Why is torch luck a mechanic?

This is ridiculous wtf. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention I wouldn't have known about it otherwise
 
I'm hoping this is a troll, but the reddit account looks legit.

It's very sad. Most of the points he makes could be turned against him (why bother pettily penalizing the player then ?) and it's not that true for the snow biome (according to my math using regular torches in most biomes will decrease drop rate to 95% of their former value - which is indeed not a big deal, especially since merely bringing 1 torch of the current biome would offset this and bring positive luck

However he can't be making the argument in good faith since using regular torches in the snow biome decreases drop rate to 80% of their former values ! That's, I feel, significant enough to warrant backlash, and unlike in other biomes can't be offset by simply bringing one ice torch when farming - bringing an ice torch will simply lower the penalty to 90% of the droprate.

Having played Terraria since 1.1 I had a lot of trust in Re-Logic and especially in redigit to make a good game with good mechanics and I would've bought Terraria: Otherworld on release had it come out (I very rarely buy games on release since I like knowing what a game is like beforehand, with feedback from normal gamers and not reviewers or devs explaining their vision in devs diaries). The luck mechanic and seeing this kind of reaction by the lead developer clearly made this trust accumulated over the year in one fell swoop, and I'll be sure to wait and see if Re-Logic's next game is worth buying before considering a purchase.

Of course, this is only my perspective, and I'm sure Re-Logic could hardly care about the opinion of one customer among many. But it had to come out. Good luck for Re-logic for their next project, I'll be watching what you do next with interest albeit with much lowered hopes


EDIT: well, it seems the update which came out while I was typing this removed bad luck from torch. It makes me appear like a fool for this post, but that's a price I'm happy to pay for this mechanic being removed
 
1590021754562.png

This image speaks for itself.
 
Torch luck's a great mechanic woefully implemented. Like, I'm trying to be generous here but regardless of the size or effect of the penalties, reducing drops and rigging the rng against you when using basic torches without patch notes, tooltips, or any explanation of luck is nothing short of awful. Glad that's gone.
 
Btw. found the declaration...

Player.cs >163, 164
this.luckMinimumCap = -0.7f;
this.luckMaximumCap = 1f;

So, we can actually get even worse and probably not dropping anything.
 
Btw. found the declaration...

Player.cs >163, 164
this.luckMinimumCap = -0.7f;
this.luckMaximumCap = 1f;

So, we can actually get even worse and probably not dropping anything.
You seem to be misunderstanding the code here. A character without any luck modifiers has a luck of 0. Good luck will increase this to a maximum of 1, bad luck will decrease it to a minimum of -0.7f. Which means that good luck can theoretically affect you more than bad luck can. Bad luck will never outright prevent items from dropping.
 
You seem to be misunderstanding the code here. A character without any luck modifiers has a luck of 0. Good luck will increase this to a maximum of 1, bad luck will decrease it to a minimum of -0.7f. Which means that good luck can theoretically affect you more than bad luck can. Bad luck will never outright prevent items from dropping.
I didn't strictly said "it will stop things from dropping at all", there is the word "probably" for. I know how a declared range for RNG is working.
 

Of all of the brilliant things which 1.4 has added to the game, one mechanic stands out as an utterly inexplicable design choice. For those unaware, the new biome-themed torches aren't just decorative. If you use regular torches in certain biomes instead of them, enemies have reduced drop rates. I cannot fathom a single justification for this bizzaire and completely unnessecary addition, nor for the fact that it's a completely hidden mechanic with huge ramifications on gameplay, especially the early hardmode period of farming souls.

I know I'm just a single player out of millions, and I'm not getting this removed on my own, but I would at least like a single good reason from anybody why this was added, and what it adds to the gameplay experience, aside from crippling players who simply aren't aware of its existence.
i think it just gives players reason to use new or unused items more
 
Sorry to chuck the metaphorical dynamite, but here's images from some also terraria fans who just hang out mutually within the same discord servers i do. (they're not featured as asking the questions, just picked out some interesting screencaps)

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Ladybird luck was also removed as far as i can see since the cryptic warnings on karma were removed, not sure if garden-gnome good luck is still in the game.

Since it deals in (0%-100% + and over 100%) being able to push a player into negative could be viewed as mean spirited for a system that could have had some sort of information bar somewhere. The wizard comes in too late in hardmode to tell you why your tree & mob-farms were low efficiency and you had the worst run of luck on chests for some key or least useful items.
  • (I know for a fact it short-changed me on my gemcorn farm before recieving the update, 5 gemcorns in a row with no drops beside stone while grinding for a platinum magic staff with diamond-stones, it works perfectly fine post-update)
If luck was established from the first hour of gameplay as 'a thing', im sure players would have openly embraced it and the wizard could have instead been around to dispense wise luck-related tips and reveal some pitfalls, like how strong rare monsters will start giving you a hard-time frequently & queued up yet to be defeated bosses/invasion events spawning spontanously.

(Disclaimer: to clarify, i do not know if the previous two claims would be true, it is a grasp of the imagination that such influence on RNG might affect the outcome :merchantconfused:``like how strong rare monsters will start giving you a hard-time frequently`` || ``queued up yet to be defeated bosses/invasion events spawning spontanously`` )
 
I checked out gnome luck, normal 20 copper falling from trees turned into 20 silver for the first time i've seen that ever with the garden gnome placed around.

If this stacks (unsure) i wonder if i can cheese it into dropping 20 platinum a tree-shake (exploit time) by covering the treefarm's roof covering with gnomes, luck system does have some minor merit though. Gnomes still carry descriptions whereas ladybirds don't anymore, but don't really tell you anything about the effects either which gets mixed up with flavortext at the best of times.

The problem is that they're just tricksy to catch due to spawning conditions, and a bit of a chore to box in then wait the night out with them still on the screen to get your reward. If there's only one known patch of exposed dirt, or you dig around to make a wall-less anti-gnome chamber in the living tree (from beneath or above) adjunct to the living tree itself you can rig up the spawning conditions favorably. Then just have a lot of time on your hands doing something like fishing.

Edit - Gnomes act like other buff objects (campfire, sunflowers, star in a jar etc), but do not stack, you will need to apply luck potions to gain the remaining benefit.

Overall the effect of a garden gnome tastefully placed in your base will

- Near your tree-farms or places where mobs commonly reside, increase odds of acorns & larger tree-shake bundles as seen with the 20 pieces of silver, though sometimes i get 50 copper.
- Near fishing pond, preserve your bait for longer and provide less junk drops & increase fishing crate loot by roughly x1.5
- Make rare mobs like pinky drop 4 gold rather than 1, (i quickly bankrolled 20 gold in savings from farming slime-rain in radius of a gnome and other zombie killing activities + spelunking)
- Decreases the chance of negative modifiers on crafting new items, with a gnome near crafting station. In theory it should save money, visiting the goblin tinkerer might be less frustrating with the potion activated also.
- Increases your critical chance, so is perfect for grinding bosses with a high DPS weapon & claiming the loot.

Luck is very very strong in a point early in the game where you can't have negative outcome of 'luck' activities occur important to gathering supplies.
 
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now we should beat this "boss" in every world, or redigit will delete your terraria and ban you on forums... do nothing but still :)
 
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