[Poll] On DST's Current Development

[GetNerfedOn]

Just a small, broad poll that hits a lot of birds with one stone for me at least.

As always, feel free to answer and discuss in the comments!

[Dextops]

I wish lore wasn't just force fed to us through shorts, i'd like more stuff like what we got in forgotten knowledge where playing maxwell and examining the lunar tablets gave lore, but sadly things like this were extremely bare in RoT.

[Ev1l]

Something that bothers me about dst's story, is that, Charlie doesn't seem to be menacing enough? I mean, I don’t remember she doing anything to harm the players directly, except for trying to kill us at dark, but hey, even trees try to kill us so that's just about normal. Besides, she is cannonically possesed, so she's not to be taken guilt for her actions.

Now compare Charlie to Maxwell:

Maxwell: created an entire world and kidnapped lots of people to torture in his sick little games. Charlie: took her sister to this world while possesed, also it wasn't even her that opened the portal, also reunited everyone that was scattered.

RoG bosses(presumably created by maxwell): always go after the player after each season. New Reign bosses(presumably created by charlie): just stand there until you mess with them.

You can also make a point about her role in return of them. What she is doing is definitly sus, however, what Wagstaff is doing is sussier.

[Rylanor]

DST definitely lost a lot of aesthetics that made original DS so unique. I'm not talking about skins, they are moderately tame in that regard, but DST Ocean and Return of Them overall. Most content from it is so gray, cold and pale, it changed DST whole mood, especially if you compare pre-RoT screenshots and videos and post. I wish there was some colour changes in that regard, at least if it was made less dull. Lunar theme just pushed DST artstyle too far, like Lunar Champion is so... out of spot compared to the rest of the game. Updates past RoT though were good, especially Monkey Island and Watterlogged biome, they really breathed a lot of fresh air into the game and made ocean far more alive and interesting. I'm very hyped for Klei and whatever next they add to the game

[Hornete]

4 minutes ago, Dextops said:

I wish lore wasn't just force fed to us through shorts, i'd like more stuff like what we got in forgotten knowledge where playing maxwell and examining the lunar tablets gave lore, but sadly things like this were extremely bare in RoT.

I found it a bit frustrating that the only mention of Alter in-game was in a singular Maxwell quote, while its mentioned several more times in the code of the game to directly refer to the awakened moon(and so essentially confirming that the moon, is indeed Alter)

[SuperDonuts]

I am not closely following klei public statement about the game. But do we have an idea of the next updates? When they will start beta? 

[Castaccio]

43 minutes ago, Ev1l said:

Something that bothers me about dst's story, is that, Charlie doesn't seem to be menacing enough? I mean, I don’t remember she doing anything to harm the players directly, except for trying to kill us at dark, but hey, even trees try to kill us so that's just about normal. Besides, she is cannonically possesed, so she's not to be taken guilt for her actions....

...What she is doing is definitly sus, however, what Wagstaff is doing is sussier.

There's an astonishing amount of mystery surrounding Charlie (and the shadows in general) and barely a single lead to clear it up. Who possessed her? Metheus, Them, or someone else? How much control does she have post vs. pre-nightmare-throne? Where do her motives lie? There's a lot more going on in DST than in Solo DS, so it makes sense that she's not always at the forefront. Still, it means that what little lore details we do get still leave her story in the dark. I trust that Klei will clarify her side of the story eventually, though.

16 minutes ago, SuperDonuts said:

I am not closely following klei public statement about the game. But do we have an idea of the next updates? When they will start beta? 

They say October 3rd. So tomorrow!

[MondayNight]

5 hours ago, SuperDonuts said:

I am not closely following klei public statement about the game. But do we have an idea of the next updates? When they will start beta? 

New Beta - tomorrow, October 3rd.

 

Related to DST current development - "Ok" leaning into "Meh!" from yours truly, or rather no strong opinions yet slightly tilting into dissatisfaction. It mostly lost its whimsical dark aesthetic/tone, and the story is quite a mess a la "the road and friendships you forged mattered, not the destination" excuse since "Return of Them" pulled a "they were always here" unsatisfactory trope (without even clarifying who "They" actually are - Alter? Ancients? One-Eyed Eldritch Shadow Abomination from murals plus its Lunar counterpart? Some hidden Watchers? The developers, eh?!) while all rest was decorative fluff - cute & useful fluff, but still fluff. On the functional side, Moon builds summarize themselves to Moon Glass Axe & Glass Cutters; the Enlightened Crown is marginally useful if not into base-building and a fan of insanity ("Small Gestalt goes Brrr, hehe... but seriously!"). QoLs are nice and welcomed. Wish something more core-oriented content and Survival would come to "shake things up", perhaps in world progression manner.

[Szczuku]

Gameplay- Dst is a farming, sandbox game. There's really no challanges. And no, I don't care about new players and how many deaths you've seen in pubs. The fate of a new player is to either quit the game or to become a good player (who is later unsatisfied by the game's difficulty). Yes, it's good for Klei to add some good things to stop new players from dying 2 in-game days after beating their personal survival record. That way they are making sure that newbies don't get dissatisfied with the game and leave (losing potential profit). But COME ONE what's the point of adding something like banana bushes, a source of food that functions in the winter, its fruit a key ingredient for an impossible to mess up sanity and hp restoring dish, and then locking it behind monkey island which new players would stay away from? Furthermore the gameplay suffers from the fact that nothing changes over time. There's no progression, added difficulty or content that's only available later (aside from 'fun' CC fetch-quest)

