Webber Rework Idea

[T.A.G.]

Webber Rework Hype

Anyways, I had this idea for how the Webber Rework could go. I don't work at Klei, so I don't know whether a single bit of this comes even close to plausible, but hey, had the idea, felt like putting it down.

I already did a Wilson Rework idea, so I'm going to keep the format of that for the most part, except with some hidden text so this is significantly less cluttered than last time.

 

With that, let's start with what Webber already has.

Is a monster

Spoiler

Webber is a spooder boy, so all forms of spiders are neutral to him, whereas other characters will be attacked if they get within aggro range. Webber can also walk on webbing without alerting spiders or getting slowed, and the sanity drain from spiders doesn't affect him at all. If he eats any form of Monster Meat, he will get the normal hunger benefits, but won't lose health or sanity like other characters. However, a few neutral mobs, namely Pigmen, Bunnymen, and Catcoons, will be unconditionally hostile to him.

Can befriend spiders

Spoiler

If Webber feeds any spider with meat of any form, that spider (and possibly up to 4 more near that spider) will become followers to Webber dependent on the meat used. While a large amount of them can be amassed very easily, they are not particularly great for the purpose of combat with other mobs, since they are pretty weak unless they are a Spider Warrior, which you won't have as many of in comparison to the standard spiders. Plus, they eat any meat on the ground, and unlike Pigmen, they're pretty quick about it, meaning that even going on hunts with them is likely out of the question unless you want half the reason you went on the hunt in the first place to be gone in half a second. As they stand right now, the only reliable use for this perk is a Spider Civil War, getting you lots of spider drops with little effort. And while that's great, it seems a tad strange for the character, as they clearly feel comfortable around spiders, yet the best way to use these spiders is to stand in the middle of a self-induced genocide of them. Oh, but I'm getting off track, let's move on.

Grows a silky smooth beard

Spoiler

Similar to Wilson, Webber grows a beard after some survival time. After 3 days, a Trimmed, after 6, a Groomed, and after 9, a Magnificent Beard. While it grows faster, it also provides significantly less insulation, at 11, 34, and 68 respectively. Like Wilson's, shaving will give 10 sanity, but this beard drops Silk instead of Beard Hair, which is a more useful material, not that you'll have any shortage of it as Webber.

Webber can also craft Spider Eggs (needed to place more spider dens in the world, and only obtainable by other characters upon destroying tier 3 spider dens or killing a Spider Queen) with 12 silk, 6 spider glands, and 6 papyrus. 6 papyrus... that's a lot. That's equivalent to 24 reeds, which is quite a lot for a immovable resource limited to a rather dangerous biome.

Webber enters the Constant with 2 Monster Meat and a Spider Eggs.

His hunger and health are slightly above average at 175 each, but his sanity is the second lowest in the game, at only 100.

Now on to some ideas!

 

Knows how to farm

Before we get into this, I want to give my stance on the "farmer or spider focus" argument I've seen around. I think the majority should be on the spider side, but I do think a few perks could be devoted to Webber's farmer background, allowing him to be an all-around resource gathering character. I obviously don't think his ability to farm should be as powerful as Wormwood, but he should have at a few perks in relation to it in my opinion.

Spoiler

 

          - Any resource harvested by hand (Grass, Saplings, Reeds, Farm Crops, etc.) is harvested by Webber twice as fast. On top of this, there is a chance (let's say, 25%) that Webber will get an extra drop from these hand-harvested resources.

          - Webber has a midpoint between Wormwood and the Premiere Gardeneer Hat, where he can identify the details of a plant's stress problems with a standard Gardeneer hat (other characters require the premiere, while Wormwood doesn't need a hat at all)

          - Webber now has the option to get Electric Milk from Volt Goats without having to kill them while electrified (he know how to take care of goats, I think this is reasonable) There should be a timer on this, even despite the fact that it's a relatively niche ingredient, so let's go with once per goat every 4 days.

