When I 1st started playing I was just messing around learning the very very basics but regardless I was able to at least get one person to show up (apart from the guide). Now that I'm actually getting good at building, mining, and fighting NO ONE GOES NEAR THE PLACE! WTF!? XD

Oh and does the size of the world change the number and chance of meeting NPCs?

WAIT!
I might be on to something.

When I first started I picked up EVERYTHING and so I of course was meeting NPC reqs without even knowing it. Now that I'm more careful I'm ignoring stuff (like flowers which explains why the Dye Maker isn't showing up).

An NPC will move into a house that is suitable you can check if a room/house is suitable by hitting that little house icon on the far right of the screen when your inventory is up. Certain NPCs require you to have done something before they can come. For example the gun dealer requires you to have had a gun in your inventory.

edit: You could look at the wiki to see the requirements for the NPCs but when I first played I just built a big hotel and when I hit a certain requirement they just came. Some have to be rescued though before they can have a chance to move in.

A bit spoilery but if you want here is how to get most of the NPCs. If you don't want to know then ignore the rest of this in

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Okay

1. Nurse = moves in after you use a heart stone(found underground)

2. Gun Dealer = Moves in once you found a gun, your first gun is usually found in either in shadow orbs in the corruption or in crim hearts in the Crimson(depends on what your world spawned at the start)

3. Dryad = Moves in after killing your first boss

4. Demolitionist = Moves in after you find a explosive

The rest of them you have to learn on your own, it's not hard they have a habit of being found either in certain areas or after certain events.

I have this page of the wiki bookmarked. I really don't consider it cheating because that same page tells you how big a house needs to be; what am I supposed to do? Just sit around adding walls until I get it right? :P

I take it you have the essentials for the rooms: table, chair, light source and a door. So once you have that then all you need to do is just do the trigger for each NPC. Just make sure you check to see if it's sutible first you do this by clicking esc and then clicking on the house icon and then the question mark, this should turn your cursor into a question mark then just click on the room and it should tell you if it's suitable or what is missing.

As I said the Nurse will appear if you find a life upgrade and use it, demolitionsist will move in once you find some explosive, the gun dealer will appear once you get a firearm usually from shadow orbs or crim hearts, the dryad will appear once you kill your first boss, goblin will appear once you rescued him from the underground after your first goblin invasion, the mechanic needs to be rescued from the dungeon, the clother will appear after you beat the dungeon boss Skeletron, the fisherman is found sleeping by the ocean which is at the far end of the world map on either side just wake him up, the magician has to be found and rescused from the underground after triggering hardmode. The Steam punker will appear after killing your first hardmode boss, the others I can't recall.

Another different question (don't want to make a separate thread), how do I open the chests I find in the caves? I googled this and all I found were people getting yelled at for asking such a stupid question. :P And yes I know certain chests need keys, but I'm talking about the regular ones you find early on.

Right click on them! It`s just the same way you talk to the guide.

I know that now....I'm STUPID! XD

Since I have you're ear, and I'm not asking for a walkthrough, but now that I'm settled in, now what? Have a nice home, some nice neighbors, pretty soon a bed, always looking for more iron, but now what? There is obviously a story there but apart from just endlessly roaming, is there a way to get to work on it? I keep reading about quest and bosses but I'm not finding a hint of anything.

Thanks again for whatever help you can give; this forum is a life saver.

just pick a direction and start exploring, if you run into areas that are too rough then just high tail it back and come back when you have stronger gear. Start exploring the caves down below(almost every biome has it's own underground save for the desert and the ocean) you will probley find on top of ores some basic gear and eventually some nice items that enhance your abilities or you may find some gems which can be used to make coloured torches, basic grappling hooks(there not as good as the one you craft with iron chains and a hook but it helps early on) and even light sabers.

Bosses well depending on where you go you might accidently spawn one, if not then the earliest boss will eventually find you(he spawns on random nights after you have a set number of NPCs, a certain ammount of total health and I forgot what the other trigger is) you know he's coming when you see "you feel a evil presence watching you" if your underground try to get topside as fast as you can and try to have some range weapons shurikens which can be bought from the merchant NPCs come in handy. The rest of the bosses you will stumble upon in your travels but I will tell you one is in the corruption biome(the evil looking place with the purple grass and great vast deep pits) or in the Crimson(a equally evil place with blood red grass and vile looking creatures) but wont appear till you trigger him by either using his summoning item or by destroying three orbs or hearts in the biome. The second guards the dungeon, the third is in the underground area of the jungle, the fourth is in hell(the lowest level of the game world) and requires a human sacrifice. If your wondering how you perform a human sacrifice let's just say you will find creatures in hell that will drop a item to help "guide" you sacrifice to their end..

Oh one more thing, there are these islands in the sky that are hard to reach without a special potion or building a bridge high enough to reach them but they have some nice loot up there but you get it without keys from the dungeon.

I can not thank you enough and sadly II may be back.

I already have some gems and the ability to make colored lanterns, but I didn't know what the point was. :P I also managed to snag some chains and use it to make a loom and sawmill which look very nice in my home.

Don't be sad about it, I was in the same point when I first played the game(this was back in version 1.0.1) and it was harder then since most players weren't very helpful as they didn't "want to spoil the experience" for me and the guide NPC back then was only good for letting in waves of Zombies into the house during bloodmoons. So I had to consult wikis, watch bad lps of the game and figure the rest of the crap on my own.

So again don't be afraid to ask questions or for help.

Anyway yes build a sawmill and a loom as they are needed to craft certain items, namely the items needed to make a bed. To make a grappling hook from Gems you need 15 of one kind of gem(a diamond hook needs 15 diamonds for example) while the standard grappling hook needs 2 iron chains and one hook which is a random drop from piranhas and skeletons(you can find skeletons underground at the "cavern" level you know you reached it when you see a dark grey rock background and the music changes) but it can be upgraded to a ivy whip with items from the underground jungle. When you finally get a grappling hook just keep it in your inventory and use the E key while mousing over the area you want to hook too.