Lazy Deserter Rework Ideas.

[Antynomity]

So I've seen more and more people over-time suggest a 'Lazy Deserter rework', especially after Wanda was released, this post is both for my idea to which I'll get to soon but also as a hub for klei to pick ideas from to make this forgotten structure used. My idea makes sure that Wanda's backtrek watches would still be a lot better in the long run, but also so people who don't like to play as her and/or play solo can have something similar.

So, here's my idea: Lazy Deserters no longer need more than 1 player to function, making them useful in solo play and not wasting other's time in multiplayer. IF there are more than 2 Lazy Deserters in the world (across shards counts) then the structure would teleport the player to the nearest one of the same gem/ or default if no gem is inserted. And last, Lazy Deserters would have the ability to have a gem socketed into them for easier linking, both across locations and across shards, all gemmed and not gemmed LD's would work the same, but couldn't work with other coloured gems/ a gemmed one with a non gemmed one, they just wouldn't work unless there's a LD of the same gem kind/ungemmed.

Feel free to correct every single grammatical issue.

[BonesJrOfficial]

I think there should be the base function that uses an extra player and a desert stone, as is currently.

But there should be an additional stone that the player can craft, which they can slot with a gem and the lazy deserter can be slotted with the corresponding gem, creating a teleporting network. The inventory stone can use the slotted gem as fuel, where the structure will maintain the same slotted Gem until removed.

[Ohan]

I think the most obvious/elegant solution would be to right click desert stones in ur inventory and then select a LD icon on the map u want to go to. This is how a lot of games with ‘town portal scroll’ mechanics i have played handle it.

This kind of map interaction is completely foreign to DST though so i imagine it would require a lot of work to implement maybe? 

Making the LD more usable especially solo would be so neat.. the structure looks so cool and Antlion is one of the most interesting mobs in the game but currently the LD goes largely unused and Antlion is killed asap or completely ignored when in the caves instead of traded with. 

[Captain_Rage]

I think the Lazy Deserter is perfectly fine as it is. It even fills a function when playing solo. When playing with my friends (typically 3-5 players) we use it quite frequently and everything feels "balanced".

[ArubaroBeefalo]

i would add more recipes for the stones. LD has a great concept and functionallity, the only problem i see is antlion drops not having more uses and almost anything for single players which doesnt mean LD needs to be ruined because wanda exists, who would create a teleportation network as wanda when you can create LDs without needing tusks?

[Antynomity]

35 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

i would add more recipes for the stones. LD has a great concept and functionallity, the only problem i see is antlion drops not having more uses and almost anything for single players which doesnt mean LD needs to be ruined because wanda exists, who would create a teleportation network as wanda when you can create LDs without needing tusks?

With my idea wanda's backtrek watches would still be better for creating networks, after all you wouldn't have to think in advance of where you place your clocks unlike with the reworked LD's assuming at least some of my ideas ever get added, gem types are limited, there aren't that many, most of them have other valuable crafts. I just want something similar to wanda's backtrek without having to play as her, and I doubt anyone would be mad if the LD was finally useful outside of multiplayer essentially as telelocator focii, just less limited, wouldn't even make the focii useless either.

[Lil K]

Just make it so the person channeling the LD doesn't have to stay still to activate it. This would allow a person to activate it, go anywhere in the shard, and return with the orb. Obviously they would have to withstand the insane sanity drain though. 

[BonesJrOfficial]

I'm still in favor of my idea with creating a Red, Blue, Purple, Green, Orange, and Yellow Gem network. 

Maybe when a player at said LD is activating that tower, the desert stone in inventory will highlight the corresponding gem color. 

As for the craft able stone item. Maybe it will be called The Lazy Idol. And when slotted with the corresponding gem color it acts as a teleport to said Gemmed LD. It is consumed on use.

This way the LD has some quality of life for solo play and team play. And Wanda doesn't feel any less powerful as her clocks have a cool down and not a gem on use requirement.

[00petar00]

that is a good idea to limit lazy deserters based on gems and maybe even go as far as to only make them work if they have a gem inserted.

 It should just be per shard, you can just go to caves and use the ones you have made there too if you want to use your limited lazy deserters like that.

[loopuleasa]

Lazy deserter is already strong.

Are you guys even playing with friends?

[Dextops]

8 minutes ago, loopuleasa said:

Lazy deserter is already strong.

Are you guys even playing with friends?

no

[SomebodyRandom]

28 minutes ago, loopuleasa said:

Are you guys even playing with friends?

Dude this is a multiplayer game, you really expect people to have friends? 

[Antynomity]

11 hours ago, loopuleasa said:

Lazy deserter is already strong.

Are you guys even playing with friends?

no lol

14 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

that is a good idea to limit lazy deserters based on gems and maybe even go as far as to only make them work if they have a gem inserted.

 It should just be per shard, you can just go to caves and use the ones you have made there too if you want to use your limited lazy deserters like that.

yeah per shard would be fine too, still miles better than what we have right now.

14 hours ago, BonesJrOfficial said:

I'm still in favor of my idea with creating a Red, Blue, Purple, Green, Orange, and Yellow Gem network. 

Maybe when a player at said LD is activating that tower, the desert stone in inventory will highlight the corresponding gem color. 

As for the craft able stone item. Maybe it will be called The Lazy Idol. And when slotted with the corresponding gem color it acts as a teleport to said Gemmed LD. It is consumed on use.

