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So I thought of a playable character idea and I would like to see what you guys think of them. 

Mactusk

The catch with playing this character is that the main objective is not to simply survive, but instead hunt down all of the playable characters, such as Wilson, Willow and even Maxis. These of course will be AI and will all spawn separately and randomly somewhere in the generated world. Each one will present a different challenge for Mactusk, presenting different types of bases (ones being more secure than others, either being prepared with walls or traps), different weapons or their different powers (e.g Woody´s curse or Wickerbottom´s books). 

 

When ever this character is used, the game will start on day 30 at the begging of Winter. Once the 15 days are over, the game will fade to black and skip over the other seasons, and then the character will spawn at his original spawn-point at the begging of a new Winter, allowing the cycle to begin again. Every time this happens, Mactusk conserves his inventory, his map and whatever changes the world has had will remain untouched, except for changes that are caused naturally by the passing of the different seasons (e.g growth of trees, grass, berries, flowers, etc)  

 

MacTusk will always spawn next to his Walrus Camp. This can be entered to skip the night and doing so will entirely fill the player´s food, health and hunger points, with no consequences whatsoever. The only thing that is not affected by this is the player´s sanity and this is the character´s main challenge. Sanity will decrease slowly and persistently, no matter if it´s day or night, caused by Mactusk´s obsession of wanting to capture his hunt, which left unattended, will lead to him to go insane. Sanity can be restored slightly by attacking and killing animals. The level of sanity that is restored depends of the size of the animal that is killed, Deerclops being the biggest. Although this can help, the amount of sanity restored still isn´t strong enough to survive. The only way to fully be safe on sanity is by hunting down the playable characters, bringing them back to base, stuffing them and then crafting taxidermy figures of them, which can be placed and used to stand near to, which restores Mactusk´s sanity. 

 

Mactusk spawns with a Tam o' Shanter which has permanent durability and canno´t be removed, an infinite blow dart and a body bag which is used to wrap up the bodies of the playable characters when finally killed and then transport them back to base. Holding the body bag restores sanity if it contains a body in it, but will rot overtime. Mac Tusk also spawns with his two Winter hounds Wee MacTusk, who follow him and help. They do not have to be fed.

 

So, what ya think?

 

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This sounds like something an entirely new DLC would revolve around. Maybe an entirely new spinoff game. Seriously, I'm not sure how much of this the current engine can hold.

 

Nevertheless, I support. Although there are a few things I don't agree with:

 

-If sanity is supposed to be a problem for MacTusk, why in the hell does he have an infinite Tam?

 

-Instead, he starts out with a Hound Pup, an item that works like the Divining Rod, but instead of beeping, it growls, and instead of pointing towards the Things, it points towards the characters. The Hound Pup can't die from starvation, however, if you don't feed it a huge amount of meat, it goes to sleep and refuses to point towards other characters.

 

-Entering the Walrus Camp seems to have no purpose whatsoever. I would think that it restores sanity, but only a little bit, and you sleep for multiple days, so you waste valuable time. Also camps should be craftable. Only Shift-clicking on the camp would make you sleep, normally clicking opens a special 2x2 chest where food rots slightly slower.

 

-Some kind of new hallucination should attack MacTusk.

 

-The whole "Body Bag" thing is kinda gruesome, as is the taxidermy thing. I would instead suggest that, as loot from the character, they drop 50% of their normal items and a Skull (Yay a use for all the skull spirtes). Instead of taxidermy, you craft a skull-on-a-stick, which you must use on the Walrus Camp, and it will be proudly displayed on top of the camp. Also, instead of gaining sanity when near them, the sanity should be given a one-time increase by 150. Sanity points that are wasted (i.e if you have 150/200 sanity and you get this bonus, you would waste 100 sanity) end up going over the cap.

 

-Time doesn't instantly skip when Winter ends. Instead, it continues to the next one, but you start slowly taking health and sanity damage when outside of Winter. Now, sleeping in the camp once will skip to the next Winter and give you back some of the health you lost.

 

And now some suggestions, rated from least crazy to most crazy.Things that I wasn't sure about are in red.

 

-The opening cutscene, instead of Maxwell showing up, depicts Wes walking onto the screen, only to get instantly ripped apart by the Hound Pup. This hints to new players that they're supposed to kill all the characters, and also that the Hound Pup will help them out.

 

-The player should have to feed the Wee MacTusk, but you can also equip him with weapons and armor to help you hunt or gather things.

 

-The characters's bases should advance. That is, every few days, a new addition spawns in their camp, based on things near their base. For example, if it's near gold, stone, and wood, a few days later, the game deletes one of the gold-bearing rocks, one of a random nearby rock, a few trees, and then spawns 1 Science Machine in the base (Assuming they don't have one already). This is done as seasons pass too.

