Please don't clear grass on placing down a block/item

Hi,

With the combat update, I noticed that everytime I place down a wooden chest or a foundation for a building, all grass in sight is completely removed in favor of plain brown dirt.

Now, I have no problem with this by itself, but some areas I built specifically to be outdoor areas, you know, with structures that look like they belong in the surrounding nature. Now, all that is gone.

I can't make structures that fit the scenery because now the game decides what the scenery should be when I place down a block or put down a wooden chest. Why make the grass disappear?

The answer is, you couldn't stop the grass from poking through floors and your hacked this solution into the game whether we like it or not. Sloppy way of doing things instead of actually giving the player choice, not removing it just so you could fix a technical problem on your end.

You could at least just have removed the 2D grass and kept the ground texture from changing, at least that would have been less obvious. I don't want my buildings to stick out of dirt all the time, it looks so unnatural. What if I want to build next to a tree or a large crop of foliage? Your system just destroys all that nuance, just because you wanted to remove grass blades from sticking out of floorboards.

It seems the more you work on this title, the less love you put into it. Every new version is one step forward, two steps back for me.

Why don't you care more about player choice?

 

I could see your point for wooden supports since the block has transparency sections. However, this feature was added because trees and saplings were growing up through buildings. The grass was not the problem - you can solve that just by placing your block a little higher. Admittedly the original solution was for the player to plow all the areas they were going to build on. Inexperienced players didn't know they needed to plow (maybe? the old 0.5.x Engineers Guildhouse had a huge tree grow up through it cuz they didn't plow). This was a simple way for them to support the player's expectations - large trees shouldn't grow through structures. A lot of people complained about this. So they listened.

Keen DOES listen and they try to implement what the community asks for. Personally I like plowing the ground before I build. People even plow the ground before they build a cabin in the woods - IRL. This feature saves a step.

 

I also think the majority does not want plants to grow through their structures. So this is more important than your personal esthetics. But you can help yourself. Just use a mod which allows you to set a plant where you want, after you set up your building.
Like this one: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1089766214

 

I like the current solution quite much, however I think it would be rather nice to be able to replant grass. You know, with a seed bag. So it doesn't regrow by itself and make dirt paths you made by placing down and removing blocks disappear. And maybe a way to plant decorational plants (without mods). That would make everyone happy.

 

While this is a good idea, I don't think you would be able to plant grass under a wooden support because you currently can't access that space. This would require other changes to support this request. But you should still post this idea on Keen's Support site.

 

One size doesn't fit all.

They could have added an option under gameplay when you start a new world, for this behaviour. They have a checkbox for everything else. Why not one where you can control how the terrain reacts to how you place objects? Seems pretty common sense to me. You don't just add that in and nuke everyone's building environments. And not to mention, but this also applies to small chests, and any other placeable, not just blocks. You put down a small chest and the entire patch of grass underneath is nuked whether you like it or not. And it's not done in any subtle way. Makes no sense. It has ruined my immersion completely.

So, yeah.

An option to toggle this behaviour on or off when starting a new world would be very much in the "must have" category. To just fork this one through just goes to show how Keen don't care about their work, or their playerbase; changes without caring for accommodating everyone's needs. Heavy handed and sloppy with very little in the way of caring for player choice. At this point, they decide for me what I should like and how I should like for my world to behave. One size does not fit all.

And yes, thank you for bringing up that you can clear the ground which prevents the problem of things cropping through the floor. New players would get this stuff down eventually.

If you wanted to prevent this from happening, you could. It wasn't a problem unless you made it a problem. Now, they have made it a new problem by instating this behaviour when you like it or not.

Look at Space Engineers. So many checkboxes there for how *you* want your world to behave and how *you* want your world to interact with you. There is even an option on ship thrusters affecting your own blocks or not. You would think that would be in the realm of realism and yet, in Space Engineers even that is an *option*. And then look at what they are doing with Medieval Engineers. ME is so ignored by comparison it is just a slap in the face at this point.

"Get a mod" is not an acceptable response to this issue.

They have made it an issue. Let us be able to turn it off if we don't want this behaviour. Leave it on by default for new players if they like that kind of thing. But for us veterans, let us be able to turn it off. We know how to control the ground underneath not to get random stuff to crop up through floors.

You say Keen listens to players? Well, they have never listened to a single thing I have had to say about the game or any problem I have had in my 3 years of playing their games. Zero feedback. Zero reaction. I might as well be writing this on my bedroom wall instead of their official forums. So Keen, if you are indeed listening, prove me wrong and add an option to toggle this behaviour on or off in worlds and I won't care how you address your technical issues. I get that there are limitations and no solution will be 100% perfect, but at least let me decide for myself which world behaviour I prefer. Put an option for this "grass nuking" behaviour in world options when you create a new world.

 

Tenzo we feel you, just don't take it so personally! grass thing honestly isn't a topic i have heard discussed at any time or point in all my hours so just keep the faith, the chef Keen is still cooking the dinner and we need to wait for that final dish to come out of the kitchen!

 

Thanks for the more positive outlook.