a poll because i am super curious about the forumites

[gaymime]

with wx getting so many people talking about whether they now are or are not stronger now and how that makes the game feel i've started wondering something; are the members of this form more into harder gameplay or softer gameplay? i used to think "harder of course" but in the last month or so i am less sure. basically i just want to know the general vibe of how people feel(and what better way than a super limited probably biased poll!) 

 

because i want honest answers the voter's choices are not going to be public but as always anything you say in the thread itself is visible for everyone so don't say it if you dont mean it!

Edited May 8 by gaymime

[eeriecupid]

Personally, I want something I can both conquer and have my behind handed to me by. 
ie, I want to get stronger, destroy what once threatened me, and then encounter new and worse threats all while building and decorating my little base. 
I think it’s best summed up by the first deerclops encounter: you’ve finally bested winter, you’ve got light, food, protection and a base. Nothing can stop you now! And then deerclops kills you. The feeling that there is always something stronger, waiting for the moment you’ve gotten comfortable is so entertaining. 

[Wawchik]

As a very casual player, my introduction to dst in terms of gameplay was my friend saying "you need a few mods to make the game playable" and, honestly, I can't even disagree that much. I think the game inherently isn't really difficult since all don't starve games are knowledge games but at one point you get good enough to overcome the "uncompromising" parts of the game and then they just become annoying. I believe if the game really wants to be more combat focused, then stuff like health bars should be essential. Imo games shouldn't be straight up annoying, they should take skill unless it was intended otherwise if they want to be hard. 

[Jakepeng99]

I kinda just want a difficult game Im suprised there is no option for that.

 

I don’t really want a point where it gets easy because that’s when I get bored.

When you solve a challenge there should be a new one to face.

[Evelo]

Really touch choice between option 2 and 3. I want to say both honestly. But I voted for option 2.

[gaymime]

39 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I kinda just want a difficult game Im suprised there is no option for that.

 

I don’t really want a point where it gets easy because that’s when I get bored.

When you solve a challenge there should be a new one to face.

i considered it but "difficult" with no qualifier is so easily interpreted to mean almost anything that it would be about as useful as the "just want to see the results" option as a measurable datapoint

[Mike23Ua]

Let me put it this way, I enjoyed Resident Evil 7, I beat it on easy & normal difficulties, what I got frustrated with and gave up immediately on however was Ethan Must Die.

how is this relevant to DST? Because it’s a clear indication of a players personal limits within a game, when it stops being “fun” and instead becomes pure unplayable to them “frustration”

Now let me state that for the record I am no stranger to hard or punishing games, but that has never been the identity of DS/DST or any of its DLCs.

I think a game, not just DS/DST/DSE but any game really, is most enjoyable when it has flexible levels of difficulty & the DS franchise has always had that (albeit to an extremely limited degree..) with world Gen settings and character choice.

In today’s era of DS we can now before EVER hosting a game world for the first time EVER, select from over 5 preset difficulties.

Each one offering a drastically different way of playing the game.

You can die and worlds get erased instantly, or you can die and respawn as another random character, you can even flip a few toggles and almost never die at all.

there are some things I wish Klei would return to and tackle differently, such as for example how they recently changed bishops attacks to show an AoE of where it’s about to hit so you have time to react and try to move out of the way.

I am willing to bet 200$ that if they’d go back and rework some old bosses the same way, more players can enjoy content they once found to be too frustrating or did not fully understand.

One such example is the Eye of Terror, if players knew where it’s attacks were headed, they’d have time to dodge (like all attacks in Hades 2)

One more thing I should probably bring up is making content more flexible, there are some bosses I’ve never beaten, quite a few of them actually, I’ve tried and tried.. but ultimately I die and it’s time wasted.

Because of this, I generally ignore engaging with this content, unless I absolutely have to (you can ignore Deerclops and Bearger if you don’t wanna kill either of em) and most other bosses require obscure methods of summoning anyway. But, even casual newbies could enjoy these bosses if they properly scaled in health, damage & difficulty.

