I feel lost in Don't Starve universe.

[rojvol]

Prologue:
I hope no-one will take this post anyhow offensively. Just look at the date when I joined this forums - I am no random troll who signed up this morning. As always I have to say that my english is not perfect so I beg everyone who feel like inner grammer nazzi to stay quiet.

Interlude:

To my point: I feel like Don't Starve Universe (DSU) (which is term I made for this thread (that good I am) and it summarizes the game, the expansion, several latest updates, vinyl figures, plushies and etc.) is expanding too much. I feel like the core game is gone. Every second day there is e-mail with some groundbreaking news (its not about unsubscribing) and I feel like DS is loosing its specific taste and that its being consumed by DSU. And honestly the expansion? I never thought Klei would do something like that. Am I the only one who feels like it is made just to extract more money from loayal players? (sorry Klei I love you guys, have ALL the games you made, still have this feel) My case: I was proud to be one of first to play original game and now my pride is FORCING me to buy expansion in beta state just to stay in touch (even when I am not playing for 1/2 year). I remember I was the first one who made thread here about some Don't Starve Merchandise. Just look it up. I was fighting for plushies, vinyls and etc. Then one day I look at emails and there is HUGE message about great vinyls and everything... and I just feel like it is all going somewhere outside me. I don't even know majority of people on this forum anymore. 

Epilogue:
I know I am not saying anything really important. It is just my confession. And I hope at least few people will feel a bit similar. I love DS and I hope I will somewhen catch the DSU train which is heading "idontknowwhere" with a brutal speed. 

TL;DR: One angry egoist is pissed off that he is no longer part of DS.

[oCrapaCreeper]

I felt pretty lost trying to read this... Then again, it is almost 4 in the morning.

[ViridiZant]

-_-

You're still in the community, and you're not being forced to buy Reign of Giants.

[cman2010]

speaking a someone who just started playing when it came out on the ps4 I can honestly say I cant wait to play the new dlc , I have even thought about just getting the game along with the dlc on steam because it looks like it adds so much content so im at a loss on how you can say they are just trying to milk there customers with the dlc.

[DwerBomb]

D(E)SU

[Snob]

I applaud your courage to create this thread. I understand your feelings.

 

However, you really have to think behind the perspectives of the developers. Then you'll be able to grasp the situation without feeling lost or confused. Klei is a game studio that aims to develop high-quality games, and they certainly succeed in that aspect. As a game studio, they are required to earn enough (through sales) to support themselves, and maintain the quality of their games. If they feel that a game is good enough, they will stop focusing on the game's development, and move on to other projects. I'm very sure that the developers are confident with the "core" Don't Starve game, as they have ended the 6 months of constant updates. Considering how the game will be (more or less) untouched from the lack of updates, it is unlikely that Don't Starve's unique atmosphere and rogue-like mechanics will be tinkered with (is that what you mean by "tastes"?). Currently, the developers are focusing on adding optional content to the "core" game, which exists to satisfy gamers who wish Don't Starve to be more interesting and worthwhile. Klei has also released merchandise, from figures to kickstarted plushies, as it was requested/suggested by the community for a long period of time. There's no reason why Klei should stop adding on to the "DSU", it's profitable and it satisfies the majority of the Don't Starve Community.

 

Although you may feel like the true spirit of the original game is gone, it's actually still there. I'm sure that you were simply overwhelmed, just as I was when I came back to the forums. I'm just here to say that it's better to embrace the new changes, rather than to dwell in the past.

 

Also, don't worry about knowing people in the forums. Making new friends is cool.

[Maximum124]

Maybe you should make an effort to be more active in the community, There are a lot of people in the DLC sub forum who don't even have it and are just there to learn new information and to participate in the discussions.

 

As for the merchandising I don't really get what you're trying to say.

 

I'm personally happy that the DS universe is expanding because it's more content for me to enjoy.  The core game is very much there, it's not like the game is becoming easier, or that there's a button that says "Click here to not starve"

 

I suggest you turn on your game and just play for awhile. You don't have to buy the DLC or anything, just play the game and maybe you'll feel a bit more connected.

[porps]

the DLC is shockingly cheap, so, at least to me, it doesnt feel like one of those cynical cash grab expansions that seem quite commonplace these days. As for the merch, well it doesnt interest me really so i dont buy it, but it doesnt make me feel alienated from the game and i dont begrudge Klei the opportunity to make some extra cash, quite the opposite in fact, if it allows them to offer DLCs like RoG for just £2.50

[The Letter W]

I'm not entirely sure what you're wanting them to do here? Stop the merchandise? Stop making DLC? I don't follow. 

