NPCs & Enemies Attackable Celestial Sigil (changed Moon Lord summoning method)

[Baconfry]

One annoying thing about the default Moon Lord summoning method is that the player only has 1 minute to gather the remaining fragments and look at the new crafting recipes before the boss shows up. This time limit makes it pretty much impossible to propose any item with a crafting recipe that includes all fragments but no Luminite, because you realistically have less than 30 seconds to do anything.

I propose a new method: instead of the Moon Lord spawning suddenly, a Celestial Sigil will appear in entity form. This Sigil entity would follow the player exactly the same way that the Moon Lord itself would. Destroying the Sigil will spawn the Moon Lord. And obviously, the currently existing Celestial Sigil (item) would spawn the entity. To make it more obvious that this is the point of no return, the Celestial Sigil entity would be fairly large, and the screen would darken when it is present.

Since the player would now have as much time to prepare as they need, the delay before the Sigil spawns can be as short as 10-20 seconds. A delay is necessary so the player doesn't accidentally destroy it while they're still cleaning up the last pillar enemies.

 

[77ForumBone]

I always feel my blood boiling when I die after "Impending Doom" message appears. Support.

I would make the Celestial Sigil entity like a pet though, since if it was large it could get annoying.

 

[Im_ConfuzzledCobalt🥐🌳🐿]

To prevent accidentally killing it, it should be given 20,000 total health.
Even with a Zenith, that's enough health to survive like 5 seconds of straight attacking which is long enough for the player's reflexes to stop themselves.

 

[J Bame]

This time limit makes it pretty much impossible to propose any item with a crafting recipe that includes all fragments but no Luminite, because you realistically have less than 30 seconds to do anything.

What exactly do you have in mind with this? Super Healing potions are the only one and the 60 seconds are more than enough time to craft a few. I dont think the way to nerf ML difficulty is to add literal last-minute gear to the game

 

[Baconfry]

What exactly do you have in mind with this? Super Healing potions are the only one and the 60 seconds are more than enough time to craft a few. I dont think the way to nerf ML difficulty is to add literal last-minute gear to the game

In the other thread, the problem was that pillar weapons are too easy to obtain for how strong they are (you just beat up the Lunatic Cultist and brute force the pillar of your choice). It wasn't about the Moon Lord's difficulty.

The proposed solution was to make the Cultist drop an inactivated version of the Ancient Manipulator that has to be activated with 1 of each fragment, which would make the pillar weapons available for Moon Lord but not for the pillars themselves.

It's still not perfect because the player could still brute-force four pillars, but it would be a step in the right direction, I think.

 

[J Bame]

(you just beat up the Lunatic Cultist and brute force the pillar of your choice)

i dont think the problem here is the Pillar weapons...

 

[Mille Marteaux]

I propose a new method: instead of the Moon Lord spawning suddenly, a Celestial Sigil will appear in entity form. This Sigil entity would follow the player exactly the same way that the Moon Lord itself would. Destroying the Sigil will spawn the Moon Lord. And obviously, the currently existing Celestial Sigil (item) would spawn the entity. To make it more obvious that this is the point of no return, the Celestial Sigil entity would be fairly large, and the screen would darken when it is present.

Rather than following the player, perhaps the Sigil could appear over world spawn similar to the appearance of a fifth tower? No enemies or anything, it's just an entity that gives the void effect with maybe 5,000 HP or so. Slap it around and then you start the impending doom countdown.

If you wanted to be extra fancy the Sigil could appear from the start and have a 4 HP shield that gets damaged as the other Pillars get destroyed.

Very cool idea, though. I vibe with it.

 

[Meowlegend]

To be honest, it's not just the super healing potions. The weapons from the last pillar you destroyed, too.


Also, for these:

It wasn't about the Moon Lord's difficulty.

Yup, but Moon Lord should still be reworked in all honesty. Currently it is by far the worst boss in the game with catastrophically boss design, so his boss design and difficulty should be improved.

i dont think the problem here is the Pillar weapons...

They aren't. TBH them being stronger than anything you have obtained before (besides Terraprisma, I guess? And also, Solar Eruption isn't stronger than most of the weapons you obtained before it as it kinds sucks right now) is actually not a bad thing, the issue is that Cultist is way too easy to stop you from just jumping to the pillars, getting the fragment weapon and doing the post golem gear with them. Cultist should be more difficult, and pillars should have a lose state.