More layers in the future?

[readkey]

I recall that DST Ruin was changed to be on the same level of the Cave, because Klei worried that some players’ computers might not be able to handle so many servers. 

The new beta finally adds a third layer of the World after all these years. Does that mean Klei is adjusting their design philosophy and will add more layers in the future? Are we going to see the Volcanic Biome with real lava pools like in their scrapped ideas?

[gamehun20]

I assume you mean the archive maze? That's still just in the regular caves but it's not connected to anything 

[landromat]

new layer means new server, and some machines are struggling with two we have

[Captain_Rage]

1 hour ago, landromat said:

new layer means new server, and some machines are struggling with two we have

Indeed, which sucks, though there is not much that can be done about that. :/ I would looooooove to have a pelagic ocean type of shard with randomly spawned islands and shenanigans where the normal ocean ends.

[Reiko24]

3 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

Indeed, which sucks, though there is not much that can be done about that. :/ I would looooooove to have a pelagic ocean type of shard with randomly spawned islands and shenanigans where the normal ocean ends.

I mean, I think Klei should do something similar to Don’t Starve Alone BUT only for people with weak machines. If your computer is unable to handle multiple shards at once, you should have the option to only have 1 shard enabled at once. Going to caves or back to the surface could only occur if both players were near entrances and would connect them to the shard. 
 

Sucks not being able to go to the caves by oneself, but if you have a PC from 2015 don’t hold others back…

 

edit: just so you know, my laptop is like 5 years old and it was low-mid range at best 5 years AGO. and it still can handle even 4 shards (IA + Forest) with ease. It’s not even a hardware problem anymore guys…

Edited September 10, 2025 by Reiko24

[Milordo]

It means it's the perfect time for Klei to fix finally what they did with Ruins on DST release, together with Lunar grotto and archives by giving them a proper entrance!

[Mike23Ua]

7 hours ago, Reiko24 said:

I mean, I think Klei should do something similar to Don’t Starve Alone BUT only for people with weak machines. If your computer is unable to handle multiple shards at once, you should have the option to only have 1 shard enabled at once. Going to caves or back to the surface could only occur if both players were near entrances and would connect them to the shard. 
 

Sucks not being able to go to the caves by oneself, but if you have a PC from 2015 don’t hold others back…

 

edit: just so you know, my laptop is like 5 years old and it was low-mid range at best 5 years AGO. and it still can handle even 4 shards (IA + Forest) with ease. It’s not even a hardware problem anymore guys…

I play on the Xbox series S, on my old Xbox One it took a ridiculously long amount of time to load between Surface & Caves, on the S (with the game installed to internal storage) it’s extremely fast & fluid. I wish Klei could add new shards now that I have a gaming machine capable of pulling them without issues.

And they can even do like Minecraft has done: where DLCs like the Batman Mashup Pack allows the player to toggle which version of the game they want to load (I can choose between optimized for X/S or PS4/Xbox One.

For Dont Starve Together I imagine it would be as simple as adding a host world server settings button that can only be accessed if your playing on a fancier more capable machine.

Kind of like how on PC they have server toggles for larger worlds & lots more but the console version (still being held back by last Gen constraints) can’t have these same toggle options.

I fully believe that the X/S & PS5 would be capable of more than two server shards, but the PS4 & Xbox One are already hella slow and laggy now, so Klei would need to find a way to allow players to host high quality or low quality worlds.

(I hope someone understands what I’m trying to say because I’m no Tech Nerd.)

[Well-met]

14 hours ago, readkey said:

The new beta finally adds a third layer of the World after all these years.

no it doesn't...

[-Variant]

14 hours ago, readkey said:

The new beta finally adds a third layer of the World after all these years

As others have said, its not a new layer, nor shard. 

Like the Atrium, it's just a bit out in the cave void. You can find it when tracing the edges of the world, too.

[Cruvimaster]

The problem of a third server wouldn't just affect solo players on older PCs. My old RTX 2060 card couldn't handle my 3,000-day solo world anymore. I upgraded to an RTX 4070TI Super, and it fixed the problem. But the main problem lies precisely in playing together. Even some 3000-series cards can't handle 6 players for 200 / 300 world days and many builds. If Klei adds a third server tier, it will require a very powerful graphics card for the current DST optimization state.

