Machine and Moon: My Plea for a WX Laser Beam

[KINOTAKO]

Even before the WX skill tree update, the concept of fusing lunar power with machinery has repeatedly been showcased through cool abilities in the DST universe. For example, the Warbot's orbital beam, the Scrappy Werepig's laser cannon, and the Scion's supernova.

After teasing us with all these awesome machine-moon fusions, not letting our resident robot WX harness lunar power feels like pure torture (cry). These serve as the perfect lore precedents for the kind of power WX could achieve with a Lunar Affinity. It fits the theme perfectly, and honestly, who doesn't love firing a laser beam?

I had always assumed that if WX got lunar skills, they would be able to fire some kind of cool moon beam, big or small. That wish didn't come true. But I still can't give up on it.

Please. Let me fire a Lunar Combustion Beam. This is my dream.

[OrangeNibble]

Lol, I like the profile pic. Seems it is your dream!

[KINOTAKO]

Thanks! My impatience got the best of me, so I had to draw it w. Is the demand for shooting a lunar beam really that low? (crying)

[beyond human]

15 minutes ago, KINOTAKO said:

Is the demand for shooting a lunar beam really that low? (crying)

Nope. I have seen someone make a similar suggestion too. (well that is not relate to lunar actually)

Edited yesterday at 03:35 AM by beyond human

[Eclipsed Nox]

That was my problem with the lunar clones. I would have much preferred Warbot's drones, which had command-based uses and allowed me to fire a laser beam. Honestly, I always saw the idea of having slaves more as the Shadow option, you know? The moon should have been the affinity for its own power, and the Shadows, seeing as they also have drones, why not give the Shadows the clones and let the moon have its own identity? All those Shadow Heart upgrades to turn them into clones, and also using Apollo drones to slightly improve their abysmal damage without having to sacrifice all your chassis, and making the lunar upgrades more focused on super gamma circuits or attack drones that fire lasers, so they feel like an extension of the character.

Besides, I generally hate that they want to turn wx-78 into a mob character. My beloved sociopathic robot has always been a lone player, and I'd like him to stay that way, but instead of giving me a vigorous and beautiful laser beam or combat drones that fire lasers, the moon gave me three very clumsy minions with half damage, and contrary to those super fake "WOW LOOK WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH CLONES" videos,

most of the time they sadly die even to a Deerclops. Also, while you can build them like you, the problem is they'll never be smarter than your average Wilson. And they won't be able to gain a REAL advantage over Gamma circuits, and sometimes not even Beta circuits.

And honestly, I had faith that the Shadow Upgrade would give me REAL combat drones that felt like an extension of the character, but no... I have more mobs, and they're very annoying to use because of their lack of precision. Also, couldn't they have made Gary/grab drones work more like a Wobot Lite instead of whatever they do, grabbing random items until you retreat? And why can't I leave those drones attached to a chassis so they can automatically farm?

Damn, this post really hit a nerve with me as a player. My expectations...

I didn't want WX-78 to be the most overpowered character in the game, doing everything. That's lame. They basically copied Maxwell's mechanics in his skill tree. I wanted an adaptive character with powerful upgrades, but since he's a robot, they'd be incredibly difficult to obtain. The only balanced upgrade is Spatializer, since you absolutely need an Infused Crystal and to activate the Lunar event. And it has a function that really makes me rethink my beta build to adapt it functionally to what I'll be doing with it.

I keep wondering why NONE of the affinities have a direct interaction with the circuits. There aren't any lunar/shadow upgrades to the circuits, nor are there any exclusive circuits that make me want to search for, scan, explore, or farm them.

Couldn't they give a second affinity option like Willow's, to have options for mobs and... Focused exclusively on circuits/wx-78

Maybe I've gone off on a tangent, but I feel like wx-78 is a weird hodgepodge of abilities that don't connect at all, and you can't fully master any of them because you simply can't.

First, Alpha is nerfed into Gamma, which are generally bad abilities except for Saw Spin.

Beta is okay, at least in my opinion; it's almost perfect, but some circuits like the thermal ones or the music box one need more love. Also, I'd really like to have a third tier with various Alpha and Beta circuits.

