This post is a combination of everything I would change about the game to make it more enjoyable in certain points in progression.
To start, let's talk about weapon balancing. I will be giving examples on how to buff/nerf these weapons. These weapons are unbalanced for the point in progression you get it, compared to other weapons.
Harpoon
Annoying way to fire makes missing a shot very punishing. This could be balanced by increasing the damage, increasing the fire rate or letting the projectile return faster. Another way to buff it would be to let it stick inside enemies, dealing constant damage, much like the piranha gun.
Chain knife
Way too short of a projectile travel distance compared to other flails available in the same point. Funtions very similar to spamming a boomerang up close, without the damage that boomerangs at this tier do, like the shroomerang for example. Chain knife is not worth the grind as a better melee weapon can be found by killing the spore bat, at a much higher rate. Can be balanced by increasing the projectile travel distance and maybe buffing the damage by 1.
The meatball
Does not compare to the corruption version in terms of obtaining it. The ball of hurt deals 30 damage and is a pre boss weapon. The meatball deals 34 damage and is post-Brain of Cthulhu. Other melee weapons in this tier are way better.
The artery/Malaise
These Yo-Yo's are underpowered compared to the Amazon which is relatively easier to obtain. I would suggest buffing the damage and/or adding a damage-over-time debuff to them.
Pew-matic Horn
This weapon is unreliable due to the luck needed to get good damage. The dropoff of the projectiles makes the weapon underpowered against bosses compared to other weapons in the same Point of progression. You have to be closer to your target, without much reward for doing so. A buff for this weapon could be to make the picked projectiles based on player luck, firing more gem projectiles when the player has more luck. I would also increase the fire rate, to make it more chaotic and fun.
Houndius Shootius
The damage of this sentry is not worth it to use this over the old ones army sentries. Its lack of piercing makes it inferior to the ballista, which is obtainable earlier. I would suggest buffing the damage and fire rite or making the projectile pierce. @Alfieboris🌳 thinks it would be great if the projectile homed in on enemies as a buff.
Bone arrows should be craftable with 100 wooden arrows and a bone.
All ore swords and spears
All ore swords and spears are not worth to craft. A wooden boomerang can deal more damage spamming it up close to an enemy. I would suggest buffing all of their damage by 5 and making their size way bigger so they can hit enemies better. This applies to the hardmode ore swords as well, they could receive a 10 damage bonus instead.
Starfury
The most broken pre-boss weapon in the game. Can be used all the way to the wall of flesh. I would suggest nerfing the damage and making a buffed version available after skeletron. (Just like the good ol' days) This could be in form of a locked golden chest on sky islands that only spawns once in your world. This would be a balance between getting the accesiories early and the buffed starfury after skeletron. The nerfed starfury would still spawn in unlocked sky chests like normal.
Flamarang
With the introduction of the trimarang, the flamarang has lost some of its usefulness and coolness. A solution to this would be to include it in the recipe for a new quad boomerang, or to make it have a explosion like the volcano sword when it hits an enemy.
Obsidian Swordfish
This spear is very underpowered for the time you can get it. A damage and size buff would help this a lot.
Optic staff
A very underpowerd summon when it comes to fast moving enemies and bosses. The attack range and movement of this summon falls short compared to other summon acquired at around the same time, like Blade staff and Sanguine staff. This summon can also not go through blocks naturally, making it annoying to use in caves. I would suggest increasing the attack range and movement speed, and letting the minions go through blocks. A cursed flame attack from the spazmini would also be cool to add.
Tempest Staff
This staff is underpowered compared to the other progression-breaking items that duke fishron drops. It has a bad accuracy and range, which makes it bad to fight fast moving bosses like empress of light. Even the Sanguine staff, which is obtained way easier/earlier, is better at hitting these types of bosses. A buff for the Tempest staff would be to increase the speed of the projectile, so it hits the enemies more consistently. The attack range and damage can also be buffed.
