Thoughts on Walter's skill tree volume 3 billion, and a very grateful thank you

[Catuna_]

I really wanna start off this post by saying that I'm very appreciative of all the work Klei has put into Walter's skill tree, I'm really happy to see so many of my and fellow Walter fans' suggestions make it through into the skill tree to make it what is genuinely the best skill tree in my opinion, dethroning Willow and Woodie. I really want to emphasize how much of a privilege it is to have developers that care to listen extensively. I was concerned with the long gap between Walter updates and the initial lack of communication but I can say that this was by far more than worth the wait. A genuine thank you for doing the little boy scout justice.

Walter's skill tree has been given an entire overhaul basically, with what I think is the first no-nonsense no-filler skill tree... ever! By condensing the perks, Walter has the ability to choose between genuinely several equally useful perks. It really makes you think about what you really want because other things sound so good, without the artificial layer of having to pick purposefully useless perks or perks that should've just been in the character's base kit to begin with! It's such a nice thing to see, and I'm so overjoyed. 

 

Walter now has the new scouting branch, for a total of four branches. However, this does go into my first (minor) critique, as this skill tree update renamed the "Slingshotsmith" into "Customizer" and I really think that this name is a bit of a downgrade.

The ammo and customizer branches remain pretty much the same, just being condensed into fewer perks with his affinities remaining the same. However, I really do think that lunar Walter is still a bit underwhelming and that his ammos could use some buffs to make him outdamage Shadow walter significantly. Maybe a set bonus would help? A lunar grip perhaps that boosts the damage of brightshade rounds when wearing a brightshade helmet for example... The fact that there's only a shadow set bonus is rather odd. As for pure brilliance rounds, perhaps they could be an upgrade to moonglass rounds and shatter in an AoE, making the bonus effect much more useful. Shockscrap rounds are still very expensive and underwhelming for the reward, and I really think their electric damage modifier could be sprung up to 2.5x making it the strongest non-affinity Walter ammo, as the current damage really just fails to reach any important damage breakpoints (just shy of 75 damage vs wet target).

The ammo bag is a new perk craft and one that was rather frequently asked for, but is rather underwhelming in my opinion and probably the weakest one in the tree. Walter's increased ammo increasing capacity just kills the need for a dedicated ammo storage. However! I imagine that if this bag supported auto-reloading, it would be much more appealing. By prioritizing whichever last ammo you fired, and then the ammo in the first equip slot occupied. Perhaps Woby could also put ammo into it if she has any in her inventory?

Now for the good stuff, The Woby branch. Oh my god, the Woby branch. I cannot overstate how happy I am. Initially I was rather confused by the old design not really living up to Klei's desire to make Woby have different utility to a beefalo, rather working against it actively. But... Oh. My god. I wasn't expecting what is basically an entire Woby overhaul???? It's actually insane.

Starting off with Woby's base-kit changes: Walter can now feed Woby while riding her, Woby now gives Walter insulation while riding her, and her hunger is now displayed to Walter as it's going to become a very integral mechanic that he has to manage with her max hunger being unchanged. It's also a very cute hunger bar. Woby now also has a circle ui, with Walter being able to pick between mounting, petting, de-transforming (regardless of hunger), staying and toggling other perks that I'll get into later. This is huge, and adding these circle UIs to characters' companions really does make them feel more alive in a way, such as Woby being able to essentially listen to commands rather than just being a creature that just kinda follows Walter around. However, as I've seen many people complain about, the placements of these commands is rather odd. So, rather than just suggesting a better ui, I think that Klei should seriously consider letting us customize these perks by dragging them around to place them whereever we please whenever. This would solve my gripes with Wendy and Walter's uis, and would be a very positive addition to add going forward if klei plan on using this mechanic for more characters like Webber.

Woby's first skill is Endear-ance, this is a perk that will boost Woby's speed by a flat 1 (from 10 to 11) and will reduce any hunger costs by 20%. Now, whats a hunger cost? Woby's hunger drains at a rate of 20 per day, with her speed scaling flatly with her hunger. Woby now has perks that will accelerate this drain, or will straight up use a flat amount of hunger.

With Roaming Retriever, Woby will now pick up any item prioritizing dropped ammo. As far as I can tell, this has no blacklist and she will pick up anything. This may sound annoying but I think that by filling her inventory with only hte items you need, or turning off the perk when there's nothing valuable to grab this makes such a huge difference as Walter now will be able to gather resources from things like chopping trees or mining or literally any source much faster. I don't think this costs any hunger, and I don't think it should frankly. The cooldown was removed aswell as the silly form restriction, and I'm so happy for that.

Next is hard-headed, which pairs very nicely with the previous perk. Woby will now assist Walter in chopping and mining. Prompting Woby to help you with a pickaxe or axe swing will now cause her to headbutt trees, boulders, ruins statues, marble trees etc. This is incredibly useful, as it allows you to preserve tool durability and work more efficiently. This does however cost 0.5 hunger per headbutt, which I think is a fair tradeoff.
Furry forager is a strange one, but also very strong. Whenever you gather food items like berries, cactus and bananas; Woby will follow suit and paw at them giving you an extra yield. For example, you'll get 4 juicy berries or 2 bananas per bush. This is very strong, and has no hunger cost but is also very strange. Perhaps she could just gather the materials with you instead? Like going around and gathering grass tufts with you or just nerfing this into a % chance to happen with both basic resources and food items rather than a guaranteed chance.

