wilson My concept for a Wilson update

[Viktor234]

I took myself a week to look at the perhaps most known character in Don't Starve Together: Wilson
He's considered as the starting character because of the fact that he doesn't have any penalties, and he's the 1st character on the character list.

 

But comparing his gameplay with the gameplay other characters make doubt about whether he should be considered as a good starting character:

In my first DST games, I noticed that Wigfrid was actually a pretty good character.

Sticking on veggies or fruits is pretty bad because they become unavailable as soon as winter starts. Wigfrid has access to an advanced spear & easily craftable armor which is way tougher than the Log Suit or Football Helmet. Killing spiders was thanks to her increased damage piece of cake, they provided alot of health & sanity but also dropped Monster Meat, which could be used to restore your hunger by making meatballs or eating it cooked. The lost health & sanity could be restored by fighting more spiders. She had free access to Health, Hunger and Sanity and could deal way easier with hound waves or seasonal bosses.

Of course Wigfrid has penalties like low sanity or low hunger, but if you keep fighting, you'll never be able to reach low sanity as Wigfrid. The low hunger wouldn't be such a big problem if she would be able to eat veggies, but she's forced to mix her veggies with meat or to have enough meat to go. Meatballs are perhaps the best crockpot recipe for her. Her penalties are way bigger in DS: Shipwrecked (can't use coffee) or in DS: Hamlet (more veggies, less meat; can't use nettles or other foods boosting your speed).

 

Wilson, on the other hand, does not suffer from the incapability to eat veggies. He has a 25% bigger stomach and 66.67% more max sanity.

But then again his fighting abilities are way lower than Wigfrid's, making gathering food harder for him. And even if he has more sanity, he has way more problems in handling his sanity. More sanity doesn't mean less insanity: You'll be able to stay not insane for longer, but once you become insane, you'll have a hard time in restoring your sanity, because of the huge gap between min and max sanity.

Right now, Wilson doesn't do his job as a starting character: Restoring health and sanity is hard as newcomers don't know how to deal with these statistics.

 

If we take a look at his Timeline, we'll see that he had to suffer alot in the many days since he had been implemented:

Spoiler

• Don't Starve:
  • Wilson is the only character being able to gather beard hairs which makes him the only character who's able to craft Meat Effigies (1)
  • Wilson's special ability allows him to survive the hardest season ingame (2)
• Introduction of the Insanity! update:
  • Beard Hair drops by certain creatures while being insane, making Meat Effigies available to everyone (1)
• Reign of Giants:
  • Overheating has been introduced which grants Wilson a penalty if he doesn't shave his beard (Con)
• Shipwrecked:
  • Winter is not available in this DLC, removing the insulation advantage of Wilson's beard (2)
  • Overheating is also available in this DLC (Con)
• Don't Starve Together:
  • Having a beard during summer won't make you overheat faster (Con)
  • You aren't forced to do everything by your own & the character can be changed easily: Being balanced doesn't grant that many benefits anymore
    • There's always a character having special abilities & doing certain tasks better than Wilson
  • Meat Effigies can be attuned, hammered or burned by other players, making them a risky way to revive yourself
    • Dying without a Meat Effigy won't force your world to reset since other players can revive you easily with Telltale Hearts or other sources
    • Life Giving Amulets don't need to be equipped seconds before death and can be used any time, giving you an easy way to revive yourself next to your dead body
• (Hamlet:)
  • Wilba can gather beard hairs faster than Wilson by turning herself into a Werepig and returning back to her normal state
  • Wilson's beard has no effects in this DLC besides gathering beard hairs and a very small sanity boost (Con)

I asked a few Wilson players for their reason playing Wilson in Don't Starve Together, and what's their reason for not swapping to any other character:

• Some of them were just newcomers who were playing DST for the very first time. But still they decided to join a public server without any friends, hoping that the community will teach them everything they know about the game.
• Other said that they already tried to play other characters but couldn't handle their disadvantages, and that's why they're sticking to Wilson.

