Game Mechanics NPC Management Suggestion - Reserved and Locked Houses

[Simple🌳]

Terraria's housing system can often be a real hassle. Some players looking to progress through the game might need certain NPCs to be present more than others, and some builders would like to build without the worry of accidentally summoning an NPC into the world. What makes the housing system so inconvenient to these players is the fact that Town NPCs will choose to spawn in any vacant housing, and there's no way to control that other than removing the features that makes a house be a house.

Sure, there's some methods you can use like building other houses for the NPCs to reside in, or murdering NPCs, but both are pretty time-consuming and inconvenient. So, what if we had the option to monitor which houses NPCs are able to occupy? This will remove the need to resort to tedious methods that can get you very bored of the game. I propose: Reserved and Locked Houses.

How does it work?

When the game wants an NPC to spawn in, it checks for a vacant housing. By reserving a house for a non-present NPC, the random NPC cannot spawn in and take over the current house. If an NPC has spawned in due to another house being vacant, the NPC won't be able to move into that reserved house. This system helps assign a type of NPC to a housing without the need to use more violent and less effective methods.

When an NPC dies, their head icon is blacked out. The black icons indicate what types of NPCs are available. You can drag them to a house just like any other icon, but it does function a little bit differently. When the housing icon is applied, the NPC that it resembles will now be linked to the house, meaning that it can only occupy this house when spawning in, and any other NPC is excluded from being able to occupy it. When an NPC is looking to settle down in your world, it will not consider this house as vacant unless it's the NPC that you reserved the house for.

So, what about locked houses?

In every world, you will have a lock icon that appears below the query.

When you click it, it functions just the same as any other NPC icon, with a few exceptions:

• It does not link to any NPC, so when assigned to a house, there will be no NPC occupying it.
• Since it does not link NPCs to houses, you can apply this to multiple.

When a house is locked, it will not be considered a vacant house, therefore NPCs cannot move in, and cannot spawn in when the housing is detected. Basically, consider the lock option as a "Ghost" NPC.

Here are some questions that I will go ahead and answer.

Spoiler: Don't we already have a housing system that includes reserving houses?

Kind of, but not exactly.
Terraria's current method of reserving NPC houses assigns an existing NPC into a house before new NPCs can take over, but it doesn't address the issue of assigning a not-present NPC into a house before others can spawn in.

Of course, a housing is reserved for an NPC and the NPC dies, an NPC of the same type that spawns in will always choose this house, but if another NPC has already taken over this housing, the NPC is basically "kicked" out of the house. What makes this idea different from the already existing feature, is that it prevents other NPCs from stealing the assigned housing.

What makes this idea different, is that it assigns an NPC to a house before it is present in the world, to prevent others from occupying the area.

Spoiler: Could the reserving system be abused?

Nope, this system has a limit into how the player can use it.

The option of reserving a housing for a certain type of NPC only applies to types of NPCs that have once existed in the world. In other words, the reservation icon for the NPC can only exist if that NPC has been alive in your world at one point or another.

I highly recommend discussing over this idea to make it work across not just one person, but most of the community as well. It helps polish and finalize this idea.
Thank you for reading this post, and have a great day!

 

[Spazmatism7]

This is a great idea!
+1 support

 

[Sora_92]

An interesting idea, but you -can- build "spare" houses (or rooms) to assign other NPCs to to force them to leave the house where you wanted to move someone else in - or just remove their flag from there and assign the NPC there you want to live there.
Of course, that requires having spare free houses, and only works with NPCs who are present, but overall a much less violent way of forcing them to leave a house, than pouring a bucket of lava on their head.

The only time I can see it matter is either early game while building up, or if someone doesn't wanna build much, and only want the NPCs housed they actually need, and have no need of the others. But it probably not matters much if some just squeeze them in a large wooden prizon. (I don't like wooden prizons though)
So, it mostly feels like (but that might be just me) when early game, you built a house specifically for the [any NPC] and some other NPC moved in instead. which forces you to build another house, to get the other NPC too, you wanted/need.
Having spare rooms solves this though. I think.

So, I dunno how important this would be,
but the "locked house" is a very-very interesting idea! Like, in some playthrough, I had a town, and had a house which was the main character's house, and I not wanted other NPCs to live there. once everyone's assigned somewhere, it works, but at first, random NPCs would often move in there, which can be annoying indeed. so, locking the rooms of that house - or in ganeral, any housing where you don't want NPCs.
It would be an interesting and welcome addition. I think.

