Do you know of any underutilized/very uncommon mechanic?

[Juny Pear]

With one of the new additions coming thanks to the WX-78 refresh being a module which causes mobs attacking you to take damage I had a realization.
"Thorns" damage for combat is something you don't really see in this game. Only WX-78 and Wormwood have this now.

And that in turn got me thinking what other mechanics there are that aren't really all that common or utilized much within the game. I'd like to know what others think on this.

Spoiler

Also, bugs, exploits or other things like that don't really count I think, I'm only asking for intended mechanics.
If you'd still like to share some though I'm not opposed.

 

[Hornete]

Desert stones being usable to travel to deserters channeled by players.

For some reason I never see people actually use the stones themselves to tp, they usually think they need a deserter.

edit: nvm I misread the topic as meaning underutilized by players, not underutilised in the games content

[SecretPizzaMan]

Hunger. Aside from the merm king, no creature can actually starve in this game aside from the players. 

[Waoling]

The cave like in general, the only thing it get after so many years is the moon shoorm biome which just another version of mushroom forest and ancient archive which look more like ruins than caves.

[Juny Pear]

Just now, Waoling said:

The cave like in general, the only thing it get after so many years is the moon shoorm biome which just another version of mushroom forest and ancient archive which look more like ruins than caves.

Well I totally understand that, although I don't think it's just a single mechanic and moreso an entire area of the game.

[Waoling]

Just now, Nettalie said:

Well I totally understand that, although I don't think it's just a single mechanic and moreso an entire area of the game.

Cave is techcally a mechanic.

[Juny Pear]

8 minutes ago, Hornete said:

Desert stones being usable to travel to deserters channeled by players.

For some reason I never see people actually use the stones themselves to tp, they usually think they need a deserter.

edit: nvm I misread the topic as meaning underutilized by players, not underutilised in the games content

Well both are equally as valid in this discussion. Especially since I feel there's an inherent link between what things players don't utilize much and what things the game makes most use of. Can't really talk one without talking about the other I think.

[Waoling]

Well, if cave isn't than it would probably be breed and age, why beefalo can be the only thing that breed and age? Why can't other fauna and flora breed and age?

[Flarezen]

31 minutes ago, SecretPizzaMan said:

Hunger. Aside from the merm king, no creature can actually starve in this game aside from the players. 

Actually pengulls do starve to death and die

[Maxil20]

I think one mechanic in particular I don’t really see too often is hunger reduction items (like the belt of hunger, the hibearnation vest, and the funcap). I think the concepts of them are really cool, but I always feel they stumble in one way or another with their execution.

• The belt of hunger is the best by a pretty good margin (at a 40% reduction), and overall is a decent non-backpack option for its cost. The main issue I have with it is how it’s both technically a ruins craft and it can be a pretty uncommon one at that. However, considering how infrequent most fight slurpers for a belt anyway + they are technically renewable (although fairly demanding) from a Fuelweaver kill, I feel as this is alright for now.
• The hibearnation vest is probably the most accessible out of the 3 given how you are forced to encounter Bearger past the first year and the vest itself is pretty good with its own 25% hunger reduction on top of some pretty good winter perks, but I always have been bothered by the durability. It lasts only 7 days, less then half of that of the puffy vest, another really nice winter chest item that primarily needs a substantially easier to come by foe.
• The funcaps are probably the most iffy to me. It’s main drop is from toadstool, but because all 3 are potential drops from the loot stash there’s a pretty decent shot of getting it 2-3 years into a world as a free reward, and a 25% reduction for the head slot is certainly fairly tempting. However, it also has some pretty severe drawbacks: it’s a perishable, doesn’t have a lot of durability, and food will spoil 25% faster in the main inventory slots with it equipped (which includes the hat itself). In fact, because of the spoilage increase setting the hat to rot in 4 days, you save the exact same amount of hunger you would have gotten then eating the 6 mushrooms to craft it..

I think the items are cool concepts, and I think they have some cool potential, but I do feel they are held back by a few pretty large downsides (and the fact food isn’t a super rare resource, either).

If I were to change it, I would like to see a durability tweak on the hibearnation vest (from 7 to ~10-12 days) and a mini rework of the funcap. I would like to see it be a niche of not carrying food on you in exchange for pretty good hunger reduction for the head slot. I think if they increased the reduction to 40% and made food items spoil quicker but funcaps/spores were immune to the effect on top of a buff to its total freshness (to around 10-15 days from 6) would help a lot. As for the belt of hunger I don’t really have anything I would change about it other then maybe making slurpers respawn slowly apart from ruins regen, but it’s nothing that’s a serious issue.

[reallychina]

Specialized damage. Players doing or taking more damage from specific mobs.

 

Maxwell doing more damage to shadows, wolfgang taking more damage from shadows, wurt doing more damage to pigs, willow doing more damage to winter mobs but also taking more damage from them but taking less damage from dfly etc.

[Mike23Ua]

The funny thing is, a lot of times a bug or a glitch will get incorporated into the game officially at some point.

This also counts for mods (such as quick drop & auto stack)

Its really cool to see things that weren’t ever intended being used in some capacity in official updates.

Had it not been for players exploiting features- We would never have gotten Klei to officially add in the Ability to renew Volt Goat herds after they go extinct.

