Baconfry
Terrarian
The Player Suggestions section of TCF is well known and well regarded as a hotspot for in-depth game discussion. Everyone who has played any game for an appreciable amount of time will have thought of at least one way that game could be improved, and this is especially true for Terraria, which is one of the most content-dense games in the indie scene.
But while anyone can potentially post a great suggestion regardless of how long they've been playing Terraria or using the forum, as a new user it can feel like you're at a disadvantage compared to veteran users who have been making and replying to all sorts of suggestion threads over many years. And it's true that there's no substitute for experience. However, I thought that the suggestion-making process would be much easier for new users if there were a repository of tips that they could refer to when designing new Terraria content, essentially acting as a condensed version of the knowledge that veteran users have gained since the beginning of TCF (and potentially even before that).
In this thread, I'll be addressing common mistakes, giving advice for making your ideas more compelling, and laying out a foundation for the attitude you'll want to have towards making and improving suggestions. This is not a walkthrough, and not everything I talk about will be relevant to your suggestion specifically. Think of it as a loose overview of Terraria-specific game design and the aspects that popular suggestions tend to have, and an introduction to what you should expect from the Player Suggestions community.
Here is the "short" version if you want a quick overview:
First of all, be aware that this forum is intended for suggestions for vanilla Terraria. The more it seems to fit with content in the rest of the game, the better. Good suggestions directly incorporate and reference things that already exist in Terraria, such as NPCs, crafting materials, and biomes. If your suggestion is a largely self-contained content module consisting of new weapons crafted entirely from new materials obtained from new biomes, dropped by new bosses, or sold by new NPCs, and does not meaningfully interact with existing content, then what you have made is essentially a mod. This doesn't necessarily mean that the ideas are bad, but it does make it unlikely that Relogic themselves will implement them, as they have their own creative vision that you probably don't want to clash with. Many of the tips I'll be providing are intended to help minimize the "moddiness" of your suggestions and therefore maximize the chance that they will be considered. Granted, vanilla Terraria is already somewhat messy and does contain some mod-like content (like golf), it's just that actual mods tend to be even messier.
There are several ways you should approach creating content that seamlessly blends into vanilla Terraria:
CRAFTING RECIPES
THREAD CREATION AND UPKEEP
The effort that you put into making the thread really matters. People are more likely to support suggestions that the creator put a lot of care and thought into. There are several ways for to demonstrate that you really care about your idea:
For the sake of organization, please post one thread for each idea! To reduce clutter and make threads easier to search for, we prefer each thread to be dedicated to the discussion of one main idea. This also means that you should not unnecessarily split one idea into multiple threads. (I have done this in the past, and I shouldn't have.)
Minor suggestions are still valuable. In fact, they have a better chance of being added into Terraria if doing so would be relatively simple. I would recommend starting off with simple, easy suggestions rather than something really ambitious that you may not be able to handle on your own. Even after you've gained some experience, you will still find yourself coming up with relatively small, but valuable ideas. Post them!
The title should describe what the suggestion actually is. Writing a title that simply says "Redigit please" or "An idea I had for the next update" will most likely attract the wrong kind of attention (and the actual suggestion forum rules tell you not to do this). If your suggestion is worth viewing, then a brief description of the most important aspect of the suggestion should be enough to grab people's interest. And it will make it easier for people to search for your thread in the future. If you've ever written a research report or any academic paper before, you know what I'm talking about. Note that if you're suggesting a new item, and it's not obvious what the item does based on its name, then you will want to provide additional information in the title. For example, if Blood Butcherer didn't exist yet and we were suggesting it, we would name our thread "Blood Butcherer: Crimson counterpart to Light's Bane" instead of just "Blood Butcherer".
Read and respond to other suggestions. Not only will you gain a better idea of which elements are frequently found in popular suggestions, but if you can remember which ideas have already been posted, you'll avoid the awkwardness of posting threads that are highly similar to ones made by others. Also, replying to other people's suggestions gives them publicity, which they usually appreciate. If you find an old thread that proposes a good idea that still hasn't been added, go ahead and necro it!
Speaking of which, you should search before you post a thread so you can be sure your idea is not a duplicate. This is listed in the Rules and Guidelines, and you're automatically shown a list of threads with similar titles while you're writing your thread title, but it's best to be thorough since the titles don't tell you everything (sometimes people do write "Redigit please" or "an idea I had for the next update" as their thread title and there isn't much you can do about that). If you find a thread that proposes a similar idea to yours but it's not a complete duplicate, it is better to necro that thread than to make a new one, since the old thread is likely to have a decent amount of discussion on it already, and it really doesn't matter who posts the thread, it only matters how many people see it. That said, if you see an existing thread with the same name but a totally different idea, then don't let that stop you from posting your own thread.
You might notice that there is a WIP tag that you can add to suggestions that are not fully complete when posted. I advise against using the WIP tag. Generally, it is much better to submit your thread in its final form; it will be much more impressive and probably better received. You should take as much time as you need to polish your ideas. Just like how a good game developer won't publish their shoddy pre-alpha build on Steam, a good game designer won't show anyone their barebones design doc either.
You have the option to include a poll. Avoid using the poll as a measure of your thread's popularity. The Like button already fulfills that function. The poll is mostly there for fun, or you can use it to find out the public's opinion on a topic directly related to the topic of your suggestion. Just don't use it as a popularity gauge (or unpopularity gauge) when it can be used for more productive purposes. (I have also done this in the past, and I shouldn't have.)