 

[Simple🌳]

An interesting idea, but you -can- build "spare" houses (or rooms) to assign other NPCs to to force them to leave the house where you wanted to move someone else in - or just remove their flag from there and assign the NPC there you want to live there.
Of course, that requires having spare free houses, and only works with NPCs who are present, but overall a much less violent way of forcing them to leave a house, than pouring a bucket of lava on their head.

The only time I can see it matter is either early game while building up, or if someone doesn't wanna build much, and only want the NPCs housed they actually need, and have no need of the others. But it probably not matters much if some just squeeze them in a large wooden prizon. (I don't like wooden prizons though)
So, it mostly feels like (but that might be just me) when early game, you built a house specifically for the [any NPC] and some other NPC moved in instead. which forces you to build another house, to get the other NPC too, you wanted/need.
Having spare rooms solves this though. I think.

So, I dunno how important this would be,
but the "locked house" is a very-very interesting idea! Like, in some playthrough, I had a town, and had a house which was the main character's house, and I not wanted other NPCs to live there. once everyone's assigned somewhere, it works, but at first, random NPCs would often move in there, which can be annoying indeed. so, locking the rooms of that house - or in ganeral, any housing where you don't want NPCs.
It would be an interesting and welcome addition. I think.

A really good piece of criticism. I do get your point, for the average player that has enough patience, building spare houses wouldn't really bother them that much; however, for me, I like to consider many playstyles and areas of the game where a player might need the feature, and that's why I thought this idea would be a nice feature. It's kind of like the step stool item, it's useless most of the time, but there may be a few rare occasions where it might save your day.

What's actually funny about this post is that it was posted when I was editing the post a bit, so I actually considered the building spare houses idea before I even read your post.

Thanks for supporting locked houses though! It would be a great feature for the builder community.

 

[Sora_92]

A really good piece of criticism. I do get your point, for the average player that has enough patience, building spare houses wouldn't really bother them that much; however, for me, I like to consider many playstyles and areas of the game where a player might need the feature, and that's why I thought this idea would be a nice feature. It's kind of like the step stool item, it's useless most of the time, but there may be a few rare occasions where it might save your day.

What's actually funny about this post is that it was posted when I was editing the post a bit, so I actually considered the building spare houses idea before I even read your post.

Thanks for supporting locked houses though! It would be a great feature for the builder community.

I guess I agree with that. it wouldn't be super useful most of the cases, but can be useful sometimes.
It might would need some sort of thing though to avoid "spoilers". For new players, it might be a spoiler (although not much) if they see what NPCs there are.

 

[Simple🌳]

I guess I agree with that. it wouldn't be super useful most of the cases, but can be useful sometimes.
It might would need some sort of thing though to avoid "spoilers". For new players, it might be a spoiler (although not much) if they see what NPCs there are.

I actually already have that. As quoted from a part of the post:

this system has a limit into how the player can use it.

The option of reserving a housing for a certain type of NPC only applies to types of NPCs that have already existed in the current world.

I should probably state it more clearly though.
Basically, the option of reserving a housing for a certain type of NPC only applies if that NPC once existed in the world. So, only if an NPC once lived in your world, but is now dead or nonexistent.

 

[Sora_92]

I actually already have that. As quoted from a part of the post:

I should probably state it more clearly though.
Basically, the option of reserving a housing for a certain type of NPC only applies if that NPC once existed in the world. So, only if an NPC once lived in your world, but is now dead or nonexistent.

Ah, that makes it more clear. I though you meant in general, seeing all NPCs in a list and assigning them to houses possibly even prior to even metting their spawning requirement. so, that they would move in the house where you want them, from the point they spawn in the world.
- which actually also could have its uses.
but that definitelly would be spoilers for brand new players, even if only a little spoiler.

but so what you mean is basically, mostly the vanilla housing flag assigning system, but it would consider dead NPCs as "present" regarding their flag, so they could be moved around even when they're not currently aline in the world?
sounds convenient, especially after the goblin army, who both try to massacre half of the town, and actually ruin all your housings too if they can, via dismantling doors.

 

[Simple🌳]

but so what you mean is basically, mostly the vanilla housing flag assigning system, but it would consider dead NPCs as "present" regarding their flag, so they could be moved around even when they're not currently aline in the world?
sounds convenient, especially after the goblin army, who both try to massacre half of the town, and actually ruin all your housings too if they can, via dismantling doors.

Yup! That's pretty much the gist of it.