Do you still play dst?

[nimzowitsch10]

Haven't played since last year, the game has gotten very stale with mediocre updates all year.  English speaking servers are very empty but the playercount still seems great as the chinese and russian players seem to enjoy the game still.

[GrapeVruit]

Well, with this being a forum pertaining to DST, I'd say a good chunk of people here still play the game. I've taken a 2 month long break from the game to play more action oriented games like Smash Ultimate or Overwatch, but I've found myself going back to DST again. Add the fact that you can now tame and renew clockworks, I've been hooked back on the game for the past few days now.

[BeeClops]

I mean if you ask this here the answer is probably yes, like it's been pointed out above too.

I often take long breaks from the game, couple of months or so, but when I do that I don't read forums either 

also idk where the english speaker playerbase is dead thing came from, I never had a problem finding english speaking players on playstation and I imagine the pc playerbase is much bigger 

[Semind]

My DST activity is like a waveform, I have periods of lower or none playtime alternating every few months with frequent playtime. Since I started playing in late 2023 IIRC I missed each seasonal event at least one time because it came around when I was more interested in a different game. For instance, right now I'm on a wind down because Mewgenics and Terraria 1.4.5 are grabbing my attention. So I guess in a way DST is the evergreen game that carries me when I'm in between new releases. FWIW, I'm used to long-term patience so I'm essentially locked into being interested in DST while we're still looking forward to a) the Shadow side counterpart to Hostile Takeover and b) the rest of the skill trees. And potentially c) whatever it was that made Klei decide to hold off on announcing a roadmap until they concluded the From Beyond arc.

I'm currently not seeing a near future end to my interest in DST, even if I'm not constantly playing it.

[Maxil20]

I think @Semindput it better than I could. It's my favorite game ever and I highly doubt I would stop playing it, but it being the only choice I ever played would be unreasonable. I love playing DST, but it's okay for other games to capture my attention as well during periods of disinterest from burnout and the like.

I'm currently on an arc of occasionally playing it and some other games (mostly playing it ATM because as a megabaser I got the dream of LUCKMAXXING YEAHHHHHH and having a mix of Terraria/MC stuffs being my current interests) 

[Uedo]

I'm playing again recently but the new update really removes a lot of want to continue - I'm really enjoying it, but with using the new changes in the general gameplay loop it's become so easy.

I am enjoying killing each Year of the horse knight periodically though, I like the drops and challenge, but I took them to bosses to try to quickly kill them and they're just too strong. It makes it so confusing how weak Abigail is when these followers (and the clockworks) are so much stronger. What's the point in wendy outside of her night vision potion, seriously?

[Sacco]

As of now i'm playing just original ds with all its dlc's. There's a very good mode called "more fixes" which literally fixes every bug that's still in the game. With that mod i feel like original DS is just way superior than DST.

[YouKnowWho142]

I took a several month long break from DST (since around last May/June) and have been trying to enjoy it again with the help of some friends. I was disappointed to find that when I came back there was basically no real substantial updates, and that has kind of been my issue. Klei has a really bad habit of adding content that they plan to expand on in a future update, only to add something else new in the next update that repeats the cycle. It comes off as a sort of "update bait" where you're expected to tune in to the next update to get the answers from the previous one, but the time between those updates keep becoming longer and less attached.

Just for reference, Return of Them started and ended within 2 years, and while there were periods during this time where there was blatantly unfinished content it was never for long. The updates were focused and prioritized on expanding the storyline it set for itself, giving the updates their own sense of progression. Meanwhile, From Beyond has gone on for almost 3 years now, yet aside from some of the lunar stuff still feels extremely incomplete. In all this time we still haven't seen a substantial shadow rift update past its first (shadow has maybe 8 planar enemies, half of which are planar versions of pre rift enemies and zero bosses), and the lunar questline abruptly ending with Scion still feels rushed. There is so much content in the From Beyond arc that feels like it's supposed to build up to something bigger, but we just haven't seen it yet. While I'm sure it'll turn out fine in the end, for now every part of the game at this stage in the game just really extremely incomplete, something that has never felt so obvious until Ancient Echoes which is cool in concept but does almost nothing right now despite taking up an entire update cycle.

Just in general though, it feels really bad to play with content that doesn't feel finished, and it's getting harder and harder to wait longer for each update when even Klei doesn't really come off as interested in finishing the arc (even though they are most certainly tired of it already). 

Edited February 19 by YouKnowWho142

[Mike23Ua]

Gonna be honest with ya’ll yesterday was the first time I actually sit down and played a round of DST since either the Wendy/Wortox Rework, or the Year of the Depth Worm Event, (whichever of those came out last) I never did figure out how to play Year of the Worm, & It’s now Year of the Horse, going by that statistic alone: It’s been at least a year since I last played a lengthy session of the game.

