My summary so far

[Mushroom]

To start, damn I'm impressed with Grounded, not only does it scratch my itch for a survival/basebuilding kind of game, it also has a unique and intresting setting/theme! I love the artistic choice you people at Obsidian have gone for, a more "realistic" style would surely have been drab. Another thing im impressed by is how the stable the game has been for a early access title, on my setup the game has crashed only a couple of times during countless hours of playtime. (Had like 100 savefiles and scrolling trough them would induce a crash)

I do have some suggestions though (some highly subjective):

*Spiders should sound more chittery and scary. They just sound kinda thirsty at the moment. (Generally the sound design is spot on: worker ants, gnats and weebles sound awesome. And I love the soundset on the ladybug!)

*Soldier ant sounds are like meh?

*I would lower the ambient sounds of the normal human neighbourhood (dogs, cars, whathaveyou) in favor of more alien microcosm sounds. (what those would be, i dont know) The sounds of dogs barking etc feel too familiar, a more alien ambient soundset would add to the unfamiliar setting in the game.

*Hairs, almost all insects are moderately hairy, so they should be in Grounded aswell! It would also make spiders more scary, with their hairyness. (Is Obsidian sponsored by Gilette or something, hairy insects pls!)

*Swimming is awful, the camera position is all wonky. I think the character should swim atop the water by default and dive with the press of a button. Also when carrying grass planks or reeds, or walking into water in general, the character shouldnt switch to swimming when in kneedeep water. The change from walking to swimming should be when the water rises over nipple height.

*Weed stems should float, they are not Lignum Vitae, they are mere sticks and they should float (I have done extensive research on the topic when I was in kindergarten). Most stuff on the sizescale of the game should float tbh.

*The triangle shaped grass floor has a bug with its physical boundaries height wise. For example if placed at the top end of stairs, you need to jump to get on it. There is no smooth walking transition as with the conventional square grass floor.

*One of the recent patches introduced a glitch into the building blueprint mechanism where you cant insert weed stem scaffoldings underneath already built grass floors. Also the game lets you to place weed stem scaffoldings midway trough already existing floors.

*Reset all bugs/insects weekly or something, atleast untill the stuck in terrain/no respawn glitch is fixed, since with longer games they get stuck wherever and the world goes desolate. (On my first savegame I havent seen ladybugs for ages) Or alternatively a mutation that allows somesort of superhuman instect tracking so we know where to shoot our gas arrows to kill them stuck insects.

 

All said though, awesome game sofar! Keep up the good work!

[McSquirl Nugget]

13 hours ago, Mushroom said:

*I would lower the ambient sounds of the normal human neighbourhood (dogs, cars, whathaveyou) in favor of more alien microcosm sounds. (what those would be, i dont know) The sounds of dogs barking etc feel too familiar, a more alien ambient soundset would add to the unfamiliar setting in the game.

Disagree, those sounds are loud by nature, they should stay loud. a dog at the window's house barking will drown out any sound in the yard.

13 hours ago, Mushroom said:

*Hairs, almost all insects are moderately hairy, so they should be in Grounded aswell! It would also make spiders more scary, with their hairyness. (Is Obsidian sponsored by Gilette or something, hairy insects pls!)

i think they left the fine details like this off so the game isn't a resource hog.  I think the bugs are fine, no need to see all their whiskers.

 

13 hours ago, Mushroom said:

*Weed stems should float, they are not Lignum Vitae, they are mere sticks and they should float (I have done extensive research on the topic when I was in kindergarten). Most stuff on the sizescale of the game should float tbh.

agreed, they're looking into this, hopefully the upcoming patch will fix it.  and then we can have rafts  

just my 2¢

[Gearhart]

given that bodies of water have a membrane, and at our size this membrane is quite thick (As seen by the size of droplets), it makes sense that we would struggle to stay above the water. The membrane would be constantly trying to close up the breach, which would force us underneath it.

That said, I don't think the oxygen meter currently reflects this struggle; and the visual realism is more a result of the water hitbox being below the actual water surface. Hopefully in the pond update they'll fix this by adding a "membrane" hitbox directly above the water hitbox. This would also interact with buoyant physics props, making them float.

[Gnith]

9 hours ago, Gearhart said:

given that bodies of water have a membrane, and at our size this membrane is quite thick (As seen by the size of droplets), it makes sense that we would struggle to stay above the water. The membrane would be constantly trying to close up the breach, which would force us underneath it.

