Items I had an idea for a tiny detail involving the Gender Change Potion

[RedeemerofDark]

Honestly, I always loved that there even was a Gender Change potion in the game just for the novelty alone since most games never explored having such an option post-character creation, at least as far as I've seen. I think a cool idea for further visual variety and to make things more varied would be allowing you to use it on the NPCs. Both the normal ones and the Shimmer ones. I just think it'd be cool to see what it'd look like, especially if it changed dialogue. Like imagine using it on the Nurse and the Gunslinger, and the Gunslinger comments on how they are still attracted to them even if they've "swapped roles". I think that'd be cute.

 

[Dapling]

I’ve always wanted to fine-tune and customize which npcs teleport to king and queen statues and this is probably the coolest way to do it
It probably shouldn’t change dialogue outside of pronouns though. I don’t really like the implications of special dialogue being gated behind something like this.

 

[Terrabit]

Honestly, I always loved that there even was a Gender Change potion in the game just for the novelty alone since most games never explored having such an option post-character creation, at least as far as I've seen. I think a cool idea for further visual variety and to make things more varied would be allowing you to use it on the NPCs. Both the normal ones and the Shimmer ones. I just think it'd be cool to see what it'd look like, especially if it changed dialogue. Like imagine using it on the Nurse and the Gunslinger and the Gunslinger comments on how they are still attracted to them even if they've "swapped roles". I think that'd be cute.

Your idea is really interesting, as a new game mechanic it sounds as crazy as many mechanics in this game. But nevertheless I would not like it to be, since the gameplay is made in such a way that the player feels that NPCs are the same full-fledged inhabitants of this world as the player. And adding absolute control over not only their appearance (this is done by throwing in flickering), but also the gender of the NPC makes them look like guinea pigs, and the player becomes a god-like experimenter. That is, my question is not about the game mechanics, but about the violation of the feeling of "living and feeling" NPCs in the game who have emotions, relationships, happiness, and so on. I hope you understand what I mean. Although, perhaps most players will like your proposal or they will have a different opinion on this matter.

 

[a really far away planet]

And adding absolute control over not only their appearance (this is done by throwing in flickering), but also the gender of the NPC makes them look like guinea pigs, and the player becomes a god-like experimenter.

Changing NPC appearances is already completely allowed to the player through the exploitation of shimmer.

And the Terrarian generally is already frequently known for functioning like a "god-like experimenter". That wouldn't really change anything

 

[Dapling]

Your idea is really interesting, as a new game mechanic it sounds as crazy as many mechanics in this game. But nevertheless I would not like it to be, since the gameplay is made in such a way that the player feels that NPCs are the same full-fledged inhabitants of this world as the player. And adding absolute control over not only their appearance (this is done by throwing in flickering), but also the gender of the NPC makes them look like guinea pigs, and the player becomes a god-like experimenter. That is, my question is not about the game mechanics, but about the violation of the feeling of "living and feeling" NPCs in the game who have emotions, relationships, happiness, and so on. I hope you understand what I mean. Although, perhaps most players will like your proposal or they will have a different opinion on this matter.

The nice thing about having a blank slate character is that you can just write them so that they wouldn’t do this, and roleplay it ingame by not doing it either.

 

[RedeemerofDark]

Your idea is really interesting, as a new game mechanic it sounds as crazy as many mechanics in this game. But nevertheless I would not like it to be, since the gameplay is made in such a way that the player feels that NPCs are the same full-fledged inhabitants of this world as the player. And adding absolute control over not only their appearance (this is done by throwing in flickering), but also the gender of the NPC makes them look like guinea pigs, and the player becomes a god-like experimenter. That is, my question is not about the game mechanics, but about the violation of the feeling of "living and feeling" NPCs in the game who have emotions, relationships, happiness, and so on. I hope you understand what I mean. Although, perhaps most players will like your proposal or they will have a different opinion on this matter.