Try to familiarize yourself with gaming vocabulary. Don’t be afraid to pull up a Google search; everyone starts somewhere, and there's no shame in not knowing what certain words mean yet. Also, you don't have to use these words if you're not comfortable with them; this section is mainly so you know what they mean when you see them.
Respond properly to feedback. Some people might love your suggestion, some people might not. But the good thing is that anyone who disapproves will usually give a reason for their disapproval. (If they don't, please ask them to do so!) Always consider that they may be right, and be open about modifying your suggestion to accommodate their concerns. This is how suggestions improve over time!
Of course, just like how you shouldn't assume that all criticism is wrong, you shouldn't assume that all criticism is right, either. Sometimes you'll receive feedback that you don't agree with. In that case, it'll be your turn to politely but firmly provide your own reasoning as to why your suggestion should remain as is. The question of "how do I know if the other person is right or not" is one that can only be answered with experience, so my advice is just to keep playing the game, reading/making suggestions, and acknowledging that you will sometimes be wrong about something and that is OK. And remember that whether you agree with it or not, criticism of your suggestion is not an attack against you.
If you do decide that some changes to your suggestion are in order, keep in mind that no alerts are given when you publish an edit to the main post. Add a reply to the thread describing the changes you made, and also acknowledging the people who provided feedback (if applicable).
There are also certain guidelines that you should try to follow when posting on the suggestion threads of others.
On a final note: while this forum is the most official way to submit suggestions for Terraria, it is still mostly a fun place to discuss game design, and it's best not to get too emotionally invested in a suggestion (either yours or someone else's). But suggestions do get accepted here, so don't lose hope!
I know this is a long guide, and I appreciate the time that you spent reading it. Good luck with your suggestions, and I'll be seeing you around the forums!
But while anyone can potentially post a great suggestion regardless of how long they've been playing Terraria or using the forum, as a new user it can feel like you're at a disadvantage compared to veteran users who have been making and replying to all sorts of suggestion threads over many years. And it's true that there's no substitute for experience. However, I thought that the suggestion-making process would be much easier for new users if there were a repository of tips that they could refer to when designing new Terraria content, essentially acting as a condensed version of the knowledge that veteran users have gained since the beginning of TCF (and potentially even before that).
In this thread, I'll be addressing common mistakes, giving advice for making your ideas more compelling, and laying out a foundation for the attitude you'll want to have towards making and improving suggestions. This is not a walkthrough, and not everything I talk about will be relevant to your suggestion specifically. Think of it as a loose overview of Terraria-specific game design and the aspects that popular suggestions tend to have, and an introduction to what you should expect from the Player Suggestions community.
Here is the "short" version if you want a quick overview:
GAME DESIGN (general)
-Use existing features and mechanics as guidelines. However, keep in mind that not all existing features are good.
-Try to focus on parts of the game that need improvement.
-Don't punish the player if they didn't do anything wrong. Only punish them a little bit if they did something a little bit wrong.
-The ideal punishment is visible, immediate, and guaranteed.
-If the player asks you "what was I supposed to do in that situation" and you don't have an answer, you shouldn't have put them in that situation.
-The visibility and subjective feel of a game mechanic are just as important as the actual mathematical effect that it has. Ideally, they should match.
-If the player expects something to work a certain way, it should work that way, unless there's a very good reason it shouldn't.
-Respect the player's time. Don't make them wait unnecessarily or repeat old content that no longer interests them.
-NEVER delete the player's progress. Never, ever. Mediumcore and Hardcore exist, but they're unpopular for a reason.
-If there are multiple ways to implement a game mechanic, the simplest one is the best. For example, a new crafting station is simpler than a new NPC.
GAME DESIGN (items)
-An overpowered item is overpowered no matter how rare it is.
-Balancing an item does not mean making it suck.
-Don't worry about the stat numbers, just show that you tried.
-Most items don't need penalties like stat decreases or self debuffs.
-Don't lock things behind Moon Lord for no reason.
-Useful items should not be excessively rare. If it takes more than 1 hour to get, it's too rare.
-Crafting recipes should only include what's necessary, and also make thematic sense.
-Uniqueness is good, but too much uniqueness = favoritism. Many modded items look modded because of this.
-One item should not do too many things at once. The tooltip should be brief and tell the player what to expect.
-Items should not strictly outclass (or be outclassed by) other items in the same tier with similar availability. Everything should have a reason to be used.
-Avoid permanently missable content. Avoid nonrenewable consumable items (Terraria isn't survival horror).
-It's better to buff weak items than to nerf strong items. Nerfs rarely happen unless the item is too strong by a LOT, and they should remain pretty strong even after being nerfed.
THREAD CREATION AND MAINTENANCE
-Show your effort and make it readable. People don't like low-effort threads suggesting high-effort content.
-Don't post suggestions for major new biomes if you can't make artwork. Imagination alone can only take you so far.
-Learning to make sprites is easier than you think. If you can draw, you can sprite.
-Don't post it with a vague title like "an idea I had" or "new weapon suggestion".
-Don’t stick a bunch of unrelated ideas into one thread or split one idea across multiple threads.
