Console Dual Threat: Terraria is Coming to Wii U and 3DS

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It looks great, but now I'm a bit curious as to what exactly I'm seeing along the left and right sides of the bottom screen. 13 item slots is too big for the hotbar, so there's something a bit more complex being shown. Would you mind elaborating on those item slots visible on the sides of the touch screen, as well as the two arrows at the touch screen's top?
 
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2 hotbars? That's weird. Also, what's that thing you're targeting?

What you're seeing there is the 'soft' target, ie. the thing that is in the direction I'm pointing the stick. In this case, a Demon Eye (not the bookcase!). I can lock to that target too, and it'll stay locked until unlocked or killed.

The hot bars I will explain below...
 
It looks great, but now I'm a bit curious as to what exactly I'm seeing along the left and right sides of the bottom screen. 13 item slots is too big for the hotbar, so there's something a bit more complex being shown. Would you mind elaborating on those item slots visible on the sides of the touch screen, as well as the two arrows at the touch screen's top?

What you are seeing here is the new UI for 'Building Mode/Precision Mode' (name TBC). Now when you're in this mode, you get your 'best' of each of the five tool types autoselected in the left pane. The right pane shows all of your buildable/placeable items in a scrollable list. This means you've got immediate access to EVERYTHING on one screen, and there's no requirement to swap back to main inventory to select your next item.

The sixth and top slot on the LEFT is a weapon slot. This was added into the game after we produced the EGX demo build, and is the further UI evolution I mentioned before. That slot will be autopopulated with your currently selected weapon when you go into that mode, but tapping on that slot will cycle all your available weapons in that slot in inventory order.

The goal is to give you everything you need to make building as intuitive as possible, but also give you the possibility to switch to a weapon quickly if you need to quickly batter something.

I realise all this is new functionality, but it works really intuitively.

Oh, and the arrows as part of the pane hide and unhide the UI as you require it. These panes don't overlap the buildable area so you may never need that functionality, but some of the devs like it :)
 
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What you're seeing there is the 'soft' target, ie. the thing that is in the direction I'm pointing the stick. In this case, a Demon Eye (not the bookcase!). I can lock to that target too, and it'll stay locked until unlocked or killed.

The hot bars I will explain below...
Haha no I actually didn't know what that was. I wa susing my phone to see the image and the quality was bad. I didn't know it was an Eye. I thought it may be some exclusive monster. Speaking of exclusives, have you secured any deals with Nintendo?
 
Love the new UI, it looks great.

Also, this isn't really a big thing, but does the selected item icon on the top screen remind anyone else of A Link To The Past? Just, the way it looks?
 
Haha no I actually didn't know what that was. I wa susing my phone to see the image and the quality was bad. I didn't know it was an Eye. I thought it may be some exclusive monster. Speaking of exclusives, have you secured any deals with Nintendo?
Deanzor has already informed you that he won't have anything to say about that for some time. Repeatedly asking him won't speed things up. Please try to be patient and enjoy what he has been able to show us and talk about :)
 
I saw via Twitter this had appeared on YouTube:

Yep, just saw that on Nintendo Life (who seems to be directly affiliated with Family Gamer TV) before coming here. Of course I have some questions.

I suppose I'll start with what's below the hotbar in the default touch screen interface. From what I can interpret, the icon on the right controls NPC housing, and on the left seems to be a "stack to chests" button of some sort. Looking at the middle button more, it seems like a "throw item" button, but it's difficult to tell. Mind clarifying on these three icons?

In the character equipment screen, I didn't see any dye slots. Are they going to be present in the final version? (or are they present here and I just didn't notice?)

Also, I noticed that from time to time the person playing would open the keyboard to edit the gravestones, but the full message wasn't properly copied over onto the bottom screen's inferface. At 8:08 the player saved the message without changing anything, which decreased the message to the new, incomplete version. Is this an issue that has yet to be fixed?

And looking at the water, it would appear that water physics now react instantly to environmental changes in order to save RAM, correct? If so, that's definitely not a bad idea. I imagine water calculations are probably pretty expensive.

Also, not a question, but I thought I'd mention that, as you had said before, the build at EGX has what is an already outdated interface, with the screenshot you (Deanzor) posted being the new interface. At 7:05 the player is attacked by a bat that makes swift work of them due to the player's inability to quickly equip a weapon (not to mention wandering into biomes that they aren't strong enough to explore yet) using the old interface, so that was a good call to add that in to the latest version.

With every new video and screenshot that I see of the 3DS version, the less I can wait to get my hands on it. It's looking superb so far.

...Oh, that's right. Nintendo Life's article seems to be reporting that "the 3DS version of the game will support online multiplayer". Considering you said that it, at the very least, won't have online at launch, I take it this is a bit of a factual error on the news site's part?
 
Yep, just saw that on Nintendo Life (who seems to be directly affiliated with Family Gamer TV) before coming here. Of course I have some questions.

I suppose I'll start with what's below the hotbar in the default touch screen interface. From what I can interpret, the icon on the right controls NPC housing, and on the left seems to be a "stack to chests" button of some sort. Looking at the middle button more, it seems like a "throw item" button, but it's difficult to tell. Mind clarifying on these three icons?

