THE ULTIMATE RESPONSE
This will cover most of the arguments against my take (at least until I post this and find out that 894 more comments have been made).
If speed is so insanely valuable then golf cart (which goes 7 mph faster than terraspark) is going to blow your socks off, and Lava Shark (which goes 73 mph in liquids, 39 mph faster than terraspark, it also gives permanent lava immunity too btw) is in an entire other universe.
The thing with the Golf Cart is limited vertical movement (unless you are using BOHB). Also, that lava Shark point was downright lazy, you have to
fish for it (disgusting), and it only works if you flood your entire world in lava.
Terraspark’s speed is not a notable increase and is actually pretty low on average for prehardmode’s options with amphibian boots being negligibly different.
Alright, what is "another" option in pre-hardmode that is useful in all cases and provides room for vertical movement. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Slipping on and breaking ice straight up isn’t an issue for me. Falling into water is actually a good thing as it makes enemies and projectiles insanely slow and allows me to keep them off me and react to everything more easily.
It slows you down on Expert though, which actually makes you worse off then when you started. As for slipping on ice, Terraspark boots can help to stay on track in the snow biome.
The only real downside of water is breath, but it takes a super long time to tick down and a super short time to refill. The only other time you encounter thin ice is in those big pockets of it, which I actually like falling through intentionally lol, it’s fun.
In the early game, drowning can be a huge issue, but it is kind of negated by the time you get Terraspark boots. Still, that's not the only problem (chilled debuff). And your last point is basically personal bias, which should be avoided when making a good argument (not that yours is bad, though, just saying).
Also, your personal preference on potions has no bearing on how others should play the game or how comparatively powerful an item is. It’s like if I said the Palladium Broadsword was the best sword no contest because I personally hate using all other swords.
Okay, that was some bad timing, considering my last response XD. Still, again, potions don't prevent movement on ice, and you'll have to carry them at all times when you adventure, unlike with Terraspark boots where you'll be all set for when the time comes to go across the body of liquid.
I value flight time too, but terraspark doesn’t provide enough of it. Featherfall potion is far-and-away the biggest flight time booster in the game to the point that I simply don’t feel like adding more on top of it is impactful (soaring insignia and infinite flight mounts being the exception ofc). At that point I may as well buff speed instead.
I haven't tried a feather fall potion (because I hate them), but when you said "adding more on top isn't necessary because they are already overpowered," doesn't that apply to Amphibian boots as well? You basically said that the boots one advantage is practically useless because "featherfall already does that so everything else is obsolete.
If doing a casual run with an extremely non-boss gameplay focus then you have enough time to make hundreds upon hundreds of potions, which takes a similar amount of time to obtain as terraspark does.
This is personal, but I hate making potions. Besides, I can already reiterate my last few points on how potions can be annoying to constantly remember and use.
There’s a ton of mounts that can entirely replace mobility accessories for the purposes of traversal quite easily so I feel like if most people don’t use them that it’s mostly out of habit and not wanting to experiment with new things.
Not entirely replace, exactly. Boots for ground movement, wings for more general air movement, mounts if you want more steady and precision movements, or simple speed f you're using a ground mount. Also, stop thinking that just because people don't use what
you like means that they don't like trying new things. People can just, not like mounts, and that doesn't make those people generic. It feels like it's the people who 'push creativity' and 'striving from the meta' are the ones who stick to
their comfort zone and shame people who aren't fans of it. Plus, mounts also are usually bigger than using movement accessories, have bad aerial movement (if using ground mounts), and makes grappling hooks and dashes useless.
Many mounts are actually easier to obtain than a lot of their alternatives are,
Uh, heck no. Killing a few Wyverns is way easier than destroying Expert mode Duke Fishron.
and excel at the same things for lower opportunity cost.
Not all the time. Most mounts are amazing at one thing, but suck at another, like the Unicorn. Great horizontal movement, but you're cooked if you want to go upward.
