Wormwood and Farming Overhaul -Tweaks

[AlexMachado]

As much of the discussion on YouTube and the Klei forums has now come to the realization that this update makes Wormwood feel less unique among an update based on plants, I have a few suggestions on how this could be fixed. I also have a few potential buff ideas for Wormwood in the future. This topic has been on my mind since Wormwood was introduced into DST, and now that farming has received an overhaul that negatively impacts him in a few ways I feel obligated to start this conversation as a Wormwood main. So here are my ideas...

-Wormwood does not need the new head accessories to research plants, and can research them based on his interaction with them, giving him a unique research tab to open without wearing said head accessories. This would make him feel more inner connected with the plants, or at least more so than other characters in that regard.

-Wormwood can use compost wrap to make fully grown crops the larger variant regardless of whether or not the crop is planted on the new plowed turf. The fact that the compost wrap is a Wormwood specific craft makes me believe it should provide some sort of unique effect to the new farming overhaul, otherwise any other character could just farm as good as wormwood with science machine tier crafting. Again Wormwood is supposed to be connected to plants and understand them better than others.

-A sprinkler system craft, similar in function to the ice flingo-matic, could be an alchemy-engine tier craft that makes watering plants a little less tedious. This is especially true if there are no ponds nearby to gather water from. The sprinkler system could be fueled by ice, rain, or any fuel Klei feels would be best implemented.

-If nothing else, make the healing animation for the compost wrap as fast as consuming food, so that Wormwood can be somewhat viable in combat situations. Also making the compost wrap heal 40-50 health instead of 30 would feel much more rewarding for a craft that is not only unique to Wormwood, but also hard to gather large amounts of.

Other than what I have stated above, I am aware that many players are not too thrilled about the nerf to Wickerbottom, so I hope there is some resolve there as well. I am not a Wickerbottom player by any means so I will leave the conversation and opinion up to people who are more familiar.

Thank you and I am interested to hear what the DST community thinks on this update and future updates to come.

[Zeklo]

I'm not sure about this. The main problem with where he is now is present in these suggestions: Shortcuts.

1. Wormwood not needing the hat for researching becomes useless once the research his done. He already has the hats other functionality too.
2. This one is ok, but ultimately won't make a huge difference if you're farming efficiently. Plus it would be a shame if the 'meta' for Wormwood becomes ignoring the really fun new system
3. Giving Wormwood a powerful structure just turns him into a pick & swap character.
4. I wouldn't mind a compost wrap buff, but that's it's own thing apart from the new gardening system.

I could definitely see a unique ability being added to Compost Wrap—maybe make it cause the plot to retain wetness, cause crops to consume less nutrients, or lower plant stress. At the very least make it stand unmatched as a Fertilizer instead of being tied with Glommer's goop.

The real issue right now is Wormwood gives access to widely accessible things, sooner. Which makes him somewhat useful in the earlier game, but fall off entirely once the ball starts rolling. He needs something that's irreplaceable, and can't be achieved with other means, even if it's just a flat bonus to crop growing speed or a natural crop stress repellant.

[QuartzBeam]

I would totally be in favor of a Compost Wrap buff, because it is an absolutely terrible fertilizer. It gives 4 formula, 4 compost and 4 manure. Whereas its ingredients give 2 formula, 2 compost and 22 manure. Hardly a fair trade.

Then again, I think all fertilizers are terrible, but that's a matter for a different thread.

Also, I don't think Wormwood being able to research plants makes sense. Research is scientific, whereas Wormwood's abilities are intuitive.

For example, people know when they are feeling ill and they can tell other people what symptoms they are experiencing, but only doctors know all that complex stuff about vitamins and organs and viruses and how to treat them.

Similarly, flowers can tell Wormwood what they are experiencing, but they would not know to describe the exact amounts of each nutrient their organism needs to function properly, hence the need for something more science-y.

[AlexMachado]

8 hours ago, Zeklo said:

I'm not sure about this. The main problem with where he is now is present in these suggestions: Shortcuts.

1. Wormwood not needing the hat for researching becomes useless once the research his done. He already has the hats other functionality too.
2. This one is ok, but ultimately won't make a huge difference if you're farming efficiently. Plus it would be a shame if the 'meta' for Wormwood becomes ignoring the really fun new system
3. Giving Wormwood a powerful structure just turns him into a pick & swap character.
4. I wouldn't mind a compost wrap buff, but that's it's own thing apart from the new gardening system.

I could definitely see a unique ability being added to Compost Wrap—maybe make it cause the plot to retain wetness, cause crops to consume less nutrients, or lower plant stress. At the very least make it stand unmatched as a Fertilizer instead of being tied with Glommer's goop.

The real issue right now is Wormwood gives access to widely accessible things, sooner. Which makes him somewhat useful in the earlier game, but fall off entirely once the ball starts rolling. He needs something that's irreplaceable, and can't be achieved with other means, even if it's just a flat bonus to crop growing speed or a natural crop stress repellant.

I agree with your number 2 and 4. I should have been more clear on 3, that it would have been a structure any character could craft. And on 1 I just think it would make him feel more connected to plants, similar to how wickerbottom has all science machine tier crafting available.

6 hours ago, QuartzBeam said:

I would totally be in favor of a Compost Wrap buff, because it is an absolutely terrible fertilizer. It gives 4 formula, 4 compost and 4 manure. Whereas its ingredients give 2 formula, 2 compost and 22 manure. Hardly a fair trade.

Then again, I think all fertilizers are terrible, but that's a matter for a different thread.

Also, I don't think Wormwood being able to research plants makes sense. Research is scientific, whereas Wormwood's abilities are intuitive.

For example, people know when they are feeling ill and they can tell other people what symptoms they are experiencing, but only doctors know all that complex stuff about vitamins and organs and viruses and how to treat them.

Similarly, flowers can tell Wormwood what they are experiencing, but they would not know to describe the exact amounts of each nutrient their organism needs to function properly, hence the need for something more science-y.

Agreed, compost wrap needs a buff for sure. On the point you made about wormwoods abilities being intuitive and not scientific, the argument could also be made that his "lunar roots" give him, how should I put this, "forgotten knowledge?" I just think it would be an interesting little buff that ties in lore with game mechanics. As I said to the comment above, it would be cool if wormwood didnt have to research plants with the hat but could speak to them and learn if they are hungry or what they want. It could be knowledge thats just a benefit of being wormwood, similar to wickerbottoms ability to craft all science machine tier items without the use of the science machine. 

[QuartzBeam]

22 minutes ago, AlexMachado said:

could speak to them and learn if they are hungry or what they want

He already can?

[AlexMachado]

5 minutes ago, QuartzBeam said:

He already can?

I know but I feel like Wormwood shouldnt have to use the plant research hats at all, just think it makes more sense for a plant character.