But I'm also sure that some of the Wilsons out there did only pick Wilson because they wanted to enjoy the game by sitting in the base and contributing nothing to their team.

According to them, Wilson should stay as the vanilla character, having no disadvantages and no special abilities besides his beard. Note that in this case I don't count having new crafting recipes as a special ability, they're more like considered as character exclusive items.

Changing this will ruin the mood of other players, newcomers will be confused why other characters don't have the same ability as Wilson, and others will dislike it that there's no fully vanilla character available.

 

New abilities:

If we take a closer look into his beard: Beard Hair is some sort of dark magic which keeps other dark magic away from others.
It's not visible to the normal character. Only the crazies have the ability to see that Rabbits and Bunnyman use Beard Hairs to keep the shadows away from them. Willow's Bernie is capable of keeping shadows away from her or any other character, if you have a closer look you'll see that he's made out of Beard Hairs too.

But down in the ruins, there are way other powers available, which makes nightmares visible to everyone.

• Undecided: The amount of sanity Wilson gains from shaving his beard depends on the size of his beard

Wilson uses his beard to keep the nightmares away from him, but only if he shaves his beard, he'll be freed from his insanity. It can be utilized in emergencies if he's in need of sanity.

• Wilson's Beard will grow twice as fast if his sanity drops down to 40%

This ability can be seen as an improvement from two points of view:

1. Players who are about to die from insanity will get a 2nd chance as their beard starts to grow faster, giving them easier access to Wilson's improved items.
2. Players who are up for a bit more hardcore will become more rewarded, as they'll be able to grow more beard hairs than the average Wilson.

40% sanity equals 80 sanity: When Rabbits & Bunnyman start to transform into their dark variant.

You can get up to 1.2x Beard Hair per day (9x Beard Hair after 7.5 days) if you keep your sanity low & shave only your tier 3 beard. Many players can't stay 24/7 in a server to handle the state of their beard, during winter you'll have a way to speed up the growth of your beard.

But right now, his beard has almost no uses, except:

1. Granting protection against freezing, which is only useful during Winter and Early Spring
2. Refueling a Fire Pit or Ice Flingomatic
3. To grant a resource which is required to craft:
   • Meat Effigy
   • Bernie (Willow exclusive)

To make his beard more useful, he could get more recipes which require Beard Hairs:

• Wilson starts with 3x Beard Hair in his inventory
• Wilson gets his own crafting tab which contains items being improved with Beard Hair

New Items:

"Bearded Heart": 3x Beard Hair, 1x Cooked Meat, ?
It can be used to revive dead players. The living player receives 80 Sanity, and the ghost is revived without having any of their maximum health removed, but they still keep their previous resurrection penalties.

When it's about Wilson's rework, I hear many players say to give Wilson the ability to revive players like in The Forge, if they die close to Wilson for not more than 15 seconds. But that might break the game mechanics a bit:

1. An alternative way to revive yourself quickly is to use the Life Giving Amulet, but having a Wilson nearby will prevent options like these.
2. Players would be able to rely 100% on Wilson reviving them during fights, making Life Giving Amulets, Healing Sources, or even Armors not a requirement during fights.
3. In most cases it's not the expert who goes down first, they're capable to dodge attacks and avoid most damage due to their experience. The newcomer on the other hand needs to learn the enemy's attack pattern and he's most commonly the one who goes down first. Forcing experts to pick Wilson just to aid newcomers is something nobody wants to see.
   • Back in The Forge I had some games where players were told to pick Wilson to watch out for their teammates & to revive fallen allies. But a few of them didn't do their jobs: They either didn't know that their allies just died, didn't know how to revive them, or just didn't care about it. Even after telling them 5-10 times about it, they still didn't manage to revive anyone.

Giving Wilson a unique item for reviving his allies without penalties is a replacement for that ability.

