Please Buff/Add an Upgrade To The Ice Crystaleyezer

[Cvmoote]

First I just want to say I am reposting this here in the suggestion/feedback section as this is actually where this post belongs and I did not know that it existed I only knew about the General Discussion which this post was not really suiting as it was less so talking about General gameplay and throwing Ideas back and forth and more so a Direct Suggestion/Idea for a really nice quality of life feature for late game wildfire solutions. I personally as someone who likes to mega base into the very late days, really want a better solution to features that continue to be an annoyance despite basically completing the main storyline of the game. This post is mainly for Wildfires, but I could also argue it would be nice to have a solution to protect from Meteor showers as well since often times they are next to areas I want to build in and have to just turn them off. I think turning settings off is just a band aid fix while adding gameplay solutions to things actually adds more gameplay and hence more fun to the game for players to enjoy.

When the Ice Crystaleyezer was added I was so hyped because I thought this was finally going to be the permanent late game solution to helping out with Wildfires for large Mega Bases late game. (Obv not cave bases since they are already Immune). It's locked behind a late game boss, resource intensive and expensive, and provides a strong effect that people would actually use sticking it all over their base much like how they stick lightning rods into every build to not worry about lightning burning it all down. Basically a late game larger radius version of the Ice Flingomatic.

However that is not how it works. It has a tile radius of 8.75 tiles which is quite decent but the only thing this does is add freezing stacks onto the player/enemies to make them easier to freeze and change the surrounding temperature to -10 degrees causing freezing even during summer. On top of this it also creates Ice glaciers around it that make it even harder to incorporate easily into builds which just feels not needed since Ice has many other ways to obtained and can be obtained in large quantities during winter. While yes it's final effect is making it so no wildfires occur in this area, you can't take advantage of any of it simply because being in the radius will cause you to constantly be freezing and losing HP no matter the world temp or season. This makes this whole ability pointless. If you put it all over the parts of your base that are outside of the Oasis, anywhere you go to during this time will literally be freezing you to death, which is much more of a nuisance than dealing with Wildfires to begin with. It's just counter productive in the main effect that actually benefits the player the most since most of the time people aren't going to be using this for Ice collection, or freezing mobs easier. 

Instead if you want to have a larger base once you have fully built in the oasis, you are forced to never be their during the summer, freeze while you are there, or stay entirely in the caves all winter, and once you've cleared the ruins enough times, even staying in the caves seems pointless if you are just looking to build. Or you can put large chunky and clunky small range Ice flingos everywhere that will constantly need refueling and wont really look good in bases at all.

So here is what I would LOVE to see to save this item and make it an actually valuable late game boss drop that is worth farming a bunch of and finally creating a use for all those extra Deerclops eyeballs.

Remove the freezing entirely. Sure it should lower the temperature to help with things like summer, but it should not be even close to the negative numbers that will have you freezing no matter the season. Have it lower the temperature to a flat 20 degrees as opposed to -10, this way in it's radius you can stay immune to overheating during summer, but obviously if you have this turned on in the winter it will still freeze you. Or it could work like WX-78's Night vision Circuit where it turns off during the day time dynamically and this item auto turns itself off outside of summer or when the temperature is lower than 20 degrees itself.

Second is remove it's freezing ability, as well as the ice on the ground around the Ice Crystaleyezer when it's turned on. The ice feature is just not needed since Ice is a plentiful resource and not needed in abundance like that in the late game. The ice on the ground also just makes you slow and lose HP for no reason simply just trying to turn it off/on which makes the item feel even worse than it already is. The glaciers it creates also makes it a lot harder to squeeze into builds for it's new main purpose of preventing wild fires in it's radius, it's the perfect size if it's just by itself but too big with the ice glaciers. Think of it being more like a lightning rod where it's squeezed into a build to provide a helpful utility effect.

Finally, increase the radius of the Ice Crystaleyezer from 8.75 tiles to a flat 10. This would make it's more on par in range as lightning rods but also make it so you don't need to be placing them on every single screen to cover a very large section of base or a specific build. 

None of this would at all be OP in any way because again, it's an incredibly late game item that requires constant boss farming and boss drops if you want to create more than one of them, and it's effect provides a solution to an early-mid game struggle that would simply help with building nicer and bigger bases which is just a nice fun QOL feature at the end of the day.

I really want the best for this item and I would love for it to be just as good and worth while as it's other items being the Polar Bearger bin, and the Hounds Tooth shooter. These tweaks/reworks to this item would be a huge QOL change that would help all players as well as see in increase of actually usage for this item across the board!

I'm all for threats having solutions because when they don't or have limited solutions early game, I think there at least should be more or greater ones late game, with it costing more depending on the strength of the effect.

Side note: For things like Meteor showers that can only be countered if you want to eventually build in that area by turning them off in the settings, I think Pillar Scaffolds should work upstairs to specifically place in that area to block the meteorites. If it seems like they'd be too weak it could be made so only Dreadstone pillars work to stop them. Just another solution to a mechanic that doesn't currently have any.

[Jussatoon]

https://forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/171076-please-bufftweak-the-ice-crystaleyezer/#findComment-1865852