Through the Ages

[enragedcamel]

well, you were asking for a Roadmap or another type of behind the scenes. Since there weren't anything similar coming out at the time, the best thing for you would be to watch the Dev stream, as that would serve similar purpose. I see nothing unprofessional here, as there isn't really any schedule or obligation on Klei's part for a behind the scenes. It's just a thing that they did, and now that Seth is not there, I'm guessing that it'll be extra rare for there to be anything of the like for a while.(Bigfoot, be our Not-Seth!)

 

On the contrary, I'd argue that roadmaps are an obligation during early-access. We all made a financial investment and we deserve regular updates on progress and expected timeframes for feature delivery.

 

Seriously, it should take an hour at most to write a post that says, "here is what we are working on right now and how long we expect it to take." No one expects it to be 100% accurate, but everyone wants to have a rough idea for when new content should be coming out.

 

At this point I've mostly written off DST. I check the forums about once a week and read the update notes, but for the past 2+ months the only thing we've seen is adding existing characters and fixing really minor bugs.

 

For example, today's update included:

 

Endothermic fires will no longer hatch eggs that need to be warmed

Seriously? Was this such a game-breaking bug that it needed to be fixed? Why not focus your time, attention and resources on getting major content (caves, through the ages, etc.) out the door?

 

I'm a software developer by trade, I've delivered some very complex software products, and this **** just makes me roll my eyes.

[1v0]

Though I understand that Klei needs time to finish working on caves/ruins/TtA. Sadly I agree with enragecamel ... just throw us a bone ... the new interface is cool and all, next are skins (just a guess). But it's only visual ... Nothing to change the gameplay/difficulty which is the main reason I get bored with the game at the moment. As I said before after you survive 4 season there is nothing more to do / challenge you.

[Mario384]

Having fun isn't hard when you have a library card.

[GuyNamedChris]

Having fun isn't hard when you have a library card.

If your Wickerbottom

[MikeyMusic]

Seriously? Was this such a game-breaking bug that it needed to be fixed? Why not focus your time, attention and resources on getting major content (caves, through the ages, etc.) out the door?

 

I'm a software developer by trade, I've delivered some very complex software products, and this **** just makes me roll my eyes.

 

As a software developer I'd hope you realize that it's generally good practice to fix bugs, regardless of whether they disrupt the entire experience or not. Just because they're fixing the small stuff doesn't mean they aren't working on the big things too...

 

HOWEVER, this is why a confirmation of what's in the future is important. Without knowing when the game-changing elements will be introduced, the smaller additions and fixes become disappointing. Every time I see that DST has to update, I look at the update log to see that few/no features have been added. I always appreciate when bugs are fixed, because even if it doesn't crash the game or break every mechanic, it does break immersion when something doesn't work the way it's supposed to. And to be honest, I didn't even buy DST early access for all the special content exclusive to DST. I genuinely just wanted to have somebody else to play this game with.

 

But because we were told some great new things were coming, I do agree that we deserve to be kept in the loop a little bit more. Even if you (Klei) ultimately have to push something back because it isn't done, we'd at least like to know when you PLAN on having it done. The waiting isn't killing me, but I'll tell you, the waiting isn't fun either.

[The Letter W]

In regards to the Roadmaps, my guess is they like to make sure they have a good amount of substance to talk about... :Ic and my guess with caves is at the current point they either work or they don't, not much of an inbetween.

 

...

But I'm just an artist, I know nothing about this! <

[JoeW]

Sorry that you guys are feeling out of the loop. Let me fix that a bit.

We covered what we are working on in the following post, but in retrospect, it would have helped to have a separate post as well: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/54719-welcome-to-dont-starve-together/.

Right now, we are working on caves, balance and PvP, and through the Ages will come after that, but our main focus is on cave implementation; which as stated previously is taking longer than we had anticipated.

I know caves might not seem like much, but not only do we have to get those caves in, but we also have to solve technical challenges in regard to HOW people will play in caves which meant a lot of optimization so that they would play well.

What resulted is some tweaks to caves content wise; adjusting them for multiplayer so that it is a better gameplay experience. In addition to that we are working towards caves that could be run on an entirely different server. Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

We still have to see how it plays out but, but not only could you be able to have a caves instance on it's own dedicated server, but you would be able to (optionally) travel to the overworld on other servers as well. In addition to that, the optimization that has been done has resulted in enough of a performance increase that both the overworld and caves could both be run on one server at the same time.

