Wx Circuits are great but poorly balanced

[Jakepeng99]

Wx circuits are a great idea but poorly balanced. Here are the current core problems:

▪You are forced to stick with your own same set up 95% of the time due to the burden of circuit durability loss. 

▪Most circuits are useless. Gastrogain, mini health/gastro, speed circuit, royale jelly, seasonal circuits, and nightvision and illuminant are the only ones that are not useless out of many other circuits. (Music box is cool but may aswell use a one man band instead)

▪Little Circuit slots. Lack of slots discourages mixing and limits options.

▪Most circuits are stat increases. (not saying having circuits that buffs stats is a bad thing)

 

All this combined makes WX a 25% speed boost and nightvision for majority of players since it is the most reliable and consistent option. However, gastro gain is good though for beefalo, or pre bee queen where you dont believe you need the perma light. They need various changes such as potentially tinkering with removing circuit durability, and other potential buffs to some circuits, such as super health circuit granting some damage reduction similar to how gastro gain reduces hunger drain.

Wx skill tree is coming and could fix some of these problems, what do you believe could be done to Wx's circuits?

 

 

(I moved this out of the hot takes thread since it was making it a little off topic)

[lenship2]

there should definitely be less punishment for trying to change circuits

[Valase]

1 hour ago, lenship2 said:

there should definitely be less punishment for trying to change circuits

There sould be encouragement for swapping them, maybe their "durability" decreased while you use them and had to leave them to repair once they reached 0%(something around 30~40 days of use if kept in a pristine condition, such as not being wet).

This way we could get a breathing room for buffs on some of them, as you they would now be balanced around being used for a limited time before needing to be "recharged".

or this could just be a random skill on the skill tree.

[Jakepeng99]

32 minutes ago, Valase said:

There sould be encouragement for swapping them, maybe their "durability" decreased while you use them and had to leave them to repair once they reached 0%(something around 30~40 days of use if kept in a pristine condition, such as not being wet).

This way we could get a breathing room for buffs on some of them, as you they would now be balanced around being used for a limited time before needing to be "recharged".

or this could just be a random skill on the skill tree.

Eh i disagree. It would be more annoying, and evveryone would just make multiple of the same circuit. Though i see your idea.

[arubaro]

4 uses is too little durability and some of the circuits that take more slots should give extra perks to make them appealing 

[Primalflower]

My thought here as someone who plays wx-78 a lot is that the problem is more with the player than the circuits. It's (understandably) very easy to stick to speed and light, because those are problems that the player has to deal with on a day to day basis. But IMO it is easy enough to just go without speed (sometimes use a beefalo instead) and partake in the other very normal ways to get light, which then frees up your slots for other stuff. the electrification circuit and the big sanity circuit are both big winners for me.

Not saying I wouldn't like to see the circuits get touched up or maybe a skill tree that involves improving them/giving me more slots, I'm just saying that in my experience I found a lot of use and variety in my gameplay the moment I was not laser-focused on getting light and speed in my robo-guts

[Guille6785]

I'm legitimately puzzled by the fact that klei decided to give wx a bajillion circuits but punish the player for trying to swap between them

[Q42]

22 minutes ago, Guille6785 said:

I'm legitimately puzzled by the fact that klei decided to give wx a bajillion circuits but punish the player for trying to swap between them

I absolutely agree, charges shouldn't be a thing and circuits should be reparable with biodata.

[ZeRoboButler]

I like most of the circuits and I would say that none are useless per say, but I could see why people avoid using others, the gastro gain in combination with a belt of hunger makes it so I don't need to eat for days on end when I go out to sea. The sanity gain circuits are okay too because with one sanity circuit and the music box, sanity isn't an issue either.

I always liked wx rework since it was a build your own character situation. But I do understand why one would not like the circuit drain, its a little crummy and sucks for the more expensive circuits without using green gems to decon.   

[Bird Up]

I think the durability is fine because you can just craft more circuits. I always end up with a ton of bio data which never gets used. 4 swaps is pretty good all thing considered. If you could remove them without penalty, there would be little reason to collect biodata and craft any more than 1 of each circuit. That is just part of WX's downside that they must collect data to stay a very strong and versatile character.

It is annoying however that when you remove a circuit, you have to remove the one that was last equipped. You should be able to remove whichever circuit you want.

The new skill trees have made characters quite powerful, so I think we'll just have to wait until then.

[Evelo]

I feel if you removed durability or at least quadrupled the durability and adjusted the amount of pips some of them take people would be more inclined to use others. 4 uses for a rather pricey circuit is going to dissuade people from swapping it out. now if it had 16 uses... You get the picture.

