Microsoft Grounded (aka "Honey, Obsidian Shrunk the Kids") - Information Thread, update: PS4/PS5/Switch release announced for April 16

[Keyser_Soze]

 

 

Quote

BUILD 0.5.0.2752 NEW FEATURES

POND REVAMP

• The Pond and Pond Lab have been revamped with additional puzzles, gameplay, and secrets to discover.
• New underwater caves to find and explore.
• New Pond Lab outposts.
• New Resources: Algae, Muscle Sprouts.
• New SCA.Bs to collect.

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

Fin Flops+
Diving Lantern+
All smoothies now have a + version to unlock.

NEW LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS

Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese localization added.

XBOX AND WINDOWS STORE SAVE SYSTEM REVAMP

The save system for Xbox and Windows Store platforms has been refactored to be more robust and lightweight.
New saves going forward should be more reliable when it comes to saving player data and properly uploading it to the cloud.
The game will no longer need to do long cloud sync each time you boot it.
Syncing between consoles should be more reliable. NOTE: This will require a one time save conversion step after logging in to convert any older saves to use the new system.

 

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

ALL PLATFORMS

 

• Spear weapons can now be thrown in water.

CHANGES / TUNING

MOVEMENT

 

• The player can jump out of the water at any location instead of just the edges.

COMBAT

 

• The Koi Fish can eat creatures (and you!).
• 2 handed weapons now deal slightly more damage.
• Water Boatmen now flee at a slower speed and have less HP.
• Tadpoles flee at a slower speed.
• Adjusting Dazzling Riposte; now reduces enemy defense after perfect block instead of reducing enemy attack.
• Timing in between creature attacks is now random instead of it always being the same fixed amount of time.
• Stamina regen is now reduced while you're actively holding block.
• The blocked damage percentage is now based on weapon type instead of always being 75%.

INTERFACE

 

• There is now a game option to display the distance over player nameplates to see how far they are.

WORLD

 

• New caves to explore in the pond.
• The Koi can now push pond foliage out of its way.
• Juice Droplets despawn after 3 days, allowing new ones to drop out of the straws in case a spawned drop somehow got lost.
• Eelgrass now respawns over time.
• Holiday lights added to the house.
• Improved lighting in the Pond / Pond lab.
• Additional pond and pond lab set dressing.

BUILDINGS

 

• Some structures such as Foundations, Scaffolds, and Walls, now align to the ground from their corners instead of their center.
• Some other buildings such as the Jerky Rack, Zipline Anchor, and Dew Catcher, now sit on their legs instead of on their center point only.
• Tweaked the order of some buildings in the radial.
• The Squared Roof Corner will now block wall crenellations below it.

CRAFTING

 

• The recipe for decoy bait has been adjusted.

AUDIO

 

• Audio improvements for drowning.

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

TOP COMMUNITY ISSUES

 

• Grid-snapping non-structural buildings on top of existing structures now work correctly.
• Underground blueprints can now be canceled, either by looking at them or with Cancel Nearby Blueprints in the Game Preview Debug menu.
• Fixed issue where dying in the depths would place your backpack at the starting spawn ravine.
• Clients will no longer experience twitchy movement when moving on large structures.
• Instances of "lame" were replaced or removed.

GAME

 

• Buildings can no longer be briefly placed on canceled buildings.
• Buildings can't be built on stuffed insects.
• Buildings can't be built on other players' unplaced buildings.
• Floating structures will stop bobbing if connected to solid ground.
• The player can no longer jump while gliding.

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

 

• Spike Strips can now be placed next to each other when snapped to a grid.
• Hedge berries will now float correctly inside the pond lab, should you somehow manage to get one there.
• Signs no longer flicker when they are being placed on walls.
• Signs can now be optionally snapped to the grid.
• Buoyant markers now float properly on the water's surface.
• Decoy Bait now properly behaves as a lure for both swimming and non-swimming creatures.
• Diving Bell Spider Chunks are now properly marked as a tier 2 material.
• Decoy Bait no longer causes non-swimming creatures to float in wacky ways.
• Fixed random crashes with Grass Plank Storage and Weed Log Storage buildings.
• Chair interaction not working for building or recycling has been fixed.

WORLD

 

• Pond bubbles should pop before poking out of the surface.
• Koi collision better matches its animations to prevent the player from clipping into the model as much.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

[REDACTED] recipe added.

 

[jaethos]

I loaded this up after the pond update and discovered that my main base now had a giant footprint right in the middle of it, basically ruining everything. It was all still there, but half of it was floating and there was grass growing through my buildings.

It runs and looks great on the Series X, but I'm probably going to give this another major update or two before I go back.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

 

Quote

BUILD 0.6.0 NEW FEATURES

 

NEW CREATURES

• Mosquitos
• Fireflies
• Bees!

 

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

• Bee Armor Set (Face Mask, Shoulder Pads, Shin Guards)
• Firefly Head Lamp
• Stinger Spear
• Mosquito Needle
• Weevil Shield
• New consumable: Healbasa
• Two new stuffed friends: Stuffed Bee and Stuffed Firefly

 

NEW PERK

• Barbarian Perk: Club damage increased

 

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

 

ALL PLATFORMS

• Equipped items no longer take up Backpack space.
• Equipped items will stay on the player after death. Each piece of equipment will take a small amount of durability damage after you die.

 

CHANGES / TUNING

 

NETWORKING

• Container inventory contents are no longer replicated to clients until needed (an optimization).
• More reliable networking calls from clients to the server.
• Reduced the amount of network data sent between various systems.

 

OTHER

• BURG.L Chips now award science when returned regardless of whether the corresponding BURG.L quest is active.
• Mint Mallet has been renamed "Mint Mace".
• Rotten bee equipment can now be analyzed to unlock the un-rotten recipes.

 

COMBAT

• Bone weapons have slightly less durability.
• Most unblockable creature attacks are now blockable with shields (still unblockable with weapons).
• Pollen can now be thrown.
• Previously-equipped off-hand items that were displaced by a two-handed weapon are restored when re-equipping a one-handed weapon.
• The arrow you have nocked on your bow reflects the arrow ammo type you have selected.

 

INTERFACE

• Point of interest notification has been altered to be more responsive and look better.
• Notifications now will display what's in the queue to improve feedback with this system.
• Save game screenshots now work with Logout saves.
• Rest / Set Respawn UI adjustments.
• A "New Resource" queue will display on the HUD if you pick up new items faster than the HUD can handle displaying the notifications for them.
• Layout revision to the OS Config menu to make viewing status effect icon/details better.
• Weapons and arrows that are embedded in creatures will not display their floating icon until the weapon/arrow becomes dislodged. This cleans up some icon spam when using a bow.
• Items dropped in the world that uses the temp loot bag model (armors, etc.) will have their item icon displayed on top of them.

 

WORLD

• Nectar now spawns on top of flowers instead of below them.
• Creatures will fade out / fade in when approaching their despawn distance to prevent visual popping (currently only works on host).
• Bratburst visual effects better match the ingredients that were used to craft it.
• Added "Recover Backpacks" in the Game Preview debug menu to help recover backpacks that have gotten stuck.
• Busted Acorns can drop more shells.

 

BUILDINGS

• Buildings will be invalid less often when placing them inside structures.
• Incomplete buildings are more visually apparent.
• Buoyant Markers can now be built in the lower pond.

 

CREATURES

• Creature Perception: Player noise now has a linear falloff as opposed to all heard player noise having the same value regardless of distance.
• Increased hearing range of Wolf Spiders from 2500 to 5000 to account for the above change.

 

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

 

TOP COMMUNITY ISSUES

• Foundations will no longer be invalid when snapping to other foundations that stick out of the ground too much.
• Clients can now dump canteens.
• Autosaves no longer cause performance hitching.
• Fixed issue with clients failing to spawn in games that have huge player bases built.
• Fixed issue where clients would sometimes lose all of their inventory and mutations and spawn back at the start location when rejoining a game.

 

GAME

• Fixed crash with clients joining a saved game where their loot bag was collected by another player.
• Incomplete doors will no longer have collision after loading.
• The player can no longer eat or drink items while gliding or zipping.
• The player will now drop all hauled items when starting zipping.
• The player can no longer attack while gliding.
• Air bubbles will no longer spawn in large clumps when first approaching their source.
• Door frames now have collision applied to them.
• Fixed issue where "Craft and Equip" could cause a random inventory item to get equipped.
• Characters will no longer fall when loading a save in which they were zipping (not retroactive).
• Dew drinking while hauling is disabled to prevent issues where dew disappears without giving you any hydration.
• Structures that were anchored to certain objects, such as the baseball or flagstones, will no longer be considered unsupported.
• Fixed issue where kicked players end up having their inventory lost in the save data (does not retroactively restore inventory for players that have been kicked prior to 0.6.0).
• Fixed issue with depositing items into a full container with a controller.
• Hauled items will correctly be dropped when knocked down in multiplayer.
• The dropped web will properly display on clients.

