What new content would you like to see added to DST?

[glooomy]

Hey everyone!

If you were to have creative control over new content being added into DST, what is it you would like to see more of? I'm curious to see which types of content you're all the most interested in. Also, when it comes to mods that do add new content... What are some things that deter you from fully enjoying them? (Please do not call out or insult any mods in particular).

Again, feel free to select as many options as you like from the polls, or add any of your own ideas/opinions in the comments below!

...I might be taking notes...

* Sorry console players, the mod question is clearly for PC only. It isn't exactly helpful to me to point out that mods do not exist on console, because this is obvious. I appreciate contributing to the thread, but I'm looking for answers that directly relate to why you may be deterred from using mods that add content to the game; not why mods aren't available to you. I hope you understand x

[NSAiswatchingus]

Other: Because Console, otherwise I'd be way into mods. 

[DegenerateFurry]

I'd like to see reworks for A New Reign bosses first and foremost. You can probably tell from my signature which one I'd like to get the Crab King treatment before the rest, but Dragonfly, Toadstool, and Bee Queen are still in need minor adjustments. Dragonfly herself is fine as-is (although maybe the enraged attack range shouldn't be substantially bigger than her already big range), but the lavae need to have less HP and be one-or-two-shot by ice staffs if Klei wants not using walls to be viable for most players. Toadstool and Bee Queen should have their sporecaps and grumble bees scale with player count like Klaus's temperature spells do (and the number for one player should be lower than it is now), and Toadstool could use an HP reduction by about 50% to put it in line with the other raid bosses. Klaus can stay untouched because he's the model on which the rest should've been built.

I would also like to see an overhaul of the caves. Make the ruins like Don't Starve ruins (less empty boring bridges, more ruins turf and statues and nightmare lights). Add a cave-specific water biome, a cenote of sorts. Add more mobs to the caves, including some neutral ones, to make them feel more alive and to make the various biomes less one-note and outdated-feeling.

 

As for content mods: I use them. Specifically, I use Tropical Adventures. It adds Hamlet and Shipwrecked content to DST by putting them in the ocean and making the ocean bigger to compensate. It also adjusts boss HP values to be more in line with modern DST bosses, so they're not pushovers like their DS counterparts would be if you put them up against DST characters. The only problem is that it can be buggy, and sometimes in weird ways - for instance, it makes it so Woby can't sprint for some reason (unless that recently got patched).

[Mike23Ua]

Other** Console versions (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo & Mobile) don’t get Mods..

[qwp18]

Ticking these made me realize I kinda want them all, but I think new hostile and passive mods that arnt endgame would add a ton of variety, nature enchantments like more intertwined mechanics and interactions with passive stuff would also make the world feel more alive. 

But what I REALLY want is to tie up loose ends, there's so so so much foundations for tremendously cool content but it feels like every other thing in the game doesn't lead anywhere... I hope we can see these things actually have a cohesive conclusion, but there's so many of them I doubt it, sadly. 

[Oompitie]

I’d love to see more mechanics and content inspired by the Hamlet DLC. Like how the great depths worm being inspired by Pugalisk, or how the Inkblights design were inspired by ancient herald. I’d like to see the possibility of bright shades working like the bramble during lush season, maybe the bright shade could do it during spring. Or maybe seeing the pig village getting a rework inspired by the pig city, maybe pig guard set pieces could be seen all around the Deciduous biome to simulate a pig civilisation.

[Evelo]

No.
More.
Skill Trees.
Let's get some big content for everyone!
Also I avoid modding for the most part. There is far too much anime style mods that ruin everything as they clearly don't fit the Don't Starve vibe.

[Walrusst]

Flesh outs of areas like the waterlogged which are single note, making more "Actually who wants to be here" dead ends have interesting renewables to reduce the issue of player locust syndrome. Have more of the areas with low-to mid level-half baked threats be somewhere you want to do work in and loot rather than just being walk through content, make the world  something you can more fully engage in.

