So, 1.0.6 is quickly becoming our most major game polishing patches yet. With all the GUI improvements, and all the balance being done, the game is feeling more complete, as to where it would have been if we had released a month later as we had planned, rather than early. While much of what I’m saying isn’t “new feature that hasn’t been revealed” information, it does go into more detail as to why we are making such changes.

When faced with the challenge of balancing a game, you always run the risks of upsetting players who are used to the way the game is currently played. Now that I'm on a developer team working on a game that ten's of thousands play daily, I understand why Blizzard got such a bad rap, but also now see they are just doing what needs to be done.

Terraria 1.0 to 1.0.5 has be seen by many as a BETA released game open to the public, and while we considered it to be full release with a few things we could add, we can see why they thought it was a beta. But 1.0.6 changes that. We've even discussed calling it 1.1 because its such a game changing update, but we want to save that distinction for our first large content update that will add more biomes, enemies and end game stuff. Like an MMO expansion would. So this patch remains named 1.0.6 for those reasons.

While the balance of the game in 1.0.5 does lend itself to seeming perfectly okay in the terms of 'playability', It does not take into account many of the new systems we plan to implement later. Things like PVP modes and more end game content, such as new harder areas and more bosses, require us to get many of the balance changes done now. It's best to get them out of the way, and set how the game should be played going forward, rather than changing it later on months down the line when the new things are added and see how they just don't work in the progression of the game as it is currently.

For those of you with high level characters, we suggest starting a completely new character on a completely new world as you will find your run through the game to be more satisfying with all the changes, especially the dungeon area and boss fights.

Game difficulty is also something we are focusing on this patch. The game itself is going to be about 150% more difficult than it is already. But this doesn't mean new players will find them self in a pickle from the get go. This simply means playing the game on soft-core mode will offer you more of a challenge than it previously did and you will need to play more strategically. Hardcore will seem, even more hardcore now as well with these changes.

The game-play mechanic in Terraria is gearing to be more RPG like every minute we spend working on it. As Re-digit stated in his blog, things like the healing system and magic system have had almost complete overhauls. In our current test build, you can't simply just spam heal yourself with potions anymore to win every battle. In fact, most boss battles will be nearly impossible to win without gearing yourself up fully, and planning out the battle beforehand. They are bosses after all, and shouldn't be complete pushovers that you can just spam heal and spam attack to win. No longer can you just fight the Eater of Worlds through death after death until he is defeated. Of course, theres always the chance we will end up not liking these changes and try to balance it a different way, as until a patch comes out nothing is set in stone.

Damage types have been implemented, and will be utilized going forward for buffs and debuffs to make sure certain kinds of attacks are buffed with one potion and not all of them. This also opens up to us the ability to have more 'class based' game-play. As we can now make newly implemented gears be set to buff all melee, ranged, or magic damages separately. Weapon tool-tips now state what kind of damage they do so you can choose what weapon to bring with you. This also opens up for us the chance to implement enemies that receive more or less damage from certain damage types later on (However that part won’t happen this patch).

With all the game-play changes and enhancements to make the game feel more challenging than your every day sandbox title, we are making sure to improve the GUI.
Redigit mentioned many of the improvements to the GUI in his last Dev Blog and since then, he's put many more into play. Things like; NPCs being able to sell back things you sold to them, and Ammo slots to help declutter your inventory some, make the player able to handle better the new challenges without making them feel overwhelmed. I know a lot of players will enjoy the option to lock their hot bar, so they don’t accidentally click to switch to another item during a hectic battle.

Enemies are also getting some changes to make sure a player who is fighting them wont always die because they can't spam heal any longer. Healing yourself will be simple out of battle, as standing still for a while will regen your health. And the Nurse will find herself being very useful during Goblin Invasions as the battle lasts long, and you won't be able to continuously rely on your potions.

Dungeons now re-quire a bit of exploration to be done before you can just grab all the good gear. The introduction of keys and locked chests has created a sense of ‘working towards a goal’ that was missing in the dungeon before. Along with the new trap (see spinning spike-ball) and an increase in spike spawns in all newly generated worlds dungeons, we feel this makes the place a whole lot more challenging and fun to explore.

Overall the game is more rewarding to play now. It's no longer a "I don't care about getting hurt because I can heal" situation all the time. If you wish to progress, you need to take your time, be cautious and make sure you set your gear a certain way that works for your play style and tactics. In multiplayer, having a team with a meleeist and a ranged player will now seem more useful, as teamwork will bring rise to a feeling of safety and strength.

We hope the new changes bring a more 'satisfied game-play' feeling to players, and the changes don't upset too many people. But as I said, they need to be done if future additions are to work correctly.

Ill leave you with a few more of the ‘smaller’ changes we've made, although a few were very hoped for by many players.

* Cactus no longer cause knock-back (they still hurt you) making running through a desert less of a hassle.
* Thorns are now destroyed after you touch them and receive damage.
* Band of Star Power now adds 20 mana to your maximum, and no longer adds mana regeneration.
* Lava Slimes no longer spawn lava when killed.



We understand how anxious everyone is to have the update, and we know its the longest you’ve had to wait for one. However we still have a bit more testing to do before 1.0.6 is ready for the world to delve into, but we are hoping to get it to you sometime sooner rather than later.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
On a seperate note, I wanted to just make an apology about my not being around for the ‘situation’ with pricing on Steam this weekend. I was at Connecticon from Friday to Sunday. As for the issue itself, we did not intend the sale price to be 75% off at any time, so when the situation was noticed, it was corrected. Hence why it so quickly changed to 50% and caused so many so much grief. We’ve received many angry emails for people blaming us personally, and calling us greedy, but that is simply not the case here.

Poor Tiy has been dealing with it all weekend by his lonesome, and I give the guy credit for how well he’s handled the situation. When it comes to issues with pricing, purchasing and downloading, contacting Steam support would make more sense than contacting us. We do not handle distribution. It would be like blaming a food-product maker for a mistake a grocery store made in pricing. They just made the product, and besides telling the store what price they should use, they don’t control how it’s implemented by the sticker gun in the random stock persons hand.

We don’t feel Steam should get a bad rap for it either, as all it takes is a simple slip in human error to have a bad situation arise. And no one can be said to lead a mistake-less life. We appreciate our friends over at Valve and could not have brought the game to the world so readily without their help. So if you enjoy the game, and yet this situation has ‘upset you’. I would just have to say, please take it in stride and don’t let it put a sour taste in your mouth toward Re-Logic, or Steam. We’ve taken it in stride ourselves and to make it up to all of you will continue to do what we have been doing. Working towards bringing you an ever-increasingly enjoyable game to play.