Terraria State of the Game: November 2019

[Altermaven🌸🎀]

This is actually part of my disappointment, honestly. This time of year is the only time I get significant time off from my 9-5 to play games a ton. Otherwise, I'm working around a typical work week & sneaking in time when I can (usually losing sleep over it, too).

Alas, maybe holiday season 2020 will be more fruitful.

With everything that is possibly going in, and maybe at pace, you shouldn't have to wait that long for things to finish up. The devs have a pretty solid ground of making sure it's all in and solid enough that it is released to the masses. But then again, not all releases are flawless -- that's what hotfixes are for, after all. *nod*

 

[Lord Garak]

I'd like to ask you nicely to please chill out! Terraria is one of the most chill and laid back games I know, fostering creativity in it's players and community. Please don't bring this kind of toxicity here.

Lots of us are disappointed, but please keep in mind that the devs don't owe us anything at this point. Terraria has been a finished and complete product for YEARS now, and it's out of the Dev's own love of the game and community that they have updated it so many times. The Devs probably could have chosen to make Journey's End paid DLC if they really wanted to but they just keep giving us amazing stuff for free.

Well I'm of the opinion they do indeed have a moral obligation to owe us the content we expect after so much advertisement and discussion. However I certainly don't agree with the sentiment of that comment.

 

[Yvori]

Perception is reality, Yvori. Your walls of text telling people they should "this" and should "that" because "reasons" is not going to make someone who is unhappy with this news suddenly be content. I don't mean to be rude, just pointing it out.

I understand that. I just find how much people are getting up in arms about it to be... A bit much.

Either way, I really hope the Switch Splitscreen Multiplayer gets worked out soon, because that's a pretty major oversight, assuming something isn't stopping them from adding it.
They definitely shouldn't have advertised it as a current feature when it isn't currently in. Not sure if that's Pipeworks, Re-Logic, or Nintendo to blame there.

 

[Code E]

I would complain about the update release date getting pushed back, but, it's the last update, so I could wait till' 2022 because I want them to go big, not home.

 

[Catsquid]

With 800 new items, at least according to them, there is no reason whatsoever that they couldn't give us 10 items a month as a showcase.

That's only 60 or so items since the Journeys End was first announced. Not even a dent in all this so-called amazing massive update we are supposed to be getting.

I don't think this would be very possible. A LOT of things are apparently changing in 1.4. I feel like adding only a few more items and nothing else would imbalance things, in a sense. What if a new item is only useful in a new minibiome they're adding? Or only craftable through some new method? I doubt there's a ton of new items that would be available and make sense using only the features 1.3.6 has.
Plus, then there would be another update every month. The devs would have to go take the time to create a separate 'full version' of Terraria (and have to extract ONLY the items they've chosen to add from the 1.4 version and transfer it into the 1.3.6 version- I'm not a game dev, so I don't know how hard that would be, but it sounds like it could be potentially troublesome imo). Then, they'd have to stop every month and fix tiny little bugs those 10 new items could cause- instead of doing bug testing on the whole of 1.4, all at once. It's generally more work overall, which would lead to 1.4 being pushed back even further- and isn't that the whole problem in the first place?

In general, I don't see why this delay is such a horrible thing. Sure, Re-Logic doesn't have the best track record when it comes to releasing on time. But you aren't behind the developments- you can't say you know what happened. It could have been a perfectly good reason as to why they had to delay. Hell, they could've given themselves a ton of wiggle room for all we know. But maybe one major, unexpected bug came up and took up a lot of that time. Then another popped up- and suddenly all their extra time is gone. They thought everything was going under control, but now it's impossible to get everything done well before December, so they have no choice to postpone the update. Or, they might've underestimated the time on purpose, sort of 'wishful thinking', to keep the community for screeching at them for daring to announce a 2025 release. Or, maybe they did just underestimate how long this project would take to complete, like they have many times in the past. There's no telling. But if they're behind on development, I feel postponing it is crucial to Terraria's success going forward- many of you are already sick and tired of waiting. After the delay, many of you are saying that "it'd better be a flawless update for this". And that's exactly why they had to delay; after all this time with no updates, the community is going to expect a perfect (or near-perfect) update. So, to meet that expectation and satisfy their fans, they have to make sure they're able to deliver the best update they can. Plus, Re-Logic has always seemed to put quality first, even if that sacrifices some of time and customers' patience.

You all have a right to be upset- mad, even- but this mistake could have happened so easily for so many reasons, and I'm kinda surprised none of you are even seem to consider that. The amount of negativity these guys are receiving for such a human mistake blows me away.

I wish Re-Logic best of luck in finishing 1.4. Even with just the minor spoilers we've received, I'm sure the update will be well worth the wait. I mean, I'd wait 3 years for a cool new duck.

 

[Null(User Exception)]

2020? Yo thats pure trash dude...

That's Kinda rude.

 

[Necrius]

Now that I think of it - Terraria actually did become irrelevant for me over this time. Haven't launched it since cleared 1.3 content. And that's pretty mean to not bother even with estimating a quarter after shoving the game to the next year. May as well have stayed silent for the whole time and then released "surprise update" instead of feeding off hype and then realizing you bit off a bit more than you can chew in 2019.

