Problem: How to keep new players engaged?

[Walrusst]

Goal synthesis aids, small interesting memorable events, better information conveyance, and frustration reductions that aren't too buffing are really the golden formula.

The playerbase has exploded recently, but if they keep up with it it could do so even more.

[HowlVoid]

That was the whole point of skill trees, to reinforce engagement and give a sense of progression.

Suffice to say a lot of skills they implemented make no sense to serve that purpose. 

I will add theres little you can do to "revamp" the collecting and crafting game to be less... collecting and crafting.

[Hollow soul 3]

I wish beating bosses sped up the insight. Anything to make it feel progression based

[Echsrick]

get them influrencers to play alot of the game...works for other games seemingly aswell so why not this?

[DVGMedia]

It really is kind of funny to see how new players don't see all the things that they need to do yet as you play more and understand what you need to do you know there's always too much to do

[Mike23Ua]

2 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

That was the whole point of skill trees, to reinforce engagement and give a sense of progression.

Suffice to say a lot of skills they implemented make no sense to serve that purpose. 

I will add theres little you can do to "revamp" the collecting and crafting game to be less... collecting and crafting.

I don’t know, but what I do know is that I did not pay over 500$ for a fancy next Gen gaming console to still play games that look like my Gameboy Advance would have no problem playing them. This seriously agitates me, and it’s also why I appreciate when a company will go back and just completely overhaul the graphics, mechanics etc of their game.

Yes I’m TOTALLY Comparing DST to Minecraft, more specifically the Spring to Life Update & Vibrant Visuals.

Theres just this satisfying joy I get from watching tree leaves fall in MC and gather on the ground knowing that it used to not do that and looked highly boring.

Thats something DST could do with its own world, update art assets of existing mobs, resources etc…

Like for example, add new variants to the “gold ore” block- We all know exactly what that looks like and where to go to find it by now… but what if it was covered in mossy vines or something abandoned out near a waterlogged biome?

This game needs a massive next Gen visual upgrade, even the small things like how winter snow collects or melts away etc… 

Take my friends for example: The vibrant visuals update to Minecraft adds ZERO New content, but they’re still excited to play a very different more updated visually version of the game when that update drops.

[HowlVoid]

26 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

I don’t know, but what I do know is that I did not pay over 500$ for a fancy next Gen gaming console to still play games that look like my Gameboy Advance would have no problem playing them. This seriously agitates me, and it’s also why I appreciate when a company will go back and just completely overhaul the graphics, mechanics etc of their game.

Yes I’m TOTALLY Comparing DST to Minecraft, more specifically the Spring to Life Update & Vibrant Visuals.

Theres just this satisfying joy I get from watching tree leaves fall in MC and gather on the ground knowing that it used to not do that and looked highly boring.

Thats something DST could do with its own world, update art assets of existing mobs, resources etc…

Like for example, add new variants to the “gold ore” block- We all know exactly what that looks like and where to go to find it by now… but what if it was covered in mossy vines or something abandoned out near a waterlogged biome?

This game needs a massive next Gen visual upgrade, even the small things like how winter snow collects or melts away etc… 

Take my friends for example: The vibrant visuals update to Minecraft adds ZERO New content, but they’re still excited to play a very different more updated visually version of the game when that update drops.

I will take dst's update cycle over Minecraft's higher resolution any day. Mojang updates the game like what once a year just to add a mob that farts particles? No thanks.

Also, snow melting would need to be coded in. I think you're misinterpreting what a visual overhaul is. Environmental effects are not simply a visual graphics update.

Though more environmental effects would be welcome to add ambiance, a graphical update is not needed for that.

[Hollow soul 3]

2 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

I will take dst's update cycle over Minecraft's higher resolution any day. Mojang updates the game like what once a year just to add a mob that farts particles? No thanks.

Also, snow melting would need to be coded in. I think you're misinterpreting what a visual overhaul is. Environmental effects are not simply a visual graphics update.

Though more environmental effects would be welcome to add ambiance, a graphical update is not needed for that.

Yeah, real apples to oranges. Mojang has different resources to work with. It's not really fair to compare. There are plenty of games that do a lot more with a lot less though.

Xbox One stand alone experience, it's pretty rough sometimes. It's as important to manage game preference as it is to prepare for seasonal hazards. Keep your spider nests low, burn away gear you've outgrown, clear away some biomes, keep stuff off the ground, use restores on things like paths so that you don't have too much stashed, and include some S P A C E in that base to lower the amount of objects on screen. It's a lot to juggle to make sure the game stays fun for everyone in the group.

