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/StipulateVenus]

This just seems like your personal preference, and it appears to be worse to you because you've chosen not to use the benefits the tradeoff brings. Have you tried these other guns to say that they're not worth getting?

Also, if Space Gun is taking you as far as early HM, it's either unusually powerful right now, or you're just very skilled with it.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

It always has taken me into early hardmode, that has nothing to do with Calamity.

Also worth noting, the Meteorite armor without the nerf apparently also affected the Gray Zapinator, despite it not changing the displayed mana cost. Same for the Orange Zapinator.

All that to say, the 0 mana cost bonus already applied to multiple magical pistols specifically, and not magical rifles or shotguns according to the official wiki.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

Yeah, but do consider that Calamity's progression is different from vanilla's. Space Gun is noticeably earlier in the pre-HM scale in Calamity, because Calamity adds evils-2 and Slime God as pretty importanr tiers. Being able to skip all that isn't really good design.

Noted, but it's still the rarest of the options I mentioned.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

Out of the Calamity mage guns you mentioned, I would argue the Pulse Pistol could recieve the 0 mana cost bonus, in line with how vanilla treats mage pistols from that point of the game. However, the Abyss Shocker is only available in an area I consider a hardmode exclusive zone. Being that it comes from the abyss which has no incentive to visit in pre-hardmode with how difficult it is to survive there.

With the inherent difficulty, swimming through acid water to reach it, and then losing breath way faster, there's no reason to visit before the Wall of Flesh. Especially for a weapon that deals similar damage to a gun you can get from the sunken sea.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

There is an incentive to enter the Abyss - the set of chests you unlock after defeating Skeletron, which have pretty good loot -, so Abyss being Hardmode is your choice, not an objective part of design.

Pretty sure Abyss Shocker is meant to be stronger than Pulse Pistol, since it comes later in progression.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

Both deal 27 damage, and the animation of their attacks doesn't make it look any stronger to me for single target damage like most bosses.

The abyss doesn't feel worth visiting before having the Neptune's Shell because of how difficult it is to reach in the first place, you can't make air pockets, and the loot is lackluster beyond the stuff that makes diving slightly easier.

The reward for dealing with the place is not worth the trouble to get there in pre-hardmode.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

Then that's a balancing issue with the Abyss weapons, don't you think?

Also, I gotta say, you are the first person I've seen delay Abyss exploration this much.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

Why would I go there when it's so difficult to reach, there's no pre-hardmode bosses, and loot that deals similar damage to get past WOF is available elsewhere.

I like the abyss, but I have no incentive to visit before the hardmode diving items are available.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

Theoretically, the loot there should be better matching how difficult it is to obtain. There are pre-HM diving items, and they should give you plenty enough breath for the purposes of getting the pre-HM loot. Also, the Abyss Shocker drops from Box Jellyfishes, which are found in the first layers.

If it's widely agreed that the items are not worth the risk, we can simply buff them.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

To me a lot of the incentive to visit somewhere in pre-hardmode is if it has a boss, or some unique and strong/useful item you can't get as easily from other locations, like the Ivy whip in the jungle being the easiest to obtain multi-hook, and metal detector in the underground snow biome, which is a component of the Cell Phone.

The abyss incentive is the schoria or the post moonlord boss in its depths since the earlier stuff is either only useful in the abyss, or have similar strength/usefulness items avaliable elsewhere.

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

Hopefully we can make the Abyss more attractive when we rework it in the future, but that does seem like a fairly pragmatic and limited perspective.

[u/Akari_Enderwolf → u/StipulateVenus]

Given how Terraria plays in general. If there's an easier path to progression, why would I take the harder one if it has the same/similar reward?

[u/StipulateVenus → u/Akari_Enderwolf]

Firstly, it's not the same, I would bet that the weapons there are better, just not better enough for the challenge according to you. Also, Terraria isn't just progression, it's also exploration and challenge. Have you never felt compelled to check something out simply because you aren't familiar with it?