Portfolio/Multi-Topic some ideas for the game that might improve gameplay

[Dapling]

I just think it's poor sport wo I try to limit it

Why does terraria need to be “sport” in the first place? This game isn’t a competition.

 

[TwentY!]

i know i said this professionally before but dude

cmon

spending multiple hours to practice a fixed attack pattern so you can avoid taking damage is not "cheese"

you are actively engaging and getting better at the game by doing that. that isn't "cheese"

you cannot compare someone getting terraprisma to someone standing in a wooden box with a platform wall shooting at pirates from safety. that is what people mean when they refer to cheese - sometthing entirely safe that the enemy literally cannot do anything about.

a player dodging the empress of light's attacks is not cheesing the attacks. it is a player being skilled

that is the same kind of energy as people calling teamwork in games "cheating"

you've convinced me. I just needed a thing to change for the master mode ai because I didn't know what to do.

 

[TwentY!]

Why does terraria need to be “sport” in the first place? This game isn’t a competition.

it's just an opinion.

 

[Dapling]

it's just an opinion.

…I hope you realize how much marking it as “just an opinion” devalues pretty much all of your points on the matter. Whatever, at least you’re honest I guess.

 

[Mille Marteaux]

I just needed a thing to change for the master mode ai because I didn't know what to do.

this is the core problem - a lot of these are proposed changes for the sake of changing things in an attempt to make them more difficult without considering long-term about if they'd actually be fun or interesting.

this is the most important distinction to make when suggesting something difficult.

something that is interesting but not fun will only be attempted once, maybe twice tops. people will not keep coming back to something difficult unless it is fun and interesting.

even if the "despawns out of the hallow" bit is removed from your proposed changes, while i think the empress having a randomized attack pattern would be interesting, it would take a lot of the fun out of the fight for players that try to battle her during the daytime, or that try to challenge themselves with different loadouts.

in her current attack pattern, there are specific windows where you can actually get in to melee range and hit her with weapons like starlight, you'll know where she is compared to you, and you'll know when she's about to charge.

a randomized attack pattern entirely removes these known windows of opportunity to fight back.

that sounds like it'd be cool up until you get something like sun dance > charge > prismatic bolt > charge > everlasting rainbow > everlasting rainbow > charge > charge > etherial lance > etherial lance > etherial lance > prismatic bolt.

that sun dance may have been the only opportunity someone may have had to deal consistent damage and then has just been chipping away at her with inconsistent minion attacks, etc.

now, i will admit, i think a special world seed effect that makes all bosses have randomized attack AI and not fixed attack patttern AI would be interesting, but it should not ever be default behavior, and it would only serve to make high difficulty challenges even higher due to inconsistency.

 

[Rezerkity]

If you disagree with any of this, say what you disagree about and why when responding to this, please.
Bosses

• master mode ai changes
  • Eye of Cthulhu: continues to summon servants when he charges in his second phase
  • King Slime: He will not take lava damage, his slimes do not drop banners nor do they count to the banner cost, he will leave slime on blocks and platforms he lands on that slows you down when you tough it
  • Eater of Worlds: now longer, and he can climb to all elevations, regardless of the amount of walls there are. it is also harder to kill the vile spit.
  • Brain of Cthulhu: his illusions deal contact damage, and the illusions now have their own marker on the minimap
  • Queen Bee: now moves a lot faster and is always moving
  • Skeletron: his hands deal increased knockback depending on their momentum, and there are also two indestructible walls that go from the top of the world to the bottom that generate each 800 blocks away from the sides of the surface dungeon. they layer over everything and do not destroy blocks.
  • Deerclops: her legs deal contact damage and knockback, her ice spikes move a lot further, at each side of the snow biome there will be large ice walls generated that layer over everything and do not destroy blocks, at half health a black ring surrounds her and she has more attacks. (For more info, see calamity infernum deerclops)(I think this should happen, at least something like this, in all difficulties)
  • Wall of Flesh: his hungries can now be resummoned and randomly detach themselves whenever, the lasers from the eyes go through walls
  • Queen Slime: Her slimes will not take lava or fire damage, she will not take lava or fire damage, she flys offscreen and despawns when out of the hallow
  • The Destroyer: now can make much tighter turns and can move up high in the sky without having to be touching a wall
  • The Twins: Retinaizer now charges in his second phase, when one breaks into second phase the other will too
  • Skeletron Prime: he now continues to swing his arms while his head spins, he deals higher knockback based on how fast his arms are moving
  • Plantera: moves a lot faster
  • Golem: his fireballs explode much like the Diabolist attacks, his body now flys, his fists will not retract until they pass the player position, he can have multiple fireballs out at a time
  • Empress of Light: despawns when out of the hallow, attacks are now completely randomized
  • Duke Fishron: Now reverts to second phase at 70% health and third at 40% health
  • Lunatic Cultist: can give you the debuff stunned, which renders you unable to move or use items
  • Moon Lord: his hands will occasionally try to slap you, picking up speed as they fly at you, and dealing damage and knockback proportional to how fast his hands moved
• there is also nondestructable arenas set up around the edges of biomes for the bosses deerclops, eater of worlds, brain of cthulhu, queen slime, empress of light, and duke fishron. they layer over all blocks and not destroy anything, but you can't move through them and they make it so you can't leave the biome you are supposed to fight the boss in. the rod of discord, rod of harmony, recall potion, wormhole potion, teleportation potion, potion of return, magic mirror, and ice mirror all allow you to pass this barrier, but if the boss leaves the biome it is supposed to be fought in it will attempt to fly off screen and despawn.

