tModLoader Expanded Sentries

[HallowKingJerrold]

The early game sentry weapons are simple like how the other classes have simple early game weapons. The gem weapons do get a bit more fancy in hardmode for the upcoming update.


I would like cross mod support, in fact I have quite some ideas lined up already. Things like a couple of accessories for Fargo's Mutant Mod in line with the five default damage types, a Black Turret and Terrarium Turret for Thorium, support for RPG mods, a legendary turret for the Joostmod, an artifact turret and accessory for The Spirit Mod, and more. Mainly if a mod has say, a series of weapons that covers the default five damage types, I want a sentry weapon added in too. I want this to feel like a sixth damage type that was a part of the game all along. However, I rather not get ahead of myself just yet while this mod is still in alpha.

The Firefly Launcher sounds like a weaker Bee Emitter. Not sure if I would make that. What would the Gemworlder Towers be like?

Gem Towers (And how they operate) is graded akin to the Gem Staffs

Coal (Thorium) - Below Standard damage (5), Single Projectile

Amethyst - Standard damage, Single Projectile

Topaz - Standard damage, Twin Projectiles

Opal (Thorium) - Above Standard damage, Single Projectile

Sapphire - Above Standard damage (One point lower than Opal), Single Projectile

Pearl (Thorium) - Above Standard damage, Twin Projectiles

Emerald - High damage, Single Projectile

Amber - Enhancer, Used to boost Single Projectiles to Twin Projectiles and increase damage to Gem Traps that have max Projectiles/Gemworlder Towers

Ruby - High damage, Twin Projectiles

Diamond - Max damage (30), and Twin Projectiles

Gemworlder Towers have 50% extra damage, Single Projectiles become Triple Projectiles, and Twin Projectiles become Quad Projectiles. Amber only increases damage for Gemworlder Towers

Gem Traps have a "Amber" Slot, while Gemworlder Towers have 2.

 

[Joost8910]

Cross mod support so sentires in other mods obey the player's turret slot limit

Erm, that's a vanilla feature...? Most mods just use the pre-1.3.4 sentry style, but they could use the 1.3.4+ style. There wouldn't be cross-mod content to make them behave like that.

 

[LadyLone]

Erm, that's a vanilla feature...? Most mods just use the pre-1.3.4 sentry style, but they could use the 1.3.4+ style. There wouldn't be cross-mod content to make them behave like that.

I think it would be nice if they adapt to the new behavior of sentry limits compared to the old hardcoded one sentry limit. From what I've seen of most mods, they don't make use of this feature or anything that increases the player's sentry limit. I think the best that could be done is to contact the mod authors if they would make the changes of their sentry weapons, but I'm not sure if they'll even see a reason to make the change. I wonder if this mod existing would bring any awareness to that.

 

[Joost8910]

I think it would be nice if they adapt to the new behavior of sentry limits compared to the old hardcoded one sentry limit. From what I've seen of most mods, they don't make use of this feature or anything that increases the player's sentry limit. I think the best that could be done is to contact the mod authors if they would make the changes of their sentry weapons, but I'm not sure if they'll even see a reason to make the change. I wonder if this mod existing would bring any awareness to that.

Absolutely, but it wouldn't be cross-mod content at all. It's actually really simple to do.

Spoiler: They just have to do this

in SetDefaults()
projectile.sentry = true;
projectile.timeLeft = Projectile.SentryLifeTime;

in AI()
Main.player[projectile.owner].UpdateMaxTurrets();

 

[PhoeniX Darkcraft8 SPQR]

a TF2 Engineer themed content ? (sentrygun)

 

[LadyLone]

With over a thousand downloads, surely some people playing have a forum account to comment on this mod? How does it function sololy using sentry weapons? What about in combination with other weapon types? How's the balance? Are the sentry weapons too strong, too weak, or somewhere in the middle? I've been playing through using only sentry weapons with several mods such as Thorium, The Spirit Mod, Calamity, and more, fighting many bosses in the process. I find the turrets most useful against fast moving flying bosses since they tend not to be still long enough for regular traps to be very effective against them. Otherwise it hasn't been that rough.

I would like to add more weapons like one made from light and dark shards, perhaps weapons from the mecha bosses souls, at least one weapon from the moon events (aside from Spooky Wood Spikes), a Martian sentry weapon, and more. Those may or may not happen before the 1.0 release. My next plan is to add a new celestial fragment along with two end game weapons and an armor set from them. No new Moon Lord drops since he already drops a couple of sentry weapons.

a TF2 Engineer themed content ? (sentrygun)

Someone on Discord also asked about a Portal 2 turret. That's on my maybe list for now. I couldn't do the sprites justice in either case.

