NPCs & Enemies New NPC: Alchemist

[Allenb60]

Great idea, this NPC would be very nice to have with the Dryad around. Could it be possible for him to give wrath potions to players in a world with crimson, and rage potions to players with a world tainted by corruption? That would be a pretty neat way of getting some valuable potions that are unobtainable otherwise. It might be nice if she/he could also sell the seeds required for each alchemy plants similar to the Dryad's planter boxes?

 

[Xylia]

Great idea, this NPC would be very nice to have with the Dryad around. Could it be possible for him to give wrath potions to players in a world with crimson, and rage potions to players with a world tainted by corruption? That would be a pretty neat way of getting some valuable potions that are unobtainable otherwise. It might be nice if she/he could also sell the seeds required for each alchemy plants similar to the Dryad's planter boxes?

I don't really think that's a good idea -- I don't want to remove the need for content unless it is so basic like sand (which is why I put the bottled water in his inventory). I don't want to completely remove the need for gathering seeds or the Staff of Regrowth and its perks.

Please try to keep in mind: AFAIK, there is no way to limit a quantity that a shopkeeper sells which means if you put something in his inventory to sell, he will sell an unlimited number of that item.

If there were a way to only allow 1-5 potions to be sold at any time, then I would have made a suggestion that he could sell a few basic buff potions, but the fact that anybody with some plat could buy chest-fulls of these things whenever he had them up for sale makes it a deal-breaker.

So no, I wouldn't change my suggestion to have him ever having buff potions in his inventory for that reason.

"One Tier Behind" Healing/Mana potions are OK -- Healing Potions are limited by a potion cooldown and it is rare that you don't have 30 on you at any given time, and Mana potions come with that whole magic sickness thing and people who use them commonly do a ton of them anyways.

As for the opposite biome potions, those would be included in his random quest reward, in fact if you wanted to, if possible, you could give it a higher priority, perhaps make them a separate class of potions, something like this:

...
Drop #12: Spelunker Potion
Drop #13: Gills Potion
Drop #14: Rage -or- Wrath, 30%/70% split, the 70% is the one that DOESN'T appear in your world.
...

etc.

That way, players on a certain world have a chance of getting the potion that can't be made on their current world. Of course, it would still compete with all of the other potions. You could probably group up other potions too, such as grouping miner and builder potions into a "non-combat" category to clean the RNG up, but that's more a programmer's thing; I don't have the source code and I don't know how it works, so someone who does know would know better lol.

I'm only coming up with a concept here.

 

[Allenb60]

I don't really think that's a good idea -- I don't want to remove the need for content unless it is so basic like sand (which is why I put the bottled water in his inventory). I don't want to completely remove the need for gathering seeds or the Staff of Regrowth and its perks.

It could be expensive though, keeping the staff of regrowth as the best option, it is more convenient with the staff at any rate. Players might feel it is kind of unfair if for whatever reason they can't get the plants that are required for his quests anymore, and the Dryad's planter boxes have almost no use without the seeds. The infinite sources of sand are way slower than the infinite sources of seeds, so I don't see how it could be that bad in that respect

Please try to keep in mind: AFAIK, there is no way to limit a quantity that a shopkeeper sells which means if you put something in his inventory to sell, he will sell an unlimited number of that item.

If there were a way to only allow 1-5 potions to be sold at any time, then I would have made a suggestion that he could sell a few basic buff potions, but the fact that anybody with some plat could buy chest-fulls of these things whenever he had them up for sale makes it a deal-breaker.

So no, I wouldn't change my suggestion to have him ever having buff potions in his inventory for that reason.

Ya, I get that you don't want the NPC selling complex potions, but I don't understand why you responded to me with that?

"One Tier Behind" Healing/Mana potions are OK -- Healing Potions are limited by a potion cooldown and it is rare that you don't have 30 on you at any given time, and Mana potions come with that whole magic sickness thing and people who use them commonly do a ton of them anyways.

I'll be honest, that isn't really that useful since the merchant already sells those potions. Hard-mode also has the wizard so...

