Biomes & Nature Underground Dynasty

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Baconfry

Terrarian
Alright, here goes. I present to you: my first actual biome suggestion. But before I begin, let me make something very clear to you guys.

Biome suggestions are haaaaard. Holy mackerel. Weapons, enemies, structures, everything. If anyone out there is planning on making one soon, just be aware of the amount of time you'll be spending fiddling with pixels. And please, I implore you, whatever you do, don't be an idiot like me. Don't do it during finals week.

Anyways, it's time to begin, I suppose. This time, I'm going to take my own advice, and actually format this as well as I can.

Context/Introduction

If you take a look at the Traveling Merchant's wares, you'll notice that one country is represented a little too well. Japan. Don't get me wrong, I love Japan. But if the Traveling Merchant has supposedly visited the countries of the world, then shouldn't he have a more culturally diverse selection of wares (along with his ACME convenience devices)?

So that's why I've decided that much of the Traveling Merchant's oriental merchandise should be shifted elsewhere. To a special place. Underground.

The Underground Dynasty.

Treat it as an analog to the Underground Mushroom biomes. No, not an alt. An analog. It's generated in the world much in the same way as Underground Mushrooms. However, Underground Dynasties will tend to be larger than Underground Mushroom biomes.

So the Underground Dynasty takes up space that would otherwise be wasted spawning Giant Bats, Armored Skeletons, and Skeleton Archers. No one's complaining there, right?

The Underground Dynasty is more like the Dungeon in that it does not spread. It's made up mostly of blocks that already exist: Dynasty Wood, Dynasty Shingles, Dynasty furniture. These are incorporated into naturally-generated structures. I hope the Underworld housing schema can be reused for this purpose, because I have no experience in programming structure generation. At all. I could have posted a build, of course, but... well, I'm terrible with builds. You're free to post your own ideas of what the structures might look like, if you wish.

Take note: not all Dynasty content will be based on Japanese culture. You will see Chinese culture exert its influence as well.



Enemies

(If I make any future updates, it will likely be in this section.)

Enemy spawn mechanics in the Underground Dynasty will require a little special attention. For one thing, I can't let Dynasty Wood and related blocks be the ones responsible for creating the biome. That would cause complaints from those who wish to use Dynasty Wood without modifying enemy spawns.
So, instead, that forces me to introduce a new block, Jadestone if you will, upon which the Dynasty buildings generate. This block is what creates the Dynasty biome. More on that later.

samuraiarmor.png

Samurai Armor
Fighter AI
100 health
26 damage
10 defense

Drops: Katana, 2%

papercrane.png

Paper Crane
Flying AI
70 health
18 damage
6 defense

Drops:
Paper Shuriken (5-8), 25%
Kabuto Hat, 0.5%

paperkoi.png

Paper Koi
Swimming AI
50 health
28 damage
4 defense

Drops:
Paper Shuriken (4-6), 25%
Kabuto Hat, 0.5%

And in Hardmode:

silkmoth.png

Giant Silk Moth
Moth AI
500 health
48 damage
26 defense

giantdemonmask.png

Giant Demon Mask
Cursed Skull AI
600 health
55 damage
28 defense

We have a passive, too, of course:

silkworm.png

Silkworm
5 health
20% bait power

And those all spawn within the Dynasty biome itself. However, there's one little trickster who can be found outside of it.

tanuki.png

Tanuki
120 health
14 defense

Has a rare chance (0.5%) to spawn after the player kills any enemy, except for enemies with a Boss/Plant/Worm/Wraith AI. When the enemy is killed, it will vanish in a puff of smoke and nothing will drop, but the Tanuki will spawn and immediately try to run away from the player. It will fly if it needs to. Is that a surprise? Everyone knows that raccoons can fly.

Anyways, once you've killed the poor thing, it will drop a Dynasty Key.
dynastykey.png

Yes, the Underground Dynasty is generated with locked Dynasty Chests. Muahahaha!



Environment

As mentioned before, the Dynasty biome generates with Jadestone as a direct replacement for stone.

It looks something like this.

jadestone.png


Other than that, however, the Dynasty generates with regular dirt, regular grass, everything, and structures much like Underground Cabins, incorporating Dynasty materials. You'll notice a few environmental differences, though. One is that Bamboo grows instead of trees. Here's a sprite.

bamboo.png


When cut down, it drops Bamboo (
bambooitem.png
), the equivalent of Wood, and 1-2 Bamboo Shoots (
bambooshoot.png
) , which can be planted on any grass to grow a new Bamboo plant.

