add shadow prison cooldown

[Naifxoxo]

1 hour ago, Seero said:

idk why everyone's replying to this extremely low-effort thread but I will, for the sake of defending the other side...

Just a flat, 15 second cooldown? Way to make shadow prison nearly useless. it does nothing to make it more interesting, it just makes it less fun. You don't even take the effort to consider the very real downside of using 5 duelists and shadow prison while fighting a boss (hint: terrorbeak)

You know what's more fun? Micromanaging a boss with shadow prison while managing sanity, health, armor, hitting the boss yourself, your own duelists and making sure they stay alive, and those terrorbeaks that will inevitably spawn. Yes. this is fun when people aren't yapping in your ear about how ass it allegedly is. 

yes i love micro managing sanity while using bone helm very skill based , i love wearing bone helm 24/7 and spamming cage and shadows to kill everyboss , very micro managing indeed 

7 hours ago, Frosty_Mentos said:

I don't play Maxwell because of meta, I play Maxwell because he's generally fun and diverse. I liked idea of Maxwell in singleplayer as well, just that it wasn't as great as this one. He is frail but convenient, even while having his spells you still need to care about being one shotted by majority of high damage enemies especially rift ones. 

If anything is "meta" by metrics it's Wendy, not because of gameplay but rather she just is cool and convenient as well. I think Maxwell is like less than 5% of playerbase compared to half of it being Wendy.

the fact that his book is given for him for free has so many uses and is infinite compared to weakerbottom who need to craft a kinda expensive books , they still serve 1 purpose each book , they have durability, need to be charged at base everysingle time u use them once or twice

Edited March 6 by Naifxoxo

[Seero]

4 minutes ago, Naifxoxo said:

yes i love micro managing sanity while using bone helm very skill based , i love wearing bone helm 24/7 and spamming cage and shadows to kill everyboss , very micro managing indeed 

I explicitly did not mention the bone helm because you need to kill fuelweaver to get it. it's more than a deserved reward. (especially considering you need to be sane to take it off or you have to run away from the dozens of terrorbeaks that spawn from it. Please knock it off with the sarcasm, I highly doubt you even play Maxwell at all. 

Edited March 6 by Seero

[Naifxoxo]

Just now, Seero said:

I explicitly did not mention the bone helm because you need to kill fuelweaver to get it. it's more than a deserved reward. Please knock it off with the sarcasm, I highly doubt you even play Maxwell at all. 

i just wanted to prove u wrong , have fun 

[Seero]

1 minute ago, Naifxoxo said:

i just wanted to prove u wrong , have fun 

sorry you actually didn't. 

 

"Wow high effort item gives a high reward... I can't fathom this! klei is filled with frauds" please be serious. 

[DegenerateFurry]

2 hours ago, Naifxoxo said:

yes i love micro managing sanity while using bone helm very skill based , i love wearing bone helm 24/7 and spamming cage and shadows to kill everyboss , very micro managing indeed 

the fact that his book is given for him for free has so many uses and is infinite compared to weakerbottom who need to craft a kinda expensive books , they still serve 1 purpose each book , they have durability, need to be charged at base everysingle time u use them once or twice

>complete the main shadow questline and kill the hardest boss in the game

>equip bone helm

>hold CTRL+F to attack a mob

>attack Terrorbeak who ran straight up to me, between me and my target, because they constantly do that, by accident

>50 terrorbeaks mob me to death before I can even take it off

>rollback, be more careful

>use bone helm in combat to fight a boss

>it breaks

>have to kill Fuelweaver again

Hmmst, yes, something easy that requires no thought or care indeed. 

[Cheggf]

On 3/4/2026 at 3:42 PM, Ridley said:

Wouldn't the optimal strategy become just running away until the cooldown is finished? Wouldn't that make things more "boring"?

Anyone playing like that already isn't fighting at all in the first place and is just making contraptions to kill things on their behalf. 

[Jakepeng99]

On 3/3/2026 at 5:10 PM, remden said:

for example 15 seconds

it's boring when bosses can't do anything

This is nessisary.

It would still be extremely strong with a cool down. Right now you can get easy boss kills with enough fuel

17 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

>complete the main shadow questline and kill the hardest boss in the game

>equip bone helm

>hold CTRL+F to attack a mob

>attack Terrorbeak who ran straight up to me, between me and my target, because they constantly do that, by accident

>50 terrorbeaks mob me to death before I can even take it off

>rollback, be more careful

>use bone helm in combat to fight a boss

>it breaks

>have to kill Fuelweaver again

Hmmst, yes, something easy that requires no thought or care indeed. 