[Strangerdanger101]

The past is the past, and there really is no going back. New friends is not always a bad thing. You may be simply overwhelmed, embrace the changes, because theres no going back.

[rojvol]

I admire that there is not much of a point in my post. It's just like seeing your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend/friend after few years. You can't even tell if you still know that person. This post is just kind of a reflection. I don't actually want Klei to do ANYTHING. They are doing their job great. This is "General Discussion" after all and I am glad that some of you guys understands me at least partly. I wanted to write something like this for a very long time and you - community around DS(U) - are only people who could understand. It's just that memory... memory of Don't Starve where you chopped the trees down and occasionally encountered a turkey. Somehow I love the simplicity and feel confused and overwhelmed now. Just wonder if there are others who feel the same. 

[JoeW]

Hey there, 

 

Thanks for this post. 

 

First, thanks for sharing your perspective about the email, it's very important to us that we don't send out anything that we don't feel is truly important to those who signed up for the newsletter and only send out when we feel that what we want to put out there is substantial enough to deserve it. 

 

However, lately with the DLC, the store, kickstarter and vinyls, we have just had a lot of news lately. (Which I suppose is generally your point). However, most of it is in regard to us following through with what has been requested of us. Figures, Plushies and game content have all been a constant request of us since we started Don't Starve. 

 

The DLC was also a direct response to this. People wanted more game content. A LOT of people wanted more game content. For us to provide this content, we needed this to be a DLC. 

 

I think really what you may be feeling is that things are much more different now than it was in Early beta. But that's because Don't Starve was never supposed to be the game that it was in early beta. It is much different, because it was missing quite a bit. In early beta we didn't have winter, Caves, Adventure mode, set pieces, the crafting was substantially different (research points) and most everything was much more simple and the community was a 10th of what it is now.

 

However, I think once you take a look around, get a feel for things, settle in and get comfortable... You will find things are quite nice.

 

Good to see you back. =) 

[Crown_king]

I'm not entirely sure what you're wanting them to do here? Stop the merchandise? Stop making DLC? I don't follow.

no he wants to blow up klei studio.

=)

Did you just put a smiley face!

[CrispyJelly]

I know what you mean about feeling lost. I was one of the early beta testers too. Those were great times, it was such an enthusiastic and hardworking community, we all wanted the game to get better.

 

Though, for me, I started feeling lost when the caves were getting added. I didn't like playing the caves. For a reason most people would think is ridiculous: I dislike things being so dark all the time! Heh. It hurts my elderly eyes to look at the screen when I'm playing in the caves. So I don't. I stopped playing the game after chalking up over 1,000 hours on it. (Not a typo. It's recorded on my Steam account.) 

 

Because I was out of the loop, I missed the Kickstarter campaign completely. By the time I checked it out, it was all over. (Damn. Or I would have paid for a complete set of the collectible figures.)

 

Now, we have Reign of Giants and I realize I've been re-infected by the madness that is Don't Starve. There is so much new content. I play it every day, I use different characters, I die repeatedly. Such fun! I think it's well worth paying for this DLC.

 

No, I still won't play in the caves.

 

 

 

PS. I must say it's really awesome to see these smileys still being used here!

[InaneDugong]

Guess what kids: it's that time again for another Inane Anecdote!!!

 

So, my favourite game of all time will always be the series by THQ and Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Whilst growing up, I was a big fanboy of Warhammer and was always playing around with all the RTS fantasy games of the decade (Starcraft and Warcraft 3 being up at the top), so when Relic released Dawn of War, I felt like a real privileged child playing that through my early high school years.

 

Dawn of War started off as a pretty hardcore competitive RTS with a Rock/Paper/Scissors Hard-Counter system. Back then, every game was around USD$80 and I had to fork out as a kid to pick it up. The game was progressively balanced over 5 patches, but upon release it was completely broken as a competitive RTS (like most are); certain units reigned prevalent over all strategies and hard-counters, and there was a table-load of bugs that made the game difficult to enjoy. 

 

Towards the end of the final patches (encompassing 1.5 years worth of work), the balance began to fortify the game into a work of art - an incredibly tedious Hard-Counter system fine tuned to something rivalling Blizzard's Starcraft.. However, 1.5 years worth of balancing and bug-testing doesn't make any money for the company nor does it pay wages, so Relic Entertainment looked to release an expansion to continue on the saga of Dawn of War. Dawn of War: Winter Assault was released, but this time by a different Lead Director [who'd take over the next 2 expansions following - Johhny Ebbert].

