Terraria 1.3 (Hide your spoilers)

[Taleric]

In case it is off your radar Terraria 1.3 will be out shortly! Such a great game :)

I somehow convinced the wife to play Don't Starve and it has been a blast so fingers crossed I can pull Terraria off aswell.

I am going in blind and only know there is some type of lunar event but at this point they really can't go wrong!

[FlowerChild]

I am going in blind and only know there is some type of lunar event but at this point they really can't go wrong!

Well, the last major patch they put out convinced me to never play the game again despite being initially excited to do so, so I would disagree on their inability to go wrong with another ;)

That last big one felt very much like modded content IMO, and made the early game distinctly less interesting. I might give it a try again with the new patch, but I suspect if I start out with the beginner tools already premade in my inventory again, it will also drive me away again.

[Taleric]

Do it for the late game FC! It is a bummer early game is ruined but 30 min in you won't even remember :)

A few months back I tested some of the other difficult options and there is some serious challenge to be had!

I just hope the starbound guys are paying attention to this as if the community will not remind them.

[FlowerChild]

Do it for the late game FC! It is a bummer early game is ruined but 30 min in you won't even remember :)

Doubt it man. Slow progression is a kinda big thing for me :)

I definitely gave it more than 30 minutes last time, but like I said, the new content I encountered (can't remember specifically what it was but there may be a thread around somewhere with my reaction) felt like it was at a mod rather than professional quality level and finished off my already shaky desire to play any further.

Having those early game tools at the start wound up making everything else felt like I had cheated and diminished the satisfaction of getting there. I really hate the whole "starting equipment to make things easier" thing (golden dung aside) in these kinds of games. You may have noticed that I promptly ripped all that out of 7 Days as well.

On the "felt modded" front, you may notice that I don't really play mods. Despite making them, I don't generally like playing them :)

I think this largely comes down to level of quality. It's exceptionally rare that I run into a mod that I feel is at a professional development level, and the new stuff in Terraria was not. When I'm playing a game I at no point want to be reminded that it's modded, and I certainly don't want to feel that way if it hasn't been.

[Palisight]

I believe the following thread is the thread FlowerChild was referencing

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7001

[BinoAl]

I had a burst of playing Terraria again with a couple friends a few weeks back, and pretty much 100%ed it, even throwing every complete armor set on mannequins in my house. It might be cool getting new toys, but Terraria devs have never been good about actually extending the game. I don't see myself playing the update much beyond hopping on for a little bit to see some of the new stuff in action.

[Nyoike]

I had gotten a craving to play some more Terraria after Icy put out a video of it, and my friend has been eagerly awaiting the 1.3 release so we played for about an hour and half and I'm already done with it.

The controls seem even more cruddy than I remember, namely the sword not attacking to the side your mouse cursor is on. Probably some cool content, but so far I've not really found anything worth playing for and I'd rather not waste my time getting hand-me-downs from my friend for another 20 hours of the game.

[Stormweaver]

I gave it a quick spin (I'm not the biggest fan of terraria). Decided to try thier new 'expert' mode...one zombie started hitting me for ~60 damage on the first night.

Not sure if artificial difficulty or a huge incentive to not try hitting undead hoardes with glorified sticks. Interesting though.

[DerAlex]

I've been playing expert mode with a buddy of mine for a good 6 hours yesterday. There is no going back for me. The big problem with terraria for me always was, if you are properly prepared and know what you are doing, you are always ahead of the progressing difficulty (I'm a filthy min-maxer and avid wiki user, not only in this game but in every game. Even thou I know this kinda ruins enjoyment of games, I cannot turn that off, sadly). Expert mode totally turns that around, in that it feels like you are constantly underpowered. It is fucking hard, but never unfair. You are always 1 or 2 steps below comfortable. (Expert doubles enemy damage and HP, among other things like new behaviours/move sets)

In my opinion, expert mode reintroduces the slow progression from way-back-when. You can't even leave your house/dirt hole the first few nights without getting absolutely shredded. Playing carefully and skillfully bekomes much more important. You have to master dodges/jumps/grappling hook and so on to be able to stay alive. Stuff like potion brewing and farming the ingredients are suddenly necessary to proceed, as is cooking food, without the "Well Fed"-buff from eating you have almost no HP regen. Every time you die, it's your fault, ether by engaging enemies you shouldn't engage, being somewhere where you shouldn't be, or generally being careless. The twist is, you have to leave your comfort zone constantly in order to progress. Face-Tanking anything is no longer a valid strategy.

Terraria will propably take another 50 hours of my life from me, expert mode is what I always wanted from the game. As someone who could at one point beat Metal Slug 1 with 4 coins, this twitchy and action based gameplay centered around not getting hit is right up my alley. Might not be everybodys cup of tea thou. I think you really have to know the systems, mechanics, recipes, drops etc. of the game to really have fun with it. I'm still grateful for normal mode. I could never play expert with the missus (tried playing BTW with her. That was.... fun :D), but for solo or group play with skilled players, there is no alternative to expert. I imagine we will run into a brick wall once hard mode is active post Wall-of-Flesh, but I don't think it'll be unmanageable.

