If Walter can mitigate some of the original shortcomings first, it may be easier to adjust the balance of the slingshot

[Catapult 2.0]

  It can be seen that the current slingshot skill tree is in a very contradictory state, if the damage is too high, it will be too easy to deal with the boss, lack of interaction with the boss, and if the damage is low, it will be better to use melee weapons in some scenes like now.

  The shortcomings of Walter's ontology are too serious, far beyond the advantages he usually has. I'm a 4.8k hour all-character player, and in my perception of a character, the Walter single-player experience without a skill tree isn't even as Wes.

  Walter, as a long-range character, has a similar setting to Wanda's "glass cannon" - a kind of sannity vulnerability that puts him in a more dangerous situation if he takes damage.Walter, as a long-range character, has a similar setting to Wanda's "glass cannon" - a kind of sannity vulnerability that puts him in a more dangerous situation if he takes damage. However, he doesn't have Wanda's "cannon" damage, and his damage is even much lower than that of the average character. Since Walter can't be a "cannon", at least don't make a "glass", maybe Walter just needs to reduce some of the shortcomings, so that Walter can play normally without a skill tree, and the slingshot will be easily balanced.(Note that these should be added directly to Walter and not to the skill tree, as the previous increase in the number of rounds stacked and crafted was a good way to improve ammo balance.)

  Next, we will analyze Walter's shortcomings:

1.Twice the damage deducted when taking damage (including health deductions due to temperature and hunger)

  It's an interesting drawback, but it deducts too much sanity , and once the situation gets out of hand, it gets worse and worse, leaving Walter with little resilience. In the case of a low sanity, shadow creatures will appear almost immediately after taking damage, and must be unharmed when fighting shadow creatures, otherwise things will get worse and worse.

  Walter deducts sanity as long as he deducts health, and this does not only include damage, but also too cold and too hot and starvation. Walter is worse than Willow when it gets too cold, and Willow only has the disadvantage of being afraid of the cold!

  And Sanity will only be deducted with HP, not with HP recovery, Walter's own means of recovering Sanity are not strong, whether it is sleeping, telling stories or approaching trees is too slow. Walter's method of slowing down the sanity deduction is also only one pioneer hat, which is not easy to use.

 

2. If the amount of blood is not enough, the sanity will continue to be deducted

    It can be seen that this shortcoming is also designed to require us to avoid being injured in battle, and to encourage us to use portable tents to stay full of health. But the tent is not always available, it needs to be dusk or night, and there is no danger nearby before we can sleep. In the heat of battle, we can't guarantee an immediate recovery of HP, which will make the situation worse and worse.

 

3. HP 130, Hunger 110, Sanity 200

  Compared to the template character Wilson, it has 20 less health and 40 hunger. hunger is only higher than Wes's of all characters, and Walter's sanity is also rapidly decreasing when he is hungry, so Walter has to make sure he has food on his body at all times, otherwise he may be killed by the shadow creatures before starving to death.

 

4. Allergies to bees

  This shortcoming, while it seems easy to avoid, is too fatal when encountered. This is equivalent to allowing all bees to gain 10 points of super planar damage, deducting 10 health points and deducting 20 points of sanity, once attacked by the bee swarm, there will be immediate danger to life. I really don't understand why the damage was set so high when designing such a small shortcoming. Walter's skill tree now includes honey/bee sting rounds, which contradicts this drawback.

 

5. Not interested in fashion

  It can be seen that this is a balance of the merits of "ignoring the aura of sanity", but why is Walter the Vanguard hat not interested in either, isn't he honored by it.

 

Improve:

Reduce disadvantages：

1. When receiving damage, only 0.5 /0.75 times the damage of sanity is deducted. Since there is no damage from the "cannon“, don't be as fragile as ”glass".
2. When deducting sanity, it is no longer a direct deduction, but a slow deduction (just like the recovery effect of soothing tea), and if you take damage again during the deduction, the previous deduction will be overwritten, and it will not continue to stack
3. Supercooling, overheating and hunger no longer deduct Sanity, because he is not injured, just unhealthy.
4. Hunger level up a little more, reaching the level of 150 hunger of Wendy, who is also a child
5. Bee allergies shouldn't be so fatal, allergy damage is reduced to 1 point or there is a long period of protection time after receiving an allergy injury.
6. Allows Walter to get the sanity effect of the Pioneer Hat.

