What if wilsons capstone transmutation skills involved bringing back certain exotic DLC resources?

[Walrusst]

Like the capstone for the twigs tree letting him transmute bamboo from reeds and sticks for the unique crafts involving bamboo.
Suddenly he can make things like the rain shelter, bouys, the ice maker, and the spear gun (Replacing the jellyfish with an eel to make the pathing to get it interesting, and likely rebalancing it heavily.)

The capstone for his stone path letting build a station to transform moonrocks+nitre into alloys.
Now he can make sheers to double stick, and grass yields with a fast animation, while also having access to halberds and the tin suit, as well as the sprinkler and fan.

Not all items need to be brought back mind you, just a sampling that gives wilson a big midgame advantage when you are getting established.
Say, the lamppost might be too strong (You have to work hard to get an equivalent item,) and half the bamboo crafts would be useless or overpowered for random reasons so there is a reason I mentioned the four items I did.

NOTE: This section was edited to come up with better restrictions to this idea.
However, as many of these items give pretty strong power spikes early on in the combat side, and the megabasing tools are just.  Very good. It should be a choice between alloys and bamboo, as both give something good (Ice maker versus sprinkler, bouys versus the fan, halberd versus the spear gun.) 
Or at least, a point count gate that makes it hard to take both without compromising elsewhere.

Still, it drives a distinction between a resource hording megabase wilson and a ratty one who can clear the story with nothing but a torch, his beard fridge, and merging the many colors of gem together, as well as many hybrids that are simply put. Sort of makes willson a love letter to the memorable experiences of don't starve's expansions, the friends we made along the way.
The items I mentioned are really simple, midgame tools that people usually forgot about once they had fishfarms, the cutlass supreme, and vortex cloak, but they were stable mainstays that people loved and used over and over until the big ticket items came into play, since they were cost effective and gave you kick starts that made the game feel different.

To make these items more effective on wilson rather than him just being a item fairy its simple: Many of the most choice items here have fuel or low durability restrictions, so his counterfiet dlc items simply have enhanced durability when he uses them instead of someone else. This gives him a team support role where he can kinda give excess items to other players like woodie can, but he also is simply the master of the things that need high upkeeps, or tend to break.

There is an argument that dlc items should never be touched, and that probably would have made sense if we lived in a world prior to where DST modders are making competing versions of re-implementing the same basic expansion ideas, but even if this wasn't the case I don't think this is important. So long as we are restrictive about the flavor of the things we include here, and make the external to DST inclusions a small appetizer to what singleplayer has, we shouldn't see much of  a problem. An appetizer presents a what if  of what people could experience if they tried the singleplayer game, and ground out the expansions, rather than destroying their uniqueness.

Earlier in this thread people discussed stuff  like including more endgame items in the scope of this, and after thinking more I do think that is a bad idea, and whatever ends up being affinity level for him in the end probably shouldn't be looted from the expansions. The DLC's endgames should stay their own.

It makes Willson the most seasoned survivor, the one who saw everything in every world of don't starve.
Maybe one day our genius inventor will remember how to read.

[mkemal23]

I think this is one of the best Wilson rework Idea's there is.

This could be the best and the most lore accurate way of bringing the DLC stuff to DST.

Imagine if Wilson knew how gather obsidian from Dragonfly's lava ponds because he's (most likely) cannocialy been to SW's Volcano.

OR If he could make Vortex cloak with dark tatters because he most likely made it in hamlet as well.

[Walrusst]

10 hours ago, mkemal23 said:

I think this is one of the best Wilson rework Idea's there is.

This could be the best and the most lore accurate way of bringing the DLC stuff to DST.

Imagine if Wilson knew how gather obsidian from Dragonfly's lava pond's because he's (most likely) cannocialy been to SW's Volcano.

OR If he could make Vortex cloak with dark tatters because he most likely made it in hamlet as well.

