The fact that Moonstorms and electrical attacks ignite plant mobs, causing fires, and that this can’t even be disabled in the settings, is far too destructive.

[SilverSpoon]

1 hour ago, Mike23Ua said:

Once you Mega Base: Your no longer playing the game the way it was intended.

A good game is one that lets players play in the style they want. There have been plenty of games that tried to force players to play "way the developers intended" against established playstyles, like SimCity (2013), Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Destiny 2, Path of Exile, and I don't know any case where that turned out well. Even in this game "Disease" ended up that way.

In the first place, it shouldn’t misread the game’s inconveniences as a message from the developers "not to do that." The fact that Webber can significantly increase server load doesn’t mean "don’t play Webber." The fact that Wortox’s teleport feels awful on a controller doesn’t mean "don’t play Wortox on console." It simply means this game still has rough edges that need work.

Quote

Thats my opinion, that’s my stance, I explained it logically.. and it’s going to be hard for me to become wavered from it.

Mike It would probably take like Jesus himself to change your mind. I sure I can't change your mind, and even have no intention.

Edited August 14, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[SilverSpoon]

4 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

What's more, it only claims to be related to a game with uncompromising survival. It doesn't actually promise to add more of it. Clearly compromises were made for multiplayer.

Thank you, Kirby64Mate, you saved my life. Thank you.

I’ve always hated to justify just inconvenience, just boredom, and just bad game design with only those accursed tiny little words “Uncompromising”, “Survival.” I hate it so much I want to peel back my skull and claw at my brain every time.

But today, I can finally put that argument to rest for good. “Uncompromising survival” applies to solo Don’t Starve only.

Don’t Starve Together is not “Uncompromising Survival.”

DON’T STARVE TOGETHER IS NOT “UNCOMPROMISING SURVIVAL”!

Edited August 14, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[lowercase skye]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

You have to intentionally toggle off every destructive feature, and/or Kick players &/Or Password Protect Your World so underexperienced noobs can not join and destroy your Mega Base. Either by intentional trolling, or through unintentionally lack of knowledge as to how every little feature in the game works.

You can choose to disagree with me all you want but the games core gameplay elements, which can’t be avoided unless you turn them off or have EVERYONE in the server agree to flee the area so it off-loads, heavily implies that Once you Mega Base: Your no longer playing the game the way it was intended.

"New players on one specific platform don't know how to avoid threats properly" is not an argument that proves building a big base is something you're never supposed to do, just like me saying "my inexperienced mom who doesn't understand games past the SNES doesn't know how to drift in Mario Kart 8" doesn't prove that actually the developers secretly intended for you to never drift and that everyone else is playing it wrong.

That being said, you talk a lot about game design and what's "intended" in your posts, Mike, so I'd like to ask: have you ever heard of emergent gameplay? It's a way to design video games, where you focus on consistent rules and simple challenges, and give the player a large amount of tools to play with, leading to them using those tools to overcome the challenges in ways never intentionally designed by the developers. Don't Starve as a series is based around emergent gameplay, and that's what makes it so fun and allows people to play thousands of hours without getting bored! However, if we try to abide by what is strictly "intended" by the developers, and immediately rollback or kill our character the second that we do something unintended...
- The first time you use a treeguard to help kill a mob for you, you have to reset. Treeguards are meant to be a threat, so using them to your advantage is not strictly intended.
- The first time you lead a mob to a tentacle, you have to reset. Tentacles are meant to be a threat, not a follower that attacks other threats for you, so this is not strictly intended.
- The first time you aggro a koalefant without waiting for it to sleep, you have to reset. Something like an ice staff or boomerang would be an emergent interaction between different mechanics, so not strictly intended.
- The first time you lead a beefalo away from its herd via a bell or cut grass just to kill it, you have to reset. These mechanics are meant for domestication, not for leading the beefalo out of its herds' aggro range, so this is not strictly intended.
- The first time you use a rook to your advantage by having it chop trees, you have to reset. 
- The first time you kill a butterfly with force attack instead of using a bug net to catch it, you have to reset. Yes I'm serious. They were implemented before force attack and balanced around needing to catch them to kill them.
- The first time you use Chester as bait for other mobs while he out-heals the damage, you have to reset.

I could go on, but hopefully my point is clear with just these simple examples. For a game designed around emergent gameplay, the second you do anything that relies on an interaction between two mechanics, you have left "intended" territory. What matters isn't what the developers intended, but what the players are doing.

I'm sorry to hear that apparently every xbox player is a new player still bad at the game, and that you take some sort of pride in this for some reason, but people with private worlds across all platforms are megabasing all the time, enough for Klei to add purely decorative content like furniture and marble sculptures, a wildfire-immune second desert biome, the ability to rotate fences, the clean sweeper, and multiple GIFs of a content creator's megabase displayed proudly on the Steam store page. It doesn't matter if megabasing is intended or not, it's something players are doing, and something that Klei has clearly facilitated because players are doing it. That's what actually matters.

[Capybara007]

21 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Sometimes I wish bases had a “size limit” this way people can’t whine when they try to turn the entire biome into their base that it’s not conforming to base standards.

3 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Once you Mega Base: Your no longer playing the game the way it was intended.

This is the most chronically online conversation ive seen on the internet, this is not like a competitive game where you complain about an OP weapon everyone is using to kill you, your complain is that you get angry that a mechanic that does not affect your gameplay is going to get removed

And forget about "if i play in public servers people are not playing with the same mindset as me" even if some pubs have moonstorms active this "moongleam burn structures" its going to affect you survival in 1% of the cases, it affects mostly megabasers that build useless and not survival focused bases because they have fun doing it

Also the fact that you say objectively wrong information about the game just shows that you dont really play the game that much to be complaining like this and you are just going off vibes:

On 8/9/2025 at 11:22 AM, Mike23Ua said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t grass tufts randomly spit out of the unusual portal found on moon quay? or can be harvested out at the water-logged biomes, or found in tumbleweeds, or harvested from Catcoon or Marottor Dens.. I mean it seems to me like Klei adds “fail safes” to keep resources from going completely extinct, harder to obtain? Sure.. but Obsolete?? That’s just not DS anymore.

