Game Mechanics Unimaginative Mode - It's like Creative Mode, but exactly the opposite

[Bry]

"Wwwwwhaaaat the hell is this supposed to be?"
"How quickly can I justifiably say this is bad?"
"Wait a minute, wasn't this a joke you made on my profi-"
All good questions, all good questions. I have but one good answer.
The whole game revolves around two main things: fighting, and creation. You fight enemies and bosses, but you also build houses and weapons and potions and a bunch of other stuff.
Now what if we took that second half out of the equation? Introducing...
Unimaginative Mode!
A mode where you can kill enemies and explore the environment, without using blocks or crafting a single thing!
A plethora of changes come with a world imbued with this mode:​

Spoiler: Building No Pickaxes, no destruction! No placement or painting! Crafting's still here, though; but it's only there for combat. Ropes can still be placed, but only by throwing Rope Coils. They can also be used to tie up enemies for a sec if the rope hits them. Torches and Coins can also be placed and right-clicked.

Spoiler: The World The terrain has more cave openings now! The underground is one giant spider web of open cave systems, meaning (mostly) everything is connected! There aren't any direct pathways to the Underworld right away, but if you can find the Demolitionist... The Underworld's lava lakes are a lot more traversable to make up for your newfound inability to make a long- bridge!

Spoiler: Structures There isn't really a whole lot to explore in Terraria, so there'll be a lot more stuff to find in terms of structures! 3 Ruined Towns will spawn on the surface, made from various Surface materials; you can find a Bed to change your spawn, and the Guide to help you progress! Abandoned Mines will spawn underground; you'll have to platform over water and lava via the available scaffolding. Meteors will have already ravaged the land; the Demolitionist can give you a hand with these. Minecarts, Asphalt, Sunflowers and Teleporters will be utilized to help you get around; you gotta unlock the Tellies, though.

Spoiler: NPCs Since you can't build houses anymore, the world will come with them pre-made─just made of semi-random materials and found in semi-random locations! There'll be just enough houses for each NPC, plus 1 house for storage, and one house for you. Nothing can be placed inside NPC houses. Each NPC works a little differently (some more than others), and they each have specific furniture items in their home that'll let you craft stuff and buff up! Spoiler: New NPC Functions Furniture usually sold by NPCs become a One-Time Buy; once you sink the money in, the furniture appears in the NPC's house. Spoiler: New NPC Functions NPC New Functions New Spawning Requirements House Furniture Guide Gives you "subtle" hints on how to proceed! Still helps you craft stuff! Can point out certain structures on your Map under certain conditions, which will typically result in rewards or loot! Still spawns upon world creation; he's not at spawn anymore, though, but he's certainly nearby. Wooden Furniture ✰Wooden Workbench ✰Wooden Bookcase ✰Furnace Merchant Sells mostly the same stuff, as well as Copper Bows and Bottles. Spawns in after getting 5 Gold Coins for the first time, and after obtaining your first enemy-dropped weapon. Sandstone Furniture ✰3-8 Silver Coins in a pile (They'll respawn every couple of days) $✰Anvil $✰Piggy Bank Nurse Still heals you, but the prices are jacked up. Also sells you some Healing and Restoration Potions, but they're extremely overpriced. Spawns in after you first discover the Dungeon, which isn't too far from her home. You also need a Max HP of 200, at least. ✰Palm Wood Bed ✰Campfire ✰Heart Lantern Demolitionist Well, uh, his explosives are kinda useless in this mode, so instead he charges to blow up tunnels in certain places, leaving scaffolding behind to help you get around. He now sells Grenades, Hellfire Arrows, Land Mines, Explosive Powder, and Dangersense Potions. He also sells all manner of Ores, though that stuff is pretty pricey. He sells more ores as you progress through the game; you should be able to buy Hellstone after defeating the Wall of Flesh, and Adamantite or Titanium by the time you've beaten Plantera. You'll need to get your hands on some Explosives, which are dropped by Undead Miners. The Nurse must also be present. Detonator ✰Wooden Bed ✰Wooden Workbench ✰Furnace ✰Anvil Dye Trader He's completely unchanged, shop-wise, though he will pay a lot for items that make Dyes. You gotta find both a normal Dye item AND a Strange Plant─the latter's only dropped by rare enemies. Rich Mahogany Furniture Tiger Skin, Chalice ✰Dye Vat Dryad Most of her inventory is pretty much gone, save for the stuff you can wear and the various Powders. The Dirt Rod can now be used as a weapon, though it won't tear up the terrain. The Eye of Cthulhu must be defeated, the Merchant must be present, and you must have found/find the world's Giant Living Tree. Living Wood Furniture Tavernkeep Bar Furniture ✰Keg ✰Barrels (for storage) Arms Dealer ✰Ammo Box (bought from Travelling Merchant) Stylist Spider Furniture ✰Spider Dresser (for clothing customization and storage) Painter Angler Goblin Tinkerer ✰Tinkerer's Workshop Witch Doctor Living/Rich Mahogany Furniture $✰Bewitching Table $✰Imbuing Station ✰2 Spores (respawn every 4 days) Clothier ✰Dresser Mechanic Party Girl ✰Party Center ✰Pigronata (5% chance of respawning every day) ✰Dresser Wizard Tax Collector He does... largely the same thing. This guy is the only NPC that lives in the Underworld. Find him in the Underworld and purify him. Try... not to do it in lava, though. Obsidian Furniture ✰6-24 Silver Coins in a pile (refills when you die) ✰Platinum Coin (0.01% chance of spawning every day) Truffle Pirate Steampunker Cyborg Santa Claus Skeleton Merchant Travelling Merchant Sells a good chunk of his stuff still, but omits any blocks, walls, and building-related accessories. The Ammo Box, when bought, is sent to the Arms Dealer's house; it'll only be sold after the Arms Dealer tells you about it (he has a 10% chance of telling you about it when you talk to him for the first time that day, starting on the third day after he moves in). Works the same way as he usually does, but when he's not visiting an NPC, he'll be hanging out in his home in a Skyware City. Dynasty Furniture, including a Chandelier Fancy Dishes/Chalice (Has a chance of swapping every week) Zebra/Leopard/Tiger Skin (Has a chance of swapping out every week) ✰3-11 Gold Coins in a pile (They'll respawn every week) ​ ​