Gamma is bad; it's only good for spinning.

Chassis are very useful, as are the drones, except for Zap Electrocuter. Please give it an automatic mode; it's useless except for cheese-fighting King Crab or until you have the clones, and even then, they're terrible.

Moon Affinity feels incomplete, and honestly, not having any power for wx feels bad.

The same goes for Shadows.

Sorry for all this rambling, I just can't keep saying it gently anymore, I'm just annoyed by BOTH affinities and how incongruous they are with WX-78's gameplay

[Kvetevk]

I hope that Klei will add more to the affinities for each character that would be valuable in earlygame and lategame. Power of affinity skills should progress with the world, so that people with affinity skills will benefit from progressing in the story based on their chosen affinity.

I hope that mostly affinity skills will be updated when Klei revisits each skill tree, because they should have more impact than other skills.

[KINOTAKO]

I mentioned something similar in a previous topic, but for the four years between 2022 and 2026, the 6-slot circuit system was WX's only core character concept. However, we WX mains found true joy in that playstyle—constantly swapping and building our circuits to adapt to any situation. We have loved the circuit system, and only the circuit system, to this day.

It's no exaggeration to say that anyone who has loved WX all this time was really in love with the circuit system itself.

So, to see the Affinities replaced by mechanics that have nothing to do with that original character concept feels almost like a betrayal to veteran WX mains.

As someone who has mained WX-78 for years, I have always believed in the potential of the circuit system and had so much fun experimenting with it. But now, it feels like the Affinity skills—which should have been the ultimate highlight of the skill tree—have been completely hijacked by these chassis skills that just popped out of nowhere.

ps.

When Gamma circuits were first introduced, I perceived Alpha and Beta as the hardware build system, and Gamma as the software build system for the control panel buttons. I was deeply moved by this innovative concept. It suited the robot theme flawlessly and represented the next chapter of the circuit system we so dearly love. I spent so much time eagerly anticipating the mighty, awesome mech-power that the Affinities would bring.

Edited yesterday at 06:36 AM by KINOTAKO
ps

[Kvetevk]

I think that uncomp wx78 was changed to be more like that, but I wonder what do you think of the uncomp version.

For those who don't know or dont want to check, here is what uncomp version does:

1. Charges are lost when circuits are plugged and the more you have the faster the drain is.

2. While unplugging circuits, the durability and charges won't suffer any loss.

3. Circuits durability is slowly decreasing while they are plugged in.

[Eclipsed Nox]

I completely agree with you, my friend. Affinities are so disconnected from the circuit and drone system that it doesn't feel like Wx 78 at all. The new circuit system is so great that I actually think it's better to max out Tinkering than spend my skill points on affinities. I'm genuinely surprised that affinities have NOTHING to do with Gamma. I thought they would give us hyper-circuits for each affinity, granting us interchangeable active offensive and utility abilities, like laser beams, shadow missiles, the ability to levitate like a Warbot, or the power to create a shadow shield like AFW. I thought they would focus on Gamma being much more based on affinity-derived abilities and some neutral ones. WX 78 mains play it because we want control of our situation and to do our own thing, which is why I'm so bothered by how affinities work. Rather than being an extension of the character, they're like mobs... when you already There are like 4 characters based on some kind of mob (Wendy, Webber, Maxwell and Wurt). It's like Klei's wild card when they run out of ideas, or at least that's how it feels every time they do it.

Edited yesterday at 07:26 AM by Eclipsed Nox

[OrangeNibble]

I think the lunar affinity is cool myself. I love the whole expansion of WX having chassises. 

[Dr.Webber]

You should also be able to craft gyroscopic transition cores or possibly improve on the design of them and the Auto-Mat-O-Chanic so terramites and wobot don’t degrade from simply being active(I find that to be a flaw with a lot of Wagstaff’s technology) also maybe WX should be able to also befriend Warblers

[Dr.Webber]

And possibly even scrappy werepig’s axe

Maybe it could be a dedicated skill for Jimmy scanning more mechanical stuff because he has shown being able to scan mechanical stuff before and being able to scan the clock works to get circuits from them and being able to scan one of Wagstaff’s workbenches too get the recipe for Jules