(Poll) Community perception towards Pearl's quests

[Uedo]

My opinion:

I wouldn't say it's fun, but when i'm doing it it doesn't feel so bad.

I only do it cause I have to, but again I don't find it particularly annoying. 

I have no real stance on more rewards, I like what we can get, more is fine if that's what people want - but it's ok.

All-in-all, it's ok IMO. Not good, not bad, it's fine. However yeah, i don't find it comparable to the ruins - the shadow side feels like you get rewarded for the input you put in, like a input=reward loop. Whereas I find Pearl and the lunar line to be a slow burn, like it's objectively easier (crab king aside) but it's much heavier and slower - You get rewarded for committing to tedium with less risk.

I think they work as a yin-yang type of antithesis to each other.

[hyoton123]

My opinions are pretty clear from the other thread but i’ll add this. I wasn’t around DST much when Pearl’s quests were added so someone please correct me if wrong. The quests were - are- an acceptable time waster when there wasnt much lunar island content period, and theyre fun for beginners and to just casually enjoy the world. I don’t think theres a strong case for keeping them mandatory now. So I think the number of mandatory pearl quests should be vastly reduced, and the number of fun quests increased, and pearl’s spawn moved closer to the mainland. She should be easier to get to for beginners and people who want to enjoy the ocean, and less obtrusive for sweaty gameplay.

 

As far as  changes go to the current design, I think it would be reasonable to force salt to spawn nearby, and force brief rain or snow for the first time a player steps on the island. Just cut the weather rng out.

[Cheggf]

If Pearl offered no rewards at all and it was just a roleplay thing I would still do it, but I would do it far less. It would be rather rare for me to do it, I'd probably do it 50x less than I currently do. But overall I like her. I think she could probably offer 1-4 more things in her shop, and maybe 1 or 2 more tasks, but overall she's good. I can understand why people don't like her, though, since it is literally a list of chores to do. But I like it. 

[Chewabacca]

Recently I've started trying to follow down the lunar questline because Woby alignment is looking tempting, and Pearl is kind of impressive in how hard she fights to keep me from getting immersed in the game. The biggest reason is probably that Pearl just doesn’t seem very in need of my help. For someone who’s deteriorated to the point of letting her base crumble around her as she sends messages out for her lost love to come home, there isn’t really anything that makes me think she’s in trouble. Some more visible signs of squalor—crowds of flies, trash on the island itself and not just the water around it, rotten food on her drying racks—could go a long way towards making me go “jeez, Pearl, we need to help you out here”.

I would also prefer it if nearly everything on Pearl’s list didn’t send me back and forth between her island and the mainland. Would be better if you could use more things from the ocean to fill out her list—stonefruit/banana bushes could count as berry bushes, the waterlogged biome could have butterflies that you could catch and replant for her flowers, that sort of thing. Imagine if Klei let you build a fire pump on Pearl’s island for the summer even though it’s not a boat because it’s cool. Giving me more of a reward for exploring ocean content would make Pearl’s questline feel a lot less tedious.

 

[YouKnowWho142]

For me personally it’s kind of demotivating to have to do the quest line (which definitely stops becoming interesting after like the first 2 times) only for the reward to be so that i can fight one of my least favorite bosses in the game. If she wasn’t a prerequisite to crab king I’d be more fine with it, but as it is I’m basically doing something I don’t want to for the privilege of fighting something I don’t want to so that I can do what I actually want to

[Valase]

15 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

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.

The very short answer is: You don't come back from Pearl with a Star caller staff, nor any ruins loot for that matter. Even though most videos about ruins rushing are all about going in then out in the least amount of time, it comes from the concept that you will start in autumn and will come back with the best tool for winter as well as any other goodie that you found on the way, while Pearl still wants you to go to the ruins (chair blueprint), get lucky with Cookie cutters, then fight a boss way harder than the minotaur for the possibility of getting almost the same loot as you would get from the minotaur (kill CK -> give cracked pearl to Pearl -> open the bottles and then go to the treasure spot -> get pickaxe and thul suit from a chest). Also, you would need to either kill Dfly or go to the ruins (again) to start a fight with CK.

Also because I think that it is a tad hard to rush her. One of the things that I like to do is to pray for the RNG gods to give me the heavy Lure from her gift bundles and go through every fish school to get the five heavy ones (I never seen a fallounder in the first autumn). But again, I do not rush her at all.

[Prinha]

1. Do you enjoy the process of doing Pearl's quests, independent of any rewards for doing so?
Not really. I pretty much never do any of the fishing tasks BEFORE getting her to level 9. I have a particular dislike for removing the trash around her island. Not only does that take an eternity but having to cleanup all those non stacking shell bells really annoys me. And that's the case even though I use shell bells for decoration.
I will say that having her lines change and the gradual unlock of the shop does give me some form of satisfaction. I would always do it eventually in a longterm world even without the Pearl.
 