-If you're not happy with your idea, don't edit it into something totally different. Make a new thread instead.
-Finish it before you post it. There is no reason to use the WIP tag.
-If you care about receiving likes and replies, you should also provide them to others.
-If people tell you to change something, hear them out. Your critics are not your enemies.
-Be kind to others, and be kind to yourself.
THINGS THAT WON'T HAPPEN
-Remove [item] - this almost never happens. Suggest reworks instead.
-New 5th liquid - not possible due to technical limits.
-Immortalize my deceased pet - there are too many Terraria fans with pets, it's not feasible to do this for everyone who asks. If you are a Relogic affiliate, then maybe.
-Add copyrighted content - indirect references are ok. Official collabs should be proposed by the IP holders, not fans.
-New original effects or tinkers for collab items - only if an equivalent exists in the source material. References must be accurate, or at least plausible.
-Post-Moon Lord bosses and events - Moon Lord will always be the final combat challenge unless Red changes his mind.
-Remove projectiles from melee and make it all "true melee" - you'd have to redesign combat from the ground up or this ruins the class completely. True melee is a challenge, not a playstyle.
-Mechanical Brain of Cthulhu - not an inherently bad idea, but it's been suggested over and over for ages and they're probably not doing it.
-Weapon dyes - they tried, it didn't look good. It's not just the weapon sprite, but projectiles and particles as well that would need to be dyed, which is more effort than it's worth.
-Re-add Ocram and/or old gen console content - console-exclusive content did not meet PC quality standards.
-Bring back throwing class - throwing was never mechanically distinct enough from ranged to justify having its own identity. Also, melee often relies on "thrown" weapons in order to not suck.
-Enemy or event that destroys blocks - sure, on FTW or other troll seeds. Otherwise, do not grief the player's creations.
-Shimmer between Crimson/Corruption items - this would make it too easy. The intended route for obtaining alternate evil items is through the Graveyard biome.
First of all, be aware that this forum is intended for suggestions for vanilla Terraria. The more it seems to fit with content in the rest of the game, the better. Good suggestions directly incorporate and reference things that already exist in Terraria, such as NPCs, crafting materials, and biomes. If your suggestion is a largely self-contained content module consisting of new weapons crafted entirely from new materials obtained from new biomes, dropped by new bosses, or sold by new NPCs, and does not meaningfully interact with existing content, then what you have made is essentially a mod. This doesn't necessarily mean that the ideas are bad, but it does make it unlikely that Relogic themselves will implement them, as they have their own creative vision that you probably don't want to clash with. Many of the tips I'll be providing are intended to help minimize the "moddiness" of your suggestions and therefore maximize the chance that they will be considered. Granted, vanilla Terraria is already somewhat messy and does contain some mod-like content (like golf), it's just that actual mods tend to be even messier.
There are several ways you should approach creating content that seamlessly blends into vanilla Terraria:
CRAFTING RECIPES
You should try to use existing, underused crafting ingredients if possible, but if the situation calls for it, don't be afraid to introduce a new crafting ingredient or two. It is safest to base new crafting ingredients on things that exist in real life, mainstream fiction, or Terraria itself, rather than fantastical materials that you just made up.
The most compelling crafting recipes are the ones that use only what is necessary to place your item in the stage of the game it needs to be. The fewer crafting ingredients you need to use, the better. If there's an ingredient that takes no effort to obtain compared to the others, then it doesn't need to be in the recipe unless it's thematically necessary (for example, Dirt Blocks for a dirt-themed weapon). Which ties into my next point...
Try to keep the crafting ingredients thematically appropriate. Items with a certain theme should be made with ingredients from the biome that fits that theme. Because different biomes are relevant at different stages of the game, this will probably be a delicate balance between balance and theming. Maintaining thematic integrity is one of the main reasons why it is often a good idea to invent new crafting ingredients. Adding thematically unrelated existing ingredients like Ectoplasm or Luminite to the crafting recipe is the clumsiest way to retier an item, and I would never recommend doing this. Doing this with interchangeable materials like Shadow Scales or Tissue Samples and Adamantite or Titanium Bars is even worse because it is extremely unlikely that the item will have a thematic connection with both ingredients. Instead, rework the original concept of the weapon so it fits the materials better, or don't make it craftable at all and make it a shop item or enemy drop instead. And yes, the game itself sometimes breaks this rule, but that doesn't mean that it should be done that way.
Terraria rarely uses existing weapons as crafting ingredients for other weapons, and does so only when the crafted weapon makes the ingredient weapon obsolete. Weapons that are a combination of multiple other weapons (Night's Edge, Terra Blade, and Zenith) have always held a special iconic status in Terraria, so you should not suggest a combined mega-weapon unless you intend for it to be just as iconic as the three existing ones.
Terraria does not use accessories, armor pieces, or weapons as crafting ingredients for anything other than accessories, armor pieces, or weapons, respectively. Any combined item should retain most/all of the functions of whatever was used to create it. There are a few exceptions to the first rule (the Diving Helmet and some informational accessories), but they still abide by the second rule.
Terraria players prefer when items and their crafting materials are not too rare. Any useful item should not take more than around 30-45 minutes to obtain under ideal conditions. This is especially the case when the item is obtained from an activity that otherwise does not provide anything useful.
