The Little Things

[KoreanWaffles]

 

Hello Friends, Foes, Vegetables, Starverinos, and everything in between!
Today, we shall take the time to notice the tiny things in the gaping maw of a game that is: Don't Starve Together.

Darkness
tl;dr- You can't perform actions such as digging stuff up at night.

Spoiler

Does anyone else find it annoying when it's the middle of the night, you see a stump, and you decide to dig it up with your handy shovel only to be faced the disappointment of failure? In the original game Don't Starve, you were allowed to quickly dig up an object in complete darkness which was a very convenient feature. This feature does not work in Don't Starve Together, (unless you exploi– I mean find a clever workaround for it) and it would be nice if it did work.

Seventeen
tl;dr- the number 17 is quite prominent in weapon damages, and for good reason.

Spoiler

Have you ever noticed how weapons deal such odd amounts of damage? Just look at the numbers.
Spear: 34 damage (17x2);     Torch: 17 damage (17x1)
Dark Sword: 68 damage (17x4)     Walking Cane: 17 Damage (17x1)
Tentacle Spike: 51 damage (17x1.5)     Bat Bat: 42.5 Damage (17x2.5)
Axe & Pickaxe: 27.2 damage (17x1.6)     Lucy the Axe: 13.6 Damage (13.6)
What's really well done about this numbering system is how nicely the damage is dealt in game. Many mobs have health that are multiples of 50 and 100. Three swings of a spear deals 102 damage, which is the minimum amount of damage required, coming from a weapon that does a whole number amount of damage, to kill a mob with 100 health. If a spear dealt 33 damage, then three swings would only deal 99 damage which would be quite frustrating in game.
Also, Wigfrid's battle spear deals 42.5 damage (17x2.5). She also has a 1.25 damage multiplier. 42.5x1.25=53.125, which makes it so that Wigfird really does excel in battle, since she deals ~50 damage per hit with her signature weapon, and most mobs have health totals that are multiplies of 50 and 100.

Puns and Portmanteau
tl;dr- Klei makes uses a lot of portmanteau and puns to create the Don't Starve world.

Spoiler

If you've been playing Don't Starve, or Don't Starve Together for a while, you might have noticed some of Klei's puns and portmanteau. Some examples of portmanteau include:
Deerclops- Deer+Cyclops
Catcoon- Cat+Raccoon
Beefalo- Buffalo+Cow (a beefalo is actually a real animal that is a cross between buffalo and cattle)
Klei also makes several puns regarding items, and mobs. Some examples of puns include:
The recipe for Guacamole calls for a mole.
A Butterfly has a 2% chance to drop Butter.
The Old bell summons Bigfoot which is literally a really big foot with a brain on top.
These tiny little things really add up and make Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together, really enchanting games.

Characters and Stereotypes
tl;dr- Many characters are very stereotypical.

Spoiler

Have you ever noticed how much characters are stereotyped?
Wendy is one of those dark, morbid girls who are supposed to be creepy and revolve around death.
Wolfgang is the tough guy who is really strong, but not all that smart. That's why he has a mustache!
Woodie is a Canadian so of course he must be a lumberjack. He also can not shave his beard because he is a lumberjack. Woodie often uses words such as "eh" in his speech. Also, the character selection screen will say Woodie "Celebrates Thanksgiving too Early" if you're in the United States, "Celebrates Thanksgiving at the Correct Time", if you're in Canada, and "Is Thankful for Bountiful Harvests" if you live elsewhere. This refers to how Canada celebrates Thanksgiving before the United States does.
Wes has a red striped shirt. Because he's French.

 

Combat
tl;dr- Combat in Don't Starve Together is smoother than in Don't Starve (minus the lag)

Spoiler

Attacks in Don't Starve can not be cancelled. However, attacks in Don't Starve Together can be cancelled by simply moving away before the attack animation finishes, which is a great quality of life change, especially since there is more ping in Don't Starve Together.

 

Minimap Exploration
tl;dr- Don't Starve Together's minimap exploration is slightly better than that of Don't Starve.

Spoiler

One thing I really like about Don't Starve Together is that the map displays a little circle around your character showing the amount of map you are uncovering. It's a nice smooth circle. Don't Starve's map exploration does not have that smooth circle and often leaves tiny green specs on the edges of the black spots of the map! It really triggers my OCD.

 

Magic Inventory Slot
tl;dr- Don't Starve Together allows you to hold an object with the mouse and still perform actions via the spacebar.

