The Grimwar
Terrarian
One of Terraria's strongest aspects is its exploration aspect, you can't help but feel a sense of wonder from discovering what's out there. That first playthrough, if you decided to not spoil yourself by reading the wikipedia, that experience can't quite be replicated. The entirety of the world is yours to explore, and that's somewhat part of the problem for huge exploration fans: you can discover almost everything in pre-hardmode.
You can venture to the depths of the oceans, and even venture into the sea trenches, using gills potions. You can journey to the sky islands and reach the very top of the entire world just with a single gravity potion. The underworld is entirely explorable, if dangerous, you're completely capable of traversing it and taking out its denizens should you win the RNG draw when drinking teleportation potions (this last one actually happened to me, got a Demon Scythe early game, it was sick!).
I don't actually have any issues with how Terraria handles its exploration aspect, I think it's wonderful, but above all, I believe there is still room for improvement, and it can become something truly magical. So, on to the topic of the post, what do I mean when I say to section off certain biomes?
Simply put, I think specigic landscapes should be made inhospitable to new players, as in you need very specific equipment in order to not die in those places. Now, to be fair, I'm only saying that certain portions of the map should only be accessible until later on in the game, to draw out its exploration aspect, and new things could be added in the biome as well to make it a whole new world out to explore. Without further ado, I'll get to...
UNDERGROUND/CAVERNS LAYER OCEAN
Calamity takes the oceans and does something magical with them, they add a lot of things to them, and makes it quite fun to explore. I'm not asking for a 1-1 replica of the "Abyss" biome, but something can be done to expand the ocean content. Add in resources that can only be gathered in the trenches, maybe oil deposits, insert unique enemies that are particularly hard to deal with. Above all, add in two new debuffs that activate once you reach the Underground layer within the ocean.
The first of these debuffs is "Abyssal Pressure," which would activate when you enter water below the Surface layer in the ocean. It would be like the drowning or suffocation debuff, and cause catastrophic damage to you should you enter the water without the right equipment.
The second debuff would be "Compression Sickness," which would take place as long as your character sprite isn't completely submerged in the water in the underground sea, that causes you to take damage with every movement you make, and inhibits regeneration.
Of course, both of those debuffs can be stopped if a certain armor suit designed to protect against the inhospitible deep can be crafted.
UNDERGROUND ICE
The Ice Biome, also known as the Tundra, is quite cold, as evidence by all the ice. And in the ice caverns, it makes sense that the whole place would be quite cold, so cold that there should be some dangers associated with it besides the animals in there. This danger would be a debuff known as Hypothermia, which would slow your movement and drain your health overtime, the hypothermia would be undone by campfires, another preventative measure would be to take warmth potions, and the Snow Armor that can be taken from the Frozen Zombies would cancel it out entirely, at least until you get wet, and of course the arctic scuba gear would prevent all cold. On the surface, this debuff would be dependent on wind speed. Any wind greater than 35 miles per hour, and Hypothermia can set in, and at night, this threshold would be decreased to 15 mph. Of course, I don't have any problems with the Snow Biome as it is currently.
SKY
Plain to see, having some sort of skyworld where 'oh no! no oxygen!' is a thing would be nice. Perhaps not a straight debuff, but a sort of timer like the ones we see when underwater or when lava resistance is running out. And a space suit would be applied accordingly, of course, I'm not saying to place the sky islands above this threshhold and make them unreachable in pre-Hard Mode, I'm just saying to make a skyworld that would only be accessible in Hard Mode. Maybe make a side effect of the Endurance Potion be that you can hold your breath for longer.
EVIL
The Corruption, a physical manifestation of all the evil within the inhabitants of Terraria, if not stopped, it will spread across the entire Earth, subsuming all within its degenerate, tainted embrace.
The Crimson, an abominable hivemind that turns every ounce of stone and soil it touches into a grisly, fleshy abomination, unchecked, it will inevitably devour the whole Earth, and all of its creatures.
I think there should be something about the air of those places that's toxic, deals a debuff that's harmless at first, but gets stronger the longer you're in that place, all of the fruit you can get in there are also useless and inedible, good only for their toxic properties, and need to be combined with purification powder before they're usable. All of the Rubble should be corruptible for both Evils and the Hallow, Marigolds, Blueberries, all types of flowers, herbs, plants, and mushrooms should be convertible into equivalents for each of those biomes (Blueberries=Elderberries?), Evil + Hallowed Critters should also appear as enemy types, and even certain types of biome-unique enemies should have their own evil biome variants, such as Antlions, Sharks, Turtles, and the Skeletons and zombies.
