Biomes & Nature Tiny QoL Suggestion Re: Ecto Mist

MaxAstro

MaxAstro

Terrarian
Maybe the "Ecto Mist" crafting requirement could be renamed to "Grave Mist" instead, or something more likely to make the player think "graveyard"?

I spent quite a while scratching my head, thinking "Ecto Mist" was some kind of new crafting station, before having to look it up.
 
I needed to check the wiki to know what it did, it doesn't give any clues as to function either just by looking at it; how does ghostly mist actually manage to somehow alter materials, unless the gimmick is kind of convoluted way of saying players are breaking the rules of nature through the blurry lines of the mortal veil or something. I thought the wizards crystal ball handled natural elements via magic dropper's and things.

Very neat functionality now we know about it, but it really discourages players as-is to use graveyards without more useful things there besides farming ghosts for silver pennies by the lack of information. Knowing what NPC's to settle there when they obviously seem quite upset by it with the NPC happyness system also is a little counter-intuitive, i had my own suggestions on this to have dedicated graveyard NPC's but even so.

Couldn't we smith ancient armor in ecto mist also/instead if its so powerful in linking to the past?
 
FantasticFwoosh said:
I needed to check the wiki to know what it did, it doesn't give any clues as to function either just by looking at it; how does ghostly mist actually manage to somehow alter materials, unless the gimmick is kind of convoluted way of saying players are breaking the rules of nature through the blurry lines of the mortal veil or something. I thought the wizards crystal ball handled natural elements via magic dropper's and things.

Very neat functionality now we know about it, but it really discourages players as-is to use graveyards without more useful things there besides farming ghosts for silver pennies by the lack of information. Knowing what NPC's to settle there when they obviously seem quite upset by it with the NPC happyness system also is a little counter-intuitive, i had my own suggestions on this to have dedicated graveyard NPC's but even so.

Couldn't we smith ancient armor in ecto mist also/instead if its so powerful in linking to the past?
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My guess is that the devs wanted the crafting to work in the graveyard, but there was no biome-specific crafting trigger in the code. Rather than add one in, they used the existing code that keys off of nearby-fluid triggers like needing water for potions or lava and honey for certain crafting benches, and coded in graveyard mist, instead. To my knowledge, unlike liquids, the mist can't be created or contained in anyway other than a graveyard biome, so it is functionally the same as biome-locking the crafting bench.
 
I think the naming is reasonable, despite the fact I was confused just as much as everyone else in this topic.

When was the last time you guys played the game without browsing the wiki? It's alright if you can't remember, me neither.

Exploration is a major feature in Terraria and thus, cryptic and vague descriptions are needlessly common. Terraria is guilty of being one of those wikipedia games in general, that's why it didn't even surprise me, that I had to look up Ecto Mist in the wiki.

As such, I would say, it's not the name wrong, but the lack of ingame information.

Graveyard Mist sounds like a more obvious name, yet it wouldn't say much to Ningishu who just doesn't die in general and haven't experienced a Graveyard naturally forming...
 
Most players know that gravestones are a thing, though, even if they die rarely. At least putting "grave" or "graveyard" in the name might get people thinking in the direction of "maybe I need to be near gravestones?"
 
I remembered when I saw I could make a worn down sign, but I could only create it with ecto mist. I thought that I had to defeat Plantera, but in reality, I really just had to die a couple times. :sigh:
 
My best friend didn't want any spoilers and didn't look at the wiki (sometimes I'd be asked for info instead).

To my surprise, he could not figure out what Ecto Mist meant.

Perhaps ecto isn't that common a word? And since new players are constantly discovering new biomes perhaps they might be too overwhelmed with information and things to do for them to think they can or should create a biome.
 
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