NPCs & Enemies Complete Flying Dutchman Overhaul - Ghosts, loot, a proper battle, and more!

SzGamer227

Spazmatism
This suggestions has been a long, long, long time in coming, and was honestly supposed to be completed and published several months ago. Among other reasons, I've finally cut procrastination out of the equation and decided to push this out at long last. This has been gathering dust for way too long, but it's here now! ^u^


As expressed by that one comic I posted on my profile page all those months ago, I have been...well, discontent... with the Flying Dutchman's sub-par boss behavior; its simple attack patterns and inability to travel or attack through walls like most other bosses are among the problems I have with this over-sized nuisance. Instead of just letting it pass through walls normally though (as a proper GHOST SHIP should), I got to thinking: The Goblin Army has a new sort of boss-like enemy in Hardmode, with unique loot and everything. Why not do the same for the Pirates?

!!!READ ME!!!
This suggestion focuses not only on making the Flying Dutchman only a more formidable boss, but also making it a post-Plantera addition to the Pirate Invasion that offers new, unique loot and a reason to return to the invasion later in the game.



New Behavior and Other Bossly Changes

Currently, the Flying Dutchman has one attack and 8000 health split between four cannons.

What I propose is that the Flying Dutchman instead be split into a 2-stage boss, allowing for a variety of different additions to its mechanics and behavior.

During stage one, the Flying Dutchman will behave much like it does now, with a few key differences: It would have the ability to pass through walls and stat increases to meet the standards of a post-Plantera miniboss, and switch to fire ghostly wall-penetrating cannonballs if its intended target is hiding from their grisly demise. During this stage, the Flying Dutchman can take damage from any parts of its body.

Flying Dutchman Stage 1.png

Flying Dutchman Stage I
Health: 6000
Defense: 32
Damage:
80 (Hull/Contact)
130 (Cannonball)
110 (Ghostly Cannonball)​
* Summons Pirates that drop down and engage the player.



Now then... this is where it gets interesting. :naughty:



Flying Dutchman Stage 2 (Full Size).png


When the Dutchman sustains enough hull damage to advance to stage two, it completely changes its appearance, assuming a much more intimidating and definitely more dangerous form. It's attacks are redoubled, and it also plights the player with a new ghostly invasion force instead of the standard motley pirate lackeys (more on them later).

Along with boosted contact damage and a slight increase in movement speed, the Dutchman now starts firing volleys of ghostly grapeshot in addition to more damaging cannonballs. A spread of additional projectiles are fired alongside the usual cannonballs, amount varying on how many cannons remain. Additionally, rather than always firing all four cannons in unison, it will start firing one at a time at regular intervals, and only occasionally pause to unleash a full blast of all at once.

In this stage, the Dutchman's hit boxes are confined to its individual cannons, as they are currently. When a cannon has been destroyed, that doesn't entirely stop it from attacking. Each empty slot will instead begin dropping bouncing mines that explode and deal heavy damage to unwary players that touch them.

Flying Dutchman Stage 2.png

Flying Dutchman Stage II
Health: 1500 (per Cannon)
Defense: 28
Damage:
120 (Hull/Contact)
150 (Spectre Cannonball)
75 (Spectre Grapeshot)​
Grapeshot Amount:
2 (4 Cannons)
4 (3 Cannons)
6 (2 Cannons)
12 (1 Cannon)​
* Summons Ghost Pirates that pursue and attack the player.


And now for those new lackeys you've been wondering about...

Ghost Pirates.png

Ghost Pirate Crew

Ghost Pirate Deckhand.png

Dutchman's Deckhand
* Most common summoned ghost crew.
* Hovers towards the player's location without restriction. Largely immune to knockback.
Health: 800
Defense: 30
Damage: 85

Ghost Pirate Caster.png

Cursed Pirate Caster
* A ghostly floating pirate with a ranged spell-bolt attack that homes slowly.
* Moves similarly to Nebula Floaters. Immune to knockback.
Health: 700
Defense: 24
Damage:
65 (Contact)
80 (Magic Attack)​

Ghost Pirate Soulsnatcher.png

Pirate Soulsnatcher
* A ghostly floating pirate which attacks players with close-ranged tendrils of magic (like the Shadowflame Hex Doll).
* Closes distance somewhat faster than Deckhands, but suceptible to knockback when casting.
Health: 1100
Defense: 34
Damage:
100 (Contact)
90 (Magic Attack)​



Proper Bossly Rewards and Loot

Possible Flying Dutchman drops, including at least one Melee, Ranged, and Magic cracker to see if you're reading the entire thread word for word. You get a cookie if you are!

