Wes Rework Ideas (Yes, for real.)

[KingLobster]

Alright, let's talk the Wes "Rework" that happened on April Fools Day. 

I get it, making the challenge character a joke update that really changes nothing, but honestly I was pretty hyped for that update, because for a challenge character he's not much of a challenge. Genuinely, I'd say Webber is more of a challenge than Wes is. That said, the primary reason is because most of Wes' general difficulties can be overcome by farms, gear, and listening instead of relying on character prompts. That said, I have some ideas on how to make him a genuinely playable character, with some actually hard to overcome downsides.

Okay, to make this make sense, we have to talk about the Constant's supposed behavior, and on Wes' backstory. 

In theory, the Constant takes existing abilities and skills, and turns them into powers that could aid our characters in survival, and Wes has exactly one skill. Miming.

In turns of backstory, Wes was born in a wealthy family in Paris, before his house burned down, and he lost everything, leaving him a homeless, mute, orphan. I think we can work with this.

1. Fire

To start off, I'd assume that losing your home, your family, and your voice due to a fire would give a good deal of trauma, regardless of who you are. So hows about this, if an object in Wes's view begins burning, an instant -10 sanity, like how wormwood takes sanity damage from hurting plants. But if any type of house burns down, Pig, Merm, or Bunnyman, -25 sanity, since it probably reminds him of his own house burning down. 

And that's not all, maxed out fire sources that can actually burn things down, including Fire Pits, and campfires, drain your sanity, more so the more on fire it is. Up to minus 20 per second with a maxed out fire pit. Endothermic versions don't give this penalty.

2. Family

Having followers gives him extra sanity, but followers dying hits him for -30 sanity each. It's all about the trauma people.

3. Mime

This is where we get in deep, so hold on tight.

Wes does decreased weapon damage, so maybe, at the cost of cutting his sanity, similar to Maxwell, he can create illusion weapons, which deal the full amount of damage, and have the penalty of disappearing when you put them down or take it out of your hand. Maybe a melee weapon that does ~45 damage, and a ranged weapon that does ~30 damage. You also have to get your sanity back to full once you get back your lost sanity, it doesn't just max back out like with Maxwell. 

Wes can at the cost of half his current max sanity, make an illusion barrier, and block an attack.

and finally, make his balloons do more damage so they can be working traps and not just distractions.

4. Misc.

In the sake of balancing out Wes's hyper focus on sanity without any way to combat losing it short of putting on the bee queen crown and standing next to The Deerclops, maybe use one of the little things from his Verdant skin, that says he's an avid landscape painter in his downtime. Once a day, randomly generate a biome, and while in that biome, gain a positive sanity aura of maybe +10 per minute.

Face paint! Wes more than likely has scars from the fire that he'd rather cover up, but who says you can't do it stylishly? Add some different facepaints that could add different buffs, or perhaps, maybe make a way to see him without the face paint on, like during the rain, that gives him a sanity penalty for insecurity.

He gains bonus sanity when eating food while on low hunger.

Keep all current penalties, so he's still difficult.

 

I understand that a lot of these ideas have to do with sanity, but I wanna make him a sort of Antithesis to Maxwell. They have similar powers, but where Maxwell is completely in control of his mind, Wes has gone through so much, from losing his family to being imprisoned by Maxwell, that he simply isn't in control of his.

Tell me what you think, I'm pretty happy with it.

[Mike23Ua]

Okay look I’m a Wendy MAIN- And Wendy’s rework was beyond “Mediocre” it went above and beyond the general concept of what a Rework has been. and I’m not talking about JUST Wendy/Abigail, I am talking more very specifically about the more Obscure things people who DON’T main Wendy may not ever even Notice-

Sanity Management both Positively AND Negatively should never be a problem For Anyone who Is not playing as Wendy as long as their is a Wendy in your Server- A crafted Sisturn full of flower petals + Head Garlands or Top Hats raises sanity.. just by merely standing near it.

Meanwhile any non Wendy player can stand Directly underneath a Pipspook for negative Sanity drain effects- Which is SUPER Useful for Farming Nightmare fuel fighting Crawling Horrors without spawning the harder to deal with lower sanity variants Nightmare Beak. 

So the TL:DR- Wendy’s refresh gave players a passive way of raising and also lowering sanity Without needing to waste tool durability or food resources in the process to do so.

