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

[goatt 929]

As title.

 

 

[Fill-Lips 629]

I imagine it's about balance concerns, being ranged means less kiting which means more time to attack which means more damage.

So Walter attacks slowly with the slingshot because he doesn't need to kite as much as someone using a melee weapon...

But god, it's so slow that using a standard spear is better then using marbles in a slingshot.

I'd rather the slingshot work like a crossbow with faster attack animations. Basically, ammo all in, but when you attack, you have to press attack again to load the next shot in, so you can then attack to shoot, giving Walter some movement between shots rather then his current sluggish one.

[Faintly Macabre 1272]

Because ranged combat is extremely hard to balance in a game with combat that's so simple in general. Trying to create a character that's supposed to revolve around it without expanding on combat to make it practical was a terrible idea.

[ShadowDuelist 10498]

Tbh giving it the same DPS as a melee with the same base damage at this point would probably work okay, it would mean that his max ranged DPS would be ranged tentacle spike DPS with marble.

Even if he kites less, what would be his real max DPS? Like Wortox with a fresh hambat using invincibility frames? he would still be way behind Wanda, Wolfgang, or even Warly in terms of max damage, and offer mobility instead. Also let’s not forget that the slingshot compensates by the fact that you have to grind crafting the ammo: it’s still much more expensive than any melee weapon.

Slow as it is now, the slingshot is only good to draw aggro of some enemies( which you would probably do better with an ice staff or a boomerang later on)  and to kill birds/butterflies in the first 10 days. After that point what I’ve consistently seen in most servers where the Walter player has some experience at the game, is that the slingshot usually ends up forgotten in a chest or just fed to a Lureplant. 

It’s really sad and a wasted opportunity to make Walter a lot more fun

 

Edited May 13 by ShadowDuelist

[Daniel86268 588]

Imagine a game where there's a bunch of characters trying hard to survive slapping stuff with stone spears and tentacle appendages, and then some Scout boy with a machine gun shooting marble bullets swags by.

Edited May 13 by Daniel86268
typo

[jan Mele 1260]

44 minutes ago, Faintly Macabre said:

Because ranged combat is extremely hard to balance in a game with combat that's so simple melee oriented

fify

I think the slingshot would be better effect oriented

Edited May 13 by jan Mele

[Faintly Macabre 1272]

12 minutes ago, jan Mele said:

fify

I think the slingshot would be better effect oriented

Yeah, that's accurate. Though even in terms of melee, there's some stuff that's missing that by consequence makes ranged combat hard to balance too, like the fact that the only real practical mobility option for most characters is speed boosts. In lots of games, balancing ranged play relies on short boosts of speed (dodging, dashing, etc.) and only a couple characters in the game have anything like that.

And yeah, better effects would be good. There's some good basic stuff in the mix already, like the freeze and slow down rounds, but other important stuff is missing, like damage over time effects.

[Keller Max 412]

Except his maximum range is only couple of tiles and his his first slingshot attack is always slow AF on top of already slow attack speed. His slingshot just doesn't feel good to use at all, unless you need to kill birds and butterflies.

[skile 194]

4 minutes ago, Faintly Macabre said:

Yeah, that's accurate. Though even in terms of melee, there's some stuff that's missing that by consequence makes ranged combat hard to balance too, like the fact that the only real practical mobility option for most characters is speed boosts. In lots of games, balancing ranged play relies on short boosts of speed (dodging, dashing, etc.) and only a couple characters in the game have anything like that.

And yeah, better effects would be good. There's some good basic stuff in the mix already, like the freeze and slow down rounds, but other important stuff is missing, like damage over time effects.

yes, and effect that would make enemies take more damage, similarly to that one Abigail applies. 

(maybe from something loonar?) 

it would make him actually a good support in battle. 

 

[ALCRD 2625]

34 minutes ago, Daniel86268 said:

Imagine a game where there's a bunch of characters trying hard to survive slapping stuff with stone spears and tentacle appendages, and then some Scout boy with a machine gun shooting marble bullets swags by.

*Wanda enters the chat*

[Keller Max 412]

11 minutes ago, ALCRD said:

*Wanda enters the chat*

It amuses me when someone says that all characters are balanced and have their fair up/downs, no need to buff anyone. And then proceeds to only play characters like Wanda or Wolfgang. Those are probably the "fairest" of all characters lmao.

