Posting Game Suggestions Everyday Til JC Acknowledges Salem

[pistolshrimp]

*Dear John, I understand my gluttony system is probably not what you had pictured, and again to me, that's a good thing. It gives more options, maybe not all of it would work, maybe a piece of it would, or maybe none but it might make you think of something that would. As much as people may think I am Alt-Baised, I would say I am Main-Baised. In the past I have grown weary of HoB posts that just devolve into arguing whether the kill had any significance because it was an Alt. "That was just my alt," has become a way to deflect meaningful politics. I actually think you and I agree on this because you have mentioned stuff like this many times when explaining why you went with particular mechanics. I think if you and I were switched, Mr. Carver, people would accuse you of having a huge Alt-Bais as well. For a prominent example think back to your Homestead changes where breaking a leanto or a homestead would scatter the items on the ground, that made alt-vaults more difficult, but it didn't kill alts.

I however, don't want to spend too much time defending this one change, I guess I'm in a mood, lol, but instead I'd rather move onto something less controversial. I'm going to go into Horses into more detail because that's a change we think you are interested in. *

Day 21: Horses More Detail

Overview of Changes Already Proposed: Horses and Goats can be attached to vehicles to carry liftable structures from one Boundary Stone to another within your Bounds. Horses can be attached to Carts, goats to sleds. When sent to aBoundary Stone animals and carts disappear and reappear at the Boundary Stone after a set amount of time.

Skill: Horse Breeding - Unlocked Through Goat Rearing
Young = Foal, Female = Mare, Male = Stallion
I don't know all the drops at the moment, but I have Chevaline Steaks, 1-4 Horse Hooves, Horse Tail, and Horse Skull

A little more info on Bounds interaction with Animals: The longer the distance an animal must travel the more that animal's Ornery-ness will increase so proper management of your animals is a must. Any animal's time to go from one Boundary Stone is dependent on Productivity and Ornery-ness and distance between the Boundary Stones. A horse's time can be speed up, and Ornery-ness increase by distance reduced by giving a horse Horse Shoes. 1 Iron Bar = 2x Horse Shoes, each horse shoe must be right-clicked on a horse, and adds a bonus up to 4 horse shoes.

Riding Horses: Horse can be mounted, like in the past, with their speed related inversely to their Productivity, aka the better the horse would be for moving things, the less good it will be for riding and visa versa. This essentially light vs draft horses irl. You ride light horses and work draft horses. It means that to optimize horses you need to maintain both types of horses or aim for something in the middle, which should add a little bit of variety to Horse Breeding.

Horses gain Ornery-ness based on distance traveled. This can be significantly reduced by adding Horse Shoes, but generally you will still need to manage your horses, maybe rotate them out if riding every day, or take treats on especially long journeys. Horse's Wander when left unmounted in the wild, but don't despawn.

Structure: Hitching Post
10 Wooden Blocks, 1 Rope, 1 Key Ring. Horses Don't wanted when in range of a Hitching Post. Or they can be attached to it but that seems more complicated to code.

Craft: Riding Crop
Horse Tail + Loom
Works like Wooden Paddle and enables mounting a horse to be 50% faster.

Store Tool: Jockey's Riding Crop, works like Riding Crop, increases Horse movement speed by 5%.

Skill: Saddling - Unlocked Through Horse Breeding and Fine Leather Work
Horses Can be equipped with Saddles, which have inventory slots based on the quality of the Saddle.

5x Any Leather + 1x Cotton Cloth, 2x Buckles, 10x Wool
Leather Saddle
Studded Leather Saddle
Fine Leather Saddle
Lambskin Saddle

If a Horse is Branded taking items from a Saddle is Larceny.

[Taipion]

You may also have a completely different take on that than what I just described, with different goals regarding humor lvls and applications,
but there definitely is a point in having different humors at vastly different numbers, and some people would be quite upset if that would not be possible anymore.
And why? Because it makes a hell lot of a difference if you make a ton of alts and they all have to have even humors whereas only 1 or 2 are actually needed.

I'm not going to quote or address everything you're saying because you are correct in everything you said. I think currently there are lots of meaningful reasons to save the effort and only focus on certain biles, especially on your alts. But my question remains, do you lose out on anything meaningful if you had them all even?

In some games de-synced values might have provided alternate ways of playing. For instance look at Pokemon. Generally you want perfect IVs, but there are some situations where you might not want that. (For instance you want the Alakazam to have very low attack so you can spam confusion). Currently you have de-synced biles simply out of convenience not because it opens up a different game style.

My proposal is that when you Gluttony you get a base addition to all biles equally, therefore synced biles would requires NO extra work to have, so no one would have to be upset. Besides I want to de-emphasize the alt game by moving the benefits you gain from alts to other mechanics. (Note I said de-emphasize not remove). I don't want to make Salem easier at all, but I want to move around the difficulty to more meaningful aspects of the game.