 

If thinking that megabasers are whining babies that want to ruin your uncompromising survival game will let you sleep at night, go on, most big klei ambassadors are megabasers, klei releases many skins for things that only megabasers use like thulecite walls, megabasers are most likely to buy these skins, etc etc

[Mysterious box]

6 hours ago, SilverSpoon said:

Some people really don't enjoy that game design what "The larger your base the more effort required to maintain", tbh it looks like a tax. Isn't expanding your base enough effort?

I think DST devs are aware of this, so they implemented solution as the Above-Average Tree which requires an initial investment but  a permanent and requires no maintenance, and why they postponed the newly added "effort required to maintain" Boulderfall that occurs after the Shadow Rift but until after "after the Rift" the endgame and implemented solution as pillars that do not require too much maintenance effort.

---

Looking at your opinion, the example that fits best for me is RimWorld. It’s not a survival sandbox but a colony-management game, yet it has a system where raids intensify as the “asset value” of your base and supplies goes up. That system is largely accepted by most players, so I don’t deny that what you’re proposing can be good gamedesign.

That said, I think it’s accepted in RimWorld because there’s a cap on raid size, there are ton of in-game countermeasures, and most importantly, the settings let you tone raids down or disable them entirely. so I think that system where “the you better, the more effort you have to do” only works well when it’s as fair as possible to the player.

There are settings for people who don't like to invest extra effort into maintaining their base but just as the trees could be used as an example of them protecting bases the greater depth worm, brightshades, wildfires, and various other mechanics point contrary to it the game is a sandbox therefore mechanics are going to point in both directions both protecting your base and ruining it that's just natural.

Expanding your base is fine but the game shouldn't stop being a survival game just because you've built your base.

6 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

Those all give an ample warning for you to just leave base. You can also disable them. This was already addressed earlier in the thread.

Okay? I'm not against survival mechanics giving warnings though this isn't really related to what I was talking about.

[Mike23Ua]

30 minutes ago, Capybara007 said:

This is the most chronically online conversation ive seen on the internet, this is not like a competitive game where you complain about an OP weapon everyone is using to kill you, your complain is that you get angry that a mechanic that does not affect your gameplay is going to get removed

And forget about "if i play in public servers people are not playing with the same mindset as me" even if some pubs have moonstorms active this "moongleam burn structures" its going to affect you survival in 1% of the cases, it affects mostly megabasers that build useless and not survival focused bases because they have fun doing it

Also the fact that you say objectively wrong information about the game just shows that you dont really play the game that much to be complaining like this and you are just going off vibes:

 

If thinking that megabasers are whining babies that want to ruin your uncompromising survival game will let you sleep at night, go on, most big klei ambassadors are megabasers, klei releases many skins for things that only megabasers use like thulecite walls, megabasers are most likely to buy these skins, etc etc

As usual you guys completely missed the point, DST is a multiplayer game you don’t HAVE to play in Multiplayer, sure but if you do.. you subject yourself to playing with players of many different walks of life.

And just to prove a few points, a newbie player might join your game and think that adding their beautifully skinned Pigmen houses they paid for (yay the skins** conversation!) into your base is actually “helping” because it’s Hired Hands, Free Meat & Free Football Helmets.

And then… Day 10 happens, their Pigmen huts they thought were helping turn into Werepigs, and Werepigs as we all know: are capable of destroying wooden fences and stone walls.

Got a Gecko Pen made with Wooden Fences & Stone Walls?? You don’t Anymore!

Remember this player thought they were “Helping” you.

This isn’t a One off case, a Woodie with an infinity durability axe may go around chopping down entire forests, absolutely tanking any Wormwood player who is nearbys Sanity.

In order to “MegaBase” you need compliant players in your world, who will actually run away from the area and let it off-load when dangers are inbound. but if you care to challenge that wager: I dare the megabasers to open their worlds up to the public and let’s watch as either through intentional malicious intent, or through unintentional lack of game knowledge: They cause pure havoc & chaos to it.

That is what I mean when I say this game is not designed to build a four Biome Spanning Mega Bases.

Edited August 14, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[Mysterious box]

Also I'm fine with settings being the solution but a good amount of the community hates the idea of customizing their sandbox for whatever reason.

[Capybara007]

9 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

As usual you guys completely missed the point, DST is a multiplayer game you don’t HAVE to play in Multiplayer, sure but if you do.. you subject yourself to playing with players of many different walks of life.

And just to prove a few points, a newbie player might join your game and think that adding their beautifully skinned Pigmen houses they paid for (yay the skins** conversation!) into your base is actually “helping” because it’s Hired Hands, Free Meat & Free Football Helmets.

And then… Day 10 happens, their Pigmen huts they thought were helping turn into Werepigs, and Werepigs as we all know: are capable of destroying wooden fences and stone walls.

Got a Gecko Pen made with Wooden Fences & Stone Walls?? You don’t Anymore!

Remember this player thought they were “Helping” you.

This isn’t a One off case, a Woodie with an infinity durability axe may go around chopping down entire forests, absolutely tanking any Wormwood player who is nearbys Sanity.

In order to “MegaBase” you need compliant players in your world, who will actually run away from the area and let it off-load when dangers are inbound. but if you care to challenge that wager: I dare the megabasers to open their worlds up to the public and let’s watch as either through intentional malicious intent, or through unintentional lack of game knowledge: They cause pure havoc & chaos to it.

