Obsidian’s survival adventure title Grounded has been receiving a regular stream of updates since its introduction into the Xbox Game Preview program earlier this Summer. As a timely update just before the beginning of Pumpkin Spice Latte season and Ugg Boots, Grounded will be receiving a number of Halloween-themed goodies to eat and craft. That’s not all, as Grounded will also receive a great number of combat and tuning changes to help streamline the cooperative experience.
The 7th Grounded Developer Vlog features Obsidian’s Social Media Manager discussion the latest balance changes and fixes coming to Grounded with today’s Update 0.3.0. For those that play Grounded internationally, Obsidian has also added support for a full EFIGS localization into the main menu. You can check out the full patch notes for today’s Grounded update below.
NEW FEATURES
- The Hedge has been revamped with new content
- New Building: Zip-lines
- New Building: Spinning Wheel
- New Building: Signs
- New World Landmark: Frankenline
- Halloween Additions: Jack-o-Lantern landmark, Candy Corn food item
- Localization for French, German, Spanish, and Italian (more to come at a later date)
- New spider webs that stick to unsuspecting players and critters
CHANGES/GAME TUNING
Engine
Combat
- Ant Soldiers have a set of new attacks
- Ant Soldiers now deal more damage with their attacks
- TAYZ.Ts now deal much more damage with their attacks
- Most armors now block more damage
- All weapons have had their damage, stamina cost, and durability adjusted to fit a stricter Tier-based curve
- Bombardier Beetle burning hazards and Stink Bug gas hazards are now much deadlier
- Bombardier Beetle attacks deal less initial damage (end result should be about the same combined with hazard damage change)
- Fresh Defense perk now blocks twice as much gas and burning damage
- Reliable Friend perk now boosts revive speed by roughly double the amount
- Trying out new combat AI to reduce the effectiveness of circle-strafing
Interface
- Processing buildings such as the Campfire now show the progress of each item in the interface, and allow items to be canceled
- The Recycle Building interface now shows how many structures will collapse if the target building is Recycled
- Contextual slurping text informs you what liquid you’re going to taste
- Additional icon art
- The Interact UI will no longer briefly appear enabled when looking at a disabled interaction
- Clearer labeling of game modes/type in save/load UIs
- Game no longer asks to overwrite a save if you are not able to currently save the game
World
- New perks to discover and unlock
- New SCA.B color themes to discover and unlock
- Stumps left behind no longer prevent foliage from respawning
- Grass will not respawn if the stump is removed
- Ants now have a desire to take back their stolen eggs
- Ant eggs can now hatch even after being moved by the player (but not while in an inventory)
- Ant eggs no longer stack in the inventory
- Larva wander range is now much smaller during the day
- Mushrooms in the world now take much longer to grow back
- Meats now take much longer to spoil
- SCA.Bs that have been moved since prior patches will reflect those moves in older saves
- Mint chunks in the Mint container should no longer spawn on top of the container
- Juice boxes stop spawning juice if a droplet spawned by them is still sitting in the world
- Removed the Broodmother from the hedge (for now…)
- Added Harvest VFX to Hedgeberry
Buildings
- Structural buildings are now fully allowed to overlap with any static environment object
- Blueprint buildings in the air cannot be completed unless a supporting building has been completed. This prevents situations where large structures would collapse because they were technically unsupported
- Buildings can no longer be built inside of tables
- Buildings can be placed more easily on the pond flagstones now
- Mushroom Garden spawn timer will now start when the building is built instead of when it is placed
- Smoke from torches, wall sconces, and campfires should now rarely penetrate floors/ceilings
- Plank/Log Storage deposit sound effects now play on clients
- The player will no longer play canteen animations when building a Water Container with a canteen in hand
- Clay foundation now has double the health
- Pebblet foundation now has less health, but still more than clay
Crafting
- Most recipes that require spiderweb have been refactored to use a processed spider web obtainable via the new Spinning Wheel instead
Performance
- Improved CPU performance of large bases and structures
Other
- Additional water caustic effects
- Bird feathers now float in water
- Weed stems now float in water
- The “Drop” control can now be rebound
- The “Swim Up” and “Swim Down” control bindings are allowed to overlap with other controls that cannot be used while swimming
BUG FIXES – ALL PLATFORMS
Top Community Issues
- Free buildings attached to player-built structures will no longer become out-of-position for clients
- The game will no longer crash in some specific cases when demolishing a plank or log storage building
- Ants will no longer spawn in excessively large quantities
Game
- Alchemist BURG.L Quests will complete when accepted if the player has already analyzed the target item
- Kill based perks now only track kills on enemies
- Fixed issue with encounters not respawning creatures if they fell through the world in a prior save
- Hiding Interact prompt “E” or “X” when looking at a Locked / Stuck door
Items/Equipment/Resources
- Berry Chunks will no longer inflate themselves when subjected to a strong impact while lying on the ground
- Traps can no longer be triggered for a few seconds after destruction
- Traps can no longer be triggered by the 3rd-person camera
- Tropicop juice droplets should now correctly spawn from the straw of the juice box instead of from the base
- Bombardier Head Trophy should now be much easier to place
World
- Building ingredients will no longer remaining floating in the air when large structures collapse while no player is nearby
- Got rid of a small bump in collision while walking up and down player built stairs
- Bombardier Beetle now plays a sleep animation while sleeping instead of playing the stunned animation
UI
- Various camera animation adjustments were made to reduce the camera clipping into objects and the player’s body
- Hiding Interact prompt “E” or “X” when looking at a Locked / Stuck door
Audio
- Buildings no longer create noise events immediately after loading a saved game
- Chatter audio is now attached to the player character and should sound better when moving
Ominent Practical Technologies
- Removed [REDACTED]
- Added [REDACTED]
Grounded is available now on Xbox Game Preview, Game Pass, Windows 10 Store, and Steam Early Access for $29.99.
