What would you like to see from new set pieces?

[ButtonEyedDoll]

I was just playing with the Insidious Lurker mod, and seeing all the new set pieces got me thinking, “This really adds a lot to the atmosphere. What should Klei add if they’re ever going to put in more set pieces?” Hence why I made this thread.

I think it would be cool to see more set pieces like the abandoned beefalo pen. Something that tells you other people were alive here once (then probably died hideously). I think adding some abandoned base camps would really add to the atmosphere. But there would need to be something there that prevents the player from walking straight in and taking everything too easily, like having everything be burnt down or having the place overrun with hounds.  

Some smaller pig/merm villages scattered around would also be a nice way to fill the empty space.

 

If y’all have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

[gaymime]

i would like disused/decrepit bases. seeing a mini-base that is like 80% burned down next to a partial torch and some charcoal would be heckin' cool AND there could be variations like a basic hovel or a magical station but because they are burned they are not usable just viewable

it would be cool seeing skeles next to stuff like ponds and impaled heads and dangerous mob spawners with an appropriate tool/weapon next to them or seeing more weather-related items just hanging around. it doesnt have to be useful just being novel and apropos to where it is found is good to me!

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, ButtonEyedDoll said:

I was just playing with the Insidious Lurker mod, and seeing all the new set pieces got me thinking, “This really adds a lot to the atmosphere. What should Klei add if they’re ever going to put in more set pieces?” Hence why I made this thread.

I think it would be cool to see more set pieces like the abandoned beefalo pen. Something that tells you other people were alive here once (then probably died hideously). I think adding some abandoned base camps would really add to the atmosphere. But there would need to be something there that prevents the player from walking straight in and taking everything too easily, like having everything be burnt down or having the place overrun with hounds.  

Some smaller pig/merm villages scattered around would also be a nice way to fill the empty space.

 

If y’all have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

The honest truth is that it’s actually NOT that hard to build a base in DST, and by base I mean all the main structures (crockpot, fridge, tent, science machine, presti-whatever that word is called..) all of it can be built in less than a Day if you know where to go to obtain the resources. And because you can “Prototype” but not yet place down base structures, you can literally run around with an Entire Base pre-built in your pocket.

I don’t think finding run down bases you can live in is going to hurt the game.. I do it all the time in other games like 7DtD, because like I said: it isn’t enough of a “Freebie” to be damaging to gameplay.

[Schry]

I saw many new set pieces about failed survivor in the Uncompromising Mode Beta, these Boons show new players how to make use of certain items (Especially UM's new items).

For example, a broken Thermal Stone and a damaged Rabbit Earmuffs, they tell us that this survivor has been battling the cold winter. In fact, in DS (especially in Adventure Mode), we can see many more interesting set pieces than in DST.

Spoiler

Nights at UM are interesting with the surprises and risks that probability brings.

 

[Tigris Nano]

I would like to see something like abandoned bases in ds. Cave variations included

[BrixGoBrrr]

finding one or more basic traps with something already caught in it, rabbit or frog or any spider variants or smthng else.. a gentle fear of the unknown, even when you're totally safe 

finding partial maps in a new world, with key features/locations/resources, maybe a Catcoon den or bee hives, a stretch of cobblestone road, a big blob of savannah to show a beefalo spot, a blob of desert to show volt goat or tumbleweed spawns or marking Antlion's spawn point, etc 

and i really like the thought of burnt mid-game and late-game crafting stations, the storytelling & warnings-to-others potential feels endless 

oh and having more Animated Shorts items & moments reflected in-game, like the heart-shaped sinkhole and Mermeo's & Pigliet's skeletons in the caves, like:
- a stone fire pit with some specific abandoned foods and with a stump & benches we can sit on, and/or a stretch of Victorian Collection Fence marking the edge of the usual graveyard (Tales From the Constant: Swine & Dine) ..
- the walls + table + damaged kitchen seen in Wx's animated short Disconnected, maybe some gears and frazzled wire too?
- more event-related setpieces, like Wilson's tent + fire + jackolanterns + backpack + candies, and/or Webber's nap spot with the Candy Bag + decorated TNTree + napping Spider from Tales From the Constant: Boneward Bound 

[Well-met]

RNG setpieces are the heart of this game and it's criminal that klei would avoid adding any* for a decade.

*excluding the 2 recently abandoned ships they added out of pity

[Harrowick]

It's a little specific, but I would love to see merm related set pieces in the swamp. Stuff like small gardens with a few crops growing, maybe some spiky tree fencing!

I'd just like to see believable evidence of survival from the merms, because we know they have plant based dietary needs, but there's nothing in the swamp that they could realistically survive on. There are tentacles, spiders, and ponds, but those are all meat-sources. There's no crops or natural food that grows in the swamp that the merms could have lived on.

 

Closest thing to a natural food source they have is kelp, but that's in the ocean and it'sonly a food source for them if you're playing/have a Wurt to make the communal kelp dish, and we don't see merms diving into the ocean to swim to gather kelp.

[Cassielu]

I only hope they stop using set pieces to pretend and replace those biomes that should have been randomly generate.

[Hungry French]

On 11/8/2025 at 10:11 AM, Mike23Ua said:

I don’t think finding run down bases you can live in is going to hurt the game.. I do it all the time in other games like 7DtD, because like I said: it isn’t enough of a “Freebie” to be damaging to gameplay.

It damages the game in its own way. So are the skeletons with loot.Although it hurts the game a lot more when you skip a whole layer of non-ruins and caves content. That's really hurting the game. Although this is what players call "not disappointing mechanics." Although in fact it is cheese. Although I don't blame the players for the cheese. Because it's the developers' fault that cheese is in the game.

There are such things as a huge farm of grass or berries near Pig Guard. But it is devalued by the fact that a player can EASILY do the same thing at home. Transplanting is evil.

[Echsrick]

there are actualy base set pieces there just super rare