Weapons & Equip My final proposal for a buff to the Terraspark Boots

[HammerHoovy🌳]

Aglet movement speed increased from 5% to 10%.

Lightning Boots, Frostspark Boots and Terraspark Boots would have 36 mph speed. The 6 extra mph speed is 20% more than basic running boots 30 mph speed. This would increase the horizontal speed of Wings by 20%. The tooltip of the Lightning Boots, Frostspark Boots and Terraspark Boots now state "20% increased movement speed" instead of "8% increased movement speed". They also state "20% increased horizontal speed for Wings"

For reference, vanilla Amphibian Boots increase the vertical speed of Wings by 32% (This, first of all, greatly increases the acceleration and top speed you fly upwards, and increases the length you can fly with Wings, you actually get slightly farther with this than the 0.7 seconds extra flight time from Terraspark Boots) while having 30 mph running speed (Only works while grounded).

For reference, vanilla Terraspark Boots increase the flight time of Wings by 0.7 seconds (You can very easily land on the ground for a second to regain ALL flight time for your Wings, so this actually doesn't help much in practice) while having 34.5 mph running speed (Only 4.5 extra mph speed while GROUNDED).

Using Frozen Wings (A popular pair of early Hardmode Wings that are one of the best Pre-Mech) with Terraspark Boots (That has this buff) would increase the horizontal speed from 35 mph to 42 mph for Frozen Wings while flying (35 x 1.20 = 42).

So you sacrifice amazing vertical speed (Amphibian) for amazing horizontal speed (Terraspark) by using Terraspark Boots over Amphibian Boots. Of course, you could always use both accessories to get the best of both worlds, but that would take an additional accessory slot than just using one of them.

Terraspark has 20% increased horizontal speed and 0.7 seconds extra flight time with Wings along with a bit higher ground speed and some QoL (Lava Waders and Ice Skates effects) over Amphibian.

Amphibian has 32% increased vertical speed, which is 12% higher than the 20% increased horizontal speed of Terraspark. Keep in mind that Terraspark has the other effects I mentioned to make up for it.

Thanks for reading! Hope this is good and well balanced. I gladly take feedback and I might tweak the speed if it's too much

 

[Aceplante]

But then there wouldn't be a choice because one item has the benefits of both.

Choice is not a bad thing. Personally, I think there should be MORE boot options players have to choose between, not less. Amphibian is for movement, terraspark is for general convenience. Terraspark boots already strong enough, they do not need more.

No support.

Edit: if you had a previous thread on this same topic why post another one?

 

[HotAirBalloon🐿️]

But then there wouldn't be a choice because one item has the benefits of both.

Choice is not a bad thing. Personally, I think there should be MORE boot options players have to choose between, not less. Amphibian is for movement, terraspark is for general convenience. Terraspark boots already strong enough, they do not need more.

No support.

Edit: if you had a previous thread on this same topic why post another one?

I agree! The choices offer for a variety of different playstyles, and it's fun to decide between combat or general usage. This suggestion destroys that, so I don't support it as well.

 

[Baconfry]

I'm not really taking a side, but I want to note that not all choices are created equal

good example: you are offered a choice between two items that are good in different ways

bad example: you are offered a choice between two items, one of them appears to be way better than the other, but it's actually the other way around and none of the veteran players are fooled by this anymore

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

I'm not really taking a side, but I want to note that not all choices are created equal

good example: you are offered a choice between two items that are good in different ways

bad example: you are offered a choice between two items, one of them appears to be way better than the other, but it's actually the other way around and none of the veteran players are fooled by this anymore

Terrasparks are such a tricky item to change. Because Amphibian is better than Terraspark in Hardmode. But in Pre-Hardmode Terrasparks are actually pretty good. The 4 mph extra running speed Terraspark has over Amphibian does help during WoF.

Maybe combining Amphibian and Terraspark is indeed a bad idea. Maybe you can just increase Terraspark Boots running speed to 38 mph and make them affect Wings horizontal speed somehow. So then Terraspark Boots are the alternative you want to go with for horizontal speed while Amphibian Boots you want to go with for vertical speed.

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

Original suggestion about combining Amphibian into Terraspark is no longer something I think should happen btw. Now I stand more by increasing the speed of Terraspark Boots to 37.5/38 mph and making the 7.5/8 mph extra speed be applied to the horizontal speed of Wings. Then you will have Terraspark for QoL and horizontal mobility, and Amphibian for vertical mobility. I think that sounds balanced and fair. Maybe I should edit the original post about this?

 

[HotAirBalloon🐿️]

Original suggestion about combining Amphibian into Terraspark is no longer something I think should happen btw. Now I stand more by increasing the speed of Terraspark Boots to 37.5/38 mph and making the 7.5/8 mph extra speed be applied to the horizontal speed of Wings. Then you will have Terraspark for QoL and horizontal mobility, and Amphibian for vertical mobility. I think that sounds balanced and fair. Maybe I should edit the original post about this?

This is much better.

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

This is much better.

Updated the entire post. Hope you like it! I would love to hear feedback!