Golf Cart has significantly better acceleration than every mobility accessory in prehardmode except Shield of Cthulhu (including Magiluminescence), which also forces you to travel a minimum distance when you use it.
The problem is you can't use SoC and grappling hooks with mounts, so it becomes a lot more even.
It’s actually BETTER for more precise movements than mobility accessories are. Lava shark is also that way.
I mean, for Lava Shark you have to make hell on Earth if you want to use it.
In hardmode there’s a ton of options like that (in particular Basilisk has similar stats to golf cart except it also has a Cobalt Shield effect and a free double jump).
The mounts being 4 blocks tall point is fair but doesn’t really come up outside of houses and mining horizontal tunnels, the former of which can be fixed by using actuator doors (which I already do anyway, having a random goblin army show up and break all my doors so I have to randomly replace them is no fun, and actuator doors fix that too.)
Again, no grappling hooks, dashes, and especially no wing use when using Ancient Horn, removing your vertical mobility which is essential in HM. (Unless it stacks with BOHB of course). I haven't tried using actuator doors, because I know
nothing about wiring, but if I ever do, they might negate a really annoying problem with mounts.
You also get several options for mounts at all points of the game but a lot of people never bother researching them so they may not know they exist.
Like I said earlier.
So you know how people always say to fish for lava charm if you haven’t found shimmer yet because of how rare it is to find in chests?
You can also Shimmer Magma Stone for Lava Charm and vice versa, which make the process 30 times easier, and negates the need for fishing at all.
Superheated Blood (which is the item you use to summon lava shark) is nearly 4x as common from the same source in spite of being infinite lava immunity rather than only 7 seconds, and it doesn’t even require an accessory slot. Because that makes sense balance wise, apparently.
Again, you have to fish for Lava Shark (which you don't need for Lava Charm). Plus, unless you want to make the next Subnautica game, it's pretty bad.
Lava shark also doesn’t actually need an unusual amount of prep for Wall of Flesh unless you were already planning on using a potion for the fight instead of making an arena, too
Do you
like fishing or something?
But the thing is, I still would rather take having insanely good acceleration unconditionally like golf cart has over having to fire a limited-range projectile at a block for delayed (even if it is instant) acceleration instead. Mount clunkiness is blown out of proportion and their weaknesses are easily covered.
Your first point is a bit personal, because some people might have a different opinion. But as for mounts, no dashes, no grapples, no wings in HM.
General exploration is also pretty good for lava shark because instead of making lava nonexistent it actually makes it basically a safe zone for the player to hide in that enemies have to take lava damage to breach.
Aren't all Underworld enemies immune to lava though?
There’s also an argument to be made about movement accessories being equally clunky, especially non-boost wings and their extremely slow ability to send you back upwards if you’re already falling (due to poor acceleration compared to double jumps) but I digress.
I've never found going up when falling down an issue with wings, but I guess we all have different experiences.
I actually did mention that a few times in this conversation. I don’t believe that any 1 mobility archetype is more clunky in a vacuum, just that everyone’s used to a specific way and doesn’t want to experiment
.
yeah lava charm isn't that insanely difficult to get anymore but its always confusing to me when people will suggest to do otherwise long and drawn out things like setting up lava fishing to begin with to look for it from crates and then turn around and say golf is too boring and tedious
You have a point there I guess, but maybe they just like fishing more then golf or smth
For Lightning vs Amphibian Boots, I would put Amphibian Boots as substantially higher, it's a grounded sprint speed + a balloon while Lightning is just a grounded sprint speed for my use. 0.7 seconds extra flight time is something, but not something I generally make use of...and since a balloon really should be a guaranteed slot until Insignia, you can make that balloon serve as a vertical dash with a blizzard tinker if you want.
This is assuming you are using a balloon though (I usually use other accessories instead). Would the results change if you weren't using them?
Sorry if I didn't get everything, or if my points were bad; I haven't been feeling to well lately. Still, I hope I was able to get everything I wanted to talk about.
