Expand Your Terraria Empire - Pylons, Town Building, and NPC Happiness

Finally. I've always been building different houses for different NPCs in different places and a small village in the center of the world.

And now the game simply notices it and makes my life easier. Thank you for this.
 
Oh, question!
  • NPC's are happier when they like their neighbors
Will each NPC's preference for their company be static based on the NPC, or will it change per world?

In other words, will a Merchant always be happy in the company of the Guide but unhappy in the company of the Pirate, or will all of those be random in each world?
 


Happy Friday Terrarians!

Remember a few State of the Game's ago when we mentioned that we were working on something pretty cool that would potentially change the way that people approach certain aspects of the game? Well, the time has come to give you a peek behind the curtain at Terraria HQ and let you in on some juicy details surrounding this new feature coming to Journey's End!


Building has always been a staple of the Terraria experience - but functionally-speaking, there has never been any real reward to making fun creations outside of the adoration of the community. Similarly, everyone builds their central base and sort of shoves everything there... sure, some folks build in other biomes, but only for fun. What if we told you that Journey's End is going to change all of this up, raising building up to being a core gameplay feature with its own rewards?

Introducing...


THE TERRARIA TOWNS SYSTEM


Towns will reward building like never before. Taking the time to spruce up your base(s), plan for NPC placement, and building bases in multiple locations will now provide you a variety of benefits that have never before been available. Of course you don't HAVE to partake in this new system, but we think you will find the positives in doing so to be quite tempting indeed. :cool:


Excited? Scared? Let's take a few minutes to dive into how this new approach to building works, shall we?

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TREAT 'EM RIGHT! - NPC HAPPINESS


During Journey's End development, we conducted a focus group with all of the Terraria NPCs. Outside of some very strange requests (no, Guide, we cannot 'remove all doors at night'), their feedback was very clear: they are tired of being shoved into tiny cubicles or L shaped tubes and they want you to know this!

In order to help raise NPC morale so that they could be at their very best - and to reward players who go that extra mile to treat their NPCs with the respect they deserve, we are introducing the NPC Happiness System. How does it work? What does this mean for you? Read on....


What affects NPC Happiness?
  • NPC's are happier when you locate them in biomes that they prefer​
  • NPC's are happier when they like their neighbors​
  • NPC's are happier when they are not overcrowded with other NPCs​

Adding nice furniture and aesthetics doesn't directly affect NPC Happiness... but it sure will make you feel better about yourself when your friends come over for a visit. ;)


What Happens if my NPCs are Happy/Unhappy?
  • NPC Shop prices will adjust based upon how happy each NPC is at the time​
  • If you make an NPC happy enough, you will gain access to a Pylon for that Biome (more on this below!)​
How can I tell if my NPCs are Happy?
  • You will notice a new dialogue option for Happiness for each NPC
  • This will give you hints about what might make them happier as well!​

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DIVERSIFY & SPREAD OUT - BIOME BASES & TOWNS


Pretty much everyone does the same thing when base building right? A big central area right at the initial spawn point... crammed with NPCs and crafting stations and storage and more. At best, people stick up a single room with a bed for boss fight respawns. We can do better than this, and what about all of the other poor biomes that would love to have you set up shop in their neck of the woods, and - again - those poor NPCs may not want to live in the Forest Biome!

But wait, there's more! If you group at least 3 NPCs together in a given location, it will be recognized as being a Town. Towns are not subject to enemy spawning - outside of invasion events - and you will get to hear the super cool town music when you visit!



All together, with Journey's End in conjunction with the Happiness System, you will be rewarded for building multiple bases across the scope of your world like never before!

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Forest Base

View attachment 268762
Underground Base

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Snow/Ice Base



Well, that is great and all, but how will you get around your world to visit your now happy, but far-flung NPCs? Let's bring it all together and close out with the brand new Pylons!



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ROADS, WE WON'T NEED ROADS - INTRODUCING PYLONS


We briefly mentioned these mysterious Pylons in our section on things you can get with happy NPCs. So what are these, and why should you care? Well, if you have enough happy NPCs in a given biome, you will unlock the use of a Pylon for that biome. Pylons allow you to instantly teleport from one Pylon to another! With Pylons in place, your "big central base" now becomes an interconnected network of cool outposts all over the world, allowing you to get around quickly without the need to lay tracks or teleporters... and providing you a home away from home wherever you are!


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PYLON INSTRUCTION MANUAL

You can only have one Pylon of a given biome type placed at a time (so you can not have, for example, an Ocean Pylon at both Oceans)

Pylons must be placed in their aligned biome in order to function (you can place them anywhere else, but they will not work!)

Pylons must also have two nearby (and living) NPCs in order to function - again, the idea here is to reward building those bases/towns! :)

Pylons cannot be used during Boss Battles or Invasion Events!

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Pylons are quite easy to use. Once placed in their aligned biome, you simply click on a nearby pylon. This will take you to the map screen where you can locate another placed pylon to which you want to teleport, click it and off you go!



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That's all for today! Look forward to more Terraria: Journey's End Feature Articles throughout the next few weeks up until Launch Day, May 16th, 2020!
This is amazing and something iv been wishing for for a very long time
 
Angler still belongs in the trash right??? Is that his new favourite location? It sure is mine. Lol joke.

I love that we can actually care for our NPCs now!
Yeah, I do not like the angler. The fish finder is way too hard to get.

But this will be a really good change. Not only will be able to better interact with our npc's, we won't have to spend hours wiring teleporters! :dryadtongue:
 
I assumed the system meant there would be penalties to prices and the like if you don't satisfy their requirements. Still annoying that I have to cater to them just to get good prices though.
That's what it means. Leinfors confirmed it here. I also really hate that change. Why not just leave things as-is for those of us who don't enjoy building and add the extra stuff for those who do? Why punish us?
 
I'm noticing some players are unhappy with the idea of this new system, thinking they'll be punished for not catering to NPC happiness. Perhaps there needs to be a little more clarification on how high the prices are for doing so?
 
They're not punishing you. This makes things so much easier.
>you get higher prices for all the npcs who aren't happy
>"they aren't punishing you"

They totally are. Sure, it makes things much easier, but that's for all of you who like building. I don't, and I don't want to be punished with higher prices and perhaps other things that haven't been revealed yet.

Terraria has always given players the liberty to play any way they want, why is that changing for this update? The devs surely know that not everybody plays for the same reason.
 
They're not punishing you. This makes things so much easier.
Agreed. Just put some houses in other biomes and you have better prices and easy teleportation bruh. I especially like being able to move faster. And if my assumptions are correct, this would help new players know that NPCs sell new stuff in specific biomes.
 
>you get higher prices for all the npcs who aren't happy
>"they aren't punishing you"

They totally are. Sure, it makes things much easier, but that's for all of you who like building. I don't, and I don't want to be punished with higher prices and perhaps other things that haven't been revealed yet.

Terraria has always given players the liberty to play any way they want, why is that changing for this update? The devs surely know that not everybody plays for the same reason.

You can still play however you want. There are ways to play that have more benefits, and some with downsides.

If you want to continue building NPC apartments, then they will have sell value penalties, because that is extremely easy and highly rewarding (you've actually been building houses all along for entirely optional NPCs). If you want to work within the system, there will be rewards for it.

There are no newly imposed hard limits on NPC assignment here. But some previously optimal things will no longer be optimal. You can still make that choice if you wish. And recognize that some gameplay styles are faster but not the most rewarding. And some take more effort, and may be more rewarding in turn. This is no different from removing overly efficient exploits or strategies that weren't intended. Sometimes we re-assess the state of how gameplay is, and make changes to it. And we made it in such a way that still allows you to play your way if you decide to. Having changes to things like this is a part of playing games that receiving continuing updates.

Change is good, and I know that everyone will be able to adapt accordingly. :)
 
I'm a bit curious how many pylons there are, as the main post doesn't specify. It's clear that there are at least pylons for overworld, underground, snow biome, ocean, and hallow. I can assume jungle has one as well, and surely the desert does too. NPCs don't like living in evil biomes so they're a no-go for pylons, and I highly doubt there's one for the underworld either. What's up in the air for me is sky and mushroom biome, which are both cool spots for npcs but also pretty minor biomes in the grand scheme of things.
 
That's what it means. Leinfors confirmed it here. I also really hate that change. Why not just leave things as-is for those of us who don't enjoy building and add the extra stuff for those who do? Why punish us?
I'm not huge on making things look pretty either, but I usually have safehouses set-up in most biomes anyways for setting spawns when doing stuff, so just adding some new rooms for NPCs in exchange for a teleporter instead of changing my spawn sounds amazing.
 
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