Spoiler: Enemies OH GOD THEY'RE EVERYWHERE Okay, seriously though, they spawn a LOT more often now. Not like you're gonna be busy building anything any time soon, right? A lot of enemies have been given new drops, to accommodate for the permanent Creative Shock you'll be suffering in this mode.

Spoiler: Bosses Bosses are spawned and fought in their own "arenas", which spawn in specific areas around the world! You've gotta find or craft the boss's Summoning Item to fight them; some monsters'll drop what you need, or you can buy the Summon for a price! Unlike in normal Terraria, bosses can't be skipped. Guys like King Slime and Duke Fishron still won't be required, however. An optional Superboss, for those who want an additional challenge! (In other words, hey, I found a place for Ocram; put 'im in)

Spoiler: Items Some more weapons are dropped by enemies now! Some are bought! Some are still crafted! All of them will definitely still be obtainable! Same goes for Armors, though a lot less will be enemy drops than weapons. Potions can now be bought from different sources; I think you're better off crafting them, though. I don't think I can properly express how much more important Coins are, now!

I know what you may be asking, and lemme tell ya right now, I don't even know how I could've come up with such an amazing, original idea.

...Oh, that is not the question you were asking, is it? Right, it's "why the hell do you think this is a good idea?".
TrUth bE toLD, I... kinda thought it would be funny???
Yeah, that's gotta be my weakest reasoning for a suggestion yet. But, I mean, THINK ABOUT IT - we're getting a Creative Mode for Journey's End, so why not see what the other side of the coin is like? It'd certainly be an interesting spin on things, I'd think. I've seen people say that they don't really wanna waste time building houses for NPCs and just wanna keep the carnage going, so this could maybe ameliorate that?
I dunno; my reasoning's just gonna be shoddy no matter what I say, but I hold my opinion that this would be an interesting idea.​

 

[Bry]

Wait no AAAAH HOW DID I DO THIS AGAIN
OKAY, MENTAL NOTE - DON'T PRESS ENTER WHILE FILLING OUT THE POLL OPTIONS
oh god I'm actually, like, not very done with this

 

[Dapling]

Wait a minute, wasn't this a joke you made on my profi-

Jokes aside, this would be an interesting challenge! Fishing would probably be more important then ever. Also the Merchant should probably add bottles to his inventory if you can't bomb the desert anymore.

 

[SkytheCreeperCS]

I’d actually like this

 

[J Bame]

You can't just take out the "Dig and Build!" part of a game that is essentially "Dig, fight, explore, build!". This basically makes the entire game like the Dungeon and the Lihzhard Temple: a fun and short experience where all you have to do is walk around fighting and getting cool loot.