 

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

• Muscle Sprouts will now respawn.
• Dirty droplets no longer act like clean ones when drinking them.
• Buoyant Foundations can no longer be built underneath the water in some situations.
• Buoyant Marker can no longer be placed on land.
• Objects without physics will no longer cause the bounce pad to bounce.
• The previous weapon, for the Equip Previous hotkey, now persists across saves.
• Shovel+ now has a proper faster animation.
• Fixed some interaction issues with FrankenLine.
• Soda droplets will more consistently respawn.
• Punch-O Juice drops properly despawn after 72 hours so new dew can drip out.
• Items floating on the water will now despawn when appropriate.
• Bratbursts now visually work correctly for clients.

 

WORLD

• Gnats will get happy after boops more consistently.
• Aphids will now face the correct direction when descending grass blades.
• Clovers will now save and restore properly.
• Grubs can no longer be dug up by the Repair Tool or the Mint Mace.
• Fixed issue where sometimes sleeping creatures were displaying as awake on clients.
• Mites no longer sometimes animate like they are walking while not moving.

 

UI

• The field of view will no longer sometimes oscillate when sprinting sideways.
• Fixed issue with the "low O2" black vignette not working on clients.
• Fixed issue with the 3rd person camera being in odd tilts after respawning.
• No longer showing the "Health Bar" for creatures that cannot be killed (BURG.L, Koi Fish, etc.).
• Fixed issue with pixelated lighting artifacts showing up on weapons when held up to the sunlight.
• Fixed some rendering issues with player eyes around lights.
• Fixed the third-person camera occasionally being tilted after respawning.

 

AUDIO

• Fixed submerged audio getting stuck on clients after death if they died underwater.

 

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• [All information regarding the activities of Ominent Practical Technologies in this update are to remain confidential]

 

[Commodore D]

Going to mess with some of this during the weekend. That and The Medium.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

Quote

BUILD 0.7.0 NEW FEATURES

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

 

• Added Stair Railing: Sprig Railing, Acorn Railing
• New Stairs Added: Acorn Spiral Stairs
• New Scaffolding: Bracket Scaffold
• New Floors Added: Grass Half-Floors and Weed Stem Floors
• New Item: Firefly Hanging Lantern
• New Item: Wall-mounted Zipline Anchor
• New Item: Shinobi Sneeze, a smoke-screen escape item
• Mounted Head Trophies can now be crafted for all of the flying creatures: Mosquitos, Fireflies, and Bees

 

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

ALL PLATFORMS

 

• You can relocate any non-grid building you have made without destroying and rebuilding it (Lean-to, Storage, Workbench, etc.).
• When you are crafting, any items in nearby storage will be available as crafting ingredients without requiring you to put them in your backpack.
• You can place hauling items (Grass Planks, Weed Stems) on Ziplines using the "Drop" action when pointing at the line.
• Player characters have new and improved stagger animations.

CHANGES / TUNING

SYSTEMS

 

• Hunger and Thirst effects have been reworked:
• Bonuses now activate at 80% or higher instead of 90% or higher.
  • Hunger Bonus heals you over time.
  • Thirst Bonus increases your stamina regen.
• Penalties now activate at 20% or lower instead of 0%:
  • Hunger Penalty caps your max stamina at 50%.
  • Thirst Penalty reduces your stamina regen.
• Repair Recipes have been reworked:
  • Armor Glues have been removed.
  • Armors now take ~20% of their initial ingredients to repair.
  • Weapons now take 1 quartzite + a minimal amount of their initial ingredients to repair.
• Gas Masks now take durability damage in gas hazards.

COMBAT

 

• Bandages now heal much more HP, but over a much longer period of time.
• Mosquito Needle has the life-steal ability slightly decreased.
• Bees now have two additional attacks.
• When you are wielding both a shield and a canteen, the Block input will both drink from the canteen and block.
• Weevil shield durability doubled.
• Bratburst and Splatburst deal more damage.
• Pollen Shot now adds slightly more stun damage to bow attacks.
  • Note: This is not a % chance to stun, this allows bows to deal stun damage in addition to normal damage

INTERFACE

 

• Lasting (applied by gear or mutations) and temporary status effects appear in the Status UI.
• Added "Any Weapon" HotPouch slot type and changed the defaults of the first four slots to be "Any Weapon" instead of "Any Melee Weapon".
• Save games that are older than five update versions will be marked with an "Ancient Save" warning.
• The block meter is slightly smaller and scooted to the right.
• Equipped shield durability is shown in the HUD.
• Equipment rating gauges have been converted visually from a regular bar to a nugget-based bar.
• More icons are described in the Icon Legend in the OS tab.
• The 'day' count in the OS tab has been embiggened.
• More of the map screen is unlocked by default now.
• Brown and Yellow added to the icon customizer color array.
• A few additional icons added to the storage and trail marker icon customizers.
• Adjusted the storage interface for reasons.
• Adding 'analyzed' status to storage interface.
• Contrast adjustments to the Ghostmint SCA.B flavor.
• High Contrast SCA.B flavor applies a dark backing to the HUD SCA.B.
• Bringing your teen back from the hunger or thirst danger zones will cause SCA.B to play a happy sound.

WORLD

 

• Interacting with a dropped backpack will now instantly do a loot-all action. If any items are still leftover because your inventory is full, then the dropped back UI will open.
• Removed the pre-placed zipline anchors from the paint can and the oak tree lamp.
• Thistle plants have been reworked:
  • Thorns are now harvested directly instead of requiring a hit with an axe.
  • Each thistle plant no longer provides an infinite amount of thorns.
  • Thorns respawn on the thistle plant after a set amount of time.

BUILDINGS

 

• Building placement is no longer allowed while gliding, zipping, or in combat.
• Pebblet Foundations now require more pebblets than clay to build.
• Sap Dripper has been overhauled:
  • A final mesh has been created.
  • The recipe has been changed to match the new mesh.
  • Sap Dripper is now properly considered a wall-mounted building for placement purposes.
  • Placement should be a lot more lenient, allowing easier and more consistent placing.
  • Item will now spawn 1 sap every 5 hours and can hold up to 5 sap in total (previously spawned 1 sap every 24 hours).

CRAFTING

 

• Berry Chunks can now be dried into berry leather on the Jerky Rack.

CREATURES

 

• Larva will now explore a larger area of the backyard.
• Larva can now burrow.
• Creatures now take much longer to fully regen when out of combat.
• Gnats should be less interested in spamming the player with boops.

 

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

TOP COMMUNITY ISSUES

 

• Fixed Fireflies not flying down to the yard correctly after loading a game.
• The game will no longer lag when placing or removing buildings on saves with huge numbers of buildings.
• Grid buildings can no longer be placed entirely under the terrain.
• Fixed save game screenshots sometimes looking corrupt.
• Fixed "Toggle Crouch" option sometimes not saving and taking effect.

GAME

 

• Land-only buildings can no longer be placed on water in certain situations
• Buildings such as Fences and Ramps will no longer snap strangely to subsequent buildings
• The underside of a Buoyant Foundation can no longer support other structures.
• Palisades will no longer be invalid when placed on some rock surfaces.
• Diagonal walls at 90-degree angles will now support each other.
• Walls will no longer randomly lose crenellations when loading a save.
• Fixed a few cases where snapped structures might be incorrectly detected as invalid.
• BURG.L Quest UI will load correctly for clients when they are the first player to access it.
• CPU / Networking performance improvements by the flooded sprinkler area.
• Multiple overlapping gas hazards no longer stack their damage.
• Removing the 'O' binding from the inventory screen that opened the deprecated inspection popup.

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

 

• Feathers and Hedge Berries will no longer occasionally disappear when loading a save.
• Ziplines will no longer block flying creatures.
• Sap Catchers can no longer be placed on Buoyant Foundations.
• Fixed consumed items not showing up on your character model in the inventory screen.
• Fin Flops+ now behave properly when dropped from the player's inventory.

CREATURES

 

• Fixed several cases where mosquitos would sleep in incorrect locations.
• Flying creatures are now much less shy about flying through the grass.
• Creatures will now wake up when damaged by hazards.
• Creatures properly fade out at far distances for clients now.
• TAYZ.T's in the pond lab will be more aware of their surroundings.
• Fixed sleeping creatures teleporting on clients after they've been woken up (most visible if you wake up a Wolf Spider from sleeping).
• Reduced the annoyingness of gnats.

UI

 

• The camera will no longer start in first-person when loading a save in which the player was gliding or zipping.
• "Inventory Full" will no longer be misleadingly displayed when trying to haul an item while swimming.
• Fixed some scrolling and display issues in the "Recipes Used In" section on the Crafting screen.

AUDIO

 

• 'Theft in progress' SFX played upon opening the UI while in combat has been replaced with new SFX.
• SCA.B crying about hunger and thirst will play a specific sound for each instead of a single sound for both.

BUG FIXES - XBOX PLATFORM

 

• Fixed audio issues after suspend / resume.

BUG FIXES - STEAM PLATFORM

 

 

• Logging into an Xbox Live account that was previously logged into with a different Steam account will no longer fail the login step.
• Removed HDR tab from the Options screen.

BUG FIXES - WINDOWS STORE PLATFORM

 

• When there is a new update available, the game will properly tell you when trying to access Multiplayer instead of presenting a generic "Multiplayer Error" message.
• Removed HDR tab from the Options screen.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

 

• Due to the recent discovery of [REMOVED], [WITHHELD] has been updated accordingly.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and reports, we appreciate them!

