Calamity Mod Suggestions Guide

Read the pins in #suggestions-discussion for etiquette, submission guidelines, and other rules.

This document specifically covers the rules of what IS and IS NOT an acceptable suggestion.

QUICK LINKS: DETAILED BLACKLIST / OTHER RULES / BEST PRACTICES /
ABOUT BOSS BALANCE SUGGESTIONS  / FREQUENTLY SUGGESTED

Quick Suggestion Blacklist – Click each link for details!

Suggestions that fall into one of these categories will never be accepted without moderator discussion.

DON’T: Discord Server Suggestions

The suggestions process is purely for the Terraria Calamity Mod, not its Discord server.

Example: Make it so having the Warned role doesn't prevent you from sending images.

Reason: It is completely acceptable to have suggestions for the Calamity Mod Discord (that is, the Discord server itself). However, the suggestions system is intended only for the mod and the content within that mod.

What to do: Message the Calamity Main Staff Mail bot with your Discord server suggestion. This bot forwards your messages directly to the moderation team, who will then follow up with you appropriately about your suggestion.

DON’T: Bug Fix Suggestions

Calamity has a bug reports forum: #bug-reports. Getting a bug fixed does not require community or developer approval.

Example: The Devourer of Gods does not spawn correctly on multiplayer servers, appearing only as a head. This makes it difficult and tedious to progress in multiplayer runs, interrupting the experience.

Reason: A suggestion is not a valid bug report. Likewise, a bug report is not a valid suggestion.

What to do: Go to Calamity’s bug reports forum and read the pins, then make an appropriate post that follows the bug report rules. Make sure to include all applicable log files!

DON’T: Balance Suggestions

There is a forum, #balance-issue-reports, for users to report unbalanced items to the developers.

Example:

Buff the base damage of Magnetic Meltdown.

It is woefully underpowered. Its kill time on Polterghast is a very slow 5:00, compared to the optimal 3:00 minute kill time held by other weapons in the Post-Sentinel tier.

(Note: This is a fake example. In reality, Magnetic Meltdown is a balanced weapon.)

Reason: There's nothing inherently wrong with suggesting a balance change, but it is an inefficient use of suggestions space.  We have a separate balance forum which is 100% dedicated to game balance concerns.  Multiple Calamity testers watch and actively participate in this forum, and they are ready and willing to test the balance of items at a moment's notice.  Balance testing and fixing resulting issues is an extremely quick process, often taking less than an hour total.  There is no need for these minor changes to go through suggestions approval.

What to do: If you want testers to take a look at a weapon or other item that you feel is unbalanced, you can create a post about the item in the #balance-issue-reports forum channel in the Discord.  Check that forum's pinned post and Guidelines for instructions on how to submit a proper report.

DON’T: Resprite or Artwork Suggestions

The suggestions process cannot currently accommodate for art assets or spritework. Please use the art server’s art submissions system.

Example:

Resprite Eviscerator.

This weapon has a very old appearance that dates from an older era of Calamity and sorely needs a visual touchup to meet the mod’s modern standards.

Reason: We have a dedicated asset submission process that is separate from the suggestion channels.

What to do: Go to the Calamity Art Discord. The current way to “suggest” resprites for Calamity content is to make the resprites yourself and submit them through the Art Discord's #asset-submissions channel. Resprites don't need to go through public voting like suggestions, so anything you submit goes straight to the devs!  Make sure you read that channel's description and pins before submitting anything.


If you're not confident in your spriting abilities, there are plenty of spriting tutorials in the Art Discord and online to help you get started. Keep in mind that if your goal is to draw attention to a low quality in-game sprite, your resprite does not have to be immensely high quality. Simply submitting any spritework to the channel will draw people's attention to the current status of that item’s art. Other spriters may try their hand at remaking it too. Be aware that major spritework projects (especially bosses) are very difficult to get accepted, even for talented spriters.

