Permanently clean biomes

[rmohanawilliamson]

Imo there should be a way to permanently get rid of the pollution and clean up the ocean 100%. Because as it is, from what I can tell, the biomes continually get worse over time, meaning when you leave, the planet will presumably, over time, get just as bad as it was when you got there, which is kind of a downer. It would be really neat if after cleaning up the last biome, there was another task where you find and fix the source of pollution, and then a task where you clean the entire ocean up 100%, both in the biomes and the areas around the biomes. I know it would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it if it meant I could leave knowing all the little loddles would be okay forever. Thoughts?

[TimeLadyLena]

I personally like the re-contamination aspect of the game, as I feel it's realistic to the situation. If there's still trash and pollution going on, the ocean will continue to be affected.

However, I really think that the more you clean the slower the re-contamination rate, as that also makes sense. So the further you progress in cleaning the ocean, the cleaner it stays. And of course, at the end (if we were to leave the planet) fixing the cause itself should be thing. Once there's no more source of pollution, the ocean needs to stay clean.

Though this is if the game will forever be as it is; no DLC, expansion, etc on this same planet. I'm hoping they do add more, in which case stopping the cause entirely won't work -- if there's going to be more places there that will need cleaning.

But yes, the re-contamination absolutely needs to slow down the more biomes we clean. Especially when one goopy loddle can do so much spread damage, and the more biomes we have the harder it is to keep them all clean. What used to be satisfying becomes frustrating and tedious.

[LoddleDev]

The goop regeneration rate actually does decrease with each biome you clean, but it's not a very noticeable difference in the current build, so we'll be adjusting that a bit!

We'll also be implementing a "biome protection period" that will start whenever a biome has been 100% cleaned. During this period, no litter or goop will respawn in that biome. We're hoping this will give players more time to explore other biomes without worrying about older locations becoming quickly re-contaminated. This period will reactivate each time a biome is brought to 100% clean.

Our main intent behind the re-contamination was to avoid trivializing the concept of cleaning our own oceans, as we didn't want to portray such an big environmental task as a "one and done" thing. We also wanted to encourage people to revisit biomes, sort of like how you need to clean up a fish tank every once and a while. Lastly, we added litter respawning because otherwise there'd be a chance for someone to accidentally use all of their resources on bombs or loddle toys, effectively locking them out of crucial upgrades required to progress through the game.

That was our intent, but we totally understand how the current balance of things can be frustrating and/or unsatisfying! In addition to the biome protection period, we'll also be making the following changes:

• Litter and goop will have their respawn rates reduced across the board.
• Litter and goop will no longer respawn in the areas outside of biomes.
• Loddles with the cleaning ability will be able to clear the goop off of goopy loddles that are nearby. The same goes for Purifying Bombs and the Water Purifier structure.

Anyway, that was an overly long explanation of the whole re-contamination system, but we see and understand all the comments about its current place in the game, so I just wanted to be fully transparent about our thought process!

Thank you both for playing our game <3

[Hypothetical Parallel]

I like the recontamination for the use or continuing to collect "resources", but I wish we could build a structure that keeps a biome or certain area free of litter and once you cover the whole area them no litter returns

[Dusky]

Originally posted by LoddleDev:

The goop regeneration rate actually does decrease with each biome you clean, but it's not a very noticeable difference in the current build, so we'll be adjusting that a bit!

We'll also be implementing a "biome protection period" that will start whenever a biome has been 100% cleaned. During this period, no litter or goop will respawn in that biome. We're hoping this will give players more time to explore other biomes without worrying about older locations becoming quickly re-contaminated. This period will reactivate each time a biome is brought to 100% clean.

Our main intent behind the re-contamination was to avoid trivializing the concept of cleaning our own oceans, as we didn't want to portray such an big environmental task as a "one and done" thing. We also wanted to encourage people to revisit biomes, sort of like how you need to clean up a fish tank every once and a while. Lastly, we added litter respawning because otherwise there'd be a chance for someone to accidentally use all of their resources on bombs or loddle toys, effectively locking them out of crucial upgrades required to progress through the game.

That was our intent, but we totally understand how the current balance of things can be frustrating and/or unsatisfying! In addition to the biome protection period, we'll also be making the following changes:

• Litter and goop will have their respawn rates reduced across the board.
• Litter and goop will no longer respawn in the areas outside of biomes.
• Loddles with the cleaning ability will be able to clear the goop off of goopy loddles that are nearby. The same goes for Purifying Bombs and the Water Purifier structure.

