather food and other materials but that is it.

This game is difficult for newcomers but it has the same difficult in day 100 that in 100000 so st the end, the most long is a world the most easy it is because of how much material and food you have so i think is fair to add more difficulty after beating fw or beating the moon thing that for the moment is incomplete. Because i loose interest when i know it will be difficult to die and how much i need to derp to die having ruins gear, bone armor, jellybeans, bundles, etc. The game becomes a chill place to be in a total confort zone

I want **** happening not only dogs that are a joke with dark swords or the weather that you have beat in the first year. Srly, the weather should become harder or add a season that is not atached to a particular  day like aporkalipsis. A side season.

 

Tldr; klei can add stuff for the constant itself, for the summer and for end game difficulty

 

I have write this with the phone and poor english, sorry if there is a lot of mistakes

[Mike23Ua]

5 hours ago, Szczuku said:

I've wanted progression in the game for a long time.

Imo some minor things should be locked behind a time door. For example Pigman AI becoming smarter after 1 in-game year.

But some major content should be locked behind accomplishements-wall. For example after exploring the ruins, discovering Lunar Islands, killing Fw some major things that'd constantly affect the player would be unlocked. Like tougher Shadow Creatures or a new mob/weather effects. That way the people would be able to unlock this content as fast as they'd like.

Terraria is a great example of well-made progression. Multiple stages of progression all triggered by player's action. I've never seen anyone complain that they can't have all the content from the start.

This community (and devs to an extent) need to finally get out of our comfort zone and try experimenting with the game's developement.

See that’s my biggest problem with wanting the game to progressively become harder over time, that does absolutely nothing in the terms of making it easier and more accessible to your newbie friends who see you online and simply join your game Or through doing some world altering event.. They aren’t going to get some special notification that you’ve killed X Boss and Triggered entire world changing Y Event- They're just going to join you and Die more often then they normally would have.

I suppose that you could say I can always host a brand new fresh start server and play with them so things aren’t so hard, but then that brings up my second problem with this game- It’s Too Easy if you just set around at Base telling Campfire Stories & doing much of nothing.

In my head a picture something that allows Casual players to play the game and enjoy the game with more Advanced Players without the Casuals suffering more then they have to and Without the Advanced players being bored out of their mind that nothing challenges them.

I only came up with two (possible) solutions in my head that solve this-

1: Leave the starting area completely alone so noobs can join and learn and play like they do now.. But add a ton of new Harder Islands out in the ocean in the same way they handled Lunar Island.. I can play in the same world WITH my Newbie friend who is in the beginner area plucking carrots out the ground and eating them Raw, Meanwhile the Carrats I pick run away from me till I catch them.. Each “Set of Island Biomes” Will have its own difficulty, mobs, weather hazards and gameplay mechanics Similar to how Lunar has Lunacy.. its own unique Mechanic.. Leave the starting island unprogressed.

Or then there’s also Option 2: They can add personal toggles that you can apply to yourself that effects YOU and ONLY YOU and No one else.. Stuff like:

1-being able to spawn into the world with a reduced overall total health core that can never be fully healed back to Max.

2- Being able to give certain mobs a Poisonous health bleed out attack when they attack You (but no one else..) Such as Spider Warriors, Frogs, (Snakes & Scorpions if they ever get added to the game) This Allows YOU and a Newb friend to fight the same mobs TOGETHER and the both of you still feel challenged by It.

3- Being able to set certain Gameplay features that effect YOU but no one else- For Example... maybe there’s a toggle that lets you set ALL Beehives in the entire game to be a Hostile towards YOU meanwhile for your Newbie friend they remain peaceful.. Any time YOU use 3 Ice as a Crockpot filler it results in Wet Goop, But for your less skilled Friend 3 Ice + 1 Meat = Meatballs!

 

Ive been saying this for a long time now and I haven’t found the right words to truly express it-

The TL:DR there should be WAYS that people of varying skill levels can play and enjoy this game TOGETHER

Without one clashing into the Other.

[Moonatik]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

See that’s my biggest problem with wanting the game to progressively become harder over time, that does absolutely nothing in the terms of making it easier and more accessible to your newbie friends who see you online and simply join your game Or through doing some world altering event.. They aren’t going to get some special notification that you’ve killed X Boss and Triggered entire world changing Y Event- They're just going to join you and Die more often then they normally would have.