That is what I mean when I say this game is not designed to build a four Biome Spanning Mega Bases.

why bring multiplayer to the ecuation when NO ONE that does megabases play on pubs

[Maxil20]

Might as well throw my 2 oincs here as someone who has been watching the thread for awhile:

-It's important to note that Megabasing, as a concept, has been around since The Beginning of Don't Starve. People have made megabases in Vanilla I know videos exist of them but youtube is Not Good and won't allow me to easily find 10+ year old videos..., and then made megabases in Reign Of Giants,  and then made Megabases during Early Access Don't Starve Together (Before caves were added, might I add), and then made Megabases in Shipwrecked, and then made Megabases after A New Reign was Complete, and Then made Megabases in Hamlet, and, this might be shocking, but modern day DST players Still make Megabases in Don't Starve Together.

Saying DST doesn't encourage Megabasing and it breaking a core concept of the game is extremely silly at this point. It's the main way for hardcore DS/T players to show off their expression towards a game they love to pieces. Why would Klei suddenly want to crush those players when they have been remaining fine for over a decade?

-Regarding the moongleam change, the thing about how it works is it punishes base builders who like decorating with plant related decor/mobs, and Literally Doesn't Impact any other player at all, which feels really bad. My 22.5K day base world has like 2 areas in danger from this that I can work around, because my building style doesn't revolve around natural builds. Most players who don't megabase are not going to experience significant consequences since the mobs in question are rarely used for most players (the only one I see used somewhat is geckoes, and even then that's phased out from lazy forager/grass combos for short-medium playthroughs). Comparatively, users like @lowercase skye, @Lovens, and @SilverSpoon Are now so unbelievably gimped by this change to their building styles that it's not even funny. It literally punishes players for not doing common meta strategies, which feels like the complete opposite from what a "nerf" to something should look like.

-I Agree with Box that players should be more open to changing world options (which, given the above people are mentioned, are totally cool with). This game has gotten old enough and with enough content that there are several aspects of this game I do not personally enjoy, and I do not mind shifting the options so I can remove those aspects from the equation and keep playing with the many aspects I do enjoy. My problem stems from those options not existing. We still can't modify things like Ickers, Masques, Brightshades, Rabbit king, and more recently the Inimical Gestalt (AKA the Gestalt Ever). These are super polarizing mechanics, and being forced for everyone to deal with them sucks. I have to keep my cave rifts closed, because despite me liking a large chunk of the content, the masques are way too dangerous for me to keep around because of the risks to mob pens (honorary shoutout to lurking nightmares getting both amped in all of their stats and their spawn rates). I would feel much, much better with existing content if it was properly kept up to date with the options Klei has provided (heck, the world options allow you to toggle mimicreeps and ornery chests, and those were added in the same update as things like Ickers!).

Edited August 14, 2025 by Maxil20

[SilverSpoon]

2 hours ago, Mysterious box said:

There are settings for people who don't like to invest extra effort into maintaining their base but just as the trees could be used as an example of them protecting bases the greater depth worm, brightshades, wildfires, and various other mechanics point contrary to it the game is a sandbox therefore mechanics are going to point in both directions both protecting your base and ruining it that's just natural.

Expanding your base is fine but the game shouldn't stop being a survival game just because you've built your base.

What I meant was "I think that It's not good game design forcing over-the-top micromanagement to keep a base running, specifically by Flingos."

Up to now, this game sat in a sweet spot between "survival game" and "sandbox game", where players seeking either style could coexist. There are plenty of base-destroying mechanics, but they’ve all had reliable solutions (except the Great Depth Worm. I’ve said since its release that there are not enough solutions). As a result, base keeping was still playable challenge, but not just stressor. Even better, players could use settings to switch off what they didn’t like and tune the gameplay to taste.

On the flip side, for players who really want the sandbox side of the game, having the option in settings to disable all base-destruction mechanics trading some survival stuffs, I think it isn’t a bad thing at all.

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

In order to “MegaBase” you need compliant players in your world, who will actually run away from the area and let it off-load when dangers are inbound. but if you care to challenge that wager: I dare the megabasers to open their worlds up to the public and let’s watch as either through intentional malicious intent, or through unintentional lack of game knowledge: They cause pure havoc & chaos to it.

That is what I mean when I say this game is not designed to build a four Biome Spanning Mega Bases.

I can guarantee that 100 out of 100 Mega Baseers never make their servers public, and will not allow join their servers who unable to communicate. On the other hand, if they follow that rules, they had could run a stable "4 Biome Spanning Mega Bases" server, so it is not true that the game is (completely) not designed to build megabase.

1 hour ago, Maxil20 said:

Might as well throw my 2 oincs here as someone who has been watching the thread for awhile:

-It's important to note that Megabasing, as a concept, has been around since The Beginning of Don't Starve. People have made megabases in Vanilla I know videos exist of them but youtube is Not Good and won't allow me to easily find 10+ year old videos..., and then made megabases in Reign Of Giants,  and then made Megabases during Early Access Don't Starve Together (Before caves were added, might I add), and then made Megabases in Shipwrecked, and then made Megabases after A New Reign was Complete, and Then made Megabases in Hamlet, and, this might be shocking, but modern day DST players Still make Megabases in Don't Starve Together.

Saying DST doesn't encourage Megabasing and it breaking a core concept of the game is extremely silly at this point. It's the main way for hardcore DS/T players to show off their expression towards a game they love to pieces. Why would Klei suddenly want to crush those players when they have been remaining fine for over a decade?

-Regarding the moongleam change, the thing about how it works is it punishes base builders who like decorating with plant related decor/mobs, and Literally Doesn't Impact any other player at all, which feels really bad. My 22.5K day base world has like 2 areas in danger from this that I can work around, because my building style doesn't revolve around natural builds. Most players who don't megabase are not going to experience significant consequences since the mobs in question are rarely used for most players (the only one I see used somewhat is geckoes, and even then that's phased out from lazy forager/grass combos for short-medium play throughs) Comparatively, users like @lowercase skye, @Lovens, and @SilverSpoon Are now so unbelievably gimped by this change to their building styles that it's not even funny. It literally punishes players for not doing common meta strategies, which feels like the complete opposite from what a "nerf" to something should look like.

