Several ideas, mostly relating to dinosaur care and longevity of the game.

[Atlas]

I've thought on why I didn't quite feel like coming back to paleo pines yet. Figured the least I could do is type way too much about various opinions along with reasoning and examples from the real world and other video games. Ordered roughly based on what I think the largest number of player would enjoy, from "why don't we already have this" to "well, might as well throw it out there". Idk maybe I just like hearing my keyboard go clacky clacky. Maybe it feels wrong to keep so much thinking to myself.

• The saddles staying on 24/7 bugs me. The real world analog for the dinosaurs would be a horse. You can not just leave tack on a horse. It doesn't matter if these are the most comfortable, waterproof saddles on the planet. There's still water getting under them when it rains. If granny can hurt her wrist then blisters and scale rot could reasonably exist in this universe too.
  
  My quick and easy solution would be a toggle for the saddles and bridle. Based on other suggestions and feedback, a lot of players would love this for aesthetic reasons and not because they wasted several years of their life on an AG degree. Another easy(ish) solution is to have the equipment taken off (removed overnight) at the end of a day and popped on the first time you ride a dinosaur in a day. Implying that you make your rounds and settle everyone in before you go to bed yourself.
  
  Wanna be extra about it or thinking of a paleo pines 2? Wanna know what I'm scheming if mod support is ever added? A lot of the bond an equestrian develops with their horses is in the care of them. Just taking tack out of a shed, walking it over, and putting it on (and then taking it off at the end of the day) implies a level of care and could re-use the carrying animations that are already there. Being super extra would be adding washing and brushing. I would not even go that far. Would be an amazing addition in a VR version but that is a totally unhinged and unrealistic idea.
  
  
• Water troughs
  
  This one actually makes me a little angry. They probably drink out of the creek or ponds. Yeah, fine. But you can't clean those out. We are trying even in my sad backwards little town to get farmers to provide fresh clean water in a clean container. Dinosaur upstream gets sick? Now yours are. Heavy rain, water rises in the creek, now it's muddy. Ew. Someone has a fun time splashing in the pond, now your dinosaur friends all drink muddy water again. Sure they provided for themselves in the wild but the whole point of them coming to live with you is that you take care of them and give them a better quality of life. I'm also reading too much into this and thinking way too much about it but I do not want people to ever get the impression an animal in their care should have only a creek as their source of water. "They get it from their food". MMMMmmmm. Maybe. Most animals I've cared for that "can get enough water from their food" will drink some water if it's offered.
  
  I do not complain without offering solutions of course. Reuse the trough asset, put some water in it, plop in some flavor text about it automatically connecting to a well that pumps up fresh, clean groundwater. Dinos don't even need to be seen interacting with it, as we don't see them drink anyway. Bada bing, bada boom. No more eye infections from contaminated creek water.
  
  
• Please let us buy composters and trees. Please I just want a huge mostly automated farm plot. I want to rule the world with vegetables. As for the trees a lot of people would like to have an orchard. With certain limits if it exists in the game we should be able to buy it, and the prices can be raised high enough to feel balanced. Personally I'd like a ton of lemon trees. Idk why I just like lemons.
  
  
• More pride skins
  
  Would just be nice if everyone had the chance to be represented by their favorite dinosaur. (Mod support could make this someone else's problem. There are so many flags.)
  
  
• Sandbox mode
  
  Disable achievements, give the dev console a nicer UI and turn it on. Quickest and easiest way to make a large portion of management sim fans very happy. (I do not mean to exaggerate how easy some of my solutions are, but it's way easier to add than something like mod support.)
  
  
• Mod support
  
  It's huge, devs don't want to do it, I don't blame them. It really would be a huge pain. I want to make a case for it anyway. Not like they have to do anything based on these suggestions anyway. I can just be shouting into the ether and I'm comfortable with that. I type for myself. Anyone that's read this far is a victim. I'm not sorry though, you made this choice.
  
  Money. Look at skyrim. Please just look at the game that is still alive way longer than it has any business being. It's good. But how are people able to come back to it over and over again? Mods. They stay interested, they buy merch, you make money indirectly based on the constant interest in your game sustained by modders. Practically free for you after the initial investment into supporting it. Paleo pines realistically could never reach the numbers that skyrim has brought in (players, money, mods, re-releases). Hope it does and wish y'all the best but come on. Just a little taste of that success though. Stardew Valley is another great example. I've spent way more on Stardew valley shirts and stationary than the game was. I've had SV merch on every christmas list since it came out. I don't think I played vanilla past an hour of buying it. Megaquarium is another example of modding adding longevity to a game. Interest is sustained with mods and keeps a platform for the dev when they are ready to release paid DLC. Both Stardew Valley and Megaquairum are arguably easier to mod than paleo pines would be, and Skyrim is more difficult. I don't think difficulty would scare anyone off unless the mod support is just done poorly.
  