Biomes

• general
  • there is now a living tree that spawns in each biome in the middle of the surface. it is the same kind of wood as native to the biome, and it follows the tree style, providing early pre-HM loot to that biome.
  • each biome contains at least one lake big enough for fishing
• corruption
  • the corruption tunnels now are thinner and weave around some more
  • enemies spawned in the corruption now have triple the health and damage
• crimson
  • the crimson caves are now a little longer
  • the enemies spawned in the crimson now have triple the health and damage
  • crimson grass makes a squishing when you walk on it.
• sky
  • the sky islands now can generate in four different types:
    • a sky lake is a cloud with water in it big enough for fishing, no change from current type
    • a sky house is a floating island with some land. on that land there is a specific biome recreated, the kinds that can happen are tundra, desert, forest, jungle, corruption in a corruption world, crimson in a crimson world. there is a fountain of that biome present, and there is also a house made out of sky bricks with the average sky loot in it.
    • a sky island is about two thirds the size of a sky house, and it can generate with identical biomes as a sky house. it doesn't have a building.
    • a sky city is a group of two to three sky islands about 1.3x the size of a sky house close together. there is a sky themed building that connects them, and the sky islands in the city can generate with different biomes.

Structures

• Lizhard Temple
  • the jungle temple is now much more maze like, with a design similar to the dungeon
  • flying snakes move faster
  • the chamber where you fight golem is bigger
  • lizhard bricks can't be hammered
  • you can't place blocks on the lizhard walls
  • meteorites don't destroy the temple bricks
• Dungeon
  • Dungeon bricks can't be hammered or broken until after killing skeletron
  • dungeon crates can give you bricks of the other colors of dungeon

NPCs and towns

• NPCs no longer reference existing NPCs in other towns
• the nurse will now heal you part away for part the money (e.g. 100hp for one gold or you could do 50hp for 50 silver)
• the merchant buts things for more money as you progress through the game
• NPCs pathfind to their house and try to sit in the nearest chair in their house when it is night (they no longer open the doors and let the zombies in)

other

• otherworldly music now has a chance to play randomly the same way normal music plays
• there is now a mechanical bunny, as discussed here
• ambient sounds now play more commonly

I like the idea of Master Mode being even harder by introducing a lot more changes to enemy AI, especially bosses. I always found Master Mode to be rather lazily designed, and Expert to be the perfect difficulty in comparison. If the only thing that changes is enemies doing more damage or having more health, then it's just boring to play and makes the game tedious.

I would also like to see the changes to Sky Islands to have different types. So far we just have sky lakes and sky houses, adding some variety would be nice for them as they feel like their own biome, but aren't really fleshed out the way other biomes are.

Though, I disagree with the rest of this post, to put it succinctly - arbitrary restrictions should be for players to enforce when they want challenge runs, and these changes would make the game generally unfun to play by severely limiting your viable options in weapons, armour, accessories, and class.
If the player can't build anything to interact with the boss' behaviour, then it takes away a huge part of the actual gameplay and fun of Terraria with making wacky arenas suited for specific bosses.

These things are kept to mods like Calamity for a reason - mods are people making the game how they want it to be, maybe you should try it too!

 

[TwentY!]

If the player can't build anything to interact with the boss' behaviour,

im not saying that, im just saying they shouldn't be allowed out of the biome they summoned it in. they can still build whatever they want.

