Game Mechanics Repeated use of potions increases the duration of a effect, but each time it becomes shorter.

[neliut]

If a potion you drank gave a buff for N minutes, then drinking the same potion again will increase the duration, but not more than Nx2 of the original duration.

Formula: d = d+(d-P*2)/-2

LaTeX: `d=d-\frac{d-P\cdot2}{2}`

Where "d" -- current duration, "P" -- original potion duration.

I think this change will encourage wealthy players to spend their large stockpiles of potion ingredients more actively, of which there are so many and they still lie idle. Wealthy players will receive a longer "one-time" effect in exchange for increased resource consumption for potions.

Plus it has an aesthetic, like "getting ready for a long hike, there won't be any potions on this long hike, and there won't be any place in inventory either, so get lot drunk now!"

 

[Big Sammich]

I wonder if these diminishing returns are too punishing. I don't dislike the idea of being able to stack potion durations, but consuming 5 potions for less than twice the benefit... I'd rather just keep the potions in my inventory and use them as I need them. Are the diminishing returns even necessary? Would it be so unbalanced to just let the duration stack normally?

 

[Stellar Mastodon 267]

This only works if the effects are also stacked. So a wrath potion would go 10% damage for 5 minutes would go to 15% for 7 minutes. Something lake that.

 

[random terraria fan]

I wonder if these diminishing returns are too punishing. I don't dislike the idea of being able to stack potion durations, but consuming 5 potions for less than twice the benefit... I'd rather just keep the potions in my inventory and use them as I need them. Are the diminishing returns even necessary? Would it be so unbalanced to just let the duration stack normally?

if this happens there needs to be a cap or someone would craft 9999 of them and get basically permanent effects

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

if this happens there needs to be a cap or someone would craft 9999 of them and get basically permanent effects

You can already basically do this by just keeping the potions in your inventory/void bag and just keep re-drinking them via quick buff (since quick buff will only drink a potion if you don't already have its buff). Besides, you lose the buffs when you die so doing even if you could stack duration, it wouldn't even be a good idea (unless playing hardcore).

 

[random terraria fan]

ok true but it would be alot easyer to just craft 9999 of each potion without clicking quick buff every time and have infinit every good effect and its hard to die with every good effect x 9999

 

[Big Sammich]

if this happens there needs to be a cap or someone would craft 9999 of them and get basically permanent effects

So? They crafted 9999 potions, they should get to use 9999 potions. And like chewy said, you can already do this by just pressing the buff button whenever your buffs run out.

 

[random terraria fan]

yes but this would be annoying in general you would need to waste alot of inventory space carrying around lots of potions and spamming use when they run out as upposed to having an afk farm and getting every single effect x 9999 for years which is what would happen if there is no cap

 

[neliut]

10% damage for 5 minutes would go to 15% for 7 minutes

This is a ty idea that will only hurt the game's balance. This suggestion only increases the "one-time" duration without affecting the quality of a buff.


As for the quick buff hot key, I think it could be left as is, and the potion's duration could be increased only if the potion was "explicitly" drunk (non quick buff, but use by cursor ex.).

 

[Coleyohley]

A great idea, but I think the diminishing returns on duration is totally unnecessary; nothing is stopping you from just drinking another potion, after all, and the player has access to so much portable inventory space that carrying them around should really never be a problem.

And as @chewythebigblackdog said, dying also removes all of your buffs, which would further disincentivize drinking multiple at a time, as that only adds to the amount of wasted potion time.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

I think this change will encourage wealthy players to spend their large stockpiles of potion ingredients more actively, of which there are so many and they still lie idle. Wealthy players will receive a longer "one-time" effect in exchange for increased resource consumption for potions.

I am the target audience of this suggestion.

My stash is not as large as I would like, mind you, but I am the target audience of this suggestion.

This will not encourage me to use multiple Heartreach, etc, in a row, for multiple reasons:

1) I am not going to drink two Lifeforce Potions in one sitting for 12 minutes of effect when I can wait for the first one to expire and refresh it and get 16 minutes instead.
2) This exists,

, which automatically uses every buff item usable if you do not have the buff. I am pressing this button every 15 seconds when not on Potion Sickness for Honey, while also pressing it every 2 minutes for Ale.

3) Buff potions are timed with the duration you would use the buff in mind. More valuable passive potions will last most of a night cycle (Heartreach, Lifeforce, Ironskin, Regeneration and Summoning all last a staggering eight minutes) while other potions such as Endurance and Wrath last 4 minutes, which.. lines up with Ale, Sake, etc timers from Quick Buff. You usually will not commit to more expensive potions unless you intend to resolve your encounter within their duration, so the ability to use two Wrath Potions for 6 minutes of 10% more damage up is, for all intents and purposes, strictly worse than maybe missing one second of the buff and getting 8 minutes instead.

