Regarding the differences between Don't Starve and DST

[SleightSoda]

I'm making this thread because I was gifted a copy of DST a month or so ago when my friend bought it, then another friend of mine just gifted me a copy of the original Don't Starve game. I wanted to know, am I missing out on anything if I only have DST? If not, I would like to give this back to my friend, or gift it to someone else perhaps (especially since on wednesday they would get DST and could play with us).

 

So are there any significant differences? Like if I played DST in offline mode, is that essentially the same as Don't Starve?

 

Also, on wednesday, anyone who owns Don't Starve will get DST. Will DST owners get Don't Starve as well?

 

Sorry if I come across as a cheapskate or freeloader here, but this game does teach you to make the most of your resources

[The Letter W]

You do get to miss out on the feeling of burning down your whole base and not having anyone to blame but yourself.

[RationalLemming]

People with DS will be gifted with DST on Wednesday but the reverse will not happen. If you have DST then you won't get gifted a copy of DS.

I can't really answer your other questions regarding differences between DS and offline DST. A big difference is that DST contains Reign of Giants DLC content but I don't know enough about offline mode to comment on limitations of using it for a single player experience.

[DarkXero]

Offline DST is a hardcore DS single player.

[jbeetle]

Right now, you're only missing Adventure Mode and Caves if you play DST, but I don't think that'll always be the case.

[raiser]

Yes, as said above, caves ( more mobs, resources and items not available on the surface ) and adventure mode ( a several levels hardocre challenge ) aren't in DST and are a very big part of the game in DS. Also some more characters are available in DS and some mechanics are different because they had to be balanced for multiplayer.
I would say if you only want to play the game with your friends but not alone, just keep DST. Keep in mind that offline DST in not exactly the same thing. If you really like the challenge and gameplay get DS as well ( with RoG dlc preferably ).

[RalphKastro]

In my opinion, I think DS is now a lesser non-multiplayer DST. There's so much stuff that is just so much better in DST(seasons, giants, no pointless caves, no Old Bell, more shtuff, many gameplay fixes), that it just feels like you're playing some outdated version without multiplayer when playing DS.

It kinda saddens me, because arranging multiplayer playing time is much harder than single player, but I guess that's just the way things work.

[SleightSoda]

I think I'll pass the copy to my friend then.

 

Thanks for the responses guy, it was a big help

[polygone]

In my opinion, I think DS is now a lesser non-multiplayer DST. There's so much stuff that is just so much better in DST(seasons, giants, no pointless caves, no Old Bell, more shtuff, many gameplay fixes), that it just feels like you're playing some outdated version without multiplayer when playing DS.

It kinda saddens me, because arranging multiplayer playing time is much harder than single player, but I guess that's just the way things work.

 

-Caves aren't pointless. As someone who essentially lived in caves in DS I can definitely say there are great reasons to hang out down there. (Ruins too)

-No old bell isn't an improvement except for other people griefing, which wouldn't happen solo anyways.

-The gameplay fixes in DST don't need to be in DS since said fixes are balanced specifically for multiplayer.

 

Essentially, DST is a harder DS. Less resources, healthier bosses (an OP dragonfly with 10x health....), and if you're playing publicly the risk of people stealing resources via ghost drain, literal theft, or otherwise just sucking.

 

I have gone back to DS after playing DST and I have to disagree in that it's just as fun as DST is since while you miss out on the experience of being with others you regain the feeling of aloneness in the wilderness, as well as getting adventure mode/the caves to explore. And if you get tired of a world you could go through the teleportato to go to the next, and you could actually utilize night vision and play as characters you can't in DST.

 

The seasons themselves act the same in DS/DST really, the only reason it wouldn't is if you don't have RoG enabled on DS, though turning off Summer and Spring and disable RoG entities spawning at world gen could have the same basic effect. There's plenty to do in both games, it's just they're good at different things.

[RalphKastro]

-Caves aren't pointless. As someone who essentially lived in caves in DS I can definitely say there are great reasons to hang out down there. (Ruins too)

care to give me some example that is not "more challenge"?

-No old bell isn't an improvement except for other people griefing, which wouldn't happen solo anyways.

Oh, no. You're factually objectively doctrinelly wrong here. It's written in all religious books and in all Darwin's works. Because I said so.(No, I don't like the Old Bell. It's stoopid)

-The gameplay fixes in DST don't need to be in DS since said fixes are balanced specifically for multiplayer.

I can't really think of many right now, but there are some that would fit nicely in DS or have some function that fixes a lingering problem from DS in a unique way to multiplayer. There is also all the RoG fixes(like the Hambat or the crockspoiling) and other things he wouldn't get just from vanilla DS. It's like what was supposed to be just Multiplayer DS became the latest version of DS.(there's also all that TtA content coming on that I'm quite sure some of it would fit DS just fine.)

