Portfolio/Multi-Topic Total balance of alternates

AgCl

Terrarian
I think that the alternates in Terraria (Crimson-Corruption, cobalt-palladium, etc.) have to be balanced with each other and that a player should not prefer or "hope" to get the stronger version every time.

Here are some changes I would be very grateful for:

Corruption/Crimson (pre-Hardmode):
- There could be an equivalent to Worm Tooth and Unholy Arrows in Crimson.
- Maybe also a sword similar to the Night's Edge, but crafted only with the Blood Butcherer (Night's Edge would in that case be crafted only with Light's Bane)...
- Expert drops from BoC and EoW are unbalanced. Buffing or reworking the Brain of Confusion, for example making it a movement speed- or damage-boosting accessory (as opposed to the Worm Scarf's damage resistance, would be great.
- I understand that the Ancient Shadow armour is an artifact from Terraria 1.0, so I would not say that we need an ancient Crimson armour.

Corruption/Crimson (Hardmode):
- Floaty Gross should spawn on the surface because Corruptors spawn on the surface
- Crimslime should drop the Blindfold because Corrupt Slimes do
- Toxikarp should be a melee weapon. It consumes no ammo, has a short range, and is the counterpart to Bladetongue.

Pre-Hardmode Ores:
- The strength of gem staffs is defined by the rarity of the gems, so I don't see an imbalance there.
- I (and probably many others) usually skip Copper, Iron, and Silver Armour and their alternates, but Gold/Platinum need a balance IMO. Why would the strongest pre-boss armour be determined by RNG? Maybe the Gold Armour should have the same stats as the Platinum one. Maybe the Gold should have a bonus stat. Please decide.
- Can we get Tungsten bullets please? I know that the silver is related to a medieval vampire-hunting technique and the tungsten isn't, but why wouldn't there be an equality?

Hardmode ores:
This is in my opinion the worst imbalance between alternates. Players usually hope for the 1.2 version novelties when breaking altars, and the Cobalt and Mythril gear are almost always left out/skipped...
Also, YES I know that we can get anything from fishing crates, but that is a side method of obtaining materials and a player should be able to willingly ignore that method without being at a disadvantage.
- Since the 1.2 alternate armours had extra stats rather than simple damage/crit/speed buffs, it would be nice if Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite were better in defence/damage/speed than Palladium, Orichalcum, and Titanium. A movement speed bonus would be thematic for Cobalt, since it is based on Japanese stealth warriors. Mythril could have a damage bonus, since it doesn't already have one. Adamantite should have a defence close to Hallowed Armour since it is the strongest material in Greek mythology. Basically I propose choice between better stats and a fancy effect.
- I think weapons should have equal stats between alternates. Ori repeater should just be a reskin of the mythril one.

Other than that, the only alternates I would support ADDING are The River and the Sky Crystals.
 
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I think that the alternates in Terraria (Crimson-Corruption, cobalt-palladium, etc.) have to be balanced with each other and that a player should not prefer or "hope" to get the stronger version every time.

Here are some changes I would be very grateful for:

Corruption/Crimson (pre-Hardmode):
- There could be an equivalent to Worm Tooth and Unholy Arrows in Crimson.
- Maybe also a sword similar to the Night's Edge, but crafted only with the Blood Butcherer (Night's Edge would in that case be crafted only with Light's Bane)...
- Expert drops from BoC and EoW are unbalanced. Buffing or reworking the Brain of Confusion, for example making it a movement speed- or damage-boosting accessory (as opposed to the Worm Scarf's damage resistance, would be great.
- I understand that the Ancient Shadow armour is an artifact from Terraria 1.0, so I would not say that we need an ancient Crimson armour.

Corruption/Crimson (Hardmode):
- Floaty Gross should spawn on the surface because Corruptors spawn on the surface
- Crimslime should drop the Blindfold because Corrupt Slimes do
- Toxikarp should be a melee weapon. It consumes no ammo, has a short range, and is the counterpart to Bladetongue.

Pre-Hardmode Ores:
- The strength of gem staffs is defined by the rarity of the gems, so I don't see an imbalance there.
- I (and probably many others) usually skip Copper, Iron, and Silver Armour and their alternates, but Gold/Platinum need a balance IMO. Why would the strongest pre-boss armour be determined by RNG? Maybe the Gold Armour should have the same stats as the Platinum one. Maybe the Gold should have a bonus stat. Please decide.
- Can we get Tungsten bullets please? I know that the silver is related to a medieval vampire-hunting technique and the tungsten isn't, but why wouldn't there be an equality?

Hardmode ores:
This is in my opinion the worst imbalance between alternates. Players usually hope for the 1.2 version novelties when breaking altars, and the Cobalt and Mythril gear are almost always left out/skipped...
Also, YES I know that we can get anything from fishing crates, but that is a side method of obtaining materials and a player should be able to willingly ignore that method without being at a disadvantage.
- Since the 1.2 alternate armours had extra stats rather than simple damage/crit/speed buffs, it would be nice if Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite were better in defence/damage/speed than Palladium, Orichalcum, and Titanium. A movement speed bonus would be thematic for Cobalt, since it is based on Japanese stealth warriors. Mythril could have a damage bonus, since it doesn't already have one. Adamantite should have a defence close to Hallowed Armour since it is the strongest material in Greek mythology. Basically I propose choice between better stats and a fancy effect.
- I think weapons should have equal stats between alternates. Ori repeater should just be a reskin of the mythril one.
Corruption/Crimson:
Sure, new content is always welcome, and that's what you're mostly suggesting. The brain has needed a buff/rework for a long time too.

