Don't Starve Beta 13 Feb HOTFIX Only

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Vaniria Setser

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Jun 29, 2024, 10:05:57 AM6/29/24
to wechstumalcock

Wilson is the only character that has a skill tree thats only focusing one item. Which is the torch tab. This means that if you don't use torches, the whole thing is completely useless. Whats even worse is even you fully unlock the torch tab your torches will still be weaker than a lantern.(no refueling)

The new content is really cool. Now I believe Wilson should receive a bit more love. All the characters gained unique abilities tailored to their personality/skills (that was the focus of the rework). With this update, it solidifies that Wilson is still the same generic character without any unique traits.

I'm a bit conflicted about skill trees. I generally don't like them in any game because, on a game design perspective, how good you can be depends on how much time you spent on the game, not on your actual skill. Although... the perks you can unlock don't seem groundbreaking so far and you still can only choose them at the start or by changing character. Overall, they seem more of a personalization than an upgrade (most of them), which is similar to how you choose a character depending on your playstyle. You could have a warrior Wormwood or a lunatic Wormwood!

I'm on the fence about this. I think the perks are well-chosen for Wormwood, Woodie, and for the most part Wolfgang (not sure what the point of the gym minigame is if there's a level 1 perk to remove the mechanics, but the other stuff is pretty good), and while I'm uncertain that this was a good place for lore to have an effect on gameplay, I do think it's cool and interesting for a few characters to have no choice but to take one side, as with Wormwood getting two lunar options instead of a shadow option.

I'm not a huge fan of what was previously a very fitting mechanic for Wilson's character rework - exploring the world over time and putting your experience into customised, optional upgrades - becoming something that every character has, but while it's kind of disappointing to go "Wilson has his own special mechanic now! Wait, no he doesn't, back to being the generic character with fewer strengths than almost everyone else but no weaknesses", future players probably won't notice.

What I really don't like is that now that we have three others to compare against and presumably more in the pipeline, it's glaringly obvious that Wilson's skill tree is less coherently themed than everyone else's. If Willow's going to get a skill tree, why did Wilson get a bunch of torch perks? He has more perks related to torches than Wormwood has perks for blooming, and his only connection to torches is that he frequently holds one in promo art. It barely made sense to begin with and now it's baffling that he has that instead of something more science-related or even something else pertaining to basic survival that doesn't overlap with another character's specialty if Alchemy is meant to be the science thing (for that matter, some of the inclusions in the alchemy tree, in addition to being dubiously useful mechanically, don't seem in line with Wilson's in-universe priorities).

I honestly really like the skill tree direction. It rewards you for playing that character. My only complaint is you can easily cheese the skill trees by just fast forwarding time and unlocking everything that way, but eh, content is content

The work done is interesting, the goal - to give the player a choice between the parties - is quite good, but, nevertheless, one can understand the indignation of people. These kinds of updates simplify the game quite a lot, which is not very popular with hardcore players. Perhaps newbies will be delighted, but it's worth thinking about the main audience and trying to somehow make the skills more balanced, because now it's just a good, and sometimes (Wolfgang with planar damage) even an unbalanced buff.

While I do think that giving skill trees to every character in the game is not the best idea, I am glad to see that skills for wormwood and woodie are much more impactful than skills for Wolfgang. I do hope that dev team will keep in mind which characters are considered stronger by the community, and therefore we won't be getting any gamebreaking skills for Maxwell, Wanda and WX, since they don't really need any improvements (neither did Wolfgang but I guess we are doing that).I am looking forward to Willow skill tree and I'm really happy with what Woodie and Wormwood got in the skill departament. I also hope that Woodie has to choose between wooden helmet and walking cane, since getting a better armor option as well as speed boost seems kinda broken.

I have a biggest question now here: what's the point of all these skillpoints if you can't have them all at the same time? To consider this that being rewarded for playing the game and you needing to customize skills everytime you'd want something different for each character despite majority of skills being rather mundane there's all that effort and little point to it all.

