New game+, Mutated Bugs, Randomized/Procedurally generated content

[Daniel Hopkins]

Hey all, I've been playing Grounded for a long time. A long long time. Since the start of Early Access. And it's been quite a ride. Always loved this game, and loved every update. I'm a little sad, in fact, that if feels like my Grounded Journey has ended. While the last update has some nice quality of life improvements, it left little reason for me to return to the game, and continue building up my Mushroom Castle. So, as a veteran player, here are a few things I'd like to see added in the future. I've refrained from stuff as simple and obvious as new equipment, areas, and bugs as I know the realities of game design, and how long it took to craft each area. So these are mostly ideas I feel would perhaps be more minor updates that could add a lot of more end game gameplay and longevity to Grounded.

New Game+
The ability to restart the game "fresh" on the same map, with the same equipment and milk molars. With a difficulty spike, with some random elements thrown in. The difficulty spike would be seperate from the one from changing difficulty between Mild, Normal, and Woah. As it takes the fact that you already have Milk Molars into account, and how many. Have more Milk Molars randomly sprinkled throughout the yard, and allow your character to increase their stats further. Have the Chips in New Game+ just give you extra Raw Science. 

Mutated Bugs
Think how Diablo has random more powerful enemies. I think it would be interesting to randomly run into, say, an Orb Weaver that is infused with Spicy energy. Weak against Fresh Damage, and resistant to Spicy Damage. Perhaps does an Spicy AoE when it attacks like the Infected Wolf Spider does, or have a spicy aura around it. Or a Fresh Larva, that has a slow down effect around it, and of course does Fresh damage. A "Beefy" mutation could give a bug more HP. "Speedy" mutation makes a bug move faster. Etc Etc. These mutations  could stack to make stronger bugs(Imagine having to fight a Beefy Speedy Spicy Black Widow!). Mutated bugs could show up more often on higher difficulties, with more and more mutations. And could show up more and more in New Game+(+, +, + etc). Players could be rewarded bonus Raw Science for defeating them. Or even new special materials. This would be a great way to add new bugs, without having to create whole new bugs. Just slap particle effects onto pre existing bugs. Maybe make them slightly bigger.

Material/bug part store
If you're like me, you've already bought everything in the Raw Science store. Thus making extra raw science as a reward feel kinda pointless. Thus I think added a store that sells various raw materials in exchange for raw Science would be great for extending the end game. These could even be sold in packs that allow you to carry more of said raw material, until you "open" them. Allowing for more ambitious building projects outside of creative mode. It would also be neat if players could sell excess materials for Raw Science. It would give the player more reason to harvest bug parts, even if they no longer need those parts. Could always go sell them for stuff you actually need/want.

Upgradable Armor
Pretty self explainatory, and stuff that's already been asked for. Honestly, as the game is now, it's not super necessary. But if higher tiers of difficulty is added, the ability to make armor more powerful would be great to go along with this. Also, the ability to upgrade armor(And perhaps weapons as well) with extra mutations might be nice too. If mutated bugs drop new materials, it would be a nice way to add an enchanting system seperate from the current upgrade system. Maybe seperate the elemental upgrade from the weapon upgrade system, and instead make those apart of an enchanting system instead.

Better random quests
Jeez the random quests you get are boring. Craft this item I've made a bunch of times already, or kill a few random bugs. The only interesting ones is the ones that make you put a flag somewhere, but those aren't random and are limited.
So, what I propose is a random quest system that will send you back to dungeons/labs you already visited before, with some twists. Maybe the Hedge Lab is now overrun with Sour Larva. The Wood Pile is Frozen over, so you move slower while in it. The Red Ant hill is super spicy, and like the sandbox, requires you to wear heat protection. The Sandbox has been taken over by O.R.C. bugs. The Undershed is being fummagated, and is full of poison fog, and infected bugs. You have to go to these locations, and recover something, or defeat a random boss. Maybe activate something similiar to a Mix.r, and do a defense event.

Random Dungeons/yards, Seperate from the main map.
A way to introduce more content, without having to spend a year carefully constructing new areas, is to just seperate it from the main map. Instead players are teleported in some way to these seperate dungeons, that could even just be procedually generated. Perhaps these random dungeons could be secret Ominent labs that the players have to shut down. Or a random neighbors yard that could be accessed through a gap in the fence. These yards can be smaller than the main one, but populated with a random assortment of structures, and hazards. Similiar to the ideas above, these could be flavored and themed with various mutations to keep them interesting, and ramp up difficulty.

Player made content
And/or, player made yards could be introduced. This would be a lot more work for the development team, but it would be amazing if you could craft a yard in creative. Complete with adding various structures such as cans/juice boxes, toys, etc. As well as add quests, and goals for players to accomplish. Perhaps a player could construct a Castle, and place bug spawns inside of it, including a boss. Than challenge players to get to the end and fight the boss. Perhaps allow options for disabling building, and/or making the prebuilt structures indestructable to visiting players(To prevent cheesing). Maybe even multiple dungeons/bosses so players could create a whole game worth of content if they wanted.