This item acts like an alternative to the DS Meat Effigy. In DS, the Meat Effigy was a structure which kept you away from dying, in DST it's not that expensive anymore, but you do have many alternative ways to revive yourself (Telltale Heart, Touch Stone, Life Giving Amulet), and the effigy can be attuned, hammered or burned by other players.

The fact that crafting this item does not take any health is because Wilson does not have any penalties in general.

Undecided: You'll revive yourself if you haunt the Heart as Wilson (without the sleeping effect of the Life Giving Amulet), making this item more useful for Wilson only. Newcomers are used to do alot of mistakes (Eating Red Caps, Making Monster Lasagna, Moving next to Bunnyman while carrying meat in the inventory, Stealing a Tallbird's egg, Dying from fire during winter, etc). With this ability they'll get a 2nd chance without causing any troubles to their team.

Beard Hair Roll: 3x Beard Hair, 1x Straw Roll (Keeps the psychotherapist away)
The Beard Hair Roll can be used 3 times and while using it, it restores 2 Sanity/second, 1 Health/second, at the cost of 1 Hunger/second.

Restoring Sanity is something where many newcomers suffer from: They don't know how to restore Sanity and in most cases they end up being chased down and killed by Terrorbeaks. This item will help them to deal with their sanity at the cost of hunger, until they find an alternate way to restore their sanity or till they manage to defeat the shadows chasing them.

The reason why the Beard Hair Roll restores sanity more quickly than a Tent is again because of the magical powers of the Beard Hair, which keeps you safe from shadows.

"Beard Aid Kit": 3x Beard Hair, ?
It shares a similar function to that of the Healing Salve and Honey Poultice in that it is used for Health restoration, but this item heals a total of 40 health.

The fact that it restores that much health is to give Wilson at least one ability which makes him better than other characters.

"Beardach": 3x Beard Hair, ?

Works like a headgear which restores sanity, but instead of restoring sanity it restores 1.25 Health every 30s (2.5 Health/minute) for a total of 6 days.

You'll restore 20 health per day while wearing this hat, resulting in a total of +120 Health in 6 days. The Life Giving Amulet restores 80 health per day, lasts for a total of 1.25 days but it also drains your hunger while being used.

This item is used to cure minor wounds with almost no cost: One Healing Salve per day.

[Any word combination of nightmare treatment + Armor/Suit]: 4x Beard Hair, 1x Grass Suit, 3x Nightmare Fuel (Grants extra protection against Shadows)
Acts like a Grass Suit with 225 durability which absorbs 65% of incoming damage. Against shadow creatures, it will act like an armor with X durability which absorbs 90% of incoming damage. Charlie counts as a shadow creature.

Possible values for X:

• 315 durability against shadow creatures (Same durability as Log Suit but more protection):
  • Combined with a head slot item with 80% protection, it will break after taking 595.00 damage (59.50 damage to the user)
  • Without any head slot item, it will break after taking 350.00 damage (35.00 damage to the user)
• 450 durability against shadow creatures (armor ignores 50% of shadow creature damage):
  • Combined with a head slot item with 80% protection, it will break after taking 850.00 damage (85.00 damage to the user)
  • Without any head slot item, it will break after taking 500.00 damage (50.00 damage to the user)
• 525 durability against shadow creatures (Same durability as Night Armor but you'll take more damage):
  • Combined with a head slot item with 80% protection, it will break after taking 991.67 damage (99.17 damage to the user)
  • Without any head slot item, it will break after taking 583.33 damage (58.33 damage to the user)

This item takes 4x Beard Hair because it's not as useful for beginners as the other items, and you get only 3x Beard Hair by shaving your tier 2 beard. One of the reasons why it requires Nightmare Fuel is to make it more understandable what to use Nightmare Fuel for.

 

Other Ideas:

Spoiler

Multitool: 2x Beard Hair, 2x Twigs, 2x Flint [alternative: 3x Twigs, 3x Flint] (To experiment with or to stay compact)
The Multitool can be used as an Axe, a Pickaxe and a Shovel.

