Default characters or Modded characters. Preference?

[Cowboy Maxwell]

Not even gonna bother to make a poll since I can already guess the answer(s). More specifically I want to know if people prefer a default character or a modded character that will make the game harder/easier in someway(or just somewhat the same but different pros/cons)?

And yes I know; there are default characters that can make the game more difficult, especially if you're not used to the playstyle that character would require. (Serious props to all Wes mains; I honestly don't know how you do it)

Personally it depends on my mood. I'll usually play as Webber or Wormwood. I like their mechanics and Wormwood's skill tree is...interesting. But lately I've been playing as the Daycare Attendant. A pretty fun mod since you have to switch playstyles slightly when Sun turns into Moon.

But what about everyone else? Your main and why? Modded characters you like if you even use those and why?

[Theukon-dos]

Generally speaking, vanilla characters. Nothing against modders, but I'm not exactly sitting at the edge of my seat to play Edgy Mcfurryson with his ultra greatsword of doom and 3001% movement speed.

 

One notable exception though is Uncompromising Mode's Wathom.

A relatively simple character all things considered. But his unique lunging attacks and adrenaline system make him quite possibly my favorite character to play.

[Lossy15]

1 hour ago, Cowboy Maxwell said:

Not even gonna bother to make a poll since I can already guess the answer(s). More specifically I want to know if people prefer a default character or a modded character that will make the game harder/easier in someway(or just somewhat the same but different pros/cons)?

And yes I know; there are default characters that can make the game more difficult, especially if you're not used to the playstyle that character would require. (Serious props to all Wes mains; I honestly don't know how you do it)

Personally it depends on my mood. I'll usually play as Webber or Wormwood. I like their mechanics and Wormwood's skill tree is...interesting. But lately I've been playing as the Daycare Attendant. A pretty fun mod since you have to switch playstyles slightly when Sun turns into Moon.

But what about everyone else? Your main and why? Modded characters you like if you even use those and why?

Default characters.

 

The only modded characters that i love is the Reign of runts mod, i love the Deerclops and Dragonfly, they are so cute!

 

Besides that, i dislike almost all the character mods, anime characters with no downside and shitty and unfitting anime art style, op furry character, or a Wilson with a different sprite and nothing else.

 

Im happy having my 1000 hours playing as Wormwood, thanks.

[Primalflower]

I'm going to lean towards vanilla characters simply because that's the content that I'm always going to be able to play with when I join a given random pub, but at the same time I don't think that dissing modded characters is any fun either, following discussion on what theukon mentioned.

I think the way that a lot of commercialized media is forced to be marketable to as many audiences as possible has given people a warped idea of what a free space to show off creation should be like. People are allowed to upload what they want, and that doesn't mean you have to pay attention to it. Some people are going to upload low-effort template sample character projects, and that doesn't take away from any of the projects that are higher effort in the same field, and you shouldn't beat on either of them for it. it's just silly. I think the people who get really angry about a perceived lack in overall quality to the mods added to the workshop either fundamentally do not understand how spaces where you aren't trying to gain something by publishing your work function, or are just bitter people with myopic perceptions about their surroundings as a whole.

Even aside from that, though, I feel like the thought that modded characters on the whole are too overpowered is a weird t ake just because like, there's nuance to the way you pick modded characters to begin with. Like, there's a certain degree of out-of-my-way that subscribing to and then playing a modded character, so like, of course a lot of them are going to be more involved and mechanically complex, with a high ceiling for raw power??? Some people might go into the workshop looking for a character with a power level comparable to wilson or otherwise some form of challenge, and for those people there are options, but a lot of them are kind of going to want the one that looks the coolest and most interesting to play, so of course they're going to be more powerful! I could go on about this but I don't feel like it. My final note is that this forum's userbase is largely contained within the states and other western places, and over here we're kind of weirdly obsessed with playing this game as vanilla as possible. in china, modded characters are popular to the point that even klei official servers have a handful sometimes.

As for a modded character that I personally enjoy and play, theres this one called Aya Shameimaru that I used to play all the time, because she has a super interesting flight power that makes gameplay really interesting. But I haven't played her in a while, I don't know if she works still.

[GenomeSquirrel]

pragmatically, i only like this as a multiplayer game, so being mod only is a huge hurdle.

hypothetically, i'd like something with interesting yet weird choices, somewhat like wickerbottom, i'm more interested in figuring out the best use of my time / resources than difficulty.

[-Variant]

I love playing modded characters, though no one really beats Willow.

Maybe this is cheating, but I do have a soft spot for my own modded characters.
I tend to make custom characters that try to fit my playstyle, something I can't get from the vanilla game.

On another note, I think that's where modded characters excel. You can get a lot out of them you wouldn't be able to from the normal game, some very notable examples I can think of are: Wade/Black Death, Wirly/Cherry Forest, and Whemy the Witch are some fun examples!

[SapoLover]

Vanilla. Modded characters are made out of the creators' perspective of what a good character would be, but it's not the same as mine. If I were able to create one with my own preferences, I would play that character 24/7.

Spoiler

If only my waifu was in the workshop... 

[Retepeter]

Modded characters are never balanced and rarely creative. The only creative character mod I can think of is reign of runts.

Plus modded characters usually have about 3 other characters' upsides with a fresh coat of paint and 100 hp for the "downside"

[flamboyant wolf]

There are a few modded characters I like, for example previously mentioned Whemy the Witch, but I generally prefer vanilla characters. Don't really have a solid reason for this, I've just never really been able to "commit" to modded worlds(although tbh I don't have that much solo worlds that go past day 100 anyway, so maybe the main problem here is that I don't often commit to solo worlds in general) 

[somethin]

4 hours ago, -Variant said:

snip

Holy, the art is crazy good! Are these characters in the workshop?