With these new perks, Woby can do things like mine the statues near the bishops down in the ruins without putting yourself in danger, she'll even retrieve the drops! It really feels like you're playing with a second player helping you around. I've always felt that Walter and Woby were meant to be advertised as two characters in one, and this skill tree really reflects this greatly. Well done, genuinely.

Now, onto the perks for Woby riding. Scruffy sprinter will increase Woby's speed by a whopping two after running for 3s, however, it will also increase her hunger drain by 1.5x (1.2x with Endear-ance). This is massive, as she can now reach a constant 13 speed rather than needing to have two badges selected. She is faster than a rider beefalo, sprinting will also set Woby's base speed to its max regardless of her hunger which is soooo insanely nice. This is also toggleable if you'd like to preserve hunger.

Dashing Doggie adds a new mechanic to Woby, as double tapping a directional input will now drain 2 hunger in exchange for Woby performing a small dash. This mechanic is honestly forgettable without an affinity, as you can't even cross small gaps. And no, it does not give you invincibility frames (I've tried.) To make it useful for non-aligned Woby, I think the distance crossed by it should be increased and should be able to hop small gaps in order to make it more appealing. This is toggleable incase you don't want to missclick.

(I can't cross this with the dash)

Woby now has affinities! I spoiled that in the last paragraph. Woby will now have a different hue depending on her affinity, and her horns will change into dreadstone or pure brilliance horns for shadow/lunar respectively. Lunar Woby also has a white satchel. While I'm not a fan of the idea of Woby transformations given that this isnt actually Walter's dog and he's trying to return her, I am very glad that they are more subtle and not like Willow's BERNIE! (Not saying it looks bad, it's cool as hell but doesn't make sense for Woby.) I do think that maybe small woby could look the same? With big woby getting these different hues and horns. Regardless, these affinities are pretty cool.

Shadow Woby will replace her dash with a short range invincible teleport, with a very cool shadow visual trail left behind. However, it will amp up the dash cost from 2 to 4. Now, I think that 4 is a little harsh considering that you're better off just sprinting from getting from place A to B with a lower and how on-screen teleporting is a little situational (think pre-skilltree Wortox). I think the cost should stay 2, or become 3 at most. Maybe affinity-less Woby could just not suffer from a dash cost all together?

Lunar Woby will now boost her speed by 1 after dashing, while running, she will leave behind an afterimage trail which looks oh so cool. 14 speed is insane, and I'm here for it. Additionally, if Woby is in a lunar-related area such as Lunar island, Moonstorms, Lunar grotto etc. or if it's a full moon at night she will no longer suffer hunger drain from sprinting or dashing causing her to instead only lose hunger at her natural default rate or from working. This affinity is great, but I wish that the second effect was more generally available. Perhaps it could be active during a dusk of a full moon? This would only really hugely matter for when you keep moonstorms active in late-game anyway. Alternatively (or additionally) maybe the work penalties could go as well? It'd fit the theme of her being powered by the moon.

Both of these affinities are good, and interesting! And I wouldn't go without using them because they're so cool. But they're also not so crazy that you wouldn't want to not pick them meaning that people who can't beat CC/FW really won't be missing out greatly. It really reinforces how good of a tree this is.

Moving onto the new scouting branch, I will cover the Woby-related perks first as we were just talking about her.
Let's rack and roll gives Woby 3 slots for drying meat, a drying rack will appear immediately on Woby. Only Big Woby can preserve and dry meat and it will start to spoil in small Woby's inventory. This is so cool, and pairs so well with the next perk we'll talk about. But it does raise two questions, shouldn't this be an upgrade Walter can craft instead of just appearing on Woby? It feels a little jarring. But also, this really does open up a drying rack discussion as an older mechanic that feels very dated by now, and quite under-powered compared to new food sources and this new Woby drying rack with 3 slots instead of a measly one. Woby can also dry things while its raining, which I think should just be added into the current drying racks to boost them a little rather than being removed from Woby. The ability to put jerky and monster jerky into the bearger bin would be a very nice boost as well. Currently, building drying racks early game only gets you screwed as they do not work in autumn rain and then continue to not work for an entire season. And by then, the player will probably have access to much better food sources.
Now, Special treat, to sustain Woby's new tiring and hunger-draining tasks; Walter can now make dog treats! These treats are made with 1 monster jerky and produce 2 treats per craft. They do not spoil, and give Woby a whopping 28.2 hunger and are able to transform pigs into werepigs if you wanna do that for some reason? (But not Woodie lol?). This is not only cute, but super practical as it pairs incredibly well with Woby's new tasks and really gives monster jerky a use it was so desperate for.

