On inventory space and weapon and armor durability

[andrestdf92]

Hi,

First of all, fantastic game. But there are some design choices or overlooked mechanics that can become really annoying.

1- Why does armor go into inventory, or way worse just drop when it becomes damaged? That seems intentionally designed to frustrate players. It doesn't add difficulty, it's just annoying.

2- Inventory space is really limited, especially for offline single players like myself. I like the progression of improving stack sizes with molars but this game encourages and straight up requires you to carry a variety of weapons and tools, which end up using half your inventory. In the end what this does is that I can't carry smoothies, foods or things that use up too many inventory slots. So I just don't use half of the mechanics of the game. Tools/weapons on the toolbelt shouldn't count as inventory space, like armor. Also, it could be extended  to 9 or 10 (numbers on PC keyboard, with a dedicated button on console controller for the healing slot and another one maybe). Arrows should have at least 2 dedicated slots so you can swap in combat and they don't take more space. Single players can't really use elemental arrows since they take too many slots.

3- Weapons with low damage and fast attack (daggers, rapiers) should have much higher durability. It seems clear to me that durability decreases per hit. This means that if you use daggers you have to repair it about 1000 times more often than a slow two-handed weapon. It becomes really frustrating. Durability might be better as a function of damage done, or be more balanced between types of weapon.

4- Durability of armor should just be higher, it breaks way too quickly, even when improved. Durability management is an interesting mechanic, but having to repair items too often or being unable to get somewhere because your armor broke can become grating. Especially because of the very limited inventory space and the fact that broken armor uses up even more slots. Special mention to the gas mask, that breaks in about two hits from a red ant, and loses durability very quickly when in toxic gas. Also, there should be a Gas Mask+.

5- Minor point: often bugs get an obscured line of vision or decide to get a little too far from the player during combat, they just heal up completely. I understand this is an anti ranged cheese design choice. Why? It's not like Grounded is a competitive esports game... going too far with those kinds of mechanics just sucks out the fun for no good reason. Also it feeds into the other issues I menitioned. The bug heals up, but the player still loses all the armor and weapon durability without getting anything for it other than lost time.

Anyway, I think these problems are mostly about respecting players' time. This is a massive game that already has a very long play time. Adding to it not with content but with excessive limitations is, in my opinion, a bad choice.

Cheers!