surytrap
Terrarian
This idea stems from thinking about how little support there is in Terraria, and how little interesting accessories summoner has.
Terminology:
Tag - the effect that whips apply on enemies, boosting summons' performance with explosions, snowflakes, or just stat boosts
Triggering a tag - using the tag (mostly used in terms of one-time tags in this suggestion, like firecracker)
Player tag - tag that is triggered by a player
Summon tag - tag that is triggered by a summon
Collar And Leash
Leash
An accessory, likely expert early pre-hardmode purchase from Zoologist, on Expert difficulty (since its strength fully depends on what whips you have, i cant imagine it being a later game drop. As for expert requirement, i imagine it being a bit complicated for new players that chose classic as first difficulty, and all that stuff). On equip, makes each tag be able to be triggered by players, but needs non-summon damage from a player (aka melee, ranged, or magic). The Player tag applies same effects as it does to summons, but on the player damage instead. Whenever it's a chance for a summon to hit a crit, it's a +██% chance for a player, and the same story for +██% damage. The player tag does not prevent from reapplying the summon tag on one-time-use tags such as Firecracker's, obviously. Both get reapplied by a whip hit.
Visually, i imagine leash to be wrapped around player's arm, like shackles
Collar
The way to actually use the player tag. When put on, you are now able to trigger player tags that summoners with a leash apply. To trigger your own tags, you need to put this on too, using up 2 accessory slots[1]. If we want to get complicated, implement a system to tie some collars to specific player's leash(es) so that you only trigger that player's tags instead of all tags. If we want a middle road between complicated and simple, just tie it to a player's team, like wormhole potions.
Visually, i imagine it being a plain collar on its intended place (neck).
As for showing tags, make the collared player be able to see last struck enemy by master player, aka the orb that shows focus target for summons. To differentiate from your own, make it a different color or something
[1]Master's Kit/Petkeeping Kit (name undecided)
The combination of both previous accessories, allowing you to both allow people to trigger tags, and trigger them yourself. Made by combining collar and leash on Tinkerer's Workshop. If we want to get funny, maybe make it able to combine with potential accessories that do something interesting with tags or just prolonging them to not apply them as often to get higher tiers of this combo accessory, but that is outside the scope of this suggestion.
Visually, i imagine it being a spiked collar with a leash hanging off the front.
Examples in action
Scenario 1:
Unsure parts
I had idea of letting it also apply attack speed buffs such as Harvest Time from Dark Harvest when such a tag is used by a player, but im not sure if that is a good idea. Just putting this here in case it is.
My own thoughts
I imagine this might make for a more interesting debuffing dynamic, not being all limited to ichor and betsy, but also requiring you to juggle your weapons more for it if you are solo. With Firecracker working better with slower weapons, and Kaleidoscope/Morning Star/Durendal working better with fast weapons, there is also some choice involved, not even talking about specific synergies that the specific effects might have with some weaponry. Of course, its way easier to use in multiplayer, but a lot of things are way easier in multiplayer. Also excuse me if its a bit messy, i tried to write out everything to make it as understantable as possible, but might have overexplained.
Child-friendliness concerns
Master Bait. Golden Shower. Mourning Wood. "Tried to get <Dryad> to pay me with favors once, now I have fungus growing in strange places." -Tax Collector
I feel like collar and leash arent the worst, considering it can just be passed off as intuitive "pets can trigger tags, so being a pet lets me trigger the tags"
Terminology:
Tag - the effect that whips apply on enemies, boosting summons' performance with explosions, snowflakes, or just stat boosts
Triggering a tag - using the tag (mostly used in terms of one-time tags in this suggestion, like firecracker)
Player tag - tag that is triggered by a player
Summon tag - tag that is triggered by a summon
Collar And Leash
Leash
An accessory, likely expert early pre-hardmode purchase from Zoologist, on Expert difficulty (since its strength fully depends on what whips you have, i cant imagine it being a later game drop. As for expert requirement, i imagine it being a bit complicated for new players that chose classic as first difficulty, and all that stuff). On equip, makes each tag be able to be triggered by players, but needs non-summon damage from a player (aka melee, ranged, or magic). The Player tag applies same effects as it does to summons, but on the player damage instead. Whenever it's a chance for a summon to hit a crit, it's a +██% chance for a player, and the same story for +██% damage. The player tag does not prevent from reapplying the summon tag on one-time-use tags such as Firecracker's, obviously. Both get reapplied by a whip hit.
