neoselket
Ice Queen
This is my 1,234th post.
Expert mode is a terraria game mode that makes the game harder, and in return gives better rewards for players who play on it. However, it leaves much to be desired. The biggest change is that mobs deal double damage, which i feel is kind of a cheap way to increase difficulty. Also, some mobs have different attacks, like skeletons throwing bones, jellyfish zapping, etc. most of the changes involve giving new abilities to some enemies and increasing the damage of all of them, making expert mode kind of boring. Here's my ideas to fix it.
First off, mobs shouldn't have double damage. The difficulty should be increased in not just raw stats, but behavior. AI. You might say that things like bosses moving super fast or skeletons throwing bones are AI improvements, but they're not. AI is artificial intelligence, or mob behavior. For instance, the AI of most terraria mobs is go straight for the player, jumping into lava or bouncing up and down attempting to jump up a cliff that is obviously to high to be accessible. Artificial intelligence is more like artificial stupidity. I would change it so mobs would be able to parkour better, as well as avoiding lava, spiky balls, and other hazards.
If a cliff is too high to jump, they will either hide right next to the cliff, waiting for players to jump off of it, or, if they have a ranged attack, back up and use it. If they cannot hit the player, they will adjust their aim. Often archer skeletons will shoot right at the player, and gravity will make their projectiles hit the floor halfway to the intended target. And yet they will still attack the same spot.
Another AI improvement would be that mobs would attempt to surround players by attacking from more than one angle at once. For instance, two skeletons are approaching a player. One will jump, and the other will stay put. If it's a skeleton and a bat, the bat will fly around the player(with improved pathfinding that prevents it from repeatedly banging it's head against walls) and attack it from the top right while the skeleton attacks from the left. Things like that, giving enemies strategy.
Now i will mention specific mob behaviors.
Slimes
All slimes will have a small chance to inflict the "slimed" debuff on the player after hitting them. This will not be useless, instead it will slow movement speed and create slime particles, similar to chilled. It will last 5 seconds, more for stronger slimes. Also, the following slimes would have a chance to split into two half-slimes on death:
Purple slime
Jungle slime
Crimslime
Sand slime
Illuminant slime
Pinky would now have a shortened delay between bounces, making it more agile and harder to hit/dodge.
Titan mobs
Titan mobs would be mobs that are slightly larger than normal mobs, deal more damage, have more health and defense, and have a chance to inflict debuffs. They would be in normal mode, too, but far less common. Inspired by n terraria.
Infernal mobs
all mobs except bosses would have a chance to spawn as infernal/elite mobs. They would have special abilities and look slightly different depending on what abilities they have. Examples:
lifesteal(green hue)
fiery(orange hue) would also be immune to fire and lava.
fast(yellow hue)
invisible
When attacked by a mob that is on fire, cursed fire, or frostburn, it would have a chance to inflict the debuff on the player.
All mobs would have a chance to inflict the bleeding debuff.
Upon killing an enemy, there is a 2% chance for it to turn into a ghost. Ghost mobs act just like normal mobs except they can go through blocks and are light gray and transparent.
Zombies
Zombies would be able to open doors all the time, not just during blood moons. During blood moons they will break the doors rather than just opening them. If an item is behind the door, the zombie will open the door the other way, and if both ways are obstructed it will just break the door. However, higher tier doors(metal,dungeon, etc) will be immune to being broken by enemies of that tier or below. Tiers:
Wood: None
Metal: Zombies
Granite/marble: Skeletons, face monsters
Dungeon: Goblins
Obsidian: Werewolves
Lihzahrd: Possessed armor
Devourer
When killed, devourers would split into 2-3 small devourers which would consist of only 2 segments each.
Antlion
Antlions would shoot faster.
Eater of souls
Ancient shadow armor drop rate doubled. When titan eaters are killed, their eye will pop out and spawn an "eater's eye" monster, which would behave like a demon eye. The eater itself would turn into a "blind eater", with no defense but greatly increased speed.
Spiders
All spiders would have the ability to climb up blocks sideways.
Hoplite
Spears would have a chance to inflict the "penetrated" debuff on players.
Harpies
Harpies would fly in circles around the player, shoot several feathers, then charge.
Sharks would inflict the "bleeding" debuff, which would increase the amount of damage sharks do by 50%.
Zombie eskimo
Zombie eskimos would throw snowballs when unable to reach players.
Medusa
Medusa will now be able to petrify all players within line of sight, regardless of which way they're facing.
Hardmode
Basilisk
When facing a basilisk while it's facing you, you will get the "lethal gaze" debuff. It does 5 damage per second and ceases immediately when not facing a basilisk.
Corruptor
Spit attacks would inflict the "corrupted" debuff, which lowers your damage and deals 7 damage per second.
Desert spirit
Chance to inflict the "cursed" debuff and drop nazars.
Giant cursed skull
Would inflict the "cursed" debuff and drop nazars.
Bosses
All bosses will drop a pet version of themselves. There are other threads addressing what those might be like, so i won't bother describing them here.
Treasure bags no longer drop, instead the boss just drops the loot from them naturally. Also, the lunatic cultist and moon lord drop super healing potions. Bosses would also have special abilities, but i'm only going to describe a few. Other ideas for expert bosses can be found here: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/buffing-expert-bosses-the-right-way.36271/
Eye of Cthulhu
As well as having higher speed, the eye will sometimes try to fly downwards into the ground, and charge upwards at the player, limiting the damage it takes. Also, servants of cthulhu will attempt to spread out and converge on the player from multiple directions.
Eater of Worlds
Single segments can now survive on their own.
Brain of cthulhu
no changes
King slime
Would sometimes shoot slimes at the player.
Queen bee
Would occasionally shoot stingers like a shotgun/machinegun.
Wall of Flesh
no changes
The Destroyer
would attempt to circle(surround) the player.
Skeletron Prime
Would have extreme defense, with defense being lowered partially every time an arm is destroyed.
The Twins
Would circle the player in opposite directions(one clockwise, one counterclockwise) and then charge at high speeds.
Plantera
Would constantly move hooks to try to 'grab' the player with them.
Golem
Would occasionally send out a spray of lasers that would sweep the area. Not like moon lord's laser, it would be a bunch of lasers firing quickly, each at a slightly different angle than the last, until they made a complete circle.
Lunatic Cultist
While you are fighting the Lunatic cultist, other cultists would spawn offscreen and attack you.
Next, the clones. Right now the clones of the lunatic cultist are easy to spot, and don't do much. I would change it so when the cultist spawns duplicates, they would have the same attacks as the normal cultist and share the health bar, so you wouldn't be able to tell which one was which. However, they would deal half the damage of the main cultist, and would be defeated in one hit.
As the Cultist loses health, more normal cultists would spawn in to support him, and eventually a White cultist would appear.The White cultist would have 5000 health and would attack by shooting golden balls of light at the player, which would inflict the confused debuff. Upon death, the white cultist would spawn 2 Phantasm dragons instantly, and an ancient vision would appear. Once you defeat the lunatic cultist, instead of the celestial pillars immediately spawning, The Cultist would explode in a ball of golden light, which would fly off into space.
Moon Lord
no changes
This actually took me months to make, as i would spend a small amount of time on it every now and then. just FYI.
Expert mode is a terraria game mode that makes the game harder, and in return gives better rewards for players who play on it. However, it leaves much to be desired. The biggest change is that mobs deal double damage, which i feel is kind of a cheap way to increase difficulty. Also, some mobs have different attacks, like skeletons throwing bones, jellyfish zapping, etc. most of the changes involve giving new abilities to some enemies and increasing the damage of all of them, making expert mode kind of boring. Here's my ideas to fix it.
First off, mobs shouldn't have double damage. The difficulty should be increased in not just raw stats, but behavior. AI. You might say that things like bosses moving super fast or skeletons throwing bones are AI improvements, but they're not. AI is artificial intelligence, or mob behavior. For instance, the AI of most terraria mobs is go straight for the player, jumping into lava or bouncing up and down attempting to jump up a cliff that is obviously to high to be accessible. Artificial intelligence is more like artificial stupidity. I would change it so mobs would be able to parkour better, as well as avoiding lava, spiky balls, and other hazards.
If a cliff is too high to jump, they will either hide right next to the cliff, waiting for players to jump off of it, or, if they have a ranged attack, back up and use it. If they cannot hit the player, they will adjust their aim. Often archer skeletons will shoot right at the player, and gravity will make their projectiles hit the floor halfway to the intended target. And yet they will still attack the same spot.
Another AI improvement would be that mobs would attempt to surround players by attacking from more than one angle at once. For instance, two skeletons are approaching a player. One will jump, and the other will stay put. If it's a skeleton and a bat, the bat will fly around the player(with improved pathfinding that prevents it from repeatedly banging it's head against walls) and attack it from the top right while the skeleton attacks from the left. Things like that, giving enemies strategy.
Now i will mention specific mob behaviors.
Slimes
All slimes will have a small chance to inflict the "slimed" debuff on the player after hitting them. This will not be useless, instead it will slow movement speed and create slime particles, similar to chilled. It will last 5 seconds, more for stronger slimes. Also, the following slimes would have a chance to split into two half-slimes on death:
Purple slime
Jungle slime
Crimslime
Sand slime
Illuminant slime
Pinky would now have a shortened delay between bounces, making it more agile and harder to hit/dodge.
Titan mobs
Titan mobs would be mobs that are slightly larger than normal mobs, deal more damage, have more health and defense, and have a chance to inflict debuffs. They would be in normal mode, too, but far less common. Inspired by n terraria.
Infernal mobs
all mobs except bosses would have a chance to spawn as infernal/elite mobs. They would have special abilities and look slightly different depending on what abilities they have. Examples:
lifesteal(green hue)
fiery(orange hue) would also be immune to fire and lava.
fast(yellow hue)
invisible
When attacked by a mob that is on fire, cursed fire, or frostburn, it would have a chance to inflict the debuff on the player.
All mobs would have a chance to inflict the bleeding debuff.
Upon killing an enemy, there is a 2% chance for it to turn into a ghost. Ghost mobs act just like normal mobs except they can go through blocks and are light gray and transparent.
Zombies
Zombies would be able to open doors all the time, not just during blood moons. During blood moons they will break the doors rather than just opening them. If an item is behind the door, the zombie will open the door the other way, and if both ways are obstructed it will just break the door. However, higher tier doors(metal,dungeon, etc) will be immune to being broken by enemies of that tier or below. Tiers:
Wood: None
Metal: Zombies
Granite/marble: Skeletons, face monsters
Dungeon: Goblins
Obsidian: Werewolves
Lihzahrd: Possessed armor
Devourer
When killed, devourers would split into 2-3 small devourers which would consist of only 2 segments each.
Antlion
Antlions would shoot faster.
Eater of souls
Ancient shadow armor drop rate doubled. When titan eaters are killed, their eye will pop out and spawn an "eater's eye" monster, which would behave like a demon eye. The eater itself would turn into a "blind eater", with no defense but greatly increased speed.
Spiders
All spiders would have the ability to climb up blocks sideways.
Hoplite
Spears would have a chance to inflict the "penetrated" debuff on players.
Harpies
Harpies would fly in circles around the player, shoot several feathers, then charge.
Sharks would inflict the "bleeding" debuff, which would increase the amount of damage sharks do by 50%.
Zombie eskimo
Zombie eskimos would throw snowballs when unable to reach players.
Medusa
Medusa will now be able to petrify all players within line of sight, regardless of which way they're facing.
Hardmode
Basilisk
When facing a basilisk while it's facing you, you will get the "lethal gaze" debuff. It does 5 damage per second and ceases immediately when not facing a basilisk.
Corruptor
Spit attacks would inflict the "corrupted" debuff, which lowers your damage and deals 7 damage per second.
Desert spirit
Chance to inflict the "cursed" debuff and drop nazars.
Giant cursed skull
Would inflict the "cursed" debuff and drop nazars.
Bosses
All bosses will drop a pet version of themselves. There are other threads addressing what those might be like, so i won't bother describing them here.
Treasure bags no longer drop, instead the boss just drops the loot from them naturally. Also, the lunatic cultist and moon lord drop super healing potions. Bosses would also have special abilities, but i'm only going to describe a few. Other ideas for expert bosses can be found here: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/buffing-expert-bosses-the-right-way.36271/
Eye of Cthulhu
As well as having higher speed, the eye will sometimes try to fly downwards into the ground, and charge upwards at the player, limiting the damage it takes. Also, servants of cthulhu will attempt to spread out and converge on the player from multiple directions.
Eater of Worlds
Single segments can now survive on their own.
Brain of cthulhu
no changes
King slime
Would sometimes shoot slimes at the player.
Queen bee
Would occasionally shoot stingers like a shotgun/machinegun.
Wall of Flesh
no changes
The Destroyer
would attempt to circle(surround) the player.
Skeletron Prime
Would have extreme defense, with defense being lowered partially every time an arm is destroyed.
The Twins
Would circle the player in opposite directions(one clockwise, one counterclockwise) and then charge at high speeds.
Plantera
Would constantly move hooks to try to 'grab' the player with them.
Golem
Would occasionally send out a spray of lasers that would sweep the area. Not like moon lord's laser, it would be a bunch of lasers firing quickly, each at a slightly different angle than the last, until they made a complete circle.
Lunatic Cultist
While you are fighting the Lunatic cultist, other cultists would spawn offscreen and attack you.
Next, the clones. Right now the clones of the lunatic cultist are easy to spot, and don't do much. I would change it so when the cultist spawns duplicates, they would have the same attacks as the normal cultist and share the health bar, so you wouldn't be able to tell which one was which. However, they would deal half the damage of the main cultist, and would be defeated in one hit.
As the Cultist loses health, more normal cultists would spawn in to support him, and eventually a White cultist would appear.The White cultist would have 5000 health and would attack by shooting golden balls of light at the player, which would inflict the confused debuff. Upon death, the white cultist would spawn 2 Phantasm dragons instantly, and an ancient vision would appear. Once you defeat the lunatic cultist, instead of the celestial pillars immediately spawning, The Cultist would explode in a ball of golden light, which would fly off into space.
Moon Lord
no changes
This actually took me months to make, as i would spend a small amount of time on it every now and then. just FYI.
