I Can Dig It

I had always worried that my purchase of Terraria on Vita would never see the update to the 1.2 content that was released for PC around the same time which basically turned the game into something far larger than the already expansive confines the game offered.  There was multitudes of new -everything-, and indeed, it was one of those things that threatened to turn the game into an entirely different one.  A game that I would never get to play (until I got myself a proper PC, which is still on the agenda because shit is expensive) and one that I really -did- want to play.

Thankfully, the 1.2 content was always promised to us on non-PC platforms, it was all just a matter of time.  And not too long ago, we did see that patch finally.

As expected, Terraria feels almost entirely different.  The trappings are the same thus far - you still want to establish shelter and dig down, you still want to summon the Eye of Cthulhu as soon as possible, and you still want to work towards finding the Corruption (or the Crimson) and destroying Shadow Orbs to spawn the Eater of Worlds. (or their equivalents)  You'll go through new biomes (The Ice biome is especially nice) and improved ones (the Jungle biomes are -incredibly- different) as you do it, but that's still priority one, since that is how you get the Nightmare/Deathbringer (again, dependent on Corruption or Crimson) Pickaxe, which you need to mine Ebonstone, Hellstone and Obsidian, which will naturally impede your progress.

Unfortunately, this is sort of where I'm stuck.  My world has the Corruption, which means the Eater of Worlds, and it has only two spawn conditions.  The first is by breaking three Shadow Orbs (which is repeatable) which will force it unto the world for you to fight and conquer.  I attempted this, and came to discover that the Eater of World has been buffed (I swear it has been) and thus my first attempt met with nothing even approaching success.  Humbled, I sought out better armor, more health and a lot of healing potions, thinking I could certainly best it a second time. 

I could not, and this presented something of a problem.

You see, there are only so many Shadow Orbs in a given world.  They do not respawn.  Thus, once you have broken them all....well, that's it.  Fini.  I am not sure if I have reached this point, as I have to mine with bombs to continue further (or buy purification powder, but bombs are so much more bomby) and actively search for other ones.  Though, there is meant to be that second method of summoning, and it is one that I looked into quite heavily.

All it requires is an item called Worm Food.  Worm Food is made of Vile Powder and Rotten Chunks, the latter of which are dropped quite easily from the Eater of Souls monsters that fly about the Corruption constantly.  Vile Powder, on the other hand, requires Vile Mushrooms that you refine into the powder at an Alchemy Station.  Nothing could be more innocent, as the Vile Mushrooms grow naturally in the Corruption and plentiful, though you can even make a quick and easy farm for them.  I did this, as I wanted Vile Mushrooms, and I wanted them yesterday.  It was with this that I discovered there was something very, very wrong.

All patches have a tendency to wreck things moreso than fix them, we know this, and it's especially prevalent in games that are so open like Terraria or Minecraft or the like.  This is the case with Terraria, as the 1.2 Content update for Consoles included a multitude of bugs which are currently being sussed out.  One of these bugs?  "Vile Mushrooms cannot be harvested."

This is the impasse that I'm more or less at if I cannot find more Shadow Orbs.  In truth, it makes me worry about the validity of my world post-patch, even, as I wonder just how much of it -can- be fixed (since there are tons of other issues that I hadn't even gotten to yet due to my single focus of getting past the EoW) and the fix for these types of scenarios tend to be "Make a new world".  I...am loathe to do this, as my current world houses a "Heaven/Hell Tower" (unfortunately, it is not made of Rock) that extends from the top of the world (as seen at the top of this image) and goes as far down as I can get so far, as Obsidian stands in my way.  It took a lot of effort that I am not particularly invested in reinvesting should that become necessary.  Though I suppose I -will- always have it.  In a...half-functioning world, should it come to the worst scenario.

There are worse things, I guess.

but no, if I didn't make it clear, Terraria with the 1.2 content is so fun you guys

Well, I Like It

So I bought Terraria on Vita and wanted to mess around with it for a few minutes and then suddenly it was two hours later.
— Mogs (@DarthMogs) December 18, 2013

I'm not sure I can make a more ringing endorsement of the game than that, really.

I've watched my fair share of Terraria content in the past, so I knew the basics, but it is a wholly different experience actually being able to do it all yourself.  Obviously, task number one was creating a structure all my own after hewing the land to suit my whims.  I think we all like to think that, given the opportunity, we're going to create something magnificent right off the bat and I certainly thought this as well.

I did not.

I made the box you see above.  I made a three-tiered basement and enclosed it in stone walls.  I then set out to explore.  It's oddly liberating and strange that I would do that when all I -wanted- was a building game.  But I have to get blocks to do that, or at least that's the excuse I'm using while I'm cutting down slimes and seeking out the corruption of my lands to stem their creep with a sunflower.

I'm definitely satisfied.

words failed me, should've sent a poet, etc.

OKAY NEVERMIND BUYING TERRARIA DAY ONE

I'm a bit weak-willed sometimes.  This can be bad, but not always.  Personally, I'm chalking this one up to "not a bad thing" for this specific instance.