Last night was the first time I had played the game since the major changes to lunar hail (aka instead of bonking players on the head it now gathers on trees and structures, and also kills/mutates birds, spiders etc)

The Lunar Buzzards that swoop down and reanimate to life a “not so dead” animal carcass, that stuff is so sooooo cool.

But I also feel like this is no longer just “End Game” content, this feels like a good chunk of the game that a good majority of players never reach, never get to experience, and that’s upsetting to me.

I guess it’s because I know that if the game had proper difficulty scaling that even casual newbies could enjoy all the new mob changes and animations, without idk being absolutely decimated by something like a Crystalized Deerclops?

[Jakepeng99]

I play it every so often. It’s like Minecraft, except I actually play it a lot.

[ToXic Cur3]

I started playing again when hostile takeover part 2 arrived on xbox one to fight scion, then after on steam sometimes the world would get deleted on console which is not great but I dont mind because i enjoy starting a new world and If I'm able to beat a boss once then that means it can be done again plus I didn't finish all the skill tree's yet on xbox 

Currently havent tried out Year of the horse and I'm playing megaman legacy collection 1 and 2, modded terraria calamity and vanilla terraria to get the new whips/lunatic cultist mask 

Looking forward to the update for the shadow side and remaining skilltrees 

[Well-met]

Yes

[SapoLover]

Not much, but that's because I'm not playing much at all in pc. I have become... a mobile gamer (sniff sniff), play Balatro on the bus. Hopefully that mobile version of DST will turn out very good

Edited February 20 by SapoLover

[kroban]

Saying that there's only been "mediocre updates" is pretty dishonest, atleast in my opinion the game kept getting better and better each year.

There are some mistakes, like Big Depths Worm which only exists to annoy and has no decent loot, or rift content still not being finished yet (like, I think caves rifts feel pretty half baked), or some skill trees not feeling that great (looking at you Wolfgang and Wilson).

But the rest I think has been pretty nice. Content has been solid, I think that for example the ocean update with the ancient seeds is awesome, same with the fumarole biome and Boulderboughs. Skill trees added A LOT to the characters, specifically Walter, Woodie, Winona and Willow, and if some skill trees need a fix, Klei has already done that with Wormwood, so it may be the case we get more updates for the ones that don't feel that great.

 

And ye, I still play this game on the regular, Its not "the only game" I play, I also like MTGA, Rimworld and WoW, but DST its still one of my favs

Edited February 19 by kroban

[gaymime]

yeah, a couple times a week. i must confess i have been playing solo ds a bit more than together recently just because i have been wanting to play by myself as of late and together is more tuned for collaborative play

2 hours ago, Semind said:

My DST activity is like a waveform, I have periods of lower or none playtime alternating every few months with frequent playtime. Since I started playing in late 2023 IIRC I missed each seasonal event at least one time because it came around when I was more interested in a different game. For instance, right now I'm on a wind down because Mewgenics and Terraria 1.4.5 are grabbing my attention. So I guess in a way DST is the evergreen game that carries me when I'm in between new releases. FWIW, I'm used to long-term patience so I'm essentially locked into being interested in DST while we're still looking forward to a) the Shadow side counterpart to Hostile Takeover and b) the rest of the skill trees. And potentially c) whatever it was that made Klei decide to hold off on announcing a roadmap until they concluded the From Beyond arc.

I'm currently not seeing a near future end to my interest in DST, even if I'm not constantly playing it.

a lot of people have been talking about mewgenices lately, how is it holding up? i want to get it but i always burn out on his games so fast i never finish anything

[benfroyobro9381]

sort of. I'm still playing DST and am currently on the Celestial Champion fight on my current wortox run, but have zero time to play these days. I do hop on for twitch drops and rewards and im very up to date on updates. 

[Mike23Ua]

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

yeah, a couple times a week. i must confess i have been playing solo ds a bit more than together recently just because i have been wanting to play by myself as of late and together is more tuned for collaborative play

I would choose to play Solo DS too, but DST has all the cool updates & continues to get updates, I actually “like” the Lunar Buzzards, I think it’s cool how they swoop down and Mutate regular mobs into their Lunar counter parts. But it feels like “Incomplete” content, like I mean for example: a Pigman has a corpse, it’ll fall over but UNLIKE dead spiders which DO get mutated into their Shattered variant, the Pigmans corpse will not even animate into a Werepig.

My only major gripe with DST, is that I can not scale the game to feel “fair” for solo players, lowering enemy health, damage or their spawning limits. If I could do that, I’d probably play a lot more often..