Stuff like a balanced version of the vortex cloak be options with for affinity stuff, I just avoid thinking about affinity level skills because they are still surreal to me. Affinity level items I probably would have as wilson exclusives for even just equipping though because vortex cloak wolfgang is just a bit much.
Something something willsons reign makes him uniquely able to don the vortex cloak.

Obsidian I thought about for a bit, I wasn't sure how to include it.
Since obsidian stuff would shift the balance a lot but say it used the scaled furnace as a crafting station, I think it would be a healthy addition.

[Jakepeng99]

. Keep him simple, and this is still not a good idea for any character.

[Well-met]

Klei has consistently avoided copying things from SW/Ham for so long that I'm really wondering how we even got warly and wormwood at all.

And no, straight port of structures and materials is not going to happen.

[Uedo]

1 hour ago, Walrusst said:

Like the capstone for the twigs tree letting him transmute bamboo from reeds and sticks for the unique crafts involving bamboo.
Suddenly he can make things like the rain shelter, bouys, the ice maker, and the spear gun (Replacing the jellyfish with an eel to make the pathing to get it interesting, and likely rebalancing its damage and increasing the spear durability loss to like 20 swings.)

The capstone for his stone path letting build a station to transform moonrocks+nitre into alloys.
Now he can make sheers to double stick, and grass yields with a fast animation, while also having access to halberds and the tin suit, as well as the sprinkler (Which is now fueled by ice to make it harder to maintain, but not too hard, given well, he has the ice maker, so it makes the sprinkler more just busywork,) and fan.

Not all items need to be brought back mind you, just a sampling that gives wilson a big midgame advantage when you are getting established.
Say, the lamppost might be too strong (You have to work hard to get an equivalent item,) and half the bamboo crafts would be useless or overpowered for random reasons so there is a reason I mentioned the four items I did.

The megabaser items willson would have would easily be considered among the strongest in the game, and thats sort of the point given his skill tree is focused around resource manipulation that supports this playstyle. The adventure items you get on the other hand are just strong until you reach shadow crafting, but that's a great vibe because it gives momentum.

The big reason I bring this up is.
It sort of makes willson a love letter to the memorable experiences of don't starve's expansions, the friends we made along the way.
The items I mentioned are really simple, midgame tools that people usually forgot about once they had fishfarms, the cutlass supreme, and vortex cloak, but they were stable mainstays that people loved and used over and over until the big ticket items came into play.
In DST they have interesting pathing implications such that while most of them eventually go obsolete, there are still interesting reasons to use them for large segements of the game while you are getting established.

The megabaser items on the other hand, people will like in the same way that wormwood, wurt, and winowna can turn your base into a heaven. Its just willson gets in on what was originally his turf. Like. When he was alone.

(Mind you, I wouldn't consider most of these "Him exclusive" once he crafts them. Instead, something like a quirk where Wilson gets enhanced fueling efficiency and durability when he uses the DLC items instead, with lower durability and more tool like items getting a bigger durability and efficiency bonuses. He should have the woodie factor where you consider him cool because he gives you nice stuff.)

It makes Willson the most seasoned survivor, the one who saw everything in every world of don't starve.
Maybe one day our genius inventor will remember how to read.

I really really like this idea!

[Cheggf]

So that everyone can be like "Give Wilson a REAL rework!! He literally doesn't even do anything, he's just a swap character who makes a bunch of structures. Where's the Fortnite Chug Jug? He's a scientist after all! #RealWilsonReworkWhen"? 

[Walrusst]

On 3/7/2025 at 12:51 PM, Cheggf said:

So that everyone can be like "Give Wilson a REAL rework!! He literally doesn't even do anything, he's just a swap character who makes a bunch of structures. Where's the Fortnite Chug Jug? He's a scientist after all! #RealWilsonReworkWhen"? 

I mean part of my thinking was being the ultimate swap character where in spite of having a bit of that nature its still worth it being them long run is still a fun idea.

So better efficiency with his stuff, but being the ultimate experienced sharing master is where I was going.