-I Agree with Box that players should be more open to changing world options (which, given the above people are mentioned, are totally cool with). This game has gotten old enough and with enough content that there are several aspects of this game I do not personally enjoy, and I do not mind shifting the options so I can remove those aspects from the equation and keep playing with the many aspects I do enjoy. My problem stems from those options not existing. We still can't modify things like Ickers, Masques, Brightshades, Rabbit king, and more recently the Inimical Gestalt (AKA the Gestalt Ever). These are super polarizing mechanics, and being forced for everyone to deal with them sucks. I have to keep my cave rifts closed, because despite me liking a large chunk of the content, the masques are way too dangerous for me to keep around because of the risks to mob pens (honorary shoutout to lurking nightmares getting both amped in all of their stats and their spawn rates). I would feel much, much better with existing content if it was properly kept up to date with the options Klei has provided (heck, the world options allow you to toggle mimicreeps and ornery chests, and those were added in the same update as things like Ickers!).

Let me be blunt. This change doesn’t really hurt me personally because I’ve preferred building my base on Moon Island. But that Enlightenment color is truly not for everyone, and over my many many hours with the game I’ve met all kinds of base designs and all kinds of player include who love keeping certain plant mobs around their bases.

This electrical-fire change and Moonstome is effectively a “No plant mobs allowed” rule. This is pure restriction. If the goal was simply to keep electricity from being a universal answer, there were hundreds of happier downsides to choose from. I can’t find a single good reason to pick "base arson", the heaviest and most limiting penalty of all, nor any reason not to make it a togglable.

In my view, the best thing about this game must have been "Freedom".

Edited August 15, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Sephirona]

I'm personally pretty heavily impacted by the new moongleams which is why I appreciate that even those who are not as impacted by it can understand how detrimental it is to certain styles of play and are speaking up in support of toggles. I enjoy decorating with plants because I was inspired many years ago by a megabaser on YT named DST Josh who incorporates a lot of foliage into his builds. It's a fun aesthetic and I've already spritzed as much as I can to prevent brightshades. I made a zoo with grass gators and geckos coexisting together on savanna turf because they share similar colors, and I placed a lunar themed enclosure next to them with winter koalefants because I like the color combination of savanna and lunar turf near each other. 

I think it makes sense that something like moonstorms has some drawbacks to keeping them on. I never turn moonstorms on unless I need to run Celestial Champion but even so now I risk the entire zoo burning down off screen if I want to engage with Celestial Champion at all. Personally, for me there was already a danger to my zoo in moonstorms - I already had to check up on them to heal them from random things spawning in their pens, and moongleams still kill even without setting things on fire, but at least it felt more reasonable that I occasionally had to make some honey poultices. If moonstorms are to have dangers I'd like them to just try to kill only my character instead of burning my designs, honestly. Make my food rot faster, have things spawn that can only hit me, that's fine. (Toggles please, though. lol) My mobs not being around isn't really a danger to me in terms of survival. I play with a Wickerbottom in my group so we have plenty of resources stashed on the lunar island for book reading. Moongleams setting my base on fire really just serves to annoy and detract from my ability to decorate more than anything else. I don't always have a lot of time to play so the time I do have I'd rather spend doing things I want to do.

Now that I've seen it mentioned I agree that I'm surprised we don't have more toggles for things like brightshades and masqued creatures. I don't base in the caves other than some outposts so it hadn't even occurred to me that mob zoos would be affected by the masques down there. Can definitely see how that would be annoying as well, I did have hutch randomly die to them a couple of times already.

Edited August 15, 2025 by Sephirona

[Mike23Ua]

49 minutes ago, SilverSpoon said:

What I meant was "I think that It's not good game design forcing over-the-top micromanagement to keep a base running, specifically by Flingos."

Up to now, this game sat in a sweet spot between "survival game" and "sandbox game", where players seeking either style could coexist. There are plenty of base-destroying mechanics, but they’ve all had reliable solutions (except the Great Depth Worm. I’ve said since its release that there are not enough solutions). As a result, base keeping was still playable challenge, but not just stressor. Even better, players could use settings to switch off what they didn’t like and tune the gameplay to taste.

On the flip side, for players who really want the sandbox side of the game, having the option in settings to disable all base-destruction mechanics trading some survival stuffs, I think it isn’t a bad thing at all.

I can guarantee that 100 out of 100 Mega Baseers never make their servers public, and will not allow join their servers who unable to communicate. On the other hand, if they follow that rules, they had could run a stable "4 Biome Spanning Mega Bases" server, so it is not true that the game is (completely) not designed to build megabase.

Let me be blunt. This change doesn’t really hurt me personally because I’ve preferred building my base on Moon Island. But that Enlightenment color is truly not for everyone, and over my many many hours with the game I’ve met all kinds of base designs and all kinds of player include who love keeping certain plant mobs around their bases.

This electrical-fire change and Moonstome is effectively a “No plant mobs allowed” rule. This is pure restriction. If the goal was simply to keep electricity from being a universal answer, there were hundreds of happier downsides to choose from. I can’t find a single good reason to pick "base arson", the heaviest and most limiting penalty of all, nor any reason not to make it a togglable.

In my view, the best thing about this game must have been "Freedom".

If you have to lock your world and not play multiplayer, in order to build and keep an established Mega-Base, then the game was not designed with the intentions of you Mega-Basing. And as a direct result of that: You will personally have to change the way the game is intended to be played so that you can enjoy your megabase.