There are also many QoL-Changes in the new update, the biggest one for me is the "sort to nearby chests"-button in the inventory. I can relate to the "feels like a mod"-sentiment, there are even inside jokes within the terraria community, like posting "what mod is this?" below screenshots or videos of 1.3, but in my opinion that doesn't have to necessarily be a bad thing. The game was done 3 years ago, the continued update support by the devs is nothing short of phenominal. It is true that terraria is less and less "hardcore" in the sense that you only really need one kind of tool, and inventory management becomes less important with every update due to stuff like the summonable piggy bank. The whole game is, from 1.1 forward, moving more in the direction of a metroidvania, for which it is just better suited IMHO.

If you start playing the game like an action game with some building and crafting, as opposed to the other way round, you can have a lot of fun with it.

[Taleric]

Well sweet, good news Alex! :)

Really looking forward to this weekend now!! I should probably just do normal if I am having a first time player tag along and save expert for myself?

I was able to carry them is Don't Starve RoG but think expert might be a bit beyond that.

Very glad to hear you get 50 more hours of gaming goodness! :)

[Psion]

Well, i've only played a few hours so far, due to FFXIV: Heavensward sucking most of my little free time <_< but i've enjoyed what i've seen in expert mode so far. everything hits a lot harder. even green slimes hit me for 14 or so damage without armor, zombies occasionally carry a zombie arm as a weapon, giving them an extended reach (they didn't drop the arm when killed though) and hit for around 50 damage, and antlions about the same.

speaking of antlions:

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most of my time so far was spent trying to get my stuff back from them XD i died in the desert because there's a lovely new minibiome of antlion pits. very deep pits from which rise up flying antlions that charge you. there's also antlion chargers that walk along the ground and are a bit hard to jump over due to their wide size, and even normal antlions can slowly climb up the antlion pit while shooting at you.

oh, and i found a new item called herb bag in some chests. it didn't have a number next to it so it might not be stackable, but opening it gives you random herbs and herb seeds, usually 2-5 different ones, and a few of each herb or seed. seems a bit nicer then finding random herbs in chests and having half your inventory taken up.

::edit:: they are indeed, stackable bags. very nice QOL change from before.

[Taleric]

I just tried solo expert for a bit and I have to agree!

I am approaching things so much slower and appreciating the details :). I have needed the lower tier armor and weapons; even with them I spot some night or semi-cave creatures and am in horror lol.

Much careful planning ahead, yeah this will be 50 hours :)!

[Psion]

What the... for some reason when i was at a wooden chest, some glowing yellow circle appeared and spat out several gold coins at me. i'm not sure if it was because i accidentally hit the chest, or its some random event... caught me off guard lol.

[DerAlex]

@psion

that's a coin portal, it appears rarely upon destroying a pot

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A tip for new expert mode players: Get the demolitionist, buy 30+ bombs, turn them sticky by combining with gel, get to the corruption/crimson, destroy 1 or 2 orbs with the bombs so that meteors spawn, find and mine a meteor with bombs (you will die a few times, don't worry), and craft the meteor armor and the gun. When wearing the meteor armor, the gun doesn't need mana, and the first 2 bosses are much easier. We'll try to tackle Skeletron today, and maybe the WoF. I'm not exactly looking forward to the beginning of hard mode...

Whoa dude...spoilers -Flower

[abculatter_2]

@psion

that's a coin portal, it appears rarely upon destroying a pot

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A tip for new expert mode players: Get the demolitionist, buy 30+ bombs, turn them sticky by combining with gel, get to the corruption/crimson, destroy 1 or 2 orbs with the bombs so that meteors spawn, find and mine a meteor with bombs (you will die a few times, don't worry), and craft the meteor armor and the gun. When wearing the meteor armor, the gun doesn't need mana, and the first 2 bosses are much easier. We'll try to tackle Skeletron today, and maybe the WoF. I'm not exactly looking forward to the beginning of hard mode...

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This has been a solid strategy in Terraria since the meteor armor set made space guns free to use, and one I'm kinda disappointed is still there...

[FlowerChild]

If you're going to go super min-max wiki-crazy sploitorama, please at lease spoiler it as per OP request. I don't intend to play this thing really, but I know that's the kind of info I'd hate having thrown at me and would likely spoil my fun if I did.

That's not a tip for new players Alex. That sounds more like how to negate all challenge in the game in one paragraph.

[BinoAl]

I played through with my old character in his original endgame gear, in a new world with expert mode enabled.