This seems like a strange take, a majority of the point of a sandbox is doing whatever you want to do with the morality being up to interpretation and thus unless you go out of your way to "violate them" then I really fail to see how they really change in any way. After all I'm suggesting an option to have access too, not a full-blown change or whatever, and it's so minor in fact that I feel like it wouldn't be worth modding but would be a nice little touch in the main game. Besides, I feel like its far less messed up then all the times I've seen people intentionally kill NPCs by putting them into danger and unintentionally by getting chased by bosses through the building or all the times people trap the Nurse in a "closet" to run around for heals typically never more than twenty feet away from the boss in an arena at any given time.

 

[RedeemerofDark]

I’ve always wanted to fine-tune and customize which npcs teleport to king and queen statues and this is probably the coolest way to do it
It probably shouldn’t change dialogue outside of pronouns though. I don’t really like the implications of special dialogue being gated behind something like this.

Exactly! It'd be yet another way to fine-tune your personal playthrough and make things even more visually interesting! And I really wouldn't say anything would be "gated" tbh...most people to my understanding don't read the dialogue anyway or don't care past the first read through, so I think it's fine to reward the player for changing up the looks around your base of NPCs by showing how they act in those bodies. Not doing so I feel is (and I say this knowing very well how "funny" it is to say this) unrealistic for the exact same dialogue exclusively with a few more "s"'s removed or added to be all there is past the visuals. And it could strengthen the player's understanding of the characters, a crush pursued regardless of individual "sex" or gender identity, observations the NPCs have about imbibing a potion that the silent protagonist can't give, or even just like a "huh, neat" from one of them. Plus it'd add an additional way to tell stories or just be silly in your individual save, like say...using the Gender Change potion on the Goblin Tinkerer but shimmering The Mechanic.

 

[CerealSunny]

It's a cute idea, I like it a lot I'm assuming you would either make the Gender Change Potion throwable (like the Love and Stink Potions) or you could drop the item on the NPCs (like how you get the Squire Slime)?

That would be a lot of new sprites since this is for both the classic and Shimmered versions, although I wouldn't complain

 

[RedeemerofDark]

It's a cute idea, I like it a lot I'm assuming you would either make the Gender Change Potion throwable (like the Love and Stink Potions) or you could drop the item on the NPCs (like how you get the Squire Slime)?

That would be a lot of new sprites since this is for both the classic and Shimmered versions, although I wouldn't complain

Throwable would probably be easier and allow for further experimentations with the potion in the future. And yeah, it'd be over...what...one and a half dozen sprites? Two dozen sprites? But I think it would also add SO MUCH. That I hope they actually look at this (this is my first time posting a suggestion, so I don't know if I'm doing it wrong for getting a dev to see it. If they're not interested I'll be fine with it but I just hope they see this idea I'm throwing out at all).

 

[Hickory]

This is a cute idea, but it seems impractical given the amount of spritework it would require for such a niche interaction as others have said.

 

[Mecha_]

Having genderswapped NPCs would be sick!
For the most part I love genderswapped npcs.
As long as we don't let the steam community market get to it too much...

 

[tornado1234 🌳🪓]

This is a cute idea, but it seems impractical given the amount of spritework it would require for such a niche interaction as others have said.

Think of the videos saying “wow, check out this cool secret”

 

[Big Sammich]

It would be quite a lot of work, but that's not really what we consider when making suggestions unless the amount of work dramatically outweighs the practicality of the idea. Novelty ideas like this are inherently immune to such considerations since their value is subjective. All of this is to say, I like this idea. It sounds funny.

 

[Baconfry]

This idea would be easier to accept if NPCs had a chance to be either male or female to begin with, so the potion would simply toggle between states rather than creating an entirely new character for the sake of one interaction. This way, we're not creating new spritesheets and dialogue charts for an easter egg mechanic, but rather a mechanic that's a proper part of the main game.

Also let me remind you that we'll need to write female Blood Moon quotes for every non-female character (except the Truffle). Depending on how well-written and funny they are, this could be one of the biggest selling points of the whole idea.