According to this Topic:

Spoiler

 

Some players do suffer from not to know how to use most of the starter tools. Using this item, they'll be able to experiment way faster, without switching between Axe, Pickaxe and Shovel.

A pickaxe has 33 uses, a shovel has 25 uses, an axe has 100 uses but requires only half of the ressources. So according to this data, I would recommend to give this tool 200 durability but everytime it's used as

• an axe, it will loose 1 (0.5%) durability on use.
• a pickaxe, it will loose 6 (3%) durability on use (unlike the normal pickaxe, you'll have 34 uses).
• a shovel, it willl loose 8 (4%) durability on use.

Making this tool a tool with three different functions, but it costs Beard Hair [alternative: 50% increased cost] to prevent players from spamming this item.

About the graphics: It should look like an axe on the left side, a shovel on the upper side and a pickaxe on the right side.

But remember: A hammer which can be also used as a calculator is neither a good hammer nor a good calculator.

[...]: 3x Beard Hair, 1x Breezy West
A wearable Dress Item which restores sanity and provides protection against Freezing, Overheating, and Wetness. It can be considered as an upgrade of the Breezy West which has more & better function. Using it together with a Rain Hat should provide 100% protection against wetness.

"Beardage": 1x Beard Hair, [Silk, Cut Grass, Beefalo Wool]
An easy to craft non-spoiling item which restores 10-15 health on use.

Similar to Winona's Trusty Tape, it's a simple item which can be stacked & used in emergencies.

Adding silk to it's recipe would make spiders to an easy healing source, but they already drop Spider Glands, making this item less useful. My first DST friends stated that we should make our base near Beefalos because they're a nice source of manure which is a must-have for plants & farms. In most cases there are also rabbits close which can be used as a free meat source. Settling near Beefalos will allow Wilson to make some healing for everyone.

[Any word combination of Dog Toy, or Mob Toy and distract]: 3x Beard Hair, ?, ?
Similar to the Silly Monkey Ball or Willow's BERNIE!, it is used to distract mobs for a short amount of time: Throw it away from you and any mob who was chasing you before will become distracted by this item. Hounds, Treeguards, etc. will easily loose interest in you. Does not work against Shadows or Bosses.

Beard Hair Rug: 1x Beard Hair, 1x Boards

A turf which works quite the opposide of the Cobblestones: It slows shadows only down by 30%, making you 42.86% faster compared to shadows.

Helpful if you need to keep shadows away from you while having a small light source. Compared to Cobblestones you'll get more speed against shadows, but Cobblestones on the other hand make you 30% faster compared to any sort of creature (or slows them down by 23.08% compared to your speed) & allows you to dodge Shadow Bishop's & Rook's attack more easily.

Healing Dart: 2x Reeds, 1x Spider Gland, 1x Beard Hair (Spit assistance at your "enemies".)
The Healing Dart is a craftable ranged "weapon". When used, it will heal its target by 20 health (50 health to mobs and others).

I also took some time to invent some more sciency items which could be crafted by Wilson, but I would not recommend them because Wilson is supposed to be a character for beginners:

Spoiler

Molebomb: 1x Moleworm, 1x Gunpowder
When placed on the ground and lit on fire, the Molebomb will explode after 3–6 seconds, causing a shockwave similar to Bearger's charge attack which uproots anything nearby (Grass Tufts, Saplings, Tree Stumps) & reveals Moleworms & Depths Worms hiding in the ground.

The design is similar to the Anti-runway penetration bomb which is used to make Airfields unuseable.

Another use for this item is to add another use to Gunpowder, besides wasting it for easy enemies: We were fighting as 3 with Dark Swords against Deerclops when suddenly a wild Wilson appeared & watched us fighting:

• Wilson: "Stop fighting, I need to use this stack of 1x Gunpowder against him!"
• Me: "Why? We're all using Dark Sword, dealing more than 200 damage per second."
• Wilson: "But I made this Gunpowder, and it needs to be used for something!"

