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Maxwell Night Light + Shadows Suggestion


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Maxwell rework, cool! It's kind of underwhelming & janky, darn! The Top Hat mechanic is fab, but the Shadows really need some work.

The Problems

  • Shadows operate in a small area but requires the Maxwell to exist and continue being Maxwell. Compare this instead to characters like Winona or Warly, who's powerful combat buffs can be produced and then used by another player. Alternatively the player can switch to another character and still take advantage of what Winona or Warly left behind, making them fantastic options when using the character swapping mechanics.
  • It's difficult to get the kind of value out of shadows compared to their cost. Mining & chopping for example produce resources that could otherwise be better produced by another character/method (Woodie, Bearger, Warly, all come to mind), at the cost of expensive Nightmare Fuel & Sanity.
  • Maxwell has to give up so much Sanity to maximize his Shadows that he ends up being highly vulnerable to Nightmare Creatures. Considering he's an especially frail character, this is a weird trade off especially if the goal is to use his Shadows for basic resource generation.

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Suggestions

  • Shadows go into a dormant state when left near a Mannequin or a Night Light. The Mannequin can take one Shadow, the Night Light can take four. Maxwell can interact with the Mannequin or light the Night Light to reactivate those Shadows, and they will remain active so long as a player is nearby.
  • Shadows drain sanity from nearby players to remain active, or accelerate the burning of nearby Night Lights if no player is nearby.
  • Maxwell's max sanity is not reduced by placing Shadows, instead he loses a big chunk when activating (50) or spawning (75) Shadows. Other players can also activate Shadows, suffering the same kind of sanity loss.
  • Maxwell can reduce the amount of sanity he spends activating/spawning shadows by consuming the appropriate foods or wearing the appropriate gear (Top Hat obvi, but other Magician-flavoured stuff as well). 
  • Shadow Duelists can attack Nightmare Creatures, but will prioritize other creatures first. When a Duelist kills a Nightmare, it drops Fuel but does not restore sanity to the player. Duelists will only attack Nightmares that are aggroed on to players, and will chase them down within range of their bound object.
  • Shadows slowly regenerate while inactive like Sentrypedes, and are only destroyed if their host object is destroyed. They drop a Nightmare Fuel when destroyed.

This new system had several advantages compared to the existing model,

  • Maxwell plays well in a team, especially with a character like Wickerbottom that can tank their sanity without coming under attack from Nightmare creatures.
  • Maxwell can work with other players or characters without needing to be presently selected by a player, ala Winona or Warly.
  • Players can set up areas in which Maxwell's Shadows will do work, trading Sanity for basic resources. This is an interesting balance which mirrors Woodie, being cheaper to operate once set up but being less mobile and flexible.
  • Night Lights & Mannequins get a cool & flavourful new use.
  • Maxwell becomes the leading Nightmare Fuel generating character (by going insane and allowing Duelists to fight Nightmares) rather than one of several basic resource gathering characters. This is much more flavourful & in character, considering Maxwell was the original Nightmare of the Don't Starve game.
  • It's possible to play Maxwell and make use of his core mechanics without being permanently insane, which is much more forgiving for newer players or those who want to play with his cool features without minmaxing.
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1. Maxwell already does everything, so why would he do it better than everyone else. Your problem is with the character swapping not Maxwell.

2. Same thing again, and nightmare fuel isn't expensive +sanity regenerates automatically 

3. That's one of only two trade offs he has, obviously it has to be a big trade off.

Your making problems out of nothing.

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