Flesh out characters who are half baked still.
 

Capitalize by the exploit fixes/nerfs by complimenting what we lost with interesting content, since the negative space left behind by a bug patch invites interesting possibilities and nods.

More linear story content/hardmode rifts stuff would be fine, buts its a seldom visited area of the game based on my tour of what pubs/other people who sample the game see.
If klei really wants to push it more preparation content, and stuff thats between a raid boss and a seasonal boss (With sane activation methods,) would do you a lot of good.

Most all though.
Better server performance, lag compensation improvements (I know this is hard but this is the most important item.)
Better scrapbook integration to the UI.
Rebalance of player communication items so there isn't strictly a 80% use rate for certain chat system alterations to communicate coordinates.

 

[Swiyss]

4 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

I'd like to see reworks for A New Reign bosses first and foremost. You can probably tell from my signature which one I'd like to get the Crab King treatment before the rest, but Dragonfly, Toadstool, and Bee Queen are still in need minor adjustments. Dragonfly herself is fine as-is (although maybe the enraged attack range shouldn't be substantially bigger than her already big range), but the lavae need to have less HP and be one-or-two-shot by ice staffs if Klei wants not using walls to be viable for most players. Toadstool and Bee Queen should have their sporecaps and grumble bees scale with player count like Klaus's temperature spells do (and the number for one player should be lower than it is now), and Toadstool could use an HP reduction by about 50% to put it in line with the other raid bosses. Klaus can stay untouched because he's the model on which the rest should've been built.

Can I be honest with you? I want Klei to remove the larvae wall cheese. I want them to fix the larvae path finding. I want players to use walls for things like the moonstone event, and the protection of an area from hounds, like they should.

And sure, it is kinda creative to use walls like that, and Klei WOULD be removing some creativity from the game by doing this, but this is just my opinion.

I also think that the backlash would be INSANEEE. People would declare the game dead, a bunch of negative reviews etc.. But it is what it is. Unless they add a boon with an ice staff close to dfly on every world along-side this change, people would go nuts.

And I don't say this in a bad manner too but, toadstool REALLY does NOT NEED A REWORK AT ALL. This guy is COMPLETELY FINE, DO NOT TOUCH HIM. THERE'S NOTHING TO CHANGE THERE.

Bee queen can be VERY EASY TO FIX WITHOUT THE NEED OF A REWORK. All Klei has to do, is to add a new mob into the game that situate somewhere close and easy access in proximity to main land, like a little island that we could get to by walking -like a lake- in autumn, but would close in spring, freeze in winter, and dry in summer. This island would have this mob that would give us a weapon with 100 uses that would create Area of Effect damage around us or the enemy hit, available for everyone.

They don't even need to add this whole island thing as well, just make a tentacle spike upgrade craft with some stingers, and that mace-thing like weapon would be AoE and strong against bq.

And WHY would we need a health increase or mechanic changed by player count? PLEASE KLEI DO NOT DO THIS. Some people simply like to do the SAME FIGHT AS MULTIPLAYER, but ALONE. And this idea would ruin it. That's why mods exist.

The ONLY REASON Klaus spells work like that is because of how the boss works. You're not only fighting klaus, you're fighting krampii and deers too, so it's not really a 1v1 arena locked fight. And larvae + grumble bees are also helping dfly and bq, but they're still a single giant. It's not like Klaus goes to spawn more deers randomly. And also, not every boss should be equal, it's a great thing that they are unique.

And if you REALLY want that, Klei can add a secondary option in the settings menu, allowing for more or less grumble bees to spawn, more or less dragonfly larvae to spawn, and more or less health added to enemies. This option would be OPTIONAL and would NOT CHANGE current gameplay. If you want a lower health bq cause you're playing alone, then just lower her health in settings, perfect.

