[Custom Character] Wisteria the Herbalist!

[Wisteria]

Meet Wisteria, the Herbalist!

Here's a spotlight done by the awesome JaR Dev!
 

After much planning and many attempts at scripting and creating the sprite sheet, here is the fruit of my labor. It's a simple mod, but hopefully an enjoyable one. 

 

• She takes a 1.5 increase to damage and healing effects from edible items (Or in the very least, from food) 
• She also suffers from a decrease in sanity at the same rate as Wes. 

 

She has custom dialogue and everything seems to be working so far. Play around for a bit and let me know what you think! There will be more updates for her in the future. I've got some cool stuff planned. 

 

If you have any suggestions, feel free to share them! 

 

 

==UPCOMING== 

I've got some pretty sweet item suggestions that I'm planning on implementing soon, but first and foremost I'm going to be adding an increase to the amount of damage she takes. I feel that it's necessary to work with her added healing boost, and she's pretty frail anyway. 

 

Please keep the suggestions and comments coming! I'm thrilled that you're all having fun with her so far.

DOWNLOAD

 

****** 

ALTERNATE SPEECH FILE with character references

******

Steam Workshop

 

 

 

I created this thread to get some feedback and suggestions for where she should go from here! She DOES have a history that plays a large role in her abilities and effects, so I'll be going forward with this in mind as well. If you'd like a taste of how she wound up in this mess, read the attached comic!

[GalloViking]

Hi there.
Like I already said, I love this characters a lot (cute!), but she lacks herborist themed bonuses, like starting with a unique garland or the ability to pick faster/more items like berries, grass, mushrooms, etc.
Keep up the good work pal!

PM me if you need more ideas.

[Wisteria]

@GalloViking I'm working on figuring out the gathering speed thing now! It was a wonderful idea. Hopefully it won't be long before I can get it figured out and updated.

[GalloViking]

If the gather speed is too hard too make, why not just doubling what she gathers?

Edit: I have been thinking about the item she could bring at the beginning. I really think something increasing grow speed of nearby plants would be good for her, since she is an herbalist.

[Dryicefox]

On the aesthetics side of this character, I'd recommend changing those soulless dead fish eyes of Wendy's with some more perky and small bit more beady eyes. Wendy's face bothers the heck out of me as it is off-centered.

 

There also is a mod for faster picking in the Steam Workshop. You might want to look into those files.

 

Also, I'll take your idea of faster picking with my Coraline Revamp but I'll make it 1.25x..  

 

Don't forget those powers of 2!

[ArgleBargle]

It's that guy again. I made the comment on the workshop page, but I'll just repaste it here.

 

BTW

1.5x damage taken is effectively the same as if you had set her health at 67.

The calculation is:
100/1.5 = 66.6666. . . 

This is essentially an "effective hit points" calculations that any ARPG-bug would be familiar with. And it applies just as well to armor.

For example, a Log Suit absorbs 80% damage.
Therefore:
100%/0.20 = 500%

In other words, a Log Suit multiplies effective hit points by 4 times. (A Nightmare Amor would multiply hit points 20 times.)

In any case, it's desirable to set her health at 67 than give her a damage taken multiplier because you're also making the healing from items less valuable. (Multiply by 2 then divide by 1.5). You want her healing to keep its value as a flat amount relative to monster damage.

My conclusion is that if you want her to be a sustained healing machine with lower overall fault tolerance, it's best to adjust her total health, not throw in a damage taken multiplier.

 

 

Ironically, I thought you had made her take more damage by adjusting her health to 100 because that amount is actually one-and-a-half times closer to death than 150. (150/1.5 = 100)

 

 

If the gather speed is too hard too make, why not just doubling what she gathers?

Edit: I have been thinking about the item she could bring at the beginning. I really think something increasing grow speed of nearby plants would be good for her, since she is an herbalist.

 

I'm against this personally. It means that she gets twice the returns in the same growing period as any other character. If I have 40 saplings at my base, I'm getting 80. Faster harvest speed means that she brings in those 40 twigs much quicker, but isn't getting more than any other character. If she wants more, then she's forced to transplant saplings or travel further afield.

 

For the same reason, it also makes early game much easier because a lot of time is spent just moving haphazardly between resources which aren't closely packed together. You want to shorten the time she spends doing that, but geographically speaking you don't want her profiting too much from staying in the same area.

 

This is especially true of scarce resources like reeds and mushrooms!

