Game Mechanics Ideas for Master mode

[Electroman102]

With the announcement of 1.4, the new world difficulty “Master Mode” was shown. To (maybe) prevent it from just being a buffed expert mode, I wanted to show off some ideas I had for it.

(Note: this is far from done, I’m releasing a few ideas at a time)

The world

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-Make the oceans deeper (maybe twice as deep), but include 1.5x as much money in the chests. This way the player has a much harder time looting the water chests, but there a better reward for their efforts.

-Make the Corruption chasms and Crimson drops. This way the player is forced to collect more resources and better gear in order to make it to the bottom, which is fraught with extra monsters.

-Fill up the Lihzhard Temple with twice as many traps, but placing them in areas where they will be most effective. This will force the player to get better gear so that way they can survive the way down.

(Got more coming)

 

[ThunderBear06]

This is a good idea but id add some ideas like:
monsters like zombies and skeletons can spawn on the overword anytime
Both crimson and the corruption can be on the same world on opposite ends of each other if that makes sense
The underworld is 100 blocks further down making it take longer to get to it

 

[sharkman0101]

-Make the oceans deeper (maybe twice as deep), but include 1.5x as much money in the chests. This way the player has a much harder time looting the water chests, but there a better reward for their efforts. This seems awfully niche for the difficulty it would add. Going into the ocean for some loot is very situational and takes up very little of early game time. This change will not be something noteworthy for a mode turning the game into a tougher challenge.

-Make the Corruption chasms and Crimson drops. This way the player is forced to collect more resources in order to make it to the bottom. Could you please elaborate? Why would the drops make it harder to descend when I could just use rope to go down those caverns? Wouldn't the normal enemies that spawn in the areas already compose the challenge of navigating the area?

-Fill up the Lihzhard Temple with twice as many traps, but placing them in areas where they will be most effective. This will force the player to get better gear so that way they can survive the way down. Adding more traps won't make it harder, per se, it will only make it more tedious. I can easily just look around for the traps as I go through the temple and easily remove or disable them.

Replies are in bold red.

 

[Electroman102]

monsters like zombies and skeletons can spawn on the overword anytime

Maybe that would work, but zombies and skeletons won’t work because that would defeat the purpose of a house and skeletons are an underground enemy (seeing them above-ground takes an aspect of the underground away)

Both crimson and the corruption can be on the same world on opposite ends of each other if that makes sense

That would require changing something that was already spoiled for 1.4.

The underworld is 100 blocks further down making it take longer to get to it

This might work. Let me think about it.

Replies are in bold red.

1. You’re right… I’ll add something special to it to encourage players to go down there… perhaps a new accessory?

2. You forget that the monsters will be buffed, and the more time your roping your way down, the higher chance you have of encountering one. I also wanted to suggest higher spawning rates for enemies, which would further toughen the scenario

3. I didn’t just suggest more traps, I suggested more traps in areas where they will be most effective. I also was going to suggest that lihzahrd traps can only be broken with a picksaw.

 

[sharkman0101]

2. You forget that the monsters will be buffed, and the more time your roping your way down, the higher chance you have of encountering one. I also wanted to suggest higher spawning rates for enemies, which would further toughen the scenario

3. I didn’t just suggest more traps, I suggested more traps in areas where they will be most effective. I also was going to suggest that lihzahrd traps can only be broken with a picksaw.

2. No, I didn't forget. You exactly proved my point by saying that the monsters will be stronger. There is no need to buff the landscape if there is already going to be tougher monsters there. We would likely be able to handle the depth before we can handle the monsters, so how would this make it any harder? There are various navigation options we can use to get down those holes, much more than just rope(abusing the terrain so that the monsters cannot reach us, for one.)
3. You can't quite say that traps will be in more effective areas. Traps require that we make contact with the floor on a pressure plate(which isn't hard to avoid and, thus, avoid damage.) Especially considering that most Terraria masters would play this mode, no one is going to carelessly rush through the dungeon as they know those traps exist. Because of this, traps can't really have an "effective spot", much because of our ability to easily avoid and disable them. You must remember we have access to things such as flying mounts, wings, and the Grand Design. Traps do nothing but make going through the temple more tedious. The only appropriate change would be to make the traps invincible(like you said), but that would only add artificial difficulty to the Golem fight(force the player to struggle because of a lack of room from the pre-placed traps. Bosses should be difficult because of their pattern in this game, not because of a lack of maneuverable terrain.)

