Don't Starve's Combat Sucks. But That's the Point.

[@Gatorboy5678]

In an interview Klei said “We don’t want Don’t Starve to be a combat game.” Granted the same person said they didn’t want Don’t Starve to be multiplayer since that would take away from it just being you against the world and that certainly changed.

[@How2live0]

They didn't want the original don't starve to be multiplayer, they had to rebalance and add a lot of new things to make dst

[@joroc]

Boss commands him

[@RebirthOG]

Its a weird stance that they don't want it to be a combat game even though majority of the game is focused specifically around that

[@determineddaaf3]

I think it's a good thing that DS and DST are separate games. The QoL update they did a while ago really did wonders for DS, though I hope they fix the bug with the volcano resetting saves as it kind of makes shipwrecked unplayable for me after that update :(

[@thedistinguished5255]

they have added so many weapons in the last 3 years specifically, theyre making it more and more a combat game, its unnoticeable at first but as big a change as skill trees imo

[@cerulean3262]

*insert klei slowly crossing the poop throwing werepig off of their boss idea list*

[@Rudy137]

27th werepig boss update when

[@FreddoFilms]

where were you when poopwalker was kill

[@not_umbre]

​@@FreddoFilms no

[@Mr.Derp8finity]

@@FreddoFilms Spoiler alert: they were gonna have players wearing wormwood's bramble husk be the only ones who didn't take exactly as much damage as the health of the nightmare throne from each hit.

[@feartheghus]

I think part of the problem is that over more than a literal decade, it's not just the devs that drifted in their style, but the players. Early on in the game, no one knows what they're doing, and finding clever ways to avoid the difficulty of fighting made sense both for the helpless survivors and for the similarly endowed players. Now the people who play have played for years and can perfectly kite nearly anything. Now, you don't need to do anything clever, not because those options aren't there or because they're no longer useful, but because you actually can just brute force it if you're mechanically skilled enough, no matter how long it takes to get there. Bosses became a way to make the combat a bit more fun without major changes to the actual ways that combat works, and as players got better and better they probably started asking for more of a challenge in combat. This leads both the devs and the players more and more towards combat focused gameplay in a spiral, more content gets placed behind a new combat challenge because players wanted it and the devs like that direction, then anyone playing must focus more on combat to get said rewards, then more players are skilled and used to this new direction, and want even more stuff, another challenge, and so the devs make even more bosses, and so new players must now focus even more on combat, and on and on.

[@FreddoFilms]

this is a good point. it's why I think the solo experiences are stronger in a lot of ways, as opposed to DST which is seemingly designed to receive updates for as long as possible

[@catbatrat1760]

And I imagine anyone who said "hey let's maybe not add a bajillion more boss fights and focus on other things, please?" probably would be laughed out of the room :(

[@CaramelTheOne]

@@FreddoFilms I think another way to interpet it is As the players are learning more and more on how to play Dont Starve, survival is no longer much of a problem, but the survivors also learn too. They've been in here for long enough to learn the ways of The Constant, learning more and more about this strange world, as we can see in the animations Klei has been making. Because of how much time they've spent, they get used to the horrors and are able to march forward and progress. They're no longer just random people that were unlucky enough to be thrust into this world(at least most of them were). They're developing skills to help themselves in multiple ways(skill trees), exploring areas of The Constant they never knew existed, and facing newer and bigger threats. They have to keep progressing to keep themselves safe from these dangers, and they can no longer rely on just these handmade weapons. If they want to survive the ever growing dangers and enemies of The Constant, they too will have to grow. Just an interesting interpretation I thought of from this video. The players learn, the survivors adapt, the constant changes, and the game updates.

[@msanimalthenotoverhere]

I really do agree. But i'd personally like to see more survival-y stuff. More active threats like the hounds, more weather events, more common day-to-day mobs, like, more variety in general, yknow? As currently, after youve played a decent amount of hours, you just know everything your usual forest biome or swamp or whatever area you actually frequent has to offer! It makes the game feel kinda boring, and daily life like just meaningless drool until you have enough helmets for your next bossfight

[@thegreensunsetgroup2501]

Consider The Uncompromising Mode Mod! It adds new bosses, sure, but it's more focused on new biomes, new weather, a whole new raid type (rats if you base gets too messy) and it also reworks some of the stupid bosses like bee queen, twins of terror (who might be more stupid now but it sure does look cooler,) and the shadow bishop. It also has a lot of configs so you can disable the boss reworks and the new seasonal bosses :3 Ignore everything I said, post recipe for fresh fruit crepes if you don't have access to mods.

[@aidansroadams5328]

To be honest that's why I like the marrotters so much. They add a constant danger to your game (nests that if you get too near you will be stolen from) where directly fighting is not the smartest course of action. Instead let them pick a fight they can't win or while they are just aren't looking to pillage their nests for their ill-gotten gains.

[@zeeb2190]

Hmm does acid rain fall under that survivally thing?

[@dragonslayer3552]

They do that almost every update, from small things like slippery ice to game changers like acid rain and lunar hails or even brightshades infecting your farms Even the great depth worm recently added in the last update is exactly what you are asking for

[@msanimalthenotoverhere]

@@dragonslayer3552 well yeah, but those are either niche or super late game. i mean, id guess most people dont spend enough time in the caves to ever even see the worm boss, ( or brightshades and such for that matter ) i was thinking about more early game things and such

[@T-H-E_J-E-S-T-E-R]

12:28 I think they’re adding these kinds of weapons to signify that the survivors are no longer normal people who don’t know how to use even the most basic of weapons. They have been in the constant for long enough that they actually understand how to use more advanced weapons.

[@danilim7529]

makes sense and from what we see on the "end game trailers" the survivors are truly evolving and getting more used to the constant

[@kalebj3932]

I see it as the survivors gaining hidden knowledge, becoming pawns in the games between two gods, falling for the same tricks that got them stuck there in the first place.

[@anmspafan7855]

Meanwhile the trailers: Maxwell with no armor and an axe just tanking horrors beyond comprehension

[@TheActionAsk]

This is also literally what the skill trees they're adding are meant to represent too; how the survivors have adapted their abilities/flaws over their time in the constant and become more capable as a result

[@goldenduffy193]

I mean even now we see this with the characters themselves, with wortox gaining a new ability to harness the power of his souls to teleport anywhere on the map, or Walter's new basekit buffs allowing him to stop fumbling the marble into his slingshot before firing. Its because the characters are learning and getting better at what makes them so special, either through practice over time.

[@lovkarts]

I've always seen Don't Starve as part of a trio, alongside Minecraft and Terraria. Minecraft is focused on building, Terraria is focused on combat and Don't Starve is focused on survival. It really does feel like Klei has lost their path, not understanding what makes Don't Starve be Don't Starve. I have no idea why they think it's a good idea to just keep adding more bosses when the combat of the game is inherently precarious, and they can't change it because it would make the game fold in on itself and end immediately.

[@robertasvaicius4437]

Because combat was a part of the game, it was just kept simple like many other aspects. Why do you think there were two characters originally that catered to combat (Wendy for clearing hordes and Wolfgang for hitting hard). Klei just expanded on combat more because it was fun in multiplayer.

[@TheLifeLaVita]

don't atarve didn't lose the survival it just added more for players who got better over the years. Please stop judging stuff from your own warped experience instead of seeing it as it is really. It's very toxic

[@RetroCube]

You can have bosses part of the survival experience though? They're not mutually exclusive. I also hardly think bosses are to blame beyond just "they keep adding bosses and only bosses". This can be considered bloat and an issue, but it is not really the actual core problem, just a symptom of it. You could add more characters instead every major update and it'd still be the same issue. The combat isn't even "precarious". It can be boring and repetitive yes, but there's nothing inherently broken about it. It's just one dimensional.