We haven’t put out a specific roadmap because we will really need to see how it plays out before we are ready to tell you that’s how it is going to be. But that’s how we hope it will be; so none of the above are promises, but I am telling you so that you are aware of where we are at.

So, the programmers are working on caves and optimization. The designers are working on caves, balance and PvP. And the artists are mostly working on skins.

I don't know the timeline for when that's all going to hit, but we should have a really good sense of that pretty soon. I'll poke Bigfoot Monday and we'll see what we can do. As far as Through the Ages, as with any other time where we "aren't there yet" we don't really have anything to say about it yet. We would love too, but right now we want to completely focus on what needs to be done to get DST where it needs to be.

All that being said, we try to be as forthcoming with what we are working on as possible. However, at times, we don’t always know exactly how something is going to play out; so occasionally we just put our heads down and hammer at things until we have more to tell you.

So, that’s the long and the short of it. I hope that clears things up a bit.

[Doctor Donna]

Sorry that you guys are feeling out of the loop. Let me fix that a bit.

We covered what we are working on in the following post, but in retrospect, it would have helped to have a separate post as well: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/54719-welcome-to-dont-starve-together/.

Right now, we are working on caves, balance and PvP, and through the Ages will come after that, but our main focus is on cave implementation; which as stated previously is taking longer than we had anticipated.

I know caves might not seem like much, but not only do we have to get those caves in, but we also have to solve technical challenges in regard to HOW people will play in caves which meant a lot of optimization so that they would play well.

What resulted is some tweaks to caves content wise; adjusting them for multiplayer so that it is a better gameplay experience. In addition to that we are working towards caves that could be run on an entirely different server. Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

We still have to see how it plays out but, but not only could you be able to have a caves instance on it's own dedicated server, but you would be able to (optionally) travel to the overworld on other servers as well. In addition to that, the optimization that has been done has resulted in enough of a performance increase that both the overworld and caves could both be run on one server at the same time.

We haven’t put out a specific roadmap because we will really need to see how it plays out before we are ready to tell you that’s how it is going to be. But that’s how we hope it will be; so none of the above are promises, but I am telling you so that you are aware of where we are at.

So, the programmers are working on caves and optimization. The designers are working on caves, balance and PvP. And the artists are mostly working on skins.

I don't know the timeline for when that's all going to hit, but we should have a really good sense of that pretty soon. I'll poke Bigfoot Monday and we'll see what we can do. As far as Through the Ages, as with any other time where we "aren't there yet" we don't really have anything to say about it yet. We would love too, but right now we want to completely focus on what needs to be done to get DST where it needs to be.

All that being said, we try to be as forthcoming with what we are working on as possible. However, at times, we don’t always know exactly how something is going to play out; so occasionally we just put our heads down and hammer at things until we have more to tell you.

So, that’s the long and the short of it. I hope that clears things up a bit.

 

Ok *some brain food for you, cookies and cakes*

 

That would be nice )) caves caves caves caves caves... *sing*

 

[Arcita]

Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

So you can, for example, use the teleportato and go to specific servers? Think of the possibilities...

In addition to that, the optimization that has been done has resulted in enough of a performance increase that both the overworld and caves could both be run on one server at the same time.

I knew you guys must have been putting in some serious work, but that's amazing! Now maybe I can play on my crappy netbook.

Thanks for the update. I'm really excited about the future of Don't Starve now.

[JoeW]

So you can, for example, use the teleportato and go to specific servers? Think of the possibilities...

I knew you guys must have been putting in some serious work, but that's amazing! Now maybe I can play on my crappy netbook.

Thanks for the update. I'm really excited about the future of Don't Starve now.

Remember, that's what we are trying for, and I think we can do it, but the reason we haven't announced it is because we are still working it out. So, fingers crossed. =)

[Arcita]

Remember, that's what we are trying for, and I think we can do it, but the reason we haven't announced it is because we are still working it out. So, fingers crossed. =)

Quick question. Do you think this cave update will be compatible with current worlds (even if that means tinkering a bit with the save files), or is it too early to tell?

[JoeW]

Quick question. Do you think this cave update will be compatible with current worlds (even if that means tinkering a bit with the save files), or is it too early to tell?

I am gonna go with "probably not" because you will need to have the world generate the cave entrances, but I am not sure. Diabu, Bryce,V2C or Ipsquiggle might be able to chime in there.

