NPCs & Enemies NPCs acting in self defense, Guards

Lecic

Steampunker
This is a two part suggestion.

Town NPCs Self Defense

First, I would like to see NPCs defend themselves when cornered by monsters. What they use to defend themselves would vary depending on who the NPC is. NPCs without weapons use their fists, which do 1 damage but have decent knockback.
  • The Arms Dealer uses a flintlock with musket balls pre-hardmode, and a shotgun with silver bullets in hardmode.
  • The Merchant uses a sickle during halloween, and throwing knives the rest of the year.
  • The Pirate uses a cutlass
  • The Witch Doctor uses a blowgun
  • The Wizard uses an ice rod
  • The Traveling Merchant uses the highest damage weapon in his inventory, provided he has one. Otherwise, he reverts to fists
  • The Truffle uses a mushroom spear
  • The Mechanic hits enemies with a wrench, but is functionally the same as fists
  • The Goblin Tinkerer throws spiky balls
  • The Steampunker uses a clockwork assault rifle with high velocity bullets
  • The Angler hits enemies with a wooden fishing rod, but it is functionally the same as fists
  • The Demolitionist uses grenades, and does not take explosive damage from his own grenades
  • The Cyborg uses a proximity mine launcher and type one missiles
  • Santa Claus uses a candy cane sword

NPCs will only attack monsters if they are unable to escape from them. NPCs will also be annoyed with you and refuse to sell or perform actions (like reforging, healing, etc) for a day if you hit them with rotten eggs or stink potions. You can make them friendly again if you throw a love potion at them. If you attack the Clothier or the Guide via voodoo doll, they will defend themselves by punching you until you run away or die. They will be annoyed with you for the rest of the day and refuse to perform actions/sell items.

Guards, Guard Captain, and Barracks

Guards are a new town NPC. However, they are not used to sell items or provide information. Their goal is to defend a town. The first NPC you will get is a Guard Captain. He will move into town once you have at least 4 town NPCs and a "Barrack Office," a special type of home. A Barrack Office is similar to a normal home, but must contain a weapon rack and a chest as well as the standard furniture. The Guard Captain will give you the status of all other Guards, including their names, current health, current armor, current weapon, current objective and the time since they were last paid (more on that later).

Guards are NPCs with 3 requirements- A Guard Captain lives in town, there is an open slot in the barracks, and at least 4 NPCs live in the town, excluding the Guard Captain. Every Guard in town increases the number on NPCs needed for a new one to spawn by 4. So, when you first get your Guard Captain, you will be able to have one Guard. Then, you'll need 8 NPCs for the next one, 12 for the one after that, and so on. With 21 current town NPCs, this caps out at 5 Guards.

Guards live in Barracks. Barracks are a new type of home, specifically for Guards. Barracks must have...
  • One bed per Guard, with at least one block separating each bed
  • Proper Lighting
  • One weapon rack per Guard
  • One mannequin per Guard
  • At least one entrance connecting to the Barrack Office.
Guards will spawn in wearing iron/lead armor and broadsword (depending on what the world generated with). Their appearance is randomly generated. The player can interact with them in two ways- changing their armor, weapons, and accessory, and paying them to do various guard duties. They have 300 HP.

The first part gives a use to all of those weapons and armor that you've outgrown as your progress through the game, besides just selling them for coins. You can also equip them with a single accessory. Guards cannot use summoner or magic weapons. This is because they have no mana pool, and I'm not even sure if it's possible for NPCs to HAVE a mana pool. Guards only use the most basic type of ammunition for ranged weapons.

The second part is the main use of Guards. You can pay a guard a small fee (10 or so silver) to do one of a few things- protect a specific spot from monsters, wander within the town, defending from monsters (town border is defined by the edge of the area where town NPCs lower enemy spawn rates), and defending you. You can also tell them to return to the barracks and rest, which costs nothing. The player can manually pay Guards to do tasks, but that would be annoying for larger groups of Guards. So, I offer up this solution. The chest in the Guard Captain's Barrack Office can have coins placed into it, and coins in it will automatically be "paid" to Guards currently performing tasks at the start of each new day. If Guards are not paid, they will automatically return to the barracks and rest.