[@Luzeru362]

​@@TheLifeLaVita no bro. The only content they add nowadays is bosses and not survival elements

[@TheLifeLaVita]

@@Luzeru362 even so not adding survival and losing survival are completely different things, bro

[@Mikhail-Kuznetsov]

I think they decided to go into combat from exploration and even "survival" to some extent for these reasons: 1. A new “boss battle” is much easier to implement 2. Constantly expanding the world will not work. They can't add more worlds due to server limitations, and constantly expanding the map will just make it too unwieldy. They decided to focus on creating specific small points of interest that were perfect for filling with bosses. 3. I think most players still liked the more familiar “defeat this boss to move on” and since few people complain, why not continue to do what people like? I love the new boss battles. Recently I fought the Nightmare Werepig for the first time and it was one of the best in my entire time playing dont starv. However, it would be interesting to see more content for exploration, I think the rifts can be developed in this direction.

[@gabrieleugeniomenegazzo9243]

Tbh more interesting PoI should be neat for exploration, generally the ones who are just there are hardly of your interest to interact a second time and it could change

[@masterblaster2678]

I'd love for them to add new maps AFTER they fix the lag in overworld+cave worlds. That is, after they get enough money to upgrade the servers to that end. No point in adding content if most players will just disable it because it gets too laggy with it on.

[@SuperChez_]

One of the things I loved about Hamlet is that the wildlife all has interesting interactions with eachother. Every time you go into a rainforest, spider monkeys are beating the crap out of something and the flytraps are eating everything else. The absolute violence of nature is reflected really well in that DLC, and I adore the way that they implemented that

[@Rudy137]

even though I love dst bosses I lowkey agree with the exploration part just played shipwrecked for the first time and man I don't remember last time I had so much fun with don't starve

[@PanNalesnik123]

Kiedy wadwentures (zgadzam się btw shipwrecked jest sztos)

[@Rudy137]

@@PanNalesnik123 ci co wiedzą: 🛶

[@iTrapa]

The bad combat makes the character truly feel like ordinary people thrown into hellish environment, clumsily whacking the monsters even when wielding magical weaponry.

[@terrariagell1604]

exactly

[@friendlypootis]

I really want them to add more weather challenges that doesn't just boil down to "increase or decrease your temp" like snow storms in Winter, but whenever I bring this up on the forums everyone just goes "that's not a fun challenge" like smacking boss #82 with a hambat for twenty minutes somehow is more fun than more unique ways to have to survive the day to day.

[@2diefor]

I really like the idea of snow storms in winter, it adds a new depth of difficulty imo.

[@Boney9551]

It’s so frustrating seeing people take this games combat in the wrong way so I’m excited to see what you have to say on it in a positive light

[@robert7100]

For a game "called don't" starve, I don't think I've ever died of hunger, it should just be called, "don't fight" or "don't lose your sanity" tbh

[@Jiopera99]

​@@robert7100 Doesn't sound as cool. Plus the name is perfect for the sinister tone.

[@MrKrock-po9ti]

Literally devs words: "Combat is not a necessity, it a last resort" Tho is was said during Don't Starve early development. DS/T was never supposed to have much combat. It sad to see how now we get more and more bosses that not only have no purpose (Literally why would I bother with bosses in a SURVIVAL game besides a few of them), but also feel pretty bad cause of TOGETHER part of Don't Starve that makes it pure pain in solo.

[@cosmicskydragon333]

Most of their loot is incredibly helpful in the survival portion, such as a handless umbrella, a freezer backpack, and incredibly powerful ranged weapon, immunity to hostile shadows, an never ending light source.

[@Ninjaknife11733]

Pure pain in solo? Have you played DST before? With a bit of cheese, you can kill any raid boss with Twins. No raid boss is required to beat the game, unless you count Shadow Pieces as a raid boss. The biggest exception is Crab King but you can just cheese him in many ways. Heck, most recent bosses like Scrappy (and Nightmare) Werepig, Crystal Deerclops, Armored Bearger, qnd Great Depths Worm can all be killed (Individually, not all together) with under 2 Glass Cutters and a spear. The spear is only needed for Werepigs because he can regenerate.

[@MrKrock-po9ti]

@@Ninjaknife11733 Ain't the fact that I need a cheese to beat a boss proves my point? And I did mention the fact that most bosses are useless considering the risk for a decent player that doesn't use cheese nor is he experienced enough to dodge perfectly. Tbf I did phrase it kinda wrong. I meant painful not in a difficulty sense (Tho it partially that too. Fuelweaver for example) but in a sense of time/recources amount. Besides, there no point in "completing the game" considering it just sents you into hard-mode with no endgoal beside few changed bosses (Literally why are they turning DST into Terraria without pixels?)

[@aelfynnalochoir8249]

A big thing I liked about The Forge was that it being so combat oriented was a refreshing take from the usual "avoid combat" style of the normal game. Nowadays pushing to kill bosses to progress instead of just some shiny trinkets to make day-to-day easier kinda saddens me.

[@minespatch]

I miss those side games. They were their own worlds but added to the lore. I appreciate the long silences the devs took which meant they had the time to make those events. The monthly updates might be taking a toll on the devs.

[@aelfynnalochoir8249]

Agreed. Just wish they atleast came back on a yearly cycle or so, no need to innovate like ReForged or ReGorgitated, just a fun seasonal thing to look forward to. Granted we've got the mod nowadays but still, feel like it being an official event really brought the community together.

[@cronnoponno]

I think it's important to note that there is a developer on the Klei forums who has commented on Don't Starve Together's updates quite a few times. The sentiment is quite clear that the game is complete, and has been complete. A New Reign was originally going to be their finale to the Don't Starve IP, and the content updates they are producing now are just post-game extras for people who have already mastered the survival element. There is virtually nothing they can do to "fairly" challenge a player with a limited combat system; we've been playing this game for over 10 years, anything they do will be overcome with sheer tenacity as we have always done. In Singleplayer, we learned to infinitely farm and spam pig houses to make the spawn indefinitely, we learned how build a campfire to hold the F button to kill the Ancient Guardian. They would have to introduce unfair mechanics that aren't fun or engaging, or are outright impossible to counter in order to actually "Challenge" most players at this point. However, complex bosses with more complicated movesets actually require mechanical skill, and are still very challenging to a lot of players. Most of us can easily destroy singleplayer, but a much smaller number of players can properly fight Bee Queen without cheesing her. According to the developers, Don't Starve exists in its pure form in the Singleplayer game even if DST changes to be an entirely different game, and to the developers DST IS a different game than Singleplayer which allows them to take the content to a more combat-focused direction. You also have to consider this from a lore perspective, these "normal" people have been living and dying and resurrecting in the constant for possibly hundreds of years; they've learned to make real weapons, they've learned to fight, they've learned as we have learned and the recent weapons and bosses centered around being epic fights reflect that. The Skill Trees themselves reflect that as well, these are no longer "normal" people. DST is not DS, the developers have been pretty clear on this.

[@FreddoFilms]

if they're just 'post game extras' why is nearly every update centered around them? I'm not saying the new updates should be trying to 'fairly' challenge the player, I'm saying they should stop being fully focused around combat. (also, saying 'most players can easily destroy singleplayer' is a pretty bold claim, DS is not a very beginner friendly game at all) if DST is a different game then they need to fully embrace that, possibly by updating the combat system. most of us didn't start playing games in this franchise because we wanted another generic fantasy progression game, so changing the theme so late into the story is pretty lame.

[@cosmicskydragon333]

@@FreddoFilms So you want them to embrace DST being different, then immediately say you didn't start playing this franchise because of the things it has been changing? I hate to break it to you, they are embracing it in a way that you dislike. It also has always been a fantasy progression game, this isn't exactly a realistic game especially since magic has always been a pretty big part of this game. There has been updates for stuff, but not the specific way you want and so it doesn't count even when not boss related. The issue is not what DST is doing, but the fact it is not taking the specific path you want. You went so far as to suggest a new dimension like the caves, where a boss would be the center piece logically. You're asking for a place centered around this given the plot.