If you introduce a renewable and fairly common resource, you should also introduce recipes for consumable items (ammunition, buff potions, building materials) that utilize that resource. If the resource is rare or not renewable, you should not. In adventure/sandbox games like Terraria, it is better for resources to be renewable. If your item is rare but you want to give the player something to do with duplicates, consider making it an ingredient for a buff-granting furniture item.
GAME MECHANICSI am aware that most of us are gamers, not programmers. (Though you definitely should pick up a language like C# or Python if you want to be a professional game designer.) Even if you aren't a programmer, if you play the game often and have a lot of hours clocked, and if you've been studying the changelogs throughout Terraria's version history, you should have some idea of what is realistic and what is not. For instance, "pocket dimensions" or "capturing and controlling enemies" may sound like cool concepts, but would require too much work to realistically add. This might be the most difficult thing to explain to someone with no experience, but it's very important; content will only be added if it can be added. But don't worry about it too much. Aside from things that could be the core mechanic of an entirely different game, most of the suggestions I see in this forum are technically possible to implement, and requiring a nonzero amount of development time is, in itself, not a valid reason to reject an idea.
What you need to be aware of is that the value added by an idea may not be worth the effort required. For example, let's say you have an idea for a minion that copies enemies. Which sounds cool, until you realize that this is a suggestion for a weapon that must be able to spawn hundreds of different minions, each of which requires its own unique behavior script, and also would need custom balance changes on a case-by-case basis in order to not suck. This would be an entire update's worth of content for one weapon. Not happening!
Content should at least be functional in multiplayer mode even if it is designed for singleplayer mode. References can only be made to "a player", not "the player". If you cannot think of a way to make it work in multiplayer, that's fine, but you should acknowledge it in your main post, and other members might be able to figure out a workaround (which, assuming "all players" doesn't work, will probably just be replacing the reference to "the player" with a reference to "nearest player" or "first player to do X"). On the flip side, it doesn't feel great when content that's designed for multiplayer mode does literally nothing in singleplayer mode, so avoid that if possible. As a good example from vanilla, the Paladin's Shield has a multiplayer-only effect, but it's still useful in singleplayer because of its 6 defense and ability to be combined with the Frozen Turtle Shell.
In-depth familiarity with the game is extremely helpful for judging what can be implemented and what cannot. People who post here are generally expected to know somewhat obscure details, such as how piercing damage works. This knowledge will also help you defend/improve your ideas as you receive feedback. If you're not sure how something works, you can always look it up. (I will explain some things, including piercing damage, later.)
As demonstrated by the heavy limitations on the existing "Confused" debuff, messing with monster AI movement is tougher than it may seem. If you are thinking of having a weapon slow down enemies as part of its secondary effect, consider using additional projectiles and/or existing knockback mechanics to accomplish the same thing. As of the current version, no weapon inflicts the Slow or Frozen debuffs on its targets. Some mods have successfully implemented their own versions of these debuffs, so this advice may soon become outdated, but at least keep in mind that you cannot copy and paste player-only debuffs like Electrified and Bleeding onto enemies and expect them to work.
Think twice before you add a right-click attack mode to your weapon! This feature immediately makes a weapon feel like an out-of-place special snowflake, which makes sense because all the weapons that do this are not originally from Terraria. If you have an idea for two separate weapons, then either suggest two separate weapons, or make the weapon do both attack styles at once like the Phantom Phoenix or Vortex Beater. (If the alternate mode is not a separately viable attack, for example a parry or camera panning effect, then it's probably fine as a right-click.)
Most damage-over-time debuffs are completely inconsequential. Frostburn, On Fire, Poison, Acid Venom, and Cursed Inferno all contribute very little to a weapon's DPS, especially lategame. Try to come up with more creative secondary effects, and definitely don't invent new DoT debuffs that do basically the same thing. You can still add burning or poison debuffs to your weapon, but it won't be an important balance consideration.
Biomes with complex structures must be created during world generation. You should not insert new biomes in the middle of a playthrough, as that runs the risk of destroying player-made structures. Meteorite biomes are a well-known exception to this, but they're also a relic from older Terraria versions and probably wouldn't work like that if they had been introduced in modern Terraria. If an endgame biome exists at the start of the game, you'll need to think of a way to keep players out (hopefully one that doesn't involve oneshotting them with a giant spinning head).
GAME BALANCE
Part of Terraria's appeal is the large variety of viable weapons and other equipment available to the player at each stage. Introducing new equipment that greatly outclasses everything else in its tier reduces the variety of equipment that the player is likely to use; rather than making the game better, this makes it worse. To be clear, newly obtained items SHOULD outclass items that were obtained earlier in progression, and it would be a problem if they didn't! It's when they also outclass most items at the same point of progression that things might need to be adjusted. (For example, True Excalibur should be stronger than Frostbrand, weaker than The Horseman's Blade, and about the same as True Night's Edge.) In all likelihood, you probably already know that suggestions for blatantly overpowered items tend to not be very popular, but it's good to think about why stuff like that is bad from a game design standpoint.
You can propose really strong items, it's just that they'll have to be made available later in the game to compensate. You can change a weapon's stats to fit into any progression tier you want; the best tier for a weapon is usually a tier where there aren't any weapons that are similar to it. I don't recommend making post-Moon Lord items because you want to give the player time to actually use them.
