Webber skill tree update idea concept

[Catuna_]

Webber is a pretty unfortunate character I feel. While not really bad (at least by the standard of characters without a skill tree), he leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to convenience on both the Webber's side and his fellow survivors. Spiders are an extremely inconvenient follower and handling them isn't very fun or intuitive. This post will serve to suggest ideas to improve Webber's convenience while also providing him with fun perks that make him an interactive minion character. pikmin.;;;

Admittedly it's not complete because I had difficulties coming up for perks with Webber's farmboy side, and do note that balance isnt something I really thought about while making this. So keep that in mind.

I - Base kit changes:

• Reworked the spider whistle:
  • Now opens a circle UI, granting you commands to better make use of your spiders.
• Spider behavior optimizations:
  • Tamed spiders will now gather around Webber in a semi-circle pattern, making sure to maintain a minimum distance away from him outside of combat.
  • Tamed spiders will now follow Webber in and out of the caves.
  • Tamed spiders' collision is now reworked to be easily push-able by players, assuring that they won't get in the way of anything and that Webber won't get stuck in his army.
  • Tamed spiders will no longer screech randomly.
  • Tamed spiders will kite after attacking, making sure that they won't render other spiders unable to reach the target to attack.
• Reworked decorated dens:
  • Decorated dens can no longer be undecorated unless shaven by Webber.
  • Decorated dens now act as a 4x4 storage for your spiders. 
    • Spiders will not starve in this storage.
    • The first four spiders in the storage can leave and hang out near the den.
  • Wild spiders put into the decorated dens will automatically become tamed.
  • Upon Webber disconnecting or shooing his spiders, spiders will travel towards the nearest decorated dens if there are any. 
    • Spiders will sleep outside of the den if it is full.   
• Tamed spiders can no longer be stunned by attacking.
• Sea strider buffs:
  • Sea strider health increased from 200 -> 325.
  • Sea strider attack period reduced from 3 -> 1.5 while on the ocean.
    • These changes aim to make them more useful for Webber by giving them a niche for tackling ocean based content like Crab king.
• Healing glop healing increased from 8/80 -> 16/160.

II - Spider whistle commands: 

To further elaborate on the spider whistle rework, Webber will now be able to command his spiders in ways that will make them more reliable and convenient in and out of combat.  The following commands are all base kit.

• Stay/Follow: Toggle whether or not spiders will follow you. While stay is selected, spiders will sleep regardless of time and will regenerate health slowly overtime.
• Go here!: Command your spiders to move to the position of your cursor where they'll stay for a short amount of time. This command can be recast several times without needing to interact with the whistle over and over again.
• (Re)focus target: Clicking on an enemy will shift all of your spiders' attention onto them.
• Shoo! Shoo!: Command all of your current spiders to stop following you, causing them to look for the nearest decorated den. If there are none, they will become untamed.
  • Shoo box is removed to reduce Webber inventory bloat.

III - Spiderhat rework: 

Since the spiderhat will play a role in Webber's skill tree, I decided to rework it to make it a more appealing item to wear.

• Now provides 75% damage reduction (90% vs spiders).
• Now repairable with spider glands and silk.
  • Webber repairs it twice as fast.
• Webber exclusive changes:
  • No longer drains sanity
  • Wearing the spiderhat now lets you pick up any spider whether tamed or not.
  • Only the target spider will fight back if you attack it while wearing this hat.  

IV - Skill tree:

Now onto Webber's skill tree, it will be split into two sub-sections of arachnid and farm boy. 

Arachnid side:

• Webweaver: Unlock the ability to craft scaffol-dens, placing them will give you the option to command your spiders to finish weaving the den. You're able to select any type of spider den as long as you've tamed its respective spiders before.
• Arachnepal: Unlock the ability to decorate any type of spider nest. Putting spiders into decorated dens will turn them into that den's respective spider.
  • Each of these dens will have a special effect:
    • Webber can sleep in decorated spider dens.
    • Webber can nap in decorated sea strider nests, similar to siesta lean-to.
    • Webber can rattle decorated spilagmites, causing them to occasionally drop 1-2 nitre and/or 1-2 stone.
    • Spiders, Spider Warriors and Depth Dwellers will repair clothing within the range of a decorated den.
    • Webber can rattle decorated shattered spider holes, causing them to occasionally drop 1-2 moonglass shards.
    • Depth dwellers will web up trees, mushtrees etc. in close proximity to the den, using a razor on them will drop silk.
    • Nurse spiders in any given nest will restore Webber's missing max health if he has any. This works for any survivor close to Webber or survivors wearing a spiderhat. They will also tend to other hurt spiders in the den.
• Efficiency bakery: Switcherdoodles now give 2 per craft, with a chance of giving you a third.
   
• Spider commands (all these perks are unlinked):
  • Spider queue: Blow into your whistle, commanding your spiders to form a line behind you. Spiders will pick up any one item, putting it above their heads. Webber is able to grab these items off of any spider, as well as command them to put these items into chests nearby him automatically sorting items.
  • Intimidate: Command your scary friends to screech, fearing mobs around you for a short time. This command can't be selected if Webber has less than 5 spiders.
  • Brace your eight legs: Command your spiders to enter a defensive stance, spiders will enter their fear animation gaining 75% damage reduction and will stop attacking for the next 1.5s or until they get hit.
     