Bladetongue
Not worth it to fish in its current state. Does not compare to other melee weapons available at this stage. A damage and size increase could benefit this weapon and make it worth the time spent fishing for it. It could also be reworked like the other swords like excalibur and the horsemans blade.
Enchanted sword
Harder to find than the Starfury, yet deals less damage and has fewer uses (Starfury can be used to light up caves). The nerfs from the 1.4 update should be reverted, as this weapon did not deserve it. The sword damage and size should be increased for it to compare against other weapons available. Right now it is a dissapointment to find if you have a better melee weapon already (the blade of grass, starfury etc.). Could also use a full rework if you have time @Redigit🌳 At least one sword shrine should be guaranteed to generate.
Sleepy Octopod
Very underpowered weapon for the point of progression you can get it in. The main use of the weapon, the ground slam, is very situational. You are required to be very close to your enemy to even do damage, and for you to be doing good damage, you have to be on the ground as well. It is useless against most boss fights and there are still better weapons to use against events. The smash should be applied when you hit an enemy as well, to increase its usefulness. A size increase is also needed to make you hit enemies reliably. A swing speed buff would help this out a lot.
Pirate Staff
The pirate staff is VERY rare, yet very bad at killing bosses or flying enemies. This means it is only good against the destroyer, which is very bad. For such a rare drop, it needs a buff to its jump height and speed. It could also have its drop chances buffed. EVEN better: make them attack from a mini flying dutchman when far from the ground.
There are no pre-boss sentries, making a sentry only playthrough impossible. I would suggest adding one, to add more versatility to the early game summoner. There could also be utility sentries which give your minions a attack speed/damage buff when in the radius of the sentry.
There are also no whip-based summoner armors before the tiki armor in hardmode. I would suggest adding one for the pre-mech boss stage and the pre-plantera stage.
There are no whip-specific accessories. The only accessories for whips are melee speed accessories. There are no whip range bonus accessories. This makes the player too reliant on whip based armor sets, which are absent in hardmode, pre-plantera. I would add at least one accessory that buffs the whip size. This could be combined with the feral claws for a great whip based accessory. Another good accessory would be one that gives whips a special effect when minions hit the affected enemy, like the passive effect of the firecracker, but in an accesory that makes it applicable to other whips.
Demonite/Crimtane weapons and most Dungeon weapons are rendered useless.
Why would you even make the majority of the Demonite/Crimtane weapons if you can just make way better versions by mining some hellstone from hell? Why would you want to use the dungeon chest weapons if you can find better ones with the shadow key? I usually only loot the chests for the murmasa, cobalt shield and the shadow key and maybe the phoenix blaster. All other items have no use as there is no boss or event stopping you from getting the way better weapons in hell. There are 2 ways to combat this: There could be a boss that has to be slain to be able to open the shadow chests. This would give a use for the dungeon weapons.
The other way is to give the dungeon weapons a damage bonus against hell enemies. It makes a lot of sense that a WATER bolt would do more damage to fire enemies. This would also be the case for the aqua scepter. The same damage bonus could be applied to the Demonite/crimtane weapons, but these could instead do more damage against skeletons, so they have a better use in the skeletron fight and raiding the dungeon with them.
Yo-Yo's suck.
The Yo-Yo progression is flawed, and Yo-Yo's are especially too underpowered against the wall of flesh. Yo-Yo's do not have enough range, speed and firepower to be reliable against fast-moving bosses. Yo-Yo's are boring to use. All the 1.3 Yo-Yo's besides the terrarian have no effects added to them to make them stand out. I would suggest adding effects to at least some Yo-Yo's to make them stand out a little. I would also suggest adding a Yo-Yo to use before the Moon lord that has a longer reach than the eye of Cthulhu, or one that has effects that also more useful. The same would go for fighting the Wall of flesh, the Hive-Five barely lets you kill it. I would add an accessory that lets you throw the Yo-Yo out for double the range, but you would be able to keep it thrown for half as long for balance. This would give you a fun way to make Yo-Yo's viable for bosses without being too overpowered.
