Portfolio/Multi-Topic A series of ideas related to Shimmer (the 4th liquid)

[>>Terrarian<<]

Hello people! I've been thinking since the Labor of Love update came, and I thought how there is a lack of new blocks for the other combinations of Shimmer and other liquids (not water). I think that was a lazy decision and I would like to suggest some updates and better versions to it. Let me get started:

- Shimmer + Water will keep as it is, generating Aetherium Block;
- Shimmer + Honey should result in

Spoiler: Royal Jelly Block

Royal Jelly Block would have pinkish-violet color, emit light and sparkles.
It would be the only Block in the game that is able to avoid the player to go through it when he is incorporeal.
Enemies that get incorporeal (they just get invisible in practice) by entering the Shimmer can go through this block only.
New crafting recipe: x quantity of the block + Ectoplasm @ Heavy work bench + Ecto mist =

Spoiler: Spectre Block

The Spectre Block would have the ability to make ghost enemies unable to go through it and instead, collide with it.

and
- Shimmer + Lava should result in

Spoiler: Shimmerite ore

Shimmerite ore could be really good to melt into bars and bricks (Shimmerite Brick).
With the Shimmerite Bars, there could be made powerful (maybe even OP, if not balanced) armor, depending on the head part:
- Melee bonus: Shimmer Refletion, exactly as the liquid, reflecting all shoot or cast projectiles;
- Ranged bonus: Incorporeal Bullets, makes any ranged projectile shoot by the player able to go through blocks;
- Magic bonus: Ghost, the player goes through blocks with a maximum of a 3 block wide wall laterally and 2 blocks vertically, by pressing the corresponding key 2 times quickly;
- Summon bonus: Necromancer, the player gains the ability to convert a limited amount of enemies to his side when they are killed, making them temporary minions, as they will have a health bar equal to the one they had when they were alive.

 

[Cave wizard]

While I like the idea of powerful shimmer armor as an alternative to the luminite sets, I wonder how they would be handled. If you can get shimmerite ore right off the bat by just combining lava and shimmer, the armor sets obviously can't be very powerful assuming they can be crafted as soon as the ore is acquired. Since we don't want the possibility of the world being filled with ores that can't be mined for a long time, they can't require very high pickaxe power. I guess one option is to make them easy to get early on, but make the armor sets require late-game materials or crafting stations. For example, requiring the ancient manipulator and/or luminite bars, if we assume that these gear sets are meant to be viable competitors to the already existing luminite sets.
Out of the suggested set effects, melee and summon sound extremely powerful while magic is very underwhelming, essentially being an inferior rod of harmony. I get that it's based on the shimmer pass-through, but it's not all that useful, particularly not with such a restrictive maximum distance. Even if the restriction was removed and it allowed complete freedom to walk through blocks, it wouldn't be of much use by the time it can be made, as it would have limited combat applications at that point because bosses and most dangerous lategame enemies will just hit you through walls. It'd be useful for exploration, but again, the rod of harmony does more or less the same thing.

 

[Schparks]

While I like the idea of powerful shimmer armor as an alternative to the luminite sets, I wonder how they would be handled. If you can get shimmerite ore right off the bat by just combining lava and shimmer, the armor sets obviously can't be very powerful assuming they can be crafted as soon as the ore is acquired. Since we don't want the possibility of the world being filled with ores that can't be mined for a long time, they can't require very high pickaxe power. I guess one option is to make them easy to get early on, but make the armor sets require late-game materials or crafting stations. For example, requiring the ancient manipulator and/or luminite bars, if we assume that these gear sets are meant to be viable competitors to the already existing luminite sets.
Out of the suggested set effects, melee and summon sound extremely powerful while magic is very underwhelming, essentially being an inferior rod of harmony. I get that it's based on the shimmer pass-through, but it's not all that useful, particularly not with such a restrictive maximum distance. Even if the restriction was removed and it allowed complete freedom to walk through blocks, it wouldn't be of much use by the time it can be made, as it would have limited combat applications at that point because bosses and most dangerous lategame enemies will just hit you through walls. It'd be useful for exploration, but again, the rod of harmony does more or less the same thing.

