Another Maxwell Rework Idea

[ButterStuffed]

It'd be neat if Maxwell could use the Codex Umbra to summon minions to do general work in an area of his choosing instead of summoning minions that can only do specific tasks.

For example he would equip the Codex Umbra in a similar way to to the forge's petrifying books and cast an aoe onto an area that he would want worked on. (Ideally with a considerably shorter cast time) A shadow minion would pop out from Maxwell and collect resources, dig things up, pickup items and so on and so forth. Once the tasks in the area have been completed the minion will go back to Maxwell with whatever has been collected and then an amount of fuel is deducted from the Codex Umbra (Which would be recharged with nightmare fuel) depending on how much work was completed. The minion could be stopped by punching it like the current version deducting however much fuel it had used up at that point.

If he wanted his shadow minions to fight he would instead equip the Codex Umbra and direct an attack at range to summon a shadow hit man to murder the subject. Whether or not the fighter minions would be stronger or not I am not totally sure, it would be interesting to have them draw aggro better and tank some hits but otherwise that is up for debate. The limit of how many minions he could summon at a time would probably be about the same as it is currently as well as taking parts of his sanity in exchange for the work.

This would make his kit into a much more unique taskmaster kind of character instead of the forest killing shadow gang he is right now. It would nerf his ability to completely decimate forests/rock biomes (Which means Woodie would be the best woodcutter now) in exchange for more options with his minions. The kit makes sense with his character and would fill the fast gatherer niche that is absent from the current lineup.

Well that's all i've got to say on the subject. If you've got some feedback on the idea I would love to hear it.

[maradyne]

Hm...
Functionally, that wouldn't actually be too bad to try and implement. AoE Choppers were already done in the Gorge by putting down the book; here, you would just have to instead cast a Spell that creates that same entity setup (with something else taking the place of the Gorge book, it could even be invisible). Have the Workers automatically switch between their tools ala the Single Player version. Done.

As for how it actually functions, there are a few options. Timer is the most obvious. Could also make the central 'control' object some shadowy overseer that's punchable by Maxwell alone, to end the Spell.
Though, there's another option...

 

Maxwell is a magician, right?
Magicians have a variety of tricks up their sleeves.
I really like the idea of fueling the Codex with Nightmare Fuel, and then using it as a control point for said tricks.

Say, if you have the Codex equipped in a special slot, you get a series of buttons for different Spells, like this mod does.
You could have one for Workers, one for Fighters, one for Gatherers...
Another spell or two, like one that ensnares mobs with Shadows. Maybe a couple extra spells obtainable by upgrading the book with Ruins or Lunar loot.

But from there, you hit the button for whatever spell wherever you want. Same button to end the spell.
Having a spell active adds another button or two above it, allowing control; like manually ordering Workers to only use a specific tool, or setting a point for all of them to gather and work around.
Or telling Duelists to stay at your side.
Please god some way of keeping them from yeeting themselves before they can do anything useful.

 

Basics, but it has a lot of room for expansion.
He's the kind of character that I would like to see grow as the game does. It's his world, after all.