I don't know what you're actually going to do, but this is just my two cents on preserving the magic of exploration later into the game.
You can venture to the depths of the oceans, and even venture into the sea trenches, using gills potions. You can journey to the sky islands and reach the very top of the entire world just with a single gravity potion. The underworld is entirely explorable, if dangerous, you're completely capable of traversing it and taking out its denizens should you win the RNG draw when drinking teleportation potions (this last one actually happened to me, got a Demon Scythe early game, it was sick!).
I don't actually have any issues with how Terraria handles its exploration aspect, I think it's wonderful, but above all, I believe there is still room for improvement, and it can become something truly magical. So, on to the topic of the post, what do I mean when I say to section off certain biomes?
Simply put, I think specigic landscapes should be made inhospitable to new players, as in you need very specific equipment in order to not die in those places. Now, to be fair, I'm only saying that certain portions of the map should only be accessible until later on in the game, to draw out its exploration aspect, and new things could be added in the biome as well to make it a whole new world out to explore. Without further ado, I'll get to...
UNDERGROUND/CAVERNS LAYER OCEAN
Calamity takes the oceans and does something magical with them, they add a lot of things to them, and makes it quite fun to explore. I'm not asking for a 1-1 replica of the "Abyss" biome, but something can be done to expand the ocean content. Add in resources that can only be gathered in the trenches, maybe oil deposits, insert unique enemies that are particularly hard to deal with. Above all, add in two new debuffs that activate once you reach the Underground layer within the ocean.
The first of these debuffs is "Abyssal Pressure," which would activate when you enter water below the Surface layer in the ocean. It would be like the drowning or suffocation debuff, and cause catastrophic damage to you should you enter the water without the right equipment.
The second debuff would be "Compression Sickness," which would take place as long as your character sprite isn't completely submerged in the water in the underground sea, that causes you to take damage with every movement you make, and inhibits regeneration.
Of course, both of those debuffs can be stopped if a certain armor suit designed to protect against the inhospitible deep can be crafted.
UNDERGROUND ICE
The Ice Biome, also known as the Tundra, is quite cold, as evidence by all the ice. And in the ice caverns, it makes sense that the whole place would be quite cold, so cold that there should be some dangers associated with it besides the animals in there. This danger would be a debuff known as Hypothermia, which would slow your movement and drain your health overtime, the hypothermia would be undone by campfires, another preventative measure would be to take warmth potions, and the Snow Armor that can be taken from the Frozen Zombies would cancel it out entirely, at least until you get wet, and of course the arctic scuba gear would prevent all cold. On the surface, this debuff would be dependent on wind speed. Any wind greater than 35 miles per hour, and Hypothermia can set in, and at night, this threshold would be decreased to 15 mph. Of course, I don't have any problems with the Snow Biome as it is currently.
SKY
Plain to see, having some sort of skyworld where 'oh no! no oxygen!' is a thing would be nice. Perhaps not a straight debuff, but a sort of timer like the ones we see when underwater or when lava resistance is running out. And a space suit would be applied accordingly, of course, I'm not saying to place the sky islands above this threshhold and make them unreachable in pre-Hard Mode, I'm just saying to make a skyworld that would only be accessible in Hard Mode. Maybe make a side effect of the Endurance Potion be that you can hold your breath for longer.
EVIL
The Corruption, a physical manifestation of all the evil within the inhabitants of Terraria, if not stopped, it will spread across the entire Earth, subsuming all within its degenerate, tainted embrace.
The Crimson, an abominable hivemind that turns every ounce of stone and soil it touches into a grisly, fleshy abomination, unchecked, it will inevitably devour the whole Earth, and all of its creatures.
I think there should be something about the air of those places that's toxic, deals a debuff that's harmless at first, but gets stronger the longer you're in that place, all of the fruit you can get in there are also useless and inedible, good only for their toxic properties, and need to be combined with purification powder before they're usable. All of the Rubble should be corruptible for both Evils and the Hallow, Marigolds, Blueberries, all types of flowers, herbs, plants, and mushrooms should be convertible into equivalents for each of those biomes (Blueberries=Elderberries?), Evil + Hallowed Critters should also appear as enemy types, and even certain types of biome-unique enemies should have their own evil biome variants, such as Antlions, Sharks, Turtles, and the Skeletons and zombies.
I don't know what you're actually going to do, but this is just my two cents on preserving the magic of exploration later into the game.
Last edited:
