Pylons vs. Effort vs. Impact

[Khorzho]

I absolutely love 1.4. Soooo much awesomeness added to Terraria.

But... we need to talk about Pylons and how they could be improved vastly. (TLDR at bottom)

In principle, Pylons are a cool idea. Having a new way to instantly hop around the biomes without your world being criss-crossed with wires is neat. And having a new use/purpose for NPCs is pretty cool too. Any time you can make villagers more a part of the game, it's good in my book.

That being said, there are some real stumbling-blocks to make them truly useful, and viable as a meta concept.

1. Forced diaspora - Since I bought Terraria all those years ago, and as more and more NPCs were added to the game, I cleared land in my worlds for unique NPC housing around my main base/castle. At first this housing is no more than rectangles, but as I progress through a world, I develop more and more elaborate housing with the idea that my NPC community is advancing with the changes around them.

If I were to pursue Pylons fully, I would have many abandoned structures, as not only do the NPCs now want to be in specific biomes, but they want to be near or away from certain other NPCs. I feel like all the hard work I put into making a camp turn into a village then into a town is negated by new NPC prejudices.

2. Pylon neediness - Despite the problem of breaking up your community of NPCs, there is also the little problem of making the Pylon itself work. Being able to place them wherever is useless in the face of the requirement of having 2 or more NPCs near it. This puts an outright restriction on NPC housing in the game, as you must always build dwellings in pairs. Considering there are 9 different pylons in the game, that means if you want to use all the Pylons, you will have only 7 NPCs to do what you want with as far as housing placement goes.

This is a real creative bane and very un-terrarian. There was only one NPC that needed special housing previously, The Truffle, and his little minor exception to free form housing was more of a flavorful quirk, than an outright strangulation of town design.


For me personally, after buying a couple pylons and seeing the restriction on their use, I threw my hands up and walked away from them.

My suggestions for fixing them are as follows:
1. Make NPC happiness less reliant on biomes. Some of the NPC biome preferences just seem kind of wonky. Why not let them be happy around NPCs they like more important than where they are?

2. Let Pylons work without NPC proximity. This will make them FAR more interesting to use and more useful.

TLDR: A fully equipped and enabled Pylon network limits creativity in NPC housing placement. A suggestion to change this, is to make them usable without NPC proximity, and NPC happiness not so biome dependent.

[TheGratefulNed]

Ok, first point is defeated by just saying "Make a new world instead of complaining about the old one having problems." Not that hard. And the second point, if you're going to put all of the NPC's in their favorite biome, you should have 2 next to each other already, even 2 housing spots on top of each other works. This feels like there are plenty of ways to fix this that don't involve changing Pylons. Also on the whole, "Make pylons work without NPC proximity" thing, that would get rid of normal players creativity by making them just put everyone in one building instead of being creative with putting people in different biomes with unique housing.

[Radioactive Panda]

The only thing I agree with is npc housing placement limitations Otherwise I don't think it matters. Honestly nothing is stopping you from setting up teleporter networks like before. I think it really buffs pre teleporter but afterwards it can be bypassed with some set up time with Tele.

[Jeffreyac]

Originally posted by TheGratefulNed:

... that would get rid of normal players creativity by making them just put everyone in one building instead of being creative with putting people in different biomes with unique housing.

I'm not sure I get this statement - if pylons just worked, that wouldn't force you to do anything, let alone make you put everyone in one building. It would mean you could if you wanted to, or you could scatter them out, or build a spread out village, or whatever - enhancing creativity by removing an arbitrary limit.

[TheGratefulNed]

Originally posted by Jeffreyac:

Originally posted by TheGratefulNed:

... that would get rid of normal players creativity by making them just put everyone in one building instead of being creative with putting people in different biomes with unique housing.

I'm not sure I get this statement - if pylons just worked, that wouldn't force you to do anything, let alone make you put everyone in one building. It would mean you could if you wanted to, or you could scatter them out, or build a spread out village, or whatever - enhancing creativity by removing an arbitrary limit.

But less people are going to think to move their villagers to unique spots.

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by Khorzho:

Considering there are 9 different pylons in the game, that means if you want to use all the Pylons, you will have only 7 NPCs to do what you want with as far as housing placement goes.

your math is a little off.
first, only 8 pylons need NPCs, the universal pylon is special. secondly, you can use town pets as NPCs, which can even share houses with regular NPCs.
not counting santa, that means 24 NPCs plus three pets, so at most you have 11 NPCs to put wherever.

but either way, nobody is forcing you to use pylons. if your building style clashes with how pylons work, then you can always choose to wire up a teleporter to wherever you want to go.
personally I do not mind at all how it works. it may be a little "heavy-handed" in its approach, but it does stop people building ugly housing blocks on spawn rather effectively while also providing a reward for doing so.