[@FreddoFilms]

'I hate to break it to you, they are embracing it in a way that you dislike' yes, that was the entire point of the video. while I'd rather them not go down the boss-rushy 'progression' route, fully leaning into it is marginally better than trying to do both things at once (terraria-esque 'progression' and more exploration focused content). though, exploration centered updates would be peak, as I said in the video. also if you really think contemporary DST and original solo DS are the same in terms of themes and tone, I'm not really sure what to say. the original game also had basically no terraria-style progression, as I said in the video.

[@ObIitus]

Well, if the point was to make people drop the game after seeing that combat, I would say they totally achieved that for me.

[@cormoranch1539]

Honestly have been feeling this too. I've been drifting more and more away from the game with every update not really bringing anything new to the table for me. I loved the survival of the game and how it felt like a struggle figuring it all out. The singleplayer game really did that well and the expansions even better. Exploration was needed to survive and prep for the season, and you needed to figure out how and manage your tasks to get there I feel like they tried doing this too with the acid rain and brightshade but it didn't hit the same since there is no new exploration to go for, it is a problem that provides its own solution by having the solution be the loot you get from the first kill. I think a great way to perhaps reinvigorate the don't starve together experience is to create new world generation options, perhaps introduce new seasons with new challenges and resources to collect. Change up world generation to create different biomes and island formations that challenge the player in new ways. It's like a lite version of the DLCs perhaps but keeps the old worlds intact and less clustered.

[@plasmabasher]

This is why a sequel would be heralded, if we ever get a Don't Starve 2 (Don't Starve Together doesn't count) then a new world, with new rickety science stations and more to explore in a single-player setting, would be such a breath of fresh air. Heh, imagine that. Don't Starve 2. (Insert image of Shrek tearing book page) Like that's ever gonna happen.

[@nangsanbhalangblah333]

They're gonna milk dst until the boss rush peeps get bored...or grow up or something

[@Cringe89563]

I feel like together does count as a sequel since they literally call it out on the title screen "a sequel of sorts"

[@Quality_Butter]

Don’t Hallucinate when??

[@2diefor]

Don't Get Hungry

[@mr1spamification]

To be honest I think Klei kind of agrees with this general take, but ultimately they are throttled into adding minimal new exploration content and plentiful new combat content due to DST engine limitations. If Klei could pull it off, I am quite certain they would *looooove* to add new dimensions. A gianormous brightshade jack-and-the-bean-stalk type structure appears in your world and takes you up to some high-risk-high-reward cloud realm. A second layer to the caves deeper than the first like they originally wanted to do with a lava zone. A nightmare realm that has unbelievably overpowered nightmare enemies and you must sneak through as much of it as possible because everything is stupidly stronger compared to anything you could bring into the realm with you, making you feel that old sense of fear and helplessness that made surviving fun when you first played Don't Starve early-game. There's plenty of *conceptual* options for them in this regard, but servers cannot handle more than 2-shard worlds unless they are dedicated servers/more powerful machines, which probably most DST players don't have access to since they are just hosting locally and caves + overworld is all the majority of casual gaming machines can reasonably handle without problems or severely long loading times. If Klei added new exploration content anyway, it'd have to be gated away from the main world so the main world could be entirely shut down by the server and a new world loaded up, but people love their bases and collections of goodies and resources, and would not want to part from all of that permanently just to see new exploration content. The best compromise I could think of for Klei to try and go for would be some sort of 'expeditions' update, where you can go on expeditions to wildly unique new lands, but you cannot base in them. You must still take what you found back with you and return home eventually. You can sort of see the potential in this 'plan ahead for an adventure' thing with seafaring content. It's fun to make a little checklist of what you think you'll need on your boat before you eventually sail back to base and drop off everything you scavenged on the waters, be it boss loot or unique resources like salt. If they capitalized on that and solved some of the obvious storage space problems of end-game players wanting to bring many dozens of items with them for an expedition, *then* designed these expedition worlds in a way that forcibly pushes you out if you stay too many days (some catastrophic storm, or an apocalyptic event that makes all the creatures ramp up their damage and health over time until it's unreasonable to try and fight even one, etc etc) then the only thing left to deal with is the long loading times where the main world shuts down, the expedition world first generates, and then loads you into it. I frankly would be fine with a 2 or 4-minute lengthy loading screen if it had exciting art or an animated graphic of the interior of an air ship with my character sitting on a bench decked out in epic gear as clouds fly by outside a window or something, and it was leading up to a big important adventure I had pooled my base resources together to plan carefully for. The idea of going on a long-form adventure and returning home tired but successful with my new haul sounds way better than yet another boss encounter gated behind tons and tons of playtime (for a casual playthrough). Though, ultimately, this compromise idea of expedition worlds would be an ENORMOUS amount of new content to make it satisfying and worthwhile to release. They'd need to make basically miniature DLCs roughly half the size of shipwrecked or hamlet for *each* expedition world, otherwise players would use it as a rather disappointing sight-seeing tour instead of a perilous adventure worth planning and gearing up for. That means MUCH longer time between updates. I do generally agree with your take though that Klei should shift away from boss-spam/combat-centric content updates sooner rather than later.

[@ZarovBeifong]

game is so good they had to nerf the combat quality, literally everything else is absolute peak

[@G-Forces]

"new content that doesn't require actual real life days to even see" This is largely why I haven't played DST for a couple of years

[@eevee93]

One thing that also really bothers me about the combat in a bad gameplay way is a lot of the bosses that are "required" for this type of progression lack any PROPER way to fight them Like genuinely tell me what the intended method from Klei was to fight Bee Queen, other than being a group of 6 people holding F

[@puncrafter349]

I've only ever killed Bee Queen with gunpowder, and I honestly found nuking her like that to be very satisfying, especially knowing what a slog that fight would be normally

[@PanConManteca342]

For what I know, feel free to correct me, they didn't wanted for a lot of bosses to have a viable strategy to kill them with 1 or 2 players, they expected big groups of player teaming up on the extremely high hp "optional" bosses, and the smaller groups take care of the "mandatory" bosses for survival, like the seasonal ones

[@How2live0]

But bee queen is optional

[@PanConManteca342]

I know, I put "optional" because some of the high hp bosses are not optional for new content while some are just to get more QoL tools

[@bananatheo3796]

@@PanConManteca342 This is why I use the "Automatic Health Adjust" mod. it changes boss health to accomodate for the amount of players so that doing the optional bosses without a big group is actually doable and enjoyable.

[@PaveltheDicer]

Thing is, the period of time that i decided to try out sailing in dst was some of the most fun and stressful experience I've ever had with the game, i could tell you how i almost starved in the middle of the ocean, how i was attacked by multiple shadows at night with a leaking boat etc etc, i wish there was more of that

[@TacoMeister2]

Absolute masterclass of a title

[@Mochi_void]

I do agree that the homemade feel of early game weapons is super iconic but late game weapons being of higher quality makes sense, visual story telling, these survivors have been through several battles and have learned just as we have as late game players what it takes to win, it also shows the characters being fully aligned with their chosen route, shadow and alter by wearing and using items crafted with the drops of said enemies

[@koffee5486]

Glad to hear someone talk about the feature bloat/actually acknowledge it as that, i've been considering getting back into the game but it just feels weird to see the game go from something to survive and thrive in longterm to the minecraft-situation of starting a world, rushing down the end bosses, then stopping/starting over because you dont know where to go from there

[@math925]

This was a lovely video. I thought your observation about the spear animation was especially insightful. I'm balls deep in my finals, but your video got me to downloading the games again. Great video, happy holidays.