 

 

Some people gave you some answers about that in another thread. I'm sorry for your newbies friends but they'll have to start day 1 and learn the game. And settings is the best tool to make a "Program for newbies". You can turn off bosses, hounds, fire, desease, less rain, very long autumn, etc, etc, ETC.... No needs PC and mods to create a perfect newbie world in order to learn the basics. Make it, do it for your friends. Together doesn't mean specific rules on your character only, as you could fight some enemies your friends couldnt see. NO.

This game already give us this kind of progression when we start it. Autumn, then level 2: Winter and first boss. Level 3: Rain, thunder, wet, insane because of being wet, fighting nightmare creatures. Level 4: auto fire, base destroyed. Ground shaking, base destroyed. A non stop learning moment.

As Szczuku said, some things should be locked behind a time door, AND behind some specific actions. And we're not talking about difficulties only. It could be about items, or getting access to a specific area, there's tons of possibilities. Like an artic biome could take 3 winters to be done. 

[Owlrust]

On one hand I want things to get harder as time progresses, but I also wouldn't want to be swarmed with too many things that make the game a chore, and keep me from accomplishing what I want to. We've seen what a bad "challenge" can look like with Disease; nearly no one likes it, many turn it off, and others try to avoid transplanting entirely because of it. In short, quality vs quantity; and long term changes imo is better than short term changes.

[Mike23Ua]

5 hours ago, Moonatik said:

-Snip-

I Think your entirely missing my point, When you do that.. when you turn OFF Hound Waves, When you set the season to Autumn Only, When you turn OFF the Giants or the Tree-guards, YES Doing that makes playing the game easier an more enjoyable for your newbie friends or little baby Sister..

But- What does that do FOR YOU? You sit there bored out of your mind completely unchallenged by anything Ever, Sure you get to play with your (much less skilled than you) Family or Friends.. but at what cost?

Klei really should look into ways of addressing that..

My little Sis can play Minecraft in Creative Mode peacefully building her dream world without ever being bothered by any mobs or starving, Meanwhile I can be in the same Minecraft world WITH HER but my settings are set to Hardcore Survival- Enemies attack me, I can starve to death.. Etc.

Minecraft isn’t the best selling game ever of all time without a REASON... they provide plenty of ways for players of Varying skill levels to play and enjoy the game TOGETHER.

 

And this Thing your specifically asking for a world that progressively gets harder the longer you go through days or an event that changes the map after doing a certain thing.. How does that let your little baby sister play with you without the game being anymore annoying and frustrating for her then it already was?

TL:DR- There needs to be Sanctuary a safe Area containing a few biomes that remain untouched by Klei’s Updates.. an Area where newbs can Spawn in, play and learn and THEN they can leave that area and explore more difficult horizons.
 

(Like starting in a port in ATLAS and then building a ship to explore more hostile territories.)

[ArubaroBeefalo]

11 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I Think your entirely missing my point, When you do that.. when you turn OFF Hound Waves, When you set the season to Autumn Only, When you turn OFF the Giants or the Tree-guards, YES Doing that makes playing the game easier an more enjoyable for your newbie friends or little baby Sister..

But- What does that do FOR YOU? You sit there bored out of your mind completely unchallenged by anything Ever, Sure you get to play with your (much less skilled than you) Family or Friends.. but at what cost?

Klei really should look into ways of addressing that..

My little Sis can play Minecraft in Creative Mode peacefully building her dream world without ever being bothered by any mobs or starving, Meanwhile I can be in the same Minecraft world WITH HER but my settings are set to Hardcore Survival- Enemies attack me, I can starve to death.. Etc.

Minecraft isn’t the best selling game ever of all time without a REASON... they provide plenty of ways for players of Varying skill levels to play and enjoy the game TOGETHER.

 

And this Thing your specifically asking for a world that progressively gets harder the longer you go through days or an event that changes the map after doing a certain thing.. How does that let your little baby sister play with you without the game being anymore annoying and frustrating for her then it already was?

TL:DR- There needs to be Sanctuary a safe Area containing a few biomes that remain untouched by Klei’s Updates.. an Area where newbs can Spawn in, play and learn and THEN they can leave that area and explore more difficult horizons.
 

(Like starting in a port in ATLAS and then building a ship to explore more hostile territories.)

you can create a new world so they dont have the big hounds waves (the only difficult that changes with days) and meanwhile they do easy task you can go to other more difficult quest like ruins or killing something if you are boring of choping but making the game static in long term the only thing that this brings is monotony

[Bellium]

16 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

Why not just pick Wes and play with reckless abandon?