[Darth Cannabis]

Originally posted by Sebastian:

Originally posted by Khorzho:

Considering there are 9 different pylons in the game, that means if you want to use all the Pylons, you will have only 7 NPCs to do what you want with as far as housing placement goes.

your math is a little off.
first, only 8 pylons need NPCs, the universal pylon is special. secondly, you can use town pets as NPCs, which can even share houses with regular NPCs.
not counting santa, that means 24 NPCs plus three pets, so at most you have 11 NPCs to put wherever.

but either way, nobody is forcing you to use pylons. if your building style clashes with how pylons work, then you can always choose to wire up a teleporter to wherever you want to go.
personally I do not mind at all how it works. it may be a little "heavy-handed" in its approach, but it does stop people building ugly housing blocks on spawn rather effectively while also providing a reward for doing so.

Honestly, most of the time, I just do rail lines between my towns.

Sure its not as quick as teleporting, but its a lot simpler than the complications with pylons, you can fully set them up prior to entering hard mode, and there is only so much else to use that excess iron and lead on.

Plus they added quite a few new mine carts. While most are only a cosmetic difference between the normal one (the regular crafted one that you equip, not the default non equipped blank slot one that is slightly slower), its still neat to have an actual variety.

Craft a large gem, and combine it with your cart to make the gem carts. I went with an emerald one for my DD hunter set up, (elf gear), because it matches so well.

Some of the newer ones have increases functionality. The carp cart, doesn't slow down going thru water, and the mole cart automatically digs and lies track.

Anyway, with the greater cart variety, there is a bit more encouragement to build that track and set up some rail lines. Pylons seem interesting, but there were also 22 new mine carts added.

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by Darth Cannabis:

there is only so much else to use that excess iron and lead on.

plus all the rails you can find.

Originally posted by Darth Cannabis:

Anyway, with the greater cart variety, there is a bit more encouragement to build that track and set up some rail lines. Pylons seem interesting, but there were also 22 new mine carts added.

unfortunately the mech cart is still the best cart due to its overwhelming speed. I would have liked it more if some of the later carts had the same speed, even if missing the laser and other bonuses.

[Darth Cannabis]

True, but that is also expert only. For anyone more casually playing on normal, all carts are roughly the same. Its mostly just a matter of style.

All but the expert only one, and two others are 66mph max speed according to wiki.

The 2 slower carts being the mole cart (its basically half speed), and the default unequipped (which is still a respectable mph rate in the 50's).

Still, I find carts a great way to connect towns, without worrying about the hassles associated with pylons or the hassles of having to wire teleporters in hard mode. Its just so much easier to set up the track earlier while in normal, and in itself is a great way deal with the Twins later.

Yeah you may lose a little bit of time in travel compared to the others, but they are plenty fast enough to go from a town in center, to arena build over dungeon, in the time between notification of boss and it actually appearing.

[Jostabeere]

So you want to remove the effort completely and only have the benefits?
Use teleporters.
It is not true that you have to pursue specific biomes or specific constellations to use pylons. You only need that to get pylons. You can ignore happiness completely to use them.
What is the issue with the number of NPCs? You never need all NPCs around you. You need the Tinkerer, Angler, and mabe the two mechanics. Rarely Dryad. Having them far apart does not limit you in any way gameplay-wise. You can teleport to them with two clicks and use them if needed.
Also there were more NPCs than the truffle which gave you items or advantages if placed into specific biomes. Guess you simply ignore that.

If you think it is too much effort to spread NPCs around and having a few of them in small communities, then simply drop the pylons.
The only reason for you not to easily do what they want is aesthetic. There is absolutely not a single gameplay-related reason not to set up small towns and use pylons.
Also 3 buyable NPCs exist which count for pylon, in case you also ignore that.
Your math is also incorrect. There are 27 permanent NPCs and only 8 pylons that require 2 of them close.
27-16=11 free NPCs.
Your suggestions are moot at best:
1. Pylon usage is absolutely not tied to happiness. You can place NPCs who hate each other in a biome they hate and still use the pylon.
Only buying them requires you to do minimal preparations, aka putting Arms Dealer and Nurse in every biome once.
2. This defies their purpose and their only requirement. And makes teleporters you wire completely obsolete.