And Unfortunately.. if someone has only played Dont Starve & has yet to try DST they’re missing out on a lot of changes- 

The one’s they’ll recognize right off the bat? Change from cardboard sea to real sea, And that overly complicated incredible weird new crafting system (sorry I still haven’t been able to get use to it, but going from DS, Shipwrecked, Hamlet, DS Pocket edition & DS Shipwrecked Mobile & THEN back to DST- you just get use to the old menu & the way it works, so yeah the new one has yet to click with me..) 

But the other changes they may not be aware of?

You can now rummage through Catcoon Dens with a cute animation, character quote & retrieve stollen loots..

Catcoon dens that are destroyed will renew. Etc..

it really goes to show just how much difference there is between DS/DST.

One of the features I feel doesn’t get used enough however is Shadow Creatures- after watching Wanda’s animated short over and over and over again I can’t help but ask myself why what I see in the animation is not representative of actual gameplay??

In that trailer which you can view here:

In that animated short, we see shadow monsters being able to be sneaky and deceptive by actually hiding within the shadows of objects.

And sure.. maybe an old PC, the Nintendo Switch and last generation consoles couldn’t pull something like that- but Series X/S and PS5 Should be able to..

This would make going insane a thousand times more scary.. and it’s something I would pay top dollar for in a Next Gen version of DST.

Its so sad to see such a core feature of the game (sanity/mobs effected by sanity) go underutilized.

[Owlrust]

2 hours ago, SecretPizzaMan said:

Hunger. Aside from the merm king, no creature can actually starve in this game aside from the players. 

The Critters would say otherwise. Dang, they always hungry.

[Cheggf]

Bush hat, snurtle shell, bone armor, bone helm, bee queen crown, thulecite crown, lazy explorer, and soul hop all fit into that category of doing something unique you've laid out with the thorns effect of bramble husks.

[lakhnish]

5 hours ago, Nettalie said:

  Hide contents

Also, bugs, exploits or other things like that don't really count I think, I'm only asking for intended mechanics.
If you'd still like to share some though I'm not opposed.

 

Spoiler

It's an intended mechanic till it gets patched

 

[loopuleasa]

19 hours ago, Hornete said:

Desert stones being usable to travel to deserters channeled by players.

deserters are good to keep prototyped, as for the cost of 3 stone you can hammer and recraft it again

I always keep a deserter prototyped, and late game when everyone has klaus sacks we all keep desert stones in case we want to hop to one another

[LiamAshvinn001]

On 4/21/2022 at 3:55 AM, Mike23Ua said:

The funny thing is, a lot of times a bug or a glitch will get incorporated into the game officially at some point.

This also counts for mods (such as quick drop & auto stack)

Its really cool to see things that weren’t ever intended being used in some capacity in official updates.

Had it not been for players exploiting features- We would never have gotten Klei to officially add in the Ability to renew Volt Goat herds after they go extinct.

And Unfortunately.. if someone has only played Dont Starve & has yet to try DST they’re missing out on a lot of changes- 

The one’s they’ll recognize right off the bat? Change from cardboard sea to real sea, And that overly complicated incredible weird new crafting system (sorry I still haven’t been able to get use to it, but going from DS, Shipwrecked, Hamlet, DS Pocket edition & DS Shipwrecked Mobile & THEN back to DST- you just get use to the old menu & the way it works, so yeah the new one has yet to click with me..) 

But the other changes they may not be aware of?

You can now rummage through Catcoon Dens with a cute animation, character quote & retrieve stollen loots..

Catcoon dens that are destroyed will renew. Etc..

it really goes to show just how much difference there is between DS/DST.

One of the features I feel doesn’t get used enough however is Shadow Creatures- after watching Wanda’s animated short over and over and over again I can’t help but ask myself why what I see in the animation is not representative of actual gameplay??

In that trailer which you can view here:

In that animated short, we see shadow monsters being able to be sneaky and deceptive by actually hiding within the shadows of objects.

And sure.. maybe an old PC, the Nintendo Switch and last generation consoles couldn’t pull something like that- but Series X/S and PS5 Should be able to..

This would make going insane a thousand times more scary.. and it’s something I would pay top dollar for in a Next Gen version of DST.

Its so sad to see such a core feature of the game (sanity/mobs effected by sanity) go underutilized.

Would love to see that as a feature. As a Wanda main myself, shadow creatures should be AT LEAST faster

[Parusoid]

Some interesting ones can be found in similar topic 
 

 

[Cheggf]

10 minutes ago, Parusoid said:

Some interesting ones can be found in similar topic 
 

 

This thread is mechanics that the game doesn't use much. That thread is mechanics the game has that players don't know about.

[Parusoid]

1 hour ago, Cheggf said:

This thread is mechanics that the game doesn't use much. That thread is mechanics the game has that players don't know about.

most of them are the smae thing tho

[Bumber64]

On 4/20/2022 at 11:28 AM, Flarezen said:

Actually pengulls do starve to death and die

As do smallbirds and the extra-adorable lavae.

[SonicDen220]

You can put any staff into the moon base, even though star caller is the only one that has a purpose. I wonder why you can even insert them here.

[Hornete]

7 minutes ago, SonicDen220 said:

I wonder why you can even insert them here.

I'd probably guess to try and make it intuitive.

What I mean is, if a player who's unknowing of the moon event attempts to put a staff, they might think "Oh hey, I can put staves, maybe another staff will do something?". Rather then just making the star caller the only one that can be inserted.

though i would not mind an expansion on the moon stone event to include all staves as something that can be transformed...