 

[Baconfry]

None of the accessories that you use to upgrade Lightning to Frostspark or Terraspark give any movement speed themselves, so I would just give the same 25% horizontal speed boost to all three. In fact, go all the way back to the roots of the boots, and add those effects to the Aglet and Anklet of the Wind. This would make more sense, I think.

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

None of the accessories that you use to upgrade Lightning to Frostspark or Terraspark give any movement speed themselves, so I would just give the same 25% horizontal speed boost to all three. In fact, go all the way back to the roots of the boots, and add those effects to the Aglet and Anklet of the Wind. This would make more sense, I think.

Yeah, it would make more sense and I will update the post. So 10% movement speed for Aglet and 15% movement speed for Anklet of the Wind then? That would total 25% and it would make the Aglet and Anklet of the Wind more useful before finding running boots too. I like that.

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

I updated the post again after having made a small mod to test it out in-game. 25% increased horizontal speed for Wings seems to be too much. Remember, horizontal speed is different from vertical speed. So I changed Aglet to 10% movement speed and kept Anklet of the Wind as 10% movement speed too, like vanilla. So Lightning Boots and above get 36 mph running speed and 20% increased movement speed and horizontal Wings speed. Lightning Boots and above are fine in Pre-Hardmode, so you don't want to buff their running speed too much. As long as they are better with Wings (In Hardmode) without going into power creep, then it's fine.

 

[HammerHoovy🌳]

I decided to give Ice Skates and upgrades Chilled immunity (Hate that debuff). And included Dunerider in the Terraspark recipe. Screenshot is from my mod I just made.

 

[Aceplante]

View attachment 503295I decided to give Ice Skates and upgrades Chilled immunity (Hate that debuff). And included Dunerider in the Terraspark recipe. Screenshot is from my mod I just made.

For the same reason as before, terraspark does not also need to be fast on sand. Also, why immunity to chilled? That is the ankh charm's department, and if you are proposing adding this to all ice skates and upgrades, that makes that christmas glove useless. So again no support.

If you are looking for faster movement options (at least that do not require previous setup, aka asphalt, that is therefore only good in boss arenas) I feel the best way to go about that is to add separate boot upgrades, focused on speed. I understand that the easiest solution is simply to buff the terraspark boots, but this is even more powercreep on an already strong combination accessory.

 

[FroststormFrenzy]

Dunerider is already in the Terraspark recipe, it's a Spectre Boots component. It doesn't need to be included a second time.

Terraspark is also likely getting a significant indirect late-hardmode buff anyway, because based on Redigit's liked posts, there's a pretty good chance we're getting Frog Ninja Gear, so you'd already have your Frog Leg in that and have your boots slot open for Terraspark. [see the likes on this post and this post for context]

Also, why immunity to chilled? That is the ankh charm's department, and if you are proposing adding this to all ice skates and upgrades, that makes that christmas glove useless. So again no support.

Pointing out that Chilled immunity is already partially provided by Arctic Diving Gear, which is an Ice Skates tinker, so it actually does make sense in this case. Though that's only for environmental Chilled specifically, so if Chilled immunity is added to base Ice Skates, it should probably have that same "Only Chilled from Water" asterisk, and be excluded from the description because that's exclusive to Expert Mode.

Also noting that Ankh Charm doesn't grant Chilled immunity, that's specifically upon upgrade to the shield.

 

[Gotcha!]

Many years ago there were never-ending discussions about combining Frostsparks and Lava Waders and it was generally considered to be overpowered.
It's funny to me that it's apparently never enough.

 

[Dapling]

Many years ago there were never-ending discussions about combining Frostsparks and Lava Waders and it was generally considered to be overpowered.
It's funny to me that it's apparently never enough.

I'd like the record to show that I made a thread suggesting to buff the (as I saw them back then) wildly underpowered Lava Waders, as I knew they weren't strong, and that combining them with other boots was dodging the problem and not actually solving their issues, nearly 6 years ago. There were always people that knew Terraspark (or "Lavaspark" as I called it back then, didn't know it would have a more creative name yet) wasn't going to be strong if it was added the way it was, and to this day it has become even more true than I would have realized back then, as more and more alternatives to it have become easier and easier to obtain, have been added when they didn't exist before, and have gotten overall stronger when they already were better.

You can clearly see that the consensus in that thread was far from unanimous, many people agreed and disagreed with me, and that my younger self really needed to chill out. General consideration has basically always been highly divisive on this item.

 

[Gotcha!]

No need to tell me it's been highly divisive. I was there.

A funny bit from the fandom wiki:

Before the 1.4 update, Redigit repeatedly insisted that a tinker combination with the Frostspark Boots and Lava Waders would be "too overpowered" and that such an accessory would never exist nor fit in the game balance-wise.

Redigit still believes the Terraspark boots are overpowered and he "only did it to get people to stop bugging him about it".

I wish people would start bugging him about the happiness system.

 

[Dapling]

I wish people would start bugging him about the happiness system.

Same, actually. Overcrowding is kind of just a poor concept. It's either a middle finger to certain build styles or too insignificant to do literally anything.

