Maxwell rework ideas

[CyberKn1ght]

I'm relatively new to don't starve, I started around 2 months ago. Almost this whole time I was playing a world with friends, we have 3 people including me and 2 people that join on/off. We've made it a whole 3 years, though since this is everyone's first world, we are taking this very slow - still haven't killed some bosses like fuel weaver or crab king. Our 3 main characters are Wickerbottom (myself), Maxwell and Wormwood/WX78 (character switching) We've had a lot of long winter nights to chat and think about the character's balance and abilities, and came up with some cool things that could be added to Maxwell's repertoire with his rework.

These are all just ideas and I'm no game balancer, so each idea is standalone and I don't intend them all to be included at once. Also I think no one would disagree Maxwell is very underpowered right now, so most of our ideas focus on improving his toolbox.

I definitely think Maxwell should not be changed too drastically and should retain his current role as a resource harvester. He definitely won't be like DS Maxwell anymore since Wanda took that niche. The only resource gatherer apart from Maxwell is Woodie, and he has only a partial role in resource gathering since he is mainly a jack of all trades character.

Here are some cool ideas:

- Maxwell definitely should receive picker clones that can pick grass and twigs. It is so frustrating to spend a whole day picking grass and twigs while there's a Maxwell who is supposed to be the god of resource collection not being able to help at all. I think it would be fine if the clones just dropped the item straight on the ground so you can later pick it up.

- Clones not being able to switch tools is fine if Klei considers that a limiting factor to his abilities, but clones should definitely be toggleable, or at least toggle them auto mining resources. It is so annoying to have everything on screen levelled even when you don't want it and makes marble and wood farms really inconvenient to make.

- I know that Maxwell is supposed to be weaker in combat, but I think it would be fair for him to at least regain some combat ability during the late game. He doesn't even fully cover the sanity drain of a dark sword so its not like he has too big of an advantage there. I think it would be pretty cool to have the combat clones actually be useful, but push their cost way further up the tech tree, like have them require purple gems and thulecite. Maybe he could even make a "tank" clone for a very big price (say 30 marble or 20 fuel or late game resources) that would be worse in combat than the duelists but taunt enemies drawing aggro.

- An alternative to improving his combat clones for lategame fighting would be to give him magic item abilities, but make sure they aren't too similar to Wanda's. For example, he could get more defensive buffs unlike Wanda's glass cannon buffs. Maybe he could utilize night armor in a more efficient way than other characters, like having his own "wigfrid" version of it with more durability, or getting a small speed buff from it (keep in mind he still has the sanity drain to not be too similar to Wanda)

- It would also be really cool if Maxwell could repair night armor, dark swords and maybe magical staves with nightmare fuel and gems respectively, say 10-20% per fuel. It would make it so both he and Wanda use these items in large amounts, but he uses them for efficiency, and she uses them for more potential.

- Maxwell consumes nightmare fuel in very large amounts (and will consume it even more from the changes I suggest) so it would be neat to have his own little ability to obtain fuel easier. Currently its probably harder to do than with other characters, though if this is intentional then that's fine. If it's not a nice solution would be a cheaper craft of the nightmare amulet, or maybe his own "glommer goop" consumable replacement, say its crafted from 2 nightmare fuel and drops your sanity by 30 when eaten.

- It would be nice to have some small lore related mechanic for Maxwell, since he is such a pivotal character. For example he gets attacked in the dark a second faster because Charlie is mad at him. Or you could combo that with the above suggestion, and give him a "curse" for nightmares like woodie has for treeguards. Maybe every time he walks into the dark and triggers the "I'm in the dark" quote, a single terrorbeak spawns no matter what his sanity is. Or maybe he just gets more nightmare creatures than an average player when insane because they are attracted to his strength. I'm no lore expert but I'm sure something cool could be added. Remember this doesn't make getting fuel easier, possibly even makes it harder, since the whole problem is fighting nightmares with a frail character. After all, woodie's bonus to treeguards is considered a downside in some situations, and he doesn't even have combat drawbacks. This would just be quality of life and make actually initiating the fight easier (though if Klei considers the difficulty of spawning nightmares one of his balanced drawbacks, then its fine. I just think its weird that the character with the most sanity regen would also be the most reliant on glommer.)

