Good day, Terrarians!
We cannot help but to be really excited about the ongoing work – and that we are finally able to share it with you! So, without further ado, we are sharing a handful of plans with you today:
- Old Generation Consoles (PS3/Xbox 360/PS Vita)
- Changing of the Guard
- Current Generation Consoles (PS4/Xbox One)
- Mobile
- Engine Software is currently working on an update that will be focused on clearing out the most impactful bugs that our QA and/or Re-Logic QA have been able to uncover - along with keeping close track with anything that the Community has raised. This will encompass over 100 fixes in total. If you have any major items in particular that you would like to inquire about, please let us know.
- This update will unfortunately be the final update for PS3, XB360, and PS Vita
- Targeted release timeframe is September 2016
- The great news is that you can continue to play these versions of Terraria (both online and offline) as a fully functioning – and still incredibly fun – game.
- No further updates will be coming for old gen
- Current-Gen consoles (XB1, PS4) will continue to receive updates (more on that below)
- Future updates to current-gen platforms will unfortunatelty make cross-play with old-gen platforms impossible
Why are we no longer providing updates for old-gen?
- Simply put, these consoles are 12 years old at this point, and we are running into hardware requirement issues (as some of you saw with Vita): as Terraria has grown over the years, its hardware demands have as well – with 1.3 being a sizeable jumping-off point. This also means that we would likely have to substantially "hold back" current gen possibilities in order to make things work with the "lowest common denominator."
- So, that being the case and in order to continue to give all users the best Terraria experience, we needed to draw a line here that allows old gen players to have a stable and authentic game experience – even if that means being stopped at 1.2.4 tier content – while also enabling current gen consoles to fully leverage their more current hardware.
- We explored a few possible approaches to make 1.3 work, but – to be frank – none of them were really acceptable. They required too much in the way of compromising the Terraria console gameplay experience and still left some lingering stability concerns, all while drawing in a rather large amount of resources to make it work at all – resources that we ultimately feel would be better used to push Terraria forward further and faster.
How are we making the transition easier for our users?
- You will be able to upload your worlds from old-gen platforms and transfer them to current-gen – we have been focusing heavily on cross-saves over the past few months and will continue to do so in order to be 100% certain that this is functional for everyone.
- We are working with Sony and Microsoft to help make the transition as smooth as possible for current owners – keep an eye out for some exciting promotions!
As this is a major milestone in the journey of Terraria on Console and Mobile, we took a step back and evaluated everything that we had currently going on as well as available resources. To that end, we are making a shift in the development teams moving forward. We thank Engine and Codeglue for all of their contributions to bringing Terraria to a wider community but we’ve made the decision to bring all development in-house under one roof with Pipeworks. So say a big thank you to them both, and a give a warm welcome to Pipeworks!
Engine will remain on board until the final Old Gen Console Update is complete, while CodeGlue will remain on board until sometime in Q3, as they continue their work on stabilizing the mobile codebase. CodeGlue will also remain on board for any future 3DS updates.
Meeting Pipeworks: Our new Console and Mobile Development Team
That said, let’s meet the new team shall we? Taking over the mantle of Terraria development on Console and Mobile will be Pipeworks Studio out of Eugene, Oregon! Here is a bit about Pipeworks and why they were such a good fit for this project:
- They are a part of the Digital Bros. group (of which 505 Games is as well) – so this is an opportunity to bring Terraria “in house”
- Since the reforms in QA, our current Console (and future Mobile) QA team is located at Pipeworks as well – this means that the QA team and the dev team will sit side-by-side, and that makes for some massive gains in efficiency of finding and squashing issues!
- The team dedicated to Terraria at Pipeworks are MASSIVE Terraria fans. Each of the team members are well-versed veterans of the franchise on PC and beyond – logging hundreds of hours of play over time. They are also immensely passionate about this project and making this amazing.
