Improvement Suggestions for the Waterlogged Content

[SinancoTheBest]

I think it's getting to be a great content update with very welcome changes to the seafaring mechanics as well as the new content we are all excited to finally see in the game. After testing the content myself, watching the videos made on it and discussing the additions with other DST fans, here's my final tweak suggestions for the current state of the beta. None of these are truly new, original, unheard of ideas but I suppose there's power in collective voice.

Sine qua non changes - I see these as crucial changes in improving the intended content additions.

1) Above Average trees spawning a few fig vines.

I know this is suggested so many times but I came to the conclusion that this simple change will do wonders in making the new content much more visible, impactful and overall enjoyable. Just one or two vines per fig tree should be enough. If the members of the developer team have reservations regarding this making the Great Fig Tree biomes obsolete, I assure you that it wont- there's still ample reason to visit the biome. Getting more nuts, fighting/capturing grass gators and getting figs & spider drops during sea voyages still stay as very valid characteristics specific to the biome as well as it constituting a significant part of the ocean. And investing so much resources, time and effort into making Knobbly Nuts grow completely justifies a steady source of figs, considering some very easy food sources like stone fruit bushes and flesh bulbs. This suggestion simply improves the fig related content- tree jams and fig recipes from being very situational and arduous to beneficial and impactful. 

I'm not saying the benefits of the chill canopy are bad at all, but to make this new content truly stick out, be visible and more impactful, it's a must have.

2) Tweaks to new dishes (Figgy Frogwich & Fig Stuffed Trunk)

Analyzing the four new crock pot dishes added through this update, Figatoni and Fig Kabab successfully meet the general standard of other dishes in the game. However Fig-stuffed Trunk and ESPECIALLY Figgy Frogwich does not. I don't have much to say about the stuffed trunk, its stats barely pass as an acceptable dish but it is highly inefficient given the cooked trunk's stats. It wouldn't be the end of the world if it stayed like this if figs were to be made more accessible as stated in the first suggestion but pushing it as a hunger-heavy dish by giving it Moqueca's hunger value of 112.5 would improve it as a rather great and worthwhile dish.

Figgy Frogwich, on the other hand, is a complete miss as things stand. It has terrible stats, uncommon ingredients and very low priority, I can't think of a single conceivable reason to cook it besides the one time to fill the entry in the cook book. Even amongst the very four dishes of this update, one has no reason not to make fig kabab instead by adding another frog leg and a twig. It even compares poorly to that tiny group of worst designed dishes in the game: Ceviche, Fish Tacos and Seafood Gumbo. And it doesn't have to be such a lost cause, all it needs is a reason to exist, a purpose however tiny it is. I suggest its sanity value to be buffed to match the Vegetable Stinger/Banana Pop/Salsa Fresca levels- 33. That way it can at least serve as a small sanity dish instead of having no purpose as a dish.

3) Shadow Loggers should not target Knobby and Above Average trees

Yet another instance of Maxwell clones going way overboard and this is a rather pressing issue that cannot wait Maxwell's Rework. Shadow Loggers should not, without prompt, attempt to cut Fig trees, if at all. Right now they will automatically target them, walk over water and cut your hardwork without mercy. This is especially worse when the trees have to be planted close to the shore such as in a "river". Until Maxwell's rework where he can be given more control over his puppets, I suggest Shadow Loggers should strictly not be allowed to cut the fig trees. They can and should cut the branches of the great tree. Otherwise, if this issue is not addressed, I guarantee many Maxwell players will inevitably end up involuntarily griefing large bases.

Life Improving Additions - These aren't as necessary improvements but can nevertheless greatly improve on the content.

4) Sweetish fish having one sweetener value

Sweetish fish works alright as a new large fish addition specific to the biome. However at the end of the day, it's just another large fish. One seemingly natural way to remedy this would be to give it one honey value as well as 1.0 fish value, similar to Ice Bream's 1.0 Fish + Ice properties to distinguish it from the rest of the bunch. The in-game dialogue as well as its name suggest that it should have such a unique property and it would add diversity to the seafaring content by making sweetener value accessible at sea.