The Dynasty also has a special herb: Ginseng.

ginseng.png


Unlike most herbs, this one requires a pickaxe to mine, and won't break when attacked by any other weapon. It's quite rare, about as rare as Life Fruits are in the Underground Jungle. Considering that the Underground Dynasty is much smaller than the Jungle, chances are, you will not get your hands on a large stack of Ginseng. There are no Ginseng seeds.

Ginseng itself can be consumed to restore 80 mana without activating Mana Sickness, but in turn cannot be auto-consumed by the Mana Flower or quick-buff. It is also a powerful potion ingredient: more on that in the next section.

Besides standard naturally-generated Dynasty furniture, there is a new furniture item I need to introduce: the Dynasty Mill.

dynastymill.png


Acts as a crafting station for Dynasty furniture, and can convert any wood into Dynasty Wood. You'll find the Dynasty Mill generated within the Dynasty biome, of course.

Character: Japanese wa and Chinese he, "harmony".



Potions

I also came up with a few uses for Ginseng as a potion ingredient. (These all require the advanced alchemy station that was spoilered a while ago.)

RetentionPotion.png

Retention Potion (old sprite by @Hunited)
Buffs player with Retention for 10 minutes.
Potion-related buffs will not expire until the Retention buff expires.

Crafted:
millenium_koi_by_its_a_me_m4rc05-d7xj3kt.png

Millenium Koi: fished out of Dynasty biome. (Sprited by @It's a me!)
Ginseng
Moonglow
Bottled Water

And the new ones:

memorypotion.png

Memory Potion
Buffs player with Memory for 3 minutes.
Allows the player to remember the previous active armor set bonus.

When you have the Memory buff active and your armor provides a set bonus, the set bonus is not lost if you switch armors, but placed into a "memory slot". The acquisition of a new set bonus (mix-and-match sets are not counted) )will allow two set bonuses to be active at once, but if a third is acquired, the first is forgotten.

When the two set bonuses raise the same stat, the larger increase will be selected. They will NOT be multiplied together, with one exception: Spectre Healing is always paired with its -40% magic damage multiplier, which is multiplied by any magic damage-increasing set bonus that is currently equipped. It is not overwritten.

Due to the power of summoner armor set bonuses, the increases to minion capacity are reduced to +1 for Bee, Spider, and Spooky Armors, and +2 for Tiki Armor, when those armors are memorized.

butts brownie points for anyone who points this out, just so I can be sure that y'all are paying attention

Furthermore, some bonuses are not compatible. When you switch between Spectre headpieces or Beetle chestplates, the memory slot is emptied.

Buff yourself with Memory, swap your armor out for a different set, and you can run two set bonuses at once. I will not deny that this potion is EXTREMELY powerful. In fact, it is more than worthy of a thread of its own. However, I don't mind discussing how it might affect game balance in this thread.

Crafted:
Double Cod
Ginseng
Deathweed
Bottled Water

multitalentpotion.png

Multitalent Potion
Buffs player with Multitalent for 5 minutes.
Boosts damage of weapons that have not been recently used.

Each weapon in the hotbar is assigned to a variable, X, that starts at 0% and gradually increases to 15% over 30 seconds, as long as the weapon is not selected. When the weapon is selected, its damage is boosted by the current value of X, and X is decreased by 1% every 2 seconds until it reaches zero.
The longer you use a single weapon, the greater the reward for switching.

The percent increase on the currently selected weapon is displayed when mousing over the buff icon.

Crafted:
Brain Coral: occasionally grows in the Ocean.
Ginseng
Fireblossom
Bottled Water


Equipment

kabutohat.png

Kabuto Hat
Vanity item

papershuriken.png

Paper Shuriken
11 ranged damage
Max stack: 999

bamboosword.png

Bamboo Sword
12 melee damage
Fast speed
Crafted: Bamboo, 12x.

Katana
Dropped by Samurai Armor, 2%.