Portable Portal: ?
Similar to the Telebrella from DS, it allows you to teleport yourself easily between two not too distant portals or with the use of an item to it's marked portal (only if it's not too far away).
As we know from a short & a comic, Wilson was the only character who managed to build 2 different portals: One which brought him to the constant, and another which gathered all together. The first one was made with Maxwell's or Wagstaff's assistance, the second one with Maxwell's assistance. Yet it's still questionable if Wilson will be able to build a portal the 3rd time.

[...]: ? (Prevents Amputations.)
If equipped, it will show you the health of your teammates & mobs, allowing you to help your teammates in case of need or to target the mob with the least health.

Does not work on mobs with more than 1000 health.

Wilson is not a scientist in sort of an inventor who invents new items or has the ability to prototype items with a lower tier crafting station. He's a scientist who has been sucked into the constant to explore the world.

Or in other words: An (in most cases inexperienced) Adventurer who came to check out the world and to learn the game mechanics.

 

Giving Wilson only the ability to craft items could make him a pick-and-swap character: Use all the beard hairs you have for useful items and swap back to your old character, but there are many players out there who don't want to change from Wilson to another character, even if Wilson has nothing besides his crafting abilities.

I thought about adding some other abilities to him like:

• Effect of healing items is increased by 25% cause he's considered as the healer by many players (actually, he's the reviver, not the healer)
• Gains extra sanity, health and hunger when prototyping items, because he's a scientist
• Other special effects for his beard (protection against rain, reduced damage from nightmare creatures, ...)

But after hearing some feedback & reasons why other players play Wilson, I decided to keep these stats just like they are.

I want to make Wilson better and more useful without giving him too many abilities or giving him any new cons. The abilities right now are supposed to help newcomers and to make it easier for them to survive until they learn other ways how to stay alive.

 

I need to admit that since I discovered DST, I never ever picked Wilson as my character, except in The Forge, The Gorge (When I had to do Stone Soup 24/7 for an accomplishment), in DS (because he's the only character who can be chosen at the beginning), or when I had to make pictures for memes or anything else in a temporary server.

Any ideas and suggestions are welcome.

[Prajdo]

Great.

You could wear it, sleep in it and heal with it. Lets made it edible also and don't forget about adding bearded hair carped from hamlet.

 

And seriously, I don't mind to see new use for Beard as an item but your suggestion is too much I guess.

When it comes to Wilson I would like to finally see more of his "scientist side" in the game. I would like to see some unique profits from prototyping items. This way he would be perfect as starter character for new players and as starter for those who like to switch character after getting access to Moon Rock Idol which is so popular this days.

[Ezaroth]

25 minutes ago, Prajdo said:

When it comes to Wilson I would like to finally see more of his "scientist side" in the game.

Agreed. He's a scientist, not a Beard Lord.

[cantdeletethis]

idk about making beard overpowered, I just imagined him using beard as some rope or.. mediocre benefits

1 hour ago, Viktor234 said:

• Effect of healing items is increased by 25% cause he's considered as the healer by many players (actually, he's the reviver, not the healer)
• Gains extra sanity, health and hunger when prototyping items, because he's a scientist
• Other special effects for his beard (protection against rain, reduced damage from nightmare creatures, ...)

and this would make him "opposite wes" basically plain out EZ mode which isn't fun at all

[MondayNight]

I don't know why people seem to be against OP's beard-focused suggestions, they feel reasonable and in-tune with Wilson's character. Sure can be worked upon them but it's a good start imo. At the opposite end, leaving Willy a dead-beat uninteresting default survivor without anything going his way from a scientist-lore point of view is equally problematic. More so as we have Warly for the "portions master" role people were speculating for Wilson in regard to that Mad Scientist Tab proposal circulated on these forums. Keeping the beard-centrist theme (also alluring to original gag) for a Wilson scientist Tab retains his "peculiarity" and expands it in a creative and interesting way.

 

PS: as for "oh no, this is op plz nerf" recurrent aspect from some people, need I point more to Winona, Wortox or your very own original "Holy DST Trinity" (Mighty Wolfgang on combat-spiced Chaud-Froid anyone)?!