Spoiler

Does anyone else really like this feature? The fact that you can hold an object and still perform actions? It helps so much when you're trying to multitask and organize your inventory. In Don't Starve, I'm constantly reminded I need to put the object down before performing another action which can be really annoying.

 

Fast(er) Action
tl;dr- Performing actions with the mouse is faster than spacebar.

Spoiler

Little known fact; spam clicking a tree to cut it down or spam clicking a rock to mine it is actually faster than holding down spacebar!
Also, if you're on the PC version, you can hold spacebar and click outside the game to auto-task indefinitely for those times when you really just can't afford to hold spacebar yourself for a really long time.

 

Disease
tl;dr- Saplings will disease and there is no cure.

Spoiler

The first preview of Through the Ages was resource variance! The goal of Through the Ages is to create an ever changing world to play in. Resource variance would change the way you would gather resources over time with changing resources. However, this is somewhat counter-intuitive because all those resources you planted at base are now diseased. You can combat this by planting grass on Savannah turf, and planting type 2 berry bushes (they don't disease). However, there is no way to save the poor diseased saplings. This could be easily fixed by simply preventing disease when planted on a specific turf such as Forest or Deciduous turf (much like how grass is planted on Savannah turf).

 

Renewable Ruins

tl;dr- everything but the Ancient Guardian (and Slurpers!) are renewable in the ruins.
 

Spoiler

If you've gotten to the point where you have raided the ruins or you're a well seasoned Don't Starve Veteran, then you may know that the Ruins can be somewhat non-renewable. However, we the clever players have found workarounds for this! Except for the Ancient Guardian... In Don't Starve, there are three separate caves with their own individual ruins. This meant you could obtain three Guardian Horns and raid the ruins three times. One could also reset the ruins via the Teleportato which means you could acquire up to seven Guardian Horns since the Teleportato allows you to carry four items with you onto the next world. In Don't Starve Together, there is no Teleportato so you can not reset the ruins. However, you can farm infinite thulecite using a Deconstruction Staff and a Construction Amulet. Gems can also be found in tumbleweeds and are dropped by Dragonfly (respawns 20 days after being slain), thus making ruins equipment renewable. Then there's the Ancient Guardian. There is no way for the Ancient Guardian to respawn and since Don't Starve Together only has one ruins, only one Guardian Horn can be obtained. Seven Guardian Horns for one player... One Guardian Horn amongst many... Somethings not right here. Klei, please implement a way to respawn the Ancient Guardian, perhaps as a part of Through the Ages? 

 

A could keep ranting on about Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together, but I'll leave it at that.
Feel free to share yours own thoughts and feelings about the tiny things in Klei's wonderful games.

[EuedeAdodooedoe]

Actually the 4 slot thing for teleportato is only for adventure mode. For sandbox, you can carry your entire inventory over to the next world. So, since you have 15 slots inventory by default and Krampus sack can give you extra 14, which in total gives 29, you could go to the next world by bringing just Tam o shanter(actually eyebrella would be preferrable), a walking cane/lazy explorer, a Krampus sack and 29 guardian horns/houndius shootiuses. In turn, a single player world could have up to 32 houndius shootiuses if you're willing to play that long and raid 32 ruins whilst hopping worlds 10 times afterwards.

 

And though thulecite is renewable due to green gems, the gems are quite rare, so you couldn't simply rely on Thulecite Crowns in place of Battle Helmets or Football Helmets. Same way as you can't rely on Shellmets like you can with the two previously mentioned helmets because of how goddamn rare they are (10% chance drop from a Slurtle for a helmet with just a bit higher durab (which in DST has been reduced) and a slightly higher damage resistance (90%), which sucks. If Thulecite Fragments and Ruins Gems (green, yellow and orange) fell during earthquakes in caves inside ruins biomes in DST and Shellmets had like 50% chance of being dropped or had some other way of being obtained, only then Thulecite Crowns and Shellmets would become reliable. Oh and I feel that Thulecite Crown should require red gem to be crafted. If it does, then having higher durability overall would be great and/or perhaps increased shield chance (10% for instance). The red gem is seen on the crown's texture at the front and the shield is red, so it would just make sense if it was in the recipe).

[mathem99]

BTW. Picking grass/ saplings/ berry bushes in DS doesn't have an animation at the end (where he stands up)

While in DST there is such an animation

DS: Ducks, harvests his spine teleports upwards.... truly magical!

DST: Ducks, harvests item then stands up.