 

-Instead of infinite blow darts, MacTusk can craft a much cheaper but weaker version of the blow dart with 1 reeds, 4 Stone, and 2 Snowbird Feathers. He starts out with a few of these in his inventory, to kill birds and get the ball rolling.

 

-MacTusk should be immune to cold unless his hunger is below a certain point.

 

-MacTusk's examine quotes show him to be a master craftsman, so that the below events make sense.

 

 

 

 

-Because escaping the island is no longer the goal, the Teleportato is no longer usable. Instead, the player must protect them from the characters, and if you have RoG, Things are now used to create some items that help you survive, but now they are guarded by boss monsters and only drop from those bosses.

 

 -The Ring Thing is used to create a Portal Thing, with 6 Cut Stone and 6 Gold. It teleports you back to the nearest Walrus Camp, and if you're near a Walrus Camp it teleports you back to where you were before you teleported. The ring of flowers surrounding it form together to create a big ghost monster thing. Tooltip: "Whee!"

 

 -The Crank Thing is used to create an Arm Thing with 30 Stone and 2 Volt Goat Horns. It is like a big metal arm that is always attached to MacTusk. The metal isn't very cold, but it is cold enough to allow the player to survive in the slightly warmer Autumn. The arm also lets MacTusk do slightly more melee damage. The pig guarding the Crank Thing is now a War Pig, a powerful boss monster with an explosive nitre cannon. MacTusk can only survive a limited amount of time in Autumn, like without the Arm Thing, but it is greatly extended, and allows MacTusk to do little explorations if he's running low on resources or wants to harass nearby characters.

 

 -The Box Thing is used to create a Warp Thing, which, when worn on MacTusk's head, deflects most wetness from his body, allowing him to travel in Spring for a limited amount of time. It is guarded by a Giant Gnome.

 

 -The Metal Potato Thing is used to create a Cold Thing with 1 Red Gem and 6 Thulecite. This is a cold suit worn on MacTusk's torso that lets him survive in the Summer for a limited amount of time. The Metal Potato itself floats around shooting electric bolts at you (Like the Bishop Thing) 

 

 

 

 

-Phew, glad that's over with. Anyway, some characters will work together, and others will try to kill the others and take the loot. Some characters will never want to work together. Wilson, Wickerbottom, Wolfgang, Webber, and Willow will work together if they find each other. The secret character, Woodie, and Wendy will not work with other players. WX and Wigfrid will, upon finding a player who is weaker than them, kill them and take all their loot.

 

-After 150 days, all remaining characters will make a mad dash for the Teleportato, even if they don't have all the Things. 3 days before they assault the Teleportato, you will hear a horn on each day before they begin, giving you enough time to get into position and kill them. At the end of this attack, you will be graded based on how many points of damage you did to characters, minus all the damage that they healed (So you can't farm points off of them). The amount of chess pieces near the Teleportato is jacked up, so that they have a chance of stopping the characters. They are not on your side, but they will prioritize nearby characters before you. WX and Wigfrid will just try to escape instead of killing other players. 

 

 

 

Yeah, sorry for the info dump, but I've just loved the concept of having playable bad guys for a while now, and I had to let it all out. Hope you don't mind.

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This sounds like something an entirely new DLC would revolve around. Maybe an entirely new spinoff game. Seriously, I'm not sure how much of this the current engine can hold.

 

Nevertheless, I support. Although there are a few things I don't agree with:

 

-If sanity is supposed to be a problem for MacTusk, why in the hell does he have an infinite Tam?

 

-Instead, he starts out with a Hound Pup, an item that works like the Divining Rod, but instead of beeping, it growls, and instead of pointing towards the Things, it points towards the characters. The Hound Pup can't die from starvation, however, if you don't feed it a huge amount of meat, it goes to sleep and refuses to point towards other characters.

 

-Entering the Walrus Camp seems to have no purpose whatsoever. I would think that it restores sanity, but only a little bit, and you sleep for multiple days, so you waste valuable time. Also camps should be craftable. Only Shift-clicking on the camp would make you sleep, normally clicking opens a special 2x2 chest where food rots slightly slower.

 

-Some kind of new hallucination should attack MacTusk.

 

-The whole "Body Bag" thing is kinda gruesome, as is the taxidermy thing. I would instead suggest that, as loot from the character, they drop 50% of their normal items and a Skull (Yay a use for all the skull spirtes). Instead of taxidermy, you craft a skull-on-a-stick, which you must use on the Walrus Camp, and it will be proudly displayed on top of the camp. Also, instead of gaining sanity when near them, the sanity should be given a one-time increase by 150. Sanity points that are wasted (i.e if you have 150/200 sanity and you get this bonus, you would waste 100 sanity) end up going over the cap.

