The Everything Encyclopedia Fairy Tale

[Sapientis]

The Case of the 4 Living Logs Bookcase (and why this recipe is perfectly reasonable)
The Star of this topic is in the title - The Everything Encyclopedia. This book itself (if there's anyone unaware) allows you and nearby Survivors to prototype a single item from the Science Machine, Alchemy Engine, Think Tank, Prestihatitator and even Shadow Manipulator levels with just a Science Machine at the worst case. With a cost of 2 Papyrus and 1 Electrical Doodad this Book allows for 3 any* non-blueprint crafts with just a Science Machine nearby. This Book allows Wickerbottom to forget about all of those Crafting Stations and just make the most perfect of all, the Sacred and Magic Bookcase of Book Conservation. The Bookcase itself is, of course, an Alchemy Engine as well, so she will only need to use The Everything Encyclopedia if she requires to craft one of Magic or Seafaring Tab items and those won't usually require you to prototype more than 3 crafts at once (maybe seafaring if you want to set up a whole functional Boat in one go, but if planned well you can prototype Boat Kit earlier or even use the last 4th use of the Book, if needed, and make another one, its really cheap).
Now what it means is she doesn't waste 4 Boards, 4 Cut Stone and 4 Gold to craft an Alchemy Engine, 2 additional Boards, 6 Silk and time to catch 4 Rabbits to craft a soon-to-be-destroyed Prestihatitator nor does she waste a Purple Gem and 7 Nightmare Fuel to craft Shadow Manipulator. Instead she only needs 1 additional Living Log, 4 Papyrus and some rubbish for a Feather Pencil to Craft the Omnistation Of All Crafting And Magical Book Hospital. And remember she only needs that to store and repair her Books as well as prototype some of them, but all* of crafting is already accessible via The Everything Encyclopedia and Science Machine. The cost of a powerful character specific structure is minute given all the resources she can keep by the use of The Everything Encyclopedia.

The Publicicity of the Public Library (and how to eradicate illiteracy on Public Servers)
Other people only interrupt reading, but if they like what you read you can read it to them, right? Because the effect of The Everything Encyclopedia applies to everyone around the reader, Wickerbottom or Maxwell can help their fellow illiterate Survivors see the marvel of skipping all the Magic Tab crafting stations (to be fair there's not much items worth prototyping anyway, so Wickerbottom can easily sacrifice her sanity for others just to get her Living Alchemical Book Infirmary, the Holy Grail of Bookcases. Wickerbottom player informs their friends how it works so they all can get what they want. Friends want Magic Tab crafts and Wickerbottom wants One Bookcase - One Bookcase to rule them all, One Bookcase to find them, One Bookcase to bring them all and on the bookshelves repair them. The answer to meet in the middle is of course The Everything Encyclopedia. All players sacrifice their freedom, because they will need Wickerbottom to read them every time they want to prototype something from the Magic Tab but in the end, they're all friends playing the cooperative game, so Wickerbottom's benefit is everyone's benefit, isn't it?
Well, the problem starts with Public Servers. How can you possibly ask others to help you build The Death Star amongst all Crafting Stations, the magical immobile Bookcase and Galactic Superweapon when they all know, as good as you, that it will be completely and utterly useless once you leave the server. No one reasonable would allow that and that is sad truth.
But what if you didn't have to babysit them and read to those illiterates every time they ask. Could they possibly learn how to read themselves? One could assume even one of the youngest of Survivalists, Wendy, could read, at least looking at her Nightstand (check the Vignette if you don't believe me). If they could use this Book on their own once you leave you could at least try to ask them to give up Shadow Manipulator. Maybe some would fell for it...

Knowledge is Power, but is it really Magic Power?
All of Wickerbottom's Books use some sort of special power to affect the surroundings, some most powerful can call fearsome monsters to life, summon destructible lightinings, alternate the weather or even alter the Moon! However, there is one particular Book that could possibly be just a regular book and that is The Everything Encyclopedia. If that is in fact an Encyclopedia on every topic it could be used by everyone who can read and they have no problems reading Signs/Directional Signs. Reading The Everything Encyclopedia would naturally lower one's Sanity (knows everyone who ever used one before Internet replaced them) and they would probably read it just for themselves. If it is in fact an encyclopedia imbued with Nightmare Fuel or some other magic power, proficient Magic Book readers (Wickerbottom and Maxwell) could use its full potential of reading it out loud to let everyone prototype whatever they want.

The return of "All work and no play makes Wick a dull girl." topic
But if it is just a regular encyclopedia, only extremely comprehensive, then maybe it could help Wickerbottom soothe her nerves and mind after reading the rest of all those Magic Books. Could The Everything Encyclopedia be Wickerbottom's Fairy Tale Book? Could she just relax reading it as well as regain some Sanity (even that of regular prototyping)?