[Reiko24]

16 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

The problem of a third server wouldn't just affect solo players on older PCs. My old RTX 2060 card couldn't handle my 3,000-day solo world anymore. I upgraded to an RTX 4070TI Super, and it fixed the problem. But the main problem lies precisely in playing together. Even some 3000-series cards can't handle 6 players for 200 / 300 world days and many builds. If Klei adds a third server tier, it will require a very powerful graphics card for the current DST optimization state.

Doesn’t the processor host the server and count all entities and stuff? Why are u talking about gpu 

[Cruvimaster]

11 minutes ago, Reiko24 said:

Doesn’t the processor host the server and count all entities and stuff? Why are u talking about gpu 

It's great to know that I don't need a graphics card to play DST (I'll even remove the graphics card and leave just the CPU). But it doesn't matter whether it's the CPU or the GPU, as the core idea remains the same.

[cropo]

Why does everyone want the ruins to be another layer down? Honestly I like it so much more that I can stumble onto them naturally without having to jump down a random hole in the middle of no where, and then wait sometimes an entire minute for a loading screen to generate an entirely new world for me. 

In Singleplayer you just ran and ran and ran until you found that tiny little thulecite rock and broke it for a loading screen. In DST you can actually explore and find it naturally and that just feels so much better and more intuitive.

[Reiko24]

On 9/11/2025 at 4:33 PM, Cruvimaster said:

It's great to know that I don't need a graphics card to play DST (I'll even remove the graphics card and leave just the CPU). But it doesn't matter whether it's the CPU or the GPU, as the core idea remains the same.

We were specifically talking about server hosting. Are you dense? Server hosting does not need a gpu at all. It makes a little difference. Playing dst on the other hand obviously requires a gpu but we weren’t taking about PLAYING, we were talking about HOSTING

[ZeRoboButler]

I'm not sure it would be great for a new "layer" or shard to be made, but perhaps there could be the illusion of such in a way similar to hamlet's dungeon style of doing things. opening the map to reveal the dungeon or ruin map as opposed to the standard caves map. Could be cool but what do I know, I don't know exactly how such a system would work, just an idea.

[Cruvimaster]

14 hours ago, Reiko24 said:

We were specifically talking about server hosting. Are you dense? Server hosting does not need a gpu at all. It makes a little difference. Playing dst on the other hand obviously requires a gpu but we weren’t taking about PLAYING, we were talking about HOSTING

How many users create servers on independent computers? Almost all use the same PC to manage the game and the servers. This independence doesn't exist in practice.

But, okay. What kind of processor should people buy to play DST with 3 or 4 active servers and 6 players? Would it need to be an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or an Intel 285k? I don't know.

What I know is that in the most peaceful scenario possible (1 single player with 2 active servers) I see a lot of people using mods to prevent one of the servers from working (Alone mod). And, in fact, there have been a lot of petitions about this now.

[Reiko24]

9 hours ago, Cruvimaster said:

How many users create servers on independent computers? Almost all use the same PC to manage the game and the servers. This independence doesn't exist in practice.

But, okay. What kind of processor should people buy to play DST with 3 or 4 active servers and 6 players? Would it need to be an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or an Intel 285k? I don't know.

What I know is that in the most peaceful scenario possible (1 single player with 2 active servers) I see a lot of people using mods to prevent one of the servers from working (Alone mod). And, in fact, there have been a lot of petitions about this now.

I didn’t even say anything about independent computers. You are putting words in my mouth.

I played with 4 people on a 4 server shard on a WEAK laptop CPU Ryzen 5 4600h (laptop CPU’s are much weaker than their desktop counterparts) and we had 0 problems. You would need to idk have an intel pentium from 2014 to see any problems to be honest.

 

About the DS Alone mod, the input lag is created in DST because of the limitations of the game engine. Even if you had a supercomputer from NASA, it still would have input lag as you see rn in the game which is annoying. That’s why, unfortunately, unless Klei decides to fundamentally change the game it will never be fixed.

(And it didn’t increase in my case even tho my laptop is weak)

[Milordo]

11 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

I'm not sure it would be great for a new "layer" or shard to be made, but perhaps there could be the illusion of such in a way similar to hamlet's dungeon style of doing things. opening the map to reveal the dungeon or ruin map as opposed to the standard caves map. Could be cool but what do I know, I don't know exactly how such a system would work, just an idea.

Sir.

It's exactly how I imagined for YEARS about Ruins, Ocean, Lunar island and Lunar grotto ❤️