Gearhart

Sleeping is an in-game time skip, which makes it an excellent opportunity to refresh things in the world. Dandelion and Grass stumps can regrow, arthropods can be reset, loose spoiled meat can despawn, etc. This would be a nice band-aid for arthropods getting stuck in world geometry, as well as aid multiplayer games where one player spends most of their time near the base crafting and organizing inventory. Another thing that can happen is to have there be more dewdrops in the morning. The player is always hungry and thirsty after sleeping, so making dew more accessible would be greatly appreciated, especially in multiplayer where the juice box you built your base next to doesn't give enough drops for everyone to get a drink.

Another idea would be transition models showing the stump growing back to its full side.

I'm still peeved that the spear is so weak when it does all of its damage in a straight forward thrust instead of a sweeping arc like other weapons. It should do significantly more damage, especially when the enemy is charging/lunging at you.

That gives me an idea; what if the brightness settings were adaptive; adjusting over time to line up with the average lighting of the scene; just like how our eyes adjust to changes in light.

They can always compensate for the increased yield by making feathers less common. I know I never see a bunch of feathers all over my yard from one bird.

That's not very immersive. Most games with buildable and destructible chests have said chests drop all their items when destroyed; and it works just fine for them. Also, Necropost.

You sure? Most survival games I've played don't even have a visible indicator that they're in combat. The only reason for having them regain their health would be to save memory, but even then you should have it so that the time it takes for the reset to kick in is relative to how badly they are injured.

Honestly, if dew was half as common in Grounded as it is in real life, then purifying dirty water wouldn't even be a concern.

The only remaining method of building around the existing environment is to use one of the fallen leaves as the base for your shelter.

Not only can you not build underground, but as of 0.3 you can no longer build on the mysterious lasers either: at least not unless you build from the ground up.

I think they only grow back if you aren't present; this is likely to hide the lack of transition models.

I mean, you'd still be limited on where grass can be planted, as well as what environments it would actually be able to grow in (the haze zone would kill it before it can grow, the floor in the hedge zone lacks the necessary sunlight, areas with a lot of dead grass like the place by the east ant hill will probably be a dead zone as well). And if course new grass won't grow overnight; it would take a couple of days. If course, adding in the ability to plant seeds would also require grass be updated with a growth mechanic, as well as models for the seeds and transition from seed to a full blade. Personally, I hope that dandelions get the ability to be planted before grass does. Would really help to keep my inventory from overflowing with dandelion tufts.

I think they decided to make all horizontal surfaces "spawnable" to make up for the fact that there is no climbing navigation for AI yet despite them expanding the zone filled with vertical terrain. That said, it would have been much less buggy if they had only done this for the hedge zone specifically...

sure, but instantly regaining all of their health is a bit much, don't ya think?

What do you mean "late" in development? It seems pretty early in its development if you ask me, especially when you look at the roadmap.

Maybe when they add more customizable world settings, building decay can be one of those settings. It would, of course, automatically be disabled in creative mode. That way, players who want more realism can improve their immersion, while players who like to build elaborate structures in survival mode can still do so without worrying about their buildings rotting every 3 days. The grass planks could still yellow over time as an aethetic touch; but it would only impact the structural integrity if you choose to have that enabled. Other ideas for an aethetic aging effect would be dust building up over time, especially on buildings adjacent to the ground.

