Brain of Thought Application in the MODERN AGE

[TheOnlyGuyEver]

Merged crafting has propelled the Brain of Thought, a formerly underwhelming item, into a spotlight which I feel few people fully realize. Today's most recent patch which enabled multiple crafting station tabs to be enabled at once is also a MASSIVE buff to this item, which is not at all apparent at first.

Firstly, if you don't know how the Brain of Thought works, it's essentially a portable super crafting station, giving you access to all tabs and all items. Before merged crafting, it was widely mediocre, with its best application being in bringing it to RoG to craft Ancient Tab items, as the Ancient Tab is not accessible from SW. Or at least it wasn't, until today's patch...

Before I get into the meat of the deal, let me preface this by saying that, as getting a BoT in the first place entails going to SW, the ability it grants to craft SW items outside of SW is rather trivial, given that it's safe to assume you'll already have access to those items or have crafted them to begin with, so I'm not going to make note of any of those cases, which would otherwise be remarkable if there were some way of getting a BoT in RoG or Hamlet (like the hat shop, maybe. The idea of getting a BoT in Hamlet without visiting SW would be very interesting, since Hamlet has many SW items in its shops). But, without further ado, let's analyze some of the things you can do with this now powerful item. You can:

-Craft a Cowl without ever visiting Hamlet.

-Bypass the Tinker Shop's blueprints as well as the alternate method of visiting RoG to craft its items.

-Craft Ancient Tab items in Hamlet without ever visiting RoG, on the 0.2% chance you find Thulecite in a Smashing Pot.

-Craft a Shamlet for Webber without ever visiting Hamlet, protecting you from "friendly" mobs.

-Access the entire City Tab without ever visiting Hamlet.

That last point is pretty huge, obviously. Using the BoT, it's possible to craft every single City Tab item, except for Lamp Posts, the Oddities Emporium, and the Tinker Shop (which the BoT negates anyways) without ever visiting Hamlet. Not being able to craft the Oddities Emporium is a bit of a bummer, as it'd allow you to craft its RoG items entirely in SW. But regardless, this has huge ramifications, and makes starting your run in SW quite powerful.

And lastly, this wouldn't be right without a Woodlegs buff. Being able to build a hat shop using the BoT in SW allows Woodlegs to get a Tam without ever stepping foot in RoG or Hamlet!

So, thoughts? Ideas?

[FreyaMaluk]

I think the Brain of Thought shouldn't allow the Key to the City structures at all. 

The key to the city while a "tab" is an item you can carry with you and no station per se, so that makes a compelling argument as to why u shouldn't have access to it IMO. 

As for bypassing other tabs... That's alright imo. If you were able to jump from other DLC world to SW to get the mats to craft it in the first place you already had to put effort.. Which is Def not the case with the key to the city Shops without getting the key in the first place. 

Now the problem with asking to change it might result in making the Brain of Thought useless again...

So... I hope we can agree on restricting the Pig Shops from it completely... Even in Hamlet.. To make fair... 

[oCrapaCreeper]

Everything about it is fine except for being able to craft from the City Planning tab. Being able to put down houses and shops in RoG or Shipwrecked is something very powerful and kind of against the game's intended survival aspects, and I think a player should have to properly play through Hamlet to get to do such powerful things.

[TheOnlyGuyEver]

4 hours ago, oCrapaCreeper said:

Everything about it is fine except for being able to craft from the City Planning tab. Being able to put down houses and shops in RoG or Shipwrecked is something very powerful and kind of against the game's intended survival aspects, and I think a player should have to properly play through Hamlet to get to do such powerful things.

I'm confused, I was under the impression that this was the obvious intention of the change. How often are you going to have your Key to the City while standing directly next to the Obsidian Workbench or Pseudoscience Station, after all? Unless someone can cue me in on some other more common instances of accessing multiple crafting stations at once.

I should also mention that the Brain of Thought only has 4 uses, which are used up by not only prototyping things, but also crafting anything which you've already prototyped (so you might want to forego any stone roads), and Brainy Sprouts only regrow every 20 days, so it's not complete free reign, as if there's no investment.

[FreyaMaluk]

7 minutes ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

I'm confused, I was under the impression that this was the obvious intention of the change. How often are you going to have your Key to the City while standing directly next to the Obsidian Workbench or Pseudoscience Station, after all? Unless someone can cue me in on some other more common instances of accessing multiple crafting stations at once.

I should also mention that the Brain of Thought only has 4 uses, which are used up by not only prototyping things, but also crafting anything which you've already prototyped (so you might want to forego any stone roads), and Brainy Sprouts only regrow every 20 days, so it's not complete free reign, as if there's no investment.

The problem is balance... Having stores without the key is op. 

The other items u can pretty much get them SW with the slot machine or trawl net.. That's OK imo... 

BTW the shops don't require special items with the exception of the oddities and tinker shop... Any person in SW or RoG could have access to it without traveling... And the key isn't actually a station but a portable... So more reasons to prohibit those from the brain of thought

[TheOnlyGuyEver]

24 minutes ago, FreyaMaluk said:

The problem is balance... Having stores without the key is op. 

The other items u can pretty much get them SW with the slot machine or trawl net.. That's OK imo... 

BTW the shops don't require special items with the exception of the oddities and tinker shop... Any person in SW or RoG could have access to it without traveling... And the key isn't actually a station but a portable... So more reasons to prohibit those from the brain of thought

I get your point, but like I said, I thought this was the exact intention of the devs when making the change. Unless there are more common instances of interacting with multiple stations other than the very off chance of using the Workbench or Pseudoscience Station while holding the Key, I can't see much of a different intention for the change other than maybe just quality of life.

As for balance, everyone seems to have perfectly accepted the fact that you can regularly get Thulecite items from a boss that requires all the investment of a Boat Repair Kit or some Purple Grouper without ever going to RoG, or that you can get Cutlass Supremes and Tams and Dark Armor for around 50 Oincs in Hamlet without visiting SW or RoG. Why is this case of accessing cross-DLC content without actually visiting the DLC any different? It certainly entails much more time and investment, given that the Brain of Thought only gets 4 uses in any case, and the sprouts only regrow every 20 days.

[SandvichSpy]

17 hours ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

That last point is pretty huge, obviously. Using the BoT, it's possible to craft every single City Tab item, except for Lamp Posts, the Oddities Emporium, and the Tinker Shop (which the BoT negates anyways) without ever visiting Hamlet.

Technically it is possible to craft Lamp posts and the Tinker Shop without ever going to Hamlet. If you steal from a shop it'll spawn Pig Guards which can be killed for Halberds which can then be broken down into alloy with a deconstruction staff.

[TheOnlyGuyEver]

4 minutes ago, SandvichSpy said:

Technically it is possible to craft Lamp posts and the Tinker Shop without ever going to Hamlet. If you steal from a shop it'll spawn Pig Guards which can be killed for Halberds which can then be broken down into alloy with a deconstruction staff.

Never thought of this. You could also buy Halberds from the weapons shop. Lamp Posts that practically cost a green gem seem a bit expensive though! 

[FreyaMaluk]

7 hours ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

Never thought of this. You could also buy Halberds from the weapons shop. Lamp Posts that practically cost a green gem seem a bit expensive though! 

One deconstruction staff has 5 uses tho... For 5 lamps