As for the opposite biome potions, those would be included in his random quest reward, in fact if you wanted to, if possible, you could give it a higher priority, perhaps make them a separate class of potions, something like this:

...
Drop #12: Spelunker Potion
Drop #13: Gills Potion
Drop #14: Rage -or- Wrath, 30%/70% split, the 70% is the one that DOESN'T appear in your world.
...

etc.

That way, players on a certain world have a chance of getting the potion that can't be made on their current world. Of course, it would still compete with all of the other potions. You could probably group up other potions too, such as grouping miner and builder potions into a "non-combat" category to clean the RNG up, but that's more a programmer's thing; I don't have the source code and I don't know how it works, so someone who does know would know better lol.

That was really all I wanted to know about, whether or not it would be possible to get every potion in each world, thanks for mentioning that

I'm only coming up with a concept here.

It is a good one in my opinion, hopefully others think so too

 

[Xylia]

It could be expensive though, keeping the staff of regrowth as the best option, it is more convenient with the staff at any rate. Players might feel it is kind of unfair if for whatever reason they can't get the plants that are required for his quests anymore, and the Dryad's planter boxes have almost no use without the seeds. The infinite sources of sand are way slower than the infinite sources of seeds, so I don't see how it could be that bad

There is no condition that makes a quest "impossible" to do. Even if you allow the biomes to spread over 100% of the world, you can still place some dirt in the sky to make an artificial biome, or you can hollow out a huge hole and then place some dirt/rock underground, or what-not. There's no way to 100% forever lose a biome, and that's not even mentioning the Clentaminator.

Even if you completely rid the world of the Hallow and Evil Biomes, you can get them back by killing the EoC for Evil Seeds or buying Hallow Seeds off of the Dryad.

It takes a lot of work to entirely lose a biome, so I don't really think anybody should be feeling like it is "unfair". And in almost all instances, this can be fixed with various methods mentioned above, unless you were to use all of your sand to the point you have no deserts left.

Ya, I get that you don't want the NPC selling complex potions, but I don't understand why you responded to me with that?

I was telling you the reasons I don't want the NPC selling seeds, by using the potions as an example.

I'll be honest, that isn't really that useful since the merchant already sells those potions. Hard-mode also has the wizard so...

No, and it isn't really meant to be "useful", it's more filler (kinda like the merchant/wizard having those potions).

 

[Allenb60]

There is no condition that makes a quest "impossible" to do. Even if you allow the biomes to spread over 100% of the world, you can still place some dirt in the sky to make an artificial biome, or you can hollow out a huge hole and then place some dirt/rock underground, or what-not. There's no way to 100% forever lose a biome, and that's not even mentioning the Clentaminator.

You could dig out the blocks that the respective plant grows on? It really doesn't matter since they grow everywhere if you don't mine everything

I was telling you the reasons I don't want the NPC selling seeds, by using the potions as an example.

Every potions require more than that, in fact the seed's plants are really only the most basic ingredient, people throw them out while mining

No, and it isn't really meant to be "useful", it's more filler (kinda like the merchant/wizard having those potions).

Why suggest something that is already present? There is no point in hiding the lack of items this NPC sells. I don't really want an NPC that sells seeds because it sounds pretty useless, considering the staff of regrowth and planter boxes make tons, but it is still be better than potions that other NPCs sell

 

[Xylia]

Why suggest something that is already present? There is no point in hiding the lack of items this NPC sells. I don't really want an NPC that sells seeds because it sounds pretty useless, considering the staff of regrowth and planter boxes make tons, but it is still be better than potions that other NPCs sell

But yet, at the same time, does it make any sense to have Bottled Water be the 1-and-only thing in his inventory? I can't think of any other NPC that only sells one item. Unless you want to make some alchemy-themed vanity stuff like potion shelves and furniture and have him sell those instead... *shrug*

 

[Allenb60]

I don't know, I tried to think of something but couldn't come up with anything better than the stuff in my first reply. Alchemy tables would be nice, they are a limited resource at the moment. Maybe some kind of wormhole potion that allows the player to teleport to other NPCs or valid houses could work? Restoration potions could also be an option since pink slime is kind of rare, or maybe even a new greater restoration potion? An alchemist outfit?

 

[Arlodog]

love it.