Enlightenment is underutilized

[Just-guy]

The main aspect of Enlightenment is that it works opposite from Sanity, building up over time when you're on Lunar presence and it can be dangerous when it gets high but unlike being insane, there isn't a lot that occurs when enlightened.

When at low Sanity, Shadow Hands attempt to put out lights and in the sea even attempt to sabotage your boat, Shadow Creatures will spawn to attack, Bunnymen and Rabbits will turn into Beardlike, Bernie will transform and Obelisks will either rise or lower, Sanity is also an important mechanic that plays in the Fuelweaver fight.

But when at high Enlightenment it will only make Gestalts attack you and if you are hit enough times it'll stunlock you.

There are reasons for why one would go insane, though this doesn't mean they should be insane all the time; but there isn't a reason for being enlightened and one is better off having low enlightenment.

I'm not sure what can be done to make Enlightenment better, a common suggestion I see is to make Bernie active when enlightened but that's as much as I can think of.

[Lumine04]

When enlightenment hits its highest. The lunar areas should also house crystal piles that manefest into a horror hound when walked by with 60% enlightenment, these piles reform after some days. Getting hit by gestalts also only seems to make your character sleep for a cap of 7 seconds (?), not very threatening. So instead how about the game remembers when you got knocked out by one and adds a little more time each time you pass out to one of these things. On top of this, gestalts should be able to only knock you out in one hit after you reach a high enough enlightenment. The timer would reset as soon as you leave the lunar area and cap at 30 seconds. At high enlightenment (very high/almost max) you should also take damage from these hurts that have turned physical now, roughly 15 damage. Finally your character will be attracted to the gestalts, like in the trailer, and your movement will see a shift in their direction that should be easy to manage if you move the opposite way, however staying idle will cause your character to trance towards the spirits.

 

Weak changes in my opinion, but its a start. Enlightenment should be focused on trances and transformations. 

[Hornete]

It's a shame, I find it kinda funny they described ToT as a 'content light' update way back, but arguably every update afterwards has been smaller than ToT and we haven't really gotten any expansions to the Enlightenment mechanic.

I don't exactly know what they could do for enlightenment either, but I like the changes being insane makes to the world around you, and I'd like stuff like that for enlightenment.

[HowlVoid]

Maybe once Alter awakens fully/now that is awakened, they will add other content to being enlightened. I can see the reason why it's so mild is because Alter was sleeping throughout most of the arc.

Other moon content I hope they add:

Make more moon creatures for the rest of veggies.

More lunar crafts

Make moonstorm more intuitive and add content/uses to it

[Notecja]

I like idea of upgrade to enlightement after beatin CC to something more dangerous... But at same time I would love more changes to world when insane - I think both mechanics are underused. 

[Mx-Pain]

Everything that dies in the lunar area should be ressurected and get some cool stuff. Many variations and crazy stuff can be made, including bosses.

Dont starve lunar of madness

[ArubaroBeefalo]

i would love more little details and annoyance while being lunatic not just little baby ghosts trying to put you to sleep

idk what kind of mechanics they can add, with insanity, as you said, they added really cool things like hands stealing light, wavy jones, whispers, etc. More of that for lunacy pls

also the moonstorm could have more interactions like mutant frong rains (also for the moon island), mutant hunt trucks animals, bosses reviving...

all the moon arc needs more of everything, we get some newsterials but we still have only 2 real crafts in the moon tab

 

edit. also is a shame they ditched the horror theme. Do people play with max zoom in? you barelly notice the details while playing unless you stand still doing nothing with max zoom in... moonrock penguls have really cool design and is a shame that varglets dont have their horror form (and vargs)

[Well-met]

https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Unimplemented_Features#Brightmare_Alterego

I don't know what these guys were meant to do but please please klei do something with it. It's so cool looking and spooky at the same time

[Waoling]

I think enlightment should be more peaceful than insanity.

