Curious About Skill Tree Development Progress

[renamoe]

Hello Everyone,

As a casual player (and proud Wendy main) of Don't Starve Together, I've been keeping a close eye on the development of the Skill Tree update. It's been nearly two months since its initial beta release, and with no updates from Klei since mid-December, I can't help but wonder about the current state of progress and what lies ahead.

The excitement and anticipation surrounding the update were palpable early on, but without recent communication, it's hard to gauge where things stand. Perhaps it's time for us as players to ask for some feedback or insights from Klei about what's happening behind the scenes.

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Timeline So Far

To recap, here's a brief overview of the key dates and announcements related to the Skill Tree development:

• November 22, 2024:

Klei released the first beta version of the Skill Tree for Wendy, Wortox, and Walter, which quickly led to heated discussions and high expectations within the community.

• December 12, 2024:

Quote

With the holidays approaching, we feel that it would be better to wait until we are back from the break and working at full capacity during the release of the update so we can ensure it launches smoothly and give it our full attention.

• December 13, 2024:

Quote

The office will be going on Winter Break soon, and some of us spend our vacation days around this time as well. So most of these changes will not be made in December and are part of the reason the update is being held back until January.

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Communication Gap and Holiday Pause

What I've noticed is that it has been 57 days—nearly two months—since the beta version was first released. Before the holiday break, Klei kept up a steady cadence, providing weekly updates and patch notes that explained ongoing changes and what we could expect next. However, ever since the December 13, 2024 post, Klei seems to have gone silent, with no news or updates shared. It's left me wondering what's currently happening behind the scenes and what progress might be underway. Given Klei's earlier statements about returning to full capacity in January, I thought we might start seeing communications again earlier this week, but so far, nothing has come through.

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What I'm Wondering

1. Development Timeline:
   How is Klei scheduling their time for the beta testing of the Skill Tree?

2. Official Release Plans:
   Based on the timeline so far, when can we realistically expect the official release?

Since it's already the weekend of the second week of January, I'm anticipating the next hotfix—or possibly the official release—around Friday, January 25th, as we approach the end of the month.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[Yifei_]

I feel that there are two possibilities now. One is that Klei is meticulously refining the skill tree and conducting rigorous real - play testing. At the same time, they are also carefully designing the Snake Year event and planning the 2025 roadmap. As a result, Klei is temporarily too busy to release updates or reply to us on the forum. The other is that Klei believes the current skill tree has already reached near - perfection and doesn't need major modifications. It only requires a very small amount of detail adjustments and bug optimizations. They can simply release the skill tree to the official version in the subsequent Snake Year updates, with no need for beta testing anymore.

These are just my wild guesses, without any accurate evidence. Everything is unknown until an official response from Klei.

[renamoe]

13 minutes ago, Yifei_ said:

I feel that there are two possibilities now. One is that Klei is meticulously refining the skill tree and conducting rigorous real - play testing. At the same time, they are also carefully designing the Snake Year event and planning the 2025 roadmap. As a result, Klei is temporarily too busy to release updates or reply to us on the forum. The other is that Klei believes the current skill tree has already reached near - perfection and doesn't need major modifications. It only requires a very small amount of detail adjustments and bug optimizations. They can simply release the skill tree to the official version in the subsequent Snake Year updates, with no need for beta testing anymore.

These are just my wild guesses, without any accurate evidence. Everything is unknown until an official response from Klei.

Thank you for pointing out the various possibilities, Yifei. You're absolutely right that Klei likely has a lot on their plate—between refining the Skill Tree, planning the Snake Year event (which ties into their tradition of in-game festivals every Lunar New Year), and preparing the 2025 roadmap, it makes sense that their resources might be stretched thin.

Personally, I hope your first possibility is true—that they're meticulously testing and refining the Skill Tree to ensure it's as polished as possible. However, I can also understand if it's the second scenario, where the Skill Tree is nearly finalized and only needs minor tweaks before being folded into the Snake Year updates. Either way, it has been nearly two months now—about 1/6 of the year—so I think we're all eager to see what's next.

[WenericMember]

At this point, I imagine that they might well release the skill trees without input from the public beta and modify them further after public release (akin to scrappy scavengers). 

Next week is the last week before  the new roadmap is likely released, and if we expect those 2 updates to launch simultaneously, they don't have time to gather input.

Would've been nice to get communication either way, because if that's the case the beta forum isn't really needed.