 

[mShadow88]

I've been soloing on a thorium world. Haven't fought any bosses yet just trying to get better gear right now. There's a bit of a delay with the snowball turret in the lock on time. Might I suggest an alternative helmet for the stardust set? Work around the summon bonus and make it sentry based.

 

[LadyLone]

Alright, all of hardmode is finally accounted for in terms of content. Despite that, I still don't feel this is ready to go beyond an alpha release yet. I might add a few extra weapons here and there. I spent some time trying to balance the damage of the Eclipse weapons to not be too weak or strong against the Moon Lord. That was on a test character on a test world, so I'll have to see how that goes on my actual Defender playthrough. At this point I just need to deal with the end game bosses. I wonder how far I can get on post Moon Lord bosses like Thorium's Ragnarök.

I've been soloing on a thorium world. Haven't fought any bosses yet just trying to get better gear right now. There's a bit of a delay with the snowball turret in the lock on time. Might I suggest an alternative helmet for the stardust set? Work around the summon bonus and make it sentry based.

Did you get the Frozen Armor and Enchanted Chip yet? I found those a must to get 4 sentries at once. I also found the Snowball Turret very useful against Thorium's Grand Thunder Bird and the Eye of Cthulhu who can otherwise be very hard to hit with the traps you're limited to at the time. The gem layers can be very powerful if you get those early, although you might have to keep resummoning on fast moving bosses due to the very small area they cover.

I rather not make an alternate helmet for the Stardust Armor since I don't want to make this feel like a sub class of summoners, although they share a lot in common, much like how throwing has a lot in common with ranged.

 

[mShadow88]

@TheLoneGamer Indeed i have crafted these items. I just wanted to grind up parts for later game cause ya never know what your gonna need. Killed Kingslime first because I wanted his turret before i went after Eye of Cthulhu and used a sentry potion. It was a slaughter with him dashing under them as they rained down upon him.

 

[HallowKingJerrold]

Had a idea.

Rather than a Pillar, how about an "Aurora's Veil" invasion, where beasts, blessed with the northern wind, try to ruin your day? It only happens post Lunatic Cultist, and drop Aurora Bones, meant for Pillar-grade items for Sentries?

 

[LadyLone]

So I got through the Moon Lord, but not without a struggle. I kept him around one area and used the Eclipse weapons. They however cause hit immunity so they can only deal so much damage even if you have a lot of them out. So having a lot of them out meant I could have more room to dodge and still keep a damaging area for the Moon Lord. I tried designing them without hit immunity, but then they became OP especially due to the spammy nature of them.

For the moment I might work more on code changes than new weapons. I might add some earlier game gear accessories. I was also thinking of accessories that could raise sentry lifespan. However I don't want to go too crazy with accessories as slots are limited especially in heavily modded games. Perhaps I could just raise the 6 minutes or even make it infinite, especially since now there's a buff to cancel your sentries. At 6 minutes, sentries have to be reset at least once during a Pumpkin or Frost Moon and twice for a Solar Eclipse. Would anyone be against simply making sentries last an unlimited time or really long like real life hours? As it is now, you can't really set up an AFK farm with them for long which should be a strength of the class. I might also add a potion to raise sentry reaction speed.

Another thing is that the Eclipse Armor might actually be a downgrade compared to the Valhalla Knight that can be gotten sooner. The Eclipse Armor gives an extra 15% damage (75% vs T3 DD2 armors' 60%), 25% sentry reaction speed buff, and one more turret slot. That speed buff isn't always 25% more DPS, especially for weapons that cause hit immunity. The Eclipse Armor has defense in between Stardust and Nebula armors and quite a bit less than the Valhalla Knight armor. Maybe I could make Eclipse Armor cause sentry weapons to be mana free, since you can run out of 200 mana with rapid late game summoning due to having a higher turret limit. Perhaps Eclipse Armor could be a side grade to T3 DD2 armors. But as it is now, I actually feel this armor might not be worthy of end game tier. Thoughts?

I also think the Bubble Turret might be underwhelming compared to the Terra Turret. In theory the Bubble Turret should out damage the Terra Turret if enemies are close enough. I designed the Bubble Turret's projectiles to not cause hit immunity. Sure I could simply raise the damage, but I don't want them outclassing the mage's Bubble Gun so I made the base damage lower compared to that much like the other sentry weapons based off of magic weapons.

@TheLoneGamer Indeed i have crafted these items. I just wanted to grind up parts for later game cause ya never know what your gonna need. Killed Kingslime first because I wanted his turret before i went after Eye of Cthulhu and used a sentry potion. It was a slaughter with him dashing under them as they rained down upon him.

Oh yeah, that sentry is very good for raining down on enemies especially since they don't penetrate and thus cause no hit immunity. The Meteor Breaker can also deal a lot of damage if something gets caught in the center of it and all eight projectiles hit. Some bosses like the Grand Thunder Bird float a set height above the player, which could leave them exposed to spikes with a proper arena set up or even using the gem layers since they're the only pre-hardmode floating traps.

Had a idea.

Rather than a Pillar, how about an "Aurora's Veil" invasion, where beasts, blessed with the northern wind, try to ruin your day? It only happens post Lunatic Cultist, and drop Aurora Bones, meant for Pillar-grade items for Sentries?

Could we please keep the suggestions to something simpler like the item suggestions you posted before? A whole new invasion is way beyond the scope of what I'm capable of by myself.

 

[Moon_Man]

simple-ish suggestion:
pillar-tier turrets based on the pillars themselves?

 

[HallowKingJerrold]

Had some ideas

Having Pre-Hardmode Ore Sentries

Chlorophyte Parts
Summoned Sentries have a Chlorophyte Crystal that fires indipendantly

Modified Scope
Sentries have a 50% Detection Range increase

Odd Skull, Strange Sand
Combine with Chlorophyte Parts, Modified Scope, and Shroomite Gear

The Wallowing Collar - "Better than a simple crystal, more painful than a Eater of Souls eating your face."
Gives you the effects of the Parts, Scope, and Gear
Summons forth a familiar foe to fight for your side

 

[LadyLone]

I won't get very far with post Moon Lord content since the weapons and bosses scale massively in damage and HP. Using a super accessory from Fargo's mod, the one from combining the enchantments from all the armor sets, I was able to beat The Ragnarök and the first two Joost Mod's bosses, although SA-X took awhile. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are too difficult given they are designed to be fought with really powerful weapons like the SA-X's weapons. If I did cross mod support with The Joost Mod, I wonder what sentry weapon could fit into a Metroid theme.

Had some ideas

Having Pre-Hardmode Ore Sentries

Chlorophyte Parts
Summoned Sentries have a Chlorophyte Crystal that fires indipendantly

Modified Scope
Sentries have a 50% Detection Range increase

Odd Skull, Strange Sand
Combine with Chlorophyte Parts, Modified Scope, and Shroomite Gear

The Wallowing Collar - "Better than a simple crystal, more painful than a Eater of Souls eating your face."
Gives you the effects of the Parts, Scope, and Gear
Summons forth a familiar foe to fight for your side

This keeps in with the term of accessories being mechanical parts so you saw where I was going with that. I'll like to do something for sure with sentry detection range. I'll also look into combined accessories, although I rather save the crazy combos for Fargo's mod if I can do cross mod content with that. I'll try since Thorium and Calamity have cross mod content with that already.

 

[mShadow88]

Had a thought just now.
Circuit Board
Needs 1 of each pre-plantera chip and the sentry emblem so you can boost your sentry limit by 6 and your dmg by 12%

 

[KingCobra]

I'm not seeing any one else with this problem so maybe its a mod we are running, the mod seems great but for some reason turrets just go away randomly and cant seem to find out why... I say turrets, but its any kind of sentry even the base game ones. Also its odd because it works perfect it seems on solo, but acts odd when my friend logs onto the server.
The mods for our server are:
Calamity, Boss check list, Item check list, Imksushi, crescent, Bismuth, Base, auto trash, Zoaklen, Thorium, Spirit, Sacredtools, WingSlot upgraded, The enigma, weaponout, joost, Terra's wings comp updated, Grealm, recipe browser, multilure updated, echoes of the ancients, fargo's mutant souls and summons, teleporters unchaned, more accessories, luiafk, Jpan's bag of holding, magic storage, crystilium, yet another boss health bar, helpful npc's, expanded sentries... I know that's a lot of mods... but it all works well together lol, but do you see some thing in there that would mess with your mod?

 

[HallowKingJerrold]

I won't get very far with post Moon Lord content since the weapons and bosses scale massively in damage and HP. Using a super accessory from Fargo's mod, the one from combining the enchantments from all the armor sets, I was able to beat The Ragnarök and the first two Joost Mod's bosses, although SA-X took awhile. Gilgamesh and Enkidu are too difficult given they are designed to be fought with really powerful weapons like the SA-X's weapons. If I did cross mod support with The Joost Mod, I wonder what sentry weapon could fit into a Metroid theme.


This keeps in with the term of accessories being mechanical parts so you saw where I was going with that. I'll like to do something for sure with sentry detection range. I'll also look into combined accessories, although I rather save the crazy combos for Fargo's mod if I can do cross mod content with that. I'll try since Thorium and Calamity have cross mod content with that already.

Well, it's a Post ML item, The Lunatic Cultist droping the Odd Skull while the Moon Lord drops the Strange Sand.
If it's possible, perhaps this can have the Calamity Legendary style, where it gains power from fallen foes?
(Note: I sorely hope someone gets the reference of the Odd Skull, the Strange Sand, and the familiar foe summoned via the Wallowing Collar)

 

[LadyLone]

It's nice that I'm getting a lot of suggestions, but how many people giving suggestions are also playing the mod to comment on things like progression and balance? So far the next update will make sentries last 24 real life hours and include a few new accessories. The previous updates came faster to make sure the entire game up to Moon Lord was playable with the mod without gaps. With that out of the way, things will progress slower.

simple-ish suggestion:
pillar-tier turrets based on the pillars themselves?

Maybe. Depends how well I can code those behaviors and if I can justify the behaviors as unique enough to be made into weapons. The Stardust Pillar's behavior in particular might be very tricky.

Had a thought just now.
Circuit Board
Needs 1 of each pre-plantera chip and the sentry emblem so you can boost your sentry limit by 6 and your dmg by 12%

That sounds way too OP, especially since you can get the Defender's Emblem and Enchanted, Night, and Hallowed Chips prior to the Terra and Celestial Chips. That's a pre-Plantera accessory outclassing post-Plantera accessories. Not going to happen, at least in that form.

I'm not seeing any one else with this problem so maybe its a mod we are running, the mod seems great but for some reason turrets just go away randomly and cant seem to find out why... I say turrets, but its any kind of sentry even the base game ones. Also its odd because it works perfect it seems on solo, but acts odd when my friend logs onto the server.
The mods for our server are:
Calamity, Boss check list, Item check list, Imksushi, crescent, Bismuth, Base, auto trash, Zoaklen, Thorium, Spirit, Sacredtools, WingSlot upgraded, The enigma, weaponout, joost, Terra's wings comp updated, Grealm, recipe browser, multilure updated, echoes of the ancients, fargo's mutant souls and summons, teleporters unchaned, more accessories, luiafk, Jpan's bag of holding, magic storage, crystilium, yet another boss health bar, helpful npc's, expanded sentries... I know that's a lot of mods... but it all works well together lol, but do you see some thing in there that would mess with your mod?

Are you sure it's not the sentries disappearing after six minutes? That behavior shouldn't be any different between single and multiplayer. Then again I haven't had a chance to play this in multiplayer at all. I'm running most of those same mods and I haven't had issues, but then again, I did so in single player, not multiplayer. I hope this isn't an oddly specific problem because I wouldn't know how to go about fixing that. I wonder if the active sentry buff I added is causing any problems.

 

[KingCobra]

It's nice that I'm getting a lot of suggestions, but how many people giving suggestions are also playing the mod to comment on things like progression and balance? So far the next update will make sentries last 24 real life hours and include a few new accessories. The previous updates came faster to make sure the entire game up to Moon Lord was playable with the mod without gaps. With that out of the way, things will progress slower.

Maybe. Depends how well I can code those behaviors and if I can justify the behaviors as unique enough to be made into weapons. The Stardust Pillar's behavior in particular might be very tricky.

That sounds way too OP, especially since you can get the Defender's Emblem and Enchanted, Night, and Hallowed Chips prior to the Terra and Celestial Chips. That's a pre-Plantera accessory outclassing post-Plantera accessories. Not going to happen, at least in that form.


Are you sure it's not the sentries disappearing after six minutes? That behavior shouldn't be any different between single and multiplayer. Then again I haven't had a chance to play this in multiplayer at all. I'm running most of those same mods and I haven't had issues, but then again, I did so in single player, not multiplayer. I hope this isn't an oddly specific problem because I wouldn't know how to go about fixing that. I wonder if the active sentry buff I added is causing any problems.

No its odd because some times they stay around a while, and other times they go away after like 1 second. but yeah single player seems to work just fine, some thing about multiplayer actions messes with some thing... if there is some thing I can do to help test with multiplayer please let me know, I only play with my buddy and so far I love this mod so I hope you can get it working for multiplayer. =0

 

[LadyLone]

Added a minor update which makes sentries last 24 real life hours, added two new accessories, and made the Eclipse Armor set bonus also make sentry weapons cost no mana. The Shroomite Gear can no longer be obtained normally and no longer functions as an accessory. However, rather then completely remove it and leave players already with it empty handed, right clicking it will change it into the Beetle Gear. The only thing that would be lost is the prefix. Also the method in which I handled mana free sentry usage is not the neatest. I tried copying the method used by the Meteor Armor's set bonus for the Space Gun, but much of that effect is hardcoded and I can't directly recreate it.

No its odd because some times they stay around a while, and other times they go away after like 1 second. but yeah single player seems to work just fine, some thing about multiplayer actions messes with some thing... if there is some thing I can do to help test with multiplayer please let me know, I only play with my buddy and so far I love this mod so I hope you can get it working for multiplayer. =0

Oh boy, this is quite a problem indeed. I don't even know where to start in fixing this. Perhaps I can get a more experienced coder to look at what may be costing the issue.