Quick! What do you want to see in Maxwell Rework?

[Castaccio]

A repetitive post, perhaps, but if the next update ends up being Maxwell's rework, it's best to keep suggestions easily accessible to the devs.

To the devs themselves, (whatever the next update may be), I'm very hyped for the coming update and I wish you luck! 

[SonicDen220]

Anything shadow-magic related. The potential is limitless.

[Evelo]

It's a refresh, not a rework. Don't go hoping for one thing.

[SapoLover]

I would like to see his role as a gathering character completely changed or nerfed to make way for the real magic man (I can't imagine how much knowledge is in the codex umbra, and yet it's only used to gather wood and marble).

[Gi-Go]

What if... Maxwell could utilize other character's items, because he is epic and connected to everyone? 

alarm clock (dealing less damage), gembell (gaining a damage buff for a short time), Abigail's flower (summoning abi for less than a minute), Warly's kitchen (because why not), Bernie (same as Willow), and lucy won't mind Maxwell touching her (because I ship them). 

[Spep]

9 minutes ago, Gi-Go said:

What if... Maxwell could utilize other character's items, because he is epic and connected to everyone? 

alarm clock (dealing less damage), gembell (gaining a damage buff for a short time), Abigail's flower (summoning abi for less than a minute), Warly's kitchen (because why not), Bernie (same as Willow), and lucy won't mind Maxwell touching her (because I ship them). 

now EVERYONE will be a swap character, i approve 

as for my opinion, just toss his puppet gimmick out the window and give him some of that good magic.

[Random Guy000]

32 minutes ago, Spep said:

now EVERYONE will be a swap character, i approve

...And when everyone is a swap character, no one will be...

[Creatorofswamps]

2 minutes ago, Random Guy000 said:

...And when everyone is a swap character, no one will be...

[july401]

I just want his name back. William

He isn't evil enough to be called Maxwell

[Cheggf]

I hope he actually gets cool things like new abilities or passives instead of getting lame things like right clicking on the book because punching the shadows is mean.

[BezKa]

I had an idea that doesn't work at all, but is fun to think about.

Clones, but of other characters.

Shadow loggers? You mean Shadow Woodies?

Duelists? How about self healing Wigfrids and one-hit dying Wanda's?

Miners? Wolfgang clones.

Etc etc. The problem i quickly ran into with this idea is that some characters wouldn't get a clone because their perks don't translate (what would a Wickerbottom clone do? Wilson?) and that is still largely afk gaming.

It's also kinda lame. Ex king of shadows and all he can do is copy other characters but worse. Pretty pointless.

But at least visually would be funny

 

[Horsheen]

16 hours ago, Gi-Go said:

What if... Maxwell could utilize other character's items, because he is epic and connected to everyone? 

alarm clock (dealing less damage), gembell (gaining a damage buff for a short time), Abigail's flower (summoning abi for less than a minute), Warly's kitchen (because why not), Bernie (same as Willow), and lucy won't mind Maxwell touching her (because I ship them). 

I don't really like this idea, being a worse version of other characters seems pretty meh and unfitting

[minespatch]

11 hours ago, BezKa said:

Clones, but of other characters.

Klei was developing the amoebas from the gestalts on the lunar island.

[lakhnish]

He becomes a true master of shadow magic.

[Spirit Glow]

21 hours ago, Spep said:

as for my opinion, just toss his puppet gimmick out the window and give him some of that good magic.

This please!!!! He has so much potential!

[Losparkeros]

I think I would like to see him starting with lower level abilities of codex umbra but being able to utilize ancient technology for his own. Although maybe not in purely combative way as Wanda - his resentment to manual labor is quite obvious so I expect he will be using shadow magic for more mundane tasks than soloing Misery Toadstool in 25 seconds.

On 9/20/2022 at 5:56 AM, SonicDen220 said:

Anything shadow-magic related. The potential is limitless.

"There is no limit to the power of shadows." - Maxwell, examining Reanimated Skeleton (and I hope this update will show it, since his shadow powers were quite underwhelming so far).

 

 

[Castaccio]

17 hours ago, Horsheen said:

I don't really like this idea, being a worse version of other characters seems pretty meh and unfitting

On one hand I agree—some of these items don't make sense for Maxwell to be using. However...

On 9/20/2022 at 1:23 AM, Gi-Go said:

[Wanda's] alarming clock ... Abigail's flower ... Lucy

These could be rather interesting, actually. Or at least the idea of a synergy with Wanda, Woodie, and/or Wendy.