[ClayNorman]

I personally love the mod! Very balanced but as a bunch of these helpful people are pointing out the mod could be EVEN better! With the whole gathering speed thing and faster growing rates but I had a kind of cool idea that maybe you would consider? I want to make this clear, with any suggestion i'm not pushing it but a cool game play mechanic for her would be to maybe give her slightly less bonuses to meats and better bonuses from eating plants like seeds and vegetables and such (E.G. When eating a cooked morsel instead of getting 12.5 hunger back only getting 6.25 with no health bonus, but if you eat Roasted Berries instead of 12.5 hunger back you get 15 with a health increase of 2?) This whole idea may make her unbalanced yet even more intricate than she already is becoming. Anyways keep up the great work! She fits right in with Don't Starve!

P.S. Sorry for the long post, I just really love this mod!
  

[GalloViking]

I have another idea for her. Restoring sanity when near a flower. Evil flowers drains sanity, after all.

[Denzie]

Hi!

After playing Wisteria a bit (which I am thoroughly enjoying), and looking at the brilliant character art, I thought a nice feature was her basket, and it would be sad to see it become a missed opportunity.

 

Herb Basket

- Weapon Slot.

- 20 damage.

- Has no durability

- +6 inventory slot .

- Increase gather speed.

- Only holds plant matter.

- Extends plant freshness.

- Sanity boost when filled and held.

 

I'm am fairly new to Don't Starve and the community. And as of yet, have not had the time or motivation to look over the coding, thus not entirely sure what is possible. But it dose seem friendly to the modders, and this doesn't seem too out there.

 

But in any case, I think Wisteria is lovely thus far, and looking forward to seeing her progress.  

[ClayNorman]

I feel like the flower sanity thing may be Op because you could surround your base with flowers and never lose sanity. Just a thought, but as for the basket it's a cool idea but it should have a durability and maybe could be crafted from twigs, grass, and rope? Just some of my own opinions to keep the character balanced.

[Wisteria]

Hi!

After playing Wisteria a bit (which I am thoroughly enjoying), and looking at the brilliant character art, I thought a nice feature was her basket, and it would be sad to see it become a missed opportunity.

 

Herb Basket

- Weapon Slot.

- 20 damage.

- Has no durability

- +6 inventory slot .

- Increase gather speed.

- Only holds plant matter.

- Extends plant freshness.

- Sanity boost when filled and held.

 

I'm am fairly new to Don't Starve and the community. And as of yet, have not had the time or motivation to look over the coding, thus not entirely sure what is possible. But it dose seem friendly to the modders, and this doesn't seem too out there.

 

But in any case, I think Wisteria is lovely thus far, and looking forward to seeing her progress.

Thank you so much! ♥ Yes, her basket is very much in the works! I can't promise I can fulfill all of those effects, but I will do my best to make it an item worth crafting!

 

I feel like the flower sanity thing may be Op because you could surround your base with flowers and never lose sanity. Just a thought, but as for the basket it's a cool idea but it should have a durability and maybe could be crafted from twigs, grass, and rope? Just some of my own opinions to keep the character balanced.

Yes, I may increase the amount of sanity gained from picking flowers if only slightly, but I don't want her to be too overpowered in that regard. Part of her design is how easily she is affected by insanity. I want you to work towards keeping her sane!

I like that! I haven't considered the recipe yet. Thank you!

[Denzie]

Thank you so much! ♥ Yes, her basket is very much in the works! I can't promise I can fulfill all of those effects, but I will do my best to make it an item worth crafting!

 

Great!

I'm very glad it wasn't overlooked. As for the effects, it was just a few ideas of what it could possibly have. And I'm sure that whatever you decide upon would be well worth the craft. You seem to have balance in mind, which is fantastic.

 

I was also curious as to if Wisteria had a written back-story?  I know you did mention a history in the OP, It would be interesting to read.

But keep it up! Even now she is probably my most favorite and most played character mod

 

but as for the basket it's a cool idea but it should have a durability and maybe could be crafted from twigs, grass, and rope? Just some of my own opinions to keep the character balanced.

 

Hi!

The main reason for being indestructible was the "+6 inventory slots". I feel that, if it where to go that way, be more annoying than balanced to have a backpack break on you. But yes, just brainstorming ideas.

 

 

to maybe give her slightly less bonuses to meats and better bonuses from eating plants like seeds and vegetables and such (E.G. When eating a cooked morsel instead of getting 12.5 hunger back only getting 6.25 with no health bonus, but if you eat Roasted Berries instead of 12.5 hunger back you get 15 with a health increase of 2?) This whole idea may make her unbalanced yet even more intricate than she already is becoming

 

I did however somewhat like this concept, But the problem would be the amount of balancing you would need to do, taking into consideration how much easier meat is to obtain in some cases.

 

But it did make me think about the comic in the OP, If Wisteria is skilled with plants, then she may possibly get a better gain when combining them. Think of dishes such as Fruit Medley, Ratatouille, Stuffed Eggplant or whatever other veggie only recipes there may be, I can't recall any more than that.

[ArgleBargle]

I notice that she seems to do less damage.