5) Rare gator drops

Gators are a great new mob and what makes them even greater is that they were successfully refurbished from the previously scrapped content. One small way to make them even more special would be adding Grass Tufts or Saplings to their drop pool as chance based drops, having 33%, 25% or even 10% chance, as suggested by other users. This way, a long withstanding issue of Tufts and Saplings being limited would be addressed in one way.

6) Figs having 1 fruit value

The current value of figs: 0.5 Fruit is rather inconsistent compared to most other content in the game. Figs are fully fledged fruits after all and are much larger than berries. Stone fruits, representing avocados have 1.0 vegetable value despite being about as small as figs are and are tiny compared to pumpkins or eggplants. The tiny asparagus and onion still count as 1.0 vegetables, as well as small Pomegranates and Dragonfruit counting as 1.0 fruits. This arrangement unnecessarily limits the uses of figs in recipes such as Fruit Medley and Fresh Fruit Crepes. They can stay as they are since the fruit value is only relevant in very niche scenarios but I see no harm in distinguishing the Figs from berries as actual fully fledged fruits that they are and giving them a few more uses as well as more potential use in the future, rather than limiting it.

7) Trunks having more meat value

Trunks themselves are incomparably more filling than any other meat type, especially Regular, Monster and Leafy meats that have 1.0 meat value. Now that they can be used in the crock pot, I think they should have 1.5 or even 2 meat value given how meaty they are and how their nutritional value compares to the rest of the meats. 

8) Tree Jam craft granting more product

I agree with QuartzBeam that with many uses of the Tree Jam- fertilizer, boat patch, above average tree maker, tree upgrader, blooming source etc. the fig part of the recipe falls short. It'll naturally be easier to produce more if Figs are made by above average trees as per suggestion #1 but even so, making the craft grant two or even three Tree Jams would greatly bring out the potential of this new item with many uses. A comparable craft like super growth formula comes with five uses for a mere bottle, kelp and ash.

Also, an inconsistency with Fig Jam is that they cannot be used as fuel. Almost all other fertilizers (Only Growth formulas don't) can be used as fuel in fire and especially glommer's goop is a very potent fuel. Maybe the idea is that jam's very liquid to burn but atill I'd imagine it'd make good fuel and it'd be more consistent if it was made flammable rather than completely immune to fire.

9) Above average trees dropping more wood & driftwood upon destroyed

A logical change really- these trees are huge and take so much effort to grow- naturally they shouldn't be destroyed but in the event of their destruction they drop so little (6) wood, it makes no sense. They should drop much more wood and even some driftwood if chopped down or broken by other means as they are magnitudes larger than the closest comparable tree- Lune Trees. 

 

Wild Suggestions - These should not be taken as seriously as the other suggestions as they merely represent brainstorming of further new content that would probably take more work to implement and aren't very pressing. That said, I'm keeping them as they may serve to be inspirational or fun.

10) Growing fig trees on land

I've seen this suggested few times in many different ways including a way to turn land to sea (Team Aqua from Pokémon series would be proud). The most feasible suggestion to me was that of JosePapp who suggested something along the lines of a saltwater pool structure made with driftwood and salt that you could socket a Knobbly Nut into and as such grow them on land as well. I liked the suggestion a lot since it brings together many different seafaring content. The idea of a giant tree on land also sounds pretty interesting, but alas it might not be the direction the devs want to go with it and I respect that.

11) Fig crops

This is potentially the wildest one but I can see figs becoming newest farm crops, especially if the very first and highly requested suggestion of making Above Average Trees growing fig vines somehow doesn't make the cut. It'd be unique and interesting design as normal seeds would have 0% changes of turning into fig plants in any season as instead you'd need to take figs from the Great fig tree and feed them to a caged bird for unique fig seeds and then use them in farming. Being fruits of warm seasons, they could favor Spring and Autumn. Given that Tree Jam is rich in compost, it only makes sense that the fig plant would produce compost and actually fit greatly as the missing light crop- one that consumes Growth Formula and Manure but produces Compost- as such it could be 1:1 paired with corn and asparagus and 1:2 paired with garlic and durian. It'd consume heavy water as figs do. As such, it'd be the long lost colleague of Toma Roots and Watermelons in consuming two categories of nutrients and producing one, as well as using a very unique mechanism of having to be found at sea using seafaring to be domesticated and incorporated into regular crop farming. It is a wild idea but it's a fun idea nonetheless.

