Weapons & Equip The grand design needs to be nerfed or made into a hardmode item

Mars44

Terrarian
First off, let me say I like the item, it's super useful, however I think for pre hardmode it's a bit too strong for the following reason:
1. You can disarm traps from anywhere on the screen, and then get to collect the wire from where you are standing. This is pretty ridiculous if you think about it.

2. It makes spelunker potions obsolete. Pre 1.3 this wouldn't have been a problem, however with the inclusion of abandoned houses, which almost always have wiring on them, it's almost too easy to find these.

Anyway I think you should consider making the yellow wrench hardmode only, that way it can be obtained at a more appropriate time.
 
1. You just need the Mechanical Lens to see the wire and use a wire cutter to cut it. Easy trap disarm.

2. Spelunker Potion is also used to find ores (especially Chlorophyte), so it will not be obsolete.
 
First off, let me say I like the item, it's super useful, however I think for pre hardmode it's a bit too strong for the following reason:
1. You can disarm traps from anywhere on the screen, and then get to collect the wire from where you are standing. This is pretty ridiculous if you think about it.

2. It makes spelunker potions obsolete. Pre 1.3 this wouldn't have been a problem, however with the inclusion of abandoned houses, which almost always have wiring on them, it's almost too easy to find these.

Anyway I think you should consider making the yellow wrench hardmode only, that way it can be obtained at a more appropriate time.

1. You just need the Mechanical Lens to see the wire and use a wire cutter to cut it. Easy trap disarm.

2. Spelunker Potion is also used to find ores (especially Chlorophyte), so it will not be obsolete.

Actually, between the two of you, I think the problem is made clear. It's the Mechanical Lens. This is the most powerful individual part of the Grand Design, and has the same function as noted by the OP as the most broken/exploitable. Move that to Hardmode, and I think it'd be okay.
 
I think it's fine to have as a pre-Hardmode item, because to be honest it's much more fiddly for disarming traps and collecting free wire than Wire Cutters with smart cursor. Mechanical Lens is a powerful item, yes, but it's also super annoying to have turned on all the time. I think nerfing an item that's supposed to make it easy to do massive wiring projects in the endgame is a bit pedantic, but if it becomes too much of a widespread problem (like Medusa was in 1.3) who knows?
 
Honestly by the time you can acquire the Lens (after both beating Skeletron AND braving the Dungeon long enough to find the Mechanic), you should already have 90% of what you want or need from Gold Chests.
 
You can see wires just by holding a pressure plate found underground, so yea I don't see why they'd have to change that if wire can be seen just finding your first trap.
 
You can see wires just by holding a pressure plate found underground, so yea I don't see why they'd have to change that if wire can be seen just finding your first trap.

To be fair, that requires not holding a weapon in your hand, so you have a window of vulnerability to mobs. It's not much of a drawback, but it does have a drawback.
 
To be fair, that requires not holding a weapon in your hand, so you have a window of vulnerability to mobs. It's not much of a drawback, but it does have a drawback.
It's not a big enough draw back to make it so the grand design has to be made into a hardmode accessory.
 
Two words: Lizhard Temple. That is why the Grand Design should be Hardmode, and post-Golem at that. Because the Lizhard Temple is massively reliant on wired traps - and being pressured by enemies so you don't have time to properly check for said traps - for its challenge, and the Grand Design makes it a joke.
 
I've heard from Ghostar that you could also just carry a wire cutter around.
But then again, Grand design allows sight anytime. and allows you to disarm traps in a single stroke at Any range. and that's what makes me think the Grand Design is too good for the Lihzarhd.

