Expert mode reset - date and SSC?

[Boss Llama]

Howdy all!

Since we've got our own shiny new forum now, I thought it would be good to throw open the doors for a bit of discussion on the planned expert mode reset, and what "character rules" we want to run with going thereafter. Please chip in on the following multiple choice questions (and any commentary or feedback not related to the questions as well!)

1) We've been tentatively discussing doing the reset at the end of the month, which is fine. We've also reached the point where at least a couple of us working together can farm the Moon Lord pretty effectively, so do we need two more weeks of that? We'll probably aim for a Friday evening reset, to give the most playing time to the most folks. When should the reset occur?

a) Friday July 31st, like we've talked about
b) Friday July 24th, bring it forward a week and let's do this
c) Another date, later or not one of the above options

2) We've talked about using new characters for expert, which seemed a popular idea. There is a TShock option, called Server Side Characters (SSC), that basically tracks your health, mana, and inventory on the server instead of locally. As a result, it "forces" new characters for the server by treating any character connecting for the first time as if they have starting stats and no gear. You can't bring anything from elsewhere to the server, nor take anything from the server to another. It does not affect your local character file, it just treats you uniquely while connected (ie - if you use your uber character to connect, you will have only server inventory/stats while playing with us, but all your normal stuff if you're on your own server). There are scattered reports that SSC can occasionally be glitchy, but most folks using it say it works perfectly and they love it. Regarding characters, how do you feel?

a) We should make new characters and use SSC, so people aren't bringing in outside stuff from other servers and tainting the experience
b) We should make new characters, but don't use SSC. Leave it on the honor system that people won't bring equipment from elsewhere
c) We should not limit the server to new characters - people should be free to bring in whatever they wish



Anything else you think should be established in advance or as a ground-rule? Let us know!

[metacide]

1. A
2. A

I want the challenge and the group experience. Bring it on.

[Guardian]

1. A
2. A

From what I gather I'll have to keep up this time around if we're switching to expert and I'll be busy that weekend (got a wedding to go to!) so I'd personally perfer a later start but up to you guys.

[metacide]

The only big issue i foresee is being able to create the lava waders since the water walking boots are so rare. Everything else should work itself out.

[Zork Nemesis]

The only big issue i foresee is being able to create the lava waders since the water walking boots are so rare. Everything else should work itself out.

They're not totally necessary. I still haven't found a Lava Charm in my own Expert world, but I haven't needed them. It's gotten to the point where I barely take damage from lava now anyway.

[Will T.]

1.) No strong opinion
2.) B or C

I think we should have the option to bring in outside gear, but make it a judgment call based on how the game is going. It would suck to, for example, lose all ability to progress simply because no one can get good enough gear to tackle a boss. Too much frustration over being stuck could quickly kill the server.

[Boss Llama]

The only big issue i foresee is being able to create the lava waders since the water walking boots are so rare. Everything else should work itself out.

I've found at least half a dozen sets of these on the MP server - Lava Charms have been what I can't get (I've only found one in the wild).

[Boss Llama]

Hey gang - since the Re-Logic folks (who make Terraria) can't seem to stop putting out tiny patches that make TShock not work, and it would be good to get the server stable and functioning before we roll to a new map, it's looking like next Friday, the 31st, will be our best bet for new server start. I'm chomping at the bit to get going with it as well, but since we've not been able to play most of this week, and there's no guarantee they won't keep this stream up tomorrow, let's aim for next Friday. Hopefully things will have gotten back to some semblance of normal by then! Usually they got quite some time between patches - this 7 patches in a month business is unprecedented (they broke their record for minor updates on a major version two patches ago).

As far as the SSC thing goes, barring further input here, I think we're leaning towards it. I totally get what Will is saying, but I don't think bosses will be a problem to that degree. People solo bosses on expert with nothing from outside on a regular basis, so between us all working together I think we can more than handle it. The one thing I will keep an eye on though is SSC's stability. It's one of the most fragile bits of TShock coding, from what I can find, and I don't want to subject us to a system that won't reliably save our inventories and such. From my reading it is currently in a fully functional state (it took some time after 1.3 for that to be the case again) so as long as that doesn't change, we'll probably stick with it. Otherwise it becomes a sticky mess pretty quickly trying to log what is brought in, figure out if it's acceptable, and decide how we all want to handle anything we disagree with or "violations" of the rule.

[metacide]

If there is any way for you to just spawn us some cell phones, I'd be all for that. They are nice to have but are in no way game breaking (in my opinion at least).

[Boss Llama]

The phone itself might not be game breaking once in hand, but spawning them sure would be IMO. They are the most complicated craft in the game, and provide a good solid challenge with a nice earnable reward. I would say that sipping that would be skipping one of the most fundamental parts of the game.