4 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

I would also like to see an overhaul of the caves. Make the ruins like Don't Starve ruins (less empty boring bridges, more ruins turf and statues and nightmare lights). Add a cave-specific water biome, a cenote of sorts. Add more mobs to the caves, including some neutral ones, to make them feel more alive and to make the various biomes less one-note and outdated-feeling.

Me too

2 hours ago, Walrusst said:

Rebalance of player communication items so there isn't strictly a 80% use rate for certain chat system alterations to communicate coordinates.

 

This is just a community issue. In a perfect world, people would be giving each other completed maps on pubs, lighting flares, using the compass, throwing balloons in the air to show position etc.. The game has a lot to offer in this area but people are lazy and accustomed to too many mods these days.

[Mike23Ua]

Just remember guys, Turn of Tides (the largest and arguably the best update) was in beta for TWO FULL YEARS before it ever released to Xbox & PlayStation.

Flashforward all these content updates later and the only thing that we have gotten that was roughly the same size and scope as that, was probably the Lunar Cave Grotto & Sealed Archives (Forgotten Knowledges update)

We haven’t had a big content rich biome with new mobs since all this Rifts crude begun. Even Moon Quay was a very very tiny island out in the middle of Nowhere.

it takes a lot of time to develop content that’s on par with Turn of Tides, so… hopefully all these months of not doing updates (besides silly skill tree stuff) they’ve been working on another big one.

I doubt it, but I can hope..

[DegenerateFurry]

59 minutes ago, astareus said:

Can I be honest with you? I want Klei to remove the larvae wall cheese. I want them to fix the larvae path finding. I want players to use walls for things like the moonstone event, and the protection of an area from hounds, like they should.

And sure, it is kinda creative to use walls like that, and Klei WOULD be removing some creativity from the game by doing this, but this is just my opinion.

I also think that the backlash would be INSANEEE. People would declare the game dead, a bunch of negative reviews etc.. But it is what it is. Unless they add a boon with an ice staff close to dfly on every world along-side this change, people would go nuts.

Well, yeah, it would kill the game if they started making decisions this bad. It's completely idiotic to suggest that they just fix walls without doing anything to make it more possible to combat lavae. All this'd do is make it so everyone builds a ring of walls around each lava pool instead of a single section of walls with one lava pool in the middle for the lavae to get stuck on, and it'd still make the fight worse for everyone because they'd still have to deal with however many lavae Dragonfly spawns in the center pool the first time they fight her. What's so bad about making the lavae more manageable so that players are less unwilling to engage with them?

1 hour ago, astareus said:

And I don't say this in a bad manner too but, toadstool REALLY does NOT NEED A REWORK AT ALL. This guy is COMPLETELY FINE, DO NOT TOUCH HIM. THERE'S NOTHING TO CHANGE THERE.

Yes there is. His health is completely unreasonable. Literally nobody likes having the fight go on for as long as it does when it's overall mechanically simple, it just gets stale and repetitive and burns too many weather pains. Halve his health even if the honestly-a-bit-too-high-for-anything-but-weather-pain-spam-solo number of sporecaps isn't toned down for solo players.

1 hour ago, astareus said:

Bee queen can be VERY EASY TO FIX WITHOUT THE NEED OF A REWORK. All Klei has to do, is to add a new mob into the game that situate somewhere close and easy access in proximity to main land, like a little island that we could get to by walking -like a lake- in autumn, but would close in spring, freeze in winter, and dry in summer. This island would have this mob that would give us a weapon with 100 uses that would create Area of Effect damage around us or the enemy hit, available for everyone.

...or, they could save themselves a ton of time and just make her spawn less grumbles if there's only one player nearby? Y'know, instead of doing this major content update to fix a flaw with a single boss and that's it.

1 hour ago, astareus said:

They don't even need to add this whole island thing as well, just make a tentacle spike upgrade craft with some stingers, and that mace-thing like weapon would be AoE and strong against bq.

Then you get an easily available early-game weapon that gives powerful AoE to all characters. Congratulations, Wendy now has no niche and everyone's as good as her. You've just ruined what little balance the game had left.