[The Letter W]

care to give me some example that is not "more challenge"?

 

 

I think one of the bigger points of caves in single player was a way to get more rocks/gold/etc. since meteor showers weren't a thing. Ruins were an extension of that, except they were an even higher risk for greater rewards. I personally don't venture in them much, but I can see why people would.

[Dipps]

care to give me some example that [caves] are not "more challenge"?

Caves were a nice part in Don't Starve, because as with every lengthy survival game, diversity is essential in the longetivity of a run if you don't want to become bored; that's why caves were a nice addition to the game when they were released, they were something else. More mechanics were added to the game that differentiated overworld's playstyle to the underground area, so it felt new, and overall, the new unique items added to the game improved it in several points. (generally farms, and lots of farms).

 

They aren't a necessity, they are a nice touch though.

[RalphKastro]

Caves were a nice part in Don't Starve, because as with every lengthy survival game, diversity is essential in the longetivity of a run if you don't want to become bored; that's why caves were a nice addition to the game when they were released, they were something else. More mechanics were added to the game that differentiated overworld's playstyle to the underground area, so it felt new, and overall, the new unique items added to the game improved it in several points. (generally farms, and lots of farms).

so, they're just a escape from boredom? 

[Dipps]

so, they're just a escape from boredom? 

Not necessarily an escape from it, but it rather causes a prolonged interest in one single run.

Ever got tired from seeing the day light? You set your base near a hellish batilisk crowd cave entrance?

Well then, you may retain your world. Or not.

Ruins are still not worth it though. That's just for challenge.

[polygone]

care to give me some example that is not "more challenge"?

 

Oh, no. You're factually objectively doctrinelly wrong here. It's written in all religious books and in all Darwin's works. Because I said so.(No, I don't like the Old Bell. It's stoopid)

 

I can't really think of many right now, but there are some that would fit nicely in DS or have some function that fixes a lingering problem from DS in a unique way to multiplayer. There is also all the RoG fixes(like the Hambat or the crockspoiling) and other things he wouldn't get just from vanilla DS. It's like what was supposed to be just Multiplayer DS became the latest version of DS.(there's also all that TtA content coming on that I'm quite sure some of it would fit DS just fine.)

 

 

-Advanced magic via the ancient altar, a lot more gears for WX players/people with large bases (flingomatics mainly), lanterns are one of the best mobile light sources in the game (and far more renewable than miner hats), snurtle shells are amazing for tanking giants if you know how to use the hiding functionality, it's easy to farm nightmare fuel without going completely insane in the ruins (assuming you know how to manage sanity in the dark), renewable gems and rocks from cave-ins (DST replaces this with meteor storms, but you won't get gems from that), rock lobsters are a lot stronger followers than pigmen, bunny fluff makes for what's basically portable tents.

 

-Opinions! Old bell is an extremely useful utility item since you can farm mass amounts of trees with it in a short time or quickly kill troublesome giants. It's only really stupid if misused.

 

