Every problem I've had with Wurt so far

[Pooping_Pete]

First I want to clarify, I love this character. She's cute, and has a lot of potential. However there are a lot of minor things that hold her back. This is a list of all the problems I have had with Wurt, in hopes that Klei fixes some of these. So naturally this might be a little opinionated. Also this includes some bugs that I may have also found, so some of these things may not apply in the later future.

Perks: Wurt overall has pretty good perks. Even though I am not that big of a fan of being vegetarian as it is more of an annoyance than an actual threat, it's fine. My actual problem here lies in with the near useless abilities that she has. Things that include: having a strong grip, being able to spot tentacles, having a pet fish in her inventory to gain sanity, reading books for sanity. Even though some of these (such as reading a book) is cute and adds to a character, it effects the game play, making it so that if a Wurt does decide to read a book, it uses durability. Maybe this feature could be removed, but I think it would be cooler if it was an idle animation. Overall, my problem with the perks isn't that problematic, I would much rather have more interesting and bigger upsides and downsides instead of very minor but plentiful ones.

Merm Villages: As a concept, I don't think this is all bad, especially with the addition of Warly, who has some recipes that require fish and frog legs. In terms of food, I still think bunnies would be better, especially as a vegetarian, but I can see the use of having merms. The merm king is amazingly done, he's just extremely well done from a design point, and honestly looks like he came straight out of JoJo's bizarre adventure or something. My only gripe with him is that you have to babysit him or else you lose the buff you get from him, and there is also a glitch right now where every time you gain or lose that buff, whether if its from him dying, or if you enter the caves, your stats get reset back to full. As for the merm houses, they're a bit ugly, but other than that it's fine. The merm guards are extremely annoying, and that's not even for the tentacle spots and boards, since you can give fish to the merm king to have a chance of getting tentacle spots. You have to carry 2 spears on you to craft a single house, which is extremely annoying. Their AI isn't the smartest either, you would expect them to kill pretty much anything except Wurt, other merms, and the merm king on sight, but they only attack if provoked for some reason. I'd be fine with this if it was applied to merms, but not so much the merm guards.

Other: Wurt can't trade with the pig king at all. I don't know why they did this, Webber and Wortox can do this perfectly, so why not Wurt? This means quite a few things, that frog legs are near useless to Wurt (assuming they are by themselves), as the player can't eat them, trade them, befriend animals with them, or anything. The most she could do with them is just let them rot and use that for crafting marsh turf, but that doesn't really excuse how half the drops you get from farming merms, one of Wurt's main purposes, can only be used in a way that is worse than things like lichen or lightbulbs. Speaking of the fact that you can't trade with the pig king, this means that Wurt cannot go trick or treating, which was honestly the whole reason I wrote this whole thing. Gold isn't really that big of a deal, it's already somewhat plentiful throughout the world. My problem mostly lies in the fact that Wurt cannot get the shadow piece sketches via giving trinkets to the pig king, and Wurt can't trade the Halloween Trinkets to the pig king, missing out on the event she was introduced in.

Like I said, these are all pretty minor inconveniences, but I'd like these to be changed. And knowing that there is almost always an update/updates after a character gets released fixing small inconveniences, these are some of the things that I'd like to see in it.

[Canis]

Since the hostility of merm AI has obviously been toned down a lot, the new merm disguise is pointless. Id like the aggressiveness of the merms to come back, since it's really easy for other characters to simply base with wurt in the middle of merms with no repercussions.

Also, I'd be fine with Wurt not being able to trade with PK if Webber and Wortox also received this trait (Think of it being bundled with the "monster" tag.)

The "strong grip when wet" is the most pointless perk in the history of Don't Starve, because Wurt has no other perks regarding Wetness and still gets the downsides of being wet (losing sanity and temperature.)

[Sweaper]

One thing she does well is looting dead bodies in the swamp, put some bunnies nearby tentacles/spider nests/merm's houses and collect all the meat, carrots, spider drops and/or reeds every dusk. Replace the tentacles with merms after a while. Sooner or later your swamp will be in a full on war if you keep crafting houses in there and that is fun to see. She makes basing in swamp fun, that's about it, for me that's a big plus since the biome is pretty bland and only really useful for reeds and tentacle spots for Wicker.

 

As for not being able to trade with PK, would you want to trade resources to someone you're in eternal war and hate with?

[Lemonsnoot]

I think from an art standpoint the new buildings look really nice. I would like to see her stat buff exploit fixed. And her quotes when wet threw me off, yeah. Cuz she literally says things about how merms like to be wet, while she goes insane. Thats my only real nitpick and a mild one at that. I think shes alot of fun, and i love her design

[Owlrust]

I'd like to be able to trade with the merm king for gold tbh, that way she has an alternative to it. No sanity drain from wetness, or wetness immunity would be nice too (I rarely ever drop Items because of wetness).

