Herd Mentality Suggestions and Feedback

[Myself49]

In this thread I will offer my suggestions and feedback regarding this new update. I encourage others to join as well.

Let's start then.

No-Eyed Deer
Currently rather useless but surely you have some plans with these creatures so not much to comment about it I guess. I suppose eventually they will drop some items that will be used to craft some goodies. Then again maybe you added them just to add some flavour to the game.

Mini Sign
Not much to say about this one. Working as intended and working well.

Beeswax
Being made from a boss only renewable resource maybe it would be good to get two beeswax out of a single honeycomb but I guess one doesn't need THAT many bee boxes so might as well keep as it is.

Waxpaper
Nothing to be said about this. Recipe makes sense. Maybe one day it could have more uses along with beeswax but can't really think of anything right now.

Bundling Wrap
The most amazing feature of this update. A really great way to increase storage space. Just a few things should be changed I think.

First of all, I think it is a bit too much that the food in it never spoils. Maybe slow the spoilage down but don't remove it completely. I mean, even honey in this game spoils even though it really shouldn't.
Plus it makes the insulated pack utterly obsolete, even more than it was before. Would probably be a good idea to remove it completely and just make a new recipe out of Bearger drop.

Second, it is bloody impossible to know what you have wrapped in the bundles. Instead of a generic examination quote, how about the characters would list what exactly and how many of said items are inside the wrap? Or show it on mouse over.

Edit: Third, it makes the insulated pack completely obsolete.

Bee Queen Hat
The bowing is nice and all but since it is a loot from a pretty hard to kill boss, at the very least make it so that bees don't attack you when you wear so you can at least use it to pick bee boxes without getting attacked and as some protection against annoying bees during spring.

Of course it would be nice if one could command bees like one can with Spider Queen Hat. And it would keep queen hat theme.

New critter stuff
I think critters on the whole are rather disappointing and pointless and would prefer if one could actually raise them into a permanent combat or utility pet but I will suggest that elsewhere.

Herd suggestions in general
Since this update is focused on herds and all, hear out this suggestion of mine.
Currently it is pretty annoying and bothersome to relocating herds of animals, mainly their spawning point. To make it easier and make more sense consider the following:

Placing a herd animal (Beefaloo, Volt Goats, whatever will come later, etc.) in an enclosed wood fence + gate turns that spot into a herd spawner automatically as long as one animal keeps present.

So that you don't have to go through the annoying way of relocating herds and can even make multiple ones.

What do you guys think?

[Trenix]

Think that they're working towards adding lategame survival with animal farming. First fences, now another herd animal? Definitely looks like it. I'm glad they are adding them, we need to be able to settle in more areas without relying on Beefaloo. Volt Goats, from what I've seen, are absurdly rare. The new critter stuff is pretty lame. A lot is taken away cause you have to craft your pet which does nothing. The way you hatch a tallbird should be the right way of how you tame a pet which can be used for combat, which doesn't happen. Instead when they're big enough they try and kill you.

[Sinister_Fang]

Beeswax by itself just feels very useless. You refine 1 honeycomb into 1 beeswax. And that one beeswax is only used for the wax paper . Why not have the crafting recipe for the wax paper just use honeycomb instead of beeswax? It just seems like an unnecessary crafting step for the bundles.

Also, you don't need to actually fight the queen bee for the honey comb. You get honey and honeycombs from hammering the gigantic beehive, not from actually destroying it. So if you're careful you can hammer the hive for honey and combs then just leave and come back in a few days to do the same thing again.

[Electroely]

7 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

Also, you don't need to actually fight the queen bee for the honey comb. You get honey and honeycombs from hammering the gigantic beehive, not from actually destroying it. So if you're careful you can hammer the hive for honey and combs then just leave and come back in a few days to do the same thing again.

If you run away fast enough, you don't need a few days... the queen just flies off screen instantly...

[Sinister_Fang]

Just now, Electroely said:

If you run away fast enough, you don't need a few days... the queen just flies off screen instantly...

Really? And the hive gets all the honey back after doing that? I need to go check that. Sounds like a bug to me. Pun not intended, but I'll take it anyway.

[Electroely]

1 minute ago, Sinister_Fang said:

Really? And the hive gets all the honey back after doing that? I need to go check that. Sounds like a bug to me. Pun not intended, but I'll take it anyway.

Oh no, it doesn't get it's honey back. It just regrows the hive right after the queen flies off. The honey does take a few days to grow back.

[Sinister_Fang]

4 minutes ago, Electroely said:

Oh no, it doesn't get it's honey back. It just regrows the hive right after the queen flies off. The honey does take a few days to grow back.