But the entire game isn't "short", nor is a world the size of the Dungeon or the Lihzhard temple. If this gets added it could be fun for the first few hours, but I can guarantee you that you will get sick of having to constantly run back and forth between the different NPC houses instead of just having everyone in your own personal base, having to explore an entire cave system just to get back to Hell after you died for the tenth time, having to actually walk everywhere instead of just using a Minecart or a Hellevator, and a long etcetera.

There are also countless problems with removing the digging part of the game, such as all ores suddenly being useless or struggling to find the one cave that gets you to hell, but I think I made my point already.

TLDR: You can't just remove half of what you do in the game.

 

[Dapling]

You can't just take out the "Dig and Build!" part of a game that is essentially "Dig, fight, explore, build!". This basically makes the entire game like the Dungeon and the Lihzhard Temple: a fun and short experience where all you have to do is walk around fighting and getting cool loot.

But the entire game isn't "short", nor is a world the size of the Dungeon or the Lihzhard temple. If this gets added it could be fun for the first few hours, but I can guarantee you that you will get sick of having to constantly run back and forth between the different NPC houses instead of just having everyone in your own personal base, having to explore an entire cave system just to get back to Hell after you died for the tenth time, having to actually walk everywhere instead of just using a Minecart or a Hellevator, and a long etcetera.

There are also countless problems with removing the digging part of the game, such as all ores suddenly being useless or struggling to find the one cave that gets you to hell, but I think I made my point already.

TLDR: You can't just remove half of what you do in the game.

If they added a waypoints system just for this mode most of these problems would disappear. What I mean is there could be "beacons" that you could activate and then teleport to by clicking it on the map. There would be a beacon for every NPC, as well as spread out through the world in random places including hell and the cavern layer. Also, balancing could be done, such as having more than one entrance to hell and making it so you DO have pickaxes, they just can be used for ore only.

 

[Bry]

But the entire game isn't "short", nor is a world the size of the Dungeon or the Lihzhard temple. If this gets added it could be fun for the first few hours, but I can guarantee you that you will get sick of having to constantly run back and forth between the different NPC houses instead of just having everyone in your own personal base, having to explore an entire cave system just to get back to Hell after you died for the tenth time, having to actually walk everywhere instead of just using a Minecart or a Hellevator, and a long etcetera.

There are also countless problems with removing the digging part of the game, such as all ores suddenly being useless or struggling to find the one cave that gets you to hell, but I think I made my point already.

I'm sure you noticed, but I accidentally posted this thing a little early, so I haven't exactly accounted for everything yet in the post (I've also been a bit busy, so, ack).

• My idea here was to trade off the building aspect for more exploration. Of course, there would be new structures and landmarks that would spawn in (the NPC houses and Boss Arenas being a few of them), since Terraria's exploration only really goes as far as biomes, currently.
  • I'm not stupid, though; backtracking isn't, like, 90% of people's cup of tea, at least, and that includes me. My plan here was to have certain locations link to each other, via Minecarts, Teleporters, Asphalt, Mounts, etc. (allowing more items to be useful in some manner), as well as maybe introducing a couple of items akin to Stardew Valley's Warp Totems Scratch that, Omega Derpling's idea is a lot better.
• The ores would still be used to create tools and armors; in fact, they're probably going to be the most consistently-appearing equipment in this mode (lemme edit the post some more, and you might see what I see).

TLDR: You can't just remove half of what you do in the game.

If you do it right, you most certainly could. The problem is simply finding a right way.

 

[Sigma90]

There would be a lot of details to iron out, but this is actually an interesting idea. I really like the idea of exploring the world without being able to modify it. WoF would be one very challenging case as you've mentioned, but boss arenas in general could be a problem. Perhaps allowing players to make non-permanent changes (e.g. platforms, ropes) would help with this?

 

[Dapling]

There would be a lot of details to iron out, but this is actually an interesting idea. I really like the idea of exploring the world without being able to modify it. WoF would be one very challenging case as you've mentioned, but boss arenas in general could be a problem. Perhaps allowing players to make non-permanent changes (e.g. platforms, ropes) would help with this?

I've beaten every boss without an arena and can confirm it's not as hard as most people think as long as you use potions, which would be remedied if you gave the merchant bottles. (Just be sure to avoid the obsidian houses while fighting wall of flesh...)

 

[The Owler]

This would actually make a really fun mode to play, especially in Expert (maybe even Master?). It'd be literal hell to code though, I'd imagine.