Honestly “challenge characters” are thrown out the Window the moment the game becomes Multiplayer- the only ones that are Argueable as Challenges are Warly and Wormwood..

But as long as Wortox exists... Wormwoods Inability to heal from eating foods becomes a non-factor.

The only character that REMAINS annoying even in a Multiplayer setting is Warly (and Wes.. but Klei will refresh Wes so he doesn’t count)  

I don’t really care what they do to Wes as long as whatever negative downsides he has are not effecting an entire server full of people who did not also select to play as Wes and therefore do not want the added challenge of weapons and Armor being more useless because Wes is in the Server.

They can make all the hounds in a Hound wave target WES first and foremost & that would make him more of a challenge while indirectly helping the rest of the server.

Warly and Wormwood are good examples of characters with Challenges that do not directly impact anyone other than Warly & Wormwood.. Wes- Needs to change.

[Flip Face]

I thought it was strange at first, but when you explained about the disadvantage of fire I loved it.

Solitude and Family is not something explicit in the game, but it is very present in the atmosphere of the game, I think the loss of sanity by other dead players should be greater, making the wreath ineffective, against the sanity drain.

About mimica, I just find these values too high, and I would not like it to be limited to combat, just.

(But that's just my opinion, I hope I'm not rude).

Yes, wow!

The defense with invisible walls would make the combat much more interesting (at a cost, of course).

Well, I don't think Wes's balloons should do any more damage. And few animals are irritated by them ... I think only dogs really.
His balloons seem to be more focused on the collective, such as sanity, comfort, welcoming, fun, decoration.
(Maybe its popping noise could scare the animals)

Face painting is really cool, besides you suggesting that, I think he could paint other players, strengthening them too.
(Furthermore, his face is the only part of the character that is rarely hidden by other items).

I liked your idea, I found it very creative, I hope you share others you have.
In the end my opinion doesn't matter, but I liked to imagine those things.

[wigfrids hat]

can someone please tell me where the fire story actually originates from? i've looked before and it seems it all goes back to a random (and rather long) jeff-the-killer-esque creepypasta that was touted by thebeard777 at the beginning of his wes wednesday series(though it seems it was already established by then and he doesnt credit the author) and frankly it is really confusing and uncomfortable to see it pop up

[ArubaroBeefalo]

16 minutes ago, gaymime said:

he doesnt credit the author

i cant believe it! xD

[DrMcGillacactus]

Where did you get that backstory? If it's Klei oficial then i'm all for the ideas.

[KingLobster]

10 hours ago, gaymime said:

can someone please tell me where the fire story actually originates from? i've looked before and it seems it all goes back to a random (and rather long) jeff-the-killer-esque creepypasta that was touted by thebeard777 at the beginning of his wes wednesday series(though it seems it was already established by then and he doesnt credit the author) and frankly it is really confusing and uncomfortable to see it pop up

It's an old post on the forums that I, and a lot of other people really resonated with, that people adopted as a temporary solution to wes' lack of backstory. I thought it adds interconnectivity, considering the fire may have been started by our resident pyromaniac, on accident or on purpose. Either way, I just really like it, and until we get official backstory, considering it just seems better than "he chooses not to talk", and I am therefore gonna run with this one like a pair of scissors.

[Mike23Ua]

Wes’s short will be sad and tragic just like all other shorts that came before it- Wes probably WILL talk in his short (because everyone who is in the constant has been lured there by false promises of secret knowledge, power, fame, being better at something, etc...)

So my theory is that Wes WANTED to be a Mime but was a failure at it- by letting out Joyful giggles each time he built a balloon animal or whatever..

What we DO KNOW for a fact is Wes was trapped inside an invisible maze full of clock work monsters, and that Maxwell seems to be the one that put him there because when examining trapped Wes as Maxwell he quoted something along the lines of “His performances displeased Me.”

We also know as FACT from the Compendium update that Wes’s favorite food dish is a Warly exclusive specialty dish- Take that however you want.

The general tone of DST seems to be to lure people into the constant through various means- Wagstaff and Walter- Curiosity, Wilson Forbidden Knowledge, Wigfrid the offer to perform on a grand stage.

