I love klei, and i think they do really good work in all the games they develop (love me some ONI)
However, i feel like klei has a tendency to focus on updated that add “content” rather than improving the gameplay loops that already exist. Content is great, and i love having more stuff. But stuff doesn’t always mean a better time playing the game.
the best update in recent memory, and the one that had the most impact on new players, didnt add very much at all, it instead completely reworked an existing system - farming. Reap what you sow is - as far as i can tell at least; generally considered a fantastic update. While skill trees and rift content is considered divisive or downright unpopular.
It just feels to me that one or two updates a year should focus on older less interesting systems. Maybe a follower update, or maybe an update to the ruins themselves, or a world generation update.
to me, while these updated would be less flashy and draw less attention, they would have an overall bigger impact on the actual minute by minute gameplay of all characters.
my main reason for recommending this is that to me at least, adding content for contents sake has a tendency to lead to bloat more than it has a tendency to lead to actual improvements.
for instance: while the crafting update was controversial, i will say that it works better than the old system. It also allows for new stuff like more ingredients in a single craft.
This is a foundation to the game that is now just flat out better than it once was, and i feel like more things can and should get this treatment.