[Lammarr]

6 minutes ago, Owlrus98 said:

I'd like to be able to trade with the merm king for gold tbh, that way she has an alternative to it. No sanity drain from wetness, or wetness immunity would be nice too (I rarely ever drop Items because of wetness).

I'm almost pretty sure she only loses sanity from equipped wet items.

Btw why merms die when a boat gets destroyed? It's so dumb.

[Theukon-dos]

It's worth noting that, Unlike webber and Wortox, Wurt Hates the pigs with every fibre of her being. I'm quite certain that this is why she can't trade with him, while the other 2 can.

[Zeklo]

Yeah I have to disagree.

Among these, I only really want the AI to be touched up.

[Jessie_]

i want the bugs and crashes to get fixed

[maradyne]

Not being able to trade with PK was probably an attempt at showing that Merms hate Pigs rather than the other way around.

[Jessie_]

56 minutes ago, maradyne said:

Not being able to trade with PK was probably an attempt at showing that Merms hate Pigs rather than the other way around.

pigs also hate merms now

before this update, pigs were indifferent to merms, they only attacked merms in self-defence

[Well-met]

tag stronggrip should give immunity to all weapon slips, including bearger and moosegoose

[-Variant]

4 hours ago, Canis said:

The "strong grip when wet" is the most pointless perk in the history of Don't Starve, because Wurt has no other perks regarding Wetness and still gets the downsides of being wet (losing sanity and temperature.)

I've been doing a lot of testing, and things are inconsistent as Hell, but I suffer nothing from wetness at all.

The most notable thing is that I can freely jump into the water (plank) and "swim" to shore without suffering anything. No item loss either.

Prefaps the perk was worded badly?

[Canis]

1 minute ago, -Variant said:

I've been doing a lot of testing, and things are inconsistent as Hell, but I suffer nothing from wetness at all.

The most notable thing is that I can freely jump into the water (plank) and "swim" to shore without suffering anything. No item loss either.

Prefaps the perk was worded badly?

You can still easily go insane and freeze to death at high wetness. Earlier today when someone picked up an ice staff setpiece in a pub, my sanity easily dropped to 0 and my health to 20 (freezing) because it was too early to prepare for such thing.

And I was playing as a fish person.

[MrDeepDarkmind]

Wurt is literally a bad character it supports the Vegetarian people

she is bascially a crippled character 

[Alexias]

I don't like how she can't trade with pig king because I mostly play solo so I can't farm gold :/.

 

[sinisterrkid]

Perks: All characters have a combination of tiny perks and big perks, though. Like, when Willow fuels a firepit it produces more fire than other characters and she gets sanity from holding Bernie, Woodie's beard gives a little bit of insulation and he befriends pigs and bunnymen for longer than other characters, Warly cooks faster over the fire... Wurt also has a series of little perks, that's totally fine. But let's get to talking about the big perks:

Merm Villages:

The combat AI is indeed a bit strange, at least in my testing with console commands. They will attack some mobs automatically, like Bunnymen, but not others, like hounds or Deerclops. (Either close to their homes or not). Hounds and Deerclops had to aggro them first. I don't know how Mermguard's loyalty to you work: will they automatically aggro anything you start a fight with? It's still a very useful defensive and offensive device, but I wouldn't mind having them be more aggressive to at least hounds, yeah. They still have more uses than combat, like farming bunnymen, pigs, spiders or whatever else, and chopping trees. And boy, just imagine not having to reset a single toothtrap for the rest of your life once you get the guards protecting your base...

Also, can't wait to fight the Bee Queen with a Merm army, since I play solo.

I believe having to maintain the Merm King is essential, otherwise this perk would be this one time thing you do and not think about ever again. It would end up being a boring perk, while now it's actually one you have to work for, which is an aspect that is appreciated by me.

Other: 

Not being able to trade with the Pig King was fine with me when I thought you would be able to get gold from the Merm King instead. Not being able to get gold from either is a problem for people who play solo in long lasting worlds (like me.)

You mentioned frog legs being useful only for other players or for getting rot, and rot only useful for crafting the marsh turf, but the rot supply is actually gonna be pretty nice for fertilizing farms and bushes, which Wurt can rely on. I know it's not hard getting fertilizer in other ways (like getting a thousand light bulbs from caves and feeding it to werepigs), but I mean, still nice.

Also rot as constant supply for fueling the firepit, but I don't know how nice that's gonna be for other people (for me that's pretty neat)

 

And hey, there's just so much use to a Merm army we are yet to find out.

 

[Ginosaji]

the bonus buff from a existing mk is way too op. why does it have to set all stats to max?

 

i'd like to see klei using blacked out stats instead, just how it's being used for maxwell on sanity or characters on getting brought to life again with a heart.

just reverse the effect so she has a base 250 hunger etc but black it out unless there exists a mk.

[GenomeSquirrel]

Since spears are a requirement for flortifications, having merm king drop flint instead of gold would be great alternative.