So the TL:DR- I like a hard game until it’s no longer fun, I want to enjoy myself.. not feel like picking up the controller was a punishment.

[Nikki Darks]

I just want a game that challenges me. Doesn't have to be as difficult as Uncompromising Mod, just on a level where I always need to be fully prepared for everything.

Like, harsher punishments for not preparing, more clear downsides for every character, bosses that have actual mechanics I need to learn how to counter, etc, etc.
 

But I'd be happy even if they finally gave every character an actually impactful downside. 

[Jakepeng99]

49 minutes ago, Nikki Darks said:

I just want a game that challenges me. Doesn't have to be as difficult as Uncompromising Mod, just on a level where I always need to be fully prepared for everything.

Like, harsher punishments for not preparing, more clear downsides for every character, bosses that have actual mechanics I need to learn how to counter, etc, etc.
 

But I'd be happy even if they finally gave every character an actually impactful downside. 

I also want rogue lite elements to be more prominent.

There should be some more luck involved with stuff like wrong place wrong time, dangerous set pieces and stuff which will spice up the game and make it so you need to adapt to even the worst situations.

Because eventually, you will just have a set out solution for everything.

[Ridley]

I use game settings and personal rules to make the game challenging in the ways I find fun. I don't think the game on the whole needs to be harder or easier.

[user1464576869]

I want a game with a different kind of difficulty altogether. The randomness of swapping equipments and items around in your inventory for combat isn't in my taste. I prefer a game were my intent is as streamlined as possible. Not only is swapping equips unreliable regarding slot order but the game also suffers a lot of missed input on mouse clicks with the inventory.

I also don't like the grind to get decent items for a fight that wasted all of it on failed attempts. It wouldn't be so bad if the grind was basic progression, but so much of both the collection and the fight itself comes down to exact seasonal timings, which means the most vital thing you loose is time, real life time, and in-game having to await the next viable cycle.

In short. Nothing in this game strikes me as difficult, yet everything about this game I want to be easier.

[AliceShiki]

Uhn... In general, I prefer harder games in my preferred genres, and I'm fine with any difficulty (except super duper steamroll easy) in genres I don't play much of.

There are no "I want to prove my skills" or "I want the game to punish me for not playing well" in my head though. I just want things to be fun, and fun in my preferred genres means it needs to offer a real challenge, otherwise I'll just steamroll the game (because I'm good at my preferred genres) and that will be kinda boring.

Starting Difficult but being allowed to grind it to become easy is more of a convenience thing in case I dislike the design of a specific superboss and don't wanna bother with fighting it fairly, so it's not something I care much about normally, it's more of a specific thing for specific situations that make me care for it.

As in to say... I feel like the flavor text kinda ruins the poll.

But to answer the question in regards to DST specifically... It's fine? It's a fun game to play with friends here and there. No real complaints to be made about the experience in terms of difficulty, I'm happy with it.

Which is also another weird part of the poll... There is no option for "I'm happy with DST as is."

Edited May 8 by AliceShiki

[DegenerateFurry]

I voted "I use mods that change the difficulty of the game to better suit me" because depending on what character I'm playing, I'll sometimes use one that makes Fuelweaver's summoning mechanics have a longer cooldown and lessens the number of things he summons. I won't do that if I'm playing someone who has great natural AoE or sufficient damage output, though. 

Most of the mods I use are QoL (like Insight or Environment Pinger) or content mods (Heaps of Foods, Tropical Adventures, etc). 

[Frashaw27]

I don't particularly care about difficulty for dst anymore. As I have developed my own games and whatnot, I have come to understand that you simply cannot really "fix" difficulty, especially when it comes to games like dst that don't have any sort of linear progression. That is part of the charm with it in my opinion, but the rough thing is that with that makes it so that content is really tough to gauge unless it's at the very end like scion or very start like maraotters. There are obviously outliers like how iirc there was a point during the walter skill tree beta where walter could slow a boss down to such a point where they could not longer fight back. However, there are also thing that are simply on a case to case basis. One of the biggest examples being Maxwell's 75 max hp. I've seen people say it isn't that bad because of like armor and what not and I've seen others say it's pretty bad because a simple slip up can cause death. Regardless, it's very much a point to where I no longer care if things are properly challenging me or if a subset is broken or not, I just want things to be interesting. I would much rather have a character like Wortox who may be on the very strong side but is very fun, then a perfectly balanced character who is boring as rocks. I want content that is actively interesting and engaging, not made to try and test how good I am at x task. Sometimes those two align, but there are times when it doesn't. 