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

Quote

BUILD 0.8.0 NEW FEATURES

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

 

• New building: Door Frame
• New buildings: Triangular Stem Wall and Inverted Triangular Stem Wall

NEW FEATURES

MAJOR FEATURES

 

• Photo Mode: Phase 1
• Password protecting online games

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

• When you are placing an invalid building, a short message will describe why it is invalid.
• When you are holding a Repair Tool, nearby damaged buildings will display an icon.
• Loose arrows can be collected by walking over them.
• Structures will now collapse much more dramatically when unsupported.
• The Armor Dummy UI now has a button that swaps your gear with the dummy's. You can also do this without entering the UI by doing a "hold" interact action on the Armor Dummy.
• When you are connecting ziplines, the anchor that will be connected is highlighted.
• Player nameplates in multiplayer will show if a player is knocked out and how much time they have left to be helped.
• Player nameplates will show a "busy" state above it when said player is navigating a menu.

CHANGES / TUNING

SYSTEMS

 

• Dirty water will now apply a status effect that shows your character is sick. The more dirty water you drink, the worse the effect gets. Resting will make you feel better.
• Smoothie Station functionality has been reworked:
• Goop Base determines the effectiveness of the smoothie.
• Grub Goop creates a normal smoothie.
• Muscle Sprout creates a "beefy" smoothie that heals for twice the amount.
• Flavor ingredients can consist of any combination of other items and has same functionality as before.
• All smoothies now require a "Goop Base" and 3 "Flavor Ingredients."

OTHER

MUTATIONS

• Reduced the damage reduction of "Dare Devil".

COMBAT

 

• More intense combat music will play when fighting spiders.
• Infected weevils now move slightly faster.
• Ladybugs have a new set of attacks to pick from.
• Improved the accuracy of aiming with a bow using the third-person camera.

INTERFACE

 

• Player nameplates will transition into smaller character icons when not in the center of the screen.
• The Interact HUD has been revamped to support showing multiple interaction types at the same time.
• BURG.L chips in the world have a small arrow icon that pops up when you approach them making it easier to not miss them.
• New SCA.B audio when getting hungry / thirsty / health alerts.

WORLD

 

• Big sap nodules now take longer to respawn than individual saps.
• "Base music" now plays during the daytime as well. A new track has been added specifically for night "base music".
• Updated the terrain around the upper hedge.

BUILDINGS

 

• Structures will be less likely to be considered obstructed when placed underneath static props like leaves.
• Walls will now often pivot around corners they are snapped to when rotated.
• Added the facing helper arrow to the Acorn Storage.
• Dew Collector recipe and unlock changed: now unlocks with woven web and requires woven web to build.

CRAFTING

 

• + Smoothies have been replaced with "Beefy" smoothies.
• Double the healing power as normal smoothies.
• Same bonus status effect as normal smoothies.
• Require the same "flavor" ingredients as normal smoothies.
• Uses Muscle Sprout as a "base" instead of Grub Goop.

OPTIMIZATION

 

• Improved performance of games with large bases.
• Improved performance of games that have a lot of Storage Baskets or Storage Chests with icons set.
• A handful of general CPU optimizations added.

CREATURES

• Bees now drop pollen into the world in addition to collecting it on their legs when pollinating flowers.

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

TOP COMMUNITY FIXES

 

• Scaffolds will now reliably be considered anchored when they are built down to the ground from above.
• The amount of dew that spawns on grass each morning now matches the amount of dew that exists when you start a new game (doubled the current dew spawn amount).
• Big pebbles should now respawn.

WORLD

 

• Building relocation will be canceled if another player places a building on the item being moved.
• Grid buildings can no longer be anchored to tables.
• Stairs are now easier to place on uneven terrain.
• Hitting "w" while typing in the lobby chat log no longer sends the message.
• Player nameplates are now positioned properly height-wise when playing as a client.

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

 

• The player cannot zip while swimming.
• Zipline Wall Anchor, Sap Dripper, and Stair Railings can no longer be built underwater.
• Zipline Wall Anchor, Sap Dripper, Stair Railings, Abomination Totem, Ant Head Totem, and Slime Mold Sconce can no longer be built inside other buildings.
• Firefly Headlamp has reduced glare when in fog.
• Embedded arrows no longer pop slightly above where they hit.
• Repair Tool works in "Mild" mode.
• Splatburst now sticks even to surfaces it impacts at an angle.
• Firefly Hanging Lantern can no longer be built in caves.

CREATURES

• Fireflies should no longer get stuck on the surface of the pond.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• While we have been impressed by the [CONFIDENTIAL], we have decided to [REDACTED] to compensate.

 

[stepee]

Love the teams but I’m kinda glad this and bleeding edge are just gonna kinda fizzle, should be easier to keep them focused on single player stuff then.

[JPDunks4]

I'm fairly certain I saw them hiring for Grounded pretty recently. I think it's doing well enough through Early Access that I'm not quite sure it'll just fizzle away. 

 

It was a very small team working on it supposedly to begin with.  I'd tend to agree with you that if Avowed is to be as big as we are hearing, I'd like to see all hands on deck for that.  But if its a small team size, and with MS's support, they have the financial means to hire enough support for all projects, I'm fine with little fun projects like this existing.

 

I really enjoyed this at launch, but it admittingly was Early Access and limited in content.  Like most of these types of games, I typically take a long break til some substantial updates hit and revisit them.  

 

I've been so busy with backlog though I haven't been back yet.

 

I actually thought it'd be a perfect game to play with my nephews and niece, but they got too scared of the Spiders and didn't want to play, haha.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

Quote

BUILD 0.9.0 NEW FEATURES

BUILDINGS

• Ladders - Unlocked via the Hedge BURG.L Chip
• Curved Walls, Floors, and Railings
  • 3 Curved Grass Walls
  • 2 Curved Grass Floors
  • 3 Curved Stem Walls
  • 2 Curved Stem Floors
  • 2 Curved Railings
  • Unlocked via the Pond BURG.L Chip

CREATIVE WITH BUGS

• New Mode Added: Creative with Bugs

All the building and crafting perks of Creative mode but with all of the bugs spawned in the yard which are completely docile to you.

PHOTO MODE

• Photo Mode Multiplayer Support:
  • All players enter and exit photo mode at the same time; the game pauses.
  • Each player controls their character's pose and visibility.
  • Each player controls their own camera location and settings.
• Four new poses: Modish Max, Wallowing Willow, Heroic Hoops, and Perilous Pete.

UI

• Recipes are now sorted by subcategories in the Construction radial and in the Crafting menu. Within subcategories, recipes are sorted by their tier.
• Added a take-all option for processing buildings like the Spinning Wheel.

MUSIC

• New combat music when fighting weaker bugs (Mites, Spiderlings, and Water Fleas).

SAVE GAMES

• Save games are significantly smaller on disk.
• Playthroughs in the Save Game UI are grouped and collapsed together making for easier navigation of playthroughs with lots of saves across multiple playthroughs.

CHANGES / TUNING

COMBAT

 

• Attacks can now be canceled into a block at any point during the animation.
• Attacks now consume stamina on startup rather than on the hit frame.
• Stinkbugs have a new attack.

INTERFACE

• Attack interaction display has been updated to match the new interact UI changes from last patch for consistency.

WORLD

 

• Increased the draw distance of bases for hosts on higher graphics quality.
• Signs can be placed on walls more reliably.
• Egg hatching now plays visual and sound effects.

BUILDINGS

• Lure Traps and Spike Traps will now take damage as enemies use/interact with them.

CRAFTING

• "Beefy Smoothie?" can now be crafted at the Smoothie Station.

OPTIMIZATION

• Improved render performance for games with lots of buildings.
• Improved CPU performance with games with lots of buildings.
• Improved rendering performance for the Xbox One and Xbox One S.
• Reduced the delay before opening the main UI window.
• Reduced the delay before opening the Building radial.
• Reduced the delay before navigating to the Data page.

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

TOP COMMUNITY FIXES

 

• Save games should now properly display the mode in the multiplayer lobby.
• Promised Chipsleuth quest science rewards will now be correctly shown to clients.
• Throwing grass blades or weed stems in third person no longer has most of them thrown to the side.
• Creatures no longer walk through walls when not looking at them.
• Crow Feathers despawn after a while if not harvested.
• Signs can be placed on walls more reliably.

WORLD

 

• Underwater-capable buildings can no longer be built on bubbles.
• Floors can no longer be built entirely under the ground.
• Structures placed on floors will be invalidly invalid less often.
• The player can no longer zip off a zipline when zipping up it.
• Wall-mounted buildings can no longer be attached to dropped items.
• Structures can not be completed while a character or creature is inside of them.
• Buildings can now be placed in specific spots inside the Oak Tree where they previously couldn't be.
• Foliage such as grass blades that is moved between patches will no longer duplicate itself.

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

 

• Doors can now be built facing other doors.
• Weapon Wall Mounts and wall-mounted trophies no longer fall through the world when collapsed.
• Harvested flower petals will no longer spawn inside the flower.
• Spiral Stairs can no longer be placed underwater or inside blocking objects.
• Plank and Log Pallets will align to the terrain better during placement.
• Crow Feathers no longer respawn when harvesting them, walking away, and returning back.
• Stuffed Bee now properly swings after save/load.
• Wall-mounted buildings are easier to place on Stem Walls and Palisades.

