Insane Buff to Desert Stones

[SinancoTheBest]

We all know and love Desert Stones- they are often regarded as the most useless boss loot in the game, cluttering the Loot Stash, stacking needlessly in the chests etc. Many ideas were made to make them more desirable, such as a refine tab item making orange gems with Desert Stones. However, with Wanda's addition to the game, a buff idea comes to mind- what if Desert Stones could be consumed to travel to any Lazy Deserter on the map without the need of someone channelling it?

It might sound very powerful but I think it'd be a fairly good change, buffing the value of Desert Stones, Lazy Deserter, and the Antlion. It is a boss loot after all with glaring shortcomings such as uselessness in solo play and now being outclassed by a player item. Most player abilities in the game are designed as sidegrades, things that can be done through other means with the specific character being particularly effective at it- and it'd still hold- Wanda's Backtrek and Rift watches would still be useful, allowing infinite use with no sanity cost, and able to travel between the caves and surface, without stepping too much into Lazy Deserters' functionalities. 

It wouldn't be too broken either as desert stones are quite a limited resource, obtainable only in summer through exchanges with antlion. This'd further add value and duality to trinkets, making players judge if trading them for gold with PK or Desert stones with antlion would be the right thing to do. It wouldn't invalidate the regular use of Lazy Deserters as channelling them doesn't cost anything but sanity- I think people would mostly use a desert stone to travel to a faraway deserter, then channel the deserter there to teleport others to that location. That'd really be a great buff to lazy deserter in my opinion. 

Mechanics-wise, players would be able to right-click on the desert stone on their inventory, which would open the current map of the shard where they can pick a deserter to consume the stone and deserter-teleport as usual, losing 50 sanity for the trip. If needed for balance, sanity cost could be even higher for this method of traveling. Their current use for being charged when someone is channelling a deserter should be retained, as consuming one in that sharpened form would teleport you to the channeler's location immediately as it currently does.

[Well-met]

Shouldn't this go in the ideas forum?

Also I believe this idea has been suggested for years, I'm sure Klei is aware of it. They had plenty of time to put this in the game by now, so It's probably safe to assume they don't want to do it.

[SinancoTheBest]

11 minutes ago, Well-met said:

I'm sure Klei is aware of it. They had plenty of time to put this in the game by now, so It's probably safe to assume they don't want to do it.

If they are, I strongly suggest them to reconsider it now, with how much Wanda's addition will shake the game mechanics in a few hours. Perhaps the time wasn't right and ripe back then but now it's about time!

[S19TealPenguin]

I play on a server that has a mod that does exactly this and it works great, with the caveat that there's only one "active" deserter available on the map to teleport to at any one time (unless someone is channeling another). The only balance issue comes from the fact that antlion trades eggs for stones 1:1, meaning a good team can convert tons of excess meat into eggs, then eggs into stacks of desert stones.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

I dont like being able to tp alone. For that we have the purple magic. Im not against buffing the lazy desserter, adding uses to dessert stone or giving more loot to antlion but also i dont care having few things only working in multiplayer, adds potential for cool things, but i do think that antlion should drop something else or atleast we should have recipes that uses dessert stones

I dont see wanda making everything teleport related useless or less strong. Her teleports are linked to her so 1 player must play her to have access to the teleports and, even if she is awesome, not all the people will want to play all the time.

Is like saying that maxwell makes axes obsolets. Sure, you dont need to chop if you play maxwell but at the end you end chopping with other characters for whatever reason

[Summ4r]

On 9/9/2021 at 8:43 PM, ArubaroBeefalo said:

I dont see wanda making everything teleport related useless or less strong.

it didn't make other teleport means useless, but it certainly made them less strong, who use purple gem staff to teleport players? And I don't think your example with Maxwell a good one. No one thinks that. I think a better example in this case is, ONLY Maxwell can chop trees, like only Wanda can teleport to places wherever she wants when playing solo. But since chopping trees is way more important than fast travel, it's not a good example in this sense.

