Game Mechanics [Tobbvald's Tinkering] Difficulty Options

Tovlyn

Skeletron Prime
Introduction

This could be either the simplest or the most complex part as of yet, depending on what you want it to be. The idea of customzied difficulty is something I have questioned the lack of since I began playing, at one time because I found it too hard, and now I wish for it for the completely opposite reason. One thing is the same though, and that is that Difficulty in this game is very unbalanced for more experienced players contra newcomers. This issue of Tobbvald's Tinkering is out to try and set this right for both parties. Disclaimer: This particular thread will feature a lot of text with few sprites, since the topic is purely mechanic-wise.
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Summary for lazy people

-New world-gen-option: Difficulty from easy to Ludicrous in 4 different states.

-Affects mostly enemy def- and atk.

-Adds segments and reproduction to bosses up to 50%, meaning 50% longer Destroyer for instance.

-Advanced settings to change difficulty of individual bosses and events.

-When defeating a Ludicrious -tier boss(hardest) The reward is a golden sparkly trophy.


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The Basis

For starters I think that the best way of implementing this is via a world-by-world setting, since a great part of the issue is multiplayer, and how it is running over every major challenge in this game completely. After choosing size of world the player will be confronted with one more option before creating the world, namely what level of difficulty will be presented when entering. There should be a simple choice, featuring four alternatives: Effortless, Normal, Difficult and Ludicrous.
The way these alternatives will affect the playthrough differs. The most obvious being a scale of stats.
I have put a lot of thought into this matter, and I think that the best way of manipulating the stats is by focusing on enemy-damage and defense. By buffing their defense and not HP we can keep reasonable hp-counts on even the more extreme bosses, but still bump up the time it takes or damage required. Defense will however be a small increase per main difficulty, since some bosses already take quite a beating. The main aspect changed by these four main settings is the enemey attack damage. I will not go into detailed stats since this scale most definitely should NOT be the same for every enemy and boss in the game, this would just make Yrimir the only person to ever complete a playthrough above Normal. Instead I propose that the developers look into what level of scaling would be suitable for each boss and event and enemy. For enemies this could however be more all-round, say a certain percentage of their entire stat added per difficulty. This would make Hardmode scale more properly between difficulty anyways.

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Bosses + Difficulty

On this topic I have more to discuss. Since the main aspect of bosses is that it already has a lot of HP and is supposed to be harder there isn't room for that much stat-increase. I have however come up with an alternate way of making the bosses of Terraria harder. This idea is however completely unique for each boss. Let me give you an example: The Eater Of Worlds. For each level of difficulty above Normal, 25% segments will be added, making the Ludicrous version 50% longer than the normal, giving it even more snare-like potential and even more HP through the sheer amount, without just making it feel like you don't achieve anything by beating on it, unlike what raw HP would have done. The same concept can easily be rebalanced and applied on Destroyer, Skeletron, Plantera, most bosses really. Bosses with reproduction could have that worked into it as well.

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Advanced Settings

Furthermore I realize that this whole thing will be very sand-boxy, much of the later difficulties will hardly be doable even with very in-detail balance, it just won't float without making the curve gradually smaller the higher it gets. This is when that little option in the corner of the Difficulty-page saying "Advanced Settings" comes into play. Clicking this will load sliders looking something like this:
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-for every boss and event in the game, essentially allowing players to completely customize both the general difficulty, and how much it will increase during the course of the playthrough. This feature is outright sandboxy and will make for some pretty interesting playthroughs.
When picking the predetermined difficulties the bars will be to the far left in each of the corresponding fields, meaning that Ludicrous can be cranked even further into impossibility before it caps, for example.
The golden field, Ludcrious, is where it gets interesting though.

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The Golden Trophies
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When sliding the bar into the yellowy-golden field the boss /eventbosses will be given an additional drop, a 100% chance to drop a golden trophy. These Golden trophies are similar to the Dungeon Key pet-item in nature, and is only right-to-boast proof of you actually defeating the corresponding boss. They have a 100% chance of dropping since the challenge of beating any boss at Ludicrous is such a feat that not having the trophy drop would be the most cruel twist of fate ever conceived.