 

TL;DR:

• 4 Living Logs for a character specific, powerful structure which unlocks some powerful Books and restores their durability is acceptable, because The Everything Encyclopedia and knowing many things allow Wickerbottom to skip Think Tank, Alchemy Engine, Prestihatitator and Shadow Manipulator extremely early in the game.
• Playing in a friend group with a Wickerbottom crafting Bookcase is better than Shadow Manipulator because of great potential of restoring durability to her Books as well as some new Books that the Bookcase unlocks for everyone's profit; Magic Tab items can be prototyped thanks to Wickerbottom reading The Everything Encyclopedia near anyone who needs it (because there's not many magic items worth prototyping early on anyway).
• On a public server Shadow Manipulator would always be better, because with no Wick/Max around no one has access to Magic Tab, solution: make The Everything Encyclopedia readable by anyone but just for themself (this change won't affect solo Wickerbottom gameplay one bit, can also give some freedom when playing with a group of friends).
• The Everything Encyclopedia could be a regular comprehensive encyclopedia (useful for anyone craving knowledge), but because of Wickerbottom's curious mind she has a blast reading it and could restore some sanity upon use (to herself and nearby Survivors).

 

*For some reason The Everything Encyclopedia, A complete guide to everything from A to Z, doesn't cover Tackle Receptacle crafts, which I believe could be unintended behaviour (adding them would certainly be appreciated).

[HowlVoid]

Finding a forth living log is as rare if not rarer than a purple gem.

 1 TNT and a bishop is enough for one manipulator.

1 TNT + Looking for the grotto (comparable to finding the ruins for purple gems), spawning a tree guard (comparable to digging up graves red+blue gems), or spawning an ultra rare early game double poison birchnut tree (actually harder than just killing dragonfly with face tank). Plus Poison birchnut trees are extremely annoying to fight.

Gameplay scenario/my personal take on who deserves the logs (not important):

Spoiler

If I (Wormwood) came across a bishop (or blue+red gem from graves) and a Totally Normal tree I'm build a shadow manipulator first. Because I can't rely on the wicker to know what's she's doing (or look for her) to then craft me a darksword/a night armor/ and a bat bat. It's easier for me to stop by a spider nest (I destroy the ones in far to reach corners of the savannah) and get some silk+ glands for early game healing+fish for fertilizer. Rabbits take like 10 seconds of buildings a trap and digging up the rabbit holes (I have NEVER seen someone hunt rabbits, people hunt koelaphants). So I come across all of the items for a prestihatator passively.

So good luck looking for that grotto Wicker!

Would I mind giving her my precious early game living logs from my even more precious early game HP? Yup. I need it for darkswords, star callers, and deconstruction staffs. I don't care about books that don't benefit me, a bat bat is a life or death scenario for me as Wormwood. And I rather spend my papyrus on night armor because that will actually protect me from dragonfly, unlike the husk.

 

Building a manipulator would be faster and offers infinite recipes to me. I can collect a prestihatator by day 4-5, and a manipulator by days 5-7 or so. It can take Wicker even longer if she doesn't spawn a tree guard, doesn't find the grotto, and this is in top of a Wormwood being present (that knows wicker is useless to him) and a TNT spawning (which aren't guaranteed). 

This isn't me resetting the game either, please don't misinterpret me making a rare scenario as a counter. This is me being consistent at rushing the bat bat so I don't spend x minutes healing via tent. I think if the number of living logs was brought down to 3 then I wouldn't mind paying for it or giving her the logs in payment for my crafts. Though this would bring about another issue of me rushing the swamp for all of it's reeds because now I need more... Yeah, I think at three I'm still racing wicker to the swamp and to the worlds naturally spawning living logs.

 

This is on a pub ofc with actual friends, Id just sit at base. I recently started playing pubs again and it's so chaotic lmao. I wonder if Wicker will follow me around begging for logs because some wickers are too scared of the underground or I read on screen *Wicker has died (to tree guard)*. Kind of reminds me of when everyone would give me their seeds and I'd just use them as food .

If there's a Wortox that's a whole nother story.

In my opinion it's easier to bring the recipe to 3 or 2 because statistically it doesn't make a difference in how she goes about collecting the logs BUT! Only goes about decreasing the needs for favorable odds.

A small comparison:

With 3(2) OR 4 logs it wouldn't matter if there's an agreeable Wormwood+Wortox combo.

With 3(2) but not 4 Logs, Wicker was lucky enough to get to the TNT first. With the four logs requirement she was lucky enough to find two of them, thus requiring a lucky roll for the same outcome.

