Base Building Fixes and Additions

I am a huge fan of building in Grounded games to the point that some gaming sessions will be nothing but working on making elaborate bases. I am also a huge fan of high fantasy and dnd and love the path the Grounded devs took to combine that world into this. It's inspired me to make some pretty epic builds ( or at least fantasize about them...it takes a long time to make an epic base without handy gnat or anything like that so I'm still on my first one.) With my experience building in grounded 2 racking up, I've noticed some things I'd love to see added or changed to the building system that I think would really take it to the next level.

* I'd like to preface this by saying I'm not fully up to date with the latest updates. I've not done much exploring into the pond, but that is my next step. Please be patient with me if I mention something already in the game that I simply don't know about yet.

First the fixes:

1. The blueprints system can be really tricky at times. When I'm trying to add really specific details to a build, snap to grid mode simply doesn't cut it. It becomes too restrictive about where you can place things. On the other hand, the free place mode is also still extremely restrictive for some reason too. Instead of having a free-floating blueprint of the building you'd like to place, you instead are faced with random boundaries and jumps around other structures that don't let you place it exactly where you want. I've had instances where blueprints will only let you place them if they're clipped through another structure or if they are only touching one specific section of a structure. It reminds me of the autofill function in a search bar. The game tries to fill in the blanks of where you'd like to put something based on the general area you're pointing and it's almost always wrong.

2. One of the biggest annoyances I've had is the fact that connection points in the snap to grid feature of building only exists on corners of a structure. Too many times I've found the perfect place to put a blueprint so that it lines up with the overall build and looks symmetrical is to align it with the middle of another structure's edge and too many times has the game not made it easy. Snap to grid won't let you do that, and I've already mentioned how janky the free place mode can be. A simple fix here would be to add another connection point in the middle of each structure so that depending on how you orient the blueprint, it'll either snap to one of the corners or one of the side midpoints. You could even make it easier by adding a scroll function (similar to free build mode where you can alternate between rotating a blueprint and moving it farther from or closer to you (which is also kind of broken, I'll get to that)) that will allow you to scroll between adding it to a midpoint or adding it to a corner.

3. This one is a bit of a fix and an addition, and it's quite simple: please please PLEASE add every single type of blueprint to every building type! I love using pine needle walls, but it's really frustrating when there's no curved pine needle walls! To allow for full creative freedom, please include every type of blueprint for building packs like wall sets, floor sets, and roof sets. It would make my day!

4. Back to the push and pull feature of free place mode. I don't think it works the way it should. My first impression of this feature was that it would help me place a blueprint somewhere I can't quite reach yet by allowing me to push it farther away or bring it closer while still keeping it's alignment. Unfortunately that's not how it works. It's based off of your perspective which means if you're trying to place a blueprint higher or lower than you, it won't match the alignment of the rest of the building you're working on, it will tilt so that it's alignment stays the same from your perspective. This makes the feature impossible to use on pre-existing structures because it won't align the blueprint with the structure layout. For this feature to be optimized, it should almost function like a snap to grid feature. If the player is moving the blueprint so that it is touching another building's corner or midpoint, have it snap it's alignment to match that of the building it's touching. That way you can use the push and pull to move the blueprint along the surface of that other building instead of angling through it due to a tough angle of perspective. It'd also be nice to have the option to raise or lower a blueprint while keeping it in the same position horizontally. Making these adjustments would ease a lot of quarrels with the building process and attract more players to building.

5. This ties into the limitations of the snap to grid system and the wonkiness of the free place system, but I'd love to be able to place walls, floors, and roofs right up against each other similar to how you're able to compact chests and like structures together to save space. The purpose for this; however, would allow to create thicker walls, floors, and roofs instead. It'd allow players to alter the texture of their walls by merging them and have their lines intersect. I actually did this already with some floor pieces but I'm 90% sure I wasn't supposed to be able to do that because I have not been able to replicate it. There's certain parts of my base that would look so much better if I could layer walls together to make thick walls, but not so thick that you can accomplish it by sticking a one by one or one by two in between two walls.

The key takeaway here is that I'm looking for a lot more creative freedom with building. I believe the potential for construction creativity in this game to be almost on par with minecraft, and everyone's seen what they're able to accomplish in that game, so I'd love to see the system revamped to make it easier to use. The community will start seeing some really cool designs and creative solutions.

On to what I'd love to see added!

1. The first one is very simple: I'd love to see curved triangle walls, quarter walls, and half walls. I like to make pretty crenellations out of quarter triangle walls to line the parapets of castle, but I have a lot of curved sections where I have to adjust to another material because these don't exist. I'd love to see this variety.

2. I think everyone says this, but keep those new resource building sets coming! I love having a whole bunch of options of what I can make my base out of. The fact that they're each so unique to really gets the creative juices flowing!

3. THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT ADDITION I WANT TO SEE IN THE GAME!!!! Sorry, I just wanted to make sure this got your attention😛. I absolutely adore the cozy system. The fact that I can unlock stuff and make it easier to live out in the yard the more I build is genius! It gives me even more of an incentive to build my best and it rewards me with little goodies along the way! My only complaint about this system is that there's not enough! I want to reach new cozy level heights!! Give me 10 levels of cozy I can get to, not just 4. Give me more decorations, emotes, and trait/mutation buffs for building an epic base! Let me get an even fancier bed that gives me both the buffs of the luxurious bed and the simple bed! I beg for more cozy. I seriously get such a dopamine rush when I hear that deep voice bellow " Cozy!"

4. Last but not least, I would love to see more decorations in the game to really fill out my living space. You can never have enough! Some ideas: chrysalis mirror, basketball court to go with the hoops, maps! ( battlemaps, landscapes, treasure) so I can lay them on tables or post them to my walls. I've also been humoring the idea of turning the natural trenches in the map into highways so I'd love to get stand alone (non wall mounted) signs that can point directions and I can customize with different symbols (like how chests work) to point me in the right directions. I'll literally be excited for any new decorations though.

Alright, thanks for listening to my TED talk. Feel free to share your own ideas with me or correct me on things that already exist that I don't know about.

Toodle-oo!