I hadn't, thank you!

Yeah, about that...

Nah, I'm safe. I only play at work after hours, so there's a hard time limit on getting sucked in, and the whole situation lends to a particular challenge mode that's not conducive to addictiveness either. I don't believe in spending time on independent research of simple problems already crowdsourced and solved by the community. Gaming is all about self-imposed challenges, game designers are not perfect, some games are shitty, and some challenges are dumb.

So if a choose-your-own-adventure game generates a unique fun story for every playthrough, that's cool with me, I won't "cheat". If an RPG requires a particular string of actions performed to acquire the best weapon (otherwise delivering a subpar experience), I'm not going to waste several playthroughs discovering it "fairly". Because "guess the writer's mind" is a stupid game, and I did not consent to have whatever I do in my free time be judged on stupid terms. So what I do in Terraria is research research research, then try to play as efficiently as possible for two to three hours per day that I get.

Now, Terraria is exactly my kind of game. I'm supremely uncreative, but I'm a sucker for Points of Light design (except when Mearls castrated D&D, that was uncool), and I'm a sucker for building sims (the more exponentially spectacular, the better). As a kid, I fucking cried at the end of The Mysterious Island. Terraria is great for artists who can figure out which piece of furniture to color with which paint so it [url=http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Guide:Minecart_rail_systems]looks like a railway ticket booth[/url], but it's also good for squares who the game can direct into imitating creativity.

Also, it has purple armor. And purple swords. And grandfather clocks. And SUPERIOR STARFURY. Omg I can play pretty princess dress-up squeeeeeeeeeeee. (And yes, an essential part of playing dress-up is knowing how fast my newest bling cuts up cosmic horrors into chunky salsa. Otherwise, what's the point?)

Yeah I'm a purple freak myself. Have you snagged the purple acid dye yet? It moves! :P

Strike that, I'm thinking of the blue acid dye or the purple mushroom dye. I can't keep this stuff strait.

Accidentally triggered the Wall of Flesh last night, before I had actually gone down into the Underworld. In a moment of "Oh-crap-I-don't-yet-want-to-go-Hard-Mode!" I activated the Magic Mirror. Instadeath, but it killed me at my spawn point, not at the place where i was recalling from. Thank goodness, and also thank goodness that ends the event with seemingly no other consequences beyond the usual death stuff. I keep finding new crafting stations and new raw materials, which has me considering just how much more pre-Hard stuff there is to see and do before intentionally taking on the Wall of Flesh.

Learned that I can carry both a Piggy Bank / Money Trough AND a Safe, and that it's permissible to carry a loaded Safe inside the Money Trough. Greatly extends the amount of time I can spend on an expedition before popping back home to unload.

Found a Muramasa but am still preferring the Arkhalis. The only benefit to the M sword - so far - is the longer reach of its swing. DPS-wise the Arkhalis wins; it also acts as a bit of a shield against some magic attacks, and it lights up terrain about 8-10 blocks deep which allows me to find ores, gems, and caves, and underground lakes and ponds quite easily.

Got around 12-15 NPCs now and it's time to do something about the ramshackle housing they're living in now. Need to come up with a couple interesting ideas so it's a bit more than slumlord apartments. The housing doesn't need to have a way for them to enter and leave, correct? If I understand correctly, when they're ready to show up then they'll make their way into whatever apartment is available once I leave the vicinity of the apartment, whether or not there's an outside door and whether or not there is a path to get to the door in the first place. Sound about right? Thinking about either another floating building or simply a ground-bound building with only a trapdoor to get in and out.

Mostly correct, each house must have a door (or platforms allowing access), but that door can connect to another house which only has that door as well.

I made a quick video (about 3 1/2 min) of how you can do this, still have access and keep the housing valid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czHegoeudCo

Note that you need the Mechanic to get the actuators, wire cutter and wrench. With the wire cutter you can harvest wires from traps, switches can be grabbed in the dungeon.

This worked for me.

http://www.gog.com/forum/terraria/post_screenshots_of_your_creations_here/post229

Does it have pink armor and swords? If so, are they worth using?

The Starfury is bright pink and my personal favorite sword pre-Hardmode.

A list of all swords in the game: http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Swords

Meowmere is basically a pink sword that shoots Nyan-cats. It's one of the highest damage weapons in the game.

As far as armor goes, there's Pink Dye, Unicorn Wisp Dye, Pink Gel Dye and Shifting Pearlsands Dye.

I got him a couple nights ago. Er, got him AFTER I slapped a couple more rooms on the side of the building. Heh. Only showed up in my place last night though I 'rescued' him earlier.

I'll check out the video tonight. Thanks.

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Thanks, tinyE. I like how you placed related items in the room of each NPC, to quickly identify their profession / services. Nice touch.

Well that was taken while I was doing that, so a lot of that stuff is in the wrong place, but yeah, that was the general idea. Also I make sure to place my Nurse and my Dryad in the middle of the building to I can get to healing faster and so that the Druid's protection spell covers the whole building, not just half. Also make sure your explosives guy isn't too close to any gardens because he will throw grenades and they will destroy your herb farms. :P

One should never take everything written in books (or online encyclopaedias) for granted, because anyone can put anything in there.

I kinda like the steps better. Have you considered giving the pyramid a marble outer shell, on top of the sandstone, with a gold top? That would look wicked! That is, the way the pyramids looked originally (at least from what I understand) as in this civilization IV wonder video clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OCOOKW5aso

Yeah I was thinking about the shell though the Egyptians used limestone for that. As for the cap, I have grave marker that is basically a granite pyramid which I was thinking of using as a cap. Of course like I said, when my new pc gets here I'm starting over from scratch and baring a good looking fountain may end up with the gold cap.

And I just found this on a history site.

If you tear yourself away from kerbal space program that is ;)

Just like that yes: steps on the inside and smooth marble on the outside. That would look awesome. Perhaps in that case it would be better to keep the inside of the pyramid brown like the steps, to contrast with the white outer shell.
Damn now I'm getting curious. Get building already! I want to see the end result!