(Poll) Community perception towards Pearl's quests

[Guille6785]

There was a thread recently asking why rushing Pearl never managed to garner the same reputation in the community as rushing the ruins, and I would like to know how the forums feel about her quests in general.

[lowercase skye]

The options on this poll are wayyy too specific imo, personally I would recommend wording poll answers way more vaguely and general rather than trying to add a bunch of specific details to them. I can't answer any question here accurately because they all have a bunch of additional thoughts and opinions attached that don't line up with my own.

[Guille6785]

1 minute ago, lowercase skye said:

The options on this poll are wayyy too specific imo, personally I would recommend wording poll answers way more vaguely and general rather than trying to add a bunch of specific details to them. I can't answer any question here accurately because they all have a bunch of additional thoughts and opinions attached that don't line up with my own.

I'm actually just baiting people into giving me more specific feedback by correcting me on exactly this

[HowlVoid]

I wish she was a separate thing.

I also wish we developed her island waaaaaay more.

Give her a kitchen that we can use, and where she can occasionally bake us cookies.

Give her a small garden.

Let her rent us a room in her house.

Let her teleport us once every few days with the lazy deserter.

 

Really let her feel like a part of the game, a part of the crew, that's it's own stand alone content. Cause right now she's not an npc, she's a walking crafting station.

[Mr Giggio]

I just gave up a world today cuz it took me 10 days of spring and 5 of summer  to do it and I ended up noticing I skipped Moose/Goose hunt due the amount of days sailing till I found cookie cutters. 
To me the cookie cutters are the part it gets sketchy. It can take forever sometimes, throw me off a lot spending buncha days clicking row and thats it nothing else. Im aware green magic can help us throught it but sometimes you just dont have enough to spare. Sadge.

[Ridley]

I don't rush, I just like Pearl because I find helping her intrinsically fun, sorta like Stardew Valley. It doesn't really bother me that her rewards don't interest me, but I think my refusal to fish turns the Lunar questline into a slog. More kinds of quests would add to my enjoyment of Pearl. I'd also accept the quest item coming sooner with more lore/rewards for continuing to help her.

Above all, please ban Deadly Brightshades from that island.

[Guille6785]

7 minutes ago, Mr Giggio said:

I just gave up a world today cuz it took me 10 days of spring and 5 of summer  to do it and I ended up noticing I skipped Moose/Goose hunt due the amount of days sailing till I found cookie cutters. 
To me the cookie cutters are the part it gets sketchy. It can take forever sometimes, throw me off a lot spending buncha days clicking row and thats it nothing else. Im aware green magic can help us throught it but sometimes you just dont have enough to spare. Sadge.

I really wish they were replaced with broken shells instead but I'm pretty sure people would complain because that would make cookie cutter shells have 1 less use and clearly that's unacceptable

[GrapeVruit]

She's definitely my least favorite part of the lunar quest line. Having to do a bunch of chores that are boring, tedious, and time locked to certain seasons just to unlock the fun part of the quest line is such a drag. It also takes me out of fun parts the game. Instead of fighting monsters, braving the elements, and tending to my base camp, I gotta sail all the way out to the middle of the boonies just so I can do some flipping chores. Isn't that why we play games? To avoid doing chores?

[Walrusst]

I just want more tasks that don't feel like mindless slogs but do feel like I'm interacting with something interesting/unusual.

Scaled furnace/Bigger than average tree being two I want. (The bigger than average tree being simplified, like planting the tree nut and leaving her glommer for a while for example.)

• Bundles of thanks have figs, rarely tree jam after the tree.

Being able to trade an X marks the spot treasure with the monkey queen for something of pearls back.

Being able to dock kit bridge between her island and another smaller island that got cut off and has her garden.

• Bundle of thanks has a wide pool of random seeds she can give now. The garden now has in season plants where she won't be upset if you don't take many.

A lot of little things where different situational opportunities lead to me doing different strategies for maxing her out in different worlds.

Since whats bothersome about her is how exact her points are. i know what I'm doing every world and its a cumbersome 16 inventory space haul every time at an exact timing because there is only two windows where it doesn't take fishing.   (Hi rainy days/post spring.)
 

[lowercase skye]

53 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

I'm actually just baiting people into giving me more specific feedback by correcting me on exactly this

Fair enough! Here's my more specific answers then:

• Do you enjoy the process of doing Pearl's quests, independent of any rewards for doing so?