[@Rudy137]

10:16 isn't that the animation of attacking with the fencing sword

[@Thepink_li0n]

It looks like it, yeah

[@FreddoFilms]

they ended up reusing it for that, but the fencing sword isn't really a weapon, more of a tool

[@Rudy137]

@@FreddoFilms true I just wanted to point out that the animation isn't unused 🤓

[@WackyBloodWing]

@Rudy137 it was unused for the majority of the games life, but you are right it is being used now

[@BeantheGerridae]

The fencing sword has more windup and wind down to the animation, so it might just be modified

[@uhjjju7778]

farming and sail updates were the most fun I've had in the game, i spent months growing all crops and exploring lunar island, finding monkey island etc. nowadays with updates generally just being endgame stuff or new monsters, i dont play much. sometimes I'll play for a few days straight just to see skill trees tho. my biggest wish is for klei to add combat scaling feature for ppl who dont like combat such as myself, so we have better chances at progressing through the game

[@Ukitake13thDivision]

I agree with you. For me Don't Starve Together became Don't Fight Alone. Survival is no longer a problem and the world feels kind of left behind when it comes to exploration compared to fighting content that was added over the years. There are some good changes that were implemented for sure, but my main problem with the Constant is that the world feel static. Sorry for the long comment, but I want to share some ideas of things that I think could worth being added: - More distinguished biomes. All mosaic-type biomes (e.g. Mandrake Forest, Moonstone Forest, etc.) could have different turfs and plants surrounding them even if providing the same resources as the ordinary items, similarly to cactuses from Oasis and Desert. For example Moonstone Forest could spawn with Petrified Trees instead? For new players they would be much easier to memorise and for older players they would be something new to look at and at least made the look appear more complex. - More control over biomes. All random biomes (e.g. Killer Bees Plains, Pond Grasslands) while fun to discover, they're something that more experienced players actually check if they're there because in some way they could benefit them with different tactics and resources. Having option to make those random biomes guaranteed without resorting to mods would be a great addition. They could have different visuals as well. Alternatively it would be more fun if those certain random could be created by certain in-game events, for example more Ponds could be spawned after heavy rains and more Killer Bees Hives could be spawned after defeating Bee Queen. - More control over setpieces. Maybe after discovering all in-game setpieces, some other setpieces could spawn within the world after not visiting certain parts of the map for too long? - Seasonal Events changing depending on the season as in-game option. Maybe there could be an option that would allow players to access Winter's Feast event only during Winter, Midsummer Festival during Summer and Hallowed Nights during Autumn. The Year of the... could change every in-game year and be accessible during Spring only. - More interaction within the Constant and life cycles. It's said that Tallbirds' nests are made of Beefalo Wool, but they're never seen close to each other. They could migrate and fight over teritories. Old Beefalo (from the Gorge event, but without the "saddle") could be easily added to Constant as third stage growth of Beefalo and Tallbirds's egg could hatch without a player's help. However Beefalo and Tallbirds are not the only mobs that could be affected by those changes. Maybe there could be an island added that experiences only either summer or winter, where Red Birds and Snowbirds could migrate to or maybe The Gorge version of Pigeon could spawn instead of usual birds if a base is too big and starts resembling a city? Maybe rats could be added to those city-like bases, stealing items laying on the ground (rats are seen in Wilson's cinematic and could come with him, simialrly to the Rabbit King comming with Maxwel) Maybe event similar to aporkalypse could be added that would happen every a few in-game years that causes a small number of mandrakes to spawn. In real world, mushrooms live in symbiosis with trees, so certain species of mushrooms are more likely to grow within close proximity of certain tree species. DST mushrooms could be more likely to grow next to certain tree types as well and Champignon Mushrooms (from The Gorge event) could grow on those tree stumps that were not dug up. Mushrooms could transform into Mush Trees during Full Moon as they do in Single Player Don't Starve. Volt Goat could be somehow domesticated to allow players to milk them with a bucket. I come from a Slavic country and we drink Birch Sap that is harvester in early spring and in the Gorge event there's Tree Tapping Kit that could be implemented in DST to allow players to get Birch Sap as well. There are for sure more options and possibilities to make the world appear more living. Hamlet does pretty good job at that. - Oceans and Ruins are devoided of live. There could be Bioluminescence, Jellyfish, Roe, etc. added to the ocean content. I don't really like the fact that you have to bring the food with you from the main island, because all food sources on the ocean is so dispersed and Marotters are great example of fun content that adds to livinness of the world. Unnatural Portal is example of poor and uninteractive design. It could be a beloved Slot Machine instead. Maybe you could increase your chance of "winning" certain items with the help of Queen of Moon Quay which would be able to provide a player with different tokens? The main island of the constant could be surrounded with beach patch with palm trees and bamboo patches, etc. (even if they would give just logs and grass and thus would be only visually different) alongside its borders to feel more like it's a part of some kind of bigger island chain (btw why there's no in-game option to make full SW-themed archipelago world?) Rough Ocean could have different seasons from the main island, similarly to Shipwrecked. Ruins could become lush during Summer since more heat would reach deeper into the earth, spawning more flora. - Summer on the other hand needs some tweaking. Constant Wildfires are not fun and the heat is not as easily avoidable as Winter's cold. Plants should wither first and then be prone to wildfires, allowing players to react before they happen. This would also add complexity and interaction. Another thing is that in real world, the hottest day also often times bring biggest downpours right after and something similar could be added to DST. In DST days 8-11 of Summer are the longest, so the next 4 days (12-15) could trigger heavy rains instead of wildfiress to alleviate some of player's struggle with the season. Maybe Ponds could be used to cool down, similarly to Lava Pools increasing player's temperature? - Sealed Portal located in Ancient Archive, currently without any function, could open portals to The Forge and The Gorge events, allowing players to reexperience those fun mini-games. I understand Klei not wanting to add Shipwrecked and Hamlet content to the DST, but what about The Forge and the Gorge? Some items that you could find there would be a great addition to aquire (although some of them would for sure require tweaking or changing) ANYWAY, there are so much that could be done to make the world more living and worth exploring even if the changes are just behavioural or visual in nature. EDIT: I would like also adventure mode to be added in which every world would poses different set of chalenges for players to overcome. It could be good way to make survival as a mechanic more relevant and as alternative to combat-oriented default mode without changing the gameplay for everyone else.

[@5P_OFFICIAL]

7:12 actually, aporkalypse can stop by itself BUT, it works only when it occurs naturally, If player forced aporkalypse to happen, then it will proceed to happen until player stops it

[@saulgoodmanactionfigure]

silver lining does not mean there are no negatives. maybe dst can get some extra points because "thats by design" but the combat still makes the game less fun to play for me

[@pajce8046]

I do indeed agree, nothing beats the feeling of being dropped into the unknown world and being told to survive, we need more of that!

[@-TheChosenOne]

Imagine having to attack to win a combat though 😂! Jokes aside, I really agree with most of what you say here but it can be argued that the weapons becoming more sophisticated would be lore-accurate! To even obtain things like a shadow reaper or brightshade sword the survivors firstly need to beat MANY combat challenges that would canonically take them years! Since the dark sword is also a more sophisticated weapon it makes sense that the survivors would eventually learn how to make them even more sophisticated as the game progresses! Also, we can't forget the fact that the survivors just encountered some new enemies that were really strong and their first thought was: "Hey I can make a weapon out of this", essentially doing just like you said with the bat bat and tentacle spike and strapping monster parts together to make more powerful weapons. It's safe to say that the survivors would have become way better at combat after beating things like Fuelweaver and CC so as far as I'm concerned this makes sense! I also have many ideas of how Klei should implement the DST ending and I think what I have in mind checks all yours and Klei's boxes so I might make a video on it, who knows! Tell me if you want me to!

[@FrankBeans-g6d]

Freddo:i bet 10 bucks the next update will be werepig bossfight number 3 Klei:RIGHT THAT DOWN! RIGHT THAT DOWN!