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Thanks For Reading
 
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These are the types of suggestions I like to read. Short or long, detailed suggestions that add a lot more variation to the game. Not "add Cthulhu with 99999999 health and 666 defence".

I truly support this idea and I think the developers would be ludicrous (see what I did there?) if they saw this suggestion and refused to add it in.

{insert "Sharanga Supports" logo/sprite here}
 
I love the idea of golden trophies. I like to play with 1 life (hardcore) and would like to see this expanded upon with more difficulty options. And maybe better 'sparkly' rewards... maybe?
 
You never cease to amaze with some of the ideas you come up with. I really like this concept, especially the golden trophies and dynamic difficulty. This is by far the best suggestion for difficulty I've seen.
 
I think it'd be possible to give each difficulty it's own trophy level, so you could tell from your collection exactly what levels you've beat an enemy on.

I do think though that it's the plaque that should change color, not the trophy item itself. It's supposed to be a piece of the boss after all. So unless the bosses themselves are gold on Ludicrous, it wouldn't make much sense.

Also, I think this should apply to banners as well, not just boss trophies.

For example:
Effortless - Wood Trophies
TrophiesWood.jpg


Normal - Bronze Trophies
TrophiesCopper.jpg


Difficult - Silver Trophies
TrophiesSilver.jpg


Ludicrous - Gold Trophies
TrophiesGold.jpg
 

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I think it'd be possible to give each difficulty it's own trophy level, so you could tell from your collection exactly what levels you've beat an enemy on.

I do think though that it's the plaque that should change color, not the trophy item itself. It's supposed to be a piece of the boss after all. So unless the bosses themselves are gold on Ludicrous, it wouldn't make much sense.

Also, I think this should apply to banners as well, not just boss trophies.
Very good thinking! Though it would require a lot of item-slots, I think the effect would be worth it. -And it really does make more sense to change the plaque rather than the item itself now that I think about it. I'll definitely add this to the OP, thanks for suggesting it.
 
So essentially we're talking about a system similar to the Kid Icarus: Uprising difficulty scaling system?
... I love that system. Combine that with Terraria and add special rewards such as the different trophy plaques and potentially higher quality weapons, and you've got yourself a fantastic suggestion.

What about special mini-bosses and boss variants for specific difficulties? That'd make things a lot more interesting as well. Special banners, accessories, perhaps even special vanity items could be added with increased difficulty. The possibilities are staggering... Gimme an uber moon charm dropped from a werewolf boss plz. XD

... It's a bit off track of the suggestion, but having a universal difficulty setting wouldn't be too bad, right? Expert mode is already going to be a thing.

/Support. It's so simple, yet so complex at the same time. I want this. Bad.
 
I think it's safe to say that the confirmed 'expert mode' is going to make all other difficulty suggestions void of purpose. I was genuinely surprised to see that Re-logic is making the AI smarter as well as considering loot in this new upcoming mode and I'm not sure if you can really suggest anything better without requesting for something in the expert mode.
 
How would Skeletron Prime be boosted without it just having an HP or attack boost? Would it attack faster, move faster, or would it have more arms? And what of the Twins? Would they change form earlier? Would the Destroyer release more probes? (Longer does not work there- just makes a bigger target- and if you boost health to compensate, that isn't exactly a unique difficulty booster.) And what of the Golem? 4 fists?
 
To earn the trophies there should also be a cap on the equipment used. Like if i were to kill the queen bee i couldn't use solar armor with a terra blade I should have to use like meteor armor with a laser rifle or something.
 
does someone not know how to spell?
@The Epic Gamer, out of all of the content in this detailed suggestion, you're going to focus on a misspelled word? Please discuss the thread topic which is Tobbvald's suggestion, not the spelling.

We don't have a rule against posting to an old thread, as long as the comment is on topic and adds to the discussion. But posting in an old thread just to point out a misspelling is both rude and off topic.
 
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