 

[Gustone]

HOW ING CONVENIENT THAT DISCORD DOESNT WORK ONLY FOR ME OF ALL THESE PEOPLE

 

[Teseo911]

Jesus, just wow.
I can't believe how rude some users can be for a delay in a free update that it's also the LAST.
It's ok to be disappointed or sad, but damn guys no reason to be such a jerk.
If you like more the idea of a last huge update cutted out or full of bugs go look for another game.
If you think they are a bunch of idiots or that they want only to trick you... Then go and code yourself a game or a huge mod to make that 1.4 before them.

We can understand disappointment, we can understand you are sad or a bit hungry, but what i can't really understand is that total disrespectful posts and flame.

 

[Loki]

It sounds like there was a miscommunication between Nintendo and Pipeworks, potentially.
@Loki hey so I know it's unlikely I'll get your attention this way, but any word on this from Pipeworks?

Have local multiplayer and split-screen for the Switch version have been cancelled? I see a good few people ask about it, but always dead silence is given back. And if they are being scrapped, wouldn't it have been easier to have come forward with that decision and the reasons why?

As I've stated elsewhere (but folks likely missed) - the feature exists, but the performance is beneath acceptable standards. So it is not that "nothing has been/is being done" - it is that what has been done is just not hitting the mark. They could toss SplitScreen in now to "meet the promise", but then everyone would be yelling about how terrible it performs. Catch 22.

It is our opinion that they need to continue working on it until it clears at least some minimum performance standards.



As for the reactions to the delay - appreciate those of you that can relate and understand the situation. This is not a simple matter of "oh just release it with bugs", it is a matter of "oh just cut out X, Y, and Z... oh and lets half-way do A, B, and C... oh, and everyone can expect to work 100h crunch-time weeks and cancel your holidays on top of all of that".

We have a vision for what we want Journey's End to be - and we do not want to undercut that. We are a team of at-most 10 people, and we are working every day, day-in and day-out on Journey's End and to help guide production of Console/Switch/Mobile with external developers. Sometimes that all goes smoothly, other times not, but we are not going to change who we are for a date, as much as it sucks to push things back.

As for spoilers, we have given a ton on JE to-date - there is a full compendium of these posted in this very forum section. We didn't this time because we wanted to focus on the somber news and let everyone get their feelings out on the table.

 

[Indros]

One question, the fact that the update is delayed, also has to do with the optimization of the game, that is, from 1.2 to 1.3 a worse performance is noticed, and I look forward to it if Journey's End is the best version of Terraria also be in performance, I await your response, thank you for your time, and I love your work, keep it up.

 

[Nsk1341]

As I've stated elsewhere (but folks likely missed) - the feature exists, but the performance is beneath acceptable standards. So it is not that "nothing has been/is being done" - it is that what has been done is just not hitting the mark. They could toss SplitScreen in now to "meet the promise", but then everyone would be yelling about how terrible it performs. Catch 22.

It is our opinion that they need to continue working on it until it clears at least some minimum performance standards.



As for the reactions to the delay - appreciate those of you that can relate and understand the situation. This is not a simple matter of "oh just release it with bugs", it is a matter of "oh just cut out X, Y, and Z... oh and lets half-way do A, B, and C... oh, and everyone can expect to work 100h crunch-time weeks and cancel your holidays on top of all of that".

We have a vision for what we want Journey's End to be - and we do not want to undercut that. We are a team of at-most 10 people, and we are working every day, day-in and day-out on Journey's End and to help guide production of Console/Switch/Mobile with external developers. Sometimes that all goes smoothly, other times not, but we are not going to change who we are for a date, as much as it sucks to push things back.

As for spoilers, we have given a ton on JE to-date - there is a full compendium of these posted in this very forum section. We didn't this time because we wanted to focus on the somber news and let everyone get their feelings out on the table.

5 months.

I wouldn't be so salty if communication was clearer at the point of purchase that the product I was buying is INCOMPLETE and INCONSISTENT with other versions. I would have saved my money and patiently waited. I swear on my mother's gravy if there are bugs when split screen finally comes out I will projectile vomit salt all over the place.

 

[Crysis]

I don't think this would be very possible. A LOT of things are apparently changing in 1.4. I feel like adding only a few more items and nothing else would imbalance things, in a sense. What if a new item is only useful in a new minibiome they're adding? Or only craftable through some new method? I doubt there's a ton of new items that would be available and make sense using only the features 1.3.6 has.
Plus, then there would be another update every month. The devs would have to go take the time to create a separate 'full version' of Terraria (and have to extract ONLY the items they've chosen to add from the 1.4 version and transfer it into the 1.3.6 version- I'm not a game dev, so I don't know how hard that would be, but it sounds like it could be potentially troublesome imo). Then, they'd have to stop every month and fix tiny little bugs those 10 new items could cause- instead of doing bug testing on the whole of 1.4, all at once. It's generally more work overall, which would lead to 1.4 being pushed back even further- and isn't that the whole problem in the first place?