 

Diet changes

No, I'm not doing anything drastic here to add a forced downside, calm down.
 

Spoiler

 

          - Webber can now eat any raw meat without suffering a -10 sanity penalty (he can eat raw monster meat with no problems, raw regular meat shouldn't be a problem)

          - Eating monster meat foods as Webber now restores half the sanity and health that it would drain from other characters (this does not apply to raw monster meat)

 

Has spider legs

Spoiler

          - Webber can now perform a leap, akin to Spider Warriors, at the loss of 10 sanity each time. This leap can be done for the purpose of transportation, launching yourself over breaks in the land or low obstacles like ponds, but can also be used to attack enemies from afar for 25 damage each lunge. If you have a weapon equipped and want to lunge, the action will be a direct right-click, whereas using your weapon will remain as a direct left click. The lunge has a range of a 2 pitchfork tile radius around Webber. Webber is NOT invincible during this lunge, but if he is hit during the lunge, he will not flinch, which makes sure the lunge plays out the whole way through.

Is a spider master

Spoiler

 

          - Feeding a recruited spider and then surviving a fight with that spider will make the spider become a "trained" spider. These spiders have 200 health, (twice as much as a normal spider, but half as much as a Spider Warrior) can no longer be stunlocked, (like warriors) and deal 30 damage per bite instead of just 20.

          - Alternatively, doing the same process, but gathering resources instead of fighting, can train the spider in resource gathering instead of fighting. These spiders also have increased health and can't be stunlocked, but actually have slightly reduced damage, at 15.

          - Any trained spiders are passive to walls, players, Chester, Hutch, and basically anything that Webber isn't engaged in combat with. They will also prioritize following Webber over fighting, meaning they will stop fighting if Webber gets too far away. (I don't know if this is in base game, but as a precaution for clarity, it's here)

          - Trained spiders do not eat meat left on the ground, and will instead ignore it completely.

          - A gathering trained spider will go to nearby hand-picked resources and gather them before bringing them to Webber. They can only carry one at a time, but since you can have more than one, it can be decently efficient. If your inventory is full, they'll drop what they have on the ground next to you.

          - Any trained spider can be ordered to stay at a specific location. A trained combat spider will wander only a short distance from its "stay" position, but becomes hostile to anything that attacks an ally of Webber within about a screen's worth of space around it. (allies include Chester, Hutch, your walls, players provided that PvP is off, and other trained spiders.

          - If a resource trained spider is ordered to stay, its wander distance is a bit larger than its "stay" location, but it will gather hand-picked resources near its "stay" location and instead of delivering them to Webber, it will deliver them to the container nearest to its "stay" location. If there is no container available, it will drop them on the ground at its "stay" location. However, the spiders will fall asleep during the day. (fully automated resources might be a little too much, you know?)

          - Only a limited amount of spiders can be trained at any given time, but it doesn't matter if they were trained in combat or gathering. They will stay trained for up to 5 days, but will eventually become untrained and go to the nearest spider nest. They still won't attack anything passive while looking for a spider nest, but are otherwise just regular spiders at that point.

          - Right here is where I would put an alternate way to get spider loot without a spider war, but I haven't thought of one.

 

 

And now, crafts!

Yeah, I know, some people are tired of character specific crafting tabs, but I'm fine with it. I'm putting this here.

This is not a final list, and basically is just a few ideas out of what would be more if fully implemented.

First things first: Spider eggs are now 3 papyrus instead of 6. That's the only change, let's move on.

Silk Wrap: 4 silk.

          Does nothing special, it's a building block for more crafts. Stacks up to 40.

Silk Bandage: 1 silk wrap, 2 spider glands.

          Acts as a healing item that heals 25 health per use. Stacks up to 10.

Monster Trap: 1 monster meat, 1 trap, 1 silk wrap.

