Game Mechanics Weapon Upgrades to make weaker weapons viable.

[Alucard3598]

As it stands now, weapons are balanced in a way that, as you obtain better items, they become immediately disposable.
I want to make a suggestion to change this.

First of all, I will introduce these new ores that tie into this mechanic. I will call them Alloys.
There are 4 types of Alloys. They all behave like blocks (like all other ores) and can be placed:

1. Basic Alloy Acquired rarely underground in veins of no more than three, or by crafting 3 of Copper/Tin, Iron/Lead, Silver/Tungsten and Gold/Platinum bars at a furnace.
2. Advanced Alloy Obtained by combining together 4 Demonite/Crimtane, Meteorite and Hellstone bars.
3. Marvelous Alloy Obtained rarely underground in Hardmode in veins of one, or by combining 3 of Cobalt/Palladium, Mythril/Orichalcum and Adamantite/Titanium bars.
4. Supreme Alloy Crafted by combining together 2 Hallowed, Chlorophyte, Spectre and Shroomite Bars.

These alloys are used in conjunction with a new NPC, along with the player's weapon of choice, to make it incrementally stronger in damage in a linear fashion.

Let me introduce the "Blacksmith" NPC.

This NPC character behaves not unlike the other Town NPC's in the game, and talking to them gives you the option of upgrading your weapon in a similar way to how players can change a weapon's modifier with the Goblin Tinkerer.

How to get the Alloys:

Alloys are incredibly rare, and require the use of every metal in it's tier to craft them. This is what you will need:

1. For Basic Alloy you will need 2 of Copper/Tin, Iron/Lead, Silver/Tungsten and Gold/Platinum bars. Craft them at a furnace and you get a singular Basic Alloy.
2. Next, with Advanced Alloy you must assemble 3 Demonite/Crimtane, Meteorite and Hellstone bars. Mixing them together at a Hellforge makes one Advanced Alloy piece.
3. Next tier up is Marvelous Alloy. This one is obtained by combining 3 of Cobalt/Palladium, Mythril/Orichalcum and Adamantite/Titanium bars at a Adamantite or Titanium forge. Doing this will give you one Marvelous Alloy.
4. Finally, the Supreme Alloy. By fusing 2 Hallowed, Chlorophyte, Spectre and Shroomite Bars at an Adamantite or Titanium Forge, you will get a single piece of Supreme Alloy.

There are also some other ways of obtaining them:

1. All alloys can be purchased from the Blacksmith, although for a hefty cost. They sell Basic Alloy after the Wall of Flesh has been defeated, Advanced Alloy when you've defeated all of the Mechanical Bosses, Marvelous Alloy when you defeat the Golem, and Supreme Alloy when you defeat the Moon Lord.
2. Basic Alloy is found very rarely underground in small veins. Advanced Alloy is spawned at the beginning of Hardmode and is also vary rare.

How to upgrade weapons:

Like mentioned before, weapons would upgrade in a linear fashion, and each time this happens, it gains an incremental number next to its name (+1, +2, +3, etc.) until it reaches a limit (I'll make it +10).
Different levels require different alloys to upgrade. For example levels 1-3 will require Basic Alloy, 4-6 Advanced Alloy, 7-8 Marvelous Alloy, and then Supreme Alloy for levels 9-10.
As levels progress, you will have to exchange more Alloy until the Alloy requirement changes, for example from Basic Alloy to Advanced Alloy.

Weapon balancing may need to be changed in conjunction with this change should it actually happen. the stronger weapons (let's use the Meowmere as an example) would be nerfed so that when it would be upgraded, it would be about as strong as it is now, if not a little stronger.

Let me know what YOU think of this suggestion, any questions or suggestions of your own you might have, and how I may improve it. (improvements on balancing, presentation, quality of life, etc. is welcome)
Thank you for reading.

 

[Mihn]

In the end, it doesn't matter since you can upgrade end-game weapons and they will still become superior and more OP than it already is.

