hamstar
Terrarian
Now that I appear to have a stable and "nominally functional" version of my long-awaited game mode/mod pack Adventure Mode, I feel like now is a good time to mention an issue I've been noticing with Terraria for some time. To many, it just seems generically as a kind of "burnout" without a clear causal reason: Disorienting grindey goals, "apples vs oranges" equipment choices, strategy-free boss climbing. This phenomena is not new to sandbox games, let alone Terraria, but here in particular I think I can boil it down to one main concept: Lack of "deep" content or context. Namely, the game is, in its own hidden ways, rather linear and vague about itself. Enter the concept of a game mode.
From the wiki:
The problem? The sandbox mode itself. Despite the shear overwhelming amount of content of Terraria, there are a surprisingly small amount of things you can actually do with any given piece. Maybe make a portal gun puzzle map? Maybe try to kill all the progression-gating bosses with only a certain type of equipment? Make a clever killing device for a certain kind of enemy? Build a very large base that can do basically nothing? Even the centerpiece of the game: boss killing, comes down to a simplified matter of equipment grinding and AI pattern memorization; terrain strategy is reduced to a few mere platform bridges, NPCs are all but useless during the fights, and fighting stats boil down to "min maxing" a few samey choices of flavor equipment to the same basic ends: Direct damage output, direct harm reduction. It's not super shallow, but it's very limited.
What if there was more to it than this? With mods, you usually can only linearly expand the amount of that samey sandbox content, or else add lots of flashy toys to briefly distract from the lack of clear gameplay variation. Maybe add some nice new music or shiny graphics, or disregard balance to make a "power fantasy" experience to briefly be free of the oppressive concepts of "fairness" of the base game.
What if there were options to re-contextualize the game itself? What if you had a specific goal in order to 'win' that wasn't just an arbitrary series of "min maxing" quests? Imagine having to find a specific item somewhere in your world, but only by discovering and interpreting specific clues can you hope to do so? What if you had to hunt a moving target that didn't want to kill or be killed, and besting it involves using your brains and tools other than pure damage dealing equipment? What if the NPCs you encounter were actual characters with stories of their own? What if areas in the world (or even the world itself) have their own stories?
When you start thinking of the game in other contexts, suddenly worlds of possibilities start to become evident. Granted, sandbox games are about letting the player project their imagination upon the game to this effect, but we all know Terraria isn't purely respectful of that. Bosses rudely bully the player into progress-gating fights where few or no concepts of strategy, choice, or even techniques or tactics (other than reflexes and "dance routine" AI memorizing) enter the picture. Nearly every moving thing in the world tries to kill you with suicidal dedication. Why can't I play an ocarina to a hallow biome pixie or something and learn a song or get a fancy potion?
Anyway, discourse aside, while I did make an effort at a game mode of my own that attempts to recontextualize the sandbox aspect of Terraria, I feel to truly explore the available space of the game's many, many implied aspects (or even, heaven forbid, its concept of lore), the constraints of the sandbox mode itself have to be confronted. Unless this becomes a matter of sequel content, what better way to do this than with context-altering mods? It's no simple matter, but if done properly, it would be really neat to see what more can be done!
From the wiki:
To date, there has been no clear concept of a "game mode" for Terraria; even with modding. The closest you'll find is either server-specific assortments of PvP or PvE mini-games, "adventures" hard-baked into pre-modified worlds (usually only as a "platformer", or "express mode" rehash of vanilla content), or else lesser specific events within the main game or its mods that will eventually return you to the sandbox mode.
The problem? The sandbox mode itself. Despite the shear overwhelming amount of content of Terraria, there are a surprisingly small amount of things you can actually do with any given piece. Maybe make a portal gun puzzle map? Maybe try to kill all the progression-gating bosses with only a certain type of equipment? Make a clever killing device for a certain kind of enemy? Build a very large base that can do basically nothing? Even the centerpiece of the game: boss killing, comes down to a simplified matter of equipment grinding and AI pattern memorization; terrain strategy is reduced to a few mere platform bridges, NPCs are all but useless during the fights, and fighting stats boil down to "min maxing" a few samey choices of flavor equipment to the same basic ends: Direct damage output, direct harm reduction. It's not super shallow, but it's very limited.
What if there was more to it than this? With mods, you usually can only linearly expand the amount of that samey sandbox content, or else add lots of flashy toys to briefly distract from the lack of clear gameplay variation. Maybe add some nice new music or shiny graphics, or disregard balance to make a "power fantasy" experience to briefly be free of the oppressive concepts of "fairness" of the base game.
What if there were options to re-contextualize the game itself? What if you had a specific goal in order to 'win' that wasn't just an arbitrary series of "min maxing" quests? Imagine having to find a specific item somewhere in your world, but only by discovering and interpreting specific clues can you hope to do so? What if you had to hunt a moving target that didn't want to kill or be killed, and besting it involves using your brains and tools other than pure damage dealing equipment? What if the NPCs you encounter were actual characters with stories of their own? What if areas in the world (or even the world itself) have their own stories?
When you start thinking of the game in other contexts, suddenly worlds of possibilities start to become evident. Granted, sandbox games are about letting the player project their imagination upon the game to this effect, but we all know Terraria isn't purely respectful of that. Bosses rudely bully the player into progress-gating fights where few or no concepts of strategy, choice, or even techniques or tactics (other than reflexes and "dance routine" AI memorizing) enter the picture. Nearly every moving thing in the world tries to kill you with suicidal dedication. Why can't I play an ocarina to a hallow biome pixie or something and learn a song or get a fancy potion?
Anyway, discourse aside, while I did make an effort at a game mode of my own that attempts to recontextualize the sandbox aspect of Terraria, I feel to truly explore the available space of the game's many, many implied aspects (or even, heaven forbid, its concept of lore), the constraints of the sandbox mode itself have to be confronted. Unless this becomes a matter of sequel content, what better way to do this than with context-altering mods? It's no simple matter, but if done properly, it would be really neat to see what more can be done!
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