There is merit in the base idea of using multiples of a potion to increase its duration, but there shouldn't be diminishing effectiveness. If I use two Wrath Potions, I want to get the full 8 minutes out of them. At that point, the tradeoff should be that if you were to use three Wrath Potions, then die within two minutes, you just lost an extra two Wrath Potions for no benefit. There's no point worrying about this being "too powerful" or not because players that would stock up on so many Wrath Potions that they'd just happily throw back three in one go are players that know exactly what they intend on doing for the next 12 minutes anyway, but as long as Quick Buff exists, a diminishing returns suggestion such as this would never work.

 

[neliut]

The problem with "Quick Buff" is that the player has to constantly strain his memory "how long ago he drank his potions", and not only constantly look at the list of active buffs, but also peer and look with his eyes for the buff he needs to find out if it has run out and how much is left.
I don't know about you, but personally, sometimes it's very burdensome for me to constantly monitor the expiration of the buff every 2 or 4 minutes in order to drink a new potion in time, in order not to fall into that short window in which I am without buffs.

For example, after an active game, I want to rest a little and fish, a kind of break for 8 minutes, just enough for two potions. I drink a sonar potion and a fishing potion for 8 minutes, and I also want to drink several crate potions to relax my brain for all 8 minutes and not worry about anything. Because the way things are now -- somewhere in the middle of fishing, you need to get out of the state of meditation, and drink the second crate potion in time, but... If you relax too much and blink the moment with the second potion, then the remaining 4 minutes you will fish without a crate potion and as a result, you will have one unused crate potion in your inventory, which you would like to spend along with the sonar potion, but it is no longer there...

Stories about efficiency and Quick Buff are of course good, but don't forget about the aesthetic part as well.
For example, there are players who challenge themselves to "Complete the game without chests, and even without a Void Bag!". For them, from the Copper Shortsword to the Moon Lord, every inventory slot is worth its weight in gold. And suddenly it becomes more valuable to be able to drink several potions by increasing the duration, instead of carrying 1 or 2 potions in your inventory that take up a valuable slot and need to wait for the time to expire to be clear slot.

 

[Coleyohley]

The problem with "Quick Buff" is that the player has to constantly strain his memory "how long ago he drank his potions", and not only constantly look at the list of active buffs, but also peer and look with his eyes for the buff he needs to find out if it has run out and how much is left.
I don't know about you, but personally, sometimes it's very burdensome for me to constantly monitor the expiration of the buff every 2 or 4 minutes in order to drink a new potion in time, in order not to fall into that short window in which I am without buffs.

Many potions have the same duration, so you'll see a good chunk of your buffs be missing all at once, so the idea that you need to look through the buff list to find the one that's missing just doesn't happen in practice; if the buff list is significantly shorter than it should be, press the button.

Saying the button is annoying to press is something I also find unconvincing, since it is one button that you press once every minute or two. This entire paragraph is an absurd exaggeration. This also still doesn't explain the issue many people have brought up before, which is that the formula is extremely wasteful; a few buffs being inactive for a minute or two is still nowhere near the absolutely staggering loss the formula in the suggestion has.

I actually agree with you, this is a neat idea, but the problem it solves is nowhere near problematic enough to warrant the solution being so preposterously expensive. Receiving full duration from drinking several potions at once is not even close to overpowered.

For example, after an active game, I want to rest a little and fish, a kind of break for 8 minutes, just enough for two potions. I drink a sonar potion and a fishing potion for 8 minutes, and I also want to drink several crate potions to relax my brain for all 8 minutes and not worry about anything. Because the way things are now -- somewhere in the middle of fishing, you need to get out of the state of meditation, and drink the second crate potion in time, but... If you relax too much and blink the moment with the second potion, then the remaining 4 minutes you will fish without a crate potion and as a result, you will have one unused crate potion in your inventory, which you would like to spend along with the sonar potion, but it is no longer there...

Do you truly think that drinking  five crate potions is a reasonable cost for removing the extremely small (1 button) headache of reapplying your fishing buffs? I suppose it could if you use a controller that isn't a keyboard (I wouldn't know, I don't play them), but I highly, highly doubt most people will agree with you. At this point you should really just increase the duration of the potion.

In the original post, another of the proposed positives of this suggestion was that it encouraged wealthy players to spend more of their potions, but it does exactly the opposite. Players who craft hours and hours worth of potions do it because they want to  have hours and hours of potion effects. Why would they choose to drink several at once and get less total duration? Any player who crafts and uses this many potions is also no stranger to pressing the quickbuff key, and the game's vast amount of portable storage options means they won't have troubles bringing the potions with them either. This suggestion doesn't benefit them in the slightest.