  You have to make people see the game as a fixture of their lives and not a passing interest. Most people aren't going to buy merch for a game they beat in under a month and saw no replay value in. But create a whole community around making mods? The discord is going to get WAY more active.
  
  
• A coloring book
  
  Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the game is made. Paleo Pines the T-shirt, Paleo Pines the Coloring Book, Paleo Pines the Lunch box, Paleo Pines the Breakfast Cereal, Paleo Pines the Flame Thrower. The kids love this one. And last but not least, Paleo Pines the Doll—me.” – Lucky
  
  A coloring book would be some high-tier merch that I would probably buy instantly. Plus it's cute wholesome dinosaurs. I'd bet a larger retailer like Target would happily put that on their shelves. I see sad, ugly stuff in the collectors corner all the time. A well done coloring book is an easy sell. (Again, I say easy very, uh, easily.) If some tiktok brats can get overpriced popcorn in walmart, you can pitch a nice coloring book to target.
  
  I wouldn't even be mad if it was obvious that art from existing merch was reused to pad it out (and keep the price reasonable). It would need some new art too of course. Any adult coloring book you pick up in an average department store would be a reasonable reference. I would like to recommend the work of Johanna Basford and The Color and Frame series published by New Seasons & Publications International as particularly good references. I am also begging for this to be made (if it is) with adults in mind and to not be an activity book.
  
  Should probably leave out the flamethrower. A cereal would just be silly (or would it be a great deal with a company like magic spoon? They love looking like a small, wholesome, good feels company.)

Edit(s): spelling

[AEon]

Some thoughts of my own:

"Un-Saddling": The main gameplay issue with the idea is that presently you can see at a glance that the dino can be "ridden". If you start to manually saddle and de-saddle (har) the dinos you will get a lot of annoying randomness with not knowing if the dino trusts you enough or not. The latter I'd find annoying. Per se the idea makes sense... the mechanism would need some more thought.

Water troughs: I wondered about those as well. My small albino dino I noted though, sneaks out of his pen, to the "decorative pond" I placed outside and "drinks" there. I found that endearing. But water troughs in the pens would make sense. Or a mechanism that makes use of those decorative stone ponds.

Buy composters and trees: Hmm... main issue with that idea is that the tree sprouts are the *extra super duper special final quest reward*. Being able to buy those would utterly devalue them as a reward. With the tree sprouts I had I did build an orchard... a plantation, what you want, is of course another matter. So would it be nice to be able to buy tree sprouts, yes, yes it would, but it would mess with the story / gameplay / reward system.

Are the three composters you get by opening up the 3 areas at the farm not enough? Hmmm... did not use them much, so personally would not care either way.

[Atlas]

Originally posted by AEon:

"Un-Saddling": The main gameplay issue with the idea is that presently you can see at a glance that the dino can be "ridden". If you start to manually saddle and de-saddle (har) the dinos you will get a lot of annoying randomness with not knowing if the dino trusts you enough or not. The latter I'd find annoying. Per se the idea makes sense... the mechanism would need some more thought.

Not like there's a word limit, or one that I can find. Let's hear those thoughts lol. I see what you're saying about it complicating things.

I don't think about the saddles too much while playing. They could do nothing with it and I'd still find myself playing again eventually. Personally though I look at the devs stated spirit of the game and I'm not seeing it match up with the care the dinosaurs receive. There are people that hate the bridles aesthetically which makes a case for a soft system of unsaddling where you can just toggle it in settings without the animal welfare angle. Hiding a bridle and resting their hands on their knees, and hiding a saddle and moving the character down a bit. Hide helmet toggles have been around for a while. I think of it like that. If they wanna do it and get fancy with it, godspeed.

As for the trees being devalued as gifts if they can be purchased? I do not understand your reasoning there. I have never gotten a gift (aside from something handmade) I couldn't go buy for myself. I've gotten gifts I felt grateful for all over again when I realized how much they cost. I do not think lemons in this game were suddenly invented just to gift to me. It probably cost some significant money and effort to acquire. Make it unlock after it's gifted, make it expensive, and I'd feel like that's balanced.

Composters? I don't use them to auto fertilize because I can't use it for all of my patches. Could take them or leave them. If I had the option though I'd have one at every farm plot. There's nothing special about how you get those those so I see no reason why Marlo couldn't build them after you discover the ones you start with.