[Szczuku]

Everything introduced in RoT, except the ocean (and even that is debatable),is underutilized 

[SomebodyRandom]

According to the survivors, the altars and even the Enlightened Crown whispers to you things that you would want. It makes no sense why Insanity ambience has whispers but not Enlightenment. 

[MondayNight]

What OP points out (among other aspects) is why many believe "Return of Them" arc was rushed, abruptly cut-short (akin Hamlet) and only KLei knows the reason(s) for this. Is a shame since it could've been so much more. Published conceptual art shows how Moon Storms phenomenon (or Full Moons for that matter) could've affected the Lunar Archipelago - making it dangerous, similarly to Ruins' Nightmare Cycle, with hostile ghostly tentacles/cilia, Crater Eyes attacking players, spectral Alter Ego enemies (aka the Brightmare Alterego), etc. Then the Horror Mobs there, that could've been expanded inside Storms raging on Constant lands after Moon Altars activation: morphing Pigs & rest of them mobs into Horror Lunar variants, corrupting & mutating vegetation a.s.o. Missed opportunities upon missed opportunities. Oh, and on topic of "missed opportunities": Crab King - each gem-majority combination could've yielded different loot, making for an interesting & unique fight a desired re-roll, not solely relegated to 1-and-done job. Perhaps in future KLei could revisit mentioned content and update it with exciting re-balances plus retakes..

[reallychina]

Fair points, enlightenment mechanic is lackluster. I honestly cant think of good fixes for it.

 

I certainly dont want it to be changed too much on low enlightenment, because keeping the moon altar active is a great option for permanent light.

 

On high elightenment they can go ham on 

[NightfallsCurse]

I honestly, don't know what can make enlightment better...all I have are some lunarish ideas

I'd like to see more lunar bosses, like one of my OCs who has a HUGE backstory I cannot type because it's so long.

Her name is Moonrise, but she has an evil version, Nightfall shdfgshgkjdkgdfhgkjd, and a human form

Once the sun sets, Nightfall's Curse takes place unless it's a full moon, when moonrise awakens

ok that's what i want to see akhgfadlsghdlfkghadflkghlx

[Baark0]

On 5/8/2022 at 7:43 PM, Hornete said:

It's a shame, I find it kinda funny they described ToT as a 'content light' update way back, but arguably every update afterwards has been smaller than ToT and we haven't really gotten any expansions to the Enlightenment mechanic.

I don't exactly know what they could do for enlightenment either, but I like the changes being insane makes to the world around you, and I'd like stuff like that for enlightenment.

RoT in general feels kinda under developed. Sailing has only recently started getting better, the ocean is still mostly empty, the lunar tab doesn't have much practical recipes, the whole mutant enemies idea was basically dropped after ToT (aside from the birds during moonstorm). When you compare enlightenment to insanity, it really shows how underdeveloped the stat is.

Insanity causes shadow hands to extinguish fires, mr skitz, shadow watchers, wavy jones, and shadow creatures start to appear, obelisks open/close, ancient fuelweaver hands cant be attacked while sane, and he stuns you when insane.

Enlightenment is literally just screen effects (which insanity also does), and summon gestalts. Klei totally could have had greater gestalts spawn when high on enlightenment, have them be killable, and then you could use a resource they drop to make new lunar tab items.

While I do appreciate the free content, I believe Klei should've kept expanding the main land, specifically the caves, instead of adding a new area to be mostly empty.

[loopuleasa]

On 5/9/2022 at 3:34 PM, Szczuku said:

Everything introduced in RoT, except the ocean (and even that is debatable),is underutilized 

Give it time, guys.

That canvas is still being painted.

[Hornete]

9 hours ago, Baark0 said:

. Klei totally could have had greater gestalts spawn when high on enlightenment, have them be killable, and then you could use a resource they drop to make new lunar tab items.

