Ancient items...

[Full Metal Kirby]

So I've been away from Don't Starve since just before the new gem colors were added, and just started playing again recently. This has probably already been covered a ton of times, but anyways... Is it just me or are ancient items rather garbage for how finite they are?

 

The Lazy Forager - It's "alright", has a good number of uses and does what it's ment to. What makes it garbage is that it uses a gem that's a lot more useful for...
The Lazy Explorer - Again, it's "alright", but it has too low of a durability to be too terribly useful. It's either A) A glorified walking cane with 20 'panic ports' to escape tight spots and probably never need to make another, or B) Something you'll have to remake every 20 seconds from using so much. Hardly fitting of its name considering how unlazy you have to be to get it in the first place. 100-200 uses would make it great.

Magiluminescence - Garbage. 8 minutes of wearable light with a tiny sanity boost and a speed boost with no way to repair it, while there are so many better light alternatives and especially when it's stealing gem usage for...
Star Caller's Staff - It's alright for what it's ment to be, a 20 uses, 2 minute campfire on demand. It'd be pretty good if it could actually be cast in the dark.

*Construction Amulet - Too few uses kills the usefulness of this. Even just 20 uses would make it alright.
*Deconstruction Staff - Same as the previous, with the addition of the question of 'what is even rare enough to justify the use of this?' -- besides the pan flute.

*Yes, it's probably 5 uses so people can't duplicate resources more than they already can. But, besides thulecite, what is there that would actually be worth using a finite, rather rare resource to duplicate to begin with? Not to mention that if they really wanted to stop duplication, it would of only taken them a couple minutes.

Pick/Axe - Garbage, just isn't worth the thulecite when gold tools already work good enough and are renewable. Not to mention that if you need to cut down a ton of trees, you're better off just hiring some pigs with monster meat.
Thulecite Crown - It's alright, and is good at being backup armor if whatever renewable armor you're using breaks at a bad time. As well as just general "oh crap" moments.
Thulecite Club - Haven't used it, so no comment.
Thulecite Suit - It's pretty good, with its unlimited sanity regen out of combat and being good backup armor if your main armor breaks at a bad time.
Houndius Shootius - It's pretty good, only complaint is that there's no way to move it once placed, and that the quantity you can make is very finite.

 

 

Now it might just be me, but it seems like having a good chunk of the hardest things to get in the game be merely 'alright' rather than 'pretty good'/'great' is rather silly. It makes the ruins look rushed and still incomplete.

[Deacon_Blue]

The only ones I've really used are the construction/deconstruction items. It's nice being able to quickly set up a new pig/rabbit area quickly by taking a couple houses and turning them into 8.

 

Because nothing is renewable, I have had trouble using anything else. I just can't bring myself to "wasting" materials like that.

[Full Metal Kirby]

The only ones I've really used are the construction/deconstruction items. It's nice being able to quickly set up a new pig/rabbit area quickly by taking a couple houses and turning them into 8.

 

Because nothing is renewable, I have had trouble using anything else. I just can't bring myself to "wasting" materials like that.

Yeah, I don't like "wasting" finite materials like that either, which due to how limited the stuff is, I actually went and made them renewable, which is surprising since I've never felt the need to do that for anything else before, not even mandrakes, because I enjoy unmodded DS. Which then led to this topic observing how subpar they are even when renewable.

 

In case you're wondering what I did to make them renewable, I added a new catagory for earthquake drops with the three gem colors and thulecite wih a 1% chance of happening, and then made rarer stuff more likely to drop depending on how old the caves are. (To be exact, every 10 days adds an extra 1% chance) -- Not as an actual mod though, because I can't be arsed to figure out making mods.

[the truthseeker]

Thanks for posting what i always thought. besides the Deconstruction Amulet (which I assumed was for the Thulecite rarity) I don't even give a second thought to the others. 

 

Heck, that Pick/Axe was so bad, I started a Wiki discussion on it to make sure (although I was diplomatic in my posting at the time of course.)  

[lunchb0x]

I think the pick/axe should chop and pick twice as fast as it's counter parts. It's still not terribly useful but I could see someone using it in the ruins to knock those statues down in 5 hits instead of 10 so you run through less nightmare cycles, have less time for mobs to aggro on you and such. It also uses 4 gold, 8 twigs and 2 thelucite for basically the same number of uses of the opulant pickaxe, if the pick/axe worked twice as well at least we would be getting an equal number of statues destroyed per gold used.

 

I'd also like if the pick/Axe was given 40-50 damage. In the ruins while picking statues in the low light it can be easy to get jumped. It would be nice to have an item in my hand that can quickly defend myself with and not have to fumble around looking for my weapons. These are pretty big buffs but this is what it would take for me to think about crafting this item.

 

I think the lazy explorer is fine. It gives the walking cane speed but can also get you out of serious jams and since most players carried a walking cane it doesn't take up additional space. You can also jump gaps in the map which can be cool. Green gem items seem find to me making them more powerful could make them game breaking fantastic for kick starting a rabbit hutch troop/ utilizing thelucite.

 

Yellow gems I have an issue. The star caller staff is a great emergency light item that can't be used in emergencies...It needs to be able to cast in pitch black or cast a tiny light aura when equipped to be able to cast it at your feet. This tiny light aura could be like the one off a crock pot, it doesn't protect you from the massive sanity loss sanity loss of darkness but prevents Charlie attacks and gives you a chance to cast it's spell. The magiluminescence has great perks but the problem is taking the spot of a backpack or armor which I usually keep on me. It's probably great with the RPG hud with the separate amulet slot. I think the only thing stopping this game from having a permanent amulet slot is the life giving amulet, we could just give the life giving amulet -10 sanity/minute for balancing/ deincentivizing having it equipped at all times.

 

Armor items are great, nice perks for each and great durability/protection.

[Deacon_Blue]

The thing that would redeem the Pick/Axe for me would be some obscenely high durability. At the point in the game where you can obtain one, you have enough gold to cover yourself indefinitely. The only redeeming factor of the P/A is the one space it saves, and that's only if you carry both tools at once (I never do.) If it were, for instance, 5x more durable than the counterparts, I wouldn't mind carrying it around for convenience. Right now, though, it's just as efficient for me to not carry a tool and instead carry 20 gold.