DST Arguments and Counter Arguments

[watermelen671]

At the request of @minespatch I'm here to post a counter argument I made to a negative review on DST. I hope this will spark some discussion and not start a flame war...

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

Original Review:

Overall I like the idea of surviving with the items you find and it sure is not easy to start from nothing and build your own base which can be pretty fun I do admit, but for 38 hours of gameplay I saw also:

1. Zero teamplay.
2. Zero communication (almost nobody answers your greeting or just questions about something in the game).
3. Everybody is just survivng for themselves.
4. More people are always better than going alone, thats not the case here (atleast what I saw).
5. 2 bans without even having connected to the server (can you imagine?!)
6. People using a cheat to unlock all the items in the game (where is the fun in that?)...

If I wanted to play alone, I would have played the singleplayer part. For now I don't have much expectations to meet nice people willing to start from skratch or just people that can write lol, so I would advise you to play this game with your friends, not with random people. 

Anyways I will keep playing this game and I hope I would have reasons to give it a positive review, because it is worth giving a second chance.

And I want to add one more thing: the game to me feels unbalanced as almost everything can ruin your base and you have to start all over, not to mention how many creatures can kill you, but killing them is a difficult challenge if you haven't got any items. And one more thing: boringly repetitive, I just can't play this more than an hour or so. Trying to stay alive as much as you can, can't really motivate me to achieve that goal. It would have been better atleast if there were other goals and tasks you could accomplish.

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

My Reply:

Time for some counter arguments! 
1. Most of the time you won't be fighting mobs together unless you're fighting a Giant or hound wave, and if you want someone by your side at all times, hire a gimp.

2.  a.) Play on social or cooperative servers, most of the time someone's either fighting a mob or a giant, and stopping to chat would end up getting them killed, or they're in the ruins or the swamp. AND YOU DO NOT LOOK AT THE CHAT WHILE IN THE SWAMP OR THE RUINS!! YOU WILL DIE!!
     b.) Wait for a more calmer time season like during winter or during dusk or night, since those are the times that people are most likely to be able to chat with you...unless they're fighting Mactusk, which in that case it's understandable why they can't chat.
     c.) Also, most of the time, if you just /wave to people as you're passing by, they'll more often than not reciprocate the action, at least acknowledging you.
     d.) And if you join a server, and immediately ask "Where's base?"...you get what's coming to you. Survive a few days before asking, that way people know that you're not just some griefer or a leech, and are able to hold up on your own.

3. Don't expect people to hold your hand throughout the game, they have to survive just as much as you do.

4. So, from what I'm able to decipher, most people play together, but they...don't play together? What? You just made a contradicting sentence that anyway I look at it makes absolutely no sense.

5. Some people don't know how to put a password on their server or make it private, it's more of a them problem than a you problem.

6. Vanilla dedicated servers. No mods, no console commands, just pure, concentrated, unfiltered Don't Starve. Not recommended for innocent eyes.
Also, it's not technically cheating, since only an admin can do it, all other players cannot "cheat" or spawn in any items.

Also, making a science machine isn't too hard. If you're unable to make a science machine within the first day, just blue ball the world, and start over again. Because something's gone horribly wrong with the worldgen. Making a spear costs 1 flint, a rope (Which is 3 grass), and 2 twigs. Which are in abundance due to the very nature of DST. And a log suit isn't hard to acquire either. Most mobs can be killed with simple kiting, don't try to tank a giant like a treeguard without any armor. Just go onto the wiki, or even look for strategies before writing off this game because it doesn't hold your hand like you've become accustomed to.

This by no means Dark Souls levels of hard, so don't whine about a game which boasts about being unforgiving on the very store page you bought it from being hard.
Protip: Hounds won't attack you unless you're past day 6, if you hear the hounds, go to beefalo or pigs, they will protect you.
Deerclops will always arrive on Night 30 on a default world, use that to your advantage. If you don't wanna fight it, make 5 signs away from your base, and have a berry bush hat on stand-by. Hide under the hat, and wait for Deerclops to arrive and smash the 5 signs. Once smashed, Deerclops will become pacified, and will despawn. But be warned, she will respawn again near the end of Winter, so just repeat what I said earlier and you'll be fine. 

There's so much more in this game than what you give it credit for, there's a LOT you can do in this game, you just refuse to look for it because it's not immediately in your face and shoved down your gullet like in most modern triple A games.

Hope that helped with debunking some of the gobbledygook here!

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

So! Why don't we all share our opinions of DST in a civilized manner and use constructive and valid arguments and counter arguments like the proper philosophers that we all are, in the great debate that which is called Life.

Spoiler

And I swear to god, if this devolves into a "I'm right and you're wrong because **** you!" I'm going to hunt you down, I will find you, every last one of you, and I will beat you with your own hubris. Okay? Now let's all enjoy ourselves here! 

 

[minespatch]

Your counterpoints seem reasonable. Curious what other people will say to this.

[Sinister_Fang]

I'm not really sure the original reviewer has ever played an online game with player hosted servers before...

[Donke60]

14 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

Zero teamplay.

Well there is a lot of stress in the commuity from being griefed and burned and what most see when noobs wander around is just aimless and blind who die in the first days. So its better to strike out on your own instead of feeling tethered because who have to help someone.

