Suggestions - 1 Month Into Playing

[Dream Mix]

Hey everyone. I've been playing Core Keeper for about a month now (I realize I'm really late to the party) & I feel like I have noticed a few things that would make the gameplay so much more rewarding. I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining because I love this game!

1. More things to farm! I kind of wish that cooking didn't have to be so involved because I know that the amount of things that you can cook will automatically limit the amount of things you can farm, because there are so many combinations. I realize this, but I do wish there were more that you could farm. 4 plants per area seems slim. I would be fine with only some plants being cook-able, but I realize this may be a sticking point for the devs.

2. More NPCs, races of NPCs, & some human like NPCs. This would also include more things to trade for. Stores seem pretty limited & pointless once you get a decent way into the game. I also feel like the base cavelings are fine, but I wish there were more races to interact with. Maybe you could summon them from an "ancient portal" that you could find hidden around the gameworld? It would also add more collect-a-thon elements, which would mean longer game-hours.

3. More fish & a quicker fishing mini-game. Right now, reeling in a fish is kind of slow & boring. I'm sorry to say this, but I feel like it's the worst part of the game, even though it is polished & I enjoy the idea. It's sad, because I love fishing in Stardew & even started my game as a fisherman. I just don't like fishing right now, but I feel like it wouldn't take much to make me like it, if it were more rewarding & quicker. Again, I realize that this is adds a lot of cooking dev-time. I don't have another solution for this, besides what I mentioned earlier about cooking being limited. I feel like cooking already has enough work put into it tbh.

4. Breeding animals (cattle). All of your animals eventually die, sadly. Something will inevitably happen to them, so a breeding mechanic would really make the game better. It would also be great to see more animals in the game. If animals could breed, there would be more incentive to keep them around & farm them. If you farm your animals now, you will run out of meat quickly. Something more to do with milk would be cool. We're in cave, so making cheese with milk makes sense.

5. Cattle should not be hurt by defensive spikes. when this happened to me, I was kind of confused because I thought they only hurt enemies. Maybe it was a glitch, but I'm not sure.

This probably sounds like multiple updates worth of content. I'm not sure if the devs check the forums, but how do you all feel about these suggestions?

[Forevre.n]

I agree with all of this. Especially animal husbandry for me. Can't wait to see what the devs do with this game.

[Lahgtah]

I suppose it'd be better etiquette to add to this thread rather than make another suggestion topic, so here's some of my ideas, in no particular priority.

-A "mark for delete" option, either via a table or UI. Basically would be a toggle for items of the player's choice to no longer "drop" as long as the toggle is on. There's far too much stuff out in the world that I'll never end up using, either simply because of aesthetic choice, or I already have plenty of(such as seeds.) It clutters up the inventory exceptionally too quick, leading to a lot of return trips to a merchant or tedious deleting. After obtaining/discovering an item for the first time, there should be an option to flag an item to never drop, but could be turned off again if the player wishes to obtain it.

-A way to send minecarts to the other end of the railway without occupying them. There have been several times I've died out in the world, only having to painstakingly walk all the way back because the minecart was still at the destination rather than near the beginning of the line near the base.

-A way to reroll the skill tree of pets. There are some pets I like the colors of, but have skills that aren't useful to how I'm playing.

-More survivability in the melee skill tree. Ranged is easy-mode compared to melee; you are further away from harm, can dodge projectiles easier, and have access to both a stun and a slow. Melee has a slim chance for a small amount of health deep into the tree, and an arguably useless knockback. Replacing the knockback with gaining armor on hitting an enemy, as well as increasing the proc rate of the life on hit, would bring better parity. At the moment, melee does do more DPS with the right build, but bosses often hit so hard that it's not worth the risk. This has been an issue for a very long time - my previous character, before the introduction of the desert biome, was ranged and the game felt far easier than my current melee character.

-Combat skills should scale in experience rate based on swing speed. A slower swinging weapon should give more experience per hit than a fast swinging weapon.

-Trains. Should be like much more expensive mine carts, with rails taking up a width of 2 tiles instead of 1(that way carving out a railroad would be a longer term investment.) The advantage would be said train being faster, and the cars behind it would be blank platforms one could place chests, crafting stations, and other things on, turning it into a "home away from home." This would be very appealing as the game continues to expand further and further away from the core.

-Saddlebags, or even a trailer, for gokarts and boats. I love both of these vehicles, making journeys out into the desert or sea feel like long and vast voyages, but my very limited inventory cuts every trip short. Given the more expansive nature of the biomes these vehicles are intended in, having some extra storage space in them, maybe as much as a small chest, would be great.