I enjoy the actual gameplay of doing Pearl's tasks a lot, but the reward at the end is a very important carrot on a stick for making me want to do them. It's like how the gameplay of going to the ruins and killing the Guardian is absolutely fun on its own, but the fact that you're getting a big chest of rewards for doing it is an important motivator to make you have that fun experience in the first place.

• What are your primary reasons for doing Pearl's quests?

Needing to do it for getting to Celestial Champion/Lunar Rifts is definitely a big one, but there's another one I honestly value just as much if not more, which isn't actually an option in the poll at all: giving her the cracked pearl after fighting Crab King makes message bottles have a 100% chance of creating a treasure! That's a big thing that makes me want to do Pearl's tasks quickly, so I can get to treasure hunting ASAP.

I also like to get her friendship to 6 to buy Stupefying Lures if I want to fish early on, but later I'll often be doing that 1 Bottle > 3x Fish Food trade for use with ocean trawlers.

• Do you believe Pearl could stand to have her questlines become more accessible (fewer quests required to obtain the pearl, more easy tasks like the lureplant task, fewer resources needed to build the house, etc.)

I think she's entirely fine in this regard, with the one exception being that I'd like it if they were to add just ooone more non-fishing task to complete in Autumn. Something out of the way enough that it doesn't feel like a free additional point, but still exists and can be played around in order to avoid fishing/the weird double chair thing. I wouldn't want her simplified too terribly much, as I do think being a long-term goal in more standard slower gameplay is very interesting, but just one more thing one can do when trying to get the pearl as fast as possible would be nice. TBH I'd also like it if the Autumn rain were more consistent but that feels like way too big of a change for just this one part of the game.

• Do you believe Pearl should give more incentives to complete her tasks independently from the lunar questline?

I think she already does! Her fishing items, pinchin' winch, and the guaranteed treasures after completing her tasks are all very good rewards that are off to the side of the rest of the questline, and completing her house will also naturally push you to go to a salt shoal, both getting you enough salt for a salt box and also probably finding a couple other ocean landmarks while looking for it. I wouldn't be averse to more, but she's already got a lot.

[Dingle]

One or two more possible autumn points would be nice, simply because there's little to no flexibility right now. I'm doing it the same way every single time, unless I luck out and get a heavy fallounder.

58 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

I really wish they were replaced with broken shells instead but I'm pretty sure people would complain because that would make cookie cutter shells have 1 less use and clearly that's unacceptable

I didn't think of this. Removing the need to find cookie cutters to get her first house stage would make things a lot less awful. Though the "they usually spawn southwest" trick helps a lot, it's not infallible.

I was thinking a way to find them reliably would be nice. But not needing to find them at all sounds even better.

[Guille6785]

2 hours ago, Dingle said:

One or two more possible autumn points would be nice, simply because there's little to no flexibility right now. I'm doing it the same way every single time, unless I luck out and get a heavy fallounder.

I didn't think of this. Removing the need to find cookie cutters to get her first house stage would make things a lot less awful. Though the "they usually spawn southwest" trick helps a lot, it's not infallible.

I was thinking a way to find them reliably would be nice. But not needing to find them at all sounds even better.

I'd also like to rant about the fact that the house requires 10 moonrock instead of 5 now (if you didn't know, back when they reworked the house requirements to no longer require cactus flowers they doubled the amount of moonrock required for no reason, it used to be 5 before). This sounds inconsequential but the chance of getting 10 moonrock from the mosaic biome, even including the statues around the moonstone, is very low and 90% of the time you will have to go to either the archives or the lunar island in order to get enough moonrock for a first autumn pearl, which was honestly a really unnecessary thing for Klei to do since what used to be a quick trip to mosaic in most cases is now a 10+ minute trip to an area that you'll have to return to later anyway for the rest of the lunar questline

Klei pls revert the moonrock cost back to 5, this benefits nobody

[gaymime]

unfortunately i couldn't participate in the poll. most of the questions are incredibly leading and presupposes that you wouldn't play the game because you enjoy the story or the character and so leaves out entirely the option to want to do things because you like pearl or want her to be happy or enjoy role-playing in dst x_x

[Guille6785]

15 minutes ago, gaymime said:

unfortunately i couldn't participate in the poll. most of the questions are incredibly leading and presupposes that you wouldn't play the game because you enjoy the story or the character and so leaves out entirely the option to want to do things because you like pearl or want her to be happy or enjoy role-playing in dst x_x

that was included in the "for fun" options

[GenomeSquirrel]

1 Hate everything involving Pearl, I also have a low opinion of lunar content as a whole, both pre and post, but especially pre

2 The only rewards of hers I enjoy are the shells and turf

3 I feel Pearl has a few fundamental problems

She lives in a remote tiny island, instead of something like PK which is easy to locate, has a lot of resources, has space to build, and the convenience of giving an umbrella to e.g.