 

-Time doesn't instantly skip when Winter ends. Instead, it continues to the next one, but you start slowly taking health and sanity damage when outside of Winter. Now, sleeping in the camp once will skip to the next Winter and give you back some of the health you lost.

 

And now some suggestions, rated from least crazy to most crazy.Things that I wasn't sure about are in red.

 

-The opening cutscene, instead of Maxwell showing up, depicts Wes walking onto the screen, only to get instantly ripped apart by the Hound Pup. This hints to new players that they're supposed to kill all the characters, and also that the Hound Pup will help them out.

 

-The player should have to feed the Wee MacTusk, but you can also equip him with weapons and armor to help you hunt or gather things.

 

-The characters's bases should advance. That is, every few days, a new addition spawns in their camp, based on things near their base. For example, if it's near gold, stone, and wood, a few days later, the game deletes one of the gold-bearing rocks, one of a random nearby rock, a few trees, and then spawns 1 Science Machine in the base (Assuming they don't have one already). This is done as seasons pass too.

 

-Instead of infinite blow darts, MacTusk can craft a much cheaper but weaker version of the blow dart with 1 reeds, 4 Stone, and 2 Snowbird Feathers. He starts out with a few of these in his inventory, to kill birds and get the ball rolling.

 

-MacTusk should be immune to cold unless his hunger is below a certain point.

 

-MacTusk's examine quotes show him to be a master craftsman, so that the below events make sense.

 

 

 

 

-Because escaping the island is no longer the goal, the Teleportato is no longer usable. Instead, the player must protect them from the characters, and if you have RoG, Things are now used to create some items that help you survive, but now they are guarded by boss monsters and only drop from those bosses.

 

 -The Ring Thing is used to create a Portal Thing, with 6 Cut Stone and 6 Gold. It teleports you back to the nearest Walrus Camp, and if you're near a Walrus Camp it teleports you back to where you were before you teleported. The ring of flowers surrounding it form together to create a big ghost monster thing. Tooltip: "Whee!"

 

 -The Crank Thing is used to create an Arm Thing with 30 Stone and 2 Volt Goat Horns. It is like a big metal arm that is always attached to MacTusk. The metal isn't very cold, but it is cold enough to allow the player to survive in the slightly warmer Autumn. The arm also lets MacTusk do slightly more melee damage. The pig guarding the Crank Thing is now a War Pig, a powerful boss monster with an explosive nitre cannon. MacTusk can only survive a limited amount of time in Autumn, like without the Arm Thing, but it is greatly extended, and allows MacTusk to do little explorations if he's running low on resources or wants to harass nearby characters.

 

 -The Box Thing is used to create a Warp Thing, which, when worn on MacTusk's head, deflects most wetness from his body, allowing him to travel in Spring for a limited amount of time. It is guarded by a Giant Gnome.

 

 -The Metal Potato Thing is used to create a Cold Thing with 1 Red Gem and 6 Thulecite. This is a cold suit worn on MacTusk's torso that lets him survive in the Summer for a limited amount of time. The Metal Potato itself floats around shooting electric bolts at you (Like the Bishop Thing) 

 

 

 

 

-Phew, glad that's over with. Anyway, some characters will work together, and others will try to kill the others and take the loot. Some characters will never want to work together. Wilson, Wickerbottom, Wolfgang, Webber, and Willow will work together if they find each other. The secret character, Woodie, and Wendy will not work with other players. WX and Wigfrid will, upon finding a player who is weaker than them, kill them and take all their loot.

 

-After 150 days, all remaining characters will make a mad dash for the Teleportato, even if they don't have all the Things. 3 days before they assault the Teleportato, you will hear a horn on each day before they begin, giving you enough time to get into position and kill them. At the end of this attack, you will be graded based on how many points of damage you did to characters, minus all the damage that they healed (So you can't farm points off of them). The amount of chess pieces near the Teleportato is jacked up, so that they have a chance of stopping the characters. They are not on your side, but they will prioritize nearby characters before you. WX and Wigfrid will just try to escape instead of killing other players. 

 

 

 

Yeah, sorry for the info dump, but I've just loved the concept of having playable bad guys for a while now, and I had to let it all out. Hope you don't mind.

- Well the Infinite Tam restores sanity to the other human characters in the game because it reminds them of civilized society. Mactusk is a walrus, so we could say that doesn´t apply. 

