Something has to be done about the Mimics

[ADM]

Unrelated but needs to be said:

Most of the new content had surprisingly rough edges, even for a beta and that got me scared over a few things. But as the latest hotfix rolls out, there has been important and numerous solutions found which is all thanks to the devs efforts and… do I dare say improvement in the forum discussions ? I don’t think there has been such developed feedback and courteous interactions in the answers in such a long while, that seriously makes things so much enjoyable to read. Keep it up !

The BIG problem :
Personally there’s like one last thing I hope to see changes with. And that’s to do with the Mimics. They introduce a major problem that will considerably hinder all the content behind the shadow rifts. This is because once a rift spawns there will either only be the Inkblight Trio spawning at fissures, or, Mimics. This is something that lasts for the whole 15 days duration of the rifts, the 5 days of cooldown before the next one, and has a 50% chance to keep on happening for every following rifts to spawn after.

 

The Inkblights are a very important asset of the shadow rifts because their fight is (at least in my regards) very fun, neatly positioned around the caves… and of course an important source for Dark Tatters, bonus Dreadstone, and some Pure Horror (the latest being best acquired at the portal directly). We don’t have other options for tatters outside of the trio AND the newest Inkblight added in the beta that as of now can spawns from Spilagmites but even them will be unable to spawn during the time rifts host Mimics. This is said to be a temporary spawn method but this so far means players are unable to acquire tatters unless Mimics aren’t picked.

 

The problem with this is both that players will be unable to craft practically any of the items behind the Shadowcraft Plinth, or maintain their equipment after it's made. And as someone who only plays with friends, we need A LOT of those crafting materials. Surprisingly, the singular addition of the mimics to the game will be causing fully random and hard to track crisis to a content that is meant to show up at the same time as them.

 

What can we do about this ? I don’t have much answers because obvious solutions like make them drop tatters won’t do, both for esthetics reasons and I don’t think this will be any nearby enough of a compensation to loosing Inkblights + their fight + LOADS of tatters + dreadstone outcrops for 20, 40, 60… how many days…? I don’t really like either instrumenting a rift thrall spawn with an order so that we always have Inkblights > Mimics > Inkblights > … because sometimes we are just busy with everything else and we shouldn’t make an agenda just to not miss on pretty much the most important resource at this time…

An Idea :

If Mimics are to stay as part of this system where threats are switching… they need to be equally as resourceful to the players or maybe even more by bringing unique things. Honestly, one of the only lead I can imagine working with is… allowing the player to exploit what they do : turning into items. Maybe players could be able to trap or catch mimics, and turn them into certain items of the existing rift crafting station for free (the one that cost tatters, and no atrium) but they won’t be repairable ? Instead when the item breaks it release the mimic, or maybe it dies. Anyway when they are manufactured into a shadow rift item they can’t release themselves.

I just tried to think of something that fits their purpose but if not this (which I agree, is technically strange), please suggest something because we need a solution to not make the endgame painfully slow.

[Cassielu]

It's a really cool concept. Mimic is my favorite and probably my only enjoy Rift mob/mechanic since that shadow creature sitting on the chair was removed from the Rift. On the day of the beta update I spent almost the entire day researching how to profit from Mimic items, which have many interesting and even overly powerful combinations. Researching mechanics like these is far more interesting to me than ACT combat.

They could designate a material, like Thulecite or Dreadstone, that would be trap Mimic when they try to transform into the item they made of, transforming them into the unique Planar Variety. Or make some kind of paint and apply it to any item to give it this function, and then we can use it to add planar damage and defense to any item we want. There are many ways to expand!

(However, I am very pessimistic about Mimic's future. A note in their script specifically states that they programmed Mimic to change back when turned on/off as a machine component item, in order to prevent players from turning them into lanterns to get free light, even though free light is not important in endgame. The current Klei doesn't seem to like the idea of players learning and combining mechanics to get rewards, like they adding features to the furnace instead of helping the player make better use of the lureplant, or adding hostile flares instead of improving deerclops' own cycle.)

[pyroisshy]

idea:  buff the night light. If mimic tools are in range of a fully lit Night Light, when the flame starts to go out the mimics will jump into it and refuel it. that way you can place tool storage next to a Night Light and there's a bit of counterplay

[Tyuriee]

Yes, the current klei is too focused on giving players negative feedback. If players can use these creatures, just like using bearger to cut down trees, this is obviously a better design.

