Game vibe

[BezKa]

Since it's a common complaint and people love to bring it up with sour tone, I'd like everyone to consider something.

Whenever you're about to say "DS franchise is losing it's creepy tone" I want you to remember one single thing:

How much of the 'creepiness' actually comes from the art style. And how much out of gameplay. Cause let me tell you- I'm pretty damn sure about 70% of the atmosphere from Don't Starve came not from the style of the game, but from the fact you. Played. Alone.

You are stuck on the island. Completely alone. Your character has no way of contacting other people. They only human interactions are vague, in passing, mostly with the one person who trapped you there in the first place.

You can build as much pig houses as you want. In the end, you are on your own here. Your character is trying to make the situation light, make jokes, keep calm. But then the work music quietens, and you hear the ambient sounds of the forest. And you are alone.

Somewhere out there, is a machine that will take you away from this world. To a next one, an exact same as this. Or the other one, behind which is a challenge you know will get you nothing. You get to meet your captor and discover he's just as powerless in this world as you are. And he's also completely alone.

Now tell me, how much more hope and happiness comes from Don't Starve Together.

Maybe what you're missing is not the art style, maybe it's the fact back then, we didn't know almost anything. Charlie was not a concrete character with her mysterious motives. The moon was just something that transformed pigs from time to time. The ocean was unpenetrable abyss you were never meant to cross.

Now that all these things are alive and impact the world, giving you much more opportunities, the characters mention eachother fondly, and you can join a server with multiple people surviving along with you, the tone of DST is quite different. And I think both versions are very appealing, but you cannot bring the tone of one game into the other. It's just not possible.

And I'm not saying the art style didn't change. It did, and it was a conscious decision, and I'm glad to see more people accepting that. I believe Klei says the truth when they say they work on projects because they want to and it brings them joy. Any of you that had to do a project you're not interested in vs one you have lot of love for knows how different the result was.

Thanks for reading. 

 

[HowlVoid]

I play don't starve together alone.

I feel the game has become bit more appealing to a casual crowd. Due to the games increasing popularity it was bound to happen sooner or later. 

Now, I do believe you bring up a good point about there being a shift in perspective. I was just thinking the other day "Has the game really become easier, or did I just get better?" Thinking back, the game has never really been hard and I think most people (myself included) miss the nostalgic feeling of a more difficult game when we were noobs, but that's not something that can be reasonably brought back. 

[Maxposting]

spooky laugh in singleplayer...

[Guille6785]

I still find myself coming back to DS often because its atmosphere is impossible to match

[Frosty_Mentos]

The game vibe seems okay but I heard more complaints about the game's nature while exploring feeling really dead rather than anything. The world is big and there's really little change happening overtime. I've love some evolution happening sometime.

[Kur0u]

Nah.
I played Dst by myself for a while and having a friend join in felt like a refresh to me.
What was eerie to me was the unknown, what could get me killed next, being insane, having low health and hunger dropping constantly, the cold, the threat enemies posed.
DST is slowly turning into a dressing/base building simulator, no more survival/exploration feel to it due to lack of actual survival content.
After you play it for so long you have all the bad stuff covered before they even happen. There is no challenge anymore. That's why I feel characters refreshes are empty, making the game you already felt easy after some time even easier.

[noeticmoose]

3 hours ago, Kur0u said:

Nah.
I played Dst by myself for a while and having a friend join in felt like a refresh to me.
What was eerie to me was the unknown, what could get me killed next, being insane, having low health and hunger dropping constantly, the cold, the threat enemies posed.

One the one hand, this could be said for pretty much any game [hunger, sanity, and health mechanics aside].  I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent through enough times that eventually I knew where and when enemies would spawn and how to avoid them [except for the Choir...*shivers*].  So there's definitely something to be said about simply exhausting the game's content to the point where there just aren't any surprises, but on the other hand...

Quote

DST is slowly turning into a dressing/base building simulator, no more survival/exploration feel to it due to lack of actual survival content.
After you play it for so long you have all the bad stuff covered before they even happen. There is no challenge anymore. That's why I feel characters refreshes are empty, making the game you already felt easy after some time even easier.

I see this, as well.  I can appreciate a pretty base, but ultimately the core game-play seems to be stagnant and most of the mystery late-game seems to revolve around Maxwell and Wortox not finishing their sentences.

18 hours ago, BezKa said:

Now that all these things are alive and impact the world, giving you much more opportunities, the characters mention eachother fondly, and you can join a server with multiple people surviving along with you, the tone of DST is quite different. And I think both versions are very appealing, but you cannot bring the tone of one game into the other. It's just not possible.

This is fair.  Not being alone and sharing a collective knowledge would certainly make existence more tolerable in the Constant.

Behold, the magic of friendship.

[Szczuku]

While having a lot of friends to survive and laugh with definitely strips the 'hostile, fantasy wilderness' vibe from dst it's not like that's the only reason dst doesn't feel as atmpspheric as ds.

