Rain Mechanic

[Lancelin]

Hey Obsidian! Was a huge fan of Grounded when it came out and loved all the creative mechanics introduced, but one thing I always felt could be fitting would be a system for Rain, and how dangerous the typically uninteresting weather pattern could be on a miniaturized scale.

 

Design wise it could be rather simplistic, just a large shadow appearing across the map with the telltale bombardment sound applied, then a sudden splash that affects different sized insects in different ways, and also drop down two to three water droplets to drink from! Force players to need to seek shelter inside their built homes, or in caves or beneath objects, to avoid taking splash damage (Hah, pun) from the downpour. And like a few other things in Grounded, it doesn't have to be a one to one scale of ACTUAL rainfall, just enough to startle the player and make them need to rethink what they're doing until it's over in a minute or two

 

Could say harm/kill most smaller insects, causing them to scatter. And only have a minor effect on medium/large insects, then colossal creatures would be completely unaffected. And imagining how hectic it could make the player if they're strayed too far from their home base to now seek out a safe spot that isn't infested with other insects sounds like it would be an awesome challenge to include, with an easy way of getting water early game in case a stockpile was running low.

[nicow]

i personally love this, and i wouldn't honestly mind if it caused some parts of the map to flood as it'd be a pretty interesting mechanic. it shouldn't destroy bases, but it should cause you to flee to a higher place or reconsider where you build your home. in grounded 1, the only thing stopping it from becoming a super relaxing game for me was rain

[Lancelin]

So I've been thinking on this idea more, and so far I can see two problems, but both are also relatively easy to fix!

Problem 1: having so many droplets spawning across the map has a high chance of creating lag. However! This could be fixed by simply adding a limiter to how many droplets can exist on the map at any given time. Then once that threshold is reached, Raindrops can stop spawning further droplets! It lets the beefy PCs take all the rain they need, while allowing other servers to reduce it for lesser PCs

 

Problem 2: If every raindrop makes someone get knocked back, that can easily turn from a fun challenge into a nightmare, of being knocked into other drops, or result in the player getting stuck inside the bombardment. Easy fix though! This is still just a game, a 1 to 1 ratio isn't necessary, so all droplets can be spaced out to ensure there's enough room between each, so that the player COULD be knocked back if they got too close, but they won't fly back into a different droplet! Same sort of danger, with a better chance to survive

[Tylerrr]

I would hate it id it was like “honey I shrunk the kids” rain/sprinkler lol

[Alynxkia]

We could have the overall feel be a “mist” so the majority of the water droplets aren’t anywhere near dew droplet size.  We could still have some larger raindrops fall to create the challenge mentioned.  

How much are we going to say it impacts the world?

How fast will the world dry? Would the time of day impact that? 

Will things become slippery? Will we create gear that negates the slippery effect? 

Will it fill water collectors and max out dew droplet webs?

If water is going to pool in the valley areas of the map, perhaps the AI pathing could have alternative routes during and right after it rains so the creepy crawlies don’t walk too deep into water. Flying insects would need to change their behavior. 

There are a lot of tunnels but many have enemies. Flooding the tunnels with enemies creates a problem balance wise as after the rain (or during it with swim gear) you can explore/loot the area enemy free assuming that Grounded 2 has the insects coded to die in deep water like in Grounded 1. Many of the insects in the game could be coded to swim/float or just stay alive even when submerged as their real life counterparts can do that so we just might face some submerged nightmare fights. 

It would be neat if a lot of cracks in the ground became creaks/rivers for a period of time during/after rain.

[Lancelin]

Oooo I do love the idea of a low mist rolling in! It'd add to the ambiance of the bombardment of rain! The droplets themselves could be few and far between, enough for the challenge but not a downpour.

While it might be cool to have certain biomes be completely flooded, on a technical level that might be too difficult. However! Adding in flowing streams and water into cracks is a pretty cool idea! soaking and changing the ground textures would also be physically pleasing to see.

Although, having EVERYTHING become slick might just become annoying... Maybe certain surfaces? Like metals and plastics? Otherwise, the ground is just squishy. Maybe a few caves are now flooded and need time before you can enter.

 

And as far as time goes... While it could be influenced by daylight, the simpler and more direct approach is just to have an unspoken timer decide how long. Ten minutes, maybe? If we remove most of the slick effect and keep it to certain areas, it doesn't need to be there any longer than just to admire, while we do want it long enough that the slick gear feels necessary