Woodie Improvement Ideas

[W0l0l0]

I'd like to start off by saying that I really enjoyed the Woodie rework. It was excellent, and made him an amazing character, probably my favorite rework. I'd also like to say that I know this sort of stuff isn't exactly at the top of Klei's priorities, so I really am just posting this because I really liked the ideas I came up with, and want to hear what everyone else can come up with and what they think. I know a lot of the following will be optimistic, but if it doesn't sound like it'd break the game, I'd be happy.

The goals with these ideas:

• Make Woodie's transformations relevant at all stages of the game
• Provide a way to modify/upgrade the forms for versatility without simple stat changes, or complexity
• Give Lucy a use that makes her worth keeping around when not chopping.
• Buff the Beaver
• Give a way for Woodie to survive during the mysterious energy event

So here they are:

1) Allow beaver to "eat" items to add them into the inventory. It's very difficult to make the beaver unique because mining, chopping, and hammering have already been mastered by Maxwell and Bearger. So my proposal is to allow the Beaver to fill a similar role to the lazy forager, with a extremely fast pick up speed of items. Nothing else in the game (to my knowledge) can assist with item collection like this, which is why I feel it would definitely give at least a bit more of a late game use, whilst still serving a lovely early game mining option.

2) Allow Lazy Explorer and Magiluminecence to be equippable by the wereforms. The purpose of this change is simply to allow the forms to be "upgraded" in a very simple way. I think this would be excellent combining Lazy Explorer and suggestion 1) as the beaver, and Magilumiecence as the goose.

3) Give Woodie a crafting tab for structures that his forms can interact with. Crafting tabs are very on theme for a lot of the recent reworks, and I know many people aren't a fan of it, but please hear read me out. This tab would allow Woodie to craft structures that would help him when he interacts with them in certain were forms.

For example, a Moose dedicated structure that would behave like a wall with HP, and when charged into, extends the moose charging duration for 3 minutes, which would be stackable up to 3* charge distance and 9 minutes. A reverse version could also exist to shorten the moose charge distance to up to 0.3* the usual distance. Other ideas include a gate that goose could pass through for a speed buff, a wall that is immune to Moose damage and Beaver Gnaws, serving to preserve their weremeter when needed, a structure that, when destroyed, doubles chopping rates for moose and beaver, a stone and wooden buildable that forces beaver to drop the associated resource in stacks when gnawed, something for hitstun protection, short "groggyness" immunity, ect.

A lot of these structures could behave like Warly's crock pot, as in, when destroyed/used, drops itself (or more likely, a fraction of the original ingredients) as an item for redeployment, which is obviously only possible in human form. They provide a way to modify the forms while sticking to the simplified controls that they are designed with.

And this tab would be located in Lucy! Similar to the Codex Umbra, leaving her on the floor would allow Woodie to carve wood and other items into these structures, which would make her extremely useful to keep around!

I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with the possibilities that this tab could offer. Some of the stats I came up with are not fully considered, I'm more focused on the overall idea of these walls and structures that could be intentionally destroyed to release certain buffs. It's the best way I could think of improving Woodie's forms, so that they can get better over time with more interactions, without changing how they work, or buffing the forms so that they're broken on a day 1 server.

4) Give Woodie a way to avoid transforming during the mysterious energy event. Not much to say here. I feel that this is more of a necessity than a luxury, I tried the lunar event, and even made a thread specifically asking how to get through it. Whilst there were some excellent ideas, there doesn't seem to be any way to complete it without being constantly forced to use Woodie forms. Obvious answers here are some kind of food or hat, feel free to suggest something more interesting.

5)  Give Woodie invincibility frames while transforming. Simply because Wortox gets them when hopping, and I'm jealous.

That's all I got!

Thanks for reading. I hope this didn't sound more idiotic to you than it did to me, I only had 5 Jager bomb and please suggest your own ideas below!

[BoysenSyrup]

1 minute ago, W0l0l0 said:

4) Give Woodie a way to avoid transforming during the mysterious energy event. Not much to say here. I feel that this is more of a necessity than a luxury, I tried the lunar event, and even made a thread specifically asking how to get through it. Whilst there were some excellent ideas, there doesn't seem to be any way to complete it without being constantly forced to use Woodie forms. Obvious answers here are some kind of food or hat, feel free to suggest something more interesting.

Wear the head of a Moose Goose so the moon confuses you for already being transformed and leaves you alone.

[Cheggf]

It would be really funny for Woodie to make a wooden scratching post type thing that he gnaws on or whatever to stay transformed. I'm imagining a big log sticking out of the ground with a hole in the side (that he gnawed) and the top is pointy.

[HellHeater]

or we could just ask for lucy skins 

[NightfallsCurse]

here's an idea

you can shut up Lucy!

[minespatch]

17 minutes ago, ShadowQueen said:

you can shut up Lucy!

The waifu must be protected.

[Baark0]

On the topic of character improvments, could Willow get some fire related perks? Other than she likes being near fire and hates the cold would be nice. Big Bernie is nice, but doesn't really scream "pyromaniac", at least to me. Who knows, maybe stuffed bears are usually involved in cases of arson.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

Woodie is perfect, he doesnt need more additions

Maybe the mysterious energy thing shouldnt be that annoying but things like invincibility frames.... just no

[QuartzBeam]

2 hours ago, Baark0 said:

On the topic of character improvments, could Willow get some fire related perks? Other than she likes being near fire and hates the cold would be nice. Big Bernie is nice, but doesn't really scream "pyromaniac", at least to me. Who knows, maybe stuffed bears are usually involved in cases of arson.

I wish we had gotten Burning Bernie instead of Big Bernie...

[Dextops]

2 hours ago, QuartzBeam said:

I wish we had gotten Burning Bernie instead of Big Bernie...

just turns into a pile of ash in 20 seconds but don't worry he too the whole base down with him

[QuartzBeam]

5 minutes ago, Dextops said:

just turns into a pile of ash in 20 seconds but don't worry he too the whole base down with him

I mean, honestly, if Big Bernie had like flaming eyes and could breathe fire or something that would have been cool as heck.

[Mysterious box]

The true injustice is that webber got a character specific craft that required ash before willow.

[minespatch]

12 hours ago, QuartzBeam said:

I mean, honestly, if Big Bernie had like flaming eyes and could breathe fire or something that would have been cool as heck.

I'd prefer robo-bernie. Gives Winona something to do.

[JaxckLl]

The only change I agree with unconditionally is the invincibility frames (agreed, it's BS that some characters get invincibility frames during required animations while others do not. Wolfgang should also get a couple for his "I am Mighty"/"I am Frail" animations). Woodie is currently one of the strongest characters in the game and he really does not need any additional buffs. I could see some kind of "Mooncharm" as an Amulet that resists the effects of the Moonstorm, provided it also worked for other characters (such as allowing Willow to use Bernie while Enlightened). I could also see some minor changes to the Beaver to bring it in line with the Moose/just using Lucy, but the cleanest solution there would be to just give it bonus damage against trees (so you can take out a full grown tree in 2-3 strikes, including the stump) not a weird pseudo-inventory.