OnyxLock
Terrarian
These are suggestions I've had in mind for a while of an item that lets you change your voice, a simplified recipe for a potion, and my thoughts on the character creation menu in the upcoming update for Terraria.
The 1st suggestion related to character customization is a new item called the Voice Box.
It would be a craftable, relatively early-game item that can be crafted with 1 Acorn, 5 Gel, and 1 Seed of any kind (Including seeds for the blowgun). It works as a consumable item that allows you to change how your character sounds when getting hurt, accessed through a button on the left of the inventory similarly to wires or the Torch God's favor.
Clicking it opens a menu that presents you with different sound options and a pitch slider. At the start of the game, you start with the default hurt sounds, or basic 'hit' sounds that are used by most entities, but as you progress through the game, you unlock more voices by finding them or as you defeat tougher enemies. For example, defeating Skeletron unlocks the skeleton hurt sound (like Necro Armor) and defeating certain bosses unlocks unique hurt/death sounds based off of the region's enemies (Frost sounds, Bat sounds, Zombie sounds, etc.).
The new accessories revealed in recent 1.4.5. spoilers could also be implemented into the voice box menu, which would help save on vanity slots for your character.
And whenever you unlock a new sound, there would a small (!) over the icon to notify you.
Lore-wise, the item you consume lodges itself into your esophagus and alters the sound vibrations of your voice, and you easily get the hang of controlling it with just your vocal chords alone, a premise similar to the droid that Obi-Wan had to swallow in that one Clone Wars arc where he had to disguise as a bounty hunter.
The 2nd suggestion is just a simplified and easier recipe for the gender-change potion that isn't just every flower in the game. And that would be just 1 Water Bottle, 1 Pink Gel, and 1 Gel.
The final suggestion is about the new upcoming character creator, as well as my thoughts - and concerns - about it.
In the 1.4.5 update feature reveals, it showed a new character creator menu with expanded options available, but a lot of people have pointed out how the new menu removes certain symbols from the game.
I, personally, am all for having more inclusivity options in games, but, for this change in particular, I believe it could be done in a way that's more subtle and works for everyone, even for players who may want to stick with the original menu options presented to them. Primarily for the sake of minimizing the conflict and strife that emerges from this kind of topic, and to reduce the amount of (usually) heated discourses over it (There's even already a mod on the Steam workshop that restores the original menu symbols before the update has even arrived).
The suggestion is to create a menu that adds the new options to the game, rather than replace them, similar to how games like Stardew Valley or Baldur's Gate 3 present their character creators, an ideal middle ground would be to present the new options alongside the existing ones.
The menu suggestion is to keep the original character menu and symbols in place, but also include an optional Advanced or Unrestricted customization button that shows a large zoom-in preview of your character, and presents every possible character option available at the start, none of which are bound by any of the other options.
The menu would show multiple sliders labeled Body, which changes your body, Outfit, which changes clothing style, Armor Style which changes between covered and exposed armor appearance, Voice, which changes between the existing hurt sounds or the default hurt sound used by most entities for the player, and Voice Pitch, which changes how high or low your character's selected voice sounds.
(Armor Style would show your character wearing a full set of Shadow Armor, and it would only effect apparel items that give defense, while vanity apparel and clothes would remain unchanged by the option)
Retaining the original symbols would also be for the sake of consistency with all versions of the game, since older versions (which are accessible through Steam + old-gen consoles) all have them still present, but then going to the latest version, they've seemingly disappeared, which adds to my concern about subtlety.
This has, is, and will likely continue to be a topic of contention among (not just) video game communities as a whole, and it's important to acknowledge that many people play video games as a reprieve from topics that could be considered controversial, among other things that are stressful in the real world. I really love Terraria, and I only hope to see what works best and is understandable for all members of the community, from players who want the new options, to players who may want to retain the original menu presented to them and abstain from these topics without feeling like they may be being forced into it. If the new options were implemented as an addition to the character creator rather than a replacing anything, I feel that there will be less disagreements among players and the options can exist with the least amount of conflict possible. (And players can focus more on actually playing the game instead of discussing this as much in the future)
With these changes in place;
Players wanting to change their voice & pitch may use the Voice Box,
Players wanting to change their body may use the now easier to craft gender-change potion,
Players wanting to change their armor appearance may change it at a dresser, along with their outfit, clothing colors, and body colors as usual.
