PTS Review and General Game Tweaks/Ideas

[ElBarto]

Hello!

Thought I'd reach out and give some feedback again.

I’ll start by saying I love the new features implemented in the new PTS. I think these will add a ton of replay value and really expand on the Grounded experience.

That being said, I think there are a few things that could be tweaked to make things more enjoyable:

 

Wafter 

 

I love the concept, but at the moment, I doubt I would use this for anything but a challenge.

• Wafters need better payoff
• I shouldn’t get 8 ant parts back for placing 8 in the wafter
• Considering we now have a faction aggression system… Rather than provoke insects, I would prefer to supply the wafter with resources the bugs would actually want. For example, 1 nectar could lure 5 bees. 1 weevil meat or human food could lure 5-10 ants. 1 bloodsack lures 5 Mosquitoes. Etc. This way, you could mix and match insects to your desired variety and difficulty. This would essentially function as a custom lure, but also a custom mixer. The lure types could also be a discovery item added to the cards (Lure items bugs are attracted to)

Base defense

• Regarding potential for bases being destroyed… I really think we need a blueprint system for this situation. It would be great to have destroyed items retain their blueprints. Perhaps workbenches could provide this feature? (Blueprints remain within an approximate range of any workbench)
• Turrets feel very underpowered. I want to be rewarded for setting up a turret. I don’t want to feel like I’m better off meleeing an insect. (Damage, fire rate, or turret hit points?)
• Burr bombs feel underpowered. Also, I think they would be a lot more fun if they exploded on touch, like a proximity mine.
• Trip wires would be great to have back if they get buffed. They would be great fun to use on wolf spiders if they did more damage to them. They are needed more than ever against infected wolf spiders

Questing, Story and Items

• More diverse quests. For example: Lure a wolfspider (see above)

• I think item and armour recipes could be tweaked to aid in story progression. For instance, if you want to player to finish the hedge before the pond, maybe the bubble helmet will require a portion of berry leather. If you want them to hit the pond before the haze, maybe the gas mask requires something harvested from the depths of the pond (Koi scales/bone or even just eel grass. Antlion armour might require fungal spores or black ant parts.) I think this could be a very fun experience

   

• Certain game mechanics feel arbitrary. Mutations, Milk Molars, and SCAB great functions, but there’s no real lore explanation as to why we have them, how they function or the means in which they affect the characters. A cinematic or some dialogue explaining these things might help the story feel more complete
• Not nearly enough milk molars compared to mega milk molars. I’m stuck with very low molar upgrades for thirst and hunger rate. Milk molar upgrades I would argue are much more valuable mega
• Gum nuggets and crow feathers are very rare. Would be nice to collect more of them per harvest for the amount of work it takes to find them, and what’s needed to build with them. Human food seems scarce as well

       I’m very excited for the future of grounded. I think this game has so much potential. 

I would love to see more dungeons introduced. Perhaps an 80’s Halloween Horror trash bag dungeon? (maggot lair complete with flies, maggots and centipedes, A ‘Jason’ maggot hockey mask, ‘Freddy’ centipede gloves for the lil fist mutation?) I’d love to see mini-games.(swimming through hoops in the pond, archery, basketball, bug races, bug arenas, parkour etc.

So much potential! Thanks for the game Obsidian!

Edited May 5, 2022 by ElBarto
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