-Ham bat damage change and crock pot spoiling ARE in DS, because in case you haven't noticed RoG is a thing you can get for the base game. RoG isn't a valid excuse for why DST is 'better' than DS since you can get it. For things like Ewecus that are excusive to multiplayer, it wouldn't make sense for that sort of creature or system to be in single player due to it's nature. It's designed to be overly difficult to fight solo, and so it is.

~~~~~

Another point is that since DS has alternate world support, you not only get caves, adventure mode, and secondary sandbox worlds but also modded worlds as well. Up & Away and Hero in The Dark add a LOT of content to the game and are mods exclusive to DS as they rely on creating entirely new worlds with their own systems, and there's a new mod along the lines of "The Deep" that's being worked on that is going to add underwater content, also exclusive to DS due to it's ability to have worlds other than the main sandbox one.

 

e/ Also as others have said, the change of pace from the overworld to the caves lets people stay interested in a particular world for longer. And the challenge of it all helps as well. But the rewards for the challenges are pretty sweet too.

[Johnnyprofane]

care to give me some example that is not "more challenge"?

Fat loots. Like sweet slurper belts and the ability to telepoof and deconstruct your whole base and relocate. Tons of gears, instant light and warmth and sanity sources in the form of stars. Force field helmets and fancy armor. Cricket bats that summon shadow tentacles. Forbidden knowledge. ADVENTURE! Also a don't starve version of Sauron's eye that works for you. Lord of the Rings fans ought to explore every cave they can find just for that.

Coincidentally Darwin was very religious, and in no way believed evolution(or what he is actually credited for: natural selection as a mechanism for evolution) disproved or even argued against religion. That being said, the earth is indisputably older than 6000 years. But that's beside the point.

Edit: stuff

TLDR: caves are awesome, ruins have fat loots, Darwin is misunderstood

[Shamy]

The two aren't mutually exclusive, and in my opinion anyone who believes they are, regardless of which they believe to be true, is a silly person who doesn't understand Darwin and Wallace's work.

 

 

"Anyone who disagrees with me is stupid". Great laugh today! Thanks

[Johnnyprofane]

"Anyone who disagrees with me is stupid". Great laugh today! Thanks

No, not stupid, just mis-interpreted Darwin's works. I do generally disagree with anyone who write's off another persons point of view based on something they only have a fleeting knowledge of though.

This is exactly why I edited my post, I was positive someone would misconstrue what I was saying.

Edit: let's discontinue this conversation though, it's off topic.

[RalphKastro]

-Advanced magic via the ancient altar, a lot more gears for WX players/people with large bases (flingomatics mainly), lanterns are one of the best mobile light sources in the game (and far more renewable than miner hats), snurtle shells are amazing for tanking giants if you know how to use the hiding functionality, it's easy to farm nightmare fuel without going completely insane in the ruins (assuming you know how to manage sanity in the dark), renewable gems and rocks from cave-ins (DST replaces this with meteor storms, but you won't get gems from that), rock lobsters are a lot stronger followers than pigmen, bunny fluff makes for what's basically portable tents.

fair enough. I still never feel compelled to go there, as I don't feel like I am missing much by not having these things, but I can see the appeal.

Fat loots. Like sweet slurper belts and the ability to telepoof and deconstruct your whole base and relocate. Tons of gears, instant light and warmth and sanity sources in the form of stars. Force field helmets and fancy armor. Cricket bats that summon shadow tentacles. Forbidden knowledge. ADVENTURE! Also a don't starve version of Sauron's eye that works for you. Lord of the Rings fans ought to explore every cave they can find just for that.

 

 I was joking. I'm very aware of Darwin's religiousness.

Coincidentally Darwin was very religious, and in no way believed evolution(or what he is actually credited for: natural selection as a mechanism for evolution) disproved or even argued against religion. That being said, the earth is indisputably older than 6000 years. But that's beside the point.

 

-Opinions!

Again, joking. I'm also very aware of how my opinions are opinionated. I even think I write "I think" a bit too much.
 

 

Well, I did say "other things he can't get just in Vanilla DS", didn't I? What I meant is that he wouldn't get all that stuff in vDS, as that is what he would be getting, and would need to buy RoG. Alternativelly, this arguement can backfire in my face and say that the Old Bell isn't in vDS, but to that I say "Good, one less thing to worry about."

-Ham bat damage change and crock pot spoiling ARE in DS, because in case you haven't noticed RoG is a thing you can get for the base game. RoG isn't a valid excuse for why DST is 'better' than DS since you can get it. For things like Ewecus that are excusive to multiplayer, it wouldn't make sense for that sort of creature or system to be in single player due to it's nature. It's designed to be overly difficult to fight solo, and so it is.

 

Another point is that since DS has alternate world support, you not only get caves, adventure mode, and secondary sandbox worlds but also modded worlds as well. Up & Away and Hero in The Dark add a LOT of content to the game and are mods exclusive to DS as they rely on creating entirely new worlds with their own systems, and there's a new mod along the lines of "The Deep" that's being worked on that is going to add underwater content, also exclusive to DS due to it's ability to have worlds other than the main sandbox one.

Fair Enough.
 

 

Old bell is an extremely useful utility item since you can farm mass amounts of trees with it in a short time or quickly kill troublesome giants. It's only really stupid if misused.

Yes. It is. That's my problem with it. That's why I say it's "stupid" and not "bad" or "needs a buff". It's because it's so stupidly good and so easy and simple to obtain with the only penaulty being to have to look at a Krampus and remember he needs to be more important.(I had a terrible net problem which kinda cut off this part of the post, so it'll probably be a bit off of the flow.). It feels stupid that such a good item that literaly brings The Giant Foot of Brain-Lizard Lord right from Antlantis is obtained by simply finding statue, breaking statue, killing thing that comes from statue(that doesn't even fight back).

