Insanity needs some changes

[Rovyy800]

Hello everyone, good evening. Insanity is a core mechanic of dst, but I think lately its become less of what the concept promised. The nightmare fuel canonically is supposed to be a double edged sword, being a powerful material capable of marvelous feats, but also being dangerous. In game this is (I believe) misrepresented. 

Being insane causes your character to play animations and hear whispers from the shadows, which is a very cool aspect of insanity, but when it comes to the dangers of insanity and the rewards this is where things get messy. 

Nightmare fuel is indeed very powerful, but I think its just too easy AND boring to obtain. You either get nightmare fuel by fighting the shadow creatures that spawn around you while insane or by other smaller less effective niche means (splumonkeys, shadow petals etc.) The problem is that nightmare creatures dont really pose much of a threat on their own as long as you can kite them, and they are pretty easy to kite. With only three types of shadow to fight, 2 of which are basically the same just one is more dangerous and faster, you learn the patterns and they quickly posses no threat at all. I think there should be more nightmare creatures and they should be more dangerous, but also drop more fuel. This way they posses a bigger threat to players, are just more fun to fight and reward you with more fuel, because killing nightmare creatures and waiting for them to respawn and getting 1 to 2 fuel per kill and they sometimes just leave and become invulnerable mid fight is very annoying, so if shadow creatures where more engaging to fight and dropped more fuel I think everyone would be happy.

Next up, the sanity meter itself. Being sane or insane changes the properties of some mobs (like 3 or 4 I think) and spawns the tiny annoying things like wavy jones and shadow hands, which are nice and I very much like. However, there isn´t really a downside to not having sanity other than the occasional shadow creatures. This incentivizes players to do the following: Only manage their sanity when in a weak state or before/while fighting a boss, and get a mod to turn off the visual and audio effects of insanity. In my humble opinion, Being insane should have downsides by itself, not depending on shadow creatures. Maybe sanity is actually needed to cast spells, so you cant spam magic when your sanity is at 0, giving some incentive to be sane. Maybe being insane causes auditory hallucinations that confuse and startle you, just something to try and deter players from being comfortably demented. However, the downsides shouldnt be annoying, rather dangerous because people will still spend a lot of time insane.
To wrap up my thoughts, Insanity currently posseser no threats whatsoever to a prepared player, while giving them a somewhat slow supply of nightmare fuel. If i could change the game I would make insanity creatures tougher, add some sort of downside to being insane but increase the raw fuel value obtained, making it so that being insane is truly a challenge for a great reward, and not just some slight annoyances that drop a very good item in (warning opinion ahead) small quantities. 

These are just my thoughts, would love to hear all of your opinions on insanity. 

[Echsrick]

i voted for both, some yes, some no

[Well-met]

shadow creatures are designed to complement other threats you're facing at once. They stack with standard dangers.

You are viewing them from a perspective where nothing else is happening and you have nothing else to do but slay them.

[ChibiStarver]

I feel that the sanity monsters themselves aren't that dangerous because being insane is itself not dangerous, it's what you do when you are insane that makes it dangerous, there are two land based nightmare creatures, both with very different speeds and kiting timing, pair that with trying to kite something mundane like a pig and it can become very difficult to not get hit, kiting a group of 2 terror beaks and 2 crawlers is easy, get distance, kill terror beaks, then kill the horrors, but throw in another creature with similar speed and you have a real threat on your hands

[Capybara007]

it isnt fair that if you're already familiar with the insanity and know how to kite creatures to call them outdated or uninteresting, sanity is fine imo.

[Rovyy800]

its just that people kinda ignore sanity itself unless they are going to enter combat. sanity is not scary or threatening at all, and nightmare fuel collection rates are slow.

[Mr Giggio]

Hardly disagree. Except for that exploit with multiple shadow pieces tier 3 and gunpowder/winona's catapults, nightmare fuel/insanity is the most balanced, lorewise fit and fun mechanic so far in this game.

On 3/2/2022 at 5:59 PM, Well-met said:

shadow creatures are designed to complement other threats you're facing at once. They stack with standard dangers.

You are viewing them from a perspective where nothing else is happening and you have nothing else to do but slay them.

right? boss battles can be so messed by a crawler aggroin into the kite pattern. Just the fact they can swarm and swallow u alive in the ruins when u r in the wrong place, wrong time...

[SuperDonuts]

Insanity could make you randomly fail crockpot recipe (wet goop). Or randomly drop items from inventory or backpack. It could become very annoying.

[Cheggf]

I don't think you've been insane very long if you think it poses no risk.