Surprising Seed Idea - teleportation tree

[pupikman]

I'm not sure if there are any plans for adding more surprising seeds, but if so, what would you say about a teleportation/fast-travel tree?

 

For example, planting the surprising seed could grow a mother-tree, which will act as the teleportation destination. The mother-tree would occasionally produce beans that can be eaten to teleport to the mother-tree. Maybe the beans could also be planted to grow one-way teleportation bushes, which act as permanent beacons that teleport you to the mother-tree. The beacon-bushes should probably take some time and special fertilizer to grow (tree jam?).

 

I'm sure this idea needs quite a lot of balancing to actually be fun, but what do you think? Teleportation changes the game in really interesting ways, and I'd love to have a resource-intensive way to access it that is not tied to any specific character.

 

**Additional ideas that might or might not work with this:**

 

* Balance:

 

Since this tree has a chance to be overpowered, the mother-tree should produce only a limited number of beans per year (which can either be carried for portable but disposable teleportation or planted for renewable but stationary beacons). The beans might rot, making them even scarcer.

 

Other than limiting the number of beans, the planted beacon bushes might have a cooldown after each use. For example, they may wither after each use, needing to be re-fertilized and regrow for some time.

 

* Support for more than one mother-tree:

 

To allow more than one mother-tree (without copying the teletransport and teleporting you to the nearest tree), the beans and mother-trees can be color-coded, with each bean type teleporting you only to the mother-tree it spawned from. This will allow players to teleport across farther distances, but also mean you have to manage which beans you decide to carry with you (unless you build a Wanda-style teleportation hub).

 

As an alternative, mother-trees can be tied to turf/biome. Perhaps you will only be able to plant one mother-tree per biome type (or turf type). This way, beans can all be the same (and will teleport you to the nearest mother-tree), but beacon-bushes will teleport you to whichever mother-tree matches the turf they have been planted on. This will require a little more setup and returfing but might be more intuitive than color coding.

 

What do you guys think? Does this idea have any merit? What would you change to make it more balanced/interesting/fun?

 

(I'm adding a concept sketch generated by chat-GPT in the general style of DST. This is mostly for vibes...)

[chirsg]

Great art. I like fast travel and it's a shame that fast travel is even a consideration for what makes a character powerful or not.

[pupikman]

To add a little character to the trees, I think it might be interesting for the mother-trees themselves to move around a little when you're not watching.

Every night, preferably when there are no nearby players, the mother-trees should choose a nearby free tile in the same biome and teleport over to it. This way, every time you see the tree, it will have mysteriously moved, which enhances the teleportation theme.

As an addition to this, a player can "feed" a bean to the mother-tree, which will make the tree itself teleport randomly to a different biome. This will be cool, but also useful. If you only have a few surprising seeds but you want to relocate a no-longer useful teleport-destination without digging out and replanting the tree, you can try your luck with teleportation. (I think the randomness of the relocation might balance out the time saved in not having to regrow the mother tree from seed)

[Creatingabe1125]

Balancing idea: you get 3 Telebeans per harvest which happens on a new moon after the Telelune has experienced 1 full moon, it can grow on natural darkish turf like marsh or forest turf. The Telebeans spoil in 5 days which then spoil into 1-2 nightmare fuel (both are magic and it seems like a fair enough compensation for if they do spoil). If the beans experience a full moon their spoilage time will turn from whatever it was back to 5, these beans are not affected by fridges, fun caps, or any spoilage effect. It needs to experience 2 full moons and then grow on a new moon to grow from young Telelune to a fully grown Telelune. I think the beans teleporting you to the mother tree is enough but these are my balancing ideas for this teleportation tree.