[Cheggf]

All his stat circuits like gastrogain are literally worthless, and everything else pales in comparison to movement speed, ignoring darkness, and ignoring temperature. 

[HowlVoid]

Actually I was overthinking this.

They just need a structure that stores circuits and they repair over time.

Like Wicker's bookshelf.

Also there can be additional upgrades to jimmy.

1. Jimmy holds extra charges for Wx-78 and becomes more of a permanent follower. When Wx-78 removes circuits and loses charges jimmy replenishes them depending on how much battery he has charged.

2. Jimmy can store circuits that repair over time. Like, idk, 3?

[Auth]

I think if his circuit board (Whatever the hell it's called) was split into multiple categories, like for example, "Stat", "Utility" or "Boost", it would encourage users to actually use a variety of different circuits. His skill tree would then be able to add more slots to specific categories so that players could customize a bit more. Should they keep the downside of removing a circuit draining charge, this would also have the benefit that removing a circuit of one specific category wouldn't touch the others, making experimenting with circuits you'd likely be swapping around anyway more worthwhile. This would require a lot of rebalancing with specific circuits, though.

Circuits having both durability and a charge penalty feels weird. Experimenting feels too expensive, because you have to wait for the buff you applied to charge to finally have its effect be active, and if you didn't like it, the thing you probably -did- like is now heavily dinged down in durability. If they wanted to make it so you had to keep crafting or maintaining the circuits, they should've made it so they drained durability over time rather than when removed, as it adds a feeling of paranoia that you could be damaging something for no reason or that you should just hold onto something you might not like because you'd be unnecessarily damaging it, rather than feeling like you're performing basic gear maintenance. Imagine if every time you swapped a winter hat and football helmet it ate a quarter of it's durability, but their effects were permanent and didn't break otherwise. It's not a fun idea there, and it's not fun here either.

Bio data shouldn't be an item. It piles up over time and is just a big clutter, burning it feels simultaneously like a waste and a disappointment. If it was instead a storable charge on Jimmy (which makes losing Jimmy a potentially severe danger) or WX himself (Kind of like the removed Research Points) consumed when crafting items, that would be cool too.

[Baark0]

My main hope for wx is that their skill tree will give access to extra circuit slots, even one more would be plenty since it would mean you could run 2 2 node circuits and a 3 node circuit.

[cybers2001]

Most circuits are pretty cheap to replace. Only real exceptions are beanbooster, optoelectric, and maybe chorusbox. I think swapping out half your modules at the cost of 25% durability seems fair if you're only swapping maybe once per season max. The main issue I have is that one speed module is pretty much always essential (I mean why even play WX without one?), so that only leaves 4 slots to work with, and most contenders use 3 slots. Maybe if there were 5 slots left, there'd be a bit more wiggle room for nice combos.

[Jakepeng99]

5 hours ago, Q42 said:

I absolutely agree, charges shouldn't be a thing and circuits should be reparable with biodata.

Charges should be a thing, but durability should be changed. Charges are a good downside to switching.

[flamboyant wolf]

The beanbooster circuit has always been so weird to me. 

You need to kill one of the most annoying bosses and spend a royal jelly(3 jellybeans) just to craft one of these, and even disregarding the low durability, it's just... not very good. 

First of all, it's technically an upgrade to the sanity circuit, but doesn't do anything that the said sanity circuit already doesn't. It literally provides the same max sanity and sanity regen, but now there's also health regen, but now it also costs 3 nodes instead of 2. Imho, that's pretty dumb. First of all, why does it have to be an upgrade to the sanity circuit? If anything, health circuit would make more sense, as both are related to hp. Right now, if you want to use it for its hp regen, you're basically using 1 node for said regeneration, and are forced to use the super-processing circuit alongside it for no good reason. Secondly, why does it cost so much compared to what it provides? Like, sure, in theory it's infinite health restoration, but in practice, you only get the maximum of 80 health per day of use, which is just pitiful for the amount of nodes it uses and the cost of the circuit. Since the jelly you spent crating it would give you 3 jellybeans (360 hp, faster restoration, actually useful in a fight), you'd need to wear it non-stop for 4.5 days while being under max hp the whole time just to get into the net positive healing, and may I remind you during all of this you are using half of your circuit slots just for this and some sanity (so at the time, half of your kit is being slightly saner than Wilson and very inefficient healing). 