[gaymime]

44 minutes ago, AliceShiki said:

Which is also another weird part of the poll... There is no option for "I'm happy with DST as is."

i will correct the title so it is easier to understand. thankyou for bringnig this to my attention

[Baark0]

i want the game to be fun and not have annoying mechanics like stupid buzzards that break my walls and kill everything

[Pig and beefalo]

I really like pure games, but at the same time, I also hope for some improvement in the quality of life.

First of all, it's the issue of operability, which is the most crucial. This shouldn't be part of the world difficulty or setting. For example, in DST, PC players use the space bar very frequently in the game. Especially when working and harvesting crops, you have to nervously avoid W.I.N Bot. Sometimes when you are picking up materials, you accidentally pick them up and have to rearrange them. I can't see what's interesting about this.

Secondly, there is the issue of stages. In the early stage of the game, I personally don't care how difficult and tormenting it is for players. But as the game progresses to the later stage, the world is not so dangerous for you at this time. You should start to enjoy the leisurely later life. However, the restrictions on some items are too strict, such as Polar Bearger Bin. When most people get this thing, food should no longer be A problem, and the introduction of this thing is "A portable fridge. Cool." But we all know that it can only hold dishes. I understand that they are encouraging players to make dishes, but I think instead of rigidly restricting it from holding ingredients, It would be better to reconsider the life and san attributes of the ingredients. When a tomato can only restore 5 health points or even less, I think players will reevaluate their food configuration.

Thirdly, there is the issue of followers. In this DST, players are not always fighting; they are also building and working. But if you are surrounded by a group of obstacles that you can't get rid of, can you still build and work happily? In this regard, there needs to be an order for them to stay in one place uniformly or continue to follow. I don't think it's an excessive demand.

Fourth, there is the issue of diversified world Settings. The current world Settings have made significant progress compared to before, but some Settings are still not achievable for the time being. For instance, setting the four seasons separately, such as eternal rain in spring, no rain in summer, normal autumn, and eternal night in winter. At the same time, making the time of each season not so fixed but rather a rough value The world set up in this way will be more dangerous and random, but not illogical.

Fifth, it is to re-examine some items and buildings. such as Deck Illuminator. It is possible to consider giving it a secondary upgrade with materials such as Shroom Skin and Rot Turn it into a building similar to Mushlight, such as Moon Quay Pirate Banne. Put this on the ship to avoid those damn monkeys, such as wardrobes. Maybe allowing clothes to be put in is a good option, such as Life Giving Amulet. It doesn't seem like a big deal to allow it to be fixed with Nightmare Fuel.

Sixth, some surprises and expectations. perhaps the Odd Beefalo should expand some of his goods, This mysterious fellow has quite a few businesses, such as serving as a judge in the "Beefalo Pageant" or running the treasure business of his "Trade Inn". In that case, how about adding some other business for him? For instance, selling "Gingerbread Cookie" or "Festive Light" in winter, occasionally visiting you with a homeless "Baby Beefalo" or "Smallbird", or collecting some garbage you don't need and randomly throwing some other garbage at you? This is the reason why I like this guy. You'll never guess what surprises are hidden under his coat.

Edited May 8 by Pig and beefalo

[GetNerfedOn]

you're making me want to refresh my forumite playstylles polls of old

[Hungry French]

I want a fair gameplay with both difficulty and ease. I don't like the spoiling features that difficulty becomes the only aspect that the game has.

DST? It's not complicated and, alas, it's too easy without mods. 
There are difficult moments, but mostly it ruins the gameplay of hp creatures and must bosses.