Such As: Disabling destructive features like Wildfires or building a bunch of ugly ice flingo machines to cover large areas of multiple biomes, or Password Protecting your room so people can not join and play in it.

I honestly can careless about the PC version of the game, I’m more concerned with consoles such as the Nintendo Switch which does not allow voice or text chat: So the only way people on that specific platform can communicate with one another is by crafting and writing on in-game signs.

Now sure.. you can put a flashy sign up that reads “When you hear Heavy Breathing, Dogs Barking or the Ground Rumbling please GTFO of Base!”

But…. That circles back around to my point that because the game is multiplayer, you have to account not just for your own actions, but everyone else’s as well.

YOU might flee base area when Deerclops is about to spawn, but that doesn’t mean other players in the world with you will do the same.

Edited August 15, 2025 by Mike23Ua

[Capybara007]

5 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

If you have to lock your world and not play multiplayer, in order to build and keep an established Mega-Base, then the game was not designed with the intentions of you Mega-Basing

😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 😭 how are dodgind the PILE of proof that shows the devs support megabasing  😭 😭 😭 😭

[lowercase skye]

29 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

If you have to lock your world and not play multiplayer, in order to build and keep an established Mega-Base, then the game was not designed with the intentions of you Mega-Basing. And as a direct result of that: You will personally have to change the way the game is intended to be played so that you can enjoy your megabase.

Such As: Disabling destructive features like Wildfires or building a bunch of ugly ice flingo machines to cover large areas of multiple biomes, or Password Protecting your room so people can not join and play in it.

This is really, really silly. Why are you so confident that the "intended" way to play is un-password protected with randoms? On Steam, buying the game gives you a second copy to gift to a friend, meaning that playing in private worlds with friends is just as intended as playing with randoms. Not only that, but unless they've changed it recently, your first time opening the game and choosing the server select will recommend you make a world to play alone before joining a server, so that you can learn the basics before throwing yourself into cooperative gameplay. With all this in mind, what makes public servers with randoms hosted on console the only intended way to play the game? What is unintended about checking the password protected box that has been there for as long as the game existed? Why do you get to decide this?

Edited August 15, 2025 by lowercase skye

[SilverSpoon]

17 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

If you have to lock your world and not play multiplayer, in order to build and keep an established Mega-Base, then the game was not designed with the intentions of you Mega-Basing. And as a direct result of that: You will personally have to change the way the game is intended to be played so that you can enjoy your megabase.

Even Minecraft, if you don't restrict multiplayer at all, it'll be like 2b2t. So Minecraft was not designed with the intention of you Mega-Basing? Not many people would agree with that.

Frankly, I sure it's 100% impossible for you to convince people that this game wasn't intended for Mega-Basing, and the only way people can turn this around is for the developers actually to make a statement like that.

Edited August 15, 2025 by SilverSpoon

[Capybara007]

JoeW can reply to this thread by saying "we allow the players to play however they like" and you will still believe that playing with a controler in pubs and dying in day 5 is peak dst

[Chesed]

On 8/14/2025 at 11:22 PM, Mike23Ua said:

In order to “MegaBase” you need compliant players in your world, who will actually run away from the area and let it off-load when dangers are inbound. but if you care to challenge that wager: I dare the megabasers to open their worlds up to the public and let’s watch as either through intentional malicious intent, or through unintentional lack of game knowledge: They cause pure havoc & chaos to it.

That is what I mean when I say this game is not designed to build a four Biome Spanning Mega Bases.

Are you incapable of considering that people have a group of friends and they just play the game with their friends? That is why people "lock" their world. To play with their friends.

It is literally suggested that you do this before it even suggests that you play on pubs, if we get pendantic about the store page again.

In your words, it is the intended experience. Most online games that feature building (with the exception of those that encourage PvP) are intended that you play together with your friends on a private server, specifically because most players don't enjoy being griefed.

The fact that you have to play on pubs and that it is a terrible experience has literally nothing to do with the gameplay experience of anyone else or how they have to play the game.

Spoiler

I know it is pointless even getting involved in this but I keep seeing this brought up like the idea of having a group of friends you regularly play with is not a thing.

Prior to my current career I worked in small scale game development and the fact that it has taken me this long to break and reply to one of your posts is a testament to my willpower.

Edited August 29, 2025 by Chesed

[Lovens]

13 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

Might as well throw my 2 oincs here as someone who has been watching the thread for awhile:

-It's important to note that Megabasing, as a concept, has been around since The Beginning of Don't Starve. People have made megabases in Vanilla I know videos exist of them but youtube is Not Good and won't allow me to easily find 10+ year old videos..., and then made megabases in Reign Of Giants,  and then made Megabases during Early Access Don't Starve Together (Before caves were added, might I add), and then made Megabases in Shipwrecked, and then made Megabases after A New Reign was Complete, and Then made Megabases in Hamlet, and, this might be shocking, but modern day DST players Still make Megabases in Don't Starve Together.

Saying DST doesn't encourage Megabasing and it breaking a core concept of the game is extremely silly at this point. It's the main way for hardcore DS/T players to show off their expression towards a game they love to pieces. Why would Klei suddenly want to crush those players when they have been remaining fine for over a decade?

-Regarding the moongleam change, the thing about how it works is it punishes base builders who like decorating with plant related decor/mobs, and Literally Doesn't Impact any other player at all, which feels really bad. My 22.5K day base world has like 2 areas in danger from this that I can work around, because my building style doesn't revolve around natural builds. Most players who don't megabase are not going to experience significant consequences since the mobs in question are rarely used for most players (the only one I see used somewhat is geckoes, and even then that's phased out from lazy forager/grass combos for short-medium playthroughs). Comparatively, users like @lowercase skye, @Lovens, and @SilverSpoon Are now so unbelievably gimped by this change to their building styles that it's not even funny. It literally punishes players for not doing common meta strategies, which feels like the complete opposite from what a "nerf" to something should look like.