I wanted to be excited for Terraria on Vita, so I was!  And then it took forever to hear anything about it and other versions were announced and released so I sort of lost faith in it because it seemed like a lost cause.  Knowing that the release date was not only soon, but in fact next week shocked the hell out of me and inspired a bit of hope, but I wasn't about to let myself get too into it.  Maybe the port was shoddy.  Maybe it was lacking content.  Maybe -something-.  I didn't expect my opinion to sway back towards hopeful, really.  Though I could see ways that it -could- happen.  Seeing a Vita with a Terraria scene made -in- Terraria -on- a Vita was not one of those things, but goddamnit if it's not what pushed me back over the edge here.

Of course, seeing this Playstation (Europe) blog post for Terraria helps.  It mentions how the controls have been mapped and tweaked to make sense for the Vita's control scheme, re-iterates that it's cross-play with the PS3 version and notes that -some- of the 1.2 patch content is in the game along with -all- of the original game's content.  So I'm not expecting a slouch port.  I haven't heard any rumblings of problems of the technical side yet either.  What this means is that, well, I do believe I am allowing myself to hope again.  And I am going to be buying this ASAP on Tuesday, provided I'm able to do so.  And that....that's just awesome.

wanna build so many things and just shape the land and hnnnngg

I Have Never Been So Happy to Be So Wrong

Will [Terraria on Vita] happen?  Certainly not.  I'm amazed we're getting the PS3/360 versions and I worry for the amount of post-release support they'll see, so yet another version is inherently out of the question.  A man can dream, however, and we know that I dream big.  Or...well, in this case, little.

-Me from "In Which I Shamelessly Port-Whine" (February 7, 2013)

It is kind of a running theme that I am bad at predicting stuff.  It's so bad that it's kind of a running theme pointing out that it's a running theme that I am bad at predicting stuff.  If it ever gets to the point there it's a running theme pointing out that it's a running theme that it's a running them, it will be so meta that I will probably reach some sort of singularity and implode.  Because of all of that, I shouldn't have been surprised when I looked in my twitter feed earlier today and saw this tweet leading to this Playstation Blog Post, my natural reaction should have been some sort of smugness in successfully extorting reverse psychology or something like that.  Instead I just kind of went "Eeeeee!" and opened the link to check it out on the Vita browser.  There was some degree of excitement in my actions, but I will let you guess as to just how much.  We're getting interactive now.

You can check out the post if you like - in fact, I almost encourage it in some ways - but you're not really going to get a lot of information from it, since they didn't really give any.  It's basically around four paragraphs saying "It's coming to Vita because a lot of people asked for a Vita version and we like the Vita because of it's control options.  Terraria is also awesome, I hope you guys know that." and showing off a couple of fancy pictures, one of which I nicked for the above header image.  Since it is (likely) from the console version which, obviously, the Vita version will be based on, it was on a flickr account (Playstation Europe's) which I am a fan of using for picture hosting and I didn't want to load up IGN tonight.  This is a better picture than I would've gotten anyway.

All the information you would kind of want alongside an announcement, stuff like pricing, release date, improvements/changes to this version, as well as the Cross-stuff we might assume is there with the PS3 version (Cross-Buy/Play/Save) is missing, unfortunately.  It's not surprising, though, nor is it too much of a problem since we know, unequivocally, that it's coming to the Vita.  Personally, I'm going under the impression that it's going to release at the tail end of Summer for $9.99 and not support Cross-anything.  It will be unfortunate, but at the same time, I will be able to build a bunch of shit on my Vita which is kind of all I ever want to do, so I can't be too upset with that.  A little, perhaps.

I have already made suggestions as to alternate control methods that utilize some of the Vita's features in a way that isn't abhorrent (despite the insistence to some that it might be) so I'm not going to present them again and act like my idea has refined with time or become more attractive.  Still, I would be surprised if touch screen support wasn't implemented in some way, though I suspect it will only be useful in Inventory management, hotbar selection and navigating the crafting menu.  I would certainly hope that they wouldn't use the front touchscreen to try and aim the 'cursor', even optionally, because that...that would be abysmal with how small the Terraria blocks are and how much of the screen you block when you do that.  The backscreen is attractive because of that, not obscuring things, but I'm sure gripes with the expected accuracy might hinder its use as well, even if it's just used as, again the 'cursor' and nothing more.

I suppose when Terraria for Vita is announced to release sometime Mid-May at $14.99 with Cross-Buy, Play & Save support, you'll all have me to thank for that, but until then I will hold on to my cynicism that isn't actually all that cynical considering the circumstances.  Whatever the release date and in whatever form it comes out in, it's going to be a little late because I want it now.  Still, knowing that it's coming in reality and not just my fantasies is comforting to say the least and for as tempted as I was to buy the PS3 version, I'm glad I held off since I will likely never play it on PS3 even if the Vita version ends up being Cross-Buy, much as I have never played Retro City Rampage on my PS3.  Or Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale.  Or any other Cross-Buy game I've bought.