Mutation Swap is bad design

[CrazyLazyCat]

I can just equip the best Mutation for the task I'm going to do, without consequences, that means I don't have a "choice", If i'm going to farm grass, I "have" to equip the grass master, if i'm going to dive, then I have to equip Merteen, I'm not making choices about what I want my character to be good at, I just have perks at my disposal and the annoyance of having to swap them frequently. I want agency, strengths and weakness, I shouldn't have everything.

If you do want me to have access to everything, then remove the maximum mutation limit, make them all available passively. which I don't think is a good solution. 

There's a recent trend in game that I loathe, that is "you can swap to any class" and gamers argue that this is good because if you need a healer in your party, then you can just swap to a healer "class", heck, if you can be any class at any time, there's no class in this game. 
If I can swap perks (mutations),  swap armor, swap weapons, then what MY character is good at? There's not a feeling of progression into what do I want to be. Yes, I know mutations that affect weapons comes with the use of that weapon, problem is, once I reach the maximum level (3) I feel like I should be upping another weapon, and that will make me, eventually, able to be good on any weapon. 

I do think there should be a way to swap your mutation, maybe you made a bad choice, or didn't know beforehand how the one you pick actually work, but there should be a limit. I should not be able to just swap to Mertteen before jumping inside the pond, and them back to Meat Shield once I left. 

BTW: Mutation should be renamed to "Adaptation" IMO, it fits better, you are adapting to your new size and life, you are not "mutating your DNA", This is Lamarckism, where the mutation happens out of "necessity" or stress.

[ScritchOwl]

Many games include swap on the fly builds it's not a bad design but I do think that they should allow you to swap between 1-3 custom builds as you said so you can make a harvester, diving, and fighting build by selecting it

[CrazyLazyCat]

I don't like it. For instance, Fallout 76 perk-card system, while leveling it's ok, because you can't have all the cards, but once you reach a level, you pretty much have all the cards you want, and from that point your game becomes like that:

Want to craft ammunition? unequip a card, then equip Ammo Craft card

Wanna buy stuff? unequip a card and equip Hard Bargain...

This is annoying. The "fix" that came from the devs were, just like you said, add a Custom Builds, and that made the game so clunky. Sure it made the process faster, but it still a mechanic that is horrendous to do all the time. I remember getting into my base, swapping to a Craft-Build, crafting, then making my way to the vendor, swapping to bargain build, them swapping back to "normal" combat build. Not to mention the times I forgot to swap back to my combat build, and realizing it in the middle of an event or dungeon. It sucks.

There ARE better solutions, but you have to keep in mind that that you are going to have to choose, and those choices have to have consequences. Otherwise just make the perks (mutations) always available, because that's pretty much what it is right now, the only "price" we are paying is the annoyance of going into the menu and swapping, and that's an "ugly" price, because it's not game related, that's why I say it's bad mechanic.

 

As a quick solution, I suggest that, for an Mutation to be removed you have to sleep. You can manually disable it on the menu, but it will only be fully removed once you wake up. That way you can plan your next day, for instance, you are going to farm materials, or dive in the pond.

[ScritchOwl]

Remember this game also is supposed to support multiple players. If someone enters the game you may wanna have a build for different playstyles. Like if you are playing with me you may want to play a builder/collector while the others are keeping Wolfie and other nasties off your back. But if someone lags out now your boned as you may not have poison immunity and attack mutations. While yeah there are epic solo players this would be off putting to more than it helps. Maybe place this in a higher difficulty or have them with a setting change in custom that requires a new kid created with respawn/sleep

[CrazyLazyCat]

I've being trying to come with a "solution"

• Remove weapon related buffs from the mutations and make all mutation available at all times. They require some effort to acquire so it feels fair that you get them with no restriction.
• They can still be improved through ranks like they do now
• Milk Molars can now increase the maximum ranks of all mutations, instead of the limit you can equip
• Create a new tab for Weapon Related skills (that I'll call Skills for now).

How would the skills work? 

• Every time you kill a enemy you gain a hidden amount of XP (bugs award XP accordingly to it's difficulty)
• After an certain amount of XP you gain a Skill point (It's not about leveling up, there's no level, It's just a Skill Point)
• Once you get your first Skill point the Skill tab becomes available (to not overwhelm new players with too much information from the start. It got to be after some reasonable time after you began your journey).
• The Skill tab will present you with skill trees based on every type of weapon in the game
• You can advance on each branch choosing how you want to improve your weapon of choice (More damage, more speed, stun, and even some cool chance on hit effects...)

Ok, this is so old. What's the big deal?

• A second and easier approach would be adding "+X% damage buff to weapon type" via Milk Molar.

But yes, i'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, I just want to bring some customization to your character. As it is now, there is no reason not to play exactly like everybody else, if you're having trouble, you see the guides on the youtube. There is an optimal weapon against every bug, and you can simple equip that weapon at any time, swap mutations and go. If weapon mutation were unchangeable (and more impactful) you would have to stick to your favorite weapon, and that is better, because offer you agency, identity, which are core features of a fun game.

Of course there should be a way to reset your points and try another builds, but there should be a cost to it. Maybe some in-game item crafted with limited resources, RS, a Milk Molar, or a quest-line, for instance.

Why do I like the first option? (Weapon Skill tree tab)

Because it can further your customization, you can take, current, simple playstyle, like bow for instance, and customize it to your liking. Do you like bows but think they are too weak, increase the damage. Do you like on hit effects? do you hate arrow recovery, increase the pickup radius. Do you hate arrow swapping? pick a skill that transform basic arrows on your best choice. But of course, you wont be able to have all.

[ScritchOwl]

To be honest with you I wish that you had stats apart from perks but that would turn this into ark with smaller bugs. I mean if you are doubling down with a sword build or an mace build then you should eventually have perks that occur more for that build like damage increase every 2 levels with perks being rewarded every odd level like swords get a flourish which when a perfect block occurs a heavy attack is also unleashed, sword durability bonus (wise man doesn't dull his blade), reduced repair, perfect attack (attack instead of blocking which staggers the foe), rising strikes (heavy attacks hit higher for aerial foes.

If they did this it would make it feel worth the investment rather than attacking the oak beacon at night to max them out on gnats causing you want to stay with a weapon build