If you know how to manage it, it's a fun game. When you're coming in fresh, it's a real problem. At first you think you can just play through it. "It's not so bad" you'll think. You'll die to lag fairly often, and since it's not a skill based death you feel cheated by the game a little. You ask for a roll back, because it wasn't your fault. The host, who's lag is less severe, gets annoyed but obliges. It makes parts of the game unapproachable, because "with this lag? There's just no way." It slowly gets boring because you hit a wall, but if you just prepare a bit more, maybe you can overcome it. You keep attempting but you can't progress, and you know it's not a skill issue. Boredom slowly turns into disgust, and disdain because man, it doesn't run like crap, it crawls. It will absolutely kill the experience over time to a point where you do not want to come back. On long turm worlds, you absolutely must take measures to reduce this as a player if the devs can't do anything to fix it. 

Unless you're playing on the switch. You can't fix that as a player. Three berries and a emoting Maxwell will lag out the server. Just don't play with others on the switch. It can not handle the online functions as is. The 4 player cap is 3 too high.

[ColdHeaven]

7 hours ago, Walrusst said:

Goal synthesis aids, small interesting memorable events, better information conveyance, and frustration reductions that aren't too buffing are really the golden formula.

The playerbase has exploded recently, but if they keep up with it it could do so even more.

The player base has exploded? How do you know or has noticed this

[Walrusst]

Steam charts.

[Szczuku]

Idk, how could this almost 9 year old game, whose playerbase has been steadily growing, keep new players engaged?

[Gashzer]

18 minutes ago, Szczuku said:

Idk, how could this almost 9 year old game, whose playerbase has been steadily growing, keep new players engaged?

I think its more a case that if people make it through that initial massive hurdle they stay around. As I said DST is good at making people stay once they give it a fair chance. But I know a lot of people who quit the game after 3 to 4 hours and that was that.

[Szczuku]

20 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

I think its more a case that if people make it through that initial massive hurdle they stay around. As I said DST is good at making people stay once they give it a fair chance. But I know a lot of people who quit the game after 3 to 4 hours and that was that.

Still, the playerbase has been steadily growing for the past 9 years, clearly the status quo is good enough

[Gashzer]

Just now, Szczuku said:

Still, the playerbase has been steadily growing for the past 9 years, clearly the status quo is good enough

Well Klei making things clearer, easier and more convenient is boosting the number of players. 

The status quo of making DST easier is working and they should continue this.

[IAmAFurrz]

if the games gameplay as well as numerous characters dont appeal to someone then its just not a game for them. simple as that

[Gashzer]

31 minutes ago, IAmAFurrz said:

if the games gameplay as well as numerous characters dont appeal to someone then its just not a game for them. simple as that

The average person doesnt have 10s of hours to try out every character and also learn the game.

[qwp18]

11 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I don’t know, but what I do know is that I did not pay over 500$ for a fancy next Gen gaming console to still play games that look like my Gameboy Advance would have no problem playing them. This seriously agitates me, and it’s also why I appreciate when a company will go back and just completely overhaul the graphics, mechanics etc of their game.

Yes I’m TOTALLY Comparing DST to Minecraft, more specifically the Spring to Life Update & Vibrant Visuals.

Theres just this satisfying joy I get from watching tree leaves fall in MC and gather on the ground knowing that it used to not do that and looked highly boring.

Thats something DST could do with its own world, update art assets of existing mobs, resources etc…

Like for example, add new variants to the “gold ore” block- We all know exactly what that looks like and where to go to find it by now… but what if it was covered in mossy vines or something abandoned out near a waterlogged biome?

This game needs a massive next Gen visual upgrade, even the small things like how winter snow collects or melts away etc… 

Take my friends for example: The vibrant visuals update to Minecraft adds ZERO New content, but they’re still excited to play a very different more updated visually version of the game when that update drops.

I don't think these are specific to very expensive next Gen consoles. New games that look like they're from the "Gameboy advanced" are just games with their own art style, and that's a good thing. Not every game needs to look realistic and have super accurate shadows and simulated leaf particles. Dst has its charm and unique artsyle, and while maybe a texture here and there could be changed to look a little cleaner, I think them catering towards high end expensive gear which a lot of people don't even have access to, would be horrid. It'd lose it's charm and just be changing the art for the sake of making it look more modern, which is soul-less and disgusting. If I wanted to play video games for realistic graphics I'd just go outside. 

A part of why I'm excited for the graphic overhaul for minecraft is because the game kinda... Just looks bad. It doesn't even have an art style, and things weirdly mesh and mix in ways they don't feel like they should. 

[Laguna]

You taught her the basics, right? 

When I started, it was RoG and the most difficult things for me were the basics, like what you can eat raw, what you have to cook, what you absolutely cannot eat. I think the only thing I knew about the game was that it was about survival and that you couldn't stay in the dark lol.

Sanity was a mystery to me, I didn't understand how it worked and I didn't last more than 3 or 4 days. I kind of lost interest and stopped playing for a while. But when I came back, I did some research, it improved 100% and I was able to figure out the rest.