Other characters kill Spiders in three hits while Wisteria takes three four.

 

I don't know if this is a bug or not, as I had to disable then re-enable the mod in order to update the changes to her. So it may not have caught everything.

 

That said, this makes it a little more difficult to hoard Silk by using a spear. And Silk is generally the best way to maintain sanity because of the clothing items and tents you can make from it.

 

Although in practice, I'll probably wind up expanding grass and twig farms and making more traps to compensate.

 

EDIT: Woops. Typo corrected above.

[ClayNorman]

In regards to you Denzie I see what you mean with the basket and I totally agree now that it should be indestructible but maybe you should have slower movement speed while holding it? Something that keeps it balanced so you can't carry a million things on you at once. And also I love your idea with the crock pot combinations of fruits and such, that sounds awesome!

[Wisteria]

Wisteria does have a back story! I've gone over it a few times (well, hinted at) and only outright had her ramble on about it in an RP post over on tumblr recently.

Here's the story for your convenience.

Wisteria is from a small mountain village that is on the far outskirts of a large kingdom. It was a rich and prosperous kingdom that, outside of its city walls, did NOT share its wealth with its people. They were, for the most part, left to fend for themselves.

A sickness hit the outer areas of the kingdom that was wiping people out left and right. Whole villages were falling to it. The capital wouldn't share doctors or its medicine, so the villages had to rely on its own source of treatment; shamans, priests, and of course, herbalists. 

Wisteria was an apprentice and was left alone when her mentor, the only true herbalist in her village, left a short while before the sickness hit her town. She was left to try to treat the people of her village on her own, with what little she had. It was pretty ineffective.

Then a man came through her town. He claimed to be a traveling herbalist from another far off village who was going from town to town to share a remedy. He offered Wisteria a certain blossom which, when combined with a normal healing salve, would free her townsfolk from their suffering.

Desperate for a cure and to help her friends and family, she does as instructed. The 'remedy' is actually highly toxic. It causes many of the townsfolk to suffer exponentially before they finally pass. Those who survived the sick chase her out of town.

Wisteria manages to flee the angry mob and bumps into the man again on a cliff edge. He changes form to our good old Maxwell (shock and awe!) and the last thing Wisteria sees is his smug face before she's swallowed up by shadows.

[GalloViking]

Hi there! I've been playing Wisteria earlier (actually day 29, winter, and I don't have difficulties surviving at the moment) and here is my feedback!

First of all, fast gathering is amazing. I can clean up my grass/twigs farm at an amazing speed compared to my dear Wickerbottom. However, there is just a little problem: she doesn't gather fruits and vegatables that have grown up in a farm faster. It's just a little sad.
Secondly, the "I take more damage but I heal myself faster" is very balanced. I love it: it increases the difficulty but not that much if you are preventive. Same for the faster sanity decrease: as long as you are smart enough to have a little flower farm (for garlands and honey bees), everything is cool.
And to finish, I think that she trully needs a unique item. The basket is a very good idea in my honnest opinion. Like that she will be very unique and be as nicely made as a true character of Don't Starve.
That were my personnal thoughts. Hope it will help yah to improve Wisteria.

I go back to my game. Cya!

Bonus:

 

[Wisteria]

Oh wow, congratulations! :') I'm glad to see she's playable for such an extended length! That's what I was hoping for. Definitely a challenge, but not impossible.

The farming increase is in the works, but not yet implemented. 
The basket is also en route! ♥

I'm taking a little break and I'm hoping to get back on this sometime near the weekend. I've had some personal issues I needed to iron out.  

I'd love to hear more about your adventures with Wis! ♥

[Thewatchiestdog]

This looks great!

[AccioTardis]

This looks absolutely fantastic! Wisteria is precious!

 

(I am having some trouble.) I've downloaded the file and put it in my mods folder, but it is not showing up in my In Game Mod Screen to enable. Help?

[CrispyJelly]

I've just given Wisteria a big thumbs-up on Steam!

 

Love her. She is in one of my save slots, still going strong at 172 days. (After a few previous dismal attempts. Heh.) Wisteria is challenging to play since she's always on the verge of losing her sanity. And she hurts so easily!  But I really like the way she looks and I love that she can pick everything fast. I'm looking forward to whatever new changes you have planned for her.

 

[Snob]

Hey Wisteria! Long time no see!

 

This character mod seems really promising, I can't wait to check it out!

[Wisteria]

Hey, @Snob ! Long time no see indeed! :')

EDIT: Gosh, I feel silly. She seems to work just fine in Reign of Giants, so that's good! I'll begin working on the basket soon. :')

[Alpha2242000]

Everything is perfect, but the map show the character is Wilson.. I think you should fix it.. because I don't know how to..

[img src=]

[Tifoux24]

This look great !