Anyway, that was an overly long explanation of the whole re-contamination system, but we see and understand all the comments about its current place in the game, so I just wanted to be fully transparent about our thought process!

Thank you both for playing our game <3

I’m sorry, I really understand the message and all, I understand the idea of not trivializing the oceans and the problem at hand, but finding out that there is no way to fix things permanently is just too stressful for me and I quit the game early. Going back and seeing all my work undone, seeing the loddles sick and hurt, seeing everything polluted, it’s just too much for me.

I love playing games where you clean. I have asd and ocd and they relax me. This game though makes me feel incredibly depressed. Basically what you are saying is I could play this game forever and none of my efforts matter. I wouldn’t mind fixing things up repeatedly if there was a way to solve things in the ending, so that your efforts would have some meaning, but why should I keep playing when there’s no point? In real life of course I want to help the ocean and do anything I can to make the situation better no matter how big, small, or trivial. If it helps one creature it helps. But this is a game. I can’t feel good about repairing something in a game that constantly deteriorates no matter what I do.

I’m really upset because I loved this game at the start but I assumed there would be a way to stop the pollution in the end. Finding out it’s futile just completely ruined it for me.

Also if you don’t want to trivialize the problems with the ocean no one person could ever go and clean up our seas, it would take thousands of people, organized teams of well trained individuals with specialized equipment years to clean up our oceans. So if your game is already unrealistic maybe you could throw us a little reward for playing and say we did a good job instead of just ending with hey you tried but the situation is hopeless unless you babysit this game for the rest of your life.

[LoddleDev]

Originally posted by Dusky:

I’m really upset because I loved this game at the start but I assumed there would be a way to stop the pollution in the end. Finding out it’s futile just completely ruined it for me.

It certainly isn't our intent to make your efforts feel futile! That's why evolved loddles have the ability to clean goop, grow fruit, and increase the happiness of other loddles. Everything you do as the caretaker of GUP-14 (cleaning pollutants, feeding loddles, making sure loddles are happy) can eventually be done by the loddles themselves without your intervention, provided that you've left them with a relatively clean environment. The game's ending hints at this being the case.

That being said, in our next major update (which is coming within the next two months) we will be adding an entirely new mechanic that, with a bit of extra effort, will allow you to completely and permanently prevent pollution from reappearing in each biome. I'm sorry to hear that the current system of gradual recontamination has prevented you from enjoying what the game has to offer. Hopefully our next update will alleviate that!

[Pheare]

Originally posted by LoddleDev:

That being said, in our next major update (which is coming within the next two months) we will be adding an entirely new mechanic that, with a bit of extra effort, will allow you to completely and permanently prevent pollution from reappearing in each biome. I'm sorry to hear that the current system of gradual recontamination has prevented you from enjoying what the game has to offer. Hopefully our next update will alleviate that!

I know this is an old post, but what is this mechanic that will allow for a permanently clean biome?

I too do not like the the re-contamination. I am only about 4 hours in (just discovered the deep trench biome), but if things keep getting recontaminated on me, I am just going to call it a day and move on to something else.

Another thing I that almost has me ready to quit (and maybe this is addressed in a later game mechanic), is having to go all the way back to your base to dump your inventory, which fills up so quickly (even after the upgrade); so frustrating - I really wish the fast travel would unlock as soon as you discover the biome instead of after you 100% for the first time.

[Errol]

The diversity mechanic prevents a biome from becoming recontaminated. I try to plant one of each seed and then aim for 5 unique evolved forms per biome. This has raised the biomes "pollution resistance" to 100%

I'm not sure if there are specific evolutions you need, perhaps a mix of the different loddle skills? As you can see, I have these two biomes at 100% pollution resist but one of them is only 2 star diverse while the other is 3.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3376543622

and

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3376543225

[Pheare]

Originally posted by Errol:

The diversity mechanic prevents a biome from becoming recontaminated. I try to plant one of each seed and then aim for 5 unique evolved forms per biome. This has raised the biomes "pollution resistance" to 100%

I'm not sure if there are specific evolutions you need, perhaps a mix of the different loddle skills? As you can see, I have these two biomes at 100% pollution resist but one of them is only 2 star diverse while the other is 3.

Thanks!