Poll - What to do with Moongleams burning down bright-shade infested plants?

[Wumpair]

The new electric mechanics are fun and genually amazing!

But there is a caviat: If a moonstrom spawns on top of your base, the moongleams will quickly burn it down, spreading fire on grasgekos, lureplants and brightshades. The fact that after killing Scion you have to craft spark arks using restrained static means that you will need to activete moonstorms again post-rift again if you want extra spark-arc equipment; thus increasing chances of the brightshade + moongleams catastrofe. 

This poll is to see what people think about this, if you hold the same opinion or are indiferent? The two notions that I mentioned (no fire from moongleams & scale-maled turffs) are ideas I saw circulating trough the forums. I personally like the 1st one, the idea of farming df a bunch of times // greengem duplication just to get same turff is not appealing to me. If you have other ideas, feel free to share your thoughts! ^_^

[Lovens]

I dislike moon gleams being so destructive. At the very least I would like a toggle in the settings for them to not target innocent mobs, not ignite plant based creatures, and not destroy walls and fences. This mechanics doesn't bring challenge to the game, it only serves as a way to grief the base and destroy the effort of people putting time and effort into it. 

[Pruinae]

I do think Moongleams putting stuff on fire needs to be addressed, however the "2." section of the poll can be interpreted as implying the shock will work exactly as T.I.N.G.L.E's does, taking away Moongleams' damage would remove some niche strategies they allow.

For me, the ideal would be: No fire. But damage and shock stun remains.

Edited August 6, 2025 by Pruinae

[Dingle]

What about just making it so moonstorms don't happen right in your base?

[Lovens]

22 minutes ago, Dingle said:

What about just making it so moonstorms don't happen right in your base?

This still wouldn't address the issue with them killing and setting things on fire outside of your base. People build stuff in different biomes, and creatures wander around the whole world. Having an entire herd of naturally spawned grass geckos burn to ashes because a moonstorm happened to land on top of the mosaic biome would be a very unfair way of losing a lot of unrenewable grass sources in a grass gecko world, and could potentially just wipe all of them out eventually. 

[linabagel]

I don't know how to describe it most accurately. If I had to give an example, it's like "wildfire". When it occurs, whether the player intentionally or not, as long as the player enters this range, it is possible to happen. If it is summer, players will indeed pay extra attention to the occurrence of wildfires. But in Moonstorm, the player's priority is to complete the mission, at this point, due to the unexpected flames, players must make a choice: to put out the fire or complete the mission? If the player is near the base and has Ice Flingomatic ready, then the fire can be resolved automatically. However, in places where players do not prepare Ice Flingomatic, such as Ice Crystaleyezer or Above-Average Tree Trunk ( because they can prevent wildfires, players usually do not prepare additional Ice Flingomatic ), then the destruction caused by the fire will frustrate the players' spirit ( it may be a challenge for players in the short-term world, but for those in the long-term world, it is more of a sense of exhaustion ).

[Cassielu]

I don't have intense emotions. I just hope it won't add more confusion and inconsistency to the electric shock mechanism.

[Sephirona]

I appreciate that they're trying to add more flavor to the kinds of obstacles we have to face while playing DST, and I don't begrudge people who enjoy playing with default settings such as wildfires. I like watching and supporting speedrunners who play the game and deal with the challenges as they come even if that's not my preferred playstyle, and I played for a long while on default settings in the early days as well so I've had my fair share of laughs with bearger and deerclops destroying my stuff in the beginning. But for long term play where I've moved towards aesthetics in my personal playstyle, I draw the line at the wanton destruction of my bases. I have builds of various sizes scattered all throughout my map. My main base covers the whole section of the continent and is the result of many months of on and off work. I have small zoos of grass gators and grass geckos to passively farm resources, densely packed with vegetation for a garden-feel. It's simply not feasible for me to maintain flingomatics around that large of an area with no option to turn it off. I already tend to wait to engage with new content so that more options are released for base protection, such as reinforced pillars and embalming spritz for the rifts. I don't mind that. What stinks is that old content that I could play to decorate my base in the meantime - fighting CC to get shards for glowcaps - now becomes tedious as well when this unpredictability from moongleams is factored in. 

Overall, I like that DST is a game that supports different playstyles. There's a little bit of something for everyone - the players who enjoy displays of skill against the odds can do so, and the players who like to build aesthetically pleasing worlds and might have a more relaxed approach can do so as well by changing the settings. Being able to retain a large playerbase keeps the game lively and it's been nice returning to the game and seeing it thriving. I guess what I want to say is that this moongleam danger is one that feels unreasonably annoying to deal with for one portion of the playerbase who does care about it, and in keeping with the options we already have in the settings I think it's better to let us toggle this kind of destruction. Not calling for it to be removed for the people who it doesn't affect, but there really should be an option to turn it off.

[Evelo]

I understand why people dislike the dangers of moongleams. I personally don't care but changing them to just be a little non-fire shock is fine by me. Leave the flaming destruction to the heavy hitters.

[Waywarbler]

I personally want moongleams to only damage survivors. That way, we don't have to worry about plant enemies getting ignited by moonstorms, and they can still shock Wormwood and set him on fire. 

[Bumber64]

To begin with, I think the plants catching fire mechanic should only happen in the dry summer, not when they're wet.

I think we also need a mid-game replacement for flingo. Each one only holds 5 days of fuel, IIRC? Probably would involve brilliance (like Winona stuff) or scrap. Maybe a blue gem so it shoots freeze rays.

Or they could make the crystaleyezer into a decent item, I guess.

Edited August 7, 2025 by Bumber64