- I like the idea of the hounds being avail to smell and track down the characters. It could be like every time you feed it, it runs and tracks down the closest living character for a minute. Or maybe, you can find items of the floor belonging to the character, that can be given to the hound to sniff and track down the scent. I think he should have both the adult hounds, as that´s what they usually spawn with in the normal game. 

- Well, the idea was that inside the Walrus Camp there were plenty of supplies, allowing health and hunger to regenerate when entering. Sanity isn´t affected even though he´s safe inside, because Mactusk is still depressed as he hasn´t hunted down his prey yet. Also, it´s quite necessary considering that you can´t farm in Winter or pick berries from bushes more than once, a renewable resource of food has to be had.

- I have no ideas for that. Maybe he starts having nightmare visions of polar pears and Orcas.

- Well, I thought the taxidermy thing fitted in with the whole Gothic Timburtonish style of the game, stuffed animals tend to be a typical convention of the genre. I thought of skulls, but it reminded me too much of Predator.

-  Maybe during all the other seasons, Mactusk suffers from great overheating. Agreed, should be skipped by entering the Walrus Camp.

 

Your other suggestions:

- No! I want to kill Wes myself! Out of all of them, that´s the one I really want to kill the most! I like the visual idea of it though.

- Having to feed Wee MacTusk, the two hounds and yourself would be almost impossible. I think he should act like Chester and hold items. He should also attack the characters like he does in the normal game.

- That depends. I think every base should be different. I have a whole idea for that, which I´ll get to in a sec. 

- Could work either way. I just liked having infinite blow darts so you can just jump right into the hunt, without having to spend days preparing or gathering resources. 

- Yeah, definitely, immune to freezing.

 

Teleportato idea: I don´t agree that that´s the goal of the characters, the goal is to simply survive in the wilderness. I´ll be honest, I don´t know much about the Teleportato, never used it. Also, I don´t really see the connection between Mactusk and the device. 

 

- Because the game is single player, I think characters should remain distanced from each other, simply because they are unaware of each other´s existence.

 

My extra ideas:

 

Bases: All bases should be at a fare distance from each other, which will be part of the challenge, having to explore the entirety of  world to find them. Here are some of the set ups I was thinking for each character:

 

- Wes: Pretty much a nomad and runs around leaving a trail of balloons behind him. Of course, he has to stop temporarily every night, to make a fire to survive the darkness. When he sees Mactusk, he runs like the coward that he is! If attacked by night, he will still run, but will hold a torch. 

 

- Willow: Lives in a burnt down forest. Has a range of Science Machines, Crock Pots and Farms that are all useless because they are burnt down as well. Every night, she makes a massive fire pit. If attack by Mactusk, she defends herself with a Fire Staff.

 

- Woody: Can be tracked by the devastation of chopped down trees that he constantly leaves behind him. Always found in his Beaver State. 

 

- Webber: His base is surrounded by spider dens.

 

-  Wilson: Has a very complete base, filled with walls and traps, and uses a range of weapons and armor for defense.

 

- Wickerbottom: Use all the books for her defense.

 

- Wolfgang: Has a very simple base, pretty much a fire pit and a  single Drying Rack. He is always in fit shape when found and is very eager to attack.

 

As for the other character, not sure really. All I know is that one of them should use the Old Bell for protection, probably Wigfrid.

 

Yeah, I like the idea of being evil as well. Also, when I play, I rarely find Mactusk, so I kind want to see more of him in the game.

Also, I had another idea for a character: The Big Game Hunter. Only restores sanity when hunting animals, the bigger they are the more they restore, and gets a kick out of dangerous situations. Fits well with the ROG DLC, as his main mission is to hunt down all of the giants. 

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Actually, I would like a DLC that lets you play as monsters each with different goals!

 

for example:

Mactusk: Same as OP (With the other suggestions)

Spider: Have war with other spiders, repair your den and become the Spider King!

One of Wes' Balloons: 50 Sanity, 50 Hunger and 1 health. Enjoy!

Etc.

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I don't see why all the bases can start out weak and get stronger, just like in the real game. Also not to mention, what if you spawned close to a really strong base? 

 

I like the idea of having to feed a band of guys. After all, they can get food themselves, as they all have an attack. Maybe the hounds could eat monster meat and rotted food with no penalty.

 

And really, with that many characters, they're bound to end up finding each other some day while gathering resources, even if you spread them all out. So it would just be weird for them to never interact.

 

And really, the fact that there's other players at all gets rid of the "singleplayer" thing. 

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I don't see why all the bases can start out weak and get stronger, just like in the real game. Also not to mention, what if you spawned close to a really strong base? 