I love the skills and perks you can get and select, but if Celestial Portal is an early unlockable in the game then why put us there again if we want just one perk to be a little different for specific thing like resourcefulness or something.

Also Fire Bell is as terrifying of an idea as adding the destructive Woodie stomp xdd one is harder to obtain I guess while kinda little purpose?

The next DST beta test update is live now. The main feature of this update is adding skill trees to three more of the Survivors: Wolfgang, Wormwood and Woodie.

Go here to see how to enter the beta branch on steam if you have not done that before.

Changes:

I was thinking. Why the scrapbook is not a book? We have cookbook in the game and the scrapbook is in the menu. I get it. New people want to have the scrapbook always in hand, but I think it would make a more sence and would be consistent with other books

I agree that it is a bit frustrating from the perspective of a long time player, but I presume it will give more info that most people need to resort to wikis to learn, and once you see everything enough again the constant notifications / presence will go away.

I think they wouldn't be a problem if the entire game's pick sounds were replaced, but still having the classic ding pick sound with SOME things having a different one makes them feel a bit out of place. If they were all changed to sound in theme it wouldn't be as bad once we played for a bit.

I agree that it is a bit frustrating from the perspective of a long time player, but I presume it will give more info that most people need to resort to wikis, and once you see everything enough again the constant notifications / presence will go away.

Yeah, the notifications are driving me insane. They will go away at some point at least, though the setting would be really appreciated. And actually, I think even those new players will be overwhelmed with constant dinging every time a bird lands nearby. Klei might want to make the scrapbook available by making a science machine for the first time, or even alchemy engine, and then it can ding all it wants. Or idk SOMETHING that doesn't take away the wonder of seeing something for the first time because your little sticker goes BLEENG! I can just see first Deerclops encounter getting completely undermined by this.

Honestly, I'm most annoyed about the first point. That was the fun, that you had to learn this and store the information in your own brain... (and why those stat info mods were an insult to the game) I know my personal feelings mean nothing on this topic, but my gatekeepy side feels betrayed, is all. Klei keeps talking about making the game more accessible to people and I go "Just don't let anyone through the gate and we're cool :)" I guess I just need to be happy I got to experience the game the way I did, even if others won't.

New pick sounds should either be for every item or none of them, it's jarring going from the light "pling" sound to the softer sound of rocks/grass/wood, especially as someone who has been playing since 2018.

Boulders spawning on earthquakes will singlehandedly kill cave basing, or make it much less desirable. There was an individual out there to lit up their entire ruins with astral detectors, and I feel very sorry for them when all of that gets destroyed by boulders.

Also not a fan of the scrapbook, I visualized it being a craftable notebook with the drops and stats of mobs, this one covers all things including the items themselves, I feel it's a bit on the nose even for new players.

I just want to say thank you for all of these new updates!! you and the klei team have been working HARD to keep us fed with content and i can feel the amount of effort and time you use to create these updates, and that your time has NOT gone unnoticed from the masses!! I can't wait to try out a beta for the first time ever and write down my experiences

tbh I feel like this whole "end game loop" is starting to not only feel extremely arbitrary and forced, intent on punishing players with no rewards, but its also really dropping out the individuality and creativity we were previously able to express with the game.

Like we've had dark swords and glass cutters in the game for a long time but now we get shadow and lunar weapons? We've already had these forever, why is this NOW a thing with special element damage? This really comes out of left field in a game that kinda demands simplicity by its own design. You can't hide numbers, and then bring out some gotcha trap damage calculation that makes armor and weapons useless.

And why is this all about its own mini game? For the entire rest of the game, full of influences from shadow and lunar forces that Klei had to go back and patch in because players pointed out the inconsistencies, why is it NOW that we suddenly get a different damage type? I actually like the idea of having special damage types, lord knows Willow would appreciate a damage synergy that didn't threaten to destroy the world around her and get her kicked from pub servers, but why is it only now at the end game? tbh this update would make a lot more sense if different damage types were retrofitted into the experience from the beginning with a focus on planar near the end rather than just suddenly making a left turn into all this.

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