It opens up different ways in that it reduces the effort to get to certain lvls,
if you don't have to also push BB/phlegm, you can have a much higher blood/YB combat char, or even only focusing on one, same for others.

[pistolshrimp]

Day 22: Beasts of Burden

*This one will be a smaller change as I believe Horses and Bounds suggestion cover Beast of Burden as well. However as I am trying to really hone into ideas you are interested in John, (liking is obviously a different thing entirely) I am wanting to flesh this out more.*

The finial Beast of Burden will be Bulls (male cows). I personally don't feel that there is much room to ask players to take care of an entire new animal, so it makes more sense to give more usability to existing animals. Players who are attached to a Bull by a rope, can lift up many structures not normally liftable. Sawbuck with a log, catapult, long range mortar, full big barrel, etc. These items cannot be loaded into sleds or cart, and the distance you carry these heavy items adds Orney-ness to your Bull.

New Structures:
Plow
A Plow can be lifted and attached to a Bull. A plow can be opened and filled with seeds and hummus. Guiding your bull across Tilled Fields will fill them with hummus and seeds, so long as there are seeds and hummus in the plow. This will also lower your fields upkeep. You will still have to add fertilizer. Distance a Bull pulls a plow adds to its Orney-ness.

Combine
A Plow can be lifted and attached to a Bull. When dragged over mature tilled fields it will automatically harvest the field and put the crops in it's inventory. Distance a Bull pulls a Combine adds to its Orney-ness.

Heavy Sled
A Sled that can be attached to Horses that only accepts logs or boulders, but can hold 20x of them.

[Ronch]

Day 22: Beasts of Burden

*This one will be a smaller change as I believe Horses and Bounds suggestion cover Beast of Burden as well. However as I am trying to really hone into ideas you are interested in John, (liking is obviously a different thing entirely) I am wanting to flesh this out more.*

The finial Beast of Burden will be Bulls (male cows). I personally don't feel that there is much room to ask players to take care of an entire new animal, so it makes more sense to give more usability to existing animals. Players who are attached to a Bull by a rope, can lift up many structures not normally liftable. Sawbuck with a log, catapult, long range mortar, full big barrel, etc. These items cannot be loaded into sleds or cart, and the distance you carry these heavy items adds Orney-ness to your Bull.

New Structures:
Plow
A Plow can be lifted and attached to a Bull. A plow can be opened and filled with seeds and hummus. Guiding your bull across Tilled Fields will fill them with hummus and seeds, so long as there are seeds and hummus in the plow. This will also lower your fields upkeep. You will still have to add fertilizer. Distance a Bull pulls a plow adds to its Orney-ness.

Combine
A Plow can be lifted and attached to a Bull. When dragged over mature tilled fields it will automatically harvest the field and put the crops in it's inventory. Distance a Bull pulls a Combine adds to its Orney-ness.

Heavy Sled
A Sled that can be attached to Horses that only accepts logs or boulders, but can hold 20x of them.

Bravo !

I'd like to add to your idea about an additional type of sled, with this:
If we attach a cart/wagon to a horse then the vehicle's speed will increase slightly.

If I remember correctly, JC said something before he abandoned us; that he will try to make it so we can cross river-fords with sleds in a future update too.

[pistolshrimp]

If I remember correctly, JC said something before he abandoned us; that he will try to make it so we can cross river-fords with sleds in a future update too.

Come back JC, I need this!
Edit: Also please crush animals that get in the sleds way, the idea of my cart derailing because I hit a cricket is a lot.

[pistolshrimp]

Day 23: "A larger emphasis on more creatures/kritters populating the world." - Part 1 New Animal Mechanics

*This was mentioned in your 2018 Roadmap, Mr Carver. This suggestion will be in two parts, the first will attempt to make hunting feel more dynamic by introducing a new animal state, and give players a choice in hunting - hunt normally, wait to hunt until the end of the month when animals are fatter, or set traps which will harm the meat but increase the rare drop chance. The second part tomorrow will add more animals and animal exploration events.*

Major Change: At the beginning of the month a set number of creatures of each type are set aside for spawning (where and how many in what location being random, but based on current factors) Each day that each animal is not killed it gains a set amount of extra HP, extra Meat Cuts, and a slightly increased rare drop, and perfect meat chance. At the end of the month all "spawns" are reset.

New Animal State: Enraged. Enraged Animals give Dark, Firm and Dry Meat (lower Gourmet Value than regular, but higher than spoiled) Attack damage on these animals in increase but rare drop chance significantly higher. Animals can become Enraged 1 of 3 ways. 1. Blood Moon make all animals Enraged. At the end of the Blood Moon at Enraged Animals are reset. 2. Wolves. 3. Being Trapped.