On 3/7/2025 at 12:17 PM, Jakepeng99 said:

. Keep him simple, and this is still not a good idea for any character.

I mean it is simple, Wilsons only doing things he has already done.

He has some of the most complicated skills already simply because they require you to have memorized the laundry list of entire resource trees to use them.
They convey no clear goal or gameplan, its be a master or waste a ton of resources guessing whats important.
A love letter to the first game that we clearly enjoyed is way simpler than needing to have memorized the full tech tree, dozens of quirks, including rifts to not be penalized through the use of transmutation skills.

Cool, 8 items over two crafting trees that people who love the series will already mostly know the QRD of. That give him a distinct powerspike that doesn't take a wiki-ride to piece together. All while not really pushing the upper limits of the games power scaling,  only really giving him a lot of points in the middle of it.
To people who know not what these are, its a great excuse to experiment and enjoy something in a way the other characters trees drive curiosity and excitement.

[Walrusst]

On 3/7/2025 at 12:19 PM, Well-met said:

Klei has consistently avoided copying things from SW/Ham for so long that I'm really wondering how we even got warly and wormwood at all.

And no, straight port of structures and materials is not going to happen.

I thought about this a bit more and I do want to answer this rather than just leaving this to air.
I think there is a correct level of inclusion rather than looting the whole experience.

So. If you give a sample, an appetizer. Not the whole experience but an implication regarding the sorts of things you could do the expansions gave with these smuggled resources without the full experience, all you are doing is making players curious what the main course is.

So I more or less don't think anything endgame or too many resources should show up. The tin suit implies the sort of development of hamlet, but its a truly bizarre mishmash armored chest piece (Sort of a marble but sort of log) that is second fiddle to an armor piece we definitely couldn't craft, as we don't have cork for the absurdly useful fancy helmet. Its useful, it presents some of the theming and flavor of what kleis done elsewhere, but they will need to play Island adventures, or singleplayer to get the full experience.

So while I was nice to the people talking about the vortex suit/obsidian, I'm sure those don't fit the bill for DST after thinking on it more. The stars of the show should stay at home here.

And like, now that there are multiple competing parallel mods implementing the full DLC's (Both really purist projects, and more DST styled ones,) alive and well, its a lot harder to say that the expansion experience is on anything more than life support. I still want people to play them, but I think the sample approach might be the best way to spark that curiosity.

[_mylilsunshine_]

you have such interesting ideas, what's going on in that little head of yours. send me your cranium measurement so i can study you for DST science

On 3/8/2025 at 3:19 AM, Well-met said:

Klei has consistently avoided copying things from SW/Ham for so long that I'm really wondering how we even got warly and wormwood at all.

And no, straight port of structures and materials is not going to happen.

and yeah while the idea is cool, i'll have to agree with this. DST having all the single player (SP) DLC content (or even just some) will take away the charm of exclusivity, and possibly sales. of course there's already DST mods for SP-DLCs content, but the uniqueness is there. 

[Sunset_Liddel]

On 3/7/2025 at 5:17 PM, Jakepeng99 said:

. Keep him simple, and this is still not a good idea for any character.

i have to ask why you want wilson to be so simple so much?

On 3/7/2025 at 4:24 PM, mkemal23 said:

I think this is one of the best Wilson rework Idea's there is.

This could be the best and the most lore accurate way of bringing the DLC stuff to DST.

Imagine if Wilson knew how gather obsidian from Dragonfly's lava ponds because he's (most likely) cannocialy been to SW's Volcano.

OR If he could make Vortex cloak with dark tatters because he most likely made it in hamlet as well.

its interesting i wonder if this would happen before wilson end up freeing maxwell in the adventure mode

[Walrusst]

7 hours ago, _mylilsunshine_ said:

and yeah while the idea is cool, i'll have to agree with this. DST having all the single player (SP) DLC content (or even just some) will take away the charm of exclusivity, and possibly sales. of course there's already DST mods for SP-DLCs content, but the uniqueness is there. 