As you can see, the topic of "tiers" comes up a lot, and you'll often see people talking about how a piece of equipment matches up with everything else in its "tier". What they mean by that is, how does it compare to the other equipment that becomes available at the same time? Tiers are decided by boss kill order, so when you're trying to make something balanced, try to compare your content to another piece of existing equipment that's obtainable at the same stage of the game. For the sake of convenience, I will roughly list the tiers that most people should acknowledge, in order of increasing power. If applicable, I'll also include a common crafting ingredient/item source from that tier, but keep in mind what I said earlier about how you shouldn't add thematically unrelated materials for the sole purpose of retiering.
- Pre-hardmode, no bosses defeated. (Copper-Platinum Bars, gems, Sturdy Fossils, Jungle Spores)
- Pre-hardmode, Skeletron/Queen Bee/Brain of Cthulhu/Eater of Worlds has been defeated. (Bones, Meteorite Bars, Hellstone Bars, Witch Doctor NPC)
- Hardmode, no mechanical bosses have been defeated. (Cobalt-Titanium Bars, Souls of Light, Souls of Night, Frost Core, Forbidden Fragment)
- One mechanical boss has been defeated. (Hallowed Bars, Steampunker NPC)
- Three mechanical bosses have been defeated. (Chlorophyte, Souls of Fright+Sight+Might)
- Plantera and Golem have been defeated. Items that drop from the final versions of the Dungeon and Solar Eclipse also belong in this tier. (Ectoplasm, Cyborg, Princess NPC)
- Difficult events that can only be triggered after Plantera/Golem have been defeated. Includes Pumpkin Moon, Betsy, Martian Madness, Frost Moon, and Duke Fishron. (Duke Fishron can technically be fought earlier, but the community has already gotten used to him being a progression skip and it's too late to change his placement now.)
- Everything obtainable after you kill the Cultists at the dungeon entrance, but before defeating Moon Lord. (Ancient Manipulator, pillar fragments)
- Moon Lord drops and items crafted with Luminite.
- Nothing past this point really matters since the final boss is already dead. This is the only "tier" where it is acceptable to introduce extremely overpowered items like Zenith. I only recommend putting items in this tier if they are overpowered by design (for example, Rod of Harmony).
While you should avoid introducing overpowered content, you shouldn't be afraid to make your suggested content useful and reasonably powerful. Balancing something does not mean making it suck! It should be tempting enough to be worth considering for at least some situations. If something is too gimmicky to be practical, it will not be received well, and if you're too zealous in trying to make your content not overpowered, it can backfire. This is actually a more common mistake to make! If it's not immediately obvious that something is overpowered, then do not preemptively nerf it.
There are several ways to balance equipment that most would consider overpowered. Making it extremely rare is NOT a proper way to achieve balance. You either have the item, or you don't. An overpowered weapon with a 1 in 10,000 drop chance will still ruin the game balance for the one person who gets it, and for everyone else, it does not impact the game at all. Or worse yet, knowing that the item exists might encourage them to spend countless hours grinding monsters, halting progress and sucking the fun out of their game. Including this kind of content would reward players for luck rather than knowledge or skill, and is therefore heavily discouraged. If you still want to suggest an ultra-rare item, it should ideally be a cosmetic or joke item. In terms of obtainment, the Terraprisma is an example of a special item done well, and the Rod of Discord is an example of a special item done poorly.
Likewise (and this is not necessarily related to equipment balance, but it felt like a good time to bring it up), you cannot balance a horrible thing happening to the player by making it extremely unlikely. Any bad thing that happens to the player should always be their own fault, and should occur immediately with a high probability so that they can mentally associate the punishment with whatever you were trying to punish. (The now-removed game mechanic where breaking an Altar caused random infection in your world broke ALL of these rules!)
Balancing a weapon also does not mean making it heavily polarized, as the word "balance" suggests. Measures such as extremely slow speed, extremely short range, extremely high mana cost, health sacrifice, or self-inflicted debuffs should be avoided unless you're absolutely sure that they're uniquely deserved and thematically appropriate. Identify what makes the item potentially overpowered, and tone it down to a reasonable level without destroying its appeal altogether. Sometimes the best way to implement a weakness is simply to not give it a certain strength. You might have noticed that none of the worst items in the game are the worst because they directly harm the player, and even the items that do inflict self-debuffs (Rod of Discord, Brain of Confusion, and healing potions) have their negative effects limited to their own usage. Note that some other games do attach significant penalties to many of their items to counteract their strengths; this can be valid design, but it's not how Terraria does it.
Balancing tips apply to enemies, too. New enemies should be compared to existing enemies that you might encounter at that stage of the game, and the base damage of weapons should likewise be balanced against the defense of enemies you'd use them against. Don't worry about being precise with stats and numbers; the people who reply should help you come to a decision on what would be fair, and the specific numbers are probably the least important part of any suggestion.
That said, if you are going to put numbers in your suggestion, it does look better if you get the values roughly correct the first time. Here are some tips that may help:
- Base damage mainly determines how much the weapon is affected by defense. The fraction of DPS lost to defense is (enemy defense ÷ 2) / (final weapon damage after bonuses). You don't want this to be more than 50% or so.
- You can assume that the average pre-Hardmode enemy has around 5-10 defense and the average Hardmode enemy has around 20-25 defense. Keep in mind that lategame bosses will have a lot more defense, up to 50-70 at the very end.
