A Solution to NPC Happiness that Works

[Terrablade101]

Hi all,
Just wanted to say that I absolutely love Terraria. It is one of my favorite games of all time, and 1.4 overall is a very good update. I, however, like many others, am very frustrated with NPC happiness and how it penalizes the player to place NPCs in specific biomes, as it can be tedious, especially after Hardmode begins and the hallow and corruption begin to really spread into your many towns. What I am proposing is a rework to happiness in which NPCs simply cannot be unhappy in a certain biome and charge extra for items. If they are moved to their desired biomes however, then they can reward the player by lowering prices. I feel that unhappy NPCs are very similar to bad torch luck (which got removed) as it forces players to go along with this change. Happiness should be a choice that the player has on whether they want to do or not. If they want to save some money and set up some pylons, then they can go ahead an build out. But players shouldn’t be punished for wanting to play terraria the way we always have been. Whether that means by putting the NPCs in small cages or building gigantic castles in one specific base, the player should have this option. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[deut]

I kinda like spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity instead of cramming them into one massive NPC shoebox, even though that's more effective. Personally, I don't care about discounts because I usually have a massive amount of spare cash because I usually do hardcore and never have opportunities to lose cash because yknow, if I died, I wouldn't just drop cash. I do understand the other side of the argument, but personally I was never inconvenienced by this.

 

[Terrablade101]

I kinda like spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity instead of cramming them into one massive NPC shoebox, even though that's more effective. Personally, I don't care about discounts because I usually have a massive amount of spare cash because I usually do hardcore and never have opportunities to lose cash because yknow, if I died, I wouldn't just drop cash. I do understand the other side of the argument, but personally I was never inconvenienced by this.

Yeah, that’s exactly why I feel that the pylons and happiness should definitely stay, as they’re great for people that like to venture out and I personally think that pylons make this worth it. I just personally think that forcing the player to pay extra for stuff due to unhappy NPCs really sucks. For me, my hallow spawned directly on my cavern and desert pylons, and now my NPCs aren’t happy there anymore. It’s things like this that are really frustrating and makes me feel as though unhappiness should just be taken out.

 

[Nicol Bolas]

I kinda like spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity instead of cramming them into one massive NPC shoebox, even though that's more effective.

You could have done that anyway; nobody was stopping you from "spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity" before. Happiness may have inspired you, but that inspiration could have come from anything. The most that changed was the addition of Pylons, which allows such arrangements to be less inconvenient than they would have been otherwise. And Pylons don't need happiness as a mechanic in order to exist.

Happiness didn't give you anything you didn't already have.

For me, my hallow spawned directly on my cavern and desert pylons, and now my NPCs aren’t happy there anymore.

I'm not entirely sure how Pylons work in conflicting biomes, but wouldn't that turn off those Pylons, since they're no longer in the proper biomes? That sounds like much more of a problem than the NPCs not being happy anymore.

No, simply removing happiness and changing Pylons to just be another biome-specific item would be for the best.

 

[Terrablade101]

You could have done that anyway; nobody was stopping you from "spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity" before. Happiness may have inspired you, but that inspiration could have come from anything. The most that changed was the addition of Pylons, which allows such arrangements to be less inconvenient than they would have been otherwise. And Pylons don't need happiness as a mechanic in order to exist.

Happiness didn't give you anything you didn't already have.



I'm not entirely sure how Pylons work in conflicting biomes, but wouldn't that turn off those Pylons, since they're no longer in the proper biomes? That sounds like much more of a problem than the NPCs not being happy anymore.

No, simply removing happiness and changing Pylons to just be another biome-specific item would be for the best.

I agree. I feel like the game overall wasn’t meant to be for spreading out across the world, at least not until after you have the clentaminator. It’s simply so ing hard to fight off the corruption and hallow to keep your many towns stay up and make your prices stay down. Not to mention that it doesn’t make sense at all that NPCs would all want to be separated, especially the party girl. How the they gonna be having parties with all of them in different locations. What’re they having zoom calls?

 

[smeagolheart]

You could have done that anyway; nobody was stopping you from "spreading my NPC houses around the world and testing out my creativity" before. Happiness may have inspired you, but that inspiration could have come from anything. The most that changed was the addition of Pylons, which allows such arrangements to be less inconvenient than they would have been otherwise. And Pylons don't need happiness as a mechanic in order to exist.

Happiness didn't give you anything you didn't already have.



I'm not entirely sure how Pylons work in conflicting biomes, but wouldn't that turn off those Pylons, since they're no longer in the proper biomes? That sounds like much more of a problem than the NPCs not being happy anymore.

No, simply removing happiness and changing Pylons to just be another biome-specific item would be for the best.

I've seen some NPCs sell multiple pylons and others sell nothing when biomes overlap. It depends on what is overlapping. Apparently Hallow will piss off most NPCs and they'll stop selling pylons - unless the specifically like it. On the other hand I think I've seen the tinkerer sell cavern and snow pylons at the same time.