-I Agree with Box that players should be more open to changing world options (which, given the above people are mentioned, are totally cool with). This game has gotten old enough and with enough content that there are several aspects of this game I do not personally enjoy, and I do not mind shifting the options so I can remove those aspects from the equation and keep playing with the many aspects I do enjoy. My problem stems from those options not existing. We still can't modify things like Ickers, Masques, Brightshades, Rabbit king, and more recently the Inimical Gestalt (AKA the Gestalt Ever). These are super polarizing mechanics, and being forced for everyone to deal with them sucks. I have to keep my cave rifts closed, because despite me liking a large chunk of the content, the masques are way too dangerous for me to keep around because of the risks to mob pens (honorary shoutout to lurking nightmares getting both amped in all of their stats and their spawn rates). I would feel much, much better with existing content if it was properly kept up to date with the options Klei has provided (heck, the world options allow you to toggle mimicreeps and ornery chests, and those were added in the same update as things like Ickers!).

Thanks for speaking up! 

I had no idea that masqued creatures didn't have a toggle. I remember them being added during hallowed nights and disliked the feature, so I waited until hallowed nights event end to turn my cave rifts back on so I don't have to deal with them. I turn the rifts on by knocking down one of my sign blockers, and when I did it again I realised masqued creatures weren't halloween exclusive. They spawned in my cave base entrance and would have given me a lot of trouble if not my houndiuses I put at the entrance to help with depth worms. Then I blocked my cave rifts again and decided I won't interact with them for now. 

The additional of GDW (and the way it was implemented upon its release, and lack of adjustments for a long while) discouraged me playing in the caves of my megabase, and I slowly started losing interest in it. Around that time I started a new megabase with a friend and after 1400+ days in it we are still nowhere close to turning the shadow rifts on. Having masqued creatures spawn every time you traverse the map through the narrow passages is fine when you play in a survival game playthrough - it adds appropriate challenge and danger. But it's obnoxious and not fun when you are just running around turfing and building your base, and they spawn and interrupt whatever you are doing, forcing you to combat them. They should absolutely have a toggle as well. 

One would be surprised how much stuff I turn off as a megabaser. Currently we have wildfires, lureplants, pengulls and skittersquids disabled. Wildfires are off even though our entire base is in the Oasis desert and the entire shore is covered in above average trees, and we already have built more than 20 flingomatics in different areas. Evidently, this all is STILL not ENOUGH to protect from the wildfires. Lureplants spawn offscreen, hurt penned creatures, eat flowers and decorations on the ground, and don't have any counters besides covering everything in artificial turf which is limiting creativity and makes the base look less natural. Pengulls and skittersquids break walls and fences for no reason at all, sometimes when they are not even in the way of them pathing through. 

I like survival challenges. We still have to deal with seasons, hounds (including fire hounds), giants, spontaneous mob attacks even within our base - spiders, pigs, treeguards, bunnymen, buzzards. We frequently fight bosses, clear ruins, and engage with various parts of the game - complete moonstorms, explore and fight on the ocean, hunt down walruses and follow suspicious dirt piles. Everything that threats player is still kept on in the settings. We still have to maintain our hunger, sanity and health, as well as additional character stats (making sure Maxwell or Wanda have enough nightmare fuel, watch Wanda's age, maintain bloom as Wormwood, track Warly's dish record, keep Abigail alive and healed as Wendy). Megabasing is a lot less about the chill sandbox base building - most playing time is spent farming resources for building (and optimizing your farms), and repeatedly defeating various bosses to acquire rare loot for building. When one thinks of a megabase spanning an entire biome, they always think "Ugh, this person spent time building their base instead of surviving the game and facing its challenges, they are not playing as intended". They probably imagine us building our bases in godmode with all resources readily available and all in-game threats magically removed. Nobody thinks "This person had to defeat BQ 100+ times to have wax for all their bundles and bee hives and waxed crops for decor, and kill CC 200+ times to light up their entire base, and do all that WHILE facing almost all of the survival challenges everyone else experiences". Not to mention how much maintenance a large base requires. 

Edited August 15, 2025 by Lovens

[oregu]

21 hours ago, AliceShiki said:

I don't think a toggle in the settings is the right way to go about it, but I also definitely would never complain about any toggle in the settings ever.

Like, I'm always happy with devs giving player more options. I've suggested some stuff being added as toggles in the settings before too.

I forgot what it was that I suggested before, funnily enough, but I remember suggesting it would be something that would be off by default, so... Yeah, I can get the idea behind it.

I just think that a downside being added to Moonstorms was accidental, but was also a good accident, and I would be happy if more downsides would be added to Moonstorms in the future too... But if options in the settings are added, I also consider it a win-win, because more options are never a bad thing IMO.

I mean, if you are going all out on mega-basing I would imagine you grind cc a bajillion times before doing anything big and don't rely on moonstorms for light and whatnot and turn to mushlights for inifnite light (kill glommer a bunch of nights for good measure so you never run out of goop). it is a lot of effort to do that, but it has the benefit of not having the occasional hinderance of moonstorms and can look better visually if done right. the only thing thats slightly annoying is that i think that mushlights could use more light range.

the solution for the people in the predicament of relying on moonstorms for light is probbaly to use the luxury fan while in moonstorms and simply don't load areas that have stuff you dont want to be hurt and lit by moon gleams. i feel like this transition from a moonstorm illuminated megabase world to a not constant moonstorm world would be quite annoying.

on a slightly related note, the only thing i dont like about mega-basing is that you have to be forced to use ice flingos everywhere to have a truly "fire-safe" base. which isn't that costly or annoying at all in the bigger picture, but it just makes things look slightly more unsightly imo.(like i suppose you have to treat your time in the moonstorms as a summer day almost)

Edited August 15, 2025 by oregu

[Mike23Ua]

10 hours ago, Lovens said:

Thanks for speaking up! 

