Revamping WX's weakness to Water

[Canis]

So, we all know that WX practically has no downsides at the moment. What, he takes a maximum of 13-ish damage per day if wet?

Here are some of my ideas to greater emphasize that WX is an electrical machine that can severely malfunction if wet.

 

Water, and more prominently the Wetness meter, is now gravely more important to manage as WX, as becoming too wet can severely impair you, or flat-out kill you if it gets too high.

In addition WX takes water damage equal to 15% of the current wetness meter. For example, at 10 wetness, WX takes 1.5 damage per "water damage tick". This caps at 5 damage per tick. Water damage is no longer reduced by having wetness-resistant items, as it is now tied to how high the wetness meter is.

Additional penalties apply to WX as his wetness meter rises:

25 Wetness: The outskirts of WX's HUD is obstructed by a glitchy overlay.
"WARNNING: OPTIC SENSOORS MALFUNCTIIONING"

50 Wetness: The Health, Hunger, and Sanity meters become hidden to WX.
"WARRNING: SYSTEM DIAGNOOSTICS NOT RESPONDING-DING"

75 Wetness: WX is forced into a constant "drowsy walk" state until he stops being above 75 wetness. In addition, the glitchy HUD overlay is extremely more severe.
"CRITICAL WARNING-WARNING: CIRCUITS COOOMPROMISED-ED. SHORT-CIRCUIT IMMINENT."

85 Wetness: WX dies from Short Circuit
"FATAL ERR- "
An electrical explosive sound would be played on WX's death, signaling a short circuit.

Additionally, if WX drowns in any way, he immediately dies of short-circuit instead of waking up on the shore. To add more "oomph" to this, during his drowning animation, a violent amount of sparks can fly around and electrify nearby water.

 

So there you go, a downside that is perilous if left unchecked, and deadly if you let it get out of hand.

The wetness effects are intended to be intrusive on the player, since, again, WX is an electrical machine.

 

Thoughts?

[Owlrust]

The 25 wetness one sounds really awesome imo. 50 Wetness would end up kinda a moot point considering all the client-side mods that can change that (would recommend a downside that would require a server-wide mod to change such as not being able to heal through any source starting at 50). 75 I love; it would certainly improve the risk of gaining wetness or jumping overboard on a boat. 85 seems very unforgiving imo, granted it's not "easy" to get to that point but considering what happens to him when he does kick the bolt (loses most of his previous gear intake) it might end up as a deterrent to play the character for most new players since they will perish easily as a result; as for veterans it stands out as a cool idea, but lacks a sense of urgency since they will almost never see themselves get to that point. Still though, I think you're on the right path with 85; maybe something like being rusted in place until you start losing wetness (via rain stopping etc). One alternate suggestion I have would be for the wetness meter to be merged with his health (visually and mechanically), decreasing his maximum health by 1% for every point of wetness up to the maximum of 99% (scales regardless of upgrade level; for example at 250 your max would tick down by 2.5 per/ wetness and this cannot be restored save for losing wetness). All in all I think these are great suggestions that would make him interesting with regard to the flipside of his perks and give him a much needed penalty that actually feels like one. Lastly, to make things even more interesting I would also like to humbly suggest the possibility of him gaining wetness 1.5 to  2 times faster than all other characters to make the effects more apparent.

[maradyne]

The one change I would make would be to move the insta-death (or rust/whatever it may be) threshold to max wetness just to make it more straightforward for less experienced players. That, or give his wetness meter special markers for effect thresholds. Maybe do that anyway. He could have a special, more mechanical-looking meter that starts to look rusty/broken as he gets more wet.

[Viktor234]

3 hours ago, Canis said:

Thoughts?

Perhaps they should first update WX-78 before revamping their weakness to water. I'm sure there will be other abilities they'll get which might be affected by wetness, making them weaker depending on their water level.

[Thomas Die]

okay i love these ideas but dying from too much wetness seems a bit much but i think that this was an incredibly thought out and unique despite it being so simple. good job

[Axelocke]

I actually really love this idea. It never made sense to me that WX-78 would share the same nightmare filter as the other survivors, so a glitchy overlay would be a really cool touch, and I do agree that water damage is pretty barebones. I've seen what, two WX-78s in my time playing that have died to short circuiting? 

[Datanon]

these should be at 15, 30, 40 and 50 wetness, respectively. getting electronics any close to water is a no-no anyway, and WX definitely needs the downside to be harsh

[WoodieMain45684]

I like the idea, but just throwing it out there.... You do know that this scenario in which the WX ever gets above 0 wetness unless it is the first rain in autumn or a staff trap is super low considering the eyebrella just exists? It is a step in the right direction to actually make the downside do something, but it's also kinda important to take a look at how easily the downside is nullified too. As long as the player knows when the rain is coming, how to keep it out, and how to get the items necessary, then most of those cool downsides will be for naught. Not trying to be a downer though! I really like the ideas. Sad thing is, I'm not entirely sure on how to fix it. Maybe make it to where wetness gear doesn't protect WX as well as other survivors? Kinda like willow and insulation?

[Maxposting]

WX should have a 2x sanity drain whether he is on a boat ( for example spider would have twice as much insanity aura boost )

Since you know, WX would be scared of the boat breaking

[Canis]

1 minute ago, __IvoCZE__ said:

WX should have a 2x sanity drain whether he is on a boat ( for example spider would have twice as much insanity aura boost )

Since you know, WX would be scared of the boat breaking

Why hold back? How bout a flat sanity drain when on a boat, lets say 5/min?

[Zeklo]

Eh. I can't say I'm a fan of these examples.

Hiding the HUD may work as a gimmick for the first couple times, but once you get the hunger drain timing down it's not a problem. Same goes for the damage values of mobs. The "downside" isn't really a downside because it isn't really worked around in-game. It's more bothersome than anything.

Constant drowsiness is just a bad idea in general. Slowness penalties literally just slow-down gameplay. Or in combat's case: make certain encounter's impossible. More or less the same reason a lot of people didn't like Hamlet's fog.

Instant-death mechanics are also not very fun—precisely why boat drowning isn't instant death. It's not "difficult" it's punishing, and overly so. Wetness is one of those things where you're either drowning in it or you're not being affected by it at all. Since typically you're either wearing protective gear for it or not. Imagine if your character instantly died once freezing kicked in. That's no fun.