Walter at Sea

[Chewabacca]

Before the beta, Walter's performance at sea wasn't much worse than at land. He couldn't ride Woby for a faster journey, and he couldn't get food from birds as easily, but it didn't stand out that much. With the skill tree in place, however, Walter is very obviously worse off at sea than on land. 4/5 of Woby's badges are flat-out useless on a boat. Agility means nothing on a boat about five feet wide, bravery is useless when staying on top of Woby has no value in a fight, dig just doesn't work, and fetch is clearly built for a bigger area where most of what gets on board isn't going straight into the player's inventory.

There's no reason for this disparity to exist. Nothing about Walter screams "land-based character". Indeed, with Walter being a scout, you'd think he would have something to give him an edge in exploring further out off sea. Let's give him some perks.

The most obvious fixes to me are making dig and fetch useful at sea. For dig, let Woby dive for buried treasure, and for fetch, let her gather up some kelp and driftwood touching the boat as long as some is already in her inventory. This wouldn't be too big a deal, since the fetch cooldown combined with boat movement would prevent her from picking as much stuff up as she would on land, but still would be of some use.

The second most obvious fix: actually give Walter something for the ocean to compensate for not being able to speed across on Woby. Some ideas for skills in this area:

• riding Woby into the water
• using Woby's big form in the water to push the boat ahead
• sending small Woby further out to grab resources
• faster rowing speed for Waltr
• boat patches used by Walter have a greater effect on the boat's health, with kelp patches lasting longer

As you can probably tell, I'm very much throwing stuff at the wall here. My main intention is to point out the missing hole where ocean skills are--no matter what, something needs to be there.

[viblym]

I don't like the idea of riding big Woby in water, but the rest of these ideas are fine. Walter does sort of have a perk that only Wurt has at sea, and that is that he suffers no HP penalty when drowning. I'm not sure how something like faster rowing speed would work for Walter, as boat speed is only influenced so much by your paddling capabilities. Every oar you use has a different speed cap meaning you can only reach certain speeds with certain oars, I think Wolfgang has a higher speed cap or something, which lets him row "faster". There are things you could probably do with Walter and sailing, but they feel kind of too broad at the moment. Small Woby being able to collect things at sea with her Fetch perk would be fantastic.

[Dingle]

Fishing perk as Walter pls

[Grove]

1 hour ago, viblym said:

I don't like the idea of riding big Woby in water, but the rest of these ideas are fine. Walter does sort of have a perk that only Wurt has at sea, and that is that he suffers no HP penalty when drowning. I'm not sure how something like faster rowing speed would work for Walter, as boat speed is only influenced so much by your paddling capabilities. Every oar you use has a different speed cap meaning you can only reach certain speeds with certain oars, I think Wolfgang has a higher speed cap or something, which lets him row "faster". There are things you could probably do with Walter and sailing, but they feel kind of too broad at the moment. Small Woby being able to collect things at sea with her Fetch perk would be fantastic.

Perhaps make it so that you can get small Woby to row for you and with you? As some sort of earlier and easier to handle mast.

She could use her tail

[Well-met]

how does his skill tree actively make him "worse" at sea than before?

it's not changed at all, it's the same spot.

[Grove]

4 minutes ago, Well-met said:

how does his skill tree actively make him "worse" at sea than before?

it's not changed at all, it's the same spot.

The difference between his exploration at land and his exploration at sea is bigger.

 

2 hours ago, Chewabacca said:

Before the beta, Walter's performance at sea wasn't much worse than at land. He couldn't ride Woby for a faster journey, and he couldn't get food from birds as easily, but it didn't stand out that much. With the skill tree in place, however, Walter is very obviously worse off at sea than on land. 4/5 of Woby's badges are flat-out useless on a boat. Agility means nothing on a boat about five feet wide, bravery is useless when staying on top of Woby has no value in a fight, dig just doesn't work, and fetch is clearly built for a bigger area where most of what gets on board isn't going straight into the player's inventory.

There's no reason for this disparity to exist. Nothing about Walter screams "land-based character". Indeed, with Walter being a scout, you'd think he would have something to give him an edge in exploring further out off sea. Let's give him some perks.

disparity

[JosePapp]

Him being better at exploring on land doesn't make it any better or worse than literally any other survivor at sea. 

Characters aren't supposed to be jacks of all trades, and lately they're getting nothing but upsides with no new downsides to counterbalance 

[Cassielu]

I don't think walter should have the ocean perk, and you're probably a little underestimating the value of ranged attacks in the ocean.

[Lee lol]

I like most of the ideas in the post.

However, I think this will drive Klei crazy.

[Beetrice]

I think big Woby helping push the boat is a good compromise on the "Riding Woby in water" idea.

[kroban]

 

On 12/27/2024 at 6:18 PM, Chewabacca said:

For dig, let Woby dive for buried treasure, and for fetch, let her gather up some kelp and driftwood touching the boat as long as some is already in her inventory.

I get your point and I think those 2 changes specifically would be pretty cool. But imo Walter himself is pretty good at sea now, the moonglass ammo does wonders against pirate monkey raids which is the biggest threat in the sea, cookie cutters were never a threat to him and are now even easier to deal, and you can even farm Malbatross easily with the slingshot for the fastest oar (something underrated as hell if you have the autorow mod)

[Jakepeng99]

He has a slingshot though to snipe ocean mobs.

[SilverSpoon]

Since Worlter is a Pinetree Pioneer, not a sea boy, it seems a bit strange to give him special sea perks... and Slingshot is strong enough for the ocean. I think it would be good if the camping skill that Klei said he will add in the future could be used also ocean.
However, it's a good idea Wobby's fetch skill is able to collect items on ocean. Wobby is a doggy in Constant so it's OK.

On 12/28/2024 at 7:06 AM, Dingle said:

Fishing perk as Walter pls

No Fishing perk! Please Save it for Warly.