Hey Klei,
I really like the cosmetics system but I feel it could use a small quality of life improvement. A lot of the higher tier cosmetic chest shirts/outfits (Especially distinguished rarity items) despite being equipped in the torso slot also add a unique shoe when worn. Some of these shoes are really great, such as the “Quilted Outerwear’s” fur boots. However, said boots are only usable if the Quilted Outerwear is equipped despite it being a torso cosmetic and not a foot cosmetic. While it is possible to wear other shoes that are a dedicated shoe slot item with the Quilted Outerwear, such as the Canadian Boots, it is not possible to wear the Quilted Outerwear’s fur boots with other chest cosmetic items as the boots/jacket is the same item. I think it would be great if players could use boots/shoes that are part of a chest/torso cosmetic item with other torso cosmetics (I would love to use the Quilted Outerwear’s fur boots with my Canadian Jacket). Would it be possible for Klei to add a separate inventory item for shoes that are bundled with a torso cosmetic item so players could have more customization with the cosmetic system?
Another suggestion related to this is to potentially make torso cosmetic items with a unique shoe/boot grant their respective footwear as an “ensemble” item. If Klei doesn’t wish to split the item into two separate items for market listing/inventory purposes it would make a lot of sense for torso items with unique shoes to grant their shoes as an “ensemble” item. The team could probably think of a better way to implement this as the Bumble Spear and Floppy Straw Hat do not grant ensemble items for other recipes using said items. (Such as a Bumble Ice Staff.) However, these items use in game equip slots whereas the cosmetic shirts/gloves/etc use cosmetic item slots.
This idea could be expanded to include the leg cosmetic slot as many distinguished torso items influence nearly the whole body. (The sole exception, to my knowledge, being the hand cosmetic slot, which is only modified with the “Flouncy Dress.") While a lot of higher rarity torso cosmetic items influence the leg cosmetic region this would probably be much more difficult to implement wearing separate from the torso cosmetic than shoes. I would love to see torso cosmetics that modify other equip regions be usable without said torso item equipped as it would add more variety to the cosmetic system and align these items closer to other skins. (We can make a Bumble Ice Staff with our Bumble Spear and a “Bowlerhatator” with our Bowler hat but we can only wear the “Dainty Coatdresses” red boots when it is equipped in the torso cosmetic slot. This seems odd and slightly inconsistent with skins of other in game items.)