Ocean Fishing is badly designed and badly efficient

The Ocean still feels unfinished

4 Incentives can create motivation, but it will still be at the expense of drudgery,

do I pick yes because I like having more stuff, or is it no because not doing engaging with it is a better way to spend my time

I guess there isn't a version close to my reasoning of no so ...

[cropo]

If I had the option to literally kill her to get her to drop the pinchin winch and pearl while forfeiting anything else she could give I would do it.

[Frosty_Mentos]

I think Pearl is decent enough in providing enough shells as well as fishing related stuff. I do think that Pearl's fishing quest should be slightly easier tho and not require super heavy fish past first time doing that quest.

I do think that fishing alone should have more things to do with fishing to be a challenge to you and your boat. I think Pearl should have a second quest line sometime in order to hunt for some kinda massive sea monster.

[Arcwell]

Just gonna answer each question individually because I don't feel like the poll answers reflect my opinions (at least in the case of Q4).

1. Do you enjoy the process of doing Pearl's quests, independent of any rewards for doing so?
Kinda? I wouldn't do Pearl's quests if they weren't required for CC, but I don't dislike needing to do so.

2. What are your primary reasons for doing Pearl's quests?
CC questline, that's it.

3. Do you believe Pearl could stand to have her questlines become more accessible?
Sure, nothing wrong with giving more options.

4. Do you believe Pearl should give more incentives to complete her tasks independently from the lunar questline?
Entirely depends on how it's implemented. Generally speaking, if the incentive is related to Pearl I would probably support it, if not I probably would not. As an example, I'm not a huge fan of how sawhorse is tied to ruins content when that has nothing to do with Pearl or ocean content (although the extra quest option is nice, admittedly). I would likely support an incentive being tied to the Moon Quay island because those are both ocean content and can reasonably be done in tandem.

[gaymime]

17 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

that was included in the "for fun" options

understood and for the second question that is a close enough answer to what i would give to work for me, but question 3 and question 4 don't have "for fun" options. i think her questline is perfectly functional and fine and it doesnt feel like a grind to me so i cant really agree with any of the options since i have to pick a "tell one truth and one lie"option, i also don't do her quests -for- the rewards so i cant really say whether or not the rewards are good enough or need to be better i simply don't know and i am not the kind of player who would be motivated by that anyway.

i am one of those slow plodding players who uses the winch a lot when i get it but i dont seek it out specifically and aside from getting the baubles unlocked once for a base decoration idea i had and the sawhorse twice to use the tables & chairs and the pearl once for the celestial crown i've never planned on doing her tasks for a specific reason. when i find her i give her stuff when i am able, usually over the span of the first two years and mostly on my way to or from a different task. basically i play the exact opposite way that you do. i take advantage of all the time allotted to those trapped in eternity to do things at a rate that lets me maintain a level of relaxation work in the real world never gave me and my heart goes out to an old lady who lives alone with no friends or family to keep her company. i've known too many people like pearl in my life

 

100% i think your "bait" worked well. i am pretty sure i way overshared the thought-process behind my gaming philosophy and why i have 3k+ hours yet i never play the back half of the game x''D

18 hours ago, Mr Giggio said:

I just gave up a world today cuz it took me 10 days of spring and 5 of summer  to do it and I ended up noticing I skipped Moose/Goose hunt due the amount of days sailing till I found cookie cutters. 
To me the cookie cutters are the part it gets sketchy. It can take forever sometimes, throw me off a lot spending buncha days clicking row and thats it nothing else. Im aware green magic can help us throught it but sometimes you just dont have enough to spare. Sadge.

if getting sunken treasure wasnt so rng heavy i would suggest bottle hunting but i have spent 15 days getting 6-7 chests and also spent 15 days only getting 2 chests so that probably doesnt help at all

18 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

giving her the cracked pearl after fighting Crab King makes message bottles have a 100% chance of creating a treasure! That's a big thing that makes me want to do Pearl's tasks quickly, so I can get to treasure hunting ASAP.

wait, wait, what? ok, that is something i did not actually know. i mean, makes sense but still i whiffed entirely on that that one

[Kacpert25]

I saw an idea once where each character would have a unique quest for Pearl to complete. It would be an interesting idea to add more choice in quests for her, and also more variety to that part of the game depending on the character you're playing.

