LightPhoenix
Terrarian
My general feeling is that wiring is neat, and more complex functionality would be good, but the bigger issue is that a number of players simply don't use it because there's little obvious and apparent utility. These players might wire up an actuated wall-door, or maybe use pumps to make fishing holes, but nothing more complicated than that. In general, my suggestion would be to add more utility, and personally I think the focus needs to be on that over functionality, although both can certainly coexist.
There are a lot of good suggestions in the thread for functionality, many of which I think can be covered by two (maybe three) relatively simple functional pieces:
1) A "continuous" timer that sends a pulse every frame versus a timed interval (and the C fits on the sprite!)
2) A pressure plate, button, or other interact-able object that acts as a continuous switch as above.
3) (Optional) Logical gates, although with pulse-based timing this doesn't work as well. Having a "continuous" timer ameliorates this somewhat.
With that out of the way, the bigger design space to tackle is utility. Right now wiring doesn't interact with a lot of systems, and in some inconsistently (statues). So, with that in mind:
1) All statues should have some kind of effect when wired. See all of the examples in the thread. This makes statues more valuable and wiring more attractive. Make the Chest Statue a third player-linked inventory (like the Piggy Bank/Safe) that functions when wired.
2) Gathering bait for fishing can be a huge pain in the butt. A big QoL feature which would be easy to implement is a Worm Statue that you can wire up to drop worms. It doesn't have to be worms, any bait would work. This not only provides more incentive for wiring, but also makes fishing a little easier as well. I wouldn't recommend anything more than this though (like an automated system), since you don't want to trivialize that aspect of the game.
3) With the introduction of the Alchemy Table in 1.3, I think utilizing the wiring system to provide that benefit to some (but not all) other recipes would be interesting. Perhaps wiring up some basic crafting stations would give them a chance not to consume materials as well, although 33% might be high. I'm thinking something like an Wired Work Bench where you have a chance to consume *less* materials - a 50% chance to spend 50% materials (minimum 1).
4) Speaking of alchemy, there are some improvements that could be made to growing here, and wiring is a useful and thematic way to do so. It would be nice if there were a way to make plants bloom outside of their normal ranges. Perhaps this could be some sort of wired Growing Lamp that makes a plant below it bloom under any condition. Maybe it could be a Watering Hose that causes plants to grow faster.
5) For those people that would like to reduce the grind of item hunting, a possible use for wiring could be an effect that enhances drop chances. Someone above mentioned wiring up banners and trophies, and I think that would be a good way to implement it without completely bypassing the grind. After all, if you've already killed 50 monsters, taking that 1% drop and upping it to 2% isn't a drastic change, and anything above 2% you statistically should have gotten already.
6) With Overworld coming up, having some sort of automated terraforming could be an interesting addition to the game. Clentamination is the quick and expensive option (but needs more solutions...), and Terraforming could be the slow and less-expensive option. Plop down a device, and it slowly spreads the biome just like the Corruption/Crimson/Hallow spread right now. With the pulsing nature of timers right now, you could say it has a 1% chance to spread biome - about one block every minute and a half with a one second timer. Make it limited to a specific radius, and it's a decent fire-and-forget option that isn't grossly out of line. No more beehive? No problem - the Honeyformer creates a new one for you!
7) A minor suggestion that after typing it I'm less keen on - either allow Water Candles to be toggled on/off, or introduce a new option that allows something similar (Candle Statue?). Again, this is an example of something that has a lot of utility, has all the pieces already in play, is not unbalancing, but avoids the hassle of placing and picking up Candles over and over again. It could even be a recipe that uses the Water Candle so that the player has to choose something mobile or something triggered.
There are a lot of good suggestions in the thread for functionality, many of which I think can be covered by two (maybe three) relatively simple functional pieces:
1) A "continuous" timer that sends a pulse every frame versus a timed interval (and the C fits on the sprite!)
2) A pressure plate, button, or other interact-able object that acts as a continuous switch as above.
3) (Optional) Logical gates, although with pulse-based timing this doesn't work as well. Having a "continuous" timer ameliorates this somewhat.
With that out of the way, the bigger design space to tackle is utility. Right now wiring doesn't interact with a lot of systems, and in some inconsistently (statues). So, with that in mind:
1) All statues should have some kind of effect when wired. See all of the examples in the thread. This makes statues more valuable and wiring more attractive. Make the Chest Statue a third player-linked inventory (like the Piggy Bank/Safe) that functions when wired.
2) Gathering bait for fishing can be a huge pain in the butt. A big QoL feature which would be easy to implement is a Worm Statue that you can wire up to drop worms. It doesn't have to be worms, any bait would work. This not only provides more incentive for wiring, but also makes fishing a little easier as well. I wouldn't recommend anything more than this though (like an automated system), since you don't want to trivialize that aspect of the game.
3) With the introduction of the Alchemy Table in 1.3, I think utilizing the wiring system to provide that benefit to some (but not all) other recipes would be interesting. Perhaps wiring up some basic crafting stations would give them a chance not to consume materials as well, although 33% might be high. I'm thinking something like an Wired Work Bench where you have a chance to consume *less* materials - a 50% chance to spend 50% materials (minimum 1).
4) Speaking of alchemy, there are some improvements that could be made to growing here, and wiring is a useful and thematic way to do so. It would be nice if there were a way to make plants bloom outside of their normal ranges. Perhaps this could be some sort of wired Growing Lamp that makes a plant below it bloom under any condition. Maybe it could be a Watering Hose that causes plants to grow faster.
5) For those people that would like to reduce the grind of item hunting, a possible use for wiring could be an effect that enhances drop chances. Someone above mentioned wiring up banners and trophies, and I think that would be a good way to implement it without completely bypassing the grind. After all, if you've already killed 50 monsters, taking that 1% drop and upping it to 2% isn't a drastic change, and anything above 2% you statistically should have gotten already.
6) With Overworld coming up, having some sort of automated terraforming could be an interesting addition to the game. Clentamination is the quick and expensive option (but needs more solutions...), and Terraforming could be the slow and less-expensive option. Plop down a device, and it slowly spreads the biome just like the Corruption/Crimson/Hallow spread right now. With the pulsing nature of timers right now, you could say it has a 1% chance to spread biome - about one block every minute and a half with a one second timer. Make it limited to a specific radius, and it's a decent fire-and-forget option that isn't grossly out of line. No more beehive? No problem - the Honeyformer creates a new one for you!
7) A minor suggestion that after typing it I'm less keen on - either allow Water Candles to be toggled on/off, or introduce a new option that allows something similar (Candle Statue?). Again, this is an example of something that has a lot of utility, has all the pieces already in play, is not unbalancing, but avoids the hassle of placing and picking up Candles over and over again. It could even be a recipe that uses the Water Candle so that the player has to choose something mobile or something triggered.