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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
-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.
The Golden Trophies
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.
Thanks For Reading
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
-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.
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.
Thanks For Reading
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