CREATURES

 

• Ant Eggs will now hatch properly while inside inventories.
• All types of creatures will now correctly create ripples in water.

PHOTO MODE

 

• Depth of Field now applies properly when entering Photo Mode.
• Photo Mode can now be exited even when the HUD is toggled off.
• Blocking, aiming, and charged attacks now release upon exiting Photo Mode without firing.
• Lighting in dark areas is now properly applied in Photo Mode.
• Axes and Splatburst no longer stick to the free cam when falling.
• Film grain and chromatic aberration settings in photo mode now work in Low Quality.
• Photo mode free camera movement now uses remappable keyboard bindings.

UI

 

• The interaction UI no longer displays when on a zipline.
• The Crafting menu will not lag as much when switching between certain items.
• Building UI's, such as the Container and Spinning Wheel interfaces, will be closed if the building is relocated too far away while they are open.
• Characters are less likely to appear headless when finishing a conversation with BURG.L or interacting with certain items.

BUG FIXES - XBOX PLATFORMS

• Players with a ton of buildings crafted and who could no longer create new save games will be able to make new saves again.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• [ CONFIDENTIAL ]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

SHROOM AND DOOM UPDATE OUT NOW!

 

 

 

Quote

THE SHROOM

 

NEW BUILDING MATERIAL: THE SHROOMBRICKS

Every mushroom you see in the yard is now harvestable! Chop down those toadstools and grind them down into slurry you can use to make bricks! The castles you can create from these bricks are the current sturdiest defense you'll have against the dangers of the yard.

NEW CRAFTING STRUCTURES: THE GRINDER AND THE OVEN
We've added unlock two new crafting structures: the Grinder and the Oven.

 

1. The Grinder will help you break down those mushroom bits into a slurry, but it also can break down plant fiber to entice some critters to follow you (more on that below!).
2. The Oven can help cook the slurry you made from mushrooms and turn them into the bricks that will fortify your castle! But there's another tasty treat that a certain mother of spiders might covet, should you find her lair.

 

GARDENING
Your Garden Patches just got better! Use spoiled meat to fertilize your Garden Patches to grow everything from raw fibers to toadstools!
We've also added a whole host of new building options, such as pillars, half-walls, and flipped building parts. Check out our May dev blog to see more.

THE DOOM

THE BROODMOTHER

Grounded's first boss is finally here, and to celebrate, the team thought our backyard explorers should be rewarded with one of the most terrifying spiders they could find. You're welcome.

For anyone brave or foolhardy or both, she can be found in her lair near the Flingman flying disc in the Hedge, but it might take an offering of a tasty morsel to tempt her to face you. Just be warned - she might consider you the tasty morsel instead, so you'll want to make sure you're geared up and prepared.
Defeating her will give you access to unique and powerful rewards, so we wish you every kind of luck!

NEW WEAPON: THE CROSSBOW

THE ARC.R

Introducing the latest in the range of modified TAYZ.Ts. This enhanced defense variant called the ARC.R is outfitted with a capacitor stack and hefty arm cannon which unleashes energized balls of charged static for a greater challenge in the labs.

THE EVERYTHING ELSE

PETS!
Take some slurry from the Grinder and entice a weevil or aphid to be your pet (that you can actually pet!) - each one has a different personality, and you can tame multiple if you make little pet houses for each one. Just be warned, these little critters are just as vulnerable with you as they were before, so treat them with care!

SITTING!
You asked for it, the team delivered - sitting is now available at your nearest sofa and chair!

THE HAZE LAB ACCESS
We're still working on it, but the Haze lab can now be accessed! You'll want to venture in there to find the BURG.L chips that will unlock the new buildings mentioned above!

 

MAY'S LETTER FROM THE DEVELOPERS
In case you missed it, the Grounded development team released a letter in May outlining the new update schedule and a few more things they were excited to bring to Patch 0.10.

 

Check it out here!

 

PATCH NOTES FOR UPDATE 0.10

NEW FEATURES

CREATURES
Boss - The Broodmotherc

• Find the new Broodmother Den to encounter the first-ever boss in Grounded!
  • She must be lured out with a craftable treat called the Broodmother BLT.
• 1 new Armor Piece and 1 new Weapon can be crafted from her parts!

ARC.R

• The latest in the range of modified TAYZ.Ts is an enhanced defense variant called the ARC.R. Outfitted with a capacitor stack and hefty arm cannon, ARC.Rs unleash energized balls of charged static for a greater challenge in lab combat.

PETS (PHASE 1)
Weevils and Aphids can now be tamed as pets!

• Each requires a specific type of food to tame.
  • Pets can be safely left in the base at a Pet House. Yes, you can craft Pet Houses now!
  • Can be equipped with various cosmetics.
  • You can pet them!

WEAPONS

New Weapon Type: Crossbow

• Higher damage than a normal bow.
• Slower firing speed and reload time.
  • Uses the same ammo types.

BUILDINGS

New Structural Pieces for Existing Materials

• New Grass Buildings:
  • Half Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Crenelated Half Wall
  • Crenelated Curved Half Wall
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Door
• New Clover Buildings:
  • Flat Roof
  • Peaked Roof
  • Peaked Dome Roof
• New Stem Buildings:
  • Half Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Door
  • Curved Palisade
  • Curved Palisade Door
• New Stuffed Creatures:
  • Ladybug
  • Stinkbug

Building Flipping

• A few buildings can now be flipped horizontally or vertically while placing them. This includes Spiral Stairs, Acorn Stair Railings, and Triangular Walls.

Building Wall Replacement System

• Structure pieces (walls, windows, etc.) can now be replaced by other versions without first demolishing the existing piece. Just place the new piece over the old one and add the ingredients.

New Production Buildings

• Oven
  • Cooks several materials into a new material or item. Build one to discover what you can do with it!
• Grinder
  • Breaks down materials into new materials. Just like the oven, you'll have to build one to discover what to do with it!

Mushroom Garden Update

• Renamed Mushroom Garden to Garden Patch.
• Garden Patch now requires items to be planted before producing materials.
  • Mushroom → Mushroom
  • Raw Fiber → Raw Fiber
  • Sprig → Sprig
  • Clover Top → Clover
  • Different fertilizers produce different effects.
  • Spoiled meat will be able to help you with this, hooray!
  • Result item depends on what's planted:
  • Fertilizers can be used to augment growth.

New Tier of Base Buildings (Mushroom Brick, Crow Feathers)

• Mushroom Brick Buildings are now available!
  • Wall
  • Half Wall
  • Crenelated Half Wall
  • Arch
  • Curved Wall
  • Curved Half Wall
  • Triangle Wall
  • Windowed Wall
  • Curved Windowed Wall
  • Door
  • Curved Door
  • Walls:
  • Doors:
• Crow Feather Roofs are now available:
  • 8 roof pieces total
• These are unlocked via a new BURG.L Chip in the WIP Haze lab (now accessible)!

New Building Type: Pillars

• Pillars of various types can now be built:
  • Clay Pillar
  • Stem Pillar
  • Pebblet Pillar
  • Mushroom Pillar

SITTING IN CHAIRS
Yes... you read that correctly.

 

ACHIEVEMENTS
20 Achievements have been added to the game (for all platforms). These are an initial set and more will be added as the game continues to grow. We are currently working on the functionality to make them unlock if you have previously completed the task, but there is a chance this may not be possible. Certain achievements for completing tasks such as "kill a wolf spider" or "craft an item" will need to be completed again to unlock.

 

NOTE: Achievements will only be available for testing on the Steam version of the game. All other platforms will receive the achievements when 0.10 releases on June 30th.

 

PHOTO MODE

• The Photo Mode UI has been redesigned to group related settings together into tabs.
• Photo Mode has new features:
  • Rotate teen
  • Hide head armor, equipment, and weapon
  • Gamma
  • Time of day
  • Fog density
  • Sun angle

MUTATIONS

• 2 new mutations to discover: Mom Genes and Mithridatism.

MUSIC

• New track added for the Broodmother boss.

UI

• The Main Menu shows highlights of the latest update.
• Unacquired BURG.L Chip locations are shown on the Map screen after you rescue BURG.L.
• Your current Respawn Point building will show an icon over it as well as in the Map screen.

CHANGES / TUNING

SYSTEMS

• Players can sprint on ladders.
• Giant Food Items (Billy Hog Hot Dogs, Archer Cookies, etc.) have been adjusted. Ants can no longer destroy the large food item, and the player harvests a better item than the ants do.
  • Ants spawn normal versions of the food bits.
  • Players harvesting the node are granted "Fresh" versions of the food bits.

COMBAT

• Infected Weevils now apply a durability DoT to enemies hit by their explosion.
• Creature scaling in multiplayer has been adjusted:
  • HP of creatures in multiplayer scales at a faster rate.
  • Stun meter and duration scales at a slower rate.
  • More creatures are affected by scaling.
• Poison now has a unique death message.

INTERFACE

• Silk Rope now appears in the crafting menu.

