woodie Long-awaited Lumberjack Revival (LLR)

[LilBoyBlue]

I've always been on and off with DST for years now but in 2018 I gave it my all and got really hooked especially during the Gorge. But while I played normal survival a certain feeling of longing always quivered in the back of my head while playing my favorite character in Don't Starve, Woodie. When I first made the switch from single to multiplayer it was quite funny like "Oh beaverness goes low to high not full to empty." and that pesky -90 SANITY/MIN sure is a fastball drastically differing play style. However Klei compensates by granting sanity regen for every tree you plant which becomes this terrifying race as you swap from out running  shadow creatures and stopping to plant trees without any armor. But hey now his beard insulates... to a point that makes no difference big enough to warrant the use of not using proper seasonal clothing. Finally to end on a high note he can befriend followers for a longer rate which is noticeable compared to his fellow teammates and pairs well with the immersion of camaraderie and being TOGETHER. Even though I enjoy this refreshing asymmetry amongst the characters between games this has brought a huge nerf upon Woodie and hindered his output as a team harvester/collector. Insult to Injury was definitely blown with Wickerbottom and Maxwell stomping in productivity and retaining play style from their single-player counter parts. This has caused Woodie players to be outcast and mistreated in play when we were just dealt a bad hand. This clear disadvantage has polarized parts of the community and made woodie a inferior pick to some peoples' eyes and made the jump from Don't Starve to Don't Starve Together a little less accessible. Here's a suggestion make DST Woodie as similiar to DS Woodie. 

We can take the first step towards congruency by removing perks that pinholed his play style, lowering his viability. Tacking on the insanity aura to beaver form is like pouring vinegar into a wound. Beaver form already had inherent drawbacks that prevented staying in one form. The Beaver could not use inventory, lost the ability to use structures, and dropped all equipped items. By taking away this aura you take out two birds with one stone because that also takes away the need to rapidly recover sanity after exiting beaver form by planting trees. This vulnerable transition leaves you unequipped, and already under attack which was only a worst case scenario in DS but if you want to compete with another collector in the current version you have to use as much time in beaver form as you can. Another perk that can go away is his beard insulation. Not only is this stat too small to protect you from the elements but his cursed form accomplishes the goal of increased insulation from the elements, the only problem is that you can't stay in the form safely for nearly as long as in DS. The next analysis is to look at the two variants of beaverness.

In DST beaverness is visible at all times. It drains from 100 to 25 (not 0 as would be expected) and then in beaver form you have to constantly be striving towards transforming back or risk reaching 0 beaverness and feel equivalent effects of starving to death. In DS Beaverness was only seen as a beaver and substituted everything else helping lock in the feeling of controlling a savage and primordial beast. No care for health, sanity, or hunger you were a beaver living off the land chopping, mining, and digging with no need for durability. Both versions are very easy to slip into the beast which ties very well with stories tending to carry a message that it is very easy for man to turn guttural and corrupted. Although the DS version resonates with the same theme that a resisting those urges and coming back to your senses takes time or having the wind knocked out of you like when the Hulk was beaten to a pulp by Thanos so badly he turned back to Bruce Banner. Turning back into a human should not be a instant transition it should be culture shock think when tom hanks returned in Cast Away. A fitting addition to losing up to 2/3 in all stats is that woodie should return asleep and have an extended groggy period. This vulnerability is much more fitting to a monster slowly being destroyed by everything mother nature has at her disposal compared to the feeling of a man coming back just the way he was but maybe a bit more loony running away from creature of his own mind. 

Final conclusion. Take away beard insulation (pro), tree planting sanity restoration (pro), the meter that shows how close you are to transforming (pro) and the insanity aura during WereBeaver (con) in exchange for a more immersive Beaver that can be sustained longer, collect way more resources (pro) by reverting to the DS Woodie but transforming causes grogginess instead of a timeskip and compete with other collectors without nerfing. All at the new expense of turning back the old way of losing up to 2/3 of all stats.

 

[Viktor234]

Quote

Take away beard insulation (pro)

Disagree, cause:

Spoiler

Except if it's replaced by something like slower freezing from any kind of source.

Quote

tree planting sanity restoration (pro)

It forces Woodie to plant more Trees but it's way too strong because Woodie won't have any need to use other items that increase Sanity. Because Woodie anyway needs wood I agree with removing the sanity.

Quote

the insanity aura during WereBeaver (con)

Agree but that's what forces him not to keep his Beaver form. From my opinion a Werebeaver shouldn't be able to have any insanity at all but there could be another source which forces him to return to his human form. According to Wiki his Log Meter only decays by 2 points per minute which allows him to stay a beaver for up to 6 days, he also gains 1 point of Log Meter by gnawing anything.

Finally I don't understand why he gets a bonus time whenever he recruits a Pig, Bunnyman or Rock Lobster. Woodie already has his Transformation and is supposed to do something with that. Having more Pigs who chop trees for him is really useless cause he can do it around 5 times faster. I'd like to see Woodie being able to solo the Deerclops in Werebeaver form just like every other character can solo that creature with the right gear.