If it breaks you basically die from all the nightmares too.

You also can’t really unequip it without Sainity food or the same happens.

On 3/3/2026 at 11:05 PM, DegenerateFurry said:

Nah, remove the cooldowns from Team Spirit instead, that way we can combo commands like making Abigail zoom into a bunch of enemies to scare them.

Add fun, don't remove it.

Not really relevant. Anyway what’s so fun about perma stunlocking with a day 1 cheap item that it should stay.

On 3/4/2026 at 5:11 AM, Bumber64 said:

15 seconds of cooldown is too much for normal usage.

Perhaps the cooldown could be different after using it on a boss. Or it could be a consistent 6 seconds while nerfing boss trap time to 3 seconds.

I agree with this more. Good idea.

[Naifxoxo]

17 hours ago, DegenerateFurry said:

>complete the main shadow questline and kill the hardest boss in the game

>equip bone helm

>hold CTRL+F to attack a mob

>attack Terrorbeak who ran straight up to me, between me and my target, because they constantly do that, by accident

>50 terrorbeaks mob me to death before I can even take it off

>rollback, be more careful

>use bone helm in combat to fight a boss

>it breaks

>have to kill Fuelweaver again

Hmmst, yes, something easy that requires no thought or care indeed. 

afw hardest boss ?? ru joking , afw can be done at like first winter , not a big deal ,

[Delta ONe]

We can't accept that Maxwell  the strongest character in the game?—I think he should be!, given his importance in the game's lore.
(However, he's not even the strongest right now; I already consider Walter the best character.)
I think Maxwell deserves some buffs to maintain his position as the strongest character!...Just like Wess is at his worst (Challenger).

Edited March 7 by Delta ONe

[Mysterious box]

On 3/4/2026 at 10:17 PM, DegenerateFurry said:

"Meta" doesn't matter in a co-op survival game with eighteen characters and fishing quests as a central part of the main plot. This isn't a competitive FPS and it doesn't need to be balanced like one.

Also, Maxwell isn't "meta" anyway, the meta character is whoever got the latest update because that's who everyone plays in pubs to see how they like the new stuff. 

Meta will always be a thing that matters in a coop game game but it mainly comes down to effort vs reward people tend to gravitate towards characters who offer the most benefits for the least effort. While new toy syndrome does happen most people just settle back into or keep playing the stronger characters who fulfill that low effort high reward niche. A coop game especially needs to be balanced to avoid lopsided character selection and to allow true variety to thrive. While it can be fun for a time most people don't want to be a character who overall inferior to their peers in every way.

That being said the solution isn't always a nerf even if a nerf often is the best answer when I think of alternatives I look to games like Warframe where the game is balanced in that everything is near equally unbalanced so there's no truly bad choice with options generally ranged from overkill to super overkill.

In the case of Maxwell I think the better choice would be to make his prison more engaging without just flat out making it weaker.

5 hours ago, Delta ONe said:

We can't accept that Maxwell  the strongest character in the game?—I think he should be!, given his importance in the game's lore.
(However, he's not even the strongest right now; I already consider Walter the best character.)
I think Maxwell deserves some buffs to maintain his position as the strongest character!...Just like Wess is at his worst (Challenger).

I don't think Maxwell can go back to being the strongest character just due to the standards the cast have now. In terms of raw power he's not touching Wurt without a nerf or rebalance. In terms of convenience he's not touching Wortox and so on. Besides Maxwell lore wise isn't supposed to be the strongest even in own short showcase it highlights how weak he is and how dependent on his book and Charlie to contribute.

[Seero]

6 hours ago, Naifxoxo said:

afw hardest boss ?? ru joking , afw can be done at like first winter , not a big deal ,

im going to go out on a limb and say you have never killed fuelweaver either. 

6 hours ago, Jakepeng99 said:

I agree with this more. Good idea.

or instead of overcomplicated it/making it really annoying/near useless to use... you could just start with doubling the usage from the codex umbra, from 5 to 10% 

[DegenerateFurry]

6 hours ago, Naifxoxo said:

afw hardest boss ?? ru joking , afw can be done at like first winter , not a big deal ,

Y'know, I'm starting to think you're just here to kick a hornet's nest.