 

[Yousef the H]

this is more to help prevent leaving the biome and letting the EoW or BoC un aggro on you and reenterng to fight it again

sure but trust me it's not as big of an issue as you make it out to be

I thought of this and think a semi-randomized attack pattern is better. it just helps prevent cheesing.

what cheesing?? is memorizing the attack patterns of a boss a cause of concern because the boss that's designed to be faught without getting hit an issue suddenly?

no. the boss fight will be just the same if you just build in the biome, although when making this i forgot about going up, and I am not limiting the building ability at all, because there is still the entire biome to build/fight in.

i'm confused on where/how will this arena be.

im just helping reinforce the gore theme of the entire biome. we already have it with driplers, so why not more?

i would rather not feel like i'm actually killing stuff plz, this is preference tbf

the idea of preventing cheese shouldn't be as discussed as you are making it to be this gigantic problem, let people cheese bosses and enjoy the rest of the game, people won't cheese bosses when it becomes *not* enjoyable, and people won't just go ahead and cheese bosses for no reason, they still want the enjoyment, if that enjoyment comes in cheesing bosses then *let. them. enjoy.* and the people who aren't enjoying cheesing but do enjoy playing the game like it is will do that, people don't just go and play the game to not have fun in it y'know?

 

[Rezerkity]

sure but trust me it's not as big of an issue as you make it out to be

what cheesing?? is memorizing the attack patterns of a boss a cause of concern because the boss that's designed to be faught without getting hit an issue suddenly?

i'm confused on where/how will this arena be.

i would rather not feel like i'm actually killing stuff plz, this is preference tbf

the idea of preventing cheese shouldn't be as discussed as you are making it to be this gigantic problem, let people cheese bosses and enjoy the rest of the game, people won't cheese bosses when it becomes *not* enjoyable, and people won't just go ahead and cheese bosses for no reason, they still want the enjoyment, if that enjoyment comes in cheesing bosses then *let. them. enjoy.* and the people who aren't enjoying cheesing but do enjoy playing the game like it is will do that, people don't just go and play the game to not have fun in it y'know?

I don't think cheese is even an avoidable thing in game design. There'll always be some method that optimises the boss fight, minimises risk, or abuses a glitch. Trying to remove cheese is really just a veiled equivalent of "i want this fight to be won by a hair every single time it is fought".

 

[LisanPaez05]

Games are made to enjoy them, independently of Devs' intention to be the game, the player will enjoy the game the way find it more enjoyable

Does not matter if it is farming all items, killing 1 boss and then just building for hours, trolling friends in online worlds, cheesing bosses, etc

 

[Dapling]

Trying to remove cheese is really just a veiled equivalent of "i want this fight to be won by a hair every single time it is fought".

There are ways to do that well and in natural ways but they usually rely on some kind of story, lore, or atmospheric element to work, which is kind of a big no-no for this game.

 

[TwentY!]

i'm confused on where/how will this arena be.

with biome specific bosses like EoW, Deerclops, QS, etc. the borders will be set up around the very edges of the biomes so the player can't escape without something like teleporting

i would rather not feel like i'm actually killing stuff plz, this is preference tbf

I'm just trying to help with the gore theme a bit. maybe the sound can go away when gore is turned off?

Trying to remove cheese is really just a veiled equivalent of "i want this fight to be won by a hair every single time it is fought".

it adds adrenaline. plus once you get loot from after that boss it would probably be an easier boss. like how the EoW can be farmed for money, but I don't expect the player to do that before even killing the EoC.

 

[Yousef the H]

I'm just trying to help with the gore theme a bit. maybe the sound can go away when gore is turned off?

i didn't mean it lol, i just personally don't like gore, and of course others do.

 

[MoultonLava]

King Slime: He will not take lava damage, his slimes do not drop banners nor do they count to the banner cost, he will leave slime on blocks and platforms he lands on that slows you down when you tough it

Honestly, I think this is a fine change. It makes the most sense.

 

[TwentY!]

i didn't mean it lol, i just personally don't like gore, and of course others do.

do you mean you didn't mean you don't like gore, or do you mean you actually do like the ambiance sound?

Honestly, I think this is a fine change. It makes the most sense.

this was one of the easiest to make. I can still see ways around this, though.

 

[Yousef the H]

do you mean you didn't mean you don't like gore, or do you mean you actually do like the ambiance sound?

i don't like gore, but others may like gore, that's what i meant.

 

[TwentY!]

i don't like gore, but others may like gore, that's what i meant.

ah. I like the gore effect, and my suggestion should be only for when blood and gore is turned on. just for people like you who don't like the gore.