I don't like the 1.4 NPC happiness mechanics (rant)

[Spicybullfrog]

Yeah, i understand the reason why they exist, it discourages making one giant base with all the npcs and important stuff, and the ability to make certain NPC's wares cheaper with elbow grease is welcomed, but overall i really just don't like the tedium involved in setting everything up now.
Say you don't feel like doing much building in a playthrough. You've then got to build a load of 3 house outposts in arbitrary biomes lest you suffer a seriously impactful penalty on NPC prices. Then, if you want to be able to use these NPCs, you've got to then fork out large swathes of money to gain the ability to teleport to them. Yes, i understand that the economy is broken especially on expert and master mode but i'll counter that with the fact that they should've just fixed that instead. Queen bee either shouldn't drop 12-20 gold a kill or shouldnt be so easy to summon, to give an example.

Now let's say you do want to build extensively in a playthrough. with the pylons, your options for building in different biomes raise by quite a bit, but because of the strict guidelines for what npcs will accept you doing, you won't be able to make any large builds with npcs lest you suffer the wrath of the overcrowding penalty. Additionally, npcs are also much more picky with what biomes they'll accept being in. The merchant ALWAYS wants to be in the snow biome, the guide ALWAYS wants to be in the forest, and the demolitionist ALWAYS wants to be underground. I remember i used to put the demolitionist at the entrance of my mine, i had the dryad in a greenhouse where i grew my herbs, and i had the wizard right at spawn in a tower since i was usually specced into a mage role. All of these creative uses of npcs would penalize me now due to either the overcrowding or wrong biome penalties.
Add this to the fact that they have npcs they dislike being around, and it creates an annoyingly uniform meta for npcs, and highly similar builds in each run.
All this has done is move the meta sideways, with even stricter guidelines with what you're allowed to build with unless you want to do lots of grinding/cheesing for gold.

[Alucard †]

Rarely anyone liked this "feature" both here and on official forums yet devs persisted with it and ignored all the feedback to improve / change it.

[Spicybullfrog]

Originally posted by ⎛ Alucard ⎞ ✟:

Rarely anyone liked this "feature" both here and on official forums yet devs persisted with it and ignored all the feedback to improve / change it.

Huh. i feel like i got shot down whenever i tried complaining about it on the forums, didn't know that

[esper]

sorry but your take kinda sucks

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by Spicybullfrog:

Originally posted by ⎛ Alucard ⎞ ✟:

Rarely anyone liked this "feature" both here and on official forums yet devs persisted with it and ignored all the feedback to improve / change it.

Huh. i feel like i got shot down whenever i tried complaining about it on the forums, didn't know that

The pylons are nice early game travel but the punishing prices and gimped reward chances (Angler) when they are unhappy due to being closeby to each other just blows forcing you to build "trade hubs" far away for npcs if you want to buy something without price penalties if you decide to build one big base instead little pylon outposts.

[Spicybullfrog]

Originally posted by Spicybullfrog:

Huh. i feel like i got shot down whenever i tried complaining about it on the forums, didn't know that

Originally posted by Jadyn:

sorry but your take kinda sucks

aaaand there we go

[TaterTot]

You can still make a huge house and not care about the happiness XD

[Spicybullfrog]

Originally posted by Elfo:

You can still make a huge house and not care about the happiness XD

12% penalty for being in hated biome + 5% for every npc over the overcrowding limit means a 238% price hike for a huge house if i'm not mistaken

[TaterTot]

Originally posted by Spicybullfrog:

Originally posted by Elfo:

You can still make a huge house and not care about the happiness XD

12% penalty for being in hated biome + 5% for every npc over the overcrowding limit means a 238% price hike for a huge house if i'm not mistaken

Ill guess you dont go out and farm up coin. It has yet to be an issue for me.

[Spicybullfrog]

Originally posted by Elfo:

Ill guess you dont go out and farm up coin. It has yet to be an issue for me.

are you playing on expert mode?

