[Suggestion] Walani character revamp

[Luponius]

Walani - The Surfer

I can with some confidence say that the direction Capy decided to go with this character is surfing.  That to me translates into two things:  Surfboard, Waves.

Suggestions here are not necessarily meant to balance the character but to elicit that particular surfing and love for the ocean quality in Walani, which I feel is currently sorely lacking.

Items

Surfboard - As per before

Can be upgraded to:
Slickboard: Surfboard, 2 Gold, 4 Coral (as an example)
Speed: 11
Durability: 150
Tier: Science Machine

Special Mechanics:

When on a Slickboard, a Sanity gain equivalent to a Garland is continuously ongoing.
Riding along small waves gives +1 Sanity and a slightly greater boost speed

Riding along big waves gives a +2 sanity boost, however Walani slows down to enjoy the wave.  This doesn't cause damage, but instead of speeding you up, it slows you down instead.

Riding against a small wave causes the surfboard to turn around, giving +3 Sanity (hinders your progression, but heck it's fun ain't it, and that's what surfers are about, climbing those waves)

Riding against a big wave causes the surfboard to climb on top and get stuck for a while (2 sec?) until it slides off the back of the wave, giving +5 Sanity (Note: This hurts her health by 10 during Hurricane Season)

A surfboard slowly increases wetness when used, which will help synergize and counter a negative mechanic of Walani

Walani dries off at a 10% faster rate than other characters, and suffers half the sanity losses than other characters do from wetness.

Negatives

120 Health, 200 Hunger (as default) but 100 Sanity (surfing very quickly fixes this, as shown, therefore encouraging it)

Overheats at 25% faster rate than other characters, however a surfboard constantly causes wetness, allowing her to cool down, and the sanity should be fixed at a quicker rate than it is lost, provided waves are being surfed.

The playstyle being suggested

Get out and surf - that's what Walani lives for.  She loves surfing, it's her hobby, her life.  She loves tackling those waves, and even at the cost of her health, she'll still welcome the challenge during hurricane season (careful you don't get her chain stuck on big waves and die).

She's the quickest in the ocean, as would be expected of a veteran with an agile board, rather than an unwieldy and heavy boat.

She loves the ocean, the waves and can resist eating for quite a while (200 hunger cap) but once back from her surf, she'll get hungry (slightly faster rate than average, 10%) and therefore will need to munch down on that food.

She may feel at home with the waves, but the monsters scare her, particularly sea monsters, reminding her of her friends' misadventures and therefore, sea monsters cause a double sanity drain when near her, and her sanity in general drops at a 10% faster rate, with a max cap of only 100, encouraging surfing to solve this.

Her swift overheating in dry season is countered by seafaring, since the surfboard automatically causes wetness to climb, thus cooling her down.  Volcano season eruptions are welcome in the sea, she'll keep cool, ride those waves - but careful she doesn't get stuck on a big one, in the direct trajectory of another deadly Dragoon Egg, which means you're still encouraged to dodge them.

I believe the above is a better fleshed out character than the original, it doesn't by any means eliminate any of the season's challenges, even though she can handle them in a more interesting (albeit gutsy) fashion, her lower stats mean less room for error and she'll still need to take care of her hunger and other needs.  As for hurricane season, particularly when spawning purely big waves, it will come at a direct cost of health, which greatly encourages avoiding them altogether unless the ghosts are after her.

[AnonymousKoala]

Glad to see you used some of the ideas we talked about. Surfing against the waves restoring more sanity is so cool.

I feel like the board's recipe should be changed though, as it is useless once you get a science machine, and you can't make boards without a science machine.

Also, maybe she takes less damage to durability from waves when on the surfboard? Emphasis on "less". 

[Luponius]

17 minutes ago, AnonymousKoala said:

Glad to see you used some of the ideas we talked about. Surfing against the waves restoring more sanity is so cool.

I feel like the board's recipe should be changed though, as it is useless once you get a science machine, and you can't make boards without a science machine.

Also, maybe she takes less damage to durability from waves when on the surfboard? Emphasis on "less". 

The original surfboard remains the same, the Slickboard however should not become redundant, since it does all the things mentioned.

The idea is obviously that while surfing, you take no damage from any kind of waves, regardless of going along or against, hurricane or mild seasons.  Walani instead enjoys this weird hobby, and gains sanity from it instead.  Big waves cause 10 damage to Walani's health (not the surfboard, which only detoriates with time, or monster attacks).

Edit: In addition, the original surfboard could possibly be able to surf on small waves (along and against) but not big ones, that would require the slickboard instead.

[Serph]

I think it's a nice idea but these negatives are silly at best.