[@ethanleino9926]

you have failed in the rite of writing right

[@Coolerpersonawesome]

This video perfectly explains why I loved shipwrecked and original don’t starve but grew to hate dst, I wish they’d either focus on exploration or just change the combat system to make it more fun to fit with the direction there going, also love how you pointed out the style change, old don’t starve felt weird, odd, and creepy, but it feels like the art style got dumbed down over time, you can compare the original trailer and the recent update trailers, it like two different art styles now.

[@FreddoFilms]

old trailer style was peak

[@Luzeru362]

​@@FreddoFilmsRoG is still to this day my favorite trailer for any game ever

[@Lil_Ms_Dipst]

This is a very good video. The 1v1 most bosses have is very annoying, especially when you play a character that is a "summoner" in a sense (Wendy, Webber, Wurt). Wurt's minions are powerful enough to handle bosses now from what I've seen, I don't see enough Wendy stuff to know for her, but for Webber his spiders do Nothing. Deerclops wrecks them so hard its not even funny. I feel like shit every time I can't use spiders to solve problems when I play the "I use spiders to solve my problems" character.

[@FreddoFilms]

webber in particular is definitely 'out of date' compared to other characters... he needs to carry around like 3 items in his inventory to manage his spiders, but wendy and maxwell both have 'spell wheels' that have all the functions. that and every boss demolishes swarms like you said

[@gathaur7548]

Webber is the best/easiest to play summoner. If you have 3-5 nursing spiders and 20 spitters/warriors, you can annihilate any boss or group of enemies. Fuelweaver and Celestial Champion may be exceptions.

[@meltymarbles4201]

The lack of goofy weapons is such a loss of identity

[@goldscape6875]

K a few things. I think this a solid argument, but there are a bit of flaws... 1. Just to point it out, Kevin (the creator of Don't Starve) initially intended the player to use hyper-specific means of combat as a method of "improvising." Problem is, crafting darts and bee mines is significantly harder than using a spear to kite monsters. 2. The design change in DST weaponry is likely supposed to represent the progression made by survivors; they start off as inexperienced and in grave danger, but then eventually grow to harness the magic around them. I believe that skill trees are also meant to emulate this idea for obvious reasons. 3. I understand that the point of DS isn't to fight, but ever since the early days, you've been incentivized to take the risk of killing monsters. You need silk for an abundance of recipes, gears for a fridge, and nightmare fuel for magic items (which were the best recipes in the game during those days). Considering how prominent combat has been, I believe that it should at least be tweaked so that it isn't monotonous and time-consuming. 4. Incentivizing a player to seek an alternative approach is a good idea, and is a large staple of DS game design (seasons being the best example of this). However, these alternative methods aren't much better from a design perspective. Should players really be able to counteract what's intended as a threatening event simply by walking over to a village? While gimmicks like fire hounds somewhat counteract this, the player should ultimately be challenged regardless of the approach taken (since a large part of DS is that you're always at risk) With all of that said, I believe that a potential way to fix combat is to have some weapons differ in attack speeds or melee range so players can strategize, with the mechanics still staying true to Don't Starve, make hitboxes slightly smaller (SERIOUSLY), add a handful of weapons with AoE so it doesn't take 10 hours and immense pig trafficking to clear out a quarry or splumonkey area, or just make the alternative forms of combat less annoying to craft (Seriously why are saffron feathers so unnecessarily rare?)

[@Thepink_li0n]

34 seconds ago is insane, I’m sure this will be a great video EDIT: after watching, I like your perspective. I am in no way good at combat, my fav aspect of the game is farming so it’s super cool to hear someone’s perspective of the game. I loved hamlet and shipwrecked too and agree they were awesome and the exploration aspect of the game has kinda been untouched so I would absolutely love new content focused on exploration. Great video as always

[@zixvirzjghamn737]

saame- whenever I play DST, its the farming

[@MalJaws]

THIS!! I frequent a community which keeps the forge/gorge alive and plays it often, including challenge runs, and in that I've had conversations about the new updates I've never been able to put my finger on it besides saying the new updates not feeling dont starve-y, especially in the Skill Trees (which I admit, im a hater of) But this was on the dot, this is exactly it

[@Wstinkp]

Honestly, this video is great and really shines a light on what is the best part of the game, the exploration. I think some employees at Klei went on youtube to see what type of DST content people watched the most, and saw that boss runs are pretty popular, so that's what they set their eyes on.

[@punnup3452]

Honestly whenever I fight something in don't starve together it looks like it's a big cone rather than a precise attack The only way to properly dodge attacks is by running away from the attack source (there are plenty of kitting cycles of how many hits per runaway to perfectly time the attacks so you don't get hurt at all)

[@krisztheenderslime]

I get your point. But, i would like a combat rework update, that would make combat fun, cause i would like the direction the game is heading, if the combat was fun.

[@Moss_Dude]

Wow, thanks for explaining to me why I've been drifting so far from the game I love so much lately I've always preferred to play Don't Starve mainly to focus on lasting as long as I can, slowly stockpiling and expanding while enduring what the environments throw at me. But in DST, that's been slowly getting harder to keep doing, with basically nothing new to it ever since the reap what you sow update. All they've cared about is adding new bosses and crazy items that you have to fight for, and not only do you have to deal with all those issues, but most people don't have 5 other friends to share a world with, so you have to deal with their horrendously overinflated health pools too. Wish DST would just let me survive in this survival game, without being forced to ignore basically 80% of it.

[@gathaur7548]

At least to me, the problem with the survival aspect of it is that after about 100 hours, I could survive indefinitely and bosses are the only thing that keep me engaged in the game. Once you figure out that a thermal stone, perogies and eyebrella is all you need, the game stops being a survival and becomes city builder or an RPG depending on your preferences.

[@aofdoom5030]

Which is why don't starve wasn't meant to be the kind of game with a bunch of boss fights and why the original game didn't have them.

[@mabellady]

in short. The game wants you to experience grief in every situation, whatever biome, achievement or craft you do

[@robinchesterfield42]

Yes! THANK you! I too have been frustrated/annoyed/bored by the latest DST updates--by the "everything is locked behind ANOTHER FREAKING BOSS FIGHT" thing. I just want more exploring, you know? More man-vs-nature stuff, like, I dunno, biomes, weather events, season variations, new wild-growing fruit, not just berries, new wild-growing veggies other than carrots? Stuff like that! The "lock everything behind combat" deal has gotten SO bad, that they locked the Sawmill blueprint--an item that allows you to make DECORATIVE-ONLY ITEMS WITH NO ACTUAL USEFUL PURPOSE--behind going to the Ruins and then fighting stuff on the ocean. What. Dude, at least make it make sense! Match the rewards gotten _to the type of challenge they require_ ! Awesomer combat stuff, sure, you can lock that behind a boss fight. DECORATIONS, though? _Peaceful_ items? That should be locked behind CRAFTING challenges! (And then, as a further incentive to go mess with the Ruins and Pearl just to be able to build a freaking chair, they gave everybody free Halloween-themed skins for their furniture. Which...they might not even be able to make in the first place. Great.) It feels to me like somebody at Klei was SO annoyed at the fact that not _everybody_ is a combat player, they put in something specifically meant to shove the Stardew-Valley-with-Shadow-Monsters type peaceful, buildy players out of their comfort zone. But what's WRONG with being peaceful? Why can't we just build nice things and defend it? This mismatch between Thing to do To GET Item is so laughable, the jokes and memes write themselves. ("Wilson P. Higgsbury and the (Indiana Jones font) QUEST for CHAIR!") When even COMPLETELY NON-COMBAT STUFF is locked behind combat, you know you've gone too far down the "bosses unlock everything" sinkhole.