[Gashzer]

Pearls quest would be made more enjoyable if we had Walani and her surfboard ported over. Walani would have a niche use as the only character able to use shipwrecked sailing in DST. Making getting to pearls island super convenient 

[Szczuku]

I don't mind them, they are more or less stuff that a player not focused on getting boss' loot asap would find the time to complete at a leisurely pace

[WilsonHiggs]

I think they are a good idea that can be improved. At the end, we end up going to the island with a bunch of things and complete all the task or most of them in one go. 

This wouldn't be a problem if wasn't because is most of the interaction we have with her happens when we try to obtain the pearl. I wish we could help her after we get it but right now she only give us bundle of thanks by doing a couple of things. Adding more tasks pre peal so is less repetitive to get the pearl per world and more interactions and behavior would make her feel less flat and simple

Since she and pig king are the only non character exclusive npcs and she was developed as a npc to interact, would be cool if she was more complex

 

I understand that some people don't like her and how people who rush in fresh worlds often can feel like is a repetitive and boring tasks. One big problem is how bad we can control rain. They should add something expensive to call and stop the rain. Something made of gems since their value is being downgrade with each new update so the rng component is reduced. Also the sailing camera should have more zoom out and the horizon expandinator should have a bigger effect in land and sea

 

Edit.

Pd. For her non-fishing related items, such as the tackle box to store twigs or the sawhorse.

Another "big" reason for me is to get the pinchin winch. Getting big trees is fun and the chests are another good and fun idea with a lot of room for improvement

4 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

I'd also like to rant about the fact that the house requires 10 moonrock instead of 5 now (if you didn't know, back when they reworked the house requirements to no longer require cactus flowers they doubled the amount of moonrock required for no reason, it used to be 5 before). This sounds inconsequential but the chance of getting 10 moonrock from the mosaic biome, even including the statues around the moonstone, is very low and 90% of the time you will have to go to either the archives or the lunar island in order to get enough moonrock for a first autumn pearl, which was honestly a really unnecessary thing for Klei to do since what used to be a quick trip to mosaic in most cases is now a 10+ minute trip to an area that you'll have to return to later anyway for the rest of the lunar questline

Klei pls revert the moonrock cost back to 5, this benefits nobody

 

4 hours ago, gaymime said:

unfortunately i couldn't participate in the poll. most of the questions are incredibly leading and presupposes that you wouldn't play the game because you enjoy the story or the character and so leaves out entirely the option to want to do things because you like pearl or want her to be happy or enjoy role-playing in dst x_x

If every poll made should consider every way of playing the game other than doing content the polls would need 4725251 options... The poll is to give klei feedback about balance of an important piece of content for the game progression not to talk about our tea parties at pearls island tho giving feedback about more interactions with her such as being able to eat from winter feast tables would be kind of on topic 

Pd. What story are you talking about?

[Y0sH]

I personally hate her quests and how random that rain can be to get her an umbrella in Autumn. The rain has literally lasted 10 seconds for me once. I rush her to get that questline finished. I return to her the cracked pearl from her dead husband and my brain erases her existence from the world for me lol.

I understand her mechanic and how it's a stark difference from rushing ruins but I think she's do for some more task variety. Also better rewards. Why not have her implement some connections with Moon Quay? Like a retrieval task of stolen items guarded by apes and monkeys or something. Just because I don't like her doesn't mean she's bad necessarily but can definitely benefit from a refresh.

[Swiyss]

10 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

I really wish they were replaced with broken shells instead but I'm pretty sure people would complain because that would make cookie cutter shells have 1 less use and clearly that's unacceptable

I like the cookie cutter requirement. It gives us a reason to go out and explore. Also, rng can be bad sometimes sure, but it can also be incredible sometimes, so it's great on both sides, but we usually like to focus on the thing that infuriates us. I don't think there's any problem with the cookie cutter requirement, for speedrunning it even adds another layer of expectation like "how long will he take to find cookie cutter?", that for me is actually exciting. Minecraft speedrunning has an insane amount of rng and it's one of the most fun categories to watch.

I think pearl is fine overall man, another task wouldn't hurt anyone but still... It's currently fine as is. It already is balanced in my opinion. 

This poll is very even which is something I didn't expect.

I love doing her tasks and I find very nice to have them completed even after being done with the celestial champion. I don't think the tasks need to be more interactive or better, they are already very great, giving her food supply with berries and flowers for her bees, cleaning her island and building her house etc.. All of those are already great there is no need for them to be "more engaging", they're fun.