Terraria - Any initial thoughts?

Elbino · Post by **Elbino** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:38 pm

I'm probably going to snag a 4 pack of this tonight. I have 3 spoken for, but if anyone wants to be the fourth, just LMK.

Zarni · Post by **Zarni** » Tue May 31, 2011 4:34 pm

I used the free world viewer app to create a png of my map and was astounded by how big the game is. I did create my world on the largest setting, but I'm sure I will explore until I'm sick of the game before running out of places to go.

Last night, I was attacked by the Eye boss just out of the blue, and since I only have iron armor and gold weapons, he slayed me easily...

Very fun game.

Zarni

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:12 pm

Something about this game keeps me coming back but the interface is awkward and I haven't found anything worth finding during my exploration. I'll give it a few more tries.

Lordnine · Post by **Lordnine** » Tue May 31, 2011 6:22 pm

I found the best way to locate treasure chests is to turn your sound way up and mine towards water. Water almost always leads to large caverns which usually contain a chest.

Also, the miners hat is definitely worth the gold!

On the server I share with ChrisGrenard and Turtle I think we have about 6 Clouds in a Bottle. Magic mirrors are almost as common.

Zarni · Post by **Zarni** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:31 pm

I found a ring of regeneration which is awesome.

lokiju · Post by **lokiju** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:20 pm

New patch, borrowed from QT3:

Player

•Players can no longer repeatedly double jump after touching the top of the world.

Items

•NEW ITEM - Black Lens.
•NEW ITEM - Sunglasses.
•NEW ITEM - Jungle Armor (This has replaced Cobalt Armor.)
•NEW ITEM - (RARE and SECRET Item for casters) Go on! Find it!
•Fixed a bug that prevented Underground Jungle Seeds from spawning.
•Using the Cloud in a Bottle will now correctly reset fall distance.
•Set bonuses that provide more defense, now correctly match their tool-tip.
•All armor inventory icons have been improved.
•All player armor graphics have been improved.
•Iron, gold, meteor, and bone helmets have been changed graphically.
•Molten armor’s overall defense has been reduced.
•Meteor armor’s set bonus now reduces Space Gun mana cost to 0.
•Several magic items have had their damage increased.

NPCs

•Added two new rare enemies that can both be found underground.
•The Demolitionist is now also triggered to arrive when the players have Sticky Bombs and Grenades in their inventory.
•All Skeleton graphics have been changed.
•The Guide now has hit and death effects.
•The Guide can now be killed by hostile NPCs.

World

•Trees now become corrupt instead of being destroyed when touching the corruption. And the new corrupt trees become un-corrupted upon purification.

Server / Multiplayer

•Created a console server with no video card requirement. Type help in the console for a full list of server commands.
•Increased client side multi-player security, this should help in the battle against broken character files.
•There is now a host and play option in the client, that will auto connect you to your own server world upon its creation.
•Corrected a bug that was causing the Server to send out liquid as water when it should have been lava.
•Clients are now able to connect to ports other than 7777.
•Slimes are synced better on multiplayer games.
•Accessories now correctly sync between players.
•Fixed a bug that would cause the player to get stuck on "Receiving Tile Data" when their spawn is placed near the world edge.
•Added -join <ip>, -port <port>, and -pass <password> command line parameters to the client to enable auto-join of servers.

Misc.

•The game window is now re-sizable while in windowed mode.
•Full-screen resolution can now be changed in the options menu.
•Pressing alt+enter to toggle full-screen mode will no longer bring up the chat window.
•Fixed several bugs that would crash the game during world generation.

A Note for those of you who want to host a server but don't want to use the 'Host and Play' option. The server software is located in your steam folder where the Terraria.exe is. It can be launched from there.

Oneprince · Post by **Oneprince** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:12 am

First off, Terraria is an addictive game once you start exploring... I think anyway. Spent my share of hours with some guys at work on a shared server playing the heck out of the game. Definitely is more fun with others. Now that the dedicated server supports like 255 people or whatever.... should get a OO dedicated server up and going somewhere. :p
I've found that this map generator has finesse. http://terrariamapgenerator.codeplex.com/" target="_blank I didn't want to have the whole map spoiled for me, so I created a patch for it that only shows areas that you have discovered (by placing torches).

I'm up to shadow pick and shadow armor currently. Just found my first jungle...

-Oneprince

Lagom Lite · Post by **Lagom Lite** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:17 pm

I've only tried it a couple of hours now but I find the lack of a third dimension limits the joy of building. I keep asking myself why I'm not playing Minecraft. Maybe there's more to this as you advance?

