(Almost) One year after Tencent

[mr. brj]

I liked most of the content we received this year, including the EotS update. The RWYS and Wanda updates were exceptionally good and well-thought in my opinion, and although I admit that they do shape my overall opinion on this years' updates as a whole, I think that 2021 was still a very successful year for the game. That said, I have some concerns with the direction DST might be headed to regarding some aspects. I will first list the things that made me concerned and then list the stuff that I liked. None of this will be Tencent related by the way.

 

Things that could have been better

 

1) The cartoonish style: Webber's animation is probably the best example for this. As he was literally eaten by a spider, I was expecting some sort of a dark vibe from the short. Don't get me wrong, I did like what we got, but it made me go "aw, that's sad" instead of "well that's f'd up". It lacked the grim and grotesque elements that made people think of Tim Burton when they first saw anything from DS/T, and instead focused purely on story telling. I get the feeling that most of the stuff we have been receiving lately follow a similar formula, and I wish to see some darker themes of DS return to DST as well. Even a touch of the "making a deal with the devil" aspect, or the theme of chess would be nice to revisit.

2) The amount of unexplained stuff: I don't think most people realize that, but despite all the lore theories, we still don't know Charlie's intentions with the Fuelweaver at all, even though this sentence made his debut into the game:

On 4/6/2017 at 8:03 PM, V2C said:

Who is the Ancient Fuelweaver, and what does Charlie have in store for him?

On top of that, now we don't know what Alter wants (or what Charlie wants from them), what Wagstaff is planing with the lunar energy he drained, which side he is on, and how he was able to bring a spider from the Constant into the real world. And the worst thing is, the RoT arc ended with the hidden message "Metheus is here" and the amount of unexplained stuff overshadowed this cool cliffhanger. I understand that from a storyteller's point of view, some stuff are better left unexplained for a bigger reveal, but keeping the hype up that was built upon so much tension is simply not possible when there is no sign of a "release". My personal stand on the game's lore shifted from "exciting and deep" to "annoyingly complicated".

3) Aftermath of stunlock removal: In my opinion, the removal of stunlock was a good choice overall, but there are two cases that particularly affect fundamental gameplay. First is the Ancient Guardian fight. I know this was addressed by the developers, but with the removal of Wolfgang's speed boost, Wanda is the only character that can have a fair fight with him without a big setup. With moderate setup, WX-78 and Wormwood can kite him and have a fair fight as well, but the other characters are forced into a really long and repetitive fight if they choose not to trap the minotaur unless they turf the entire arena with cobblestones. The second is Abigail's interaction with the Fuelweaver. Before, she could hold the Fuelweaver in his place while tanking two hits at most. Now Wendy has an insane skill cap against this boss if she wants to utilize Abigail, otherwise Abigail dies almost instantly if Wendy isn't careful enough. I don't know whether this was addressed upon the release of the patch, but I only realized it 2-3 weeks ago. Still, I and many others would appreciate it a lot if the team focused on such known issues, be it through a boss "refresh" or through a temporary reintroduction of stunlock to those bosses until a better solution is found.

4) A certain character that got reworked: Not much to say here. I feel like having to stand still or having to play a minigame to have a certain character not stay wimpy weak builds a barrier between the player and the gameplay, even though that character has the potential to be the mightiest one of the best characters. I respect the disagreements on the following sentence: I don't find my favorite character fun anymore and won't play him just because of the barriers he received, and I'm deeply disappointed.

 

Stuff that I liked

 

1) Wanda: I can't stress enough how well this character was designed. Her gameplay is awesome, her mechanics are awesome, her quotes are awesome, her enigmatic past is awesome, everything about Wanda is a 10/10 at the very least. The theme of a clockmaker is very fitting to the game, and at the same time a very unique concept. I also like Wortox as a well designed new character (and Wormwood if you count him as new), but Wanda is something else. I don't want to stop here, but I will.

2) Reap What You Sow: Klei, if this update was an experiment on reworking old mechanics, please know that I will be okay with you guys not releasing an update every month if you are designing such reworks on other aspects of the game. This update was not just an upgrade of an old mechanic, it also introduced so many new things to the game, including the perks given to Wormwood. Although I value the efficiancy in my games more than optional duties, I never had a game after this update where I wasn't excited to grow giant tomatoes at some point, even though I didn't need them exclusively. This update receives around a Wanda out of 10 from me, probably just a little less then the Wanda update.

3) Celestial Champion: I love the design, I still can't get the music out of my head and my fingers, I enjoy the fight a lot, and I find it very interesting that we can change the moon cycle now. But most importantly, the boss and everything that comes with it gives the "that's the new stuff" vibes, which is probably the best aspect of this update.

4) Beefalo Bell: Game changing item that made people ask "is beefalo taming the new meta". I won't get into that, but the item was the definition of "quality of life". Plus I get to name my beefalo, or make another one willingly run to its inevitable demise.

[Seberiangay]

Hoping there will be less bugs in 2022 updates....

    such as malbatross swoop attack bug caused by wrong capitalization which is finally fixed a few months after appearing

[minespatch]

22 minutes ago, mr. brj said:

2) The amount of unexplained stuff: I don't think most people realize that, but despite all the lore theories, we still don't know Charlie's intentions with the Fuelweaver at all, even though this sentence made his debut into the game:

On 4/6/2017 at 2:03 PM, V2C said:

Who is the Ancient Fuelweaver, and what does Charlie have in store for him?