If a challenge is what your looking for while playing with friends, nothing stopping you from taking unessacary and silly risks if the game is too easy. Take on those level 3 spider send with just a grass suit, completely forgo a bag pack, clear out a reed trap with your fists, munch on a bunch of green mushrooms to keep your sanity at 0 for as long as you like. 

It's easy to make the game more difficult for yourself if you really want it that way, and if your issue there is that it's not the game creating the challenge for you, how badly did you really want the challenge in the first place?

[YouKnowWho]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

I Think your entirely missing my point, When you do that.. when you turn OFF Hound Waves, When you set the season to Autumn Only, When you turn OFF the Giants or the Tree-guards, YES Doing that makes playing the game easier an more enjoyable for your newbie friends or little baby Sister..

But- What does that do FOR YOU? You sit there bored out of your mind completely unchallenged by anything Ever, Sure you get to play with your (much less skilled than you) Family or Friends.. but at what cost?

Klei really should look into ways of addressing that.

This sounds more like a personal problem then something the game should be hard coded to revolve around.

[Mike23Ua]

11 minutes ago, YouKnowWho said:

This sounds more like a personal problem then something the game should be hard coded to revolve around.

Why insult someone when Minecraft already does exactly what I’m asking for? What’s next are you gonna tell me that DST isn’t the game for me and my little Sister to play together & to go back and play Minecraft? God some of you people... I swear, ugh. Fine- I’ll just shut up and leave it be Because your Never gonna understand things from my perspective

And don’t just reply with Saying something like “Theres A Mod for That..” Because for console players we don’t have Access to Mods. The answer should NEVER be Mods

Tell me why Klei can’t make a simple switch that makes all bee hives hostile towards me but passive towards her??

Is it That Klei’s game cant do it? (when other games like Minecraft, Atlas, & Destiny have..) Or is it just simply that not enough people Want them to assign a team towards making the game more accessible towards Coop play? 
 

There are Settings you can apply to Yourself in Rainbow Siege that when you run out of health you die instantly, meanwhile- There are other settings that can be applied to someone less skilled than you that when they’re out of health they go into DBNO recover status.. 

People of Varying Skill Levels playing TOGETHER and both parties getting a fun enjoyable challenge.

Is it... is it because DS is mostly designed for a PC Platform and then Ported to Consoles? is that why it doesn’t have some of these standard features most console games have in making the game playable to people of varying skill levels without feeling too easy or too hard?

 

[TheGoldenDonut_]

13 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Why insult someone when Minecraft already does exactly what I’m asking for? What’s next are you gonna tell me that DST isn’t the game for me and my little Sister to play together & to go back and play Minecraft? God some of you people... I swear, ugh. Fine- I’ll just shut up and leave it be Because your Never gonna understand things from my perspective

And don’t just reply with Saying something like “Theres A Mod for That..” Because for console players we don’t have Access to Mods. The answer should NEVER be Mods

Tell me why Klei can’t make a simple switch that makes all bee hives hostile towards me but passive towards her??

Is it That Klei’s game cant do it? (when other games like Minecraft, Atlas, & Destiny have..) Or is it just simply that not enough people Want them to assign a team towards making the game more accessible towards Coop play? 
 

There are Settings you can apply to Yourself in Rainbow Siege that when you run out of health you die instantly, meanwhile- There are other settings that can be applied to someone less skilled than you that when they’re out of health they go into DBNO recover status.. 

People of Varying Skill Levels playing TOGETHER and both parties getting a fun enjoyable challenge.

Is it... is it because DS is mostly designed for a PC Platform and then Ported to Consoles? is that why it doesn’t have some of these standard features most console games have in making the game playable to people of varying skill levels without feeling too easy or too hard?

 

Nice capitalization on varying skill levels.

[1bubbainpa]

8 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

Yes, mods are the only way, because it’s pointless for Klei to develop all these complex conditions for a single/small population.

You hate hearing it, but it’s literally the thing that mods do, tailor a game to your expectations.

[bruhmoment23]

20 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

Again, this is entirely your personal issue. No ones forcing you to play with your family. Not everyone in the player base has same issues as you ( myself included ), so no, i guess i can't understand your perspective. Maybe instead of writing semi-frustration posts and replies you should try to adapt to your situation abit harder or teach your friends or sister more about the game and it's wonders?

[Moonatik]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

You can't change the global line of the game. Whatever Minecraft. So in some other games, if you're level 52, you can't play with a level one, just because it doesn't make sense. What I said about settings is something you could see like a step by step. You're not create a long term world, you're just think about the basics. First ressources, first useful items, recognize all biomes. One day you talked about friends who didn't know how to cook on a fire camp. I want to say "Men, come on !". Become a teatcher for them, what could I say ?

