CellarDoor96
Terrarian
Now, I can't be the only person who was frustrated by the Solar Pillar at first, and I think we all know the exactly two reasons why: Crawltipedes and Selenians. Crawltipedes are a matter for another discussion, but today I'm here to talk about our dear friends the Selenians, along with their other reflective brethen the Mimics.
For those who don't know, Selenians are an enemy spawned by the Solar Pillar that normally act like your average fighter AI, except that when they get close they perform a spinning jump at you, a la Sonic the Hedgehog (or Samus's Screw Attack depending on your reference pools). During this spinning attack animation, they will reflect some player-fired projectiles, which can then hit the player that fired them and deal full damage. Since the definition of "projectiles" also includes beam swords such as Meowmere, this means that it's very easy to kill yourself by accident and often have no idea why.
This mechanic is silly for the following reasons:
-It is extremely inconsistent in what it reflects. Bullets, arrows, and beam swords get reflected, but rockets don't? Why does Razorblade Typhoon work but Nebula Blaze doesn't? The rather arbitrary rules as to what gets reflected and what doesn't make it extremely hard for a first-time player to figure out what's okay to use and what will get him or her killed. Either it should reflect all projectiles (which would be bad for the ranger class), or simply a specific subset of projectiles (e.g. bullets only), or it should not reflect any at all.
-It is very poorly telegraphed. There is absolutely nothing to the Selenian's animation that might make a player think, "Hey, I bet this enemy reflects projectiles now." It spins, yes, but other enemies in the game also spin and don't reflect projectiles, which in fact makes it even less likely that a first-time player will figure it out before killing themselves unwittingly. Either all spinning enemies should reflect projectiles (which would actually be a good way to introduce the mechanic to players early on, though Skeletron and Giant Tortoises would need a nerf), or the Selenians should have a different animation that makes it more clear that they can reflect things, such as a highly visible, glowing shield (that doesn't blend in with its regular coloration). The Mimics don't have quite the same problem, since it does make some sense that a closed chest might reflect bullets, but they could still use a clearer indicator that they are now in "defense mode" and their rules have changed.
-It is way too punishing. Since by endgame most player-fired projectiles can kill a player in only a few hits, it's very possible for a player to die before they even have a chance to realize what is happening, which is just way too much punishment for something they had no way of noticing. This could be solved by halving the power of reflected projectiles, which would make sense since endgame enemies are way more durable than players are.
-Projectiles do not harm the player when not reflected off of these specific enemies, with a few exceptions such as some rockets. For instance, I can spam rainbow cats all over the place with my Meowmere and never be harmed by them, but once they bounce off a Selenian or a Mimic, they're suddenly instant death? Since it would make some weapons useless to have all projectiles be harmful to the player, the only ways to fix this are to indicate somehow that the enemy has altered the projectile (such as giving it a brighter glow once it bounces off of them), restrict the types of projectiles that can be reflected to ones that don't already bounce around, or remove the reflection mechanic entirely.
All in all, it's just a really badly implemented game mechanic. When I first encountered it via getting killed repeatedly by my own Meowmere, I thought it was a glitch, and if an actual game mechanic in your game can be mistaken for a glitch, that's a sign that something's wrong. My ideal scenario would be to remove it entirely, but there are plenty of ways it could be changed or expanded upon so that it isn't so unfair to first-time players.
If you have suggestions of your own for how this mechanic could be changed to make it better, or you think it's fine and doesn't need changing, feel free to let me know below.
For those who don't know, Selenians are an enemy spawned by the Solar Pillar that normally act like your average fighter AI, except that when they get close they perform a spinning jump at you, a la Sonic the Hedgehog (or Samus's Screw Attack depending on your reference pools). During this spinning attack animation, they will reflect some player-fired projectiles, which can then hit the player that fired them and deal full damage. Since the definition of "projectiles" also includes beam swords such as Meowmere, this means that it's very easy to kill yourself by accident and often have no idea why.
This mechanic is silly for the following reasons:
-It is extremely inconsistent in what it reflects. Bullets, arrows, and beam swords get reflected, but rockets don't? Why does Razorblade Typhoon work but Nebula Blaze doesn't? The rather arbitrary rules as to what gets reflected and what doesn't make it extremely hard for a first-time player to figure out what's okay to use and what will get him or her killed. Either it should reflect all projectiles (which would be bad for the ranger class), or simply a specific subset of projectiles (e.g. bullets only), or it should not reflect any at all.
-It is very poorly telegraphed. There is absolutely nothing to the Selenian's animation that might make a player think, "Hey, I bet this enemy reflects projectiles now." It spins, yes, but other enemies in the game also spin and don't reflect projectiles, which in fact makes it even less likely that a first-time player will figure it out before killing themselves unwittingly. Either all spinning enemies should reflect projectiles (which would actually be a good way to introduce the mechanic to players early on, though Skeletron and Giant Tortoises would need a nerf), or the Selenians should have a different animation that makes it more clear that they can reflect things, such as a highly visible, glowing shield (that doesn't blend in with its regular coloration). The Mimics don't have quite the same problem, since it does make some sense that a closed chest might reflect bullets, but they could still use a clearer indicator that they are now in "defense mode" and their rules have changed.
-It is way too punishing. Since by endgame most player-fired projectiles can kill a player in only a few hits, it's very possible for a player to die before they even have a chance to realize what is happening, which is just way too much punishment for something they had no way of noticing. This could be solved by halving the power of reflected projectiles, which would make sense since endgame enemies are way more durable than players are.
-Projectiles do not harm the player when not reflected off of these specific enemies, with a few exceptions such as some rockets. For instance, I can spam rainbow cats all over the place with my Meowmere and never be harmed by them, but once they bounce off a Selenian or a Mimic, they're suddenly instant death? Since it would make some weapons useless to have all projectiles be harmful to the player, the only ways to fix this are to indicate somehow that the enemy has altered the projectile (such as giving it a brighter glow once it bounces off of them), restrict the types of projectiles that can be reflected to ones that don't already bounce around, or remove the reflection mechanic entirely.
All in all, it's just a really badly implemented game mechanic. When I first encountered it via getting killed repeatedly by my own Meowmere, I thought it was a glitch, and if an actual game mechanic in your game can be mistaken for a glitch, that's a sign that something's wrong. My ideal scenario would be to remove it entirely, but there are plenty of ways it could be changed or expanded upon so that it isn't so unfair to first-time players.
If you have suggestions of your own for how this mechanic could be changed to make it better, or you think it's fine and doesn't need changing, feel free to let me know below.