With 3(2) OR 4 Logs Wicker needs to spawn a tree guard.

With 3(2) OR 4 Logs Wicker needs to find the grotto. With four logs she just needs to spend more time killing gnomes. If she's super unlucky she'll need to find four. 

Because Gnomes exist (the easiest method), Wicker isn't actually gated behind time or a "hard to reach" craft like people want to believe. She's gated behind probability. She'll either have her bookcase within the first 5 days or she'll be unlucky and it will take much longer. An unlucky Wicker is punished and her experience will differ from a lucky Wicker with a Wormwood friend. In this Way Klei has made it so Wicker's life will be smooth sailing almost always if she has friends or lucky and difficult if the Wicker has none and she's unlucky. I could see how this could force a Wicker to need to beg for logs every time she comes to a server, which may lead to disputes. Even amongst rival Wickers. Please don't don't @ me, it's just how it is.

A single book case has sooooo much space, and some of the more powerful books are hard to craft. I don't know why Klei made the requirement of 4 logs when Wicker can't make 100 book in a single day or something. They could have made the third item something all Wickers actually have to work for all like x amount of saffron feathers. Not that I'm advocating for a recipe change lol, just bring the price down to 3 so a Wicker can use a TNT it literally changes nothing but add one favorable roll and cut down on the number of unfavorable rolls.

[Arcwell]

6 hours ago, Sapientis said:

• 4 Living Logs for a character specific, powerful structure which unlocks some powerful Books and restores their durability is acceptable, because The Everything Encyclopedia and knowing many things allow Wickerbottom to skip Think Tank, Alchemy Engine, Prestihatitator and Shadow Manipulator extremely early in the game.

Except you can do the same thing with a science machine + encyclopedia, and that doesn't cost 4 living logs (you said that already, oops.). I just don't see how The Everything Encyclopedia is relevant here when the main strength of bookcase comes from crafting stronger more books and repairing them, both of which Encyclopedia doesn't address.

My main issue with locking bookcase behind 4 living logs is that it gates 7 of her 17 books behind an RNG wall. In the first season, treeguards hardly spawn, mush gnomes don't always spawn and aren't guaranteed to drop as many living logs as you need, and a single totally normal tree can't make a single bookcase. Changing the recipe to 3 living logs would at least make totally normal trees a viable option in this respect, cutting down on some of the treeguard/mushgnome grind.

[Sapientis]

I understand this recipe is extremely unfriendly for pubs, but I think everyone being able to read The Everything Encyclopedia to treat the Bookcase as an Alchemy Engine and a time limited Shadow Manipulator would be easier to swallow and more coop friendly than just lowering Bookcase's cost by 1 Living Log (on one hand you have to waste 4 Living Logs for Bookcase and others have to allow it, on the other you have to waste all 6 Living Logs for the Bookcase and a Shadow Manipulator).
Then again, I don't think this game is nor that it should be balanced around public servers and I explained how Bookcase can work as Shadow Manipulator for any group of friends playing together).

I do not stand 100% by 4 Living Logs Bookcase, I would welcome the change to 3 Living Logs with open hands, I only stated my reasoning why I believe this recipe is reasonable, expensive but reasonable. Similarly to how I explained why I believe Lunar Grimoire's recipe makes sense in my mind even though I would like it to be less expensive. It's like Glossamer Saddle's 68 Butterfly Wings - it's expensive but it makes sense in its own way and some people still make it despite such recipe.

 

1 hour ago, Arcwell said:

Except you can do the same thing with a science machine + encyclopedia, and that doesn't cost 4 living logs. I just don't see how The Everything Encyclopedia is relevant here.

The Everything Encyclopedia near Science Machine allows you to skip 4 Crafting Stations entirely (Think Tank, Alchemy Engine, Prestihatitator and Shadow Manipulator) extremely early in the game, Wickerbottom alone skips Alchemy Engine because of her perk. Saved resources, because you don't build those structures, are net gain. The Bookcase costs only 1 "additional" Living Log (remaining 3 are saved skipping Shadow Manipulator), 4 Papyrus and a Feather Pencil and you only need it to have access to remaining Books locked behind the Bookcase on top of its great ability to repair all stored Books.