That wraps up some of the cooler ideas we had. What do you think?

[QuartzBeam]

44 minutes ago, CyberKn1ght said:

Currently its probably harder to do than with other characters, though if this is intentional then that's fine.

Currently, Maxwell can turn himself permanently insane by summoning 2 workers and 1 duelist, allowing him farm fuel non-stop.

[oregu]

3 hours ago, QuartzBeam said:

Currently, Maxwell can turn himself permanently insane by summoning 2 workers and 1 duelist, allowing him farm fuel non-stop.

It's two duelist one worker actually, and wormholes are even more free sanity loss than that. It's also easier that if he has 4 worker sanity he always becomes insane when going through a wormhole, so killing terrorbeaks wont make him have to jump twice.

[CyberKn1ght]

Yeah those are options but I think a more "legit" way would be nice. Also on the same note I find wormwood farming sanity by digging up + planting really messy and confusing. I understand its balanced but there must be a more logical way to implement that. For example he could get a small passive sanity aura whenever standing next to plants. Or he could just get sanity from planting normally, and it would give less the second time he planted the same thing. The current mechanic seems really weird.

What do you think of the other ideas?

[Mr_Vol]

On 3/26/2022 at 2:22 AM, CyberKn1ght said:

Also on the same note I find wormwood farming sanity by digging up + planting really messy and confusing.

I believe oregu was talking about Worm-holes.

I am also a Maxwell main and I do like some of your ideas. I have posted ideas for Maxwell is other threads.

How I gain Nightmare fuel is I make a tree farm, Summon 3 choppers and 1 digger while you hold a Dark sword in your hand.

Summoning 4 workers will make Maxwell get to 20% of his make sanity and when holding a Dark sword you will drop to 15% in no time. At 15% sanity Nightmare creatures will spawn and killing one will put you back to his sanity cap (20%). Just keep doing this till your trees are all farmed or you have enough Nightmare fuel, if you ever need a break from killing the Nightmare creatures then just unequip the Dark sword.

 

This strat is also good at getting tree guards for your living logs but you will need to get good at fighting multiple enemies. There was a game I was fighting 3 Tree guards and 2 Nightmare creatures. I had to leave my tree farm so my workers stopped making more tree guards.

All I want to see is:
● A toggle switch for my workers to turn on and off (maybe the codex could open or closed to show?)
●A buff to the duelist (maybe feeding them nightmare fuel to get a damage boost and/or health gain)
●The shovel worker being able to dig up sapling and grass tuffs again. (Maybe only digs up what you have gathered from or inspected?)

If your looking for extra ideas then I would suggest:
●Repair items that use nightmare fuel to craft.
●Start off with tier 1 magic unlocked
●Boost of staff weapons either less durablty lost or for damage (could be a new craft from his book)
●Removing the need to resummon a shadow minions with a tools or spear (should only need the tool or spear on the first summon)
●A way to upgrade or understand the codex better if you have unlocked tier 2 magic to summon better shadows?
●A Shadow to enchant others to gain a Damage and Armor boost for a time.

I feel that the magician of the group that has been studying staffs and amulets for years should have some improved knowledge on the items. I also feel that Maxwell won't know the true power of the codex at the start of the game and  unlocking tier 2 magic and upgrading your codex should make Maxwell better understand the codex to use it more efficiently.

Being able to summon Shadows with the cost of only nightmare fuel after the first time (early game should still be hard) should really be considered, it could even save your life if you dont have to craft a tool/spear first.

I tried my best to come up with ideas that other characters don't have and reasons why someone would want to play Maxwell in a group, cause we know that there are other fantastic ways of getting you resources you need. Thank you for reading.

[CyberKn1ght]

Thanks for your contributions, those are all cool ideas!