[Bumber64]

On 3/6/2026 at 10:35 AM, Seero said:

ehhh idk. i don't want maxwell to lose that buff, but to give everyone that buff? Guarantee wickerbottom gets another winona situation (btw winona is no longer a swap character) where she becomes a swap character. Currently she is a swap character but only for maxwell, and I think that's ok. 

You see the problem when everyone gets the books, but not when it's swapping her to Maxwell. Curious.

On 3/6/2026 at 8:17 AM, DegenerateFurry said:

In what way does this negatively impact you when you play someone else?

This is about balance. How does the personal impact on me affect the logic of my stated points?

[DegenerateFurry]

1 hour ago, Bumber64 said:

This is about balance. How does the personal impact on me affect the logic of my stated points?

"Balance" isn't inherently good, nor should it be treated as a goal. Imbalance can be more fun than balance in many cases, this game included. Balance is also entirely subjective when it comes to players vs mobs, but that's less relevant than balance itself being irrelevant.

Games are for having fun, not to experience some unreachable ideal of optimal balance. Balance is good when it brings fairness, but this is a survival co-op, not a competitive PVP game. We do not need the experience to be fair for the Treeguards and the hounds because neither can experience anything, they're mere lines of code and sheets of sprites, obstacles for the player to overcome and exploit for resources. Meanwhile, it's fun for lots and lots of players who like Maxwell, Wigfrid, Wolfgang, and other strong characters if those characters are strong. 

And it doesn't impact you negatively because you don't have to play those characters. On top of that, the impact of simply having any other player - be they playing a strong character or not - is bigger than just the impact of them playing a strong character, since it means someone who can revive you, at minimum doubles your DPS in fights by helping you, and can make multitasking easier by taking on some tasks themselves. So, even if you're playing with a Maxwell, the fact that you're playing with anyone else at all affects your experience far more than their character choice will, and makes it easier in its own more significant ways. 

Wes and Wolfgang are both Klei indirectly telling us, "just so you know, we don't intend for all characters to be at the same strength level. Here's one intentionally designed to be too weak and one intentionally designed to be too strong. You can play what you want for different experiences, including with the game's difficulty." Don't Starve was never meant to be balanced and neither was DST.

Edited March 7 by DegenerateFurry

[HamBatWilson]

On 3/4/2026 at 6:03 PM, Naifxoxo said:

klei : Maxwell with no limits cuz why not,

you still need nightmare fuel, sanity and coordination. at least until you defeat the ancient fuelweaver. 

[ZeRoboButler]

Y'all know he is just gonna get stronger with the skill tree he gets right?

If they haven't changed it now, then they are not gonna change it later unless something they added directly has a conflict with it.

[SuperPsiPower]

On 3/5/2026 at 11:12 AM, Naifxoxo said:

weakerbottom has to craft the books , she gets stuck in a long casting animation and she still has a limit on how many times she could use them , while maxwell has an infinite book without cooldown,

 

wx is limited cant swap circuits as much as they want , maxwell isnt limited , 

 

u shouldnt rely on cage spam and cheese all bosses as maxwell , thats the maxwell current gameplay all about cage spam making bosses unable to do anything

Wickerbottom's books are infinite because she can make as many as she wants while recharging them in her bookcase and the durability is never really a problem for her if she has enough books.

Maxwell is a great character for those playing on high ping and cannot kite effectively. Shadow prison is an amazing tool that greatly increases his survivability.
 

I do not understand OP's complaint. Nobody is forcing you to use shadow prison or to play Maxwell and use shadow prison. It is simply a tool that you can choose to use or not. 

If you wanna run back and forth and hit things you can do that on literally any character. 

[Hungry French]

On 05.03.2026 at 05:35, DegenerateFurry said:

Все эти люди призывают к ослаблению персонажей, за которых они сами редко играют, во имя баланса, который на самом деле никак не влияет на их игровой опыт и сильно портит удовольствие от игры для всех, кому нравится играть за Максвелла. Довольно бесцеремонно и жестоко, не правда ли?

They don't play them because they're too strong. It's pretty simple.

19 hours ago, HamBatWilson said:

Вам по-прежнему нужны топливо для кошмаров, здравый смысл и координация. По крайней мере, до тех пор, пока вы не победите древнего создателя топлива.

Fuel prices have decreased 10 times since the redesign) And fuel is not such a rare item...