[@FreddoFilms]

yeah the sawmill thing is really dumb... I just want funny tables and chairs damnit

[@Andrebes45]

Yeah all of these points make sense thanks for speaking out tv man

[@Jessie_Warren11618]

honestly, I never felt like the combat sucks, I just felt it was simplistic, although I play on console edition so targeting multiple enemies without a mouse is hell, but even so it always felt slow but fun to me

[@taulitaulington197]

Thank you for making this video. ❤ It has taught me a whole new perspective, I hadn't really considered before. To have the focus on the exploration part of the game, is something really wonderful. Adding more biomes, would be a fantastic idea for further updates, once Klei finishes their current plans. And I do think that they are at least trying to add to that experience with almost every update. New ocean biomes added through several updates, the scrap yard and theater being added, changes in existing biomes after rifts open with new minerals to mine, icker blobs to collect goo from, spark arks to charge in activated archives - the game does keep you on your toes in exploring each new content, and does change the scenery bit by bit. Exploration is also interlinked with bosses - if one really played without any help, additions like pearl contributed to hours of exploration and gathering, all to befriend a new character and build her a home. Or Wagstaff zooming around the map to show you new stuff to uncover. And while exploration, survival and combat are among the main building blocks of the game, I would feel remiss not to mention base building aswell. Especially with the addition of the new farming system. Just like you can learn how to survive while exploring, and fight bosses without getting hit - you can learn how to turn your bases from scrambled structures and item clutter on the ground, into an intricately designed canvas. Klei is consitently adding new structures and skins, which are all unlockable just by playing the game long enough, and add really beautiful compositions of shapes and colors, matching the whimsical style of dont starve. I feel Klei is showing their game a lot of love, especially since it's already over 10 years old. The fact that they even started to add skill trees to a game this old, after that much time, is still kinda blowing my mind actually. I do enjoy the skill trees very much, and I find they fit the theme of exploration aswell, since they are not all combat based, and drastically change the characters in some regards. Thank you for making me see the game from an exploration point of view. ❤

[@ew4525]

maybe DST needs an engine update to work properly?

[@Mr.Derp8finity]

Wow. I never knew this was my oppinion, too, until I saw this video. 👏Bravo, my friend. Bravo. 👏

[@Nampledamp]

I don't know what to think about the pace change, but I'm fine with it being here as it's not really in the way. I think the base gamplay loop is kind of set in stone at this point, but all the new skill trees, bosses, events, items, most if not all of them are completely optional, and I feel that's the intention.

[@FreddoFilms]

they can change it by 'starting over' with a completely new scenario, like SW/hamlet

[@Cats_on_fire]

​@@FreddoFilms i have only one problem. For some reason all everyone wants is stuff back from hamlet or shipwrecked

[@FreddoFilms]

I'm not saying to literally remake hamlet, I mean the idea of a completely new world to explore could be borrowed from

[@mvl7186]

​@@FreddoFilms I would argue that in the recent years has done that by creating new games, switching focus: Mind over Magic, Rotwood, that football game, the OnI dlc(s). Don't Starve Together is still their main child, so they keep it afloat with free updates; they have the numbers, I am sure player acticity is higher when skilltree-updates release rather than other type of content. Where as stuff related with combat goes, it is true that it is more in the spotlight than beffore; I do agree, that I personaly prefer new biomes (or creatures like more-oaters), one can only hope :P

[@BiznesBear]

We can't turn back time, but I'm still waiting for this spear animation (absolutelylove it)

[@FrazzleFlib]

Its actually baffling how they added a bunch of raid bosses in A New Reign and the updates around that time without completely reworking the combat system. it suited the orignal DS well as you said, but its literally a DECADE behind now. the bosses are cool, but its just impossible to properly enjoy them with combat being mechanically identical to mining. combat similar to Cult of the Lamb or something would make the game like 5x more enjoyable. Just pivoting back to original DS exploration focused design at this point would be too little too late, the game already has 2 final bosses, its far beyond the scope of the original DS lol. I dont mind the direction DST is being taken, though i would like to see some kind of new dungeon in the caves, thats quite sorely needed. though i always considered DST to be one of the very few true survival games where the simple act of not dying was an actual challenge, with unique factors like sanity making things way more difficult and interesting. DST hasnt lost any of that but it certainly hasnt built on it either, so its kind of a shame to see something special like that be ignored for the sake of trying to be Terraria but with shit combat. its still fun though. Either way, DST's shit combat IS a problem and it IS shit because whether you like the exploration or combat more, DST is almost exclusively being developed for combat focused content now, all of which is HEAVILY limited by its decade old outdated combat mechanics. Its certainly fair to say that was a mistake but its where we are now lmao. i dont know why they continue the way they are without at least touching up on combat, itd help so so much anyway thats why wigfrid is the best character in the game because she has actual combat gameplay, the elding spear is so fun it somehow manages to make queen bee a fun boss fight

[@cornwell4156]

that's why i stopped playing DST as much. Most of the new updates have optional boss with most interesting stuff locked behind it, if someone decide to not fight them, updates are just adding nothing for casuals most of the time. Bosses are not hard, just tedious, hoping you got enough Pierogi, weapons and armor to fight that bullet sponges, having them have 1/4 of the original hp wouldn't take away anything out of the fight except the amount of stuff I would need to take with me imho.

[@sea-bass5423]

I feel the main issue is the feature bloat going on to be wayyy too misplaced. At its core Dont Starve is a small game once you get into it on the long time casual player level. And as such the replayability is both infinite and so so small depending on your mindset. Klei seems to think their game will die without flashy terraria visuals, but it's killing it for lots of us. It doesn't feel like the creepy forest we were thrown into anymore. It feels like we're supposed to be part of this massive celestial warrr... All we need is what was going on with minecraft lol, new creepy biomes that have unique challenges. And add depth to other systems that were bare bones. This boss rush direction gives it longevity for now. But in the long run the game will not survive this and it makes me so sad

[@gohstudio8012]

Wanda has item to abuse s of her items, same for Wortox. Base DS has movement based character in the Hamlet DLC. We have animation cancels or abilities characters can use. Like a goddamn flamethrower on Willow lmao. A lot is being invested in the cmbat because people wanted it and I honestly respect that. I also believe the frog hitbox showcase was made in DST where the response delay exists, so you were actually right in its tongue, not past it. Just a little detail I believe Klei is rn doing pretty good job about the progression, most of the bosses require you to explore anyways, which fuels up the core of the game to go out of your way to find them if you want the upgrade. It is not like you have to defeat them if you just want to survive, but if yuo want to get a new tier of gear or just feel better with what you have, defeating the bosses is really fun since yuo gotta prepare. And like, Celestial Champion is a boss needs you to explore like tens of places to be even able to fight him so yeah. Some of the W's have their kit based around combat too, tbh. Wanda has a nuke tool and since she is glass cannon, she has clocks to abuse s. Maxwell has goons to summon. Let's look over at Woodie in his mooseform, or Wortox that is coming out rn, he can nuke people with souls. Wendy has a great addition too. I think the DS team invests more time into the "numbers" part of the combat mechanics than the visuals or possibilities what the characters can do. (which also is not completely true looking at Willow) But yeah I do enjoy the current combat system as it feels unique compared to the other games, but TBH. I have over thousand hours on the game so I kinda saw about almost everything even though as unique game Don't Starve is, even after all this time i find smth new every now and then, but that means basically that I welcome any change to the combat klei gives or new boss since I played this game since 2016. But nice video nonetheless, just felt like sharing my opinion about game that is basically my personality atp lmfaoooo. Jolly Starving Together ❤

[@candy-ass4915]

A point about the frog: it doesn't matter where the tongue is. You could be on the other side of the frog and you would still get hit. Like 99% of melee enemies in DS, the attack is just an animation, and if you're in range of the enemy itself when the animation ends, you get hit. Only more recent bosses, or recently changed bosses, fix this, where Deerclops can be kited by going behind him. But you can't do that with frogs, spiders, pigs, hounds, catcoons, tallbirds, etc etc. All those enemies you just have to leave their range when they attack to kite them.