So my theory for Wes is that he talked.. and he talked way too much to be a Mime, he WANTED to be a Mime but he just couldn’t stay silent- So upon being placed into the constant.. Not only did Maxwell trap him in an invisible maze full of clockwork monsters for his displeasing performances in the real world.. but he ALSO Stripped Wes completely of his voice

(Little Mermaid Style) 

 

[wigfrids hat]

58 minutes ago, KingLobster said:

It's an old post on the forums that I, and a lot of other people really resonated with, that people adopted as a temporary solution to wes' lack of backstory. I thought it adds interconnectivity, considering the fire may have been started by our resident pyromaniac, on accident or on purpose. Either way, I just really like it, and until we get official backstory, considering it just seems better than "he chooses not to talk", and I am therefore gonna run with this one like a pair of scissors.

well why cant he be mute for a non-tragic reason? or if it must involve suffering why not it be something that maxwell did? jeff the killer was kind of a really bad story, it seems like a disservice to give wes the same story but sad instead of gory, you know?

[KingLobster]

13 hours ago, gaymime said:

well why cant he be mute for a non-tragic reason? or if it must involve suffering why not it be something that maxwell did? jeff the killer was kind of a really bad story, it seems like a disservice to give wes the same story but sad instead of gory, you know?

I want you to say non-tragic again, but think about the story of don't starve as we know it. 90% of these characters backstories are tragic.

[wigfrids hat]

5 hours ago, KingLobster said:

I want you to say non-tragic again, but think about the story of don't starve as we know it. 90% of these characters backstories are tragic.

except there are other characters that had a good life like warly and wigfrid who only had sadness and desperation come more recently, truthfully aside from winona and wortox(and possibly wilson? his backstory still feels really underdeveloped) it seems all of the survivors had pretty ok lives(some having had really good ones) before the Bad Thing that caused them to sink low enough to fall in maxwells trap. you can 100% have something super terrible happen to you one time and not over and over again through your life

 

if you want something lore-focused though it makes a whole lot more sense that, like the others, he was a normal person whose most prized quality takes on a supernatural bent

[AileTheAlien]

On 10/14/2020 at 6:57 PM, KingLobster said:

Mime

I feel like an easy way to have "mime" stuff in the game, that wouldn't be too confusing or complex, would just be to have a few special recipes that produce specific items, like how Wigfrid has her spears and helmets. For example, an imaginary spear that only lasts for a short duration, or else breaks after only 30 hits, and costs sanity to produce. Or else a Definitely Real Bowl Full Of Food, which works like a sleeping roll in reverse - you sit there "eating" your "food", gaining some food and draining sanity.  : )

[wigfrids hat]

12 minutes ago, AileTheAlien said:

Re

I feel like an easy way to have "mime" stuff in the game, that wouldn't be too confusing or complex, would just be to have a few special recipes that produce specific items, like how Wigfrid has her spears and helmets. For example, an imaginary spear that only lasts for a short duration, or else breaks after only 30 hits, and costs sanity to produce. Or else a Definitely Real Bowl Full Of Food, which works like a sleeping roll in reverse - you sit there "eating" your "food", gaining some food and draining sanity.  : )

how would you lock these to only a wes though? if anyone can carry around a definitely real bowl of food then things get broken fast

[AileTheAlien]

Just make it a character-specific item like the pile of balloons. He's the mime - only he should be capable of miming. (And to pre-emptively elaborate - miming eating food needs to restore less than you'd lose by using a sleeping roll or other items. Otherwise it would let you bypass both the sanity and food mechanics entirely.)

[JaxckLl]

Something I suggested in another thread was to give Wes the ability to create water balloons for free from any water source. Wes then turns into a great source of reactive fire control, a living Flingomatic. On top of that, these water balloons, and his current balloon traps, would reset hostility. This would allow players, Wes in particular, to run away from monsters especially effectively. I feel this would perfectly fit with your current suggestions, making the full list of Wes's abilities,

Advantages

• Illusion weapons. Wes can mime invisible weapons at the cost of sanity, but no other resource. Specifically he can mime a sword and a whip, the sword having War Spear-esque damage and the whip a medium range Spear-esque profile.
• Balloon traps. Wes can make balloon traps which are super cheap but cause minimal damage. They do distract most enemies, especially Spiders & Hounds.
• Water Balloons. Wes can produce free water balloons at a fresh water source, and is able to keep up to a stack on hand. These balloons can be used to deal minimal damage, and they also apply wetness and can put out fires (or be used to lower the sanity of Wes & other players). Additionally, they reset hostility and are great against Hounds. These balloons can be used to water plants, although it's not a terribly efficient source of water.
• Invisible Box. Wes can mime himself an invisible box into which he can hide to last out the night, protecting him from Charlie & other monsters and slowly restoring his health. However the box is invisible and his Sanity does not recover like with other methods of sleeping. The box disappears at morning.
• Artist Troupe. Wes gains sanity whenever he recruits a follower. He can gain an additional chunk by painting Pig faces with mime makeup.