[4 Da LOLs]

What if he can learn how to craft things by examining them ?

it will give him the ability to just find some lost shovel or hat examine it to gain its knowledge so you can last longer without science tabs for a good "I just came here and its three days till winter" senerio

[BionicSandwich]

my personal headcanon is that wilsons beard is a form of nightmare fuel, that's  why it can resurrect people and can be seen on rabbits and bunny men at low sanity.

[maciu67]

3 hours ago, Viktor234 said:

"Bearded Heart": 3x Beard Hair, 1x Cooked Meat, ?

I have been thinking about something similar: the beard heart:

"This item can be given to Meat Effigy. It gains additional use then. The item can be given only once. When any player uses a meat effigy, the item can be given once more time."

i described it in topic "my ideas":

 

[Queron81]

Some additional (science related) ideas:

- Wilson could be able to make blueprints (even rare ones) from any object he learned, so in a team he could be the one to choose to learn the rare blueprints to make more of them for his team. For this he will have to make a drawing desk first.

- Maybe give him a craftable portable science machine (upgradable to portable alchemy engine) only he could use. As a dowside prototyping could take more time (animation how he is working strained) and consume a certain amount of hunger.

- With his portable crafting station he could craft some exclusive items, for example:

• Something similar to the divining rod for locating specific items, structures or mobs (like clockwork creatures, pig king, mac tusk camps, oasis, giants or just certain ressources like stone, flint or gold). This item would have durability (over the time used or by the number of choosed objects) and would cause a small sanity drain while holding.
   
• Area scanning station: placed somewhere, it will scan the area in a certain radius (like 3 screens) and show the objects and their movements on the map (like other players, mobs, giants, items just placed/spawned on ground etc.). This informations only would be shown, if you are near the scanning station. Could also be helpful placed on a boat. Need gears and need to be fueled.
   
• Lifeform scanning station: similar to the area scanning station, but only showing the health of players and mobs in a certain radius.
   
• A duplication station: Wilson could duplicate any item (using a certain rare item) - but because it's actually impossible, he needs to give his life for this. Station will implode while duplicating, dropping the item and the duplicate and causing a bright light in the whole world (so at dusk or night it will be like day for some seconds). It also could trigger a random event (on the whole map or in the area).
   
• Scientist's Glasses: could give more information by inspecting things (structures, mobs, crops, food, players).

And even if it is already a perk of Wickerbottom, I would give Wilson the ability to craft the tier 1 items without using the science machine (but for tier 2 he would still need an alchemy engine). But more: as a funny team perk I would make him a science machine for others, so if someone is standing near him, this player could prototype something, while Wilson is making an explaining-like animation with the phrase "Let me explain to you..." (you know, he likes explaining things to others, as he is a "Scientist" ). He would gain sanity for this.

[WoodieMain45684]

I agree with all of the things that make Wilson a more of a healer based character. Beard hair x, y and z, are.... okay? I guess. It wouldn't make me want to play him tbh. But it would be cool to see other players playing him with it. Oh and on the comparisons between Wigfrid and Wilson. Part of the issue is that Wigfrid is actually on the op side of the scale when it comes to balance. It's just that she is rarely commented on because... Well... Wolfgang just... Exists. And I wouldn't be surprised if she received a nerf to come with her rework in the future (probably with something cool to add to her arsenal though, ranged combat maybe? special attacks? Mark for deathing?).