DON’T: Specific Item or Rework Suggestions

The suggestion channels are not the place for you to pitch the totally cool new item idea you came up with.

  • Specific Item Suggestion (aka “SIS”): A suggestion which requests the addition of a new item, and specifies exactly what it is and how it should work. (Also applies to a linked set of items, such as an armor set.)
  • Specific Rework Suggestion (aka “SRS”): A suggestion which specifies exactly how to rework or remake an existing item (or linked set).

These suggestions are unacceptable because they give the developers no flexibility to implement the suggestion.

SIS Example: 

Add a new weapon called the Tesla Energy Blaster.
It should be a Post-ML ammoless ranged weapon that fires sets of 3 parallel piercing lasers with 230 base damage. It should be crafted with a Space Gun, 10 Luminite Bars, 20 Vortex Fragments, and 50 Martian Conduit Plating.

(You may want to see this.)

Reason (Specific Item Suggestion): In the past, it was popular to suggest specific, particular new items. The Calamity developers almost never implemented these suggestions, making them worthless. Instead of suggesting the addition of a particular item, you should explain the problem that is caused by an item not existing, and explain how adding an appropriate item would solve that problem and improve the mod.

It is usually a valid suggestion to say “Add some item which fits these criteria”. For example, “Add an upgrade to the Absorber”.

“Fixed” Example:

Add a higher tier bonk shield that works like Shield of Cthulhu.
This shield would fit a niche for players who want to embrace the hit and run playstyle offered by a bonk shield later in their playthroughs. Bonk shields provide the unique safety net of being able to cleanly bounce off of foes that get too close while maintaining a short attack range.

(You may want to see this.)

SRS Example:

Rework Biofusillade.
Its current function is very boring and very old, the same as it was years and years ago. Instead of its simple linear stream of projectiles, it should shoot out a chaotic spread of life energy darts. Holding the book out should make it consume mana at an increasing rate, increasing its fire rate constantly but making it more and more inaccurate.

Reason (Specific Rework Suggestion): Particularly detailed rework suggestions give the developers no room to make adjustments when improving the item. As such, the Calamity developers almost always reject these suggestions. Instead of suggesting a specific rework, think of the problem that the item’s current form poses, and suggest that the item be reworked to solve that problem. The dev team is already aware of countless items which need reworking due to their age, but time and motivation to rework items is limited.

In rework suggestions, do not overly specify implementation details. Instead, focus on the problem caused by the current item.


“Fixed” Example 1:

Rework Hellwing Staff to constrain its range and mitigate its lighting ability.
This weapon is unusually flexible for its tier, able to spawn near-hitscan fire beams anywhere on the screen, including through walls. These beams also emit a large amount of light, trivializing exploration. While the weapon is relatively balanced in terms of DPS output, its utility is out of line and its capacity to remotely deal damage should be restricted for a more healthy early game Mage experience.

It can be acceptable for a rework suggestion to mention what is informally called “old bad”: the reasons why the current status of the item is subpar, not up to "modern standards" or not living up to the item's potential. Mentioning these problems can often be essential to explaining how an improvement is necessary, but make sure they are not the only thing your suggestion points out. You must be constructive overall with your suggestion, and provide a clear road to improvement.

“Fixed” Example 2:

Rework Yharim’s Gift to have a more interesting and significant effect, potentially movement-based.
This accessory is extremely late-game but provides only stats and rare, weak projectile spawns. Considering the lore importance of Yharim and his soul bond to Yharon, the accessory deserves a more profound and impactful effect. An obvious choice would be to grant the player an Auric-based intrinsic power or ability. Since there are very few late game movement accessories, granting the player a tier-appropriate movement tool would give Yharim’s Gift a strong and unique place in an endgame player’s arsenal.

DON’T: Extreme Effort or Broadly Scoped Suggestions

Calamity already has a long-term development roadmap and there is no way to include such gigantic undertakings.