1 hour ago, astareus said:

And WHY would we need a health increase or mechanic changed by player count?

Maybe because a bunch of bosses are too hard to do solo and all of them melt in less than 3 minutes with zero difficulty if you have 3+ moderately okay players (or 6 bad ones)? Have you played this game?

1 hour ago, astareus said:

This is just a community issue. In a perfect world, people would be giving each other completed maps on pubs, lighting flares, using the compass, throwing balloons in the air to show position etc.. The game has a lot to offer in this area but people are lazy and accustomed to too many mods these days.

We don't live in a perfect world, though. Communication costing resources and inventory slots sucks and the reason everyone uses mods to get around it is that nobody likes the way things are. Klei should take a hint and change it.

[Walrusst]

1 hour ago, astareus said:

n a perfect world, people would be giving each other completed maps on pubs, lighting flares, using the compass, throwing balloons in the air to show position etc.. The game has a lot to offer in this area but people are lazy and accustomed to too many mods these days.

A lot of care was put into making it so large categories of fumbly character items have storage for them so they don't block you from the core gameplay of dst.
Inexpensive canvas (Grass) navigators pouches for map marking/communicating items, batch crafts for some of the consumable map markers.... ETC ETC could go a long way towards making the vanilla maping systems more engaging.
After all, if a significant number of powerful character items end up needing storage and better batching to see proper use, the communication items that there is a half a dozen of could likely use it as well.

Course, there is the argument that a pouch like that would likely be skipped, and that would probably be true without a little fudging to make it more generally useful. Say we said it could carry a few items that are one degree removed from the navigation items, like it having a few dedicated slots for tangentially navigation related rod shaped items items like torches (They light the flares after all, and also provide value in being an emergency survival good,) walking canes (It helps you move,) and items of a similar profile and use case.

Some cute interaction where you can decorate flares for colored map markers that last longer, and setting off pretty flares giving a little sanity and now you have a coherent argument as to why you use these items. It comes naturally with a useful storage item, it can be used to help maintain yourself mentally, its good for communication, and you have some storage slots for flares and gubbins in with that pouch that you use to hold your funny goose canes in that woody gave you a few of.

19 minutes ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Well, yeah, it would kill the game if they started making decisions this bad. It's completely idiotic to suggest that they just fix walls without doing anything to make it more possible to combat lavae.

Imagine if the lavae exploded into minerals when you water balooned/ice staffed them. Sure it enrages DFly but the reward is great for doing it...

19 minutes ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Then you get an easily available early-game weapon that gives powerful AoE to all characters. Congratulations, Wendy now has no niche and everyone's as good as her. You've just ruined what little balance the game had left.

If we got aoe on a melee weapon thats early it should be an awkward special action or a swatting move.
Something that has a ready, an aim, and a release and hope you stunned whatever you aimed it enough to let you kite in the aftermath.

The heart of most characters combat should be the fast and default high dps pummel, with the wendies and the wormwoods being the AOE cc kings, but awkward side moves that give you something in exchange for limiting your damage output I approve of. Especially after my scrapshot addiction showed me that awkward right click moves can be fun as all hell.

[lowercase skye]

37 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Just remember guys, Turn of Tides (the largest and arguably the best update) was in beta for TWO FULL YEARS before it ever released to Xbox & PlayStation.

I'm unaware of why it took so long to release on consoles, but the Turn of Tides beta was nowhere near two years, it lasted only 3 months, from May 16, 2019 to August 15, 2019.

[00petar00]

7 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

I would also like to see an overhaul of the caves. Make the ruins like Don't Starve ruins (less empty boring bridges, more ruins turf and statues and nightmare lights). Add a cave-specific water biome, a cenote of sorts. Add more mobs to the caves, including some neutral ones, to make them feel more alive and to make the various biomes less one-note and outdated-feeling.