Here there be spoilers

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It took me a bit to realize what I had to do, since I forgot that beating Plantera then Golem was part of the progression. I wiped out the cultist boss without much trouble (Spectre healing is still pretty ridiculous, even in expert mode), then went on to beat Nebula tower (By chance) and was able to craft both nebula weapons. After crafting both of them, I was able to beat 2 more towers with only a few deaths. The Solar tower was fucking scary for some reason. Srollers kept coming out of nowhere and one-shotting me, though they were still generally pretty slow. And then the Moon Lord. Jesus Christ the Moon Lord. I didn't have any permanent flight like the UFO mount yet, and didn't know of the rail trick to beat him, so I died again and again. I finally beat him and got a kickass, mana-chugging prism laser + portal gun

All in all, it was pretty fun, compared with other Terraria updates. It adds some endgame fights/bosses, but it's all so repetitive and unrewarding that I really don't see myself playing through again.

[DerAlex]

That's not a tip for new players Alex. That sounds more like how to negate all challenge in the game in one paragraph.

We tried (and failed) to tackle skeletron with that load out yesterday, so I somewhat disagree. It skips progression a bit, but only enough to fight 2 of the 26 (!) bosses currently in the game (3 if you count king slime). The game only really begins after the wall of flesh is destroyed and hard mode is activated. With that armor and weapon combo, you'll, in the parlance of our times, will get rekt. Also, and I think this is an important argument in this discussion, I'm talking about the new expert mode, where "going on a super min-max wiki-crazy sploitorama" is no longer game breaking, it becomes the game.

But yeah, the spoiler should've been spoilered, especially since not everybody is playing expert mode, thanks for editing.

@BinoAI
you kinda spoiled the fun for yourself by using an existing, maxed out character I think. There aren't that many new end-game items, but many, many, MANY new side grades in the early, mid and late game

[Taleric]

I am having a blast :D!

I am making use of all the small items I blitzed right over before. Right now the snowball gun is my savior! Going to be a while before I make the first boss :P

Got the SO to start a fresh standard game too. She gets way more of a kick from Terraria than any other games she has tried. I guess it is all the humor and accessible 2d layout.

[EpicAaron]

The thought of a more survival-esque Terraria got me really excited, so my friend and I started up a new Expert Mode world. Unfortunately, I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed. The only thing the tougher mobs seem to accomplish is making early game melee less viable than it already was.

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Space gun + Space Armor combo is ridiculous

Any other survival elements that it could have added were very quickly mitigated by walls/torches and generally just slower paced gameplay.

On an aesthetics front, I am still firm in my belief that the game feels modded. The spinning coins, townspeople mingling, and gamey "Congratulations, you've killed your 100th zombie!" messages don't really add to the game, and I'm sure the new bosses are just another layer to the copy/paste endgame cake.

Ultimately, the game feels the same to me as it did during the 1.2 update. I may have just developed a less casual sense for gaming, however.

[dawnraider]

"going on a super min-max wiki-crazy sploitorama" is no longer game breaking, it becomes the game.

I'd like to strongly disagree on this point. In any game that has even slightly competent developers, the above should never be true. People can make it that way, but there should always be a legitimate way to accomplish a task. I personally read wikis obsessively, but only because I don't like surprises and trial-and-error. I hate any exploits, and refuse to use them even if they make it easier.

Expert mode is supposed to make you struggle. As you yourself said, the mode is designed to get you out of your comfort zone. Exploiting your way back in shouldn't be the answer to that. (This isn't anything personal, just a blanket statement)

[DerAlex]

I'd like to strongly disagree on this point. In any game that has even slightly competent developers, the above should never be true. People can make it that way, but there should always be a legitimate way to accomplish a task. I personally read wikis obsessively, but only because I don't like surprises and trial-and-error. I hate any exploits, and refuse to use them even if they make it easier.

edit: I'll spoiler the whole thing now, not just some parts of it like I did before. I also made a new thread for spoiler talk, intended for "expert mode" players who wanna talk strategy

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Game breaking might have been a bad choice of words, I think we are actually on the same page here. The term "sploitorama" was quoted by me from a poster above, it doesn't really fit here. To stay within the example the conversation was about, Bombs are in the game, bombs destroy demonite, shadow orbs and meteorite, and the weapon and armor set are legitimately in the game. I'm not breaking any in-game rules by accessing them 4 hours earlier then throu regular progression I'm just using stuff that's legitimately in the game. Expert mode is for people who finished Terraria 6+ times before this update an know the systems and mechanics in and out, and want to use that knowledge in that new environment of higher challenge by using everythign that they know. I'm not really talking about "real" exploits, there is, for example, a way to kill skeletron and a few other bosses by abusing the slime mount, and I refuse to use this tactic because it's not intended by the developer. Abusing path finding to "cheese" enemies around corners, on the other hand, is fair game.

[FlowerChild]

Look man, just spoiler spoilers all right? Not everyone wants to have solutions to in game problems handed to them instead of figuring them out.

[FlowerChild]

I wasn't talking about your previous post with the above BTW, just the original one about "here's how to beat the first several bosses" that you hadn't spoilered (the one I edited myself) and seem to be repeatedly justifying after the fact.

What I was saying above is that there's no need to debate the validity of such tactics: just spoiler the info.

It's actually more useful to have some kind of label on it so that people know what they're potentially getting into if they open it rather than encase the whole thing like you did in your edit above.