What would you add to DST for it to feel less... Lonely?

[chirsg]

dst when playing alone, for me is quite isolating. For some, they feel right at home battling against the elements, but with the right people, this is a stellar game. This game is designed around company after all. 

What is a little deterring for players to have a session with one another is that dst demands a LOT of time. If it's a session between friends, usually, you must organize a time slot and agree to play beforehand unless you're on a pub.

Usually, this leads to players being on their own. 

 

I know I'm not on my own when I feel a little lonely in dst. 

And the burden of tasks can tend to be infinitely tedious when alone. 

 

A few things that could help this would be end game busy work being streamlined such as cooking ingredients and feeding beefalo. Making rope and boards is a big one. I think these are pretty universal changes that could get tasks moving along so you're not crushed by the monotony and quite frankly, the crawl of solo tedious work. It's a bit like chores in a way. When you do chores in real life alone, it feels like a monumental task, but when doing chores with others, it can tend to be a bit of a joy. 

We need a proverbial dishwasher.

 

My personal flare to what would make the game less lonely is economy and towns like hamlet. I'd feel like I'd have a bit of company no matter how artificial.

 

What are your thoughts, Klei Entertainment Don't Starve Together forums - General Discussion?

[-Variant]

I'd actually say the world is pretty lively, at least compared to DS. DLCs aside, that is.
I feel like the tone has most certainly gotten a lot lighter, and there's quite a few things in DST that make the world feel more occupied in, for better or worse. (Cawnival, Pearl, critters, Elite pigs, I can go on.)

I myself wouldn't mind digging into the desolate lonely roots a bit more, since that's just a theme I happen to enjoy. It's funny when it feels like the world itself wants me gone.
I think as far as lonely environments go, I think there's a few ways to mend that in DST.

Personally, I love stuffing my world full of mannequins. If I'm not running into Mannequins in places I don't remember putting them there and asking "How'd you get here?" I'm doing something wrong.

[Horsheen]

Some friends

[Valase]

In my view, the "lonely" effect is more as a result of the character you pick

For example: I used to main Wendy because of Abi (both as a friend and as a blender) but her quotes would make me feel that "you are alone in this big world", so I swapped to Wormwood and Wickerbottom, both characters that made me feel more "welcome" into the world (mind you that it was long before the RWYS update), as they both had sturdy personalities and caring moments (Wormwood calling everything his friend and having that "child-like wonder" over this magical world, Wickerbottom going out of her smartass character to have some fond quotes about her life before the constant and about her new life at the constant).

But regarding the Cutting the late game Tedium out: I'd add the Wagstaff structures as another reward from him, being able to get through trees without bearger(now that we have to kill it more often) and commitng Wanda all over the constant with the telebrella/tellipad would be great additions. Especially now that we have new mechanic materials and Wag has learnt something studying the constant (I'd love to be able to socket a specific gem into the Telebrella to go to a specific Tellipad).

[Mike23Ua]

Computer controlled AI Teammates.

It’s cool to recruit 10 Pigmen, it would be BETTER to Recruit an Ai version of Wendy and Wolfgang- That’s instantly a crazy boost in damage dealt.

Add a Warly with special food dishes and it’s over-kill.

[ShadowbirdRH]

Top of the list would be un-muting the birds, but having non-hostiles around and some live plants to liven the place up helps a lot too, at least until the brighshades come and everything dies. The pe(s)ts are a good first half of a try, but more often than not they just get in the way and annoy.

[Masked Koopa]

I've been preaching for a while that Pigs deserve an mechanical rework. They're the most basic of followers out there, yet both their combat and harvesting potential is middling at best - most people use them purely as a source of food and nothing else.

In my opinion, it is high time pigs were given both more uses as a follower, and given more ambient traits.


In terms of follower mechanics, I think things like picking grass, being able to wield weapons for a boost in fighting power, being able to pick items up off the floor for you, etc would all be positive changes, especially since they'd be available to all characters except Wortox, Wonkey and Webber, and those 3 could still use one man bands, or clever disguises if the mechanics were also ported to merms due to their shared animations and body shape.


In terms of ambient mechanics, I think it'd be good if pigs interacted with their environment more. Make them give gifts to pig king, make them randomly chop trees or gather grass/twigs. Make them pick berries and carrots from the floor. Also make them a little less unaware of their surroundings - make them less careless around spider webbing, as well as fearful when outnumbered. Additionally, you could make them "claim" the resources that spawn in with pig villages, meaning they will attack players stealing from these.

It'd also be good if they were able to create RWYS farm plots, and plant crops in them, taking care of them (poorly) and eating their crops. Helping them farm could perhaps make them give you rewards similar to Wilba in RoG.


I'd also like to see bartering ala minecraft piglins, where you give them gold nuggets and they give you random basic resources.

[landromat]

friends

[Evelo]

If there was no lag in DST I would actually play with friends.

But there is always significant levels of lag. So... I'll just play alone and have fun.

Also:  Saladmanders

[comonavi]

that time commitment is why 99.9% of my time played with friends was only during the forge. spending over 2.5 hours just to reach winter is not an approachable experience, especially for newcomers.

[BalkanCockroach]

6 hours ago, chirsg said:

dst when playing alone, for me is quite isolating. For some, they feel right at home battling against the elements, but with the right people, this is a stellar game. This game is designed around company after all. 