[@waferdaze8017]

I know the "Story Mode" in the first game was also pretty centric on the idea of exploration, just dropping the player into a world with intense climate to worry about and having to explore under those conditions poses a unique challenge. Collect some key items, find a portal, onto the next hell-hole. Not quite sure whether the consensus on that was positive or negative. I know it sounds like people generally agree it's VERY hard. I try to avoid even considering Hamlet or Shipwrecked until I do finish Story Mode with the base game, which earnestly might just be a bad thing on my end.

[@waferdaze8017]

Adventure Mode, my B.

[@jaredalessandro3561]

One of the things that has frustrated me so much is that majority of the new content is late game. To interact with the new planar content, or to be reasonably able to fight the new bosses, you need to kill fuelweaver or the moon, and it’s left the early game year one grind to feel very monotonous. I wish they would add more content to liven up that portion. The farming update was a great example, it added a ton of depth to early game content. I also want them to add Wilba, but that’s neither here nor there

[@calciumman5545]

I don’t care for the combat being “bad” and I’m indifferent about new bosses. The one thing I agree, though, is that a lot more work should be done on the survival and exploration part.

[@Mx.Kaisho]

We'll you are also talking about DST which heavily focuses on being a team and having different task in said boss fights. This game is not meant to be played alone and combat does not revolve around how you attack but when you do.

[@rellimarual]

Wow, this really captures why I have so little interest in the new, post rift content in DST. I want more stuff like SW and Hamlet too, not just more bosses and weapons

[@Zed33388]

To be honest, I always liked the combat, not even in spite of it being bad, but because it is. I know I'm rather unique in this regard, but I had a lot of fun reading wikis and learning about the boss fights and stats, and from there hatching crackpot plans to take them down. Then I spend time prepping and setting everything up, and sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, but it always was fun. I don't think it's very good game design, and I think there's a lot of work needed. And I haven't been a fan of the fact that a majority of added stuff is added to the super late game, but I think I get where they're coming from. There's a lot of people who like to spend hours on a world building a perfect base and everything, and I can understand wanting to give them more stuff to do now that they've done everything, and kind of a reason to be where they are besides for the sake of completion. But at the same time, the base of the game, the early game, the exploration, is getting left behind in the midst of it. I wouldn't mind all the late game stuff being built if it was built like a pyramid, with the base of the game expanding to support the late game, and the late game coming to a point, a final goal sort of thing. But as it is, it's being built like a tower, just expanding up and up and up and never out, never fleshing out the base, and there's not really a final goal, a thing to work towards, a top of the tower sort of thing. Originally, the Ancient Fuelweaver, and the Celestial Champion, were the two final goals. That's what the point of it all was. But now they're adding more after that, but without a new final goal to use this stuff to work towards, there's no point to it all. I'm rambling at this point, and probably not making a lot of sense, but yeah. TLDR: I like the combat, but i agree it's bad, and I think they need to flesh out the early game further with more exploration like you said, and give the late game a new goal at least if they're gonna expand it past what I feel was the original goal of beating the 2 big bosses.

[@buglium]

It makes sense because absolutely NOONE in the cast looks like they’d have fighting experience Even Wolfgang and Wigfrid shouldn’t have experience as their both phony or actors

[@gaming_bigfoot]

You know, it concerns me more and more each time I hear someone hasn't swapped their attack keybind to spacebar...

[@Volskygg.e]

I wish Klei would launch a paid dlc to keep us entertained while they finish all of the skilltrees and stuff

[@majkidzunior3388]

About the skill trees, there's a mod called instantly insights and it's a HUGE timesaver

[@leonpasternak3844]

I agree with the most of what you said in this video but I genuinely think that the combat is actually fun. I really love the idea of thinking outside the box to make every fight as easy as possible (eg. making opponents fight each other, dragonfly wall, using staffs or animation cancelling). I enjoy fighting both solo and in a large team. However the idea of bosses being optional should really make the team focus on adding vanilla Don't Starve survival content more.

[@Johnnjlee]

I completely agree with all points, however I do believe there is a good reason why there has been a larger emphasis on combat as of late rather than exploration. The first and prime example is the overarching narrative. With the Moon and Them at odds with one another and the story being so intrinsically tied to the conflict between the two, it’s easiest to add in combat and gear for their conflicts against one another as each side gathers its champions. The second reason is that their last couple expansions to exploration were not received very well as it involved ocean content. Some of the best farming content is locked behind exploring the sea. Banana bushes, kelp, stone fruit, ancient trees, fig trees, and salt are all locked behind it, yet most of the people who play don’t starve in the eye of the public hate ocean content or interact with it minimally due to the aforementioned emphasis on combat. After all, why would you set up a stone fruit farm if you are attempting to rush endgame content? This is a problem with the rewards themselves rather than the exploration. There should be cooler stuff to gather which is relevant to what the player is trying to do. Because the ocean has so much farming stuff, players who aren’t looking to farm aren’t going to interact with it. I think there should be a bigger push via the skill trees or character designs to emphasize exploration, as they seem like a wasted opportunity to allow people to explore more of the game. Take WX for one. WX needs to scan specific creatures for upgrades and requires a very diverse set of materials to make the upgrades. Maxwell also encourages exploration, due to his low hp he needs better protection, as well as nightmare fuel for the shadows, as well as magic items to empower them. You engage with the world with these characters in unique ways due to their perks. However there’s 2 big issues with this, on the opposite side of this would be Wolfgang’s skill tree, someone whose whole shtick is dealing damage. He doesn’t need specific resources outside of food so he doesn’t need to interact with the world at all, and due to that is the most boring character in my eyes and due to the emphasis on combat the game has been going towards is considered a top tier character. Secondly, most characters just need to visit a single place to get everything they need. Wendy gets morning glory’s from graves, Wanda just needs the ruins for her gems and thulcite and can grab everything else on the way over (minus the backtreck watch), Wurt just needs a swamp and so on. Skill trees should encourage and reward the exploration of the world, not just one area. But therein lies the issue of endgame. After you’ve set up a base, secured food, made your character crafts, and so on, there isn’t really a driving force outside of the bosses to push the player. And there’s only so many sidegrades you can have before running out of ideas. There’s a lot more to talk about but I would run out of space here so I’m going to leave it at that for now.

[@Synodysse]

I'd rather have them like actually take their time with a new biome over seeing another skill tree update come gurgling out of the slop tube, they always feel unsatisfying since there's always someone that gets the short end, and the bosses are starting to blend together. Kind of wish they'd commit to the terraria bit and actually start making the game harder and more chaotic post rift, god forbid encouraging you to explore your world again for actual changes, instead of just making your crops grow metaphorical teeth.

[@Billionsmustchill]

As kind of outsider that failed at getting to/surviving through his first winter like 10 times, I start to wonder, why is there no clarification from the developers on what their vision is with the direction they want to take the game to? Is there like no community interaction? Like how radiosilent do devs have to be for players to dig into spear animations and speculate why they aren't used...

[@aptokro3005]

I like watching rick and morty, photography and playing undertale

[@bloopahVIII]

When I look in the patch notes for DST I get most excited for the stuff that expands the world or adds things to search for. Out of everything the Wurt/Winona skill tree update added I liked the marked Sea Stacks and Surprising Seeds the most. It's things I felt added a bit more variety to the game and encouraged exploration more. 8:06 This is what I felt ever since the end of Return of Them. New weapons and bosses are nice, but I'd rather have them in an environment that *has* changed in 8 years. If it weren't for summer people wouldn't think of building a base in the caves, or more convenient access to late-game resources (which falls under the point of potentially needing real-life days to get to that point).

