AvMAN

The current Beta 0.14 of the game allows you to change the settings on a current game on the fly. So this issue you are having seems to be resolved. No need to start a new game to turn the feature(s) on or off. New Features Convert Non-Custom Games to Custom

You can choose to host a MP game using your SP save. So you can show your friends what you were doing.

It is an option if you do a custom game. But you can also build your base in such a way that the bugs can't get to it, or have a very difficult time getting to it. Example, Building your base on the baseball, or on the rocks near the first research dome. The Ant are unable to jump or climb the rocks. So you are safe. Once you are well established and have good equipment and supplies, then you can relocate or build another base in a more open location and not have to worry about it being overrun and loosing "everything"

That would be great. I think they expect you to move from cooked meat over to jerky though. As you are able to stack jerky.

I agree. Lan play is a must. I have been trying to play on 4 computers in the same house. But we are plagued with high ping, lag, desync, rubber banding and constant disconnects. Its absolutely unplayable.

I agree and have been experiencing the same things. In my post "Multiplayer Feedback" I stated similar issues. This game screams for Co-op. Yet Co-op is so buggy/laggy/full of desync & broken. It makes this game so frustrating. My post is here

Giving some feed back on my Co-op/Multiplayer experience in Grounded. I have 4 copies of the game across 4 Steam accounts. I have been attempting to play with my children, all in the same house on the same internet connection. I say attempting because we have not been able to have 4 people play for more than about 2-5 Minutes. The average is a disconnect for at least 1 player every 20-30 seconds. If we only do a 3 player game we can get connected for 10-15 minutes before one of the 3 players is dropped to the main menu. If only 2 players play, then it will usually be Ok for an hour or so at a time. When the game disconnects, you get a brief 1-2 second black screen and then are back at the GROUNDED Splash screen where it asks you to press any key to open the main menu. Even when players are able to be connected, we always have a "HIGH PING" icon in the upper right. We rubber band, and teleport around quite a bit. It seems that jumping will update your location to the host. Example: If you run a far distance,(No jumping) and try to interact with an item, it wont do anything. So if you jump, your location will get updated, and then you will teleport to where the host thinks you are/should be. Often quite far from where you thought you were. Upon being disconnected 5 or 6 times you are met with a message that your password for the game session is wrong and will not let you rejoin. Even if the host never had a password set. When this happens the host must close down the game and start a new session so that players can attempt to join. Another strange thing happens from time to time. When joining a session, players will sometimes be in a strange camera/photo/spectator mode. All the icons and UI messages are all over the screen and jumbled up. You can also see the location of all the BURG.L Chips. The player can only fly around the map. You are not able to interact with anything, or respawn. So you must quit and attempt to rejoin. Doing so often yields the message about an incorrect password, thus forcing the host to start a new session. Not sure if playing across the internet from separate locations is any better or not, as I have only tried playing with people at the same physical location. We are able to play other games online together just fine. Other games that we play without issues include: Halo MCC, Halo Infinite, The Cycle Frontier, Minecraft, Enlisted, Warthunder, Sea of Thieves, Battlefield 4, Easy Red2. So I don't think it has anything to do with our internet connection. I'm thinking its something to do with this game and how its updating from the guests to the host. All in all trying to play multiplayer has been a huge pain and large point of frustration. While single player is fun, we would really like to play together.

+1 for a Local or Offline Co-op. Meaning: LAN, Dedicated Server, Private, Offline, Possibly Split Screen. The Current Co-op/Server setup is very taxing when you have 4 players in the same house all trying to play from a crappy rural Maine woods DSL connection. Its constant High Ping & rubber banding, followed by disconnects. Makes for a terrible experience if there are lots of things going on.

In my experience I have found that my best option has been to let the bugs kill each other. This is for the exact reasons you describe. The Tier II stuff requires parts that are very hard to obtain with Tier I Weapons/Armor. I'm not sure what the Devs thought is, as to how players are to progress. I have found it quite easy to kill a few lone Red Solider Ants & Worker Ants to get the parts needed to build a full set of Red Ant Armor. The Perk it gives allows me to be ignored by all types of Red Ants. I then use that to my advantage and lure Stink Bugs in to the Red Anthill. They Ants then fight and kill the Stink Bug. This comes at a heavy cost to the Red Ants though too. So I just pick up the spoils of the battle. This allowed me to get the parts needed for a Gas Mask. Now I am able to lure just about every other bug (Stink, Bombardier, Lady) into the gas filed trenches. They die pretty quick, and I can run in and grab the parts. Or you can pit them against each other and then usually kill the winner as they are low health. Not sure if this is what the Devs wanted, or if I'm cheesing the system. But its what allowed me to go from Tier I to Tier II etc...

+1 I agree, the hotpouch/hotbar/tool belt needs to be separate from the backpack inventory. Space is so limited once you have your tools, torch(2), canteen, & food. Especially since food does not stack.

I think Red or Black worker ants would be a fun Pet to have. Right out of Honey I shrunk the Kids. It could do minor defense/combat with you. Obviously its not an OP Pet and would still need you to protect it. I think some appropriate "Armor" would be for it to have a harness that allows you to have the ant carry grass blades, or weed stems. Basically haul building supplies. Maybe even have a backpack that allows you to use it like a Mule. (Like in Minecraft, Saddlebags)

I agree with this. Having dedicated servers would make this game amazing. Especially free SteamCMD Dedicated ones. Being able to drop in and drop out of a private dedicated server at your leisure with your friends is the best way to cooperatively play a survival game. You can jump on when you have some time, and gather some resources and do some base construction as time permits. Then you can all freely join up with your fiends and progress the story together. Almost all survival/building games have this feature because it is pretty much necessary to be able to properly play this style of game where it can take 100's of hours to complete. Examples that I have played and have hosted Dedicated servers for: (MineCraft, Ark, The Forest, 7 Days to Die)