DST just turned 7 years old; please refresh more base game content

[sudoku]

In December 2014, Don't Starve Together entered early access and became playable for the first time. Many of us began our journey into the game those 7 years ago, some of us 6 years ago when DST officially released, some may have even came over from singleplayer or reign of giants and can proudly say they have been playing for aalmost a decade. No matter when you started playing, DST has been around at this point for a very long time and chances are if you are still around you love the game and its gameplay, however as the yearly roadmap for 2022 inches closer and closer, I want to once again submit my plea to Klei to think about refreshing more of the base game that we have been playing for so long.

There is a precedent for refreshing base game content. The Reap What You Sow update, which just turned a year old, released last December and did wonders for taking the existing farming system and injecting it with more interesting gameplay and changing farming from a system that was considered to be one of the most useless methods for obtaining food to making it a worthwhile activity. 

Similarly, the whole concept of character refreshes is based on taking our beloved characters, some of which have gameplay that is close to a decade old, and making them more interesting. Now, outside of a few refreshes, it is safe to say that these updates are largely very well received and considered to be good changes to the game.

Now that RoT is officially over and character refreshes are beginning to wind down, please consider how Seasons and seasonal gameplay should be the next step towards refreshing base game content and how it has a chance to inject life back into gameplay that has grown stale despite seasons being an everpresent component of gameplay from day 1 to day 2144.

I want to see varying season types like mild, normal, and harsh that involves forecasting the weather to determine which one is approaching. I want to see seasonal storms like blizzards and heatwaves that offer unique activites if explored. 

I want to see seasonal debuffs or sicknesses that might also provide some benefits while dealing with the downsides like being frostbitten for staying too long in a blizzard - your insulation goes down and you are more succeptible to freezing but your inventory becomes chilled allowing for food items to take longer to spoil. 

I want more seasonal exploration like sailing to an ice pengull biome at sea, or an island that floods during the spring but reappears once the water level goes down in the summer or autumn.

I want to see more depth to current seasons, especially spring which offers very little seasonal gameplay. Rain is covered but how about overgrowth. I want to see this theme explored during spring. Perhaps you need to clip overgrown plants or risk them turning into hostile mobs, mushrooms might overgrow and shout out poisonous spore clouds, or a new ivy weed might grow on farmplots that is either poisonus or heals you once mixed together with pepper and garlic.

Basically, I want Klei to take the current seasonal gameplay, the same gameplay we have had since ROG 7 years ago, and crank it up to an 11.
 

[Mike23Ua]

I think your going to have a very split divide on this if I’m being honest, because Klei made DS & it’s two DLCs for one particular audience of players, and then- When DST came around they’ve slowly been abandoning those roots to casualize the franchise.

As long as you have a camp of players who want new unpredictable weather and mob encounters, and another camp of players who enjoy current gameplay and base building simulator 3000- Theres never going to be a middle ground where Klei satisfies their entire fanbase.

It is unfortunate, but I have long since given up any hope of seeing the Oasis updated to use Shipwrecked/Hamlet style features, and that’s sad too.. You got Pangolden sucking up entire ponds so they’re not always in the same predictable location: Yet When it comes to DST… I feel like we’re still playing a game that’s behind in technological & gameplay leaps.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

7 years plus map from DS RoG

im playing the same seasons since 2014 xD

[sudoku]

I dont think its a matter of casualization, i think its a matter of people being afraid of losing what we already have, and i dont think we should get rid of anything just build on top of it, evolve it. Seasonal gameplay currently is very barebones. Similar to the ocean though it has a good foundation. 

Just look at spring, which in my opinion is the weakest of the seasons, aside from autumn which serves as a break and a reset from seasonal gameplay. Gameplay revolves around building a structure, building a clothing item, and thats it really. Maybe you fight MooseGoose, maybe you get frog rain, maybe you cant approach a beefalo. But most of spring consists of constraints on gameplay rather than actual seasonal activities. 

[ArubaroBeefalo]

2 hours ago, sudoku said:

I dont think its a matter of casualization, i think its a matter of people being afraid of losing what we already have, and i dont think we should get rid of anything just build on top of it, evolve it. Seasonal gameplay currently is very barebones. Similar to the ocean though it has a good foundation. 

Just look at spring, which in my opinion is the weakest of the seasons, aside from autumn which serves as a break and a reset from seasonal gameplay. Gameplay revolves around building a structure, building a clothing item, and thats it really. Maybe you fight MooseGoose, maybe you get frog rain, maybe you cant approach a beefalo. But most of spring consists of constraints on gameplay rather than actual seasonal activities. 

i actually think that spring is the best built season. It has a migratory giant bird (unlike rog that just spawned like deerclops), a stronger rain (frog rain is cool but mechanically a pain, add a damn limit), lureplants, different behaviour in spider dens and hives, opens the possibility of using electric damage and more. I would love something like lush season from hamlet with all that spiky walls arround the world

winter has snow which makes the world look different, 2 bosses, ice as unique resource and a couple of migratory species

2nd autumn only has bearger. Is suppose to be the relax season but it doesnt mean that klei could add something unique to it

summer... only has antlion and fire outside of player view. Add creatures like dragoons or idk

something i would like is more extreme temperatures in the sense of dealing more freezing/overheat damage or having less time without weather protection so the veteran player is punished for forgetting something basic instead of "upsis i will eat a jellybean and ignore I forgot to bring my moon caller staff in the middle of nowhere in summer"

and i love migratory mobs, i like walking and finding a new deer herd, pengulls in the main land or in moonisland, moose goose nesting everywhere, etc makes the world so alive

[GalloViking]

I'm slowly moving from DS to DST because DST keeps receiving updates. Bugs found in the singleplayer game still haven't been fixed after years when they'd be fixed within weeks in the multiplayer.

Edit: I still play DST as a solo player. Don't Starve was never meant to be multiplayer in my (controversial) opinion.