[@4ehoBek_4ehoBek]

I 100% agree. Modern dts lacks that old bling. To fix it we may need some small islands with new biomes in the ocean and/or some better cave generation.

[@Crust_Crease]

1:26 rock and stone? Byt you totally should've used footage of a praetorian doing its melee attack, plenty of wind-up to help emphasize your point.

[@FreddoFilms]

was more going for the audio telegraph that the praetorian has but its a bit hard to hear

[@terrariagell1604]

6:03 rip wilson

[@constantspider]

There's literally no way u are repeating wdhat ive been preaching forEVER DUDE YESSSSSSSSS ♥♥♥♥♥♥ edit: enemies are literally resources that fight back. you need a pickaxe or better pickaxe to mine rocks. You need an axe or better axe to chop tree. you need a weapon or better weapon to kill enemy. resources like gears could have been hidden in some random pile somewhere on the map but no, they're hidden within these robots that shoot shooty shooters or give you head...butts

[@HumanoidDerpling]

This has been the case ever since way back in ANR. Every time I think about it I am reminded that the DST devs are different from the singleplayer devs. I think that fundamentally these people have never understood what makes this game so great, and they've just gotten bolder over the years. I mean, heck, making a multiplayer game goes against what the OG devs wanted to begin with! I wish that the singleplayer devs would return to Shipwrecked and Hamlet, making sub-DLCs for them. Maybe a new "gamemode" in the same vein as the aforementioned ones, though that's a bit too much to ask.

[@therapyenjoyer]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The gamestyle has progressed past the initial devs intention :/ I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened if reign of giants wasn’t auto baked into DST

[@Maximise07]

I think it would be cool if there were like.. a LOT more biome types added, but each world was RNG on what biomes you'd have. Not every world would have a swamp, or beefalo, or certain bosses, but they'd have a bunch of other new fun biomes instead. Though I am someone who enjoys the early game most and is not mechanically gifted (can't really beat the bosses and survive long enough to get to a post-rift world without rollbacks and cheating). So early game diversity and the joy of.. live-die-repeat is a lot more appealing to me than getting uber weapons and armour and destroying lategame bosses.

[@Timbucktoo32]

Wigfried's Elding Spear is super fun to use

[@Kajnake]

Not a single server I host or play on have reached the lunar/shadow aligned content. Whenever klei makes new content for "new game +", I feel nothing :(

[@matthewlovesyou4902]

I'm glad someone so big finally speaks out about this issue. I personally like the fighting aspects of the game. I like killing bosses. I don't like how badly they are designed. Some (toadstool) are made vith 3 people in mind, and I think every boss should be soloable without some weird cheesy method. Klei should embrace what they've been doing with the game and make the pve better. I don't know how, but if they want to keep doing that they're doing, a change is needed

[@thisguy8597]

7:41 Nice Song choice. Great vid as well.

[@FreddoFilms]

probably my favourite BZ song, chills everytime I hear it in game

[@aaww1010]

Also, very great video And the devs of don’t starve said the same thing about the characters ability for fighting was built to be weird or not fun during one of their live stream about Wilson and his battling abilities

[@khromyakvsevolod3664]

I actually like the content they are adding, but i dislike the lack of incentive to explore it. When they decided to capitalise on progression - i expected them to add something to push the player out of the comfort zone and make us seek the benefits of the new content to overcome these challanges, but letting even more danger into the world consequently, thus creating an arms race that you are forced to participate in to survive, untill eventually hitting a dead end. I understand that this wouldn't make a fun co-op experience, especially considering how the fan base has evolved. Don't Starve Together is a different game entirely, and i am happy that Klei is finally making it into one, but i cannot shake the feeling that the spark of uniqueness is missing.

[@notaprinny]

From what I understand, part of the problem with them adding new stuff is they don't want to separate the player base, or so I've been told by other KZbinrs. So they don't want to DLC-lock new content similar to Hamlet and Shipwrecked, because that splits the playerbase. The alternative then being to release it as an update to the base game, but then that means adding more stuff to the base game, and idk if you've checked how it runs with and without the "don't starve alone" mod, but with that mod the loading screens are much faster because it's not loading areas you aren't in, so if they added a Shadow Dimension or w/e, that would mean making loading screens longer, unless they go through and change how the game loads things.

[@FreddoFilms]

there are literally DLC characters in DST, I don't think that really makes sense also no one says they have to release this hypothetical update as a DLC, they could always just put out a ton of skins alongside it

[@somenameidk5278]

If they wanted to add a new area without the major performance overhead of a third shard, they could do what Hamlet does with its interiors and put them on one of the existing maps far away from everything else.

[@theodorehuang9881]

In here I comment to assert that DST combat can shift from the original intended of DS style like you perfectly explain in the video into a more appealing product that can attract more customers. Similar to Play-Doh was originally a wallpaper cleaner into a modelling compound for children - After all, designing a game is one way to earn money. Next it's up to them to use this profit to maybe create additional 10 DLCs of DS that is perfect for solo players to fully explore. I enjoy both designs of interactive combat and unique world exploration so I am fine with whatever direction the dev choose to expand in DST. Cool suggestion for the unique portal and one like for always remember your root!

[@Youmu_Konpaku_]

I haven't even beaten fuelweaver or Celestial champion in ANY savefile...how am i supposed to see the "new" Stuff lol

[@determineddaaf3]

I have 1.5k hours in DST and have never even fought ancient fuelweaver or the lunar champion. That isn't to say I never will, but I just enjoy other parts of the game more. I like boss fights in games, but I do agree with your statement here. While I don't mind the new content, I personally won't really get to it and do agree that it strays away from the original feel of the game. This isn't always a bad thing, but I do agree with your points, I do wish we got more content that resonates better with the original intent behind the game. Same with skill trees too, they kind of make survivors feel a lot more powerful, and I both love and hate this. New mechanics for characters is really cool, but sometimes it kind of overshadows their weaknesses, which are what make characters more interesting to play to me.

[@jusenboite]

I would like to see them add puzzles into the game. Exploring without combat but with the challenge of a puzzle :)

[@matthaygood654]

You can actually turn off lag compensation to see where you actually are, therefore, know where your hitbox is.

[@FreddoFilms]

lag compensation IS off, this is just a normal issue with the hitboxes the issue is even worse with it on lol

[@minespatch]

I moved onto the Soulsborne games because of the criticism you placed. Last best update to me was Moon Quay. So many new mechanics to explain worldbuilding. It seems like most of the updates these days are for skins and tf2 esque character skill trees.

[@Jppacs1]

I think this shift into combat comes from the fact that the game is catered to multiplayer, combat is now a goal for a group of players to build into, it’s also the reason things like the celestial champion questline is so boring for single players, it’s meant for several people to pursue simultaneously, it’s kinda weird, but it makes sense.

[@Mentelgen-1337]

i think i read somewhere that the combat was supposed to be cowardly. So that the player has to rely on darts and traps for his advantage.

[@benismann]

Honestly i kinda dislike the recent dst updates. And by "recent" i mean like the last 3-4 years or smth. They dont add anything new for ME. Because i dont give a shit abut bossfights, it's boring, i just want... everything else. The most i can do is fight a treeguard or a seasonal boss once in a while. Yet all they're doing is adding more post X-boss content, more post X-boss stuff to do, more bosses (that are also post-X-boss). I haven't played the game much since 2022 at least, i missed countless updates. Yet i boot the game up, and i do exactly the same stuff as i did 4 years ago or even earlier. It's sad.

[@Gracilus]

now that there are so many bosses, and the devs are clearly trying to aim for bosses in their updates, they need to rework the combat system, bosses, and all the weapons. it would be a pretty good update i feel if they tried doing this.

[@invarkul7831]

I love combat for its simplicity. Kinda like souls games where common mobs have 1-2 attacks and bosses have many. I would appreciate a combat roll if anything so you can actually react to an attack instead of memorizing stuff