While you're correct about Surface Tension there's no actual membrane.
It's just that water molecules "want" to be bonded to other water molecules. At the surface, they run into air not other water, so they bond stronger to any nearby water molecules. 
I don't think however this would force you below the water ... 

[Mushroom]

On 9/18/2020 at 5:51 PM, McSquirl Nugget said:

i think they left the fine details like this off so the game isn't a resource hog.  I think the bugs are fine, no need to see all their whiskers.

Thats why games have graphics settings where you can adjust things to fit to each systems performance. Saying the game shouldnt have something because some people would not be able to run it, is like not allowing someone else a treat because you are allergic to it. The game already has a slider that alters the spiders appearance, so a setting for more detail wouldnt be that hard to implement. I dont think the performance hit would be that noticeable if done with smart texture mapping.

[McSquirl Nugget]

19 minutes ago, Mushroom said:

Thats why games have graphics settings where you can adjust things to fit to each systems performance. Saying the game shouldnt have something because some people would not be able to run it, is like not allowing someone else a treat because you are allergic to it. The game already has a slider that alters the spiders appearance, so a setting for more detail wouldnt be that hard to implement. I dont think the performance hit would be that noticeable if done with smart texture mapping.

they could, but is it really worth it?  i don't think it would add much to the game to see the tactile hairs on a spider.

[Mushroom]

Huh, no edit option on this forum? Nonetheless I'm happy that the 0.3.0 patch fixed a handful of my gripes. For instance bugs dont get trapped under the terrain anymore, so my old savegame feels alot more alive again! And the ladybugs are back! Yay! And I saw spiderlings hang from the roof of a base of mine, all upside down, that was awesome, more of that please!  

Ziplines. THEY ARE AWESOME! Seemingly no upper limit for lenght! AWESOME! And steeper lines have increased speed. AWESOME!   With skill you can jump from a upper line to a line underneath you. MAGNIFICIENT! Havent even experimented with turns yet...

Having said that, the newest patch seems to have introduced some new pathfinding issues for the bugs, I can be fighting a Orb Weaver on unobstructed flat terrain and the spider just gets stuck unable to attack for no apparent reason.

Ants, spiders, ladybugs, bombardier beetles and mites tend to get stuck ontop of rocks and woodstumps etc. Now I dont know how pathfinding, AI or coding works; but I feel like giving some more leeway for the bugs when moving about. It feels like they get too easily stuck on sudden elevation changes or steep inclines. Maybe give the bugs stickier legs sothat they can climb down the places they get stuck at the moment, maybe some clipthru terrain too so they dont get stuck on the transition from vertical surfaces to horizontal surfaces. Or maybe they should be able to jump?

I get that the spinning wheel works just as the drying rack and fireplace, but unlike with those two items where the obtainable item is right on eyelevel and in your face (and alot bigger than the spindle of spider silk); on the spinning wheel its quite tedious to crouch and grasp for them. Maybe allow us to loot the weaved silk from the items UI? Maybe thats already planned but not yet implemented.

Others have mentioned the berry not being harvested straight into your inventory, but I think its fine, since the lootable parts are sensibly modeled. What I dont understand why feathers only drop a tiny tiny brown pouch that gets easily lost into terrain when harvested with the axe. Please make feathers work as berries work and add a lootable model that represents the feathers better, especially size wise. Or alternatively have the feather be directly transferred to inventory upon harvest.

This is just a small detail, but what kind of radioactive mutant grubs plague this garden? They chomp trough wood like butter, I mean thats almost feasible; but omnomming rocks like theyre, well, again, butter. And leaves suspended in air. I get its only a matter redefining the areas where grubs can move, not a big issue.

Oh and that info how many parts a structure supports in the UI, marvelous!  No more guesswork when redoing stuff. Keep up with the good work! 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Mushroom

[Mushroom]

Okay so I have come up with yet more suggestions regarding the game.

*More bug vs bug action. You do see some ant vs weevil, ladybug vs aphid and even spider vs stinkbug. But I find it odd that a roaming wolf spider ignores orb weavers, ladybugs and bombardiers. No orb vs bombardier seems odd. I think orb weavers should run away from active wolfs. And bombardiers should also avoid orbs. 

*Ability to upgrade existing structures would be nice, such as upgrade a grass wall to a stem wall without the need to delete the existing construction.