[Edible Coal]

13 hours ago, DVGMedia said:

It really is kind of funny to see how new players don't see all the things that they need to do yet as you play more and understand what you need to do you know there's always too much to do

veterans: "how can u be sitting in base next to the fire pit and do nothing in winter????"
newbies: "huh?"

[The Starver]

17 hours ago, Gashzer said:

split screen on our moderately decent size 55inch TV all the icons are very very hard for her to read

I play split screen on the console itself. I wish I had a 55-inch screen!

[Gashzer]

1 hour ago, Laguna said:

You taught her the basics, right? 

When I started, it was RoG and the most difficult things for me were the basics, like what you can eat raw, what you have to cook, what you absolutely cannot eat. I think the only thing I knew about the game was that it was about survival and that you couldn't stay in the dark lol.

Sanity was a mystery to me, I didn't understand how it worked and I didn't last more than 3 or 4 days. I kind of lost interest and stopped playing for a while. But when I came back, I did some research, it improved 100% and I was able to figure out the rest.

Teaching her the basics fast was a double edged sword.. yes it saved countless hours of trial and error/YouTube videos but it also encouraged her to take on big fights she wasn't ready for. Like dfly, which i struggle to do myself on consoles, now add split screen freezyness and underprep to the mix... 

A few more wee mini boss encounters to ramp up experience in fighting longer and longer fights wouldn't go amiss.

Nintendo switch just updated so ill test it out an try to convince her to give it another go.

56 minutes ago, The Starver said:

I play split screen on the console itself. I wish I had a 55-inch screen!

Jesus that is insane!

Yeah nah man get yourself something to dock to, 55-inch tv's aren't the most expensive these days. Got mine on sale and it's the perfect size for my living room.

[cropo]

Well unfortunately I think a big part of it is you have to really be in the mindset to play the game in order to stick with it. It's not the kind of whacky streamer game where you can scream and make bad jokes in front of an audience with 4 other people laughing and derping around everywhere.  You gotta play it, think "wow I want to get better at this" and start actually getting better at it and if you're not willing to put in that work either through extensive out-game research or trial and error there is little that is going to keep you hooked. We should honestly be asking the question whether or not the game is even for those people at that point.


When the game was first released I was hooked on it, even when it was far more barren and pre-RoG and it was just Klei's new game they added on like, Christmas or close to that?(that's when it showed up for me on Steam). At that point I did a lot of playing and researching because I was passionate about playing it, and DS is a game that kind of requires that passion to really enjoy it.

The only way I've been able to keep people playing is to extensively hand-hold them through an entire session, telling them EXACTLY what to do and what to craft, and they had to be patient enough to accept that learning-tax in order to stay with the game. A lot of other games in this genre are more focused on shooting things and the food is just a trophy for being good at pvp, you kind of have to opt-in for a survival challenge, but in DST you have to opt OUT of it.

The de-obfuscation of more stuff is definitely a good thing to me, being able to have a poke-dex entry of everything I encounter in game is something I wish was in the game from the beginning, but I don't think there is truly going to be a way to "hook" the average wide-eyed gamer into the game without destroying it.

[Edible Coal]

we need to add battle pass, daily rewards, leader board (satire)

[Laguna]

27 minutes ago, Gashzer said:

Teaching her the basics fast was a double edged sword.. yes it saved countless hours of trial and error/YouTube videos but it also encouraged her to take on big fights she wasn't ready for. Like dfly, which i struggle to do myself on consoles, now add split screen freezyness and underprep to the mix... 

When DST came out on PS4, it was a joy, because I already knew a lot about the game and could play with my daughter on split screen.

She loved it and at first I kind of carried her around to gain experience, to learn the basic mechanics and such. Nowadays, she saves me from situations I get myself into.
And every now and then we play again; and since I got a PS5, I also bought a monitor so she can play on the PS4 and I can play on the PS5, and it's been really fun.

Every time we face a boss that she doesn't know yet, I explain the attack pattern, what our strategy will be, and it's been going well so far.

The bad thing is that we only play on the weekends, so there's still a long way to go, and I set the goal of defeating all the bosses no matter how long it takes.

[Gashzer]

18 minutes ago, Laguna said:

When DST came out on PS4, it was a joy, because I already knew a lot about the game and could play with my daughter on split screen.

She loved it and at first I kind of carried her around to gain experience, to learn the basic mechanics and such. Nowadays, she saves me from situations I get myself into.
And every now and then we play again; and since I got a PS5, I also bought a monitor so she can play on the PS4 and I can play on the PS5, and it's been really fun.

Every time we face a boss that she doesn't know yet, I explain the attack pattern, what our strategy will be, and it's been going well so far.

The bad thing is that we only play on the weekends, so there's still a long way to go, and I set the goal of defeating all the bosses no matter how long it takes.

Yeah, i think that having 2 consoles is the best solution, gonna wait until the switch 2 comes out an hopefully it will be cross-compatible with switch 1