[prpl_mage]

1.
As already mentioned, Happiness is only relevant to BUY them and even then it's fairly easy.

Place an NPC in a Biome they like:
100 x 0.9 = 90
Have less than 2 NPCs living within 25 tiles:
90 x 0.9 = 81

You only need 85 to buy a Pylon.
And even then doing as you say and place them close to NPCs they like instead work as well even in a neutral or hated Biome.

Mechanic underground with Goblin still makes here happy enough to sell a Pylon even if she always complain about hating it underground.

2.
Also as mentioned, you can use the NPC pets to fulfill the requirement of 2 NPCs close to the Pylon. But also, it seems like they only need to be within 120 of the Pylon, so you can space them out fairly easy.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Agree.

I am one of the few that actually saw how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ they were when they came out. You have an easier time wiring and waiting for the teleporters sold by the mechanic and steampunker or skyrail.

Also it does hinder making bases.
Imo to fix pylons:

-Have it not reliant on happiness only unlocked if your npc is in the biome so they sell it. Happiness should only affect prices which is still a ♥♥♥♥♥ to deal with but at least your rewards are better and less punishing to players especially early pre-hardmode / starting out since you can't exactly walk into either oceans without getting your ass blasted by crimson/corrupt enemies in master mode. Not to mention new players will completely ignore or not know of the pylons in the first place.

-yeah get rid of the 2 npc requirements. Instead how about reliant more on how many biome tiles are nearby (like 100 say jungle biome tiles to use it meaning you have to put it somewhere in the middle or below blocks which is fair). That or double down and make pylons useable on any npc so long as they are in the pylon's respective biome you can use it.

-heres one you left out is make the universal biome avaliable after killing the moon lord. B.s. that you gotta discover 100% bestiary to unlock the ability to buy it. In old worlds hard to do and outright impossible because of ant lion larvaes. Also i think someone mentioned blue jellies become rare after hardmode starts (or one of the jellyfish)
Maybe 100% bestiary can give a torch reward seeing as devs love to circlejerk torches in-game.



Pylons were a good idea on paper but in-game it sorta depletes the purpose of having or using one if you have to do all this effort just to buy/use them. Also during events or fights like the lunar pillars you can accidentally kill your npcs if the pillar is too close.

Point of having bases was to have them all in one spot and less danger or risk to them. They also reduce spawning of enemies which is bad unless you stick them under the soil (but if you say get too close to an underground hallow or crimson/corrupt biome nearby that would also be bad too).

it irritates me as well that the pylons weren't craftable when gem trees became a thing in 1.4. You have some gems almost 1 for each pylon type (and missing just add something like a glowing mushroom for the mushroom pylon). Past the dungeon you really don't get much use from the gems anymore aside from cosmetic/building block colors. You got the big gems no one really uses why not use those to make the pylon crystals.




also
just heard and read the wiki that they aren't useable during events (including the lunar events apparently) in the wiki and by word of mouth so if that's true that just further adds to the redundancy and ton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of being unable to use them with the effort spent getting them and setting up npcs to be able to use them.

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by Smug aya:

-Have it not reliant on hapiness only unlocked if your npc is in the biome so they sell it.

oh boo hoo, you have to put two NPCs in a biome long enough to buy a thing before returning them wherever.

Originally posted by Smug aya:

-yeah get rid of the 2 npc requirements. Instead how about reliant more on how many biome tiles are nearby (like 100 say jungle biome tiles to use it meaning you have to put it somewhere in the middle or below blocks which is fair).

thats how (most) biomes already work.
so you just want to change it from needing NPCs and the right biome to just needing the right biome.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by Sebastian:

Originally posted by Smug aya:

-Have it not reliant on hapiness only unlocked if your npc is in the biome so they sell it.

oh boo hoo, you have to put two NPCs in a biome long enough to buy a thing before returning them wherever.

Originally posted by Smug aya:

-yeah get rid of the 2 npc requirements. Instead how about reliant more on how many biome tiles are nearby (like 100 say jungle biome tiles to use it meaning you have to put it somewhere in the middle or below blocks which is fair).

thats how (most) biomes already work.
so you just want to change it from needing NPCs and the right biome to just needing the right biome.

1. k

2. yes

[Sebastian]

Originally posted by Smug aya:

2. yes

then build your teleport system since apparently building two NPC houses takes too much effort, yet can somehow be done within a minute.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by Sebastian:

Originally posted by Smug aya:

2. yes

then build your teleport system since apparently building two NPC houses takes too much effort, yet can somehow be done within a minute.

it is early pre hard mode

in hard mode why the ♥♥♥♥ would you ever use pylons when you have other items at your disposal?