The Culinarian's Conundrum

[ZeRoboButler]

So, I like Warly, like a lot. He is by far one of my favorite characters character wise and gameplay wise... but I ran into a issue.

When I was going over Warly's numerous perks and boost, I found that... A skill tree could be very odd for him as I worry that is downside could be altered in some way, and personally I think this would be horrible. He has an identity as a very particular eater to point where he can go from loosing 10% to 70% of the stats from food as a result of repeat meals, His sanity and health are abnormal to restore as a result, and he can't take advantage of certain raw ingredients which is honestly... a good thing.

The way that this encourages you to diversify you food and look for new foods is great, It makes a person look at food differently (although you do need to know what you want to cook and how to do so). Much like wormwoods down side, It changes the way that you play in a meaningful way and I should hope that the ways that Warly is improved don't soil the intended playstyle. (although, a lot could realize they can just slam a stew and some meatballs to ignore the downside some what, but not solving all his intended issues)

On a lighter note, I did find some of Warly's rough patches that could be remedied with a skill tree, although whether or not some of them should be implemented is subject from person to person but I thought I ought to throw the ideas out anyway. (hard to refine something in a vacuum)

As Warly has so many perks, and Boost, all of which being ways he can change food to benefit him or ways food can benefit him, It was tough to find ways to give him perks that he didn't already have but there were a few things that didn't clash with his base gameplay loop.

1. Butchery - A thing that would benefit Warly as well as others, would be his ability to effect drops in some way. In Warly's case, a perk that benefits him via getting different cuts of meat or more meat would be a neat interaction when killing certain mobs. Perhaps for warly the perk could be some like "waste not want not" resulting in him being able to make butchering tools to properly prepare mobs, making it so when a certain mob die near Warly he could use the tools to get more out of said dead mobs body on the ground. (this could change the way things die near warly similar to wortox where a body is left behind if he is in the area vs a soul for wortox)  The other way this perk could work is it could effect the drop rates of mobs that Warly himself kills resulting in increased odds of drops or bonus drops. (could be very useful for boss kills or mctusk kills to get more valuable items for the rest of the team)
2. New recipes - Seems a bit obvious, but I would be surprised if there were not new recipes for Warly to make come the skill tree. I thought of a recipe that could provide an immunity to negative sanity auras for a while, as fighting some bosses (or mobs) and entering the ruins can cause some serious sanity damage to the player. Then, in regaurds to the new night berry, A dish that refines the night berry in some way making it so the sanity loss over time is lessened and the duration is slightly longer would be great for all (Especially our chef who can't eat it). Perhaps some recipes for carrots, pomagranites, corn and perhaps watermelons, as the recipes for these crops is rather limited and who better to come up with new recipes then the Gormand himself.
3. Animal husbandry/Farmhand boost - It seemed like it could be fun for warly to have some know how with taking care of or tending to animals, as he has stated he had a goat once, perhaps he has some experience he could bring to the dinner table. Making it so he can milk goats or beefalo to make cheese with or perhaps taming more unruly animals to raise in more stable or contained environments. Although I did prepose the idea, tools for warly to have an easier time farming would be lovely, but I don't lend to much to the idea due to the fact that Wormwood and Wickerbottom already exist (and I tend to like not stepping on other characters toes). I made note of the fact that warly is encourged to farm as its neccesary for 6 of his special recipes, but farming is a part of the process, anything to aid it would be welcome.
4. New cook ware/utensils - It is no secret that the gorge introduced a lot in the way of food related content that would later come to the base game, how ever not everything came over. Although I don't think a one to one recreation of the food stations is neccessary, it woulc be nice to have some new systems in place using some of those structural concepts. Perhaps an oven could cook a great deal of food items at once similar to packem baggims, or it could be used for special dishes gorge style. New tools for gathering ingredients like tree taps or unique trawl nets to catch new deepsea fish or critters could be fun, or perhaps tools like a spatula or a wooden spoon for minigames when cooking to making things of a better quality or new recipes all together as a result of the extra effort. 

Those where just what I thought up as it stands, Warly is my favorite character and if he were to get a skill tree, I just want some justice for my home sick man of munchables in a meaningful way. Adding stuff that is engaging and fun without taking away from the core idea of what warly is.

Any thoughts would be welcome and appreciated!

[DegenerateFurry]

Oh, a fellow Warly main! I definitely agree that they need to leave his downside alone, and I like the direction you want to go with his skill tree, especially the animal husbandry/goat or beefalo milking angle. 

