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Some Thoughts On Terraria Now It Has A Beta For Linux

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Now that Terraria has been released, and I’ve had some time to put into it, here’s my thoughts on this new Linux game.

It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve been patient, but it’s finally here. It may have issues here and there of course, but It’s great to see it arrive. It was ported using FNA created by Ethan Lee, but Ethan did not work on it.

About the game (Official)
Dig, Fight, Explore, Build: The very world is at your fingertips as you fight for survival, fortune, and glory. Will you delve deep into cavernous expanses in search of treasure and raw materials with which to craft ever-evolving gear, machinery, and aesthetics? Perhaps you will choose instead to seek out ever-greater foes to test your mettle in combat? Maybe you will decide to construct your own city to house the host of mysterious allies you may encounter along your travels?

In the World of Terraria, the choice is yours!

Initial thoughts
Performance
For me, so far it seems to be pretty good. I am on an Nvidia 970 though remember. It did seem sluggish in build 3, but with build 4 it’s a lot smoother that’s for sure. I’m impressed at how quickly they have been improving it. You can see their changelog here.

I tried Terraria a number of years ago, and for some reason I couldn’t get into it. It’s been at least three years since I’ve tried it (back when I dual booted, I’m clean now, honest), so my experience will be totally fresh. Since using Linux my gaming mind has been opened up, and I am no longer attached to games like Battlefield and/or Call of Duty, so I think that’s why my experience has been better.

I have to say, even though I didn’t exactly get what I was doing at the start, I already enjoyed it more than Starbound, and I very much like Starbound.

It’s not much, but I call it home
image

My first night consisted of me running away from slimes, and barricading myself into a trench I built. I thought it couldn’t get worse than being sat in the dark in a muddy ditch, but then “they” came. I am of course talking about the freaky floating eyeballs:
image
Zombies are also annoying when paired with floaty eyeballs

I think those floating eyeballs are the bane of my life right now, it’s bad enough fighting off a zombie hoard, and then one of those sneaky devils makes a dash for you—bloody heck. They have been the reason for my death a few times, annoying little buggers.

My first run didn’t last long, as I climbed down into the depths of the first cave, I came across a Tomb Crawler. They seem to just tunnel through anything—including me. I’m going to need a bigger sword…

Eventually I survived the night, gained an achievement and the zombies decided it was time for bed—so off they went. Hilariously what replaced zombies in the morning was a giant slime with a rainbow umbrella, love it. I was sad that I couldn’t pick up the umbrella though.

There seems to be a really nice variation in the creatures of the game, some are hilarious, some are pretty creepy, and apparently it gets more awesome when you start to encounter boss creatures, and they are huge.

The crafting mechanic in Terraria is interesting, but I honestly prefer the way crafting is set out in Starbound. Both games require crafting tables, furnaces and whatever else you need, but you don’t have any categories. It’s just a simple scrollable list to chose items from. It works though, and it was easy enough to get to grips with.

Eventually I was able to craft an iron bow, a helmet and some body armour, Now I feel like I can take on the world.

It’s quite amusing to find my gravestones spread throughout the world, especially with the little messages they have like this:
image

Terraria is massive, and has a lot to offer for sandbox fans. I have barely touched the surface of what is possible and I’m enjoying it a lot.

Final thoughts: It’s obviously rough in places being a beta, but I thoroughly enjoyed my blast on it and can recommend it happily. It’s easily one game I’m going to repeatedly come back to, and I don’t do that with many games at all.

Find Terraria on Steam. You can find more information about the beta on their official forum. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Crazy Penguin Jul 30, 2015
Quoting: oldrocker99Yet Another Linux Game with zero bytes downloaded and "failed to find executable :><: ."

It is not released yet. It's still in Beta :)

To get the binary you have to go to the Games "Properties" and select the Beta in the Beta-Tab. After that it begins to download the game.
oldrocker99 Jul 30, 2015
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Quoting: Crazy Penguin
Quoting: oldrocker99Yet Another Linux Game with zero bytes downloaded and "failed to find executable :><: ."

It is not released yet. It's still in Beta :)

To get the binary you have to go to the Games "Properties" and select the Beta in the Beta-Tab. After that it begins to download the game.

Aha! Thanks, and I'll try that right now ^_^ .

EDIT: Yes, it did work! Now I need to figure out how not to die in 3 minutes (I bought it on a sale and never played it on Windows...


Last edited by oldrocker99 on 30 July 2015 at 2:12 pm UTC
ElectricPrism Jul 31, 2015
Thanks guys, now I have no idea where Terraria is saving to as ~/My Games is nowhere to be found upon reinstalling Terraria Beta.

I can't edit my characters or worlds in the cloud or out the cloud - I seriously have not the slightest hint as to where my saves are now hidden away to :(
Crazy Penguin Jul 31, 2015
Quoting: oldrocker99EDIT: Yes, it did work! Now I need to figure out how not to die in 3 minutes (I bought it on a sale and never played it on Windows...

This might help:
http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Terraria_Wiki

especially:
http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Guide:Getting_started
Crazy Penguin Jul 31, 2015
Quoting: ElectricPrismThanks guys, now I have no idea where Terraria is saving to as ~/My Games is nowhere to be found upon reinstalling Terraria Beta.

I can't edit my characters or worlds in the cloud or out the cloud - I seriously have not the slightest hint as to where my saves are now hidden away to :(

Anything in ~/.local/share? Just a wild guess :)
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