[Thomas Die]

why are we all making him beard boi with wagstaff levels of scientific power. 2 things we should know about wilson is that:

1, beard is a survival trait, shouldn't be his power

2, he is not as intelligent or smart as wagstaff 

on that not i think we should focus on his shoddy scientific abilties rather than give him something that would be more suited to wagstaffs' character. Or to actually give the  the abilities of     B E A R D

wilson has no real scientific abilities as he seems to be a failed scientist or a one down on his luck at best however what is most notetable about wilson is that he created the boats in R.O.T and the jury rigged portal (with the help of maxwell) and of course he has beard. i think that these show that wilson is simply the basic survivor, a person that builds/uses tools to survive the wilderness; so developing on this i think that we should allow him to create machines or tools that can speed up much more menial tasks, or create survival tools such as an auto harvester or maybe some makeshift bandages

 

[Russian_Philin]

I like that you described it in such detail. I agree he needs more crafting with beard. And anyway, if you are talking about the resurrection, it was possible to take something that Wilson very effectively revives characters. I think he is a role suitable.

[Viktor234]

17 hours ago, 4 Da LOLs said:

What if he can learn how to craft things by examining them ?

it will give him the ability to just find some lost shovel or hat examine it to gain its knowledge so you can last longer without science tabs for a good "I just came here and its three days till winter" senerio

That idea is one which sounds much better on paper than in reality:

• Players are supposed to learn the mechanics of the Science Machine. Prototyping should not work by examining objects only.
• Once they arrive to the base, they'll just examine everything, getting alot of recipes. But at the end, they won't know the use of any of these objects & won't have any idea of what kind of objects they did unlock, because they did unlock them way too fast, without trying the items at all. They'll also miss out the +15 sanity which can be used for other purposes.
• Wilson should stay from my opinion as a vanilla character, players shouldn't become confused when they pick another character and don't learn recipes by examining them.

11 hours ago, Queron81 said:

- Wilson could be able to make blueprints (even rare ones) from any object he learned, so in a team he could be the one to choose to learn the rare blueprints to make more of them for his team. For this he will have to make a drawing desk first.

That would be pretty risky: Not every Wilson who joins is a keen player, they'll either do whatever you tell them to do, or just take the blueprint and leave with it.

I might agree with an item which allows you to prototype some items without any cost, but planing ahead isn't Wilson's kind of ability as he actually has no penalties in any kind of task. If you're really planning ahead, then I'd recommend you to pick a character besides Wilson, because other characters are way more suitable for your tasks.

11 hours ago, Queron81 said:

- Maybe give him a craftable portable science machine (upgradable to portable alchemy engine) only he could use. As a dowside prototyping could take more time (animation how he is working strained) and consume a certain amount of hunger.

That one would be almost a 1:1 copy of Wickerbottom's ability to prototype one tier higher than other Characters, except that you need to use a slot to carry around the science machine. And again: Wilson should not have any downsides, that's one of his abilities and Players like to play him because of that ability.

12 hours ago, Queron81 said:

But more: as a funny team perk I would make him a science machine for others, so if someone is standing near him, this player could prototype something, while Wilson is making an explaining-like animation with the phrase "Let me explain to you..." (you know, he likes explaining things to others, as he is a "Scientist"). He would gain sanity for this.

Please not, I already had troubles with a Wilson who kept making Meatballs and spamming: "Who wants a Meatballs?", "Who's Hungry?", "I made a Meatballs, does anyone want it?"; having a Wilson who calls everyone together just to prototype an item like the rope for everyone will be just as annoying as that one.

Other players won't know what kind of items that Wilson tought them and they'll miss out the gained sanity from prototyping an item. And in reallity most people anyway do not understand anything if a scientist explains them something.

 

Thank you all for your feedback & suggestions so far.

[RogueGamer12]

Really like the idea for more uses with beards, but he seems a bit overtuned imo.

[Viktor234]

1 hour ago, RogueGamer12 said:

Really like the idea for more uses with beards, but he seems a bit overtuned imo.

Thanks for your feedback, I do also agree that the balance of the items still need to be adjusted.

The sanity regeneration gear (Beard Hair Roll - also regenerates health at the cost of hunger) and the health regeneration gear ("Beardach") should deplete almost as fast as Wilson's beard grows in normal conditions. Players will be able to stick on one of the items, depending on what they lack.

