Decrease in mainland area?

[Dunk Mujunk]

So I've been away from DST for a while, and after coming back and running through a bunch of world gens, it seems that the overall size of the mainland has been decreased. I won't say greatly since I have been gone a while and time does funny things to memory, but it kinda feels like the greatly descriptor does apply.

I know we already cannot have maps as large as the largest PC maps, and I'm guessing the addition of the new water Biome (that I've yet to experience) necessitates a decrease in the overall mainland size.

Another thing that stood out was a very noticable drop in Catcoon Dens across all world gens we mapped. Where as previously I'd say we (me and the wife) would see an average of around 6+ per map, it seems now to be an average of around 3 (I think our current map has 5). Aside from Dens it seems like the densely packed areas of Dark Forest are smaller in size and less frequent. I'm not sure about Bee Hives, our world gens had plenty of Bees, but I didn't see a gen with the absolutely massive Bee Hive/Killer Bee field plus secondary smaller Bee field elsewhere on the map.

I could be imagining all of this of course, we haven't been playing DST for close to a year now I think. The Catcoon Dens stood out to me the most though. Not in the sense of "oh there is less of them", but just that if the maps I've seen were to contain the larger amounts of Dens I feel like we used to see, the Deciduous Biomes of our worlds would be absolutely jam packed with large clusters of Catcoon Dens.

To quickly summarize and condense my thoughts-

Have the new updates resulted in a decrease of mainland map area, if so can we expect a further decrease in the future due to additional updates, and is there a possibility that in the future the largest map sizes on PS4 will be able to match the largest map sizes on PC (the last one I doubt)?

Also is the map size limit in place on the PS5 as well?

[Mike23Ua]

You haven’t played in over a year so I am to assume you know nothing of all the content that has been added, changed or relocated elsewhere..

In February an update was added that allowed you to “Bind” to a Beefalo forever- this Beefalo would follow you everywhere you go and you can just passively feed him as you go about your daily business, you can Also create a Beefalo Wardrobe that lets you Customize the Head, Horns, Body, Legs, & Tail of your Beefy Companion,

In March a QoL update was added that changed the entire way mobs can be generated into the game- You can now set them to none/less/little/default/more/tons. This impacts how much, or not at all something will spawn and applies to everything from food sources, to mobs, to weather seasons & times of day- you can exit the world at anytime and change the majority of these settings & reload it. (Yes you can completely turn OFF Nightmare monsters now if you just want a peaceful experience, or… set them to More and be haunted by more shadows then ever before!)

In April Wes got his Real Rework which added new Balloon Types- Sanity Party, Speedy Balloon, Balloon Hat, Balloon Water Vest- Decreased HP/Hunger, made more likely to be hit by lightning, longer grogginess, Hostile mobs aggro onto him before any other player

In May the final Return of Them update was added Eye of the Storm- This added a new boss, and a new weather effect that once activated- Also impacts the rest of the games biomes with the “Moonstorm” event: Which is well- Lightning, Thunder, a sandstorm like experience that slows you down without protective cool Astro-goggles.. etc.

June you got a new game mode called Midsummers Cawnival which does exactly what it says- adds a playable carnival into the game (you can reactivate this event at anytime you want now thanks to Marches QoL update) which added a ton of new cosmetics you can decorate your base with & stuff but had to be earned with carnival tickets from playing the mini-games.

In Late June/July Webber got his Rework which can transform normal spiders into better spider types by feeding them special cookies, can passively shave the size of spider nests with a razor to control their overgrowth, or add silk to them to increase their growth stages, Can sleep inside a Tier 3 Spider Den like a Tent, moves faster on Webbed Turf,  Can use a “Webby Whistle” to call out spiders from a nest during day without having to punch the nest and make them all hostile. During this Rework Spider Queens we’re also changed to include nurse spiders- a new spider type Webber can tame that heals all other spiders near it (including Webber) with an AoE attack effect.

In August the Ocean was given more content with the Water Logged Biome update which changed the way boats work (they move/stop faster now) you can use a Driftwood Oar to get places faster- there’s also a cool new at sea Biome with large hamlet like trees which provide shade and protection from summer overheating and wildfires, you can find new Water Glidding spiders here, Figgy Jam, Grass Gators, And Fireflies Renew naturally in this Biome,  you can also get your Own Greater Knobbly Trees here and plant them back on land in a Watery area for the Shade Canopy.

In September a new character was added to the game named Wanda who has no health bar and instead she ages over time, like constantly having a poison bleed out effect, she can create clocks that do a variety of different things like rewinding her age or reviving a dead player back at the location of their dead carcass from anywhere on the map (so yes you can stand around idle as Wanda and let a Wilson endlessly charge into a boss fight and die & be Respawn’d by Wanda until the boss is dead.) Wanda Also has A clock that lets her create her own wormhole portals anywhere in the world- that can even transcend between the surface and Caves.

In October we got a Global Pause QoL which allows you to now really pause the game and review chat logs.

In November a cool Terraria Crossover event happened with Eye for an Eye- which adds a portable pocket boss you can summon to attack other bosses with, if you kill this boss it also drops a head gear armor (eye-mask) that can be repaired by feeding it food (including rot or red caps) and 20+ Terraria skins.

December the big guy Wolfgang will finally get his rework- the forums will no doubt erupt in flames because of how controversial he has always been.

Grab some Hot Cocoa and get ready for the holidays!

 

Also- No you can’t have PC sized worlds on PS5: Klei has gone on record stating the PS5 is capable of it- but something about Sony not allowing them to add content that the PS4 version couldn’t also pull too.

[Dunk Mujunk]

Yes I've skimmed the updates. I was looking for information on how they have effected the size of the mainland chunk. And after exploring some of the caves in a new world, have they effected the size of the cave chunk as well.

The bit about the PS5 was pertinent though, thank you.