          Acts as a baited trap that attracts anything that eats meat. (Pigmen, hounds, buzzards, spiders, etc.) Non-spider enemies will become trapped in web and will be unable to move for a short time upon eating the meat. Spiders won't be immobilized, but will instead be caught in the trap, resulting in instant death like a normal trap. Upon activation, the monster trap becomes a regular trap and loses one use. Does not stack.

Bug Trap: 2 silk wraps.

          Bug traps can be placed on trees, flowers, saplings, and other plants. After a period of time, the trap can be checked and will yield a random reward. Most often, it will be a live bug, but might yield grass, twigs, and can rarely even give live birds, rabbits, rarer resources like reeds, and could even give something like a lunar moth at a very low chance. Chopping a tree with a bug trap will destroy the trap. The bug trap must be manually removed from other things before that thing can be picked, which also destroys the trap. A destroyed trap drops 4 silk (50% of the raw resources needed to make it.) Stacks up to 10.

Venom Jab: 1 hound tooth, 2 stingers, 2 spider glands. (Requires a science machine)

          Acts as a melee weapon that deals 17 initial damage, and adds lasting poison damage for another 34 damage over time. It has a total of 75 uses before it breaks.

Venom Whip: 1 venom jab, 1 silk wrap, 1 tail o' three cats. (requires an alchemy engine)

          Is identical to the Venom Jab, but has the range of a whip, 25 extra uses, and has a chance to cause enemies to panic upon being struck, similar to how a Tail o' Three Cats can pacify an enemy.

Monster Lunch: 1 monster lasagna, 2 pig skin. (requires an alchemy engine)

          While being held, has a chance to cause spiders to follow you without having to feed them, though they follow you for a rather short time. Hounds are more likely to chase someone holding a Monster Lunch. This item has an aura around it that causes a -3.33 sanity per minute drain, while also providing a 10% slowdown on hunger drain. (neither of these apply to Webber, however) The Monster Lunch can be eaten with stats equivalent to Monster Tartare, and spoils after 10 days.

 

So yeah. Those were a few ideas. I'm interested to see what people think of this, and if any of this comes close to what we actually get in the game.

This has been thoughts on how to change the spooder boy.

Spooders.

[W0l0l0]

Silly idea: I'd like to see createable red and blue spiders similar to the red and blue hounds. Say Maxwell taught Webber how to do it for the bants.

[Omel-ette]

Dunno about these, i like some ideas but others dont seem fitting, but at least you didn't talk about mounting spider queens.

I dont like the faster harvesting and chance for extra drop at all, it kinda makes sense, but i think if someone should have something like that it should be the magical sentient plant also known as wormwood.

Having to not fight electric goats at all seems a bit not op per say but unfitting with the whole electric milk mechanic, maybe once the goats turn into electric goats could let him milk them and only get angry once the milking process has ended.

The jump is pretty cool, but i dont think it should always be a thing, maybe if he has low enough sanity he could do it or something like that, but i do like the idea, it's like a nice in between of the soul hopping and wheeler's dash.

I like the training spiders idea, but it really doesnt fit the lore, he sees them as friends not slaves, the same reason why mounting spider queens makes no sense, he doesnt have privileges, he just asks his spider friends for help, but the training mechanic itself is cool and maybe it could work, who knows.

Last, i didn't find most crafting recepies that useful, i'd say maybe the traps could instead be a sticky flooring for all enemies as a way to stop the enemy and make webber more of a trapper thar lures enemies to his traps to then leave the rest to the spiders or other players, the weapons seem a bit niche and unecessary at times, but not the worst thing ever and maybe could work, i do like the idea of a new whip like weapon though and finally the lunch seems cool but probably would end up being just a niche little item.

 

Overall i like it, most ideas do come from somewhere which is appreciated and they seem more unique than most suggestions, but i'm not suere if they would all work.

Sorry for the long message, i liked your ideas and wanted to give some feedback on them.