Game Mechanics Sense of Taste (a new mechanic, buff, and debuff)

Would you want a 'taste' of this?

  • Yeah, but maybe an edit or two will do. (Comment.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • LOL THE PUN I GET IT!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .
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Cubic.

The Destroyer
Terraria isn't supposed to be realistic (at all), and Terraria isn't about running around taking care of your character's wants. But wait, why are you guaranteed to get a buff from eating? Because apparently your character is never picky. But what if you want your character to be picky because it would add more variety to the game? Well, here's your suggestion to read.

The new mechanic makes it so that when a character is created, all consumables (minus bait, animals, and boss summoning items) are either 'yummy,' 'bland,' or 'bad.' The way this works is you get the original effect from bland consumables, you get the new debuff from bad consumables, and you get the new buff from yummy consumables. This has no effect on whether or not a consumable functions correctly. There is no way (except memorizing what's good and what's not) to know for certain whether something is bland, yummy, or bad. Selecting characters made before this gets implemented (if it does) will show a prompt saying something like, "This character has no sense of taste. Update them or delete them?" and if you choose to update them, the player goes into a loading screen that implements the character's randomized sense of taste. If you choose to delete them, you are asked to confirm, and if you say yes the character is removed from character selection. If you say no, you are returned to the original prompt.

Satisfied
Tooltip: You love this consumable!
Effect: Increase Melee speed, Melee damage, ranged damage, mana restoration, magic damage, and health restoration. (No effect on summons because they aren't the player.)

Disgusted
Tooltip: You hate this consumable!
Effect: Decrease Melee speed, Melee damage, ranged damage, mana restoration, magic damage, and health restoration. (No effect on summons for same reason as satisfied buff)
 
I cannot describe how much I would HATE it if a healing potion decreased all of my stats. I would actually delete my character if that were the case. This suggestion isn't good because it punishes a player even when he/she didn't do anything wrong.

For this suggestion to have a fighting chance, you have to exclude potions (healing potions, buff potions) from the list of consumables that this affects. And even then, I don't think this suggestion is fundamentally good; it would be weird if my character randomly decided to hate sashimi when I really like sashimi IRL.
 
What's the issue? Is something illogical or overpowered, or do you simply dislike the idea of having a sense of taste?
It's pointlessly complex and obnoxious for an ultimately meaningless feature. However, it's also somewhat clever and adds a bit of depth to food.
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I cannot describe how much I would HATE it if a healing potion decreased all of my stats. I would actually delete my character if that were the case. This suggestion isn't good because it punishes a player even when he/she didn't do anything wrong.

For this suggestion to have a fighting chance, you have to exclude potions (healing potions, buff potions) from the list of consumables that this affects. And even then, I don't think this suggestion is fundamentally good; it would be weird if my character randomly decided to hate sashimi when I really like sashimi IRL.
I don't believe op was referring to potions in any sense; they probably forgot to mention it. And in that line of reasoning, the player would have done wrong by consuming the incorrect food.
 
I don't believe op was referring to potions in any sense; they probably forgot to mention it. And in that line of reasoning, the player would have done wrong by consuming the incorrect food.
I read the original post carefully, and it does indicate that potions would be affected by this. It is also indicated in the poll. To OP: I strongly suggest making potions unaffected by this mechanic.

In fact, I would do away with "hated" foods entirely and simply give each character two or three "favorite" foods that provide a minor extra buff. Much more simple, and no one will complain. This still adds a bit of depth to food, which is an aspect of this idea that you liked.
 
I cannot describe how much I would HATE it if a healing potion decreased all of my stats. I would actually delete my character if that were the case. This suggestion isn't good because it punishes a player even when he/she didn't do anything wrong.