Of course, the whole 8-bit feeling is wonderful - it's like Super Mario Bros 2 but I get to build the environment.

lokiju · Post by **lokiju** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:41 pm

Lagom Lite wrote:I've only tried it a couple of hours now but I find the lack of a third dimension limits the joy of building. I keep asking myself why I'm not playing Minecraft. Maybe there's more to this as you advance?

Of course, the whole 8-bit feeling is wonderful - it's like Super Mario Bros 2 but I get to build the environment.

Terraria and Minecraft are fun for opposing reasons (at least to me). In Terraria you go out to explore to collect goods and find treasure so that you can take on the bosses and new areas...you need new gear to progress to harder areas. Finding treasure is a major focus. Building is secondary in terms of fun and excitement. It's an adventure game first, building second.

In Minecraft you build because it's really the only thing to do aside from collecting materials so you can build more. There's really no reason to explore aside from finding better ore and gems so you can recraft new tools (which I hate doing) and use new types of building materials. There's no real reward to exploring aside from finding rare ore/gems (there are a few chests in the world, but pretty rare last time I played). It's a building game first, adventure second. Mods change a lot of this though, something Terraria doesn't have yet.

kganey · Post by **kganey** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:15 pm

GreenGoo wrote:
lokiju wrote: I have to say this is one of my favorite games of 2011.
Anyone else have similar feelings?

It's getting there for me. I can definitely see breaking 40 hours in the game, which will definitely put it in the top five of the year automatically. I keep having that "just ten more minutes" feeling.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:09 pm

lokiju wrote:
Lagom Lite wrote:I've only tried it a couple of hours now but I find the lack of a third dimension limits the joy of building. I keep asking myself why I'm not playing Minecraft. Maybe there's more to this as you advance?

Of course, the whole 8-bit feeling is wonderful - it's like Super Mario Bros 2 but I get to build the environment.
Terraria and Minecraft are fun for opposing reasons (at least to me). In Terraria you go out to explore to collect goods and find treasure so that you can take on the bosses and new areas...you need new gear to progress to harder areas. Finding treasure is a major focus. Building is secondary in terms of fun and excitement. It's an adventure game first, building second.

In Minecraft you build because it's really the only thing to do aside from collecting materials so you can build more. There's really no reason to explore aside from finding better ore and gems so you can recraft new tools (which I hate doing) and use new types of building materials. There's no real reward to exploring aside from finding rare ore/gems (there are a few chests in the world, but pretty rare last time I played). It's a building game first, adventure second. Mods change a lot of this though, something Terraria doesn't have yet.

This... and the fact that I spent over two hours in Minecraft getting diamonds for a diamond pick and then 30+ minutes of tedious holding the mouse button to gather 25 obsidian only to have it all thrown away by a Zombie.

MC needs awesome magic items (portal to home, anyone?) and a "loot chest" that drops when you die to recover your stuff.

EzeKieL · Post by **EzeKieL** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:44 pm

New big patch!

Items
Added Feature! - Social Slots. All normal armor and vanity items can be placed here to use their graphical appearance in place of equipped gear without overriding their stat gains.
New Vanity Items - Tuxedo Shirt and Pants
New Vanity Items - Plumber Outfit and Hat
New Vanity Items - Hero Outfit and Hat
New Vanity Item - Bunny Hood
New Vanity Item - Fish Bowl
New Vanity Item - Top Hat
New Vanity Items - Archaeologist's Outfit and Hat
New Vanity Item - Ninja Outfit.
New Vanity Item - Red Hat.
New Vanity Item - Summer Hat
New Vanity Item - Robe
New Vanity Item - Robot Hat
New Vanity Item - Gold Crown
New Item - Leather
New Item - Green Dye
New Item - Black Dye
You can now wear the Jungle Rose in your hair
The Water Candle’s enemy spawn rate increase effect now works correctly when held
Some items that were missing ‘lore text’ in their tool-tips now have them.(Breathing Reed,Grappling Hook Jungle Rose.)
Ammo items are now listed as Ammo in their tool-tip and Equipable Items that offer no stat bonus list as Vanity Items in their tool-tip. Items used in any recipe now list as Materials, in their tool-tip.
The Magic Hat now offers 2 Defense to its wearer and the Empty Bucket now offers 1 Defense to its wearer.
Dungeon Blocks now require at least a Nightmare Pick to mine, unless they are near the spawn location, where they can be mined by any pick.
Phoenix Blaster has had a reduction of stats to balance better with other items of its tier.
Gem, Mushroom and Bottle sell values have been reduced.
Hell Forges above the rock layer can be moved with any hammer, but below require a 60% power hammer or stronger.
Angel Statues are now more rare of a find.