New Skill: Animal Trapping. Unlocked from Tracking and Booby Traps.
Item Unlocked: Animal Trap. 1 Iron Bar, needs anvil, makes 2x Traps. Animal Traps can be set on the ground and right-click and select "Set" to activate. Animal Traps are Invisible to anyone with a lower Hunting and Hideworking than you. A player stepping on one will cause them to be briefly stunned. There is a decently long animation time so this skill won't be very good for combat, but could possibly be used for base defense, or used to set up for combat ahead of time. Animals that step on an Animal Trap become Trapped and Enraged, they can still attack but they cannot move from that their spot. Every 24 hours they spend Trapped they have a chance to break free, with each successive day increasing the chance of escape. If they escape they remain Engraged. Small Game and Bugs do not trigger Traps. Darkness animals have a higher chance of escape than Big Game.

Animals actually spawn similar to now, which seems to be on-load, but with the exception that traps will trigger spawns as well. (Setting a trap doesn't guarantee a spawn, but if that tile WOULD have spawned animals then it does. As spawns are set attached to the tile there can now be ways to interact with those spawns more. I suggest an Animal Tracking that can be toggled on or off which will show you what animals will spawn on the tiles around you.

Edit: I envisioned Engraged Animals as graphically identical except for a slight firey effect. Additionally they may aggro players even if they are typically non-aggro creatures, ie Deer.

[pistolshrimp]

Day 24: "A larger emphasis on more creatures/kritters populating the world." - Part 2 More Creatures

This suggestion will add more creatures. Many of these creatures are either found in New England or are taken from the Lumberwoods book, so they should all thematically fit. I also think that all current creatures should have their biomes narrowed. This may be a personal feeling but i think having a better idea of where to find creatures will oddly enough make it feel like the world is more populated.

Changes to Current Animals:
Pigs that are spawned due to the Traveling Merchant exploration event do not die if not recovered in time but become Feral Pigs, that don't reset at the end of the month like other animals. They continue to gain HP and Cuts infinitely. Have additional drops.

Spiders are Greenwood + Warmspot creatures, rather than just all of Greenwood.

New Animals:
Racoon - Small Game, nonaggressive - Small Chance to get Rabies from bite.
Porcupine - Small Game but very rare like a Squonk, nonaggressive - Shoots up to 3x Porcupine Spines which can be picked up, but which if they hit inflect a bleed. Damaging a Porcupine inflicts a Bleed unless you are using a weapon.
Opossum - Small Game, nonaggressive - Small Chance to get Rabies from bite.
Snow Snake - Small Game, aggressive - Snow biome only - basically a reskinned Timber Rattler, but white so fairly hard to spot against the snow.
Wolves - Big Game. nonaggressive - when attacked will howl, enraging nearby animals.
Whirling Whimpus - Monster, aggressive - Ape Like creature
Hidebehind - Monster, aggressive
Dungavenhooter - Monster, aggressive - Warmspot Swamps Biome - Crocodile like creature

New Exploration Creature Based Events:

Bear's Den. Coldspot Coniferous. A Small cave, inside is a sleeping bear, if entered while Sneak is toggled the Bear will stay asleep unless attack, otherwise the bear will wake up and attack. Not sure what is in there yet tho...
Snag (essentially a dead tree) - Warm Greenwood. Guarding this tree is a Splintercat which is an aggressive creature that attacks only be charging. Can Fracture if it connects. Peel Bark to get 10x Dry Bark, chop to get Dead Wood Woodblock. I don't know what they will be used for just yet but they are often used in furniture is Sweden, called Dead Wood or Kelo Wood.
Wil'-O-The-Wisp - Coldspot Swamp - Kritter - can be caught with a glass jar. Can be placed to provide light that never goes out, but can't light other objects.

[Taipion]

Wolves should be usually non-aggressive, but should follow you at a distance and sneak up on you like a cougar, and then attack, but only if there are a bunch of them around, just like the pack hunters they are.

[pistolshrimp]

Wolves should be usually non-aggressive, but should follow you at a distance and sneak up on you like a cougar, and then attack, but only if there are a bunch of them around, just like the pack hunters they are.

Yes! I like this. Especially since this mechanic is already coded into Wishpooshes and Agropelters.