[DegenerateFurry]

Not nearly as much as I used to, but I still do sometimes. I just tried out Shockscrap rounds against the new clockworks, and they're great, but they have a big flaw: needing canary feathers to craft. 

Because of that, it's not really viable to use them in their now-most useful point in the game (ruins), because you have to get a pumpkin to make a scarecrow, and unless Hallowed Nights is enabled, you'll be hard-pressed to get a pumpkin by day 11. On a public server, someone will have already killed AG by then.

[Mysterious box]

1 hour ago, DegenerateFurry said:

Not nearly as much as I used to, but I still do sometimes. I just tried out Shockscrap rounds against the new clockworks, and they're great, but they have a big flaw: needing canary feathers to craft. 

Because of that, it's not really viable to use them in their now-most useful point in the game (ruins), because you have to get a pumpkin to make a scarecrow, and unless Hallowed Nights is enabled, you'll be hard-pressed to get a pumpkin by day 11. On a public server, someone will have already killed AG by then.

Gotta say though it is kinda funny how shockscrap went from the worst option for skill tree ammo to the most versatile between the stuns, chain effect, and now converting clockworks into followers.

[AliceShiki]

Can't say I play live-service games much outside of my main gacha, so... Well, I play DST when my friends feel like playing.

I like the overall gameplay, and it's still pretty fun to me, but... Well, between a live-service game and a single-player game when I'm playing alone, the choice is usually pretty clear.

[Kyno]

If you count modding the game as playing then yeah, otherwise nah.

[Semind]

2 hours ago, gaymime said:

yeah, a couple times a week. i must confess i have been playing solo ds a bit more than together recently just because i have been wanting to play by myself as of late and together is more tuned for collaborative play

a lot of people have been talking about mewgenices lately, how is it holding up? i want to get it but i always burn out on his games so fast i never finish anything

I have no idea how to answer. The concept of burning out on Ed's games (well okay, I'm pretty much only thinking of Isaac) is foreign to me, because the core appeal is that the game is enjoyable on a basic level, and then the endless amount of additional things to do that pile up as you play is just more fuel for keeping the fun going longer.

Here's my unranked bullet points for what's most appealing to me in the game:

• Banger soundtrack (always gotta love the gimmick where the instrumental battle music gets a lyrical version for the boss fight)
• Balance, like Isaac, allows you to get ridiculously overpowered when the stars align so if your skill is lacking you can at least keep playing and you'll eventually get a win handed to you
• Extreme variety of mechanical interactions, calling to mind Breath of the Wild's "chemistry" philosophy of having disparate elements and attributes interact in ways that seem logical leading to unexpected, novel outcomes
• Even if cat life is simulated rather simplistically, I still have warm feelings looking at my cats' ancestry and seeing my starter cats appear at the top of the family tree even after they're gone.
• Classic Ed design of having a ludicrous number of items and skills, making it to where I can keep seeing stuff I haven't seen yet even after my 8th time watching a streamer's first time playing
• The game having long-term incentives in the form of trying to upgrade your home and building a roster of cats that become increasingly competent over generations of breeding, passing down powerful abilities and stat bonuses
• The understated narrative that reveals itself slowly the further you get which is reminiscent of the Dark Souls school of storytelling

[Baark0]

I personally haven't played since the fumerole update. DST is one of those games that will hold my interest for a good 2-3 months at a time, but until that time arrives I just have 0 motivation to play the game, especially if all of the recent updates are kind of lackluster. This happens most frequently around October to Jan/Feb/whenever lunar new year events end, since those updates tend to be pretty unimpactful to the main game. It does makes me wonder what the game might look like if instead of getting a handful of smaller updates every few months, we instead got 1 or 2 larger updates across the whole year.

[ShadowDuelist]

I don’t play as much as I did during the 2017–2022 period. Even though I’m a regular on the forums and keep up with the updates, I usually only play for a couple of weeks after every two or three major patches.

I still tend to get bored in the late game. I’m not really into world-building or endlessly grinding materials, so once I reach that stage, I usually lose momentum and end up taking another break for a few months. I’m also no speedrunner, so getting to the “late game” (meaning most or all bosses defeated and a cozy, fully functional base that provides everything I need) typically takes me several hundred ingame days.

That said, I really enjoy the occasional social aspect of the game. Chatting and joking there, especially with friends I’ve played with for years, never gets old.

Edited February 20 by ShadowDuelist

[Velvy]

4 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

My only major gripe with DST, is that I can not scale the game to feel “fair” for solo players, lowering enemy health, damage or their spawning limits. If I could do that, I’d probably play a lot more often..

automatic health adjust mod my beloved ❤️