Then when they'll know how to make a proper first base, erase everything, and restart without warning, add winter or hounds, or whatever. We could imagine tons of "lessons" by playing with the settings. And guess what, you will have this progressive world, on many aspects, which lead to the hardest, the fuelweaver. 

I'm sorry, but as I'm reading you, you have no choice. You maybe dream of a dream team to rule this game, and I could understand. But if your friends can't learn, Klei doesn't have to do something, or change the game. A studio like From Software never put easy mode on Sekiro or Dark Souls, there's reason, and they're totally right. Casualize games leads to broken games, sometimes. And some people won't be able to play Dark Souls, never. That's it and it doesn't mean something bad.

The thing is DST can help newbies, with settings, it's your only option. So help your friends, help them discover step by step and get used to everything.

 

[1bubbainpa]

ANYWAYS BACK ON TOPIC:

If we’re gonna go with the route of activating a harder game ala to terraria’s hardmode, then I need to ask, what would be the trigger for DST’s “hardmode”, and what would change?

My ideas:

• Killing the fuelweaver should be the trigger for “hardmode”. It’s a fairly difficult boss that doesn’t get rushed in pubs.
• ”hardmode” shouldn’t directly effect current tools, weapons, or food stats, and instead should introduce mechanics that are more dangerous than ignorable (skittersquids) or chore-inducing. (Disease)
• The ocean/Lunar island should be the area that is most effected by the killing of Fuel Weaver, and should be treated like a super dangerous area.

[Bellium]

31 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Why insult someone when Minecraft already does exactly what I’m asking for? What’s next are you gonna tell me that DST isn’t the game for me and my little Sister to play together & to go back and play Minecraft? God some of you people... I swear, ugh. Fine- I’ll just shut up and leave it be Because your Never gonna understand things from my perspective

And don’t just reply with Saying something like “Theres A Mod for That..” Because for console players we don’t have Access to Mods. The answer should NEVER be Mods

Tell me why Klei can’t make a simple switch that makes all bee hives hostile towards me but passive towards her??

Is it That Klei’s game cant do it? (when other games like Minecraft, Atlas, & Destiny have..) Or is it just simply that not enough people Want them to assign a team towards making the game more accessible towards Coop play? 
 

There are Settings you can apply to Yourself in Rainbow Siege that when you run out of health you die instantly, meanwhile- There are other settings that can be applied to someone less skilled than you that when they’re out of health they go into DBNO recover status.. 

People of Varying Skill Levels playing TOGETHER and both parties getting a fun enjoyable challenge.

Is it... is it because DS is mostly designed for a PC Platform and then Ported to Consoles? is that why it doesn’t have some of these standard features most console games have in making the game playable to people of varying skill levels without feeling too easy or too hard?

 

Just pick Wes, he's the challenge character you're looking for that comes with the game!

[Dunk Mujunk]

There is so much to talk about in this thread, i'm gonna cherry pick pieces to comment on and i'll do my best to keep my comments in the context of the original quotes (and please keep in mind these are simply my opinions)-

21 hours ago, Frashaw27 said:

For one side of the argument we have All Content should be available from the start, so I can pick and choose what content I want to interact with.

I personally like this side of the argument, and I feel it is part of DS/DST' identity. You generally aren't pushed into any content, and you generally aren't held back from any content. It is entirely up to you what you engage/avoid. I think this is something that helps draw in the new players that have a genuine interest in the game. I know for me early encounters with things I had no business messing with are part of why I stuck around. The unknown. Whether I decided to immediately engage the unknown or put it on the back burner for a long time (while constantly fearing it), the idea of mystery followed by new rewards/knowledge combined with zero hand-holding always drew me in.

21 hours ago, Frashaw27 said:

The other side of the argument is Content should be spread out through out the years, to reward player that survive that long with new stuff to do.

I'm not crazy about this side of the argument. At this point in DST' life cycle it means either thinning out content for old players early in a new world along with adding (what I would view as) a fairly obnoxious step to get back to the freedom we are all used to at this point, or adding new content that would then be held back from all players for a time. It would have to be enough content to justify this, a new mob or 2 wouldn't cut it, that would be silly. If people are blowing through the content right now in 1 game year and getting bored, how much content would it take to keep people around for 5 game years? I'd rather Klei work on simply adding new content, not devising some way to tailor make content for the intent of spreading out the experience to make people play a world longer.