This video is a good example of how to fix Yo-Yo progression:
This video is a good example of how to make Yo-Yo's fun and an all-round good video analyzing the state of Yo-Yo's:
Hardmode ore balancing
Starting off your hardmode world by doing the same thing every time. Smash all the altars and die to wraiths. Mine the first tier of ore. Make the first tier ore pickaxe. Mine the second tier ore. Make the second tier pickaxe and anvil. Mine the third tier ore. Make the third tier pickaxe and forge. There is no reason to make Cobalt or Mythril weapons or armor, as you will only make the next tier pickaxe and make the last tier armor. This can be fixed like how calamity does it, but an easier way would be to give a reason to make the first 2 tiers of armor. This can be done by giving cobalt and mythril a unique set bonus. The weapons can get the buffs i mentioned in the ore swords weapon balance.
I personally dispise this part of the game, and would wish there was a way to get the mythril anvil and adamantite forge without having to mine or fish for them for 30 hours. A solution for this would be to let Queen slime drop these crafting stations or the materials needed for them, to give the players that do not need the ore armors a way to get the anvil and forge without having to mine/fish anyway.
Movement accessories balancing Buff to base movement speed and acceleration
Movement accessories are very frustrating to get when you just start your world. The first thing you want to get are hermes boots and a cloud in a bottle, but you get 2 magic mirrors, 2 maces and 2 shoe spikes instead. This can be fixed by making the first 2 golden chests that you open always have a cloud in a bottle in the first and hermes boots in the second chest. This will make the pre-boss stage much more enjoyable and quick, now that you dont have to search for chests at base speed without a double jump. If this seems too broken, this could also be a new feature of the Celebration Mk10 seed.
EDIT: Based on community feedback, I have proposed a different way to rebalance movement accessories. Many have pointed out that guaranteed items in the chests is too reliant on those items, and that the Hermes boots and cloud in a bottle (and alternatives) are too good for when you can get them. To make a middle ground for this, I thought about nerfing the acceleration speed of the Hermes boots and cloud in a bottle, and nerfing the max speed of the Hermes boots. This would make them less overpowered in the early game. This would also make other accessories such as the magiluminesence, shield of Cthulhu and hooks more essential for quick directional movement. This would also make the movement more skillful. For players that do not want to manage the hooks: the nerfed acceleration speed becomes weaker after combining it with other accessories at the tinkerers' workshop, so it would become more like the old acceleration towards the end of pre-hardmode.
EDIT 2: Based on more community feedback, i have come to the realisation that the issue is simple: The base movement speed is too slow and needs a buff. This makes the early game very slow and unbearable untill you get the Hermes boots. This makes you very reliant on the Hermes boots, more than any other accesory. Dapling has come with this solution: The boots are far too critical to many people’s experience in the first place simply because the player’s starting movement doesn’t feel good at all. It constantly feels like you’re walking on ice and the starting movement speed is ever so slightly too low. Therefore I propose increasing basic acceleration by a significant amount and swapping out the Blinkroot in swiftness potion’s recipe for a Daybloom. The former is a massive improvement to earlygame which also makes dashes less of a requirement for playing the game without mounts later on, and the latter makes swiftness potions easier to obtain early on, which makes basic movement 3.75 mph faster which actually feels pretty nice with your low starting velocity and even stacks with well fed. You could also remove the cactus from the recipe but that feels like a bit much as it would make Swiftness the cheapest potion in the game.
Shoe Spikes: For a gold chest item, this accessory is underpowered, as it does the same as the climbing claws, which are a surface chest item. The shoe spikes could be moved to the surface chest pool. Another way to balance it would be to increase the player's running acceleration when on the ground. This would make it useful as a gold chest item and make it different from the climbing claws in utility.
World generation options
I would love to have an option to have just the wavy caves of The constant without the rest of the features like taking damage from cactus. There could be an option for world generation to separate the world changes and other features that the seed adds. This could easily be done for all the seeds if world generation and tweaks for secret seeds are coded in separately, but i do not know if that is already the case.
