I Don't Understand All the Walani Hate.

[tHe_silent_H]

good luck teching up if it's hidden clear across the world

[CameoAppearance]

I agree with you on so many things here if not just everything. I just want people to consider this: Maybe Walani's purpose isn't to be another extreme sort of character. Maybe she's really all about being an accessible, fun, fairly casual character designed for more relaxed playstyles.

 

I know a lot of people here on the forums have been at this game for a long time and they want new challenges, they want extremes, they want to be overwhelmed by characters that just turn the game completely upside down and make you rethink everything you do. I'm totally on board with that too. I'd love to see characters like that, makes the game so much more fun for me. But maybe they're not the best thing for our first unlockable SW character to be. There are players out there who might want to play more to this tune, and that's cool by me too. And hopefully as characters come out, their skillcaps and the outrageousness of their perks will scale with the time it takes to unleash them upon the shipwrecked world via experience points.

 

Some people might prefer to be eased into a lot of the new concepts they'll be finding in shipwrecked, and who knows. Maybe for those people, when they try the normal characters and just keep finding themselves dying a lot, and when they're near their wits end, they see that they've unlocked this character, give her a try, and it's enough to give them a firmer understanding of some of the mechanics and therefore a lot more enjoyment.

 

Right now I'd say the main reasons to play as Walani are flavour and convenience. She doesn't do much that one of the other characters can't do, and they can catch up with her special ability pretty early, but most of the other characters have a glaring disadvantage of some sort whereas Walani just needs to eat a bit more food and is somewhat more fragile than the default. She's a decent jack-of-all-trades character, but doesn't really excel at anything.

 

I don't need Walani to spin the game on its head to satisfy me; there are other Shipwrecked characters coming, and the vanilla game has a nice mix of characters who play drastically differently from Wilson and characters who just have a different specialty from him. I just think that she's underpowered compared to the latter set of vanilla characters, because they have strong advantages that are much harder to duplicate (Willow's fire immunity isn't unique anymore post-RoG but killing a Dragonfly isn't exactly easy) and I don't think she's getting enough out of her perks to justify her deficits.

 

Nobody really knows how travelling between Shipwrecked and the main game will work yet, so it seems premature to say that Walani will be a terrible choice in the main world just because her perks mostly involve Shipwrecked content. I'd rather focus on how well she works in Shipwrecked for now and worry about porting her to RoG/vanilla when that's actually an option.

[rezecib]

I can see it being a very useful thing to have around as a very inexpensive way to abandon ship, go retrieve ships that are too damaged to safely ride to shore

But you can just pre-build a raft. Or a nicer boat if you feel like it. 

[TheKingofSquirrels]

My only problem with her is cosmetic. She just looks weird. 

[Talavaj]

She needs an OP ability since her surfboard is unbelievably useless.

Either make her impossible to die by drowning (always respawn like as if she was wearing a life vest) or make her board have infinite durability or make it at least 150 durability without losing any durability from sailing.

 

I don't see any of the advantages you seem to think of the surfboard honestly.

It is a crappy, very expensive 75 durability junk that is only really useful to maybe go cut down some mangroves outside of your base and not for much else.

[Mday]

She needs an OP ability since her surfboard is unbelievably useless.

Either make her impossible to die by drowning (always respawn like as if she was wearing a life vest) or make her board have infinite durability or make it at least 150 durability without losing any durability from sailing.

 

I don't see any of the advantages you seem to think of the surfboard honestly.

It is a crappy, very expensive 75 durability junk that is only really useful to maybe go cut down some mangroves outside of your base and not for much else.

As long as you don't take combat damage, the surfboard actually last a long while.

One thing I've notice is that, it is easier to ride on wave using her surfboard. May have something to do with the modeling?

[Swabbleman]

I think she's fine, but maybe they should push the idea of Walani as a frail mobility character by making the surfboard at least tie for the fastest movement option at sea and maybe be able to surf on tidal waves. Meanwhile it could have less HP(low enough to break by 3 tidal waves?) while not taking any of the constant damage through usage, rewarding successful surfing and really punishing hitting waves(more suited to how easy it is to wipe out).

Her strength in vanilla DS is a bit of a concern, but I think it's fine for her to be a SW-centric character if you don't have to travel to a vanilla world.

[Metalgarn]

I agree with the concept here.  I don't really have a problem with Walani.  The only solid arguments I have seen pertain to Walani in a non-SW world but that is putting the cart before the horse.