 

He has a history with Wanda that's different from the other survivors:

Quote

"Goodness Maxwell, have you aged since the last time I saw you?"
—Wanda, examining Maxwell (Player character, DST)

He seems to be involved with both Woodie and Lucy in a way that we aren't aware of yet:
 

Quote

"Why does he hate me?"
—Woodie, examining Maxwell (Mob, Base Game)

 

Quote

"Ah. How have you been, Lucy?"
—Maxwell, examining Lucy the Axe

 

He also has a curious relationship with Wendy—his niece:

Quote

"Should I revive you, Maxwell? Hmm..."
—Wendy, examining Maxwell's ghost

 

It would be fun for the purpose of lore and character synergy, but might be a bit unnecessary from a gameplay standpoint.

[Dr. Safety]

On 9/20/2022 at 1:36 AM, Spep said:

now EVERYONE will be a swap character, i approve 

as for my opinion, just toss his puppet gimmick out the window and give him some of that good magic.

I disagree. I think he should definitely have some of that good magic, but his puppets are what makes his character. They are fitting for his personality, as he is someone who seems to absolutely detests the thought of getting his hands dirty, as evidence by a lot of his quotes:

"Am I to be reduced to a common farmhand?" -examining a garden hoe
"Surely someone else can do these menial tasks?" -examining watering can
Or when he quite literally says "I detest such work." -examining boat patch

His low max health also kinda can support a summoner playstyle, as it's not ideal to be in the fray directly, and is better off having other stuff to take the focus off of him. Honestly, I say keep his workers, buff his combat summoning (either buffing duelists or adding new summon types that are combat related), adding some control over summoned entities, and some unique interactions with magic items, and far reduced sanity cost for them.

A unique interaction could be that when he uses a dark sword, he gets the same perk as the forge, giving him some nice bonus damage. Another could be that night armor has a chance to negate damage completely on both him and the armor itself, since both him and the armor are pretty squishy.

If these perks are too powerful, an additional downside that all of his upsides are removed if he doesn't have the codex in his inventory, since that's where he draws his power from and without it he is just a stinky old man. 

[Antynomity]

his own weapon and armor

[Karitha]

Full control and customization on puppets.

[Duck986]

this mod integrated steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2809332721 (puppet control included) or something close to this

[Spirit Glow]

23 hours ago, Dr. Safety said:

I disagree. I think he should definitely have some of that good magic, but his puppets are what makes his character. They are fitting for his personality, as he is someone who seems to absolutely detests the thought of getting his hands dirty, as evidence by a lot of his quotes:

"Am I to be reduced to a common farmhand?" -examining a garden hoe
"Surely someone else can do these menial tasks?" -examining watering can
Or when he quite literally says "I detest such work." -examining boat patch

 

The funny thing is his puppets don't help with any of these lol. 

 

These quotes can also be interpreted as him feeling the other survivors should do these tasks instead of him, not necessarily that "my puppets can do this for me".

[LiamAshvinn001]

More puppets and more shadow hijinks, Maxwell for me always seemed to be the kind of guy who had some shadow magic tricks up his sleeves for any situation, so would be cool to see that in-game

[Dr. Safety]

13 hours ago, Spirit Glow said:

The funny thing is his puppets don't help with any of these lol. 

 

These quotes can also be interpreted as him feeling the other survivors should do these tasks instead of him, not necessarily that "my puppets can do this for me".

I'd assume he's complaining because he doesn't have a puppet to do the work for him. He doesn't complain about having to do logging or mining.

It's interesting to see people not liking him being the puppet character and wanting to scrap it completely to make him just the magic character. I want him to be better with magic too, but his puppets are his whole thing lol. It would be like saying that Wendy should scrap the whole Abigail thing and instead go heavier into helping pipspooks to make potions for herself and others.

[Spirit Glow]

41 minutes ago, Dr. Safety said:

I'd assume he's complaining because he doesn't have a puppet to do the work for him. He doesn't complain about having to do logging or mining.

It's interesting to see people not liking him being the puppet character and wanting to scrap it completely to make him just the magic character. I want him to be better with magic too, but his puppets are his whole thing lol. It would be like saying that Wendy should scrap the whole Abigail thing and instead go heavier into helping pipspooks to make potions for herself and others.

I think its probably becuz people find magic more saitsfying / interesting. His puppets are great at gathering but are terrible for anything else. Its like having pig/merm/ bunny followers that can barely fight. 

I wouldnt mind him being the puppet character but im skeptical that it can be done in way that makes it feel satisfying while accomplishing the "shadow magic" vision that people have for him. I love Maxwell as a character but afk farming as him gets old quick.