Oh. Well if you hammer it and stop when all the honey is gone then you wouldn't even need to deal with running away from the queen.

[Rily]

I agree with the packages, I store them in chest with signs, that's why I know what kind of stuff I placed on them, but if someone move them I must open them to know what they have, could be added the ability to draw the bundles in the same way as the mini signs? and I would like the ability to redraw the mini signs.

The pets are boring, I'm waiting for more critters uses, this feature cannot be finished as this, at least the ability to die could make us feel bad if we lost them, is a responsability not a toy.

And speaking of animals, PLEASE add a way to feed beefalos with a whole stack of grass and twigs, the actual way is annoying and feels flawed, maybe a new recipe for a hay block or something like that, an item that could be given in one single action.

For the bee hat I would like the power to be ignored for the red bees, it could be the best hat for spring, but I think it is already awesome, even a bit OP, let it just like that

[gabblox]

I agree with Sinister_Fang regarding beeswax. Unless there is more planned for it, it's an unnecessary intermediary. Honeycomb + papyrus works just as well. It doesn't really hurt to have, but removing it would cut a step out of the comparatively complicated process of honeycomb -> beeswax -> wax paper -> bundling wrap.

At the moment the Queen Bee hat is underwhelming and could use greater access to sanity regen compared to the Tam O'Shanter. I think I have a more elegant solution than control/immunity to bees that would satisfy a broad number of player types. Simply make it so that when wearing the Queen Bee Crown you plant Evil Flowers with butterflies instead of flowers, or make it so that while worn your bees turn regular flowers into evil flowers when they pollinate them (potentially harder to code). 

Base builders will be able to use the crown to replace the flowers near their hives with evil flowers. The bonus of this is that you get a sanity aura while hanging out with your bee drones which fits the theme of the crown. Players seeking to capitalise on their newfound access to evil flowers will have an alternative option to farming nightmare fuel on a rather time intensive game loop (Gather Silk -> Make bug Net -> Hunt Butterflies -> plant flowers -> (wait for pollination?) -> pick flowers (costing sanity, gaining dark petals) -> refine nightmare fuel. The harvesting phase of gathering flowers would hurt the player's sanity so they would need to leave some evil flowers alive or spend excess nightmare fuel on Night Lights (a currently unused structure in most bases) to help offset the burst of sanity drain while harvesting. I think this would make the item a lot more interesting and useful while retaining its thematic theme and preserving game balance. Would love to hear opinions or thoughts about this.

[Sinister_Fang]

22 minutes ago, gabblox said:

At the moment the Queen Bee hat is underwhelming and could use greater access to sanity regen compared to the Tam O'Shanter. I think I have a more elegant solution than control/immunity to bees that would satisfy a broad number of player types. Simply make it so that when wearing the Queen Bee Crown you plant Evil Flowers with butterflies instead of flowers, or make it so that while worn your bees turn regular flowers into evil flowers when they pollinate them (potentially harder to code). 

Base builders will be able to use the crown to replace the flowers near their hives with evil flowers. The bonus of this is that you get a sanity aura while hanging out with your bee drones which fits the theme of the crown. Players seeking to capitalise on their newfound access to evil flowers will have an alternative option to farming nightmare fuel on a rather time intensive game loop (Gather Silk -> Make bug Net -> Hunt Butterflies -> plant flowers -> (wait for pollination?) -> pick flowers (costing sanity, gaining dark petals) -> refine nightmare fuel. The harvesting phase of gathering flowers would hurt the player's sanity so they would need to leave some evil flowers alive or spend excess nightmare fuel on Night Lights (a currently unused structure in most bases) to help offset the burst of sanity drain while harvesting. I think this would make the item a lot more interesting and useful while retaining its thematic theme and preserving game balance. Would love to hear opinions or thoughts about this.

Honestly, that just sounds even more weird then what it currently does. I'd love to have greater access to evil flowers, but this doesn't seem like the way to go about it. I'll stick with the current method of sacrificing a "friend" and have them haunt all the flowers until they're evil.

[gabblox]

Fair enough, but I'm not sure what you mean by weird. Maybe I made it sound overly complicated by thinking through how it could be used/abused to farm nightmare fuel.

The queen bee seems pretty evil, flowers/dark flowers are spread through bees, and the hat was designed to benefit from insanity auras. At its core my idea is just placing evil flowers (which will give sanity over time) rather than flowers (which give sanity on harvest) on top of its current perk. It retains the current core functionality of the item and will lead to more flower-filled and bee themed bases.

I think it's a little less strange/confusing than the popular opinion of controlling/negating bees. I'm not sure how much controlling or negating bees will be(e) useful to a group that has managed to conquer the bee queen.