Definitive list of things that are always Extreme Effort and can never be suggested:

  • New boss
  • New biome
  • New difficulty mode
  • New event / invasion
  • New class (e.g. Rogue)

List of things that usually count as Extreme Effort:

  • Grand-scale reworks (e.g. changing a core mechanic)
  • New effects, ideas or content which would affect almost the entire game

Example:

Add a parrying mechanic to the entire Melee class.

This would add more mechanical depth to playing Melee and giving Melee players a close-range approach option at ALL points in the game.


Reason: Extreme effort suggestions are major changes to Calamity as a whole that require substantial amounts of work to be implemented properly. An entire update, or perhaps multiple entire updates, would need to be dedicated to fulfilling or executing these suggestions, which is not feasible given the development team’s current roadmap and plans. Likewise, broadly scoped suggestions or grand scale reworks would change the identity of Calamity and what it means to play Calamity. This means they inevitably come into conflict with the developers’ design goals for the mod.

NOTE: Not all “difficult”, “hard” or “complicated” suggestions are disallowed. This rule applies exclusively to suggestions which are so vast that they would change the course of Calamity development itself, or the identity of the mod and its gameplay experience. Suggestions which are known to be difficult or complicated, but are single clearly-defined changes with limited breadth and scope, are generally allowed.

“Fixed” Example (taking above note into account):

Rework the way the player gains and spends Draedon Power Cells.
These items are mandatory for progression due to their use in the Codebreaker, but the uninformed player will not know to break or utilize the Power Cell Factories which produce them until they look it up on the wiki. This causes an annoying delay before being able to fight Draedon. Furthermore, their role in keeping Arsenal weapons charged is more of a nuisance, and they have little to no other uses, undermining the importance and relevance of Draedon’s labs as a whole throughout progression.

DON’T: Upcoming Future Content Suggestions

Even were they to be delivered to the dev Discord, there is no way to implement suggestions which conflict with official plans.

Example: Make Yharim use a pre-generated / fixed arena on the Dragon Aerie so his boss fight is as fair as possible for all players.


Reason: Almost all major future content releases for Calamity have already been planned, some more thoroughly than others. This means most of the time there is no way to take future content suggestions into consideration. On top of that, it is difficult to make judgements about the quality or validity of an idea formed around content you haven't experienced the in-game execution of yet. Wait until you have played with the content in question before forming a suggestion about it.

NOTE: This rule applies to content listed in #changelogs. Do not suggest anything regarding changes which are not yet publicly playable. Wait for them to be released first so you can actually see how they play out in-game, to see if we've implemented what you are requesting already, or if the issue you are solving has been rendered irrelevant.

DON’T: Add More References Suggestions

Calamity is already home to hundreds of references. We are trying to remove them, not add more.

Example: Add a right click to Murasama which allows the player to fire the sword out like a gun or perform an explosive-assisted quickdraw, because Jetstream Sam can do that.


Reason: Simply being a reference to other media is not a valid reason for a suggestion to be implemented. All suggestions should have actual reasoning about why the requested change benefits the Calamity Mod.

NOTE 1: It is always acceptable to make suggestions regarding content which is already a reference (for example, Murasama, or the Conference Call). However, it is almost never acceptable to make suggestions to increase the quantity or accuracy of existing references.

NOTE 2: This rule is extremely strict for references to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Yes, Calamity’s main difficulty is still called Revengeance Mode and we have numerous references to MGR:R in the mod. This does not make that specific game exempt from the references rule. In fact, it is exactly the opposite: we have no intention of ever adding more MGR:R references to Calamity.

DON’T: Explicitly Re-add Removed Content Suggestions

The Calamity Developers do not remove content lightly. All major removals are voted on by the entire team and have good reasons.

Example: Add a config option which brings back Supreme Calamitas’ classic, flaming-rock-eye appearance.

Reason: When something is removed from Calamity, it’s done carefully and for a good reason.  The developers always consider their options, and usually prefer reworking content if possible.  Deleting things is only done as a last resort for content that seems to have no chance of redemption, so the chances of deleted content coming back is essentially zero.

