[Suggestion] The End is Nigh!

[Rita]

Indeed, The End of Wickerbottom's rework is very Nigh! And I refuse to believe that this book will remain untouched, with the sole purpose of being a recipe for another book (which isn't even that good). I present two suggestions:

 

TEiN should have some sort of priority, rather than being random. For example, lightning bolts are more likely to hit high, sharp, and/or isolated entities.
If we take this definition to DST, then the priorities would be (after Lightning Rod, Volt Goats and WX): trees, Pigman/Bunnyman houses, etc. And guess who else are "high" entities? THE GIANTS.
It would be interesting to use TEiN for combat, if we could isolate the giants in a place where there were no other priorities for lightning to strike.
 

I made a small modification to demonstrate what it would look like:

Spoiler

The current TEiN:

• The current TEiN (and I'm pretty sure the natural lightning too) does not damage entities other than the players (even if they are hit by lightning).
• A player with 0 moisture takes 10 damage.
• A player with 100 moisture takes 20 damage (which isn't exactly electric damage).
• This damage is reduced as the moisture drops, until it is 10 again.
• Creatures do not take any damage, instead they ignite.

My suggested TEiN:

• Targets a giant if there are no other "higher" entities around (depending on the priority list. A giant can be a high priority as well).
• Let the lightning do electric damage.
• Electric damage naturally gets a 1.5 damage multiplier. On a wet target, this multiplier goes to 2.5.
• Since the lightning damage on a dry player is 10, I'll use 10 as the base damage.
• The lightning, on a dry target, would deal 15 (10*1.5) damage. On a wet target, it would deal 25 (10*2.5) damage.
• A dry player and a wet player will also receive 15 and 25 (FIXED, no longer decaying according to moisture) damage, respectively (in case you use the book in an isolated area where you are the only target (players would have a low priority, since we are so tiny )).

That would lead to a book that, in its entirety, would deal from 1200 (15 damage * 16 strikes * 5 uses) to 2000 damage (25 damage * 16 strikes * 5 uses) at the cost of 2 papyrus, 1 red gem and 165 (66%) of total sanity.
I know these numbers might seem huge, but that's taking into account that all the lightning strikes the same target.
For comparison: the damage equals to, almost, 9 hits from Old Wanda or Mighty Wolfgang (with a dark sword).
TEiN would still be useless in the caves, as lightning cannot strike there.
The player would have to use it with caution, as the lightning ignites most creatures (which burns the loot (but I admit it would be preferable to remove the ignite mechanic, as electric damage does not cause creatures to burst into flames)).

 

OR

 

As I said, two suggestions 
If the book can't take a combat-oriented approach, how about changing the book's effect entirely? You know, lightning isn't the only way the world has to end up in "fire and tribulation! Ia! Ia!" Cthulhu Fhtagn.
TEiN could spawn meteors at random places around the player (or a single meteor at the player's location when the player read the book).
In addition to regaining some of the book's dignity, this one would be useful for felling down trees + spawning boulders, which could be mined. Therefore, a source of logs and rocks (and other minerals).
The downside would be the randomness and destructive power of the meteors (in addition to sanity), as the player or nearby creatures could be attacked unintentionally plus, as it can knock down a group of trees in a small area, a second meteor can destroy the logs if it lands in the same area. In the worst case: if all the logs were destroyed, at the very least, we would gain some boulders to mine, since ANYTHING is better than the current state of TEiN.

[dois raios]

12 minutes ago, Rita said:

Creatures do not take any damage, instead they ignite.

bruh

[Ohan]

I would love to smite down deerclops with lightning  thanks for making that demo it looks really funny and for writing all this up.

26 minutes ago, Rita said:

ANYTHING is better than the current state of TEiN.

Literally. Although for tradition’s/nostalgia sake i think id personally prefer for it to stay lightning themed unless the replacement was really amazing. A meteor book would fit her just as well though since she already has that in SW. 

@HowlVoid also made a suggestion for tEiN where it would summon a stationary cloud that periodically zaps enemies with chain lightning, not for big damage necessarily but more for mini stun crowd control i liked this idea too. 

There are several ways for the book to go i think. A real magic nuke like your first suggestion definitely would be fun to play around with and make wicker feel like a legit mage. recipe, durability or sanity cost changes could also be applied in that case to accommodate the new power. 

Red gems practically become more plentiful than generic seeds at one point in the game after all i wouldnt mind making a nuke button with 5 of them 

and please make it target sharks over lightning rod attachment too 

[HowlVoid]

I just need Klei to do ANYTHING with this book at this point .

It's all copium at this point, it's probably like when they decided internally that Wolfgang's speed was going to be scrapped for good and the forum spent dozens of wasted hours trying to argue for it.

[Mr Giggio]

I love that for her, looks really fun.

Congratz in the effort u put in that vid

 

[Cheggf]

1 hour ago, Rita said:

with the sole purpose of being a recipe for another book

It can charge goats, WX, and lightning rods. It can also kill people. 

[Antynomity]

13 hours ago, Cheggf said:

It can charge goats, WX, and lightning rods. It can also kill people. 