Now the following four are found within locked Dynasty Chests.

fightingcricketstaff-2.png

Fighting Cricket Staff
14 summon damage
Summons Cricket minions, which act like Baby Slimes with a larger jumping height.

recurvebow.png

Recurve Bow
23 ranged damage
Average speed
Arrow velocity is determined by the distance between the player and the cursor when it is fired.

jadeblade.png

Jade Blade
30 melee damage
Slow speed
Emits light when swung, that lasts for four seconds.

ghostlantern.png

Ghost Lantern
19 magic damage
Slow speed
Creates a controllable Ghost Lantern projectile, that provides a large amount of light, moves with slow velocity, and can hit enemies three times before disappearing. When it hits an enemy, it temporarily dims, and regains brightness over the next second. It is only prepared to attack an enemy when at full brightness.

Character: Japanese oni (demon) and Chinese gui (ghost).

*pant, pant*
I think that's everything I need to cover. If I missed anything important, please point it out for me!

And of course, if you enjoyed the read, don't be afraid to show your support!
 
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Woop!
Is this your "something different suggestion"? ;)

Great stuff, would love to see this implemented (I think that is the word) :D
 
I......I....can you make a banner to this? It needs to be shown. That has always bothered me about the a traveling Merchant.
"Here I sell you some Japanese stuffs"
"Wait....what about germany? Or Brazil? Or Africa? Or Asia???? You don't travel much do you?"
"No...they had a discount on eBay"

Anyway I support! But please make a banner so I can put it in my Sig and show people.
 
index.php

Tanuki
120 health
14 defense

Has a rare chance (0.5%) to spawn after the player kills any enemy, except for enemies with a Boss/Plant/Worm/Wraith AI. When the enemy is killed, it will vanish in a puff of smoke and nothing will drop, but the Tanuki will spawn and immediately try to run away from the player. It will fly if it needs to. Is that a surprise? Everyone knows that raccoons can fly.
While the rest is indeed good, I have to say this little one is the hidden gem of the show. I would love to see this one, if only to give chase like a maniac.
 
Two words: :red: Yeah.

This suggestion is amazing in a level I usually associate with Zoomo. Seriously. Everything seems perfectly balanced, nothing too powerful. Just a nice place to relax and get AFK killed pre-hardmode :p. My only recommendation is that you should make the Memory Potion only extend back one bonus, as it seems more PvP-Friendly and easier to add.
 
This will never work, if it's ever added then PETA will flip out because we're killing tanuki raccoons!

Seriously though, this is really good. The only real criticisms I have are the potions. The first two could be overpowered, and all three are much more complicated than any other potion in the game (although I do like the multi-talent potion).
 
This would not only be a refreshing touch to the underground, which could certainly use some variety, but I can't tell you how much I'd enjoy building with Jadestone and Bamboo.

The Memory potion seems very interesting, but I almost think a very difficult to assemble accessory (crafting wise, not drop RNG) or something would handle such a complex idea better. I like the rarity of Ginseng as a means of balancing it. The Multi-talent would be quite fun at lower progression tiers for sure.

There's something about a Tanuki NPC that sounds appealing. Yet I have no idea what purpose they'd serve.
 
I love this! My only complaints would be about the potions. I think they might be a bit complicated for the game, but that could just be me.
 
As anticipated, most of the questions seem to be about the potions!

All the player needs to see are the tooltips, which I hope will be self-explanatory:

Retention: "extends all buffs to 10 minutes"
Memory: "remembers the previous armor set bonus" (sorry for the confusion; there is only one memory slot.)
Multitalent: "boosts damage of less-used weapons"

Notice that Multitalent works like SSB's stale-move negation mechanic, which is never explicitly mentioned in the game. Players don't need to know the formulas, but they should be able to understand the basic concept.
 
Well thought out, great organization. Well done Baconfry!

Just one question is all: You have hardmode enemies introduced, but nothing hardmode weaponry related? I guess is that an analog to the Mushroom biome where "Get good stuff in hardmode" applies to that, where this is "Get good stuff in prehardmode, but not hardmode"
 
Well thought out, great organization. Well done Baconfry!

Just one question is all: You have hardmode enemies introduced, but nothing hardmode weaponry related? I guess is that an analog to the Mushroom biome where "Get good stuff in hardmode" applies to that, where this is "Get good stuff in prehardmode, but not hardmode"
The easiest thing to do would be to make the Tanuki a hardmode spawn instead, and buff the Dynasty Chest weapons.
But why do that when I can just add more content, instead?
I dunno. I might do that eventually.
 
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