Ladybug behavior when threatened: https://animals.net/ladybug/ https://factslist.net/2013/02/amazing-facts-about-ladybugs/#:~:text=As a defense mechanism%2C lady,their predators from eating them. Not mentioned in either of these, but another defense mechanism employed by the ladybug is to tuck in their legs, hunkering to the ground and relying on their hard elytra to protect them. This seems to mainly be used against other insects, such as ants. Of course, the best defense the ladybug has against other insects is the wings underneath its elytra. One should note that unlike in Grounded, Ladybugs don't attack other insects to defend themselves (well, unless you consider that toxic goo they emit from their legs an attack) and are instead defensive. That said, it would be possible to make a non-aggressive ladybug that still poses a considerable challenge to the player; as their defenses aren't easy to get past. First, the player will need to get past that moat of toxic ooze the ladybug excretes, then they need to get past that elytra, which might require a specific tool or the targeting of key spots. And then of course they have to do all this without letting the ladybug fly away home. Of course, in order for the ladybug to fly away, they must open up their elytra, exposing their soft wings and body to the player and giving them a small window of opportunity to do severe damage before the ladybug peaces out. Another important feature about ladybugs is that they are delicious and nutritious; so they should drop meat, and lots of it. Wolf spiders and orb weavers will attack ladybugs for their meat, however they will also have to deal with a ladybug's defenses. On that note, pretty much all insects Stinkbugs: https://www.jcehrlich.com/blog/its-fall-here-come-the-stink-bugs/#:~:text=They are called stink bugs,or around your home challenging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug I'll be frank here; the devs got the stinkbugs all wrong. They're missing the long, needlelike mouths stinkbugs have, and they are herbivores, and thus wouldn't attack the player. Much like ladybugs, the Stinkbug adopts a more defensive strategy when threatened, releasing a foul odor and relying on their armor to protect them while they shuffle away. Apparently armor and odor are very common defense mechanisms amongst beetles. Bombardier Beetles: https://www.reed.edu/biology/courses/BIO342/2012_syllabus/2012_WEBSITES/JK_CB_site_nov19th/adaptation.html While they tend to stick together when not looking for their next meal, at night they roam around seeking prey. Their boiling and odorous liquid is primarily used as a defense mechanism. The provided link shows that the bombadier beetle's defense works against wolf spiders, but what it doesn't mention is that it is primarily used to defend itself against ants, who are their most common predators. Orb Weavers: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1972#:~:text=Behavior%3A,lot of pest-type insects. These guys are a bunch of cowards; who rely on their web to catch prey and flee at the first sign of danger. If you get caught in one of their webs, then they will approach you; if you attack it, it will likely retreat for a bit, likely waiting for you to get tangled even more. Their webs are complex in their patterns, with both non-sticky threads for them to walk on, and sticky ones to catch prey. The sticky ones will glimmer in light. Orb weavers bite their prey, injecting paralyzing venom, then wrap them up and take them to the top of their web, where they wait for the prey to die before eating. This would mean it would be possible to scare away an orb weaver and steal its food. To implement this sort of behavior in grounded, Orb weavers would need special web platforms they can climb on, similar to how aphids can climb up grass. Orb Weavers could either have the capacity to build these webs themselves, or webs for them can be created in various parts of the map. It would be interesting to see an enemy AI that is also capable of basebuilding, though that might prove tricky to program. I should note that their camping nature would limit the locations they would appear. They likely wouldn't live close to wolf spiders, as the two would try to eat one another. Wolf Spiders: https://www.thoughtco.com/wolf-spiders-family-lycosidae-1968565#:~:text=Special Behaviors of Wolf Spiders&text=Wolf spiders rely on camouflage,to hold an insect catch. Hoo boy. These guys. These guys are the stuff of nightmares. They will try to rush you when you're unaware of their presence, and have very keen senses. Thank God these guys only hunt at night. Interactions between Ants and Ladybugs: https://ladybugplanet.com/do-ladybugs-eat-ants-when-ants-and-ladybugs-clash/ Ants attack: When Ants attack, they don't just bite; they grip their prey in their mandibles and pull them back to the nest. There, the prey gets swarmed, bitten, and torn apart to feed the colony. If the prey puts up enough of a fight, they'll be swarmed and torn apart on the spot, and then get dragged to the nest in pieces. We can see the aftermath of this behavior in the poor teen that came before us, but we currently do not see this behavior in game. Of course, implementing this behavior would involve invoking the dreaded grappling rules, so its understandable if the developers choose not to carry over this specific behavior for them. On one hand, this behavior could make ants easier to deal with on an individual level, as they generally won't try to kill you on the spot, instead trying to take you back to the nest. This would then give you the perfect opportunity to attack them, which would probably make them release you and scamper off if you don't finish them off yourself. On the other hand, their tendency to rip things apart like Attila the Hun would make fighting swarms of ants incredibly difficult. To balance this, swarms of ants shouldn't attack you unless you actually kill one. Speaking of killing ants, killing ants releases an alarm pheromone that alerts the rest of the ants to the threat. This behavior does seem to be present in the game. I should note that unlike the other arthropods discussed here, Ants are not delicious and nutritious, and in fact are unappetizing to many predators, including most spiders. Some particularly vicious spiders, like the wolf spider, will prey on ants, but will likely stick to hit and run tactics to avoid becoming prey themselves. Ant interactions with aphids https://realselfsufficiency.com/ants-farming-aphids/ Maybe there could be an aphid farm near the ant hill, or perhaps there could be an underground farm of "root" aphids (which are tan instead of green) inside the ant hill. Whichever route is taken, it will likely require the creation of 2 new insect classes; a "domesticated" aphid that doesn't stray from the farm, and a "shepherd" ant that watches over the aphid "flock" and defends them from predators. There would be a couple worker ants maintaining the farm, and you could throw in a soldier ant guard for good measure. Since soldier ants already attack players if they aren't wearing armor, the soldier ant won't require a new class. There might also be an aphid farm on one of the flowers in the garden. Orb Weavers do often set up shop near aphid and caterpillar farms.

Honestly, it makes more sense to "tame" solitary, nonagressive arthropods, such as ladybugs, aphids, and weevils.

The issue with usurping an ant queen is that doing so would involve taking on their duties. Which is not only physically impossible, but attempting to do so would drastically change the game's ESRB rating. It would make more sense to manipulate their instincts (i.e. ant pheromones and bee dances) to control their behavior.

For flying and wall-climbing arthropods and other creatures: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/don-s-3d-pathfinding-flying-ai https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/spider-navigation https://www.mike-purvis.com/?p=223 https://www.mike-purvis.com/?p=268 https://www.mike-purvis.com/?p=295 https://www.mike-purvis.com/?p=301 http://shootertutorial.com/2015/07/22/enemy-wall-walking-spider/ https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/blueprint-visual-scripting/114734-wall-walking-for-ai-enemies

I personally would like to see them fix the bugs they already have before adding new ones. 3.0 update seemed to break their AI even more.

Of course, we'd have to wait until they work out climbing AI for the arthropods before we can even consider the addition of a squirrel.

a squirrel would probably be passive; even if we attack it, it would more likely run away than fight, and that's assuming we manage to deal enough damage for it to feel threatened.

Maybe when they expand the pond. What I'm more eager to see is the ability to build underwater. I have no idea why you can't currently do that; My only guess is that it's meant to protect future expansions to the pond from messing up bases?

An ant mandible has a serrated edge, so it would work very well as a clawing type weapon, like a glaive or something. Or did you mean more along the lines of Wolverine?