To make this work, I think they will probably will take a lot of time to rebalance the monsters after the upgrade function is unlocked, and that probably won't happen.

 

[Alucard3598]

In the end, it doesn't matter since you can upgrade end-game weapons and they will still become superior and more OP than it already is.

To make this work, I think they will probably will take a lot of time to rebalance the monsters after the upgrade function is unlocked, and that probably won't happen.

Weapon balancing may need to be changed in conjunction with this change should it actually happen.

EDIT: I updated the text to make it a bit clearer. Sorry about that.
Edit 2: There is no need to re-balance all the NPC's, just the weapons. If you are going to criticize, please help me to improve the idea instead of just writing it off.

 

[Afro King]

You said 5 alloys, but you listed 4... Where is 5th?

 

[Alucard3598]

You said 5 alloys, but you listed 4... Where is 5th?

Oops my bad will fix that.

 

[SnailsAttack]

As it stands now, weapons are balanced in a way that, as you obtain better items, they become immediately disposable.

This is the way that game progression in terraria works.

Anyways, you don't really explain most of how this would actually work. I assume that upgrading weapons would make them do more damage or whatnot. However, this just doesn't work out in a game where progression involves obtaining new and better weapons as you go along. If you want to improve a weapon so that it carries you a little farther into your line of progression, consider reforging the weapon or obtaining new accessories.

 

[Alucard3598]

I assume that upgrading weapons would make them do more damage or whatnot.

These alloys are used in conjunction with a new NPC, along with the player's weapon of choice, to make it incrementally stronger in damage in a linear fashion.

Let me know if this does or doesn't answer your statement and why.

However, this just doesn't work out in a game where progression involves obtaining new and better weapons as you go along.

I wasn't thinking about what Terraria is when I made this suggestion, but rather what it could be.

 

[bugsandwhatnot]

I had a similar idea, but slightly different.

One great thing about Terraria is that most weapon mechanics are unique or have unique attributes. Both Terrarian and Wooden Yoyo are yoyos and are very similar, but there are differences too, such as string length, spin time, extra projectiles and so on. What if I have a favorite weapon (looks/mechanics/whatever) but its damage is useless for end-game?

Perhaps I should've started a new thread, but the idea is to implement a weapon Tier system where each weapon has a default Tier, like Wooden Yoyo would have 1 and Terraria something around 15. Then, the difference between the tiers would be the base damage only!
Let's say you love your Wooden Yoyo, and then get a Terrarian. You visit the tinkerer where he allows you to imbue an item (Wooden Yoyo) with the power of another (Terrarian). The Terrarian is consumed, and the Wooden Yoyo becomes Tier 15 and a damage that is of top class, probably higher than the Terrarian to compensate for short string, no spin time and other handicaps (500+?).

The imbuing item should be of the same type of the target weapon (melee/ranged/magic/summoning).

For example: Use the Lunar Flare to imbue the Bee Gun!
Lunar Flare: Damage 100 (with around 20 defense for hardmode enemies, it hits for 90), use time 10, DPS 540
Bee Gun (imbued): Damage 53.2 (hits for 43.2), use time 12 (same as default, 5 per second), target DPS 540 / 2.5 (average bees per shot) / 5 (shots per second) + 10 (compensate for defense) = 53.2

Now, the Bee Gun does multiple hits per bee and has the homing effect but then the bees are way slower than the projectiles from Lunar Flare and also cannot be fired/summoned past blocks, so I'd estimate this damage to be fitting.

User interface-wise, a Tier x property can be added to each weapon.

Personally, I'd like to make use of powerful Shadowflame Knives, Fetid Baghnakhs, Star Cannon and a bunch of summoning weapons.

This system could also be used to downgrade powerful weapons to weaker versions, like T1 Terrarian doing 1 damage per hit (plus projectiles and other bonuses).

You could find a weapon that you love and use it forever!