The type of content that makes up the gameplay is what matters the most. I've only been playing dst solo and yet I barely feel the creepy vibe.

I genuinely believe that the Gorge had a better ds vibe than dst has nowadays, even though you played it with 2 additional survivors and talkative mobs. It had a dark forest and a colorful forest, biomes that felt both new and familliar. Lots of atmospheric decorations. Cute mobs and ugly mobs. Immersive gameplay. Appropriate music.

Dst got a blue biome. It had a potential of being very creepy with its lunar horror mobs but then Klei decided to scrap that. Moonstorm could've been very creepy, most of us have seen concept art for it. Klei also decided to scrap that. Most of the new content is optional, not very immersive. Music is cheery. Idk maybe Klei enjoyed making colorful skins so much that they forgot how to convey the creepy vibe. In fact I'm pretty sure there are less ambient noises that play during the night in dst than in ds.

Most of the new content we get is 'safe'. Content that shouldn't anger too many people: It's optional, simple and Klei doesn't go too far from known designs- Webber is a forth follower-based character, they didn't try to change that with his refresh. The world doesn't evolve overtime, no new challanges or randomised things that could surprise you or keep you on your toes.

Sure, dst cannot have the same vibe as ds. But that doesn't mean that Klei should simply abandon it and stop adding content that caters to a simmilar atmosphere. And it's not like I'm here just for the creepy fantasy wilderness survival- I enjoy both exploring the wild world in the early days, when the original vibe is the strongest and decorating Pearl's island a few seasons later. But for crying out loud how many more 'safe' updates will dst receive before the rest of the community gets tired of them.

And it doesn't seem like things are going to change anytime soon. Cawnival... happened, Webber's rework... also happened and the announced chilly biome sounds optional as heck.

[Cassielu]

I think the main reason here is that you know more than you used to, and you get used to those things ,the change in DST itself is only a secondary reason.

for the game itself, I think a lot of the "creepy tone" of the DS came from the Checkerboard biome, various Set pieces and all kinds of inopportune man-made objects (Things). Weird machines, marble, evil flowers, and carpets form an iconic Maxwell style. Reminds you that there is a man behind the scenes and his dark secrets. Of course, art style is also important, and we all know that part.

At DST, we have Charlie, The Ancients (Metheus?), Wagstaff and the "Moon" at the same time. (Maybe more, Getakeeper, Them or somethings) It is a pity that except for The Ancients, the remaining three all have certain problems, lack of content, distance from the game center, inconsistent art style, etc. It makes it hard to reach them and connect them, so it's less "creepy."

 

[Dextops]

13 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

Most of the new content is optional

i've always been confused by this point in particular because i don't understand what its trying to convey like isn't 80 percent more like 90% optional? its optional to go to ruins its optional to make a science machine its optional to fight any boss its optional to eat anything other than meat berries and carrots so i've always been confused on what this is supposed to mean thanks in advance

[Guille6785]

opinion warning but even as a longtime player of the franchise I don't actually have a problem with DST going in the sandbox direction, back when it was announced I already knew it was supposed to be a social experience, DS and its dlcs are a fully playable game you can still play right now with a lot of content that fits the original atmosphere of the franchise so I can get my fair share of both experiences whenever I want

that said I do agree it's a shame updates to the core gameplay loop of DST are so infrequent

[Cheggf]

2 hours ago, Dextops said:

i've always been confused by this point in particular because i don't understand what its trying to convey like isn't 80 percent more like 90% optional? its optional to go to ruins its optional to make a science machine its optional to fight any boss its optional to eat anything other than meat berries and carrots so i've always been confused on what this is supposed to mean thanks in advance

You're being way too general on what's optional. If you don't make a science machine you are probably going to die, that's not very optional to your continuation of being able to play. Technically someone might be able to do a challenge run without one but the average player can't and the amount of people that could would be very few.

I'm not someone complaining about them only adding optional content, but I assume what they mean is everything they're adding is so disconnected from the rest of the game. The Antlion, for instance, was added in a DST update but he was added as a (weak) threat for summer. If you don't appease or kill him he'll mess with you for a bit before he despawns. Contrast that with the most optional thing ever, the Celestial Champion. You can't even see it at all until at least the first summer, but for a typical player it'll probably be at least year 2, 3, or maybe even further before you do everything required to fight him. He has no impact on anything before you fight him and after you fight him all that really happens is you get a hat.

I don't know if the people complaining about everything being optional would also complain about things like RWYS farming, but it feels a lot more engrained into the game to me. RWYS farming is something that you're encouraged to do to change up the base survival experience and are well rewarded for it. It isn't just some one-off fight that you do once, it's something that you can start whenever you want and can continue to do it to survive.

I've seen a few people wanting the seasons to be updated since right now they're pretty bland and don't have much. I think that would probably count as something that isn't "optional content" because it would change up the base gameplay experience without you going super out of the way to do so.