 

Now, Relic Entertainment put a lot of effort into making the original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, but they never put anywhere near as much effort into their games subsequently.

That Hard-Counter system I'd mentioned, it was torn out and replaced by a Soft-Counter system. This completely undid the game. The balance was thrown out, the gameplay was manipulated into something alien, bugs riddled the game to the point where the first 2 patches left many players quitting due to the non-existence of Quality Control, and we'd all been cheated of our favourite game. 

 

I continued to play the game through the next two expansion packs released by the same director - Dark Crusade and Soulstorm - simply because I wanted to support Relic Entertainment in the hopes that there'd be a Dawn of War 2 with a different vision, and because they'd once upon a time made my favourite game. 

 

In the end, I joined a modding team and worked to recreate the vanilla Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War game and succeeded in doing so. We used all the new content and just overhauled the game to our liking. Through working for this project and getting into contact with devs and some employees from Relic Entertainment, I found out a lot about what had been happening on their end of the production line. Since the game had been released, all patching (balancing and bug-fixing) had been handled by the smallest team possible - maybe about 5 people at best; half of the original team was placed unto creating the expansion packs, and the other half of the team merged with another team to make Company of Heroes. By the last expansion pack release, the team for patching had been reduced to 2-3 people. 

 

Effectively, from what I'd been told by employees at Relic Entertainment, Dawn of War had been doomed to be a cash-cow post Johhny Ebbert's take-over. 

 

We felt cheated, but we were happy that at least someone had tried to realise our dream fantasy game.   

-------------------------------------------------------

 

Thing is, whilst it's clear that Klei Entertainment needs to make money to fund the continuation of their games, they interact with us, keep us posted with updates, implement new content and features to titles/iterations that have long passed their Shelf-Debut, and, most impressively, they do so passionately.

 

Klei can take my money - because I'm quite sure it's going to the right hands.

Klei has made an expansion pack to Don't Starve and it's amazing in so many ways. Relic Entertainment did make a Dawn of War 2, and it was monstrously garbage.   

[julz1981]

I seriously, genuinely love the don't starve universe!
It's easily the most original game i've seen in many many years and i hope they never stop expanding on this fantastic universe.

 

Just, please don't make it an annual franchise XD lol

 

 

 

 

p.s. I do hope you guys make at least one more DLC and a sequel!

pps. I've clocked in almost 600hrs already!!! ..........THIS IS INSANE!!!!!!!

[Harken]

Personally I don't mind shelling out 4 bucks for the DLC, I mean really.. 4 dollars, you can barely get a cup of coffee for that.

 

The DLC is keeping the game fresh, and after having been playing for over a year and a half, vanilla DS was getting kind of stale.

 

So I was really excited for the DLC and am enjoying the game once again. As far as I'm concerned so long as they keep releasing DLC's and keeping the experience fresh I'll gladly be handing over my loose change.

 

As for the Don't Starve Universe,  I have no problem with them expanding on it.

[Derpface]

It's 4 US dollars on Steam. 

 

That's right.

 

FOUR. DOLLARS. 

 

That's a dollar less than a foot long at Subway that you will only get to eat once, unlike Reign of Giants, which can be experienced an infinite number of times.

 

How anyone could think that that is greedy in today's "DLC market" is beyond me.

 

Truly greedy companies release a couple levels for their horribly unbalanced/broken multiplayer games that they release every year for more than 3 times the price ($15). 

[Gangstamonkey214]

I to also feel a bit lost, I think it's nostalgia for the circle-er islands, no food spoilage, no winter, the constant puzzles and just how different the community was back then, but I still want more in the Don't Starve Universe, more creature, more cave levels, more giants and more dark and creepy back-stories for the characters and the world around them (who lived in the ruins and where did they go?) so I'm glad Klei is adding more content, because it's a great game. (also Klei I know Kevin hates the circle islands but it would be awesome if you they could come back as an option in world gen)  

[InaneDugong]

The train costs $9 USD here (in Aus). It's actually cheaper than a train fare. 

[JoeW]

To be fair, it's actually $4.99, it's just on sale right now.  

[simplex]

So, my favourite game of all time will always be the series by THQ and Relic Entertainment, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Random trivia (trivium?): Klei's founder, Jamie Cheng (Bigfoot), worked as a programmer at Relic Entertainment before starting Klei.