What is the point of item equip damage modifiers for Maxwell's puppets?

[ZombieDupe]

Seems like another unnecessary math equation into the whole thing. Why make the player hold specific items to buff Maxwell's shadow puppet damage, and I guess armor too? To keep the player engaged? Holding specific items in equip slots and observing the fight from 2 tiles distance doesn't seem particularly engaging.

This update appears to have just added yet another character to use followers in basically the same manner as 3 or 4 other characters have for their special perks, which isn't particularly unique or interesting. It does work thematically the best for Maxwell however, as he was the first character to have that as a special perk specifically.

Puppets gathering resources the way they do seems a little strange in that they can seemingly only carry one type of item and if they grab over a stack but if you have extra inventory space for over that stack, they will drop the items exceeding it anyway, and will have to come back to the locations if they want to pick up another different type of item? Was there some resource gathering else-if logic programming puzzle you had trouble solving logistically, because the current implementation of them begs more questions than it answers.

I would have gone with a simpler approach for both the servants and the fighters, making them both the same puppet, much like in single player. I think the best approach you could have gone with overall, which would be simple enough for anyone to understand (though maybe a little difficult to code properly), would be to go with something between the old single player Maxwell and the pre-rework one. Single type of puppet you summon with the Codex Umbra, then the puppet does nothing until you engage in an action, after that, it continues with that action until it no longer can or you switch to a different action. You want something attacked? Attack an enemy or get hit for the puppets to start targeting it or other enemies until you retreat or enemies. Hiring pigs works similarly actually. You want items on the floor gathered or crops to be harvested? Do that action and they'll start doing the same, then give you items once their or your inventory is full or until there are no more items to pick up on the ground nearby. All puppets would still follow you but would be universally versatile without specialty with a decent limit on how many you can summon. Them being unable to die or having a huge health pool would also be all you would really need to do. Simple, yet effective, because there really would be no reason to get any more complicated than that. Maybe that means a little more work on the part of the player, but it still makes it a little more engaging with the environment around you.

Holding items, like one man band, or a bat bat, for extra damage multiplier on the puppets themselves just seems strange. Why not just have a static max damage output from the start?

[BezKa]

To make the game interesting.

[Loonytoony]

I guess for a bit of progression for the character.

[Cheggf]

So that you don't start the the game with 60 damage duelists lol

[ShadowDuelist]

7 hours ago, ZombieDupe said:

Holding specific items in equip slots and observing the fight from 2 tiles distance doesn't seem particularly engaging.

Generally speaking, even though you could play like that, you’ll get better results if you fight yourself along them in most cases. And it is encouraged to do so, as the duelists get a faster attack rate if you do.
 

7 hours ago, ZombieDupe said:

I think the best approach you could have gone with overall, which would be simple enough for anyone to understand (though maybe a little difficult to code properly), would be to go with something between the old single player Maxwell and the pre-rework one. Single type of puppet you summon with the Codex Umbra, then the puppet does nothing until you engage in an action, after that, it continues with that action until it no longer can or you switch to a different action

I understand this approach and yeah, I considered it was a possibility of the way the rework would go. I think the devs opted for the new system due to simplicity and other advantages: if you needed to carry the puppets from point A to point B they were usually very susceptible to getting killed by random things, or just getting destructive over things they shouldn’t.
By marking them a specific work  type in a particular area these two main problems they had in the previous iterations were solved without over complicating the player, and they made them a lot cheaper and time based to compensate.
 

7 hours ago, ZombieDupe said:

Holding items, like one man band, or a bat bat, for extra damage multiplier on the puppets themselves just seems strange.

This is not to encourage you to use those items for the puppets specifically, but rather to keep consistency with shadow tier items. It also opens up the possibility of broader strategies for Maxwell without being penalized for switching out of the most common items you’d use. EG: leading bunnymen to battle with onemanband, paired with your duelists, or healing through batbats mid battle won’t make your duelists temporally weak.

7 hours ago, ZombieDupe said:

Why not just have a static max damage output from the start?

Progression. When they did that, people would just run to bosses and obliterate them without any gear, which makes no sense.

And if they gave them a flat low damage, people wouldn’t use them past the early game as they would be too expensive to upkeep for a very small damage output. By scaling them to always be about as strong as maxwell’s fight tier is, they can be effectively used at any point in the game for very different objectives.

[Waynel]

Are people really interested in seeing Maxwell's combat perks revisited ? Do people even care about said perks ?

We have a lot of combat oriented characters already.

[Gi-Go]

Play beta maybe? Then share opinion. 

[Mr Giggio]

lore wise more shadows around u more power u have to spare 

gaming wise its interesting due damage progression its not a ready-to-go damage option right of the gecko

for me its a 10/10

[Quyzbuk]

Never played an RPG or MMO before have ya?