Like I tried to explain, having it be largely like, 1 mainstay item, 3 niche items people were more reluctant to use makes this more about giving a sample, a preview, and building intrigue so people go and try SP.

Since even though the say the spear gun was dirt cheap, the king weapons of shipwrecked were the cutlass, and woodlegs boat. The niche home items appearing and the weapons being weird on a skill that sort alludes to "Wilson learned to do this in a when he was shipwrecked, GO TRY THE DLC WE HAVE BAMBOO AND EVEN COOLER STUFF THERE" as opposed to say, if we had obsidian and cutlass supreme, and he could craft boat cannon ammo by the dozens.

 

 

7 hours ago, _mylilsunshine_ said:

you have such interesting ideas, what's going on in that little head of yours. send me your cranium measurement so i can study you for DST science

I largely try to go with the approach taking one reason someone would care about something, like, a librarian, an experienced protagonist, a chef who got valuable skills and came home to use them....
And thought about how to make that good gameplay first as a gameplay first thing, rather than just trying to have it be lip service.

So willson being experienced, him having unique ways of coping with the seasons and making useful tools was where my thinking started.
So on one side we have multitools and stuff that helps you recover from mistakes, and wilson becoming a third cog trifecta of walter being the berry king, woodie the wood king, and wilson the grass/twigs king. In the jungle these sorts of gathering operations were pretty useful and the timings were seldom what you expected, bouncing back and recovering quickly was his lifeblood for a time.

On the other side you have a wilson who stockpiles goods you WILL need eventually in most base setups, who prevents bad situations with careful construction, and who can roam around and hunt semi-cheaply too if the need arises since he had to build more water tight bases in the most roam-and-graze world klei has made.

[Anis5240]

no.

I'm tired of Wilson being assigned as material grinding character. Even on multiplayer (and especially when said world was twiggy tree), people would just come over to me and say, "hey can you convert logs to twigs?" Even when my friends ask to turn hound teeth to bone shards for le funny bone bouillon, I don't feel joy of doing such thing.

They just want the transmutes yet don't even wanna play Wilson themselves. Or worse, just swap to him, transmute the needed item (most often being the iridescent gem) and then swap back. You don't ever see people asking Wilsons who spec in torch to help them.

[_mylilsunshine_]

3 minutes ago, Anis5240 said:

no.

I'm tired of Wilson being assigned as material grinding character. Even on multiplayer (and especially when said world was twiggy tree), people would just come over to me and say, "hey can you convert logs to twigs?" Even when my friends ask to turn hound teeth to bone shards for le funny bone bouillon, I don't feel joy of doing such thing.

They just want the transmutes yet don't even wanna play Wilson themselves. Or worse, just swap to him, transmute the needed item (most often being the iridescent gem) and then swap back. You don't ever see people asking Wilsons who spec in torch to help them.

hey man can you convert these logs into twigs? while you're at it take a look at my hound teeth too? i got some haha funny bone soup cookin' 

[Anis5240]

1 minute ago, _mylilsunshine_ said:

hey man can you convert these logs into twigs? while you're at it take a look at my hound teeth too? i got some haha funny bone soup cookin' 

are you mocking me? get out

[Jakepeng99]

25 minutes ago, Sunset_Liddel said:

have to ask why you want wilson to be so simple so much?

Its his whole character niche. We need someone like him.

[Walrusst]

12 minutes ago, Anis5240 said:

no.

I'm tired of Wilson being assigned as material grinding character. Even on multiplayer (and especially when said world was twiggy tree), people would just come over to me and say, "hey can you convert logs to twigs?" Even when my friends ask to turn hound teeth to bone shards for le funny bone bouillon, I don't feel joy of doing such thing.

They just want the transmutes yet don't even wanna play Wilson themselves. Or worse, just swap to him, transmute the needed item (most often being the iridescent gem) and then swap back. You don't ever see people asking Wilsons who spec in torch to help them.

