Hi, everybody. Skye here. I've become interested in hosting a dedicated server for a Terraria world, but first I'd like to get some idea of how many people would want to participate.

So since 1.3 came out I know a lot of people are playing—I'm an excited newcomer, myself. But this server would be a little unusual. See, I want to play on mediumcore. That's the difficulty setting where you drop your equipment and inventory when you die. Let me explain! I think that it's the most fun way to approach multiplayer because, without consequences for dying, people just don't need each other. All of the players can just do their own thing. What's the point of that? We might as well all play single-player.

If we've got nothing to lose by playing alone, then we've got nothing to gain by playing together. But, if we add the possibility of getting into real trouble, then we change the game into something where we have to work together.

We'll share resources to help recently killed players get back on their feet, and we'll escort each other to retrieve items from where we've died. We won't instantly forget about all of the items that came before each new tier of accessories and armor that we acquire; we'll give it all a purpose by daring to lose the best gear if we screw up. We'll build much more than just a single base at the center of the map; smaller outposts acting as respawn points and backup equipment caches strewn all across the world and connected by a minecart transit network will provide a safety net and a fast way to recover from mistakes. We'll play a long, gradual game in which everyone approaches both exploration and world development differently than they would by themselves or on softcore difficulty, and, when we're done, we'll have a world that looks like it was inhabited by a civilization rather than a solitary wizard/hoarder in a singular fortress.

The world would almost always be available, hosted on my computer, so players would come and go when they like. I expect that the server would run for months before anyone "finishes" the game, with most players popping in now and then, contributing little by little to moving us collectively closer to that end point—or just building things!—rather than playing every single day. There's no hurry, and this is a game that should be perfectly friendly to new players who don't even know much more about how to progress than "mine ore and craft tools."

The server details wouldn't be given out publicly; only those who directly let me know they want in would be invited and receive the info to connect. That way, there won't be any griefers, and we'd all be on the same page regarding how this differs from a typical Terraria experience. That's especially important because players would each be trusted to bring in fresh, mediumcore characters, something that can't be controlled server-side. For now, I'd just like to make sure that there are other people who want to do this with me!

What do you think? Does this sound like something you might want to be a part of? Please comment here, and I'll follow up individually when I have a launch date in mind to give you the details. (I'll also let you know if this whole thing just falls through.)

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Hey lasers. Merry Christmas and happy new year and whatever.

So it seems the more interesting of the Gift Pile prizes have come and gone, according to the notice on the page and the scores of whiners on the forums infuriated that all their free ♥♥♥♥ wasn't free enough or something. I thought this might be a good time to set up a trading thread for those like me who won some nice things they themselves don't really need (or already have).

Here's what I've got. I'm not looking for anything in particular in return; I'll take coal or coupons, or maybe nothing if I like you enough:

-25% off Valve (I bet we all have something like this)
-33% off Saints Row The Third
-25% off Asscreed Revelations
-50% off STALKER Call of Pripiyat
-33% off Warhammer 40k Space Marine
-33% off any 2K game
-50% off Civ 5 GotY
-66% off Prototype
-50% off Bioshock 2
-2 gift packs of The Ship that I have no idea where they came from because I didn't win them
-9 bits of coal

MERRY MERRY TO ALL YOU LASERS! I'M YELLING BECAUSE I ASSUME YOU'RE ALL FAR FROM YOUR COMPYs RIGHT NOW.