Continuing with our theme of this being a key milestone and thus a chance for a fresh start, Pipeworks is hard at work on two huge undertakings:
Console Reset
- PW is currently rebuilding the entire Console Terraria experience from the ground up.
- The foundation/standard being utilized is the current Terraria PC codebase, which should ultimately mean:
- Integration of the PC Controller support style
- A more seamless/authentic experience - when you play one version or the other, they should feel quite similar if not exactly the same!
- Shortened update “gaps” and a cleaner, more stable experience
- And more!
- There are other potential benefits to this Reset that the team is actively exploring and discussing, but we will save those for sharing when we know more/are more certain if/when any of that will be possible.
Clarification on Reset
There has been significant confusion about the reset, so to clarify, the intentions of ReLogic and Pipeworks is to be able to seamlessly integrate old worlds and player files into the new codebase for Console Terraria. This is not expected to delete your old saves, its merely a rewrite of the game's code, so your progress should be safe!
Terraria 1.3 on Current Gen Consoles!!!
*For the most recent news on the timing of the console 1.3 update, read this more recent post: An Update on Timing.
- Our next update for current gen is the long-awaited MASSIVE Terraria 1.3 update - which includes a ton of new content. When it arrives, it will include both the reset discussed above AND be current up to at least PC 1.3 standard. For those of you whom are for some reason unaware of what all 1.3 brings to the table, here is just a small sampling:
- Endgame Celestial Invasion Event & Moonlord final boss encounter
- Brutally difficult Expert Mode – where fortune and glory - and unique loot - await those brave enough.
- Over 800 new items, bringing the total count to well over 3500!
- Numerous player quality of life upgrades
- Original Changelog for PC is located here: http://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads/1-3-changelog.20617/
We know that everyone has been dying for this content to arrive on Console for some time, and we are beyond thrilled to finally announce that it is well underway.
The timing of these two projects will overlap – meaning that Current Gen Console players will get both the Reset AND Terraria 1.3 at the same time! Of course, that leads to the obvious question: When?
Our current target delivery for the Reset+1.3 is Q2 2017. All of this will be absolutely free to existing Current Gen Console Terraria owners (Old Gen players will have to purchase a Current Gen copy).
We – and Pipeworks – plan to share progress and spoilers along the way. We are even looking into more interactive ways to allow you all to share in the journey with us. So, stay tuned and look forward to that! In the meantime, let’s whet your appetite with a quick screen of the current actively-running build of Console Terraria:
So, that just leaves our good friends the Mobile Terrarians. What do we have in store for you guys?
As you saw above, we are changing our Mobile development team over to Pipeworks as well. As with Console, Pipeworks is working to redesign and rebuild the Terraria Mobile experience. This eventual Mobile Reset will include Terraria 1.3 as well!
In parallel, CodeGlue will continue their efforts to stabilize the existing Terraria mobile game. This will be critically important even with the Mobile Reset, because there will likely be older devices (less RAM, etc) that cannot run Mobile 1.3, and we want to leave players with those older devices with as stable and solid a Terraria experience as we can.
Key things to know:
- Timing is planned to be “around the time of” the Console Reset – but likely will come after it by at least a few months. As we know more, we will share it.
- As with Console, we will share our plans and progress and journey with you!
- We are aware of other features desired by the community (online multiplayer, UI redesign, rebalancing, etc), and those will absolutely be discussed in our planning. As we know more there, we will fill you in – hopefully, we can cover off at least some of these in the reset!
- As always, the updates (and the reset) will be free to current owners of Terraria on Mobile.
Whew, well that’s all we have for today – it was a lot to write and probably even more for you guys to take in. We are beyond thrilled to be able to share all of this with you and equally excited for what this means for the future of the franchise is a massive understatement. We truly feel that we have found a way here to spend the time and money needed to accomplish our – and Re-Logic’s – goal of providing the best Terraria experience possible to as many people as possible. This is something that we look forward to continue providing to you all for years to come.
Here’s to the journey ahead!
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm sure everyone is glad for the update! 