Additionally, nostalgia alone is not enough of a reason to bring back old content or old sprites.  But if you want to experience the mod's old days, you can play one of the three "Classic" Calamity mods that the team has released, which allow you to play the mod as it was in its earlier versions, with the modern tModLoader:

Calamity Mod Classic 1.0  (June 1, 2016)

Calamity Mod Classic 1.1.7  (February 2, 2017)

Calamity Mod Classic 1.2  (August 20, 2017)

DON’T: Joke Suggestions

Joke suggestions clog screen space. If they are not meant to be implemented, why even suggest them?

Reason:  We try to have an efficient and somewhat serious system in the suggestion channels.  Joke suggestions are unhelpful, taking time and screen space away from suggestions that actually stand a chance and have the intention of improving the mod.

NOTE 1:  Repeatedly making joke suggestions is considered disruptive behavior under Calamity Discord moderation rules, and could lead to punishments such as being muted or even banned if given enough repeat offenses.

NOTE 2:  The "get fixed boi" / GFB world seed is indeed a very jokey and meme-filled game mode.  However, that doesn't mean suggestions pertaining to it don't need to be well-thought-out and well-supported just like any other suggestion; GFB isn't a meme dumping ground where anything goes.  GFB suggestions can be humorous, but please still try to put sincere effort into making them.

Other Suggestion Rules

These rules are equally important to the “Don’t”s above, but do not outline categories of blacklisted suggestions.

  • Always format your suggestions with a “Title” and “Body”.
    This comes with two additional rules:

  • The Title must be descriptive of your suggestion's entire idea.
  • The Body section has a maximum limit of 1,000 characters.

Examples:

Correct

Incorrect

Reason: Our bot, which handles delivering suggestions to the voting channels and developers, requires this format in order to successfully process your suggestion.  Failing to fix a suggestion which is formatted incorrectly will lead to it getting automatically deleted within 24 hours, regardless of quality.

What to do: Simply make sure to have a “Title” section separated by a line break from the “Body”.  On both the web and desktop Discord apps, a line break is created by holding Shift and pressing Enter.  On mobile, there should be a separate Enter key from the Send button.

(It is not necessary for the Title to be in bold, but there's no harm in doing it either.)

The best Titles are short, single sentences that simply state your suggestion's proposal on one line.

However, please try to use the Title section to explain your suggestion's idea as completely as possible, so that you do not need to elaborate on 'what you mean' in the suggestion's Body.  The Title should not be a summary of your idea nor only the "core" of your idea; your entire idea should fit into the Title.

Suggestions which are formatted incorrectly, or exceed the 1,000 character limit in the Body, will be marked with a “🗜️” (:compression:) emoji by the bot.  This reaction will automatically be removed after the formatting is fixed / after you've cut enough content out of the Body to go below the limit.  The removal may take some time, so be patient.

Again, failing to fix a suggestion’s formatting will lead to it being automatically deleted.

  • Do not post more than 2 suggestions per day.

Reason: This is to prevent the channels from becoming unnecessarily busy, and drawing attention away from other people's suggestions indirectly via drowning them out. To keep the moderators’ workload more manageable and give other users a fairer shot at having their idea considered, please limit yourself to 2 suggestions per 24-hour period, and hold onto any additional ideas you may have during that period for posting at a later time.

  • Do not make suggestions about dedicated content (donor/dev items) without explicit permission from the dedicatee.

  • If a developer item is dedicated to a developer who has not been seen in the community for multiple years, it can be suggested about without permission.
  • If the developer can be contacted, you must contact them and get permission to make a suggestion about their item.
  • Regardless of the availability of the donor, Patreon items can never be suggested about without permission.
  • Please ping a moderator or RoverdriveX if you are unsure about the status of a given dedicatee.
  • For concerns about balancing donator or developer items, please see this section.