For the butchery one, I don't think it'd be too powerful to have it both increase the amount of meat gained and increase the chances of a non-guaranteed drop. Say it was three perks: you could have it give a chance of an additional meat item with the first perk; guarantee one and give 50% better odds for certain drops (spider glands, voltgoat horns, etc) with the second; and the third perk could guarantee one additional meat, have a chance for another, and double those extra drop chances. That'd make it so you get a voltgoat horn 50% of the time when killing one. When you kill something like a spider, you'd always get a monster meat even if it drops silk or glands - you'd just get two monster meat when it drops meat. 

[abrocator]

Quote

1. Improved mob drops
2. New recipes
3. Milk stuff
4. The Gorge

All except (2) are repeated so often that I think Klei will just add those to the skill tree.

[DegenerateFurry]

4 minutes ago, abrocator said:

All except (2) are repeated so often that I think Klei will just add those to the skill tree.

We can only hope. 

[gaymime]

see, this is why i shouldn't read character suggestions! now i really wish warly could stick electric milk in his crockpot and make a cheese version of jerky

[NPCMaxwell]

1 minute ago, gaymime said:

see, this is why i shouldn't read character suggestions! now i really wish warly could stick electric milk in his crockpot and make a cheese version of jerky

The audacity that a milk to cheese recipe isn't already a thing in the game indeed (also exclusive to Warly sounds good) 

[Evelo]

I think of warly more as a boatsman than a shepherd. Yes he has some quotes regarding the Volt Goat but just looking at his unique recipes and other lines, Fish seems like a big deal to him.

[goblinball]

What would his alignment perks be?

my first idea was that he’d get special lunar and shadow themed perks that have their own abilities but I feel like this could be a bit boring and it’d probably be better to have a perk more closely tied to him and not just some random foods

[gaymime]

3 hours ago, Evelo said:

I think of warly more as a boatsman than a shepherd. Yes he has some quotes regarding the Volt Goat but just looking at his unique recipes and other lines, Fish seems like a big deal to him.

he definately is, he was in the navy, afterall, but he has a lot of fish meals and there is already a low mumble here and there that there should be more uses for items that dont really have any and electric milk is something that could use some more uses and warly, as the cook, could be ideal for it

[ZeRoboButler]

10 hours ago, Evelo said:

I think of warly more as a boatsman than a shepherd. Yes he has some quotes regarding the Volt Goat but just looking at his unique recipes and other lines, Fish seems like a big deal to him.

Yeah I was thinking about angler/trawler perks, considering his place of origin as well as past career choices, It would be rather odd for him not to have something to aid fishing in some way. (although Idealy it isnt just a fishing rod with higher chance to draw in fish, could come across a bit dull)

7 hours ago, goblinball said:

What would his alignment perks be?

my first idea was that he’d get special lunar and shadow themed perks that have their own abilities but I feel like this could be a bit boring and it’d probably be better to have a perk more closely tied to him and not just some random foods

A friend of my mine suggested cookbooks with recipes associated with the factions of lunar and shadow, lunar being some sort of book depicting the moon as a croissant with a tile like "dishes of the croissant-moon" (a pun on crescent moon) and shadow being something like "the queens Gourmet Grimoire". 

Hard to settle on affinity perks since I imagine warly would be wary of the shadows since they are in some part responsible for him being stuck in the constant away from his dear Maman. 

[Dr.Webber]

Any thoughts on lunar and shadow with affinity

[Spirit Glow]

Agreed about his downside, it's a huge part of his gameplay and having any skill points that make it easier to manage would be disappointing.

 

If Klei needed a "throwaway" skill point tho, increasing his chance to get butter from a butterfly would be my vote lol!

[ZeRoboButler]

Hold the phone, What if Warly was able to align with the Gnaw? Would it not make sense that he of all people where to align with some Elderbog-Eldergod with a focus on food?

Perhaps that's a bit out of left field, but I do recall some one saying it was funny that when Warly was brought to dst, the cover art of the main menu was him in the Gorge cooking up a storm. If anyone where to single handedly take on the challenge of the gorge and succeed, I can't see anyone else doing it.

Honestly though, the affinity perks are so perplexing on what they should be for him, both in terms of not just being a boring option of "here is a food that gives planar damage/defence" or "cook with pure horror/brilliance".  