On 9/9/2021 at 8:43 PM, ArubaroBeefalo said:

I dont like being able to tp alone. For that we have the purple magic. Im not against buffing the lazy desserter, adding uses to dessert stone or giving more loot to antlion but also i dont care having few things only working in multiplayer, adds potential for cool things, but i do think that antlion should drop something else or atleast we should have recipes that uses dessert stones

I dont see wanda making everything teleport related useless or less strong. Her teleports are linked to her so 1 player must play her to have access to the teleports and, even if she is awesome, not all the people will want to play all the time.

Is like saying that maxwell makes axes obsolets. Sure, you dont need to chop if you play maxwell but at the end you end chopping with other characters for whatever reason

btw, I dont think lazy deserter should be able to let solo player teleport themselves wherever they want, because then Wanda's fissure watch would be useless. So, there's that.

[Milordo]

I think i'll be this one with @Summ4r and @SinancoTheBest

On 9/9/2021 at 2:43 PM, ArubaroBeefalo said:

I dont like being able to tp alone. For that we have the purple magic. Im not against buffing the lazy desserter, adding uses to dessert stone or giving more loot to antlion but also i dont care having few things only working in multiplayer, adds potential for cool things, but i do think that antlion should drop something else or atleast we should have recipes that uses dessert stones

I dont see wanda making everything teleport related useless or less strong. Her teleports are linked to her so 1 player must play her to have access to the teleports and, even if she is awesome, not all the people will want to play all the time.

Is like saying that maxwell makes axes obsolets. Sure, you dont need to chop if you play maxwell but at the end you end chopping with other characters for whatever reason

After i played a lot Wanda and had a blast of fun with her, returning with a normal character like Wormwood showed me something..... i couldn't fast travel. 

Guys.... i can't anymore use those clocks to craft asap a deconstruction stuff. I think i have an addiction.... i want to play other characters for fun but i can't because Wanda clocks are TOO useful.

On 9/9/2021 at 2:39 PM, S19TealPenguin said:

I play on a server that has a mod that does exactly this and it works great, with the caveat that there's only one "active" deserter available on the map to teleport to at any one time (unless someone is channeling another). The only balance issue comes from the fact that antlion trades eggs for stones 1:1, meaning a good team can convert tons of excess meat into eggs, then eggs into stacks of desert stones.

I'll pay you gems, golds, meats, lives of other people, anything you want man. Anything for those fast travels.....

[Gi-Go]

No tnx, kinda kills Wanda's main perk.

[Capybara007]

45 minutes ago, Gi-Go said:

No tnx, kinda kills Wanda's main perk.

Wrong

[ArubaroBeefalo]

27 minutes ago, Capybara007 said:

Wrong

no. Wanda teleportation has more impact than more damage

[Capybara007]

1 minute ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

no. Wanda teleportation has more impact than more damage

I know, but making a feature from a character to be used by anyone with slighty less efectiveness wont kill the character's main perk.

[DonBobo]

I like the idea, though I think it is better balanced if it works in combination with a Lazy Explorer.

Something like:

Use Lazy Explorer on Desert Stone to teleport to closest Lazy Deserter, thereby depleting the Stone, loosing 20% Durabilty of Explorer and 50 Sanity.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

4 minutes ago, DonBobo said:

I like the idea, though I think it is better balanced if it works in combination with a Lazy Explorer.

Something like:

Use Lazy Explorer on Desert Stone to teleport to closest Lazy Deserter, thereby depleting the Stone, loosing 20% Durabilty of Explorer and 50 Sanity.

that isnt a bad idea

 

5 minutes ago, Capybara007 said:

I know, but making a feature from a character to be used by anyone with slighty less efectiveness wont kill the character's main perk.

kinda and i dont know why the desserter needs a refresh, works very well

[HowlVoid]

Most useless structure ever. Best use is to burn it for warmth.

Can it even burn? Idk never built it.

[Capybara007]

1 hour ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

kinda and i dont know why the desserter needs a refresh, works very well

Most of the playerbase agrees that it doesnt, so there is a problem there

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 minute ago, Capybara007 said:

Most of the playerbase agrees that it doesnt, so there is a problem there

i would like to see the inquiry that leads to this affirmation