Stories about efficiency and Quick Buff are of course good, but don't forget about the aesthetic part as well.
For example, there are players who challenge themselves to "Complete the game without chests, and even without a Void Bag!". For them, from the Copper Shortsword to the Moon Lord, every inventory slot is worth its weight in gold. And suddenly it becomes more valuable to be able to drink several potions by increasing the duration, instead of carrying 1 or 2 potions in your inventory that take up a valuable slot and need to wait for the time to expire to be clear slot.

Players are more than welcome to choose to play like this, but let it be known in no uncertain terms that this is a choice. Tools like Piggy Bank and Safe and Void Bag exist to be used; players knowing that they exist and choosing not to use them are knowingly and willingly making the game harder on themselves, and the game should not be balanced around that.If the entire point of the falloff is to cater to that type of challenge, then that is quite a weak reason to add a downside to this quality of life: not many people play this kind of challenge, and because of that, few people will actually be challenged by this restriction and many will just be confused.

 

[Nimta]

The problem with "Quick Buff" is that the player has to constantly strain his memory "how long ago he drank his potions", and not only constantly look at the list of active buffs, but also peer and look with his eyes for the buff he needs to find out if it has run out and how much is left.
I don't know about you, but personally, sometimes it's very burdensome for me to constantly monitor the expiration of the buff every 2 or 4 minutes in order to drink a new potion in time, in order not to fall into that short window in which I am without buffs.

For example, after an active game, I want to rest a little and fish, a kind of break for 8 minutes, just enough for two potions. I drink a sonar potion and a fishing potion for 8 minutes, and I also want to drink several crate potions to relax my brain for all 8 minutes and not worry about anything. Because the way things are now -- somewhere in the middle of fishing, you need to get out of the state of meditation, and drink the second crate potion in time, but... If you relax too much and blink the moment with the second potion, then the remaining 4 minutes you will fish without a crate potion and as a result, you will have one unused crate potion in your inventory, which you would like to spend along with the sonar potion, but it is no longer there...

Stories about efficiency and Quick Buff are of course good, but don't forget about the aesthetic part as well.
For example, there are players who challenge themselves to "Complete the game without chests, and even without a Void Bag!". For them, from the Copper Shortsword to the Moon Lord, every inventory slot is worth its weight in gold. And suddenly it becomes more valuable to be able to drink several potions by increasing the duration, instead of carrying 1 or 2 potions in your inventory that take up a valuable slot and need to wait for the time to expire to be clear slot.

just put a rock or something on your quick buff hotkey, it will automatically drink the potions for you when you run out

 

[neliut]

Many potions have the same duration, so you'll see a good chunk of your buffs be missing all at once

Well, you're right. But I have a few objections:
1. Many, but not all. Some fight potions last 4 minutes, and it's hard to notice the decrease in buffs when you're staring at the center of the screen, like during a boss fight.
2. How long until new players switch to drinking potions via Quick Buff, instead of drinking one at a time via cursor?

drinking  five crate potions is a reasonable cost...?

That's right... only if my inventory is empty of potions. When someone goes fishing, do they empty their inventory of all their other potions so that they can use Quick Buff to drink only the crate potion while fishing? And then come back and take all their potions back from the chests after fishing? The problem with Quick Buff is that it will drink the crate potion while fishing... along with all the potions you prepared for the boss fight right after fishing.

You yourself made it clear that it is perfectly normal to carry all your potions around in your portable inventory. So yeah, >"removing the extremely small (1 button) headache" is indeed a headache, because that one button will drink all your potions in your inventory when you just want to fish.

just put a rock or something on your quick buff hotkey

Nice gameplay.

 

[chewythebigblackdog]

That's right... only if my inventory is empty of potions. When someone goes fishing, do they empty their inventory of all their other potions so that they can use Quick Buff to drink only the crate potion while fishing? And then come back and take all their potions back from the chests after fishing? The problem with Quick Buff is that it will drink the crate potion while fishing... along with all the potions you prepared for the boss fight right after fishing.

You yourself made it clear that it is perfectly normal to carry all your potions around in your portable inventory. So yeah, >"removing the extremely small (1 button) headache" is indeed a headache, because that one button will drink all your potions in your inventory when you just want to fish.

I like keeping potions running often, and this example makes zero sense to me. I have 2 types of potions - stuff I want to keep up as much as possible (typically relatively cheap potions), and stuff that I reserve for specific situations (e.g. a boss fight). For the former, I'd keep them in my void bag, and for the latter I'd keep them in my safe and take them out when I need them.

If I'm fishing, I want to reserve a decent amount of inventory space for loot, so I just wouldn't carry around my more situational potions. I can also close my void bag to prevent quick buff from using up the potions I keep in there (and that's if I care about conserving them). Since I'm using multiple buffs when fishing (fishing potion, ale, potentially sonar and crate too) using quick buff is just sensible. Also, I usually fish for longer than the length of 2 fishing potions anyways (even ignoring ale and crate potion having even shorter durations), so being able to extend the duration just doesn't make sense for me to use.