*Door memory. The game seems to remember if a door was left open or closed, but it doesnt remember wich way it was left open. (yeah I know, what a silly thing to complain about)

*A nightvision mutation would be cool, considering almost half of the day/night cycle is dark.

*Quite often dew drops hang from nonexisting blades of grass.

*Ability to eat stuff from the world even with a full inventory.

*There are mites stuck within the eastern laser about mid height of the contraption.

*The sprig fence seems to hover above any grass floor it is placed upon.

*Ziplines are made of spidersilk, so maybe they should attract orb weavers? Maybe orb weavers should make webs on them? Or even eat ziplines? Ofcourse the bugs need to be able to scale more than horizontal surfaces before such a thing could be implemented.

*Diagonal railings for stairs.

*Maybe add mesh and texture to the bottom of clay and pebble foundations? WTB clay/pebble walls.

*A roof mounted lightsource would be illuminating.

*Diagonal stem supports would be nice in the vein of the triangular grass walls. WTB stem floors.

*Elevators anyone? Spidersilk and counterweights?

*The V shaped clover roof has a funky hitbox.

Edited October 23, 2020 by Mushroom

[Mushroom]

Long time no see, long time no cnbc. I took quite the hiatus from Grounded to have new content show up. Racked over 60h after the latest updates, so good stuff.

Some minor stuff I've found though:

-Raw Science ontop the knocked over trashcan is stuck inside the handle.

-Raw Science between the cooler box and trash bag seems to be underground?

-Sprigs and grass floating in air between coil of gardenhose and trashbag.

-Grass and weed stems meshes respawn faster than you can actually harvest them. Quite often "too" fresh grass/weed just vanishes when struck, but the stumps left behind work normally.

-Submerged clovers in the sandbox occasionally kill you if you fall off them or if you chop them down while ontop them.

-Rock Cracker doesn't affect mints or spicy candies.

-Mints dont respawn near the laser pedestal. Intentional?

-Antlion aggro pursue radius is quite short. Antlion ranged attack accuracy dismal at longer distances.

-Black ant armor set does not make Black soldier ants friendly

-One shotting friendly ants does not make other nearby ants hostile

-Firefly respawns? Had to abandon the kill firefly quest twice already.

-Mosquito fly sound when further away does not fade, but is rather abrupt.

-Music transitions sometimes sudden. Like when noncombat music loops. 

-Somesort of recycling of gear or option to sell junk to somewhere would be nice. Artificier quests generate so much useless items. Maybe have 3 daily artificier and 3 daily kill quests to choose your 3 dailies from?

-Would be nice if you could abandon quests from the quest log instead of needing to tell Burglr face to face NO!

-Gif carry moar stems/grass mutation pls

-Sap collector is a pain, maybe add a interface like the spinning wheel one? Or make the sap a bigger pool instead of the normal small dots.

-There was a zipline anchor floating in air in the hedges, dont recall where exactly though.

Other than that, awesome stuff! Keep up the good work! 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Mushroom

[Mushroom]

Soo after spending over 50 hours in Grounded release version and completing the storyline along almost all other objectives. I gotta say this game was money well spent, almost 400h on the clock now.

Got my report card upto 98%, guess 100% isnt possible just yet. It tells me to spend more raw science? But I've bought all there is to buy, and even rebought all the recipes after the 1.0 release. I'll admit to continuing my early access save, noway im restarting a game with some 300h already in the save. Everything seems to have worked correctly sofar even without a fresh save. There is one raw science inside the trashbins handle, which im unable to get, that might be a prerelease savefile issue? Guess I'll noclip into it or something?

I do a few suggestions though:

-Could we have chest and waypoint marker icons available for one, for the other too? There are plenty of waypoint marker icons Id like to use in chests and viceversa.

-Mantis pollen/fog quite often drops FPS into the teens, even with a 3060TI. End event also had a brief dip with so many bugs attacking.

-Blocking mosquitos shouldnt push them further away, its annoying af.

-Defeating Schmector before the end event does not influence ORC bug ammount at end event? Or anywhere at all? Or does it?

-Pebble musket pls

-Elevators?!  (monkebrain want to build high up in tree, monke safe)

-Maybe add burglr quests for the last few milk molars and super milk molars?

 

Great game, great job. Thanks yall at Obsidian!