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

• The lunar quest line
• having all bottles point to treasures
• fishing related items from her shop

 

3. 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.)

They are mostly fine in my opinion. I personally don't prioritize the questline so that items like the flower salad don't bother me. 
I also like to watch people who rush the game and I will say that the RNG on cookie cutter shells sucks. If there was a change to be made then maybe the house recipe could switch places with something else. As in leave handing in cookie cutters as a possible way to get a point but build the house with something else. Like maybe Pearl would want a cookie cutter cap for defending herself and the house could be build with driftwood instead or something. 

Edit: Alternatively make it easier or more reliable to locate salt formations.

 

4. Do you believe Pearl should give more incentives to complete her tasks independently from the lunar questline?
Now that I think about it. Nope not really. Sure she's fairly uninteresting for people who don't engage with fishing but fine for those who do imo. At the same time none of her items are hard to get. The questline is mostly about time. So why should the rewards be extraordinarily good? However the questline might royally suck for people who do not read the wiki and end up doing a bunch of sailing back and forth. Not sure how to help with that though. 
The bottomline here is: Make fishing more interesting. Give us reasons besides completion/decoration to seek out all these different types of fish and that will automatically make Pearl's rewards more interesting.

[Radicaljoe]

I like Pearl as a character so doing her tasks is important for the pearl, but I also just like seeing her be happy.
I've lived on her island a couple times before and it's fun having Pearl walk around and talk.

She could definitely use some more interactions, but I like Pearl enough her quests are just a thing I don't mind doing. 

[Cheggf]

2 hours ago, Chewabacca said:

I would also prefer it if nearly everything on Pearl’s list didn’t send me back and forth between her island and the mainland. Would be better if you could use more things from the ocean to fill out her list—stonefruit/banana bushes could count as berry bushes, the waterlogged biome could have butterflies that you could catch and replant for her flowers, that sort of thing. Imagine if Klei let you build a fire pump on Pearl’s island for the summer even though it’s not a boat because it’s cool. Giving me more of a reward for exploring ocean content would make Pearl’s questline feel a lot less tedious.

Awesome suggestion. While it would probably be more work to do sailing related tasks instead of just massing everything from the mainland and bringing it to her in one go, it would be a fun alternative that could be done on the way to her island instead of something that needs to be prepared beforehand. 

[Well-met]

Pearls stuff have 0 rewards and nothing that directly helps you tackle any other aspect of your game... not only that but you have to travel back and forth many times too.

Meanwhile poking the ancient guardian dead 1 time gives you end game gear and amulets that will follow you for the rest of your world.

As much as klei tries so hard to avoid giving decent loot to players in recent years, in the end its still the deciding factor for alot of people.

[Guille6785]

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

[Well-met]

the game is designed around crafting materials so its only fair to expect the game to make you craft outside even your base sometimes so I don't mind.

not every part of a videogame needs to leave you breathless

 

[Dingle]

12 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

No. Though I guess thats the design, not that I agree with it 

It's all better than it used to be, but it doesn't change that it's all just an MMO style fetch quest at its very core.

"Hello, Hero that Will Save Us All. I dislike you for no reason. To prove yourself, you will bring me 10 Small Boar Tails."

"Ok, now bring me 10 Regular Boar Tails."

"Now being me 10 Hell Boar Tails."

Then the MMO has an expansion and raises the level cap.

"Hello again, so-called 'Hero'. To prove yourself once again, bring me 10 Outer Fel Waste Boar Tails."

Pearl is a little better than this, but the above is still the inspiration for her quest design. It's a time wasting MMO style quest, which are there to pad things out and gatekeep content that is actually interesting.

[Valase]

I think that the cost is alright, if you are rushing you can destoy some more pig houses and if you arent you can just add 10 trees into your shopping list while you are gathering the resources for your boat.

[hyoton123]

8 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house?

That stood out to me as particularly egregious when reviewing the house requirements, yeah.

[Valase]

Klei could add so the Green amulet halves that cost too, but it would just go back into square one of every pearl rush is a ruins rush too.

[lowercase skye]

21 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

The boards give me a good excuse to chop down her lune trees and get some moon moths, but otherwise yeah, it just adds a few more basic resources to my checklist.

[Prinha]

1 hour ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

I don't ENJOY getting those materials but I find them very fitting and don't mind them at all. Off the top of my hat I cannot recall a "house" type structure in DST that doesn't drop cut stone or boards or both. And I'd find it weird if Pearl's house somehow wasn't made out of these.