The 1st suggestion related to character customization is a new item called the Voice Box.
It would be a craftable, relatively early-game item that can be crafted with 1 Acorn, 5 Gel, and 1 Seed of any kind (Including seeds for the blowgun). It works as a consumable item that allows you to change how your character sounds when getting hurt, accessed through a button on the left of the inventory similarly to wires or the Torch God's favor.
Clicking it opens a menu that presents you with different sound options and a pitch slider. At the start of the game, you start with the default hurt sounds, or basic 'hit' sounds that are used by most entities, but as you progress through the game, you unlock more voices by finding them or as you defeat tougher enemies. For example, defeating Skeletron unlocks the skeleton hurt sound (like Necro Armor) and defeating certain bosses unlocks unique hurt/death sounds based off of the region's enemies (Frost sounds, Bat sounds, Zombie sounds, etc.).
The new accessories revealed in recent 1.4.5. spoilers could also be implemented into the voice box menu, which would help save on vanity slots for your character.
And whenever you unlock a new sound, there would a small (!) over the icon to notify you.
Lore-wise, the item you consume lodges itself into your esophagus and alters the sound vibrations of your voice, and you easily get the hang of controlling it with just your vocal chords alone, a premise similar to the droid that Obi-Wan had to swallow in that one Clone Wars arc where he had to disguise as a bounty hunter.
The 2nd suggestion is just a simplified and easier recipe for the gender-change potion that isn't just every flower in the game. And that would be just 1 Water Bottle, 1 Pink Gel, and 1 Gel.
The final suggestion is about the new upcoming character creator, as well as my thoughts - and concerns - about it.
In the 1.4.5 update feature reveals, it showed a new character creator menu with expanded options available, but a lot of people have pointed out how the new menu removes certain symbols from the game.
I, personally, am all for having more inclusivity options in games, but, for this change in particular, I believe it could be done in a way that's more subtle and works for everyone, even for players who may want to stick with the original menu options presented to them. Primarily for the sake of minimizing the conflict and strife that emerges from this kind of topic, and to reduce the amount of (usually) heated discourses over it (There's even already a mod on the Steam workshop that restores the original menu symbols before the update has even arrived).
The suggestion is to create a menu that adds the new options to the game, rather than replace them, similar to how games like Stardew Valley or Baldur's Gate 3 present their character creators, an ideal middle ground would be to present the new options alongside the existing ones.
The menu suggestion is to keep the original character menu and symbols in place, but also include an optional Advanced or Unrestricted customization button that shows a large zoom-in preview of your character, and presents every possible character option available at the start, none of which are bound by any of the other options.
The menu would show multiple sliders labeled Body, which changes your body, Outfit, which changes clothing style, Armor Style which changes between covered and exposed armor appearance, Voice, which changes between the existing hurt sounds or the default hurt sound used by most entities for the player, and Voice Pitch, which changes how high or low your character's selected voice sounds.
(Armor Style would show your character wearing a full set of Shadow Armor, and it would only effect apparel items that give defense, while vanity apparel and clothes would remain unchanged by the option)
Retaining the original symbols would also be for the sake of consistency with all versions of the game, since older versions (which are accessible through Steam + old-gen consoles) all have them still present, but then going to the latest version, they've seemingly disappeared, which adds to my concern about subtlety.
This has, is, and will likely continue to be a topic of contention among (not just) video game communities as a whole, and it's important to acknowledge that many people play video games as a reprieve from topics that could be considered controversial, among other things that are stressful in the real world. I really love Terraria, and I only hope to see what works best and is understandable for all members of the community, from players who want the new options, to players who may want to retain the original menu presented to them and abstain from these topics without feeling like they may be being forced into it. If the new options were implemented as an addition to the character creator rather than a replacing anything, I feel that there will be less disagreements among players and the options can exist with the least amount of conflict possible. (And players can focus more on actually playing the game instead of discussing this as much in the future)
With these changes in place;
Players wanting to change their voice & pitch may use the Voice Box,
Players wanting to change their body may use the now easier to craft gender-change potion,
Players wanting to change their armor appearance may change it at a dresser, along with their outfit, clothing colors, and body colors as usual.