Guards only have a 50% chance to drop each item they are wearing when they die, so you should be careful not to take them to dangerous events like boss fights, unless you are prepared for them to possibly die and lose their gear.
 
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Kinda interesting I say, though the guards, they can wear any weapon right?
And 10 silver is kinda fair enough,

Edit: Forgot the Support
:)
 
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Kinda interesting I say, though the guards, they can wear any weapon right?
And 10 silver is kinda fair enough,

Yeah, any weapon, besides summoner ones. I was considering making them unable to use magic weapons ("they aren't magically gifted" or something) to counteract the fact that there is probably no easy way to get them to have mana. What do you think of that?
 
Yeah, any weapon, besides summoner ones. I was considering making them unable to use magic weapons ("they aren't magically gifted" or something) to counteract the fact that there is probably no easy way to get them to have mana. What do you think of that?

Actually its good, Guards usually don't use much magic weapons, except for those in some games and movies
:)
 
I've edited in the part about not being able to use magic weapons, and added what ammo type the Guards will use.
 
Will the ice rod's ice blocks interact with the player character? If so, it might mess up the player's planning and movement within the area around the wizard. Then I'd suggest having him resort to fists and maybe, due to his age, lower the knockback on those a bit.

I don't know if I should support this yet. For me, the only time when my npcs get wiped out is when I summon the Destroyer pre-Plantera. Sometimes NPCs die during blood moons or solar eclipses but they respawn within a day and Terraria offers enough activities to keep a player busy for 24 minutes.
 
Why doesn't the Merchant throw, say, shurikens or shoot a bow?

You bring up a good point, about throwing weapons. Though it'd be throwing knives, wouldn't it? They are better, after all. Why would he shoot a bow? I'm pretty sure he doesn't sell any bows...

I chose sickle, though, because it's a melee weapon sold by him. Only during halloween, though. Maybe he uses throwing knives most of the year, but uses a sickle during halloween?
 
I really, really love this idea! Also, for the Guide defending himself I think he should use Demon Scythes, to represent he's not normal, and his connecting to the Wall of Flesh. Also, rather then putting the money in the chest, you should pay it to the guard captain directly.

(A smaller idea, it would be interesting if the Guard Captain was renamed the Paladin, and the guards were renamed Knights. Doesn't have to be added, just an idea :p)
 
I really, really love this idea! Also, for the Guide defending himself I think he should use Demon Scythes, to represent he's not normal, and his connecting to the Wall of Flesh. Also, rather then putting the money in the chest, you should pay it to the guard captain directly.

(A smaller idea, it would be interesting if the Guard Captain was renamed the Paladin, and the guards were renamed Knights. Doesn't have to be added, just an idea :p)

The whole point of the money in the chest was so a player could drop a dozen gold in there and not really worry about guards leaving their posts for lack of pay for a while. If you could give a bunch of money to the guard captain to pay out to guards over time, then sure, maybe that would work too.

As for your name change, maybe. I think I'll keep it as-is for now.
 
One BIG mystake was that you said the travelling merchant would use the best weapon in his inventory, considering he could have pulse bow (even thought its a small chance)
Otherwise, support <3
 
One BIG mystake was that you said the travelling merchant would use the best weapon in his inventory, considering he could have pulse bow (even thought its a small chance)
Otherwise, support <3

It's not like they attack offensively, only if they can't run away. So, yeah, he might kill a few zombies or possessed armors after getting trapped against a wall, but is that really a big deal? And the chance is so tiny that it's not like people could exploit it.
 
AMAZING. I love this. Every time i summon the pumpkin moon while pumpkins spawn killing me 5-6 npcs always die. Excellent idea I support 100%
 
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