 

[Torre_Gamer131232]

2. No, I didn't forget. You exactly proved my point by saying that the monsters will be stronger. There is no need to buff the landscape if there is already going to be tougher monsters there. We would likely be able to handle the depth before we can handle the monsters, so how would this make it any harder? There are various navigation options we can use to get down those holes, much more than just rope(abusing the terrain so that the monsters cannot reach us, for one.)
3. You can't quite say that traps will be in more effective areas. Traps require that we make contact with the floor on a pressure plate(which isn't hard to avoid and, thus, avoid damage.) Especially considering that most Terraria masters would play this mode, no one is going to carelessly rush through the dungeon as they know those traps exist. Because of this, traps can't really have an "effective spot", much because of our ability to easily avoid and disable them. You must remember we have access to things such as flying mounts, wings, and the Grand Design. Traps do nothing but make going through the temple more tedious. The only appropriate change would be to make the traps invincible(like you said), but that would only add artificial difficulty to the Golem fight(force the player to struggle because of a lack of room from the pre-placed traps. Bosses should be difficult because of their pattern in this game, not because of a lack of maneuverable terrain.)

but what about the events? without traps, events must be nerfed to less or more stronger to be balanced, as all should be

 

[The Storm]

-Make the oceans deeper (maybe twice as deep), but include 1.5x as much money in the chests. This way the player has a much harder time looting the water chests, but there a better reward for their efforts.

This would be better if it was added to all difficultes, as currently oceans aren't all that deep, and it would be nice to have them expanded.

-Make the Corruption chasms and Crimson drops. This way the player is forced to collect more resources and better gear in order to make it to the bottom, which is fraught with extra monsters.

I don't see what this would do, Corruption chasms already drop, and the Crimson layout is already complex enough.

-Fill up the Lihzhard Temple with twice as many traps, but placing them in areas where they will be most effective. This will force the player to get better gear so that way they can survive the way down.

Again this would serve no real purpose, the traps can easily be bypassed and adding more will accomplish nothing, sometimes less is more (or however the saying goes)

 

[Dapling]

Don't get me wrong, I like the way you're thinking, but I have some issues with this.

-Make the oceans deeper (maybe twice as deep), but include 1.5x as much money in the chests. This way the player has a much harder time looting the water chests, but there a better reward for their efforts.

What ocean drop is even worth the trouble? Most of them only help with the ocean specifically.

-Make the Corruption chasms and Crimson drops. This way the player is forced to collect more resources and better gear in order to make it to the bottom, which is fraught with extra monsters.

I don't see what this would accomplish, I always prioritize a grappling hook at the start of the game, so I could just jump in and fire my hook straight down, utterly trivializing this.

-Fill up the Lihzhard Temple with twice as many traps, but placing them in areas where they will be most effective. This will force the player to get better gear so that way they can survive the way down.

This won't accomplish anything, because of how easy it is to just get a Grand Design right after skeletron and just sweep a wire cutting line across all of the traps onscreen at once. I do like all the free traps I could get from this though

 

[Camseedood]

There is one problem as expert mode doesn’t change the world. If master mode were to change the world that would take more time in programming. Overall though it’s a fantastic idea and should be implemented if it doesn’t cause to much trouble

 

[Golden Heretic Snakeboat]

-Fill up the Lihzhard Temple with twice as many traps, but placing them in areas where they will be most effective. This will force the player to get better gear so that way they can survive the way down.

Honestly, You Could Just Replace The Pressure Plates With A Player Above Sensor Far Enough Down That You Can't Actually Get Rid Of It, Hook It Up To Spear Traps, And Put Them In Hallways With Low Roofs So You Can't Get By Without Activating It Or Removing The Wire.