You're spot on, which I guess means we got the icons right! The middle button is 'drop into world' basically. You can drag hotbar items onto that area, at which point it becomes active. Reason for this is we want to let you drop stuff in multiplayer and the like, but it needs to be very deliberate. So not on a button you might accidentally hit to chuck away your primary weapon in combat.

In the character equipment screen, I didn't see any dye slots. Are they going to be present in the final version? (or are they present here and I just didn't notice?)

I would say they are unlikely to make it, but I'm loathe as ever to talk about content with that still in flux.

Also, I noticed that from time to time the person playing would open the keyboard to edit the gravestones, but the full message wasn't properly copied over onto the bottom screen's inferface. At 8:08 the player saved the message without changing anything, which decreased the message to the new, incomplete version. Is this an issue that has yet to be fixed?

Yeah, there are still bugs. There's a character limit on the keyboard input though, so if you edit a sign the chances are you'll have to come up with something that's shorter than what the game put on there. We'll do what we can, but I think that's a 3DS-side restriction.

And looking at the water, it would appear that water physics now react instantly to environmental changes in order to save RAM, correct? If so, that's definitely not a bad idea. I imagine water calculations are probably pretty expensive.

Yeah, basically. We've had to optimise a lot of the more complicated stuff to get it working on 3DS. Hopefully not at the cost of gameplay, of course.

Also, not a question, but I thought I'd mention that, as you had said before, the build at EGX has what is an already outdated interface, with the screenshot you (Deanzor) posted being the new interface. At 7:05 the player is attacked by a bat that makes swift work of them due to the player's inability to quickly equip a weapon (not to mention wandering into biomes that they aren't strong enough to explore yet) using the old interface, so that was a good call to add that in to the latest version.

It was Mr Spinks' idea, and CodeGlue found a way to make it work. So fair play to those guys, I was already resigned to us having to do without it. Glad I was proven wrong!

With every new video and screenshot that I see of the 3DS version, the less I can wait to get my hands on it. It's looking superb so far.

Thanks, we really appreciate that. You guys were always going to be the most difficult to please!

...Oh, that's right. Nintendo Life's article seems to be reporting that "the 3DS version of the game will support online multiplayer". Considering you said that it, at the very least, won't have online at launch, I take it this is a bit of a factual error on the news site's part?

I've not spoken to Nintendo Life, but seems like a misunderstanding on their part. Nothing has changed on that score from what I said previously.
 
You're spot on, which I guess means we got the icons right! The middle button is 'drop into world' basically. You can drag hotbar items onto that area, at which point it becomes active. Reason for this is we want to let you drop stuff in multiplayer and the like, but it needs to be very deliberate. So not on a button you might accidentally hit to chuck away your primary weapon in combat.
To be fair, I did mistake the button on the left for "stack coins to chests" at first, and only changed my mind after I eventually wrapped my mind around the middle button's purpose and also realized a button specifically for depositing coins would be pretty odd and situational. The graphic indicating an item looks a lot like a silver coin on its side to me, but perhaps that's just my own faulty perceptions at work. Plus, I can't really give any recommendations for a graphic that would look as generic as the current one but better convey it's not coins. Plus, I suppose I've just displayed that I could figure it out given a few minutes of thinking rationally.
Yeah, there are still bugs. There's a character limit on the keyboard input though, so if you edit a sign the chances are you'll have to come up with something that's shorter than what the game put on there. We'll do what we can, but I think that's a 3DS-side restriction.
That's actually very interesting, as well as a bit unfortunate. I've noticed that a few select titles (Animal Crossing: New Leaf springs to mind) actually possess their own keyboard built into the software, rather than relying on the 3DS's standard keyboard. Other than those few titles, the use of the built-in keyboard seems to have become nearly universal, especially with games made later in the 3DS lifecycle. And I'll clarify: I'm not saying you should make your own keyboard for this game. I was just providing a premise for my follow-up statement. It won't kill anyone to have something of a character limit in place, knowing you've already looked into it.
Yeah, basically. We've had to optimise a lot of the more complicated stuff to get it working on 3DS. Hopefully not at the cost of gameplay, of course.
I kid you not when I say that I saw people complaining about the last build FGTV showed off because it didn't have biome backgrounds, and instead only had the blue sky and clouds. They were talking about it as if it was a deal-breaker that ruined the entire Terraria experience. I'm certain the optimization of water is probably going to bother, if not alienate, a lot of people, but those are the kinds of people who will apparently be upset by any kind of difference between the 3DS and other versions. It can't be helped on 96MB of RAM.

I understand that it's wise to be sparing in providing information about a game (or more specifically a port in this game) still in development, so I'm quite grateful with how open you and 505 Games has been so far about changes being made during development. I have something of an aversion to PC gaming nowadays, and prefer to stick to consoles, but I do remember Terraria fondly from when I did play the PC game. This port is definitely one of my most anticipated upcoming releases.

And I suppose I'll also note, as some already have, that I'd also be interested in a possible Terraria 3DS theme.
 
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I would say they are unlikely to make it, but I'm loathe as ever to talk about content with that still in flux.
We might not get dyes? I could understand not having like, 1.3's special dyes, but none at all seems kinda odd, that's one of the bigger things of the game for me, is having dyes.
 
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