WORLD

• Large mushrooms throughout the world can now be harvested.
• Feather harvest nodes now grant 2-6 feathers instead of only 1.
• The grill has temporarily moved to the retaining wall above the pond. Just below its new location is a patch of dry grass where players can now find bits of Charcoal. This is a temporary resource location until the area of the yard that features Charcoal is released.

BUILDINGS

• Spike traps now take 30% less damage from use.
• New art for Clay and Pebblet Foundations.
• Arachnophobia mode support for Spider Head Mounts.
• Straight roofs can now support each other without additional structures.
• Ceiling-mounted buildings can now be placed under roofs.
• Basketball Hoops are no longer indestructible.
• Slight Lure Trap Rework:
  • Cost half the resources to craft.
  • Now last a specific amount of time (8 minutes).

CRAFTING

• Lowering the material requirements for the spike trap.
• Stuffed Creatures are now buildings instead of deployable items.
  • You build them in the building radial instead of at the workbench.
  • Relocatable like normal buildings.
• Green Machine smoothie recipe changed to require algae instead of raw fiber.
• Human Food smoothie recipe changed to require fresh variants of apple, cookie sandwich, and hot dogs.
• Clover Roof and all variants are now unlocked via the Multistory Bases BURG.L chip unlock.

OPTIMIZATION

• General CPU performance improvements.

OTHER

• The durability of almost all weapons, tools, and armor has been increased by 25%.
• Armor Glue and Super Armor Glue can be sent through the grinder for a partial material refund.

BUG FIXES - ALL PLATFORMS

TOP COMMUNITY FIXES

• Grass Planks, Weed Stems, and Clover Leaves are buoyant in water again.
• Added dither fade to some foliage to reduce objects in the distance visually popping in and out.
• Player backpacks are buoyant in water again.
• The game will no longer crash when destroying towers of standalone ladders.
• Moving items back and forth in the Container UI should no longer trigger a crash on games with large bases.

WORLD

• Clients can walk through clovers much more reliably now.
• Walls can no longer be placed such that they clip into foundations.
• Structures can no longer be built clipping into the tops of palisades.
• BURG.L Quest trail markers can no longer be relocated.
• Ladders being relocated no longer support themselves.
• Fixed Door buildings not snapping as readily to walls as they should.
• Ladders will no longer highlight while the player is climbing them.
• Buildings being relocated will now start at their current rotation.
• Mysterious Machine can no longer be activated on Creative with Bugs difficulty mode.
• Improved "Read To Me" narration for many UI windows.
• The game will no longer rarely crash when "Read To Me" is enabled.

ITEMS/EQUIPMENT/RESOURCES

• The game will no longer crash when demolishing a zipline with a full inventory.
• Fixed a case where wall-mounted torches could not be placed on some walls.
• Fix a lot of cases where ingredients wouldn't fill in the ghosted building blueprint correctly.

CREATURES

• Ants will no longer have the Stealing marker stuck on them after they steal from a chest.
• Players can no longer walk on the back of the bird.

AUDIO

• The player will no longer "look ma, no hands!" when equipping a weapon while zipping.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• Due to the latest discovery of [REDACTED], we have found that [CONFIDENTIAL] will be a big [REMOVED] in [OMITTED]. This is a BIG DEAL!

 

[Keyser_Soze]

@Mr.Vic20 Just look at those sexy patch notes

 

[JPDunks4]

I should probably revisit this at some point soon.  Just have way too much to play.

[Keyser_Soze]

Hot and Hazy Update out

 

 

 

Quote

BIOME UPDATE: THE HAZE

If you thought the Haze area was a deadly wasteland before, just wait until you experience the new dangers that hide within it now. Even more friends have been driven mad thanks to the poisonous fumes of the weed killer, and if they don’t get you, the fungi that smothers the land explode, killing whatever unfortunate souls that stray into their paths.

 

NEW BIOME: THE SANDBOX

We know the Community has been keen to get this one, and the team has worked tirelessly to deliver it. The sizzling heat of the Crab Sandbox is now available for exploration! But be warned: if the heat doesn’t get you, new friends lurking in the sand may not take kindly to intruders in their domain. Stay out of the sun, and look for buried treasure that's been hidden away in the sand. Who knows what secrets may be lurking here...

 

NEW EXPLORABLE ENVIRONMENTS

The Black Anthill
Hidden away in the depths of the western side of the yard, black ants have made their home. Venture down there and discover the secrets they guard at your own peril!

 

The Trash Heap
One man’s trash is … well, in this case, it’s still just trash, but at your size, even the smallest morsel could become a treasure. You’ll just have to fight back some of your neighbors who think the same way.

 

The Picnic Table
Roll for initiative! It seems that someone left their game of Minotaurs & Myrmidons atop the picnic table along with some tasty treats they were enjoying. Hm, maybe it was the hive of bees that decided to make its home there, but at the very least, you’ll want to avoid the cuddly bees who don't take kindly to threats to their hive.

 

NEW “FRIENDS”
Get ready to meet 8 new friends who are all ready to say "hello!

 

AND MORE…

 

NEW ARMOR AND WEAPONS
With new challenges come new rewards! New gear can be crafted by challenging the black ants, roly-polies, and antlions.

And new armor doesn't just look good - they come new set effects and bonuses! Check them out below:

 

• Antlion Armor Set
  • Status Effect: Protects the wearer from the sandbox sizzle effect
  • Set Bonus: Faster reload speed in combat with bows and crossbows

 

• Crusty Roly Poly Armor Set
  • Status Effect: Blocking attacks builds stun gauge on enemies (normally only builds on perfect blocks)
  • Set Bonus: Chance on block to repair currently equipped shield

 

• Black Ant Armor Set
  • Status Effect: All attacks build extra stun gauge
  • Set Bonus: Reflect a portion of damage dealt back to the attacker

Additionally, some old sets have been adjusted - each armor is now assigned an armor type that adjusts how fast you begin to regenerate Stamina. Medium armor will be what we're used to, but "light armor" decreases the delay, while "heavy armor" increases it.

 

You might find some old armor sets have some new set bonuses - for instance, the Grub set's old set bonus decreased the rate of thirst but now decreases the stamina used when attacking. Check out the patch notes for the full list of changes!

 

GET YOKED! MILK MOLARS HELP YOU GROW STRONGER!

The popular "Yoked Girth Milk Molar" vitamins for growing teens are strewn across the yard for you to find. Harvesting their dense vitamin-infused pulp centers gives players the ability to upgrade personal or party-wide stats at BURG.L

 

Find and crush those Milk Molars to get points you can put towards bonuses like Max Health and Max Equipped Mutation Slots, or, should you come across the rarer golden Mega Milk Molars, you can upgrade party-wide bonuses such as increased max ammo and food stack sizes! Any new players that join your game will instantly have those points to spend or party-wide bonuses unlocked, so don't worry if any new friends want to hop on!

 

WEAPON SMITHING AND COMBAT UPDATES!
We've overhauled the weapons systems! All creatures in the backyard now have innate strengths and weaknesses to certain damage types, so you might find yourself dealing extra damage to, say, a ladybug with a hammer than with a spear. Check out our full patch notes to see the whole list of changes and attributes - there are a lot!

 

Additionally, players can now upgrade their tools at the new Smithing Station:

 

• Tools and weapons can be upgraded using Quartzite Shards and various upgrade Globs.
  • Quartzite Shards can be used to upgrade weapons up to +5, increasing damage each time
  • Additional upgrade globs can be unlocked via BURG.L chips and baked at the Oven:
    • Quartzite Globs → Turns Tough weapons (level 1-5) to a Mighty weapon (level 6+)
    • Mint Globs → "Fresh" augmented weapons
    • Spicy Globs → "Spicy" augmented weapons
    • Salty Globs → "Salty" augmented weapons

NEW MUTATIONS

New mutations are available! Find even more mutations that suit your playstyle and choice of weapon... Or even find a few that may be a little more explosive.

 

UPDATED SYSTEMS

Brainpower

When you analyze new materials in the world, you will gain levels in Brainpower, which will help you unlock new tiers of items without having to find specific materials or purchase them. Rarer materials will unlock more brainpower, so be sure to head to your nearest field station to analyze any new or exotic materials you might come by!

 

IT'S NOT PETE'S PARENTS' BRUSSELS SPROUTS, BUT NEW FOOD IS HERE!

The food system has been overhauled! Food will now either be counted as snacks or meals, with snacks being exclusively used to stave off hunger. Meals, however, will give you the Well Fed buff, alongside a bevvy of other beneficial effects (like 8-10 minutes of zero hunger depletion), so be sure to head to your nearest oven to cook them!

 

AND MORE!

Check out the full list of changes in our patch notes below.

 

PUBLIC TEST PATCH NOTES FOR UPDATE 0.11.0
NEW EXPLORABLE ENVIRONMENTS

Note for the test: The new areas are still in active development. We encourage players to build in these areas for feedback and testing purposes, but please keep in mind that the terrain and objects in these areas might shift or move before the official 0.11 release. Please do not expect any new bases to work completely when moving over to a non-test build. Thank you!