That's what I am waiting for. Hopefully after the current arc we get cave overhaul because otherwise it makes no sense to have to host another shard, caves are pretty much empty and the important parts could easily be moved to surface which would solve the problem with having a loading screen and use less resources to host. It can be made so it is out of map range that we can explore and we are able to access them the same way as we currently do while cutting 80% of world gen and we would not have any issues with it.

So many cave biomes are completely useless and don't bring anything to the table that you can't get from the surface where you actually have daylight and no sanity drain. Mushtree biomes don't have a use besides a specific strategy to rushing some bosses. What do rocky plains give us? What about bat cave? Why is muddy biome so big? Same with Lunar Grotto, Ancient Archives but at least they offer something.. You can literally cut over 80% of the caves currently and most players wouldn't miss anything.

[Jakepeng99]

Nature enchancements. I have been wanting this for years, and lots of others want it too.

[Swiyss]

9 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Yes there is. His health is completely unreasonable. Literally nobody likes having the fight go on for as long as it does when it's overall mechanically simple, it just gets stale and repetitive and burns too many weather pains. Halve his health even if the honestly-a-bit-too-high-for-anything-but-weather-pain-spam-solo number of sporecaps isn't toned down for solo players.

Ok so he should get reworked like crab king just because of his hp, which is the boss's whole identity. He's a tank.

[gaymime]

i would like new world-gen options like islands or condensed continents or small worlds(for slow comps and consoles) and of course more flora would be lovely even if it has identical resources to existing things or no resources at all

 

as for mods? their transient nature. i don't want to get so attached to a mod i cant do without it then something gets updated/recoded and the mod breaks. i lost my longterm world for over a year because klei updated some code, i have lost so many worlds to changes that i generally now avoid any mod that does substantial alterations

[glooomy]

18 hours ago, glooomy said:

...I might be taking notes...

* I am deff taking notes.

Removed the Other (please specify in your comment) because I think it was confusing and taking the thread in a direction I wasn't expecting it to go in.

Just want to clarify the reasoning behind this thread (and poll) is because I am working on a mod that will be adding new content. I have no intentions on doing anything character-specific or anything to do with the skill-trees nor do I have any interest in reworking current bosses besides potential new loot. I'm talking *new* content (I'm aware everyone is going to have different definitions of what new content is). I didn't want to straight up mention it, risking the thread being moved out of general discussion to the decrepit corners of the mod sections. Tehe!

Love the idea of repurposing DLC mechanics/assets into DST through a new light and I agree the caves could use a lot more. Nature enhancements are deff in the works (flora included)! And I agree on reducing the issue of "player locust syndrome" and making the world something you can more fully engage in. I will keep all this in mind moving forward~

4 minutes ago, gaymime said:

as for mods? their transient nature. i don't want to get so attached to a mod i cant do without it then something gets updated/recoded and the mod breaks. i lost my longterm world for over a year because klei updated some code, i have lost so many worlds to changes that i generally now avoid any mod that does substantial alterations

This is an EXTREMELY good point, thank you for mentioning it. You're right, it is a possibility that mods will be abandoned over time. I'll also keep this in mind.

[hyoton123]

37 minutes ago, gaymime said:

as for mods? their transient nature. i don't want to get so attached to a mod i cant do without it then something gets updated/recoded and the mod breaks. i lost my longterm world for over a year because klei updated some code, i have lost so many worlds to changes that i generally now avoid any mod that does substantial alterations

Yeah, and even UI mods can break easily. Ive slowly been pruning back on mods in general.

 

EDIT: content i’d like: updates to pigs and pig “cities,” and something in the big empty dark parts of the caves.  Generally speaking I think the ocean is still a tad too big (or our speed to move in it too fiddly) even though it has an awful lot of content now. I think things are in an ok state though

[Frosty_Mentos]

I like the new content, just because I like Klei's released DST content in general. But I feel like it's all too... The same? Weapons, enemies, bosses, enemies, bosses, enemies bosses

I just want more QoL, world generations and challenges.