index.php
index.php

Dreadwood
'Almost guaranteed Curse-Free!'
* An item created and sprited by @StargazerSammie in a separate suggestion. (Click here and support her thread!)
* Used to craft Pirate-ship-themed furniture and vanity items. Check out the original thread to see the cool stuff you can make with it!
Drop quantity:
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30-50 (Upon transition from 1st to 2nd form)
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60-100 (Upon being defeated)

One of the following weapons is guaranteed to drop:

Minesweeper.png
Minesweeper Ball and Chain.png

Minesweeper
* True-Flail-type Melee weapon.
* Upon releasing, the head will detach and roll off, damaging enemies and exploding after 1.5 seconds.
Damage: 70
- When detached, damage is gradually reduced down to 50% until detonation.
- Explosion deals 70% of original damage over a Bomb-sized area.
Use Time: 44 (1.36 uses/second)
Knockback: 7.5

The Loose Cannon.png

The Loose Cannon
* Ranged special launcher weapon.
* Shoots Cannonballs. (Short ranged; explode on impact)
* Drops along with 10-25 Cannonballs to use as ammo. (Cannonballs are purchased from the Pirate NPC, as they currently are.)
Damage: 15 (+300 from Cannonballs)
Use Time: 57 (1.05 uses/second)

The Captain's Regards.png

The Captain's Regards
'Pirate diplomacy at its finest.'
* Ranged bullet-firing weapon.
* Fires cannon blasts at 1.5 second intervals that deal greatly increased area damage on impact.
Damage: 35
Use Time: 7 (8.5 uses/second)
50% chance to not consume ammo

Davy Jones' Curse.png

Davy Jones' Curse
'Vile tentacles strike and afflict enemies with a terrible curse.'
* Direct upgrade to the Shadowflame Hex Doll.
* Fires green tendrils of damaging magic in the general direction of casting.
* Additional tendrils will reach out in all directions, sometimes homing directly towards enemies, dealing 20% reduced damage.
Damage: 60
Use Time: 20
Mana Cost: 10
* Inflicts enemies with Hurt Locker, which causes 6 damage/sec and reduces the movement speed of Fighter enemies by 30%.

Soul Siphon.png

Soul Siphon
'Steals enemy life force while buffing the caster.'
* Direct upgrade to the Life Drain spell, and deals damage in the same way.
Damage: 45
Use Time: 11
Mana Cost: 9
* Soul Siphon buff increases player health regeneration and provides 5% damage resistance.

These items sometimes drop in addition to the above loot:

index.php

Cursed Ship's Wheel
* Summons a Ghost Ship Mount, as pictured above.
* Credit for the sprite and the original idea goes to Baconfry.
* Relatively slow-traveling flying mount that can pass through blocks as though they were water.
* Breath will rapidly deplete while traveling through walls, and "drowning" results in the Suffocation debuff.
Drop rate: 1/10 (10%)

Pirate Crate.png

Pirate Loot Crate
'Contains rare pirate booty and other precious items.'
* Right-click to open.
Drop rate: 1/3 (33%)

Contents:
One rare Pirate Invasion item
Gold_Ring.png
Discount_Card.png
Lucky_Coin.png
Coin_Gun.png

Gold Ring - 6/16 (37.5%)
Discount Card - 6/16 (37.5%)
Lucky Coin - 3/16 (18.8%)
Coin Gun - 1/16 (6.2%)

One of two rarities of crafting material

Gold_Bar.png
Titanium_Bar.png
15-30 precious metal bars - 50%
(The same bars that are obtained from Golden Crates)
Spectre_Bar.png
5-13 Plantera-level bars - 50%
(Chlorophyte, Spectre, or Shroomite Bars)

Miscellaneous drops

Diamond.png
Topaz.png
Various gems - 50%
Gold_Coin.png
10-25 Gold Coins - 100%



Conclusion

Well that's it for now, guys. Thanks for reading this suggestion, and I hope you've enjoyed it! I may add more possible drops in the future, but this is enough for now. If you want to see these changes made to the Flying Dutchman, let me know! If you have other comments or concerns, fire away! Feedback is always appreciated! :D
 
Last edited:
This suggestions has been a long, long, long time in coming, and was honestly supposed to be completed and published several months ago. Among other reasons, I've finally cut procrastination out of the equation and decided to push this out at long last. This has been gathering dust for way too long, but it's here now! ^u^


As expressed by that one comic I posted on my profile page all those months ago, I have been...well, discontent... with the Flying Dutchman's sub-par boss behavior; its simple attack patterns and inability to travel or attack through walls like most other bosses are among the problems I have with this over-sized nuisance. Instead of just letting it pass through walls normally though (as a proper GHOST SHIP should), I got to thinking: The Goblin Army has a new sort of boss-like enemy in Hardmode, with unique loot and everything. Why not do the same for the Pirates?

This suggestion focuses not only on making the Flying Dutchman only a more formidable boss (adding a second stage and giving it new attacks), but making it a post-Plantera addition to the Pirate Invasion that offers new, unique loot and a reason to return to the invasion later in the game.



New Behavior and Other Bossly Changes

Currently, the Flying Dutchman has one attack and 8000 health split between four cannons.

What I propose is that the Flying Dutchman instead be split into a 2-stage boss, as stated above.

During stage one, the Flying Dutchman will behave much like it does now, with a few key differences: It would have the ability to pass through walls and stat increases to meet the standards of a post-Plantera miniboss, and switch to fire ghostly wall-penetrating cannonballs if its intended target is hiding behind a wall.

View attachment 87958
Flying Dutchman Stage I
Health: 6000
Defense: 32
Damage:
80 (Hull/Contact)
130 (Cannonball)
110 (Ghostly Cannonball)​
* Summons Pirates that drop down and engage the player.



Now then... this is where it gets interesting. :naughty:



View attachment 87960

When the Dutchman sustains enough hull damage to advance to stage two, it completely changes its appearance, assuming a much more intimidating and definitely more dangerous form. It's attacks are redoubled, and it also plights the player with a new ghostly invasion force instead of the standard motley pirate lackeys (more on them later).

Along with boosted contact damage and a slight increase in movement speed, the Dutchman now starts firing volleys of ghostly grapeshot in addition to more damaging cannonballs. A spread of additional projectiles are fired alongside the usual cannonballs, amount varying on how many cannons remain. Additionally, rather than always firing all four cannons in unison, it will start firing one at a time at regular intervals, and only occasionally pausing to unleash a full blast of all at once.

In this stage, the Dutchman's hit boxes are confined to its individual cannons, as they are currently. When a cannon has been destroyed, that doesn't entirely stop it from attacking. Each empty slot will instead begin dropping bouncing mines that explode and deal heavy damage to unwary players that touch them.

View attachment 87959
Flying Dutchman Stage II
Health: 1500 (per Cannon)
Defense: 28
Damage:
120 (Hull/Contact)
150 (Spectre Cannonball)
75 (Spectre Grapeshot)​
Grapeshot Amount:
2 (4 Cannons)
4 (3 Cannons)
6 (2 Cannons)
10 (1 Cannon)​
* Summons Ghost Pirates that pursue and attack the player.


And now for those new lackeys you've been wondering about...

View attachment 87970
Ghost Pirate Crew

View attachment 87968
Dutchman's Deckhand
* Most common summoned ghost crew.
* Hovers towards the player's location without restriction. Largely immune to knockback.
Health: 800
Defense: 30
Damage: 85

View attachment 87969
Cursed Pirate Caster
* A ghostly floating pirate with a ranged spell-bolt attack that homes slowly.
* Moves similarly to Nebula Floaters. Immune to knockback.
Health: 700
Defense: 24
Damage:
65 (Contact)
80 (Magic Attack)​

View attachment 87967
Pirate Soulsnatcher
* A ghostly floating pirate which attacks players with close-ranged tendrils of magic (like the Shadowflame Hex Doll).
* Closes distance somewhat faster than Deckhands, but suceptible to knockback when casting.
Health: 1100
Defense: 34
Damage:
100 (Contact)
90 (Magic Attack)​



Proper Bossly Rewards and Loot

Possible Flying Dutchman drops, including at least one Melee, Ranged, and Magic :red: to see if you're even reading this bit.

View attachment 87988 View attachment 87987
Minesweeper
* True-Flail-type Melee weapon.
* Upon releasing, the head will detach and roll off, damaging enemies and exploding after 1.5 seconds.
Damage: 70
- When detached, damage is gradually reduced down to 50% until detonation.
- Explosion deals 70% of original damage over a Bomb-sized area.
Use Time: 44 (1.36 uses/second)
Knockback: 7.5

View attachment 87989
The Loose Cannon
* Ranged special launcher weapon.
* Shoots Cannonballs. (Short ranged; explode on impact)
* Drops along with 10-25 Cannonballs to use as ammo. (Cannonballs can be purchased from the Pirate NPC.)
Damage: 15 (+300 from Cannonballs)
Use Time: 57 (1.05 uses/second)

View attachment 87986
Davy Jones' Curse
'Vile tentacles strike and afflict enemies with a terrible curse.'
* Direct upgrade to the Shadowflame Hex Doll.
* Fires green tendrils of damaging magic in the general direction of casting.
* Additional tendrils will reach out in all directions, sometimes homing directly towards enemies, dealing 20% reduced damage.
Damage: 60
Use Time: 20
Mana Cost: 10
* Inflicts enemies with Hurt Locker, which causes 6 damage/sec and reduces the movement speed of Fighter enemies by 30%.

View attachment 87991
Soul Siphon
'Steals enemy life force while buffing the caster.'
* Direct upgrade to the Life Drain spell, and deals damage in the same way.
Damage: 45
Use Time: 11
Mana Cost: 9
* Soul Siphon buff increases player health regeneration and provides 5% damage resistance.

index.php

Cursed Ship's Wheel
* Summons a Ghost Ship Mount, as pictured above.
* Credit for the sprite and the original idea goes to Baconfry.
* Relatively slow-traveling flying mount that can pass through blocks as though they were water.
* Breath will slowly go down while traveling through walls, and "drowning" results in the Suffocation debuff.

View attachment 87996
Pirate Loot Crate
'Contains rare pirate booty and other precious items.'
* Right-click to open.
Contents:
Gold_Ring.png
Discount_Card.png
Lucky_Coin.png
Coin_Gun.png

Gold Ring - 37.5% (6/16)
Discount Card - 37.5% (6/16)
Lucky Coin - 18.8% (3/16)
Coin Gun - 6.2% (1/16)
Gold_Bar.png
Titanium_Bar.png
15-30 precious metal bars - 75%
(Same bars that are obtained from Golden Crates)
Spectre_Bar.png
5-13 higher-level bars - 25%
(Chlorophyte, Spectre, or Shroomite Bars)
Diamond.png
Topaz.png
Various gems - 50%
Gold_Coin.png
10-25 Gold Coins - 100%



Conclusion

Well that's it for now, guys. Thanks for reading this suggestion, and I hope you've enjoyed it! I may add more possible drops in the future, but this is enough for now. If you want to see these changes made to the Flying Dutchman, let me know! If you have other comments or concerns, fire away! Feedback is always appreciated! :D

This is cool.
I'll read more into it later, but so far so good, I especially like the ghost ship mount!
 
Sounds awesome! I really like the item ideas, as well as the sprites! And overall a cool addition to the pirate invasion. I support!
 
I'll read more into it later, but so far so good, I especially like the ghost ship mount!
Yeah, you can thank Baconfry for that. When he gets back I'll see if he can update his thread to include this. :)

Sounds awesome! I really like the item ideas, as well as the sprites! And overall a cool addition to the pirate invasion. I support!
Damn, you're a fast reader. :p
 
Remove the Post-Plantera bars part, because the Flying Dutchman can spawn right at the start of HM if there is a Pirate Invasion. Or just push the Flying Dutchman to Post-Plantera.
 
This suggestion focuses not only on making the Flying Dutchman only a more formidable boss (adding a second stage and giving it new attacks), but making it a post-Plantera addition to the Pirate Invasion that offers new, unique loot and a reason to return to the invasion later in the game.
Remove the Post-Plantera bars part, because the Flying Dutchman can spawn right at the start of HM if there is a Pirate Invasion. Or just push the Flying Dutchman to Post-Plantera.
 
Remove the Post-Plantera bars part, because the Flying Dutchman can spawn right at the start of HM if there is a Pirate Invasion. Or just push the Flying Dutchman to Post-Plantera.
This suggestion focuses not only on making the Flying Dutchman only a more formidable boss (adding a second stage and giving it new attacks), but making it a post-Plantera addition to the Pirate Invasion that offers new, unique loot and a reason to return to the invasion later in the game.
 
Remove the Post-Plantera bars part, because the Flying Dutchman can spawn right at the start of HM if there is a Pirate Invasion. Or just push the Flying Dutchman to Post-Plantera.
This suggestion focuses not only on making the Flying Dutchman only a more formidable boss (adding a second stage and giving it new attacks), but making it a post-Plantera addition to the Pirate Invasion that offers new, unique loot and a reason to return to the invasion later in the game.
Maybe I should make that a bit more clear, but I guess I can't help it if people skip the intro. :p

EDIT: OH MY GOD THE NINJAING IS REAL UP IN HERE
 
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