Hindsight- The Sawhorse obtaining method has failed

[Swiyss]

40 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I mean is it??? Really? Like Klei added a Stage to perform on which rewards the player with some very easy to kill brair hounds that reward them with really good loot such as sewing kits & mining hats…

If I was a game developer and this was already created as a “Noob location” intended to get free easy rewards just for stepping on a stage and interacting with it for a few seconds, then this is where I would ALSO put a few ruins chairs to hammer away at for the Blueprint- Hell the chairs could even be indestructible like the Endtable, so hammering at it drops the BP but can’t destroy the chairs.

For me personally I rarely ever waste resources on miners hats or sewing kits anymore, cause the pretty little setting the stage stage takes care of that.

They added a way to make relic chairs and tables way back in the day and it was hard AF. They kept the dont starve spirit and yet you're here to critique it. Wtf

[Yuuko]

4 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

To put this into a better perspective for you: you’ll be able to build some actual game advantage type things before you get “Furnitures” I know in most my worlds- That I usually end up crafting a freaking Shadow Manipulator before I ever get a full furniture set.

Yes, by design.  First you survive, then you thrive.  Furniture is not part of survival.  The alchemy engine, prestihatitator, and shadow manipulator are.

Furniture is about thriving.  Once you're completing all of the other tasks and you're able to hang out for hundreds of days with free time THEN you can pick up a hobby and craft furniture.  AND by then you'll have easily been insane in the ruins, and visited pearl's island - so you'll probably already have the sawhorse ready.

I don't see a problem.  That is why the basic premise of this entire thread is off.  Early game you shouldn't be learning how to craft a decorative table and chair, so its okay for those crafts to not be available yet.

People - INCLUDING YOU - want rewards for mid and late game activities that aren't always power scaling.  Things that give you more options but don't make the game easier.  Well Klei heard and responded with rewards like turf and furniture crafting.  YOU - literally YOU - asked for this, so don't complain about it.

[chirsg]

I'm weary of the company's decisions as a whole. Between getting bought out by tencent and the generally predatory skin development that might not even be profitable to begin with, what even is going on?

Acquiring the sawhorse and the limits to who can learn it is all stupid. 

I was never part of the "Craft the saw horse via the alchemy engine" camp before, but now I am. Just give us the stupid saw horse when we get the alchemy engine so we can keep throwing you what little money we have on skins. 

 

 

 

[user1464576869]

On 1/19/2024 at 2:31 PM, Jakepeng99 said:

I do see what you mean by this in particular and i half agree. Having it sold for bottles would be a good half measure.

What I think is very interesting is the filter currently; you need outside knowledge of the game to get the ruins stone chair recipes, no? Required for Pearl to give you the Sawhorse.

If sold by bottles the game would essentially explicitly tell the player that the sawhorse exists, which could be interpreted as an intent to say "these has a purpose, since unlocking them seems like straightforward progression". Which is partly my concern with gameplay; not only about resources being used but confusion towards their purpose and potentially accidentally communicating to players that not all builds have importance and have them give up in trying them all.

It's not the greatest concern since the sawhorse itself being a self-contained category of decorative purposes seems to establish the 'just for fun' very well and as such confusion can't possibly be that common. I'm just coming from a place of, uh, how to put it, having watched people play DST for the first time, the amount of ways players can find ways to confuse themselves never ceases to impress me, is all? EDIT: I think actually I'm really just pondering in terms of theoretical game design principle stuff, like keeping the game 'elegant and less bloated' more as a principle thought than anything measurably damaging. Sometimes bloat creeps up slowly, not visible from one single addition.

Anyway, with decor being optional and in my minor opinion one of the lateiest gamiest things to be concerned about in DST- I think it's an intriguing choice to lock them behind knowledge of the game. To have no way to stumble upon it. The point were people no longer struggle to survive by putting all their focus on just existing is probably the point when they start looking up information about the game online to see what else there is to know about it, finding then advanced decoration inspiration online; like this hidden sawhorse as a reward for exploring the game beyond itself? Does that make sense? Even if a player where to join a longer lasting world and notice these furniture they've set up I think it's a really neat way to build intrigue and get players to communicate hidden things naturally.

If we consider it too obnoxious a journey to go into the ruins I would still consider it a very interesting mechanic to try hide it somewhere else in "plain sight" hidden behind outsider knowledge in the same manner. Maybe the point here is that people feel like the sawhorse should be stumbled upon though? I have no strong opinions really, I was just really fascinated by the game design enough to meanderingly talk about it.