I mean my thoughts are is if it provides helpful gameplay elsewhere, like, you can do something cool with the rest of your time, it doesn't hurt being a gathering monster.

Like think of it like this. Woodie and Walter both can gather like crazy now, but people acknowledge they can also contribute by just doing their unique thing well. A few of wilsons tools having durability advantages on him make the sharing/gathering aspects less extreme, as a lot of people won't bother with items that would need to be replaced quickly, but they will appreciate the utility of a wilson who can use them as a gameplan.

Since on one side, you can sort of fairly durabile for cheap and can consolidate weapons with tools for cheap.
On the other you get some ability to hunt and do combat support on the cheap.

[Anis5240]

3 minutes ago, Jakepeng99 said:

Its his whole character niche.

and that's literally the base original DS Wilson was.

Again, why do you hate so much of Wilson gaining more options via his skill tree? Everyone else got those, yet you hating on him to have that? Such double standards.

3 minutes ago, Walrusst said:

but people acknowledge they can also contribute by just doing their unique thing well.

too bad Wilson's transmutes need tons of said resources to make it worthwhile to begin with

[Jakepeng99]

Just now, Anis5240 said:

and that's literally the base original DS Wilson was.

Again, why do you hate so much of Wilson gaining more options via his skill tree? Everyone else got those, yet you hating on him to have that? Such double standards.

There needs to be an option for a basic character. You may like Wilson for his personality and character, but he has to fill this niche, no other character fills it.

[Walrusst]

3 minutes ago, Anis5240 said:

too bad Wilson's transmutes need tons of said resources to make it worthwhile to begin with

But I also included options to keep the resources flowing so you can play into this.

 

Just now, Jakepeng99 said:

There needs to be an option for a basic character. You may like Wilson for his personality and character, but he has to fill this niche, no other character fills it.

Most slim characters still feel like baselines where you have to go sort of hog wild in order to make their gimmick dominate the gameplay.
The basic experience is really easy to access with a small garnish on most of the cast.

Thats like, outside of a 12 person server where there is so much resources flowing in in an unholy rate that even the most mild gimmicks become game dominating, but the 12 person server experience isn't overly common.

[Anis5240]

1 minute ago, Jakepeng99 said:

There needs to be an option for a basic character.

Again, that's what the no skill tree point-Wilson is.

1 minute ago, Jakepeng99 said:

has to fill this niche

has to??????? Is it such a bestowed title that he ought to be proud to have? For other players who play him to have???????

[Jakepeng99]

1 minute ago, Anis5240 said:

Again, that's what the no skill tree point-Wilson is.

The basic skilltree is what makes him not feel like a burden to the team. Makes him feel less like a challenge character.

 

Also, purpously limiting yourself by not using his skilltree feels forced and artificial.

[Anis5240]

Just now, Jakepeng99 said:

Also, purpously limiting yourself by not using his skilltree feels forced and artificial.

Oh wow, how shocking. Yes, this exact problem is why Wilson players OUGHT to have transmute skills just to play with friends. So they can be useful, not being a dead weight mooching off resources. Don't you see what the problem is?

[Walrusst]

1 minute ago, Jakepeng99 said:

The basic skilltree is what makes him not feel like a burden to the team. Makes him feel less like a challenge character.

 

Also, purpously limiting yourself by not using his skilltree feels forced and artificial.

If I don't take away what he can do now there is nothing stopping you from speccing around things that are too much for you. I do this in other trees where things that just feel like it would be a sensory overload to use something.

[Jakepeng99]

4 minutes ago, Anis5240 said:

Oh wow, how shocking. Yes, this exact problem is why Wilson players OUGHT to have transmute skills just to play with friends. So they can be useful, not being a dead weight mooching off resources. Don't you see what the problem is?

With Wilson, what you offer to your team is not just your transmutations, but also your skill.

 

Most other characters mainly just offer their upsides like soul healing, Wilson puts a bigger focus on you as a player's worth which i find more fun.