[BalkanCockroach]

They should make mimics drop from from the ceiling once in a while when rifts are open like ickers (not as noticeable tho). That would tie in their weird look to ickers aswell as making them more fun and random.

[arubaro]

I prefer them not switching but have everything at once, ink trio at fissures (sad they dont ambush players but we need to visit the fissures) and mimics affecting the whole cave system so we experience the mechanic

[Milordo]

6 hours ago, ADM said:

Unrelated but needs to be said:

Most of the new content had surprisingly rough edges, even for a beta and that got me scared over a few things. But as the latest hotfix rolls out, there has been important and numerous solutions found which is all thanks to the devs efforts and… do I dare say improvement in the forum discussions ? I don’t think there has been such developed feedback and courteous interactions in the answers in such a long while, that seriously makes things so much enjoyable to read. Keep it up !

Agreed! Yeeeeee 

[00petar00]

2 hours ago, arubaro said:

I prefer them not switching but have everything at once, ink trio at fissures (sad they dont ambush players but we need to visit the fissures) and mimics affecting the whole cave system so we experience the mechanic

We don't need more mobs that are going to be permanently affecting us in so many biomes. This update has already been disruptive enough with ickers and great worm.

[arubaro]

3 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

We don't need more mobs that are going to be permanently affecting us in so many biomes. This update has already been disruptive enough with ickers and great worm.

That is your opinion and i dont share it

[Malfario]

Just remove the mechanic and make both threats happening at the same time, its not like mimics are that big of a threat, they dont give any reward and they are not a challenge on their own but an added one on to other content.

Not to mention, the inkblights are probably one of the most important reasons players go down to the caves on the late game, this mechanic just makes it so the little time we spent on the caves gets cut in half for no reason.

[Mysterious box]

Personally I think they're just a fun little interaction that comes too late I feel like the mimic should be a pre rift interaction that pops up every so often in an attempt to make the player paranoid perhaps even making up fake set pieces.

[arubaro]

2 hours ago, Malfario said:

Just remove the mechanic and make both threats happening at the same time, its not like mimics are that big of a threat, they dont give any reward and they are not a challenge on their own but an added one on to other content.

Not to mention, the inkblights are probably one of the most important reasons players go down to the caves on the late game, this mechanic just makes it so the little time we spent on the caves gets cut in half for no reason.

Exactly, right now is like if when we are insane we either get shadow monsters or the fire grabbing hand. No, lol, we get both and with rifts makes less sense because one encounter is optional, the ink trio, and the other is really niche, needing to drop equipable items in the floor and not knowing which one is real...

4 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Personally I think they're just a fun little interaction that comes too late I feel like the mimic should be a pre rift interaction that pops up every so often in an attempt to make the player paranoid perhaps even making up fake set pieces.

Would be cool to have fake set pieces with the same item sets as the real ones with most items being mimics

Like a colony of mimics

[Milordo]

50 minutes ago, Mysterious box said:

Personally I think they're just a fun little interaction that comes too late I feel like the mimic should be a pre rift interaction that pops up every so often in an attempt to make the player paranoid perhaps even making up fake set pieces.

Thanks! Thanks! Can we really say exactly how things are? This should get changed asap as a pre-rift mechanic and push it to Klei. I didn't open my mouth about it because I'm still blind to Rifts and don't have any experience with it, so I shouldn't express or talk about them, but I know very well how rifts works and their core design, of which I dislike it. The point is this new enemy has all the cards to be a pre-rift enemy. What in the world challenge can bring to experienced and veteran players, when they defeat goddamm Ancient Fuelweaver or the Champion of the Moon????  

You could put it in the Ruins. You could put it when you're low sanity. Any idea is better than where it's placed right now. 

[ADM]

8 hours ago, arubaro said:

I prefer them not switching but have everything at once, ink trio at fissures (sad they dont ambush players but we need to visit the fissures) and mimics affecting the whole cave system so we experience the mechanic

Considering the current position and utility of the mimics, yeah by all mean I would prefer this ^ their idea of changing thralls is by no mean a bad one... but oof they gotta be careful about what comes, and what goes. I'm afraid this system is to stay, so hopefully mimics can be made at least more worth the while.

[Juanasdf]

13 hours ago, Cassielu said:

since that shadow creature sitting on the chair was removed from the Rift

They removed those? Their post rift version?