[ziontheGOAT]

I don’t really mind it considering the fact that making npcs happy requires 0 effort

[just a random]

Originally posted by ziontheGOAT:

I don’t really mind it considering the fact that making npcs happy requires 0 effort

I agree, and you get something out of it too, as their prices go down and will sell pylons if happy enough

[Lebhleb]

Originally posted by Elfo:

Originally posted by Spicybullfrog:

12% penalty for being in hated biome + 5% for every npc over the overcrowding limit means a 238% price hike for a huge house if i'm not mistaken

Ill guess you dont go out and farm up coin. It has yet to be an issue for me.

Paying over 90 coins for a minishark? Ye right, its not as easy in the early game to both grind and travel, and if you play againts the mechanic well, ♥♥♥♥ to you, everything is now overpriced. Its not until you get to Hardmode when you acquire many quick and powerfull weapons that you can say 'i can grind this efficently' Really mass sums of gold to pay for the ever so inflated economy come post something like mechs where most enemies start dropping gold each expedition, but should that be alright? Sure i could grind 3 or 4 plat needed for clentinamitor, or pay 2 play like it should be [hell items that cost plat scale up much worse] Its a system that in the end can't be ignored as some people presume it can be.

[Otomatomata]

I can understand the problem with satisfying the NPCs, but if you incorporate their biomes and pylons into the builds, it creates a really nice effect. For example, the wizard tower from Spicybullfrog's old Terraria world could easily be moved into the wizard's liked biome, the hallow, and if need be (probably not by much) change it to fit the aesthetic of the hallow. I made an elvish village in an open underground hallow biome inspired by the one in LOtR, with the cottages having the wizard with a black cat from l got from my cat license, tavern-keep, and the party girl, who I gave a dog. I also made a dwarven village also inspired by LOtR for the demolitionist, clothier, and goblin tinkerer. By the Ocean, I made a fishing hut for the angler, a pirate ship for the pirate, and a oceanic-themed boutique for the stylist. Then for the desert, I made an Arabian palace with the pylon as a center piece, with the dye trader, and a non-functional gun parts factory for the steam-punker and arms dealer, who I thought would pair well together. In the snow, I had a different styled cottage for the merchant, an emergency room for the nurse, and a repair station where I put the mechanic, and later the goblin tinkerer after removing him from the dwarven village, because he didn't fit in. I can go on with more building ideas I had but this comment is long enough already.

[Ninshu]

Originally posted by GamerDaKid:

I can understand the problem with satisfying the NPCs, but if you incorporate their biomes and pylons into the builds, it creates a really nice effect. For example, the wizard tower from Spicybullfrog's old Terraria world could easily be moved into the wizard's liked biome, the hallow, and if need be (probably not by much) change it to fit the aesthetic of the hallow. I made an elvish village in an open underground hallow biome inspired by the one in LOtR, with the cottages having the wizard with a black cat from l got from my cat license, tavern-keep, and the party girl, who I gave a dog. I also made a dwarven village also inspired by LOtR for the demolitionist, clothier, and goblin tinkerer. By the Ocean, I made a fishing hut for the angler, a pirate ship for the pirate, and a oceanic-themed boutique for the stylist. Then for the desert, I made an Arabian palace with the pylon as a center piece, with the dye trader, and a non-functional gun parts factory for the steam-punker and arms dealer, who I thought would pair well together. In the snow, I had a different styled cottage for the merchant, an emergency room for the nurse, and a repair station where I put the mechanic, and later the goblin tinkerer after removing him from the dwarven village, because he didn't fit in. I can go on with more building ideas I had but this comment is long enough already.

wow, it's great you love building many bases!
i dont. and many others can say the same.

[TaterTot]

Originally posted by Spicybullfrog:

Originally posted by Elfo:

Ill guess you dont go out and farm up coin. It has yet to be an issue for me.

are you playing on expert mode?

I mainly play on MasterMode ForTheWorthy runs now :) still got my first world but hvnt touched it in ages :)