-Walani has a perfectly functional brain, it makes no sense for her to have only 100 sanity, especially compared to every other character.
-Overheat weakness doesn't make sense either. She's a pro surfer in a tropical island and her skin tone is slightly darker than the others, if anything she should resist overheat.
-Surfing sounds like easy acess to sanity and wetness anytime you want, making the low sanity and overheat look like pseudo problems.
-Double sanity drain from sea monsters is way too much, especially with 100 max. A single sea hound is -40 per minute, with this, 3 seahounds will erase your whole meter in 15 seconds. Imagine the next sea giant with -400 sanity drain? It kills any chance of Walani fighting monsters at sea.
-Why would her sanity go down 10% faster to everything? She is supposed to be "The Relaxed", not "The Coward Surfer afraid of sea creatures".

I personally think Walani's surf game should improve but not to the point where it's literally the only thing she can do and she is forced to surf to not overheat/go insane.

[Luponius]

57 minutes ago, Serph said:

I think it's a nice idea but these negatives are silly at best.

-Walani has a perfectly functional brain, it makes no sense for her to have only 100 sanity, especially compared to every other character.
-Overheat weakness doesn't make sense either. She's a pro surfer in a tropical island and her skin tone is slightly darker than the others, if anything she should resist overheat.
-Surfing sounds like easy acess to sanity and wetness anytime you want, making the low sanity and overheat look like pseudo problems.
-Double sanity drain from sea monsters is way too much, especially with 100 max. A single sea hound is -40 per minute, with this, 3 seahounds will erase your whole meter in 15 seconds. Imagine the next sea giant with -400 sanity drain? It kills any chance of Walani fighting monsters at sea.
-Why would her sanity go down 10% faster to everything? She is supposed to be "The Relaxed", not "The Coward Surfer afraid of sea creatures".

I personally think Walani's surf game should improve but not to the point where it's literally the only thing she can do and she is forced to surf to not overheat/go insane.

Good reply and very valid points mentioned here.  A balance still needs to be struck, my goal was to carve her playstyle around surfing, which is what she seemed designed for.  Following is my response to your criticism which I still think is quite appropriate, so I can't say I stand by everything I say below 100%, but it was the general idea for the sake of constructing a fair character which would be both fun, unique and challenging (not impossible) to play:

- Perfectly functional brain; Sure, but that's why she still has a sanity bar, the values can be changed but setting a much higher value, especially with the sanity gains I'm suggesting in terms of wave usage would quickly render surfing an additional and not anywhere near necessary source of sanity gain.

- Overheat; I live in an equatorial country climate, enjoying cool winters and scorching hot summers, I enjoy the sea, and I still hate the heat.  Knowing I can go for a cool swim really prompts me to do so, otherwise the heat still kills me.  Just because you're from a warm country with darker skin doesn't automatically make you "heat resistant"   My overheating recommendation is to indicate that she'd much rather go surfing when it's hot, which will keep her cool due to wetness.  I guess it could be implemented in some other fashion, can't think of any off the top of my head.

- Surfing waves, as opposed to riding them (i.e going against rather than along) either turns her around or gets her stuck for a good 2/3 seconds.  Control is limited during this process, and therefore, unless you're sticking to +1 and +2 sanity gains from waves as you ride along them, sanity won't be that easy to come by.  Focusing on sanity gain using surfing costs time, time that could be spent doing other things.  At all times she's also gaining wetness, which may have a reduced insanity effect but still persists, therefore a balance would have to be struck.  It is still easier to manage sanity with my suggestions however, that's true.

- Double sanity drain from sea monsters; I admit I didn't run these numbers all together to test them in practice, they're just basic recommendations, but my aim is to make Walani a sanity management character with a focus on surfing.  Considering she'd have the fastest boat, adding to that the fact she gains greater boosts from small waves, there's a good chance she could quickly outrun the opposition, unless she can swiftly kill them.  Still, draining all sanity in 15 seconds would be kind of excessive, a 30% increase maybe would be more reasonable.

- Faster general sanity drain; Reason I suggested, once again, was for a rough approach of sanity management.  I believe by default the game tackles this differently, she loses sanity slower, but she gains it slower as well, so that could probably be kept instead or slow the gain even further to reflect your points on her being relaxed.

- Surfing in general; She could still pick flowers, use Top Hats, prototype items to manage sanity.  Can also use coldfires, thermal stones just like anybody else of course to manage heat.  Surfing however would be her real hook, as I attempted to suggest.

[Serph]

What i'm trying to say is, the only characters with less than 200 sanity are either messed up in the head or a monkey. Cutting her sanity by half only to make "sanity surfing" more necessary sounds like a artificial balance choice and unfitting for her. I guess i can make an argument for Willow, a character especificly made to have lower sanity and an easy way to regain but she is short fused pyromaniac so it makes sense on her. Walani is just a chill gal who likes to surf, she should stay with 200 sanity.

