Why i think Klei is favoring Blanket design vs nail design

[JosePapp]

In the last couple of updates, with the exception of RWYS, the reworks and the QoLs, Klei has been focusing on a blanket type of design. This is just a fancy way of saying they're adding a lot of new content that isn't very deep but serves to draw attention to the game since it's kind of like a curve ball.  For example:

"Look, pirate monkeys!" "Look, there's a new caves boss that drops some sort of better NF!" or "Look, a lunar island!" 

The problem with these types of updates is that while they create hype, when they move onto the next new thing there are loose ends that will probably not get addressed, leaving the added content as fun, but ultimately shallow since it isn't very engaging, leading some people to even forget it exists because it's so niche and out of your way. 

Judging from the reception updates like RWYS or the waterlogged boating rework got (to a lesser extent), i feel like the game would drastically benefit from giving depth to the things that we already have. It makes the content more engaging and adds more variety to the gameplay loop.

TlDR: new content is cool, but kind of shallow. Adding depth to pre existing content/ tying loose ends (sealed portal, for example) will make the game more engaging and feel more whole.

Devs, you can't please everyone all the time,so instead of doing safe moves, I'd say doing bold strokes like what RWYS did could really spice up the game more.

What do you all think?

[goatt]

Too many safe moves until it's not safe anymore.

[Antynomity]

I have been noticing this too, specifically with new materials that Klei has been adding for a while now, they get a few uses, get left in the dust and we move on to another cool set of materials that might end up the same (not saying that the pure horror, dreadstone, pure brilliance and brightshade husks will end the same because we can't really know at the moment, we can just assume based on previous updates).

I'm tired of the game trying to please everyone right now, I like how they are going to revisit old stuff to make it more intuitive for new players, but damn do I hate the fact that the new rifts are so limited with their spread, especially since they are marked on the map, spread pretty slowly, and with a way to seal them no matter how much the area has been infested already could allow them to go a bit more crazy with them... Don't get me started on the new items, at least the fact that you can enable them to spawn without killing CC is a good thing.

[maxwell_winters]

I agree about the Lunar stuff but I don't think Moon Quay and Waterlogged really need to be expanded on. They work perfectly fine as self-contained biomes to spice up the gameplay loop a bit. Not everything has to be a part of a bigger picture. However, Lunar magic is a major part of the story, and it's still not even 20% as useful as the shadow items. 

[nimzowitsch10]

i feel like the development team has changed alot in the past few years, like key developers either moved to a different company or retired

[Cassielu]

Yes, since 2019, we've gotten so many discrete things that they have little to no connection to each other that the whole game world is moving towards a mash-up of random things without a theme. The ocean is particularly problematic as a new area to be created after 2019.

DST now needs to go back and change what it has. It can't be a hyped theme change like character rework, it has to be a change in consideration of whole game environment.

[JosePapp]

21 minutes ago, maxwell_winters said:

I agree about the Lunar stuff but I don't think Moon Quay and Waterlogged really need to be expanded on. They work perfectly fine as self-contained biomes to spice up the gameplay loop a bit. Not everything has to be a part of a bigger picture. However, Lunar magic is a major part of the story, and it's still not even 20% as useful as the shadow items. 

Yeah moon quay drives you to find it since you can get cursed if you fight a pirate raid. And the waterlogged biome gives a pretty cool late game summer item besides some busted gator hunting (i love hunting grass gators). 

But say the cookie cutter hat had an effect similar to wormwood's bramble husk but at lower damage, or if there was a reliable way to hunt for gnarwhails so you could use it's horn for a harpoon, i feel people would feel more compelled to explore the ocean since it offers cool items that do their own thing cementing their alternative to the usual meta.

[bloopah]

1 hour ago, goatt said:

Too many safe moves until it's not safe anymore.

although it would be pretty safe to add upon old content and/or tie up loose ends

for example, the ancient guardian rework was very well-recieved because it turned a mediocre damage sponge that's been there for 7 years into a fun fight with good drops and it was apparently so fun that they decided to add it to the base game in the recent beta, and as far as i could tell the deerclops rework was also well-recieved

if they would make other old things better like crab king i would definetly support their decision

[Paxtonnnn]

Hopefully the "2 Core Game Enhancement Updates" address this issue a bit, though yeah I'm really hoping things like Pure Horror and Pure Brilliance get more general uses

[Antynomity]

1 minute ago, Paxtonnnn said:

Hopefully the "2 Core Game Enhancement Updates" address this issue a bit, though yeah I'm really hoping things like Pure Horror and Pure Brilliance get more general uses

I'm really happy that Pure Horror can be used to refuel all items that are refuelable with nightmare fuel but at twice the potency, it's not useful right now but in the future especially if we get good sources of it I can see it getting used a ton just because of that.