If i'm being honest that kind of sounds lame. I do want Enlightenment to take inspiration from Insanity of course, opposite sides of the same coin. But I don't really want it to be a near exact copy of sanity. I like the concept of gestalts staying ethereal and not something you can interact with directly and being able to attack them as usual, but I do think it'd be cool if we could somehow... I dunno, capture them or contain them kinda like how Wagstaff does in the CC fight and use them for something that way, and considering they're scared of some nightmare objects like dark swords, night lights, and etc, I think you can do something neat with that without just copying insanity and having them be killable mobs that hurt you directly and drop a special resource.

[HowlVoid]

Have Wagstaff fashion us a ghestalt catcher made out of a vacuum cleaner.

 

[ArubaroBeefalo]

3 hours ago, Hornete said:

If i'm being honest that kind of sounds lame. I do want Enlightenment to take inspiration from Insanity of course, opposite sides of the same coin. But I don't really want it to be a near exact copy of sanity. I like the concept of gestalts staying ethereal and not something you can interact with directly and being able to attack them as usual, but I do think it'd be cool if we could somehow... I dunno, capture them or contain them kinda like how Wagstaff does in the CC fight and use them for something that way, and considering they're scared of some nightmare objects like dark swords, night lights, and etc, I think you can do something neat with that without just copying insanity and having them be killable mobs that hurt you directly and drop a special resource.

agree, i like how gestals are a threat we cant take advantage by just fighting back

[minespatch]

6 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

Have Wagstaff fashion us a ghestalt catcher made out of a vacuum cleaner.

 

[Just-guy]

Maybe instead of putting the player asleep, Gestalts could control the player and move them around, if there is a hostile mob in range the player would go towards said mob. There could be ways to free from the control, maybe spamming the movement controls, have followers help you snap out of the trance or, comically, a second player could slap the other to wake them up.

[Hornete]

4 hours ago, Just-guy said:

Maybe instead of putting the player asleep, Gestalts could control the player and move them around, if there is a hostile mob in range the player would go towards said mob. There could be ways to free from the control, maybe spamming the movement controls, have followers help you snap out of the trance or, comically, a second player could slap the other to wake them up.

I like this a lot, you can do some fun stuff with this idea. Could even have possessed players attack other players, bless the poor fellow who has to now face against his Mighty Wolfgang friend who has a dark sword and bone armor on hand . Would be the kind of mechanic that naturally gets tougher to deal with over time as the player themselves get more powerful.

 

[sudoku]

On 5/9/2022 at 1:18 PM, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

What OP points out (among other aspects) is why many believe "Return of Them" arc was rushed, abruptly cut-short (akin Hamlet) and only KLei knows the reason(s) for this. Is a shame since it could've been so much more. Published conceptual art shows how Moon Storms phenomenon (or Full Moons for that matter) could've affected the Lunar Archipelago - making it dangerous, similarly to Ruins' Nightmare Cycle, with hostile ghostly tentacles/cilia, Crater Eyes attacking players, spectral Alter Ego enemies (aka the Brightmare Alterego), etc. Then the Horror Mobs there, that could've been expanded inside Storms raging on Constant lands after Moon Altars activation: morphing Pigs & rest of them mobs into Horror Lunar variants, corrupting & mutating vegetation a.s.o. Missed opportunities upon missed opportunities. Oh, and on topic of "missed opportunities": Crab King - each gem-majority combination could've yielded different loot, making for an interesting & unique fight a desired re-roll, not solely relegated to 1-and-done job. Perhaps in future KLei could revisit mentioned content and update it with exciting re-balances plus retakes..

Probably time. The community expects an update each month, and is disappointed when that doesnt happen. Id much rather they continue to do monthly skin releases and events, but toil away on a major update for at least 6 + months. I mean, perhaps that is whats happening as we speak, with all the talk about setting the stage for next year, and a focus on qol and rework updates, maybe they are working on something bigger.

[-Nick-]

Man i wish klei added the various unused brightmares. They are so cool. Especially the doppelganger.

[minespatch]

5 minutes ago, Nickolai said:

doppelganger

Amoebas need to be brought in. They could be like the mimics from Dark Souls/Elden Ring.