 

• The Sandbox
  • Dig up buried treasure and find ways to survive the sweltering heat of the Sandbox, or wait until night and venture forth in the dark. Either way, you'll have to discover new ways to survive while avoiding your new antlion friends!
• The Black AntHill
  • Introducing a new sprawling anthill in the western yard full of black ants and other secrets. This dungeon allows players to uncover new craftable weapons and armor and includes a new mini-boss within its depths.
• The Trash Heap
  • Too precious to throw away, but not precious enough for the Trash Heap! Here, players will be able to uncover some of the trash left in the backyard. From food items in the knocked-over trash can to the AARTZ 3000, it'll be interesting to see what the players designate as treasure of their own.
• The Picnic Table
  • Something's abuzz over at the Picnic Table! Joining the beehive, players will now find trash from yesterday's lunch, along with the latest and greatest in tabletop RPGs, Minotaurs and Myrmidons vol. II! While the players will be too tiny to play, they can have fun exploring some of the components.

HAZE REVAMP

• Although this biome has been in the backyard since the beginning, players will experience a new Haze with this update. Avoid exploding fungi and survive the highly dangerous new friends that roam this battlefield to plunder the lab and its secrets.

NEW BUGS
3 NEW INFECTED BUGS

• Infected Ladybugs, Infected Larvae, and Infected Gnats can now be found in The Haze!
  • They have unique attacks that fit the infected-creature theme
  • Creatures here will drop fungal growths as loot in addition to the normal loot

5 NEW ADDITIONAL BUGS

• Black Worker Ants
  • Just as busy and cute as their red ant cousins on the other side of the yard
• Black Soldier Ants
  • Not as cute as the Black Worker Ants, but just as busy trying to keep you out
• Sickly Roly Polys
  • Maybe all that time near the trash cans isn't such a good thing for these little guys
• Antlions
  • There is only one thing in the yard that they hate more than ants, and that's YOU
• Meaty Gnats
  • What's better than gnats? MEATY GNATS! The meatier the gnat, the bigger the BOOP!

1 NEW MINI-BOSS

• [All information regarding this asset has been WITHDRAWN from the patch documentation per Ominent Management]

NEW CRAFTING CONTENT

• Antlion Equipment:
  • Antlion Armor Set
    • Status Effect: Protects the wearer from the sandbox sizzle effect
    • Set Bonus: Faster reload speed in combat with bows and crossbows
  • Antlion Greatsword
• Sickly Roly Poly Equipment
  • Crusty Roly Poly Armor Set
    • Status Effect: Blocking attacks builds stun gauge on enemies (normally only builds on perfect blocks)
    • Set Bonus: Chance on block to repair currently equipped shield
• Black Ant Equipment
  • Black Ant Armor Set
    • Status Effect: All attacks build extra stun gauge
    • Set Bonus: Reflect a portion of damage dealt back to the attacker
  • Black Ant Sword
  • Black Ant Shield
  • Black Ant Shovel
• Other additional Items:
  • Flavored Arrows
    • Fresh, Spicy, and Salty Arrows
  • New Secret Tier 3 weapon
• New Smoothie Base: Gum Nugget
  • Creates "Sticky" Smoothies
    • "Sticky Smoothie?" provides a regeneration buff on top of the default initial heal
    • Sticky recipe smoothies provide status effects that last double the duration of normal smoothies

NEW FEATURES
MILK MOLARS
The popular "Yoked Girth Milk Molar" vitamins for growing teens are strewn across the yard for you to find. Harvesting their dense vitamin-infused pulp centers gives players the ability to upgrade personal or party-wide stats at BURG.L.

 

Milk Molar Upgrades (Personal):

• Every Milk Molar found gives each player 1 Milk Molar point to spend.
  • Increase personal stats like:
    • Max Health
    • Max Stamina
    • Max Hunger
    • Max Thirst
    • Max Equipped Mutation Slots
  • New players that join the game after Milk Molars are found will instantly have those points available to spend however they want on their teen.

Mega Milk Molar Upgrades (Party Wide):

• Mega Milk Molars are a shared party resource to use.
  • Increase max item stack sizes like:
    • Food
    • Resources
    • Ammo
  • Any Mega Milk Molars upgrade is applied to the whole party, even new friends that join after!

Milk Molars have been placed across all released areas of the yard so be sure to explore all over for these new Milk Molars (Hedge, Pond, etc.)

 

SMITHING STATION

Players can now upgrade their tools at the new Smithing Station!

• Tools and weapons can be upgraded using various upgrade globs
  • Quartzite Shards can be used to upgrade weapons up to +5, increasing damage each time
  • Additional upgrade globs can be unlocked via BURG.L chips and baked at the Oven:
    • Quartzite Globs → +6 and higher
    • Mint Globs → "Fresh" augmented weapons
    • Spicy Globs → "Spicy" augmented weapons
    • Salty Globs → "Salty" augmented weapons

MUTATIONS

• 4 New mutations to discover:
  • Blademaster
  • Spicy Safety
  • Parry Master
  • Truffle Tussle

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

• New Photo Mode Pose: "Pet"
• Pets now have a small, accessible inventory
• You can now "Drop" bombs instead of always having to throw them

CHANGES / TUNING
SYSTEMS

• Gas masks no longer take durability damage in the haze.
  • They still take durability damage from stinkbug gas.
  • Maximum durability has been reduced to compensate.
• Your active pet will now be marked with a HUD marker.
• When players log out of a server, they take their active pet with them.
• A text notification is posted when an unhappy pet leaves you.
• Default stamina regen delay reduced to what it was before Shroom and Doom.
• Default maximum equipped mutations reduced to 2.
  • Max total after upgrading is now 5 slots via spending Milk Molars.

Creature Damage Resists

• All creatures in the backyard now have inherent strengths and weaknesses to specific damage types. For example:
  • Ladybug
    • 75% damage taken from Stabbing (arrows and spears) and Chopping (axes and daggers)
    • 100% damage taken from Generic (clubs and misc)
    • 125% damage taken from Smashing (hammers)
• The current damage types in the game that this system taps into are:
  • Stabbing
  • Chopping
  • Smashing
  • Generic
  • Explosive
  • Fresh
  • Spicy
  • Salty

Armor Rework

• All armors now classified as "Light" "Medium" or "Heavy":
  • "Light Armor"
    • Reduces the stamina regen delay when equipped
  • "Medium Armor"
    • No change to the stamina regen delay when equipped
  • "Heavy Armor"
    • Lengthens the stamina regen delay when equipped
  • All non-set armors received nonuniform Damage Resist buffs
    • For example, Firefly Headlamp is now considered "Heavy Armor", and has the appropriate DR
  • All armors now display if they're "Light", "Medium", or "Heavy"
  • All "Light" and "Medium" armor pieces received a 20% damage resist buff
  • All "Heavy" armor pieces received a 10% damage resist nerf
• All armors have had their status effects and set bonus looked at, and some have been changed or adjusted:

Armor Set    Status Effect    Set Bonus

Grub    Unchanged: Max Stamina Increase / OLD: Running stamina use down | OLD: Thirst Rate Decreased NEW: Attack Stamina Reduction

 

Bee      NEW: Arrows build stun gauge on creatures / OLD: Movement speed increase | OLD: Arrows build stun gauge on creatures / NEW: Arrows have a chance to Cripple (slow) enemies

Spider    NEW: Attack stamina reduction | Unchanged: Stamina regen rate increase
Ladybug    Unchanged: Max Stun/Shield gauge increase | OLD: Passive HP regen NEW: Chance to apply temporary regen buff when blocking (normal or perfect) an attack

Raw Science Economy Changes

• Raw Science economy changes:
  • Costs of all purchases have been adjusted: important items now cost much less, while vanity/esoteric items cost much more.
    • Upgraded recipes (+ variants) now all cost 1,500
    • New recipes and recipe packs now all cost 2,500
    • Mutations now cost 3,000
    • Sign packs now cost 4,000
    • SCA.B radar upgrades now cost 5,000
  • Removed Alchemist BURG.L quest type
  • Increased science reward from analyzing a resource by 50%

Food Rework

• Food and Hunger have been reworked:
  • All food items are now classified as a Snack or a Meal
  • Snacks
    • Exist exclusively to reduce hunger
    • Common snacks provide very low hunger
    • Rarer snacks provide up to 25% of the hunger bar
    • Can stack in the inventory
    • Default is 5 per slot
    • Never spoil
    • Do not activate passive health regen even when filling your hunger all the way
  • Meals
    • Can provide a "Well Fed" buff on top of hunger
    • Prevents hunger from depleting for 8-20 minutes (real-time)
    • Cannot stack in the inventory
    • Can spoil
    • Activates passive health regen
    • Benefits scale with the tier of the meal

Tier - Meal Duration - Passive Regen - Number of Meal Effects

0    8 Minutes    Half    0
1    12 Minutes    Normal    1
2    16 Minutes    x1.5    1
3    20 Minutes    Double    2

 

• Meals are obtained via "Cookbook" unlocks on BURG.L chips.

GARDEN UPDATES

• Small Mushrooms and Sprigs now have a green thumb chance.
• New Fertilizer introduced: Rotten Food
  • Increases the green thumb chance of the current plant.

BRAIN POWER

• When you analyze new materials found in the world, you will gain more Brain Power, another avenue to unlock crafting recipes.
  • Materials can be Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Rarer materials award more Brain Power.
  • Picking up materials will no longer award recipes. You will need to analyze the material to unlock the recipes.
  • Some materials awarded too many recipes and were rebalanced.