- Faster weapons (or weapons that deal many individual hits per use) with lower base damage are more negatively affected by defense, and more positively affected by armor penetration, Ichor, ammo damage, and whip tags if applicable.
- Slower weapons with higher base damage are less affected by defense, but are also harder to aim (due to the lack of visual feedback), worse at disrupting enemies, and prone to wasting DPS on non-boss enemies due to overkill damage.
- Critical hits are not luck-based. The player deals damage so rapidly that crits can be considered a consistent DPS increase, and also a knockback increase to some extent.
- If your weapon is piercing with static immunity (or global, god forbid), then its DPS is capped at base damage x 6. If this is not what you want but you still need it to be piercing, then specify that it uses local immunity. Or specify that it inflicts shorter static iframes, if you want the DPS to be capped but also want it to be more than 6x.
- Knockback doesn't matter that much. There are basically three categories to worry about: zero knockback, normal knockback, and detrimentally high knockback. The later you are in progression, the less it matters.
- All Hardmode melee weapons have high knockback thanks to the Titan Glove.
- No ranged weapons that use standard ammo have truly zero knockback because all ammo has a knockback value.
- Minions can't be balanced around the assumption that they'll have zero knockback because food buffs increase minion knockback.
- If you're suffering from writer's block because you don't know what value to put for use time, mana cost, velocity, or knockback, just mention whether the value will be relatively high or low. No one really cares what specific number is used for these stats anyway.
- Close-ranged weapons should have better stats as compensation for the increased risk.
- DPS is less important for weapons that are designed for mob clearing, since non-boss enemies usually get stunlocked and die soon after you start attacking them, and only pose a threat if they get the first hit on you. Accuracy is more important for these weapons.
- Don't worry about PvP balance. Unregulated PvP has been dead and buried since 1.3.
- Effects that trigger when an enemy hits the player tend to be weak when they are offensive (e.g. Thorns), and strong when they are defensive (e.g. Cross Necklace). Remember, a character has at most 600 health while bosses have tens of thousands, so "equal" numerical trades are actually unfavorable.
- Effects that trigger when the player hits an enemy are essentially active at all times, so this is not a meaningful activation condition.
See if you can be creative. Terraria is a famously silly game, and when browsing through suggestions, people are less likely to support a generic-looking gun and more likely to support a potato-shaped gun named "Loaded Baked Potato", even if they work exactly the same. This is not an absolute rule, of course. Not all Terraria content is silly, and not every suggestion needs to be silly. But if you think you can add a bit of harmless surrealism or dad humor, your idea will probably be better received for it.
Focus on parts of the game that are missing something. Remember, suggestions should be made with the intent to make the game better and not just bigger. If you're introducing a new item, try to place it at a progression tier where there are no similar items that will potentially overlap with it, and try to make it available from a biome that needs more content for that tier. If possible, assign it to a class that is relatively weak for that stage (most of the time, this is magic).
Do not propose suggestions for major new biomes that require a lot of artwork unless you can make that artwork yourself. There is no actual rule against this, but this guide isn't about how to follow the rules, it's about how to make suggestions that people will support. The reality is that you cannot ask people to visualize something as vast as a new biome without giving them something to look at. Putting in the actual effort to make artwork is the most effective way to prove that you are not just an Idea Guy, and artwork is the main reason why the most popular suggestions of all time are as popular as they are.
Be cautious when suggesting things that will make part of the game easier or harder. For the latter, consider making it an Expert mode-exclusive suggestion, or even FTW seed-exclusive if it's really obnoxious (in a funny way). For the former, you might consider asking around in General Talk or the Terraria Discord to see if people share your opinion, but requesting for a fight to be easier will often be a tough sell. That said, people will disagree endlessly about whether certain fights are too easy or too hard, but they will always agree that enemy attacks should be reactable and fair. It is always safe to propose the removal of fake difficulty in the form of offscreen attacks or excessive projectile spam.
Terraria players have a very wide range of skill levels and experience, and there are millions of them who all have their own reasons for enjoying the game, so there's a lot of pressure for Re-Logic to release updates that will be well-received by all. If an idea is likely to influence the game in ways that some will like and others will dislike, it may be more appropriate to propose it as a special world seed or a toggleable setting. Make sure that the default setting is the one that a sane person would want!
Also, never assume that people will use any specific new or existing feature. I often see people say things like "just favorite your items" or "just fish" or "just shimmer it" or "just farm dozens of fire imp banners" to justify why some terrible game mechanic (existing or not) is actually totally okay. No optional feature should ever feel mandatory, especially if it's not highly visible.
THREAD CREATION AND UPKEEP
The effort that you put into making the thread really matters. People are more likely to support suggestions that the creator put a lot of care and thought into. There are several ways for to demonstrate that you really care about your idea:
Try to format the thread for readability the best you can. Break up your paragraphs, and use bullet points when appropriate. Wall of Text is a forum user's least favorite boss!
Type out your sentences properly. Make it look official. If English isn't your native language, just do your best and people will respect your efforts. (Also, props to you for getting this far!)