The one time I'd maybe consider using this feature (if it existed) would be for dreadnautilus fishing, since I'd be carrying around both fishing and combat potions (and since it takes a bit to get dreadnautilus, if I quick buffed everything I'd probably waste a few of my rarer potions). Even for this example it wouldn't be too useful since both fishing and sonar potions have 8 minute durations, which lasts most of the night anyways. Plus it's only 2 (or 3 if I add ale) buffs, so just manually using them is fine since I'd only need to refresh them once at most.

 

[Coleyohley]

Well, you're right. But I have a few objections:
1. Many, but not all. Some fight potions last 4 minutes, and it's hard to notice the decrease in buffs when you're staring at the center of the screen, like during a boss fight.
2. How long until new players switch to drinking potions via Quick Buff, instead of drinking one at a time via cursor?

1. You stare at the center of the screen? I look at the boss, which tends to be all over the screen, and for a good chunk of the time is in the top left, right where my buffs are. I feel like you should also be frequently checking your buffs to see how long it will be until you can drink your next healing potion
2. As soon as they learn that the button exists and get tired of manually drinking several different potions at once.

That's right... only if my inventory is empty of potions. When someone goes fishing, do they empty their inventory of all their other potions so that they can use Quick Buff to drink only the crate potion while fishing? And then come back and take all their potions back from the chests after fishing? The problem with Quick Buff is that it will drink the crate potion while fishing... along with all the potions you prepared for the boss fight right after fishing.

Do you not go home and sort through all the stuff you got from the fight? After a fight I put away all the stuff I don't need, like the undesired gear I got from it from fighfing, as well as the expensive combat potions I used for the fight. If you don't do that, all I can really say is that you should probably be a bit more organized.

This is a moot point anyway, because I agree with you; I think being able to extend the duration of potions is a fine idea, I just don't think it needs to be as ludicrously wasteful as the formula makes it. This Quality of Life is pretty minor, all things considered, and I don't think it warrants a downside to using it.

Oh, and another thing:

Spoiler: Formula

I don't mean to be petty, but the formulas provided in the suggestion are nonsense. They both result a slope of 1/2, and don't even account for the number of potions previously consumed. If you want to plot the total duration you'd get from drinking several potions, multiply this equation by the original potion's duration:

x will represent number of potions consumed, y will represent duration.

Huge thanks to @chewythebigblackdog for this equation.

You yourself made it clear that it is perfectly normal to carry all your potions around in your portable inventory. So yeah, >"removing the extremely small (1 button) headache" is indeed a headache, because that one button will drink all your potions in your inventory when you just want to fish.

I carry mine around in a Void Bag, since that lets me Quick Buff directly from it, and I deactivate the Void Bag when I just want to drink what's in my inventory. In this case I'd put the fishing-related potions in my inventory while I am fishing and turn off the Void Bag until I am done.

 

[random terraria fan]

ok how about a better formula that uses up less and like the first three or so uses are uneffected

 

[Mille Marteaux]

When someone goes fishing, do they empty their inventory of all their other potions so that they can use Quick Buff to drink only the crate potion while fishing? And then come back and take all their potions back from the chests after fishing?

I lock my Void Bag so I don't use my common potions and any uncommon potions I intend to use are in my Piggy Bank until I need them. When fishing in areas that have common non-stackable fish drops (such as the Corruption) I keep chests nearby to stack items such as Purple Clubberfish out of my inventory, or I simply delete them as an extra bit of Gold is meaningless when you're at the point you can stand in the middle of Pumpkin Moon enemies and farm Platinum.

If you have the time to create and drink ten Crate Potions then you have the time to place some chests at a prepared and secure fishing area. Inventory management is a skill that is often overlooked or ignored, but it is a skill.

However, I think you are missing the core feedback you are being given in favor of replying to noise: your idea of drinking multiple potions to get a longer effect duration is good, but the diminishing returns are not.

If I was told I could drink three Summoning Potions and get 24 minutes of the buff's duration, I would happily do so manually, as you are suggesting. However, If I was told I could drink three and get 14 minutes of the buff, or just use the Quick Buff key and refresh the minion every 8 minutes to get 24 minutes from the three potions, I would choose the latter every time, as pressing the B key, the 3 key, and clicking my left mouse button before returning to my whip antics is less annoying to me than not getting the full 24 minutes from my potions.

Summoning Potions are the biggest example to use here. The longest event, a Solar Eclipse (15 minutes), would require you to drink four Summoning Potions with your proposed diminishing returns. If it didn't offer diminishing returns, you would only need to drink two, and the extra summon wouldn't have to be refreshed.

I repeat, again: the idea of drinking multiple potions to have a longer buff duration is good. The diminishing returns to "balance" it are not good.