CONTROLS

• Horizontal and vertical controller and mouse sensitivities can now be set independently.
• The controller movement stick can now be inverted on either axis in the Controller options.
• Increased the maximum possible value of both controller and mouse sensitivities.
• The game will now pause if your controller is disconnected.
• Some controls that previously displayed long names such as "Left Bracket" will now display short names such as '['.

MUTATIONS

• Fresh Defense has been changed
  • Now a 3 level mutation
  • Gained by eating mint instead of picking it up
  • Level 1
    • Unlocked by eating 1 mint total
    • 25% gas and burning damage resistance
    • 25% Sizzle rate reduction
  • Level 2
    • Unlocked by eating 5 mints total
    • 50% gas and burning damage resistance
    • 50% Sizzle rate reduction
  • Level 3
    • Unlocked by eating 10 mints total
    • 50% gas and burning damage resistance
    • 75% Sizzle rate reduction
• Grass Master has been updated
  • Now refunds stamina used to attack when harvesting grass in addition to the bonus damage
    • Amount of stamina refunded increases per level of the mutation
• Meat Shield and Buff Lungs mutations buffed by 50%
• Coup De Grass has a second tier.

Class-Based Mutation Rework

• All "class" mutations have been changed:
  • No longer provide a passive increase to damage
  • Each weapon type has a different on-hit proc effect
    • Chopper provides axes with a chance to Stagger
      • Interrupts the current action of the target
    • Smasher provides hammers with a chance to Daze
      • Slows the attack speed of the target
    • Barbarian provides club users a chance to enter "Rage" when attacking
      • Attack damage bonus while raged
      • Unable to perfect block while raged
    • Assassin provides daggers with a chance to apply a bleed DoT
      • Damage over time that stacks with other sources (poison, gas, etc)
    • Sharpshooter provides bows with a chance to Root
      • Disabled movement for a short time
    • Javelineer provides spears with a chance to Cripple
      • Movement speed slow
    • Blademaster provides swords with a chance to sharpen their blade when attacking
      • Restores durability to the weapon
  • The chance for the proc effects increases as the mutation is leveled up

CAMERA

• The game window reveals more space horizontally with wider screen aspect ratios. This provides better support for ultra widescreen monitors.

AUDIO

• Ambient background audio now has its own volume slider.
• The Haze has new background music.

COMBAT

• Poison damage is no longer reduced by Damage Reduction (for both players and creatures).
• Bow and Crossbow damage with all ammunition types increased by about 25%.
• Creatures will flee much further when fleeing at low health or when evading a player that they cannot reach.
• The player's glide will now be canceled if they flinch.
• Mint Mace's power level brought up to tier 3 club power.

INTERFACE

• The Smoothie Station and Oven UIs now show the names of each ingredient required and how many of each the player currently has.
• Added Graphics option for toggling the Chromatic Aberration effect.
• Added a text box to the Crafting menu for filtering crafting recipes, when using a keyboard.
• A mask overlay is displayed on the screen in first-person mode when equipped with the Gas Mask.
• A UI element showing your Gas Mask durability is displayed on the screen when inside of The Haze with a Gas Mask equipped.
• Recipes you craft at the Oven now show up in the normal Crafting UI as well (with the Oven requirement displayed).
• Knocked-out players will display a highlight outline around them if you have the "Highlight Objects" accessibility option set to anything higher than "None".
• When Read To Me is enabled, interaction prompts will be narrated.
• The game will now prompt the player to configure accessibility settings on the first launch.
• The game can now be paused during cutscenes.
• Item context menus are now available in the Container interface.
• Player backpacks will no longer automatically transfer items when opened unless all the items can be taken.
• Shields now display Defense rating bars.
• Main Menu is now extra Hot and Hazy!
• The Damage and Stun item rating bars have been tuned to account for the newer high tier weapon values and the bonus damage that can be gained via the Smithing Station.
• Recipes available for purchase in the BURG.L Tech Chip Swap Shop now show if they require a special building to be able to craft the item.

BUILDING PLACEMENT

• Improved snapping of walls to existing grid buildings during placement.
• Wall-mounted buildings are less restricted by the target surface angle.
• Other minor building snapping behavior tweaks.
• Buildings cannot be relocated into creatures.
• Zipline Wall Anchors no longer support other wall-mounted buildings.
• Improved ground alignment of several Storage & Utility buildings.

CRAFTING

• Repair costs for bows and crossbows are now consistent within a tier.
• Lure recipes are no longer learned from flower petals. They now require a BURG.L chip purchase.
• 2 new Sign sets are available to purchase from BURG.L once their chips are discovered.
• Mint Mace is no longer crafted with raw mint. Now requires processed "Mint Globs".
  • Now also requires mint shards to repair
• Club of the Mother Demon now requires "Quartzite Globs" to repair.
• Paint Can BURG.L chip has been removed
  • Recipes have been spread out to other relevant chips

OPTIMIZATION

• Improved CPU and network performance in multiplayer games with large bases.
• Improved CPU performance of creatures walking when playing a multiplayer game
• Multiplayer Latency/Ping has been improved by 20-40%.
• Additional general CPU performance improvements.
• Saved game screenshots are smaller in disk size.

WORLD/RESOURCES

• Mint in the anthill is now guaranteed to show up every ~6 days.
• Mint Chunks renamed to Mint Shards
• Spoiled Meat now stacks (considered a "food" for stack sizes)
• Ant eggs of all types take twice as long to hatch.
• Quartzite nodes now grant 4-11 shards instead of always granting 7.
• Backyard perimeter fence posts have updated art.

CREATURES

• Infected Mite tuning pass
  • HP increased
  • Damage lowered
  • Now prioritizes using a ranged attack
  • Ranged attack applies an explosive damage resistance debuff
• Infected Weevils no longer apply an armor durability DoT with their explosion attack
• Infected Weevils can now be attacked/killed to interrupt their explosion attack

BUG FIXES

Major Fixes

• Creatures will spawn less frequently in locations they shouldn't (inside of rocks, under the terrain, inside of labs, etc.)
• Wolf Spiders will no longer be walking around during the day when starting a new game.
• The Options menu will no longer scroll wildly after rebinding a control with mouse and keyboard.
• Hot Pouch settings properly restore for clients when rejoining a game.
• BURG.L Chips on the map display for clients as well.
• All Sign Sets for Sign Frames are unlocked by default on Creative modes.
• Ants no longer steal your storage items through walls.
• Fixed a rare crash relating to physics collisions.
• Players and bugs should no longer launch into space when randomly stepping on dropped/chopped items.
• The controlled deadzone options actually work now.

Game

• The Accessibility and Log Out buttons on the main menu can now be narrated when hovered
• Fixed some cases where hotkeys would stop working in UI windows
• Selected hotbar and equipment slots will remain selected after tabbing away from and back to the inventory tab
• Gamepad controls can now be rebound more than once without closing and re-opening the options menu
• Inspected recipes are properly remembered for clients when rejoining a game (the "!" icon next to recipes)
• BURG.L Chip locations on the map cannot be hovered over while they are still hidden (prior to helping BURG.L)
• Unicode newline characters can no longer be pasted into single-line text input boxes
• Block and Toggle Ammo Radial controls no longer conflict with each other.
• 'Snap to Grid' control can be rebound.
• Mounting a ladder can no longer clip the player inside solid objects.
• Ladders can no longer be relocated while a player is climbing on them.

World

• Player backpacks and items in water will no longer sink after loading a saved game
• The player will not be stuck in place when bumping into objects while gliding
• BURG.L Explore quest Trail Markers will now be removed when abandoning the quest
• Buildings cannot be placed in Field Stations
• Building rotation no longer operates in the opposite direction when a building is snapped as when it is unsnapped
• Peaked and Straight roofs can no longer be placed floating in the air in certain configurations
• Grass and Log curved doors will no longer behave strangely while placing them on slopes
• Frankenline dials can now be used even after a player has died on them
• The camera will not switch to first-person after pausing on a Frankenline dial
• Buildings being placed can no longer be relocated by other players
• Porch drainpipe no longer has excessively large collision.

Items/Equipment/Resources

• Pebblets now sink in water
• Dropped Acorn Shells no longer clip with walls when Demolishing wall-mount heads and signs
• Basketball hoops can no longer be stacked on each other
• Basketball hoops can now be repaired
• Wall-mounted buildings can no longer be placed on fired arrows
• The hover highlight effect will no longer get stuck active on ladders
• Items stuck in droplets no longer become frozen in place
• Droplets with multiple servings now correctly save and restore their size
• Dew on grass blades now plays the correct effects and audio when hit
• Dew on grass blades will now fall when directly impacted
• Dew on grass blades can now be directly consumed
• Players fall off of ladders when incapacitated.
• Players cannot revive other players from ladders
• Players do not lose stamina when holding the sprint control while zipping
• Bombs will destroy grass and weeds more consistently

Creatures

• Solider Ants no longer count for "Hunter - Worker Ant" quests
• Burrowed larva now count for "Hunter - Larva" quests
• Distant flying creatures will no longer fly into the terrain of the upper yard
• TAYZ.Ts in the Haze lab no longer respawn

Pets

• Naming a pet using the letter 'Q' will not withdraw the pet

UI

• Key prompts will now correctly change when control is rebound
• Some numbers, such as the player's science available and the total items available in recipe displays, will be displayed as "1.5K" when they are too long
• The Crafting category buttons in the crafting menu again properly display the "!" icon if you have a recipe in that category that has not been inspected
• Oven recipes show what tier they belong to.
• Resource Analyzer shows unlocked recipes in an auto-scrolling box instead of having them overflow off of the UI space.

