Make Wonkey a normal character - like Wurt but for pirate monkeys

[Mortalbane]

I have never seen a good word spoken about Wonkey or DST monkey pirates in general. Nobody likes raids, nobody likes being unable to kill monkeys, nobody likes turning into Wonkey. And nobody ever wants to turn into him on purpose.

But i kinda enjoyed Wilbur in SW, turning the annoying monkeys into helpful allies.
With so much ocean content already made, and probably much more to come, why don't we see ocean-related characters? And instead are stuck with that pale shadow of Wilbur.
Also, why do we all turn into a specific monkey called Wonkey? I mean, it follows DS name convention, but unlike Wilbur, he doesn't seem like a separate character.

 

Some suggestions

1. Wurt for monkeys
I'd like to see Wilbur/Wonkey as a character i can pick from the start, who would have tons of skills related to ocean. Being friends with monkeys, he could recruit them to sail the ocean, being a true pirate king with potentially very fun gameplay.
Players could explore moonquay-basing, like Wurt explores swamp-basing.
Imagine having a monkey crew who can operate all those boat things like sails and cannons. They could be given weak pistols crafted by Wilbur, fish-swords, some rum to buff them - and raid the mainland! Grab all the loot and sail back to the Quay, singing monkey shanties.

2. Base perk
If you can play Wilbur/Wonkey from the start, his increased speed on all fours would be very nice for exploration, but i also wouldn't mind getting rid of it and giving him something else. Because exploration is good, but fighting is better, and having reduced base speed with DS fighting system is kinda sad, and no one would want it. Also, why give character good land speed, if his main idea is to sail.
His base perk could be that he starts in the Quay, and knows how to build a better ship. Or something.

3. Trinkets
I'm sure no one will miss cutting monkey trinkets from the game entirely. But if not, they could be reworked in some fun way.
For example, let Wilbur gain more power or access to skills depending on the number of trinkets he has. But of course he shouldn't just go around killing his own kin for those trinkets - that must be punished. But he can have trinkets of his dead comrades not killed by him directly - like when monkeys were recruited and died to monsters. Or he could wield his trusty hook-sword and steal trinkets from other players who killed monkeys, benefiting both himself and said players.

[Dr. Safety]

I thoroughly enjoy playing as Wonkey, and will even use ethically questionable mods to find the island early on public servers sometimes. 

[Mortalbane]

47 minutes ago, Dr. Safety said:

I thoroughly enjoy playing as Wonkey, and will even use ethically questionable mods to find the island early on public servers sometimes. 

Oh, so Wonkey-lovers exist =)
But, on the other hand, Wes players exist too, so that is expected

[ShadowDuelist]

I suggested some changes to monkeys in general a few times, I think their current interactions is really a missing opportunity: There is a lot more than could be done with them, from seeing them carrying treasure chests on their own so WE can loot them too, and much more trades with the queen.

In synergy with that, Wonkey could be a much more interesting asset of the game:

- There should be a reliable way of knowing where the monkey island is, even if expensive. It could be a new map trade pearl gives after her house has been completed, or maybe when turning to wonkey for the first time it immediately shows where it is (you can call pirates with goopy flares even if you dont know where the island is)
 

- The queen should provide a way to remove trinkets on the go: maybe at a less efficient banana cost, she will sell another cursed item that destroys them (and is consumed on use)

- I don’t think you should take more than one stack of trinkets. Once you reached one stack, any other can be handled or removed as a regular item and should not stick unnaturally to you.

- Trinkets left in places should attach to landing birds, or sink in the water.

- Wonkey could have more ocean related perks, and more pirate monkeys interactions. 

- Wonkey could retain “some” perks of the character you originally had (this would need some deep analysis to prevent some perks breaking him) basically allowing you to be a somewhat different wonkey, depending your base character

I think it would be fine if its not a starting character with the changes proposed above, since it could be an interesting early game goal if you want to fully embrace the pirate life.

[Echsrick]

i rather wish klei would just remove that curse nonsense completly, it adds nothing to the game but punish you for playing the game, and if you dont then you get alsol punished with item loosing and death, and all of this is such a backwards logic, you get punished just interacting with it no matter what you do, either its the curse nonsense or you lose your stuff and die

[grm9]

27 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

if you dont then you get alsol punished with item loosing and death

you can make them steal lightbulbs/grass or sleep/drown them

[Echsrick]

2 minutes ago, grm9 said:

you can make them steal lightbulbs/grass or sleep/drown them

i could alsol just completly disable bad game design in the world settings

[grm9]

4 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

i could alsol just completly disable bad game design in the world settings

DST players when something requires more than walking away/to the side and holding F with a melee weapon to effectively deal with

[Echsrick]

3 hours ago, grm9 said:

DST players when something requires more than walking away/to the side and holding F with a melee weapon to effectively deal with

what space to move away?

[grm9]

4 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

what space to move away?

that was the point, you need to find another solution

[Echsrick]

2 minutes ago, grm9 said:

that was the point, you need to find another solution

ah yes, let me just get punished real quickly by bad design, that is after all another solution in your eyes yes?

[grm9]

2 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

ah yes, let me just get punished real quickly by bad design, that is after all another solution in your eyes yes?

i've brought up solutions 3 messages ago

[lowercase skye]

5 hours ago, ShadowDuelist said:

- There should be a reliable way of knowing where the monkey island is, even if expensive. It could be a new map trade pearl gives after her house has been completed, or maybe when turning to wonkey for the first time it immediately shows where it is (you can call pirates with goopy flares even if you dont know where the island is)

It will always be in one of the four corners of the map, and usually as far from dry land as it can get. You row to one corner over a few minutes and you've got a 1 in 4 chance of finding the Moon Quay. And if you get one pirate raid, you've basically already found it, since you now know it's in whichever corner of the map you're in. The Moon Quay is very easy and reliable to find! I sometimes end up finding it day 1 just checking corners.