On top of that, now we don't know what Alter wants (or what Charlie wants from them), what Wagstaff is planing with the lunar energy he drained, which side he is on, and how he was able to bring a spider from the Constant into the real world. And the worst thing is, the RoT arc ended with the hidden message "Metheus is here" and the amount of unexplained stuff overshadowed this cool cliffhanger. I understand that from a storyteller's point of view, some stuff are better left unexplained for a bigger reveal, but keeping the hype up that was built upon so much tension is simply not possible when there is no sign of a "release". My personal stand on the game's lore shifted from "exciting and deep" to "annoyingly complicated".

This. Let's get some plot bridges answered this year.

[Owlrust]

I'm fine with whatever direction Klei wants to take DST, as well as what vision they have for the series as a whole. I can't, in good faith, proclaim to know what's best for the series even if I love it to death; so who am I to dictate what Klei can and cannot do?

That said, I would totally play a Don't Starve MOBA if they decided to make one.

[Falkenpelz]

Oh boi. First of all, I agree with the person who said this before, I don't think any of the previous updates had any closer relation to Tencent, so I'm gonna answer this seperately. I still have my vague moral issues with Tencent (vague because I haven't done enough research) and therefore am still not really happy about them owning (beloved) Klei, so there's that (I'm still keeping my hopes up, that they give Klei the money to finally make a DST series though).

About the updates - I am constantly a bit paranoid about artstyle changes, simply because I love the original artstyle so much. Of course one has to keep in mind, that this artstyle has been around since 2013 and the studio has seen changes in artists and artistic directions since then, so as long as they stay true to the spirit of it, it's fine (I can't shake off the feeling, that one reason for RWYS was that someone just REALLY wanted to draw some crazy fantasy fruits in sparkly colours - and hey, that's okay!:D).

About Eye of the Storm - I actually quite liked what we got in the end (The way Wagstaff shows up was an actually real smooth move in my opinion), but I agree with everyone that it really ended out of nowhere and lost some hype along the way. The teaser trailer with the whole "Metheus is here" was absolutely epic, the actual trailer... not so much. WHERE IS METHEUS KLEI?

I personally still don't like the Celestial Champion in terms of lore design. I would have expected it to be less rock and more of the glowy energy stuff controlling it. I could have been something like the source entity of it constantly shapeshifting and reforming, or the altar pieces growing and deforming in a more organic way to stress that you are actually fighting some sub-god being and not a robot-tank. But that is just my personal gusto and I might never stop making fun of the mystical fidget spinner..

[Pine G]

The only thing that I really, really want to see, is exploring the character's personalities beyond the animated shorts and backstories. The quotes are one thing, but seeing them interact with the world and eachother, either in a comic or an animated series, would make me 100% content and happy.

[minespatch]

5 minutes ago, Pine G said:

The only thing that I really, really want to see, is exploring the character's personalities beyond the animated shorts and backstories. The quotes are one thing, but seeing them interact with the world and eachother, either in a comic or an animated series, would make me 100% content and happy.

We get that with the Oxygen Not Included shorts, but I'd love more Don't Starve and Griftlands shorts.

[MikoFanboy]

my only problem with DST is the increase of ingame minigame, (although this has nothing to do with Tencent because the "minigame era" has start before the Tencent announcements)

they start as an Event addition content (Lunar New Year, Winter Fest,...) then turn into a whole event (midsummer carnival) and now move up into a character refresh (Wolfgang)

They can be fun at first but later become boring really fast, for an event, it's really not early game friendly due to you have a lot of work to worry about than playing some minigame 

 

 

31 minutes ago, Pine G said:

The only thing that I really, really want to see, is exploring the character's personalities beyond the animated shorts and backstories. The quotes are one thing, but seeing them interact with the world and eachother, either in a comic or an animated series, would make me 100% content and happy.

I have suggested a "character birthday and letter" systerm for DST, hope the dev considering about it 

[GetNerfedOn]

While the poll idea is excellent im of the opinion that user satisfaction may not directly translate into increased good perception for the Tencent deal. Those are two different categories, anyroad. you'd probably need a Spearman test or a Chi square, whichever fits lmao i slept during my rstats discussions nvm me

 

[Well-met]

On 12/26/2021 at 7:10 AM, Duck986 said:

I'm worrying about game's difficulty - it becomes easier and easier with every update, and it loses it's charm of "uncompromising survival game".

Looks like Klei are targeting younger and "more casual" audience so more people can play their game without quitting in a few hours.

I don't think Tencent has anything to do with it. It was already an emerging trend with updates long before the move.

[maradyne]

I mean...if we're talking game updates?
I'm really happy with a lot of what's come this year. Couldn't have asked for better. I'm especially happy with how they've been very slowly making progression smoother at certain steps of the game; makes the learning curve less of an instant incline.
And more minigames to keep peoples attention.
Which is great.
Get people to stick around.

Because while I love the lore of this game, and I personally have fun with experimenting with it...
If I'm being honest.
My first and foremost desire is for anything involving Tencent to become as appealing and well known to the general population as possible.

 

I just wish Klei hadn't become a pawn in this game.