[Reiko24]

On 8/7/2024 at 8:37 AM, Dr.Webber said:

Any thoughts on lunar and shadow with affinity

Maybe "eating your dishes with make you enlightened for as many seconds as the dish's stats"

I don't have an idea for the shadow affinity though

[Dr.Webber]

Just now, Reiko24 said:

Maybe "eating your dishes with make you enlightened for as many seconds as the dish's stats"

I don't have an idea for the shadow affinity though

I actually have no idea for both affinity
 

Pure horror marinade

pure brilliance salt

haven’t really thought of what they do yet best I could think of is more plain our damage and defense but that’s a bit of nothing burger

1 hour ago, ZeRoboButler said:

Hold the phone, What if Warly was able to align with the Gnaw? Would it not make sense that he of all people where to align with some Elderbog-Eldergod with a focus on food?

Perhaps that's a bit out of left field, but I do recall some one saying it was funny that when Warly was brought to dst, the cover art of the main menu was him in the Gorge cooking up a storm. If anyone where to single handedly take on the challenge of the gorge and succeed, I can't see anyone else doing it.

Honestly though, the affinity perks are so perplexing on what they should be for him, both in terms of not just being a boring option of "here is a food that gives planar damage/defence" or "cook with pure horror/brilliance".  

Him and wurt

[Reiko24]

2 minutes ago, Dr.Webber said:

I actually have no idea for both affinity
 

Pure horror marinade

pure brilliance salt

haven’t really thought of what they do yet best I could think of is more plain our damage and defense but that’s a bit of nothing burger

 

No offense, but just giving stats seems boring.

[Dr.Webber]

2 minutes ago, Reiko24 said:

No offense, but just giving stats seems boring.

I know that’s why I said it’s a bit of a nothing burger
 

 right now trying to think of an ability it can give you when put on food other than enlightenment because if I were to do that, that means the shadow equivalent would be together insanity and that’s not really something you often have unless you’re farming nightmare fuel , or trying to get past the oculus

 

I actually just came up with an idea. I know you said you think a stat changer be boring, but maybe something anywhere to lower or higher your sanity is the harder you hit and it was damage you take

[Reiko24]

16 minutes ago, Dr.Webber said:

I know that’s why I said it’s a bit of a nothing burger
 

 right now trying to think of an ability it can give you when put on food other than enlightenment because if I were to do that, that means the shadow equivalent would be together insanity and that’s not really something you often have unless you’re farming nightmare fuel , or trying to get past the oculus

 

I actually just came up with an idea. I know you said you think a stat changer be boring, but maybe something anywhere to lower or higher your sanity is the harder you hit and it was damage you take

hmm... the lower your sanity is, the more damage you deal and more damage you receive? 

What about the lunar equivalent not only giving your enlightenment, but also spawning gestalts similar to the Enlightened Crown for the duration?

But to balance it, the dish would give you enlightenment for only the amount of seconds of sanity you received from your dish. Gestalts would also be hostile.

The thing I would be happy the most from, would be adding Gorge cooking mechanics for Warly and giving him access to the Gorge dishes. Like, Klei, this would be absolutely amazing. He would be a real cook. All Art and cooking mechanics are already implemented, the dishes just need to be eatable and give stuff.

[Dr.Webber]

2 minutes ago, Reiko24 said:

hmm... the lower your sanity is, the more damage you deal and more damage you receive? 

What about the lunar equivalent not only giving your enlightenment, but also spawning gestalts similar to the Enlightened Crown for the duration?

But to balance it, the dish would give you enlightenment for only the amount of seconds of sanity you received from your dish. Gestalts would also be hostile.

Well I was thinking you also didn’t take as much damage 

also for lunar it would work the same it’s the higher it is but know I think about it they aren’t as equal as I was thinking it would be

give me a sec I’ll come up with something better 

Maybe for lunar be more effective at using strategic weapons in for shadow weapons

Maybe some shadow and Luna equivalence of cooking tools that can be used as weapons

Maybe resistance to Sandy loss or enlightenment

Maybe five  throwing stars 

Maybe be able to burp out of gas cloud the harms enemies, especially those other other other alignment

Maybe instead of losing sandy or health, but under the effects, you will lose hunger in place and every time it goes down you burp out small version of the cloud I mentioned above

Or maybe you have these seasonings to least foods for any enemy mobs to eat and  suffer  the effects

[Dr.Webber]

@Reiko24 you still there