I think this game could do with having content related to challenges and different world gens. We got a lot of content already and enough biomes to do something with them, just gotta make something of it that would make sense and either be hard or fun to survive in. People made custom worlds just for that. Shipwrecked and Hamlet mods exist now for that need of exploration and variation.

[Swiyss]

If I could put anything into dst right now, it would be some kind of upgrade. A table where you can use wagstaff or wilson's creations to study and research the very nature of items, like the properties of pig skin and why do pigs transform in full moons, the properties of moon glass and why it petrifies at cold temperatures but burns and it's flammable at high temperatures etc.. Then we would be able to study the very nature of nightmare fuel as well etc..

Then, new upgrades could be attached to existing items. Like, let's say I don't wanna use the maul or the reaper, let's say I wanna use a dark sword, but it doesn't have planar. Then I take like a dreadstone handle appliance, which would cost some research points at this upgrade table to make, and I would apply it to the dark sword. Then I could take a pure horror attachment and forge my night blade in it, making it drip pure horror at the very edge, making it deadly, and consuming a lot of sanity to hold.

The same can be done to glass cutters, and the glass axe.

Not only that, but we would be able to study and research the very nature of snurtle's shells, and break it into pieces to create our own armor upgrade which would be added to regular armor, making them more resistant (more armor hp). This would make us go out of our way to search for snurtles only to get those broken shells to upgrade our armor.

Pig skin could be mixed with infused moon glass to create a reaction, consuming the glass to obtain Werepig skin, which would be an upgrade to pig skin.

There's just so so so many great ideas that could come from upgradable gear, like making old items repairable, or adding new features to them. And it wouldn't make us completely stop using gold tools etc... It would be similar to something in minecraft, where you need gold, diamonds, ancient debris AND to raid the bastion to obtain the netherite armor. This feature would remove the problem of us abandoning gold tools, football helmets, thulecite suits etc...

Give us more freedom, what If I wanna fight planar enemies with a thulecite club cause I think it looks cooler than a void reaper or a brightshade sword? Why am I forced to choose between those 2 and completely get rid of these old lovely items that has been in the game for so long?

Why can't I take a tentacle spike and put planar on it with a research lab? This freedom, I can only dream of it.

[gaymime]

13 hours ago, Walrusst said:

Imagine if the lavae exploded into minerals when you water balooned/ice staffed them. Sure it enrages DFly but the reward is great for doing it...

ok, so i like this, like, a _lot_. i would be invested in larvae if they had a loot pool of 1 cooked morsel and a random mineral(not just gems though or there would be incentive to draw out a fight in pubs and potentially sabotage people just wanting the furnace.) if it is unlikely but potentially a thing to get a gem then taking out one or two larvae is now something a decent fighter might consider or a farmer might take into account when prepping for a grind at dfly

[Swiyss]

And this idea would be perfect to expand upon, similar to the Reap What you Sow update, which is very detailed. This upgrade idea would tie everything together, and would add so many possibilities, not every gameplay would be equal, not every world would look the same. Right now, we go into streamers livestreams, and all we see is everyone using the same old brightshade stuff. It's stale at this point. Why can't I have an end game thulecite gear repairable with a crab king attachment and focused on doing more damage to sea creatures? Why can't I have a Werepig Hambat with a Werepig Football Helmet with infused moon shard research that would make it deal more damage to shadows? Seriously, this could be expanded indefinitely, and it would make us go out of our way to farm different attachments, it would look so so so so so so so so cool. Like a big furnace, and we would forge new items in it, items that cost adventures to new places to obtain, and these items would allow us to dash maybe. This would be a great opportunity to add forge into the game.