If you desire for more safety or to help someone without penalties, you'll be able to spend your Beard Hairs for the heart which will grant you a 2nd chance in your journey. I agree that it feels it feels bit too powerful for its cost right now.

Once you get enough Beard Hairs, you'll be able to spend it on the Healing Item or the Armor, which also still need to be adjusted.

[maciu67]

15 hours ago, Queron81 said:

Something similar to the divining rod for locating specific items, structures or mobs (like clockwork creatures, pig king, mac tusk camps, oasis, giants or just certain ressources like stone, flint or gold). This item would have durability (over the time used or by the number of choosed objects) and would cause a small sanity drain while holding.

I think Wheeler's navigadget should have that abilities.

[Troppok]

On 8/29/2019 at 8:19 AM, Prajdo said:

Great.

You could wear it, sleep in it and heal with it. Lets made it edible also and don't forget about adding bearded hair carped from hamlet.

 

And seriously, I don't mind to see new use for Beard as an item but your suggestion is too much I guess.

When it comes to Wilson I would like to finally see more of his "scientist side" in the game. I would like to see some unique profits from prototyping items. This way he would be perfect as starter character for new players and as starter for those who like to switch character after getting access to Moon Rock Idol which is so popular this days.

I had an idea. Let wilson learn unique crafts from other survivors. So if a wigfrid jumps into his world he could deconstruct her helmet and spear to learn how to make them. For balance reasons increase his cost to craft and maybe even tact on sanity cost.

However the gentleman scientist could eventually learn every craftable item in the game through "reverse Engineering" and I think that's pretty cool.

[maciu67]

55 minutes ago, Troppok said:

I had an idea. Let wilson learn unique crafts from other survivors. So if a wigfrid jumps into his world he could deconstruct her helmet and spear to learn how to make them. For balance reasons increase his cost to craft and maybe even tact on sanity cost.

However the gentleman scientist could eventually learn every craftable item in the game through "reverse Engineering" and I think that's pretty cool

So Wilson wil be able to read wiccerbottom's books, summon Abigail, summon shadow puppets,summon BERNIE!, build generators, catapults and spotlights, craft lighter, battle spear, battle helmet, bernie, Abigail's flower, codex umbra etc.

There will be no reasons to play as other character after building celestial portal.

[Troppok]

I'm not saying your boy wilson can use character exclusive powers, but if it can be crafted I think he should be the own to learn how.

[Queron81]

10 hours ago, Viktor234 said:

That would be pretty risky: Not every Wilson who joins is a keen player, they'll either do whatever you tell them to do, or just take the blueprint and leave with it.

People are communicating in this game and you can observe how someone is playing. It's an optional thing, that can give other people a bonus. Of course no one would give a rare blueprint to a newbie Wilson.

10 hours ago, Viktor234 said:

That one would be almost a 1:1 copy of Wickerbottom's ability to prototype one tier higher than other Characters, except that you need to use a slot to carry around the science machine. And again: Wilson should not have any downsides, that's one of his abilities and Players like to play him because of that ability.

No, as this portable science machine would be optional. Wilson could prototype anything at the known stations with the sanity bonus. But if you want to explore first as Wilson, you don't have to build everytime a new science machine (or alchemy engine) or taking a long way back, if you want to prototype something. That's the upside. The sanity loss and longer prototyping is the downside. Everyone could play Wilson the way like before.

10 hours ago, Viktor234 said:

Please not, I already had troubles with a Wilson who kept making Meatballs and spamming: "Who wants a Meatballs?", "Who's Hungry?", "I made a Meatballs, does anyone want it?"; having a Wilson who calls everyone together just to prototype an item like the rope for everyone will be just as annoying as that one.

Other players won't know what kind of items that Wilson tought them and they'll miss out the gained sanity from prototyping an item. And in reallity most people anyway do not understand anything if a scientist explains them something.

I think you misunderstood. The other players could choose what they want to prototype, so Wilson acts just like a Science Machine (but he have to unlock the recipes first on his own). The Wilson doesn't have to do anything (except staying at place).