Visually, i imagine leash to be wrapped around player's arm, like shackles
Collar
The way to actually use the player tag. When put on, you are now able to trigger player tags that summoners with a leash apply. To trigger your own tags, you need to put this on too, using up 2 accessory slots[1]. If we want to get complicated, implement a system to tie some collars to specific player's leash(es) so that you only trigger that player's tags instead of all tags. If we want a middle road between complicated and simple, just tie it to a player's team, like wormhole potions.
Visually, i imagine it being a plain collar on its intended place (neck).
As for showing tags, make the collared player be able to see last struck enemy by master player, aka the orb that shows focus target for summons. To differentiate from your own, make it a different color or something
[1]Master's Kit/Petkeeping Kit (name undecided)
The combination of both previous accessories, allowing you to both allow people to trigger tags, and trigger them yourself. Made by combining collar and leash on Tinkerer's Workshop. If we want to get funny, maybe make it able to combine with potential accessories that do something interesting with tags or just prolonging them to not apply them as often to get higher tiers of this combo accessory, but that is outside the scope of this suggestion.
Visually, i imagine it being a spiked collar with a leash hanging off the front.
Examples in action
Scenario 1:
- Player wearing the Master's kit (master player) hits an enemy with a whip (that has a one-time effect, like Firecracker)
- A summon hits the enemy, triggering a summon tag
- Tag persists, but summon can't trigger it again, as it is a player tag
- Master player switches to a ranged weapon and shoots the enemy
- Player tag gets triggered, boosting that bullet's damage by making an explosion
- Master player hits an enemy with a whip (with a one-time effect)
- Another player (wearing a collar) hits the enemy with a non-summon damage weapon, triggering the player tag
- Tag persists, but collared player can't trigger it again, as it is a summon tag
- Master player hits the enemy with a whip again
- Tag refreshes
- Collared player hits the enemy and triggers the player tag again
- Master player hits an enemy with a whip (with a one-time effect)
- Master player hits an enemy with a second whip, applying a second tag, but not triggering previous one, since player tag needs non-summon damage to be triggered
- Summon triggers the tags, using effects of both tags
- Collared player triggers the tags, using effects of both tags too
- Tags no longer exist on the enemy, as they are used up
- Master player hits an enemy with a whip (with a lingering effect, like Kaleidoscope)
- Collared/master player attacks the enemy, having their damage and crit chance be boosted by the tag
- 4 seconds later, tag wears off
- Damage and crit boosts no longer get applied to collared/master player's attacks
- Master player reapplies the tag
- Damage and crit boosts get applied again
Unsure parts
I had idea of letting it also apply attack speed buffs such as Harvest Time from Dark Harvest when such a tag is used by a player, but im not sure if that is a good idea. Just putting this here in case it is.
My own thoughts
I imagine this might make for a more interesting debuffing dynamic, not being all limited to ichor and betsy, but also requiring you to juggle your weapons more for it if you are solo. With Firecracker working better with slower weapons, and Kaleidoscope/Morning Star/Durendal working better with fast weapons, there is also some choice involved, not even talking about specific synergies that the specific effects might have with some weaponry. Of course, its way easier to use in multiplayer, but a lot of things are way easier in multiplayer. Also excuse me if its a bit messy, i tried to write out everything to make it as understantable as possible, but might have overexplained.
Child-friendliness concerns
Master Bait. Golden Shower. Mourning Wood. "Tried to get <Dryad> to pay me with favors once, now I have fungus growing in strange places." -Tax Collector
I feel like collar and leash arent the worst, considering it can just be passed off as intuitive "pets can trigger tags, so being a pet lets me trigger the tags"
