Game Mechanics Gem Socket System (The Socket Patch)

Marcus101RR

Master of Ravens
Hello Terrarians,

It has been a quiet week for me, and I am here to come up with a possible new idea to the advancement of Weaponry, Armory, and Accessories! The Gem Socket System will allow players to further improve the statistics of their prizes treasures. The socket system is not something you can craft on your own, it is earned, or grinded in a way to obtain the best value out of your weapon/armor/accessory!

The Socket System
Items you craft, mobs drop, or combine will spin a lottery to determine how many sockets they obtain. These items can obtain a total of 3 sockets maximum. However, you will never be lucky enough to get the highest socket value out of your item, therefore, grinding them or even repeatedly crafting them may push your luck further. The sockets are empty and have no gems inside them, you must talk to an NPC that can converge the socket with a gem of your choice. However, the Gem System alone is not as easy as it sounds. You must first purify those gems for usage, and understand their purpose in depending weapons/armor/accessories.

The Gem System
The gems we currently have in Terraria will be your importance, previously gems have very little value or usage. Now, they have some bit of usage, with this system they will be vital to your gear! Each gem has its own stats that it adds to the specific gear you choose to augment it into. So check below before thinking about what kind of adventure you have to go on in order to perfect your gear further.

  • Amethyst.png
    Amethyst
    • This gem will increase Size (Melee), Velocity (Ranged), Mana Cost (Magic).
      • Weapons Only
  • Topaz.png
    Topaz
    • This gem will increase Knockback (All).
      • Weapons Only
  • Sapphire.png
    Sapphire
    • This gem will increase Critical Strike Chance (All)
      • All Weapons/Armor/Accessories
  • Emerald.png
    Emerald
    • This gem will increase Speed/Armor (All).
      • Increases Speed on Weapons
      • Increases Defense on Armor/Accessories
  • Ruby.png
    Ruby
    • This gem will increase Damage (All).
      • All Weapons/Armor/Accessories
  • Amber.png
    Amber
    • This gem will increase Movement Speed.
      • Accessories Only
  • Diamond.png
    Diamond
    • This gem will amplify/multiply adjacent gem sockets.
      • All Weapons/Armor/Accessories

The Refining Process
The raw gems you collect in Terraria will not be sufficient for sockets, you must first refine these gems into a higher quality for the stats to take effect. You can refine gems up to three times (Refined, Advanced, Super) for higher potency. In order to do so you must collect enough of each stage in order to advance to the next quality upgrade. You can upgrade your gem at any Hardmode Anvil.

The quality types of gem are depending on your crafting amount. You can increase to these stages by following the material requirement. For some stats, only a percentage will be calculated, while other stats will be static increase. Damage, Defense, etc are increased differently depending on the gem used, and in what type of gear it has been placed into. Check above to make sure you are using the right gem in the right type of gear before expecting the wrong stat to increase (E.G. Refined Sapphire Gem in an Accessory increases 1% Critical Strike Chance while an Advanced Emerald increases +3 Defense in an Accessory).
  • Refined
    • Has a potency of +1% or +1 additional stat.
      • Requirement: To craft, requires 5 Gems.
  • Advanced
    • Has a potency of +3% or +3 additional stat.
      • Requirement: To craft, requires 5 Refined Gems.
  • Super
    • Has a potency of +5% or +5 additional stat.
      • Requirement: To craft, requires 10 Advanced Gems.
You will notice that you need a total of 250 of a specific gem in order to craft it into a Super Gem. Additional crafting material is up for debate to make it more difficult to achieve overpowered weapon fairly quickly.

NOTE: Please note that for Diamond Gems, these stats are multiplied by the value of 2 by any adjacent gem sockets. (E.G. 2 Super Ruby Gems with 1 Diamond Gem increases the stats to +20/20% rather than +10/10% (Max +15/15% possible with 3 sockets).

7E1z34L.png

In this figure you can see that the Stardust Dragon Staff has three sockets with Ruby (top), Diamond (middle), Emerald (bottom). The diamond increases both Gem Potency by 2, so +10% Damage and 10% Speed.
 
Interesting concept, not too sure I want it in game though... this is kinda like enchanting in minecraft or another variant of reforging. Would be a bit silly, sorry no support.
 
This is clearly based off / inspired by Torchlight, right? :)
I think this is a really fitting idea and could be applied to Terraria well. It provides a variety beyond the current prefixes and allows players to more specifically tailor their gear to their needs.

Having said that, I think it should be simplified a bit. Some suggestions:
  • Maximum four sockets per weapon / armour / accessory
  • An NPC/function to add sockets
  • An NPC/function to recover gems (destroying the weapon) or recover the weapon (destroying the gems)
  • All gems should be able to go in all types (add the missing bits)
  • Three tiers: Dull / Polished / Refined (to make it a bit more gem-like)
I think you also need to make the gems more relevant. For example, Amethyst, Amber and Emerald all affect speed. Combining that into one gem,uusing Amber as an example:
Amber:
  • Increases melee speed in a melee weapon
  • Increases velocity in a ranged weapon
  • Decreases use time in a magic weapon
  • Increases minion movement speed in a summon weapon
  • Increases mining speed in an accessory
  • Increases movement speed in armour
So following that general thought:
  • Amber: Affects speed
  • Amethyst: Enemies drop more coins (weapons) or reduces store prices (armour / accessories)
  • Diamond: Provides minor boosts to all relevant stats (a la Legendary prefix or Celestial Stone)
  • Emerald: Affects defence (armour / accessories) or penetration (weapons)
  • Ruby: Affects attack power (weapons) or damage reduction (armour / accessories - like the Worm Scarf, but must less potent)
  • Sapphire: Affects critical strike chance (weapons) or extends invincibility time (armour / accessories)
  • Topaz: Increases knockback (weapons) / decreases knockback to player (armour / accessories) -- though you may want to think of something else because the easily-obtained Cobalt Shield negates knockback while many enemies are also immune to it.
But it could get even more creative than that. Maybe Rubies in weapons could apply a slight life steal effect like the Vampire Knives. Lots to consider! That's just some inspiration / thinking. Feel free to use or ignore as you see fit. :)

Might edit and add some more thoughts when I wake up.
 
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