Disadvantages

• Weak willed. Wes is afraid of Fire, losing sanity when uncontained fires are nearby (aka anything other than a Firepit. He doesn't like standing too close however! Endothermic fires don't count, so they are a good source of light for Wes when in a pinch). He loses a big chunk of sanity whenever a house is destroyed by fire, such as a Pig, Merm, or Bunny house.
• Is a mime. Wes is a mime and thus obviously doesn't care what anyone around him thinks about his life choices. Wes does not benefit from sanity restoring auras from other players, and must rely on food, sleeping, or his own gear for sanity.
• Weak bones. A lifetime of not enough calcium has left Wes with a weak heart and a small stomach. He has lower stomach & health than other characters. However he loses less HP when starving because he's a mime and has had to starve for his art. Wes can extend this starving grace zone by eating grass, although it doesn't restore any stomach when he does so.
• Dry as paper. Wes is thin as a rake and dry as paper, meaning he burns almost as well as Twigs. He takes more damage from fire and overheating, and gets cold faster.

Always insane if using his abilities, killed by a puff of hot wind or even a mild chill, doesn't really benefit from being on a team, but gets free weapons on day 1 and can reset boss aggression. Now that's a challenge character for a boss rush!

[0rutyna0]

Another proposal to change Wes.
- Good-natured. Cannot attack non-hostile mobs (pigs, butterflies, etc.). Can only hit those who are hostile.
+ Advanced balloonomancy. From his balloons, he can create containers / chests floating above the ground for transporting items. It works like a chester (four slots) - they move after those who have the end of the rope in their inventory.
+ - Impressible. Gains double the effect of all sanity-affecting auras and items.

[HellHeater]

i think guardian pigs shouldnt attack wes thinking hes not a thread XD

[JaxckLl]

Guardian Pigs still run up to you, but instead of attacking they just pat Wes on the head & walk away.

"IS THREAT MUST PROTE- Oh, is just Mime"

[Dragolantis]

On 1/4/2021 at 10:09 PM, JaxckLl said:

"IS THREAT MUST PROTE- Oh, is just Mime"

I flipping love that XD

[I_S1MP]

Idk why but my head keeps telling me be a wes main after reading this topic and every comment. 

[Mike23Ua]

I have no idea why this thread was revived after months of inactivity but since it was- I felt I might as well share this.

Back sometime a year or so ago: (when there was a thread for elevated foundations of land) I had suggested that Wes have cool perks like tying several balloons to himself and floating across gaps of land- someone else later drew up a cool concept art of Wes floating upward to reach a elevated foundation for Winona (I forget who drew this.. but whoever you are: If you don’t mind reposting that art here I would appreciate it)

Well lately there’s been these advertisements for this mobile game that pops up in every single Ad on my phone, and well The Spoiler below just Cements my beliefs that Wes should TOTALLY Have this in some capacity when he gets his “real refresh”

Spoiler

 

[Well-met]

1 minute ago, Mike23Ua said:

I have no idea why this thread was revived after months of inactivity but since it was- I felt I might as well share this.

Back sometime a year or so ago: (when there was a thread for elevated foundations of land) I had suggested that Wes have cool perks like tying several balloons to himself and floating across gaps of land- someone else later drew up a cool concept art of Wes floating upward to reach a elevated foundation for Winona (I forget who drew this.. but whoever you are: If you don’t mind reposting that art here I would appreciate it)

Well lately there’s been these advertisements for this mobile game that pops up in every single Ad on my phone, and well The Spoiler below just Cements my beliefs that Wes should TOTALLY Have this in some capacity when he gets his “real refresh”

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Woodie already does this, and better.

[Gods fiddler]

give him a ballonomancy tab and let him be able to make the robot from the animated short