Should Wickerbottom be more than her books?

[Castaccio]

This is the underlying issue to all of the discourse surrounding Wickerbottom’s rework. If any changes are to be made from this point onward, it will be one of the above. 
 

So far, Klei seems to have mostly gone with an option between the two extremes; expanding Wicker’s catalogue, adding the bookshelf, and  challenging players who spam-read.
 

Is this what is needed? Should further changes be made? What kinds? This should be something that the whole community makes clear to Klei so that people don’t argue endlessly after the rework drops.

[Mike23Ua]

Make her books require traveling across the constant and actually experiencing the games content to use..

WX78 needs to effectively play Pokémon Snap.

Wendy needs to pretend she’s finding the Wooden thing parts in solo DS with a divining Rod.

But Wickerbottom? She needs a few easy to gather resources and not much else..

If Klei is going to add NEW CONTENT they should FORCE us into interacting with & experiencing it.. such as making the book that conjure moon powers require Lunar Moth wing, Moon Rock, Moon Glass shard, AND a living Crustashine to craft.

I don’t see this as being tedious- because once the books are crafted they can now be REPAIRED and last forever when stored in the Bookshelf.

Outside of making her gameplay require going places and collecting stuff for her books give her perks outside of her books..

Such as she enjoys Quietness so much that she’s able to sneak up on mobs that would normally run away, or Since she’s an old lady let Catcoons see her as the crazy old cat lady and they’ll come bouncing towards her happily to share their gifts with her.

Also downsides: Being completely immune to sleep is stupid and locks her out of WintersFeast loot, so make it so the PLAYER can not force Wicker to sleep, but she will eventually pass out from exhaustion (maybe even give an indicator of how exhausted she’s getting) which would work like cooking/eating mandrake.

She’s also protective over her books.. so if they get wet or become in danger of being worn & torn or badly damaged- it should seriously mess with her Sanity.

This to me is the small little things you can do to bring the librarian/book mage to life with unique gameplay and personality outside of just having more book crafts.

[Castaccio]

8 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

Make her books require traveling across the constant and actually experiencing the games content to use..

WX78 needs to effectively play Pokémon Snap.

Wendy needs to pretend she’s finding the Wooden thing parts in solo DS with a divining Rod.

But Wickerbottom? She needs a few easy to gather resources and not much else..

I VERY much agree with this sentiment. Every one of her books, in concept at least, takes advantage of a large force in the world. How you get them should emphasize that. 
 

The only problem this poses is that it essentially locks her out of her books (which some say  is her entire skillset) until the quest is complete. It may incentivize getting them even more, but characters like WX and Wendy still have downsides and perks that form the base of their play style. WX has water damage and reduced stats; Wendy has Abigail and reduced damage.

As of now, Wickerbottom’s entire skill set would be locked behind a (very justified and necessary) quest. To fairly implement that, she’d need slight additions that create a play style that people want to expand, and this is why in absolutely LOVE your suggestions!

 

8 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

She enjoys Quietness so much that she’s able to sneak up on mobs that would normally run away…

…Since she’s an old lady let Catcoons see her as the crazy old cat lady and they’ll come bouncing towards her happily to share their gifts with her….

…This to me is the small little things you can do to bring the librarian/book mage to life with unique gameplay and personality outside of just having more book crafts.

An upsetting number of people have ignored her character and how it might be shown through gameplay. She is a librarian and an astute, open-minded scholar with an appetite for knowledge, but she’s also more than that. She’s the motherly figure who always helps out the survivors, who takes care of the kids, who’s respected by many—even Maxwell. Putting that aside, she’s still a sweet old lady who owned a garden and had a cat! With all of this in mind, I’m with you in that applying her (rather charming) character to the game you play her with can make for a much more interesting and well-designed experience. Especially because it’s what Klei has been doing for almost every character rework so far. Her character should be more than just her quotes.

[Jinjetica]

honestly, either of the last 2, I really like the bookshelf, it's cool, and the fiery pen was interesting as well, but it really isn't enough... She needs more quirkyness, she feels very flat... yet I feel that she has a quirky side we haven't really gotten to see... I mean she does scold spiders and tell them to behave... she should have the abillity to shush her enemies or something, idk???

 

[Jinjetica]

shushed spiders have to behave and leave her alone!!!

 

[Bellium]

16 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

 but she will eventually pass out from exhaustion (maybe even give an indicator of how exhausted she’s getting)

An indicator for how exhausted Wicker is? Maybe some kind of circular bar that fills up located in the top right corner of the screen...