So discussing some things with @Havok40k we came to the conclusion that even though the change to wildstock is an interesting change, it’s kinda been overdone.
The ram mechanics are personally something worth a challenge and makes combat interesting.
The HP and augmented damage just seem like something unneeded or something set too high.
Wildstocks always felt like calm pasture Goats to me, they just minded their business, right now, they feel more like mad bulls.
What do I suggest?
I suggest wildstock tire out after ramming X times repetitively or get stunned after crashing to things, rocks would stun them for more time than trees.
Basically adding stamina to not only wildstock, but other creatures too.
That way skill and map awareness plays a bigger role, rewarding capable and skilled players, not just owning better gear and skills, which should be needed in higher tier planets, but not starter planets.
Lurk or bait mechanic, be able to craft Grass/Pasture (from grass seeds) To calm them down or lurk them to a spot in the map, basically sending them away from you, when you decide to build. Or send them to a pit to later on bomb them or kill them one by one.
It would make combat interesting, without making things harder or as hard as they’re now.
I just got hit for a 1000 by a ram amidst a bunch of lag the moment I enter the battle… What the heck!? This battle lag is new. I noticed all my tools got hit for 25%. What the stupid ever loving heck. That’s massive amount of damage since I’m carrying all my tools because there is this stacking feature after all. Ok… whatever, I reenter the world (a city) only to be surrounded and trapped by 3 rams AND AGAIN, lag spikes… and so I die, again, for another 25% hit to my inventory. This sucks. I am now sitting in sanctum with 50% health, can’t heal in sanctum apparently and I have a portal right back to 3 stupidly overpowered rams and lag spikes waiting for me. I have to pay to teleport back to home and then pay to teleport back to where I want to be. Not fun and it only cost me a small fortune because of poor performing code. If I was wrongly in a place with deadly creatures, it would be nice to get some notifications about that fact. 25% to my active tools would also be far more appropriate or some other measure of damage because 25% across 30 or so tools really sucks. Meh.
I gotta ask, did you consider bumping the warp? Sorry about your tools, but balance changes are a fickle thing. Some times they nail it, some times they don’t. Better now in development than at 1.0 release.
No, I was too flustered to remember that was an option. I get it. Just expressing my raw frustration with the situation so they get a sense of the pain points we’re going through and give it some consideration.
Minor issue - I agree that Wildstocks are a bit too strong compared to other creatures given that they should be the “livestock” per se of this game.
Major issue - Wildstocks are always aggressive which I believe is not designed as that (I believe this is a known issue)? And that they are that strong in starter worlds! I don’t really mind if they’re that tough in harder planets.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m having lots of fun fighting them but sometimes they can be annoying when you just want to build cause fighting them takes quite a while now.
The reason I often die to wildstock is because of this, similar to what GrayDwarf says…
I often experience it where I get railroaded right into the side of a block that isn’t destructable by ramming and it just deals continuous damage until I am dead. It was a nightmare when one got into my house somehow…
Wildstock should not be an epic battle to the death (mostly mine, despite the 2400 HP I now have) that involves kiting the little dirt digger in a circle so I could hit it and run away.
I have just tested wildstock on Munteen - I have 3000hp and max regen (100 per 5sec so 1200 per minute).
It’s easy enough to dodge them stock, but if you have 2 or 3 on you it becomes tricky, cause apart from avoiding them you need to watch holes and lava and all environmental dangers. So, yes, lag can defeat you easily. I don’t experience much rubber banding these days (since I followed @james’ advice on how to configure chunk download rate etc.), but there are days when I get the slow network hits or spiky moments (now resulting in instant go-to-sanctum animation) etc. so if not today then some other day I might die because of that.
What shocked me though was one of the wildstock hitting me for 2k. I was testing so I let a few of them hit me to see not just damage but also how far I am sent flying etc. I like challenging fight but thats a bit too far now I think. I’d rather see cuttletrunks and spitters dealing good 400-800 (atm its 200 on Munteen) and having enough hp to survive at least 2 shots from the iron slingbow, than have wildstock that strong. I agree with high tier wildstock having a lot of hp but the ramming could be scaled down to below 1000. Its dangerous enough that being rammed can send you to lava or a hole.
I’m curious if the location of a hit has any impact on damage to creatures? Do for example hits to the front side of a wildstock (where I might assume they are toughest due to the massive horns) do less damage than hits to the undefended flanks? I would like to see higher tier livestock have scaling frontal defense but over all mostly equal health to other mobs on their same tier. Thus being easy to kill if you first dodge the charge, but more challenging to fight head on. This would help bring down the disparity of high health pools on low worlds without completely removing their threat in an attack.