Enhancement Benefits:

1. Walter restores more sanity while sleeping.
2. Walter regains his spirits three times faster when telling a story than someone else, because the narrator is happier when he or she feels accomplished.
3. Just one tree near Walter can restore sanity to him, and those trees can be farther away.
4. Walter's use of ointments restores a certain amount of sanity, as he learned in the Pioneer.
5. Pigmen wearing the Pioneer hat will be hired by nearby players with the Pioneer hat, and these Pigmen will also become brave, no longer scared at dusk, and will regenerate health faster. This makes up for some of Walter's shortcomings in solo play and lack of collecting ability. The hat is made of 4 spider webs, which is moderately difficult to obtain, and only one material is needed to make it easily, making it a good substitute for the loyalty of the pigman.
6. Increases the base attack speed of the slingshot

 

 

[Radicaljoe]

I've always been confused by the intention of the Pioneer Pinetree hat besides looking cool. Like, if you lose sanity when hit regardless, shouldn't you want to wear high defense head armor instead of the hat? Like, even a football helmet is less sanity reduction than the hat itself. taking 20 sanity down to 8. (assuming bit by spider/hound)

(I already hear, "wear body armor AND the hat." No, I refuse, that feels so unnecessary)

[Sacco]

I think walter's downsides are fine.

They are true downsides which change the way you interact with everything.

[Edible Coal]

1 minute ago, Sacco said:

I think walter's downsides are fine.

They are true downsides which change the way you interact with everything.

just like the author said walter down side and slingshot is just too hard to balance without falling into extreme, so making his downside less worse justify him having a weaker range weapon ( that acts more as a finisher or chips dmg in down time)

[Creatorofswamps]

I hate his little hunger, I can put up with it with other flaws, but this is the only thing that prevents me from playing with him often. It would be great if he had at least 150

4 minutes ago, Edible Coal said:

just like the author said walter down side and slingshot is just too hard to balance without falling into extreme, so making his downside less worse justify him having a weaker range weapon ( that acts more as a finisher or chips dmg in down time)

Yes

58 minutes ago, Natsuki Bamboo said:

Переохлаждение, перегрев и голод больше не снижают рассудок , поскольку он не ранен, а просто нездоров

+

[Radicaljoe]

20 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

I hate his little hunger

Characters with small hunger are so annoying. I love playing Wurt or WX just because I can have a giant hunger bar and let it drain for a bit without constant attention.

[kroban]

 

9 hours ago, Radicaljoe said:

I've always been confused by the intention of the Pioneer Pinetree hat besides looking cool. Like, if you lose sanity when hit regardless, shouldn't you want to wear high defense head armor instead of the hat? Like, even a football helmet is less sanity reduction than the hat itself. taking 20 sanity down to 8. (assuming bit by spider/hound)

(I already hear, "wear body armor AND the hat." No, I refuse, that feels so unnecessary)

Walter benefits a lot from just using body armor, in DS you do benefit from having 2 pieces, but in DST the damage tanked by the armor gets considered by the piece with more % of protection, and then that same damage gets distributed on the armor, the only benefit for using 2 armor pieces is that both pieces get the damage distributed so they can "last longer", but thats it, the player doesn't receive less damage. Like for example, as Walter you can tank most things with just marble suit/dreadstone armor/thulecite suit + pioneer hat, the amount of sanity lost per hit is insanely low, I dont know the exact math but, there are times where you lose more sanity on other characters out of the insanity auras. I have tanked Dragonfly many times with just marble suits + hat, and you barely need to eat like, 3 or 4 cactus during the fight if you just want to keep it at max.

Im not saying "just use body armor all the time", eye of terror head, thulecite crown and BQ crown are obviously useful, and if you are swimming in sanity food hat stops being useful. But for early game body armor + hat IS a good thing if you don't want to suffer with sanity.