NPCs
New NPC - Bunny
New NPC - Goldfish (Is also an Item)
New Enemy - Corrupt Bunny
New Enemy - Corrupt Goldfish
New Enemy - Piranha
New Enemy - Harpy
New Random Mini- Boss - King Slime
New Enemy - Bat
New Enemy - Jungle Bat
New Enemy - Jungle Slime
New Enemy - Snatcher
New Rare Enemy - Dr. Bones
New Rare Enemy - The Groom
New NPC - A Clothier will now move into your town when the conditions are met.
Enemy spawn distance has been pushed back to the maximum resolution to ensure that they will never spawn on the screen.
Enemy spawn rates have been adjusted to account for the increased spawn distance.
Enemy projectiles no longer drop hearts or stars when killed by the player.
The Eater of Worlds now has Higher HP, Def and Dmg, making battling him more difficult.
Hornets no longer appear as if they are about to flip over while flying.
The Dead Miner is now a bit stronger.
Tim’s spawn chance has been reduced.

Player
Players now have 1 second of invulnerability after they spawn.
The eat/drink animation now plays correctly.

World-Gen
Surface Jungle’s are now possible on mud that is on the surface. Jungle trees will auto-grow on their own, as acorns are not usable on the jungle grass.
Chasms are now less frequent to appear, but always have an orb.
Mud now ‘blends’ graphically with dirt, rather than stone to add for a more crisp look in Jungles.
Jungle plants now grow underwater.

Multiplayer
Increased client side security.
Selecting summon items will no longer cause monsters to summon.
Players with a name over 20 characters will now get booted from the server.
Added some minor anti-grief protection.
Fixed a bug that would cause the client to attempt to summon an NPC during a multiplayer game and crash.
Added the -host command line parameter to the client.

Server
Improved server timing, which should help reduce lag.
Added several new command line and config options. These are listed in serverconfig.txt
Servers will now output to crashlog.txt before crashing, allowing for more specific bug reporting.
Clients will now output to client-crashlog.txt before crashing, allowing for more specific bug reporting.

Misc.
Screen resolutions now have limits of 800x600 minimum and 1920x1200 maximum.
Added an option that will pause the game while talking to an NPC or opening your inventory in single player. It defaults to off.
Added an option to automatically save the world every 10 minutes. Defaults to on.
Added a prompt to load a world backup if the current world is corrupt.
Added a check to determine if a world file was loaded successfully.
Attempting to Launch the game from the Terraria.exe, will now inform you to launch via Steam rather then doing nothing at all with no indication of why.
Backing out of the port selection screen now plays the correct sound.
Setting options now correctly align with the center of the screen in all resolutions.
The settings menu has been reorganized. All video related options have their own menu
The “Tink” sound now has a more dull sound.
The Re-Logic splash screen, now scales correctly in other resolutions.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:58 am

Wow! Awesome patch!

Time to fire the game back up again...

Zarni · Post by **Zarni** » Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:59 am

I just killed Skeletron and now plan on rebuilding my house with all the gold and silver brick i have recovered from islands.

but that all will have to wait until i have played Duke Nukem. I've been waiting for 14 years to play this game.. amazing isn't it?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:35 pm

What's the good word? I keep seeing tons of people playing it and I'm intrigued.

Zarni · Post by **Zarni** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:39 am

It was well worth the $10 to play (i think it is only 10.. might be alittle more) once I killed the last boss, I lost interest for now but I certainly played the heck out of it before then. I recommend it.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:18 pm

I am pretty sure the STEAM summer sale is going to be announced later this week...hopefully I can grab it then.

Kal · Post by **Kal** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:19 pm

I would say that for the price it is worth it as the game currently is, however it will be refined and the current content will be expanded upon. I know that I have certainly gotten sufficient playtime already for the expenditure I put out and it looks like the game will be added to for quite awhile yet.

In a bit more detail, the next patch due out (1.0.5) will have various tweaks to the game and an increase in options for the alchemy crafting table which has previously been pretty limited. Plus a 'hardcore mode' will be introduced whereby you choose at character creation to create a hardcore mode character which cannot then be toggled off. If you die then the you will have to start a new character and if you return to that world you will see a gravestone at the location the old character died, though you will be able to access any chests or other resources the old character left behind.