For this suggestion to have a fighting chance, you have to exclude potions (healing potions, buff potions) from the list of consumables that this affects. And even then, I don't think this suggestion is fundamentally good; it would be weird if my character randomly decided to hate sashimi when I really like sashimi IRL.
The effect of Disgusted is lesser than most debuffs, only taking away a small amount from each. I'm terrible at balancing stuff out so I leave it to the devs if they decide to implement. (Darn it, I missed the specifics again.)
Also Terraria is supposed to be weird. I literally said so at the beginning of the post.
Edit: it DOESEN'T decrease all of you're stats, otherwise I would've specified so. Did you see move speed? Did you see summon damage? (I actually specified that summons were excluded!) Did you see defense?
It's pointlessly complex and obnoxious for an ultimately meaningless feature. However, it's also somewhat clever and adds a bit of depth to food.
Not too complex. I mean, maybe a bit, but IDK.
 
Also Terraria is supposed to be weird. I literally said so at the beginning of the post.
Terraria is a bit surreal sometimes, but you can’t use that as an excuse to add whatever content you want. And right now, Terraria will never punish you with debuffs for such a petty reason.

It doesn’t matter how minor the punishment is; if the player doesn’t deserve it and was just trying to play the game normally, it’s unfair.

it DOESEN'T decrease all of you're stats, otherwise I would've specified so. Did you see move speed? Did you see summon damage? (I actually specified that summons were excluded!) Did you see defense?
Am I supposed to be relieved that there are some stats that it doesn’t lower? If you’re nitpicking at my exact words, then maybe you’re missing the point that I’m trying to make.
 
Terraria is a bit surreal sometimes, but you can’t use that as an excuse to add whatever content you want. And right now, Terraria will never punish you with debuffs for such a petty reason.

It doesn’t matter how minor the punishment is; if the player doesn’t deserve it and was just trying to play the game normally, it’s unfair.


Am I supposed to be relieved that there are some stats that it doesn’t lower? If you’re nitpicking at my exact words, then maybe you’re missing the point that I’m trying to make.

You obviously just hate the idea of sense of taste. If I didn't want there to be both a buff and a debuff, I would have not made this. You say that I can't use the fact that Terraria is weird as an excuse to make things weird, but look if there's only buffs that makes it much weirder. I am missing the point and I'm fine with it, because you're also missing the point. The debuff is not a punishment, but a cost.
 
You obviously just hate the idea of sense of taste. If I didn't want there to be both a buff and a debuff, I would have not made this. You say that I can't use the fact that Terraria is weird as an excuse to make things weird, but look if there's only buffs that makes it much weirder. I am missing the point and I'm fine with it, because you're also missing the point. The debuff is not a punishment, but a cost.
Cost for what? There's no reason to have a cost for using an item meant to be beneficial.
 
Terraria isn't supposed to be realistic (at all), and Terraria isn't about running around taking care of your character's wants. But wait, why are you guaranteed to get a buff from eating? Because apparently your character is never picky. But what if you want your character to be picky because it would add more variety to the game? Well, here's your suggestion to read.

The new mechanic makes it so that when a character is created, all consumables (minus bait, animals, and boss summoning items) are either 'yummy,' 'bland,' or 'bad.' The way this works is you get the original effect from bland consumables, you get the new debuff from bad consumables, and you get the new buff from yummy consumables. This has no effect on whether or not a consumable functions correctly. There is no way (except memorizing what's good and what's not) to know for certain whether something is bland, yummy, or bad. Selecting characters made before this gets implemented (if it does) will show a prompt saying something like, "This character has no sense of taste. Update them or delete them?" and if you choose to update them, the player goes into a loading screen that implements the character's randomized sense of taste. If you choose to delete them, you are asked to confirm, and if you say yes the character is removed from character selection. If you say no, you are returned to the original prompt.

Satisfied
Tooltip: You love this consumable!
Effect: Increase Melee speed, Melee damage, ranged damage, mana restoration, magic damage, and health restoration. (No effect on summons because they aren't the player.)

Disgusted
Tooltip: You hate this consumable!
Effect: Decrease Melee speed, Melee damage, ranged damage, mana restoration, magic damage, and health restoration. (No effect on summons for same reason as satisfied buff)
Let me get this straight.

When you create a character, the RNG gods decide whether you’ll get an extra buff, an extra debuff, or nothing for everything you can eat in the game.

This would simply be a pain. Knowing that Greater Healing Potions would give me a debuff every time I consumed one would be enough to make me transfer my stuff to a new character. The worst part is that all of this is completely dictated by RNG.