[Walrusst]

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

ok, so i like this, like, a _lot_. i would be invested in larvae if they had a loot pool of 1 cooked morsel and a random mineral(not just gems though or there would be incentive to draw out a fight in pubs and potentially sabotage people just wanting the furnace.) if it is unlikely but potentially a thing to get a gem then taking out one or two larvae is now something a decent fighter might consider or a farmer might take into account when prepping for a grind at dfly

Gems coming from them would be a bit strange, especially given there is an ocean crop that gives gems.

I was thinking more how ancient guardian causes gold/marble flint to rain from the heavens so you can at least probably make tools to continue the fight.

A REALLY Extra and probably unnecessary implementation would be giving lavae a special material that can be turned to fire resistant/berserk resistant armor at the alchemy engine so failed attempts at dragonfly can be converted into gear that makes dragonfly easier to fight on repeat attempts if you do fail but beat the lavae.

[JaxckLl]

There's four areas that should be the priority moving forward

• Refresh of the basic resource flow to allow for proper ocean exploration in the early game. Currently the game goes Twigs, Flint, & Grass -> Gold -> Science Machine & Alchemy Engine -> Silk -> Rest of the game. This basic flow hasn't changed in over 10 years. The problem is that this is a substantial amount of playtime even when speedrunning (most speedruns have 60-80% of the run in this flow before quickly jumping to whatever boss is being chased), and it blocks off almost all of the cool mechanics Klei has added over the years. Sailing is technically possible earlier, but you don't have access to Masts or Fishing Rods since those are gated behind Silk. What's odd is also how little Silk matters as the game progresses. It's a threshold rather than a constantly demanded resource (like Twigs & Gold for tools, Stone & Flint for roads, or Rope & Logs for buildings & Bundling Wraps). What I'd like to see is a rework to the Alchemy Engine so that there is a larger separation between it & the Science Machine AND adding in a new refined resource, Twine, that substitutes for Silk with Fishing Rods, Masts, & Bird Traps. This would allow players to access a near complete boat basically immediately (only needing to gather a fair number of logs) or to move directly into Agriculture in Science Machine tier.
• Fill out the empty biomes with their own ecosystems. The Rocky biome on the surface, but mostly this concerns the many, many cave biomes that are lacking unique mechanics & resources. The basic cave biome is just the surface with Bunnymen, which is bleh (and flavourfully doesn't really make much sense). The Mud biomes are pretty good, but the underground rocky & the Guano biomes are awful. I want the caves to feel unique from the surface, but not necessarily oppressively hostile as it is at the moment.
• Make basic nuissance enemies more interesting to engage. The biggest issue is Spiders. They swarm in massive quantities and are functionally necessary to fight as Silk is so centralizing. The swarming easily creates performance issues with the game (and is the reason why Webber is banned on most public servers) but with any kind of splash damage becomes trivial to actually fight. Second to spiders is Bats. They're fine. The circling mechanic is good, but they don't offer enough of a threat to the player when encountered in the Cave. Giant Bats with some kind of swooping attack, along with the crowd of smaller bats would make for a very interesting fight. Marotters are excellent and the direction nuissance enemies should go. Fewer larger enemies are almost invariably more fun to fight in this game than massive walls of tiny enemies that lag out the game and produce endless waves of cheap resources.
• Refresh old systems with new content or rebalances. Agriculture could do with some new crops (animated giant crops maybe?). Crockpot dishes should have a balance pass. Raw food that can be easily scavenged needs a nerf. Old boss fights should be touched, not necessarily with entirely new mechanics but certainly better scaled to the players who are actually fighting (Bee Queen shouldn't always leave a honey trail but instead should have a honey blast attack in some phases for example. Regular Toadstool should have less health so a low-player count fight isn't so tedious. Klauses deer shouldn't flank him so tightly so characters who depend on minions can fight him without accidentally triggering Enraged and losing all drops). Some new fishes with unique properities/mechanics would be fun (caves could really do with some lakes). The rifts are sort of this, but as it's content tied to beating endgame bosses it's not super accessible for most players. Yet another new boss isn't as interesting as taking an existing area of the game that's become dull and giving it a touch up.