Corruption/Crimson:
None of these changes are needed. The Corruption and Crimson don't have an identical number of enemies at any point of the game, and Crimslimes don't inflict darkness so they shouldn't drop the blindfold (however, if they added the bandage to the drop pool and let it inflict Bleeding then that would be a good way to draw parallels imo.) Also the toxicarp doesn't have a hitbox with the weapon itself, so saying that it needs to be melee is like saying that the painball gun needs to be melee.

Pre hardmode ores:
Sure, buff the weaker ones to have higher damage than the stronger ones, that way you get more damage but lower defense on them.
Tungsten bullets are fine, I guess? I think they should have higher damage but make silver bullets oneshot werewolves (they have coding like that for the stake launcher and vampires, after all).

Hardmode Ores:
I'd rather they just add a fancy effect to the three weaker ones, more options=more fun, and doing what you suggested still makes it so that cobalt isn't a good option.
 
The Corruption and Crimson don't have an identical number of enemies at any point of the game, and Crimslimes don't inflict darkness so they shouldn't drop the blindfold

My point is that a Crimson world should not have more difficulty in obtaining an accessory as global as the Ankh Shield. Make Crimslimes inflict darkness, why not?
 
My point is that a Crimson world should not have more difficulty in obtaining an accessory as global as the Ankh Shield. Make Crimslimes inflict darkness, why not?
Ankh shield is overrated, literally all of its debuffs are easy to avoid if you actually know what you're doing or do basically nothing to hinder you (darkness being one of them.)
 
Ankh shield is overrated, literally all of its debuffs are easy to avoid if you actually know what you're doing or do basically nothing to hinder you (darkness being one of them.)
"Overrated" is only your opinion. It is not a justification to make it less accessible to Crimson players than Corruption players.
 
"Overrated" is only your opinion. It is not a justification to make it less accessible to Crimson players than Corruption players.
Dark Mummies are in Crimson Worlds and Drop it. I feel like crimslimes should inflict bleeding and drop the bandage anyway because it works MUCH better thematically and gives Crimson worlds a different advantage which doesn't actually mean anything in the long term (unlike dropping nothing).
 
I was about to make a thread suggesting that they rework the weaker hard mode ores for Journey's end, but I'm glad I found this one.

I would suggest both a sprite and set bonus overhaul, and they can then add the older sets as ancient versions, which could either work like other ancient sets or become vanity items since there's so many of them.
As far as other changes go, I like most of them, but I also think that these choices should matter, and there should be tradeoffs to every choice.

Considering the new changes to the world creation screen, I would put forth an idea to allow you to customize what ores you get beforehand but still leave the option to randomize it for those who prefer the mystery/challenge. You could pick between each ore for both pre and post-hard mode ores, or just pick a few and randomize the rest. With a rebalance of the ores, this could make world-creation much more tactical. ;)

Maybe Bloody Arrows (Spider Leg + Wooden Arrow x5) for the Unholy Arrows counterpart, and Spider legs (from Blood Crawlers) for the Worm Tooth counterpart. Maybe the Bloody Arrows could be sold by the Arms Dealer after killing the BoC and/or WoF.

I would change that to Gruesome arrows but keep everything else. As for its unique effect, since unholy arrows, pierce, Gruesome arrows could have severe weakening effects to single-target enemies. Likely speed and/or damage reduction, since ichor arrows affect defense.

Ankh shield is overrated, literally all of its debuffs are easy to avoid if you actually know what you're doing or do basically nothing to hinder you (darkness being one of them.)

I disagree with this notion, since a lot of the debuffs it protects from are admittedly avoidable, but many of them can last for a long time if you make a mistake. For people who do a lot of exploring, it definitely has its uses. But you do you, bro.
 
I disagree with this notion, since a lot of the debuffs it protects from are admittedly avoidable, but many of them can last for a long time if you make a mistake. For people who do a lot of exploring, it definitely has its uses. But you do you, bro.
Doesn't change the fact that it's grossly overrated to the point that almost everyone has farmed for it at some point because of how much people have bloated it's use. Literally ONE enemy inflicts any of the debuffs it protects against to me in expert mode. That is the Necromancer, and the debuff in question (slowed) isn't even particularly bad because you can just switch to your grappling hook/mount for movement.

It doesn't protect against any actually dangerous debuffs, because I actually have to TRY to get inflicted with Cursed or Silenced. It doesn't protect against On Fire!, Electrified, Distorted, Obstructed, Cursed Inferno, or Ichor. Which are all actually threatening debuffs which you can get inflicted by without deliberately trying to.

I suppose if you for some bizarre reason can't avoid touching enemies that are slowly flying/walking towards you and give a whole lot of warning (meaning, you have the reflexes of a snail) then it can help you. But I do not have the reflexes of a snail, so I never got much use out of it.
 
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It doesn't protect against On Fire!, Electrified, Distorted, Obstructed, Cursed Inferno, or Ichor. Which are all actually threatening debuffs which you can get inflicted by without deliberately trying to.

Adding to this, even if it was buffed to protect against every single debuff I still would rarely use it just because it protects you from a very specific thing, instead of any other other accessory that helps you against every attack from any enemy.
 
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