Let’s say I’m doing a sorcerer playthrough. I use a Lesser Mana Potion and realize that every time I use one, I get a debuff. That would be enough to make me quit the playthrough.

This won’t work no matter how you put it. If you make what the player likes and doesn’t like decided by the player, then they’ll have to go through a giant list to turn everything to yummy. If it’s dictated by RNG, then you can have people deleting characters left and right.

Overall, this idea simply wouldn’t work ingame.
 
You obviously just hate the idea of sense of taste. If I didn't want there to be both a buff and a debuff, I would have not made this. You say that I can't use the fact that Terraria is weird as an excuse to make things weird, but look if there's only buffs that makes it much weirder. I am missing the point and I'm fine with it, because you're also missing the point. The debuff is not a punishment, but a cost.

While he's made it clear that he doesn't like the suggestion in its current form, giving constructive criticism of the idea does not in the slightest mean that someone "obviously just hate the idea," and you would be wise to differentiate between the two. I personally enjoy the uniqueness and creativity of this suggestion, but there are glaring flaws that would need to be addressed and corrected if it is to be seriously considered by the devs - hence, constructive criticism.

Ultimately, when the devs decide to use a community suggestion, their choices of how it functions are based on what would work best in the game, not the personal wish list of the one who suggested it. That is, if it would work better for them to drop the debuff, the debuff would be dropped whether you personally like it or not.

Also, how would dropping the debuff make the suggestion weirder? The idea of giving the player a detrimental effect, however small it may be, for using a randomly-designated beneficial item with no choice in the matter, seems frustrating at best and a low blow at worst.

I read the original post carefully, and it does indicate that potions would be affected by this. It is also indicated in the poll. To OP: I strongly suggest making potions unaffected by this mechanic.

In fact, I would do away with "hated" foods entirely and simply give each character two or three "favorite" foods that provide a minor extra buff. Much more simple, and no one will complain. This still adds a bit of depth to food, which is an aspect of this idea that you liked.
I completely agree with this, for a few reasons:
  • If the idea is a sense of taste, it seems logical to only include food and beverage consumables and exclude other potions.
  • Giving the character a randomized set of favorite foods accomplishes the op's goal of adding variety to the game without unwanted clutter or imbalance. A minor buff wouldn't be enough to force the player to exclusively use certain foods, but it would be an added bonus. Alternatively, the benefit could be assigned to the favorite foods list itself so that it wouldn't take up an extra buff slot but still give the player the bonus for foods on the list.
    favorite food
    grants a small additional bonus to several stats
  • Removing the hated foods list eliminates the unnecessary punishment "costs" that would be randomly assigned to consumables. Potion sickness works fine as a cost for using health potions because it doesn't actively reduce the player's abilities for an arbitrary reason, but only gives a cooldown for the purpose of balance. Mana sickness, while it does actively reduce the player's abilities, works well as a cost for using mana potions because it only does so for an extremely short time and because magic weapons tend to have a high damage output as it is - thus, it is balanced.
Selecting characters made before this gets implemented (if it does) will show a prompt saying something like, "This character has no sense of taste. Update them or delete them?" and if you choose to update them, the player goes into a loading screen that implements the character's randomized sense of taste. If you choose to delete them, you are asked to confirm, and if you say yes the character is removed from character selection. If you say no, you are returned to the original prompt.

This hasn't been discussed at all yet, but I feel that it needs to be brought up. As it stands, this prompt removes agency from the player and essentially forces the taste mechanic on them, with the only other option being to completely delete their current character which they've likely spent a significant amount of time playing as, destroying all the items in their inventory at the same time. You mentioned in the op, "what if you want your character to be picky because it would add more variety to the game?" Well, what if the player doesn't? They would be forced to either reluctantly accept the change or lose substantial progress. This should either be removed entirely or changed to give the player more freedom to choose.

Perhaps it could say something to the effect of, "This character has no sense of taste. Would you like to add one?" Choosing yes would assign the character a favorite foods list, while choosing no would simply allow them to continue playing normally.
 
Last edited:
I find that you all find the disliking a bit too much, and its effect on potions, so I decided to revoke this suggestion and have the thread closed.
 
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