Long term goals have been described as including pure pvp servers that have team-based objectives, addition of sloped tiles to make movement easier, harder worlds including alien worlds and alternate realities to extend the long-term playability of a character. Then there will be added events, introduction of seasons, a stamina stat and some kind of crafting of mechanics for traps and so on. All info taken from the terraria online blog.

Klif · Post by **Klif** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:52 am

I would love to see an OO multiplayer server for Terraria. I'm more than willing to set one up on my home PC, but I'm certain it will be laggy & slow, and the downtime will be greater than the uptime.

...but if the need is there, I'll give it a go. Just say the word!

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:07 pm

There was another massive patch released today around noon. The list of what it adds is pretty long, but in general there's a lot of new items, including various potions that have buffs useful for adventuring, several new block types, including coral, new ways the worlds are generated, many new ways the balance and progression scheme is made friendlier.

So, in less than two months Terraria has completely outpaced all of Minecraft's updates. If they ever went 3D I'd probably abandon Minecraft.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:12 pm

The only thing that's stopping me from buying it is the fact that the STEAM summer sale is rumored to start next Thursday. But yes - I like that is so heavily supported.

Kal · Post by **Kal** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 1:27 am

Turtle wrote:There was another massive patch released today around noon. The list of what it adds is pretty long, but in general there's a lot of new items, including various potions that have buffs useful for adventuring, several new block types, including coral, new ways the worlds are generated, many new ways the balance and progression scheme is made friendlier.

So, in less than two months Terraria has completely outpaced all of Minecraft's updates. If they ever went 3D I'd probably abandon Minecraft.

Just got a contract extension confirmed so will be having drinks with boss and co-workers tonight, then moving out of the guesthouse Im in to house-sit a colleagues place tomorrow, plus have a motorbike lesson....but I kinda want to bail on this to play the new patch.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Jun 26, 2011 7:26 pm

After reading the official Terraria forums, it was suggested that the $10 price was only introductory and their intention was to raise it. That being the case, it didn't seem likely that it will go on sale next week...so I picked it up yesterday.

Time just melts away. The first half hour I had no idea what I was doing and when the sun went down, I literally hid in a cave, walled myself in and waited for the sun. After reading up a bit on how to get started, I've managed to completely lose myself for over four hours now. I'd be hard-pressed to say exactly why it's fun but good grief? For $10 -- it's already more fun than Duke Nukem Forever.

Hotfreak · Post by **Hotfreak** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:34 pm

I'm not normally into this type of game but Terraria is tremendous. There's an incredible pace to it -- once you know what you are doing; the rewards keep coming in and there are always many different things to do and places to explore. I'm pretty shocked, actually, that I've been able to get into it what with its old school looks and sounds and its lack of z-axis.

I've actually lost sleep.

I imagine that I will hit the ceiling eventually but it has already been well worth the $.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:41 pm

Funny you should mention lost sleep....

I was up until 3am this morning tossing and turning because my brain was going a hundred miles an hour over the game. I mentioned it elsewhere, but I think I figured out why it's so engrossing. When I was around 10 years old, I can clearly remember drawing all kinds of "secret bases" on plain white scrap paper with a #2 pencil. Sprawling bases that had insane bunker structures beneath them. I'm nearly certain it was part of playing with GI Joe but I can't say for sure. Eventually those same skills were used to create maps for D&D games, but the basic premise was the same. This game is letting me do something very similar --my first house really is a just a shack with a giant secret underground bunker. If that wasn't enough, now you add in the element of exploration and the lite RPG elements.

I also lost another 2 hours of my life last night playing MP and just laughing at the emergent game play as we continued to dig deep below the surface.

There really is nothing like spending sawbuck and get a hold of a fantastic indie game. I'm not usually into the pure sandbox games, but this really resonates with me.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:33 pm

That's because it's not a pure sandbox game. There's actually adventure elements built right into the game.

Monsters in minecraft are just a constant nuisance that has to be built around. But in Terraria, they're just as constant, probably moreso, but they're something to overcome. You can get to the point, with enough exploring and loot, that those monsters become fodder to you.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:39 pm

I'm coming from a position of ignorance as I've never touched Minecraft, but I haven't hit any point of Terraria that has a "point". All I'm doing (right or wrong) is building a sprawling housing structure and digging holes in the ground. Though I would agree (based on what I saw in MP) that monsters and exploration seemed trivial when you have the right gear.

So maybe it's 90% sandbox? I don't know. It's definitely out of my norm.