• Heir to the throne I: Unlock the spider barricade command. Spiders will now be feared for 33% less time while wearing the spiderhat.
  • Command your spiders to gather around you for up to 5s, protecting you similar to a snurtle shell. Attacks will be redirected to one of your spiders and will cause it to retaliate with an attack. Moving will cancel this ability early. 
• Heir to the throne II: Wearing the spiderhat will allow you to feed it switcherdoodles, boosting its respective spiders for 20s. This has an innate cooldown.
  • Nurse spiders will apply a healing overtime effect when boosted aswell as granting 15% damage reduction and +10 planar defense to spiders or players in the radius.
  • Cave spiders will deal big damage to attackers while they're hiding in an AoE.
  • Spitters will fire a stronger pebble that explodes in an area every 3rd shot.
  • Depth dwellers will create a web that expands with every attack, this web speeds up all spiders and slows down enemies by 60%. Flying enemies, players and friendly followers ignore this effect.
  • Spider warriors will jump back after attacking, then will lunge back at their target in quick succession.
  • Sea striders attack apply a stacking debuff that slows a target's attack period.
  • Shattered spiders' spikes will persist after shattering, causing any enemy to step on it to be inflicted with a bleeding effect. 
     
• Shadow after-image: The shadow queen will reward your loyalty with shadow reinforcements. Feeding the spiderhat Nightmare fuel/Pure horror gives it +5/+15 planar defense and buffs your spiders causing their shadows to replicate their attacks dealing 50% of their damage as planar damage. 
• Lunar Tethers: The cryptic founder will reward your curiosity by teaching you how to take care of your friends.
  • Feeding the spiderhat Moonglass Shards/Pure Brilliance gives it +5/+15 planar defense and creates a link between you and your spiders.
  • This link causes all damage taken to split evenly between linked targets up to a cap. This doesn't cause hitstun.
  • Spiders unlock chain attack when attacking a target, extending 10% of their damage to a nearby target as planar damage. If there's no other target, the same enemy will take that damage.

Farmboy side:

• Ringing routine: Using a bell on a Beefalo instantly causes it to gain +10% domestication. Every 3 days, Webber can use the bell again to gain an extra 2%. Once a beefalo is tamed this effect changes to resetting their obedience to 75%.
   
• Bug handler: Gain the ability to pick up butterflies, (non-killer) bees, and fireflies by hand.
   
• Seed packer: Learn to craft seed packs out of 13 seeds, giving you a non-spoiling seed pack that lets you plant seeds without a garden hoe up to 10 times. Talking to a plant as Webber causes its growth to accelerate to the next stage by 10%.

 

If you have any ideas or criticisms or additions feel free! I think it's due time Webber gets some love.

 

 

[Left 4 Sharkb8]

I do think that these changes and the skill tree are both quite well done and would be a good direction to take Webber, but spiders will still eat items off of the ground, and it's also worth mentioning that spiders are still pretty one-dimensional.

 Spiders do not change very much between variations, they don't really have new animations, shapes, sizes, behaviors, hell they mostly share the same stats. Above all else I'd kind of just like to see spiders become more unique and more animated. Currently we have two spiders who are identical in every way but their appearance, those being the Warriors and Dwellers. Most other spiders have pretty minor differences, but have the same stats and still act and look the same. It would be cool to at least see more fluff for them as a species of mob.

 

Again, with that all said, I still think this is a pretty good take on a Webber skill tree as well as the base kit changes he desperately needs. I'm hopeful that something like this is what we get, maybe a long with a little more in the way of his spider identity that doesn't have to do with spider friends.

[Crestwave]

I think it would be neat for Webber to have a skill to craft an actual 3D spiderweb that catches insects. Clearly the spiders of the constant never bothered building their webs past the ground because they're carnivorous, but having a constant supply of butterflies would be great as Webber. Not to mention the possible synergies with Wendy/Walter/Wortox.

[Riddla]

Very creative and well-planned execution of ideas, I love them! I especially adore the new interactions with custom dens beyond just putting spiders inside, and I really like how spider hat got expanded with switcherdoodle mechanics thoroughly. Webber deserves to have such gigantic versatility when it comes to combat for loads of strategic possibilities.

[Catuna_]

11 hours ago, Left 4 Sharkb8 said:

 Spiders do not change very much between variations, they don't really have new animations, shapes, sizes, behaviors, hell they mostly share the same stats. Above all else I'd kind of just like to see spiders become more unique and more animated. Currently we have two spiders who are identical in every way but their appearance, those being the Warriors and Dwellers. Most other spiders have pretty minor differences, but have the same stats and still act and look the same. It would be cool to at least see more fluff for them as a species of mob.

Honestly this is big true, I'd love if Klei revisited spiders to breathe more life into them. 

[Dr.Webber]

I did something similar: