Constellations Team
Terrarian
Constellations is an upcoming multiplayer-only mod that aims to rebuild Terraria progression from the first day to endgame and beyond. Everything spoiled from this mod is recorded on a vanilla client. Everything is made using existing Terraria assets. All changes you see are made server-side. A tMod client is planned for future expansion. This project is heavily inspired by Starbound and Destiny 2 and there will be many elements similar to those titles, however the content will still be true to Terraria. Below are a rough summarization of changes brought by Constellations as well as a trailer video.
World Changes
Constellations provides an infinite number of worlds for players to explore. Each world features entirely new world generation inspired by a vanilla biome. For example, the Jungle is currently turned into two world types: Overgrown Cliffs (featured in the trailer) and Swamp. Meanwhile, the Underworld is changed into Molten Ocean or Volcanic (both seen in the trailer). This means vanilla biomes are expanded to take up the space of an entire world from space to the bottom. These worlds are clustered together into individual Realms the player can access from a warp hub or bookmarks (TBD).Worlds will generally be inhabited by the same enemies as would be seen in their parent biome in vanilla gameplay. However, there will be many exceptions to this such as skeletons spawning in Molten Ocean worlds or Red Devils only appearing in the Circle of Hell subbiome.However, specific to Constellations, there will also be other humanoid inhabitants with the same abilities as you as seen in the trailer. Worlds will also have many new "living world" features. Rain will pool behind walls, soft tiles may cave in, trees will grow over time, and lava may shed projectiles. Windy days will blow in new floating islands and clouds, water may change the tiles around it, or other inhabitants may visit for trading.
Mechanic Changes
In Constellations, many staple mechanics of the game have been changed. Many of these were showcased in the trailer. Reforging has been changed into a tier-based system that allows players to progressively upgrade the tier of the reforge on their item. The tiers range from -2 to 3 with -2 being horrible reforges like broken and 3 being either unreal, legendary, or mythical. Fishing has been entirely reworked to be more engaging through having to move the bobber to fish that pop out of the water; basically whack-a-mole. Fish appear as a goldfish unless a sonar potion is drank.Town NPCs are entirely removed except the Traveling Merchant due to technical limitations. They are replaced by specialized merchants at village subbiomes, hubs, and activities. For example, the Angler was replaced by a village angler and the random drop reward system was replaced with a point shop with rotating stock.Combat will be expanded with an elemental damage system. As seen in the trailer, a slime gun and spark is used to give an enemy a Combustion debuff. Hot temperature enemies will be more susceptible to cold weapons such as the Water Bolt, Water Gun, or Flower of Frost. You get the idea.Difficulty will be reworked from being tied to worlds. Due to the multiplayer nature of Constellations, difficulty will instead be tied to the specific player and not directly effect the world. For example, if a player chooses one of the higher difficulties, they will have to contest with hunger, longer debuffs, etc. None of the difficulty features effect outside the player to prevent cheesing (eg making items cost more which could be cheesed by having a friend buy stuff instead).Game progression is entirely different from the distinct vanilla phases. Progression will follow the hardest environment the player can survive in. In other words, you may be able to reach a jungle parent biome Realm, but that doesn't mean you can survive in it. Some Realms will have hard progression locks put on them that will require specific things before the player is allowed to travel to them.
Enemy Changes
Constellations changes many aspects of enemies and does a lot of repurposing. Smaller Wyverns can be encountered early in the game or lunar event enemies being restricted to their respective moon.In Constellations, every vanilla boss will be changed majorly and usually only be encountered in their respective raid, a special activity.There are many tweaks to enemies to make them more engaging or difficult to fight without simply increasing damage and health. However, some enemies have been made easier to fight such as slimes being extremely susceptible to fire-based attacks as seen in the trailer. Some enemies may behave differently based on their environment. (edited)
Multiplayer Changes
Many parts of multiplayer have been changed to facilitate the MMO nature of Constellations. PvP will always be enabled to facilitate combat with bot players, however every real player will be on the same vanilla PvP.Every player will have their own private ship or private world to call their home. Players will also have the option to claim a Realm so that they can control access to it and protect blocks in it, thus allowing them to build outside of their private world without fear of griefing. Unclaimed Realms are open for any player to travel to, edit the contents of, and claim for their own.Players will have many opportunties to play with fellow gamers through activities and minigames. Many of these will be either optionally or forced matchmaking, but some will also be exclusively solo. They will also have the option to create their own clans to build social groups with.
edit: Added dictionary to explain italicized terms.
Realm: A collection of 3-8 Terraria worlds that a player can visit as if it was a single interconnected world. It is basically a planet in a literal sense.
parent biome: The dominant biome of a Realm. This is generally the vanilla biome that inspired the world biome. For example, a corrupt Realm will contain 3-8 corrupt worlds. This works in conjunction with Realm moisture and temperature values to determine what type of terrain, tiles, and fauna will generate in the Realm.
world: An individual section of a Realm. In more familiar terms, this is the same thing as the World defined on the Terraria Wiki.
world biome: The generation style that was used to generate the world. For example, Overgrown Cliffs is a world biome that could be used for Realms with the Jungle parent biome provided they have the right moisture and temperature.
subbiome: A much smaller biome present in an isolated section of a world. This would be an Oasis in a dry, hot, Realm or a Mineshaft underground. Subbiomes may have associated world structures that generate in the subbiome.
world structure: Something made out of blocks that is physically present in a world that a player can explore. May contain loot, special enemies, traps, or more. Vanilla counterparts would be underground houses, the Lihzahrd Temple, or the Dungeon.
moon: In Constellations, the lunar event and pillars are repurposed to be represented as the four moons. Due to lore implications I will explain no more.
hub: A static (un-editable) world that does not physically exist in any Realm and is only accessible through warping. Usually these will be major cities. Inspired by the Outpost in Starbound.
activity: Anything that happens in a static world, has a goal, and can only be accessed via warping. This can be a mission to craft the Night's Edge, a boss raid, or whatever. May or may not be timed or put extra restrictions on the player such as no wings, limited lives, or no grapple hooks. These may be solo activities or matchmade with other players.
raid: A special activity reserved as some of the hardest content in Constellations. These are designed to be group activities but can be completed solo. Every boss in Terraria has a respective raid. The mechanics of raids are inspired by Destiny 2 raids.
private ship:
private world: A world that does not physically exist in any Realm that will let players have a place to call their own unaccessible by other players (unless invited). This can be a pre-made small world or a pre-made space ship.
bot player: A server controlled player. All of the players thus far seen in spoilers besides the actual player have been bot players.
claim: A metaphorical lock a player can place on a Realm to give them control over it against other players. Basically, it lets a player turn it into one of their private worlds.
minigame: A usually team focused activity with a set goal to achieve, usually for some reward. If you are familiar with multiplayer Terraria, you know this one.
parent biome: The dominant biome of a Realm. This is generally the vanilla biome that inspired the world biome. For example, a corrupt Realm will contain 3-8 corrupt worlds. This works in conjunction with Realm moisture and temperature values to determine what type of terrain, tiles, and fauna will generate in the Realm.
world: An individual section of a Realm. In more familiar terms, this is the same thing as the World defined on the Terraria Wiki.
world biome: The generation style that was used to generate the world. For example, Overgrown Cliffs is a world biome that could be used for Realms with the Jungle parent biome provided they have the right moisture and temperature.
subbiome: A much smaller biome present in an isolated section of a world. This would be an Oasis in a dry, hot, Realm or a Mineshaft underground. Subbiomes may have associated world structures that generate in the subbiome.
world structure: Something made out of blocks that is physically present in a world that a player can explore. May contain loot, special enemies, traps, or more. Vanilla counterparts would be underground houses, the Lihzahrd Temple, or the Dungeon.
moon: In Constellations, the lunar event and pillars are repurposed to be represented as the four moons. Due to lore implications I will explain no more.
hub: A static (un-editable) world that does not physically exist in any Realm and is only accessible through warping. Usually these will be major cities. Inspired by the Outpost in Starbound.
activity: Anything that happens in a static world, has a goal, and can only be accessed via warping. This can be a mission to craft the Night's Edge, a boss raid, or whatever. May or may not be timed or put extra restrictions on the player such as no wings, limited lives, or no grapple hooks. These may be solo activities or matchmade with other players.
raid: A special activity reserved as some of the hardest content in Constellations. These are designed to be group activities but can be completed solo. Every boss in Terraria has a respective raid. The mechanics of raids are inspired by Destiny 2 raids.
private ship:
private world: A world that does not physically exist in any Realm that will let players have a place to call their own unaccessible by other players (unless invited). This can be a pre-made small world or a pre-made space ship.
bot player: A server controlled player. All of the players thus far seen in spoilers besides the actual player have been bot players.
claim: A metaphorical lock a player can place on a Realm to give them control over it against other players. Basically, it lets a player turn it into one of their private worlds.
minigame: A usually team focused activity with a set goal to achieve, usually for some reward. If you are familiar with multiplayer Terraria, you know this one.
Constellations provides an infinite number of worlds for players to explore. Each world features entirely new world generation inspired by a vanilla biome. For example, the Jungle is currently turned into two world types: Overgrown Cliffs (featured in the trailer) and Swamp. Meanwhile, the Underworld is changed into Molten Ocean or Volcanic (both seen in the trailer). This means vanilla biomes are expanded to take up the space of an entire world from space to the bottom. These worlds are clustered together into individual Realms the player can access from a warp hub or bookmarks (TBD).Worlds will generally be inhabited by the same enemies as would be seen in their parent biome in vanilla gameplay. However, there will be many exceptions to this such as skeletons spawning in Molten Ocean worlds or Red Devils only appearing in the Circle of Hell subbiome.However, specific to Constellations, there will also be other humanoid inhabitants with the same abilities as you as seen in the trailer. Worlds will also have many new "living world" features. Rain will pool behind walls, soft tiles may cave in, trees will grow over time, and lava may shed projectiles. Windy days will blow in new floating islands and clouds, water may change the tiles around it, or other inhabitants may visit for trading.
In Constellations, many staple mechanics of the game have been changed. Many of these were showcased in the trailer. Reforging has been changed into a tier-based system that allows players to progressively upgrade the tier of the reforge on their item. The tiers range from -2 to 3 with -2 being horrible reforges like broken and 3 being either unreal, legendary, or mythical. Fishing has been entirely reworked to be more engaging through having to move the bobber to fish that pop out of the water; basically whack-a-mole. Fish appear as a goldfish unless a sonar potion is drank.Town NPCs are entirely removed except the Traveling Merchant due to technical limitations. They are replaced by specialized merchants at village subbiomes, hubs, and activities. For example, the Angler was replaced by a village angler and the random drop reward system was replaced with a point shop with rotating stock.Combat will be expanded with an elemental damage system. As seen in the trailer, a slime gun and spark is used to give an enemy a Combustion debuff. Hot temperature enemies will be more susceptible to cold weapons such as the Water Bolt, Water Gun, or Flower of Frost. You get the idea.Difficulty will be reworked from being tied to worlds. Due to the multiplayer nature of Constellations, difficulty will instead be tied to the specific player and not directly effect the world. For example, if a player chooses one of the higher difficulties, they will have to contest with hunger, longer debuffs, etc. None of the difficulty features effect outside the player to prevent cheesing (eg making items cost more which could be cheesed by having a friend buy stuff instead).Game progression is entirely different from the distinct vanilla phases. Progression will follow the hardest environment the player can survive in. In other words, you may be able to reach a jungle parent biome Realm, but that doesn't mean you can survive in it. Some Realms will have hard progression locks put on them that will require specific things before the player is allowed to travel to them.
Constellations changes many aspects of enemies and does a lot of repurposing. Smaller Wyverns can be encountered early in the game or lunar event enemies being restricted to their respective moon.In Constellations, every vanilla boss will be changed majorly and usually only be encountered in their respective raid, a special activity.There are many tweaks to enemies to make them more engaging or difficult to fight without simply increasing damage and health. However, some enemies have been made easier to fight such as slimes being extremely susceptible to fire-based attacks as seen in the trailer. Some enemies may behave differently based on their environment. (edited)
Many parts of multiplayer have been changed to facilitate the MMO nature of Constellations. PvP will always be enabled to facilitate combat with bot players, however every real player will be on the same vanilla PvP.Every player will have their own private ship or private world to call their home. Players will also have the option to claim a Realm so that they can control access to it and protect blocks in it, thus allowing them to build outside of their private world without fear of griefing. Unclaimed Realms are open for any player to travel to, edit the contents of, and claim for their own.Players will have many opportunties to play with fellow gamers through activities and minigames. Many of these will be either optionally or forced matchmaking, but some will also be exclusively solo. They will also have the option to create their own clans to build social groups with.
edit: Added dictionary to explain italicized terms.
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