[Notecja]

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

I don't know if the people complaining about everything being optional would also complain about things like RWYS farming, but it feels a lot more engrained into the game to me. RWYS farming is something that you're encouraged to do to change up the base survival experience and are well rewarded for it. It isn't just some one-off fight that you do once, it's something that you can start whenever you want and can continue to do it to survive.

Bunnymen farm were same thing before nerf, don't they?

Imo keeping with old artstyle is kinda tricky and if they changed most of artists then it was sort of... inevitable. 

But honestly what I am missing in DST from DS is a marble biome + marble ambient sound. That made for me 90% of DS atmosphere. Wish there were something similar from Charlie - rose biome? Like theatre and elements of stage?

[BezKa]

15 minutes ago, Notecja said:

marble ambient sound

How does it sound? Cause all my bases made with marble and carpet have that distinct ambience I'm getting tired of tbh and it's definitely the marble making that noise. 

[Cheggf]

25 minutes ago, Notecja said:

Bunnymen farm were same thing before nerf, don't they?

What do you mean?

25 minutes ago, Notecja said:

Imo keeping with old artstyle is kinda tricky and if they changed most of artists then it was sort of... inevitable. 

New artists needing a new artstyle is nonsense. Look at this fanart: 1 2 3 4 5. None of them are the Klei artists yet they capture the style a lot better than some of the recent work the Klei artists have done. Some of those even look like official vignettes, they're very well made.

[Mysterious box]

Personally I do think they need to add more threats to the main island the game is constantly throwing tons of food at you to the point it's very easy for one person to feed a full server if your paying attention and most threats are tucked away at different corners of the map where you have to choose to approach. It's part of the reason spawn bases are popular. The biggest challenge in dst atm is competition for basic resources in the starting days.

That being said I'm not saying dst needs to be brutal or even hard I just feel like content shouldn't wait for you to get involved. For example hostile mobs spawners should slowly should increase on their own or maybe make new ones who slowly multiply on their own and form around areas where alot of players gather or spend alot of time (base) that you have to regularly get rid of or risk being overrun they could also slowly disappear in areas that aren't visited often so a non combat method would be to abandon the area for awhile.

[JosePapp]

On 7/15/2021 at 1:42 PM, Szczuku said:

While having a lot of friends to survive and laugh with definitely strips the 'hostile, fantasy wilderness' vibe from dst it's not like that's the only reason dst doesn't feel as atmpspheric as ds.

The type of content that makes up the gameplay is what matters the most. I've only been playing dst solo and yet I barely feel the creepy vibe.

I genuinely believe that the Gorge had a better ds vibe than dst has nowadays, even though you played it with 2 additional survivors and talkative mobs. It had a dark forest and a colorful forest, biomes that felt both new and familliar. Lots of atmospheric decorations. Cute mobs and ugly mobs. Immersive gameplay. Appropriate music.

Dst got a blue biome. It had a potential of being very creepy with its lunar horror mobs but then Klei decided to scrap that. Moonstorm could've been very creepy, most of us have seen concept art for it. Klei also decided to scrap that. Most of the new content is optional, not very immersive. Music is cheery. Idk maybe Klei enjoyed making colorful skins so much that they forgot how to convey the creepy vibe. In fact I'm pretty sure there are less ambient noises that play during the night in dst than in ds.

Most of the new content we get is 'safe'. Content that shouldn't anger too many people: It's optional, simple and Klei doesn't go too far from known designs- Webber is a forth follower-based character, they didn't try to change that with his refresh. The world doesn't evolve overtime, no new challanges or randomised things that could surprise you or keep you on your toes.

Sure, dst cannot have the same vibe as ds. But that doesn't mean that Klei should simply abandon it and stop adding content that caters to a simmilar atmosphere. And it's not like I'm here just for the creepy fantasy wilderness survival- I enjoy both exploring the wild world in the early days, when the original vibe is the strongest and decorating Pearl's island a few seasons later. But for crying out loud how many more 'safe' updates will dst receive before the rest of the community gets tired of them.

And it doesn't seem like things are going to change anytime soon. Cawnival... happened, Webber's rework... also happened and the announced chilly biome sounds optional as heck.

I would really love it if they tweaked pre existing biomes to make them more dynamic. I honestly would love it if they went back to old content like RWYS did for stuff like seasons and biomes 

[Captain_Rage]

23 hours ago, Cheggf said:

New artists needing a new artstyle is nonsense. Look at this fanart: 1 2 3 4 5. None of them are the Klei artists yet they capture the style a lot better than some of the recent work the Klei artists have done. Some of those even look like official vignettes, they're very well made.

Number one and three are very nice! It wouldn't hurt if any future official content looked akin. The Gorge map also had a vibrant and gorgeous art style, especially the spice garden, even though it was arguably slightly "too elaborate" to be true to the original Don't Starve art style (which is a bit "simpler"), although it still fit the other parts of Don't Starve Together very well.

[LonelySkeleton]

I love the inspection quotes for gravestones. Best dark humor in the game. Hell some of them aren't even humor they're just really dark. i remember my first time reading them and it really set the tone of the game for me.