Inside the House - Future content suggestion

[Azazeal]

So i had this admittedly over the top idea for potentially going into the house Here goes:

The house is now accessible via "The Porch Lab" and is essentially a timed dungeon run kind of deal. To pass through the lab and into the house, one must use a shrink ray prototype to temporarily become about 2-3x bigger (about the size of a borrower ). All of your equipment changes size with you. This effect wears off after XX minutes at which point your SCAB automatically teleports you back to the porch lab for your own safety.  The reason for the time limit is to keep the garden and the house conceptually separate, so that when indoors; you are big enough to make use of man made materials and objects (and even take them back with you maintaining their proportionate size) but when you do have to go back, everything else MUST return to "normal", like in a Sitcom. This approach will also allow for house loot to have unique, randomized aspects, making every run different.

The house is an entirely different landscape to the garden and is brimming with new dangers that you could never hope to face at your usual size. You will require new equipment to able to explore the indoors safely and thoroughly. This gear can be made using a combination of garden resources and new resources found in the early stages of house. 
But why take such a risk? For the unique new treasures the indoors hold, silly. Sturdy man made objects and materials that shrink proportionately with you when time runs out. Things you can use in the garden as unique and durable base parts, or even as weapon & tool variants (eg. a credit card door or a pin sword..). You may even discover a means to harness electricity and power your garden bases. The developers could regularly update the house with new aesthetic variants of loot. They could even use it to introduce entirely new items and mechanics in a way that makes sense to the player and story.
 

THE THREATS:

The Cat
- Invulnerable
- Moves between its nap spots unless it sees you, at which point it will hunt you relentlessly even after losing line of sight. 
- Not allowed in the kitchen (1st area)
Attacks
- Swipe: Close range | Moderate damage | An horizontal swipe of the cats immense paw, yeeting the player and inflicting ragdoll. (may knock you out of its own sight)
- Pounce: Long range | Minor damage | Traps the player and follows up with a swipe (should the player avoid this the cat will lose line of sight and begin searching)
Weaknesses
- Stink-bombs and Gas Arrows heavily disturb and stagger the cat for a few seconds (regular arrows can have the same effect only if you manage to hit an eye)
- Easily distracted (especially if you manage to power and turn on its automated laser pointer toy)
- While trapped by Pounce, mashing the attack button fast enough will allow you to attack the kitty's poor little toe pads, staggering it briefly and preventing the follow up Swipe.

Rats
Roaches
Termites
House Flies
House Spiders   Daddy Longlegs?
Environmental Hazards
Hmm, what else?

THE GEAR:

Sticky Tape Gloves
- Enables the scaling of any smooth surface.

Grappling Hook
- Can be used to swing, climb and rappel
- R2 to throw and embed in a surface (the longer you hold R2 the further it will go) 
- L2 to flick the hook free

Roller Bead Boots
- Allows you to glide across the smooth floors of the house at high speeds. Perfect for escaping agile threats (and showing off your tricks)
- Useless on carpet, dirt and other rough surfaces
- Use in tandem with the grappling hook for crazy locomotion capabilities

WIP
Essentially, this a concept for allowing Grounded to seamlessly implement content inspired by "Tiny People" media of other size scales (eg. Arietty, The Borrowers)

Edited December 9, 2020 by Azazeal
OCD

[SnickerSnack]

I'm not sure about the time-limited part, but I think there are a lot of good ideas here. IMHO this sounds more like a DLC that could be released after the main game is finished. 

[Azazeal]

Im kinda iffy on that part too. My only reasoning for it was so that the enlargement makes sense because if we can just zap ourselves bigger with no problems why wouldnt our character just stay that size and be a bigger badass in the garden (or you know, try and get help or go home) But if you dont do an enlargement at all you would be too small to make use of man made bits and bobs found in the house. It could also be a way a randomising house loot i guess. 

I suppose it could just be safely reasoned that literally the only way in and out of the house is to step directly through the prototype size ray beam. Its just been like busted up somehow and left running right in the way of the passage. Or maybe its all about being able to reach the door handle that gets you into the house from the lab, and then being small enough to fit back through again. Doesnt matter as long is it makes sense 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Azazeal