I had no idea that masqued creatures didn't have a toggle. I remember them being added during hallowed nights and disliked the feature, so I waited until hallowed nights event end to turn my cave rifts back on so I don't have to deal with them. I turn the rifts on by knocking down one of my sign blockers, and when I did it again I realised masqued creatures weren't halloween exclusive. They spawned in my cave base entrance and would have given me a lot of trouble if not my houndiuses I put at the entrance to help with depth worms. Then I blocked my cave rifts again and decided I won't interact with them for now. 

The additional of GDW (and the way it was implemented upon its release, and lack of adjustments for a long while) discouraged me playing in the caves of my megabase, and I slowly started losing interest in it. Around that time I started a new megabase with a friend and after 1400+ days in it we are still nowhere close to turning the shadow rifts on. Having masqued creatures spawn every time you traverse the map through the narrow passages is fine when you play in a survival game playthrough - it adds appropriate challenge and danger. But it's obnoxious and not fun when you are just running around turfing and building your base, and they spawn and interrupt whatever you are doing, forcing you to combat them. They should absolutely have a toggle as well. 

One would be surprised how much stuff I turn off as a megabaser. Currently we have wildfires, lureplants, pengulls and skittersquids disabled. Wildfires are off even though our entire base is in the Oasis desert and the entire shore is covered in above average trees, and we already have built more than 20 flingomatics in different areas. Evidently, this all is STILL not ENOUGH to protect from the wildfires. Lureplants spawn offscreen, hurt penned creatures, eat flowers and decorations on the ground, and don't have any counters besides covering everything in artificial turf which is limiting creativity and makes the base look less natural. Pengulls and skittersquids break walls and fences for no reason at all, sometimes when they are not even in the way of them pathing through. 

I like survival challenges. We still have to deal with seasons, hounds (including fire hounds), giants, spontaneous mob attacks even within our base - spiders, pigs, treeguards, bunnymen, buzzards. We frequently fight bosses, clear ruins, and engage with various parts of the game - complete moonstorms, explore and fight on the ocean, hunt down walruses and follow suspicious dirt piles. Everything that threats player is still kept on in the settings. We still have to maintain our hunger, sanity and health, as well as additional character stats (making sure Maxwell or Wanda have enough nightmare fuel, watch Wanda's age, maintain bloom as Wormwood, track Warly's dish record, keep Abigail alive and healed as Wendy). Megabasing is a lot less about the chill sandbox base building - most playing time is spent farming resources for building (and optimizing your farms), and repeatedly defeating various bosses to acquire rare loot for building. When one thinks of a megabase spanning an entire biome, they always think "Ugh, this person spent time building their base instead of surviving the game and facing its challenges, they are not playing as intended". They probably imagine us building our bases in godmode with all resources readily available and all in-game threats magically removed. Nobody thinks "This person had to defeat BQ 100+ times to have wax for all their bundles and bee hives and waxed crops for decor, and kill CC 200+ times to light up their entire base, and do all that WHILE facing almost all of the survival challenges everyone else experiences". Not to mention how much maintenance a large base requires. 

All the things that you toggle to “Off” so that you can enjoy your megabase are things that in addition to trying to fight a boss, are constantly being a threat to anyone who leaves them toggled on.

For example, Woodie players might want to fight a boss using treeguard idols, which requires planting many trees then burning idols, that works… up until it doesn’t, one Wildfire later and the whole plan to fight bosses with Treeguards goes up in smoke literally..

You could be chasing a Turkey or a Koelaphant when stupid Penguin jump out the water in front of your smack attempt and NOW you got a bunch of Angry penguins chasing you while your original target flees away.

I completely understand why you’d turn this type of content off to enjoy your megabase, but I personally enjoy the random chaos that ensues with default (or turned up to 11) settings.

Theres actually a toggle for MORE Wildfires and Lightning if you were ever curious what that’s like  

[Lovens]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

All the things that you toggle to “Off” so that you can enjoy your megabase are things that in addition to trying to fight a boss, are constantly being a threat to anyone who leaves them toggled on.

For example, Woodie players might want to fight a boss using treeguard idols, which requires planting many trees then burning idols, that works… up until it doesn’t, one Wildfire later and the whole plan to fight bosses with Treeguards goes up in smoke literally..

You could be chasing a Turkey or a Koelaphant when stupid Penguin jump out the water in front of your smack attempt and NOW you got a bunch of Angry penguins chasing you while your original target flees away.

I completely understand why you’d turn this type of content off to enjoy your megabase, but I personally enjoy the random chaos that ensues with default (or turned up to 11) settings.

Theres actually a toggle for MORE Wildfires and Lightning if you were ever curious what that’s like  

I don't cheese bosses with treeguards so that aspect is irrelevant to me. If I did, I could just bring a feather to put the fire out then. I don't chase turkeys or koalefants, I use ice staves on all mobs that run away from me so that's kinda irrelevant too. I do agree that in some circumstances I am missing out on survival aspects of additional difficulty (moon pengulls don't spawn either and that's a bigger deal than regular pengulls as they aggro on you right away ) but I am willing to trade that off to keep my buildings intact and not waste time repairing the damaged fence around the shore for the 100th time. In our current megabase we kept all the survival threats on until we defeated all the bosses. The we started turning off things that either ruin the world or our base. I care about wildfires and meteor showers ruining unrenewable resources and bringing destruction to other parts of the world as much as I care about the base. Unique setpieces like stage or pig villages, spiky trees, graves, bee hives, boulders, driftwood trees, merm houses in the swamp, catcoon dens, wobster mounds, mushrooms etc - I like to keep them all intact as much as possible to preserve the authenticity of different biomes and to be able later to incorporate them into the biome-themed builds. I even go out of my way to save sea stacks to preserve authentic looks of ocean biomes which would all look identical without them. 