Edited May 13 by Keller Max

[ArubaroBeefalo 18257]

because is safe damage so is boring boring in 2 ways: being too safe and being to underwhelming at the same time

a skilled base slingshot instead of holding F to win (actually waste materials and time) would be way better and easier to balance since you can make it strong but only when the player performs correctly

48 minutes ago, Daniel86268 said:

Imagine a game where there's a bunch of characters trying hard to survive slapping stuff with stone spears and tentacle appendages, and then some Scout boy with a machine gun shooting marble bullets swags by.

by the time walter has marble bullets every other character have many darl swords and hambats

[Ardcrumb 656]

Never forget the blunderbuss, a clean 200 damage for a cost of 1 gunpowder, a sleek cost of 1 gear 2 boards and 10 oincs, paired with rarity of gears in hamlet made a delightful weapon that I used for the entire expansion. 

Add blunderbuss 2022

[Keller Max 412]

14 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

because is safe damage so is boring boring in 2 ways: being too safe and being to underwhelming at the same time

a skilled base slingshot instead of holding F to win (actually waste materials and time) would be way better and easier to balance since you can make it strong but only when the player performs correctly

by the time walter has marble bullets every other character have many darl swords and hambats

I tell you! To make walter fun to use, his slingshot should be a skillshot. And he should be able to charge shots for more range and and more damage. But also be able to spam it for short ranged fast attacks, in case he needs to ministan something.

Edited May 13 by Keller Max

[SinancoTheBest 6287]

12 minutes ago, Ardcrumb said:

Never forget the blunderbuss, a clean 200 damage for a cost of 1 gunpowder, a sleek cost of 1 gear 2 boards and 10 oincs, paired with rarity of gears in hamlet made a delightful weapon that I used for the entire expansion. 

Add blunderbuss 2022

Oh it's coming Ol' Chap! #Blunderbuss2022 #Warbucks2022

[ArubaroBeefalo 18257]

17 minutes ago, Keller Max said:

I tell you! To make walter fun to use, his slingshot should be a skillshot. And he should be able to charge shots for more range and and more damage. But also be able to spam it for short ranged fast attacks, in case he needs to ministan something.

totally agree, i have been suggesting the exact same since always. Is so bland to only need to press F, not fun in anyway

[jan Mele 1260]

1 hour ago, Faintly Macabre said:

Yeah, that's accurate. Though even in terms of melee, there's some stuff that's missing that by consequence makes ranged combat hard to balance too, like the fact that the only real practical mobility option for most characters is speed boosts.

Yeah, I meant to include things like that

1 hour ago, Faintly Macabre said:

In lots of games, balancing ranged play relies on short boosts of speed (dodging, dashing, etc.) and only a couple characters in the game have anything like that.

Thanks for the info. I heard something about that before, but this is a lot more clear.

[Hornete 15565]

I don't want the slingshot's attack speed to simply be increased.

Not because I think it'd be overpowered, but because that sounds boring. I think the slingshot is much more interesting as a utility-type weapon, but unfortunately the current utility ammo's we have aren't that great, and we don't even have that many of them.

I'd like to see a main focus in improving that department first.

[Lokena 259]

I like one little feature of the slingshot - that if you make a shot without having projectiles, the player doesn't actually attack, but all followers still aggro at this mob, while you remain innocent and above suspicion. So you can, for example, arrange wars among pigs and bunnymans without fear that you will accidentally hit someone, or use Shootius for free bird hunting. This way it also doesn't attract krampus. Of course, it's kinda niche, but a slingshot is safer and cheaper than boomerangs or ice staffs, and doesn't waste your sanity like books. 

But if we talk about bosses, then yeah, he is not the best character and this is not the best weapon for it. In general, he is more of a support character - especially evident from the fact that if a mob already fights someone, a slingshot doesn't aggro them on you. Thus, his fighting style is for someone else to keep the attention, whereas slingshot would add more damage from a safe distance. At least it seems to me that this was the original idea - he loses sanity from damage, so he plays either through followers or as support for friends. But I don't know if anyone uses it in practice that way, and as a solo player, I would love a higher speed, especially because I use range weapons pretty often and don't understand the overall dislike for it.

[Waoling 1208]

Because it realistic, have you try using a slingshot?

[Well-met 7076]

Support ability.

[Keller Max 412]

17 minutes ago, Waoling said:

Because it realistic, have you try using a slingshot?

Don't Starve and Realistic???

[Waoling 1208]

Just now, Keller Max said:

Don't Starve and Realistic???

Dst is realistic, I never said anything about Ds

[HeatAndRun 2113]

I think Wanda's alarming clock feels like a proper ranged weapon for me more than Walter's slingshot.

The slingshot consumes so much resources and the dps is annoyingly slow as a main source of damage, it could really use some buffs.

[Waoling 1208]

It a slingshot not a gun why do you think it would do that much damage anyway? And marble is easy to farm once you start growing marble trees.