Twine Twirler lets Walter craft rope at the cost of 2 cut grass instead of 3, and also craft it faster. A very cool perk for those who want to mass produce rope, even without necessarily wanting to play Walter and a decent boost to his early game considering that his tent needs rope.

Pioneer's Panache will buff the pinetree pioneer hat by giving it 120 summer insulation, an extra 25% reduced sanity damage (which amounts from the old 1:1 damage to sanity ratio to a 1:0.5 ratio) and 35% wetness protection instead of 15%. Very nice changes, any excuse to wear Walter's pinetree pioneer hat more often as it looks great with its skins.

Campfire enthusiast is deceptively good, as it currently will preserve the light level it had before being deconstructed meaning that you can just deploy a 100% firepit whenever you please essentially. It's like a baby starcaller staff, It's very nice and pairs well with cooking and Walter's buffed campfire story-telling.

Field Medic is a little broken atm, Walter will learn to craft the Flutter Strip which heals for 30hp and 10 sanity off of 3 butterfly wings. Hoewever, Walter will heal 1.5x from healing items as well causing this to be a 45hp healing item. I think it should be toned down to 20hp, givign the player the choice between eating 3 butterfly wings and getting 28 hunger and 24 hp or getting 30hp and 10 sanity. Perhaps making them spoil would be a reasonable additional nerf.

That wraps up the skill tree! Oh my god, Klei, you've outdone yourself. I've got no major gripes with this tree and I'm oh so happy for it to be released into live. I hope that this new tree will make Walter a more liked character as I've always felt bad whenever he's dunked on by the community. Walter is my favorite fictional character and I look forward to people to explore his charming personality, funny quotes and now hopefully much more appealing gameplay. Not just that, but with the quality of this skill tree, I expect nothing but the best for future characters like Warly and Webber as I think that base kit changes along with interesting skill trees will make them much more appealing characters. Thank you to whoever contributed to honing the skill tree to what it has become now, and a dear thank you to Klei for being amazing.

 

[_mylilsunshine_]

my goat walter player

45 minutes ago, Catuna_ said:

The ammo and customizer branches remain pretty much the same, just being condensed into fewer perks with his affinities remaining the same. However, I really do think that lunar Walter is still a bit underwhelming and that his ammos could use some buffs to make him outdamage Shadow walter significantly. Maybe a set bonus would help? A lunar grip perhaps that boosts the damage of brightshade rounds when wearing a brightshade helmet for example... The fact that there's only a shadow set bonus is rather odd. As for pure brilliance rounds, perhaps they could be an upgrade to moonglass rounds and shatter in an AoE, making the bonus effect much more useful. Shockscrap rounds are still very expensive and underwhelming for the reward, and I really think their electric damage modifier could be sprung up to 2.5x making it the strongest non-affinity Walter ammo, as the current damage really just fails to reach any important damage breakpoints (just shy of 75 damage vs wet target).

and yeah lunar ammo still lacking a synergy was an eyebrow-raiser, but then again, there's still at least another build before this tree is shipped off (courier woby), so i'm expecting good things. the numerical for the shockscrap, dreadstone, and gunpowder is concerning, but i guess these kinds of thing is hard to balance. i would love for the shockscrap to be worth its price, for the gunpowder implicit crit mechanic to be changed (according to you, faster fire rate = more ammo waste), and for the dreadstone to outshine cursed round in some capacity (mass crafting cursed round is still better than picking up pebble ammo off the ground)

[Mysterious box]

I agree lunar rounds are still underwhelming but when it comes to the ammo storage I just can't agree that it's unnecessary it may just be the way I play but I like to use a wide variety of ammo types like poop pellets and the higher stack sizes were never going to fix that. Your idea for auto reloading definitely sounds good but even as is it's definitely a auto include for me for most builds.

 

[FourthLess]

I agree catt una

[viblym]

Huge agree on everything, the Brightshade rounds got a little buff with the consistent vine summoning but pure brilliance are still pretty subpar. I'd miss the buff particle on mobs a bit too much, so I'm hoping if klei does do more with it (it needs it) that somehow it will be maintained.

[OMEGASCRUFF]

15 hours ago, Catuna_ said:

As for pure brilliance rounds, perhaps they could be an upgrade to moonglass rounds and shatter in an AoE, making the bonus effect much more useful. Shockscrap rounds are still very expensive and underwhelming for the reward

Worried a bit about this. I need to check the new DPS benchmarks with Brightshade Rounds, because I hadn't realized that the tendril rate increased, but my original suggestion was that they do the same as Abigail's new Cursed Vexation bonus, and just apply to all damage regardless of whether or not it's planar. But giving the Pure Brilliance Round itself some decent damage is an okay mid-ground option, perhaps. Will need to do more testing and get some DPS benchmarks, because the utility that Shadow alignment offers is hard to match.

I think my concern is that I think Shadow Woby is more-or-less the better option when compared to Lunar Woby, and this might have just made the divide between Shadow vs. Lunar wider on Walter. (Still gotta check Brightshade DPS tho. If it's significantly stronger, that might be enough of a pull.)