It feels like some reward for nothing. Like if you found a player fighting some end game boss in a multiplayer game and then both the player and the boss die and the epic loot is just left there for you to loot. But without all the feeling of "F yeah, I'm Fortuna Reborn as a mortal"  and the "man, I should've helped the guy... NAH, EPIC FREAKING FOOT OF GOD" and more of a "finally found this thing I was going to find anyway by day 9".

It even tries to have some gameplay mechanics, which saddens me more, like the Glommer gooping out Glommer Goop, which would be interestingly useful, if not for the fact that it spawns so slowly and is so heavily outsetted by the Leg of Heaven that people hardly even think about it before immediatly killing it and making the Old Bell. And the Krampus that comes at you right after is easily killable by just hitting him once with a boomerang or staff, then kiting or tanking him. Free Coal, I guess.

And it even taunts me, by being in the magic tab and being dark orange, similarly to Thulecite, which immediatly gives me the idea of making it's crafting require Thulecite and/or the PseudoScience station, which would both make much more sense than being made of goopy wings and a flower that have some relation to some kind of fly thing(specially considering all those merm/fish-like people statues you find down there, and some kind of greater relation the Them and the Dark.), and it would also make the ruins a much more necessary place to go, as most people would have to go there(not you, robotic super-pros at kiting) in order to get rid of them giants that can wreck your face quite easily, by simply dropping a Nuke Foot in their faces, which would also add a bit of a Metroidvania-ish satisfaction to it(reward for exploring, going back and slapping them bullies).

I don't know. It's these things, The Old Bell, Ruins(caves not so much, as even if I don't want to go there, sometimes I want those bunnies to replace my pigs. Although, they could use some work too.), Krampus, lack of things in Summer and some other things that could be so much better but remain underworked and are just ignored in an other-wise great game that really annoys me. I know that the Devs don't have time to do everything, but it's kinda sad to see new thing after new thing come, and no enhancement for the old things.

[Johnnyprofane]

That is a great point. Why have I never thought of that before? The old bell is arguably one of the best items in the game and it takes such a minimal amount of effort to get. If you kill the glommer at night krampus just goes straight to sleep and you don't even have to bother with a boomerang either. It should be so much harder to get. I mean, who cares if you lose the glommer's sanity bonus and the goop until the next full moon? It's like 20 days at most you've gotta go without it.

[polygone]

Meh. I rarely ever make the bell anyways since like I said before I basically live in the caves for the most part. Glommer's sanity boost is nice around a campfire while you're cooking stuff, giant foot of doom not so useful. I've only made it a couple of times and even then it was because Glommer died to some creature and I didn't have to fight Krampus after because of that. It takes the grindiness out of chopping trees significantly. Spending two whole day cycles chopping wood to fill your chests versus ten seconds with a giant food doesn't really add difficulty to the game, just makes it time consuming. I guess you could argue that during those two days your hunger would go down, but seriously by the time you survive the first winter (and summer if RoG), then you're set on food forever really. Just hire some pigs and chop stuff, not a big deal. Using it to kill giants isn't particularly necessary (unless they have 27000 health... >_>) since you could use boomerangs, darts, or kiting if you're skilled enough.

 

Also the goop is a good emergency fuel source since one piece completely fills a fire and gives a lot of boost to a lantern. Take a couple pieces of it on an adventure with a lantern and you're set for possibly weeks of exploration, though slurtle slime works fairly well too since that never spoils either. Light bulbs underground, icky gooey things above ground. Lanterns are great. 

[RalphKastro]

if you're skilled enough.

Well, that's interesting, since in all my time playing DS, I am clearly not. I do not believe in fair 1 to 1 fighting in survival games. It's all about using all the tricks in your sleeve to survive. Like for example freezing the giant fiery beast then pinning him down with ice while summoning Atomic Foot. 

I really never got all the "tree farm" usage of the Old Bell. Chopping wood is such a simple and chill thing to do, and doesn't really take that much time in reasonable amounts. Also Summoning The Foot of God to get you some lumber seems a bit excessive. I always thought their primary use was to reduce the giants' threatiness and fight them, which kinda makes them a non-issue as it's so acessible early game.

Lanterns are great. 

Laterns are love, Laterns are life.
I didn't know it worked on lanterns. Well that changes things, but only slightly, as I prefer to live above ground, and while more expensive in the long run, torches are much easier to get. I can see the appeal for Glommer though for cave dwellers. Maybe if caves weren't affected by seasons so much(because it doesn't make sense and is annoying), I would consider that a viable playstyle for me. Old Bell still needs work, though.

[polygone]

Pretty sure you can't effectively kite Dragonfly unless you're a supercharged WX or some such. For all the other giants it's not that difficult really, the main thing is to stick to fighting on roads to get that slight movement boost, though the Goose/Moose is slow enough that that's not really necessary. Though you are right that using any and all means at your disposal to kill a giant is the best solution. Work smarter, not harder. Just depends on what you want the bell for I guess. When I gather wood I get mass amounts of it and fill at least one or two chests, so the bell for lumber is sort of important for that. Wooden walls and flooring are nice, and it's good to have a stockpile for winter/summer.

Oh, and agreed that seasons affecting the caves is stupid. There is a mod that gives you insulation in the caves though, effectively nullifying most of the problems of temperature in them.

[Dipps]

I really never got all the "tree farm" usage of the Old Bell. Chopping wood is such a simple and chill thing to do, and doesn't really take that much time in reasonable amounts. Also Summoning The Foot of God to get you some lumber seems a bit excessive.

[RalphKastro]

@Dipps,yeah, not excessive at all...