[Suggestion] A Potential Way To Save Woodie From Full Moons Via Lores

[goatt]

Why save woodie?

Spoiler

0. This post tries to excluding griefing from the discussion

1. QoL improvement for woodie players on unannounced full moons. Unannounced full moon is very unpleasant. It can be deadly and extremely inconvenient.

2. QoL improvement for woodie players in moon storms. Daily wereform transformation is just annoying.

Firstly, Woodie's origin from wiki

Spoiler

Hailing from the pine-covered mountains of the great white north, Woodie is an unassuming yet strangely mysterious man who keeps his past close to the vest (or in his case, the flannel). He is never seen without his signature bushy beard or trusty axe Lucy, who herself is a bit of an enigma. The other Survivors are not quite sure whether Woodie is simply mad, or if there might be something else to the seemingly inanimate object. Sometimes they swear they can hear a jovial female voice speaking to Woodie when no one else is around...

As the power of the moon has grown, so too have the effects of Woodie's curse. Woodie soon found that his form would shift into not only the Werebeaver, but a Weremoose and Weregoose as well. As his changing forms became more unpredictable, Woodie resolved to find a way to have more control over his curse. Using every bit of knowledge he'd gained from his time in the Constant (and some additional tips from Ms. Wickerbottom) he soon discovered that his transformations could in fact be controlled. By fashioning representations of each of the three beasts and consuming them only when he wanted to invoke that form, Woodie now feels more comfortable in his own skin than he has in quite a while.

 

How to save woodie?

"As the power of the moon has grown, so too have the effects of Woodie's curse." - DST Compendium

Full moons of higher frequency than natural rate brings a increased moon power. It makes woodie's condition of curse worse.

The curse, when under good control, is usually manifested in every new axe Woodie touches. But on natural full moons, the curse usually grows stronger and breaks out of Woodie's skin and forced were-forms (goose, moose, beaver) on him temporarily.

But on frequent full moons and in moon storms which have intense moon power, the curse has finally grown strong enough to temporarily take over not only Woodie's skin, but also part of his soul. With the help of moon power, what can possess Lucy the Axe, finally has its hands on Woodie.

 

New Curse Form: Were-Lucy, a form very similar to regular Woodie or regular characters.

(Goose, moose and beaver are forms Woodie uses to block out Lucy because the transformation process is sometimes unstoppable. But when Lucy has access to Woodie's core, it annihilates Woodie's effort in transforming into something bizarre, but tries to turn Woodie into Lucy itself instead. Although having a human-shape body, Lucy is more dangerous than were-moose when it has full control of Woodie's core.)

 

Transformation mechanism details

Spoiler

1. Woodie can naturally turn into goose, moose or beaver at a rate of once every 20 days at maximum. He can also use idols, but they are "natural" occurrence.

(How does it work? Every full moon transforms woodies and leaves behind some residue moon power. The residue power dissipate over the next 19 days. But during the next 19 days, any natural full moon transformation will be enhanced, and the natural transformation will always be Lucy. Any new moon will refill residue moon power to maximum. Idol transformation remains unchanged.)

2. Moon storms refill residue moon power to maximum immediately. So woodie always turns into Lucy during perma full moon/

3. A new meter to show the residue moon power.

 

Were-Lucy details

Spoiler

1. Lucy can do everything that Woodie can, including accessing inventory, wearing head and hand slots, eating food, crafting and riding beefalos.

2. Lucy form lasts 8 min. It drains sanity like other wereforms, -6 / min. Its hunger meter is also replaced by a were-meter.

3. Chopping trees using any axe can reduce Lucy's were-meter. It won't turn regular axes into Lucy. It push the curse in to the axe and use it as a vessel to contain Lucy. Each axe swing reduce Lucy-meter by 33%. After 3 swings, the axe becomes Lucy, and Woodie gets his body back.

4. Eating monster food can refill Lucy-meter and extend Lucy's possession over Woodie's body. Each monster food (regardless of what kind) increase Lucy's meter by hunger value x1.3333. Monster meat with 18.75 hunger adds 25%. The number is tuned according to other character's regular daily hunger drain of 75.

5. Were-Lucy ignores food's health effects, like wormwood. Eating a monster meat can extend Lucy's form, hurt his sanity, but not health. Jelly beans' passive hp regen still works. Eating other beneficial food can only increase Lucky's sanity, but nothing else.

6. Lucy can't pick up Lucy the Axe.

7. Woodie has 0 hunger when Lucy ends.

8. The transformation between Lucy and Woodie doesn't stun lock the character.

9. Woodie's speech text is red like Lucy the Axe. It also talks to Woodie inside sometimes, such as "stop fighting, I'm your friend", "haha, I'm finally free", "I chop trees better than you".

10. Lucy's appearance: maybe half red hair and half red skin? (Woodie's soul is partially possessed.)

 

I have no intention to make Lucy stronger than Woodie, because it's not my priority to change the game in any ways. But there is an opportunity here to do so.