Hotfreak · Post by **Hotfreak** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:46 am

What do people do with their extra dirt, mud, sand, clay blocks that so clog up the inventory?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:33 pm

If I'm local to my base, I just unload them on one of the merchants. I don't get paid, but they're not clogging up my inventory. I have found them to be quite useful while digging around underground, but I've seen more experienced players with all kinds of crazy gear that make the creation of stairs and platforms useless.

Klif · Post by **Klif** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 6:46 pm

Hotfreak wrote:What do people do with their extra dirt, mud, sand, clay blocks that so clog up the inventory?

I keep a few stacks of dirt for underground bridges and other hole-filling. Sand is turned almost immediately into glass -- for bottles, for potions, for building, etc. Sand is also good for dropping down into water or lava to clear it out. Clay is turned into pots or bricks, for decoration around the house. Mud? I've got nothin'. I know it grows Jungle grass, but I've never really played with it.

From the Wikia (don't use the Wikia. It's dumb. Use the official Wiki instead): One full stack of sand (250) can be turned into 125 pieces of glass, from which 250 bottles can be made, which can be sold for 50 silver, which makes 500 silver or 5 gold for each full row of inventory, thus it's pretty good profit.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:00 pm

How does this compare to, say, dwarf fortress?

Kal · Post by **Kal** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:25 pm

Radically different and hard to compare actually. Getting down to it there is mining but you control one guy and not a rising number of insane and emotional little-people. There is a progression in equipment dependent on ores found and monsters defeated but other than those two there aren't really any other similarities bar both being from indie studios...I guess Toady can be described as an indie studio.

That said Terraria is much more polished in terms of graphics and GUI while being less chaotic in possible results.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jun 28, 2011 11:51 pm

It just sounded from what Smoove was saying, that you make a little underground structure for yourself, gather resources, craft things, etc. I assumed things like specialized rooms, furniture, stuff like that. A little sim builder type thing, even though you control 1 guy and adventure him around and such.

Kal · Post by **Kal** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 2:07 am

The first part yes but there are limited uses for rooms, one to craft, one to store and others to lure NPCs to your structure but no specialised rooms currently though the game is still expanding. Far more adventure oriented in my opinion.

Edit: That said people have had fun building large structures, especially in MP with lots of players running around.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:35 am

Yeah after about ~10 hours in, it's definitely more about crafting and exploring than building a house. Early on I had to build a structure to protect myself from the monsters that come out at night. It then evolved from protection into a functional structure for crafting. After that, attracting NPCs.

Until I was able to build better weapons and armor (by finding copper and iron ore), I spent a lot of time digging around directly under my starting base. Someone on STEAM is posting links to the types of houses people have created.

But now I'm doing much more deep-digging rather than home construction. I only come home now to craft and sell stuff.

Funny you should ask about Terraria vs. Minecraft when IGN put up an editorial comparing the two of them yesterday.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:32 am

Thanks Smoove, I'll check it out tonight.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:38 am

Interestingly enough, I'm reading today that the next patch (1.8?) for Minecraft is adding in more exploration and "adventuring" elements by improving exploration and combat aspects of the game. No idea when that's due, but it sounds like a pretty big change and part of the criticism from the IGN article.

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:11 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Interestingly enough, I'm reading today that the next patch (1.8?) for Minecraft is adding in more exploration and "adventuring" elements by improving exploration and combat aspects of the game. No idea when that's due, but it sounds like a pretty big change and part of the criticism from the IGN article.

Next patch is 1.7 due out tomorrow.
1.8 will likely hit sometime late summer/early fall.
It's hard to know with minecraft what was planned all along and what is reaction to games like Terraria.
I don't think it's matters though, each game's influence on the other is making two very good (if similar) games.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 4:38 pm

Just a note 1.7 is only slated to add Pistons.

I'm not exactly sure what the heck one does with pistons and I'm terrible at using redstone wires. I didn't major in engineering.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jun 29, 2011 6:27 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Yeah after about ~10 hours in, it's definitely more about crafting and exploring than building a house. Early on I had to build a structure to protect myself from the monsters that come out at night. It then evolved from protection into a functional structure for crafting. After that, attracting NPCs.

Until I was able to build better weapons and armor (by finding copper and iron ore), I spent a lot of time digging around directly under my starting base. Someone on STEAM is posting links to the types of houses people have created.

But now I'm doing much more deep-digging rather than home construction. I only come home now to craft and sell stuff.

Funny you should ask about Terraria vs. Minecraft when IGN put up an editorial comparing the two of them yesterday.

I actually asked about dwarf fortress vs Terraria, but the review is useful and more apt.