[Monkey Cups]

Vanilla 99% of the time. I might pop onto a solo world as a modded character once in a blue moon, most of them aren't my taste though.

[ADM]

From the perspective of some players I previously discussed with its clear that the vanilla preference tend (not exclusively !) to be defined by a form of purism more than liking or not said modded characters. They'll just rarely if ever give a try to what shows up and abide by this. That's their choice and so isn't wrong, you do you, but they'd better reckon that they don't know anything about modded characters rather than criticize them as all bad, flavorless, unbalanced, just because it's modded.

This doesn't give a fair reputation to sectors where artists work their butt getting something done well for others to appreciate too.

Anyway both vanilla and modded give something unique to appreciate, I switch characters as often as socks (once a week)

[The Letter W]

15 hours ago, Retepeter said:

Modded characters are never balanced and rarely creative. The only creative character mod I can think of is reign of runts.

Plus modded characters usually have about 3 other characters' upsides with a fresh coat of paint and 100 hp for the "downside"

This pretty much. Even if I've made a modded character, I lack the coding knowledge to make them particularly interesting (thanks to those who helped me though). I've encountered people who pretty much refuse to play base characters because they only play OP modded characters, it's so strange. Then they usually complain the game is boring, haha.

Regardless of what I do with modded characters, I'll always love the default guys who started it all more. n_n

[-Variant]

12 hours ago, somethin said:

Holy, the art is crazy good! Are these characters in the workshop?

I appreciate it. :}

One I'm currently working on, part of a much larger project, the other can be found here!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2618885209&searchtext=whimsy

[Mysterious box]

So normally I'm on the default character side of things but there are exceptions with mod characters I wish were part of dst because I like them so much one of which being

I just think it's a very fun and rewarding character with some really unique interactions.

[Horsheen]

The only modded character I like is Wonder Why, but that's just for the design of the character mostly, too squishy for me to enjoy gameplay-wise

[Valase]

I like the default characters, but its not like I rather play with the entire roster before even daring to play a modded one. But since I rarelly change characters, they just end up there, decorating the pick screen.

But if I were to stop playing my main now, I'd probably go for any of the mod characters that I have.

[Not Shop Cat]

I never found Wes as fun or challenging, I rather just found him a bit annoying to play but that just my opinion 

[Terra B Welch]

Does a vanilla character with some modifications exclusive to myself count as a modded character? I don't see why not.

I'd consider the budding chef a modded character, despite using Wendy as a baseline for said character.

I do play vanilla characters far more often though whenever I play DST.

[GelatinousCube]

On 10/2/2023 at 4:35 PM, -Variant said:

I love playing modded characters, though no one really beats Willow.

Maybe this is cheating, but I do have a soft spot for my own modded characters.
I tend to make custom characters that try to fit my playstyle, something I can't get from the vanilla game.

On another note, I think that's where modded characters excel. You can get a lot out of them you wouldn't be able to from the normal game, some very notable examples I can think of are: Wade/Black Death, Wirly/Cherry Forest, and Whemy the Witch are some fun examples!

That first modded character actually has a really cool aesthetic and almost looks like a real character. Impressive. 

[maradyne]

Both! Depends on my mood; sometimes I pick for the feeling of the character, sometimes for the gameplay if I want to do something specific in a world.

There are a bunch of modded chars with just as much polish as the better of those among vanilla chars, so I view it less as a binary option and more as an expanded pallet. Might as well enjoy it all.

[CameoAppearance]

I mostly prefer default characters because there's a ton of modded characters out there and I can't rely on any of them being available on the average public server. This even applies to the mods that add in the singleplayer-only characters like Walani and Wheeler, who are canon characters and I love to play them in singleplayer but still can't use them on most DST servers. Then there's the mods that are a default character with some sort of twist, but that means I can't use that character's skins because technically they're not the same character in the code, and the only character where I usually use the default skin is Wortox.

I also have really high standards for character mods and would rather play a default character than a modded character who doesn't meet my standards; it bugs me if they don't have a full set of quotes, if their quotes have a lot of spelling or grammar errors, or if their art isn't in the DST style beyond the body proportions (so many characters with hair-thin lineart or overly detailed eyes - although honestly it's difficult to get the style of the sprite art exactly right). Gameplaywise I prefer for them to be in the same general balance range as the default characters, and it's rare to find a character mod that satisfies all of those criteria. Plus I just can't be bothered to branch out a lot when I know what I'm getting with the default characters. I do play a modded character once in a while, though; I enjoyed The Wodger when it was still being updated, Reign of Runts is good, and while I haven't tried Whimsy she does look well-constructed.

[hoppin mandrake]

Typically the only mods I like are those that add information like stats, food/healing values, temperature, etc. because I like numbers and hate estimating. As well ass those that make time consuming tedious things less annoying like clicking on trees and tilling gardens. I can't imagine playing without action queue now, that would feel like downgrading the speed of internet or a computer. I never got into mods that add content/characters that change the pace/difficulty/feel of a game.

On 10/1/2023 at 9:43 PM, Cowboy Maxwell said:

Your main and why?

I'm still trying to narrow down my main, still waiting for the rest of the skill trees, but I tend to lean toward combat focused characters like Wolfgang. Utility to me seems less important once you know enough about the game and the fastest ways of gathering resources/making farms.

[Dr. Safety]

I'm pretty sure I have the William the Toymaker mod installed but I never actually played as him. Other than that the only modded characters I play are just ones from single player, so I'd barely count them as a "modded character"