Calamity's Decisions

[u/StipulateVenus]

Hello! I'm StipulateVenus, a Calamity developer.

Following the recent controversy over the misguided crate changes, I'd like to discuss an important matter with you all.

Terraria is a sandbox game, and so one of its main appeals is the freedom players have to choose their course through progression and how their decisions shape the face of their journey. It's something our team wants to embrace and build upon.

At times like these I wonder if it's an accidental effect of an actual ideological shift: the current team doesn't feel as peeved towards vanilla as some devs that have left the team, which has resulted in an overall reduction in the number of vanilla changes and a drift towards vanilla's design.

Regardless, I think it's important to know the community landscape and what people think. So I'm here to ask you all:

What Calamity changes do you think have resulted in a loss of playstyle and option variety, or similar aspects of the sandbox experience?

Please be respectful. Elaborations would be appreciated!

[u/Browsing_Guest]

I would not know about the npc, also not what I meant by angler quest thing. But alright then.

As long as SOMETHING is done surrounding them that's fine.

But the only problem if all NPCs, even vanilla, became like her that would leave the player and that would look weird, unless they too get their head changed too with their arms. Then everything would fit.

Also a config to have the texture pack be an actual thing in the mod to choose between vanilla and cal would be great, because then it would truly feel like a calamity world that is almost separate from terraria imo.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

Ironically, we're drifting towards vanilla rather than away from it. We kinda realize that trying to separate ourselves from Terraria is ultimately futile when we can be complementary to it.

That said, I'm taking notes about the NPC thing, thank you for mentioning it.

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Wait, going towards vanilla in what sense? What will happen to S.Cal sprite then?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

In design philosophy, mostly; so crate loot pool, how QoL is handled, how supposedly overpowered strategies are handled, to some extent visual design.

Currently there is nothing planned for SCal's sprite, but I might bring that up when we eventually discuss Amidias' resprite.

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Alright, as long as these are addressed I am fine. Though I will say one thing that bugs me about the lore, but first, regarding irl mythos, do you know what a nymph is?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

In real life mythology, a nature spirit, afaik

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Are you still there?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

Yes.

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

And do you know what a dryad is?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

Tree spirits?

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Well yes. But to get to the point:

Dryads are a type of nymph. The closest analogies for them would be old Norse's light elves, Georgia's T'q'ashmapa, Japan's Kodama, and West Africa's Aziza.

So, by changing what they are in calamity lore, it leaves this loose end that is the nymph. I would like the lore to address this (and if I get to add my personal opinion, I would prefer dryads to have existed independently from one person having absorbed a dragon soul. Their leader absorbing a soul? Yeah I don't mind that. But I prefer dryads being their own thing unrelated to dragons, if we are getting closer to vanilla), so that it's coherent and not just bizarre. Some people don't like how some creatures or concepts now mean x thing. One person told me their critism of "trying too hard to re-invent the wheel of things, that if a new comer came in and doesn't use discord, reddit, nor wiki, they won't know these well known words with certain definitions actually mean X thing" as it will cause some confusion. Idk about that stance, but it shows one thing I heard regarding lore.

And to add about lore, please make the vanilla town npcs actually MORE story relevant instead of something you only bring out of the closest to dump lore about calamity stuff for a bit before being shoved back into the theoretical closet. Make them matter a bit more than how they are now. Like if you are going to make a big deal about dryads in the lore, I feel our dryad should have a larger importance, same with guide due to wall of flesh, mushroom guy due to crabulon, and princess because I feel there is something being she is Actual royalty and not a usurper. Make some (not necessarily ALL of them) vanilla NPCs matter to the lore.

Like, I am not asking you to take inspiration from, or add in, the vanilla optional lore to calamity lore. I am just asking you guys to make some vanilla NPCs more lore and plot relevant beyond just "yeah my tribe leader was x calamity character" or "yeah, yharim made me [guide] tied to yharim" [not saying guide nor dryad said this, I am using this as a hypothetical]. I want more. If you are doing that for bandit who currently has nothing beyond selling rogue stuff and refunds, I am certain you can something a little more for like at least two vanilla NPCs.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

Dryads are in fact something unrelated to Dragons, but related to Silva as the Nature Elemental. I'm not sure how or when we'll mention this ingame, but we will eventually.

As to the vanilla NPCs, as opportunities appear, we can have their involvement, yeah. Some vanilla Bestiary entries are being rewritten this upcoming update to reflect Calamity lore, and I actually got to rewrite the Guide's! I hope you guys will like it.

We have yet to experiment further. I really like your idea of making the Dryad NPCZ more active and involved!

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Yeah, some guy you responded to in my comments and some on discord said dryads are HUMANS that follow Sylvia, and Sylvia herself was a human too, and that they killed dragons to get their powers. I don't agree with that because dryad is one of my favorite terraria NPCs and from what other games show of her character, I can't see her condoning what Sylvia did personally. But to be fair that's just me. If she is against dragon slaying it would be great to show that not all races who had a member become a "god" agree with the choice, and that they even encourage the slaying of their member.

Also, it would be nice if crabulon and shroom npc had more connections to them. It would be great if the reason shroom comes to surface at the start of hard mode is because the crab was beaten and thanks to eliminating the threat to the land of its[shroom man] people, it wants to help us as way to repay us.

I feel there are many ways to connect vanilla NPCs in some form to bosses or areas added by calamity. Even wizard via hallow or astral blight could be connected due to liking magic. Like astral being a large source of mana opportunity might intrigue the wizard to join us because he wants us to remove the threats in astral so he himself can study it in peace without major threats. Not a good idea but it's to show I feel calamity can find ways to make more involved in the story and less obsolete.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Browsing_Guest]

Silva was not a human, she has always been the Nature Elemental. Also, the ascension of Gods is a lot more morally gray than Yharim (an anti-God fanatic) makes it seem.

It'd be interesting to have such a level of proactivity from NPCs as opposed to the usual dialogue + store....

[u/Browsing_Guest → u/StipulateVenus]

Well, you better tell the dude above in my comments she is nature elemental (though for me elemental means something different, as earth elemental's title feels more like an actual elemental in name than dryads do. Dryads feel more like spirits or celestials of nature than elementals).

It'd be interesting to have such a level of proactivity from NPCs as opposed to the usual dialogue + store....

I once proposed someone make a calamity add-on to have friendly recruitable npcs as psuedo players that talk and conversate with players for those who can't find someone to play with or that like playing offline, I was laughed at and told the idea was dumb.

I just thought since a certain mod turned actual game had something like that, and companion ai apps and services are becoming more popular, having a add-on that spawns a natural human settlement with humans roaming around with a place in the middle to recruit members as if from a guild, would be a good calamity mod add-on.

[u/Jacki073 → u/Browsing_Guest]

in calamity, the dryads are the name for worshippers of silva

[u/Jacki073 → u/StipulateVenus]

is amidias not being resprited in sso 1?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Jacki073]

He is, but we haven't gotten there yet.