Like, I tried using this circuit, I really did, I really liked experimenting with different circuits, especially with a beefalo during lunar storms(so no need for speed or light), but I just never found a situation where crafting this circuit was better than simply making jellybeans. 

[Jakepeng99]

6 hours ago, Primalflower said:

My thought here as someone who plays wx-78 a lot is that the problem is more with the player than the circuits. It's (understandably) very easy to stick to speed and light, because those are problems that the player has to deal with on a day to day basis. But IMO it is easy enough to just go without speed (sometimes use a beefalo instead) and partake in the other very normal ways to get light, which then frees up your slots for other stuff. the electrification circuit and the big sanity circuit are both big winners for me.

Not saying I wouldn't like to see the circuits get touched up or maybe a skill tree that involves improving them/giving me more slots, I'm just saying that in my experience I found a lot of use and variety in my gameplay the moment I was not laser-focused on getting light and speed in my robo-guts

I see what you are trying to say though the sainity and electric circuits are the two weakest circuits with the most need of buffs and pale in comparison to the others- quite alot of them do. There is still the gut-hurting feeling of losing durability when trying to change a circuit. When the game gives large penalties for switching, it is not the plauyrs fault for using inconsistent or weak circuits.

 

From experience, the circuit combos i would ever use is:

▪1 nightvision 1 speed circuit/gastro gain

▪1 seasonal circuit 1 speed circuit

▪1 beanbooster 1 speed 1 mini health/hunger

 

Most the time it is nightvision is what i go with though, having nightvision in Winter is better than season immunity for me since it is always so dark, but it depends.

2 minutes ago, skile said:

why does it have to be an upgrade to the sanity circuit?

I like it, the sainity is an ok bonus. The circuit could have a rework to how the healing functions, maybe you heal faster after being hurt?

[flamboyant wolf]

6 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

 

I like it, the sainity is an ok bonus. The circuit could have a rework to how the healing functions, maybe you heal faster after being hurt?

I think I would be OK with the sanity thing, if the circuit didn't go up in space requirement and stayed at 2 nodes, or if stays at 3 nodes, at least it should give some max hp too, so that it gives you some "room" to utilize the regen better. 

As for healing, I think your suggestion could work, it would be sorta like that badge from Hollow Knight. Would actually give it some utility in a fight, which would be nice, and overall would improve the circuit. 

[Jakepeng99]

16 minutes ago, skile said:

As for healing, I think your suggestion could work, it would be sorta like that badge from Hollow Knight. Would actually give it some utility in a fight, which would be nice, and overall would improve the circuit. 

When Wx rework was revealed, i just thought "HOLLOW KNIGHT!"

 

I dont think it should increase max health though, it would be better to encourage the player to use circuits for that (after buffing the health ones with some damage reduction)

[flamboyant wolf]

2 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

When Wx rework was revealed, i just thought "HOLLOW KNIGHT!"

 

I dont think it should increase max health though, it would be better to encourage the player to use circuits for that (after buffing the health ones with some damage reduction)

true 

[arubaro]

9 hours ago, Primalflower said:

My thought here as someone who plays wx-78 a lot is that the problem is more with the player than the circuits. It's (understandably) very easy to stick to speed and light, because those are problems that the player has to deal with on a day to day basis. But IMO it is easy enough to just go without speed (sometimes use a beefalo instead) and partake in the other very normal ways to get light, which then frees up your slots for other stuff. the electrification circuit and the big sanity circuit are both big winners for me.

Not saying I wouldn't like to see the circuits get touched up or maybe a skill tree that involves improving them/giving me more slots, I'm just saying that in my experience I found a lot of use and variety in my gameplay the moment I was not laser-focused on getting light and speed in my robo-guts

i did a run with them and really trying to use circuits for each occasion but the low durability really discouraged me to change circuits... why i would use a thermal circuit if the time i expend warming a thermal stone would be less than the time refarming every other circuit i removed? 4 uses is really low

[Horsheen]

Add a repairing station for circuits, like a wicker bookshelf

let us choose which circuits to remove instead of having it be done in order of slots, it makes it rather annoying to have to take all your circuits out if you want to remove the last one

[DegenerateFurry]

It's an utterly baffling decision on Klei's part to give us a customizable character and then punish us by making us wait for over an in-game day if we want to swap out the customizable bits. All that does is encourage people to stick with speed, night vision/light, and temperature since those are the most generally useful circuits. If we could more easily restore charges or if they just regenerated a lot faster, we'd see a lot more people using the other ones. Electrical doodads exist. Let the robot eat them for two charges each.