Or you could just charge goats with a morning star so they all don't destroy the pen or go straight for you making you waste time, lightning rods dont matter, even on boats like you like to suggest, where you can't even see the entire boat let alone anything around it making you completely blind, WX can once again, charge goats with a morning star and kill them for their milk and charge themselves that way, and kill people? When are you using this? In pvp servers? Don't balance the game around that is what I'll say.

[GrapeVruit]

15 hours ago, Cheggf said:

It can charge goats, WX, and lightning rods. It can also kill people. 

As if you're killing something with this book. The amount of randomness in where the lightning chooses to strike makes it highly unlikely to hit your intended target. Heck, it's more likely to hit you or a nearby structure than anything else. And even it did hit them, we're talking about 10 damage here. The book isn't entirely useless, but you can't argue it's uses are incredibly limited compared to her other books.

17 hours ago, Rita said:

Indeed, The End of Wickerbottom's rework is very Nigh! And I refuse to believe that this book will remain untouched, with the sole purpose of being a recipe for another book (which isn't even that good). I present two suggestions:

 

TEiN should have some sort of priority, rather than being random. For example, lightning bolts are more likely to hit high, sharp, and/or isolated entities.
If we take this definition to DST, then the priorities would be (after Lightning Rod, Volt Goats and WX): trees, Pigman/Bunnyman houses, etc. And guess who else are "high" entities? THE GIANTS.
It would be interesting to use TEiN for combat, if we could isolate the giants in a place where there were no other priorities for lightning to strike.
 

I made a small modification to demonstrate what it would look like:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The current TEiN:

• The current TEiN (and I'm pretty sure the natural lightning too) does not damage entities other than the players (even if they are hit by lightning).
• A player with 0 moisture takes 10 damage.
• A player with 100 moisture takes 20 damage (which isn't exactly electric damage).
• This damage is reduced as the moisture drops, until it is 10 again.
• Creatures do not take any damage, instead they ignite.

My suggested TEiN:

• Targets a giant if there are no other "higher" entities around (depending on the priority list. A giant can be a high priority as well).
• Let the lightning do electric damage.
• Electric damage naturally gets a 1.5 damage multiplier. On a wet target, this multiplier goes to 2.5.
• Since the lightning damage on a dry player is 10, I'll use 10 as the base damage.
• The lightning, on a dry target, would deal 15 (10*1.5) damage. On a wet target, it would deal 25 (10*2.5) damage.
• A dry player and a wet player will also receive 15 and 25 (FIXED, no longer decaying according to moisture) damage, respectively (in case you use the book in an isolated area where you are the only target (players would have a low priority, since we are so tiny )).

That would lead to a book that, in its entirety, would deal from 1200 (15 damage * 16 strikes * 5 uses) to 2000 damage (25 damage * 16 strikes * 5 uses) at the cost of 2 papyrus, 1 red gem and 165 (66%) of total sanity.
I know these numbers might seem huge, but that's taking into account that all the lightning strikes the same target.
For comparison: the damage equals to, almost, 9 hits from Old Wanda or Mighty Wolfgang (with a dark sword).
TEiN would still be useless in the caves, as lightning cannot strike there.
The player would have to use it with caution, as the lightning ignites most creatures (which burns the loot (but I admit it would be preferable to remove the ignite mechanic, as electric damage does not cause creatures to burst into flames)).

 

OR

 

As I said, two suggestions 
If the book can't take a combat-oriented approach, how about changing the book's effect entirely? You know, lightning isn't the only way the world has to end up in "fire and tribulation! Ia! Ia!" Cthulhu Fhtagn.
TEiN could spawn meteors at random places around the player (or a single meteor at the player's location when the player read the book).
In addition to regaining some of the book's dignity, this one would be useful for felling down trees + spawning boulders, which could be mined. Therefore, a source of logs and rocks (and other minerals).
The downside would be the randomness and destructive power of the meteors (in addition to sanity), as the player or nearby creatures could be attacked unintentionally plus, as it can knock down a group of trees in a small area, a second meteor can destroy the logs if it lands in the same area. In the worst case: if all the logs were destroyed, at the very least, we would gain some boulders to mine, since ANYTHING is better than the current state of TEiN.

Honestly, I would take either of the two suggestions you listed here. The book is so incredibly limited in what it can do, that it might as well not exist. I feel like your suggestions make the book feel complete and not like a bad gimmick, especially the second one. 

[Cheggf]

3 hours ago, GrapeVruit said:

As if you're killing something with this book

It's very good at killing players. Look up videos of Wickerbottom pvp. 

[maradyne]

like this because giants are typically the tallest thing around and deerclopse's antlers acting as lightning rods entertains me

[Mike23Ua]

So a few years ago I had lightning strike a tree in my backyard and it blew large branches off crashing into my backyard, Yesterday Lightning Struck that SAME Tree, and again blew its branches all over my yard there’s now a large V shaped split in the tree.

But whoever said lightning never strikes the same place twice was 100% wrong.

And: In general when lightning hits a tree, the tree sort of “Explodes” 

(the video below is not mine, it’s a random “Forums friendly” video I found without a bunch of Mature Language.)

It would therefor had been AMAZING for TEIN to not only had been awesome at gathering Wood & Branches, but also angering the Sleeping Tree Giants.