Dapling
Duke Fishron
I would like to preface this by stating that I do not want to remove damage variance outright, and that is not what this suggestion will be about. Damage variance is one of the oldest parts of this game and I do not expect the developers to make such a radical change to a mechanic this old so late in the game’s lifespan.
Before we get into the issues with damage variance, I would like to explain what it even is. For those that are not aware, all damage numbers in terraria (with some rare exceptions such as Lava) both dealt by enemies and players, are multiplied by a range anywhere from 0.85-1.15, effectively meaning that there is a 15% variance in both directions on every hit.
This mechanic serves to add flavor to the game and some aesthetic appeal for some, and is a mechanic found in several old rpgs which Terraria takes inspiration from. This is why I believe outright removing it would not be a productive route to go down and not one the developers would likely be on board with.
“But what’s the problem here?” You may ask. Well…
So, with all of this in mind, my proposal is to add a toggle in settings, right next to the autofire toggle, which disables Damage Variance. I will now go over a few possible problems this setting might create, and some ways to address them.
“What about multiplayer?”
Thankfully, terraria is coded in such a way where the client manages the damage numbers dealt and taken by its corresponding player and sends these numbers to the other clients! This means that people who have damage variance turned off will deal consistent numbers independently of the people who have damage variance turned on, and players will be able to see the numbers dealt and taken by each other without issue or desync. This means such a setting would require no additional netcode on the devs’ part. I don’t know how PVP damage works, but hopefully it works similarly enough to regular situations that it wouldn’t have any issues.
“Will having this setting enabled or disabled give you an unfair advantage?”
A valid concern, but no, it will not. Damage variance is equally likely to help you as it is to hurt you, which averages out to a an average net zero advantage/disadvantage between having the setting turned off and turned on.
“What about the Luck stat? That affects Damage Variance too!”
This is the most problematic part of this suggestion, but I do have a proposed solution. Because on average, 0.01 luck is a multiplicative 0.05% increase to your total dps, simply make every 0.01 luck increase your damage by a multiplicative 0.05%, reversing this process for negative luck. If you would like luck to remain a purely chance based effect, apply this multiplier to critical strike chance instead.
I will address any other possible issues as they come up in this post’s comments.
TL;DR: Add a toggle for damage variance. This should be done tor accessibility reasons as well as others.
Before we get into the issues with damage variance, I would like to explain what it even is. For those that are not aware, all damage numbers in terraria (with some rare exceptions such as Lava) both dealt by enemies and players, are multiplied by a range anywhere from 0.85-1.15, effectively meaning that there is a 15% variance in both directions on every hit.
This mechanic serves to add flavor to the game and some aesthetic appeal for some, and is a mechanic found in several old rpgs which Terraria takes inspiration from. This is why I believe outright removing it would not be a productive route to go down and not one the developers would likely be on board with.
“But what’s the problem here?” You may ask. Well…
- It makes it more difficult to accurately gauge the effectiveness of damage increases or decreases not present in the tooltip, such as defense on both enemies and players as well as ways to lower these defenses such as Shark Tooth Necklace and Sharpening Station.
- In addition, it also makes it more difficult to tell what your whip tags are actually contributing to your total damage, especially in situations like the Blade Staff which multiplies your tag damage by 0.75, which is present in the tooltip but difficult to actually gauge in practice due to the fact that all of the numbers display differently, unless you do mental math which not everyone is willing or able to do, hindering the game’s accessibility.
- it makes testing with the dps meter highly inconsistent and often a waiting game of rolling a bunch of tests for “peaks” and “valleys” in the number it displays, resulting in most tests either using the “peaks” or just averaging several random numbers, both leading to inaccurate results and possible misinformation unintentionally and dividing the community on weapon viability.
- Especially around the 150-250 enemy damage range, it can cause players to live or die based on pure RNG. If you take a hit that has 200 base damage, there is approximately a 50% chance it will deal less than 200 damage and a 50% chance it will deal more. This means you have a 50/50 chance to have your health either brought to above half or below half and there is basically no way to predict it. Meaning the RNG gods can basically decide if you’ll die in two hits or three and there is nothing you can do about it.
- it obscures the game’s mechanics in a way that prevents bugs from being found sooner. I guarantee you the bugs where Blade Staff could deal extra damage with armor penetration, Sanguine staff was hitting twice as much as it was supposed to, and Raven staff was resetting immunity frames would have been found months if not years sooner had damage variance not muddied the numbers a bit.
So, with all of this in mind, my proposal is to add a toggle in settings, right next to the autofire toggle, which disables Damage Variance. I will now go over a few possible problems this setting might create, and some ways to address them.
“What about multiplayer?”
Thankfully, terraria is coded in such a way where the client manages the damage numbers dealt and taken by its corresponding player and sends these numbers to the other clients! This means that people who have damage variance turned off will deal consistent numbers independently of the people who have damage variance turned on, and players will be able to see the numbers dealt and taken by each other without issue or desync. This means such a setting would require no additional netcode on the devs’ part. I don’t know how PVP damage works, but hopefully it works similarly enough to regular situations that it wouldn’t have any issues.
“Will having this setting enabled or disabled give you an unfair advantage?”
A valid concern, but no, it will not. Damage variance is equally likely to help you as it is to hurt you, which averages out to a an average net zero advantage/disadvantage between having the setting turned off and turned on.
“What about the Luck stat? That affects Damage Variance too!”
This is the most problematic part of this suggestion, but I do have a proposed solution. Because on average, 0.01 luck is a multiplicative 0.05% increase to your total dps, simply make every 0.01 luck increase your damage by a multiplicative 0.05%, reversing this process for negative luck. If you would like luck to remain a purely chance based effect, apply this multiplier to critical strike chance instead.
I will address any other possible issues as they come up in this post’s comments.
TL;DR: Add a toggle for damage variance. This should be done tor accessibility reasons as well as others.