- Wurt can now eat all raw veggies with no downsides, not just kelp and durian, the only exceptions possibly being mushrooms and/or chili.
Mostly to make the kelp benefit a little less out of place, and to better match up with her swamp creature characterization, letting her chow down on things like raw onions and potatoes, as well as lichen without any penalties.
- Merm guards can now hold spears to deal 84 damage per hit, battle spears also work for more damage. Non spear weapons don't work.
Merm guards unfortunately fail to beat out bunnymen in terms of damage per second, despite the requirements of hiring all of them with food, and their significantly higher upfront cost in terms of a merm king. This would give them a boost to dps while also integrating the neat visual of the eye of the storm trailer, and making the damage a somewhat notable investment for larger groups of guards. Also gives wurt a little bonus synergy with wigfrid, which is always nice.
- Merms and merm guards now regenerate hp over time, like bunnymen or beefalo.
While not incredibly pressing, it doesn't really make sense for merms to take lasting damage from everything, and just makes certain activities, such as wood chopping, a little more tedious if they get worn down by treeguards.
- Wurt no longer gets speed boost from marsh turf, and instead gains wetness. Wetness gives her a speed boost of up to 20%.
While Wurt should by no means be discouraged from placing marsh turf, DST is fundamentally a game with heavy teamplay aspects, and thus she should not be incentivized to use it as a replacement for cobble roads. It would also serve to actively incentivize gaining wetness as wurt, while giving an added challenge in colder seasons in exchange for another way to beat the heat in summer.
- Freshwater fish and eels now have a consistent weight, and can be stacked in the same manner as bees or butterflies.
While ocean fish maintain a sense of individuality due to their more in depth fishing mechanics, the same simply is not the case for freshwater fish. Right now it is needlessly complicated getting a decent number of freshwater fish at once for mermhouses or merm king trades because each and every fish takes up its own slot for the sole reason that we might want to weigh our impressive single-click catch.
- Held fish are unaffected by wetness in terms of spoil timer.
Making a live fish wet shouldn't make it die sooner.
- Merm King now trades different things according to what fish you give him, including gold, as well as maybe a chance at gems or other rarities.
While fishing could use some improvements in general, merm king would be a great way to encourage players to aim for rarer catches by offering different loot tables for each ocean fish, including a way to get gold as a substitute for pig king that doesn't just use the same old trinket trading system.
- Merm King now gives all types of crop seeds, a random assortment of fruits and/or veggies, and is less likely to drop normal seeds. He no longer drops rot.
Rot is an utterly pointless drop due to the large material cost needed to even set up merm king, and doesn't have the instant-growth benefits it once had with the old farms. The same holds true for the old non-crop seed drops and the limited selection of crop seed drops available. RWYS simplified farming to a huge degree in terms of both cost and yield, and merm king's trades relating to farming should be buffed to be more in line with what farming has on offer.
- Merm King now gives wurt a minor damage boost while active of 1.1-1.25 or so.
As a merm guard herself, it makes little sense that wurt doesn't get any sort of damage boost like her adult brethren. While the stat boosts are by no means bad, it would be nice to offer a little direct incentive to maintain the king. It wouldn't step on any toes either, since wigfrid's combat prowess is owed much more to her other perks, and warly and wolfgang both far outmatch this multiplier.
- Merms now have their own names
Merms are now canonically able to communicate and much more intelligent than they were initially assumed to be, so it only makes sense that they would have the same privileges as pigs and bunnymen. I want to hire Glorpy and Glurtso please.
- Merms will greet wurt players if they come close, as well as players wearing clever disguise. Dialogue helps make it clear that normal characters are seen as merms with the disguise wheras they greet wurt as a merm guard.
This would help communicate why merm guards can only be hired by wurt, as well as make wurt feel more at home amongst her species. Unlike webber, Merms are neither feral nor different to her in any way, so it would be nice to see a little more open friendliness from them.
- Merms will thank the player if they gift a fish instead of feeding them.
Mostly just a minor flavor thing to help distinguish between food and pet fish gifts.
- Merms will now get aggro on any mob that hits wurt, as she is a merm child.
Merms lose aggro very quickly already, so this would be an expensive way to take on bosses in terms of HP, and would mostly serve to emphasize that wurt is indeed part of their species. It feels very out of place to have merms be indifferent to a literal child of their species being attacked. It would also make keeping merms at base a little more beneficial for newer players.
- Clever disguise now uses durability instead of perish timer, and can be sewn.
Unlike Winona, wurt has never really suffered from a lack of other perks, and the spoil timer of the clever disguise only serves to make merm king harder to keep up than he needs to be. This way a clever disguise can simply be dropped next to the merm king for whomever is willing to crown the king while they're at base. This would also let wurt protect her wortox and webber friends from bunnymen in a more one-off fashion.
- Wurt will now take extra damage from overheating.
Given the number of buffs I've given her here, as well as the option to make herself wet in summer using marsh turf, I feel it's only fair that wurt be punished for letting her fishy body get too hot, especially since frogs and fish generally don't respond well to temperature changes in the water.
- Merms won't get lost anymore >:(
The fact that this hasn't been fixed yet is honestly pretty unacceptable for a paid character. I and many others paid extra for this character, I expect one of her main perks to function properly. This doesn't make sense in game, and should have been resolved LONG ago.
- Merm respawn timers are no longer affected by winter.
Merms have much higher health than pigs, and don't offer anything special at all when it comes to loot. There's no balance reason they should fail to respawn in winter, especially given there's never any indication that this would be the case. If this is going to remain in the game, wurt should have dialogue for houses during winter that explain this, because right now it's just needlessly confusing.
- Merm guards will now return to their homes if the king dies, so they can be safely kept at base.
Given that even webber can keep his bloodthirsty carnivores at base without problems, I think it's reasonable merms be somewhat self-managing due to their higher resource cost. The alternative to this would simply be to make wurt-made houses not create aggressive merms, as they are not living 4 to a leaky outhouse, but in a luxurious little swamp hut all to themselves.
- Wurt can now swim in the water, but it is much slower than a boat, and drains hunger much more quickly.
Unlike the others, this is a little more of a wishlisty suggestion, as the kelp can often end up the largest obstacle in creating the royal tapestry due to the somewhat high setup cost of boats, as well as their overall clunkiness. While I don't think it's essential whatsoever, it would be a very cool mechanic, and might help convince players to spend some money or spools on her, something that could be highly worth it for klei due to her being one of the least played and likely owned characters.