Let's see how my second attempt goes...
Dryad starts selling the Cabbage Seeds. They grow and work much like Pumpkins. The Cabbage itself is useless at this point.
Each Cabbage plant, when in its final growth stage, has a certain (not necessary small) chance to drop a Cabbage Baby.
After it is dropped, no other Cabbage plant can drop it again. When you get it in your inventory, all planted Cabbage in this world get slashed or withered. Even if planted again, Cabbage do not grow in this world anymore.
Various NPCs may say different things about the baby. The Nurse says that "it's strange that it never wakes up, but maybe..."
You can now get an Incubator (buy it from NPC or craft, not sure yet). You can place the Cabbage Baby in it.
Starting from this moment, plus 3 full days, there is a 1/3 chance each night for the Cabbage Baby to wake up.
Note: It's possible to make an Incubator useful for other purposes. For example, accelerating the growth of certain plants or producing more of plants that otherwise have no means of reproducing. Like Strange Plants, Green Mushrooms etc. It should be expensive to buy or craft.
Upon the first meeting, it says "Ma?" or "Pa?" depending on gender of your character. There are options [Hello] and [Close]. If you press [Hello], you get to choose the name for the child.
After you choose a name, the child starts recognizing you as a parent and remembers the name of your character. It can only have one parent.
Example of how awards may work:
After it is done, talk to Guide and choose [Adventure] option. You virtual character is going on an adventure and leaves the cabbage kid with a bequest.
---
Example of how char-b may work, in the scope of above example:
The actual purpose of the whole thing
Right now, usual walkthrough steps for a single character looks like this:- Create new character
- Create new world
- Progress through it, activate Hardmode
- Overcome additional challenges of Hardmode
- result of cataclysmic events, applied to the copy of the current world. (I call it "world-b" for now. Exact events are not really a subject of this whole suggestion, as there can be too many possibilities.)
- new character (char-b) to explore that world-b with.
- world-b and char-b can only be created by the game, and always together.
- current world and current character remain unaffected.
- world-b, being a copy of current world, has some effects and rules applied to it, making it focused on a whole different and unique challenges, which may be incompatible with current world state. Hence the current world doesn't need to be touched.
- world-b can be accessed by any character.
- it still requires char-b to progress and finish.
- char-b can access any other world.
- char-b is still supposed to explore world-b first, without that progressing through other worlds will be less effective than with regular character.
- getting world-b and char-b ready supposedly should be more effective and enjoyable with at least 2 players in game. Still, perfectly possible with just 1 player.
- exploring world-b with char-b supposedly should be more effective and enjoyable with at least 1 additional player (controlling regular character) in game. Although this will be perfectly possible with just 1 player too.
Creation of the char-b (v2)
Here is a variation of this process which may (or not) fix most of initial negative feedback.Remember: this whole thing is optional. It has some requirements and limitations, but it will not massively affect your current world, thus making any further mechanics additions perfectly possible.
Phase 1: Get it.
Requirements: Hardmode, Plantera and Golem defeated.Dryad starts selling the Cabbage Seeds. They grow and work much like Pumpkins. The Cabbage itself is useless at this point.
Each Cabbage plant, when in its final growth stage, has a certain (not necessary small) chance to drop a Cabbage Baby.
After it is dropped, no other Cabbage plant can drop it again. When you get it in your inventory, all planted Cabbage in this world get slashed or withered. Even if planted again, Cabbage do not grow in this world anymore.
Phase 2: Wake it up.
Item description: Looks like a regular baby. Has a leaf on its head.Various NPCs may say different things about the baby. The Nurse says that "it's strange that it never wakes up, but maybe..."
You can now get an Incubator (buy it from NPC or craft, not sure yet). You can place the Cabbage Baby in it.
Starting from this moment, plus 3 full days, there is a 1/3 chance each night for the Cabbage Baby to wake up.
Note: It's possible to make an Incubator useful for other purposes. For example, accelerating the growth of certain plants or producing more of plants that otherwise have no means of reproducing. Like Strange Plants, Green Mushrooms etc. It should be expensive to buy or craft.
Phase 3: Meet it.
After Cabbage Baby wakes up, the Incubator gets empty. A new NPC gets spawned, it can randomly be a Cabbage Boy or a Cabbage Girl. You may need a new house for this NPC.Upon the first meeting, it says "Ma?" or "Pa?" depending on gender of your character. There are options [Hello] and [Close]. If you press [Hello], you get to choose the name for the child.
After you choose a name, the child starts recognizing you as a parent and remembers the name of your character. It can only have one parent.
Phase 4: Teach it.
This NPC now works similar to Angler. There are differences, of course. Each day, it names you 2 items that you must find (or craft) and bring. The items are mostly critters or plants. You are not required to bring both items, but will be awarded for each item. If you are playing with a friend, it's a good idea to split up the requests.Example of how awards may work:
- first 1-20 items delivered - awarded with Cabbage.
- 20th item delivered - Parent Figurine, with parent's name carved in. Awarded to Parent character only. Awarded only once.
Phase 5: Done.
You now have the Parent Figurine and can prepare a Bequest Chest. Choose any chest and fill it with items you want to equip the future char-b with, along with the Parent Figurine.After it is done, talk to Guide and choose [Adventure] option. You virtual character is going on an adventure and leaves the cabbage kid with a bequest.
- world-b gets created by the game - it is a copy of current world, with added effects. Named "%worldname% - Aftermath".
- char-b gets created by the game. With same gender as your Cabbage NPC. Named after your Cabbage NPC.
- Bequest Chest (any chest that contains the Parent Figurine with your character name carved in it) gets empty, its contents get transferred to char-b.
---
Example of how char-b may work, in the scope of above example:
- His model is equal to any other regular character, except he also has a small leaf on his forelock.
- He starts with 75 HP. Initial indicator is 5 hearts, 15 HP each.
- He can't consume Life Crystals. This way, he may not be very useful in fresh pre-Hardmode worlds at this point.
- He can consume Life Fruits. They will increase his max HP by 15, to the maximum of 300. His HP indicator is green (or gold) instead of red.
- Once he reached 300 HP, he can consume Cabbage Flowers. They will increase his max HP by 15, to the maximum of 600. His additional HP indicator is pink instead of gold.
- He gets an automatic small Defense boost during day, while above 0 feet.
- He gets an automatic small boost to vision during night.
- A very rough solution for PvP balance would be to immediately cut max natural HP down to 500 and disable the above bonuses, upon starting PvP.
- Initially, it provides a very limited (if any) access to the existing chests. They may become completely empty or locked (with requirement of a special key). Of course, players may travel between worlds to store additional items. But the idea is that initial contents of Bequest Chest should be enough to progress at a proper speed. This also provides a challenge for the players to come up with a proper initial set of items.
- Since the world is a copy of the one which was already finished to some extent, it may not offer much of digging and exploring. It is what supposedly should be fixed by the initial processing when world-b is created. Maybe fill parts of it with blocks again, maybe wipe the torches, etc.
- World-b is the only type of the worlds where it's possible to obtain Cabbage Flowers. Needless to say, it'll require some actions first, then some cabbage. Exact conditions and recipes are not formulated yet - there can be many variants. After char-b gets his HP to 600, he may not be able to get or craft Cabbage Flowers anymore. If it works like that, this will make it so each char-b is required to finish his world-b to get max HP.
- World-b may also offer something that another character (who is playing with current char-b through MP) could take with him, for his own char-b. Maybe a limited amount of alternative recipes for Cabbage Flowers.
Last edited:
