Blocks & Decoration witch bottle - built-in protection for your home against wraiths and more

Jatopian

Terrarian
A Terrarian's home is their castle. Or should be.

Unfortunately, the actual kinds of fortress that are practical are limited to the floating variety within a narrow band of depth. This is bad and there are no real fixes for it in the game today.
It's all down to a few types of enemy with no countermeasure. Wyverns keep you out of the sky, so no floating island foundation for your fortress. Below ground there are worms, and quite nasty big ones in Hardmode. Where there aren't worms there are fungi bulbs, or angry trappers with a reach so long they can get at you or your NPCs from offscreen. Teleporters like chaos elementals sometimes, for whom distance is an illusion but who are all too real and in your face.

But the worst are wraiths. Wraiths spawn everywhere on the surface, every biome, even "hallowed" ground and even if you're in front of player-placed wall. Wraiths pass through everything, do not trigger traps or mechanisms of any kind, and come at you from 180 degrees. They do hover rather than fly, despite appearances, but you need about 9 blocks of vertical waste space because they'll float up without a 6-block gap and can get momentum going to jump a little past that.

And they fall diagonally, about a 45-degree angle plus a few blocks of pure Wile E. Coyote up front from horizontal momentum. Did you build your house on the ground like some kind of Earth human person? Well you better dig a big sloping pit then. Did you have a basement storage, as many real-life cultures do? Chests full of things you might need? Well unless you want to schlep the contents of every single chest upstairs somewhere so you can move your chests, you better dig a big valley. Your house now gets to hover precariously over your very own butt-ugly open-pit dirt mine. Hope you didn't need any of the ground around your base.

Oh and don't have an entrance from underneath into your house, because then flying enemies will come in. You don't get to keep them out anymore because if you put down walls to the side the wraiths will climb them.

What about NPCs? They decrease enemy spawns near a "town" if you have enough. Problem solved? Heck no. Even if you cram all your NPCs together it's not enough in Expert. But you don't want to do that anyway! Because this is Journey's End and now you're encouraged to spread your NPCs out. You'll want to have about 7 towns on the surface alone, nevermind any fishing shacks or other structures you can't spare NPCs for, nevermind anything underground. 2-3 NPCs per base is not enough! Hope you didn't build 7 towns with even a single block at ground level or even ordinary jumping height, because you're going to rebuild all 7 of them while dealing with new Hardmode mobs~

Oh, and there's events, which cancel out the NPC effect entirely. Good thing Blood Moons only happen every... more than once a week on average? Sometimes a few times in a row? Yeah, NPCs aren't an answer. And if you still don't believe that, NPCs will not attack wraiths. You're on your own, and they're on your own too. Don't take my word for it - it's on the wiki.

But hey, you'll be fine as long as you are on the surface, not in an event, and personally defend your base with good gear. And never, ever get distracted by something silly like crafting or inventory management.

And if you don't like that, you could always move to another depth and get killed by worms.

The idea is: A special block, item of furniture, or ideally back-wall that protects player-placed blocks nearby so that they cannot be phased through or teleported onto by non-boss enemies like wraiths, worms, wyverns, angry trappers, fungi spores, casters, chaos elementals... or enemy players in PvP. Could also block caster attacks but I feel this is less important, though it'd be cool to have a viable base in the Underworld. It wouldn't stop enemies that break down doors or nullify explosions that go thru blocks.

The "blocks nearby" condition could be within a particular radius, provided that radius is at least 50 tiles or so (or much more, the point being we don't have to spam the things) but it might be more interesting to just work on any block that is connected by other player-placed blocks.

It could be wireable, able to be turned off and the effect seen in the wiring layer. Or the effect could be visible with Spectre Goggles, though it'd work without them.

There are already a few areas that keep you out until you meet a condition, so it makes sense to craft this using items themed from those areas. The areas are: Dungeon, Lihzahrd Temple, Celestial Pillars. Therefore I suggest combining Jungle Spores, Bone, and Fallen Star at an Imbuing Station (the Witch Doctor is a Lihzahrd). If that's not enough, Spikes or Meteorite Bar could be added, or even Lihzahrd Power Cells since Temple enemies can spawn outside the temple pre-Hardmode. Other thematic possibilities include a vial of Holy Water, stingers, or some kind of herb.

All of these suggestions intentionally balance availability around early Hardmode or a dedicated late pre-Hardmode player.

But the Imbuing Station only makes flasks, you may object? Well, I am sort of thinking of the Old England folk magic concept of the witch bottle, one of various kinds of charm that could be hidden in a building's structure for magical effects.

That makes it appropriate to be back-wall, and easy to hide without compromising a structure's aesthetics.
 
Last edited:
Yes please!

Though, this also could somehow protect NPCs in general.
like, monsters don't spawn in town WHEN you're in the town. however if you leave the town, monsters might spawn inside the town, and kill your nonchalantly walking NPCs. - this is not much a thing in the forest town at day, even in hardmode, but a very real threat at places like jungle town - derplings, giant turtles, etc. can murder your NPCs with a single touch. - or underground with various dangerous stuff, such as black recluses...

It would be great to stop wraits and the like first of all of course. they're among the most notorious NPC killers, outside of event enemies - actually though, as far as I seen, town NPCs will attack wraits, but the only town NPC type effective against these floating menaces are melee NPCs (such as the sytlist or the dye trader) because they can protect themselves and have good chance to actually survive facing a wraith (on 1 vs. 1) - ranger and mage and such NPCs usually shoot/throw something, then run. whatever weapon they use nearly never kills anything in a single shot, and wraits will just pursue them and they quickly meet their demise.
the most frustrating is, this can happen off-screen too, so you don't even have the slightest chance to save them, because by the time you go there, the wraith might already killed yout NPC.

A question though, how these protective barriers would affect bosses? because almost all bosses move though blocks, and they would be absolutely crippled, if they would be stopped by the walls of your house. though you could say bosses are immune to this (which still would end up like some murder your whole town, if you summoned it there. cough... the destroyer... cough...)

A different approach would be to simply have a way to make town NPCs invulnerable (there are mods like "friendly NPCs doesn't die" or such, which makes them immune to monsters and drowning in water (which is currently another very common thing they do...)
arguable if it's OP or not, but it's a huge pain that a single pirate invasion can wipe out your entire town

(interestingly enough, having several town actually reduces event casualties, as you will usually stay in one town for the time of an event (usually the forest town I think, which will often gets wiped out. because NPCs randomly open the doors on the 6785 pirate corsairs knocking on their doors. goblins are even worse, because they even ruin the housing by dismantling the doors, so you have to reassign everyone again. and again.)
but the folks in the other towns are safe.

So, what I mean, players can defend themselves pretty well, and won't usually die from a single wraits floating though the door to say hi. if the safety of the NPCs wouldn't be a concern at all - like if they are immune to monster attacks to begin with, you could do your business fighting much more efficiently against the event enemies, without having to worry that you will end up with a ghost town (also rendering your town pylon useless for some time until new NPCs move in)
And no, it's not just about your efforst protecting them, you really can't do anything when an off-screen NPC gets killed by a wraith, black recluse, or a giant turtle in their face.

So, a great approach would be to make NPCs invulnerable to begin with (make it toggleable in settings, so players can choose if they want it or not)
but if it's not that, these protective barriers would be very awesome too, protecting at least from some of the most annoying menaces, like wraiths.
 
This would be nice, but I’m curious if actuating Echo Blocks cancels enemy spawns. Perhaps they could be what you’re looking for?
 
A question though, how these protective barriers would affect bosses? because almost all bosses move though blocks, and they would be absolutely crippled, if they would be stopped by the walls of your house. though you could say bosses are immune to this (which still would end up like some murder your whole town, if you summoned it there. cough... the destroyer... cough...)

A different approach would be to simply have a way to make town NPCs invulnerable (there are mods like "friendly NPCs doesn't die" or such, which makes them immune to monsters and drowning in water (which is currently another very common thing they do...)
Ah, sorry, oversight. I didn't mean to imply this would stop bosses too. I think if someone tries to fight a boss in their town they deserve what they get.

While I never like losing my Party Girl, I am also concerned about the player's ability to feel safe in their own houses, especially on higher difficulties when everything hits hard.
This would be nice, but I’m curious if actuating Echo Blocks cancels enemy spawns. Perhaps they could be what you’re looking for?
As in, tile the whole area with echo blocks, actuate them all using Grand Design or something, and fill in any gaps you ever make with more echo blocks? I don't think that's a reasonable alternative at all, sorry, even if it works. That's thousands of echo blocks and ongoing tedium, and the Cyborg is post-Plantera anyway.
 
@Jatopian
Yeah, I guess that makes sense that bosses are not immune to it. what about event minibosses? perticularly mothrons.
because you would like fight solar eclipses in your base, and mothrons can hit hard too, and potencially kill NPCs very fast.

Yeah, losing the party girl is even more annoying, considering she respawns at random, not necessarily the next day, but maybe days later.
I don't know about master mode much yet, since I didn't tried that yet, but even on expert, you will have no trouble with a wraith on 1 vs. 1. the town NPCs will have trouble with them however. even on normal.
so, yeah, I'm supporting the idea, since it would be awesome, but NPCs could be just simply invulnerable too, and then this is more about just generally keeping wraiths and the like out of the house. Which would be pretty cool too, but then town NPCs' safety would be no corncern, and it's more about player's safety.

anyway, yes, this would be great.

ah, another thing. I seen this idea around before too, but how about some other barriers that keep the evil biomes away? for instence, you would have a very high chance, that upon entering hardmode, you will lose at least one of your town right away. you likely placed them to serve as useful anchor points too, and losing some of these at a time when traveling around on foot suddenly because a lot more dangerous... and purifying them back can be quite difficult too, with hardmode monsters around...
 
It would just be nice to have a place you can safely AFK on a multiplayer server.
Agreed.
@Jatopian
Yeah, I guess that makes sense that bosses are not immune to it. what about event minibosses? perticularly mothrons.
because you would like fight solar eclipses in your base, and mothrons can hit hard too, and potencially kill NPCs very fast.

Yeah, losing the party girl is even more annoying, considering she respawns at random, not necessarily the next day, but maybe days later.
I don't know about master mode much yet, since I didn't tried that yet, but even on expert, you will have no trouble with a wraith on 1 vs. 1. the town NPCs will have trouble with them however. even on normal.
so, yeah, I'm supporting the idea, since it would be awesome, but NPCs could be just simply invulnerable too
Given Xemiel's point, I think events that can repeatedly happen without anything the player does to trigger, like blood moon and solar eclipse, should not be able to overcome the protections.

NPC invulnerability is unlikely to be implemented since NPC death is how you get gravestones in hardcore difficulty.
 
Back
Top Bottom