[Suggestion] On the Bookcase auto-repair

[ADM]

Wickerbottom is by far the only character I had no clear idea of how her refresh could be like, and having just... more books, was a simple answer which surprisingly satisfied me a lot more than I'd have imagined, it's likely because of the effects they brought and that her other trails got a stronger meaning.

So yeah that's my appreciation message and I'd like to disclose that I'm not disappointed of anything from all my testing, of Wickerbottom and the pretty smooth changes added to other characters (tho I hope it's only the start for Winona 3.0 *cough*), just I'm raising a certain concern I felt I'll mention on the Bookcase that was also added.

 

For the details, the Bookcase is Wicker's mandatory custom building many of us though about at least once, right ? It has 20 slots that only take her books and offer the Alchemy Engine tech level as well as certain book recipes. However there's more to the storing part :

• Books stored inside will regenerate 1% of their durability every 30sec
• The effect is increased to 2% if Wickerbottom is around
• Anyone can take and place the books

And that's about it. So... tell me what you think but having books that repairs themselves (by the magic of dust and cobweb I suppose) that fast is to me kinda crazy. That comes for very cheap because despite this building being one of these 4 ingredient recipes, it's actually easy to make and that's obviously intended, being a station to unlock some of her books, that's what you'd expect.
But that repair thing is of a much different level : total AFK, wherever you want, as many as you want, and you can definitively use them as Wurt and Maxwell.

Maxwell, I won't care too much at the time because the character state is uh... well we're half the way 2022 for the rework next year (time flies), but, I'd find it too quirky having a character being two, almost entirely, since the usage of the book now won't be just limited to the amount you can manage to craft, which ngl I wasn't really a fan of as well at any time. As for Wurt, it's easier to talk about it since the character is pretty much there and meant to stay how she is, likely...
There are books that restores her 50 sanity in a single use, that speaks of itself, while I'm aware most mechanism of the game can be pushed to a level where they barely matter at a point, I consider it decent to still maintain it with fair, thoughtful solutions with its many alternatives than finish it with a tiny combo.

 

The other characters gimmicky thing out of the way, I think you can just realise how that can be a problem toward Wickerbottom's gameplay itself, having an alternative so efficient being just a timer from a little grind to have amazing effect all year (wait that sounds like someone ?) that get rids of a big part of the character's own crafting being consumables that are initially so useful for what they cost.

Now I'm not saying the whole thing should be scrapped, but this could definitively be more than some idle repair.
And there would be many solutions :

• Out of the basket we would have the possibility to use the fact that the Bookcase is a crafting station to add its own "craft" which would activate the repair on the structure for a time, maybe more efficient, but definitively something that come at a cost where mass repair is worth it and that only she can make.
• If the problem about the crafts is the reed grind, there could be a few solutions, the Monkeytail thing was already quite a good start but how about guaranteeing the Reed Trap setpiece ? (yeah I know that'd bring even less random to the world gen but the whole could get a tweak, diversity speaking), if we don't want to make the resource too Swamp exclusive early maybe Wicker could always find a guaranteed reed in Tumbleweeds and so on, so on...
• There could be more than a single method to repair books more than playing exclusively the waiting and stocking method, this could also be done on the go, applied to a singular book using Feather Pencil, Papyrus, or a custom patching recipe, I'd kinda prefer the first despite there isn't much of a "repair" done to writing on something, but well, are they really breaking or just running out of lecture juice ?

 

That's all for me. As usual it was too long not to say much, I know , maybe you know me but I like to explain my issue from theorising, so far experience and then discuss a solution. So if not for that which I consider to be a bit of a unnecessary punch on the loop balance of the character which to be fair, despite I like what she had to offer, never really interested me for the long run because of the lack of diversity once the objectives she could complete were already met on the world. As today there is a bigger reliability for pretty much anything and that is nice to see. Regardless of if something is done or not, I'd still consider it a successful refresh, but I'm looking forward to see what community demands Klei will look onto this time. And well, I don't know if this suggestion is just the fruit of some balance paranoid guy, so I'm also curious of how you feel about the repairing system.

