Maxwell Rework Ideas

[lakhnish]

What would people like to see in a Maxwell’s rework?

I don’t have too many ideas, but in general, it would be nice if Maxwell expanded from being mainly a resource gatherer.

Besides that, this is what I thought of: 

• Better AI on the shadow minions. They sometimes destroy stuff you don’t want them destroying if you aren’t paying attention (ex. Glommer’s statues, Lobster Dens, Marble Statues like the Maxwell Statue)
• Improved Shadow Shoveler. I find it better to just use the shovel myself.
• Improved Shadow Duelists. I use the duelists to lock insanity, not for combat or defending myself. I like how Maxwell’s special shadow attack was like in the Forge, but being able to use them as a proper means of attacking/defending would be nice.
• Affinity to items that use nightmare fuel/cost sanity, similar to Wanda.
• More dances for the minions, like for /chicken, /robot, etc.

And that's all I got really, it ain't much and a lot more could be done for sure.

If Maxwell does get another short (this one is his short as listed in the compendium), maybe they’ll expand on the Codex Umbra? It’s a bit of an enigma at the moment and all Maxwell can do with it in-game is make puppets, which is a bit odd. We also know a lot of Maxwell’s background too compared to other characters. Maybe Klei will expand on his future rather than the past?

[-Nick-]

I think more codex spells would be fun aswell. Some could need specific resources. 

It would be also nice if Maxwell skins also changed shadow minions

[Mike23Ua]

After the Wolfgang short.. I want Maxwell to be able to use the codex umbra to empower his team mates with new abilities.

Wolfgang: Shadow infused Might, he is the Mightiest because the Shadows make him hit 3x as hard.

Willow: Bernie can now be set on fire with a Magical flame that doesn’t spread to the world around him and only inflicts a magical DOT flame made of shadow magic onto the mobs he smacks around.

Wes: Balloon swords with the power of the Codex Umbra behind them because why not?

Wigfrid: The tip of Wigfrids Battle Spear is now lit aflame with shadow fire, she can now throw this spear and is if the gods themselves opened up the heavens.. the spear returns to Wigfrid all on its own.

Yeah sorry that’s all I could come up with but a Maxwell will buff them for a duration of time with a new summon or whatever.

But of course he should still have perks that make playing him single player fun too.

[mr. brj]

I think it would be the best for Maxwell if he got some new perks that primarily benefit himself. He already has amazing utility for the team and expanding on those would also be nice, but I think the old ruler of the Constant deserves to be more dapper powerful while remaining frail.

[Cheggf]

I want him to get a cool shadow summoning animation instead of the generic work one where he just kneels down and spins his hands around.

[thegreatJash]

God please just a way to turn his minions "off" temporarily. 

[Well-met]

i would wager wilson and maxwell are getting theirs last. Maybe even a double refresh together.

[BezKa]

The animation that plays when character near you has a bee queen crown on plays when you're near Maxwell, always 

[Maxposting]

4 minutes ago, BezKa said:

The animation that plays when character near you has a bee queen crown on plays when you're near maxwell

Maxwell would love for everyone to bow down, but ultimately noone would ever do that.

[DaZoul]

6 minutes ago, BezKa said:

The animation that plays when character near you has a bee queen crown on plays when you're near Maxwell, always 

Good idea, every character should occasionally spit on Maxwell

[sudoku]

Maxwell is a hard one to come up with stuff for, at least for me. 

But id like it if his shadow duelists could be called either told to be aggressive or defensive, and when defensive they run and stand in font of Max with their arms held out and can absorb a percentage of 1 hits damage from an enemy before dying.

[Dr. Safety]

I want him to have some late game stuff, and more viable duelists. I'm pretty generous with his upsides so I also included a somewhat harsh downside

• Maxwell doesn't need to drop his book to summon things, but the book needs to be in his inventory. Will perform the same animation as single player
• Upgradeable Codex via the pseudoscience station (Codex Umbra, 5 Thulecite Fragments, and 1 Fossil Fragment). Having this Codex in your inventory will:
  • Unlock Crawling Horror and Terrorbeak minions (x5 Nightmare Fuel, -33% sanity and -50% respectively) - same stats as regular nightmare creatures, will fight for you, will not heal over time (don't know how this will play out so may need tweaking for balance)
  • Allow duelists to copy Maxwell's armor and damage values based on what he has equipped, only if they are shadow weapons/armor
• Able to open and close Codex in inventory to spawn/despawn the minions he has summoned. He will still retain the max sanity penalty until the minions are killed.
• 50% sanity resistance to magic weapons and armor
• Maxwell requires the Codex for his powers. If he does not have the Codex in his inventory, all of his upsides go away, making him just a frail old 75 hp man
  • No passive sanity gain
  • All summoned minions (whether active or inactive) are killed without dropping any resources
  • No affinity to magic items
  • dumb little frail man with a big nose

Basically this gives end game Maxwell the ability to have 2 duelists with shadow armor and dark sword stats, while Maxwell does not lose sanity (assuming he has the champion crown). It also gives him some QoL tweaks

[CremeLover]

3 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

-snip-

That's an interesting take actually.

Maxwell has always been represented as the Chess master and creator of a large chunk of what is in the constant. And in the single player Don't Starve story he refers to himself as king in his quote "But even a King is bound to the board."

If we assume most of the powers from the survivors come from joining the constant judging by Wolfgang, it makes sense to make that Maxwell, with the Codex Umbra, could grant or modifiy the way shadows work within the other survivors to some degree.

This sort of gameplay was something that was not available in single player for obvious reasons, but his gameplay still relied on getting others to do his bidding, even if those others were parts of his mind. So I believe is a great approach to reinforce his place as an individually weak but very important piece like a king should by making him a dedicated support while still retaining (and improving a bit) his ghost so he's not totally useless if you play it solo.

 

[Vixen Doe]

i don't have too many ideas that weren't already said here, but if they take away his gathering abilities i will cry

[Echsrick]

what about shadow fighters absorbing damage for you if you get hit?

shadow miners only start mining marble trees at full level

shadow hoe?

maxwell is so long in the constand, he sould get something special, like, some sort of whistle? if used, creatures he once created stop moving? or something like that, or maybe some sort of shadow copy of some creatures?

[ArubaroBeefalo]

what if shadow duelist cant be damaged but also cost max health? 

also remove needing flint tools to summon his minions, is kinda annoying imo

[Eughstein]

5 hours ago, lakhnish said:

 

• Better AI

Not gonna lie, for a moment i thought you were serious, when was last ds ai update?2013?

Actually would be cool if codex umbra would be not just a portable crafting station, but tool to control minions.Like you hold it in hand slot, and (for example) if you have minion with shovel you say him to dig up all bushes you clicked on, also in other way to say stop to minion (for example when they mine marble trees at your base).

[DajeKotlyar]

I want give him more hp (150) but make him getting twice DMG from the mobs. It's need to make a bit easier in survive (against heat, freezing, bad food, hunger ect.) but the same amount hp against mobs.

[Pinkamena11FazP]

I will say this again that I would love these to be cannon updates for maxwell.

[minespatch]

[Gi-Go]

Here is what I want from new Maxwell:

Immortal workers. These guys have no business being dead. They are just shadows. It's so annoying when they die to some silly thing like bored hound or an antlion sinkhole.

High risk high reward duliants. I wish Maxwell could summon up to 9 of those but every time he does his max hp is dropped by 10. His max hp should also be increased to 100 since "I have osteoporosis" is no longer his trademark and is stolen by Wes. 

Magic. Maxwell should probably be able to utilize night armor, dark swords and staffs the same way Wanda does in her old form. 

Gatherer clone who collects things. I'm picturing this guy as a close who only follows Maxwell and dosen't do anything, but his body works like orange amulet with a screen wide range, and he has 15 slots in his body. Once you kill him he drops all the loot neatly stacked just like lureplant. 

Those are the things I want from Maxwell.

 

[Spirit Glow]

-Would love for him use more magic for combat.

-Some late game items specific to maxwell

-More spells for the codex would be nice as well. 

Above all i would really like him to play as a high risk /high reward mage. His low health should make him risky to use in combat but it should be a good payoff when played correctly.

 

[Sinister_Fang]

I feel like Maxwell is pretty solid how he is currently, although improvements to his duelists need to be made at least. I'd like so see his shadows mostly remain as is, but make them intangible due to them being... well... shadows. To balance this, when Maxwell is insane the puppets become priority #1 for shadows. They're quite weak, so they'll go down fairly quickly without Maxwell defending them. Also, his harvesters need a toggle option.

Personally, I want Maxwell's rework to come along with new content by adding new magic/ancient items, and maybe reworking underused magic items. He is meant to be a magician after all, but most magic items aren't that practical in terms of day to day use outside of the dark sword. I always felt like he should be a high risk/high reward character and/or a strong utility character through the use of magic items and his passive sanity regen. Instead he's almost exclusively a harvester as his puppets are all he's got going for him.

And, one thing I DON'T want to see, is a change that essentially negates his downside entirely, like we've seen in a few other reworks. I feel like what a character can't do (or can't do well) makes them more interesting then what they can do.

[PunkShark]

Honestly idk what i want out of his rework apart that his Duelists are worth something but still highly risky to use. 
But i do want 1 thing

-Ragtime plays in the background behind all of the insanity noises. This is not a thoughful change, i'd just find it funny Maxwell can't run away from the tune.
Maybe even a quote whenever he hears it. "That blasted song is back!"

[minespatch]

9 hours ago, PunkShark said:

Ragtime plays in the background behind all of the insanity noises. This is not a thoughful change,

Yeah, especially just for maxwell players.

If the devs added this, they should also do a fun inside debug joke where they allow @jouste to sing "ragtime part of the show" as a inside joke.