If you can make pixel art, consider illustrating your thread with sprites if your idea calls for it. Even concept art drawn by hand or with MS Paint can be used if you think it will help. (If you draw by hand, I recommend the free mobile app Genius Scan for scanning clean images of your drawings.) If you want sprites, you can also recruit the help of the spriting community, some of whom might be willing to take requests. If you're interested in joining the spriting community yourself, this guide can help you get started. You may not think of yourself as a spriter, but neither did I until I started doing it. If you are proficient at traditional art, you should learn pixel art fairly quickly.
SPRITING TIPS
-GIMP is free and pretty good. I've heard good things about Aseprite. Photoshop is expensive and less user-friendly than GIMP.
-Draw with single pixels and scale up 2x at the end. Set interpolation to none.
-When you're done, crop to selection and export as PNG.
-Sprite size should be comparable to existing Terraria sprites.
-Use a transparent background. In GIMP, you have to add an alpha channel, then delete the colored background.
-No black outlines, just darkened ones.
-Always add orange when darkening yellows.
-Use dithering (checkerboard pattern) for better color transitions.
-Eyedropper, select by color, and ctrl+Z cover about 90% of what you need besides the pencil tool.
For the sake of organization, please post one thread for each idea! To reduce clutter and make threads easier to search for, we prefer each thread to be dedicated to the discussion of one main idea. This also means that you should not unnecessarily split one idea into multiple threads. (I have done this in the past, and I shouldn't have.)
Minor suggestions are still valuable. In fact, they have a better chance of being added into Terraria if doing so would be relatively simple. I would recommend starting off with simple, easy suggestions rather than something really ambitious that you may not be able to handle on your own. Even after you've gained some experience, you will still find yourself coming up with relatively small, but valuable ideas. Post them!
The title should describe what the suggestion actually is. Writing a title that simply says "Redigit please" or "An idea I had for the next update" will most likely attract the wrong kind of attention (and the actual suggestion forum rules tell you not to do this). If your suggestion is worth viewing, then a brief description of the most important aspect of the suggestion should be enough to grab people's interest. And it will make it easier for people to search for your thread in the future. If you've ever written a research report or any academic paper before, you know what I'm talking about. Note that if you're suggesting a new item, and it's not obvious what the item does based on its name, then you will want to provide additional information in the title. For example, if Blood Butcherer didn't exist yet and we were suggesting it, we would name our thread "Blood Butcherer: Crimson counterpart to Light's Bane" instead of just "Blood Butcherer".
Read and respond to other suggestions. Not only will you gain a better idea of which elements are frequently found in popular suggestions, but if you can remember which ideas have already been posted, you'll avoid the awkwardness of posting threads that are highly similar to ones made by others. Also, replying to other people's suggestions gives them publicity, which they usually appreciate. If you find an old thread that proposes a good idea that still hasn't been added, go ahead and necro it!
Speaking of which, you should search before you post a thread so you can be sure your idea is not a duplicate. This is listed in the Rules and Guidelines, and you're automatically shown a list of threads with similar titles while you're writing your thread title, but it's best to be thorough since the titles don't tell you everything (sometimes people do write "Redigit please" or "an idea I had for the next update" as their thread title and there isn't much you can do about that). If you find a thread that proposes a similar idea to yours but it's not a complete duplicate, it is better to necro that thread than to make a new one, since the old thread is likely to have a decent amount of discussion on it already, and it really doesn't matter who posts the thread, it only matters how many people see it. That said, if you see an existing thread with the same name but a totally different idea, then don't let that stop you from posting your own thread.
You might notice that there is a WIP tag that you can add to suggestions that are not fully complete when posted. I advise against using the WIP tag. Generally, it is much better to submit your thread in its final form; it will be much more impressive and probably better received. You should take as much time as you need to polish your ideas. Just like how a good game developer won't publish their shoddy pre-alpha build on Steam, a good game designer won't show anyone their barebones design doc either.
You have the option to include a poll. Avoid using the poll as a measure of your thread's popularity. The Like button already fulfills that function. The poll is mostly there for fun, or you can use it to find out the public's opinion on a topic directly related to the topic of your suggestion. Just don't use it as a popularity gauge (or unpopularity gauge) when it can be used for more productive purposes. (I have also done this in the past, and I shouldn't have.)
Try to familiarize yourself with gaming vocabulary. Don’t be afraid to pull up a Google search; everyone starts somewhere, and there's no shame in not knowing what certain words mean yet. Also, you don't have to use these words if you're not comfortable with them; this section is mainly so you know what they mean when you see them.