[kroban]

I bet they are working hard rn but damn, I was loving the weekly beta updates explaining what they are changing, adding or removing from the skill trees, specially Walter's since hes my main.

Im now kinda anxious about what type of things they are planning for the Camping and Woby branches. I would like to think that with the time they are taking its going to be something wild, but it would be disappointing if at the end is some "tent heals 10% faster", "pioneer hat last longer" and "Woby big longer"

[renamoe]

9 minutes ago, kroban said:

I bet they are working hard rn but damn, I was loving the weekly beta updates explaining what they are changing, adding or removing from the skill trees, specially Walter's since hes my main.

Im now kinda anxious about what type of things they are planning for the Camping and Woby branches. I would like to think that with the time they are taking its going to be something wild, but it would be disappointing if at the end is some "tent heals 10% faster", "pioneer hat last longer" and "Woby big longer"

Oh man, your icon is both cute and hilarious! I could instantly tell you're a Walter main from the Pinetree Pioneer Hat and Slingshot—nice touch.

I completely agree with you. I really hope Klei understands that what most players are looking for are new mechanics rather than just tweaks to existing values. Changes like "tent heals 10% faster", "pioneer hat lasts longer", or "Woby gets slightly bigger" might be amusing, but they risk coming across as filler content that lacks sincerity and creativity.

Hope all this extra time they're taking means they're planning something truly innovative for Walter's Camping and Woby branches—something that will genuinely enhance the gameplay experience.

[WenericMember]

49 minutes ago, kroban said:

I bet they are working hard rn but damn, I was loving the weekly beta updates explaining what they are changing, adding or removing from the skill trees, specially Walter's since hes my main.

Im now kinda anxious about what type of things they are planning for the Camping and Woby branches. I would like to think that with the time they are taking its going to be something wild, but it would be disappointing if at the end is some "tent heals 10% faster", "pioneer hat last longer" and "Woby big longer"

If anything, for those skills at least, this would probably indicate a more ambitious additions, such that they can't get them to a worthwhile state to release to the beta within the timeframe, but who knows.

They wouldn't have extended the beta if they were just stat skills imo.

[Mike23Ua]

I can’t name a single time that Year of the Events released to Beta players first before going public, Klei always seems to want to release at least THAT update for everyone at the same time frame.

I was very disappointed with year of the Dragon Boat (single handedly the worst update the game has ever had in its entire update existence)

So with that said: I’m not as excited for Year of the Snake anymore as I was for Year of The Carrat, Catcoon & even pillow fighting Bunnymen.

[Swiyss]

They were just spending the holidays with their families. Once they get back to work the hotfixes and updates will come back to normal.

[WenericMember]

4 hours ago, Swiyss said:

They were just spending the holidays with their families. Once they get back to work the hotfixes and updates will come back to normal.

The thing is... that was 2 weeks ago. They said they'd be at full capacity by the second week of Jan.

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, WenericMember said:

The thing is... that was 2 weeks ago. They said they'd be at full capacity by the second week of Jan.

Well.. keep in mind that a huge portion of California also caught on fire, and while Klei’s company is stationed in Canada… they could have friends, family, lovers, maybe even business associates and partners who live in or was vacationing in California.

Real Life Sucks… we all use video games as a means of escape from the sadness and tragedies that exist outside of them. But we also have to keep in mind that the people who make these experiences for us to escape our lives & enjoy- Also have to deal with whatever Bullcrap life throws their way..

I sincerely hope all of kleis staff, family, friends, etc are all okay, but ultimately I’m just trying to remind everyone here to please be patient & understanding of if things aren’t delivered in as timely of a matter as you’d hope for. 

[WenericMember]

4 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Well.. keep in mind that a huge portion of California also caught on fire, and while Klei’s company is stationed in Canada… they could have friends, family, lovers, maybe even business associates and partners who live in or was vacationing in California.

Real Life Sucks… we all use video games as a means of escape from the sadness and tragedies that exist outside of them. But we also have to keep in mind that the people who make these experiences for us to escape our lives & enjoy- Also have to deal with whatever Bullcrap life throws their way..

I sincerely hope all of kleis staff, family, friends, etc are all okay, but ultimately I’m just trying to remind everyone here to please be patient & understanding of if things aren’t delivered in as timely of a matter as you’d hope for. 

That's possible, but I feel like it's a stretch to attribute the silence to a disaster in a completely different country. There's no evidence that's the case.

Obviously what's happening in California is horrible, but unless there's evidence your theory is the case there's no real reason to think that.