I actually like the other aspects of happiness. Undercrowding's bonus is good qol for earlygame, and the npc and biome preferences are actually pretty interesting to optimize and play around. Overcrowding meanwhile is just being arbitrarily rude to the player if they want to have all their npcs live in a gorgeous giant fortress or something. I know it's supposed to be a countermeasure to shoebox stacks, but it doesn't even serve as one, just incentivizes you to make a stack of 3 shoeboxes in every biome insteaf of 1 big stack at spawn.

So regardless of the final details, I wholeheartedly support getting rid of overcrowding somehow at least. If some of the other parts of npc happiness have to go along with it, that would be fine even if it isn't ideal.

 

[Aceplante]

I actually like the other aspects of happiness. Undercrowding's bonus is good qol for earlygame, and the npc and biome preferences are actually pretty interesting to optimize and play around.

aka, just the positives with none of the drawbacks

Overcrowding meanwhile is just being arbitrarily rude to the player if they want to have all their npcs live in a gorgeous giant fortress or something. I know it's supposed to be a countermeasure to shoebox stacks, but it doesn't even serve as one, just incentivizes you to make a stack of 3 shoeboxes in every biome insteaf of 1 big stack at spawn.

And, good. Thats the point. At least they are spread out, incentivizing the player to discover and use biome pylons, and figure out what makes the npcs happiest. Something that would not really happen if there was no drawback to just putting everyone in one place.

And besides, even with max unhappiness, only two things to my knowledge happen. One, they "dont" sell the pylon (i put this in quotes because really its the other way around. Remember that its not that they dont sell it when unhappy, they only do sell it when happy. But this could still be viewed as a negative), and two, prices are what, 20% higher? Oh no. how horrible when coins are so easy to farm in countless ways.

I am glad this mechanic exists and think this is a good drawback.

So regardless of the final details, I wholeheartedly support getting rid of overcrowding somehow at least. If some of the other parts of npc happiness have to go along with it, that would be fine even if it isn't ideal.

I would like to remind people that this thread is about the terraspark boots, not the happiness system, but considering three people have already liked this comment I had to say the above.

 

[Dapling]

aka, just the positives with none of the drawbacks

Incorrect. Biome and npc preferences both have significantly larger drawbacks and there are other parts of NPC happiness that I didn't mention (like homelessness and infected biomes) which are also large drawbacks. In fact overcrowding is a smaller drawback than any of those do. The issue with overcrowding isn't a balance one, it's that it's a petty mechanic with little sense behind it that basically tells the game it doesn't like you if you build a structure with "too many shops in it".

And, good. Thats the point. At least they are spread out, incentivizing the player to discover and use biome pylons, and figure out what makes the npcs happiest. Something that would not really happen if there was no drawback to just putting everyone in one place.

That is what the pylons do. They take the downside of spreading out your base (needing to set up infrastructure for quick travel between your npcs) and do away with it entirely. Putting everyone in one place now has the emergent drawback of being quite literally unable to teleport across the world, even deep underground, without wiring it all by hand or fishing for conches.

Overcrowding also has absolutely no bearing on the experimentation you're talking about. If you put the painter in your forest house at spawn, he's not going to like it regardless of overcrowding being present, because he doesn't like the forest. This already encourages you to experiment and find the biome he DOES like. Hell, the Demolitionist doesn't like the goblin tinkerer despite them both liking the underground, even further encouraging you to experiment with which npcs like each other. We already have natural measures in the game for encouraging this, which were designed with the player naturally discovering them in mind.

So yes, the player would still be incentivized and encourage to figure all that stuff out. I don't have a problem with downsides, I have a problem with mechanics that are borderline petty towards certain creative styles and serve no real function.

We already have multiple powerful emergent downsides for this that would still be in play without it. Having the nurse complain that her living conditions are an unacceptable vector for disease just because her state-of-the-art infirmary with all the gear she'd ever need to do her job and that she has all to herself, shares a wall with a couple shops that never have any more than 1 to 2 people in them, is confusing flavor-wise and is unnecessary for game design. Especially when this is a blanket thing for every npc in the game with exactly 1 exception (and somehow it isn't the party girl, you know, the person themed around events with a bunch of people in one place).

And besides, even with max unhappiness, only two things to my knowledge happen. One, they "dont" sell the pylon (i put this in quotes because really its the other way around. Remember that its not that they dont sell it when unhappy, they only do sell it when happy. But this could still be viewed as a negative), and two, prices are what, 20% higher? Oh no. how horrible when coins are so easy to farm in countless ways.

Alright, if overcrowding is indeed not a problem, then it isn't balancing anything, as it's not a problem, and has no reason to exist because it's pissing people off for no real reason with no real gameplay purpose. Perfect thing to remove. It's not influencing how you personally play the game in any way, so you lose nothing from its removal.

I would like to remind people that this thread is about the terraspark boots, not the happiness system, but considering three people have already liked this comment I had to say the above.

I assume they liked the comment to express agreement without derailing the thread further. It's not like they furthered it off topic by responding to my message with "I agree".

I will happily continue this conversation elsewhere if you wish.