But I agree that this passive merm ai is a letdown

[maradyne]

1 hour ago, sinisterrkid said:

Merm Villages:

The combat AI is indeed a bit strange, at least in my testing with console commands. They will attack some mobs automatically, like Bunnymen, but not others, like hounds or Deerclops. (Either close to their homes or not). Hounds and Deerclops had to aggro them first. I don't know how Mermguard's loyalty to you work: will they automatically aggro anything you start a fight with? It's still a very useful defensive and offensive device, but I wouldn't mind having them be more aggressive to at least hounds, yeah.

Noticed this when playing earlier. When loyal, they stop aggroing on things that they would normally aggro on.

Super weird thing: when loyal, they won't be targeted by tentacles that they walk over. The tentacles just...stay buried, not seeming to notice that anything is there.
Happened to get a world with a Reed Trap and based there. The merms ended up being more effective at clearing tentacles in their normal roaming state than they were when recruited.
Not sure if it's a bug; might be intended to match Wurt's tentacle avoidance perk.

[Steve Raptor]

Wurt's vegetarian trait is actually very powerful and makes her the easiest character in the game to keep fed.

She gets a very noticeable, 33% more hunger gained from eating fruits and veggies and ~60% hunger gain from eating durian.

Once you get your hands on pumpkin/durian you are pretty much set for the entire game, as you can easily mass produce them in farms with the help of a bird cage. Both give her around ~50 hunger and its very easy to produce a lot of them once you get the first seed.

This means that you can passively gather food in your base with the use of farms. You don't need to bother gathering meat (hunting spiders, koelefants..etc) all your food is grown passively right at your base. On top of all that, you don't need the crockpot 90% of the time unless making something like dragon pies for boss battles. which saves even more time.

I have to say that I'm fairly disappointed with her wetness trait, firm grip, as its pretty much entirely useless in practice. I'm also very disappointed with the "pet fish" Trait. I expected something like Willow's Bernie, a fish in a bowl or something like that, that you can craft and carry with you around in your hand for a small sanity buff, it would also look very nice and fit the character. 

Carrying a dead fish in the inventory seems very bland, boring and a completely missed opportunity.

[sinisterrkid]

8 hours ago, Pooping_Pete said:

that doesn't really excuse how half the drops you get from farming merms, one of Wurt's main purposes, can only be used in a way that is worse than things like lichen or lightbulbs.

I forgot to add you can turn frog legs into eggs via birdcage and use the eggs as fillers in Crockpot recipes for Wurt

[SinancoTheBest]

3 hours ago, Alexias said:

I don't like how she can't trade with pig king because I mostly play solo so I can't farm gold :/.

 

I hope they add some kind of a gold trade with the Merm King to compansate: such as frog legs for gold in a 1-1 ratio.

[Rellimarual]

8 hours ago, Sweaper said:

She makes basing in swamp fun, that's about it, for me that's a big plus since the biome is pretty bland and only really useful for reeds and tentacle spots for Wicker.

Back when there were really good players on this forum, quite a few of them preferred basing in the swamp for various reasons. I only got  into it myself later on, as a way to avoid newbs on publics, so I don’t remember all their reasons now. It’s far from bland, though, and an excellent base for Wigfrid because of all the meat and things to kill.

[Crimson Chin]

Wurt... definitely does feel very underwhelming. I'm not a fan of her or her perks really. Most of them are just boring and.. sanity based for some reason. Like you said, who in their right mind would use 20 durability on a wicker book to gain (or lose for some reason???) like 30 sanity. It feels like the vegan thing was slapped on just because they thought a vegetarian character would be cool. The downside is .. easily dealt with since things like blue caps exist, and the bonuses already ontop of that make it feel like more of a perk.. Its just that Wurt ends up feeling extremely underwhelming, where her main perk calls on you to be a baby sitter for some less than ideal ai minions, which pigs can do the same job of with just 1 meat as any other character. I kind of wish they just added an entire seperate merm village system in the swamp with a merm king... or preferrably the elder pig from the gorge, rather than having it locked behind one character and a grindy crafting recipe. Other than all that though, I'm not even sure what I would want Wurt to be, shes definitely my least favorite character added. I really would have preferred her to be a mermified goat from the gorge. Ah well.

Lore wise I'm also disappointed. She is nothing, and I still have to wonder it they retconned the entire gorge, gnaw, and mermification. Wurt was just a random merm hanging out in the swamp I guess, and based on quotes they didn't even use the "I came from the atrium portal" thing. Also I guess merms slowly lose their grip and forget how to speak.. and read? Which is strange since Pipton and Sammy talked fine. Unless.. they were only mermified for a short amount of time... or something, which definitely doesn't seem like it based on their quotes. Also smaller gripe, but why would someone whos been mermified be named Wurt unless they were born a merm. To fit the vegetarian diet it could have been Winnie or something!  Doesn't really feel like they care too much about story anymore, based on how most recent trailers have been... cute for sure, but entirely pointless and we would know just as much about the characters if they never existed. Seems kind of sad if content does get delayed with these trailers that don't end up adding much at all.