My suggestions for improving WARBOT and Celestial Scion (pre-beta-2)

[Pet Rock]

I'm loving the new boss but I do think there are parts of both fights that could be improved, as well as the preparation and loot. I'm sure that the follow-up beta that Klei will release soon will address some of my gripes with the update, but I thought I would give my suggestions anyway.

 

Preparation:

-Players would have new dialog when examining Wagstaff's edited map, explaining their motives for giving it to Pearl. Some characters would comment on the map looking normal, and others might comment that evicting Pearl is a sacrifice they must make to at least have a chance of returning home.

-When Pearl is moved (via eviction or re-homer), she does not immediately leave but instead says something around the lines of "I'll need a few days to pack up". She will then appear at the new location a few days later. She also wont bring any structures with her, and will need the players assistance to rebuild her house and once again improve her property wherever the player chooses to move her to. This would make her travel more immersive along with adding more neat quests for players to complete if they want to.

-Phasmo-Encapsulators can now be "dumped", allowing the it to be reused and spawning the stored gestalt. Holding a filled Phasmo-Encapsulator and clicking on a Scaled Furnace allows players to dump gestalts without spawning them. This way, mistakes in gestalt choice are less costly and Phasmo-Encapsulators may even have some utility outside of progressing the questline as they can reliably remove gestalt-threats from the world.

-Instead of placing drones, Wagstaff now uses gestalts to build up the WARBOT itself (you'll see why later). Also, an arbitrary number of different gestalts must be captured. This would allow developers to add some more challenging gestalts that players must hunt to start the bossfight.

 

WARBOT:

-If WARBOT targets players that are outside of the arena, it will use its missile and orbital-strike attack a lot more (regardless of phase). Both of these attacks now also damage boats a significant amount. These changes should discourage players from cheesing the boss by using ranged weapons from outside the arena.

-Dwarf stars can take more hits from missiles before being extinguished.

-Warblers' electricity zones now linger for a bit so they are more on par with Terramites

 

-WARBOT now spits out 6 drones when they would usually be activated. It randomly chooses the distribution of Warblers and Terramites. After a bit, WARBOT lowers it stance and waits for the drones to jump back into it, summoning a new random set shortly after. 

-Both drones can now be completely destroyed during the fight (Warblers with ranged weapons), dropping Gyroscopic Transduction Cores. They do have more health than before though, so it is a race against time to kill the drones before WARBOT recalls them.

 

Celestial Scion:

-Celestial Scion's slams now gradually build up the damage fields on tiles instead of instantly making them deadly. The first few times a slam hits a tile, it is still completely safe to walk on and simply has a slight overlay to indicate that it may become unsafe in the future. After that, tiles increase their DoT effect for each slam that targets them and eventually the grogginess is also reintroduced. This would make the slam more forgiving along with making room for some more interesting attacks.

-Celestial Scion can sometimes fly up into the sky and slam down shortly after,  slightly corrupting the tiles around it and creating lunar waves around it that players must side-step to avoid.

-Lunar Hail can randomly occur during the fight

 

Loot:

-Instead of being used to repair Terramites, Gyroscopic Transduction Cores (along with some gears/wires/scrap) can be used to create both Terramites and Warblers at the Notional Fabricator (the workstation literally has drones in its sprite come on). Scrap now repairs the drones instead.

-Gyroscopic Transduction Cores can be used on steering wheels to increase the speed at which they turn sails.

-Gyroscopic Transduction Cores, a Whirly Fan, and some Gears can be used to create a Portable Propeller at the Notional Fabricator. Portable Propellers can be held to increase movement speed by 35 percent, cool the area around it, and extinguish wildfires. The durability decreases pretty quickly but Portable Propellers can be refueled with scrap

-The Notional Fabricator drops an "Advanced Fabrication Upgrade" when hammered that can be used to add its new crafts to an Alchemy Engine.

 

-Celestial Jewels can now be attacked when on the ground. Attacking celestial jewels directly or with AoE agitates them, and dealing enough damage causes them to explode for a percentage of damage received, damaging both nearby players and other creatures. This could be used for strategic extra damage certain fights (sort of like a reusable gunpowder alternative).

-A similar explosion also occurs if players wearing an upgraded Enlightened Crown take enough damage. This means that players must be careful to avoid damage when wearing it.

 

Other:

-PLEASE improve the Inimical Gestalt and make it a lunar rift thrall. It does not make sense that creatures with physical portions are tied to enlightenment and the lunar rifts need to have more influence on the world anyway.

[Thieverpedia]

I'm generally not one for necroposting, but a post for Celestial Scion needs to be brought up periodically to draw attention to its multiplayer-unfriendly design. This suggestion is but one of many that could easily make this boss more tolerable for the game's intentions. The main issues are the first phase attacks being difficult or downright impossible to avoid without very specific setups, then scion's galvanized flooring due to one poor positioning. If a few players were making complaints about scion, then it's just a matter of practice making perfect. But this is a polarizing boss that a majority of the DST community has issues with across all skill levels. About the easiest way to do this fight is to solo it or cheese it, which shouldn't be the intention for a multiplayer game.

The bottom line is this boss needs more work such as what this suggestion proposes to be made more feasible for the community to fight for its rewards, not to mention appealing. Players should want to fight it the intended way. Not try to avoid its mechanics altogether. We went through this with Crab King. Let's not wait a few years like we did him to see some feasibility.

Edited March 30 by Thieverpedia

[Pet Rock]

I think for a final boss it should be more challenging and fair instead of gimmicky and punishing. There is so much that could be done to improve the multiplayer experience and general grandeur of the bossfight. Even the music is far less intense than celestial champions despite it being the final final boss. The leadup and spectacle just isn't there.

Overall I am still disappointed with this ending to the lunar arc and hope it will be revisited.

Edited April 8 by Pet Rock