 

She definitely touches the Polynesian concepts you see, say in Civ 5 which allow very early exploration.  I'd even suggest she get an added perk of increased sight range (like the pirate hat grants).

 

The surf board is a major upgrade over either raft and is quite close to the speed of the fastest boats, plus it has much better maneuverability.  She isn't the most unique character, she is similar to Wilson in many ways. 

 

Her 'chillness' helps combat the summer heat much like Wilson's beard helps combat the winter cold.

 

I have wondered though, why this character is relatively bland.  Until now it seemed like the newest characters added were more and more unique.  Perhaps it was just a desire to get some more 'not so crazy' characters. Perhaps it is a matter of PC (not the computer) caution... she is after all the first character that touches on a racial profile.  Which for me is just fine and dandy, run with it and make it fun... but I am sure you've all seen the professionally offended people out there, just looking for something to be offended by.

 

 

 

 

[SirBuizelton]

My only problem with her is cosmetic. She just looks weird. 

 

From what I understand (Sorry if this is old news, I'm not up-to-date on the lore) she's a surfer girl, but also a pirate captain who is ludicrously lazy and makes everyone else do everything for her. Seems cool to me! Though I totally didn't understand what she was wearing or why either until I realized what all of her quotes were pointing to later on while playing her.

 

I kinda really like the aesthetic of a pirate captain who's also a simple, cheery surfer girl. It's pretty nice to see a character who is pretty positive about most things imo. Or maybe I can just relate well to her style 

[SirBuizelton]

She needs an OP ability since her surfboard is unbelievably useless.

Either make her impossible to die by drowning (always respawn like as if she was wearing a life vest) or make her board have infinite durability or make it at least 150 durability without losing any durability from sailing.

 

I don't see any of the advantages you seem to think of the surfboard honestly.

It is a crappy, very expensive 75 durability junk that is only really useful to maybe go cut down some mangroves outside of your base and not for much else.

 

I don't personally see how it's expensive, (It just costs 1 board and 2 seashells, that's super easy to make imo!) but I can understand why some people think it's useless. I just like it for the few times it's very convenient during my games.

 

Maybe it's fair to say I just like her more than I should for whatever reason, I dunno. I was just expecting her to be awful based on what everyone was saying and I was pleasantly surprised to find I like her playstyle.

[SirBuizelton]

good luck teching up if it's hidden clear across the world

 

Wait, are you suggesting that we wont be able to start the game in Shipwrecked, only in RoG, and that we have to play as Walani in RoG until we get to Shipwrecked? Because I don't think this is the case, and it wouldn't make any sense to me for someone to start their game in RoG if they're playing as Walani. Maybe they'll have reason to hop into RoG later on as Walani and it might be tough without the bonuses being applicable but I don't see any reason to start the game in RoG as Walani. It just sounds silly.

[Torqueblue]

She should be able to craft fast surfboard with a sail for mid game. Other than that she is quite ok, I'm on day 180 with her.

 

Mhm, windsurfing.I like that.

[tHe_silent_H]

Wait, are you suggesting that we wont be able to start the game in Shipwrecked, only in RoG, and that we have to play as Walani in RoG until we get to Shipwrecked? Because I don't think this is the case, and it wouldn't make any sense to me for someone to start their game in RoG if they're playing as Walani. Maybe they'll have reason to hop into RoG later on as Walani and it might be tough without the bonuses being applicable but I don't see any reason to start the game in RoG as Walani. It just sounds silly.

 

I was just circle jerking him, I pretty sure you will, but bear with me, imagine(current) adventure mode with walani...*shudders*. ofc i would still do it, just to examine maxwell

[TrysHard]

Her strength in vanilla DS is a bit of a concern, but I think it's fine for her to be a SW-centric character if you don't have to travel to a vanilla world.

Maybe in the DS world her Surfboard becomes a Skateboard for traveling fast around a DS World.

[grekon]

Walani is fine. It's just a shame that she doesn't bring anything unique to the game. This is single-player so no balance needed.

[CameoAppearance]

Balance is still at least good to have, to give people a reason to play as her instead of Wilson or Wickerbottom.

[grekon]

Balance is still at least good to have, to give people a reason to play as her instead of Wilson or Wickerbottom.

No balance really needed. I would play her in the future for her uniqueness not because she is the strongest or one of the best characters out there.

 

Wes is an example of a character that is imbalanced, he just weak. Maxwell is a difficult character because of the low hp. WX-78 is insanely dangerous to play in SW. I can go on and on on but basically the characters are not very balanced as it is. And its not a problem.