Other than the Lihzarhd, most traps might have been discovered already or won't do peril damage anymore,
Maybe for the explosives, but I find it only a good thing that they're easier to be discovered, right? you don't want to get a sudden suprise by a explosion, right?
 
wire cutters are honestly stronger than gd for disarming lihzard traps because you don't have to actually mouse over them. smart cursor will just indiscriminately eliminate wire while you can quickly scroll over to another weapon.

the small window of vulnerability that comes from holding a trap to see wires doesn't matter if you're taking cave exploration slowly.

lihzard temple wire just shouldn't be able to be cut without something from golem. i'd rather not see it become a world-based thing like biome keys, though. maybe just let you cut lihzard temple wire if there's an item in your inventory that's strong enough to mine lihzard brick.
 
@Agastya Not sure about that (the logic weirds me), but I guess there could be something like a "Lizhard Circuit Breaker" generated with the temple that takes a Picksaw level tool to smash, and you can't cut (maybe even see) wires in the temple until it's broken. That would eliminate my biggest complaint.
 
The tool itself is fine; though I do agree that there is a problem regarding the Lizahrd temple; and I completely agree with @Kefke - Since they made it so that you can't teleport into the temple, or destroy the altar until Golem is defeated, I feel that it is necessary that the traps should not be able to be disarmed until Golem is defeated. Even without the Grand Design (I'm not sure if this has been changed?) - can you not still break the traps with a pickaxe?

I guess there could be something like a "Lizhard Circuit Breaker" generated with the temple that takes a Picksaw level tool to smash, and you can't cut (maybe even see) wires in the temple until it's broken.
Now that's a really good idea! I like that :)
 
Just as an additional point - that goes for breaking the pressure plates on the floor too.
Not much point to that I think, you can always place blocks over/under/beside traps and plates. It's an issue that can't really be fixed.


As for the suggestion, maybe the Mechanical Lens can be linked to the Twins somehow? Lens, souls of sight, and wires? I did find it odd how the Grand Design can be crafted right away, which kinda makes the components redundant.
 
Not sure about that (the logic weirds me), but I guess there could be something like a "Lizhard Circuit Breaker" generated with the temple that takes a Picksaw level tool to smash, and you can't cut (maybe even see) wires in the temple until it's broken. That would eliminate my biggest complaint.
this is a way better idea, yeah. i mean, even the golem's altar could be the circuit breaker if you didn't want to add another block or anything. as long as the altar is in the temple, you can't see the wires in the temple. that way you can just go in and smash the altar and then harvest a bunch of wire and traps and the like

i'm okay with a lot of things as long as we don't have to defeat golem on every new world just to harvest a few traps.
 
defeat golem on every new world just to harvest a few traps.

Fair point; I like the idea of the whole circuit thing revolving around the altar :)
But yeah, a fix to the fact that you can disarm the traps (easily) on your way in is a slight issue.
Maybe, rather than pressure plates, use the new sensors? So that the traps activate based on the fact that you're near them
 
Last edited:
You know, I kind of inclined to agree with this. Making it hardmode that is, not nerfing it. It's not even so much that I think it's too powerful, but it lacks the progression most aspects of the game have. Having just played that part of the game with a new character for the first time since the update, it felt weird that as long as you have 15 gold, you could just buy everything at once and go from no wiring ability, to ultimate wiring ability just like that. Even the four-color wrench... I wouldn't want that to be hardmode only, but it wouldn't be bad if you couldn't make that quite instantly. I'm not quite sure what you could gate that to, Skeletron is basically the last pre-hardmode boss. I guess it could use something else from the dungeon maybe.
 
Grand design is definitely super powerful, and kind of makes traps a joke, but really, other than explosives, and lizhard, traps were already a joke. you can pretty much shake off a regular poison dart by the time you've got 300 health.

I think if you absolutely must move the lens to hardmode, then you should include the ruler in the recipe for the multicolor wrench, just because I like having the ruler effect without having to have it take up an extra slot.

Mechanics lens can be bought in hardmode, or maybe after 1 mech boss.

then... I dunno, make the lizhard temple wires invisible, and unbreakable until you combine the golem eye with the mechanics lens?

not sure how you can fix the whole wire cutter thing...
 
Back
Top Bottom