[Ohan]

I was already really excited about the refresh before i even discovered the bookcase could repair books 

i think some way to repair the books instead of infinitely crafting new ones was indeed needed. 

While im also a lil concerned about the balance i think its too easy to overreact. most books have either 3 or 5 uses. So if u save them at their last use (33 and 20%) in order to repair that means it will take ~35 minutes for the 3 use book to be repaired to full and 40 minutes for books with 5 uses.

Thats a whooooole lot of time considering a lot of books are used in quick succession like on tentacles, birds+sleepy applied silviculture, horticulture and potentially many of the new books too. In order to make effective use of them while still saving the books to be repaired, it means u will have to make several copies of the same book like before.

Or even more since u wont be able to use them up completely if u want to repair. 

i like this approach much better immersion wise, instead of using up the book and throwing it away it makes more sense for the librarian to save used up old books and repair them. 

26 minutes ago, ADM said:

use the fact that the Bookcase is a crafting station to add its own "craft" which would activate the repair on the structure for a time, maybe more efficient, but definitively something that come at a cost where mass repair is worth it and that only she can make.

Yeah i was thinking about something like this too. Could be like “bookbinder’s glue” or whatever that when placed in a bookcase triggers the repair and drains the glue’s durability over time.
 

Some kind of smallish resource cost attached to the repairing would be more interesting and fun to me (actively maintaining the library). 

the lack of a continued resource cost with wanda’s watches is something i really dislike. 

[skile]

32 minutes ago, Ohan said:

I was already really excited about the refresh before i even discovered the bookcase could repair books 

i think some way to repair the books instead of infinitely crafting new ones was indeed needed. 

While im also a lil concerned about the balance i think its too easy to overreact. most books have either 3 or 5 uses. So if u save them at their last use (33 and 20%) in order to repair that means it will take ~35 minutes for the 3 use book to be repaired to full and 40 minutes for books with 5 uses.

Thats a whooooole lot of time considering a lot of books are used in quick succession like on tentacles, birds+sleepy applied silviculture, horticulture and potentially many of the new books too. In order to make effective use of them while still saving the books to be repaired, it means u will have to make several copies of the same book like before.

Or even more since u wont be able to use them up completely if u want to repair. 

i like this approach much better immersion wise, instead of using up the book and throwing it away it makes more sense for the librarian to save used up old books and repair them. 

Yeah i was thinking about something like this too. Could be like “bookbinder’s glue” or whatever that when placed in a bookcase triggers the repair and drains the glue’s durability over time.
 

Some kind of smallish resource cost attached to the repairing would be more interesting and fun to me (actively maintaining the library). 

the lack of a continued resource cost with wanda’s watches is something i really dislike. 

well, for Wanda's watches specifically, it makes sense. 

she's all about time, so she pays for using her powers with the most precious resource in both game and life - time. 

 

[goatt]

I agree it should cost more to repair book than no cost.

I suggestion bookshelf to be refuelable like ice-flingomatic. The fuel would be papyrus, which will keep the repairing magic going (slowly over time like now) for as long as the meter is not zero.

 

[HowlVoid]

I like it the way it is. It's so slow it isn't game breaking.

To me it just seems like the suggestions are just... Keep it, but add a hoop I have jump through first. 

I think the point of the bookcase is to diminish the total gathering Wicker has to do throughout her life time to have a more stable access to her perks. Adding some glue, or item that allows the book case to work would mean that Wickers presence isn't needed. She grinds out her books and you're rewarded for keeping her around.

I think the devs are trying to reduce the number of intermediate items required for things to work so it's A to B, rather than A to B to C. Remember when rather than add an item to neutralize disease they got rid of the whole thing all together? It was because it's essentially just adding hoops the player has to jump through to achieve a result. 

If it's such an issue it makes more sense for the bookcases to repair the book slower where it may be advantageous to outright consume the whole book than wait for it to repair (in the early game).

50 minutes ago, HowlVoid said: