MistaAnderson
Terrarian
So I thought I posted this thread way back, but I guess it may have been on TO. And for some reason, I can't find it.
Ghost Mode Changes
Currently, Ghosts in Terraria are subject to not only severe limitations, but also bugs. I'm talking about the Ghost of a hardcore player that just died, of course.
I'm currently doing a letsplay with DaWrecka, who plays as a ghost to mimick a spectator mode. We found out that this allows for some interesting gameplay variations, and could be a thing for more people.
But due to the limitations and bugs of Ghosts, we ran into some problems making this a viable solution.
First of all, you cannot place blocks ontop of where a ghost is. And if a ghost is infront of a door, you might not be able to open it at times.
Ghosts also can't do much. They are limited by extremely low movement speed, and cannot see in the dark; so much for being able to float through the ground.
If a ghost decides to stay by the players in the world, they cannot actually communicate or visually highlight things with the players; they rely solely on text to explain where they are, or what they mean, as opposed to be able to say "over here!" like a little zelda-fairy-friend and highlight stuff, which would be cool.
And as soon as that player leaves, that's it. They can never rejoin with that character, as it is deleted. This sucks a lot if they like spectating/being around and doing ghostly things but wanna be able to be passive.
Furthermore, Ghosts seem to have other impacts on the world. Ghosts can bypass limitations that apply to players, criteria for events to be specific.
Goblin Army, Blood Moon, and other events that require players to have a certain amount of HP, can be allowed if only a Ghost meets these criteria.
This allowed us to get a random Goblin Invasion when I still had 100HP on my character, where the ghost had more while alive.
On IRC, we were told that the world is "polluted" by this, and will, even if the ghost leaves, still have those criterias met, and always stay that way. I'm not sure if this is true, or if it still applies if you shut down the server/game, and then start it again. This needs more testing.
Additionally, a ghost will still count as a player, so all monsters will have additional HP and be difficult to deal with, especially in Expert Mode. This is great; more ghostly viewers, more pressure, more performance. You could use this if you want to max out the difficulty even more. I'm still upset you guys nerfed Medusa, so this suits me perfectly.
Ghosts can also prevent mobs from despawning by simply looking at them, however they do still despawn at times, right onscreen. This may be an ongoing bug in general, considering I've seen the travelling merchant appear on the player screen as well, and certain mobs have despawned onscreen I believe.
Here's what I'm requesting:
Features
Bug Fixes
Misc fun ideas for Ghosts, toggled in server settings
These ideas are thoughts I wanna throw out there, incase they could become a thing. If they're carried out properly, this could be a gamechanger and add new interesting ways to play.
They're all toggleable by server settings, so no worries.
Ghost UI
As a Ghost, opening an inventory is not possible; so instead, it brings up menus for what you can do as a ghost.
This includes sound effects (when enabled), as well as being able to appear before players, and if implemented, the ability to possess mobs or NPCs. Yikes!
General Spectator Mode
There is no Spectator Mode present at all. It'd be cool to have a general spectator mode that doesn't require a ghost character, and allows to follow specific players by using the arrow keys, or go into free mode, etc. This'd be ideal for streamers to engage with their audience, while letting streamers decide if Spectators, knowing how obnoxious twitch comments and such can be, can post to the chat at all ingame. The last thing you want is the screen overflowing with garbage.
Viewpoints
Streamers, or perhaps spectators themselves, could define certain "viewpoints", so it's easy to switch to viewing the player's base, their NPCs, or the mob that just wrecked the streamer.
So to clarify, default viewpoints would be the place of player's death, the mob that killed them, any housing they have, their spawn point, world spawn, the player location itself, and NPC locations.
Key points can be defined to an object, so you can follow it around like a player. Following a gold coin before picked up by a mob, will cause you to follow that mob until it drops the coin.
Default viewpoints are definable by the streamer, and custom viewpoints can be added by individual spectators for themselves to use.
Sound like a good idea?
General ideas for either Spectator or Ghost, or both
Foresight
Ghosts or Spectators can see/predict coming events like Goblin Invasion, 5-10 minutes before they happen.
Well that wasn't a lot, was it.
As always, I'd appreciate feedback and comments, tell me what you think, and as always, good ghosting.
Edits and Updates
It would imply obvious limitations, so the most a player can do is control the timing or when to initiate attacks. A player cannot, for example, do an infinite charge as Fishron.
So at best, they'd be a "smarter" version.
That is, if we allow them to possess bosses at all
Would be great for boss ideas.
While we're at it, we could add tiered boss battles by having multiple ghosts take control of a mob or boss. They get more abilities, but they can't accurately control the thing anymore, and the boss is gonna move like a regular boss, except influenced more and more by how many players are trying to do X and Y.
So if most of the ghosts are pushing left, it'll move left-ish. The more ghosts, the more "soul" aka HP the boss gains. There are lots of ways to implement this.
Of course, multiple-ghost-possession would be a thing pro's would do, and that requires specifically many HC players to be willing to die and stay as a ghost.
All of this and the above would together probably be worth 1.3.5.
If you want ghost gameplay to be somewhat rewarding, we could talk drops and stuff, but a good start is "drop more gold per ghost possessing it". Maybe if enough ghosts possess a boss, it could drop ghost-tier/ghost-ability items, that allow you to say, for a short second, phase through a wall, not take damage, or become temporarily invisible.
That, or just get an item that lets you see ghosts and "hidden" entities.
Ghost Mode Changes
Currently, Ghosts in Terraria are subject to not only severe limitations, but also bugs. I'm talking about the Ghost of a hardcore player that just died, of course.
I'm currently doing a letsplay with DaWrecka, who plays as a ghost to mimick a spectator mode. We found out that this allows for some interesting gameplay variations, and could be a thing for more people.
But due to the limitations and bugs of Ghosts, we ran into some problems making this a viable solution.
First of all, you cannot place blocks ontop of where a ghost is. And if a ghost is infront of a door, you might not be able to open it at times.
Ghosts also can't do much. They are limited by extremely low movement speed, and cannot see in the dark; so much for being able to float through the ground.
If a ghost decides to stay by the players in the world, they cannot actually communicate or visually highlight things with the players; they rely solely on text to explain where they are, or what they mean, as opposed to be able to say "over here!" like a little zelda-fairy-friend and highlight stuff, which would be cool.
And as soon as that player leaves, that's it. They can never rejoin with that character, as it is deleted. This sucks a lot if they like spectating/being around and doing ghostly things but wanna be able to be passive.
Furthermore, Ghosts seem to have other impacts on the world. Ghosts can bypass limitations that apply to players, criteria for events to be specific.
Goblin Army, Blood Moon, and other events that require players to have a certain amount of HP, can be allowed if only a Ghost meets these criteria.
This allowed us to get a random Goblin Invasion when I still had 100HP on my character, where the ghost had more while alive.
On IRC, we were told that the world is "polluted" by this, and will, even if the ghost leaves, still have those criterias met, and always stay that way. I'm not sure if this is true, or if it still applies if you shut down the server/game, and then start it again. This needs more testing.
Additionally, a ghost will still count as a player, so all monsters will have additional HP and be difficult to deal with, especially in Expert Mode. This is great; more ghostly viewers, more pressure, more performance. You could use this if you want to max out the difficulty even more. I'm still upset you guys nerfed Medusa, so this suits me perfectly.
Ghosts can also prevent mobs from despawning by simply looking at them, however they do still despawn at times, right onscreen. This may be an ongoing bug in general, considering I've seen the travelling merchant appear on the player screen as well, and certain mobs have despawned onscreen I believe.
Here's what I'm requesting:
Features
- Allow Ghosts to still be played, but listed as dead. You can join a server as a ghost still, but it won't allow you to be resurrected, unless a future feature allows this (Ghost Quest? Friends help?)
- Allow Ghosts to light up areas underground to more properly see them. Preferrably in a way that living players cannot see, or this would be cheating for living players.
- This would be a server-side toggle, given how this could be used for cheating by Ghosts telling players where to go and what to pick up. But it allows ghosts to act more like helping
fairies, like that helpful one in Zelda.
- This would be a server-side toggle, given how this could be used for cheating by Ghosts telling players where to go and what to pick up. But it allows ghosts to act more like helping
- Allow ghosts to appear before players, so as to be more part of the fun, even if passively.
- Just let them toggle it, and roam around, or perhaps make it a hold-toggle with a cooldown, not to make them obnoxious and obstruct players' view by standing ontop of things, etc.
Bug Fixes
- Fix players not being able to place blocks ontop of ghosts
- Fix players not being able to open doors next to ghosts
Misc fun ideas for Ghosts, toggled in server settings
These ideas are thoughts I wanna throw out there, incase they could become a thing. If they're carried out properly, this could be a gamechanger and add new interesting ways to play.
They're all toggleable by server settings, so no worries.
- Being able to make context-appropriate sounds, like Zombie "wrraaah" or the Wall of Flesh awakening sound to freak players out.
- "Smart Cursor" becomes smart select, limiting your choices in Ghost UI to context. More on this system below.
- Whispering and ghostly sounds?
- Being able to steal items on the ground and run away with them, or rather, attempt to float them away. They will only be dragged, so a player can still retrieve them if they manage to catch up. Kinda like the dirt rod, but limited to normal pickup range, so they can float things around spookily if they wanna.
- Maybe also limit Ghosts to not be able to fly too high while holding an item, or grounded players would have no way of retrieving their valuables.
- Being able to appear briefly and suddenly infront of the player. Imagine trolling players jumping over Lava pits by making them dodge in midair!
- Maybe make a small distortion effect occur right before they appear, as to further cause disturbing visuals more likely to halt a player, rather than just "adding" a texture on their screen.
- Add "Halloween Spook" effect where Ghosts can imitate other mobs for a few seconds, and when they're hit, they distort and turn into nothing. Great way to freak out players in a pinch.
- Spook is limited to context. During a Blood Moon, you can imitate any blood moon mob, etc. Best approach is to stay slightly offscreen and then approach players, or drop down to them.
You will of course be walking around while imitating a walking mob, not as to look like an obvious fake.. or should you?
- Spook is limited to context. During a Blood Moon, you can imitate any blood moon mob, etc. Best approach is to stay slightly offscreen and then approach players, or drop down to them.
- Perhaps add a Combat toggle, so that players can allow ghosts to possess actual mobs, or turn into mobs by themselves, and be part of the environment to defeat players. Extra difficulty.
- Ghosts who can become Casters can also summon small groups of mobs in Expert Mode dungeon.
just got real. - Ghosts who are actual mobs would be slightly faster or tougher depending on what a mob needs to be more dangerous.
- This would allow for a Survival-esque gameplay where it's Humans vs Ghosts, kinda like ZombieSurvival mod by JetBoom in Garry's Mod. Hardcore players would become ghosts on death, making it harder for surviving players. Add a time limit or boss requirement and bam, the winning team wins. Perfect survival!
- You could toggle serverside what Ghosts are able to do, possess, or if they simply become tougher zombies or other mobs, on death. There are many places we can go with this idea. Further you progress, the more powerful mobs you will have to fend off. Again, ZombieSurvival.
- Ghosts who can become Casters can also summon small groups of mobs in Expert Mode dungeon.
Ghost UI
As a Ghost, opening an inventory is not possible; so instead, it brings up menus for what you can do as a ghost.
This includes sound effects (when enabled), as well as being able to appear before players, and if implemented, the ability to possess mobs or NPCs. Yikes!
General Spectator Mode
There is no Spectator Mode present at all. It'd be cool to have a general spectator mode that doesn't require a ghost character, and allows to follow specific players by using the arrow keys, or go into free mode, etc. This'd be ideal for streamers to engage with their audience, while letting streamers decide if Spectators, knowing how obnoxious twitch comments and such can be, can post to the chat at all ingame. The last thing you want is the screen overflowing with garbage.
Viewpoints
Streamers, or perhaps spectators themselves, could define certain "viewpoints", so it's easy to switch to viewing the player's base, their NPCs, or the mob that just wrecked the streamer.
So to clarify, default viewpoints would be the place of player's death, the mob that killed them, any housing they have, their spawn point, world spawn, the player location itself, and NPC locations.
Key points can be defined to an object, so you can follow it around like a player. Following a gold coin before picked up by a mob, will cause you to follow that mob until it drops the coin.
Default viewpoints are definable by the streamer, and custom viewpoints can be added by individual spectators for themselves to use.
Sound like a good idea?
General ideas for either Spectator or Ghost, or both
Foresight
Ghosts or Spectators can see/predict coming events like Goblin Invasion, 5-10 minutes before they happen.
Well that wasn't a lot, was it.
As always, I'd appreciate feedback and comments, tell me what you think, and as always, good ghosting.
Edits and Updates
It would imply obvious limitations, so the most a player can do is control the timing or when to initiate attacks. A player cannot, for example, do an infinite charge as Fishron.
So at best, they'd be a "smarter" version.
That is, if we allow them to possess bosses at all
Would be great for boss ideas.While we're at it, we could add tiered boss battles by having multiple ghosts take control of a mob or boss. They get more abilities, but they can't accurately control the thing anymore, and the boss is gonna move like a regular boss, except influenced more and more by how many players are trying to do X and Y.
So if most of the ghosts are pushing left, it'll move left-ish. The more ghosts, the more "soul" aka HP the boss gains. There are lots of ways to implement this.
Of course, multiple-ghost-possession would be a thing pro's would do, and that requires specifically many HC players to be willing to die and stay as a ghost.
All of this and the above would together probably be worth 1.3.5.
If you want ghost gameplay to be somewhat rewarding, we could talk drops and stuff, but a good start is "drop more gold per ghost possessing it". Maybe if enough ghosts possess a boss, it could drop ghost-tier/ghost-ability items, that allow you to say, for a short second, phase through a wall, not take damage, or become temporarily invisible.
That, or just get an item that lets you see ghosts and "hidden" entities.
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