[pistolshrimp]

Day 25: Witchcraft Part 1 - Gaining Power and Accusing Someone of Witchcraft

*Dear John,I believe the goals to any rework to witchcraft should keep the following things in mind. I believe you would agree. I have tried my best to follow these rules when making this suggestion.
1. Being a Witch should be relatively antithetical to being a pilgrim, meaning game play should be as different as possible.
2. Being a Witch should not be so appealing or over-powered everyone wants to do it. Essentially being a witch should be equal but different. One of the ways to mitigate the appeal of being a witch is making it carry a high risk.
3. Pilgrims should fear Witches, and to some extent Witches should fear pilgrims, or at least being discovered by them. This means the two should have to interact in some way on a regular enough basis that one can't forget about the other.
4. At least part of the fear pilgrims have for witches should be based in paranoia.*

ReCap on Changes from other Suggestions that affect Witchcraft: Temperature rework removed Darkness and therefor the drain from being in the light for witches. Witches are part of society again, they could be anyone. Status introduced a New Stat which roughly indicated how successful a player is. Accusing someone falsely, or being accused of witchcraft can temporarily affect this stat. Madness overall introduce the way to becoming a witch is by successfully fulfilling 9 Madness Cravings, and one finial profession Madness Craving.

How a witch increases their power: Instead of inspirationals they can only level up by meeting their madness cravings and by doing witch crafty stuff. How much experience is earned is commensurate with how risky the spell or action is to themselves. Experience gained is amplified during a Blood Moon. It is possible to level up past the first couple of levels by spamming low risk spells, but as each repeat of the same spell reduces experience gained from it that level, (like old inspirationals) it would be nearly impossible to reach high levels without taking significant risks.

Scent Changes: All witchcraft actions leave a scent unless they are preformed inside a house that they are the owners of (P or T Claim). Scents last for a few hours to a day max. These scents can be gathered for evidence but can't be tracked and this evidence cannot be judged guilty or used to put someone in the stocks. Evidence of Witchcraft can be attuned to ANY player by selecting it and right-clicking it on that player. Evidence of any crime can only be attuned once, un-attuned evidence disappears in your inventory after 3 days.

Accusations: To accuse someone of Witchcraft take Evidence of Witchcraft attuned to them and bring it to Witch-hunter dude near His Majesties Stall. This will put that person's name in the ledger and reduce their status for 1 week. The amount of Status that is reduce is determined by the accusers status. Essentially if a nobody accuses you, no big deal, but if a super successful player accuses you it will mean much more. You can only accuse 1 person of witchcraft per week. If there is a high enough difference in your accusers and your status, there will be an Accused of Witchcraft symbol next to your name displayed to people who have kinned you.

A player may be cleared of witchcraft early, removing the symbol, and half of the status loss, by proving their innocence. There will be a dunking both type structure near the ocean which people accused can right-click and select "Prove My Innocence" Where there will be stripped naked and a dunking animation play out for a minute or two. This will cause your Q&Q debuff to max out, Body Temperature to drop, and there is a chance to catch Disease with each dunk. The main point tho is that it should be fun to watch for onlookers.

However if you are a witch attempting to Prove Your Innocence after the Dunking Animation finishes you will be instantly burnt at the Stake and Permanently killed.

For non-witches after 1 week if you did not prove your innocence your Status will return to normal and the Accused of Witchcraft Symbol next to your name will disappear.

After 1 week of falsely accusing someone of Witchcraft, or when after they have proved their innocence, you will loss Status relative to theirs. And gain the Lair Symbol next to your name for all those kinned to you. You will not be able to accuse anyone for another week when you lose that Lair Symbol and your Status normalized.

Burning a Witch at the Stake: For Witches after 1 week of being accused if you did not prove your innocence you will also be cleared UNLESS you had the Accused of Witchcraft Symbol next to your name. In which case the Accused of Witchcraft Symbol will stay and you will be instantly burnt at the Stake and Permanently killed if you ever set food in Providence again. If your accuser had lower status but was right, IE you were a Witch but never gained the Accused of Witchcraft Symbol, they will NOT gain the Liar Symbol. Additionally a Witch can be burned as well by attuning Evidence of Witchcraft to them and setting a Trail By Fire outside their homestead. If the Trail Remains there after 24 hours they will be instantly summoned, burned at the stake, and instantly killed.

What this all Means: This ties the risks of witchcraft up in the Status. Just like in irl cases of "Witchcraft" often the marginalized were affected the most. This also means that low alts can be used to spam Accusations. Powerful players can even be accused of Witchcraft and get away with it due to their high Status, but are still able to be held accountable with significant, but not impossible amounts of extra work. Accusing someone or being accused, carries political ramifications which I will go into more at a later date when I flesh out new politics. As witches are pushed to practice witchcraft more to level up they will leave more scents adding fuel to accusations and paranoia. This also adds a fun animation in Providence for players to watch. The Accused of Witchcraft and the Lair symbols also get at Puritan Shame based political systems. Think of the Scarlet Letter for instance.