In general, I don't see why this delay is such a horrible thing. Sure, Re-Logic doesn't have the best track record when it comes to releasing on time. But you aren't behind the developments- you can't say you know what happened. It could have been a perfectly good reason as to why they had to delay. Hell, they could've given themselves a ton of wiggle room for all we know. But maybe one major, unexpected bug came up and took up a lot of that time. Then another popped up- and suddenly all their extra time is gone. They thought everything was going under control, but now it's impossible to get everything done well before December, so they have no choice to postpone the update. Or, they might've underestimated the time on purpose, sort of 'wishful thinking', to keep the community for screeching at them for daring to announce a 2025 release. Or, maybe they did just underestimate how long this project would take to complete, like they have many times in the past. There's no telling. But if they're behind on development, I feel postponing it is crucial to Terraria's success going forward- many of you are already sick and tired of waiting. After the delay, many of you are saying that "it'd better be a flawless update for this". And that's exactly why they had to delay; after all this time with no updates, the community is going to expect a perfect (or near-perfect) update. So, to meet that expectation and satisfy their fans, they have to make sure they're able to deliver the best update they can. Plus, Re-Logic has always seemed to put quality first, even if that sacrifices some of time and customers' patience.

You all have a right to be upset- mad, even- but this mistake could have happened so easily for so many reasons, and I'm kinda surprised none of you are even seem to consider that. The amount of negativity these guys are receiving for such a human mistake blows me away.

I wish Re-Logic best of luck in finishing 1.4. Even with just the minor spoilers we've received, I'm sure the update will be well worth the wait. I mean, I'd wait 3 years for a cool new duck.

Yoh misunderstand. I mean they could have been showing off 10 new items a month since the summer. Even if Journeys End doesn't release until Dec 2020 that's less than 200 items. When they've already got listed over 800 are incoming.

So its hardly like they'd be spoiling the entire update. And pc players would likely be much happier over, while simultaneously feeling less jilted when every other system is getting more state of the game info, where we are really getting crumbs at best.

 

[Pinhead Larry]

At least pc still gets it before console. Too bad I’m on the console side. Take all the time you need. If there’s anything you’ve taught me with the 3 year wait for 1.3, it’s patience.

 

[Kazzymodus]

One question, the fact that the update is delayed, also has to do with the optimization of the game, that is, from 1.2 to 1.3 a worse performance is noticed, and I look forward to it if Journey's End is the best version of Terraria also be in performance, I await your response, thank you for your time, and I love your work, keep it up.

So as a general disclaimer, I have no idea whether or not Journey's End will have better or worse performance than the current version, but looking at this from a general game development perspective, it's reasonable to assume that performance will decrease rather than increase. When additional content or systems are added, they need to be loaded, processed and stored, which all have a certain cost. While it is true that optimisations can be made in different systems to compensate (partially or even entirely) for these costs, there's only so far you can go with that until it becomes either too costly or too inconsiderable (often in tandem) to do.

Again, that's not saying Journey's End will have worse performance. It could have, it could also have better performance, it could also have about the same performance as it does now. All I'm saying that a performance decrease, no matter how slight, is a reasonable expectation to have.

 

[Visce]

When I bought Terraria it cost me so little money, but over the years gave me so incredible much joy. I don't mind the delay of Journeys End. I am just happy to know there will be more to come.

Take your time. You deserve it

 

[Golden Heretic Snakeboat]

They could toss SplitScreen in now to "meet the promise", but then everyone would be yelling about how terrible it performs. Catch 22.

Lets Just Face It, Most Of The People Complaining Would Be The Ones Who Were Also Complaining It Took So Long.

 

[Nsk1341]

Lets Just Face It, Most Of The People Complaining Would Be The Ones Who Were Also Complaining It Took So Long.

For sure. If I bought the game and it had split screen but was very buggy - I would complain. Why wouldn't I? Why shouldn't I? Maybe I'm misunderstanding but I think what you're saying serves to simply demonize and invalidate those of us with very good reason to be upset.

Let me clarify. The issue is not simply that the game doesn't have split screen. The core issue is the complete failure of communication.

I would be fine waiting if it was properly communicated that the port was incomplete. Sadly it wasn't so here I am.

Switch split screen isn't an issue for you? Good for you, but don't frame things as though there wasn't a MUCH better way they could have and should have handled this release.

Edit: I checked your profile and according to that you don't even own/play Terraria on switch.

 

[alaswing]

You guys deserve everything you need to make the game even better, we need more devs like you guys.

 

[Code E]

We are a team of at-most 10 people, and we are working every day, day-in and day-out on Journey's End and to help guide production of Console/Switch/Mobile with external developers. Sometimes that all goes smoothly, other times not, but we are not going to change who we are for a date, as much as it sucks to push things back.

holy heck, 10 PEOPLE??? You guys are adding in this much with just 10 people? I...didn't know...It's so great to see this much devotion from just 10 people, and with all that you're adding, take your time. JE will be, of course, your hardest update, so please don't try to rush it. I really love everything that you did/are doing, and wish I bought Terraria sooner...I still can't wrap my head around 10 people adding in 800 items by 2020, even December 2020 would be crazy to me!