Free Weekender Post Op Notes

[Kuzah]

Hello, I happened to have had the opportunity to try out the game during your free weekend period that recently ended. Thank you for the event. Even though my time was short and progress wasn't gargantuan there were some things on my mind that I though would be worth jotting down to share in the hopes of helping this game be even better. I tried searching around for the items I was going to detail here and have not come across any relevant threads to append to. Apologies if I did miss any existing ones (perhaps my searching skills aren't good enough).

In no particular order here are my research notes thus far:

Platform: PC Steam
Build ID: 7103683

Intense Title Screen Graphics

• Upon loading into the title screen and main menu I couldn't help but notice my GPU spike to 100% usage and sit there
• Checking another tool the FPS was clocking in at ~375 FPS
• Note: attached a snippet of MSI Afterburner monitor for details and potentially relevant data from other components
• The computer was mostly idle until launching from steam and then you see the GPU just go from low to 100% and stays there
• My in game graphics have been reduced to utilize ~70-80% of my GPU when actively playing in a world, but I can't restrict how ham my GPU is going when in the title/main menu

Multiplayer Issues

• I've both hosted and joined a friend's world
• As the non-hoster there were consistent issues for us as opposed to the host never having these issues
• We've played other survival games and have not experienced these kind of issues that we have had in Grounded
• Randomly our inventory would sometimes blank out completely and if we quit + rejoined our inventories would return to normal
• Specific inventory issue seems to occur with multiple stacks of one plentiful item type at a time displaying as "X-3" or "0"
• Hard to specify, but there is a general intermittent choppiness as the non-host which I think contributes to the weird physics interaction at times

Trampoline Interactions

• So, trampoline elevators made sense for going up, but...
• When jumping onto a second story trampoline into the sky and aiming for the trampoline on the ground level this results in damage
• In the event that I was low enough to die my body would continue to bounce forever in the same spot (was solo at the time so no clue how ally interaction to incapacitated player would be)
• Additionally, the backpack that is left behind upon player dying ends up bouncing forever
• I was hoping that trampolines would help break a large fall (imo, this is up to you if it should still cause damage since it makes sense as well)
• In regards to player/backpack bouncing indefinitely perhaps you nudge them away from the center point of the object in question so they will eventually get to a spot that they cannot bounce
• Yes, I realize that a player can relocate the trampoline to stop the perpetual bouncing, but that's not always the first solution that comes to mind if it can even come to mind at all (I've only realized this after having written this part out)

Stuck on Grass

• Performing xtreme dandelion tuft landings or hopping wildly around and down onto two blades of grass can sometimes get you stuck
• Sometimes I am able to wiggle out while other times it feels like the perfect storm of wiggle physics that keep you perpetually suspended forever
• Playing solo with no one to help? Always having to carry an axe? Keep enough to make an axe on the spot at all times? What if the axe breaks? These are the questions that worry me every time I leave the safety of my grass-free base
• Perhaps the game could have some way of detecting a player that is indefinitely suspended (aka 'stuck') and shatter the grass

Physics Gone Wild

• Loose objects, particularly grass planks, tend to cause some extreme behavior at times
• On more than a few occasions my partner or I would trip/clip/blip into a grass plank and skyrocket into the air (almost as high as the laser on a tripod)
• Multiple grass planks resting on one another may sometimes spontaneously combust into a violent explosion sending grass planks everywhere
• This might not be a terrible thing the more that I think about it, but certainly hilarious once (maybe only just once or twice)

 

Some closing remarks. Kind of rambling so feel free to skip.

Have you considered selling this game as a 4-pack? Perhaps a discount on the 4-pack? ^_^

If it wasn't for the fact that my friend told me about the free weekend and that it was free to try out this would have been a pass. It wasn't until I got into the groove and the motions of the logistics did I truly understand and enjoy this game. Which is certainly hard to convey on the storefront. This game really reminds me of Raft on many levels and I love Raft yet also took a pass on that game on a couple occasions until I didn't. This game (specifically the Steam storefront page) doesn't feel like it's selling the biggest asset that I love most and that is base building. There is one image in the slideshow on the storefront that shows an unbuilt blueprint and someone holding a stack of grass planks. Until someone actually plays the game or has seen other people playing it's not obvious from this pic alone that the base building is extremely deep and extravagant. I checked out Raft's storefront page and they included some pics showcasing their recent renovation update. Your Steam community hub artwork has loads of great bases and would be neat if you featured what your players were building. Your recent shroom update adds a whole new dimension to base design. A picture or two really are worth a thousand words. Especially on the Steam storefront since many quickly skim or make snap judgements on only images (when you mouse over games on the search page it has a mini popout that flips through only this slideshow).

Thanks for reading! I hope this is useful in some way. Let me know if I can elaborate more on anything here. I'll be keeping an eye out for this game when it exits early access. Best wishes and good luck!