[_zwb]

4 minutes ago, grm9 said:

that was the point, you need to find another solution

"Another solution" is either intentionally let them steal which is what players are avoiding in the first place, use pan flutes which everyone takes with them when sailing obviously, or drown them with...?

At best you're not punished, but never rewarded, that's why this encounter is bad.

[Echsrick]

3 minutes ago, grm9 said:

i've brought up solutions 3 messages ago

and i have said how the whole monkey stuff is badly designed, and you still came

[grm9]

7 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

the whole monkey stuff is badly designed

why?

8 minutes ago, _zwb said:

never rewarded

you can use pan flute and drown them by burning their boat for loot or let them steal something with a map icon e.g. a moonlens to know where the stash is

9 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

the whole monkey stuff is badly designed

why? you said that you get punished regardless of what you do, but you don't

10 minutes ago, _zwb said:

which everyone takes with them when sailing obviously

when something requires using something that you don't normally use (heresy)

[_zwb]

8 minutes ago, grm9 said:

let them steal something with a map icon e.g. a moonlens to know where the stash is

Isn't that method patched already?

Also the "loot" you get is some decor items, bandanas which are useless, banana shake which isn't that impressive.

9 minutes ago, grm9 said:

when something requires using something that you don't normally use (heresy)

Rather absurd that pan flutes become mandatory if you want to go sailing, just pushes players away from it no?

[Echsrick]

sometimes i dont know if something is even worth it anymore, but i think it realy is not worth it,  but fine, you get punished with monkeys by:

killing them so you get cursed and litteraly become worse wilson, worse wes i dare even say

letting them steal and or kill you is obvious what the punishing is

they will damage your boat very likely

spamming they are like enemy spamming on a small area that is considered enemy spamming

not even realy worth the hassle, like what? bannana bush? as if food was ever a problem that you need another food source that is time consuming to get, and with your words you absolutly HATE the idea of time consuming things so how forgot that part?

boat cannon? planks to walk on? eh.....yea......nah, not realy, boat allready small so where place cannon? and cannon balls are expensive aswell, and you realy dont need those placeable planks onto water....

reeds? plantable reeds sure.....or you know, go into the local swamp and get some reeds there, you dont realy need alot of reeds anyways maybe if wicker or wurt but what you need reeds for anyways?

so not worth the hazzle and potential punishing you get for just inderacting with a thing

 

[grm9]

12 minutes ago, _zwb said:

Rather absurd that pan flutes become mandatory if you want to go sailing

they aren't

13 minutes ago, _zwb said:

Also the "loot" you get is some decor items, bandanas which are useless, banana shake which isn't that impressive

are hound waves also bad because you only get monster meat?

11 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

letting them steal

you get stolen stuff back from the stash

12 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

killing them so you get cursed

drown them so you don't

13 minutes ago, Echsrick said:

sometimes i dont know if something is even worth it anymore, but i think it realy is not worth it,  but fine, you get punished with monkeys by:

killing them so you get cursed and litteraly become worse wilson, worse wes i dare even say

letting them steal and or kill you is obvious what the punishing is

they will damage your boat very likely

spamming they are like enemy spamming on a small area that is considered enemy spamming

not even realy worth the hassle, like what? bannana bush? as if food was ever a problem that you need another food source that is time consuming to get, and with your words you absolutly HATE the idea of time consuming things so how forgot that part?

boat cannon? planks to walk on? eh.....yea......nah, not realy, boat allready small so where place cannon? and cannon balls are expensive aswell, and you realy dont need those placeable planks onto water....

reeds? plantable reeds sure.....or you know, go into the local swamp and get some reeds there, you dont realy need alot of reeds anyways maybe if wicker or wurt but what you need reeds for anyways?

so not worth the hazzle and potential punishing you get for just inderacting with a thing

 

there are counters and rewards

[Echsrick]

again,  its not worth it to try even arguing with certain ones and derail a thread

[_zwb]

11 minutes ago, grm9 said:

they aren't

Of course they aren't, that'd be too absurd, the solution you give is absurd.

11 minutes ago, grm9 said:

are hound waves also bad because you only get monster meat?

You don't need pan flutes to get their loot without getting cursed

[grm9]

15 minutes ago, _zwb said:

Of course they aren't, that'd be too absurd, the solution you give is absurd

why? if you don't want to lose some grass/twigs, since people seem to complain about that that much, they could do that

16 minutes ago, _zwb said:

You don't need pan flutes to get their loot without getting cursed

that's arbitrary and there are other ways, e.g. ignite their boat and keep going away from them until it burns down

[xhyom]

If the monkeys were getting in the way of some task we might have at sea, that would be one thing, but in the current state, in which it's more advantageous not to even engage with this content, the monkeys are just punishment for creating a boat. It's like entering the ruins and it being empty, with only a few dozen insanity monsters, yes, maybe I can deal with these monsters, but why would I do that?

[grm9]

2 minutes ago, xhyom said:

the monkeys are just punishment for creating a boat

you can just not go to moon quay after realising that they're there and going away from them, drowning them or letting them steal grass/twigs

[xhyom]

3 minutes ago, grm9 said:

you can just not go to moon quay after realising that they're there and going away from them, drowning them or letting them steal grass/twigs

I know I can just stay still and let them have some grass but that's just dumb?... Just sea toll? For what reason? trespassing a bunch of rocks in an empty ocean? Makes more sense to not even bother with, as finding the actual useful places in the ocean, like the moon island, is pretty easy with little room for you to accidentally fall into their area while sailing aimlessly...