Reason: To respect those who have had content dedicated to them, the dev team does not rework or change their items without their permission.

What to do: To prove that your suggestion regarding a dedicated item has permission, attach a message link to a message by the dedicatee in the Calamity Discord which grants you permission. Please show your suggestion to the dedicatee before posting it as well.

Suggestion Best Practices

The best written and best designed suggestions are clear, concise, well-reasoned, and have obvious intent.

  • Do not be too specific with your proposed solution.

The reasoning behind the SIS "Don't" applies broadly to all types of suggestions. Specificity is not recommended for suggestions, especially in terms of stats, because then discussion around your suggestion typically becomes concerned with balancing your exact idea rather than the suggestion's overall concept. Being less specific allows for more freedom with how the suggestion is interpreted and implemented, both making it more likely to be voted on by the public and more likely to be accepted by the developers.


Only include what is most important when specifying what you want.

  • Focus on the reason why.

This is related to the previous point. Every important factor in the suggestion's proposal should have a reason behind it. Focus more on the problem that must be solved, rather than ideas for how exactly to solve that problem. The majority of a suggestion's content should be the reason why the suggestion should be implemented.

  • Keep your suggestions concise: short, direct, and as clear as possible.

The Body section of a suggestion has a maximum limit of 1,000 characters.  If you exceed this limit, the bot will not send your suggestion to voting and you will need to trim it down.

Avoid writing extraneous information into your suggestion regardless, as it wastes screen space and does not help its chances of being accepted.

Here are some examples of extraneous information:

  • Introducing yourself. Who you are does not affect the validity of your suggestion. (of note, developers never make suggestions)
  • Connecting your suggestion’s reasoning to other suggestions that aren’t already accepted. If your suggestion passes and the one you reference doesn’t, then the Calamity developers will be reading a suggestion that they will not understand without digging through the Calamity Main Discord.

Furthermore, it is best to trim down every part of your suggestion to the essentials. Only say what is necessary to communicate your idea.

It is helpful when your suggestion explains the full scope of the perceived problem and then follows up with an explanation of why the suggestion solves the problem. A good size to strive for is one paragraph, or two if necessary (one for the problem, one for the solution). If you are going to write more than this, be absolutely sure that it is required to communicate your idea. Too many words will harm the readability of your suggestion and turn people away from reading it in full.

In summary: Shorter suggestions are easier to read. Excessively wordy suggestions are less likely to be read by public voters and are also less likely to be accepted by the developers even if they do pass.

About Boss Balance Suggestions

This particular entry has its own section, because it is not a "Don't", rather it is just an advisory warning regarding this particular type of suggestion:  boss buffs & nerfs.

  • Avoid suggestions about rebalancing bosses

Reason: Most rebalancing suggestions stem from users having trouble with a boss personally. These suggestions are subjective. Convincing people that a boss needs balance changes is a massive undertaking which requires clear detail and concrete evidence.


What to do: If you are dead set on making a suggestion regarding the difficulty of a boss, you must have concrete evidence of why such a change needs to be made.

You will need to provide the raw numbers you wish to have changed, such as damage or debuff duration. Taking into account the on-tier defensive and mobility options for the player, you will need to explain why the specific boss attack or pattern is an outlier and must be adjusted.


If you have a specific change in mind, you must additionally provide a solid rationale for that change. You will need to explain how your suggested boss edit fixes the outlier problem you demonstrated.


This process is far more stringent than any other suggestion and is why boss balance suggestions are subject to extreme scrutiny. There is also a chance your suggestion will be invalid because the boss is already being adjusted by the development team.

Frequently Suggested Suggestions

These suggestions are so common, or have been in the past, that they are noted here.
You do not need to suggest them again.

  • Allowing the Wulfrum Acrobatics Pack to be equipped in the hook slot.
  • Adding renewable sources for the Shrine items, such as crafting recipes.
  • Adding a "locator" item to guide you to the Shrines.
  • Adding voice acting.  (Too expensive!)