BUG FIXES - WINDOWS 10 STORE PLATFORM:

• Importing newer saves made on Steam should work again.

OMINENT PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

• After much [REDACTED] between various team members, [OMITTED] has been decided to be [REMOVED] and thus we have [CENSORED] [EXPURGATE]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

Quote

We at Obsidian have enjoyed watching over 10 million players survive in the backyard for nearly two years now. Grounded players have encountered enemies such as annoying mosquitos, diving bell spiders who really do live in the water, and deadly bosses such as the glorious Broodmother. They've crafted armor set after armor set to keep improving their survivability, customized their weapons to fit their play style, and used their base-building skills to defend against the swarms of bugs tired of the player's antics. These achievements have been remarkable and all that playtime has led to some incredible community feedback which will make Grounded’s official release this September that much better.

 

This release will include all 12 updates already released during Game Preview/Early Access development, but now players will be able to unravel the entire mystery behind Grounded and their shrunkeness. Find out how the teens got into the yard and the mad scientist behind it in the fully playable campaign – all of which can be experienced alone or with a group of friends.

 

Version 1.0 will also open up an entirely new part of the Grounded world - the upper yard. This new section includes a ton more of the backyard to explore along with new armor recipes, new weapon recipes, and some secrets that we just can’t bring ourselves to spoil for you all. Nah, we will spoil something! The Mantis - an insect constantly requested by our incredible community. Finding its way into the yard as a new boss – the Mantis may be players undoing.

 

It’s been awesome to work with our amazing community throughout the last two years, and we can’t be prouder of what Grounded has become here at Obsidian.

 

Get ready to jump into the backyard in September.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Game Information

Game Title: Grounded

 

Platforms:

• Xbox Series X/S (Sep 27, 2022)
• Xbox One (Sep 27, 2022)
• PC (Sep 27, 2022)
  

 

Trailer:

• Grounded Official 1.0 Trailer
• Grounded - Hot and Hazy Update Full Trailer
• Grounded - Shroom and Doom Update Trailer
  

 

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

 

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 83 average - 91% recommended

 

Critic Reviews

Attack of the Fanboy - 4.5 / 5

Grounded is a charming survival experience that mixes exploration, action, and crafting into one grand package. There are plenty of options for those wishing to get immersed in the world, and anyone willing to put up with the odd multiplayer requirements will surely get hours of enjoyment out of this game.

PC Gamer - 90 / 100

Grounded is a delightfully creative and occasionally terrifying survival sandbox.

Shacknews - 9 / 10

Quote not yet available

Windows Central - 4.5 / 5

Grounded concluded its early access tenure with one final update to pull everything together and add hours of fresh new content, resulting in one of the best games of 2022. Grounded is bound to inspire other titles in the survival genre for years to come.

COGconnected - 87 / 100

Although it doesn’t reinvent survival game mechanics, Grounded’s setting goes a long way towards making the familiar seem new. The world is great fun to explore. It’s easy to lose yourself for hours in the game’s satisfying loops and creative environments. The narrative does a good job of giving you direction but not a rigid path, so you’re always free to take your time and enjoy. Slightly tepid combat and a few minor technical issues aside, Grounded is one of the most engaging survival crafting games I’ve played in quite a while.

IGN Italy - Italian - 8.7 / 10

Finally mature and complete, Grounded is a game that has a lot to offer and little to be forgiven for.

Atomix - Spanish - 85 / 100

Obsidian Entertainment has done it once again. Grounded is an extremely fun survival game that takes the best elements of the genre and presents them in a simple way, where the experience is much bigger than it seems

Destructoid - 8.5 / 10

Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.

Generación Xbox - Spanish - 85 / 100

Grounded is the perfect survival, building and role-playing game, with a good story and a miniature world full of life.

MondoXbox - Italian - 8.5 / 10

Grounded is a deep and compelling survival game that immerses us in a fascinating world waiting to be explored, full of challenges and graced by an excellent co-op mode. It's a game that doesn't hold the player by hand, and for this reason it can often leave you stumped requiring a lot of tenacity and patience, but it can also offer great rewards. Recommended for survival game fans and newbies alike, especially those eager to enjoy it with friends.

Press Start - 8.5 / 10

In a genre that's markedly saturated, Grounded stands tall. Dripping with charm, its unique setting and premise give it ample space to impress players who think they've seen it all.

SomosXbox - Spanish - 8.5 / 10

I feel that Grounded knew how to take advantage of its long trial period to have the contents that it needed in its initial version. The changes in the quality of life, the fact that the swimming mechanics have been added, having a whole new biome with new enemies, improvements in construction, among other things, contributed to enrich the survival side of Grounded to leave it among the first options for fans of the genre. In addition, the narrative content of the game has enriched it in such a way that now you have an interesting story that you discover the more you explore and a real mission: to return to your natural state, escaping the limitations of measuring an inch. Visually the game stands out for its art, graphics and lighting. Sonically it does not disappoint either.

Hobby Consolas - Spanish - 83 / 100

Grounded is a very remarkable survival RPG that is only taking its first (and tiny) steps. It has a huge potential to become one of the essentials of the genre, but it already has enough wickers to fall in love with survival fans. Give it a try if you can, because it deserves it.

Checkpoint Gaming - 8 / 10

Featuring a fun and slightly silly setting for this genre, Grounded comfortably provides the basics that allow it to create an engrossing and at times horrifying survival experience. Add a good amount of worldbuilding and a narrative that compliments the gameplay nicely and you have a cooperative experience well worth your time, even if a few bugs (and not the good kind!) have stuck around throughout its pre-release period.

DualShockers - 8 / 10

Overall, the survival genre is very saturated. Grounded is a unique take on a tired formula and is genuinely a breath of fresh air in the space. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it doesn’t have to, it’s chosen a premise and has adapted it beautifully and skillfully. While some improvements can be made in combat and other areas, the game is a well-made experience that survival fans will love. I personally can’t wait to jump in with three friends following the full launch. It can get lonely out there all alone in suburbia.

Everyeye.it - Italian - 8 / 10

Grounded is a product that knows how to be delicious in its genuineness.

GameSpot - 8 / 10

Grounded doesn't revolutionize its genre, but it does imbue it with the endearing heart of a child.

The Games Machine - Italian - 8 / 10

At the standard settings and medium difficulty, Grounded is more demanding than it might appear at first glance: at the start of the game, everything that's bigger than a tick will slaughter you and it takes a bit to figure out how to progress; equipment also needs not only to be crafted but also maintained. Luckily, the game also offers settings that allow for a more forgiving experience, perhaps better suited to anyone who's planning on going solo. Other than that, Grounded is technically solid, and its audio can be incredibly atmospheric (and a little bit scary).

Tom's Hardware Italia - Italian - 8 / 10

Grounded is among the most enjoyable survival experiences of recent years, and it is almost strange to emphasise this given that the title was not even supposed to exist. Obsidian, albeit with a small team, has crafted a stylistically original product, not without flaws, but composed of all those qualities with which the American team has always distinguished itself with its video games: quality writing, design and effective world building.

Twinfinite - 4 / 5

If you are in the mood to try out something new in the survivalist genre, Grounded may be the game you are looking for due to its unique shrunken environment and formidable enemies. All things considered, I can’t wait to see what will happen next in this first-person narrative from Xbox Game Studios.

Spaziogames - Italian - 7.5 / 10

This final release for Grounded confirms that Obsidian gave its soul to the game, crafting a survival game which is still improvable, but unique in a lot of ways.

GamesRadar+ - 3.5 / 5

Grounded has always been a solid idea on paper, but Obsidian brings that potential to full fruition for launch, delivering on the thrills and fun of its brilliantly Spielbergian conceit.

Eurogamer - Recommended

Grounded's charming, Honey I Shrunk the Kids premise is elevated by its uniquely welcoming approach to wonder.

[Keyser_Soze]

Deck Verified Today!

 

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/04/25/grounded-super-duper-update-wasps/

[Brian]

Xbox Games Pentiment and Grounded Confirmed for Nintendo Switch - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

Xbox games Pentiment and Grounded are both confirmed as coming to Nintendo Switch.

Coming to Switch 4/16

[chakoo]

Boy does that port look a little rough. It reminds me of quick PS4->Vita ports where textures and shaders are heavily downgraded for quick performance gains.

[Keyser_Soze]

Grounded Vaseline version

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Tomorrow @GameDadGrant can play the definitive smeared with Vaseline version of Grounded!

 

 

[GameDadGrant]

On 4/15/2024 at 3:00 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

Tomorrow @GameDadGrant can play the definitive smeared with Vaseline version of Grounded!

 

 

 

Vaseline-o-vision games? Ah, that takes me back to the N64 days...