[Arcita]

I am gonna go with "probably not" because you will need to have the world generate the cave entrances, but I am not sure. Diabu, Bryce,V2C or Ipsquiggle might be able to chime in there.

Hmm alright. You forced my hand. I will have to generate a new world and merge it with my old one to create some perverse Frankenstein save file then.

[MikeyMusic]

Snip.

It makes me happy that the Staff here will listen and respond to what people are saying. Thanks for the update! I look forward to seeing how it all turns out

[MycoLogical]

Thank you! That clears a lot up!

[DwerBomb]

Damn, I still can't imagine how you are going to implement caves with that "cross-server connectivity". It just seems so complicated!

[t0panka]

Thanks for this little update Klei. Appreciate it!

[Kzisor]

Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

 

If this gets implemented, I'd love to know if LAN servers will be capable of this cross-server connectivity with other LAN servers. It might actually mean I will run 2-3 LAN servers on my various computers if that is the case.

[Maris]

I'd like to have common chat between servers.

[GuyNamedChris]

If the caves and overworld are gonna be two different servers, i doubt there would be the ability to chat between servers...?

[MycoLogical]

Sorry that you guys are feeling out of the loop. Let me fix that a bit.

We covered what we are working on in the following post, but in retrospect, it would have helped to have a separate post as well: http://forums.kleientertainment.com/topic/54719-welcome-to-dont-starve-together/.

Right now, we are working on caves, balance and PvP, and through the Ages will come after that, but our main focus is on cave implementation; which as stated previously is taking longer than we had anticipated.

I know caves might not seem like much, but not only do we have to get those caves in, but we also have to solve technical challenges in regard to HOW people will play in caves which meant a lot of optimization so that they would play well.

What resulted is some tweaks to caves content wise; adjusting them for multiplayer so that it is a better gameplay experience. In addition to that we are working towards caves that could be run on an entirely different server. Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

We still have to see how it plays out but, but not only could you be able to have a caves instance on it's own dedicated server, but you would be able to (optionally) travel to the overworld on other servers as well. In addition to that, the optimization that has been done has resulted in enough of a performance increase that both the overworld and caves could both be run on one server at the same time.

We haven’t put out a specific roadmap because we will really need to see how it plays out before we are ready to tell you that’s how it is going to be. But that’s how we hope it will be; so none of the above are promises, but I am telling you so that you are aware of where we are at.

So, the programmers are working on caves and optimization. The designers are working on caves, balance and PvP. And the artists are mostly working on skins.

I don't know the timeline for when that's all going to hit, but we should have a really good sense of that pretty soon. I'll poke Bigfoot Monday and we'll see what we can do. As far as Through the Ages, as with any other time where we "aren't there yet" we don't really have anything to say about it yet. We would love too, but right now we want to completely focus on what needs to be done to get DST where it needs to be.

All that being said, we try to be as forthcoming with what we are working on as possible. However, at times, we don’t always know exactly how something is going to play out; so occasionally we just put our heads down and hammer at things until we have more to tell you.

So, that’s the long and the short of it. I hope that clears things up a bit.

Thanks for the response Joe.

 

Everyone else, you can now thank me  

[Kzisor]

@MycoLogical, are you secretly JoeW ??  Conspiracy theories begin!

[DarkXero]

Due to the work that was done to make this happen, we may also be introducing cross-server connectivity.

 

What are the ideas around this?

I get the caves as extra servers, it would be for better performance.

 

But if different servers can connect to each other, do we get to always pick a character and unlock recipes and stuff with it?

Or is there the possibility of having persistent characters across servers?

Like how recipes and research points worked before.

 

We still have to see how it plays out but, but not only could you be able to have a caves instance on it's own dedicated server, but you would be able to (optionally) travel to the overworld on other servers as well. In addition to that, the optimization that has been done has resulted in enough of a performance increase that both the overworld and caves could both be run on one server at the same time.

 

The best.

[JoeW]

What are the ideas around this?

I get the caves as extra servers, it would be for better performance.

 

But if different servers can connect to each other, do we get to always pick a character and unlock recipes and stuff with it?

Or is there the possibility of having persistent characters across servers?

Like how recipes and research points worked before.

 

The best.

Specifically, the persistence across servers is what we are working out right now.

[Mario384]

Specifically, the persistence across servers is what we are working out right now.

 

This sounds like a great idea until a Wickerbottom adorned in the heads of her foes and armed with tons of Sleepytime Stories comes from some PVP server and starts to murder everyone.