18 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

2. Zero communication (almost nobody answers your greeting or just questions about something in the game).

Well most of the game is fast pace in actions you don't really have the time to talk when doing something.. Some people just don't like talking to strangers though they do like working with them. A question is still commuitcation everyone should try to get comfortable with the game.

 

21 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

3. Everybody is just survivng for themselves.

Well thats mostly a lack of trust, if you want to work with someone who have to be the first to show that your worth trusting. It really hurts to be taken advantage of in the game. If the commmuity player base had a more positive look on newbies and strangers in general it might help some but if you play the game long enough your meet all the different types of people some more welcoming than others.

 

24 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

5. 2 bans without even having connected to the server (can you imagine?!)

Thats more on the Admins fault not players

 

25 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

. People using a cheat to unlock all the items in the game (where is the fun in that?)...

Some people like to cut to the good parts they mainly use this mode for testing or practice and to them this is there fun

26 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

If I wanted to play alone, I would have played the singleplayer part. For now I don't have much expectations to meet nice people willing to start from skratch or just people that can write lol, so I would advise you to play this game with your friends, not with random people. 

Thats the same line of thinking that goes through all the players head when you joined if you want that to change who have to be that change. You have to be an open minded and Welcoming person if you don't your just be like the players you mentioned earlier.

29 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

And I want to add one more thing: the game to me feels unbalanced as almost everything can ruin your base and you have to start all over, not to mention how many creatures can kill you, but killing them is a difficult challenge if you haven't got any items. And one more thing: boringly repetitive, I just can't play this more than an hour or so. Trying to stay alive as much as you can, can't really motivate me to achieve that goal. It would have been better atleast if there were other goals and tasks you could accomplish.

Its you VS the world in this game not the other way around you are the weakling here to succeed you have to prepare and know what you are doing. The motivation of this game comes from the challenge of wanted to see you on top to see yourself succeed if you don't have the motivation. Then that's your problem This game takes a lot of time more time then you have put in but once you get a foothold its a good old game for sure

That's the game's biggest pitfall the trial and error some might need to succeed and the upfront of knowledge you need to even get comfortable with the game but to some its well worth the effort.

Spoiler

39 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

If you're unable to make a science machine within the first day, just blue ball the world, and start over again. Because something's gone horribly wrong with the worldgen.

 

This is bad advice because all that does is switch there anger towards worldgen I've seen enough steam threads to know it. Unless the world is really old there should and is enough. Just because its not at your doorstep doesn't mean its gone forever

43 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

hire a gimp

No just no not the right platform to make this joke this is suppose to be family friendly NO

 

 

[minespatch]

2 minutes ago, Donke60 said:

No just no not the right platform to make this joke this is suppose to be family friendly NO

Wait, where was that in the original review/op?

[Donke60]

1 minute ago, minespatch said:

Wait, where was that in the original review/op?

it was in melen's response to the review

[watermelen671]

2 minutes ago, minespatch said:

Wait, where was that in the original review/op?

The gimp line, yes. Donke's comment, no. 

[watermelen671]

6 minutes ago, Donke60 said:

This is bad advice because all that does is switch their anger towards worldgen I've seen enough steam threads to know it. Unless the world is really old there should and is enough. Just because it's not at your doorstep doesn't mean it's gone forever

Not what I meant. What I meant was that the worldgen's designed to have flint, rocks, wood, grass and twigs nearby the florid postern at worldgen. I believe the reason behind that is quite obvious. And if that isn't the case that means that something bugged out during the worldgen sequence, which is why I recommended blue balling it and pulling a regen.

[Donke60]

4 minutes ago, watermelen671 said:

Not what I meant. What I meant was that the worldgen's designed to have flint, rocks, wood, grass and twigs nearby the florid postern at worldgen. I believe the reason behind that is quite obvious. And if that isn't the case that means that something bugged out during the worldgen sequence, which is why I recommended blue balling it and pulling a regen.

Still thats not what they reallt said though  that can set the expection that a golden rock has to be there at the start of the game so they can be a machine and that doeesn't happen to often you should probably fix that so you don't imply expectiions of a Survival Exploration heavy game.

[watermelen671]

1 minute ago, Donke60 said:

Still thats not what they reallt said though  that can set the expection that a golden rock has to be there at the start of the game so they can be a machine and that doeesn't happen to often you should probably fix that so you don't imply expectiions of a Survival Exploration heavy game.

Ok, I'm either REALLY tired, or misremembering. Perhaps both.

But I swear I remember that gold can be found laying on the ground near the florid postern.

Also, it could just be my 2518+ hours I've put into this game, and the fact that I know of the RNG worldgen table pseudo-off by heart talking. x3

[watermelen671]

I need help. 

[DVGMedia]

On 7/21/2017 at 11:09 PM, watermelen671 said:

But I swear I remember that gold can be found laying on the ground near the florid postern.

the only places in the world this happens is the graveyard in the mosaic and the spider quarry maybe that is what you were thinking of since the only things that do spawn on the ground is flint and if its a twiggy tree gen some twigs will spawn on the ground or even from birds.