This way the LD has some quality of life for solo play and team play. And Wanda doesn't feel any less powerful as her clocks have a cool down and not a gem on use requirement.

sounds good as well

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 hour ago, YourPlayerCat said:

no lol

how isnt? you have a cheap insta teleportation even between shards lol

[Antynomity]

4 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

how isnt? you have a cheap insta teleportation even between shards lol

not between shards, lazy deserter is not really useful right now at all, plus my reply was aimed at the 'playing with friends' part

[ArubaroBeefalo]

5 minutes ago, YourPlayerCat said:

not between shards, lazy deserter is not really useful right now at all, plus my reply was aimed at the 'playing with friends' part

i didnt used it for many time, i though it worked between shards but anyways going down a cave just take few seconds and teleporting to places like the atrium saves many minutes

and what is wrong with having few mechanics that only work in coop? i prefer not being able to enjoy a 1% of content when im playingg alone than limiting ideas from klei...

[Lokena]

21 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

how isnt? you have a cheap insta teleportation even between shards lol

Which solo players can't use. There is a mod for this, but it doesn't allow you to make a configurable network - it just works as a telelocator, transferring you to the nearest locator. Which is better than nothing, and probably a little cheaper than spending purple gems and staffs every time, but the functional differences are minimal. Besides the fact that it works in caves, I think? An improvement, but still not the best option for the boss drop. This is literally the only thing in the whole game for which you must have other people on the server. Which is great in the sense that more things aren't blocked that way and this is the only significant exception, but it's still not fun. If you don't want to change the way it works for everyone, at least change it for purely solo worlds - which IS a separate setting in the world info.

[Captain_Rage]

Telltale Hearts are useless in single player worlds and nobody cares nor should care. >_> The Lazy Deserter is perfectly fine as it is (unless you want to make domesticated Beefaloes and other mechanics for traversing the world completely redundant).

[Lokena]

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

Telltale Hearts are useless in single player worlds and nobody cares nor should care. >_> The Lazy Deserter is perfectly fine as it is (unless you want to make domesticated Beefaloes and other mechanics for traversing the world completely redundant).

Not a very correct comparison. There are many ways of revival in the game. If you remove the hearts, the content will not be lost, since even alone you can still use amulets, effigies and touch stones. Whereas the only way to make a network of teleportation points alone is to play Wanda. And I understand, this is her perk, and I'm not asking the structure to copy her abilities. But still. This is the boss drop. It should be useful in some way other than reducing sanity. And it doesn't even require desert stones other than those for the construction of the structure, so they accumulate even more than in ordinary worlds. Also, it wouldn't make other methods useless. It's just different ways of transportation at different prices. One requires you to take time to tame the beefalo and still some time to ride, the other requires you to get a blueprint from the boss and sanity for each teleportation. Both can be useful in their own way in different situations and both are designed for a late game. But they are not the same, and to say that everyone to whom it's not available should just tame the beefalo... It doesn't work that way.

[Antynomity]

1 hour ago, Captain_Rage said:

Telltale Hearts are useless in single player worlds and nobody cares nor should care. >_> The Lazy Deserter is perfectly fine as it is (unless you want to make domesticated Beefaloes and other mechanics for traversing the world completely redundant).

Telltale Hearts are one of many ways of revival in game, wanda is the only way to make actual networks of transport both in caves and upstairs and even between the two, as it is right now, the only reason to kill antlion in solo play is to not have it be an annoyance every few days or a huge resource sink, like I said in my original post my idea wouldn't even kill wanda's backtrek watches, because those don't have ANY limitations, while a network of LD's would have to be carefully constructed to work as intended, at least in large numbers.

[00petar00]

7 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

Telltale Hearts are useless in single player worlds and nobody cares nor should care. >_> The Lazy Deserter is perfectly fine as it is (unless you want to make domesticated Beefaloes and other mechanics for traversing the world completely redundant).

Aside what people mentioned about telltale hearts being one of many options to revive, we need teleportation in the game to not only be on Wanda. For all late game worlds it is in your best interest to regenerate many times until you get the one you want to spend thousands of days on and you can't really reveal the map or you'll ruin your experience, so what i used to do every time before wanda release is explore the map until i see how bad it is and regenerate and that wastes so much time or you can just play Wanda and not care about world generation except setpieces.

[Captain_Rage]

41 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

Aside what people mentioned about telltale hearts being one of many options to revive, we need teleportation in the game to not only be on Wanda. For all late game worlds it is in your best interest to regenerate many times until you get the one you want to spend thousands of days on and you can't really reveal the map or you'll ruin your experience, so what i used to do every time before wanda release is explore the map until i see how bad it is and regenerate and that wastes so much time or you can just play Wanda and not care about world generation except setpieces.

???

No. You can simply create a world and roll with it and play it for > 800 days. I have at least three such purely random worlds. Stop lying, please. If you want to reroll and pray for certain RNG until your whims are satisfied you are free to do so but don't pretend it is the downfall of DST. The game is just as fun and functional when exploring / playing a new world regardless of how many walrus camps it has or some other arbitrary criteria.

[Mr Giggio]

If we could socket purple gems in the telelocator focus for infinite uses without having to recharge the focus so in that way we just loose the staff durability could be a fun way too.

[HowlVoid]

Why are people gate keeping this item lmao?

Imagine not letting other people enjoy a boss drop just because it's not your problem if they can't use it. 

"It works for me in the way that I use it and that's all that matters."

[NightfallsCurse]

Desert stones have pretty much no purpose for solo players other than being "decorative"

I think we need more recipes with them that can finally make desert stones have a purpose for solo players