I get that surfing should be her specialty but it shouldn't be everything she is about. IMO, her surfboard should to be something provisory or useful to have in your pocket to move fast. Even with a super fast board, she won't be able to fish or use boat attachments, boats have to stay superior.

I would appreciate much more if Walani had something with good lategame potential or funny perk. The main problem with her now isn't really her lack of surf focus, but the fact that there is no reason to pick Walani and her board over any other character with a boat.

[Luponius]

Personally I don't feel like she's that surf focused since she treats waves, small and big, just like any other character.

You're right on the sanity point, and I suppose it could be kept at 200 while retaining surf/slickboard suggested changes. Actually being the only character who can take waves head on to me sounds quite fun and special.

Coupled with wetness resistance and a greater hunger bar than average, she should prove appealing enough at least for a spin

[DwerBomb]

She doesn't really need a revamp, just some additional perks to make her good in RoG too. In my opinion the perfect buff would be:

-Looses 50% less sanity from wet clothes/tools

-Has a natural resistance to overheating (takes 25% less damage? Or just takes more time to overheat)

[stl1234]

I see the points in this thread, some make sense to me. I think she's Wilson equivalent for Shipwrecked, some advantages, and no particular disadvantage. But there already is a Wilson, so maybe she should really be updated with more positives and negatives.

If there were a change to be made, this would be my suggestion:

• While on surfboard she can surf Big Waves without taking damage, but they still increase wetness half as much as other characters on contact. Reason: She's a surfer. She should know how to handle big waves.
• She does not dry faster, but she has half sanity drain from wet clothing, or being wet in general. Reason: Drying faster makes no sense, but wetness not bothering her much does, since she's used to being wet.
• She loses health 25% slower from poison. Reason: She feels like from the same kind of place as SW world, she's probably bitten a lot before, and gained some resistance.
• She works 15% less efficiently on resources. For example, hacking bamboo takes 6 hits with a normal machete with other characters. It takes 7 (6 * 1.15 = 6.9) hacks for her. Large trees take 18 (15 * 1.15 = 17.25) chops instead of 15. Reason: She's lazy.

I think this fits well with her character, and makes interesting changes to the base gameplay to provide interesting challenges and advantages. She'll be able to explore faster and easier than any other character, so she'll find more resources faster. In turn, shell be able to harvest less resources, since harvesting resources take longer and is resource intensive. Her playstyle matches well with spontaneous players, and will be challenging for hoarders.

[Luponius]

1 hour ago, stl1234 said:

• She works 15% less efficiently on resources. For example, hacking bamboo takes 6 hits with a normal machete with other characters. It takes 7 (6 * 1.15 = 6.9) hacks for her. Large trees take 18 (15 * 1.15 = 17.25) chops instead of 15. Reason: She's lazy.

Like all the suggestions made except this one, those 18 hacks for trees sound a little overly excessive, not to mention that's going to result in swifter consumption of tools for more resources, quite a costly negative there.

How about she instead hacks/chops 15% slower (animation wise) than other players.  Same functional effect without the added cost of extra resources and weird durability usages.  It would also portray her laziness / relaxation a little better as opposed to weakness.

[Russian]

Gaining extra "sanity" from surfing is actually cool for a surfer

I noticed though, that it only works if using the surfboard.  Surfing the waves while on board of a ship doesn't do anything to Walani.

Maybe its only reasonable to empower her a little bit by extending the sanity gain benefit to surfing with whatever naval vessel?

Given that the surfboard, while cool, is not very practical since its hit points are very low compared to boats.

The above mentioned suggestion of having a "premium" kind of a surfboard with higher durability might work too.

Lets say, there is a generic surfboard, and a windsurf board, equippable with a sail (but still portable, means - can be carried around and over the land). No lantern or cannon slot on it, but 1 slot for the mast and the sail. How about that?

 

 

[Luponius]

1 hour ago, Russian said:

Gaining extra "sanity" from surfing is actually cool for a surfer

I noticed though, that it only works if using the surfboard.  Surfing the waves while on board of a ship doesn't do anything to Walani.

Maybe its only reasonable to empower her a little bit by extending the sanity gain benefit to surfing with whatever naval vessel?

Given that the surfboard, while cool, is not very practical since its hit points are very low compared to boats.

The above mentioned suggestion of having a "premium" kind of a surfboard with higher durability might work too.

Lets say, there is a generic surfboard, and a windsurf board, equippable with a sail (but still portable, means - can be carried around and over the land). No lantern or cannon slot on it, but 1 slot for the mast and the sail. How about that?

 

 

All very valid points, however a surfboard already doesn't require rowing, and if it's made automatically fast it would not even require a sail per se either, at the same time usually surfboard rely on the movement of the sea to move, and thus they surf the waves.  Vessels do not actually surf, they float and power through the ocean, which is probably why Walani doesn't gain sanity when going over waves with anything other than a surfboard.