[thegreatJash]

Yes, above average trees should grow figs as well. 

[HowlVoid]

Personally I think sweet fish could be a replacement for figs in fig recipes. They have a diet of mostly figs I believe. Kinda like the popcorn fish.

Would help with the scarcity of figs. Perhaps killing them can give the fish meat and a 25%-50% chance at a fig (isn't fully digested). A sweetener value unfortunately won't add much to the fish's value as honey is pretty abundant and there arent any fish+sweetener recipe combos as far as I'm aware. 

Or both have a sweetener value and possibly drop a fig on death.

[SomebodyRandom]

2 hours ago, SinancoTheBest said:

including a way to turn land to sea (Team Aqua from Pokémon series would be proud)

To be fair, turning land into sea and vice-versa was more for decorative purposes, I was intending on having the other types of giant trees as a form of fig tree on land.
 

But hey, I won't say no to Team Aqua

(Or Team Magma, I got some rocks  )

[lionking102]

A lot of really good suggestions! And not as crazy and non-fitting as other suggestions in the forums, thanks a lot @SinancoTheBest !

[JosePapp]

This is an amazing post, thanks for doing the compilation!

[minespatch]

From my two hour playthrough, I think the new swamp could be a tad bigger, maybe some subtle banjo music to add to the atmosphere?

I liked everything else, it's so beautiful at night.

[Szczuku]

6 hours ago, minespatch said:

I think the new swamp could be a tad bigger, maybe some subtle banjo music to add to the atmosphere?

This would work out pretty well if the mangroove biome was part of swamp shore and Klei actually begun their work on reworking/refreshing biomes.

Like, the part of the swamp that's connected to the mainland is wild, lots of tentacles, reeds and ponds, but once you get closer to the outer shore the usual swamp ambiance receives the subtle banjo as you begin to see more signs of some sort of civilization. Pig heads on a stick, mushrooms and bog bushes, which grow durians, merm houses forming an actuall village (instead of being stranded randomly across the swamp). All near a shore where you see the giant trees, grass gators and figs

[minespatch]

Just now, Szczuku said:

This would work out pretty well if the mangroove biome was part of swamp shore

I keep forgetting this isn';t a swamp.

I get vibes of the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean ride with the trees, fireflies, and overall Louissianan atmosphere with the mangrove, hence my comments.

[JosePapp]

5 hours ago, Szczuku said:

This would work out pretty well if the mangroove biome was part of swamp shore and Klei actually begun their work on reworking/refreshing biomes.

Like, the part of the swamp that's connected to the mainland is wild, lots of tentacles, reeds and ponds, but once you get closer to the outer shore the usual swamp ambiance receives the subtle banjo as you begin to see more signs of some sort of civilization. Pig heads on a stick, mushrooms and bog bushes, which grow durians, merm houses forming an actuall village (instead of being stranded randomly across the swamp). All near a shore where you see the giant trees, grass gators and figs

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I feel like it would be cooler if small patches of land spawned under the tree to form an actual salt water mangrove swamp and make a tad more sense

[me real life]

On 7/30/2021 at 3:16 AM, minespatch said:

I keep forgetting this isn';t a swamp.

It's more like a bayou! I don't think mangrove is correct, as mangroves are called that because of... well, mangrove trees.

[minespatch]

3 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

It's more like a bayou!

That's the word! Something about this has a Lousiana feel. Definitely needs banjo music. Maybe they could do a Hamlet jungle remix with banjo music?

[DajeKotlyar]

Oh yeah, I like every suggestion! All of this sounds so cool!

[JoeDungeoneer]

The Tree Jam recipe does need a rework. Also I had no idea figs only counted as 0.5 fruit value, that's kind of ridiculous. also, I would have liked it if there were a koalefant biome that could justify farming for trunks.