Game Mechanics Shimmered NPC's could have alternate functions

[crazazy]

So I was wondering, maybe we could have shimmered NPCs not just change in visuals, but also in function. I don't have them all nailed down but here is a few I came up with:

Guide	Shimmered Guide
Tells you crafting recipes	Tells you shimmer recipes
Nurse	Shimmered Nurse
Now only heals you to full health, doesn't cure debuffs	Cures all your debuffs, doesn't heal you
Tavernkeep	Shimmered Tavernkeep (Cocktail Shaker)
Sells dungeon defenders-related items	Sells cocktails, which come with a variety of existing buffs, but give you the tipsy debuff at the same time
Mechanic	Shimmered Mechanic
Sells wiring-related items	Sells traps. Post golem she also sells lihzahrd traps
Tax Collector	Shimmered Tax Collector (Banker)
Collects money from your current NPC's	Will ask for money, and that money will then collect interest. The longer you keep the money at the banker, the more you'll be able to withdraw

I may come back with more brainwaves, but for now these are some of the more unique interactions I could think of. Likely if you wanted to change all NPC's most would come down to selling different items in shimmered form, as most of them are nothing other than vendors

 

[a really far away planet]

So I was wondering, maybe we could have shimmered NPCs not just change in visuals, but also in function. I don't have them all nailed down but here is a few I came up with:

Guide	Shimmered Guide
Tells you crafting recipes	Tells you shimmer recipes
Nurse	Shimmered Nurse
Now only heals you to full health, doesn't cure debuffs	Cures all your debuffs, doesn't heal you
Tavernkeep	Shimmered Tavernkeep (Cocktail Shaker)
Sells dungeon defenders-related items	Sells cocktails, which come with a variety of existing buffs, but give you the tipsy debuff at the same time
Mechanic	Shimmered Mechanic
Sells wiring-related items	Sells traps. Post golem she also sells lihzahrd traps
Tax Collector	Shimmered Tax Collector (Banker)
Collects money from your current NPC's	Will ask for money, and that money will then collect interest. The longer you keep the money at the banker, the more you'll be able to withdraw

I may come back with more brainwaves, but for now these are some of the more unique interactions I could think of. Likely if you wanted to change all NPC's most would come down to selling different items in shimmered form, as most of them are nothing other than vendors

Wow. These are perfect.

Have any ideas for what a shimmered old man could do?

 

[Big Sammich]

This feels extremely modded, and I don't think it would fit in the base game. It's also really, really complicated.

 

[sunner]

not sure I like this, I only shimmer the NPCs when I like their shimmered form more than their original. I don't want their functions to change.

 

[Orchamut]

Personally I'd have Shimmered NPCs use different combat skills, but keep the same functions.
Maybe some of them could drop different items when Shimmered.

 

[a really far away planet]

This feels extremely modded, and I don't think it would fit in the base game. It's also really, really complicated.

I don’t think it seems that modded. To be honest, only the Tavernkeep and maybe the Tax Collector seem modded to me.

 

[TechionPrime41 🌳]

Here's an idea to add to the list:
Shimmered Dryad: Sells stuff normally sold on a blood moon outside of normal conditions, but sells normal stuff DURING a blood moon. To put it simply, the trades that would normally appear during a blood moon appear outside of a blood moon, and vice versa. Also, maybe some special seeds to go along with being shimmered.

 

[crazazy]

not sure I like this, I only shimmer the NPCs when I like their shimmered form more than their original. I don't want their functions to change.

I think with the upcoming 1.4.5 shimmer squirt gun that shouldn't be that much of an issue. Just squirt them if you need to, get your necessities, and then squirt them back. That should be less painful than the current method used for shimmering NPC's

Personally I'd have Shimmered NPCs use different combat skills, but keep the same functions.
Maybe some of them could drop different items when Shimmered.

Oh that also sounds good! tbh I had a bunch of ideas running around my head, including hiding the secret seed options behind some of the NPCs to keep the seed options, you know, hidden. IDK what idea they currently have for that but I feel like giving people straight up all the hidden world options defeats the purpose of them existing as secret seeds if I'm honest.

This feels extremely modded, and I don't think it would fit in the base game. It's also really, really complicated.

I'm not sure I agree with this. IMO terraria has a looser design language than, say, minecraft. If this is modded, then all the crossover content we have would "feel modded" as well. Also the difficulty of implementation would be "adding new NPC's into the game that can't co-exist with their shimmered counterpart"

 

[crazazy]

Wow. These are perfect.

Have any ideas for what a shimmered old man could do?

Rainbow Skeletron
Skeletron with legs instead of arms
Daytime skeletron
hmm idk but all the ideas I have are terrible when I think about them for more than 5 seconds XD

 

[Big Sammich]

I'm not sure I agree with this. IMO terraria has a looser design language than, say, minecraft. If this is modded, then all the crossover content we have would "feel modded" as well. Also the difficulty of implementation would be "adding new NPC's into the game that can't co-exist with their shimmered counterpart"

All of the crossover content we have does feel modded. However, it's crossover content; it was still made by the main dev team with the goal of fitting into vanilla Terraria, and even so it gets a special pass because it's mostly meant for fun. You're right that Terraria has a looser design language, but it still likes to keep things (mostly...) mechanically simple, and adding a second secret function to every NPC would be pretty dang complex. And what if you like the base function, but prefer the Shimmered design? You're out of luck.

I want to clarify that I don't even think this idea is bad. If it was in a mod, I'd consider it very cool and unique. But I just don't think it fits in the base game.