-The ability to use consumables without having to equip them. A good number of my deaths vs bosses have been because of fumbling with keybinds to try and drink potions or refresh food all the while running around trying not to get hit. Simply being able to hotkey a "use item <x slot>" would be wonderful for more intense situations.

-A sorting device to evenly distribute ores into smelters. Think of something like a hopper, you'd place ores into it, and it'd be connected to nearby smelters via wires or something, and evenly divide up the stack between them.

-A grappling off-hand that would pull enemies towards you. A lasso or something would be fun.

-Expanding on the above, something to better guide herdables: a lasso, as mentioned, would be fitting, allowing you to drag them along at full walking speed.

-Sledgehammers following their description better. The description says they're good for smashing walls or foes, but they're only good for walls - their damage is pathetic. As aesthetically cool as wielding a slow, big hammer is, they just don't do near enough damage to justify ever using them offensively. Could give them a cool charge-up ability that smashes the ground, doing a knockback, or just give them a better damage stat to reflect their attack speed.

-The ability to throw bombs, or create throwable bombs.

-Bombs more powerful than the regular large bomb.

-The ability to plant bombs in the ground, blowing up large segments of ground. This way it's an alternative to digging up a single tile of ground at a time.

-more things to spend coins on. I have so much money I don't know what to do with it. Make it really cool, worth a high price.

-spears and spear-like weapons able to attack diagonally

-better telegraphing/attack animations for enemies. Maybe it's just WIP, but some enemies don't even have animations for their attacks. The scarabs are the most noticeable, just instantly rushing you without any telegraphing or lead-up, making parry/counterplay annoying. Likewise, the cavelings in the Azeos Wilderness will plant traps instantly. No animation whatsoever. Finally, there's the matter of attacks landing a split second after an enemy is dead.

-"Resistance" stat, giving resistances to debuffs such as poison, slows, and fire damage over time. It would possibly work by reducing their effectiveness, their duration, or both.

-Expanded skill trees, albeit I think this is inevitable anyways.

-Later game armor should be more durable than it is, or at least more defensive-oriented armor should be.

-A pet similar to the owlux, a passive one, offering defensive bonuses as opposed to offensive. Maybe a tortoise/turtle, snail, or armadillo inspired critter. Things like boosts to armor, dodge chance, boss damage resist, thorns damage, CC resistance, heal-over-time, heal-on-hit, food buff duration, would all be good for such a pet.

-Turrets renamed to "guns" since they're not actually turrets. Turrets swivel(petty, I know)

-The ability to place floors in 2x2 or 4x4 placements. Doing it one at a time is rather arduous.

-A caveling disguise that pacifies cavelings similar to the king slime crown/jelly combo.

-A better use for the various walls than for decoration. What if there was a way to make cavelings attack and, if your walls weren't strong enough, they'd mine through them? At most, all you need are stone walls at the moment, and that's only if you use torches everywhere you go(unnecessary with tulip salads.)

-"Hard mode" bosses. Basically regular bosses, but spawn enraged from the start, and maybe have an additional mechanic. Defeating them would give better loot.

-the ability to use shovels to dig while in a boat.

-a ride-able drill vehicle that would easily dig through most walls and other things on the ground. Should be as fast as the low-end go-kart, and benefit from mining damage. Obviously should be a very late-game contraption given how potent it could be, but hell it'd make navigating Azeos a lot less awful lol.

-a revolver ranged weapon that'd fire in a quick burst(imagine "fanning the hammer"), but have a somewhat lengthy period between said bursts to balance it. Add a cowboy hat to go with it and you'll make me VERY pleased lol.

-a way to name chests similar to herdables. I honestly would organize a lot more if I could label stuff, but because I can't, I can't remember what goes where, so I just kind of dump it all over the place lmao.

-have herdables respawn, or at least have their meat be a bit more useful. At the moment, losing a herdable is a painstaking loss because they're hard to replace. Likewise, the food they drop kind of sucks even when cooked - pinegrapple or pewpaya completely laugh at it in terms of effectiveness. The meat could be useful early game, but because they don't respawn, it's not worth killing the ones close to your start.

-"pavement" floor tile for gokart tracks/roads.

-A means of planting more than one seed at a time. A seed-spreader, of sorts.

-A means of catching more than one fish: a big net to trawl behind a boat, chances of success determined by fishing level vs the water you're trawling in. Idk, I just really want an alternative to fishing, because the fish in the game are really nice, but I hate fishing minigames in almost every game(which is ironic because I like fishing irl.)

-weather. It would be cool to have rain or snow - maybe even have a weather machine device that could select the weather for you within a large radius.

Long post, I know, but the game really gets me mind a-flowin'.