Terraria 1.0.6 Rant


Terraria's massive 1.0.6 patch came out on the 9th, and of course it made me drain a dozen hours into new world generation, building, and exploring new mechanics/items. Some of the changes and additions/subtractions are fairly minor: dungeons won't spawn underwater anymore, some interface colors were changed, flying creature AI was improved a bit, etc. Others were pretty game changing: you can no longer create blocks in lava, chests on floating islands, in dungeons and in the underground now require keys...and so on. The full change log is at TerrariaOnline.com

But, I'll stop boring you with the individual changes and bore you with the actual impact. The game is significantly more difficult now and has a lot more decorative depth. With health potions only being usable once a minute, and healing for half as much, avoiding damage is crucial now - even in Molten armor. This is a good thing, as a good bow and golden armor could get you through the entirety of the game in version 1.0.5. The difficulty curve is a little less accommodating for new players, but it's still reasonable. I think this difficulty change (coupled with the new mediumcore ruleset for a character, where you lose all items upon death a-la Minecraft) makes a stronger overall game and will help retain players that aren't so interested in building as I am.

Now the building, oh BOY - tons of new items. And with tons of new items, the necessary stronghold redesigns! Suffice to say, more options for items (yay, a toilet) turns out to be a huge boon for making interesting and more complex housing. Sure, some of the changes are a bit annoying (you need a loom to make cloth, that sort of thing) but it really fleshes out the crafting and building system and feels more complete.

I think the 1.0.6 patch was an excellent addition to the game. There is one thing that drives me nuts though: why the hell are Shadow Chests (which require a key acquired in the dungeon, accessed by killing the last game boss) on floating islands?? Floating islands contain mid-game / vanity items and it really makes no sense to explore them after already going through enough dungeon to find a Shadow key. Now, I suppose I haven't seen as many Balloons and Magic Mirrors in regular golden chests, so maybe there's something to that (haven't played enough maps to really determine with any certainty), but still - it's weird.

Oh well, I'll get over it as I cross the rather pedestrian 100+ hour mark.




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