Thanks to the willow/wigfrid rework i can come back to question wilson's bad skill tree design

[MrsBoris]

Hello, if you've seen my profile i have talked about the wilson rework before and after being not having success in trying to reach a dev i spent months and months grieving over wilson's injustice.

Now, willow and wigfrid have received skill trees and MY GOD, i finally have a chance talk about this again.

Before the skill trees existed wilson was a perfect basic character, his beard helped protect from the cold and his hair made effigies to protect from death, both very simple and begginer friendly skills. Once the skill tree update came in however, the scenario changed, wilson was kinda in the beta for the whole idea and there was really no bottom line at the time, the beard skills were good, the transmutation too, but the torch skill tree was looked over at the time because the skill tree was still young and developing.

Once wormwood, wolfgang and woody got their trees however, the scenario changed, a bottom line was starting to form and for that wormwood received a skill tree rework which would set the bottom line for skills, every skill has to have somekind of useful be it active or passive, general or in a niche.

From a pragmatic standpoint, wilson's torch skill tree has no useful application, torches are a transitory light source, that means it is not a light source from which you depend on, therefore, making the durability of a discardable item and the exploration range of an item not meant for exploration has under absolutely no circumstance a practical use and the idea of an upgrade from a torch to a lantern or just lighting a tree on fire is so basic to a dst player that has played over 20 minutes that the only way you could make these 7 skill points useful is if you make the conscious decision to adopt a debilitating playstyle. That is not being basic, thats BAD DESIGN. And the fact you have to spend like 30 in-game days to unlock these skill points just adds insult to injury.

just make his buffs transfer to all light sources and switch torch toss for a hands free light source slot like a lantern belt, or is that too overpowered once willow has a portable dwarf star for 3 points or wigfrid has a literal mercy ult?

From a opinionated standpoint, i think he is overall too weak for even a basic character, he is supposed to have simple passives that help common beginners hassle, transmutation, overall better light sources, insulation with beard and summer resistance without beard, and THATS IT. 

Just to trigger me i wake up to see willows skill tree, and i am just completely flabbergasted, for 3 points and 1 ember soul she can have a dwarf star, that stays on the ground and has a light radius? sounds like a 7 points investment to wilson, oh and guess what, it generates heat. I'M SORRY BUT I SWEAR I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK, i can talk about this forever but i'd rather not.

Klei, can y'all just give wilson the basic character kit he deserves, the bottom line for skill tree balance has increase for some time now and he has been left behind, i've already pitched my ideas, just make him a well designed basic character instead of making him borderline not a character because he is wilson.

(i had posted in the wrong topic beforehand, sorry frosty)

[KrayZ RoarC]

nhea wilson is getting his love from klei, thats a shame, he doesn't look like a scientist at all.. stuck food in the beard, gross, why not make a caveman character already, torch upgrade and food in beard is the kinda that kind of character not wilson. I was really thinki big for wilson like an alchemist character like rpg games, since klei is already turning it already into one, he'd makes good potions many variety... maybe one to revive creature cause in his banner from ds solo or whatever he is doing some experiment in a dead animal, who knows exactly what was that... i think he is reviving that bird.

[Frosty_Mentos]

Wilson's gimmick is more that he's a joke scientist with solutions to everything that everyone can already craft ingame. There's even a Maxwell quote for Wilson's made think tank questioning about it being 'one of his' inventions. In practicality it means that most solutions to craftable machines are his work or inspiration from other like Wagstaff.

His also gimmick is that he's mediocre at everything as to why he has no downsides. Most average guy out there with most practical solutions he can think of being openly possible to be made by anyone besides alchemy to which he has to learn by himself to conduct such resourceful experiment.

I do think he should get a little bit more love cause torch part is really useless when we consider most other rushed for light solutions, but he's not supposed to be all that complex or scary to play as with some nutty mechanics other chars has or are getting. He is what he is and he's decent at that. Maybe we'll get more to him in the future, gotta just hope. Or play other characters if you find them also fun to play as, since we talking about the new skilltrees they've got too.

[MrsBoris]

your concept of wilson is spot on.

tansmutation is something he already has, summer insulation without beard doesn't sound like a good idea anymore i was just fed up yesterday and not thinking straight.

disregarding the summer insulation the buffs to all light sources sounds very reasonable, and since you said "Most average guy out there with most practical solutions he can think of being openly possible to be made by anyone"  having a belt that can hold your torch or lantern (a miner hat less likely) is very practical and average right? i still think his torch tree is a result of wilson being kinda like a beta tree.

i don't wish him to have complex or insane mechanics either, he is a decent no setup character that passively deals with common hassles such as light and cold and resources.

i too hope he gets more attention in the future.