[cybers2001]

On 8/14/2025 at 11:35 AM, Mike23Ua said:

You have to intentionally toggle off every destructive feature, and/or Kick players &/Or Password Protect Your World so underexperienced noobs can not join and destroy your Mega Base. Either by intentional trolling, or through unintentionally lack of knowledge as to how every little feature in the game works.

You can choose to disagree with me all you want but the games core gameplay elements, which can’t be avoided unless you turn them off or have EVERYONE in the server agree to flee the area so it off-loads, heavily implies that Once you Mega Base: Your no longer playing the game the way it was intended.

Thats my opinion, that’s my stance, I explained it logically.. and it’s going to be hard for me to become wavered from it.

Do you not get tired of the same circular talking points? It’s like you ignore our responses just so you can reuse them in the next thread.

We never said we turn off every destructive element. Only the ones we cannot control. If you ever turned off disease then you should be able to relate to that.

Who says the way the game is intended to be played is public games where anyone with no accountability can waltz in? Who has a world past day 500 that plays that way?

I’ll tell you who the game *should be* for. It *should be* for players who play the game as an open world sandbox with no limits. Because that’s what it is. There is no end boss / roll to credits. It *should* be for players who continue to play well beyond just experiencing the new content of the month. It *should be* for players that are committed to going above and beyond barebones bases, as these are the players that continue to buy all the skins to continue supporting Klei so you can continue enjoying updates

17 hours ago, Lovens said:

Thanks for speaking up! 

I had no idea that masqued creatures didn't have a toggle. I remember them being added during hallowed nights and disliked the feature, so I waited until hallowed nights event end to turn my cave rifts back on so I don't have to deal with them. I turn the rifts on by knocking down one of my sign blockers, and when I did it again I realised masqued creatures weren't halloween exclusive. They spawned in my cave base entrance and would have given me a lot of trouble if not my houndiuses I put at the entrance to help with depth worms. Then I blocked my cave rifts again and decided I won't interact with them for now. 

Yes, masques can spawn instead of Ickers, so you can sometimes get really unlucky and end up with Oops! All Masques! I spent a summer working on a ruins base and had masques spawn in my base practically every time I walked 2 screens away. They straight up murder hutch despite him being tucked away in the back, and luckily I haven’t been leaving my beefalo around or he’d be dead too.

Edited August 16, 2025 by cybers2001

[KvltBear]

Gotta say I am not a big fan of this change. I didn't even know it affected moongleams until I saw this. 

I like threats to my base, I like deerclops, bearger, antlion, great depth worm, hound attacks, etc. These are fun. Fire...fire is not fun. It's been an unfun and unsatisfying mechanic since DSA days. Building ice flingos that eat tons of fuel everywhere is not fun. Ice staffs, water balloons, and watering cans cannot effectively stop a fire once it starts. No one carries these around, so you'll be running to find them as the fire burns. I strongly disagree that moonstorms should be spreading fire and have moongleams being floating arsonists. Makes no sense, that's not what they do. Let the lightning in the storms cause fire if that is the desired affect. 

Strongly dislike the Elding Spear starting fires. This is Wigfrid's main attraction since the skill tree, and not being able to use it on brightshades after all the work you have to do to unlock the charged spear is ridiculous.

You're not going to see a fire start offscreen in a moonstorm because of the harsh visual filter. You're not going to hear it because of the harsh background noise. You're not going to notice it because you'll be distracted by the minigame, the moongleams shocking you, the birds, the tools, etc. I don't think carpeting ice flingos everywhere is a fun solution to moongleams starting fires. And obviously avoiding base for days is not viable.

I would love to see more survival mechanics and threats to bases, just anything, anything besides more arbitrary fire spreading. Like, why would they take lunar hail doing damage away, which is way more thematic, and add this gimmicky side effect of moongleams in place of it?

Edited August 26, 2025 by KvltBear

[Edible Coal]

21 minutes ago, KvltBear said:

Gotta say I am not a big fan of this change. I didn't even know it affected moongleams until I saw this. 

I like threats to my base, I like deerclops, bearger, antlion, great depth worm, hound attacks, etc. These are fun. Fire...fire is not fun. It's been an unfun and unsatisfying mechanic since DSA days. Building ice flingos that eat tons of fuel everywhere is not fun. Ice staffs, water balloons, and watering cans cannot effectively stop a fire once it starts. No one carries these around, so you'll be running to find them as the fire burns. I strongly disagree that moonstorms should be spreading fire and have moongleams being floating arsonists. Makes no sense, that's not what they do. Let the lightning in the storms cause fire if that is the desired affect. 

Strongly dislike the Elding Spear starting fires. This is Wigfrid's main attraction since the skill tree, and not being able to use it on brightshades after all the work you have to do to unlock the charged spear is ridiculous.

You're not going to see a fire start offscreen in a moonstorm because of the harsh visual filter. You're not going to hear it because of the harsh background noise. You're not going to notice it because you'll be distracted by the minigame, the moongleams shocking you, the birds, the tools, etc. I don't think carpeting ice flingos everywhere is a fun solution to moongleams starting fires. And obviously avoiding base for days is not viable.

I would love to see more survival mechanics and threats to bases, just anything, anything besides more arbitrary fire spreading. Like, why would they take lunar hail doing damage away, which is way more thematic, and add this gimmicky side effect of moongleams in place of it?

is not that bad tbh, since moon gleam only spawn next to you and they stick to you , you can just walk away from dangerous farming area

[Radicaljoe]

16 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

is not that bad tbh, since moon gleam only spawn next to you and they stick to you , you can just walk away from dangerous farming area

Do they? I feel like I've seen gleams spawn pretty far from me before, at least fat enough away that I wouldn't get to them in time before they let off a shock.