And let's remind ourselves those "locked behind the Bookcase" Books before we crusade against their early game access

Spoiler

• Pyrokinetics Explained - an equivalent of a Luxury Fan which is an item requiring Down Feathers (boss drop), seems reasonable to be accessible a little later than 1st autumn, besides its use is quite niche
• Overcoming Arachnophobia - quite a situational Book with more of an interesting use than powerful, is it really worth arguing about not being able to create a slowing web for 2 minutes 1st autumn?
• Tempering Temperatures - basically useless 1st autumn, overshadowed by a Thermal Stone (which funnily enough is its recipe) and you still need to have good insulation clothing to make it through winter using just this Book, even a Torch will do better!
• Lunar Grimoire - locked behind finding Ancient Archives (which funnily enough are behind Lunar Grotto where you can easily get 1 remaining Living Log to craft your Bookcase)
• Apicultural Notes - the only good reason one would want Bookcase early, those Bees are extremely powerful and keeping this Book in the Bookcase allows Wickerbottom to over time summon an army of bees annihilating almost everything they stumble upon, it's somewhat good this is locked behind the Bookcase, because it is great late game answer for most problems
• Horticulture, Expanded - just a better, more pricey version of Horticulture, Abridged with less uses, its predecessor is good enough to satisfy one's needs before the Bookcase is created
• Lux Aetherna Redux - just a better, more pricey version of Lux Aetherna with more uses, its predecessor is good enough to satisfy one's needs of one night light before the Bookcase is created, if you need large, stationary light Star Caller's Staff will almost always be better, especially during 1st Winter

I get that this 1 additional Living Log is a huge pain and that it locks the Bookcase behind the sheer luck to find it somewhere, but you already have early access to Shadow Manipulator crafts with no Living Logs at all (via The Everything Encyclopedia) and Bookcase is an extremely powerful craft - for 4 Papyrus all future Papyrus used for Books can be regenerated (and also keep in mind, that 4 Papyrus is a lot, if you don't find Swamp early or the amount of Reeds there is very low, your Books will still be locked behind the amount you're able to amass before it stops regrowing in winter). I don't think that Bookcase is designed to be 1st autumn craft anyway and you usually should spawn a Treeguard with Deerclops.

That all being said:

• I know 4 Living Logs Bookcase is expensive but I can understand why it CAN be that expensive (design-wise, not quite gameplay-wise)
• I would also be happy if it was just 3 Living Logs but I can live with it unchanged, because of how good Bookcase is
• I would rather have Totally Normal Tree yield 4 Living Logs total instead of Bookcase being crafted with 3 Living Logs

[Mysterious box]

Though i was originally in the camp of the bookshelf being too expensive after talking it over with friends and reading some posts on here realize I may have been wrong on it being too expensive even more so when considering other character specific crafts like Wurts stuff.(crafting her stuff early game can consume you)

[Evelo]

I thought the bookcase was meant as a mid game luxury.

[Mr Giggio]

At the point I finished to read the post I already could find Lunar grotto and started to farm livin logs killing gnomes

Ok jokes apart I really think people started to overexagerate about Wicker's cost of crafts cuz 1 - as I said gnomes are a thing 2 - If u playin with other people it has a good chance one of ur friends pick Wormwood

[Wonz]

9 hours ago, HowlVoid said:

1 TNT + Looking for the grotto (comparable to finding the ruins for purple gems), spawning a tree guard (comparable to digging up graves red+blue gems),

 

I would say spawning tree guard is harder than finding gem in graves. I'm 90% time finding at least one red very often more than 3. Also triggering earthquakes with slurtles is more reliable way to get gems than people think.

You need to fall like 75 trees on average for treeguard to spawn. You really have to go for old trees in forests only.

[HowlVoid]

50 minutes ago, Wonz said:

I would say spawning tree guard is harder than finding gem in graves. I'm 90% time finding at least one red very often more than 3. Also triggering earthquakes with slurtles is more reliable way to get gems than people think.

You need to fall like 75 trees on average for treeguard to spawn. You really have to go for old trees in forests only.

Oh yeah I forgot about earth quakes, and I agree that they are very reliable and in combination with graves, one should get a purple gem fairly easily. I tend to see a red or blue gem every time an earthquake occurs. You can get a few natural ones in the way to the ruins or even grotto.

I usually have to plant 100 trees to spawn a tree guard, but I think the issue I have with them is that it's very time consuming. If you don't get a tree guard in those 100 trees you have to replant and wait for them to grow all over again. On average getting to the gnomes is probably more reliable.

The reason I said it's compatible is because a red+blue gem is around 2%  (I did the math on another post) and a tree guard is like 1.33%, but the bigger difference being that with a massive closely planted forest you get more chances at that 1.33% chance per tree. 

 

[Mr_Vol]

Do pub server just not have Woodie or Maxwell in them, I find Tree guards all the time while in pubs.

[Mike23Ua]

So uhm i just remembered that one of Klei’s previous updates made it so every event is always active at once, (or can be toggled on/off as you desire) so can’t people just turn Hallowed Nights on & farm their own living logs from Festive Trees?