So after much deliberation over the course of the weekend, my friends and I (more commonly known as the Cheesebags) love the game to bits so far and have come up with some cool ideas for things we'd love to maybe see in future updates.
I will sort the lists into categories for convenience.
Possible new Creatures:
We decided to ballpark some new ideas for possible future creatures to add to the garden. Due to the wasps in the banner image on the steam page we assume you already intend to add them into the game. So we have left them out of this list, but below we have some of our other suggestions.
Bees
Mosquitoes
Butterflies
Moths
Dragonflies
Caterpillars
Centipedes
Fleas
Earthworms
Silverfish
Snails
Frogs/Tadpoles
Utilities:
Ladders
We reckoned that ladders would be a useful way to ascend a built wall that might take up less floor space than stairs.
Zip-Lines
These could be a great method of travel between two fixed points, they could work either in a traditional sense and you'd slide from one higher point down to the lower. Or maybe they could work with some kind of pulley system from two points of equal height.
Rope Swing
For this we figure like in lots of games you could either have a fixed anchor point built and you could jump to grab it and swing back and forth to clear some kind of gap. Or maybe it works on a portable sense somewhat akin to Indies Whip but functionally works the same, maybe with a sticky tip of some kind to attach to surfaces.
Elevators/Dumbwaiters
These could be excellent for those that built raised bases. Perhaps using some sort of pulley system one might be able to raise/lower a platform with chests on or a grass pallet. This would for sure help for more convenient item hauling in a vertical sense.
Rowboats
We assume that the pond is going to have more to it, but we figure that a boat of some kind would be fantastic in traversing across the water. They would possibly be made from acorns leaves or lily pads.
Rain Catcher
This Item is dependent on a weather topic that will follow below. But if rain was ever implemented a receptacle of some kind to catch the rain would be brilliant.
Stationary Slingshot Turret
This idea came about thinking about a kids slingshot, and maybe moving forward with that in mind maybe there could be some kind of stationary slingshot style item to launch the players over a great distance for easy travel with the gliders. This could be a really high demand recipe as it is a rather strong item to have.
Quality of Life:
Inventory sorting function
This was one of the first things we came to yearn for in game, we fell that the ability to auto sort a storage container, your own backpack & and easier way to merge you personal inventory with that of the contained would be a much welcome addition.
Inventory stack increase
Due to the limited amount of storage space in the backpack and the containers, we really feel that the stack size of items could be increased to some degree. It feels like 10 is far too low as the inventory in your backpack alone fills up too quick and maybe increasing up to at least 20 would be great.
Craft 'X' quantity of item function
This comes about due to the fact we feel crafting larger quantities of items takes too long when doing them one at a time. For example, being able to adjust the number of how many woven fibres you want to make based on the amount of planet fibres in your backpack and craft all at once would be a huge time saver.
Pallet capacity increase
Similar to the inventory stack quantity feeling too low, we feel the same issue extends to the pallets. Considering how many grass planks in particular you need to build larger structures it would be very handy if the amount of planks you can get onto each pallet could be increased to maybe 30. This would prevent having to stop building and gathering planks almost every living second of the game as you burn through them so fast and building.
Storage Chest Naming
This one isn't nearly as major as the custom markers on the chests a already pretty cool. But maybe being able to add a name to a storage container just to further mark it with a specific kind of item would be neat,
Equipped items not taking up an inventory slot
So far we feel that we dislike that the tools and certainly the armour take up a backpack slots while equipped. I'm not sure and the best way to go around dealing with this in the game in the cleanest way for the UI. But its definitely a thought we'd like to put out there to discuss with everyone.
Ability to move built structures
For far it's been a bit of a pain placing a structure or utility item down in the wrong place and having to recycle it (receiving less materials) to move to another spot. Only to then to not have enough materials now and having to stop and go harvest more. Maybe having just the ability to move a completed base piece would be handy but obviously could be avoided currently by being very careful with where you but down blueprints. It would still however be a very handy feature to have.
Custom Blueprint Group
This one is inspired by other building games, namely Planet Zoo. In this game you have the ability to create a 'group' blueprint based on a structure you've made so that you could save it to a library and the whole blueprint of the structure could be placed in one motion to make it easier to make duplicate structures. This would be a fantastic feature to add as I would like to repeat a few structures we have made within the garden.
Filter Specific Trail Markers
This one is another minor one, but even though there is already a way to hide the trail markers from the UI. We feel that being able to isolate certain ones, namely the quest ones while keeping all the other ones could be great. Because in our game at least, we know where to go for each of the major landmarks now but still use a lot of our own custom trail markers. But having our own in addition to the quest ones can be quite overwhelming and would like the ability to filter certain ones away.
Additional 'Major' Features:
Different weather variations
This one I'm sure has been brought up by others, but a weather feature with some of the usual classics, rain, drought, snow, overcast, humid could be neat and effect the game play in various ways based on each individual weather. I wont go through all of them as this paragraph would be gigantic but maybe a few examples might be that some of the games creatures might act differently or perhaps the rain might be very dangerous to travel through but would obviously be a plentiful source of water.
Season Variations
This one is similar to the weather note prior where maybe just some of the games features, game play mechanics and of course visuals might change up to complement the passage through the different seasons throughout the year in the garden. Understandable this one is a giant effort to bring to life but would be awesome on the less.
Base Building:
Below are just some off the cuff ideas we had for other base building items that could be added to spice things up.
Bunk Beds
Slime Mold Ceiling Light
Flower Petal Roof Pieces
Support Pillars/Columns
Bug Cage Trap
Equipment:
This is the same as the above category but for general equipment.
Thistle Armour (returns damage back to attacker)
Wing suits (possibly made from insect wings wasps/dragonflies etc)
At this moment in time these are all the suggestions for game play changes and possible future content that we the Cheesbags have come up with. We hope that future readers of this like some of our ideas and would be open to discussing their opinion on what we have brought up below, or even add their own ideas!
And lastly to the team over at Obsidian, we hope this might be useful information to all of those working on the game. Keep up the great work, even in early access we are having a blast and cant wait to see the next content update from you guys.
Stay Fresh!
- Corey.
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Just under here I'm going to keep the ideas from everyone in the thread so that in the event of crazy amounts of ideas flooding in we can keep most of the coverage from the topic up near the top for easy reading.
I will credit everyone accordingly for their ideas 🙂
Tamable creatures
This is one that I reckon comes up a lot for many players. But I do really like the idea of being able to tame certain insects to maybe just have around player bases in order to defend them from threats. Then also down that same vein even have some mounts to ride around on much like in honey I shrunk the kids. Being able to ride an Ant or a Ladybug would be terribly fun and a great addition to the game.