I doubt that anyone is going to be going to the Aether to bring down the Shimmer to a lava pool early game. A higher pickaxe power being required doesn't sound bad to me.

As an alternative to the Magic buff, why not make it so the mana cost of weapons is reduced by 50%? That fits with the theme of magic the shimmer has.

 

[Cave wizard]

I doubt that anyone is going to be going to the Aether to bring down the Shimmer to a lava pool early game. A higher pickaxe power being required doesn't sound bad to me.

As an alternative to the Magic buff, why not make it so the mana cost of weapons is reduced by 50%? That fits with the theme of magic the shimmer has.

I'll admit that it wouldn't be a huge issue, but I was thinking that you probably shouldn't be able to, potentially accidentally, create blocks that you can't get rid of until late hardmode or some such.
The mana cost reduction sounds more useful for combat, though still underwhelming if we're going for "maybe even OP". With a mana regen potion and possibly the nebula armor's mana regen buff, mana recovers quite quickly already. Seems like it would be inferior in a majority of situations as that 45% damage booster should more than make up for the occasional downtime. Come to think of it, that ranged armor bonus seems a little underwhelming, too. Maybe something related to invisibility, which is both fitting for shimmer and something that shroomite armor already established as a "ranged thing". I'm just throwing out ideas.

 

[Schparks]

I'll admit that it wouldn't be a huge issue, but I was thinking that you probably shouldn't be able to, potentially accidentally, create blocks that you can't get rid of until late hardmode or some such.

Something similar to this exists in obsidian. You can create it at any time, but can't mine it until you have a gold/platinum pickaxe (last time I checked.)

The mana cost reduction sounds more useful for combat, though still underwhelming if we're going for "maybe even OP". With a mana regen potion and possibly the nebula armor's mana regen buff, mana recovers quite quickly already. Seems like it would be inferior in a majority of situations as that 45% damage booster should more than make up for the occasional downtime. Come to think of it, that ranged armor bonus seems a little underwhelming, too. Maybe something related to invisibility, which is both fitting for shimmer and something that shroomite armor already established as a "ranged thing". I'm just throwing out ideas.

Very true. I was more trying to come up with something unique, since I'm fairly sure there isn't an armor set that reduces the cost of weapons.

The ranged set could allow projectiles to ignore gravity, thought I doubt it would be very useful. Maybe just give them infinite piercing/increased explosion radius instead.

Another alternative to the magic set is to allow the mage to be intangible when not using their weapon.

 

[firecat666]

According to this wiki image the Aether can be generated very close to lava in small worlds and probably near honey too since it generates at the same side as the jungle, so I'm not sure if having Shimmer combine with those liquids into new block types with actual uses (as opposed to the water combination) is a very good idea. Additionally, Shimmer is supposed to be non-renewable until post Moon Lord, so encouraging players to consume the limited amounts they have by adding these new blocks and craftable gear could lead to players running out of it until after beating the game.

I'm not opposed to adding new, useful gear that's crafted using Shimmer in some way or another, but I don't think this is the way to do it.

Also,

Something similar to this exists in obsidian. You can create it at any time, but can't mine it until you have a gold/platinum pickaxe (last time I checked.)

I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to make Aetherium Blocks require pickaxe power. I imagine someone would be frustrated with this if they accidentally dumped water on their Shimmer early in the game and couldn't access it easily anymore because it got coated in an unbreakable layer of Aetherium Blocks.

 

[Schparks]

Also,

I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to make Aetherium Blocks require pickaxe power. I imagine someone would be frustrated with this if they accidentally dumped water on their Shimmer early in the game and couldn't access it easily anymore because it got coated in an unbreakable layer of Aetherium Blocks.

Sorry, I was talking about the hypothetical shimmer ore, or when you mix lava and shimmer.