Aesthetic- aforementioned banana bush is an example of gameplay badly affecting the aesthetic. Tropical fruits shouldn't grow in winter, or even autumn. Overall I'm not too fond of mixing tropical vibes of Waterlogged and Moon Quay biomes with dst's more.... north american/european climate but its whatever. I suppose if we can have cacti covered in snow we might as well add palms into the mix. But I wish Klei would go back to ds' tim burton-like aesthetic or maybe just to gorge's victorian calamity

Story- speaking of gorge; Klei I'm still not letting it slide that you just abandoned the gateway arc, as it could've been perfectly connected with RoT's beggining and in my suggestion I explained how adding Mumsy and Billy would be beneficial to the game or your desire to add unfitting miscellaneous things into the game. Additionally, the current lore feels like its going nowhere. 'Return of Them' didn't feature Them and in fact has completely butchered any and all dark, mysterious implications of the name by reducing it to a nickname given to Constant's elder gods (revert this, Klei). Wagstaff appeared out of nowhere without an explanation (the last time we've seen him in the timeline would be Winona's short where, apparently, his actual body was sucked into the Constant) and stole one of Alter's limbs just to blow up a portal with it. Charlie is still as present in the lore, as an evergreen in the Constant- she sure is there but she's doing nothing. It all feels like Klei is trying to lead the lore to some dark, epic, end-of-the-universe 'finale' (as much as you can 'finale' a sandbox game) especially given the portal in the archives... but so far there's nothing to be excited about or invested in. Yeah, the devs are "setting the stage" but if it all ends up the same way as RoT did then... why bother

Future- whatever. The devs have been nailing all these QoL updates and I'm excited to fianlly see the characters' reworks end as 1- it's been over 3 years, and 2- Wilson's and Maxwell's cinematics hold the potential to be really interesting and reveal some exciting lore (since we already know these characters' lore) though I'm sure the devs could find a way to screw them up. Not to mention the fact that those characters are desperate for a rework with Wilson being a blank slate and Maxwell.... himself. Gameplay updates are rare and seem to mostly be just ocean content to fill that big, empty piece of map.

[Well-met]

everything's outstanding except story development

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 hour ago, Szczuku said:

Gameplay- Dst is a farming, sandbox game. There's really no challanges. And no, I don't care about new players and how many deaths you've seen in pubs.

dark souls are easy after Xk hours...

[. . .]

Anytime Klei adds new content into the game such as the monkey island and stuff I'm satisfied. The only content updates I'm unsatisfied with is character reworks, but that's mainly because I don't like playing any of the vanilla characters. Thankfully they will end soon so all updates will focus on QoL or non-character content.

Also, I'm fine with the new art style direction DST is taking. I appreciate more colorful and lively color palettes such as the monkey island has. The only thing is some animations are not as high quality is older stuff I wish they would keep up animations being as good as old ones like if you notice the pirate monkeys their walking animations look stiff compared to cave monkeys.

And finally... I don't care about the story at all so idc what they do with it.

[Capybara007]

the story is really underwhelming, thats all

[Mike23Ua]

I mean- DS barely had any lore, Especially if you bought the game on Xbox, you never saw ANY of the so called William Carter Puzzles, you only knew you were kidnapped by some dude that oddly resembled Obama and thrown into a strange world tasked with surviving, and along the way you earned EXP and unlocked more equally wacky playable characters who again: Had no Lore.

DST on the other hand has been giving us a story, and while that story is confusing… and maybe unfinished- Klei made sure to put their lore into the actual game in a Compendium Page so even console players who don’t come to these forums will know the characters Stories/Back Story without watching the Animated Short  (though I wish Klei would add those into the actual game itself at some point too)

I guess what I’m trying to say is you people are never satisfied… DST has been loaded with Lore, it may not be the type of Lore YOU ARE HOPING FOR- But at least I now have a better understanding of who the playable characters are and how they got trapped in that world.

As far as the updates go some have been great (reworks, QoL, Content Updates) while others.. have been so far removed from the core gameplay of DS that even Google now classifies DST as something other than a Survival Game. (Reap What You Sow, Midsummers Cawnival)

It baffles me that people complain Klei is quote “crunched for time” yet KLEI are the ones adding new and in my opinion unnecessary things to their content schedule- like Why?? Why did we need a Yearly Annual Carnival? It’s just something else that will need new content on their Roadmaps.

I suppose the GOOD news is that there’s only 2 character reworks left. (if Klei isn’t planning to add Walani, Wilbur, Woodlegs, Wilba, Wheeler & Wagstaff) so once they’re done with those that’ll open up room on their schedule so their less “crunched” But even that recently changed when they threw in Wonkey who is Technically a secret playable character.. 

So overall I’m “confused” by Klei’s Content schedule- if they feel like they’re being over-worked why are they adding more stuff like Yearly Carnivals and Playable Wonkey to their update schedule?

Other then that I’m pretty satisfied with everything else- but I’d absolutely LOVE more world Gen settings, new set pieces, new ways my world is generated (archipelago) And an actual multi-chapter Adventures Mode taking place across several worlds like DS had.

[Dragonboooorn]

It was 60 days since last update. I wonder what kind of Update might take so much time to develop, considering that they said in Wickerbottom update we will get some news soon. 

Dont want to have high expectations, but dont want to be dissapointed either

[MadMatt]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Other then that I’m pretty satisfied with everything else- but I’d absolutely LOVE more world Gen settings, new set pieces, new ways my world is generated (archipelago) And an actual multi-chapter Adventures Mode taking place across several worlds like DS had.

So true. I don't care about the difficulty or story much, but what keeps me coming back to this game even though I inevitably get bored after a few hours is the novelty of starting a new world. Having new map generation that splits up the land like continents, archipelagos, fractal, etc. will add an entirely new dimension to the exploration. Since ocean content and exploration is being given so much love i'm hoping this is the next big step