[Question] Why walter's slingshot so slow? Anyone has a good theory behind this particular design choice?

[Mysterious box]

5 minutes ago, HowlVoid said:

Ok, here's my idea:

Add a timing mechanic were there is a shorter and shorter window to time a button press to quicken the slingshot.

When Walter starts to shoot the slingshot there will be a short window (indicated by a shine in his eye) where if you press the attack button again he will shoot sooner. Consecutive shoots will have an ever quicker arriving and smaller window "shine" that will severely punish the player if they get the timing wrong. Timing it wrong will cause a long animation where Walter fumbles his ammo, he picks it off the ground and places it back in his backpack/pocket. The average player will feasibly get 2-3 shots out with decent practice.

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Klei could further balance this by increasing the sanity damage he takes only during the fumble animation.

Example of "shine"

I like the idea but lag is my only problem.

[HowlVoid]

8 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

I like the idea but lag is my only problem.

First 2 shines could be very forgiving, having a sharp rise in difficulty after. 

The main reason for this mechanic isn't to make the slingshot fast at the cost of difficulty. But to balance the dps a range weapon can achieve, think of it more as a cooldown. So making the Window for the first or second shine super long shouldn't be a problem.

I wonder if the first shot shouldn't have a shine, but then every shot after the first. Cause you could shine 2-3 times, move a tiny bit and shine 2-3 more times. This way Walter needs more time to reposition. 

[Cheggf]

Ranged combat is boring and unengaging. His slingshot is great, the different ammo types are very fun and useful. If anything should change about his slingshot it should be tweaks or additions to the ammo types. Gold rounds are great for birds, marble great for tentacles, ice great for everything. Focusing on making his slingshot eclipse melee and become a brainless hold f to kill hard tool would be a travesty when it's so much more than that.

[Baark0]

scared of somehow hurting himself

[chincer]

i find a similarity to abigail in the slightshot where it is suppose to be amazing at some things and not that great at others, anything that can kill abigail easily leave wendy in a bad spot, but the upsides of her are so great that doesnt matter.

the slingshot do make some comeback situations boil down to "do you have enough ammo?' because you are never going to get hit, let alone go insane from monster auras, things that move slowly specially are just a chore of pressing F, hunting birds, butterflies and what not is the same but the problem comes when a faster mob show up and you cant even press F to finish your first shot before the monster is already in front of you.

the skillshot idea is quite good but they will have to address friendly fire somehow, because maybe you dont want to hit the pig you hire and are trying to hit something through it.

walter should get more focused strengths and weaknesses that matter, half of his kit feels all over the place, like the bee allergy and the sanity from trees

[Mysterious box]

2 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Ranged combat is boring and unengaging. His slingshot is great, the different ammo types are very fun and useful. If anything should change about his slingshot it should be tweaks or additions to the ammo types. Gold rounds are great for birds, marble great for tentacles, ice great for everything. Focusing on making his slingshot eclipse melee and become a brainless hold f to kill hard tool would be a travesty when it's so much more than that.

I don't think that's specifically what most people want but the issue stands that unlike other perks his slingshot doesn't really accomplish anything "special" I guess you could put it. It's not a good way of doing any one thing legitimately it's just a option to do it that way which isn't really bad but feels very lacking like your using it because you can not because it's a good way to do something and I feel there's no way to really change that without changing what it does or changing the game mechanics around ranged combat. Personally I feel like if they're not going to make it a good weapon I'd perfer they went all in on making it a support tool rather than being below average on both accounts.

[HowlVoid]

3 hours ago, Cheggf said:

Ranged combat is boring and unengaging.

Idk, holding attack isn't so impressive either.

I think the misconception is that this range weapon somehow has some sort of advantage over melee, it doesn't. 

Tanking has the advantage of increasing your damage. With 95% armor every character, except ironically Walter, doesn't end up losing much and marble can become extremely common. 

Kiting has the advantage of being safer, can be as safe as range weapons (minus bee queen) AND still has higher damage. 

The second misconception is that making this a viable weapon will need to eclipse melee, it doesn't. Those two things can be mutually exclusive, one doesn't mean the other will be true. 

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His slingshot is great, the different ammo types are very fun and useful. If anything should change about his slingshot it should be tweaks or additions to the ammo types. Gold rounds are great for birds, marble great for tentacles, ice great for everything.

Now, I'm unsure if Klei meant this to be a tool or a weapon, given it has FOUR different tiers of damage ammunition. Proven by 2/3 of your examples pretty much being the same thing and the third just being an ice staff. In terms of versatility the slingshot doesn't do anything unique.

Given that more than half of it ammo types are damage and you said above that range combat is unfun, I'm unsure why you included examples fighting things "as fun and useful" in the same paragraph you claimed they were "unfun and unengaging". 

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I may be alone in this but doesn't it seem like Walter is the perfect character to babysit?

If Klei meant to make Walter a noobie character for those who are tethered to you throughout the game, he's perfect. He has so many passive team play perks that help keeping him from becoming a nuisance to have constantly around.

-With a brand new player that is constantly following you around, you won't have to worry about them going insane and having to deal with their shadows constantly. 

-They add to you damage. Some player may feel disincouraged by failing at combat and may otherwise stand by and just watch.

-They can get their own food easily, killing the birds. 

-Extra inventory space.

So if they want to make his slingshot more of a team player tool than a weapon I have a few ideas:

Sticky Glow stones: 

1 yellow gem + x spider silk + x moon rocks

They will attach to other players, mobs, or just on the ground and provide light for half a day. Can give other players emergency light or "tag" enemies in darkness.

Berserker rounds:

x Monster meat + x rot + x stones 

Makes all mobs hostile to everything around them (not allied). A bit of aggro control in cases where other players may become overwhelmed and put Walter in danger. Rots over time for balance.

Revive rounds

x gold + 1 red gem + x nightmare fuel (crafts only 1 per recipe)

Walter isn't in more danger than when all of his team mates are dead. Auto-targets the nearest dead player when Walter is close enough.

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Focusing on making his slingshot eclipse melee and become a brainless hold f to kill hard tool would be a travesty when it's so much more than that.

It's really not more than what it appears, a slow range weapon. The only unquie cool ammo is the slow down rounds, that why Walters use melee most of the time when fighting (unless a very large number of players). Again, one of the reasons why the DPS may be so bad is so that bad players can help with combat from a distance (players that would otherwise be a hindrance). Of course not all Walters are, but if you have a really, really bad player then who better than a really bad Walter.