And as a tip, BY FAR the best endgame gear for Walter is Thulecite armor + Enlightened Crown, you get both sanity auras all day with no dusk,night, caves, or insanity auras interfering it, And EC is an insane gamechanger for the slingshot since its always safe extra damage at range. And Im saying this for pre-skill tree where you were slowing things with purple rounds, but with these new rounds on the skill tree you are NEVER going to get hit really.

[PunkShark]

I think it's true Walter might just be a bit too punishing for his own good compared to the effort. But i think there's always a bit of reason for his downsides to be the way that they are. For example:

The fashion thing is an odd downside from a very simple perspective. Why does he not like fashion but yet uses his pioneer hat? Well it's simple. Walter is a kid who overall thinks of the functionality and usefulness of his resources out in the wilderness. The hat as described in the description is: "Form and function over fashion". In general the hat is appropriate headgear for boy scouts which Walter takes quite seriously, tophats, dapper vests and whatnot is overall not very appropriate adventure gear nor won't help you out in the wilderness (he thinks) Since he already knows his way around the wilderness and is quite a prideful kid, he knows what is and isn't useful out in the wilderness, he's learned and been taught it this way. He's experienced.

Let's not forget that the reason why sanity clothing gives you sanity in the first place is because you're feeling dapper and fashionable which helps clear the mind. Walter, however does not see the reason to, he doesn't understand how it would help you out in the wilderness. Is it silly? possibly, but this is also the same kid who has no fear over monsters and will gladly shake their hand. So his level of thinking isn't exactly the same as the others.

Now i'mma be honest the bee allergy is definitely the most out there downside. But once again there is a bit of theming to it. Walter is a very outdoor type kid, he's a pinetree pioneer for crying out loud. This kid loves being outdoors and going out doing hikes with his fellow pioneers. What's the most contradictory thing a kid like him would have? something regarding the very nature that would put him in danger, in other words. Bees. A common insect to be found while you're out in nature. Most characters that have a theme usually have a contradiction to their theme that goes against their nature. Willow is fire based so, obviously being cold would be an issue for her, Wolfgang is a big man on the outside but a small man on in the inside. Walter's bee allergy is very much the same, it's a contradiction to his theme that something so common of an insect out in the wilderness would be the very thing that he is so deathly allergic to.

Although tbf the bee allergy is really not much of an issue until you want to give a seasonals greetings to their queen, so i think the downside is... fine. I think it'll be better once Woby gets some buffs and tweaks in the next patch. Killing bees has gotten a lot better though by using the stinger rounds. How ironic.

Regarding stats i think his hp is fine, but it's really the hunger that is the issue. Who knew 110 hunger could be such a turnoff.
I do really like the idea of him getting sanity back by healing himself.
I think Walter should just be able to make pigs more brave by default or smth, the pinetree pioneer hat is a good idea but may be a bit aimless and difficult to figure out without having to look at the wiki
as much as sanity is good for him i reaaally don't want him to get more sanity by doing campfire stories, the constant bugling makes me insane. Now expect this with a Walter who's gonna do this every time. My poor ears.

[kroban]

I agree to most of those changes, if Walter will always have a "nerfed" slingshot he should have more utility (which I think Klei did pretty good with the new ammo and thulecite frame) and he should get tweaks on his base kit, to make him more of a "soft cannon" type of character

But when it comes to "tree sanity" I think that is such underrated part of his kit, and probably one of the most ignored things by the people that play him. You get almost the same sanity as the Tam o' Shanter out of just having atleast 5 trees nearby. If you make your base with a layout that has some trees areas you can get sooo much value out of it.

Like, heres an example of a cooking area making use of this (im sure theres prettier and more efficient ways to make this but im horrible at building and decoration so dont judge lol). Even in this crappy layout I was getting a free tam while cooking, which is like half the game. You can make your base, farms, boss spawns, everything, with some trees nearby, and get Tam o Shanter sanity with 0 upkeep. Like seriously, I spent entire years locked at 200 sanity because of this simple thing.

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