What is a little deterring for players to have a session with one another is that dst demands a LOT of time. If it's a session between friends, usually, you must organize a time slot and agree to play beforehand unless you're on a pub.

Usually, this leads to players being on their own. 

 

I know I'm not on my own when I feel a little lonely in dst. 

And the burden of tasks can tend to be infinitely tedious when alone. 

 

A few things that could help this would be end game busy work being streamlined such as cooking ingredients and feeding beefalo. Making rope and boards is a big one. I think these are pretty universal changes that could get tasks moving along so you're not crushed by the monotony and quite frankly, the crawl of solo tedious work. It's a bit like chores in a way. When you do chores in real life alone, it feels like a monumental task, but when doing chores with others, it can tend to be a bit of a joy. 

We need a proverbial dishwasher.

 

My personal flare to what would make the game less lonely is economy and towns like hamlet. I'd feel like I'd have a bit of company no matter how artificial.

 

What are your thoughts, Klei Entertainment Don't Starve Together forums - General Discussion?

Glommer duplication and free roaming gloms of many variations.

[Szczuku]

The dst world should feel alive but it should 110% feel lonely if you are playing without other players.

[Jakepeng99]

Crossplay.

[Frosty_Mentos]

Pigs and bunnymen to enjoy activities like farming, cooking or other. Cult of the Lamb style. Maybe training them to do a single task they'd become good at, place a picture of something I want them to grow or cook like picture frames and signs has and they'd work with whatever ingredients have. Maybe they'll fail a lot, or make something else but eventually doing same repeated task for their very simple minds will become a fun routine to enjoy. Along with that maybe better chopping of wood, or mining rocks nearby their homes then storing them into select Signed containers. Or even better training them to fight! I'd expect beefalo levels or training. We should really get those interactions with our Constant's residents, they do very little by only wandering around and scanning areas for food or to kill something. The game's theme is circus and theatre, I'd expect we would be able to train our livestock to do more than run into things and die or get slaughtered by survivors. They have their own names, for queen's sake!

[Dr.Webber]

NPC‘s and actual voice lines

[Antynomity]

I'd revamp nearly all the old biomes in this game, most of them are so dull, empty and reuse turfs, mobs and such that it just feels so, so dead, like the world doesn't have anything going for it, no unique events depending on where in the world you are, not many interactions between mobs of even the same species, nothing.

[ShadowDuelist]

As many said above you can focus on “smart” minions and never feel alone.
 
Improving the AI of these creatures who obviously have sentience and culture, like pigs, bunnymen, merms, powder monkeys, etc would go a long way.

[KvltBear]

Bro what are you saying??? You don't get anything out of watching your pig livestock mindlessly walking towards powdercake? Just waiting for a full moon or 4 monster meat? Maybe bothering to recruit them to chop wood on one of the particularly sunny days once a year?

I agree with others, a follower mob update would be greatly appreciated. I think Masked Koopa and Frosty_Mentos have some great ideas already. The pieces are all already there. We have Hamlet, we have NPCs like Pearl, we have training Beefalo, we have Cult of the Lamb influence in the game now, all could be combined into some sort of system to add some life to the base. I'd love for Pigs, Bunnies, and Merms to all have their own unique attributes if they did this. I have long wanted some sort of Pig/Merm dynamic interaction going on in the world to represent their very clear hostility to each other. Maybe that could play a part in making your own settlement. And it'd add some activity to my seldom visited Deciduous and Swamp biomes.

Chester, Glommer, Beefalo, and pets are nice, but I feel we could use something more.

[Cheggf]

D.Va from Overwatch as my virtual girlfriend who's always nice to me and compliments me and helps me do chores like pick up twigs and never says mean things unlike Samantha.

[Paxtonnnn]

8 hours ago, Dr.Webber said:

NPC‘s and actual voice lines

Having actual voice acting would take away so much of the charm, why would they do that

[hoppin mandrake]

I suggested in another thread more setpieces/events/quests/NPCs.

I've always been a solo player so I think those would be neat additions. I realize it's a multiplayer game, but it also started as a solo game, and the multiplayer game is what still gets updates/new content as opposed to the solo game.

I think the best thing Klei added so far was the moon/shadow/pearl quest thing. It adds more immersion to the game and gave the game a reason to be explored and played besides just seeing how many days you could survive.

I hope we get more like this in the future.

 

 

[Evelo]

3 hours ago, Paxtonnnn said:

Having actual voice acting would take away so much of the charm, why would they do that

I think by voices lines they mean *Frantic Jaw Harp noises*

[Masked Koopa]

26 minutes ago, Evelo said:

I think by voices lines they mean *Frantic Jaw Harp noises*

Tbh yeah id like that. They make some noises as-is, but not in the same style as most characters speaking.

[Dr.Webber]

4 hours ago, Paxtonnnn said:

Having actual voice acting would take away so much of the charm, why would they do that

What if the some how blend the music of there voices with the voice lines so like there voice sounds like the instrument but you can make out the words without reading 

[JustAFlower]

I think it's a bit intentional from Klei, for example when people asked for a follower update, Klei said : not really. (basically)

They want this game to have an eerie loneliness. Followers are not very smart, and that's the point. Just more loneliness water in the bucket.