20 hours ago, Brubs said:

I'll start by saying that i would like Klei to add special events ONLY available after many years have passed. Maybe a biome morphing into a new one with new mobs or a secret cave emerging from a random location in the ocean.

I like the cave thing, it would be a cool way to do the Lunar Cave idea thats been bounced around before, and it adds to the water side of the game.

On biome morphing, i'd rather the work go into completely new biomes and biome contents than modifying what we already have. To me it would feel as though I was losing content to gain content (i.e. my worlds Savannah just morphed to a Shadow Savannah, cool, but now my regular Savannah is gone).

19 hours ago, Szczuku said:

But some major content should be locked behind accomplishements-wall. For example after exploring the ruins, discovering Lunar Islands, killing Fw some major things that'd constantly affect the player would be unlocked. Like tougher Shadow Creatures or a new mob/weather effects. That way the people would be able to unlock this content as fast as they'd like.

I kind of like the idea of player progression evolving a world, I just don't know how effective the intended results would be. Heat and cold can be easily dealt with, hunger and sanity, health, darkness, wetness can be dealt with. Without sweeping changes to the game like removal of items (thermal stones, eyebrella) or drastically new status effects (i.e. poison, dehydration etc), I don't think changes really make that big of a difference.

On the enemy A.I./Combat front.....ehhhh. I love DST, absolutely. But to me the combat feels atrocious (i've not played PC or Xbox). Nothing feels tight, there are days when the servers are moody (I guess?) and I can either land 1 extra hit in a kiting pattern or 1 less hit. I don't know, i'm bad at combat in DST. But I never viewed DST as a "fighting" type game and choose all other options provided to me to avoid it.

Excuse the mini rant. Anyway, in the context of combat extra difficulty kind of scares me. If that extra difficulty involves increasing the amount of precision required to successfully control a character in a combat situation, I think the combat system currently is too loose (and dare I say sloppy at times) to let such changes succeed.

And if the extra difficulty is simply more boss HP/DMG, it will just end up being a non factor.

13 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

I think that klei should add more fauna and flora in old biomes and also add more biomes.

This is what I would like to see the most, and I think it would honestly benefit DST more than most other options, and has the potential of satisfying more of the player base and more sections of the player base. New biomes, new mobs, new mats, new crafts (and new bosses, but we have received 2 of these already, and their reception was less than stellar, so thats a big knock against my argument lol). I still think thats what is going on with the water, it has just taken time to put all the pieces in place, making it feel empty and unfinished.

13 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

The TL:DR there should be WAYS that people of varying skill levels can play and enjoy this game TOGETHER

There are. The game allows that. If your "noob friends" (your words) are STILL dying to stupid stuff and trying to attack Abigail, you are doing a horrible job teaching them the game, they aren't interested, or the don't exist.

7 hours ago, Owlrus98 said:

We've seen what a bad "challenge" can look like with Disease; nearly no one likes it, many turn it off, and others try to avoid transplanting entirely because of it. In short, quality vs quantity; and long term changes imo is better than short term changes.

This. There is a lot of discontent with disease, as well as a lot of the new content. Is it because the concepts are bad, or is it just that everyone had different ideas of additions and new content in their head? If I was Klei I would be extremely cautious and maybe indecisive about what I added after the receptions to these things, and I would most likely not want to rock the boat when it came to major changes to the base formula of the game. What sounds good in our minds might not play out great in game. It is easy to call an idea bad when you didn't have the idea or want the idea yourself, and it doesn't mean our theory crafting on new content would play out any better.

6 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

TL:DR- There needs to be Sanctuary a safe Area containing a few biomes that remain untouched by Klei’s Updates.. an Area where newbs can Spawn in, play and learn and THEN they can leave that area and explore more difficult horizons.

That uncompromising survival game you want when it's convenient for one of your political ad style thread derailments?

 

Anyway, I don't know. My personal opinion is that DST is long enough in the tooth now that I have trouble getting behind serious changes/additions to the core game. New biomes, new mobs, new crafts, all within the framework we currently have is what I would like to see. I feel like it gives more bang for the buck development/content wise, and its a fairly safe bet.

When you take the games age into account, consider how much time we (and the devs) have had to theorycraft ground shaking changes to the core formula, and consider the fact that the player base is most certainly fractured into different camps touting their own vision of what should be, I think their should be serious consideration for a sequel. Clean slate, wipe out the knowledge base, take the game more towards the uncompromising survival, and seriously shake up the formula. Anything less will be sidestepped by a majority of the playerbase and that work by the devs will simply be a flash in the pan. The playerbase will either not like it, burn straight through it, or work around it.