[Maxil20]

On the topic of Pearl’s quests, How would people feel if the “catch 5 heavy ocean fish” quest was changed to “catch 5 of any ocean fish”, and/or had reduced requirements? I ask since out of all of the fish quests, that always ended up being one of my least favorite to do since there isn’t any additional benefits, unlike the seasonal ones (which I am perfectly fine with the weight requirement there) with the lures. Streamlining it would feel a bit better, at least in my opinion.

[gaymime]

1 hour ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

i always have boards and stone and i usually have a stack of grass on-hand so i have never, ever ever thought about it until right now.

1 minute ago, Maxil20 said:

On the topic of Pearl’s quests, How would people feel if the “catch 5 heavy ocean fish” quest was changed to “catch 5 of any ocean fish”, and/or had reduced requirements? I ask since out of all of the fish quests, that always ended up being one of my least favorite to do since there isn’t any additional benefits, unlike the seasonal ones (which I am perfectly fine with the weight requirement there) with the lures. Streamlining it would feel a bit better, at least in my opinion.

the heavy fishing is the only quest of hers i activly don't like and the only one i usually skip

[WilsonHiggs]

2 hours ago, Guille6785 said:

Quick question: Does anyone actually enjoy getting 10 boards, 5 cut stone and 5 rope for the house? These materials aren't interesting to get, they are the most basic of materials imaginable and are ubiquitous throughout the entire DST world, so this is straight up just grinding

I get the comment but these aren't the only materials required. People complain about cookie cutters but basic materials are also bad despite being a logical thing when repairing a home? I don't see them as an interesting challenge but as "manage your time to get gather these resources while you are doing other stuff". Is a tax in the same way grass is a tax for having a torch

The upgrades ask for light materials, sea materials and materials used in structures. The materials you listened arent obtained with rng so I don't get the complain, just something to farm in order to get something done

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

On the topic of Pearl’s quests, How would people feel if the “catch 5 heavy ocean fish” quest was changed to “catch 5 of any ocean fish”, and/or had reduced requirements? I ask since out of all of the fish quests, that always ended up being one of my least favorite to do since there isn’t any additional benefits, unlike the seasonal ones (which I am perfectly fine with the weight requirement there) with the lures. Streamlining it would feel a bit better, at least in my opinion.

I know is one of the task that might take a while and for that I understand why people may not like it but i like it being done with heavy fish. She gives you the heavy lure and give us more reasons, even after getting the pearl, to interact with the weight mechanic

Lately is a task I have been doing while looking for cookie cutters or when I'm not rushing the moon quest but feel like doing sea stuff during summer

[Guille6785]

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

unlike the seasonal ones (which I am perfectly fine with the weight requirement there)

I do have to differ on this one, even on completely laid back (no rush at all) playthroughs the heavy requirement on top of the seasonal requirement makes this a slog to get through; even for the easiest one of the 4 (fallounder, which you can get at waterlogged) I feel like I have to spawn at least 3 shoals to get a single heavy one, and I can only imagine how hard it must be to get the rest at heavy weight (I don't think I've ever even seen a sunfish outside of a test world at all? lmfao)

This is made worse by the fact that the heavyweight lure misses 1/3 of all heavy fish (it catches all fish at 80% or more of their weight class, but Pearl accepts fish with 70% or more of their weight class), honestly even if it was just the seasonal fish with no weight requirement I still wouldn't do this quest

2 hours ago, Dingle said:

No. Though I guess thats the design, not that I agree with it 

It's all better than it used to be, but it doesn't change that it's all just an MMO style fetch quest at its very core.

"Hello, Hero that Will Save Us All. I dislike you for no reason. To prove yourself, you will bring me 10 Small Boar Tails."

"Ok, now bring me 10 Regular Boar Tails."

"Now being me 10 Hell Boar Tails."

Then the MMO has an expansion and raises the level cap.

"Hello again, so-called 'Hero'. To prove yourself once again, bring me 10 Outer Fel Waste Boar Tails."

Pearl is a little better than this, but the above is still the inspiration for her quest design. It's a time wasting MMO style quest, which are there to pad things out and gatekeep content that is actually interesting.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyBearAsses

[gaymime]

5 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

 (I don't think I've ever even seen a sunfish outside of a test world at all? lmfao)

throwing pig meat into the water helps immensely

[Guille6785]

Just now, gaymime said:

throwing pig meat into the water helps immensely

I'd need to be corrected on this but I'm pretty sure that's not a mechanic 

[Bumber64]

I primarily just hate the RNG on the fish. Is it more tolerable now that the trawler exists? I can't imagine wanting to engage with ocean fishing that much. (Sawhorse is also now an option, of course.)

My playstyle is laid back, but I'm not going to grind a minigame I don't enjoy, especially not without guaranteed progress. Even with the heavy lure, you've still got to find the right fish (subject to season).