1.3.6 Preview: Block Swap

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Hello Terrarians!

As you have noticed from the recent slate of spoilers, our work on Terraria 1.3.6 is bearing some exciting fruit! This update has a lot more in store than we have shared, and with that in mind, we wanted to share one new quality of life feature that we find particularly exciting.


This new feature, which we are calling Block Swap, allows players to replace one block with another without having to break the previous block first! Tired of the way your house looks? Now you no longer have to tear the whole house down to change it. Need to clean up those random clay and stone blocks in your yard? Just swap them all out with your block of choice - much faster than mining them all individually!



Block Swap uses the mining power of the strongest Pickaxe in your inventory. Therefore, you will not be able to replace blocks that you cannot mine and it will take the same number of "swings" to replace a tile that your current pickaxe takes to mine the same block. Here are some additional fun features that Block Swap will bring to Terrarians everywhere:
- Block Swap can be used to change floor (and ceiling) blocks that furniture items are attached to, without breaking the furniture items
- Swapped blocks will keep the hammered shape that the previous blocks had
- Swapped blocks will be actuated if the original block was also actuated
- As an added bonus, you can now swap one chest for a different style of chest without having to empty it first!


Having played around with this feature for a while now, we can confidently say that this is one of those quality of life improvements that we have no idea how we ever lived without. We can’t wait until it is in your hands to see if you agree! Work on 1.3.6 is moving along at a strong pace – stay tuned for further details on what it will contain and when it might arrive. :)
I already saw an exploit, If you use the block swap on ore blocks, It will potentially render pickaxes as useless.
Anyway, It's about time block swap came, It is a very welcome feature, but better unallow ore blocks from
being swapped.
 
I already saw an exploit, If you use the block swap on ore blocks, It will potentially render pickaxes as useless.
Anyway, It's about time block swap came, It is a very welcome feature, but better unallow ore blocks from
being swapped.
But it requires that pickaxe to be in inventory, plus you won't have that protective overswing that a pickaxe provides.

And in the case of molten pickaxe or fire imbuements, no light either.
 
I already saw an exploit, If you use the block swap on ore blocks, It will potentially render pickaxes as useless.
Anyway, It's about time block swap came, It is a very welcome feature, but better unallow ore blocks from
being swapped.

Check out this from the very post you quoted;

Block Swap uses the mining power of the strongest Pickaxe in your inventory. Therefore, you will not be able to replace blocks that you cannot mine and it will take the same number of "swings" to replace a tile that your current pickaxe takes to mine the same block.

To say nothing of the fact that you still need to dig through areas as well, and you will usually need a pickaxe for that, or at least bombs. What if you need to actually dig THROUGH the ore vein to get the the other end of the ore? :)
 
This is really nice! This update seems to be focused on optimizations and QoL changes, which is really nice! It seems this update is drawing closer now, so many spoilers as of late!
 
Alright, since I have a habit of overthinking absolutely everything and my curiosity is endless, I'll ask a couple more questions(sorry)

-If you manage increase the range of block swapping to be longer than item pickup range, will the swapped block just stay inside the new block as an item or will it still gravitate towards you?
-This can be toggled off, right? Well, it most probably can, as you seem to add an option to turn off most of the features you add
-will you be able to swap platforms or other things like that?
-can you replace blocks with blocks you can pass through, like wood beams, inactive wired stone blocks(whatever they were called) or living flames?
-Can this be used to cheese Hellstone mining(aka no lava will ever harm you because you just immediately replace the Hellstone with some dirt or something)
-if you can replace anything with dirt, wouldn't that make the Dirt Rod OP(joke question)


Okay, since I got more idea while thinking of questions, I'll add some uses for this feature I think I'll try
-Creating ceilings and floors to mines with half the effort
-preventing sand from falling on you while mining through sand, just replace the sand ceiling with some blocks before mining below them
-playing around with Midas' Touch(turning things into gold [bricks])
-Changing the theme of a house without interrupting the NPC living inside
-reverting corruption, block by block
-easy biome changing in farms
-attempting to turn a biome chest into a regular chest
-Upgrading my chest room, if only visually
-turning the Biome chests into trashcans
-turning an entire floating island into sand and watching what shape it forms into when the sand falls
-safer Meteor mining
-replacing the blocks beneath the local Demon Altar to not be dirt and stone
 
Some really awesome stuff here! you did the great work.
Btw, what if i try to replace hellstone ore? will the lava spawn and prevent block swapping or not?
 
So many of us really wished for that kind of feature when destroying/rebuilding houses and stuff, and you guys make it happen :D. Terraria is an awesome game, but what is trully amazing is the fact that the team behind this game keep polishing/upgrading it with such dedication and quality. You are the best!
 
Block Swap this is of course cool, but to renew the interest of players you must add at least 1000 new items..
 
I can imagine getting annoyed by turning all my chests into boreal wood chests and the name still being "Chest" but that's probably better than chests being renamed to the new chest's default..

Also, if I'm not mistaken, that grass moved when walked past, didn't it?
 
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