Widow Drop rates and a few other bits of feedback.

[taylorpickman]

First off, game is amazing, by far one of the best releases this year, and I'm loving every minute of gameplay.
But there are a few things that I feel like might need adjusting, and a few potential ideas that I coudl see adding more fun to the game for relatively little effort.
 

Balance Tweaks and fixes

1. Resource drop rates from black widows. Considering there are only 3 respawning widows on the map, the rates for widow fangs and super spider venom need to be adjusted. My buddy and I just spent an entire play session killing widow after widow (4 in total, including the one in the undershed), just to get enough resources to make a single widow dagger - an item that is needed for resource progression. With how hard the widows are to fight, and how few there are on the map, these spiders don't seem like they are meant to be an enemy you farm. If that's the case, they need to drop more of their unique resources, or the recipies that require those resources need to use less of them.

2. The Sour Staff. Love the magic staves, but the sour staff in particular does not respect friendly fire rules, meaning that the sparking ball is shoots out can and will injure not only teamates, but event he caster themselves, even with friendly fire turned off. This makes it nigh impossible to use safely in most fights.

3. The Bird-bath zipline anchor. There is a single pre-generoated anchor located near the bird-bath, but for whatever reason it will only connect to ziplines from inside the hedge. This would be fine, except that there is no way to carry weed stems up to a viable location inside the hedge without building large structures up to the branches. Going backwards from main lab complex there is a gap that can only be crossed in one direction via a zipline, and going forwards from the research station, any materials sent along the ziplines have too much inertia and go flying off onto the ground as soon as the reach the end of the line.

4. Picnic table front edge. The presence of angry bees along the entire front edge of the table makes it effectively impossible to set up a safe zipline to the top of the table. As soon as you get close on the zipline, the bees aggro onto you and throw you off the zipline. There is also a science location inside the soda can on this side of the table that is impossible to reach without building - something that is quite difficult to do when the only way to get materials up to the location is by passing through a gauntlet of angry bees on the rear of the table, who inevitably knock all the resources our of your arm.

Some suggested additions
1. Some sort of endgame totem or item used to disable bug spawns in an area around it. There are a few locations around the map, such as the inside of the oak tree, that would be amazing endgame bases, but even once it becomes trivial to clear them out, there is currently no way to prevent insects from respawning in these locations. Obviously this is on purpose - dangerous areas are meant to remain dangerous. but an endgame item, with limited or no renewability that allows you to prevent spawns and set up shop in one of these locations would be a great addition and reward for long-term play.

2. "Secret" Character perks for each of the 4 teens. Nothing huge, but a fun, secret perk that each of the teens can unlock near the end of the game, which is unique to that teen, would be very cool. Obviously Pete could have some sort of bonus to the wizard gear, and Willow might get a bonus while using Black widow equipment. These would be fun, flavorful additions that play off the personality of each teen.

 

[KnightX13]

Great suggestions. 

One thing to note, the soda can on the picnic table is accessible without building...you can actually simply jump on the lip of the lid then in through the hole. It doesn't look like it, but it is possible.  

 

As for the pre-placed Zipline structure before the bird bath, I agree this is badly placed and should be moved. However you can build a zipline anchor (the smaller one made from bee parts) and attach it to the hedge trunk within, and then attach a zipline to that base (or at least you used to be able to) but it is still not intuitive to do this. They should have had a base on both sides and only need the silk to connect them as a mini tutorial on creating ziplines. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by KnightX13

[maxastro]

Strong agree on the black widow drop rates and the sour staff - those were two sour (hah) notes on my otherwise great playthrough.

[Serpiko82]

On 11/22/2022 at 5:14 AM, taylorpickman said:

There is also a science location inside the soda can on this side of the table that is impossible to reach without building