aggro - enemy aggression range/targeting priority. essentially a multiplayer-exclusive game mechanic
kite - to fight an enemy by moving in a single direction while it chases you (therefore dragging it behind you like a kite)
mobs - non-boss enemies
proc - to activate (a conditional effect)
tilt - to get frustrated after making one mistake during gameplay, leading to more mistakes
beefgate - to keep the player out of a location by blocking them with unusually strong enemies
noclip - to pass through solid objects
AoE - area of effect
DPS - damage per second. frequently discussed in only a relative sense, as shorthand for "overall damage output". specific numbers are usually meaningless unless referring to
DoT - damage over time (dealt by debuffs)
hitscan - instant hit at cursor location with no delay. game engine users might know this as "raycast"
telefrag - to teleport directly on top of the player and damage them instantly
opportunity cost - when the drawback of an item is simply not being able to use a different item instead
fake difficulty - any "challenging" game mechanic where 1) there is no counterplay or 2) the counterplay is stupid and not fun
QoL - quality of life. anything that makes the player's life easier without making them stronger, providing/saving resources, or changing their decision making. a common theme of QoL is reducing time spent on tedious activities where you don't use your brain
optional - everything outside of core progression which consists of Skeletron, Wall of Flesh, mechanical bosses, Plantera, Golem, Lunatic Cultist, and Moon Lord
renewable - obtainable in theoretically infinite quantities within a single world
consumable - any item that is spent after being used (not just items that you literally eat)
walls - background walls. It is preferred that you refer to them as "background walls", and solid blocks as "blocks" to avoid confusion
velocity - how fast a projectile travels. not to be confused with speed, which can refer to either movement speed or weapon attack speed (aka useTime)
iframe - immunity frame/invincibility frame. temporarily granted upon taking damage. enemy iframes last 0.17 seconds, are only triggered by piercing attacks, and only affect piercing attacks
pierce - the projectile does not disappear after dealing damage once. technically, all enemy attacks are piercing, so there is no need to specify that an enemy's attacks pierce
local immunity frame - the projectile pierces, but does not make the enemy immune to other piercing projectiles, only itself
static immunity frame - the projectile pierces, and makes the enemy immune to other projectiles of the same type (internal ID)
global immunity frame - the projectile pierces, and makes the enemy immune to any kind of piercing projectile <-- BAD design, no longer used for new items
DR - damage reduction (percentage based). for example, Worm Scarf. coincidentally, DR is also the name of the studio behind the mobile version
EoC, EoW, BoC, WoF, EoL, ML - abbreviated boss names. Eye, Eater, Brain, Wall, Empress, Moon Lord
RoD - Rod of Discord
DCU - Drill Containment Unit
CAR - Clockwork Assault Rifle
SotC - Scourge of the Corruptor
VK - Valhalla Knight or Vampire Knives (context sensitive)
FTW - For the Worthy secret seed
DDU - Don't Dig Up secret seed
GFB - Get Fixed Boi secret seed
If I had a nickel for every Terraria item called "VK" that gave broken levels of health regeneration, I would have two nickels
These are the most commonly understood abbreviations. Do not overuse acronyms; if you start talking about CS or FB with no context, no one is going to understand what you're talking about, and even with context, anyone reading will be briefly confused and have to backtrack to see what the acronym is referring to. Personally, I'd always just type out the full name of the item to avoid confusing people. Time to learn how to spell Baghnakhs!
Respond properly to feedback. Some people might love your suggestion, some people might not. But the good thing is that anyone who disapproves will usually give a reason for their disapproval. (If they don't, please ask them to do so!) Always consider that they may be right, and be open about modifying your suggestion to accommodate their concerns. This is how suggestions improve over time!
Of course, just like how you shouldn't assume that all criticism is wrong, you shouldn't assume that all criticism is right, either. Sometimes you'll receive feedback that you don't agree with. In that case, it'll be your turn to politely but firmly provide your own reasoning as to why your suggestion should remain as is. The question of "how do I know if the other person is right or not" is one that can only be answered with experience, so my advice is just to keep playing the game, reading/making suggestions, and acknowledging that you will sometimes be wrong about something and that is OK. And remember that whether you agree with it or not, criticism of your suggestion is not an attack against you.
If you do decide that some changes to your suggestion are in order, keep in mind that no alerts are given when you publish an edit to the main post. Add a reply to the thread describing the changes you made, and also acknowledging the people who provided feedback (if applicable).
There are also certain guidelines that you should try to follow when posting on the suggestion threads of others.
If you like the idea, then you should like the post. This is very simple, and recommended for at least one good reason: If the thread creator gets an alert that tells them that someone quoted their post, they will probably be on the defensive unless you also leave them a like. (After all, a quote with no like is what people usually do when they disagree.) Plus, the thread creator might be puzzled if you voice your approval without liking the main post.
And if you're replying to a thread you don't agree with, don't say "no support". There is no goodwill to be gained by saying this. If you don't support an idea in its current state, then it will be obvious from the rest of your reply as you explain exactly what it is about the idea that bothers you, and if applicable, what the thread creator could do to address your concern. Explaining what's wrong with an idea already implies "no support"; directly saying the words is akin to passing premature judgement before the thread creator can incorporate your feedback, and could be seen as unnecessarily inflammatory. This is a social forum, and it's in your best interest in the long run to try to make some friends.
You should try to reply when possible. Especially on straightforward suggestion threads that most people would agree with, liking the main post without replying is a common thing to see. There is nothing wrong with doing this, of course! But keep in mind that replying to a thread gives the thread attention, which is the best gift you can bestow upon a suggestion, especially if it's clearly the thread creator's labor of love. If you can think of a meaningful way to contribute to the discussion of an idea you support, I highly encourage you to do so. To me, a reply is much better than a like because it shows that someone cared enough about my idea to think deeply about it.
On a final note: while this forum is the most official way to submit suggestions for Terraria, it is still mostly a fun place to discuss game design, and it's best not to get too emotionally invested in a suggestion (either yours or someone else's). But suggestions do get accepted here, so don't lose hope!
I know this is a long guide, and I appreciate the time that you spent reading it. Good luck with your suggestions, and I'll be seeing you around the forums!
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