 

I like the idea of having to feed a band of guys. After all, they can get food themselves, as they all have an attack. Maybe the hounds could eat monster meat and rotted food with no penalty.

 

And really, with that many characters, they're bound to end up finding each other some day while gathering resources, even if you spread them all out. So it would just be weird for them to never interact.

 

And really, the fact that there's other players at all gets rid of the "singleplayer" thing. 

I just said that because I thought that making the AI be able to do all of that would be hard.

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An AI character is quite possible. Ive created a npc which can gather materials, build an axe and cut down trees then build and maintain a campfire during the night. The trick is creating a AI complex enough to be interesting. And you could cheat by allowing them to build things without having the materials in their inventory.

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That'd require simulating a lot of things to not make it unbalanced, which would probably require just as much code if not more.

 

Not really. The items built and their number could be controlled.

 

Personally, I think the biggest problem would be creating custom animations for McTusk so you could do special actions, like building things, picking things up, carrying different items and wearing different hats and chest items. But that's because I can't draw or animate :p

 

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Well, not doing it like I said just leaves it kinda lifeless.

 

They wouldn´t be completely lifeless, they would be moving around the day, collecting simple nearby resources and whatnot, and then resting at their bases at night either sleeping and standing besides their fire pits. And once they see you, they either fight back or run away. Like chromiumboy said, it would look complex enough to be interesting. But all of that is already a lot of work, the complexity that I think you are looking for seems (at least to me) a little impossible. 

Or maybe I misunderstood, by them upgrading their bases, do you mean they level up similar to the way Spider Den grows? Or do you actually mean, the characters acting like players, collecting the difficult resources and then upgrading their bases by crafting and placing items?

If so, these are my following problems with that:

- What´s stopping them from dyeing randomly when collecting life risking resources? Simple stuff like Wool and Silk, all have the potential of killing them.  

- Don´t mobs freeze when they aren´t in view of the player?

 

Also, the idea of them having already strong bases makes sense, because I thought when you played as Mactusk you immediately started in Winter (or were we not on the same page on that one?). Anyway, the point being, that the characters would have had Autumn to have made a suitable base to survive the Winter.

 

Personally, I think everyone of them should be separate. They don´t play together in the normal game and I like the idea of having to hunt each one individually, but maybe that´s just me. 

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- What´s stopping them from dyeing randomly when collecting life risking resources? Simple stuff like Wool and Silk, all have the potential of killing them.  

- Don´t mobs freeze when they aren´t in view of the player?

 

Also, the idea of them having already strong bases makes sense, because I thought when you played as Mactusk you immediately started in Winter (or were we not on the same page on that one?). Anyway, the point being, that the characters would have had Autumn to have made a suitable base to survive the Winter.

 

Personally, I think everyone of them should be separate. They don´t play together in the normal game and I like the idea of having to hunt each one individually, but maybe that´s just me. 

Players could respawn at a fire pit unless MacTusk does a certain amount of damage to them (NOT when he lands the killing blow, otherwise there could be kill-steals)

 

As for mobs freezing, I don't think they do. Otherwise how would players find things like huge piles of rot and tentacle spikes in swamps?

 

I see what you mean about players having strong bases from the start.

However.

There is no way, NO way, that any player, let alone a Wilson player, would be able to get massive walls and traps and "A range of weapons" for defense, or Wickerbottom to get the proper machines and tools for all the books. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, we've got Wes and Willow who seem to be massive pushovers. Yeah, I know Wes is supposed to be weak, but c'mon, he's already got his stats dumbing him down, he doesn't need the inability to make a base. This would also make him really annoying to find, along with Woodie who can't craft anything if he's always in Werebeaver form. But as for his form, I think it would be interesting for his AI to seek out and chop trees during combat to turn into a beaver.

 

Really, all of the camps should be somewhere around Wolfgang's camp in terms of strength. 

 

The only reason that the players don't play together is because there are no other players to play with. And if it's a matter of taste when it comes to them teaming up, it could always be an option in the world menu.

 

Also, this gave me an idea for a new character, the Hunterbeast. Basically, it's a character that starts out very tiny, but as he kills monsters, he gets upgrades based on their powers. It would also have an overhauled crafting system, with new "Buildings", and more types of "Sapient Hunchback" creatures to gain intelligence-based powers off of. I will have to make a new thread for it, though.

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This sounds pretty awesome. It would probably have to be a DLC or large mod project since it might not mix properly with the current game.

Being able to hunt down all the characters in the same world sounds like a fanfic drama come true--nothing wrong with that mind you.

Maybe the final boss could be Maxwell, who is angry you killed all his pawns before they were able to meet an interesting death or to possibly get the chance to free him.

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